The Hunter’s Gonna Lay Low - Chap 122
“Someone who went in before? Do you know someone?”
“Yeah.”
The boy nodded, biting his lip before speaking slowly, carefully pronouncing each word.
“I have to find them. Even if it’s just the body.”
“Oh no… Are you sure it was a rift? There wouldn’t be any bodies if it was a rift.”
“It could be a dungeon.”
“This is tricky…”
“They said it would take a long time. Do you know anything else?”
Bae Won-woo rubbed the back of his neck, looking a bit flustered. But he also saw an opportunity. If he asked the right questions, he might be able to uncover something about the boy’s past. He asked gently,
“I can’t really say with just that… Was it a civilian caught in the rift? Or was it a hunter you knew?”
“…”
The boy remained silent. Bae Won-woo smirked slightly.
“Hey, do you think I’m asking for my own good? I’m trying to help you out here.”
“…It was a hunter.”
“A hunter? There shouldn’t be any cases where a hunter can’t return from a rift… No, wait.”
When a rift collapses, anyone inside is expelled to the rift’s entrance, even if they’re dead. Hunters often joked that rifts spit out anything foreign. This had always been the rule since the appearance of the rifts, and no one questioned it. It was a rule of the system.
But there was one exception.
“The West Sea rift.”
The West Sea rift was different in every way. Normally, a rift’s entrance remains open until the rift’s master is killed, but the West Sea rift’s entrance vanished right after J and the other hunters entered, as if it had been waiting for that moment.
When the entrance disappeared, the rift’s turbulent energy, which had seemed like it would engulf the entire West Sea, suddenly subsided and eventually vanished completely, leaving nothing behind but a large hole in the middle of the sea. None of the people it had swallowed were ever returned.
When the rift collapsed, ships and helicopters were sent out to search for any remains, but they found nothing. People were devastated. Someone had said,
“It completely defied the laws of the system.”
The boy propped his chin on his hand and asked,
“The West Sea rift?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah. About a year ago, a rift appeared in the West Sea. It’s gone now, though.”
“Did anyone go in there?”
“Huh? Hunters? I’m not sure about everyone, but I know one for sure. J. He’s a national hero.”
“…”
The boy’s eyes darkened, but Bae Won-woo didn’t notice. He was too busy trying to remember.
“But that rift… it just vanished.”
The boy asked urgently,
“Is there no way to enter a collapsed rift?”
“Huh? Well…”
The West Sea rift, a rift that defied the system’s rules, showed no signs of an exit when it collapsed, and there were no observable changes that usually occur when the rift’s master is killed. It had simply disappeared, as if it had never existed.
‘That’s why there was so much debate about whether they were still alive or not…’
There had been arguments about whether or not to send a rescue team, whether they were still alive or already dead… They had argued for so long that it took two months after the rift collapsed for an official death announcement to be made. Bae Won-woo scratched his head, frowning. A collapsed rift couldn’t be re-entered. That’s what “collapsed” meant.
But if the rift truly defied the system’s rules… could it be different?
It was only speculation, but before he could think any further, the boy pressed him again.
“Is there really no way?”
“Well… technically, there shouldn’t be.”
Sometimes, a little lie is necessary to keep someone going.
Bae Won-woo looked at the boy with eyes filled with pity. He was much better-looking than his own younger brother, though he was more bratty, but still, they were about the same age. It was hard not to soften at the thought of his brother. Hesitantly, he spoke carefully.
“…There was something a bit strange about the West Sea rift.”
“What do you mean?”
“Hmm, do you know the difference between a dungeon and a rift?”
“No.”
“Then I should explain that first. It’s basic knowledge for a hunter, so it’ll be useful for you later.”
Bae Won-woo picked up a thick stick and found a patch of ground where the grass hadn’t grown too thick. He gestured for the boy to come closer, and the boy silently jumped down from the tree to join him. Bae Won-woo pulled out some of the low-growing weeds and drew two circles in the dirt, labeling one as “dungeon” and the other as “rift.”
“Dungeons and rifts are similar in that they both appear suddenly and contain unfamiliar ecosystems, worlds, and monsters, but there’s a key difference. A dungeon can be left alone or destroyed, but a rift must be closed no matter what.”
“Why?”
“Because if you leave it alone, it’ll destroy everything around it. How can I explain this simply? Oh, I know.”
Bae Won-woo, deep in thought, drew a house with a triangular roof.
“A dungeon is like a house. The monsters live in there, minding their own business, but eventually, they multiply, right? When the house is about to burst at the seams, the monsters can’t take it anymore and burst out. That’s a dungeon break.”
“Yeah.”
“Hunters are like the ones who manage traffic before the house bursts. Sort of like janitors. But in some houses, there’s a fountain that spits out gems. And it even refills periodically. So, we take some of those gems, and keep working together for a long time.”
“That’s stealing.”
“No, no. That’s our reward.”
“…”
The boy looked at him incredulously as Bae Won-woo proudly continued. He drew lines outside the house, depicting something bursting out.
“And in some houses, instead of gems, there’s a giant cockroach. Then you destroy that house. It’s about making choices.”
“…I get it.”
“Good. But a rift isn’t a house; it’s more like… a hole.”
“A hole?”
The boy furrowed his brow. The stick traced a circle in the dirt, and then he shaded it in.
“Well, it’s not an official entrance. It’s more like a hole in a wall. Some people say it connects to another world, but that’s too complicated for me.”
The boy’s gaze turned suspicious, but Bae Won-woo pretended not to notice.
“And if it were just a simple hole, it wouldn’t be a problem, but it’s more like a vacuum cleaner hole that sucks in everything around it. Some rifts, called gates, pour out monsters like water from a dam. But right now, we’re talking about vacuum cleaner holes.”
“Yeah.”
“If you leave it like that, everything near becomes a wasteland. So the goal is to close it as quickly as possible to minimize the damage. There’s nothing to gain from it.”
“How do you close it?”
“By killing the rift’s master and destroying the rift stone. That forces everything inside to be expelled. Even if it’s just bodies. That’s why I said there’s no way anyone could have been stuck in a rift.”
“…”
“But…”
Bae Won-woo drew a large circle in the dirt and labeled it “West Sea,” adding a question mark next to it.
“The West Sea rift was strange. As soon as J went in, the entrance disappeared, and not long after, the rift itself just collapsed. It vanished, just like that. And the people inside never came out…”
“…”
“That’s why people say it defied the system’s rules. It was something entirely different. Even its appearance was strange. It grew so rapidly and swallowed everything in its path, like no rift we’d ever seen before.”
The boy stared at the crude drawing in the dirt, lost in thought. His fingers moved slightly, as if pondering something. Finally, he spoke slowly.
“What if it didn’t completely collapse?”
“Huh?”
“You said it defied the system’s rules. That rift.”
His awkward pronunciation became clearer. In the dim dawn, in the light filtering through the forest, in the cool air and dew-covered grass, the boy’s violet eyes gleamed with a strange intensity. An undefinable emotion flickered across his face. He stepped closer, standing over the drawing in the dirt. His full lips moved.
“What if the system… just decided to hide it?”
“…”
“Do you think it would just leave it alone… something that defied its own rules?”
“…”
“No, I don’t think so…”
A slow smile spread across his face. The boy snatched the stick from Bae Won-woo’s hand and stabbed it into the dirt circle. The sound of crickets stopped.
“It got rid of it. Because it was a nuisance.”
“Well, maybe… maybe the system did destroy it?”
“No…”
The boy looked up at the sky. Dawn was breaking. The sky, starting to turn a deep shade of orange, had a black void in its center. The boy murmured,
“If the system was going to destroy it, it would have done so the moment it first appeared.”
“…”
“It’s still out there, somewhere. We just can’t see it…”
It sounded like a crazy story. But the boy…
“I just have a feeling that it’s true.”
The boy turned his gaze back to Bae Won-woo, his violet eyes narrowing slightly under his long lashes.
“Help me out.”
With that, he suddenly turned and started walking. Bae Won-woo hurried to catch up.
“Well, I mean, sure, I’ll help. But with what?”
“Various things.”
“What exactly are you planning to do?”
At that question, the boy stopped walking.
“I’m going to make a map for someone who’s lost.”
“What?”
“…You’re a bit slow to understand.”
After pausing for a moment, the boy began to move again. His voice, full of intensity, whispered as he walked ahead.
“I’m going to find and open the West Sea rift.”
“What? But…”
Even if the West Sea rift hadn’t completely vanished, would the people inside still be alive? What if they managed to open it only to find corpses? Or worse, if they found nothing at all? Bae Won-woo hesitated, unable to voice his doubts. However,
“They’re not dead.”
The boy cut him off. The sky had turned a deep red. Somewhere, the wind began to blow. The boy’s long hair, long enough to cover his neck, swayed in the breeze. A sweet scent filled the air.
“He couldn’t be dead.”
The boy muttered as if spitting out the words.
“Because he made a promise.”
