Something Keeps Appearing in My Subspace - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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1. Awakening
I am an unawakened hunter.
In other words, a pack mule.
My primary duty is to follow awakened hunters around, handling odd jobs and carrying their equipment.
Despite the high danger involved, I took on this work for two reasons.
Money and revenge.
For a middle school graduate orphan from a gate disaster, this was the only profession that allowed me to earn money while pursuing vengeance for my parents.
It was grueling at first, but I’ve grown quite accustomed to it now. I’ve built up some experience too. While not quite a veteran, I consider myself a reliable pack mule.
Some awakened hunters even specifically request me when entering gates. You could call them my regular clients.
But…
None of that matters anymore.
“P-please, save me!”
“Do-hun!”
“Sir! Have you lost your mind? Just run!”
Why?
Because a gate mutation has occurred.
[A Red Dragon that had been sleeping while incubating its egg opens its eyes.]
A dragon pursues us from the sky.
Dragons were monsters never once documented before—whether from outbreak-type gates or entry-type gates.
Meanwhile, the highest level person in our team being chased by the dragon was level 19.
That’s right.
We’re completely screwed.
.
.
.
When I entered the gate, I never imagined the situation would unfold like this.
[Sanctria Forest]
-Recommended Level: 11~15
-Entry Limit: 5 people
Gates don’t reveal their internal objectives until entry. Only the gate name, recommended level, and entry capacity are disclosed.
Nevertheless, gates bearing names like “□□ Forest” were renowned.
This was because they had relatively straightforward difficulty and few hazardous elements.
It was a gate where monsters appeared precisely at the recommended level.
‘The strongest creatures here would be at most awakened orcs or steel-horned deer, right?’
Our party consisted of a level 19 warrior, a level 17 mage, a level 16 healer, and two pack mules including myself.
A “safe bet” party with levels above the recommendation—prioritizing survival. It meant there should be virtually no danger.
[Sanctria Forest]
-Hunt 50 monsters.
Hunting
Please do.
And indeed, that was exactly what happened.
I hunted monsters and collected mana stones along with their byproducts.
“Oh, I learned a new skill called Tremor when I leveled up. It’s C-rank?”
“Tremor? Never heard of it?”
“Can I try it out?”
The problem emerged when the mage leveled up. Tremor was a skill that mimicked a weak earthquake.
Its destructive power was considerable. Not just the monsters—we ourselves staggered. Birds scattered into the air.
“Seems fine though?”
“Right? The mana consumption is reasonable too. Unless the vanguard is in close combat, we could just spam it, right?”
When the mage had used Tremor roughly ten times.
BOOOOOM—!
A massive earthquake erupted across the forest.
And through the notification window that appeared before us, we realized it wasn’t an earthquake at all.
It wasn’t a mere disaster. The gate itself was transforming.
[The dragon, who had been sleeping while incubating an egg due to the sustained tremors, opens its eyes.]
[The gate transforms.]
[Tempest of the Sky]
-Recommended Level: 90 or higher
–
Survive
. Time remaining: 9 hours 59 minutes.
Everyone fell silent. Level 90 or higher? A dragon? No one could have possibly anticipated this.
The highest level awakener on Earth was only level 58. There was no way we could face a dragon.
Even if a gate transformation occurred, the difficulty would only adjust by about ten levels….
I had no idea. In a gate that transformed this drastically, everyone might have died, leaving no information behind.
“W-what is this?”
“We didn’t see that wrong, right?”
Still, there was no time for deep contemplation.
──────────────!
A roar that tore through the very sky itself, a colossal form whose length defied measurement….
It was a dragon.
A red dragon.
Its brilliantly gleaming scales shimmered as if another sun hung in the sky. No—it was the sun itself.
The forest melted away from the breath it casually exhaled.
“I-insane!”
“Run!”
Resistance was meaningless. Everyone there understood it. The highest-level warrior had been swallowed whole in a single bite.
What happened after that remained a blur in my memory. I simply ran through the forest.
“Ugh!”
The last thing I remember is tripping over something and crashing headfirst into the ground.
And when I opened my eyes again.
I found myself inside Dragon’s Lair.
* * *
“Ugh….”
“Shh.”
Deok-su covered my mouth as I groaned and tried to sit up. Through the haze clouding my mind, I surveyed my surroundings.
In the vast cavern, only he and I remained.
“You’re alive?”
It was Deok-su, my partner for the past six months or so. Just as Awakeners formed teams, porters like us did the same.
Relief flooded through me, but he suddenly looked startled and pressed a finger to his lips.
“Shh. Hye. Stay quiet. We don’t know when it’ll return.”
Deok-su glanced around cautiously.
A crimson egg lay in the center of the cavern. The dragon was nowhere to be seen—perhaps it had left temporarily.
“This is Dragon’s Lair. The beast brought us here. Everyone else has been consumed.”
“What?”
“Exactly as I said.”
“Then why are we still alive?”
“I don’t know. Maybe we’re emergency rations.”
With that, Deok-su gestured toward the egg in the center of the cavern.
“Or perhaps it kept us for its offspring.”
“Offspring? What offspring?”
“That egg—it’s been twitching. The hatching can’t be far off.”
Now that he mentioned it, I recalled hearing that when the gate had transformed, the dragon had been asleep while incubating its egg.
“Irritable and hungry, it probably devoured the dangerous Awakeners first to protect its young.”
Which meant….
I’d become—no, we’d both become—’nutritious snacks for the baby.’ This damned lizard spawn.
“We’re screwed.”
“…No. We don’t know yet.”
I shook my head. Deok-su smacked the back of my skull. Pain flared with a sharp crack.
“But this brat….”
“Hey! Why’d you hit me? You said to stay quiet.”
“Where do you get off speaking informally?”
“Is that really what matters right now?”
“You think you’d speak formally to your parents even facing death?”
“I wouldn’t know—I don’t have parents.”
“Ah.”
At my words, Deok-su’s mouth fell open for a moment before he cleared his throat and quickly changed the subject.
“Ahem. Anyway, what do you mean you don’t know yet?”
His subject-changing skills were impeccable. Still, it was too early to give up. There was hope.
Who am I, after all?
Gate failure.
I’ve clawed my way through this wretched world with relentless determination. It speaks to my exceptional survival instinct.
The glimmer of hope lay in the gate’s transformed nature.
[Tempest of the Sky]
-Recommended Level: 90 or higher
–
Survival
required. Time remaining: 7 hours 53 minutes.
As the gate transformed, it shifted into a “survival-type” gate—notoriously brutal in difficulty.
The challenge was already absurd, but….
Survival-type gates are so demanding that merely enduring until the end counts as clearing it.
I had no idea when that egg would hatch, but once the time limit expired, the gate would be marked as conquered and I could escape.
In other words, I just had to survive eight hours.
“Ah!”
When I explained this, the old man’s eyes finally widened.
“What foolishness….”
“With your experience, how could you not know that?”
“Want another beating?”
I clamped my mouth shut. A low-level gate had transformed into a level-90 gate, and a dragon had appeared. Even intelligent people can have their vision and reasoning narrowed by panic.
Even the sharpest minds falter under such circumstances.
“The egg mustn’t hatch before time runs out.”
That’s when I heard it—a sound like wind, but not quite. A fluttering, beating sound.
The dragon was coming.
“It’s here! Get down!”
And into the vast cavern descended the Red Dragon I’d glimpsed just before losing consciousness. Its maw was stained crimson—whether from blood or something else, I couldn’t tell.
I forgot to swallow, and saliva pooled in my mouth.
Gulp.
Even that quiet swallow sounded deafening to my ears.
My heart rate had already climbed to its breaking point.
‘The heat….’
As the dragon entered the lair, the temperature in the space seemed to spike dramatically.
The dragon gazed at its egg for a moment.
Crack.
A faint sound accompanied the egg’s slight tremor. It hadn’t broken—not yet.
The dragon exhaled with what seemed like satisfaction and turned its gaze toward us.
Those terrifying reptilian eyes swept between me and the old man.
‘Is it choosing its prey?’
That’s what it felt like. Then it happened. A blue light materialized before the dragon and struck the old man. Magic.
A strange crackling sound came from beside me. I turned to look, and the old man had become ice.
This is insane.
So the Red Dragon had used magic to turn the old man into frozen meat.
The process had been absurdly simple.
No final words, no time for screams. A flash of light, and it was over. My skin crawled.
‘That bastard just killed Deok-su…!’
Six months. It wasn’t long, but Deok-su had been a good man. He’d taught me when I was still fumbling in the dark, bought me meals.
I wanted nothing more than to charge at the dragon, cursing it with every breath.
‘…Damn it.’
But that was all it was—a want. I couldn’t let rage carry me into the dragon’s jaws. That would be suicide.
The enormous, powerful reptile fixed its gaze upon me.
‘Why did it spare me? Am I being saved for later?’
Fortunately, that wasn’t it. The dragon seemed to deliberate for a moment, studying me, then curled up over its egg and closed its eyes. Soon, rhythmic breathing filled the air.
Perhaps it was saving me for later. I didn’t know. But I was alive. Relief flooded through me, and my thoughts began to sharpen.
‘Should I run?’
The dragon’s massive entrance was visible. If I could reach it, I could escape. That was all my mind could focus on.
I was just beginning to rise carefully when—
“…!”
The moment I shifted, the dragon’s eyes snapped open. That piercing gaze pierced straight through me.
I couldn’t move. I lowered myself back down, watching carefully.
‘Damn.’
I was trapped between two impossible choices.
* * *
Two agonizing hours passed.
Frozen in place, I spiraled through every morbid thought imaginable.
If I was going to be eaten anyway, why not just make a break for it? Wouldn’t melting in its breath be easier than being torn apart by those teeth? Especially if it was a hatchling doing the tearing.
The thought of a smaller mouth gnawing through my body made it worse.
‘At least if it swallowed me whole, I wouldn’t have to watch in real time as those tiny jaws—’
But the thought never finished. The sleeping dragon opened its eyes and rose to its feet.
It studied me for a long moment, as if deliberating. As if deciding whether to eat me or not.
‘Thank God.’
Mercifully, the dragon eventually moved its massive body out of the lair. Perhaps it had concluded I wasn’t an Awakener and couldn’t hatch the egg.
But one thing was certain.
This moment—this was the last chance I would ever be given.
I scrambled urgently toward the entrance the dragon had used.
“Shit.”
But escape was impossible. A sheer cliff face stretched before me.
The Dragon’s Lair sat high upon a mountain.
Climbing down that cliff by hand would be suicide. I considered just jumping for a moment before returning to the nest.
A heavy sigh escaped me.
‘Destroy the egg? No, that’s insane.’
The old man had become frozen meat, but I might not be eaten. If I destroyed the egg, I’d be dead the moment the dragon returned.
And I had no weapons either. Could I smash that hard-looking egg with my bare hands?
“Sigh.”
About six hours remained.
If a dragon hatchling emerged during that time, or if the dragon grew hungry and impatient, I was as good as dead.
‘If only there were somewhere to hide….’
I scanned the dragon’s nest frantically, desperately hoping.
Hoping there was somewhere to hide.
Or somewhere to escape to.
I’d never wished for anything more intensely than this.
Even knowing it was an impossible dream.
I couldn’t die like this after living such a wretched life, without even avenging my parents.
Ding—
Astonishingly, in that moment, a sound I’d never heard before rang in my ears. As if answering my desperate plea, an unfamiliar energy surged through my entire body.
Though I’d never experienced it before, I knew exactly what this was.
An awakening.
After my parents passed away, the very thing I’d longed for had finally happened. I frantically checked my status window.
[Lv1 Void Master, Han Hye]
Strength: 4
Agility: 3
Stamina: 5
Spirit: 3
Mana: 5
Bonus Points: 3
Skills: Subspace (S-rank) Lv1, Swordsmanship (F-rank) Lv1
…Void Master?
I was bewildered by this unfamiliar title.
In the distance, I heard the sound of wind rustling again.
Damn.
The dragon was returning. I hastily examined my abilities.
‘Subspace?’
It was a skill whose exact function I couldn’t comprehend. Though it was supposedly S-rank….
Would this ability help me now?
The wind sound grew closer. There was no time to hesitate.
Whoosh—
The moment I decided to activate the ability, a door-sized space materialized before my eyes.
Without hesitation, I tried to step into it.
…Wait, hold on.
Is simply escaping enough? That lizard killed Deok-su….
Whoosh—
I clutched the dragon’s egg to my chest. The dragon had already appeared at the entrance to the Dragon’s Lair.
And it saw me holding the egg. By pure instinct, I hurled myself into the subspace.
─────────!
A roar saturated with fury seemed to reverberate not through my body, but through my very soul. For a moment, my body seized rigid, utterly immobilized.
Yet my consciousness remained. Close. Please, close. I prayed with desperate fervor.
And….
The gateway to the subspace sealed shut.

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