I Am The Anti-Mage

Chapter 80: Warlord: Chain Reaction

Seoul, at the headquarters of the Hunters Association.

Chairman Yu paced back and forth within his own room. He waited for Chief Lee to assemble the Monitoring Team. The news about four Red Gates appearances made him get taken aback.

Chief Lee then finally came to the room and made a report.

“We are ready to go, sir. Luckily, three of four Red Gates is guilds property, and the location is far away from the crowds of people. The other Red Gate we’re going to is the same. Those four Red Gates formed from tier-1 and tier-2 Portal Gates. You don’t need to worry, sir.”

However, before Chief Lee left the room, Chief Yoon barged in and gave a sudden report to Chairman Yu.

“Chairman! Four more Red Gates have appeared. Two of them are near the cities of Busan and Incheon.”

Chief Lee and Chairman Yu’s eyes widened at the news. There were eight Red Gates in total. And they didn’t have a lot of manpower to take care of all that. The Red Gates that appeared in the cities also had to get taken care of immediately. Otherwise, there would be many casualties and damage to infrastructure.

Chairman Yu sighed. “I will ask for help from the Demigod guild, the Shadow guild, and the Artates guild to send reinforcements to the unowned Portal Gates, which turned into the Red Gates.

“Chief Lee. You can go to Incheon first.”

Chief Lee nodded and quickly went to the Red Gate in Incheon. Chairman Yu wanted to contact the three guilds but got interrupted by Chief Yoon.

“Chairman, it’s…”

“What!? Just say what you want to say! We can’t waste time.”

“Two more Red Gates have appeared. And that brings the total to 10. The new Red Gates are in Seoul, sir.”

Chairman Yu was sweating profusely. It was the biggest crisis South Korea had ever faced. Ten Red Gates simultaneously across the land. Even though it was likely only low-grade creatures that came out, too many of them would exhaust the hunters.

It would be hard to deal with it, especially if an incident like the one in Mapo repeated itself.

One of the most stressful things about the Red Gate was that if the creatures spread all over the place, the damage and casualties would get prolonged.

Ridiculous casualties and unimaginable damage would make the country suffer.

“You should go too. And tell Chief Ma and Chief Yang to go to the Red Gates that are within reach other than the one in Incheon. I’ll try to contact Chief Joo and go to Busan with him later If the circumstances allow.

“There will be hunters from other guilds who will help us later. Also, don’t forget to send me all the locations of the Red Gates.”

Chief Yoon nodded and left the room. Chairman Yu began to busy himself contacting relevant people who could help in such situations.

The Demigod guild, Shadow guild, and Artates guild already got informed and agreed to lend their assistance to the Hunters Association. Chairman Yu also didn’t forget to ask about the situation of the guilds that had the Portal Gate, which later turned into the Red Gate.

Elsewhere, in an apartment building close to the Artates guild.

There were two men wearing suits in the room. One wore sunglasses and the other not. They were the ones who had met at the abandoned subway station a few days earlier.

“You can settle here. Don’t make trouble for me.”

Suddenly, there was a phone call to the man without sunglasses. He excused himself and picked up the call.

The sunglasses man nodded and walked towards the giant window. He looked through the window glass, seeing the hustle and bustle outside.

“I just got a call and was told about ten Red Gates appearing simultaneously. Do you perhaps know about this?”

The man took off his sunglasses and turned to face the man who asked.

“I don’t know. It was beyond my expectations too.”

“Then, why don’t you seem surprised to hear this news?”

The man who got questioned paused for a moment before answering. “Well, because I know the cause. Though I’m not really sure how it happened.” He then turned to look at the window glass again.

“Ma Dong-seok! Don’t keep me in the dark!”

“Are you sure you can say my name openly? Your two hunters outside, can they know my name? You sure like to invite trouble when you tell me not to cause trouble.”

The man clenched his teeth. Even though he always obeyed Dong-seok’s orders, that didn’t mean he could get treated like a subordinate who couldn’t know their detailed plans. They were partners in crime!

Dong-seok narrowed his eyes. “This happened because one or more of the Core Portal Gates got closed. It caused a chain reaction to the Universe Gateway, causing the Red Gate to open erratically.

“What’s that mean? I don’t know about Core Portal Gate. Even the Portal Gate Codex doesn’t mention that either.”

“Everything in the Portal Gate Codex is something to our advantage. Don’t overthink about it. You can consider that Portal Gate as a special one.

“The final Portal Gate required these Core Portal Gates to form. The tiers of the Core Portal Gates are random. However, the creatures guarding them should be at the Apex-rank level, and there is a restriction on our side. That’s why I’m surprised someone can hunt in the dungeon from the Core Portal Gate. It is the first time this has happened since the Core Portal Gate first appeared five years ago.”

“Has the plan been interrupted now?! “

“No. And you don’t have to worry about this. More importantly, If my prediction is not wrong. More Red Gates will appear. That old man from the Hunters Association will ask for your help.”

“South Korea will flatten if more and more Red Gates appear! Are you crazy!?”

“Tsk. It’s not under the control of me and also the other party. And you can relax about these Red Gates. It will only have low-grade creatures.”

The man glared at Dong-seok for a while. He then turned around, wanting to leave the room.

“Ah, right. Lent those two hunters to me. I need them to take me somewhere else.”

“To where?!”

“Busan. To check the Core Portal Gate over there.”

The man knew it would be beneficial for him to let his hunters accompany Dong-seok. That would give him more information that he didn’t know about the Core Portal Gate.

“Do as you wish.”

In another place, at the Demigod guild headquarters.

Dong-hyun and Yu-jin, who returned after closing the tier-3 Portal Gates, got flustered by the news of the Red Gate.

The Demigod guild let their E-rank, D-rank, and C-rank hunters help the Hunter Association deal with the Red Gates. Meanwhile, their high-ranking hunters would overseer the situation and only act if it got out of control.

“Hey, we’re on the same team now.”

Dong-hyun didn’t even bother to look. He was already familiar with Yu-jin’s voice. Their hunt in the dungeon did not cause any significant injuries within the team. They were only tired as a consequence.

“Shouldn’t Ji-woo be here too? He had an obligation to help the guild in the matter of the Red Gate. With his power, it should be easy. Try calling him.”

Donghyun gulped. In his opinion, the idea of calling Ji-woo without a prior appointment was the worst move. He knew Ji-woo’s personality a little after training with him for almost two weeks.

Ji-woo was usually pretty aloof and carefree about everything. He wouldn’t bother about something that could get handled by others. He also didn’t like other people matters than his own. His interest was above anything else.

“I heard that the Red Gate mostly only has low-grade creatures. We can handle it without Ji-woo hyung interfering. After all, there are a lot of top-ranked hunters here.”

Yu Jin frowned. She had wanted to see Ji-woo in action ever since she decided to learn from him. She had not had the chance to witness his fought against the Demon Apes before.

But, She didn’t continue pestered Dong-hyun about Ji-woo. The two of them had to leave as quickly as possible to the designated Red Gate.

South Korea had issued a state martial law, and civilians had begun to get evacuated to safe zones.

Several high-ranking hunters would prepare to take care of the creatures that came out of the perimeter of the Red Gate. To prevent them from going somewhere with a lot of people.

However, that sight was not only happening in South Korea. Many other countries were experiencing the same thing. Dozens of Red Gates appeared out of control. Only the United States, Germany, and China could keep everything under control because they were the Superpower Hegemony.

The hunters had only two main jobs in the mission to close the Red Gates. One of them was not to let any creatures pass the hunters who surrounded the Red Gate. And the second was hunting the Dungeon Owner without further ado.

At the same time, Chairman Yu and Chief Joo also received a new report in the helicopter. There were ten more Red Gates that appeared on top of the previous ten Red Gates. The situation was getting chaotic. All South Korean guilds needed to move their hunters for the solution, especially high-ranking hunters, who couldn’t serve as reserves anymore.

On the other hand, Ji-woo, who caused all of that, was still laid on the ground and losing consciousness.