Breaking news! China, Japan, Taiwan, and Mongolia have forfeited their claim to the 87th East Asia Gate.
Gate.
A portal connecting Earth to another dimension.
While the vast majority lead to monster habitats and carry extreme danger, they offer access to resources unavailable on Earth.
Which means Gate ownership directly correlates with national power.
"New Gates in the East Asia region emerge at an average rate of once every two years. Since the agreement between China and Japan in '94, they've been peacefully splitting them. Duke Kang Dae-guk's achievement in breaking that pact and gifting a new Gate to Korea is one that will go down in world history..."
"Huh?"
"W-What's that...?"
Incheon International Airport.
The crowd gathered to welcome back the hero buzzed with unrest.
Kang Dae-guk.
National Treasure. Yaksha.
As the foremost of the four pillars upholding Korea, he had always exuded majestic dignity.
But not now. His complexion was deathly pale.
His once tiger-like frame, standing tall on two legs, seemed halved in size.
Not just because he'd lost an arm.
Just then, the airport screens flooded with fresh breaking news.
"The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson stated in today's regular briefing that 'China is yielding the 87th East Asia Gate in recognition of Duke Kang Dae-guk of Korea's sincerity.' Japan's Foreign Ministry also..."
"Pasnal Hulrent, White House spokesperson, confirmed that 'Korea's strongest asset, Duke Kang Dae-guk, has lost his dantian,' predicting it will further destabilize East Asian diplomacy..."
...
...
...
"The Korean Players Association has strongly criticized Duke Kang Dae-guk, accusing him of mortgaging Korea's future for short-term gains..."
"The Association has issued a public warrant for Duke Kang Dae-guk's eldest son, Kang Dae-seong, and begun pursuit. Amid reports of escalating conflicts with the Association, concerns are rising over a potential serious armed clash..."
"At 10 a.m. today, the Ministry of National Defense spokesperson announced the emergency arrest of Duke Kang Dae-guk's eldest daughter, Major Kang Hyeon-ah, at her official residence. Charges: treason, with evidence including large quantities of explosives and communication logs..."
"The National Assembly reports nonstop petitions from citizens demanding the stripping of Duke Kang Dae-guk's National Treasure status..."
"The identity of the missing Ministry of Land employee during new Gate installation has been revealed as Kang Duna from the Planning and Coordination Office. According to anonymous sources, after Duke Kang Dae-guk lost his National Treasure status, Kang Duna showed severe depressive symptoms..."
***
One of Korea's pillars had crumbled.
The moment he set foot on his homeland's soil, he collapsed as if falling asleep—and never woke again. He became a shell sustained only by a ventilator.
At first, the public wept.
They thanked him for his final gift to the nation and hailed him a hero.
While fiercely condemning the government and Association for failing to protect their hero.
That's when everything started going wrong.
As riots broke out nationwide, the government and Association began portraying Duke Kang Dae-guk as a criminal.
Korea's strongest Player had blinded himself to a single Gate and sacrificed himself—a choice against the national interest.
They condemned his foolish, humiliating diplomacy for dooming Korea's future.
It happened amid a barrage of similar-toned international news.
And the vast majority of media was in the government and Association's pocket.
Public opinion shifted.
Voices cursing Duke Kang Dae-guk grew daily.
House Kang's retainers struggled to right the ship, but it only backfired.
The Duke's eldest son had crippled the Association Chairman and fled; his eldest daughter had attempted a coup. They were the decisive triggers.
"Ugh, those damn bastards."
Were siblings enemies from a past life?
House Kang's youngest son, left alone at his comatose father's bedside, saw only darkness ahead.
***
"The humiliating diplomacy of Kang Dae-guk, who bowed to foreign powers and offered himself as tribute, has trampled national pride!"
"A family that produced coup-attempting terrorists calling itself nobility? The government must thoroughly condemn House Kang!!"
"House Kang enjoying the same privileges as other nobles is unacceptable! Confiscate Duke Kang Dae-guk's title! Confiscate it!!"
Most nations, including Korea, had revived the noble system.
Noble Players received substantial perks. Hereditary pensions and tax breaks were just the tip of the iceberg.
No one objected.
Everyone understood it was to prevent top Players from being poached abroad.
Especially Korea's three lone Ducal Houses, backed by the entire nation.
Without their devotion, Korea would have perished during the [Great Cataclysm] 200 years ago.
Yet House Kang had lost its support base amid events eight years prior.
Even though the family head had sacrificed himself to gift his nation.
"Ignore what those fools say, Young Lord. They're mere workers parroting their employers' lies, not the people's will."
Hwang Hong-gi said as he closed the window.
The protesters' shouts seemed especially grating today.
"What's new? We have to endure it because of Kang Dae-seong and Kang Hyeon-ah, right? I've got the ones harping on Father most in my kill list."
"Kill list? So that's what you've been scribbling lately?"
"Kang Dae-seong and Kang Hyeon-ah at the top. Good, right? Ah, dead."
The boy, tapping away at his game console with indifference, flopped onto the sofa.
Kang Jae-hyeok.
Duke Kang Dae-guk's youngest son had lived a hellish eight years.
With his own small hands, he'd scrubbed the filth and graffiti defiling his ancestral home, devoted to the nation for generations. He'd become the vicious public's target in place of his unconscious father and vanished siblings.
Isolated, denied a normal life.
He couldn't even go out properly.
"Gotta do another pull... Butler Hwang, lend me your card? I'll pay back once the noble pension hits."
"You're short on this month's allowance too. While we're at it, why keep dumping money into a game you play just minutes a day?"
"Butler, come on. You've served House Kang over 40 years—how can you ask something so absurd? Our family motto is 'Give your all in everything.'"
"And stop honoring me only when borrowing money."
"Tch."
That's how he broke.
No—calling it broken was too harsh for a young boy.
Jae-hyeok had tried hard enough.
Hard enough to learn.
That no matter how hard he tried, nothing changed.
"How much of Father's work injury compensation is left?"
Maybe he was broken from the start...
"Check this. An enrollment request from Lion's Castle. Fifth one already—time to decide, Young Lord? Accepting would let you mingle with peers and faculty..."
It was the moment Hwang Hong-gi handed Jae-hyeok the mail.
Crash!!
The window blocking the protesters' shouts shattered.
Followed by a massive monster plummeting down.
A monster appearing in Korea's residential area, boasting 93.6% Gate control? Targeting the Ducal House by coincidence? No chance.
"...!"
Hwang Hong-gi couldn't even scream before being pulped.
His abdomen utterly crushed.
Had Jae-hyeok's outstretched hand not grazed the monster's leg, his chest would've been trampled—instant death.
"Butler Hwang!!"
Jae-hyeok sprang from the sofa, launching himself without hesitation. The monster's pot-lid hand swung, but he accelerated into it instead of dodging.
Crunch!
Flesh tore from his shoulder. But he closed in under the monster's feet.
"Butler Hwang..."
The boy who lost his mother before manhood witnessed his house's fall upon reaching it.
Father who wouldn't wake. Siblings who vanished.
Abandoned overnight, the boy crumpled under the silence devouring the mansion.
Hwang Hong-gi had lifted him up.
The benefactor who cared for the forsaken Kang father and son.
Lose him too?
No.
Better bite his tongue and die than lose another precious soul.
"It's okay. Don't worry."
Ignoring his blood-soaked shoulder, Jae-hyeok hugged Hwang Hong-gi and whispered.
The roaring monster's foot plummeted toward their heads.
Jae-hyeok ignored it, pulling a potion from his bosom.
Top-grade, miraculous for wounds—priceless, even for billions.
A treasure he'd kept ready by virtue of his status, finally used worthily.
Slash-!
The monster's head separated from its neck. The massive foot, moments from crushing Jae-hyeok, veered off balance.
Not Jae-hyeok's doing.
As he poured the potion on Hwang Hong-gi's wound, an irritated voice seeped into his ear.
"Planning a joint suicide with a mere servant? Without me, you'd both be trampled side by side. Pathetic."
An unfamiliar voice.
The presence felt since the monster appeared.
"You somehow dragged a troll here from the Gate?"
Only after the potion vial emptied.
Jae-hyeok slowly turned.
The man standing atop the troll's corpse sneered.
"Be grateful. I chased off the noisy trash outside."
The man didn't underestimate the boy.
Even after that pathetic display—the son of the Yaksha would transform gripping a sword.
So he deliberately stood with his back to Jae-hyeok's sword, buried in the rubble.
"Hoping I stay unharmed means I'm the target?"
"Sharp one. Correct. My master wants the knowledge etched in your body and mind. Kang Family Quick Draw. Needs your limbs intact for now. Come quietly."
'Black Mane Troll.'
Jae-hyeok frowned, calculating the Gate's location and distance to the mansion.
Unbelievable a monster broke out, traversed the city, and was lured here.
'Alarm should be blaring across the district by now...'
Yet through the breached wall, outside was deathly still.
Meaning the intruder's master was big enough to fog Association and military surveillance, delay response.
'One of the bastards who wrecked my house?'
Long-suppressed rage reared.
His mind cooled sharper.
Daily sword swings had tempered his spirit alongside body.
"Fine. Let's go."
"Y-Young Lord..."
As Jae-hyeok meekly followed, Hwang Hong-gi reached with trembling hand.
Incredibly, already conscious.
Crawling pitifully across the floor, desperate for his hand to reach his small master.
Jae-hyeok dared not pity him.
Pleased instead by the spirit befitting House Kang.
"Ah, no point leaving witnesses, right?"
The man grinned viciously.
Never intended to spare any.
He'd watched the brat flail to save a doomed man for this thrill.
The chance Jae-hyeok had hoped for.
A chance to turn this around easily!
"No need to spare intruders either."
Jae-hyeok timed his swing as the man drew his sword.
Kang Ducal swordsmanship.
Focused on Quick Draw.
The draw itself perfected as offense and defense.
Jae-hyeok had insight into the preceding motions, body's reactions, consciousness flow, required time.
Meaning he could reverse it.
A sword-bearing swordsman mustn't allow the boy's approach.
Lest his drawn blade veer against his will.
"Wha...?"
Splurt!!
Blood gushed from the astonished man's chest.
'No way?'
Sword snatched the instant he drew.
Impossible.
Unless a total novice who couldn't even grip properly.
The man was a veteran Player decades in—sword as body extension.
Even beheaded, he'd never drop it. His conviction.
Yet stolen.
Strength vanished from his hilt-gripping hand like a lie; his sword now in Jae-hyeok's, slashing him.
Unbelievable even firsthand.
Chill up his spine, yet relief too.
'At least still a novice.'
Not doubting Jae-hyeok's skill.
How, after eating that?
Son of Yaksha.
Trained steadily before manhood.
Harshly, alone.
Pushed to extremes countless times, probably.
But first time cutting a living thing.
'Crushed by pressure he never imagined.'
Hot blood on skin.
First realizing life's weight within.
'And...'
Backing away hastily, the man snatched the sword from rubble.
Drawn, a one-edged ring-pommel sword. Special metal for acceleration on draw—House Kang's symbol.
'As my way is alien to you, your sword alien to me.'
He'd only lost the blade. Scabbard still at waist.
Jae-hyeok's Quick Draw blocked.
'Meant to take you unscathed, but...'
Must bear master's wrath somewhat.
Composing breath, assuming stance—eyes widened.
Crack!
A clamor.
Jae-hyeok's stepping foot cracked the floor. Clenched big toe amazingly dug into solid wood.
'How...'
Lower body trained to what degree?
Just a 16-year novice?
Uneasy now, the man tried persuasion.
"Come with me. Teach my master your swordsmanship willingly, and you'll be treated well."
"Who's your master? Even taking disciples, you should know who."
"Follow, and find out."
"No, why follow some soon-to-die bastard?"
"...Lowly speech for nobility."
"Nobles vary, damn it. After seeing my house's state, you say that? Think I got proper upbringing?"
"Y-Young Lord... my failing... sorry... cough!"
"Butler Hwang, I'm still better than that bastard, right?"
"O-Of course... cough, cough!!"
'Crazy bastards?'
Dying old man and kidnapping-bound boy.
Should be begging on knees—yet casually chatting, tensionless.
'Sudden raid. First real combat. Quick Draw blocked. Even in a situation curbing full power, brimming confidence... means massive pride in his training.'
Common sight.
Typical of sheltered noble brats.
Greenhouse flower arrogance.
With over 50 Gate raids, the man had seen their follies plenty—fattened his belly thereby.
"Anyway, not talking? Then die, you psycho thug bastard. Don't worry, I'll find out who your bastard master is later."
"Brat's got a foul mouth..."
Eastern land of propriety?
Frowning, about to lecture on manners—then shut up.
Jae-hyeok unwound his sword belt, wrapping layers on his left hand.
Swipe.
Drew sword to waist, leaning torso.
Razor edge naturally met belt.
As if crouching in scabbard.
'Quick Draw!'
Man snapped alert, focused.
Absorbed snatched sword's specs, Jae-hyeok's step range, arm extension, gaze-elbow direction, torso tilt angle.
Measuring impending attack's path and distance.
Quick Draw can't chain.
Power drops sharply once countered.
Yes, he knew Quick Draw's weakness well.
But knowing isn't solving.
Spang-!
Retreating to widen gap, his vision caught a blurry dashed line.
Sword-flash too fast, smearing and segmenting.
Extreme speed.
Before man could react, Jae-hyeok had drawn.
Belt layers on Jae-hyeok's left hand snapped and fell, dripping blood proving it.
'What?'
Didn't yield distance?
'Why swing from there...'
Puzzled man's head drowned in heavy impact.
Vision blood-red, then he noticed.
Jae-hyeok's hand empty.
"Threw... it? That's... swordsman's way...?"
Defied common sense. Unpredicted, caught off-guard.
As the man glared venomously at Jae-hyeok and slumped powerlessly.
"I'm not a swordsman."
Jae-hyeok replied indifferently.