Chapter 180: The Day the Gates Awoke Again

Haemalgeum listened to the whole story and dashed off to Gamseong High with Kang Yedam.

“My god, my friend is a regressor!”

“Is that really important right now?!”

Even in this dire situation, Haemalgeum was amazed by the fact that his friend was a regressor, but shut his mouth when Kang Yedam scolded him.

Luckily, Haemalgeum’s house was close to Gamseong High, so it didn’t take long to get there.

When Kang Yedam and Haemalgeum arrived at the front gate of Gamseong High, they scanned the area.

“There are way too many people here.”

Kang Yedam muttered, sounding troubled.

In the future he’d experienced, an S-class Gate had opened during the graduation ceremony, and many people got caught up in it.

If only the Gate had opened during the school break, the damage might have been minimized. But right now, the school was packed with parents waiting by the gate and students who had come to take the college entrance exam.

“Are you sure the Gate is opening here? Shouldn’t we evacuate everyone just in case?”

“I can’t guarantee it now that the future’s changed.”

Kang Yedam’s face darkened.

Of course, an S-class Gate was dangerous enough to take many lives, but he couldn’t know exactly when it would open.

On top of that, today was the most important day for the test-takers—the day of the college entrance exam.

What if he just barged in, stopped the test, and evacuated everyone, but nothing happened until the end of the exam?

Even if an S-class Gate was about to open, he just couldn’t make himself move, no matter how much he tried to reason it out.

‘Why does it have to be today!’

Kang Yedam cursed under his breath, frustrated.

“Let’s think calmly. When did the S-class Gate open in the future?”

“It was during the graduation ceremony, around 10 in the morning.”

“It’s already past that.”

“How much longer until the test ends?”

“About two hours.”

The two looked at Gamseong High and all the parents praying in front of it with troubled expressions.

“I’ll handle things out here, so you go inside.”

Haemalgeum spoke in a much more serious tone than usual.

Looking at Haemalgeum’s hand on his shoulder, Kang Yedam took a deep breath and answered.

“Then I’m counting on you.”

Kang Yedam planned to head up to the rooftop, the spot where the Gate had opened.

The S-class Gate had opened on the rooftop and then slowly spread outward.

So he’d watch the situation from up there, and if the Gate opened, he’d find Dana. If it didn’t, he’d have to consider the possibility of it opening somewhere else.

‘If it’s somewhere else, Jangnam High is the next likely spot.’

He quietly made his way to the rooftop, avoiding the teachers’ eyes, and looked out the window.

He could see the distant rooftop of Jangnam High, where an S-class Gate had once opened.

First, he flung open the rooftop door at Gamseong High, quickly glanced around, and peered down.

Whatever Haemalgeum had done, the parents who’d been at the school gate were now dispersing.

‘Nothing’s happened yet.’

Confirming the Gate hadn’t opened yet, he sank to the floor.

Maybe because he was tense, time felt like it was crawling by.

After what felt like two days, the two hours finally passed, and students started to trickle out.

Kang Yedam hurried down to the first floor to look for Dana, the Four Heavenly Kings, and Yeon Hayeon.

At that moment, a chill ran down his spine and his heart began to pound.

“Uh? Wait a sec, something’s wrong with my body. This…”

“Hey, you too?”

Students leaving the school stopped in their tracks and exchanged anxious glances.

The Awakeners’ powers had returned.

The students who had been non-Awakeners looked around the now noisy hallway, not knowing what was going on.

The Awakeners’ powers had returned.

The students who had been non-Awakeners looked around the now noisy hallway, not knowing what was going on.

Kang Yedam pushed past those students and hurried up to the rooftop.

The social studies test had just ended, and we were standing in the hallway, leisurely comparing answers.

Suddenly, I felt a familiar power surge through my body—magical energy I hadn’t felt in a long time.

Judging by the way everyone’s faces froze, they must have felt it too.

“Your power’s back too, right?”

“Ha, you’ve got to be kidding me. What’s going on?”

“Why today of all days? Wasn’t this all over?”

Everyone seemed thrown off by their powers suddenly returning at such a bad time.

“Calm down. We shouldn’t be panicking like this.”

At that moment, Ban Eunhyeol tried to calm us down as he looked around.

Since all of us in the hallway had come rushing out, and Awakeners were shouting that their powers had returned, the non-Awakeners must have gotten a sense that something was up.

The students who’d realized the Gate had reopened—even though they thought it had disappeared—started panicking and running outside.

Still, there were some students who hadn’t caught on yet and stayed in the classrooms.

“I’ll go around the school and evacuate everyone, so check the rooftop first!”

Han Jibin was about to move to help evacuate the teachers and students still inside the school.

“Evacuations are my specialty.”

Someone stopped Han Jibin, grabbing his shoulder with a voice full of confidence.

“Haemalgeum?”

“Don’t worry about things here, just head up. I’ll have everyone outside in no time.”

There wasn’t even time to wonder why Haemalgeum was here. When we nodded in agreement, he immediately ran off somewhere.

“Let’s get to the rooftop for now.”

Watching him go, I led my friends up toward the rooftop.

A strong magical energy was emanating from the rooftop.

“Huh?! You guys!”

Just as we reached the rooftop and were about to open the door, Kang Yedam came running up the stairs and called out to us.

The moment I saw Haemalgeum, I figured Kang Yedam would be here too.

The instant Kang Yedam spotted us, a status window appeared before my eyes.

[Due to the intrusion of an outside entity, IOIte Gate has opened.]

“An intrusion…?”

An intrusion, suddenly?

I’d thought things like crossing dimensions through the Gate would never happen again, so who could have crossed over from where?

More than anything, I focused on the word ‘intrusion.’

When I possessed this body, it was always said that a Gate would activate if a being from outside the dimension possessed someone, but the term ‘intrusion’ wasn’t used.

‘Does the Gate only close if we drive out the intruder?’

I waited to see if another status window would pop up to explain the situation, but nothing else appeared.

“This isn’t how it happened for me.”

Kang Yedam looked truly unsettled as he read the status window.

“The future’s already gone off track for a long time.”

Bang—!

Trying to calm Kang Yedam down, I forcefully flung open the rooftop door.

“Look over there!”

At Han Jibin’s shout, everyone turned to look in the direction he pointed. Hovering just above the rooftop floor, a Gate had opened.

“Is it S-class…?”

“We’ll have to go in to know for sure. It feels different from Jangnam High.”

“It doesn’t feel as dangerous as last time.”

It was true—the magical energy from this Gate felt different from the S-class Gate that had opened at Jangnam High. Back then, just getting close made my nerves stand on end with a sense of real danger, but now, it felt like facing the kind of Gate we often closed during guild work.

“Still, let’s not get careless—let’s go in first.”

There was no way to guess the dungeon’s rank from outside, so we had to go in first.

Tense, we leapt into the Gate.

[Dungeon∅| Entry confirmed.]
[Rank: B]

“Huh? It’s not S-class?”

Was there anything weird before the S-class Gate opened? Like a B-rank suddenly changing to S-rank, Kang Yedam!

“Nothing like that!”

Kang Yedam quickly shook his head.

“S-class Gates looked different even from outside. The Gate would be bright red, and you’d get a message saying it’s S-class as soon as you entered.”

“Then what’s going on…?”

“Could it be, like when Dana was possessed, the Gate reopened because of an intruder?”

Relieved it wasn’t S-class, we tried to get a handle on this sudden situation.

As I retraced the events from when I was possessed—

“But who is the intruder, anyway?”

“Doesn’t seem like someone who’s possessed and doesn’t know it, like Dana was. They called it an intrusion, after all.”

“…So, it’s possible the intruder intentionally made the Gate open.”

Our relief at it not being S-class quickly gave way to unease.

Since it looked like this was the first place the Gate had opened, maybe we’d run into the intruder if we looked around.

“Yeah! Let’s check it out first.”

At the calm Eunbada’s suggestion, Han Jibin took the lead, pointing forward as we began to move.

We searched every corner of the dungeon as we moved, until—

Suddenly, an A-class Gate popped up and the whole guild gathered, but it’s still not enoughㅠ_ㅠ Guys Σ(Ju)Utddeum(8): [
Can
any
guild
help?!
Wanso(7): No time for that OTL………….ugh
BbodHmeunam(6): What the heck? I got caught up in a random Gate too and I’m fighting here.
Lumos(Lumos..★)(10): We’re dealing with a dungeon break over here, monsters are pouring out, and the guild is all
scattered, so
Mark and I are trying to handle itㅠㅠ Darn
Blood(3): Same here.]

After Baek Jiwoo started the chat, the messages scrolled by fast.

We thought this was the only Gate that opened, but apparently Gates were popping up everywhere at once, and everyone was frantically closing them.

“Random Gates and now a dungeon break? What is going on…?” The moment Yeon Hyungwang sent a chat saying he’d gotten caught in a random Gate, Yeon Hayeon’s expression turned grim and her voice grew sharp.

We’d assumed only our place had a Gate open, just like during the possession incident, so we all exchanged anxious glances.

The situation was taking a strange turn.