The WIld Forest was sweltering hot, reminiscent of the Amazon.
“Hmph, I wish this place was a hardwood forest with a more temperate climate…” One of Cha Min-Woo’s female team members complained. A male team member crouched down and touched the dirt before he replied.
“Nothing we can do about it. Looking at the climate, plants, and animals, this is a tropical rainforest.”
Seo Jun-Ho tilted his head and watched as the Players around him dispersed. Some of them were carrying identical metal stakes.
“Jun-Ho-nim, we should also start moving.” He turned around and saw that Cha Min-Woo was also holding the same thing. Seo Jun-Ho stared at it.
“What is that?”
“…Excuse me?” Cha Min-Woo seemed momentarily confused.
The female team member burst out into laughter. “Wow, is it your first time seeing a Terminal? So you have a cute side too.”
“Seo Mi-Rae. Don’t be rude.” Cha Min-Woo held up the metal stake and explained. “It’s probably your first time seeing one in person, but this is a Terminal. When there’s a large-scale raid with lots of Players, all party leaders bring one. Putting it in the ground creates a magical communication network that you can use.”
“Hoo.” This was something new. ?“So that’s why people started to go off in different directions right away.” He previously wondered about why they had done that. In the past, it had been customary to have a strategy meeting as soon as they went into a Gate.
“Yes. A long time ago, they didn’t have this sort of technology, so Players had to move as one body. But now, that’s actually less efficient.” Cha Min-Woo shrugged as Seo Jun-Ho’s eyes sparkled, impressed. “I thought this at the last Gate too, but it seems that Jun-Ho-nim doesn’t really have any interest in the latest equipment.”
“Hehehe, you’re like an old person.”
“…N-no way.” Seo Jun-Ho cleared his throat and changed the subject. “Anyways, we haven’t introduced ourselves yet. I’m Seo Jun-Ho.”
“Seo Mi-Rae.”
“I’m Choi Jin-Pyo.”
Seo Mi-Rae was a cute girl with freckles sprayed across her nose, while Choi Jin-Pyo was a small man with horn-rimmed glasses. Cha Min-Woo’s face revealed the fact that he had forgotten to introduce them to Seo Jun-Ho.
“Oh, I forgot the introductions since it has been a while since I’ve been in a party with an outsider. I’ll explain the basics of our skills.”
“…Is that alright?” Seo Jun-Ho’s eyes went wide. Keeping your skills under wraps was the norm.
“There’s no point in working together if we don’t know anything about each other,” Cha Min-Woo continued while pointing at his team members. “Jin-Pyo is a healer. He’s also in charge of videotaping for the team.”
“Videotaping?”
“Yes. Normally, parties record everything they do inside a Gate so they can get feedback and improve.”
“Mm…Is it because you always went around alone? You really don’t know anything.”
“It can’t be helped. He’s never cleared a normal Gate.” Most Players built experience by going to Gates regardless of their size. Most of them also knew about the Terminals and the videotaping. But Seo Jun-Ho had only learned about hunting through the Internet after his return, and everything still felt unfamiliar for him. There were still a lot of things similar to 25 years ago, but there were many other things that had changed as well.
“And we call this energetic kid the spoiler.” Cha Min-Woo looked at Seo Mi-Rae and let out a low sigh.
“Spoiler?”
“Yes. You know how there are people who spoil movies or books for no reason?”
“Ah, yeah.”
“That’s what I mean.”
Seo Jun-Ho still looked confused.
Cha Min-Woo laughed. “It’ll be faster to show you. Seo Mi-Rae.”
“Mhm, is it this body’s turn? Let me read your fortune~”
Seo Mi-Rae stepped forward and stared deeply at Seo Jun-Ho.
‘…No, she’s not looking at me.’
Her eyes were fixed on him, but he could feel that she was looking at something else.
“Hah!” A moment later, Seo Mi-Rae let out a sharp breath. There was beaded sweat on her forehead. “Wow, they say there’s nothing to eat at a famous banquet…but this person is the complete opposite.”
“How was it?” Cha Min-Woo asked.
She shrugged. “He’s insane at fighting. He killed ten dark elves by himself! I don’t know when, though.”
“Ha. What did I tell you? He’s an amazing person.” Cha Min-Woo spoke as if he was the one who would supposedly kill ten dark elves in the near future. Eventually, he turned to Seo Jun-Ho, who still looked as confused as ever. ｂ𝚍𝚘𝚟ｌ.ｎｔ
“She can peek into the future of any object, but she has to tell the target what she sees.”
“If I don’t, I’ll get badly hurt.”
“…You can see the future!” It was an extremely rare skill. When he was still around as Specter, there had been less than ten people in the world who could see the future.
‘Then maybe…’
Seo Mi-Rae might be able to see when he could achieve his goal and save his friends. But when he was about to ask, she held out her hand.
“Don’t try to ask me about your future. I can’t see far, and my foresight is only for reference.”
“For reference? What do you mean?”
“Okay, I’ll put it simply. If things go as expected, you’ll kill ten dark elves, right?” Seo Jun-Ho nodded. This was the future she had seen. “But if you make up your mind and refuse to fight, what would happen?”
“…I wouldn’t be able to kill the dark elves.”
“Bingo! That’s why it’s only for reference. I have to tell the target about their future, but there’s still a high chance that the future would change.”
“I see.” The future she had seen could change at any time. If the target didn’t like what she saw, they could change it.
“That’s why I brought her here today. It’d be bad if we get trapped or surrounded.”
“So in other words, she’s insurance. You’ll use information about the future as a foundation for clearing the Gate.”
“Precisely.”
The girl had chalked up her skill as simply being a point of reference, but Seo Jun-Ho thought otherwise.
‘Any skill that lets you look into the future is a cheat.’
He also felt glad that he was in this party. With that skill, they could avoid the worst decisions.
“All I have are some physical reinforcement skills…Jun-Ho-nim, you said your skill is being good with weapons, right?”
“Correct.”
“The party’s balance is excellent. I have a good feeling about this.” Cha Min-Woo grinned and raised his Terminal. “Let’s start moving too. We’ll make a small camp and set up the communication network.”
***
Beep— Beep—
The Terminal beeped twice when it was buried into the ground. Cha Min-Woo’s face brightened.
“Phew, it’s installed. Now, let’s test it out…..”
He tapped on his Vita and contacted someone. A hologram display popped up a moment later, showing a foreigner’s face.
—Yo, wassup. You’re still good?
“Duh. What about your end?”
—We haven’t run into a single dark elf. We’re in the east.”
“We’re on the opposite side. The west.”
—Really? Nice. Have you reached the end yet? Our map is still open.
“Unfortunately, we haven’t run into any walls either.”
—Hm, really? That means the map is bigger than I thought…anyways, contact me if there’s an emergency.
“Alright. Good work.” Cha Min-Woo hung up and turned to his party. “The situation isn’t bad. I think the other Players are currently setting up camp after spreading out.”
“Nothing much has changed from the future I’ve seen so far. It’s not bad at all.”
“I looked around the different communities, but not one of them looked like they belonged to the dark elves. It seems that the enemies’ numbers are lower than we expected.”
“…” As Cha Min-Woo spoke with his team members, Seo Jun-Ho was locked deep in thought.
‘…The map is too big.’
The party cap was 200, so understandably, the area would be large. The problem was that it was bigger than he had imagined.
‘We’ve been moving for five hours now. Same for the party that went east.’
Players moved far faster than normal humans, but even with their advantage, they still hadn’t found the end of the map.
‘There are 200 Players in this vast area, but we haven’t run into a single dark elf?’
As he opened the community channel with his Vita, he saw that it was overflowing with speculation that the dark elves were scared or in hiding.
But Seo Jun-ho thought differently.
‘Orcs will die if their leader orders it, but dark elves are different.’
They were a prideful species, so they wouldn’t follow their chief’s word as closely as members of other species. Even if they were ordered to stay inside because suspicious humans were snooping around, they would ignore it without a second thought.
‘So the fact that these prideful elves are following orders…means that their leader is that strong.’
Seo Jun-Ho sorted out his thoughts and turned to Seo Mi-Rae. “Excuse me. Can you check the future again?”
“Unfortunately, I can’t use my skill too often yet. I’ll have to wait eight hours until I can use it again.”
“Mm…when you saw my future before, you said I killed ten dark elves by myself, right?”
“Yes. Exactly ten.”
“Then can you tell me around what time that was?”
“Um…I’m not sure about the exact time, but it was dark, so it was probably night. We’ll be busy setting up the Terminal, so I think it’s tomorrow.”
Night. Seo Jun-Ho had expected the answer. He nodded slowly, and the corner of his lip curled up as if he had heard a funny joke. “…How fun.”
“Huh? What is?”
“No, it’s nothing.” Seo Jun-Ho shook his head and pulled out a sleeping bag from his inventory. He patted it down on the ground. He wriggled inside and zipped it up. The sunlight was still strong, but it was obvious that he was planning to sleep.
“Um…are you going to sleep?” The healer looked confused.
Seo Jun-Ho simply nodded and set an alarm. “Yes. With how things are going, I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep tonight.”
“…Wait. Are you saying that the dark elves might make a surprise attack at night?”
“Since you’re asking, I’m sure of it.”
Cha Min-Woo’s face fell at his answer. He immediately tapped on his Vita and contacted everyone in the community channel. But when he didn’t receive positive answers, he looked uneasy.
“Ahem, I don’t think they really care. They don’t think that those dark elves would listen to orders because they’re a prideful bunch.”
“Well, it’s a logical reaction. Ignore them and rest up.” Seo Jun-Ho put on a sleep mask and muttered to himself. “Hunting, saving people…it’s gonna be a busy night.”
It didn’t take long for his words to come true.
Barely five hours later, the ‘Human Hunt’ began in the dark forest.
1. For clarification, CMW is a team leader at Cheong-hae, but SJH has joined his party, a smaller unit.
2. Mirae means future
3. Korean idiom basically meaning that something loses its value if it becomes famous/popular