Chapter 197

Deep inside a top-of-the-line private jet cruising above the clouds.

Cut off from the hell unfolding on the ground below, the pristine cabin drifted only on the strains of quiet classical music.

Sunk deep into a supple leather sofa, Chae Ganghyeon lounged while the Deputy Bureau Chief — nominally the Bureau's number two — approached him bent nearly double, like a servant.

"Bureau Chief. Word just came in that a Gate has opened at the target site."

Chae Ganghyeon rolled the champagne glass in his hand, easy, and let out a hearty laugh.

"Hahaha! Right, well — it had better. After I personally shut down every last detection radar for them, failure would be a bit hurtful, wouldn't it."

"But… are we truly sure this is all right?"

The Deputy Bureau Chief swallowed a dry breath and pressed, cautious.

"However badly we want the succession to land our way, there are several hundred of the country's top political and business figures gathered inside that hall. If anything goes sideways…"

At the whining, Chae Ganghyeon huffed a small snort of a laugh.

"Come now. Fretting yourself over nothing. Have you already forgotten who's in that hall?"

"Ah…"

"Han Jewoon's in there. Julia too. Top rankers thick on the ground — anyone unrelated to the target will get through safely on their own."

Waving lazily at the air, Chae Ganghyeon went on.

"And haven't we laid the board out perfectly for him? Handling the other rivals is entirely his job. A man who means to take the chairman's seat at Cheonun Group — I can hardly spoon-feed him the cleanup on top of everything else. If he can't manage that much, he was never the vessel for the seat to begin with."

A tone as light and cold-blooded as flicking a piece across a board.

Only then did the color of relief spread back through the Deputy Bureau Chief's face.

That was when it happened.

The large screen mounted at the front of the jet chimed with an encrypted call.

Confirming the unidentified caller on screen, the Deputy Bureau Chief took the cue and quietly backed himself out of the cabin.

Beep—.

The line connected, and beyond the massive screen the Fox appeared, mouth half-hidden behind his fan.

[Been a while, Bureau Chief.]

A crinkle of the eyes and a smoothly delivered greeting.

Chae Ganghyeon met it with a benevolent smile of his own, chuckling.

"Hahaha! Yes, it has been a while. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

[Hehe. Thought I'd pass along a thank-you and a progress update. Thanks to your hard work, Bureau Chief, we got an overload Gate open in America. Got what we wanted out of it, too.]

At the Fox's smooth praise, Chae Ganghyeon clicked his tongue.

"Tsk. Don't even bring it up. Do you have any idea what that stiff-necked FBA director put me through? So paranoid about what he ate and drank, you wouldn't believe it."

He idly stroked the heavy ring on his finger.

"Well… ended up drinking in the end, of course."

[My, my. I remain forever grateful. Ah — and there's an intriguing bit of news I should share too. That overload Gate that just opened in Korea…]

The Fox waved his fan lightly, letting a strange smile crinkle his eyes.

[Turns out the Director stepped right into it.]

"Yes. All for the best."

Deep satisfaction spread across Chae Ganghyeon's mouth.

"Our Junhyeok has properly awakened now — a Gate of that scale, he'll come through it splendidly and back into his father's arms."

The face of a perfectly devoted father.

But the Fox, unfazed by the mask, drawled back, sly.

"Aren't you a touch overconfident, sir? However E-rank a Gate starts out, an overload jumps it several ranks in one go. And in the worst case… it might turn out to be an anomaly-type Gate."

"Ha! Even better, in that case."

Chae Ganghyeon burst into laughter.

"Junhyeok thinks his ability is nothing more than explosion. Poor thing. To crack that shell and drag out what he really is, you have to hurl him into that kind of extremity. That's the only way he learns."

The eyes fixed on the screen glittered with a strange possessiveness.

"Only then… can he and his father share some quality time."

[Hehe… what devoted paternal love. I could nearly weep, I'm so moved.]

Chae Ganghyeon watched the Fox and added, cool.

"Come to think of it. I'm grateful you set the board so my boy could awaken, but… laying a hand on my precious blood and leaving marks on him — surely there's a proper price for that?"

Cooperation partners or not, it was a chilling warning: touch what's mine and I won't sit for it.

But the Fox showed no trace of alarm, folding his eyes into an elegant crescent.

[Of course. I was going to raise the matter myself. We had no wish to leave marks on the Director either. It was a stupid subordinate's rash act — please extend your generous forgiveness. First…]

The Fox tilted his body a fraction, and the background beyond the screen came into view.

The huge man who had wounded Chae Junhyeok on the ship the other night was kneeling, bound tight.

[Do with him as you please. I'll have him sent down to the Bureau basement.]

"—Mmph! Mmph mmph!!"

The huge man thrashed in terror, but Chae Ganghyeon swept a flat, emotionless look over him — a disposable part to be used up and tossed.

"Ohh. And I've been short on decent subjects. Splendid."

Chae Ganghyeon lifted a brow and asked, low.

"That said… don't tell me that's all?"

[Of course not.]

The Fox glanced at the ring on Chae Ganghyeon's finger.

[You put the artifact to fair use on this overseas tour, didn't you? Isn't it about time you came in for a recharge?]

"Ha! I did lean on it a bit this time. So he's finally recovered his strength, has he?"

[Yes, well… I'll send someone your way shortly. Hand the ring over then.]

"Good. I'll be waiting."

Click.

The screen shut off, and the cabin was left with only the quiet strains of classical music again.

Chae Ganghyeon drained the champagne in a single satisfied pull.

Gazing down at the vast, dizzying sea of clouds beyond the window, he wore the cold, arrogant smile of a man with the whole world under his feet.

"Direektuh! Direektuh!"

"Director, wake up!"

Small hands shaking me urgently — I forced my heavy eyelids open.

What… I'm pretty sure I came to a party…

Unable to piece the situation together, I blinked with a fogged head, and my vision cleared enough to take in the ornate ceiling above me.

The banquet hall.

Turning my head slightly, I saw the massive golden clock tower — the very one hundreds of us had chanted the countdown around only moments ago — still standing exactly where it should be.

For a beat, I let out a long breath of relief.

Ah, thank god. Nothing happened after all.

That horrific, ominous rupturing sound at midnight must have just been something I'd misheard.

Right after the countdown, maybe the surge of the crowd knocked me over and I passed out?

Rubbing at the throb in the back of my head, I was starting to push myself up to look for the kids when—

"AAAAHHHHH—!"

An ear-splitting scream drove into my ear.

Far off, in the middle of the hall. People were pressed together in a warped, terrified cluster, screaming at something.

I furrowed my brow and focused on what they were looking at.

Wait…?

The massive chandelier that ought to have been securely fixed to the ceiling was, absurdly, down on the floor.

No — more precisely…

The chandelier's… running?!

Hundreds of glass ornaments stretched out like grotesque tentacles, gripping the floor and swarming, and then — bouncing that colossal body along — it began charging viciously toward the crowd.

That wasn't all.

The huge ice sculptures that had adorned the edges of the hall began to writhe unnaturally, twisting their forms, then hauled their heavy bodies up and started charging at the guests, merciless.

"KYAAAAAAH—!!"

"H-help — someone help!!"

In an instant, the hall turned into a horrific rout of shattering glass, splintering ice, and screams of people getting trampled.

"All non-Awakened, get back!!!"

Someone bellowed until his voice threatened to crack, the shout tearing through the chaos.

Feet tangled with feet as people ran, and just as a full-on scene from hell unfolded—

Into that grotesque tableau, a silver flash flew.

Shhink—!

A single leap.

Julia — the cumbersome suit gone, in its place a medieval knight's armor — hurled herself into the air.

The next instant, ruthless sword-energy erupted from her greatsword and cleaved the chandelier monster clean in two.

Simultaneously, a sharp whistling of air tore through the hall like a thunderclap.

Fwooshhhhh—!

Dozens of swords whipped through the space like a storm, driving with pinpoint accuracy through the heads of every ice sculpture charging the crowd.

Han Jewoon's floating swords — his signature attack, all overwhelming force.

Where the blades swept ruthlessly through, the ice sculptures shattered and collapsed, helpless.

I could only stand there gaping at the surreal spectacle, jaw hanging open.

Only then did the scene around me register properly.

The banquet hall was still a banquet hall, but it wasn't the place I'd been in before.

The gilded walls were stained a rotted blood-red, pulsing eerily; the marble pillars had twisted like the vertebrae of some vast creature, dripping revolting slime.

Don't tell me… we're in a dungeon?!

Turning my head in shock, I found the kids ringed around me at some point, their little faces set with fierce resolve.

They'd thrown a tight barrier up around me in case a monster came my way — and only once they'd made sure I was awake did the strain finally show, faces crumpling on the verge of tears.

"Direektuuuh…!"

"What is going on here—!"

I was scrambling upright when Julia and Han Jewoon, having shaken the monster remains off, walked over.

Behind them, at some point Seo Jihyeok had appeared with a book in his hand, and Leo with some strange gun. Kang Taemin, unchanged as ever, was with them too.

"Ah, finally you're awake. The kids were beside themselves — sniffling and worrying that you weren't coming to."

Leo clicked his tongue, and I turned on them urgently.

"What in the hell is happening?! A dungeon, out of nowhere—!"

Seo Jihyeok pushed his glasses up with a cht, dry.

"The entire banquet hall's been swallowed into a dungeon. A Gate that's already gone into overload, no less."

"An overload?! If a fissure had opened, the Bureau would've been the first to catch it! We're in the middle of District One!!"

In that moment—

"AAAAAAH!! No indication of a fissure was reported today at all!! This can't be — an overload Gate, out of nowhere?!"

As if to underscore my point, a Bureau official nearby was ripping at his own hair with a strangled cry.

My head bleached white.

An overload Gate.

Meaning someone had poured a monstrous amount of mana into a naturally occurring fissure and forced it to burst.

Who? In the middle of District One — how?

Then a single image sliced sharp through my mind.

Don't tell me… Oh Taejin?

An uninvited guest at this banquet — and an Awakened strong enough to pour that kind of mana into a fissure.

But why?

There wasn't a reason for him to pull off a disaster of this scale.

I was thrashing around in the swamp of confusion when Han Jewoon's voice cut through and snapped me back.

"Right now, how we get out of this Gate alive matters more than how it got here."

He wasn't wrong.

Feigning as much composure as I could muster, I looked between Julia and Han Jewoon.

"Then we find the boss and take it down, right? Just the firepower gathered here is more than enough. The world's Rank One and Rank Three are both standing in this room."

But all that came back was a heavy silence.

At the airless pause, the unease I'd tamped down came surging back.

"Why… why aren't you answering."

"Haah…"

At last, Han Jewoon dragged a dry hand down his face and let out a long breath.

"I wish it were that easy… but this isn't just a subjugation-type Gate you close by pushing through with brute force."

"What? What do you—"

"This one's an anomaly-type Gate."