Chapter 35: Another Sky

Seoul, at Hunters Association’s headquarters.

Chairman Yu and Chief Lee talk about the rescheduled meeting with the top three Guild Headmasters. But, it was not easy, considering Artates guild headmaster was an Apex-rank hunter.

Because of the Mapo-gu incident, the Artates guild headmaster couldn’t go anywhere without a prior appointment. The order came directly from Mr. President after he heard the news about the Red Gate.

Many high-rank hunters and Guild Headmasters had to be on standby in case of an emergency. Also, they couldn’t enter the Portal Gate in the meantime.

That precaution was to use to avoid the disaster happening again in South Korea. There was no guarantee that tier-5 or tier-6 Portal Gate wouldn’t change to a Red Gate at a random time.

The President of South Korea had some authority over the Hunters Association. However, it was still Chairman Yu who was the one that held the final decision.

And Chairman Yu understood Mr. President’s worry, thus decided to follow the order momentarily since that order wouldn’t last for a long time either.

The hunters needed to go to the dungeons and close the Portal Gate as soon as possible. If they didn’t enter the Portal Gate, it would only increase the total number of Portal Gate that South Korea has, and the country would be in a dangerous state.

“Looks like Mr. President is a bit excessive in handling this problem. Right, Sir?”

“It’s normal. Except for the first year of Portal Gate. There was no incident that can compare to current Mapo-gu.”

Chief Lee nodded his head and agreed with Chairman Yu’s opinion about the order. Even though Chief Lee didn’t experience the first year of Portal Gate, he knew how bad the situation was for South Korea at that time.

“Don’t worry. It’s not that difficult to reschedule the meeting with Shadow guild, Demigod guild, and Artates guild Headmasters. We only need to choose the date for it.”

“Sir?” Chief Lee responded in confusion.

“There’s no need to hold a formal meeting. We can meet in secret.”

Chief Lee gulped while looking at how firm his leader was about the meeting. After all, he knew the purpose of the meeting.

If the president knew the context, he could still tolerate it. On the other hand, the government officials wouldn’t like it if they found out about that thing later.

Chairman Yu assured Chief Lee that the secret meeting wouldn’t bring them any trouble. In the end, Chief Lee gave up on persuading Chairman Yu and coincided with his decision.

After that, both Chief Lee and Chairman Yu talked about the unusual Red Gate creatures from the incident. They conclude it was a serious matter now.

Chairman Yu then orders Chairman Lee to notify all guilds that have Portal Gates, to put some hunters on guard and keep an eye on all of them there. And while they were discussing the abnormality of the Red Gate, which at the same time possessed both High-Grade and Low-Grade creatures.

The order also referred to the Portal Gates that don’t have an owner yet.

“If this became the new pattern of the Red Gate. We got our hands on a tightrope. South Korea didn’t have enough hunters to close the Portal Gate. And get ready for the Red Gate simultaneously.”

Usually, Red Gate formed from low-tier Portal Gate only has Low-Grade creatures. But last time, a High-Grade creature came out from Red Gate that formed from tier-2 Portal Gate.

Somehow, the nature of the Red Gate had changed this time.

The Hunters Association needed more time to discuss the matter together. With the other Division Chiefs and other guilds headmaster.

—- —-

—- —-

The hospital that held Hwang Eun-bi’s funeral was different from where Elijah was getting admitted.

The hospital provided holding a funeral, transforming the mortuary into a funeral hall to allow the incineration. Nowadays, instead of burial, cremation, which has a shorter period for the body to decay, was a more common practice.

Honestly, the procedure was pretty simple. Even mister Lee was surprised before when Ji-woo asked him for help for the funeral.

If some of Ji-woo’s comrades from the Magical world knew he was asking help from someone. They would be rolling on the floor laughing their a** off.

Nonetheless, the real reason for asking mister Lee for help was to take over Ji-woo’s position as the one who received the guests. And also the one that could accompany them in conversation.

For this task, Ji-woo was the worst person to land the role. He would rather have a conversation in his mind than speak with the other.

Actually, Ji-woo was not someone that couldn’t start a conversation. He was just the type that didn’t want to talk too much. Particularly to anyone that he only met or the strangers.

Not long, people started to show up at the funeral, and mister Lee received the visitors with a well-mannered attitude. He began to converse with the people that needed to wait for their turn. They want to bow twice to the deceased and once to the mourner.

Elijah and his sister were the ones receiving words of condolences from the visitors.

Most of the visitors came from Demigod guild members and a few of Eun-bi neighbors.

There were several faces Ji-woo was familiar with it. From when he was doing work as a porter for the first time on tier-1 Portal Gate.

Park Jung Nam and Jun Ji Hoon were members of the same team as Eun-bi in Squad 7 of the Demigod guild. And also, Im Taek-won, the one who reprimanded Ji-woo for losing their artifact helmet in the dungeon.

Ji-woo sighed lightly after seeing the three hunters. Even though they were less friendly with him, they took care of Eun-bi very well.

Suddenly, Ji-woo saw two people behind those three. A man and woman. He recognized the man because he got a glimpse in the hospital before, where the Demigod guild Squad 7 got treatment from poison.

He was Jung Hyun-don, an A-rank hunter of the Demigod Guild Main Team.

On the other hand, the unknown woman caught Ji-woo’s attention a little bit. His sense of Mana was far better than the hunters. Thus, he could tell the difference between them precisely.

The woman had a big Mana pool than all of the hunters at the funeral. And bigger than Ji-woo had ever seen since he was coming back from the Magical world. It was not comparable to E-rank and D-rank hunters that he saw before.

Even Hyun-don was not close enough to that woman’s Mana pool.

Like pens of the same size but had different capacities of ink inside of it.

If only the disparity shouldn’t be enough for Ji-woo’s interest.

That was because the woman’s Mana made Ji-woo think of someone who has the same amount of Mana in the other life. Someone who was strong enough and got recognition from him.

Ji-woo snapped from his thought when Hyun-don introduced the woman to mister Lee.

“This is our vice headmaster, Seol In-ah~nim.”

Seol In-ah bowed slightly towards mister Lee.

Mister Lee then bowed as well and greeted the vice headmaster of the Demigod guild while shaking hands.

“Ah, yes.”

All the Demigod guild members already learn about the relationship between Ji-woo’s family, mister Lee and Eun-bi before they come. Since she was the Demigod guild member, mister Lee needed to cooperate and share the details for the funeral with them. Ji-woo wanted to refuse at first. Then realized it was part of the guilds’ treatment of their hunters and agreed with it.

Ji-woo’s face twitched. ‘Did that mean the headmaster is stronger than her?’

Above the sky, there would be another sky.

Ji-woo had predicted this, but seeing the reality before his eyes still made him a little surprised. He tried researching previously and gathering news as much as he could to know about current world affairs.

In the NeverPage site, the information was limited. Portal Gate and hunters data only up to tier-4; E-rank to S-rank. Plus, the report about High-grade creatures was scarce too.

Ji-woo understood after searching back and forth on the internet. Confidential intelligence was something that shouldn’t be spreading around carelessly. Especially something accessible to the public. It needed to be filtered so as not to cause trouble for the related individual or group.

Ji-woo suspected that there must be somewhere else, which they had all the information he needed.

Only an idiot believed all of the data was available on the net.

Seol In-ah felt the intense stare from Ji-woo and looked at him back in the eyes.

Ji-woo immediately bowed apologetically.

“I’m sorry.”

Seol In-ah only shook her head.

Mister Lee thought the atmosphere between them had become awkward. Then, he immediately took the initiative to invite visitors to come to convey his condolences and sympathy.

“Let’s go inside vice headmaster~nim.”

Hyun-don asked Seol In-ah to come in with the others. They walk past mister Lee and Ji-woo at the entrance of the funeral hall.

‘Looks like I can’t slacking around.’

Ji-woo smiled wryly without looking back at the Demigod guild members. He wanted to make sure everything went as he planned and wished a mishap wouldn’t happen.