episode_0015

“Did you create a gate?”

I swallowed my breath in embarrassment as I looked at the purple circular gate beyond the window.

A monster that creates gates? I’ve never heard of anything like this. This is something that was never mentioned in the original work.

An intangible mist spews out from the center of the pitch black, and the cries of monsters can be heard from within.

Soon, large bladed claws began to emerge from the abyss.

“ge… It’s the gate!”

As the slasher sticks his head out of the gate and screams, I hear the panicked cries of the guys chasing me.

As he hurriedly swung his sword wide, the wall of the store collapsed as if it were exploding, and the sword energy released from the sword split the gate in half.

With a tearing scream, the slasher who was trying to get out of the gate was split in two and his upper body fell to the floor and rolled.

“Mr. Northmund!”

After hearing their cries, I opened the office door again and went inside.

The tattered Altoran that created the gate seemed to have gone into a dormant state after extracting a huge amount of magic power, and was spreading out and vibrating slightly.

I walked up to it holding the sword and tried to tap it with the sword, but it didn’t seem to respond to any external stimulation.

Even though he was stabbed by the tip of a sharp sword and blood was leaking out, he just quietly vibrated and trembled without any major movement or reaction.

Doesn’t this guy feel external stimulation?

I heard the sound of someone running from the stairs and saw Deokjae Lee and Helen Burns running up this way.

“Northmund, were you here? What! What about that?”

I raised my sword and pointed at what looked like an emblem engraved on the side of the monster.

It was a pattern with three zigzag patterns resembling the English letter T inside a round circle. The mark does not look like it was carved with care, but rather looks like it was scribbled by a child.

“…Do you know anything about this pattern?”

“This… .”

I see them panicking when they see that pattern.

I also have complicated thoughts. There is a monster in Seoul that seems to have been artificially created by someone.

In the novel, there was no explanation as to why the gate opened on the day of the catastrophe. Of course, it may be because the main character, Han Si-woo, was not interested, but isn’t that the way hunters themselves are?

Usually, the focus is only on the main character living in the hunter worldview, and it does not deal with topics such as the cause of the gate, the world inside the gate, or the permanent sealing of the gate.

As I raised my sword and struck it, Helen muttered quietly with a serious expression.

“This… The emblem of Circular Shinrikyo?”

“Circular Shinrikyo?”

“Yes. I’m not sure, but it looks like the emblem of the Circulating Truth and Light Association. Just a moment.”

Then, with a serious expression, Helen took out a small camera from her chest and filmed it.

There was a camera on his chest. As expected, I thought he was following me for no reason.

Looking at that scene, I muttered to myself.

“What is that circular truth or something? It sounds like a religious group.”

Helen receives the horse. My eyes were still looking at that vibrating monster pattern.

“The Circular Truth and Light Association is an organization formed in Europe in the past. You can think of it as something similar to Freemasonry or Illuminati… Ah, Mr. Northmund, you probably don’t know that well, so it wasn’t an appropriate analogy.

So um… You can think of it as something like a secret society. Although the name sounds like a religious group, it is not particularly religious, and can be seen as a racial supremacist group like the KKK.

However, I believe it disappeared after being suppressed along with the Ku Klux Klan around the 70s, so why is this emblem here… .”

“… .”

ah.

Now that I think about it, one thing comes to mind. This is something that the professor mentioned in passing during the history class the protagonist was taking.

However, the main character of 『Ki.Si.Sen』 is an Academy-accredited gangster, so he always dozed off during theory classes instead of practical classes, so it was not properly conveyed to readers.

Han Si-woo, you damn bastard. Because of your actions, countless lives that could have been saved are lost.

In the future, those who doze off during my classes will be subject to penalty attacks comparable to terrorism.

What I roughly remember is that Circular Shinrikyo once staged a large-scale uprising during the next 10 years of struggle. All that was said was that by the time the main part of the novel began, everyone had already been subjugated and disappeared.

“This monster created the gate you just saw. Was the Circular Shinrikyo Church creating monsters?”

“Yes? Are you talking about this rubber ball-like monster?”

“Yes.”

Could it be that Circular Shinrikyo exists behind this Gate incident? Is that why the gate was opened in Seoul and the entire world became a mess?

But some questions remain. If they are really the masterminds of this gate incident, why bother engraving their sentences so that evidence remains?

If I were the leader of the circular religion, I would never have done anything that would narrow the suspicion to themselves. What happened? .

As I was cooling my complicated head, the ball-like monster began to vibrate while spouting abyssal water.

“The monster is active again!”

“Che.”

When I raised my sword and struck it hard, the piece of meat was cut cleanly into two pieces.

Originally, it seemed to have no sense of pain, and even though it was cut into pieces, it slowly twitched and spewed out blood and black abyssal water before its movements faded away.

The piece of meat that stopped moving and only slightly convulsed was whipped around with the great sword.

Blood splatters everywhere and pieces of cut meat fly everywhere.

“Hmm…”

“Mr. Northmund?”

“This guy is definitely not a monster from the abyss world. All monsters have a magic core inside and operate as a core. But this guy doesn’t have that.”

Yes. What I was trying to find while soaking the suit pants that Deokjae Lee brought me with the monster’s blood was the monster’s core.

Also called a magic stone, it occupies the center of the monster, and the monster moves with the magic power that emanates from the magic stone.

what… In the future, magic stones will become the raw material for the Earth’s magic civilization and be sold at a high price, but that is a story for later… .

“That means… .”

Helen and Deokjae Lee’s faces harden. They realized it too.

“This gate incident may not be natural. Did you say Lee Deok-jae? Quickly let the army know about this. There is a monster that opens the gate, so deal with it first. If the guess is correct, it is highly likely that they are scattered throughout Seoul.”

“Yes, I understand!”

Helen, who was watching Deokjae Lee take out the walkie-talkie from his belt, shook her head and then looked at me and said.

“If this turns out to be artificial, it’s usually not a big deal.”

“…I guess so. The people of Earth have brought about their own destruction. It’s deplorable.”

She smiles bitterly as she looks at the broken monster.

In fact, it was obvious. Anyone could see that medical thread had been used on the fleshy part, and there was even a mark of a secret society drawn there.

Can I ask you one question? She looked at the monster’s corpse and quietly opened her mouth.

“Perhaps… Does Mr. Northmund regret sacrificing his magic power? ?”

“… What does it mean?”

“It’s literally true. I have seen many people who rose to high positions but then lost power and fell. Most of them missed that place and met a miserable end. You were a person who once stood in a high position, right? Just looking at the abilities he showed in Seoul a week ago, he must have been one of the strongest players in the world. Now you’ve lost most of that power.”

“… .”

I looked at her intently.

The meaning of her words is conveyed to me. The Earth was born in a world destroyed by monsters in the past, and came to fight against monsters. And after sacrificing a large part of himself for the people of Earth, the truth revealed was that it was the people of Earth who had brought about the monsters.

If I were Elm Northmund himself, I might feel very betrayed and angry. Is Helen worried about that now?

I put my hand on her shoulder and patted her lightly.

“Nothing has been revealed yet. I think it’s too early to talk about it now.”

“Ah… .”

“And even if it turns out to be true, I won’t have any regrets.”

Rather, it is something I should be sorry about. Because they arbitrarily entered this world and committed a huge fraud.

She has nothing to be sorry about. Because my strength has not disappeared. Even if it were really the Circular Shinrikyo Church that caused this situation, I wouldn’t be angry.

“Why? If it were me, I would be very angry. You will also feel betrayed. Also, why are the races different? !”

“… Are you a racist?”

“Yes? ah… no! It can’t be!”

She was startled and threw up her hand. Seeing his face turn red, I think he was quite surprised.

She is American. As the country is sensitive to racial discrimination, she seems to be sensitive to discrimination itself, and even waves her hand in denial.

“Beyond race, tribe, and appearance, intelligence deserves to be treated as such. Even though you and I are of different races, you have talked to me without hesitation, and I also do not feel uncomfortable talking to you. Likewise, even though I am a dragon, I do not want humans to die. This is because everyone is an equal intelligence. At least I think so.”

“Mr. Northmund… .”

“That’s why I don’t regret giving you my strength. Because as long as you do not give up your will to live, as long as you do not give up resisting monsters, you are not abandoning my will. therefore… .”

He slowly lowers his hand from Helen’s shoulder and joins her hand.

He takes the small camera in her hand and presses the button to stop recording.

“So, I would like you to talk to your superiors. I have no intention of being hostile to humanity. As long as your nation does not give up fighting and surrender to monsters, I will never abandon your nation.”

“… You knew it.”

“Who do you think I am?”

It’s a hundred years too early to think about me.

Credit is not something that is built up right away. Trust can be built little by little by showing sincerity and sincerity over a long period of time.

Even though my actions are a tower built on lies, if they accept them as truth, it will be no different.

I smiled and swung the great sword in my hand, slung it over my shoulder and continued speaking.

“Eggplant. The battle is not over yet. We can talk about it after this battle is over.”

Even though I stopped talking, Helen stayed still and hesitated. The face is still a little red.

Woman, why are you doing this?

“What is it? Aren’t you going?”

“I… Mr. Northmund. that… .”

“?”

“Hands… If you let me go… .”

ah.

Now that I think about it, I also kept petting her hand secretly. Ever since the camera stopped operating in her hand.

I don’t know why, but for some reason, ever since I came into this body, I’ve been attracted to soft things. Is it because the body is covered in hard scales?

“Ah… I’m sorry. For some reason, humans are soft and cute.”

“… .”

“Hmm… Then let’s go.”

I guess I’ll have to raise a puppy later.

Lee Deok-jae, who was standing behind him, had a strange expression on his face, but he tried to ignore it and jumped down onto the collapsed wall of the store, hitting a toad below.

─Keueeek!

The monster’s scream rang out.

*

After the outbreak of the worldwide gate incident, Seoul finally succeeded in closing all the gates after struggling against the monsters for about 5 days.

It was a victory stained with countless sacrifices and blood, but in the end, Seoul was saved.

Numerous buildings were burned, roads were cut off by bombings and devastated, and private houses were collapsed and Seoul was in ruins, but the faces of the people who protected Seoul were filled with only the excitement of victory.

─Waaa!!

─Won! Finally won!

─Long live the Republic of Korea!

But it wasn’t just victory.

The capital, Seoul, was protected, but several major cities fell to monsters, and those who were happy with their victory had to take up arms again and leave to recapture the occupied cities.

But the feeling of liberation on their faces was not erased.

The fact that they had successfully repelled the monster invasions twice gave them great hope.

Monsters are much more powerful than humans. In the first battle, they were helplessly defeated by the brutal violence. Without my help, Seoul would have literally disappeared from the map during the first battle.

But this time was different. Humans came together and successfully defeated the monsters with human power. Of course, I can’t say that I didn’t have help this time, but I wasn’t enough to turn the entire battle around on my own.

Therefore, this battle was a very symbolic and meaningful battle for Korea.

On the other hand, looking around the world, it was difficult to say that things were that good.

In the case of the United States, major cities such as LA, New York, and Philadelphia collapsed, and the military was working hard to retake the cities. The same was true for Russia and China.

In the case of Europe, as feared, countries with weak military power collapsed first. Northern European countries, which had small populations and insufficient armies, were the first to face catastrophe, and countless refugees fled to central Europe to escape the monsters.

African countries were particularly hit hard. Most countries collapsed due to political chaos and weak military power.

In the original novel, Africa had completely collapsed and was called the dark continent, so it followed the same path as the novel.

But fortunately, humanity is still going strong. In the original novel, humanity collapsed over the next 10 years after the day of the apocalypse, but in this world I intervened in, humanity was still standing strong.

It was difficult to say that there was a complete victory, but since the administrative power of most countries was functioning properly, the result was much more advanced than the content of the novel.

And the Circular Shinrikyo.

Just as I discovered, monsters that create gates were discovered all over the world, and it became a big issue when it was revealed that the emblem of the circular bridge was engraved on them.

When the person responsible for the Gate incident was discovered, he was declared an enemy of the world, and the ring bridge that had spread all over the world was literally destroyed.

I think it’s really stupid. You brought monsters to Earth on your own.

Come to think of it, strictly speaking, the first time monsters appeared in the world of ‘Kisi.sen’ was not in 2009. This means that guys like Ringyo knew about monsters long ago.

According to the story told by Helen of the CIA, the Circular Truth and Light Association was a secret society formed from its origins to serve demons, and attempted to dominate the world by causing the Gate Incident.

In their opinion, when the gates around the world were opened, most of humanity’s ability to resist would be destroyed, but their ambition was unfortunately thwarted by my intervention.

In fact, considering that their uprising failed and the ring bridge disappeared in 『Kishi.Sen』, it can be seen that their plan was destined to fail from the beginning.

However, the leaders of the Ring Bridge failed to capture them. It is said that everyone has disappeared, no matter where they went.

Therefore, it is not known at this time whether they are alive or not, but at least there is nothing that the circular bridge, which is divided into pieces, can do right now.

And what did I do,

For a while, I was called all over the world to deal with monsters.

He swung his sword countless times, cutting down monsters and using magic to burn them away.

Together with the German Federal Army, he participated in the operation to restore Denmark, where most of the country had fallen, and even fell into the middle of Siberia to drive out demons.

I went to the Amazon jungle, was called to China, and was treated to Peking duck. He was slightly injured in a battle in Argentina.

It was a really busy day. After falling into this world, I was called from place to place without even paying attention, cutting down monsters in a trance.

Just like that, the winter of 2009 passed, spring came, the green of summer, fall, and then winter again.

It was a day when the seasons had cycled twice and spring had come again.

─Boo!

A car came up the hill and into a huge lot.

The site that looked like a playground was extremely large and well-organized, and huge buildings were visible along the site.

The clean white buildings, as if they had just been completed, were emitting a volatile smell unique to newly built buildings.

The unmelted snow accumulated on the trees planted closely in the flower beds of the building reflected the sunlight, providing a pleasant glare.

The car, which had been circling the huge site, raising dust, eventually stopped and people began to get out of it.

A man and a woman in black suits get out of the driver and passenger seats, and a man gets out of the back seat.

It was a dignified-looking man wearing a neat suit. When the man flicked the finished cigarette he was holding in his left hand with his finger, the cigarette burned itself and disappeared without a trace instead of hitting the ground.

The man looks at the huge campus and lets out a small gasp.

“Ho… .”

“Do you like it?”

There was no answer to the question about impressions. The man in the stately-looking suit just looked around the huge campus without saying a word. That alone would have already been a sufficient answer.

A man who had been looking around the campus for a while crossed the playground and headed towards the building, and the man and woman followed behind him.

It was a story about a sunny spring day, when the snow was melting and new grass was sprouting.