episode_0078

In Guri-si, Gyeonggi-do, there is a place called Donggureung, where royal tombs from the Joseon Dynasty are gathered together to form a cluster.

Historic Site No. 193 of the Republic of Korea. Officially registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is located on the eastern side of Gureungsan Mountain, which is the border between Seoul and Guri.

Although it is a place of great historical value, ironically, the reason people actually come here is not to see the historical sites.

D+ class gate. [Chagho Gapsa].

This extradimensional gate, which opened about 10 years ago, has been gathering people in place of cultural assets.

“Oh, why are the kittens in such bad shape today? Their teeth and claws are all in bad shape!”

“Isn’t that because you’re using a Warhammer to change weapons? Even so, if you hit the head once, the hide will come off easily.”

“Ah, I just got my trainee badge, but [the guild] wants me to deliver 50 teeth. Can I do it in two days?”

“Help me? Give me the fingernails instead. My quota is fingernails.”

“Hey! Buy monster teeth! We have leather too!”

“Selling magic stones cheaply!”

Starting with the awakened members of the strategy series who are shouting to sell or exchange the loot they have collected while crossing the gate,

“The lowest hourly rate! We will lend you a simple mana stove!”

“[Lower Potions] For Sale! Buy in packs of 10 and get an extra bottle!”

“Selling all lower-grade magic stones!”

“Bought 76 lower-grade magic stones for 91,200 won.”

“Stop talking nonsense! You don’t even have a distribution margin, so give me a little more!”

“We repair, paint, and polish your equipment at incredibly low prices!”

“Wait. Bring money.”

Nearby, there are rows of mats and stalls, and their main clients, the awakened production line, are arguing with customers.

“Look over there. That guy looks really strong. How long will it take to defeat him?”

“D+ grade gate hunting, but the outfit looks like a high-grade awakened one. Is it really easy to clear it with that level? About an hour?”

“Oh, that guy is handsome.”

“Where, where? Wow, that’s awesome. Over there, oppa! Just wave your hand once!”

“Yunho! Have a safe trip! Don’t get hurt!”

And on the other side, there are also ordinary tourists watching from a distance.

At the time when it existed only as a historical site, it was at best a place for children to go on a picnic, a place to take a walk, or a place for students to go on field trips.

Donggureung, which had an average of 200 to 300 paying visitors and less than 10,000 monthly tourists, became a bustling city only after the gate was built.

It couldn’t be more ironic.

And into such a place – a craftsman in dark overalls stepped forward.

The man with the slightly gloomy look muttered as he looked at the lighthouse-like tower standing tall near the gate.

“… Here it comes.”

It was Lee Si-hyuk.

===============

yesternight,

Woo-joo, who had been lecturing the blacksmith who had been underestimating his own abilities, did not just keep nagging.

She was a seasoned veteran who had worked her way up from the bottom, starting as an intern and working her way up to president of a small agency (although it only had two employees).

Although she was of a different lineage from Shihyeok, this woman warrior, who had been through many hardships and passed through many gates, was able to tell him stories that could be of great help.

-Mr. Sihyuk, if possible, I recommend that you start with a moderately low-level gate.

-Is there a specific reason why you recommend starting from the lower grades?

– High-level gates are usually for the level of those who clear them, so they often hire craftsmen. Also, byproducts and collected items are expensive, so most people use the auction house instead of direct transactions. That’s why, except for some gates, there are usually not many people around there. Even if there are, they are usually from large [guilds].

-hmm….

-And even if Mr. Shihyuk finds out about some of the high-level gates that are crowded, he might experience unnecessary conflicts from the beginning. Among them, there are quite a few cases where fools belonging to [guilds] believe in my emblem and act like thugs. If that’s the case for the strategy series, how much worse would it be for the production series, where people just sit around and relax?

-okay.

– In order to avoid unnecessary trouble with those nervous people, you need to get used to the environment around the gate. So, start from the lower areas and slowly get used to it, and when you feel like you’ve had enough, slowly go up.

-Thank you for the advice.

-There are many things I want to tell you, Shihyuk. There are situations like this, for example… .

-… … .

Although the story was very long, it was almost all practical advice.

Shihyuk’s choice of this place for his first gate outing was also based on the advice of the universe. It was a low-grade place, one of the top five places in Korea where people flock.

He took out his notebook one by one and opened it up.

The page I opened was filled with notes of my own research since dawn and explanations of the universe.

[Good job].

This gate, which opened between Donggureung’s Hyeolreung and Sulreung, was famous for having a particularly large number of feline-shaped extradimensional monsters, and for being so difficult that even low-level Awakened players could solo clear it, even compared to its rated difficulty.

Thanks to its stability, it is selected every year without fail as a place for the beginner awakening rank examination.

But the reason this gate received attention was not only because it was easy to conquer.

[Chakgapsa] is a monster game where animal-type monsters appear, so in addition to magic stones, you can expect to find spoils and byproducts such as claws, teeth, and fur.

In addition, since the inside of the gate is mountainous, collecting herbs and moss was also possible.

As a result, word of mouth spread among beginners or low-level Awakened players who were struggling with financial difficulties that this gate was known as the ‘Good Gate’ because it could bring in a fairly good profit despite the low level, and it has remained a place that many Awakened players visit to this day.

Besides that, if there is a representative feature of this place – Shihyuk turned his gaze.

A long, cylindrical tower, about eight stories high, was erected right next to the gate.

-That must be it. The large purification tower.

At the very top of the tower, lights were twinkling, slowly sucking in the extradimensional particles that were seeping out.

Even if it’s a D+ class, a gate is a gate. Even though it’s kept at a distance, it’s also the reason why ordinary people can enter and exit here.

The government is always criticized for wasting tax money on useless things, but there were a few successful projects among the support projects it implemented, such as the [Superhuman Expo].

This large purification tower installed in Donggureung was one of them.

One of the few UNESCO-listed cultural assets on this small piece of land.

If it was left as it was, the gate would become contaminated and the general public would not be able to access it, and if the historic site were damaged, it was obvious that the registration would be canceled. Judging that it could not afford to suffer international embarrassment, the government rolled up its sleeves and spent hundreds of billions of won to install a purification plant.

That tower was it, and… frankly, it was a half-failure from the start.

Even the lowest level of the extradimensional gate could not cover all the particles coming out from within the crack with just one tower.

Moreover, the danger had not disappeared, and above all, Donggureung was not a popular historic site. It was more than twice the size of King Sejong’s tomb, but the number of tourists was less than a third.

Sadly, Donggureung was activated not because of its history, but because of the Awakened.

Thanks to the fame of [Chakgapsa], many awakened people came and went to Donggureung, and thanks to the crowd of awakened people, the perception that Donggureung was safe even with the gate grew.

There, thanks to the purification tower, there was the advantage of being able to see them from a relatively close distance as long as the general public did not cross the boundary wall.

Thanks to this special feature, the ruins were strangely visited by not only the Awakened, local residents, but also regular tourists from all over the country. There were even foreign tourists who had tried hard to avoid coming!

It was completely unexpected, but it was a happy miscalculation for the government. The city of Guri actively tried to attract tourists.

There couldn’t be no problem. When the universe explained the [Chakgapsa] that Shihyuk had found, he commented like this.

-The gate itself isn’t bad… Well, even so, the gate raid isn’t some kind of circus, and it wasn’t a very pleasant feeling to see people watching as I passed by.

That is, the complaints of the awakened people who have become a spectacle for people have been raised.

The government’s response to this was simple: a moderate carrot. And then ignore it.

Public officials offered vague support to the Awakened who used the gate, such as a tax exemption on some of the spoils, and suppressed their discontent with overwhelming support for the tourism industry.

If you find it inconvenient, you don’t have to attack this gate. Instead, it will be hard to find a gate as good as this.

Those who complained about the inconvenience were only a minority, and the vast majority of ordinary citizens welcomed it. They cited reasons such as the fact that it would provide more things to see and attract tourists, thereby revitalizing the local economy.

As a result, Donggureung was transformed into a strange place.

Near the gate, there were not only craft-related Awakened merchants but also many souvenir vendors targeting tourists.

They had set up mobile stalls scattered here and there near the boundary where extradimensional particles could not reach. There was even a food truck selling food.

Some rude tourists even approached the waiting Awakened people wearing their gear and asked to take pictures with them.

The noisy and unfamiliar atmosphere reminded me of a flea market in a famous shopping district, rather than a battlefield where extra-dimensional monsters would be fought.