"You’re saying they’re all Hunters?" Jeong In-Chang exclaimed out of disbelief.
In hindsight, it made sense. They had been able to deceive Lee Jun-Kyeong and cut his cheek with an arrow. Furthermore, they were exuding mana.
They could feel mana emanating from the group opposite from them, and they hadn’t felt something like that before this encounter.
Boom!
At that instant, Lee Jun-Kyeong kicked off the ground and rushed toward the group.
Swish! Swish!
Jeong In-Chang deflected the sudden hail of arrows with his greatsword. All of a sudden, he could see Lee Jun-Kyeong clash with the people armed with bows. He didn’t quite understand what the situation was, but because Lee Jun-Kyeong had pointed a spear at them, he knew what to do.
‘They’re the enemy.’
There wasn’t a need to worry anymore. Jeong In-Chang also began to sprint forward across the plains of Heaven Lake, dragging his greatsword along the ground.
“...!”
One of the group members who hadn’t noticed his approach suddenly looked over, and his eyes widened in surprise.
Lurch.
At that instant, Jeong In-Chang stopped for a moment. He hesitated as these were people.
People, not monsters.
It was difficult for him to cut them down just because Lee Jun-Kyeong viewed them as enemies.
Swish!
As he stood, bewildered, another hail of arrows came barreling down. The ogre princess tried to step forward, but Jeong In-Chang slashed through the arrows with his greatsword and ignored her transformation.
“Gooongje!”
"Good job,” said Lee Jun-Kyeong, who had already neutralized most of the people while looking at Jeong In-Chang.
He then added, "You must not harm them."
Jeong In-Chang staggered after hearing that, looking at him for a moment with an absurd expression, then he whirled his greatsword around. Of course, he had aimed with the flat of the blade. The enemies hit by his weapon were left stunned as he grumbled in dissatisfaction.
“Weren’t you supposed to tell me that sooner?”
He had almost cut through someone because Lee Jun-Kyeong had run off without any explanation.
“Are you the kind of person who would cut through people without knowing why, Mr. Jeong?”
‘You little fu–’
Jeong In-Chang was filled with anger for a moment when he saw Lee Jun-Kyeong’s happy-go-lucky expression, but when he saw how the other man quickly turned serious, he had no choice but to keep his mouth shut.
As he watched, Lee Jun-Kyeong seemed to neutralize the enemies with the shaft of the Muspel’s Spear or with his round shield. Then, after he took away their weapons, he walked over to someone who was still conscious.
“I would like to meet the owner of the mountain,” he said in a calm tone.
"…an intruder thinks... "
The person’s face was contorted in rage.
Those who attacked Lee Jun-Kyeong and Jeong In-Chang not only spoke Korean but also seemed to be Korean as well.
Jeong In-Chang had thought that they had asian features, but he had been a bit confused by their exotic appearances. However, they had just confirmed it. The people they had met were Koreans.
“But you were the ones who attacked first. Regardless of the fact that we intruded first, if you shoot arrows at us endlessly, this is the natural result,” Lee Jun-Kyeong said as he lifted up the fallen man.
"…"
“Also, look around. Although we could have killed, we left you all alive. We don’t have any hostility towards you. You just attacked, so we defended,” he continued.
Because Lee Jun-Kyeong’s words weren’t wrong, the faces of the attackers became even more contorted.
Their eyes grew so large that it seemed as though they would tear apart.
“We’ve come to see Sangun.”
"Who are you?"
"That’s…” Lee Jun-Kyeong said as he was about to reply.
“Uncles!” a little kid interjected while running towards this place. Those who had attacked Lee Jun-Kyeong and his party were agitated by the appearance of the child.
“Sangun says to lead the guests over!” Their attackers’ expressions hardened.
Lee Jun-Kyeong quipped. "You saw it, right? We are guests."
Their expressions became even more twisted after that.
***
Before Lee Jun-Kyeong and Jeong In-Chang had entered China, they had come across a veil that was similar to a blue curtain that had been draped over the front lines. Surprisingly, such a veil was spread out over a part of Heaven Lake, and those that had attacked them looked over with expressions of displeasure.
"…"
"Mr. Lee…" Jeong In-Chang quietly and cautiously called for Lee Jun-Kyeong. “Where the hell are we? And who are those people?”
Lee Jun-Kyeong acted as if he knew them, even about the owner of the mountain they were going to meet and even about the entity called Sangun.
Lee Jun-Kyeong responded, "They are survivors."
"Pardon?"
"The survivors of the old North Korea,” clarified Lee Jun-Kyeong,
North Korea had long since disappeared. With the advent of the gate, the land of North Korea had been devastated. However, the actual destruction long predated that. The failures that had occurred during repeated nuclear testing had turned North Korea into a wasteland long before the gates had even appeared, and most North Koreans had either migrated down to South Korea or had headed up to China.
It had devolved into a situation where no one could even come close to North Korea due to the rampant radiation when suddenly, the gates appeared. North Korea was destroyed again through the advent of the gates, but a surprising benefit arose from the second destruction.
‘The radioactivity was eradicated.’
Mana had consumed everything, and the problem of radioactivity was solved as the gateization progressed. However, it was difficult to recover North Korea even once the radioactivity had been resolved due to the problems of the gateization and the influx of mass monsters from China.
Now, in front of them were the survivors of the destroyed North Korea. They were those who had either fled to China to escape the radiation or had settled in Mt. Baekdu because they couldn’t abandon their homeland.
“Who are you that you know about us?” said a man who had previously been struck by Lee Jun-Kyeong’s round shield and passed out with a wary look and a hostile tone.
However, before Lee Jun-Kyeong could answer, a voice interjected, “Uncle! Sangun said they were guests. How can you treat a guest like this?” The man kept his mouth shut when the little boy lectured him. However, the little boy’s screams didn’t end there.
“And you just attack whenever you see anyone! He seems to be someone Sangun knows, so, of course, he could know about us too!”
There weren’t any fallacies with the little boy’s logic, but the vigilant eyes didn’t go away.
“If they are the same as those bastards, then it will be dangerous.”
“Even if they are guests of Sangun…right now, Sangun…”
They continued to talk to each other while still being wary of Lee Jun-Kyeong and the others.
"Mister."
At that moment, a little child grabbed the hem of Lee Jun-Kyeong's sleeve.
“Please don’t feel too upset about them,” he asked. Lee Jun-Kyeong looked down at the child.
“Before, someone else had come here as you have, but that was a bad person who had tried to harm Sangun. Of course, he was defeated! But anyway, that’s why the uncles are like this, so don’t be too upset about it.”
The child seemed quite mature for his age. Lee Jun-Kyeong patted the little boy’s head gently and said, “Little boy.”
“Yes?”
“I’m not a mister.”
"…"
"…"
"…"
There was a sudden silence, and then, with the sound of something lifting, the veil covering their stronghold was lifted.
"...!"
Jeong In-Chang raised his eyes in surprise.
"What?"
"I heard there were guests?"
"Sangun had said to bring them!"
A village had been revealed.
***
It was like a movie location in the old countryside: shacks with thatched roofs. They had entered a place that felt like they had gone back in time. Furthermore, the appearance of the people was the same. The villagers, including those that had attacked them earlier, wore unusual attire, similar to hanbok.
Jeong In-Chang looked at them curiously and whispered to Lee Jun-Kyeong, "But don't North Koreans speak a North Korean dialect? From what I know, it’s supposed to be similar to our Korean but still different…”
Lee Jun-Kyeong shook his head slightly. "It has been a long time since North Koreans stopped using a dialect."
"Ah…"
Few knew the details of the situation in the collapsed North Korea. The North Korean survivors who had flowed into South Korea were all quarantined in the aftermath of the radioactivity. Their children were all educated in South Korea, so it was safe to say that the North Korean dialect had all but disappeared. It had been a long time since their dialect had been abandoned, even in North Korea itself.
Due to the collapse of the leadership and various other events, the North Korean dialect had become almost a dead language, spoken by very few people.
“How long has it been since we had a visitor?”
“Looking at their clothes, don’t they look like people from the outside?”
“Isn’t the outside a wasteland?”
Jeong In-Chang wasn't the only one who was looking at people strangely. The villagers also looked at them with eyes filled with curiosity while they spoke amongst themselves.
‘There are about two hundred of them.’
As they were being guided by the small child, Lee Jun-Kyeong began to investigate the people of the village. There seemed to be about two hundred people living here, and…
“Most of them are Hunters…”
Jeong In-Chang’s surprised exclamation was true. Hunters were quite rare, but this village was full of them.
“Because the only people who could survive such adversity are the strong,” Lee Jun-Kyeong said as he chewed on his lip, reminded of someone as he spoke.
‘Up to that at least is true…’
However, he and that person were different.
'That's as true as it gets.'
The reason he and that person were different. He had no intention of leaving the culled behind. Lee Jun-Kyeong shook his head, cleared his thoughts, and followed the boy.
Thump!
The men of the village blocked their way as they traveled somewhere.
‘Their equipment is decent.’
Unlike those who had attacked them before, the men in front of them held iron weapons and wore iron armor. Even the mana that spewed out from them was extraordinary. He wondered if they had reached the level of B-Rank Hunters.
One pointed a sword and the other a spear, blocking Lee Jun-Kyeong and his party.
"Oh my!" the surprised villagers shouted as they watched the situation.
“You can’t pass this point,” said the men as they spoke to Lee Jun-Kyeong.
Lee Jun-Kyeong sighed for a moment and then responded, “Does this place really treat its guests in this way?”
“...”
"Didn't Sangun, the owner of the mountain, tell you to bring us? Are Sangun's orders not important enough for you?"
Although their expressions hardened, they had yet to step aside.
"Uncles!" a little girl screamed out, but it was to no avail.
“No, it cannot be done. We cannot take them to Sangun.”
“You know how Sangun is right now, don’t you?”
They spoke to the child in a warm tone.
“As for how Sangun is… it seems as though Sangun has a problem,” Lee Jun-Kyeong commented.
“You dog bastard!”
The two attempted to charge at him at his offhanded comments, but the girl opened her arms and stood before them.
“Seriously! Are you really going to keep this up?!” The girl’s voice changed, "Uncles."
It shifted, becoming more serious and had a weight that didn’t match her age. As Jeong In-Chang was bewildered by the disparity, the girl shouted, "As the Village Chief of Heaven Lake Village, I command you. Step aside!"
Heaven Lake Village was apparently the name of the village.
“V… Village Chief…?”
When she said village chief, she must have meant the chief of this village. The girl had called herself the chief of the village and had given orders to the men.
Surprisingly, the two acted incomprehensibly, given the attitude they had shown so far and obeyed.
“W… we have received… your order…”
They spoke in a very formal way, as if they were offering their utmost respect. As if they had been forced by something, they stiffened up, and Jeong In-Chang’s expression hardened similarly.
“...”
However, Lee Jun-Kyeong was different.
“Let’s go.”
It was as if he already knew everything.
“To Sangun.”
He took the girl's hand and walked slowly along the path.
Thrum.
Before their very eyes, a cave appeared where the wind swirled around. Although the cave that appeared suddenly seemed just to be an ordinary cave, Jeong In-Chang froze solid in front of it.
“...Mr. Lee,” he whispered.
“Goongje….”
Even the princess’s voice seemed to tremble with terror. It was an ogre mage. What could terrify a bloody ogre drenched in madness?”
“Why are we only feeling this immense mana now…”
They now felt the mana emanating from within the cave. It was the same for Lee Jun-Kyeong as well. It was so dense that it made their hair stand upright.
Lee Jun-Kyeong spoke after throwing off the mana that weighed him down with a struggle, “Sometimes, there are things too large, things so vast that it is impossible for the eye to see.”
He spoke vague words that were difficult to understand, but for some reason, Jeong In-Chang could understand him.
“But… didn’t you say that we would hunt the owner of the mountain?"
He wondered if Lee Jun-Kyeong had meant that they would have to hunt the being in front of them. Jeong In-Chang wanted to turn his back and run away at the drop of a hat.
Flash.
At that moment, something flashed from inside the cave. It was something as massive as the entrance to the cave itself.
An eyeball.
–Come in.
A voice echoed in their minds.
1. Both the terms uncle from before and the current, mister, are the same in Korean, but the context leads to different interpretations. Normally speaking, however, at this age, Lee Jun-Kyeong is expecting to be called hyung by the child, so he made a little joke in what was a very tense situation. It’s a dilemma every Korean must face. In their twenties, they are too young to be seen as an uncle in their eyes, but to children under ten, they really do seem like uncles…
2. Hanbok is Korean traditional clothing.
"You’re saying they’re all Hunters?" Jeong In-Chang exclaimed out of disbelief.
In hindsight, it made sense. They had been able to deceive Lee Jun-Kyeong and cut his cheek with an arrow. Furthermore, they were exuding mana.
They could feel mana emanating from the group opposite from them, and they hadn’t felt something like that before this encounter.
Boom!
At that instant, Lee Jun-Kyeong kicked off the ground and rushed toward the group.
Swish! Swish!
Jeong In-Chang deflected the sudden hail of arrows with his greatsword. All of a sudden, he could see Lee Jun-Kyeong clash with the people armed with bows. He didn’t quite understand what the situation was, but because Lee Jun-Kyeong had pointed a spear at them, he knew what to do.
‘They’re the enemy.’
There wasn’t a need to worry anymore. Jeong In-Chang also began to sprint forward across the plains of Heaven Lake, dragging his greatsword along the ground.
“...!”
One of the group members who hadn’t noticed his approach suddenly looked over, and his eyes widened in surprise.
Lurch.
At that instant, Jeong In-Chang stopped for a moment. He hesitated as these were people.
People, not monsters.
It was difficult for him to cut them down just because Lee Jun-Kyeong viewed them as enemies.
Swish!
As he stood, bewildered, another hail of arrows came barreling down. The ogre princess tried to step forward, but Jeong In-Chang slashed through the arrows with his greatsword and ignored her transformation.
“Gooongje!”
"Good job,” said Lee Jun-Kyeong, who had already neutralized most of the people while looking at Jeong In-Chang.
He then added, "You must not harm them."
Jeong In-Chang staggered after hearing that, looking at him for a moment with an absurd expression, then he whirled his greatsword around. Of course, he had aimed with the flat of the blade. The enemies hit by his weapon were left stunned as he grumbled in dissatisfaction.
“Weren’t you supposed to tell me that sooner?”
He had almost cut through someone because Lee Jun-Kyeong had run off without any explanation.
“Are you the kind of person who would cut through people without knowing why, Mr. Jeong?”
‘You little fu–’
Jeong In-Chang was filled with anger for a moment when he saw Lee Jun-Kyeong’s happy-go-lucky expression, but when he saw how the other man quickly turned serious, he had no choice but to keep his mouth shut.
As he watched, Lee Jun-Kyeong seemed to neutralize the enemies with the shaft of the Muspel’s Spear or with his round shield. Then, after he took away their weapons, he walked over to someone who was still conscious.
“I would like to meet the owner of the mountain,” he said in a calm tone.
"…an intruder thinks... "
The person’s face was contorted in rage.
Those who attacked Lee Jun-Kyeong and Jeong In-Chang not only spoke Korean but also seemed to be Korean as well.
Jeong In-Chang had thought that they had asian features, but he had been a bit confused by their exotic appearances. However, they had just confirmed it. The people they had met were Koreans.
“But you were the ones who attacked first. Regardless of the fact that we intruded first, if you shoot arrows at us endlessly, this is the natural result,” Lee Jun-Kyeong said as he lifted up the fallen man.
"…"
“Also, look around. Although we could have killed, we left you all alive. We don’t have any hostility towards you. You just attacked, so we defended,” he continued.
Because Lee Jun-Kyeong’s words weren’t wrong, the faces of the attackers became even more contorted.
Their eyes grew so large that it seemed as though they would tear apart.
“We’ve come to see Sangun.”
"Who are you?"
"That’s…” Lee Jun-Kyeong said as he was about to reply.
“Uncles!” a little kid interjected while running towards this place. Those who had attacked Lee Jun-Kyeong and his party were agitated by the appearance of the child.
“Sangun says to lead the guests over!” Their attackers’ expressions hardened.
Lee Jun-Kyeong quipped. "You saw it, right? We are guests."
Their expressions became even more twisted after that.
***
Before Lee Jun-Kyeong and Jeong In-Chang had entered China, they had come across a veil that was similar to a blue curtain that had been draped over the front lines. Surprisingly, such a veil was spread out over a part of Heaven Lake, and those that had attacked them looked over with expressions of displeasure.
"…"
"Mr. Lee…" Jeong In-Chang quietly and cautiously called for Lee Jun-Kyeong. “Where the hell are we? And who are those people?”
Lee Jun-Kyeong acted as if he knew them, even about the owner of the mountain they were going to meet and even about the entity called Sangun.
Lee Jun-Kyeong responded, "They are survivors."
"Pardon?"
"The survivors of the old North Korea,” clarified Lee Jun-Kyeong,
North Korea had long since disappeared. With the advent of the gate, the land of North Korea had been devastated. However, the actual destruction long predated that. The failures that had occurred during repeated nuclear testing had turned North Korea into a wasteland long before the gates had even appeared, and most North Koreans had either migrated down to South Korea or had headed up to China.
It had devolved into a situation where no one could even come close to North Korea due to the rampant radiation when suddenly, the gates appeared. North Korea was destroyed again through the advent of the gates, but a surprising benefit arose from the second destruction.
‘The radioactivity was eradicated.’
Mana had consumed everything, and the problem of radioactivity was solved as the gateization progressed. However, it was difficult to recover North Korea even once the radioactivity had been resolved due to the problems of the gateization and the influx of mass monsters from China.
Now, in front of them were the survivors of the destroyed North Korea. They were those who had either fled to China to escape the radiation or had settled in Mt. Baekdu because they couldn’t abandon their homeland.
“Who are you that you know about us?” said a man who had previously been struck by Lee Jun-Kyeong’s round shield and passed out with a wary look and a hostile tone.
However, before Lee Jun-Kyeong could answer, a voice interjected, “Uncle! Sangun said they were guests. How can you treat a guest like this?” The man kept his mouth shut when the little boy lectured him. However, the little boy’s screams didn’t end there.
“And you just attack whenever you see anyone! He seems to be someone Sangun knows, so, of course, he could know about us too!”
There weren’t any fallacies with the little boy’s logic, but the vigilant eyes didn’t go away.
“If they are the same as those bastards, then it will be dangerous.”
“Even if they are guests of Sangun…right now, Sangun…”
They continued to talk to each other while still being wary of Lee Jun-Kyeong and the others.
"Mister."
At that moment, a little child grabbed the hem of Lee Jun-Kyeong's sleeve.
“Please don’t feel too upset about them,” he asked. Lee Jun-Kyeong looked down at the child.
“Before, someone else had come here as you have, but that was a bad person who had tried to harm Sangun. Of course, he was defeated! But anyway, that’s why the uncles are like this, so don’t be too upset about it.”
The child seemed quite mature for his age. Lee Jun-Kyeong patted the little boy’s head gently and said, “Little boy.”
“Yes?”
“I’m not a mister.”
"…"
"…"
"…"
There was a sudden silence, and then, with the sound of something lifting, the veil covering their stronghold was lifted.
"...!"
Jeong In-Chang raised his eyes in surprise.
"What?"
"I heard there were guests?"
"Sangun had said to bring them!"
A village had been revealed.
***
It was like a movie location in the old countryside: shacks with thatched roofs. They had entered a place that felt like they had gone back in time. Furthermore, the appearance of the people was the same. The villagers, including those that had attacked them earlier, wore unusual attire, similar to hanbok.
Jeong In-Chang looked at them curiously and whispered to Lee Jun-Kyeong, "But don't North Koreans speak a North Korean dialect? From what I know, it’s supposed to be similar to our Korean but still different…”
Lee Jun-Kyeong shook his head slightly. "It has been a long time since North Koreans stopped using a dialect."
"Ah…"
Few knew the details of the situation in the collapsed North Korea. The North Korean survivors who had flowed into South Korea were all quarantined in the aftermath of the radioactivity. Their children were all educated in South Korea, so it was safe to say that the North Korean dialect had all but disappeared. It had been a long time since their dialect had been abandoned, even in North Korea itself.
Due to the collapse of the leadership and various other events, the North Korean dialect had become almost a dead language, spoken by very few people.
“How long has it been since we had a visitor?”
“Looking at their clothes, don’t they look like people from the outside?”
“Isn’t the outside a wasteland?”
Jeong In-Chang wasn't the only one who was looking at people strangely. The villagers also looked at them with eyes filled with curiosity while they spoke amongst themselves.
‘There are about two hundred of them.’
As they were being guided by the small child, Lee Jun-Kyeong began to investigate the people of the village. There seemed to be about two hundred people living here, and…
“Most of them are Hunters…”
Jeong In-Chang’s surprised exclamation was true. Hunters were quite rare, but this village was full of them.
“Because the only people who could survive such adversity are the strong,” Lee Jun-Kyeong said as he chewed on his lip, reminded of someone as he spoke.
‘Up to that at least is true…’
However, he and that person were different.
'That's as true as it gets.'
The reason he and that person were different. He had no intention of leaving the culled behind. Lee Jun-Kyeong shook his head, cleared his thoughts, and followed the boy.
Thump!
The men of the village blocked their way as they traveled somewhere.
‘Their equipment is decent.’
Unlike those who had attacked them before, the men in front of them held iron weapons and wore iron armor. Even the mana that spewed out from them was extraordinary. He wondered if they had reached the level of B-Rank Hunters.
One pointed a sword and the other a spear, blocking Lee Jun-Kyeong and his party.
"Oh my!" the surprised villagers shouted as they watched the situation.
“You can’t pass this point,” said the men as they spoke to Lee Jun-Kyeong.
Lee Jun-Kyeong sighed for a moment and then responded, “Does this place really treat its guests in this way?”
“...”
"Didn't Sangun, the owner of the mountain, tell you to bring us? Are Sangun's orders not important enough for you?"
Although their expressions hardened, they had yet to step aside.
"Uncles!" a little girl screamed out, but it was to no avail.
“No, it cannot be done. We cannot take them to Sangun.”
“You know how Sangun is right now, don’t you?”
They spoke to the child in a warm tone.
“As for how Sangun is… it seems as though Sangun has a problem,” Lee Jun-Kyeong commented.
“You dog bastard!”
The two attempted to charge at him at his offhanded comments, but the girl opened her arms and stood before them.
“Seriously! Are you really going to keep this up?!” The girl’s voice changed, "Uncles."
It shifted, becoming more serious and had a weight that didn’t match her age. As Jeong In-Chang was bewildered by the disparity, the girl shouted, "As the Village Chief of Heaven Lake Village, I command you. Step aside!"
Heaven Lake Village was apparently the name of the village.
“V… Village Chief…?”
When she said village chief, she must have meant the chief of this village. The girl had called herself the chief of the village and had given orders to the men.
Surprisingly, the two acted incomprehensibly, given the attitude they had shown so far and obeyed.
“W… we have received… your order…”
They spoke in a very formal way, as if they were offering their utmost respect. As if they had been forced by something, they stiffened up, and Jeong In-Chang’s expression hardened similarly.
“...”
However, Lee Jun-Kyeong was different.
“Let’s go.”
It was as if he already knew everything.
“To Sangun.”
He took the girl's hand and walked slowly along the path.
Thrum.
Before their very eyes, a cave appeared where the wind swirled around. Although the cave that appeared suddenly seemed just to be an ordinary cave, Jeong In-Chang froze solid in front of it.
“...Mr. Lee,” he whispered.
“Goongje….”
Even the princess’s voice seemed to tremble with terror. It was an ogre mage. What could terrify a bloody ogre drenched in madness?”
“Why are we only feeling this immense mana now…”
They now felt the mana emanating from within the cave. It was the same for Lee Jun-Kyeong as well. It was so dense that it made their hair stand upright.
Lee Jun-Kyeong spoke after throwing off the mana that weighed him down with a struggle, “Sometimes, there are things too large, things so vast that it is impossible for the eye to see.”
He spoke vague words that were difficult to understand, but for some reason, Jeong In-Chang could understand him.
“But… didn’t you say that we would hunt the owner of the mountain?"
He wondered if Lee Jun-Kyeong had meant that they would have to hunt the being in front of them. Jeong In-Chang wanted to turn his back and run away at the drop of a hat.
Flash.
At that moment, something flashed from inside the cave. It was something as massive as the entrance to the cave itself.
An eyeball.
–Come in.
A voice echoed in their minds.
1. Both the terms uncle from before and the current, mister, are the same in Korean, but the context leads to different interpretations. Normally speaking, however, at this age, Lee Jun-Kyeong is expecting to be called hyung by the child, so he made a little joke in what was a very tense situation. It’s a dilemma every Korean must face. In their twenties, they are too young to be seen as an uncle in their eyes, but to children under ten, they really do seem like uncles…
2. Hanbok is Korean traditional clothing.
