Prologue. Rated E

Seoul, 2060. Seventeen years ago, tears opened in the air all over the world, and monsters came out of them.

People call them Gates. Nothing goes in. Things only come out.

The people who woke up with powers are called Breakers, and they're paid to fight whatever comes out.

Kang Taegun was seven the night the Gates opened. He carried his baby sister out through the fire.

Three weeks ago, he woke up strong. He doesn't know how strong yet. Nobody does.

Chapter 1. Equipment Fault

Equipment Fault — Chapter 1

Seoul, 2060. Seventeen years after the Gates opened.

Anyone who wakes up with a power has thirty days to register it. They all end up here, at the licensing office in Seodaemun.

Two hundred people are in line this morning. Most of them will walk out rated E.

Kang Taegun: ◉ ▂▄▆█ I'm in line. It's long.

Kang Ha-eun: ◉ ▂▄▆█ How long?

Kang Taegun: ◉ ▂▄▆█ I can't see the front. There's a guy behind me who says he can turn his skin blue.

Kang Ha-eun: ◉ ▂▄▆█ Can he?

Kang Taegun: ◉ ▂▄▆█ He did it once. It's pretty blue.

Kang Ha-eun: ◉ ▂▄▆█ Don't break anything, oppa. I mean it. We can't afford to pay for a building.

Kang Taegun: ◉ ▂▄▆█ That was one door.

Kang Ha-eun: ◉ ▂▄▆█ And the kettle. And the fridge handle. And the bus stop bench.

Kang Taegun: ◉ ▂▄▆█ The bench was already loose.

Kang Ha-eun: ◉ ▂▄▆█ Sure it was. Go to school. I'll see you tonight.

Across the hall, two men in expensive armored coats are walking the line like it's a shop window.

Lim Jae-hyuk: Look at this lot. Blue skin. Warm hands. That one over there can find his car keys.

Choi Dong-wook: Don't laugh at them, Jae-hyuk. They're our future spotters.

Lim Jae-hyuk: Spotters. Right.

Choi Dong-wook: Every private team needs a few E ranks. Cheap, eager, and nobody asks questions when one doesn't come back.

Lim Jae-hyuk: What about the big guy? Army haircut. He looks like he could take a hit.

Choi Dong-wook: He looks like a guy who lifts boxes. Watch. He'll be an E by lunch.

Bae Soo-jin: Next. Number one eighty-four.

Kang Taegun: That's me.

Bae Soo-jin: Kang Taegun. Twenty-four. Six years army, discharged two months ago as a staff sergeant. When did the power show up?

Kang Taegun: About three weeks ago. I went to make tea and the kettle handle came off in my hand.

Bae Soo-jin: That happens to kettles.

Kang Taegun: The kettle was steel, ma'am. It came off bent into a U.

Bae Soo-jin: Ah. And after that?

Kang Taegun: The front door. A fridge. A bus stop bench, but that one was already loose.

Bae Soo-jin: I'll write down strength.

Kang Taegun: Thanks. I didn't know what to put on the form.

Bae Soo-jin: Room four. Don't be nervous. Hit the plate, the machine gives you a number, the panel signs it, you go home. Most people are done in two minutes.

Kang Taegun: Two minutes. Great.

Room four is a padded box with no windows. A square steel plate, thick as a phone book, is bolted into the far wall. Sensors are wired all over it.

One wall is dark glass. The panel sits behind it.

Bae Soo-jin: ◉ ▂▄▆█ Okay, Mr. Kang. When the light goes green, hit the plate as hard as you can. Don't hold back. It's rated for A rank. You won't hurt it.

Kang Taegun: As hard as I can.

Bae Soo-jin: ◉ ▂▄▆█ As hard as you can.

He looks at the plate for a while. Then he pulls it back. He decides to go about half. Maybe less.

Kang Taegun: Okay. Half.

He decides to go about half. Maybe less.

The plate folds around his fist like a sheet of paper.

Every screen behind the glass spikes past the top of the scale, and then every screen goes black.

Behind the glass, the youngest inspector on the panel hasn't blinked.

Silence.

Bae Soo-jin: ◉ ▂▄▆█ ...Mr. Kang? Are you hurt?

Kang Taegun: No, ma'am. I'm really sorry about your wall.

Bae Soo-jin: ◉ ▂▄▆█ Please stay where you are. Please don't touch anything.

Kang Taegun: I won't. I'll just stand here.

Behind the glass, the panel is talking all at once. One voice cuts through the rest. It's young and it sounds bored.

Ahn Ji-soo: ◉ ▂▄▆█ What did the machine read before it died?

Bae Soo-jin: ◉ ▂▄▆█ It didn't finish the reading, Inspector Ahn. The screens all went out at once. It's a fault. It has to be.

Ahn Ji-soo: ◉ ▂▄▆█ A fault.

Bae Soo-jin: ◉ ▂▄▆█ The plate must have been cracked before he came in. Nobody breaks an A rated plate at a light tap. So I'm logging it as an equipment fault. Output unreadable. He goes in as E until his appeal.

Kang Taegun: E?

Bae Soo-jin: ◉ ▂▄▆█ I'm sorry. The rules say that if we can't read you, we can't rank you above E. You can appeal for a retest.

Kang Taegun: How long's the appeal?

Bae Soo-jin: ◉ ▂▄▆█ About four months right now.

Kang Taegun: Four months.

Bae Soo-jin: ◉ ▂▄▆█ I know. I'm sorry.

Kang Taegun: No, it's fine. An E licence still lets me work, right?

Bae Soo-jin: ◉ ▂▄▆█ ...Yes. It does.

Kang Taegun: Then it's fine. Thanks, ma'am. Sorry about the wall. And the plate. And I think the glass has a crack in it now.

He's reading his new licence card on the way out when somebody steps into his path.

She's in a navy agency coat with a silver pin on the collar and a short sword at her hip. Everyone in the hall has gone quiet to look at her.

Ahn Ji-soo: Kang Taegun.

Kang Taegun: Yes, ma'am?

Ahn Ji-soo: Don't call me ma'am. I'm twenty-six. Ahn Ji-soo. I was on your panel.

Kang Taegun: Oh. Sorry about the glass.

Ahn Ji-soo: Hit my hand.

Kang Taegun: What?

Ahn Ji-soo: Hit my hand. I'm A rank. I can take it. I want to see something.

Kang Taegun: I'm not going to hit you.

Ahn Ji-soo: It's not hitting me, it's a test. I'm literally the person who does the tests.

Kang Taegun: Still not hitting you.

He holds out his hand for her to shake instead. She stares at it. Then she shakes it, hard, like she means to make a point.

Her eyes go a little wide. She doesn't let go right away.

Kang Taegun: Too hard? Sorry. I'm still getting used to it.

Ahn Ji-soo: No. It was fine. It was a normal handshake. Totally normal.

Kang Taegun: Okay. Good. Nice to meet you, Inspector.

Ahn Ji-soo: That plate wasn't cracked when you went in, Mr. Kang. I checked it myself this morning.

Kang Taegun: The clerk said it was a fault.

Ahn Ji-soo: The clerk wants to go home on time. I'd give that handshake a six out of ten, by the way. You held back.

Kang Taegun: You rate handshakes?

Ahn Ji-soo: I rate everything.

She walks off without saying goodbye. Two men in white coats step in to fill the space she left.

Choi Dong-wook: The guy who broke the cheap machine. I heard it from all the way down the hall.

Lim Jae-hyuk: Equipment fault. That's gotta hurt, man.

Kang Taegun: It's fine.

Choi Dong-wook: Choi Dong-wook. B rank. I run Hanseong Response. We cover the east side of the Euljiro pit for a big insurance firm. I'm always looking for spotters.

Kang Taegun: What does a spotter do?

Choi Dong-wook: You stand where I tell you and you shout when you see something. Easy work for an E.

Lim Jae-hyuk: Real easy. The last one barely screamed.

Choi Dong-wook: Jae-hyuk.

Lim Jae-hyuk: Joking. I'm joking.

Kang Taegun: I'll think about it. Thanks.

Choi Dong-wook: Don't think too long. E ranks are cheap.

Evening. It's raining. Kang walks home with a bag of groceries and a tray of eggs balanced on top.

The storm drain at the corner starts to hiss.

GATE AGENCY FILE. SKITTERING HORROR. E rank. Helmet-sized, eight legs, all mouth underneath. Comes up through drains.

Something the size of a helmet climbs out of the grate on eight thin legs. Its whole underside is a mouth.

Three kids are standing at the bus stop, ten feet away. One of them drops his umbrella.

Kang Taegun: Hey. Kids. Go stand behind me, okay?

Something the size of a helmet crawls out of the storm drain, ten feet from three kids at a bus stop.

Kang puts himself in front of them, still holding the groceries.

He flicks it.

It goes through a car door. Every egg survives.

The thing is gone. So is most of the driver's door on a parked sedan.

Kang Taegun: Oh, come on.

The kids are staring at him. One of them has his phone out.

Kang Taegun: You guys okay? Nobody got bit?

They shake their heads. He sets the eggs down, tears a page out of the notebook in his pocket and writes a note for the windshield.

"Sorry about your door. There was a monster. Call me. Kang Taegun."

He checks the eggs. Every one of them survived.

Two rooms above a laundromat. One of them is his sister's. The other one is the kitchen, the living room and his bed.

Kang Ha-eun: So? What are you?

Kang Taegun: E.

Kang Ha-eun: E? Like, the letter E? The bottom one?

Kang Taegun: The machine broke. They called it a fault.

Kang Ha-eun: How did the machine break?

Kang Taegun: I hit it.

Kang Ha-eun: Oppa. I told you not to break anything.

Kang Taegun: I went half.

Kang Ha-eun: You went half. Amazing. My brother, the half E.

She pushes a letter across the table. It has the crest of the science high school on it. She's been holding onto it all day.

Kang Ha-eun: This came. Dorm fees. Eighteen hundred Credits by the end of the month, or they give my place to the next kid on the list.

Kang Taegun: Eighteen hundred.

Kang Ha-eun: I can go to the normal school. It's fine. It's honestly fine. It's closer.

Kang Taegun: You're going to the science school.

Kang Ha-eun: With what? Your pension's sixty a week. I did the math. I do all the math in this house.

Kang Taegun: I got a job. Night shifts. At a warehouse.

Kang Ha-eun: What warehouse?

Kang Taegun: A big one. Lifting boxes.

Kang Ha-eun: ...Okay. That's actually a good job for you.

Kang Taegun: Right? I'm great at boxes.

Kang Ha-eun: Don't break the boxes.

She goes to bed at eleven. He waits until her light goes out. Then he opens his phone and looks up the one place in Seoul that will hire an E rank the same night he walks in.

The Euljiro Standing Gate. Night board by the lift. Pay by the shift.

Kang Taegun: E rank. Four months for the appeal. Twenty-six days for the fees.

He looks at the bent kettle on the counter. He still hasn't thrown it out.

Kang Taegun: Okay. Let's go to work.

Chapter 2. The Night Board

The Night Board — Chapter 2

Eleven at night. Kang takes the lift down from the street and gets off on the third ring of the Euljiro pit.

Forty people are waiting by a board of night work. A heavy man past fifty sits on a folding stool with a clipboard on his knee and the last two fingers missing from his right hand.

Jo Dae-sung: Two on the north wall, midnight to six, standard rate. Three for the market escort. Nothing heavy tonight. Take the wall if you want an easy one.

Yun Chae-won: Dae-sung, three and six are pulling harder than they were this morning. I can feel it through the rail.

Jo Dae-sung: I believe you, Chae-won. I always believe you. But the readings downstairs say steady. Bring me a number and I'll empty the floor.

Seo Ji-hoon: It's closer than yesterday. It was down and to the left. Now it's just down.

Nobody answers him, and somebody laughs. The kid's boots are too big for him and there's newspaper sticking out of the tops.

Kang Taegun: Hey. What does that feel like? Closer, I mean.

Seo Ji-hoon: Um. Like a phone buzzing in another room? You can't hear it, but you know where it is. And tonight it's louder.

Seo Ji-hoon: Sorry. Nobody ever asks me that. I'm Seo Ji-hoon. E. Third try.

Kang Taegun: Kang Taegun. Also E. First try.

Jo Dae-sung: New guy. Army, right? You're standing at attention in a noodle line, son. You and the kid, north wall, midnight to six. Twenty Credits each. Stay behind the barricade and don't be a hero.

Kang Taegun: Yes, sir.

Jo Dae-sung: Don't call me sir. I work for a living.

The lift opens again. Two men in white armored coats walk out, and people get out of their way without being asked.

Jo Dae-sung: Choi. Your contract's the east side. What do you want?

Choi Dong-wook: The insurer wants the north wall covered too tonight. Their building backs onto it. So I need two E rank spotters.

Jo Dae-sung: No. I don't hand you kids anymore. You know why.

Lim Jae-hyuk: Because they keep getting lost?

Choi holds up a signed order from the Gangnam Contract Exchange. Jo reads it twice and doesn't say anything.

Choi Dong-wook: Private contract. I pick from the board. That one. The skinny one with the newspaper boots.

Jo Dae-sung: He's a week old, Choi.

Kang Taegun: Put me on it too. He's on my shift. I'd rather he wasn't out there alone.

Choi Dong-wook: Hey, it's the equipment fault. Sure. Two spotters for the price of two. Midnight. Try to keep up.

Jo Dae-sung: Kang. You stay behind the barricade. Both of you. Whatever he says.

Kang leans on the rail and sees the Gate for the first time. Four floors down, a tear the colour of dirty water hangs in the air above the old road.

Eight steel posts stand around it on rails, wrapped in cable, their lamps running a slow green loop. The technician from the board is standing next to him.

Kang Taegun: What are the posts for?

Yun Chae-won: They keep it asleep. Each one pulls on it a little. All eight together hold it quiet. If one pulls wrong, the others have to work harder.

Kang Taegun: And three and six are pulling wrong.

Yun Chae-won: You were actually listening. Nobody listens.

Yun Chae-won: My dad had a print shop down there. Right where it is. He was working late the night it opened.

Kang Taegun: I'm sorry.

Yun Chae-won: I was eleven. It's why I do this. I'm Yun Chae-won. I tune the posts.

Kang Taegun: Kang Taegun. I stand behind a barricade, apparently.

Yun Chae-won: Then stand behind it. Choi's spotters don't last long.

Kang Taegun: This one will.

The north wall is a chest high steel barricade on the bottom ring, with the pit floor on the other side. At three in the morning Choi's team is playing cards on a crate, and Ji-hoon hasn't sat down once.

Seo Ji-hoon: Mr. Kang. It's coming up. Right now.

Kang Taegun: How many?

Seo Ji-hoon: A lot of little ones. Like somebody threw a handful of gravel at me.

The Gate ripples. Something small and green drops out of it onto the road, then another, then a lot more.

GATE AGENCY FILE. DRAGON WYRMLING. E rank. A hatchling dragon the size of a large bird. Spits acid. Comes in swarms.

They're hatchling dragons the size of large birds, with dull green scales, stubby wings and teeth far too long for their heads. The one in front spits, and the road smokes where it lands.

Choi Dong-wook: Spotter. Get out past the barricade and count them for me.

Seo Ji-hoon: Out there?

Choi Dong-wook: Spotters spot. You can't spot from back here. Go on, we've got you covered.

Kang Taegun: Jo said behind the barricade.

Choi Dong-wook: Jo doesn't sign your pay tonight. I do. Kid. Go.

Lim Jae-hyuk: Run fast, newspaper boots!

Ji-hoon climbs over with his hands shaking. Behind him, Hanseong Response picks up the cards and walks off toward the east end.

Choi sends the new kid over the barricade to count them.

Then his team picks up their cards and walks away.

Seventeen wyrmlings come up the road, and Ji-hoon is the only thing on it.

Seo Ji-hoon: Mr. Kang!

Kang Taegun: Get down, Ji-hoon. Cover your head.

Kang goes over the barricade with one hand.

It takes about four seconds.

He comes back with the kid tucked under one arm.

Behind him, seventeen wyrmlings lie in a pile on the road.

It takes about four seconds. Kang climbs back over the barricade with Ji-hoon tucked under one arm, and seventeen dead wyrmlings lie in a pile on the road behind him.

Kang Taegun: You okay? Any acid on you? Check your arms, the acid's sneaky.

Seo Ji-hoon: You just... with your hands. You did that with your hands.

Seo Ji-hoon: There were seventeen. I counted. I was supposed to count, so I counted.

Kang Taegun: Good job, spotter.

Hanseong Response comes back from the east end and stops at the pile. Lim's cards fall out of his hand.

Lim Jae-hyuk: Boss. They're dead. They're all dead.

Choi Dong-wook: What happened here?

Kang Taegun: They came up the road.

Choi Dong-wook: Good work, team. Textbook. Jae-hyuk, log seventeen for Hanseong.

Lim Jae-hyuk: Seventeen for us. Nice.

Choi doesn't look at Kang once. Ji-hoon can't look at anyone else.

Seo Ji-hoon: What rank are you? For real.

Kang Taegun: E.

Seo Ji-hoon: That's not possible. Nobody's E and does that.

Kang Taegun: Equipment fault.

Kang Taegun: Don't tell anyone, okay? I just want the paycheck.

Chapter 3. Seventeen Kills

Seventeen Kills — Chapter 3

Six in the morning. The bounty counter is a window on the second ring, with a line of tired crews waiting in front of it.

Choi Dong-wook: Hanseong Response. Seventeen wyrmlings off the north wall, around three.

The clerk behind the window counts out a thick stack of chits. Choi's team whistles.

Seo Ji-hoon: Those aren't yours.

Choi Dong-wook: Sorry, kid. Say that again?

Seo Ji-hoon: You weren't even looking. You walked off. Mr. Kang killed every one of them. I was right there.

Lim Jae-hyuk: You were out there crying, is where you were.

Lim shoves him into the counter. Ji-hoon's borrowed boots slide on the wet floor, and a wad of newspaper falls out of one.

Choi Dong-wook: Spotters spot, kid. That's the job. You spotted, Hanseong killed. Everybody here knows how it works.

Choi Dong-wook: Here. Twenty for you, twenty for the big one. Don't spend it all on newspaper.

Lim lifts his baton to poke Ji-hoon again. Kang takes hold of his wrist, and Lim pulls, and nothing moves.

Lim lifts the baton to poke Ji-hoon again.

Kang takes his wrist.

Lim pulls. Nothing moves.

He laughs like it's a joke. It isn't one.

Kang Taegun: He's done. We're going.

Lim Jae-hyuk: Hey. Let go, man. Ha. Ha ha. Good grip. That's a good grip.

Kang lets go. He picks up the newspaper, puts it back in Ji-hoon's boot, and takes the two chits.

Kang Taegun: Thanks for the shift.

Seo Ji-hoon: Why did you let him do that? Seventeen wyrmlings! That's like three hundred Credits and you said thank you!

Kang Taegun: Who's the counter going to believe, a B rank with a contract or two E's? And if I start a fight with a B rank on my first night, Jo can't put me on the board anymore.

Seo Ji-hoon: So you just let him win?

Kang Taegun: My sister's school fees are due in twenty-five days. I need every shift. Choi can have a nice dinner.

Seo Ji-hoon: It's not fair.

Kang Taegun: Nope. Come on, I'll buy you noodles. I'm rich now. I've got twenty Credits.

The noodle counter is a steel bar with six stools on the third ring. An orange scooter stacked with delivery boxes comes around the ring at full speed.

Park Min-jae: Move, move, move! No brakes! Brakes are more of an idea!

It hits Kang square in the back and stops dead. Its rider goes over the handlebars and bounces off Kang too.

Park Min-jae: Ow. Ow. What are you made of, a bridge?

Kang Taegun: Sorry. You okay? Sorry about your scooter.

Park Min-jae: My front wheel's an oval now. It was round this morning. I remember it being round.

Park Min-jae: Wait, you caught the noodles? All four? Man, you're a hero. Park Min-jae, C rank, fastest delivery in Jung-gu. Usually.

Kang Taegun: Kang Taegun. E.

Park Min-jae: E? You stopped my scooter with your back. I hit a bus once and the bus moved more than you did.

Kang Taegun: I've got a strong back.

Park Min-jae: So I'm from Busan, right? My mom's got a fish stall down there and I send her money every week. Well, most weeks. I'm fast, but I'm broke. Are you gonna eat that egg?

Park Min-jae: And who's this? He looks like he got shoved.

Seo Ji-hoon: I got shoved.

Park Min-jae: Lim? Big guy, baton, laughs like a car alarm? He shoved me into a soup pot once. I smelled like broth for a week. Dogs followed me home.

A woman in a navy agency coat walks down the ring with a clipboard and a short sword at her hip. People stop talking as she passes.

Park Min-jae: Oh no. Oh wow. That's Ahn Ji-soo. That's an A rank. That's THE A rank. Everybody act normal.

Ahn Ji-soo: Mr. Kang. Small world. I'm here on a post audit. Every quarter the agency checks that the posts read what they say they read.

Kang Taegun: Check three and six. The lady who tunes them says they're pulling hard.

Ahn Ji-soo: The instruments say they're fine.

Kang Taegun: She said they'd say that.

Ji-soo sits down beside him and reaches for the chopsticks, and her elbow knocks her sword off the counter. Kang catches it without looking up from his bowl and sets it back.

Kang Taegun: You dropped this.

Ahn Ji-soo: Nine out of ten. You didn't even look. That's the only reason it's not a ten.

Kang Taegun: Was that a test?

Ahn Ji-soo: Everything's a test.

Park Min-jae: She rated you! She's never rated me. I've been in the same building as her twice!

Ahn Ji-soo: The crash was a three. Your wheel's an oval.

Park Min-jae: A three! She knows about my wheel!

Seo Ji-hoon: Something's coming up the wall. Fast. It's right under us.

GATE AGENCY FILE. JUVENILE DRAKE. D rank. Dog-sized, adult teeth, breathes sparks. Too young to fly well, old enough to bite.

A sleek drake the size of a large dog comes over the rail and lands on the counter. It's rust red, its wings are too big for the ring, and sparks come out of its mouth when it breathes.

The drake gets one lunge in before Kang has it by the tail.

He doesn't finish his noodles. He carries it upstairs instead.

Half the ring follows him with their phones out.

He puts it down between the galbi and Choi's gold watch.

Kang has it by the tail. It thrashes and snaps and sprays sparks, and it can't get any closer to the woman behind the counter.

Kang Taegun: Min-jae. Where's Hanseong eating?

Park Min-jae: Fourth ring, the barbecue place. Why?

Kang Taegun: It came over the east rail. That's their side.

He carries it up the stairs by the tail while half the ring follows with their phones out. At the fourth ring grill table, he sets it down between the meat and Choi's gold watch.

Kang Taegun: I think this is yours.

Choi Dong-wook: What the... get it off the table!

Lim Jae-hyuk: Boss! It's on the grill! It's eating the galbi!

Kang Taegun: It came over your rail. So it's yours, right? That's how it works?

Lim gets his baton out and hits it until it stops moving. It takes him eleven tries, and Kang holds the tail the whole time.

Choi Dong-wook: That was under control. Hanseong had eyes on it the whole time.

Park Min-jae: You had eyes on your galbi.

Someone on the stairs laughs. Then everyone on the stairs laughs.

Choi Dong-wook: Who said that?

Park Min-jae: Nobody. The wind. Bye.

Kang Taegun: Sorry about your grill.

Ahn Ji-soo: Equipment fault. Sure.

Chapter 4. Market Escort

Market Escort — Chapter 4

The next night. Min-jae's scooter has a new front wheel, and it's already a little bent.

Jo Dae-sung: Market escort. One truck of blank seal cores, Mapo workshop to here. I need somebody who can drive and somebody who can lift.

Park Min-jae: Drive! I can drive! I drive all day!

Jo Dae-sung: You drive a scooter, Park. Into people.

Park Min-jae: Into one person. Once. And he was fine. He was more than fine, he was basically a bridge.

Jo Dae-sung: Kang. You lift?

Kang Taegun: I lift.

Jo Dae-sung: Forty Credits each. The cores are worth more than both of you, so don't scratch them. Yun's riding along to sign for them. She asked.

The Mapo workshop is a long brick shed by the river. Blank seal cores the size of paint cans sit on pallets at the loading dock.

Yun signs for forty of them one line at a time, and checks every one with the flat of her hand.

Yun Chae-won: Somebody's been in my posts.

Kang Taegun: Three and six?

Yun Chae-won: Three and six. The log says nobody's touched them since Tuesday, but someone adjusted them and didn't write it down.

Kang Taegun: Who can do that?

Yun Chae-won: Anyone with the access codes. That's maybe twenty people, and every one of them would log it.

Park Min-jae: Could it just drift? My scooter drifts left.

Yun Chae-won: Your scooter drifts left because a man broke it. Posts don't drift.

Kang Taegun: Tell the inspector. Ahn Ji-soo. She's doing the audit.

Yun Chae-won: I've told everybody. I'll tell her too. I've been right four times and it's never made anyone listen faster.

Kang Taegun: I'm listening.

Yun Chae-won: Yeah. You keep doing that.

Midnight. The truck runs east on the inner ring road with the river on the right and almost no traffic.

Park Min-jae: This truck's amazing. It has a roof. It has four wheels, and all of them are round. I could live in this truck.

Yun Chae-won: Please watch the road.

Park Min-jae: I'm watching it! Hey, big guy, you want to hear about my mom's fish stall? There's a crab in this one.

Something big lands on the road ahead, and the asphalt cracks under it.

GATE AGENCY FILE. WINGED DRAKE. C rank. Horse-sized, wings wider than a road. The blue ones breathe frost.

It's a muscular reptile the size of a horse, with blue scales, long hooked claws and wings wider than both lanes. Frost spreads across the road from its mouth.

Yun Chae-won: That's a river drake. One of the river Gates must have let it out.

Park Min-jae: I can't stop! It's a truck! Trucks don't just stop!

Kang Taegun: Then keep going straight. Don't swerve.

Kang opens his door and steps out of the moving truck.

Kang opens the door and steps out of a moving truck.

He meets the drake in the middle of the road with one punch.

The truck stops a hand's width behind his back.

Min-jae hasn't stopped screaming.

The drake is lying on its side across both lanes. The truck's front bumper has stopped a hand's width behind Kang's back.

Park Min-jae: Aaah! Oh my god. You got out of a truck! A moving truck! Who gets out of a moving truck?

Kang Taegun: Nice braking.

Park Min-jae: I didn't brake! It stopped because it was scared of you!

Kang Taegun: Sorry about your bumper. It's got frost on it now.

Yun Chae-won: You dropped a C rank drake with one punch.

Park Min-jae: He's E! He told me he's E!

Kang Taegun: Equipment fault.

The headlights catch something at the edge of the road. It's shaped like a wolf, and they can see the guardrail through its body.

GATE AGENCY FILE. PHASE WOLF. D rank. You can see through its coat. Usually summoned, not born of a Gate.

There are nine of them, their outlines rippling as they move, and they're coming from both sides.

Yun Chae-won: Those didn't come out of a Gate. Somebody called them.

Kang Taegun: Stay in the truck. Lock the doors.

Nine wolves come out of the dark, and you can see the road through them.

Kang doesn't leave the headlights.

The wolves fade out wherever they land.

Behind a pillar, the man who called them starts to panic.

Wolves hit the guardrail, the road and the far lane, and fade out where they land. Kang hasn't moved out of the headlights.

A thin man in black armor that's too big for him backs out from behind a pillar. He has a ring on every finger.

Gu Min-ho: They're not working. Sir, they're not working! The file said E!

Nam Gi-cheol: Stop talking, Min-ho. They can hear you.

A black van is parked under the overpass with its lights off. A man in his forties steps out of it into the headlights, with a shaved head, grey stubble, a scar across his jaw and a red visor pushed up on his forehead.

A man steps out of the black van into the headlights.

Kang knows him. Master Sergeant Nam Gi-cheol taught him to shoot when he was eighteen.

Nam isn't here for the cores. He's here for the woman in the truck.

Nam Gi-cheol: Staff Sergeant Kang. Heard you woke up.

Kang Taegun: Master Sergeant Nam.

Park Min-jae: You know him? Why do you know the wolf guy's boss?

Nam Gi-cheol: Relax. I'm not here for you, kid. Or the cores. I'm here for the technician.

In the truck, Yun goes very still.

Kang Taegun: No.

Nam Gi-cheol: Then here's the other offer. I run a crew now, all ex-army, and we pay real money. Not twenty a shift.

Kang Taegun: How do you know what I make a shift?

Nam Gi-cheol: I know a lot of things. They logged you E, kid. That's what this country thinks you're worth.

Kang Taegun: Yeah. They did. Still no thanks, Sarge. I've got a job.

Nam Gi-cheol: Carrying boxes for Jo Dae-sung.

Kang Taegun: Carrying boxes for Jo Dae-sung. And if you come near her again, I'll stop being polite.

Nam Gi-cheol: You were always polite. It was the most annoying thing about you. Min-ho. Van.

Gu Min-ho: We're just leaving? He killed nine of my wolves!

Nam walks back to the van at an easy pace and doesn't look back. It pulls out with its lights still off.

Yun Chae-won: He knew which truck. He knew my name. Somebody at Euljiro told him.

Kang Taegun: You're okay. He's gone. We'll tell the inspector tonight.

Park Min-jae: Okay. Okay. Who the hell was that?

Kang Taegun: The guy who taught me to shoot.

Chapter 5. Home Visit

Home Visit — Chapter 5

Kang is asleep on his mat in his work clothes, in the middle of the afternoon. He got in at seven this morning.

Ha-eun is doing the laundry. She checks his jacket pockets first, because he always leaves tissues in them.

In one pocket there's a folded slip. It says Euljiro Standing Gate, night board, north wall, midnight to six, Kang Taegun, E rank, twenty Credits.

Kang Ha-eun: Oppa. Wake up. What's Euljiro?

Kang Taegun: ...It's a neighborhood.

Kang Ha-eun: Don't. This was in your jacket, and that's the Gate that killed four hundred people. We learned about it in school, oppa.

Kang Taegun: It's kind of a warehouse. There's a lot of boxes.

Kang Ha-eun: Don't make it a joke! Every night since the letter, I'm asleep and you're standing next to a Gate. I don't want the stupid school if that's what it costs.

Kang Taegun: You're going to the science school. I decide that. I've always been the one who decides.

It comes out louder than he meant, and she flinches. He has never shouted at her before.

Kang Taegun: Sorry. I didn't mean to yell.

Kang Ha-eun: You're all I have. I don't even remember Mom's face, oppa. I've got you and a bent kettle.

He sits up on the mat. After a while, she sits down next to him.

Kang Taegun: I remember that night. Mom put you in my arms and told me to run to the school and not stop. So I didn't stop.

Kang Ha-eun: You were seven.

Kang Taegun: Yeah. You screamed the whole way. Right in my ear.

Their mother put the baby in his arms and told him to run to the school and not stop.

He was seven. He didn't stop.

Ha-eun doesn't remember any of it. He remembers it for both of them.

Kang Taegun: You don't have to remember it. I remember it enough for both of us. That's my job.

Kang Ha-eun: Then you text me when you get there and when you leave. And you do the laundry for a month. For lying.

Kang Taegun: That's fair.

The doorbell rings. A woman in a navy agency coat is on the landing, with a folder under her arm and a sword at her hip.

Ahn Ji-soo: Hello. Ahn Ji-soo, from the Gate agency. Is Kang Taegun home?

Kang Ha-eun: Oppa. There's a pretty lady with a sword at the door.

Kang Taegun: Inspector. Hi. Sorry, I just woke up.

Kang Ha-eun: Are you his girlfriend?

Kang Taegun: Ha-eun!

Ahn Ji-soo: No. I'm the one who tested him.

Kang Ha-eun: That's a silver pin. There's an A rank in our kitchen. This is the best day of my life.

Kang Ha-eun: He says you rate everything. Rate him. Overall.

Ahn Ji-soo: Six. He needs a haircut and he apologizes to furniture.

Kang Ha-eun: Six! Oppa, she gave you a six!

Kang Taegun: I'm right here.

Ahn Ji-soo: I need to talk to your brother about work, Ha-eun. The boring kind.

Kang Ha-eun: I'm putting my headphones on. I'm not listening. I'm definitely not listening.

She goes into her room. Music starts up loud behind the door.

Ahn Ji-soo: I pulled your test data. Before the sensors died, the reading went past S. Off the top of the scale.

Kang Taegun: Past S.

Ahn Ji-soo: I can fast-track a public retest at Jamsil Arena. It'd be on camera. Everyone in Korea would know your name by dinner.

Kang Taegun: Please don't.

Ahn Ji-soo: You'd turn down S rank? Do you know what an S rank gets paid?

Kang Taegun: I just want the paycheck. And her to finish school. If I'm on TV, people come to the door, and she's seventeen.

Ji-soo looks at the closed door. Then she closes her folder.

Ahn Ji-soo: Fine, for now. It's a terrible decision, though. Two out of ten.

Kang Taegun: Thanks, Inspector.

Ahn Ji-soo: Two more things. Choi Dong-wook is being looked at for bounty fraud. His kill count's way too high for a team that size, but there's no proof yet.

Kang Taegun: He's got a really nice watch.

Ahn Ji-soo: And Yun Chae-won reported the road. The man from the van is Nam Gi-cheol. He's a deserter, and he runs a Seoul cell of the Obsidian Guard.

Kang Taegun: I know. He taught me how to shoot.

Ahn Ji-soo: That's not in your file. If he talks to you again, you call me. Not the office, me.

Ha-eun walks her down to the street. Kang follows as far as the top of the stairs, to say goodbye.

Kang Ha-eun: Can I tell you something? He took my stuffed rabbit to the army. Six years, every base, and it's under his pillow right now.

Kang Taegun: Ha-eun!

Ahn Ji-soo: A rabbit. Okay. That one's a ten out of ten.

That evening, Kang sits in Min-jae's rooftop room in Yeonnam-dong, ten minutes from home. It has one plastic table, two chairs and a view of other rooftops.

Park Min-jae: Sit, drink, don't look yet. Okay, look. Somebody filmed you at Euljiro.

Somebody filmed him carrying the drake up the stairs.

You can't see his face, only the back of his head, his jacket and his hand wraps.

Thirty thousand people have watched it. They're calling him Noodle Guy.

Kang groans.

Park Min-jae: Up the stairs, past the noodle counter, drake in one hand, noodle lady screaming the whole time. They're calling you Noodle Guy. Thirty thousand views.

Kang Taegun: You can't see my face, right?

Park Min-jae: You can see the back of your head, your jacket and your hand wraps. So only everyone who knows you.

Kang Taegun: I'm moving to Busan.

Park Min-jae: Hyung, you're famous.

Kang looks up from the phone.

Kang Taegun: Hyung?

Park Min-jae: What? You're older, you carried a drake up the stairs and you gave me your extra dumpling, so that's a hyung. I don't make the rules.

Kang Taegun: Okay. Hyung's fine.

Park Min-jae: Good, 'cause you're already in my phone as Hyung. Hey, I've got a run to a club in Hongdae tomorrow night. Twelve crates, no lift, and the owner pays in fried chicken.

Kang Taegun: I'm in.

Chapter 6. The Back Table

The Back Table — Chapter 6

The next night, the club is two floors under a phone shop in Hongdae. The music is so loud the drinks shake on the tables.

Min-jae carries four crates of soju down the stairs. Kang carries the other eight, stacked.

Park Min-jae: Last one! Hyung, you had eight crates on one shoulder. You know that's not normal, right?

Kang Taegun: They were light.

Park Min-jae: They were soju, and soju is not light. Okay, I'm gonna go get paid. Don't lift anything else.

Kang isn't listening. At a roped-off table in the back, Choi Dong-wook is sitting with two men in black, and one of them has a shaved head and a scar across his jaw.

Park Min-jae: Wait. That's the guy from the road. Why is Choi having drinks with the guy from the road?

Choi slides a small black data chip across the table. The thin man with rings on every finger picks it up and slips it into his coat.

Kang Taegun: Go wait by the scooter.

Park Min-jae: Hyung. No. That's an A rank, a B rank and a guy with wolves.

Kang Taegun: Go wait by the scooter, Min-jae.

He walks to the back. The bouncer at the rope takes one look at him and unhooks it.

Nam Gi-cheol: Kid, sit down. You want a beer? You used to drink the cheap stuff.

Kang Taegun: Evening, Sarge.

Choi Dong-wook: Oh, look, it's the E. The noodle guy. You here to carry something up the stairs for me?

Kang Taegun: What's on the chip?

Choi Dong-wook: Business. Grown-up business. It's got numbers on it, you wouldn't like it.

Kang Taegun: It's the crew rota. And the codes for the posts.

Choi Dong-wook: Who told you that?

Kang Taegun: You did. Just now, with your face.

Nam Gi-cheol: He was always good at that. Worst card player in the battalion, though.

Kang Taegun: Give me the chip, Choi.

Choi Dong-wook: Or what? You're an E, a spotter on paper. You're bait with a licence.

Kang Taegun: Give me the chip.

Nam Gi-cheol: They logged you E, kid, and I'm offering you a table. This is the last time I ask nicely.

Kang Taegun: This is the last time I ask at all.

Nam Gi-cheol: Okay. Gu.

Something stings the back of Kang's neck. The thin man with the rings has slipped around behind him, shaking, with a little black dart gun.

Nam Gi-cheol: Relic sedative, made for S-rank prisoners. The floor's gonna tilt in a second, kid. Don't fight it.

Kang Taegun: Sorry about your tables.

The dart is a relic sedative made for S rank prisoners.

Kang puts four of Nam's men through the tables while it hits.

Then the floor tilts, and he goes down on one knee.

Nam has never seen anyone still kneeling after that dose.

The music has stopped, and four of Nam's men are lying in the wreck of four tables. Kang is down on one knee.

Nam Gi-cheol: That dose drops an S rank flat. You're still kneeling. Huh.

Kang Taegun: The chip.

Choi kicks him in the ribs. Then he does it again, harder, and plants his shoe on Kang's shoulder.

Choi Dong-wook: That's for the drake. And the stairs. And the thirty thousand views, you nobody.

Kang Taegun: You done?

Choi Dong-wook: Now I'm done.

Nam Gi-cheol: Enough. He's worth more with his ribs in one piece. Put him in the van.

Nam's men drag him out the back door by his arms, boots scraping the ground. The van is idling at the far end of the alley.

There's agency tape across the alley mouth. A small Gate opened behind the clubs this afternoon, and not everything that came out of it got caught.

GATE AGENCY FILE. SHADOW MASTIFF. C rank. A black dog the streetlight doesn't touch. Hunts only in the dark.

Three heavy dogs step out from between the bins, with coats so black the streetlight doesn't show on them. Only their eyes catch it.

Gu Min-ho: Those aren't mine. Sarge, those aren't mine!

Nam Gi-cheol: Nobody run. Get him in the van, slowly.

Park Min-jae: Hey! Put my hyung down, you ugly sausages!

Gu Min-ho: Who is that?

Park Min-jae: Fastest delivery in Jung-gu. No signature needed.

Min-jae comes out of nowhere at full speed.

He's carrying a man twice his weight, and three dogs are right behind him.

One of them gets his leg. He screams and keeps running.

Five blocks. Then a fire escape. He doesn't stop once.

He doesn't slow down for the corners. The dogs come after him out of the alley and through the backstreets, three blocks, four, five.

Kang Taegun: Min-jae. Put me down. You can outrun them on your own.

Park Min-jae: I'm a C rank, hyung. I run away from stuff professionally. Tonight I'm running away with you, so shut up.

A mastiff catches his leg below the knee pad and tears, and Min-jae screams and keeps running. He goes up a fire escape where the dogs can't follow.

Kang Taegun: Your leg!

Park Min-jae: What leg? I don't have a leg, I have a delivery. Hold on.

Min-jae kicks open the door of his rooftop room and falls through it. Kang hits the floor next to him.

Park Min-jae: We made it! Hyung, we made it. I'm laughing and crying at the same time, is that normal?

Kang Taegun: You came back.

Park Min-jae: Obviously I came back, you idiot. You're my hyung.

Kang Taegun: You're bleeding a lot, man.

Park Min-jae: It's mostly jeans. Okay, it's some leg.

Kang pulls the wrap off his right hand and ties it tight around Min-jae's leg. It takes three tries, because his fingers won't work properly.

Park Min-jae: Okay, I'm calling an ambulance for you. You're grey, hyung. Actually grey.

Kang Taegun: I'm not going to the hospital.

Park Min-jae: You literally can't stand.

Kang Taegun: I'm barely hurt, man.

Park Min-jae: You got shot with S-rank sleepy juice and kicked by a guy in a gold watch!

Kang Taegun: The watch didn't kick me.

Park Min-jae: Fine, no hospital for either of us. We'll just lie on this floor like idiots. Brothers, whatever.

Kang Taegun: Brothers. Thanks, Min-jae.

Kang Taegun: Min-jae. The chip. Tell Jo they've got the...

Park Min-jae: Tell Jo what? Hyung? Hyung!

Kang is asleep. He's lying across the doorway, between Min-jae and the stairs.

Chapter 7. Posts Three and Six

Posts Three and Six — Chapter 7

Midnight at Euljiro, the same night. Jo Dae-sung is halfway down the board when Choi Dong-wook walks up with his whole team behind him.

Choi Dong-wook: Bad news, boss. Hanseong Response is off the east side. As of now.

Jo Dae-sung: As of now? It's midnight! I've got nobody to put on the east side at midnight!

Choi Dong-wook: The insurer cancelled. Not my call. Take it up with Gangnam.

Jo Dae-sung: The insurer cancelled at midnight. Since when do insurers work at midnight?

Lim Jae-hyuk: This one does! Heh heh.

Jo Dae-sung: If one name on my board doesn't come back tonight, Choi, I'm coming to find you.

Choi Dong-wook: Nobody's scared of a guy with eight fingers, Jo. Have a good shift.

They take the lift up and out. Twelve people are gone from the east side, all at once.

Seo Ji-hoon: Boss? Kang hyung isn't picking up, and he's on the north wall with me tonight. He always texts back.

Jo Dae-sung: Kang always picks up.

Yun Chae-won: Dae-sung. Three and six are wrong.

Jo Dae-sung: How wrong?

Yun Chae-won: Somebody turned them tonight, just small turns. They used the right codes, so the log says my crew did it. It wasn't my crew.

Jo Dae-sung: Who has those codes?

Yun Chae-won: Me. The agency. And whoever writes the rota for the east side.

They both look at the lift. It's already gone.

Jo Dae-sung: That smug little...

Four floors down, the lamps on the posts are running out of step. Three and six are blinking faster than the rest.

Seo Ji-hoon: It's not a wave. Something big is underneath it.

Yun Chae-won: How big?

Seo Ji-hoon: I don't know. It keeps coming closer and it doesn't stop. I've never felt one keep coming.

On the second ring, four men Yun has never seen are standing at posts three and six in maintenance coveralls. One of them pushes a red visor up onto his forehead.

Yun Chae-won: That's not my crew.

Gu Min-ho: Sarge, how much is a little? You said wake it up a little.

Nam Gi-cheol: Enough noise to empty the rings. Then we take the technician and walk out the service tunnel.

Gu Min-ho: It's humming. It's not supposed to hum like that, is it?

Nam Gi-cheol: Stop turning.

Gu Min-ho: I stopped turning! I stopped two minutes ago!

The Gate opens wide, and a blast of hot air comes up the pit.

GATE AGENCY FILE. SKYFIRE SCOURGE. C rank. A red dragon with wings that shade a truck. Its breath covers a whole ring.

A red-orange dragon climbs out of the Gate, wings wide enough to shade a truck and heat shimmering off its back. A second one follows it, then a third.

Nam Gi-cheol: ...Get the woman. Now.

The first dragon breathes fire across the bottom two rings. The bunks and the workshops go up.

Jo Dae-sung: Everybody up! Upper rings, now! Ji-hoon, get my locker open.

Seo Ji-hoon: Your armor? Boss, you haven't worn that since...

Jo Dae-sung: Since 2054. I held that west wall for nineteen years, kid. I can hold it for one more night.

Jo Dae-sung hasn't worn his armor since 2054.

He gets it out of the locker anyway.

He held the west wall for nineteen years. He holds it for one more night.

Jo Dae-sung: Come on, then! I've had worse from a stove!

In the smoke, two men in coveralls grab Yun by the arms and pull her through the service door behind post six. Ji-hoon runs after them, and the last man shoves him down the stairs.

Yun Chae-won: Let go of me! Dae-sung!

Seo Ji-hoon: Noona! Chae-won noona!

By the time Ji-hoon gets up, the service tunnel is empty.

Across the river, an agency alert goes out to every A rank in Seoul. On the Mapo Bridge, Ahn Ji-soo reads it in her car and turns around.

Kang wakes up on Min-jae's floor with his phone buzzing next to his head. Every part of him feels heavy.

Seo Ji-hoon: ◉ ▂▄▆█ Hyung? Hyung, are you there?

Kang Taegun: ◉ ▂▄▆█ I'm here. What's wrong?

Seo Ji-hoon: ◉ ▂▄▆█ They took Chae-won noona... the Gate's open, hyung, it's open.

Kang Taegun: ◉ ▂▄▆█ Who took her?

Seo Ji-hoon: ◉ ▂▄▆█ Men in coveralls, out the service tunnel. The bunks are on fire and the boss is holding the west wall by himself. Please come.

Kang Taegun: ◉ ▂▄▆█ I'm coming. Stay on the upper rings. Don't go after them, okay?

He hangs up and tries to stand. His legs fold and he goes down on his hands.

Park Min-jae: Hyung, stop. You can't even walk.

Kang Taegun: I can walk.

He gets up. He makes it as far as the door frame and holds on to it.

Park Min-jae: I tried to call Jo before. I passed out before it rang. I'm sorry, hyung.

Kang Taegun: Not your fault. You carried me five blocks.

Park Min-jae: I can't walk either. I tried. So take this.

He throws something small across the room. Kang catches it without looking.

Kang Taegun: Your scooter key. Where's the scooter?

Park Min-jae: Still behind the club in Hongdae.

Kang Taegun: That's the wrong way, man.

Park Min-jae: Then why'd you catch it?

Park Min-jae: Hyung, come back, okay? Every name on the board comes back. That's Jo's rule.

Kang Taegun: Every name. Okay.

The drug is still in him. He can barely stand.

He doesn't take the scooter. He runs.

Twice his legs give out. Twice he gets up.

Downtown, Euljiro is burning.

He runs across the rooftops toward the smoke over Euljiro. Twice his legs give out, and twice he gets up and keeps running.

Chapter 8. Sergeant Nam

Sergeant Nam — Chapter 8

Three in the morning. The Cheonggye flood channel runs dry under the city, a concrete trench with a service tunnel at one end.

The service tunnel from Euljiro comes out here, four blocks south of the pit. Jo told him that on the phone, and Kang ran straight for it.

A black van comes out of the tunnel with its lights off. Kang drops off the street wall and lands in the middle of the channel, right in front of it.

The service tunnel from Euljiro comes out in the flood channel.

Kang drops into the channel right in front of the van.

The van hits him. The van loses.

The van has stopped with its whole front folded around him. Kang hasn't moved from where he landed.

Gu Min-ho: We hit him. We hit him, right? Sir, why did we stop?

Nam Gi-cheol: We stopped because we hit him, Min-ho.

Nam steps down out of the side door. Yun is in the back with her wrists zip-tied.

Kang Taegun: You okay back there?

Yun Chae-won: Left wrist is cut. Not deep. The Gate's still open, Mr. Kang.

Kang Taegun: I know. We'll go back in a minute.

Nam Gi-cheol: In a minute. You hear that, Min-ho? He's giving us a minute.

Gu Min-ho: Sir, he stopped the van with his chest. I felt it in my teeth.

Nam Gi-cheol: Wolves.

Five see-through wolves come out of the air and go for Kang's arms, legs and throat. He doesn't look at them, and keeps walking toward Nam with two of them hanging off his sleeves.

Gu Min-ho: They're biting him. They're biting him! Why isn't he bleeding?

Kang Taegun: They're chewing my jacket, man. Call them off.

Nam Gi-cheol: You should be flat on a floor, kid. That dose drops an S rank for two days.

Kang Taegun: Yeah. You should've used more.

Nam Gi-cheol: Still got a mouth on you. I used to run that out of you before breakfast.

Kang Taegun: You used to try.

Nam Gi-cheol: Min-ho. Put them away. This one's mine.

Gu Min-ho: Yes. Gladly. Very gladly.

Nam Gi-cheol: Last offer, Staff Sergeant. They logged you E. They'll log you dead the same way, one line on a form. Come with me.

Kang Taegun: No.

Nam Gi-cheol: Then stand still, kid. It's been a long time since I hit you properly.

Nam pulls his red visor down and plants his feet. He throws everything he has.

Nam pulls his visor down and throws everything he has.

Kang's head doesn't turn. His boots don't move.

"Sarge. You taught me to keep my guard up."

One punch. Nam goes through the wall.

Nam's fist is on Kang's jaw. Kang's head hasn't turned and his boots haven't moved.

Nam Gi-cheol: ...What.

Kang Taegun: Sarge. You taught me to keep my guard up.

Nam Gi-cheol: Your hands are down, kid. They're all the way down.

Kang hits him once. Nam goes backward across the channel and through the concrete grille on the far wall.

Gu Min-ho: I surrender! I surrender. I'm on my knees, look, I'm already on my knees.

Kang Taegun: Rings off.

Gu Min-ho: All of them?

Kang Taegun: All of them.

Kang pulls the van's side door off its track to get to Yun. He leans it against the wall, carefully.

Kang Taegun: Sorry about your van.

Gu Min-ho: It's fine! It's totally fine! Keep it!

Yun Chae-won: You apologized to his van.

Kang Taegun: Habit. Hold your wrists out.

Blue lights come down the ramp. Ji-soo gets there well ahead of the agency cars and stops at the hole in the grille.

Ahn Ji-soo: Is that Nam Gi-cheol? In the wall?

Kang Taegun: He's okay. I think. I went pretty soft.

Ahn Ji-soo: Pretty soft.

Ahn Ji-soo: Nam Gi-cheol, you're under arrest for desertion and for kidnapping a seal technician. Hands behind your back. Take your time, you look busy.

Nam Gi-cheol: He didn't even move, Inspector. I hit him with everything.

Ahn Ji-soo: Yeah, he does that. I'd give that punch an eight, by the way. You held back.

Kang Taegun: A little. He used to be my sergeant.

Yun Chae-won: Listen, both of you. The rig can't fire while the Gate's active. If anyone fires it now, the posts break and everyone near them dies.

Yun Chae-won: And something big is still coming up underneath. Three and six have been moved by hand. I'm the only one who can set them back by feel.

Ahn Ji-soo: Then you're coming with me. I'm faster than the car.

Kang Taegun: I'll run.

Ahn Ji-soo: You'll try.

Euljiro is burning on the bottom two rings. Hanseong Response has been called back by the Gate agency and posted on the east ring, next to a line of E ranks.

Choi Dong-wook: Called back. By the agency. At three in the morning. Do they know what my hourly is?

Lim Jae-hyuk: Ha! Your hourly!

Seo Ji-hoon: Captain, it's moving. Something's climbing the wall right under us. It's big.

Choi Dong-wook: Spotters spot, kid. So spot it quieter.

GATE AGENCY FILE. ELDER DRAKE. B rank. The size of a truck. A hide that turns most weapons and breath that clears a room.

A dragon the size of a truck drags itself over the lip of the east ring. Its grey-green chest is covered in old scars.

Choi Dong-wook: Hanseong, fall back! Up the stairs, now!

Seo Ji-hoon: Fall back? What about us? There's seven of us!

Choi Dong-wook: Hold the ring! That's what spotters are for!

Choi and Lim run for the stairs. On the ring above, a whole row of phones follows them all the way up.

Seo Ji-hoon: Everybody behind the barricade! Get down and stay down!

Choi and his team run for the stairs and leave seven E ranks on the ring.

The drake breathes on them.

Kang lands in front of them first and takes all of it on his arms.

Then he turns around and hits it once, and it goes back down four floors.

Kang is standing in front of the E ranks with his arms crossed over his face. The concrete around his boots is black, and the concrete behind him isn't.

Seo Ji-hoon: Hyung?

Kang Taegun: Hey. Sorry I'm late. Everyone okay?

Seo Ji-hoon: Everyone's okay. All seven. Hyung, your sleeves are on fire.

Kang pats his sleeves out. Then he turns around and hits the drake once, and it goes back over the edge and down four floors.

Choi Dong-wook: That's the E. That's... Jae-hyuk, that's the E.

Lim Jae-hyuk: Ha?

Chapter 9. Four Floors Down

Four Floors Down — Chapter 9

The drake is still falling when the Gate starts to tear. The slow grey slit over the old road opens wider, then wider again.

Jo Dae-sung: Everybody up! Every ring, up and out! If you can walk, walk! If you can't, somebody carry you!

Jo Dae-sung: Rig crew stays on two with Yun. Nobody else goes near the bottom. That's an order!

Yun Chae-won: ◉ ▂▄▆█ Three is set. Six is set. The rig's ready. It just can't fire.

Jo Dae-sung: Why the hell not?

Yun Chae-won: ◉ ▂▄▆█ Because the Gate's wide awake. If I fire now, it comes back up through the posts. Everyone on two dies. Me first.

Seo Ji-hoon: It's one thing. Just one. It's huge, and it's almost through.

Jo Dae-sung: How huge, kid?

Seo Ji-hoon: I can't find the edges of it. I keep looking and there's more.

GATE AGENCY FILE. HORNED TYRANT. S rank. The size of a hangar. Lightning breath. Standing near it breaks a line before the fight starts.

Two ridged horns push out of the Gate first, scored and chipped. Then a blue head the size of a bus, and then a neck that keeps coming.

The line on the second ring breaks before it's even halfway out. Everyone who can run, runs.

Jo Dae-sung: Go! Don't look at it! Just go!

Kang's phone buzzes with a text Ha-eun sent before she went to bed. He's only now seeing it. It says "Wake me at six, I have an exam, don't be late from the warehouse."

Kang Taegun: Ji-hoon. Hold this.

Seo Ji-hoon: Your phone? Why?

Kang Taegun: If my sister texts, tell her I'm at the warehouse.

Seo Ji-hoon: Hyung, no. You're not going down there. Hyung. Nobody goes down there.

Kang Taegun: The rig crew's on two. Go up with Jo, okay?

Jo Dae-sung: Kang! That's an S rank down there! Get back up here, that's an order!

Kang Taegun: Put me on the board, boss. Pit floor, till it's done. Standard rate.

Jo Dae-sung: ...You come back. You hear me? Every name comes back.

Kang Taegun: Yes, sir.

Kang steps off the second ring and drops the last two floors to the road. Small dragons are pouring out around the big one's legs, green wyrmlings and red drakes, more every second.

Something lands on the road behind him. It's Ji-soo, sword already out.

Kang Taegun: I told you to stay up there.

Ahn Ji-soo: You told the ring. I'm not the ring. I'm the Gate agency.

Kang Taegun: It's dangerous down here.

Ahn Ji-soo: I'm A rank. I've been doing this since you were in basic training.

Kang Taegun: I went into basic at eighteen. You'd have been twenty.

Ahn Ji-soo: Don't do math at me in the middle of a fight.

Ji-soo drops down to the pit floor right behind him, sword already out.

Small dragons keep pouring out around them.

She's keeping score. He stopped counting at twenty, because it felt rude.

Ahn Ji-soo: Nine. That's nine for me. What are you at?

Kang Taegun: I stopped counting at twenty. It felt rude.

Ahn Ji-soo: You don't get to be polite about this! I'm keeping score!

Kang Taegun: Left.

Ahn Ji-soo: I saw it.

Kang Taegun: You didn't see it.

Ahn Ji-soo: I saw it after. That counts. That was a four, by the way. Sloppy.

Kang Taegun: Your drake or mine?

Ahn Ji-soo: Yours. Mine was a nine.

Above them the Tyrant lifts its head. Blue light runs along its horns and down into its throat.

Kang Taegun: Ji-soo. That's lightning. Go cover the rig crew on two. Keep Yun's head down.

Ahn Ji-soo: And you?

Kang Taegun: I'll be here.

Ahn Ji-soo: Don't you dare die. I haven't finished rating you.

Kang Taegun: What am I at?

Ahn Ji-soo: I'll tell you later. So there has to be a later.

She's gone up the wall in three steps. The Tyrant drops its head and comes at him.

The Tyrant drops its head and charges.

Kang catches a horn in each hand, and a dragon the size of a hangar stops dead.

On every ring above, every phone in the building is pointed down at him.

Kang has a horn in each hand and the Tyrant has stopped dead. The road under his boots is cracked in a ring around him.

On every ring above, every phone is pointed down at the pit floor.

Yun Chae-won: ◉ ▂▄▆█ Mr. Kang. Listen to me. It has to be quiet. The Gate has to be quiet or the rig will kill us all.

Kang Taegun: How quiet?

Yun Chae-won: ◉ ▂▄▆█ Nothing coming through. Nothing moving at the mouth. Not for a second. That's all I need. One second.

Seo Ji-hoon: ◉ ▂▄▆█ Hyung, there's more behind it. I can feel them lining up. It's not stopping.

He has held back his whole life. In the army, at home, and for three weeks with every door, every handshake, every plate and his old sergeant.

He thinks about the text from his sister. He thinks about the seven E ranks and Ji-hoon and Yun on the second ring.

Kang Taegun: Okay.

Kang Taegun: I'll make it quiet.

He has held back his whole life.

Tonight he doesn't.

One punch. The shockwave puts out every fire in the pit.

Then nothing moves at all. The Gate goes quiet.

Silence.

The Tyrant is lying across the old road and it isn't moving. Every fire in the pit is out.

Seo Ji-hoon: ◉ ▂▄▆█ Hyung. It stopped. All of it stopped. There's nothing behind it anymore.

Yun Chae-won: ◉ ▂▄▆█ ...It's quiet.

Yun Chae-won: ◉ ▂▄▆█ It's quiet. Firing.

The seal rig fires. White light fills the pit from the floor to the roof.

Yun brings her hand down on the switch.

All eight posts fire at once.

White light fills the pit from the floor to the roof.

At the bottom, Kang sits down against a post and closes his eyes.

Chapter 10. Unreadable

Unreadable — Chapter 10

Morning comes down through a hole in the roof shell. The rig is still holding, and the Gate hasn't moved since it went quiet.

Kang sits on the pit floor against a seal post, eating a rice roll. Min-jae limped in ten minutes ago with a convenience store bag and one working leg.

Park Min-jae: Tuna mayo. They were out of bulgogi. I asked twice, hyung. I showed the guy the video.

Kang Taegun: Thanks, man. How's the leg?

Park Min-jae: Leg's great. Leg's got forty stitches. Hyung, you punched a dragon the size of a shopping mall! I watched it on four phones at once!

Kang Taegun: It was more like a hangar.

Park Min-jae: That's worse! How is that worse?

Jo Dae-sung: Board call! Answer when you hear your name. Seo Ji-hoon.

Seo Ji-hoon: Here!

Jo Dae-sung: Yun Chae-won. East ring, all seven of you. Hands up.

Yun Chae-won: Here. And the seven are here. I counted them twice.

Jo Dae-sung: Pit floor. Kang Taegun.

Kang Taegun: Here. Sorry. Rice roll.

Jo Dae-sung: That's all of them. Every name on the board came back. Nobody look at me, there's smoke in my eyes.

Seo Ji-hoon: Hyung. Your phone. I held it the whole time. Your sister texted eleven times. I told her warehouse.

Kang Taegun: Thanks, man. Good job.

Yun Chae-won: My father ran a print shop on this street. It's never been quiet since the night he died. Thank you, Mr. Kang.

Kang Taegun: You did the posts. I just stood there.

Ahn Ji-soo: You stood there holding a dragon by the horns. Eleven million views. The Gate agency chair called me directly. On my personal phone.

Kang Taegun: Can I go home? My sister has an exam. I have to wake her at six or she'll kill me.

Choi comes down the stairs with an agency officer on each side of him. His white coat is still perfectly clean.

Choi Dong-wook: Inspector. For the record, what you saw last night was a tactical withdrawal.

Ahn Ji-soo: It's on eleven million phones, Captain. I watched it a lot. I couldn't find the tactical part. You're suspended pending review.

Lim Jae-hyuk: Ha! Tactical! ...Sorry, boss.

That afternoon, the whole of Hanseong Response stands at the bounty counter because the clerk has asked them to. She plays a phone clip from the north wall, listens to Ji-hoon, and re-audits all seventeen wyrmlings.

The bounty comes out of Hanseong Response's account with a penalty on top. The clerk counts it out in front of them, twice.

Choi Dong-wook: This is a misunderstanding. My team was covering that wall.

Seo Ji-hoon: Spotters spot, Captain. I spotted. It's all on the clip.

Kang Taegun: Half of this, plus the shifts... that's eighteen hundred. That's the fees. Ji-hoon, the other half's yours.

Seo Ji-hoon: No way, hyung. You did all seventeen.

Kang Taegun: You spotted.

One week later. Jamsil Arena has ninety thousand seats and every one of them is full.

Kang Ha-eun: A warehouse. He told me a warehouse. Thirty-one people in my class sent me the same clip.

Park Min-jae: In his defense, he's really good at lifting stuff.

Two rows down, Choi sits in a borrowed suit, smiling at any camera that points his way. On the arena floor, Bae Soo-jin stands next to a new steel plate twice as thick as the one in Seodaemun.

Kang Taegun: Hi again, ma'am. Sorry about last time. The wall and everything.

Bae Soo-jin: I kept the old plate. It's in my office. People come to look at it on their lunch break.

Kang Taegun: Is this one expensive?

Bae Soo-jin: It's rated for S plus. It's the most expensive plate in the country. Please hit it as hard as you can.

Kang Taegun: Can I just tap it?

Bae Soo-jin: You can do whatever you want, Mr. Kang.

The new plate is rated for S plus. It's the most expensive plate in the country.

Kang asks if he can just tap it.

The plate caves in. The board runs off the top of the scale, and then it only says one word.

Unreadable.

The plate has caved in around his knuckles. The arena board runs off the top of the scale and then shows one word, "UNREADABLE."

Ninety thousand people go quiet at once.

Bae Soo-jin: ◉ ▂▄▆█ The panel certifies Kang Taegun at rank S plus.

Then the noise starts, and it doesn't stop.

Kang Ha-eun: That's my brother. That's... oppa's down there.

Park Min-jae: That's my hyung! I know him! I carried him once!

Ji-soo walks up the steps with two officers behind her. She stops at Choi's row.

Choi Dong-wook: Inspector Ahn. Perfect timing. I wanted to talk about my review.

Ahn Ji-soo: Choi Dong-wook, you're under arrest for selling the Euljiro crew rota and the post access codes to the Obsidian Guard.

Choi Dong-wook: That's a lie. Who said that? Who told you that?

Ahn Ji-soo: Gu Min-ho. He talked for six hours. He's a very nervous man. He brought up your watch four times.

Choi Dong-wook: Wait. Inspector, wait. We can talk. I can make this worth your time.

Ahn Ji-soo: That bribe's a two out of ten. Hands, please.

Ji-soo stops at Choi's row with two officers.

Gu Min-ho talked for six hours, and he mentioned the watch four times.

Ninety thousand people watch Choi Dong-wook go down the steps in cuffs.

Choi Dong-wook: I'm B rank! I'm a captain! Do you people know what my hourly is?

Ninety thousand people watch Choi go down the steps in cuffs. Every phone in the section turns to follow him.

Kang Taegun: Can I go? My sister's got an exam tomorrow.

That evening, the apartment is full. Min-jae is on the floor with his leg up on a cushion, and Ji-soo is standing by the door with her folder.

The school's email is open on the table. Fees received, dorm place confirmed. The bent kettle is still on the counter.

Kang Ha-eun: It's fine. It's not a big deal. Lots of people's brothers are S plus.

Kang Ha-eun: Okay, it's a big deal. Don't look at me. Oppa, I said don't look at me.

Kang Taegun: I'm not looking.

Ahn Ji-soo: So. Dinner. With me. Friday, or not Friday, whatever. It's an audit. A dinner audit.

Kang Taegun: Yes. Okay. Dinner. Friday. Yes. Sorry, I said yes twice.

Kang Ha-eun: That was so bad. You were both so bad. Four out of ten.

Kang Taegun: It's later. What am I at?

Ahn Ji-soo: Ten. Don't let it go to your head. The handshake's still a six.

Park Min-jae: Hyung. Hyung. There's a scooter downstairs with a bow on it. A new one. Is that... hyung?

Kang Taegun: Try not to crash it into anyone.

Every major team in Korea has sent him an offer. That night, he's at Euljiro anyway.

Jo Dae-sung: Two on the north wall, midnight to six, standard rate.

Kang puts his hand up. Ji-hoon puts his up right next to it.

Jo Dae-sung: You're an S plus, Kang. Standard rate's twenty Credits.

Kang Taegun: I just want the paycheck.

Park Min-jae: I'll drive!

Jo Dae-sung: It's a wall. There's nothing to drive.

Every major team in Korea has sent him an offer.

That night, he's at Euljiro anyway.

Two on the north wall, midnight to six, standard rate.

Kang Taegun puts his hand up.

The End — Rated E