Yes, the new employee must have seen something wrong due to the hard work. She can't believe that Lee Sa-young is here. It's impossible, right? It seems that he has become weak and cannot distinguish himself well. Otherwise, he wouldn't say such a crazy thing.

Hye-jin looked at the newcomer with pity. She thought, "I'll have to give him some bellflower juice when I get back to the office. And she recited Lee Sa-young's profile in her head.

Lee Sa-young, a strong hunter who has held the number one position for six years despite losing the number one position to a person who suddenly jumped out of the blue or didn't know if he was impersonating. The only thing unusual about her is that... 'he usually ignores requests from the Awakening Management Bureau and the Rift Management Agency'.

Since Yang Hye-jin worked at the Rift Management Agency, Lee Sa-young has never responded to a request for assistance. A B-rank hunter standing next to her laughed as if it was no different from Hye-jin's idea.

"Why is Lee Sa-young here? Did you see it wrong?"

"Oh, no. This is the real Lee Sa-young...."

"I heard that the number of concept worms using gas masks in techware has increased these days after seeing public service announcements. Are you sure this isn't one of them?"

"It's a possibility."

"Right? I get goose bumps every time I see that commercial."

Hahahaha, it was time for a change of mood that didn't help much with a ridiculous joke. It was a sleepy voice that everyone knew that froze the friendly atmosphere in an instant.

"Have you come to make your sacrifice... before the rift?"

"It's like a family reunion."

It was a familiar voice, but too familiar. It was understandable because it was a voice she could hear all the time after the weekend entertainment program recently.

Yang Hye-jin turned her head slowly. He walked leisurely across the line that the dark gas mask had set. He's tall, he's got dark technology, he's got sarcasm, he's got goosebumps, he's got a gas mask... Just one!

The B-class hunter, who had been sweating from the moment he heard his voice, finally made a cross shape with a safety rod and began to shake it. It looked like he was exorcising evil spirits. Yang Hye-jin also dropped the cigarette she was holding. Of course, she immediately came to her senses and rubbed it out with her feet.

In the midst of the confusion, there was only one thought on everyone's mind.

What the hell is this guy doing here?

A rank 5 crack is not an easy crack. But it wasn't so difficult that it required an S-class hunter. Of course, she called them for support, but she knew they wouldn't come, so it was embarrassing when they did. It was like winning the first prize in a lottery she bought for fun.

Before she knew it, the gas mask standing in front of the rift entrance tilted his head.

"What are you doing? Not going in."

Yang Hye-jin, swallowing hard, asked cautiously.

"Are you here... for support?"

"Yes."

"For what?"

He pointed his chin at the crack opening.

"To get rid of this."

She asked why the current number two in the country would come to a fissure that is only number five.... But Yang Hye-jin quickly gave up trying to get an answer. She's in a hurry and doesn't have time to argue with Lee Sa-young.

"Support staff from the Awakening Management Bureau are on their way as well. It's better if you wait a bit and go in together..."

Lee Sa-young replied sourly.

"I don't need it."

"What?"

Behind the lens of the gas mask, the indifferent look swept over the new recruits, the B-rank hunters and Hye-jin one by one.

"You guys take care of the survivors."

He stepped into the rift before she could stop it. After the rift swallowed Lee Sa-young, the newcomer stomped his foot while alternating between the rift and Hye-jin.

"Se, Senior... What should I do?"

"Hah..."

Hye-jin threw off her yellow hard hat and ruffled her hair.

"What can we do. We're going to follow him right now..."

"What? Oh yes!"

"Don't worry about the master, he'll take care of it, we'll focus on identifying and rescuing survivors. Move!"

"Yes, sir!"

"And... Newcomer!"

"Yes?"

The newcomer raised his head. Hye-jin took off her fluorescent vest and put on a thick bulletproof vest and pointed to the supply truck with her thumb.

"Bring a gas mask that is more than the number of people, and bring everything that has an antidote and detoxifying effect."

"W, why is that...?"

Is there a monster in this rift that uses poison? The newcomer looked at Hye-jin with a confused face. She clenched her tongue and gestured hastily.

"If you don't want to die from the poison, then hurry!"

As the Rift Management Agency's hunters rushed to open their supply trucks, Lee Sa-young, who was lighting their tails, moved slowly. Pretending to run to the Rift Master at any moment, he stopped in a quiet place and watched a purple ivy wrapped around a tree.

After a few minutes, something black and round emerged from its shadow. It was the sunglasses-wearing head of Min-ki.

"Guild leader."

Min-ki, who deals with shadows and lives in hiding, could only hide in the shadows of others. Therefore, he couldn't enter the rift alone and waited for Lee Sa-young's arrival. Min-ki's head bobbed up and down for a moment, then he crawled out of the shadows and stood on his own two feet.

He cleared his throat.

"It's quiet."

"Yes, it is."

Normally, when you enter a rift, you're greeted by monsters running around like it's their own backyard. But in this rift, from the moment they entered until now, they haven't seen a single monster. It's like there's not a single living thing there. Min-ki pushed up his sunglasses and followed behind.

Lee Sa-young picked up a red feather that fell to the ground. The feather glowed without a speck of dust. Min-ki took off his sunglasses to check the feather and muttered quickly.

"This is the breast feather of a fourth-rank monster red-breasted pterodactyl. It has a violent temper, so whether it's a human or another monster, it runs like an Adelie penguin whenever it sees it, and it's characterized by traveling in groups of five or six. If you look at its condition, it looks like a feather that has recently fallen out."

"You are clever. I'll leave the training of next quarter's recruits to you."

"I'm sorry."

Feeling a sharp sting, Min-ki closed his mouth. Lee Sa-young, who took off his gas mask, looked around.

When the hunter moves, the distinctive smell remains. Whether it's body odor, the lingering scent of a weapon, the smell of a monster's blood, the scent of its breath, or... whether it's the smell of a human being attacked by a monster. Lee Sa-young could smell such a smell particularly well.

However, during the journey from the entrance of the rift to here, there was strangely no smell left in the rift, except for what the plants in the rift were spitting out.

I can't even smell this ordinary blood.

Even though it entered the middle of the red-chested pterosaur habitat, this silence means that all the pterosaurs have died. It's possible that monsters were fighting, but if there was a battle between monsters, there wouldn't be such a big mark.

"It's too clean."

"Either the master of this rift is very powerful and the monsters have good discipline, or someone cleaned it up. Which do you think?"
 

The rift master controls the monster, so there is no such thing as a relatively quiet rift. However, in that case, the master's power was very strong, and the moment he entered the rift, he could sense the master's existence. But this rift didn't feel like that.

"The latter."

Someone killed all the monsters without leaving a trace.

Anyone trapped in this rift who could do that... Sa-young thought of Ui-jae who had blocked his attack with a ladle and ripped off his gas mask with his bloody hands. Yes, it's Ui-jae. He started to walk slowly.

"Seo Min-ki."

"Yes, sir."

"Where do you think Hyung is?"

Hyung, a polite title he couldn't believe had come out of his mouth. Suspecting his ears, Min-ki received a cold look before coming to his senses and answering.

"Well, wouldn't he be hiding somewhere? He has to hide his power. He doesn't need to catch a monster and reveal his existence."

Seo Min-ki's opinion was right. Sa-young agreed with him in her head as well. Didn't Cha Ui-jae even insist on living quietly? Such a person would never kill a monster. However, the inside of the strangely quiet crevice kept bothering him.

Suddenly, Sa-young's lips tightened. Come to think of it, he insisted that it was not him, but still, Cha Ui-jae needed money and tried to sell the mana stone. At the tomato market.

I have no money...'.

Did he kill them all to collect monster by-products? If so, the condition of this crack, which seemed to have been completely cleaned with a vacuum cleaner, was also understandable. Sa-young's fine facial lines frowned and he clicked his tongue slightly.

Shit, if you need money, just tell me.

Cha Ui-jae was strange and suspicious. He couldn't understand his behavior.

He said he wanted to live quietly, but he had a lot of accidents and at some point he accepted the deal. This time, he's caught in a rift, and instead of staying put, he goes off to dry the monster's seed. Apparently, he was born to attract storms.

What appeared at the end of the walk through the blue reed field was an open space with grass. In the middle of the open space, there was a life-size statue of Lee Sa-young with dirt and a broken office chair, and in one corner, dead pterosaurs were piled up like towers. Min-ki, who made eye contact with a life-size figure, was more shocked than the pterosaur corpse.

"Oh, my God."

Sa-young approached the pile of pterosaur carcasses and picked up the top one. It is a strangely clean corpse. The only trauma is a twisted neck. He didn't even pull out the feathers. He thought he was aiming for a monster by-product, but that wasn't it either.

"What did you just say... are you sure he's just hiding somewhere?"

"......"

Min-ki trembled with fear, sandwiched between the paper Lee Sa-young and the real Lee Sa-young. What are you going to do with Cha Eui-jae who is going around breaking my expectations! He was a criminal who moved based on common sense, so he didn't dare to follow Cha Eui-jae's movement.

Sa-young threw the pterosaur carelessly and turned to the life-size stand.

"When did they make this?"

"Isn't it after the public service announcement aired? I think we should ask the public relations team for the exact details."

"I'm not that curious..."

When Sa-young raised his hand, Min-ki understood it well and turned around to look around. Meanwhile, Sa-young was looking intently at the life-size figure. When he saw the dirt on its waist, he wondered who had dug out what was buried in the ground. Min-ki, who approached him before he knew it, reported.

"I don't see any footprints here or any sign that someone passed by."

"He wouldn't have gone up to the sky or down to the ground."

"Yes. He may have the ability to hide signs or tracks."

"The more I think about it, the more fun it is."

Sa-young replied with a face that didn't look amused at all. His palm began to throb like it was on fire and he sternly took off his gloves to check his hand.

The palm of his hand, the blood, the proof of the contract, the golden line... It burned black. Sa-young muttered coldly.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"