Tearing the Gate Apart - Chapter 44

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

Chapter 44
Moon Jung-hoon wasn’t a man without perception.
He couldn’t have failed to notice that his relationship with Ha Gyeong wasn’t good.
He’d touched a nerve with a distorted article, after all.
That’s why he’d hired Raiders to rough him up.
The only thing was that this man was unbelievably brazen.
Ha Gyeong grabbed Moon Jung-hoon by the collar and hauled him to his feet.
“I’ll give you a choice.”
“Oh! Really? What I want is——”
“It doesn’t matter what you want. Pick one: walk out on your own two feet, or take the Ha Gyeong Attraction.”
“Um, what’s the latter?”
“I’ll throw you over the wall.”
……
Moon Jung-hoon broke into a cold sweat.
Ha Gyeong’s declaration had clearly unsettled him.
But he didn’t give up.
Moon Jung-hoon swallowed hard and hastily opened his mouth.
“Wait a moment.”
“Have you chosen already?”
“No. It’s not that—could you hear me out first? I promise I’ll choose after that.”
“Why should I?”
“Come on, didn’t you benefit from a proper article from me last time?”
At the internal auction for the A-Rank Skill Enhancement Scroll.
He seemed to be referring to the article he’d written about Ha Gyeong paying fifty billion won more.
All because he’d wanted to help the families of those who’d fallen in the dungeon.
Moon Jung-hoon’s twisted interpretation had actually improved Ha Gyeong’s image somewhat.
So Ha Gyeong reconsidered.
“Fine. But keep it short.”
What was he even saying?
He figured he might as well hear it.
Moon Jung-hoon promptly pulled out his laptop.
“Look at this.”
A hastily edited video played on screen.
The content was all similar.
Celebrities, famous Awakeners.
A few ordinary people too.
They all cried out with one voice.
―We hope for your reunion. Axis Prime!
Ha Gyeong was left speechless.
Nearly a hundred people sending their support.
Of course, most had probably filmed reluctantly.
Moon Jung-hoon must have made requests they couldn’t refuse.
Still, the video message had considerable impact.
Enough to send a small ripple through Ha Gyeong’s heart.
But John, who’d been watching quietly, suddenly spoke up.
“Should I, someone raised with such refinement, have to witness such shamelessness?”
Ha Gyeong snapped back to attention.
He remembered John saying something like that before.
He tilted his head and asked a question.
“Didn’t you say something like that before?”
“I did.”
“You must have been raised very refinedly indeed.”
“What? I’m from Florida. I grew up playing with alligators and shovels, poking holes in mounds.”
“Then why say such things?”
“It’s a clichéd expression. What, did Korean get a nerf patch or something?”
Ha Gyeong let out a hollow laugh at John’s glib answer.
At last his mind seemed to be working properly again.
Ha Gyeong stared at Moon Jung-hoon and spoke.
“So what are you getting at?”
“Many people are very curious about you and Axis Prime. Following in the legendary footsteps of the Pioneer, as it were.”
“Don’t make me laugh. The real point is you’re curious about future relations with Raiders, isn’t it?”
……
Moon Jung-hoon’s mouth just hung open.
He’d struck the nerve dead center.
He quickly straightened his expression.
“That’s exactly it. The truth everyone wonders about! I’m willing to do whatever it takes——”
“John?”
Ha Gyeong cut off Moon Jung-hoon’s words.
John shrugged his shoulders.
He’d immediately understood what Ha Gyeong wanted.
John then grabbed Moon Jung-hoon by the scruff of the neck and lifted him up.
“Bad King Bro gave you options, but I don’t have that kind of mercy.”
“Why not?”
“Pull this crap in America and you get a shotgun round in the chest. Want to find out if words still come out after catching a load of twelve-gauge?”
Hup!
Moon Jung-hoon gasped for air.
John had shaken him back and forth like he was about to throw him.
Moon Jung-hoon’s urgent cries erupted immediately after.
“I wrote a good article this time, I swear!”
“No negotiation!”
John, of course, had no mercy.
Moon Jung-hoon flew several meters and tumbled over the wall.
Normally, something would have broken.
But he landed in a pile of Fallen Leaf Sacks and escaped unharmed.
John clicked his tongue with regret.
“If I were just a little more of a bastard, I’d have thrown him on asphalt.”
Ha Gyeong, watching this unfold, shrugged his shoulders.
It was refreshing in a way, but an uneasy aftertaste remained.
Ha Gyeong asked John a question.
“Where on earth did you learn to talk like that?”
“I read martial arts novels a lot.”
……It’s true, you really are unpredictable.
“But what was that hack saying a moment ago? Something about an article?”
“Yeah. He said he’d written it really well.”
“Let me see.”
Ha Gyeong turned on the Tablet he’d left on the table.
The moment he opened the Awakener news, his name was right at the top.
It was the very article Moon Jung-hoon had written.
[EXCLUSIVE] The Undying Ha Gyeong—Not a Sudden Comet but a Used Newbie?
―Ha Gyeong, prodigy and successor to Axis Prime, continues the feud between his predecessor and Raiders.
└What? The Pioneer Lee Tae-heon didn’t dislike Choi Hyun-gi that much. They even collaborated sometimes.
└But he didn’t like him either. How would a guild that lives and dies by romance get along with a bunch of bandits?
└Then why did they do dungeon conquests together?
└Only when they needed extra hands. That’s only like once or twice a year at most?
└How would you even know that?
└It’s all in the internal auction schedule. If they worked alone, why would they need that?
└Oh, so Ha Gyeong was Axis Prime’s successor? I thought he was independent.
└It’s an open secret. What does this punk think he’s doing spouting off without even knowing that?
As expected.
It was clearly Moon Jung-hoon’s writing.
A deliberately twisted garbage post designed purely to stir up controversy.
The actual content was nothing much.
The comments were staging a full divisive melee.
The only somewhat novel thing was that Ha Gyeong’s nickname had changed.
Ha Gyeong shook his head slowly.
“A hopeless case really is hopeless.”
“If I’d seen this article first, I would’ve ground his face into asphalt.”
John, too, recoiled at Moon Jung-hoon’s cunning.
It seemed like more thorough correction was needed.
* * *
Ha Gyeong managed to break through the journalist blockade.
In truth, he’d done nothing particularly special.
The heat around the Ranking Tournament had simply died down a bit.
Having stepped outside for the first time in a while, Ha Gyeong surveyed the area around the Mansion.
‘Should I have a tunnel dug?’
So I could slip in and out if needed.
Of course, digging a tunnel was difficult.
Groundwater infiltration, subsidence issues——
It would be hard to get permits due to safety concerns.
But an integrated underground structure beneath the wall would be fine.
A hidden door built underground.
Surrounded by thick reinforced concrete.
Ha Gyeong immediately called someone.
“President Jung, how have you been?”
An acquaintance of his father Lee Tae-heon.
He planned to request the work from the man who’d built this Mansion.
Fortunately, the matter was settled quickly.
Ha Gyeong even locked in the construction dates right then.
John marveled at his incredible work pace.
“Holy cow! That’s the true spirit of hurry-hurry culture. That’s why I can’t leave Korea.”
Though his point of amazement was somewhat odd.
Ha Gyeong met someone near the Abyss Gate.
His appointment was with the Master of Changun Guild.
Wind Chaser, Ryu Jae-wook.
“Ah! There you are. Ha Gyeong.”
“Good to see you. It’s been a while.”
“Indeed. With all the Ranking Tournament aftermath, you must be busy. I apologize for calling you out like this.”
“Busy? I’ve been practically imprisoned.”
“Ah, as expected of a champion—the intensity of attention is different.”
“It’s excessive. I’m nearly losing my mind over it. But how did the investigation go?”
“Excellent! The scale turned out to be enormous.”
“Really?”
While Ha Gyeong had been confined at home.
He hadn’t only been training.
An Unknown-Rank Gate Key received from the Awakeners Association.
He’d had them analyze it and locate the entrance.
He’d partnered with Changun Guild to do so.
The reason for choosing Ryu Jae-wook as partner was simple.
Ha Gyeong thought of Jang Myeong-cheol, the vice-chairman of the Association.
‘He must have distributed the keys to others too, so they’re all probably busy hunting for dungeons.’
The Changun Guild Awakeners hadn’t participated in the Ranking Tournament.
Whether their offer hadn’t come through or they’d declined, they’d have free time.
Besides, Ryu Jae-wook was someone fairly trustworthy.
But there was quite a major problem.
Ha Gyeong opened his mouth with a serious expression.
“An enormous scale, you said? I didn’t anticipate that.”
“The entry capacity is 120 people. The question is how to fill it.”
“How many can Changun Guild contribute?”
“We can probably only manage one full party.”
Unknown-Rank conquests weren’t performed by just any Awakener.
Thirty people was already a significant commitment for Changun.
They simply weren’t a guild that large.
And besides, he couldn’t ask just one guild for help.
Too large a disparity in strength would cause friction.
Not to mention the risk of betrayal.
Ha Gyeong felt a headache coming on.
‘Now that I’m actually leading a dungeon conquest, there’s so much to consider.’
It seemed recruitment of guest members was unavoidable.
He organized his thoughts.
“I think we’ll need to do it like the Association-led conquest of the Fusion Abyss last time.”
“So you’re saying to compose roughly half from guest members.”
“Yes. I’ll post the recruitment notice today.”
“So Changun will handle one half, and you’re wondering which guild should handle the other?”
“Hmm……”
Several names came to mind immediately.
Yoon Chang-ho of Blackwater.
Kang Woo-jin of Death Hound.
Both were among the four major guilds.
Both had deep connections with Ha Gyeong.
But he’d already heard they were overextended.
Next were Jeong Cheol-jin of Iron Heart and Do Hyun-a of Cheonil Hong.
After the Fusion Abyss conquest.
He’d stayed in contact with them regularly, so reaching out wouldn’t be rude.
But the moment he called, a positive response came back.
―You’re near a Gate? I’ll be right there.
The figure who appeared was Cheonil Hong’s Master.
Living Barrier, Do Hyun-a.
Having just emerged from the Abyss.
She carried a faint scent of cleanser.
Do Hyun-a smiled mischievously as she spoke.
“You’ve become so famous it’s hard to even see your face.”
“It’s been a while, Master.”
“Your nickname changed this time. I’m troubled over how to address you now—this god. Ha ha!”
“Oh, that?”
Ha Gyeong slapped his forehead.
There had always been people jokingly calling him the Undying even before.
But this time, Moon Jung-hoon the journalist had made it an actual article.
So even Do Hyun-a knew about it.
Seeing Ha Gyeong’s embarrassed expression, Ryu Jae-wook quickly interjected.
“Let’s get going since we have a long way to go. How many can Cheonil Hong mobilize?”
“Unknown-Rank, you said? We should be able to manage one party, I think.”
“How many people are you bringing, Ha Gyeong?”
Ha Gyeong didn’t have many people he could mobilize.
Ma Do-hyuk and John, the Great Sage and his group.
At most, about ten people.
Understanding Ryu Jae-wook’s implication, Ha Gyeong quietly reached a conclusion.
“We’ll need to recruit about fifty more people.”
“We’re not the Association, and to find that many Unknown-Rank Awakeners……. It will be quite difficult.”
“Still, we have to try.”
Jung Cheol-jin of Iron Heart said he couldn’t participate.
And asking Ryu Jae-wook and Do Hyun-a for other guild recommendations felt awkward too.
It would result in the balance tipping too heavily to one side.
So Ha Gyeong had no choice but to post a public notice.
But thirty minutes later.
The Association suddenly contacted him.
He conveyed the contents with a bewildered expression.
“Uh……. We’ve received over three times the target number of applicants, so we’ve closed the submissions. It looks like we’ll need to conduct interviews.”
“Pardon?”
Ryu Jae-wook and Do Hyun-a couldn’t close their gaping mouths.
They seemed shocked by the enormous influence Ha Gyeong’s name alone carried.
Of course, even Ha Gyeong himself was taken aback.
‘This many responded? Why?’
Tearing the Gate
Author |
Moraetop
Publisher |
Samyang C&C Inc.
Editor in Chief |
Editorial Department
Publishing House |
Samyang C&C Inc. – Dreambooks
Address |
7th Floor, Gwangseong Building, 28 Bongeunsa-ro 114-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
UCI |
G720:N+A063-20260306112
Blog |
blog.naver.com/dreambookss
Twitter(X) |
@dreambookss
Submissions |
[email protected]
The contents of this book may not be used in any form or by any means without the written permission of Samyang C&C Inc. – Dreambooks.

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