Director Park waited with her pen poised over her notebook. Senior Examiner Choi sat rigidly, his eyes fixed on Ji-hu. Records Officer Kim's fingers rested on a recording device, ready to capture everything.
The room was silent except for the distant sounds of the city outside.
Ji-hu looked at the people around him. Ara, close as always. Yuna, steady and calm. Minjun for once not bouncing with energy. Soojin watching with those quiet eyes that saw too much.
He took a breath.
Ji-hu: The world is called Nethrar.
Director Park wrote it down. No one else moved.
Ji-hu: It has no sky rift. No scar like ours. Just a normal sky. Blue during the day. Dark at night. You wouldn't know you were in another world until you looked closer.
Senior Examiner: What did you see there?
Ji-hu: Everything. Nothing. It's huge. Bigger than anything I've ever known. And it's full of monsters.
He paused. Chose his words carefully.
Ji-hu: Not all of them are mindless. Some build things. Cities. Fortresses. They have civilizations. They fight wars against each other for territory, for dominance, for reasons I never understood. Some are wild, like animals. Some are organized, like armies.
Director Park: Their powers?
Ji-hu: Natural. They're born with them. Fire, ice, shadow, things I don't have words for. It's as natural to them as breathing. Some are born weak. Some are born strong. And some... some break past their own limits. Become something more.
His voice shifted. Grew quieter.
Ji-hu: Those ones are the reason I'm still alive. Because I learned to avoid them at all costs.
---
Ara leaned forward slightly. She knew what was coming.
Ji-hu: They're called the Eternal Hunt.
The name hung in the air like smoke.
Ji-hu: A group of monsters who surpassed what their kind should be capable of. Each one could level a city on Earth. Not a neighborhood. A city. They rule Nethrar through fear. No one challenges them. No one survives them.
Records Officer: How many?
Ji-hu: I don't know. I never got close enough to count. I felt their presence once, from miles away, and I ran. I kept running for three days.
Director Park: Their leader?
Ji-hu's hands tightened slightly on the table. Just for a moment.
Ji-hu: Kaelthar the Unbroken.
He said the name like it might summon something.
Ji-hu: I never saw him. Never got close. But I felt him. Everyone in that world feels him. He's the pinnacle. The thing everything else fears. Nothing challenges him. Nothing survives him.
Yuna: Ji-hu...
Ji-hu: I survived because I hid. I ran. I never stayed in one place more than a day. I fought the smaller ones, the ones I could handle. But the Eternal Hunt? I avoided them completely. One encounter would have ended me.
Minjun: But you said you fought monsters there.
Ji-hu: I did. The weak ones. The ones even the Hunt doesn't bother with. There are levels there we can't imagine. The creature in that Zone where I came back? The one White Tiger's S-rank was struggling against?
Everyone remembered. The massive boss. The desperate fight.
Ji-hu: In Nethrar, that thing is low-level. Bottom tier. Things the Eternal Hunt wouldn't even bother killing themselves. They'd step over its corpse without noticing.
Silence.
Soojin: That's terrifying.
Ji-hu: Yes.
---
Director Park's pen had stopped moving. She was just listening now.
Ji-hu: I found a Convergence one day. It felt different from the others. Familiar. Like Earth. I went toward it without thinking. It was my only chance.
Senior Examiner: And you came back.
Ji-hu: I came back.
He looked at them. At all of them. His eyes were hollow.
Ji-hu: I don't know if I should be happy about that.
Yuna: What do you mean?
Ji-hu: That world is connected to ours now. Convergences are happening. Small ones so far. But if even one creature from the Eternal Hunt crosses over...
He didn't finish. Didn't need to.
Minjun: That's... that's bad.
Soojin: Oppa.
Minjun: What? It IS bad!
Soojin: I know. But let him finish.
Ji-hu shook his head slightly.
Ji-hu: I'm done. That's all I know.
---
Director Park closed her notebook slowly. Her face was pale.
Director Park: We need to prepare. If what you're saying is true... if those things exist, if they're that powerful...
She couldn't finish either.
The officials gathered their things and left quietly. No more questions. No more notes. Just silence.
When the door closed behind them, no one moved for a long moment.
Ara: You did well.
Ji-hu: Did I?
Ara: You told the truth. That's all anyone can do.
Yuna: What do we do now?
Ji-hu: The same thing we've always done. Train. Fight. Protect people. Hope that door stays closed.
Minjun: And if it doesn't?
Ji-hu looked at him. At this loud, chaotic kid who had somehow become family.
Ji-hu: Then we fight anyway.
---
Outside, the sky was clear. No rift. No warning. Just a normal day in a world that had no idea what might be coming.
But somewhere in Nethrar, things were watching.
And they'd found a door.
---
END OF CHAPTER 35