Something Keeps Appearing in My Subspace - Chapter 56

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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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56. Beware of the Fall (1)
As Han Hye entered the Gate, a covert conversation was taking place in a nearby building.
“Space Mage’s Gate arrival confirmed. Preparations underway. What should we do?”
-If we depart now, arrival won’t be an issue… but having Shin Chang as the escort with a sniper is unexpected.
“With our current forces, wouldn’t it be worth attempting?”
They had prepared extensively for this.
“Even if we can’t win, if we seize the moment when Space Mage lets their guard down upon exiting, extraction should be possible….”
-No, we wait. If Red Dragon and Dragon Knight had come, that would be different, but not now. We’d only suffer losses.
The person on the other end of the line exhaled heavily. The primary target of this operation was indeed the Space Mage.
An escort was expected. But that the escort would be Shin Chang—that they hadn’t anticipated.
Shin Chang was far too significant a figure to provoke over a single Space Mage.
-Just wait. Tell the operatives embedded in Saudi Arabia to pull out. Report any movements.
Shortly after.
It was when the observer began reporting again.
“Orders transmitted to the embedded team, and now Space Mage is entering the Gate… huh?”
-What is it?
“My eyes….”
But the person on the other end of the line heard nothing more.
-Murti?
“….”
Only the sound of something falling—thud—reached them.
.
.
.
The moment Han Hye entered the Gate.
Sniper Seo Seung-yeon turned and immediately shot the observer.
Bang—
Her movements were swift and economical, without a trace of wasted motion.
The observer couldn’t even react to the instantaneous attack and simply collapsed.
“….”
Shin Chang stood silently beside her, watching Seo Seung-yeon.
“Why?”
“….”
“Ugh, why didn’t you shoot earlier? If you’d shot beforehand, Han Hye might’ve gotten unnecessarily anxious.”
Though bystanders were startled by the sudden gunshot, Seo Seung-yeon nodded toward Shin Chang with an unruffled expression.
“I’ll guard this place, so go check things out quickly. There might be allies nearby.”
* * *
[Beware of the Fall]
-Reaching the highest place
Arrival
Please proceed.
This Gate, resembling a jump map with no time limit, would have been quite disorienting even if I’d entered without warning.
But since nothing matched the information provided by Saudi Arabia, I had no choice but to be even more shocked.
“What is this?”
-Remain calm.
Chun-bae offered his counsel. He was right. There was no reason to panic. I regained my composure and let my mind work.
Could Saudi Arabia have pulled some trick?
From what I understood, they’d conducted a pre-Gate inspection using the Escape Secretary twice.
Once when deaths were mounting, and again when we sought cross-verification with hunter cooperation.
Based on that information, the Saebyeok Guild’s Gate Analysis Team had assisted me.
-They said a Great Worm would emerge from the ground. It doesn’t attack directly, apparently.
-But the collapsed terrain is extensive, making falls likely. Then the Worm spawn attack, and the countermeasure is to evade using spatial awareness or use footholds and leap….
I’d felt disappointed that I couldn’t employ the newly learned swordsmanship in such a situation, but that concern proved unnecessary.
All the information and advice I’d received beforehand had become useless anyway.
‘I have no idea.’
I wondered if the false information had been sent twice, but both could have been traitors.
Here, there was no way to discern the truth.
Still, I didn’t feel an immediate sense of danger.
I wouldn’t die in this Gate. Whether Saudi Arabia had allied with the Übermenschen or not made no difference.
The Übermenschen weren’t targeting me to kill me—they wanted my abilities.
There was no reason for them to orchestrate a scheme just to end my life.
‘Besides, I have the Escape Secretary.’
I could clear this Gate’s contents without issue.
The reason they’d fed me false information was likely to eliminate the Saudi hunters and my escort, then summon me.
By isolating me and tidying up the outside situation, they could easily kidnap me once I emerged.
Perhaps that’s why Seo Seung-yeon had raised her gun.
‘But my escort is rather exceptional.’
They probably hadn’t anticipated this. As long as my escort was Shin Chang and Seo Seung-yeon, I had no concerns about the outside situation.
…If there really were kidnappers, wouldn’t they be getting torn to shreds right now?
‘I’ll just clear the Gate first.’
Everything else—the rights and wrongs of it all—I could discuss with Shin Chang and Seo Seung-yeon once I emerged, and they’d handle it.
They were as reliable as they came. If I’d come to Saudi Arabia alone, I would’ve been quite flustered.
‘The altered Gate isn’t a problem either.’
A jump map.
The entrants are hunters, and it’s a 21-25 level Gate. The distance between footholds is considerable.
But it poses no threat to me. Didn’t I use the Subspace as footholds even in Arachne’s Labyrinth?
And I have leaping. In a sense, I’m specialized for spaces like this rather than direct combat.
‘It’s just a free pass Gate.’
Flying-type monsters are visible in the sky, but considering the Gate’s characteristics, they shouldn’t be particularly strong.
I turned my gaze skyward. It was quite high. The clouds obscured the ceiling from view for now.
‘How much higher do I need to go?’
Just as I was about to leap onto a high platform within reach, something suddenly flickered across my mind.
It was a possibility regarding hidden content. Two possibilities came to mind immediately.
Either a speed run or something concealed.
In jump maps like Arachne’s Labyrinth, there’s a chance that arriving quickly yields better rewards.
The latter could mean something hidden between the platforms themselves. After all, even in games, jump maps sometimes have hidden elements scattered throughout.
Looking at it one way, it could be both. I found myself hesitating slightly.
-Cases of receiving rewards for arriving quickly are quite rare.
Chun-bae had offered his advice too. Come to think of it, I’d rarely heard of speed run cases myself. The Arachne instance was certainly an unusual one.
I’d cleared it at an absurdly fast pace. Since I’d tried it once in the previous Gate, I was leaning more toward the latter option.
‘Should I just run fast the conventional way?’
It wasn’t a bad idea.
Rather than bypassing everything with leaps, if something was there, my spatial sense would definitely catch it.
Besides, my stats were incomparable to hunters of the same level. Since I could rest and accumulate time in the Subspace, a speed run was feasible.
And honestly, I wanted to try this. What I’d only experienced in games was now reality.
‘Plus, there’s no risk of falling and dying.’
That was enough deliberation.
I took a short, sharp breath and pushed off the ground.
* * *
Once I began climbing in earnest, the problem became the flying monsters.
-Caw!
They were birds resembling herons, each about the size of my torso. They weren’t particularly strong, of course.
Given the Gate’s internal structure, if the monsters were powerful, it would be impossible to clear.
-Caw!
However, these creatures were remarkably intelligent. They continued circling nearby, keeping their eyes on me.
Then, just as I was about to leap, they charged at me—as if intending to ram me with their bodies.
Whoosh—!
I was startled at first. They’d launched a direct body tackle. Fortunately, their bodies themselves weren’t particularly strong. I didn’t even sustain injuries.
Thud—!
The impact knocked me back, preventing me from stepping on the next platform, but with my leap ability, it wasn’t a major problem.
Still, it was bothersome.
They didn’t always collide with me. Sometimes they’d swoop down rapidly, then suddenly twist their bodies away.
As if threatening me to pay attention to them.
“You bastards won’t even scratch me.”
Regardless, the birds posed no real threat to me.
When they hit me, my balance would waver, but I sustained no injuries. A leap was all I needed.
‘This is getting annoying.’
Whenever I had an opening, I swung my wind blade. I managed to cut down several with wind slashes, but it didn’t seem effective.
-Caw!
-They keep appearing.
Just as Chun-bae had said, their numbers didn’t diminish. When one fell, more birds emerged from somewhere else.
So I simply gave up trying to eliminate them. As long as I could leap away when they charged, it didn’t matter. I wasn’t abandoning the fight entirely.
Whoosh—!
I swung the Elegance Blade at the enemies charging toward me mid-leap. Swordplay in mid-air, one might call it. Conveniently, the newly acquired sword technique was related to swift strikes.
Treating the incoming birds as training partners didn’t seem so bad.
If I lacked this composure, I would’ve truly panicked by now. The fact that I could reframe this as training felt almost amusing.
Without my leap ability, I would’ve plummeted long ago.
“Phew.”
Before I knew it, I’d climbed quite far. The endpoint still wasn’t visible. When my breath grew short, I’d slip into the Subspace to rest briefly, then continue.
There was a reason I’d called it a free ride. It posed no real problem for me.
‘Is this really acceptable?’
The absence of genuine threat made me think such things.
Still, if it were anyone else, this Gate would be anything but easy.
‘With leap and Subspace footholds as dual insurance, I’m covered.’
Moreover, the gaps between footholds were quite wide. One or two might be manageable, but the need to ascend continuously was the real challenge.
I had to remember that someone running like this possessed stats of at least late level 30 or higher.
The 21-25 level Hunters who were supposed to enter here originally couldn’t dream of moving at my pace.
Each jump would require them to expend their full strength.
‘So the time limit isn’t there for nothing.’
I suddenly wondered what it would’ve been like if I’d brought Yong-yong along. There’d be no need to leap.
I could just ride and fly. Though not a Dragon Knight, couldn’t I fight the birds like one would?
‘That would’ve been fun. It might’ve turned into a real speedrun.’
As I continued climbing, something felt off about the gravity pressing against my body.
“Huh?”
The foothold beneath me had begun to collapse.
“Damn.”
I startled and quickly dashed forward, leaping to the next foothold. Was this one stable? After three seconds passed, the gravity shifted again.
It seemed to be a section where the footholds crumbled.
“That scared me.”
I had to leap across twenty consecutive footholds before finding a stable one. Glancing back, the fallen ones had already regenerated.
Even with my safety measures in place, I was genuinely startled. It had happened far too suddenly.
I thought that if I were anyone else, everyone would’ve died here.
Who would’ve anticipated the footholds collapsing after climbing slowly for so long?
Of course, it hadn’t posed a serious problem for me.
In any case, the endpoint still wasn’t in sight, but I had a feeling it wouldn’t be much longer.
‘I’ve encountered a new trap and come quite far.’
The regret was that I hadn’t discovered any hidden elements. If I’d known, I should’ve just used leap to clear it.
Well, that’s hindsight. Regret only means it’s too late.
Since switching to pure leaping now wouldn’t seem to turn this into a true speedrun anyway, I continued as I had been.
As I climbed methodically onward.
“Huh?”
I glanced upward for a moment and spotted something odd—a platform positioned quite far away, standing alone.
So I’d thought that if I could generate enough momentum to jump across the other platforms, other hunters could manage it too….
But that one was roughly fifty meters away. If I’d only looked upward casually, I never would have noticed it.
The moment I saw it, I knew instinctively.
‘It’s a hidden area!’
It was positioned somewhere absolutely unreachable unless you possessed a skill like mine or had a mount like Yong-yong.
Even when I did a backflip to check from behind, it remained hidden.
Still, it was worth the effort.
Excited, I grinned and opened the Subspace. This time, I didn’t step on any other platforms like before.
‘Straight to the hidden area it is.’
Now that I’d found it, there was no need to explore anything else. So when I finally reached the distant platform by connecting the Subspace’s footholds, I was genuinely startled.
“…An Angel?”
Standing on that platform was a person—or rather, something resembling an Angel.
The reason I thought Angel at first sight was because it had a human form with white feathered wings attached.
My shock was only natural. People do appear in Gates from time to time. Haven’t I encountered the Dark Mage before?
But I hadn’t expected to meet anyone in this particular Gate.
‘It’s a jumping puzzle Gate, after all.’
I’d assumed the platform would have treasure chests or simply display hidden rewards.
What made me drop my jaw further was when the Angel-like being grinned at me.
“You came. Space Mage. Or should I call you Han Hye?”
It even called me by name.
“What is this…?”
“I’ve been waiting for you.”
“I was waiting.”

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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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