It had taken a while for him to explain the concept of Gates, Mana, and Magic Beasts, especially because of his inarticulate English—known in this world as Victorian. In spite of it, he had been able to prescribe the majority of the aforementioned details to Ch'en.
While he had to continuously explain to the stuck up dragon woman in front of him, he had taken note of the penalty the System had available should he fail the Quest this time. Instead of stopping his heart from beating like last time, it would instead send him to the Penalty Zone.
The same Penalty Zone that he would be sent to should he fail to complete his Daily Quest of 100 sit-ups, 100 push-ups, 100 squats, and a 10 kilometer run everyday. That had him at a pause and mentally raising an eyebrow, but he brushed it aside.
The penalty no longer mattered that much to him. In fact, it was a high-tonnage burden lifted from his aching shoulders, but the real stress came from the idea that thousands upon thousands of civilians would die if even one S-Rank Gate had a Dungeon Break.
...Could he even clear 20 S-Rank Gates within the time-span of one week? From what he could tell from the waypoint markers provided by the System, revealing their locations, they were all... very far away, with about four being within this city or within the vicinity of this city.
His Shadows, barring Beru, couldn't handle an S-Rank Gate alone.
That wasn't mentioning his Mana depleting should his Shadows die, and his fatigue building up the more scrimmages he involved himself with.
Potions could seldom alleviate the mortal hindrances, but Jin-Woo's stomach could only handle so many of those drinks before he felt nauseous due to bloating.
Neither of that was mentioning what kind of S-Rank Gates they were, whether they were low-grade S-Rank Gades, or high-grade S-Rank Gates.
Too many variables, too many possibilities, and too many thoughts.
Jin-Woo's thought processes ended there, being dragged back into reality of the cold, hard metal he was seated upon; and a strict voice.
"Frankly speaking, what you're saying is far-fetched and unbelievable," Ch'en finally said, staring at him cautiously.
"Is it?" Jin-Woo sighed with a modicum of frustration.
"Gates," she began, "leads to a sort of different space or dimension as you had difficulty explaining, which houses Magic Beasts which possess some form of Arts—"
"Mana. They are in no way Arts," he corrected, foot tapping impatiently from underneath the table.
"...Mana," Ch'en said, most likely going along in spite of her apprehension. "Listen, I still find it hard to believe, but I will keep an open mind."
"And?" He tilted his head, feeling a mental clock tick itself away until its withering point; that withering point being the passage of one, single week.
"You've already proven some aspects of your story true..." Ch'en said.
Jin-Woo had already shown his System's Inventory capabilities to the woman, delegating it as spatial magic by use of his Mana. It also worked out well that she could distinguish between Arts and Mana through instinct alone.
Unfortunately, she believed his Mana to be a different configuration of Arts as... 'Sarkaz Witchcraft' was. He didn't know what 'witchcraft' meant in English, and was beginning to regret dropping his English lessons.
"...You said you've entered multiple Gates such as that one before, correct?" Ch'en cut him out of his thoughts.
"Yes. If not cleared in a week, Dungeon Break happens and Magic Beasts flood out."
"Of course," she sighed out, rubbing her forehead's stress creases from another wedge of information being shoved into the crevices of her brain.
"Not too long back, there was twenty more," Jin-Woo calmly said despite his thinning forbearance, dropping another bombshell on the woman.
"Seriously...?" Ch'en removed her hand and stared at him incredulously.
"I'm not lying," he said, finally letting his displeasure be known as he narrowed his eyes into a pseudo-scowl. "What part of 'society collapses in one week' do you not get?" The phrase he used, though alternated and not in perfect verbatim, was what he remembered being ingrained into his mind when watching American TV shows to aid in learning English. "I know twenty Gates have come because I have..." He paused, not being able to find the right words.
"Have the means to do so? The capability?" Ch'en finished it for him.
Ah, so she was his Eng—Victorian teacher now. "Yes, what that means." Jin-Woo sincerely hoped he wouldn't be deceived by others utilizing complex Victorian words that he couldn't understand against him. "I can feel it."
"Because of your Mana?" she deduced.
"Something like that." He huffed. "Four are in this city or close by. I can prove by showing where they are."
Ch'en gazed at him for a good second, thoughts completely intangible from the poker face she had plastered over her features.
"Thousands can die," Jin-Woo resumed his explanations. "You can't kill Magic Beasts without Mana."
That elicited an astonished look from her.
"I won't run away, if that's what worrying." He mentally chided himself for screwing up his sentence structure, because attempting to speak fast degraded his fluency by a considerable amount. "I'm just trying to help because this is my fault."
"...Your fault?' Ch'en broke away from her thoughts by shaking her head, eyes widening in his direction.
"Yes, the Gates appear because of me. I can only guess why, but it's definitely because of me. I need to clear them."
She had already dug into the black-haired man a hundred times that he had acted abrasively and broken the laws with his previous stunt, feeling no need to reiterate the point ad nauseam. Therefore, she opted with another idea...
"Hm?" Ch'en's train of thought ended there when her radio started crackling, signifying that somebody was attempting to contact her. "At a time like this...?" she whispered. "Pardon me for a moment."
Sung didn't say a word.
"Hello?" She picked up the radio.
"Ch'en sir!" a response came out from the other end. "Another one of the strange phenomena has appeared! Like the blue fog!"
"...Another one?" She pursed her lips. "Give me the location. Now." Her eyes darted toward Sung, whose arms were crossed with an unchanging expression.
"Copy that. I'll forward it to you..."
While the person on the other line resumed with their work, Ch'en referred to Sung. "Sung Jin-Woo, you're coming with me. Don't try anything funny."
For the first time, he smirked.
***
Jin-Woo could finally breathe an air of relief at the once tantalizing embrace of freedom having finally become a reality. He could have easily broken out of the interrogation room, but his status as a law-abiding citizen—or law-abiding illegal immigrant in his current dilemma—would be further put into squalor if he did so.
He felt the rhythmic thump of a car on road moving through high-rise skyscrapers, a dim sapphire light from above leaking through the interstice of skyscrapers, bleeding into the streets. A cluster of people were gathered around with phones in their hands, taking pictures of the sky and causing severe traffic jams.
While that was happening, a certain blue-haired dragon lady was silently cursing whilst attempting to maneuver through them, all in an attempt to find a location which could clearly spot the phenomenon up above.
Jin-Woo himself decided to check the System after its maintenance phase was over, making sure he didn't bring up the Quest interface. If he saw that ghastly reminder again, it would continue to cultivate that festering anxiety welling up in his chest.
...Let's see what we have now.
He brought up the interface, immediately being exposed to a notification.
———————
(!)ALARM
———————
[Reward Available]
[Accept?]
[Yes] [No]
Jin-Woo had to ponder why the System was asking him why he would ever refuse a reward from a Quest completion, but shrugged and pressed the 'Yes' button. A 'ding' was heard in his ears—audible only to himself—as he saw another notification.
[Next Skill Gained: Systematic Connection]
[Systematic Connection: Allow other individuals to view the System and transact ownership of items.]
I see. That's nice, Jin-Woo thought after reading it out. It was practically a free Skill, and going by video game terminology, a 'quality-of-life' feature. Before, he couldn't give other people potions or consumables bought from the Store, being forced to pour the contents into their mouths. Now? He could hand it off to anybody without such trivialities.
Why isn't this a default feature anyways? The more he thought about the System, the more confusing it became. Well, if he had to give an analogy, it would be like a developer made it without taking into account intricate wants of the player.
Not that he could really complain, considering it was the reason for his recent explosive growth.
Aside from that, the ability to allow other people perceive his System didn't seem to have any game-changing advantages. In comparison to what Stealth and Mutilate could provide, he could only see it as a niche feature.
—————
(!)ALARM
—————
[Store contents updated.]
Jin-Woo let out a hum at another notification appearing in front of him. He hadn't accessed the Store for any items considering boss drops and the like were much superior in quality. Nothing in the Store so far could match the Demon King's Daggers in quality, but perhaps with the new update the System provided, he could get something that surpassed it.
Or maybe there was better armor or consumables, considering he had never received armor as a drop before.
Deciding to save it for another time, he swiped it away.
It was also when the voice of Ch'en spoke to him. "Why are you swiping the air?"
"Huh?" He side-glanced her way. "Thought I saw something," he lied.
"...You know what? Forget I even asked."
"Sure." Jin-Woo shrugged.
At least she wasn't as tense and aggressive as earlier.
***
Ch'en had parked the L.G.D. standard-issue vehicle and stared skyward. She was almost at a loss of words when seeing the sheer size of the Gate that Sung had been talking about, a blue fog stretched all across the sky like a Catastrophe.
Unlike a Catastrophe however, it didn't rain down any Originium or produce harsh winds. The ginormous Gate merely hovered there, causing absolutely zero damage to the surroundings. Based on estimation, the Superintendent could eyeball its size to be about a District or two in span.
"This one is..." Ch'en could feel the wind caress her face.
"An S-Rank Gate," Sung said. "The higher the rank, the bigger the Gate." He placed his hands in his black coat's pocket. "Twenty of these have appeared around the world. Three others are near somewhere Lungmen."
"They're categorized?" She swerved her head in his direction, also taking note of the other bombshell he had dropped. Three others like this close by Lungmen? Shit...
"Yes. E-Rank, D-Rank, C-Rank, B-Rank, A-Rank, and S-Rank." He raised his fingers for each rank he said.
"How dangerous is an S-Rank Gate, then?" Ch'en tapped her communications device while asking him, going through channels and hearing the stressed panic of those on the other side.
Sung looked thoughtful, craning his head to look up at the S-Rank Gate. "Group of normal S-Rank Magic Beasts can hurt a city. S-Rank Boss is ten times stronger."
The Lung paused for a brief moment, fingers pausing over a button of her communications device. Then, she released a Lungemite expletive silently underneath her breath. "...And there are three others close to Lungmen?"
He nodded. "S-Rank too."
"You've got to be kidding me...!" Ch'en remembered vividly the black-haired man talking about a 'Dungeon Break' occurring within the span of a week. "If that's the case, then I'll have to request procedures for nomadic city migration."
There were a whole slew of protocols meant for upcoming Catastrophes, or if a Catastrophe had already hit a nomadic city, with handling methods differentiated between countries. In this case, it wouldn't be too out of left field to issue them with a gigantic azure fog looming over the length of two Districts.
"Oh, right." Sung nodded. "Your city can move."
"What? Don't have nomadic cities in Dan?" she asked.
"Dan? What's Dan?" He tilted his head.
Ch'en gaped for a moment. "You... what? You don't know what Dan is? Aren't you Danese?" There were still many questions she had yet to ask him during the interrogation, but they had all been postponed due to the topic about Gates.
"No?" Sung looked ever more confused. "I think you should do your work." He eventually rolled his eyes and motioned to her radio, turning back to the Gate floating in the sky.
She clicked her tongue at his dismissal, fishing in her pocket for her phone. Now that I think about it... While she pulled it out, she remembered the fact that the black-haired man in front of her had cleared a Gate before, walking out of it unscathed.
"Sung," she called.
He side-eyed her, enough confirmation that he was indeed listening.
"What was the rank of that Gate you intruded in without permission?"
"A-Rank," Sung said.
"Can you handle an S-Rank Gate?" Ch'en asked out of curiosity.
"Yeah."
...It was a bold statement.
A very bold statement.
"Alone?" she iterated.
"Alone," he repeated. Then clarified with, "Might be tiring."
It was starting to become difficult to discern what he was exaggerating and what he was being completely serious with. "Okay. Whatever you say." He was awfully knowledgeable about the entire thing. "How do you—"
The phone in her hand rang.
"Ah." Ch'en glanced down to see who it was that was calling her, expecting either Swire or Hoshiguma to have contacted her through a clearer line.
However, it wasn't them. "Unc—Chief Wei?" she corrected herself.
Sung remained silent.
Ch'en clicked the accept button, bringing the device to her ear and turning away. "Hello? Chief Wei?"
A voice replied on the other side, "Ch'en. I'll be brief. You see what is in the skies, correct?"
"I do," she replied concisely. "I also believe we should activate delta protocol and move the nomadic city out of the way of this phenomenon."
"Oh?"
"Do I need to explain why?"
"Not here. Meet me in my office along with Beatrix Schwire, we have a great deal to discuss in regards to this occurrence."
"Understood," Ch'en voiced. "I'll be on my way there after notifying her."
"Good."
The call ended there.
She sighed, pocketing her phone and turning toward Sung. "You." She pointed in his direction, the black-haired man tilting his head in response. "You're coming with me to this meeting."
"...Alright," he agreed without much fuss.
***
A Hunter was somebody who was intimate with Death, who walked close to Death, and who should prepare for Death; all in their journey to rid the world of Gates.
For Sung Jin-Woo, he was the one closest to Death, and therefore it was his greatest duty to cleanse the world of Gates.
Twenty Gates, all crackling a hymn of humanity's demise, and he, as the future Shadow Monarch, would vow to silence them all.
The clock was now ticking.
The race against time had begun.
Yet unfortunately, in a race, nothing can outrun Death.