Even if I Make It Roughly, Ex-rank Items Continue to Accumulate - Chapter 158

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Even Hastily Made Ones Keep Stacking Up as EX-Rank (158)

 

This Is It

 

“The world inside the Gates… is an actually existing world?”

 

“What is this supposed to mean?”

 

Murmur murmur.

 

At Lee Si-hyeok’s words, the audience began to murmur.

 

“This is different from the lecture I expected? Wasn’t it supposed to be about Legacy Artifacts?”

 

“I thought so too. But what’s this about the world inside Gates…”

 

“Come to think of it, I feel like I’ve heard that theory somewhere before. Didn’t it become really popular once in the past?”

 

Lee Si-hyeok didn’t miss one freshman’s muttering.

 

He pointed directly at that freshman.

 

“The person in school uniform in the second row on the left. Could you repeat what you just said?”

 

“Me, me? You mean me?”

 

“Yes. I’d appreciate it.”

 

“Uh, well…”

 

As people’s gazes focused on him, the freshman trembled with the burden for a moment, but soon swallowed his saliva and spoke. He seemed to have barely regained his composure.

 

“Um. I know that the theory you mentioned, Mr. Lee Si-hyeok? Mr. Lecturer? Anyway, that theory was hugely popular once upon a time. Of course, it was during the early Gate era when I was young, so I learned about it later while studying…”

 

“That’s fine. Please continue.”

 

“Yes, yes. Anyway, I believe that theory started from the question of what exactly are the identities of the worlds that appear from Gates. When you think about it, it’s strange. Inside Gates, there are tons of monsters that are hostile to humans, but if you look closely, there’s an ecosystem among those monsters. And the inside of Gates is so vast that it hasn’t been properly mapped yet.”

 

After the turbulent Gate era brought chaos to humanity and ended.

 

Finally, in the peace they had regained, magical engineers faced one question.

 

Namely, ‘What exactly is the identity of Gates?’

 

Gates are vast. Even when search teams wandered around for days and nights, they couldn’t determine their boundaries, and even S-rank Hunters couldn’t reach the ‘borders’ of Gates.

 

Naturally, questions had to arise.

 

Before they knew it, Gates had become an inseparable part of human life. Gate byproducts, monsters, Hunters, the circuits supporting cities.

 

And when they realized that no one actually knew the identity of the Gates that had given them such gift-like changes.

 

Humanity was swept by unknown terror.

 

“I think… it started as something similar to conspiracy theories at first. When some people raised questions about Gates, various ghost story-like tales emerged, and I think I read in a book that this led to actual research.”

 

To cut to the conclusion, all those research efforts failed.

 

It was impossible to succeed from the beginning.

 

Humanity hadn’t even figured out everything about mana yet. They couldn’t even attempt Legacy Artifacts, and were only barely reaching for general artifacts.

 

But to discover the identity of Gates?

 

It was an unreachable dream.

 

And just as staring at the sun too long blinds the eyes.

 

The price for looking up at something too high for too long came to humanity as well.

 

“The research failed repeatedly, continuing to come up empty… and toward the end, North Korea must have made a desperate gamble. They tried to uncover the secret by using an S-rank Hunter as a test subject, and in the end, the entire country was destroyed. I think everyone here knows what happened after that.”

 

The research that seemed like it would be easily solved entered a stagnant period.

 

North of South Korea, which was conducting the same research.

 

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea took the desperate measure of conducting experiments by putting an S-rank Hunter—in their terms, a ‘special-grade combatant’—into a Gate.

 

The experiment was simple.

 

The combatant would emit mana at maximum output, and the moment that extended mana touched the ‘end’ of the Gate, they would forcibly extract the combatant from the Gate.

 

The idea was that this would allow them to bring the world inside the Gate to the outside.

 

In a way, it was a very bizarre and brutally simple idea that could be called typical of North Korea.

 

However, the mana possessed by that combatant was woefully insufficient to reach the end of the Gate from the start…

 

And when they tried to pull the combatant outside without that mana being recovered, various collision phenomena overlapped, causing a tremendous explosion.

 

By estimates, an explosion on the scale of Mount Baekdu erupting occurred, leading to the complete destruction of all of North Korea.

 

A Mount Baekdu eruption without volcanic ash.

 

In the end, the greed to be one step ahead of other countries led to their own destruction.

 

“Oh, I remember too. Wasn’t all research worldwide suspended after that incident?”

 

“Right, that’s right. Everyone claimed to have reasons for stopping, but we couldn’t have been fooled. They just stopped because it was too dangerous.”

 

“In other words, they got scared.”

 

“There must be quite a few people here who were researching back then?”

 

People nodded as if they finally remembered.

 

The freshman who had spoken seemed proud or embarrassed about speaking without trembling, wearing a shy smile.

 

“You can sit down now. Thank you for sharing that.”

 

“Hehe, yes.”

 

Lee Si-hyeok looked at the curious audience and walked slowly.

 

Holding the microphone, he quietly observed their murmuring.

 

“…Hey, but why is Lee Si-hyeok suddenly bringing up that old story?”

 

“Don’t tell me that’s the topic he’s lecturing on this time?”

 

“That can’t be it. No matter what, they researched to that extent and couldn’t figure it out, so how could he?”

 

“Still, if it’s Lee Si-hyeok, maybe…”

 

Thud.

 

Lee Si-hyeok stopped in the center of the platform, making a footstep sound.

 

Then the commotion instantly quieted and attention focused.

 

Everyone had expressions mixing curiosity and suspicion half and half.

 

He had succeeded in drawing out the planned reaction.

 

Now it was time to move to the next step.

 

Click.

 

He finally picked up the remote control he hadn’t pressed earlier and pushed the button.

 

As people’s eyes widened, the screen that appeared showed an image they had never expected.

 

“Oh, that thing.”

 

“What is it?”

 

A photo that filled the screen.

 

It was the giant black rift that anyone could see in Eterion Central Plaza.

 

It wasn’t just a simple photo, as black waves gently undulated on its surface.

 

“Everyone who attended this lecture must have seen it directly. Even if you’re not students, visitors must have seen it too. It’s quite the topic of conversation these days, isn’t it?”

 

Sandip Malhotra and Liam Brooks, who had been watching with bated breath, opened their mouths.

 

Of course they knew.

 

The conspiracy theory about Lee Si-hyeok’s terrorist plot.

 

Having spent time with Lee Si-hyeok, they knew it was ridiculous, but strangely, public opinion worldwide was enthusiastic about that conspiracy theory.

 

Another puzzling point was that Professor Bae Young-min’s paper, which was the starting point of that conspiracy theory, was surprisingly persuasive. As if he had actually planned that terrorism himself…

 

But to break through that controversy so head-on.

 

They had expected him to give a lecture on a different topic at most, but this was unimaginable.

 

“The rift. According to someone, it’s also called a ‘Gate.’ That wouldn’t be wrong. After all, Gates and dimensional gates perform the same function.”

 

“What? What did he just say…”

 

“Didn’t he say dimensional gate?”

 

Lee Si-hyeok continued in a low voice.

 

“The topic that freshman mentioned earlier. The hypothesis that was once a hot topic, ‘Gates are existing worlds’—that is today’s lecture topic.”

 

When he pondered how to proceed with this lecture, the answer came immediately.

 

Dimensional gates.

 

Soon Orbes and Earth would be connected. Then they would appear in the central district of Eterion, and people would inevitably be confused.

 

To prevent unnecessary confusion at that time, it was necessary to discuss this topic today.

 

“You’ve probably thought of the monsters that appear from Gates as nothing more than mindless beasts until now. Monsters with whom communication is impossible and who harbor only hostility toward humans.”

 

In fact, one paper had said this:

 

[Monsters are literally ‘beasts.’ There would be no other way to describe them. No communication is possible with them, and they do not possess normal thinking…]

 

[…If you attempt to communicate with monsters after reading this record, congratulations. It means you have the boldness to jump into danger with your own feet. You might as well fall straight into the middle of hell.]

 

“That approach itself was a mistake. Just as animals have their own language, don’t monsters also have their own language? If so, it gives more strength to the hypothesis that was once researched: ‘A unique ecosystem exists inside Gates as well.'”

 

“Can you prove it! Monsters are nothing but murderous beasts!”

 

Suddenly someone shouted from a corner.

 

Lee Si-hyeok stopped speaking and looked over to see a strangely familiar face.

 

‘…Oh my. That person came too.’

 

It was the author of the research paper Lee Si-hyeok had referenced. The one who had firmly labeled monsters as beasts.

 

Lee Si-hyeok wasn’t flustered.

 

Rather, he took this as a good opportunity and continued speaking.

 

“Yes, I can prove it.”

 

“Don’t lie! How could you possibly prove…”

 

“Let’s watch the video I prepared together.”

 

Beep.

 

As he switched screens, the prepared video appeared.

 

A deep sea bunker surrounded by seawater.

 

In a deep laboratory that no one else knew about, Lee Si-hyeok stood face to face with a massive monster trapped in a test tube.

 

An S-rank boss monster that had massacred countless people.

 

Everyone was shocked for a moment to learn that [Necrosis] was still alive, not dead.

 

―…Human.

 

―Why?

 

―Can you… hear my words…?

 

―Yeah. I can hear you.

 

When the scene of that monster and Lee Si-hyeok having a direct conversation appeared, gasps of “Huuuh” erupted from among the people.

 

That wasn’t the end of it.

 

The creature’s language skills were sophisticated enough that it wouldn’t seem out of place for a human. When it said it was hungry, Lee Si-hyeok fed it artifacts, and they even had ordinary conversations, making people look on in disbelief.

 

“This is a monster language translator I created recently. Oh, by the way, Necrosis had been secretly taken by the Chairman of Chronos Industry beforehand, so don’t worry – I personally disposed of it after that conversation ended.”

 

“Th-that may be so, but…”

 

“No, this is crazy.”

 

People shouted as if that wasn’t the point at all.

 

They were dumbfounded watching Lee Si-hyeok calmly stop the video.

 

“Now you should understand. The monsters inside Gates aren’t just beasts.”

 

Lee Si-hyeok continued speaking, unbothered.

 

“Then going further, might there be Gates where not monsters, but ‘people’ like us are living?”

 

“People? Gates where people come out?”

 

“Yes, Gates where humans similar to us have formed civilizations and those civilizations are actually functioning.”

 

Lee Si-hyeok smiled and opened his mouth.

 

“In other words, ‘Dimensional Gates.'”

 

Simultaneously, the screen switched.

 

This time, instead of moving to the next section, it went back to the previous one.

 

The screen with the black rift that had been displayed just moments ago appeared once again.

 

“This is exactly it.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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