Chapter 3: 6 Years not 30 Years

“What did you do to him?”

The assistant hurriedly replied to Chief Lee, “I handed him over to the soldier since he doesn’t have any identification.” He didn’t tell him the specific situation, worried he would be given another unnecessary task from the chief.

Chief Lee then told him, “Ask someone from the Monitoring division to find his information.”

What you fear will always happen when you didn’t expect it. The assistant heard the command felt regret for his worry.

“Yes, sir.” The assistant replied sulkily.

“Do it later. It’s not urgent now. We already have so much work to handle rather than this trivial matter.”

Chief Lee reassured his assistant about the order. He knew Hunters Association had limited staff to work for the organization to handle the Portal Gates.

So, he couldn’t carelessly appoint his subordinate solely to find any information about a stranger.

‘But, if he is a hunter, then it will be good news for me. No, it’s great for the Hunters Association.’

Chief Lee thought that he might find an additional hunter to the association.

Hunters were usually hard to come by on the road since they always sought a guild rather than Hunter Association that ties with the government.

Guilds had different rules and treatment for hunters even though they were under the supervision of the Hunters Association.

The Hunters Association payment was more stingy than the guild, considering they related to the government. And the profit from Magic Stone or Magic Crystal had to be split three ways with the association and the government, rather than a 50:50 dividend directly with a guild itself.

Well, the government needed some money too. To rebuild the place that got damaged by the Mana impact of the Portal Gate.

Chief Lee suddenly mumbled something with a confused look.

“Wait a minute… I didn’t feel Mana from him? If he is a hunter, he should have Mana to be able to repel the impact from the Portal Gate.”

Before, Chief Lee thought the man was a hunter since he could have gotten close to Portal Gate. Now after realizing he couldn’t feel Mana from the man. He couldn’t be sure if he was a hunter or only hid the Mana with some artifact he used.

Hunters commonly can identify each other by tracing Mana, and Chief Lee himself was a hunter too.

That’s why he was baffled about Kim Ji-woo’s appearance at the scene from before.

An assistant interrupted Chief Lee’s reverie with a report from the Shadow guild as he kept thinking about meeting a strange man who looks like a beggar, Ji-woo.

“Sir?!… Sir!?…”

Seeing Chief Lee didn’t budge after being called, the assistant raised his voice.

“Lee Jae-suk!!!”

Chief Lee got woken up by his assistant’s loud voice. “Huh?! What?… What did you say before? Sorry, I didn’t hear it clearly.”

The assistant gulped, looking at Chief Lee. He just realized he made a mistake when calling out Chief Lee’s full name without honorifics.

“Ah, n-no, sir. It’s okay!”

“So, what do you want to say?” Chief Lee threw away his interest in Ji-woo and shifted his focus back to the Portal Gate.

Another problem that almost got forgotten because of honorifics. The assistant straightened his back and then recited the word calmly.

“Shadow guild requesting us to divide the profit from the Portal Gate dungeon fairly to their hunters.”

Chief Lee twitched hearing the request. “You mean, they want a 50:50 dividend? What pain in the *ss!”

The assistant nodded, confirming the Shadow Guild’s demand for their help to close the Portal Gate.

It was a common occurrence when a Portal Gate doesn’t have an owner. It’s the reason why the Hunters Association was trying its best to sell the dungeon hunting rights at the Portal Gate to the guilds out there.

If Portal Gate became guild property, it would lessen their burden and get a benefit from it. Portal Gate closed, plus got money from selling it.

Without a doubt, everything in the dungeons would go to the guild that owns the Portal Gate.

It would be impossible if the Hunter Association wanted to deal with the many Portal Gates on the Korean Peninsula with understaffed people and low-rank hunters.

It was why hunters from the guild always had ridiculous requirements. It occurred when they helped to close the unowned Portal Gate by the Hunters Association.

Chief Lee gritted his teeth,

‘If this Portal Gate appears in the middle of a quiet place and away from the crowd, I will sell it at a higher price than usual to them!’

“We don’t have time to quarrel with a bunch of Shadow guild people. Just agree with their terms.”

“Yes, sir!”

When the assistant wanted to go to the side to confirm their agreement with the term, Chief Lee stopped him with a fearsome aura.

“Wait… Did you only call by my name a moment ago?”

The assistant felt chills at the back of his neck hearing Chief Lee’s voice speak about the incident earlier. He tried hard to deny it and decided not to say any word. He just shook his head and ran to the side, calling Shadow guild people back.

Chief Lee shrugged at his assistant’s action and looked up to the sky, “When will this Portal Gate be gone from our world?!”

—- —-

—- —-

At Seoul, Yongsan Police station.

Kim Ji-woo didn’t intend to ask about his home address yet, letting the police officer talk about the situation first.

“There is no wallet, no ID card, and no smartphone. Nothing…,

“Yepp, nothing.”

The police officer looked at Ji-woo strangely. For him seeing a beggar was normal. Some of them even don’t have anything too like Ji-woo now.

‘Why the Hunters Association personnel give an order to bring this man here?’

The police officer had no idea why this person got sent to the police station instead of being let out of the Portal Gate area like the other beggars in that place.

“Okay, what is your name?” asked the police officer when looking through the computer to search for the information.

“Kim Ji-woo.”

Ji-woo answered while looking around the room. He was reminiscing about how he lived on earth before since he had gone for 30 years from the modern world.

‘Living in modern earth is sure a pleasant thing.’

The differences in life in the Magical World and the Modern earth were clearly visible before the eyes. While living in the other world, witnessing many extraordinary things that only exist in a movie was really fascinating. But, living on modern earth was more convenient with many advanced technologies.

And more importantly, Ji-woo’s family was here. So, if he could choose again, he still picked modern earth for a place to stay even though he has a good brother in another world.

‘Well, what does that matter now? Better…,

‘Let’s be grateful for what I have now. Sorry, Brother.’

Ji-woo stopped his thought and looked at the police officer. From how the officer looked back and forth between Ji-woo and his computer. He realized it seems there was a problem with it.

The police officer looked focused on comparing the picture on the computer to the person in front of him.

It’s because Ji-woo had a different appearance from the image.

“I have a hard time recognizing you with that long hair. Em…, But your face resembles the picture a little bit on our database.

“Here, your situation is reported as missing? In 2017 you couldn’t be found anywhere else, so your status is still labeled as a missing person for six years.

“How can you be there now? Like…, pop out of nowhere around the Portal Gate?

“Impossible, d-did you… C-Came out from that…?”

The police officer kept speaking without breathing and did not let Ji-woo say anything at all. Surely, Ji-woo itself doesn’t know how to explain his situation of coming back from the Magical world.

Even if he told everything, would anyone believe it? Bullsh*t!

More likely, Ji-woo would get suspected as a foreign kind or invader of the land that came from that Portal Gate.

Ji-woo roughly knows about the Portal Gate. He connected to the previous incident with the man telling him to leave the scene, where the Mana fluctuations started.

The Portal Gate was definitely a type of door that could open up to another world.

Then from that, they must have thought Ji-woo came out from the Portal Gate after missing for a long time.

“Wait, six years? I’ve been missing for six years??”

Ji-woo abruptly shouted out, horrifying the police officer on the desk.

The police officer swore on his head.

‘Brat! I got scared and almost lost half of my life. Fu*k you!

‘I am the one that was supposed to be confused about your whereabouts. Not you, the one that is confused about how long you’ve been missing.’

Then Ji-woo asked the police officer, “I’m not gone for 30 years, but I’ve been missing for six years? Hay, don’t joke around with me, sir. H-Ha…, haha…”

While Ji-woo laughed awkwardly, the police officer became more confused and stared at him.

“Here! Take a look, you missing in 2017, and now you sit in front of me in 2023, understand?!”

The police officer annoyedly described Ji-woo’s situation by showing him the computer screen and the smartphone that revealed today’s date.

Ji-woo, after looking at the information. He understood that the time between the Magical world and Modern earth was not the same.

In this world, Ji-woo had only gone for six years. On the other side, he had already experienced the Great war for 30 years.