Ch.17Chapter 17 – Half a Year

*Ding-dong*

“Delivery for you.”

The voice of the delivery person came from outside the door. A young man who had been eating a chicken breast salad at the dining table got up and opened the door. His strong, firm muscles were prominent.

“Yes, are you Shin Jaehyuk? Please sign here.”

The muscular young man, Shin Jaehyuk, quickly signed where the delivery person pointed. He effortlessly lifted the very heavy and large box and brought it into the house. After finishing his lunch, he carried the box down to the basement training room.

“Ah, has it already been half a year?”

When he opened the box, the plate armor he had ordered six months ago was revealed. During the six months since the Gate incident, he had barely gone out, focusing instead on physical training and sacred spell practice at home. All to be fully prepared before entering a Gate.

Initially, he had wanted to rush into hell immediately to check on Eden’s safety. But remembering how he had nearly lost his life to a high-ranking demon’s attack during the first Gate incident, he suppressed his instinct. Building up strength to protect himself had to come first.

‘My wound, Kim Jaemin must have healed it.’

In the past six months, the deaf young man he knew had become a world-famous celebrity. One of fewer than ten S-rank Hunters in the world. A hero of humanity, considered among the strongest. The Warrior of the Holy Sword, famous for his finishing move, <Storm Poem>, which could take down any powerful boss with a single strike.

Watching his combat videos, Shin Jaehyuk guessed that the power surrounding Kim Jaemin’s sword was holy power. If his awakened ability was holy power, it made sense that his wounds had been healed while he was unconscious.

‘He must have secretly followed me… That kid, always grumbling, but he was worried about me.’

Combat footage taken by a survivor hiding in a nearby building had spread rapidly on social media and become famous. Since theirs was the only recording device that had survived the Gate’s electromagnetic disruption, Shin Jaehyuk’s exploits had been buried.

‘That’s fortunate. If someone without mana, who isn’t an awakened one, displayed such abilities, it would certainly have raised suspicions.’

After regaining consciousness, Shin Jaehyuk had wanted to find Kim Jaemin to thank him, but Aunt Jung Sook’s restaurant had been destroyed in the aftermath of the battle and closed down. Since he didn’t have their contact information, they naturally lost touch.

He could have hacked into systems to find their phone numbers if he’d really wanted to, but he decided against it, thinking that someone as paranoid as Kim Jaemin would be uncomfortable with that.

‘He must already be overwhelmed with journalists, I shouldn’t add to that. We’ll meet again someday, and I can thank him then.’

Shin Jaehyuk looked back at the armor in the box. There was a letter placed on top of it. He opened the envelope and read:

‘It’s Jang Paldeok. Sorry for the delay in completion. As I explained before, I received higher priority orders from another client. I wanted to make yours first, but when the boss says jump, a wage slave like me has to jump. Still, I put extra care into your armor to make up for it. As you requested, it looks plain on the outside, but its performance is probably the best of any armor currently on Earth. Use it well, and if it breaks, send it back for repairs. Though I doubt it will break.’

The letter contained lengthy excuses about the armor’s delayed completion. Since he had already been informed about this, he didn’t mind much. Shin Jaehyuk tried on the armor as a test.

“Oh… This looks quite sharp.”

In the full-length mirror, a black knight in dark armor mimicked Shin Jaehyuk’s movements. He rotated his hands and legs, observing his black armor from various angles. Made from hellish iron ore, it was surprisingly light for plate armor.

Shin Jaehyuk brought over a dagger, mace, shield, and spear displayed in the corner. These were weapons sent by the blacksmith Jang Paldeok over several months. All made entirely of hellish iron ore. He fully armed himself with auxiliary weapons like a knight heading into actual battle, holding a shield in his left hand and a spear in his right.

“Good. For the time being, I should train in this state to get used to the armor and weapons.”

His right arm extended, thrusting the spear forward. The spear tip stopped just an inch from the mirror.

Shin Jaehyuk pulled back his arm and thrust forward again.

***

During the six months since the first Gate opened, too many events occurred to fully explain.

After the Gates in various countries closed, national leaders urgently convened a meeting. It was to devise countermeasures against beings that might threaten human existence and to determine the treatment of awakened ones.

Various military experts, zoologists, religious leaders, and national leaders participated in the meeting. Countries that couldn’t send their heads of state directly, like North Korea, or those whose leaders had died, like South Korea, sent representatives.

For smooth proceedings, terminology was officially standardized. The black spheres and the monsters emerging from them were named “Gates” and “monsters” respectively. Particularly strong monsters from the Gates were called “bosses,” while the most numerous type was named “imps.”

Some argued that since the boss battle message referred to the creatures as demons, they should be called hellgates and demons rather than Gates and monsters. However, this argument was rejected due to numerous objections from religious circles. Religious leaders feared the exodus of followers if they officially acknowledged these demons that didn’t appear in their scriptures and records.

People knew this was like covering one’s eyes and pretending not to see, but they still used the terms Gates and monsters. First, because it felt more familiar, and second, out of fear. The terms “monster” and “Gate,” appearing in various games and novels, conveyed meaning intuitively and clearly.

Using these terms also diluted fear by downgrading humanity’s enemies from “demons” (supernatural beings) to “monsters” (entities that could be dealt with). For some people who were now confronted with the afterlife in a tangible form, denying that these creatures were demons was a way to reject the idea that their souls might fall into the hell these beings represented.

Thus, for personal or religious reasons, using the terms monsters and Gates instead of demons and hellgates became society’s implicit consensus.

Anyway, the main topic of this first summit was how to deal with monsters. Since there was no guarantee that Gates would open only once, countermeasures had to be prepared. As humanity couldn’t predict when and where Gates would open, a response system that could be deployed immediately was needed.

The problem was that the localized EMP effect when Gates opened paralyzed electronic devices, making communication networks unusable.

It was possible to estimate a Gate’s location by reverse-calculating areas where electronic systems like CCTV were paralyzed, but whether an army could arrive at the Gate in time to stop the pouring monsters was a separate issue. Distributing troops across areas would only disperse firepower, leaving them vulnerable to being picked off by monsters.

This is where awakened ones gained attention as a solution.

These superhumans, later called Hunters, compressed a squad’s firepower into a single body. While they might not be able to close a Gate alone, they could buy time until the army arrived. Some powerful superhumans could even defeat strong boss monsters that armies couldn’t handle.

To those in power, these superhumans were like poisonous fruit—useful but potentially threatening to their authority. Reactions to how awakened ones should be treated split into two camps.

The U.S. President advocated for a friendly approach. He believed each Hunter should be treated like a squad-level mercenary or special forces unit, with various benefits and conveniences. It was an inevitable choice for him. Even the United States couldn’t cover its vast territory with military alone. Moreover, due to its large land area, it had more Gates opening than other countries. The U.S. desperately needed the help of awakened ones. Countries in similar situations, like Canada and Australia, agreed.

In contrast, China’s Chairman advocated for control. He wanted to use this crisis as an opportunity to subordinate Hunters to the state and conscript them forcibly to enhance national power. Since China had an overwhelming population compared to the influx of monsters, he believed the military alone could close Gates without awakened ones.

He confidently boasted that if Gates opened again, he would send a large army into the Gate to annihilate the enemy territory. Other countries desiring to grasp the alluring power of superhumans in state hands, or those under military dictatorships, supported China’s opinion. Russia, North Korea, and India were typical examples.

Acting President Park Joo-gwan, who attended the meeting, sided with the friendly approach. He knew about the shocking incident in Gwanak-gu, Seoul. An incident where the world’s most terrifying and powerful boss appeared. An incident where a single superhuman defeated a burning demon that the military could never kill.

Other heads of state, noting that a Hunter alone defeated a boss in record time, concluded that “the boss was weak” rather than “the superhuman was strong” and dismissed it as insignificant. In contrast, Park Joo-gwan learned that “superhumans are strong.” Even after witnessing such power, he had no thought of suppressing or controlling Hunters. He was a clever man.

In the end, the divided opinions couldn’t be reconciled. Leaving the conference hall, China’s Chairman confidently declared to expect the next Gate incident.

Like a lie coming true, four days later, the second Gate incident occurred. As promised, the Chairman dispatched an entire army corps to a Gate that opened in Beijing.

Exactly four hours later, news of the corps’ annihilation and the Beijing Gate’s backflow spread throughout China.

And one hour after that, China’s Chairman was replaced by a superhuman.

***

“Hello~ This is Sang Soo-geon, host of Today’s Physics. Nice to meet you all. Today we have a special guest, Professor Park Jeong-gwang of Seoul National University’s Physics Department, who recently received the Nobel Prize in Physics and has been garnering intense public interest! Hello, Professor.”

“Yes, nice to meet you.”

On the large TV screen, an elderly man with abundant white hair greeted the audience. Shin Jaehyuk was lying on the sofa, chewing a protein bar. After finishing his training, watching TV at the end of the day to gather information about monsters and the Gate crisis had become his routine.

While watching the news, he changed channels for a mental break and found Professor Park Jeong-gwang, famous for interpreting mana through physics, appearing on an entertainment show. Suddenly interested, he fixed on the channel and waited for the professor’s words.

“The physics community has been buzzing with the several papers you’ve published in recent months. Could you explain them briefly? Perhaps starting with your first paper, ‘On the Nature of Mana and Electromagnetic Interference Phenomena’?”

“Yes. First, mana has peculiar properties like light. It possesses both particle and wave characteristics. Just as light is both a photon and an electromagnetic wave, I’ve defined the basic units of mana as ‘mana particles’ and ‘mana waves.’ Like other ordinary particles, mana in its natural state diffuses from areas of high concentration to low. When mana moves rapidly due to concentration differences, it affects electromagnetic waves. The greater the concentration difference, the more it agitates electromagnetic waves, moving nearby charges and creating eddy currents.”

“Ah, the phenomenon named the Park Jeong-gwang Effect! This is why electronic devices fail when Gates open, right?”

“Yes, that’s correct. It’s somewhat embarrassing to have my name attached to a phenomenon that seems like an extension of Faraday’s Law, but your explanation is accurate. Similarly, electronic devices like smartphones become useless when taken into Gates for the same reason.”

‘I see. So that’s why my smartphone broke when the Gate opened.’

Shin Jaehyuk nodded, connecting the professor’s explanation to his own experience. The host skillfully moved on to the next topic.

“You also developed a Gate detector using this Park Jeong-gwang Effect, right? I hear it’s very useful among Hunters, who call it a compass.”

“Yes. The Gate detector works using wave interference. When a Gate opens, high-density mana from inside the Gate diffuses into Earth, and the resulting mana waves interfere with the mana charged in the detector. By reverse-calculating this interference, we can determine the intensity and direction of mana waves to find the approximate location of a Gate. Similarly, when used inside a Gate, it can locate the exit.”

Shin Jaehyuk knew what this compass was. It was famous as one of a Hunter’s essential items. A device used by Hunters and soldiers to quickly locate Gates when they open and find entrances and exits inside Gates. Predictions suggest that tens of thousands of lives have been saved thanks to this invention.

Some civilians also carried Gate detectors as a precaution. However, since they couldn’t charge mana directly into the compass, they had to visit purchase points or awakened acquaintances periodically for mana charging. Shin Jaehyuk had recently acquired one and was planning to ask an awakened acquaintance for help.

“Speaking of inventions, one of your masterpieces, the Hunter rank tester, is also being used effectively by the Hunter Association, right?”

“The rank tester also utilizes mana’s wave properties. When awakened ones place their palms on the spherical device and infuse mana, a mana path forms between the device and the awakened one. The tester then rapidly shoots mana pulses through this path into the awakened one’s body. As you know, awakened ones’ mana accumulates in their bodies, and since body volume is limited, higher mana amounts mean higher mana density. Due to this density, mana pulses from the device slow down inside the body.”

Host Sang Soo-geon clapped his hands once and continued.

“It’s like how it’s harder to move forward in viscous liquid. So the mana pulse takes longer to reflect back to the device.”

“That’s right. By measuring this time and the awakened one’s body dimensions, we can roughly determine mana density and quantity. There’s some margin of error, of course.”

“But I suppose the association takes that error into account and conducts various tests besides mana quantity to determine an awakened one’s rank? Come to think of it, one condition for S-rank Hunters is getting an ‘unmeasurable’ result on the tester. What’s the principle behind that?”

“In the case of S-rank Hunters, they have so much mana in their bodies that the mana density is extremely high. The mana pulse slows down so much that it eventually stays within the body and can’t escape back to the tester. In that case, the tester returns an ‘unmeasurable’ result.”

“That’s truly remarkable. They truly deserve to be called humanity’s hope…”

The conversation continued with various physics topics. For Shin Jaehyuk, who had spent more time sleeping than awake during high school, these were incomprehensible discussions. He just listened absentmindedly until the host began his closing remarks.

“It’s almost time to wrap up our broadcast. Let me ask one final question. Professor, how do you think mana is generated?”

Caught off guard by this abstract question, Professor Park hesitated momentarily before carefully speaking.

“That hasn’t been clarified yet, but my personal view is that heat might be converted into mana, though I suggest this cautiously.”

“Heat? But as I understand it, according to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which states that entropy always increases, isn’t heat the final state of energy?”

“Yes, I would need more specialized formulas and detailed figures to explain here, but that’s my current hypothesis.”

“If what you’re saying is true, mana could be a substance that reverses entropy! If so, perhaps someday developing a time machine that reverses time using mana won’t just be a dream… That concludes today’s Physics broadcast. Thank you all for watching.”