RAAGOAT 10

Episode 10

“Is it because I was hungry and then completely refilled? I feel energized.”

My head is spinning.
And so are the possibilities.

Item 1 has been resolved.

‘Biological time follows the external world.’

The momentary satiety from leveling up is lasting quite a while. The time difference between reality and the gate is working in my favor. And experience is still piling up.

‘At this rate, even 50 minutes shouldn’t be a problem.’

Even just lying here, an A-rank is practically guaranteed.

But that’s not my intention.
I want a remarkable grade.

‘One that no one can ever reclaim.’

An eye-catching new record, even for a low-grade Chaos Gate, enough to draw the guilds’ attention.
My first step begins there.

With a healthier body, my mind cleared up too.
It was time for resourcefulness.

Whoosh.
I adjusted my grip on the knife.
Then, I drew a large arc.
Swish!

The slime was cleanly split in two.
‘Cell division’ would be an apt expression.

I continuously cut and cut this resisting, inanimate object.
“Whew……”

I stayed up for two days and nights.
The slime was roughly in several hundred pieces.

The slime didn’t look hideous for having been ravaged by a human. If anything, it became cuter. They all returned to droplet shapes.

Wondering how much time had passed in reality, I checked with the Hunter Pad.
“51 minutes.”

In theory, an A-grade is confirmed.

‘Staying here longer doesn’t seem like it’ll change much.’

The value of the final item would be demonstrated here.

I sat down in a cross-legged position.
“Now that I’m about to do it, I’m hesitant.”
Having experienced that pain before, I’m nervous.

‘I’ll have to endure it…’

Holding my breath, I picked up and ate a piece of slime.
Munch munch.

The texture isn’t bad.
The taste is so-so, like bubblegum flavor.

The only problem is the pain.
“Kitchen!!”

It comes immediately.
The agony of a fireball rolling around in my stomach.
My organs scream and wail.

‘I have to digest it!’

I must not vomit.

Gripping the hilt of Blood Shadow planted in the ground, I endured.

<A mutual ‘exchange of blood’ is taking place.>
<The mutual ‘volume of blood exchanged’ is insufficient.>

I ate more.
Vomiting blood, I gobbled it up frantically.
Endure!!

The result came shortly after.

<Seo Won-seok (甲) and Slime (乙) form a Lifetime Contract.>

“Ugh!”

My cerebral blood vessels thicken desperately.
The slime’s bodily fluid races through my blood vessels, corroding my entire body.
Clear damage.

<乙 has violated the Lifetime Contract.>
<Therefore, ‘punishment: death’ is levied upon 373 entities named ‘Slime’ instead.>
<The activation condition for the punishment is a spoken command.>

I clenched my chattering teeth.
……Bang!

When I opened my mouth, the slime burst like foam.
Simultaneously.
The slime evaporated without leaving a trace.

Hah, hah.
Summoning all my strength, I turned on the Hunter Pad.

=======================
STAND / NAME / TIME
NEW! 1ST / Seo** / 60’00” SSS
-> We award you a ‘Hidden Reward’ for achieving the first and wondrous record!
=======================

A sense of exhaustion washed over me.
“Even if it’s the lowest grade, this rank is good.”
I sprawled out on my back.
For a gate, the sky was dazzlingly bright.

Hunter Association 1st Floor Lobby.

Team Leader Yoo didn’t show it outwardly, but inwardly he snorted at Hunter Seo’s words.

Equating the patience of a desk worker with that of a Hunter?

‘Oh my.’

Pathetic, truly pathetic.
Even making allowances, this was enough to make you click your tongue.

His background as a former Seoul National University medical student was impressive.
However, shortly after Healer-type Awakened appeared, medical schools faced a crisis of existence.
Ultimately, they were phased out. Even the vested interest group, the Medical Association, succumbed to the tide of the superhuman era.

‘Even the doctors’ association, famous for its immense patience, collapsed, my good sir.’

How much worse for those who gave up midway?

E-rank Awakened are called such, but in reality, they’re treated as slightly exceptional ordinary people.
They rejoice at the news of awakening for a few days.
Most end up frustrated before the wall of reality that they are nothing special.
Seo Won-seok, was it?
I hold no personal feelings.

That high-and-mighty attitude is common among those who just awakened. I’ve seen it more than once or twice.

‘Wake up, my friend.’

There’s another hill to lean on.
That’s reality.
Nowadays, there exists a realm that cannot be overcome by effort alone.

‘Hmm.’

But, I am curious.
This might be a chance to witness the famously aloof Hunter Seo Boseok showing a disappointed expression.

‘It’ll definitely turn out that way, 100%.’

A prime example was the Chaos Gate that Hunter Seo’s acquaintance entered.
<Sityletr-66> was a gate even renowned Hunters entered out of interest.
Of course, since Chaos Gates use a random assignment system within a specific table, entering on demand was impossible.
Yet, some high-ranker invested separate time and effort.

The reason they challenged that Chaos Gate so persistently.
A sort of curiosity.
Or rather, more likely, a desire for improvement and recognition.

If one could be the first to achieve an A-grade in a Chaos Gate where no one else had…
‘Even if it’s a 2nd-floor gate, it would affect one’s market value.’

Being the first at anything is always appealing.

An impregnable Chaos Gate.
What are the chances an E-rank Awakened, even if acquainted with Hunter Seo Boseok, achieves a noticeable result?

Converging to zero.

‘Take the glory from your hard-working teens and bury it at the Hero Association, I say.’

The corner of Team Leader Yoo’s mouth twitched slightly.

“Oh my, hello, Hunter Seo.”

Just then, a presence abruptly inserted itself between Hunter Seo and Team Leader Yoo.

Team Leader Yoo recognized him immediately.
There was an internal policy to memorize the faces of all R&Y guild Hunters.

“Hunter Jeong, isn’t it!”

Hunter Jeong Hamin.
One of the promising Hunters for the future.
He had a wide network and respectable skills as a Hunter.

There were some unsavory rumors, but what Hunter didn’t have a few? They were minor.

“Good to see you, Team Leader.”

Hunter Jeong gave only a perfunctory nod to Team Leader Yoo.

“By the way.”

In contrast, he beamed at Seo Boseok with a flimsy smile.
“What brings you to the Association, Senior?”

“Hmm?”

Hunter Seo Boseok seemed to have no idea who he was.
“Who?”

“Haha! You kidder, Senior! Didn’t we hunt Ghouls together in a B-rank Abyss Gate not too long ago!”
“I see. I tend to forget faces I’ve only seen once.”
“…Haha.”

Hunter Jeong turned pale and grumbled.
“That was the last Ghoul hunt; we’ve met over ten times, you know.”

Team Leader Yoo almost snorted.
Even the notoriously slick Hunter Jeong couldn’t melt Seo Boseok’s ice wall.

Awkward, Hunter Jeong shifted his gaze to the display board.
“Hmm?”

The name written as ‘Seo**’ caught his eye.

‘Aha.’

So that’s why that other senior rushed upstairs.

‘That human the other senior was babbling about having an instant death skill.’

And why the reclusive Hunter Seo Boseok came in person.

Once he grasped the situation, he finally saw the code name of the Chaos Gate Seo** entered.
<Sityletr-66>
A Chaos Gate Hunter Jeong himself had challenged before.
A truly hellish place.
It was a gate that materialized the fight against oneself.

“How long has this Awakened Seo been inside?” Hunter Jeong asked.

Team Leader Yoo checked his shiny wristwatch by pulling up his sleeve.
“It’s been about 20 minutes now.”
“A little over half a day has passed inside that gate then.”
“Ah! Come to think of it, Hunter Jeong, you’ve entered that gate too! That second-place record was set by you, wasn’t it!”
“Not a record to boast about. And I don’t want to challenge it again either.”
“Is it a peculiar gate?”

Hunter Seo Boseok reacted.
Hunter Jeong, brightening, replied.
“You might have heard the quest content is ‘Survive as long as possible’. That part is fine, right? As Hunters, if we gain EXP, we level up, and then you feel your stamina refill in an instant, don’t you?”
Hunters cannot see status windows.
Thus, they guess they’ve leveled up by feeling their vitality recover mid-hunt.
“Alternatively, though it would be very unpleasant, you could eat the monster to hold out. But the problem is the monster.”

“Is the monster troublesome?”
“It’s a Slime.”
“…The Slime I know?”
Hunter Jeong nodded with smugness at the edge of his chin.
“It’s that Slime, normally a trash mob. But it’s monstrously huge!”
“Hmm.”
“As you know, Slime are inedible. Even if you kill them, the individual EXP is almost negligible. So, for that Chaos Gate, you have no choice but to stubbornly hold out by sheer willpower.”

However, Hunter Jeong deliberately didn’t mention the content at the end of the quest.

======================
· To earn additional rewards, consecutively defeat the monsters inside the gate in the shortest time possible! Greatly affects clear grade!(Please note this is optional.)
======================

This is a bluff, or in crude terms, a trap.
Rule-type gates sometimes dangle hidden rewards like this to tempt or entrap participants.

‘There’s only one Slime monster to begin with, so how do you consecutively defeat it?’
Split it into multiple pieces for division and use wide-area magic?

The idea is good, but it’s impractical in reality. In a gate where stamina management is key, it’s just an act that drains stamina, and the conditions are quite restrictive from the start.
The gate participant must be a mage.
The motto of Chaos Gates is balance, and the existence of a prerequisite task goes against the gate’s very nature.

“Can’t you hold out by tearing and eating the Slime?” Team Leader Yoo asked.

A look of contempt unique to those with elitist ideologies appeared in Hunter Jeong’s eyes.
“Team Leader, it seems Association staff should get some field experience too.”
“…Yes?”
“Slime cause internal gastric bleeding,” Hunter Seo Boseok answered instead.
“Ah……”
“It would be hard to hold out long by consuming Slime. Unless one has exceptional stomach resistance.”
“Healers would struggle too. What Slime cause is gastric ‘bleeding’,” Hunter Jeong eagerly added.
“No matter how great the Healer, they can’t do anything about blood.”
“…Blood……”

Hunter Seo Boseok muttered that single word as if chewing on sand.

‘He said anemia.’

Seo Wonseok is tenacious.
I don’t know the motive or purpose for becoming a Hunter, but my younger brother seizes what he aims for. If it’s within the reach of effort, without fail.

In that series of processes, my brother overworks his own body.
“You seem worried, Senior.”
“…….”
“Ah, don’t worry too much. For a 2nd-floor Chaos Gate, they spit you out before a fatal accident occurs. You’ll probably see his face in about 10 minutes or so.”
“I’ll wait a bit longer, then.”

Seo Boseok decided to wait a little more.

But.

27 minutes.
“Oh! Not bad!”

35 minutes.
“Uh, Hmm?”

40 minutes……
“!”

And 55 minutes.
“…This seems weird somehow?!!”

By elapsed time alone, he had already set a new record, yet Seo Wonseok wasn’t coming out of the gate!