I Became the Childhood Friend of the Middle Boss

“I became a childhood friend of the middle boss”

Chapter 7

The avoidance instinct

It was a Saturday off from school.

My father and I left the house after lunch.

“We’re going to go, we’ll probably be back by dinner.”

“Don’t push yourself too hard. Make sure you don’t hurt yourself and come back safe.”

“Okay, I will. Bye.”

My mother was worried when she heard that I was going to play.

But she didn’t stop me.

My father was convinced and decided to support me, believing in my determination to be strong.

I told her not to worry and turned away from her.

“Shall we go then?”

“Yes, let’s go.”

Our destination was the Clan Regulus branch closest to our home.

It was also my father’s workplace.

I hopped into my father’s car and headed there.

I don’t know how much time passed.

A building came into view.

A blue coat of arms in the shape of a lion shone from the top.

“That’s the building, isn’t it?”

“Yes, that’s where I work. You’ve never been here before, have you?”

“Yes. I knew where it was, but I’ve never been here before.”

Clan Regulus, the origin of the Shinigami Toga.

Founded by the first patriarch during the Cataclysm, the clan now had branches all over the country.

This was one of them.

“And it’s also the clan my dad is the head of.

That’s how I found this place.

To enter the dungeons, gates, and monster habitats managed by the state, you needed a hunter’s license.

I didn’t have that license, so I couldn’t do anything about it.

But in the clan where my father was the branch leader, it was a different story.

I didn’t have to be restricted.

You can use your father’s authority to be some what flexible.

“For example, entering a gate that the clan owns.”

My purpose was right there.

To have a real fight with the monsters inside the gate.

My father parked the car.

“Now, let’s get out. Don’t forget your sword.”

“Here it is.”

Of course, I didn’t forget.

I held the sword high so my father could see it.

According to the game’s setting, the dimensions of this world have been drastically destabilized since the Cataclysm.

This has caused dimensional distortions to occur without warning, affecting the world.

Monsters emerge from the distorted dimension, and the distorted dimension is frozen in place, transforming into a dungeon.

The Gate was born from that phenomenon.

The gate was a phenomenon where the world’s dimension was distorted and met the distorted dimension of another world, creating another world.

“If the phenomenon is not resolved in time, the world inside the gate will explode and spill out into reality.”

Aka, Outbreak.

The player of the game had to keep that in mind along with the story.

They occurred randomly in the school city, and unlike dungeons, they were timed, meaning that if you didn’t beat the gate in time, it would affect the ending.

“So I had to pay attention to the gate erosion rate to reach the desired ending.”

As a result, in my previous life, I would often replay the game to see if any gates had appeared.

In that sense,…

“As far as simple game content goes, I’d say the gates were pretty intelligent.”

Keep the player’s attention on the game.

To freshen things up for players who are tired of the story.

Helping players develop their characters.

Gates served multiple functions.

They were part of the game’s charm.

On the one hand, capturing a gate gave you a gate key.

“You could use that key to replay a gate you’d beaten once.”

The game makers wanted players to be able to enjoy the gates they had defeated again.

That was reflected in the world I was reincarnated in.

“Let’s go get the gate key first, we can’t go without it.”

“Where are the gate keys?”

“In the warehouse.”

The Songpa-gu branch of the Regulus Clan.

My father and I went down to the basement of the warehouse to get the gate key.

Along the way, we met some people who worked with my father.

“Wow, is this the branch leader’s son? He’s so cute!”

“Yeah. He looks so innocent. I don’t think he looks like you, thank God.”

“Why am I glad he doesn’t look like me? You’re just making fun of me.”

“Hi…. I’m Do Gyeon-Woo.”

Pinching, touching, and stretching the cheeks…

I’ve had some rough experiences with polarizing clan members.

I also felt very depressed when a muscular man hugged me.

“Do gyeon-woo, are you okay?”

“…No.”

I could barely get away from being touched by people like that.

I never wanted to go through that again.

Luckily, the people I’ve met since then have been on the normal side of the spectrum.

“You look nice. How old are you?”

“The branch manager’s son, my God… Tell me honestly, did you pick him up?”

“Sure, your wife was a beauty.”

“Do you want to take a picture with your sister?”

“I want to put it in my pocket and take it home….”

…At least it was normal.

I thanked them politely and hurried out of the room.

“Dad.”

“Uh, Gow.”

“Is Hunter like that?”

“Uh, um… Not all of them, but some of them.”

“Do gyeon-woo, you have to understand. It’s hard to stay sane when you’re risking your life to fight monsters every day.”

“Oh, yeah….”

It sounded like an excuse.

I decided to let it go.

We arrived at the warehouse.

We were greeted by a woman at the warehouse reception desk.

“Hello, Mr. Branch Manager. I heard yesterday that you and your son would be entering the gate together?”

“Yes, you have the key, right?”

“Yes, just give me a minute. I’ll be right back with them.”

The woman went inside the warehouse.

A few moments later, she returned and held out a small box.

It was a little bigger than my hand.

“These are the keys you requested to borrow. Please check them to see if they fit.”

“Hmmm… yes, thank you. Also, can you tell me which room I’ve reserved?”

“It’s number 2.”

“That’s room 2. Thanks for letting me know. Take care.”

“You too, Mr. Branch Manager.”

The work at the warehouse was done.

After checking the contents of the box, my father turned away from the reception desk.

I quickly followed him.

“Where are we going now?”

“To the room with the artificial gate. We’re going to room two.”

You can’t just use a gate key.

If you have a key, you have a door.

For the gate key to work, it needed a door to put it through.

That door was an artificial gate.

A man-made, artifact of sorts.

However, building an artificial gate was very expensive.

“There’s maintenance, there’s management, there’s….

So you had to be a very large clan, like Clan Regulus, to have an artificial gate.

According to my father, there are three artificial gates here.

I walked down the hallway, listening to my father’s story.

“So, what rank is the gate I’ll be entering? White or gray?”

“White grade.”

Meanwhile, the gates could be divided into seven classes based on the color of the gate.

White, gray, yellow, green, red, blue, and finally black.

The difficulty of the gates increased from white to black.

The gate I would be entering today was white, the lowest difficulty level.

Soon we entered a room with the number 2 on it.

“You may have seen this before in the main house, but that’s an artificial gate.”

It was a very large room with square tiles on the floor.

There were few objects decorating the space.

However, there was one giant door on the wall opposite the gate.

A circular iron door.

In the center of the gate was a keyhole.

“We’re about to enter this gate, but are you sure you’re ready? Think about it now. Once you’re in, you won’t be able to get out until you attack the gate,” my father said to me as I looked up at the gate as if to make me reconsider.

But my answer didn’t change.

“I’ve thought about it enough, it’s okay, and if I can’t get through it, Dad will do it for me, right?”

“He…. Okay, okay. You’re right, if I can’t get the gate, I’ll get it for you, so don’t push yourself too hard. Don’t get Mom in trouble for nothing.”

Dad smirked as if he had no choice.

Then he pulled the box out of his arms.

“Then activate the gate.”

A key with a white handle.

He took it out of the box and inserted it into the artificial gate.

He turned the key to the right, and a white ripple spread out from the keyhole.

Wei Ying

The dimension warped.

The iron gate turned white.

The gate was activated.

“Now, let’s go inside. I’ll go inside first, and you can come in about ten minutes later.”

“Okay, be careful.”

“Come on.”

Once activated, the gate will remain in this state until it is attacked from the inside.

Then the key turns into a gate, and you can’t turn it back into a key without attacking the gate.

I watched my father enter the gate, and a few minutes later, I walked through.

A pure white light washed over me.

* * *

A gate, a warped dimension, a layered world where dimensions meet.

The exact reason for this is unknown, but the gate does display a system message that sounds like something you’d expect to see in a game.

“It’s a game-based world, so it’s only natural.

Now I knew why, and I stopped questioning it.

When my vision returned to the light, I had a message in front of me.

[You have entered the gate].

[White: Pink Crystal Cave II]

Below the message were the requirements to capture the White Gate.

[The conditions for capturing the gate are as follows].

[Defeat a monster].

[Goblins (Rank. 01) x 15]

Defeat 15 rank 1 goblins.

Maybe it was because it was a white-ranked gate, but the conditions were very monotonous.

After confirming the message, I immediately looked around.

‘Where are the goblins.’

The world was surrounded by pink crystals.

My senses were overwhelmed by the world, I headed in the direction of the sound.

My father was there.

“Hey.”

“Did you get all the goblins?”

“Yes. These are all the ones here.”

Goblins lying on the floor, disarmed, tied with ropes.

I counted them at my father’s feet.

Fifteen in all.

That was the number of goblins the gate had listed as a condition of entry.

If we defeat them, we can complete the capture of the gate.

“Then let’s get started.”

“Only if you’re ready. We can’t take on all of them at once, so let’s start with one.”

I took up a stance away from the goblins.

My father scanned the goblins and cut the rope on the smallest one.

“He’s the weakest of the bunch, but don’t let that stop you. You know, goblins are.”

“They’re clever, aren’t they?”

“…Yes. Don’t forget that.”

He knew the game.

I had learned about monsters during my life as a member of the Suwangryu school.

I answered my father’s words and stared at the goblin that had broken free of the ropes.

Kiek?

It looked back at my father as if it didn’t understand the situation.

Then he pointed at me with a wordless gesture of his chin.

The goblin’s head snapped back around, his gaze locked on mine.

At that moment, it seemed to understand.

Kiek!

Even if it’s only a threadbare hope.

That the only way he could survive was against me.

It turned and lunged.

He picked up his fist axe from the ground and quickly closed the distance.

It felt like a lie that I had just staggered to my feet.

“Whoa….”

Such is desperation.

All living beings struggle to stay alive, even to the point of death.

Monsters are no different.

Monsters are no different.

Therefore, to kill them, I must be prepared that I might die in return.

That’s the practice.

I inhaled, turned my body, and bit back my right foot.

Penetrating Stance

Step forward with your feet and extend your arms as far back as possible.

This is the stabbing posture of the Shinkendo masters.

Based on that stance…

Lion Spin (獅子 回鍼).

It activates the mana circuit from the legs, waist, and heart to the right hand holding the sword.

Meanwhile, wrap the hilt of the sword with mana from outside the body.

That’s how…

Kie-e-e-e!

Putting your weight on your forward foot, you snap your waist and thrust your backward right arm out with all your might.

Hold your breath and release the force.

Your elbow moves forward in a straight line, and a blade of blue light slices through the air.

At the same moment, he gently twists his wrist to add rotational force.

The strike is…

Push!

I stabbed as hard as I could into the leaping goblin’s mouth.

…eek….

It flails in the air with the sword impaled through the back of its neck.

Goblin dangling in the air with a sword through the back of his neck.

It twitched and flailed, then died.

“First one.”