The world was still running smoothly, with everything proceeding step by step.
The conquest of the remaining gates left on Madagascar was still ongoing, and construction was progressing without a hitch too—starting with the Hyper Camp and continuing on to housing and infrastructure for the workers.
Other business was the sa.
When he opened his phone to check, there weren’t any urgent calls.
They were all just ssages about status reports.
He’d told them to compile everything and send it by text instead of calling, and everyone had handled it cleanly, without any fluff.
Su-ho checked the ti and date.
‘There’s still a long way to go before the second Big Gate that was scheduled to break out. That’s why I was going to stack my specs as much as possible until the next Big Gate and set up a World Stabilization System or sothing in the anti, but....’
To think it would toss him a new piece of howork called a special quest.
As expected of the system.
No—maybe it had been the intended sequence.
It had regressed him to the day he was the strongest of all humanity, so it wasn’t an idiot. There was no way it would just sit by and silently watch him run wild.
‘Maybe it “aged” for new entertainnt.’
The system only pursued entertainnt.
So no matter how outstanding he was, as long as he was playing in its playground, he couldn’t get ahead of it first.
If he wanted to catch the system off guard, he had to comply with the course it created as much as possible and gather information he didn’t know.
‘Then I should start right away.’
After thinking for a mont, Su-ho went back into the Subspace House.
Then, inside the Subspace House, he tried activating the Big Gate embedded in the special quest.
[You cannot trigger it here.]
A firm response.
So tricks like this didn’t work after all.
It said that if he touched it, a Big Gate would occur imdiately, but it hadn’t said exactly where it would occur—so he’d tried to make it occur inside the Subspace House, where there would be minimal casualties.
But the system was the system.
It didn’t allow Su-ho’s little trick.
‘First, I need to go sowhere with as few people as possible.’
After thinking for a mont, Su-ho summoned Cheolma and headed for an uninhabited island with no signs of life.
‘This should do.’
Starting from Madagascar and going far to the south, he was able to find an island without a single trace of people.
To prevent any possible accidents, he checked the surrounding area two or three more tis, and only then did Su-ho trigger the Big Gate once again.
[Do you want to trigger a Big Gate?]
When he touched the text, the system asked for final confirmation.
The answer was obviously yes.
And then.
“...?”
There was no response at all.
What was this?
An error?
That couldn’t be.
Because the “create Big Gate” text written in the special quest entry had been blocked so it could no longer be touched.
At that mont.
[The conditions have been fulfilled.]
[From now on, the creation of the second Big Gate will begin.]
Kugugugugugu!!
A system notification appeared.
At the sa ti, the entire island began to rumble violently.
‘It’s finally starting.’
Su-ho mounted Cheolma and moved away from the island.
This Big Gate wasn’t the Big Gate he knew, but a new type of gate, so he didn’t know what kind of gate-creation effect might occur.
At that mont, Su-ho’s phone began to ring like crazy.
The caller was Kim Geon.
But he ignored it.
Now wasn’t the ti to answer calls.
But after that call ended, calls ca in one after another—Jeong Cheol-min, Jo Jin-hwi, Charlie, and so on.
Only then did Su-ho realize that these weren’t just ordinary calls, and he answered right away.
The person he picked up for was Kim Geon, who had been calling repeatedly.
The mont he answered, Kim Geon’s relief burst out from the other side of the line.
- Ah, thank goodness. You answered.
“What is it? What happened?”
- Section Chief, did you not see the notification?
A notification?
At the word “notification,” Su-ho’s spine went cold for a mont.
“What notification?”
- The Big Gate notification. Didn’t an alert pop up just now saying the second Big Gate has started being created?
“What?!”
At Kim Geon’s words, Su-ho raised his voice without aning to.
No, wasn’t a Big Gate created through the quest supposed to show a notification only to ?
It wasn’t.
Unfortunately, because a Big Gate was a world-class event, just like the first Big Gate, a notification popped up for all players.
As a result, the world was turned upside down once again.
“A Big Gate?”
“No, a second Big Gate?”
“What is this supposed to an?”
“What is this out of nowhere?”
“What did the Director-General say?!”
The World Magic Detection Organization, WMD, fell into chaos.
During the first Big Gate, there had at least been precursor signs, but this was, in the truest sense, sothing that appeared out of nowhere.
Of course, it wasn’t just WMD. The U.N. and the entire world were thrown into turmoil.
‘This is driving insane.’
He’d tried to handle it as quietly as possible if he could, but of course—it was the system.
It couldn’t stand seeing players have it easy.
No, now it felt like it couldn’t stand seeing Su-ho have it easy.
After thinking briefly, Su-ho gave orders.
“I’ll look into it right away and contact you, so tell everyone to stay put and not do anything rash—have them wait. Tell WMD to monitor the entire world as much as possible, and if anything unusual cos up, to contact imdiately. I’m going to turn this phone off, so contact on my sub phone.”
- Yes, understood!
After the call ended, Su-ho turned off the phone.
Then, with a furrowed brow, he looked at the uninhabited island that was still trembling.
That was when.
[The second Big Gate has been created.]
It said the second Big Gate had been created.
At the sa ti, the island that had been ringing like mad also stopped, as if it were a lie.
But the gate was nowhere to be seen.
‘What? Don’t tell it’s not here?’
Well, it said it would create a Big Gate. It had never said it would create it in front of my eyes.
While he was at a loss at the system’s pettiness, Su-ho’s sub phone rang.
It was Kim Geon.
“Yeah.”
- Section Chief, WMD contacted us and said they detected abnormal mana concentration.
“Where?”
- That is... in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
“The Pacific?”
Suddenly, the Pacific?
At that mont, one mory from his previous life flashed through Su-ho’s mind.
“Geon-ah, don’t tell it’s near the Mariana Trench?”
- How did you know? We haven’t tracked it precisely yet, but they say it’s highly likely to be around there.
“This is driving insane. All right. I’m leaving for that way right now, so tell WMD to keep watching the mana trend, and tell everyone else not to overreact and just keep doing what they were doing. Especially the Hyper Camp project—keep it going.”
- You’re going alone?
“Of course. Among the players right now, is there anyone with mobility as fast as mine? And you said it’s in the middle of the Pacific, right? How else are you going to get there if not by flying?”
- That’s true, but... even so, will you really be all right?
“I don’t know either. But if I’m not all right, then nobody else will be all right either, so what’s the point of that question?”
- Th-that’s true, but even so, I’d prefer you not say things like that.
“It’s a joke, you idiot. Anyway, I’ll contact you when I get there.”
- Yes, understood.
The call ended.
Su-ho sighed as he put away his phone.
“Of all places, the Mariana Trench....”
There was a place in the world called the Mariana Trench.
A trench 2,550 km long and reaching a height difference of 11,000 ters—the deepest seafloor in the world, and at the sa ti the largest trench.
It took its na from the nearby Mariana Islands, and it was called the bottom of the Earth, or the lowest place in the world.
Just by seafloor depth alone, it was as deep as the distance from land up to the stratosphere, so saying any more about how deep it was would be stating the obvious.
The problem was that, in his previous life, an enormous gate had existed in the Mariana Trench.
That place, called “Undersea Hell,” proudly held one seat among the five calamity-grade gates, and it had been a gate he and his comrades from his previous life had planned to raid at least as their third or fourth target.
‘Because Undersea Hell’s field is literally nothing but water.’
The mont you entered, an imnse amount of seawater welcod the players.
There was nowhere to put your feet down.
So in the Mariana Gate, the number of players who died by drowning was far higher than the number who died at the hands of monsters.
‘No—just in case, I should go and confirm it with my own eyes first.’
Just because the location was similar didn’t an it was the sa gate, right?
Su-ho imdiately mounted Cheolma and headed for the Mariana Trench.
And after flying for quite a while and arriving at the Mariana Trench...
“Wow....”
As if to say ominous forebodings always ca true, sure enough, Undersea Hell—the one he’d seen in his previous life—was recreated exactly as it had been.
“This is driving insane, seriously.”
Su-ho lifted his cara and fild the second Big Gate.
It looked truly vicious.
Just like the first Big Gate, the Mariana Gate had a shape resembling a black hole of dark purple-black energy. It seed this kind of form was a typical characteristic of all Big Gates.
Because the Mariana Gate in his previous life had looked like this too.
Click, click.
After finishing filming, Su-ho sent the photos to Kim Geon.
Then he told him to wait, since he would start investigating first.
‘Initial response is good enough like this....’
I have to go in, right?
Yeah. I have to go in.
Even if soone else ca, there’s nothing they could do anyway.
Thinking that, Su-ho rode Cheolma and closed the distance to it.
“Man, it really stings.”
In front of the Mariana Gate.
Floating like a floating fortress above the trench, it was rippling with a dark purple-black energy portal that looked like it could casually swallow a few buildings, just like he’d seen in his previous life.
The aura it emitted was intense too.
Just like with the first Big Gate, simply being close to it made his skin tingle—like if he stayed like this, he’d be crushed flat like in a press.
If the force he could feel on his skin was this strong, how much tighter would it be inside?
Probably, unless you were a player on Su-ho’s level, you’d pass out without even being able to breathe the ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) mont you entered.
After thinking briefly, Su-ho approached the Big Gate.
[Loading gate information.]
[Second Big Gate]
- Entry Condition: Player An Su-ho only.
- Variable Conditions: None.
[Do you wish to enter the gate?]
Looking at the gate information, Su-ho let out a snort of laughter.
It was absurd that there were no other conditions—only that it was exclusive to him.
‘So it really is a gate for .’
Which made it even more absurd.
It was a gate only I can enter, so why are you announcing it to the entire world?
Is it telling to embarrass myself if I fail?
But if I die inside, it’s over.
The system’s psychology was impossible to understand.
However, because of this special quest, Su-ho could be certain.
‘From now on, all the massive upheavals that will shake this world will be focused on .’
In other words, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that from now on, this world had beco a 1:1 playground ant only for and the system.
It wasn’t pleasant.
Because it ant if I’m finished, then everyone else is finished too.
Su-ho texted Kim Geon to tell him he was going into the gate and would co back out.
There was no other choice.
Even if this wasn’t the Mariana Gate he knew, in the end, he’d have no choice but to challenge it.
So without hesitation, he entered the gate.
[Entering the gate.]
The mont Su-ho entered the gate, the aura that had been dark purple-black changed to red.
Kim Geon, who had received the text, called like crazy, but the mont Su-ho entered the gate, even that ringing stopped.
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