The World Tree grew on my smartphone.
The game was called [Raising the World Tree], yet all it had was a bleak Desolate Wasteland.
But finally, the World Tree had sprouted there.
It was the result of tapping the screen steadily whenever I had free time over the course of a year.
The sprout, filling the smartphone screen, swayed as if greeting me.
At that moment, a system message popped up on the screen.
[‘Baek Do-woon’s’ warm touch has finally grown the World Tree!]
[As a reward for growing the ‘World Tree Sprout’ in the Desolate Wasteland, you receive the ‘Fruit of the Former World Tree.’]
Fruit of the Former World Tree…? Until now, this game didn’t have items. No items, no background music, no official café. With fewer than a hundred downloads, it was no wonder there were no official or fan communities. It was just a desolate land to stare at.
Without even a tutorial, the only quest had been the ‘World Tree Quest’ asking me to [raise the World Tree with a warm touch]. I’d kept playing this terrible game out of sheer stubbornness. They asked me to raise it, so it would grow eventually, right? I was determined to see that day. That was the only reason I hadn’t given up.
[Would you like to receive the Fruit of the Former World Tree?]
Of course, I would!
The moment I read the question, I pressed the Receive button below.
[The Fruit of the Former World Tree has been summoned to Baek Do-woon.]
With the message, white light burst from the smartphone screen.
Was it because of the flashy effect?
Or maybe the satisfaction of finally growing the World Tree?
A smile spread across my lips.
No, it didn’t.
The smile hanging on my lips vanished with surprise.
Because of what was resting in the palm of my hand.
I was still holding the smartphone in my palm.
It was the ‘Hunter’s Smartphone,’ made to be usable even inside the Gate.
But it wasn’t the smartphone that wiped the smile off my face.
It was the fruit, placed alone on the smartphone as if it had always been there.
The fruit looked unlike anything I had ever seen in my life.
What could it be? In this situation, the only thing I could think of was that it was the Fruit of the Former World Tree.
[Baek Do-woon has become the Manager of the World Tree.]
[The game ‘Raising the World Tree’ is synchronizing with the Manager.]
[The smartphone is now in an inactive state.]
[1%… 2%…]
In other words,
the real World Tree had grown inside the smartphone.
“What’s this? You’re not playing the game, Baek Team Leader?”
Deputy Lee Seong-hoon asked as he walked into the barracks.
He belonged to the dismantling management team of the ‘Baek Uncheon Guild,’ the same as me. In other words, he used to be a hunter but has since retired and become an office worker. Even though he’s office staff, he still works on-site at the B-grade Gate.
We manage dismantlers, guild members who disassemble monster corpses, at the Base Camp established inside the Gate. Mainly, we check work volumes, pay wages, and coordinate schedules. I gestured at the smartphone lying next to me.
“It’s updating.”
Whether you could call it an update was questionable.
The game suddenly started synchronizing and entered an inactive state.
Pressing around the screen didn’t work, and even turning it off was impossible.
The sync percentage slowly rose by 1% at a time as time passed. If left alone, it would eventually hit 100%, I thought.
So I had set it aside.
Deputy Lee sat across from me and glanced at both me and the smartphone.
“Of course.”
“What do you mean, of course?”
He nodded as if he understood on his own. That’s why I felt like some kind of gaming addict.
I’d only been playing during breaks to avoid interfering with work. There was such a heavy mana pressure here that I couldn’t have any other hobbies besides the smartphone.
If it weren’t for the mana generator blocking the Gate mana, neither the dismantlers nor I could even move around here. The smartphone game was a perfect way to pass time in such a place. Whether he knew this or not, Deputy Lee shrugged his shoulders.
“Anyway, enough about the game.”
Look at him—he brought up the game first.
He pointed at the fruit I was eating.
Crunch, crunch.
“What are you eating? Did we get fruit at dinner?”
“The World Tree fruit.”
“What fruit?”
“The World Tree fruit.”
“……”
Deputy Lee fell silent and stared at me. His gaze was full of the question, ‘Has this guy finally lost it?’ I understood that he found it unbelievable.
If I hadn’t seen a fruit appear from a smartphone myself, I wouldn’t have believed it either.
“Maybe it’s because you’re not playing the game that you’re talking nonsense more than usual.”
“What, you punk?”
He pointed at the World Tree fruit in my mouth.
“That can’t be the World Tree fruit, but even if it really is, why are you eating it?”
“So?”
“Sell it. Why eat something so precious? Selling it would be worth billions.”
“There’s one right here.”
“So that means it’s not the World Tree fruit.”
What a fool. I shook my head and sighed. If someone thinks they should sell the World Tree fruit, someone else will surely want to buy it.
What would someone who paid a high price for it do?
There could be many reasons, but among them, there’d definitely be people who bought it to eat. Like me.
The moment I became certain this was the World Tree fruit, all I could think about was that I had to eat it. If it could fix this body…
If only it could, I could become a hunter again.
“They say the World Tree fruit is the best elixir in the world.”
“… I know that’s just a rumor, though.”
Deputy Lee’s expression darkened when I said I was going to eat the fruit. I knew exactly what that expression meant.
It was the pity and worry he had shown since I retired due to injury. If a stranger looked at me with that expression, it might have felt offensive.
But since Deputy Lee was in a similar situation, I didn’t mind.
I responded with a faint smile.
“… Hey, have you heard?”
Deputy Lee seemed eager to change the subject and asked a question. It was so obvious he wanted to avoid the topic that I felt awkward, but his kindness made me go along without complaint.
“What?”
“Our guild has secured the exclusive rights to the A-grade Gate ‘Naksan Park Gate’ in Hyehwa.”
“A-grade? Not B-grade?”
“Yeah. The article comes out the day after tomorrow. Didn’t the Vice Guild Master tell you?”
“I don’t talk shop with friends.”
Even if the Vice Guild Master was a lifelong friend, I never talked about work. Because of rank differences, it could be considered overstepping or abuse of power. Mostly, I just didn’t want to talk about work when meeting friends.
Exclusive rights to an A-grade Gate…
“… Wait, how do you know that?”
“You think I wouldn’t be busy?”
Deputy Lee dodged my question and changed the subject. What a guy.
“Ugh. I don’t want to be busier than I am now.”
“Because you’d have less time to play games?”
“So why do you keep connecting everything to games, huh?”
“Team Leader?”
“…”
The mana lamps hanging from the barracks ceiling flickered. The phenomenon caught my eye. I finished eating the last of the World Tree fruit and looked up at the ceiling.
The mana lamps were state-of-the-art devices blending science and magic, powered by wires connected to the mana generator. They shouldn’t flicker like electric bulbs do in response to voltage.
They were the type that would never flicker and would simply go out when their lifespan ended. Yet multiple lamps flickered simultaneously.
It was easy to think of the only possible reason for this.
“Damn it!”
“Huh?”
“Alarm! Sound the alarm immediately!”
There was no time to explain to others. I had to alert everyone to the urgency as fast as possible. The best way to do that was to sound the alarm.
When the alarm sounded, people would follow a set action plan. The plan was simple:
Stop all current tasks and gather at the center of the Base Camp.
“Why the sudden alarm?”
“Sound the alarm! Got it? Do it now!”
“Wait!”
Ignoring Deputy Lee’s panicked call, I rushed out of the barracks and sprinted straight for the Base Camp center.
I had to get there faster than anyone else. I was the only one who knew how dangerous the situation was. Fortunately, Deputy Lee understood and the alarm began blaring loudly.
Two men approached me swiftly.
“Baek Team Leader! What’s going on?”
“If it’s monsters, we’ll handle them.”
Lee Jae-wook and Kim Sang-cheol. New hunters who recently joined our guild.
They were probably waiting for the dismantlers to finish their work after handing over hunted monsters.
I forced my breath under control as I answered while running.
“Enemy attack!”
“Huh? Attack?”
Their eyes went wide. Were they scared? That thought vanished quickly.
These were hunters who lived by hunting monsters in B-grade Gates. They were in their early twenties, but in strength, they were no match for me.
Even before I was injured.
“I’ll help with evacuations.”
“Please! The evacuation point is—”
“I know!”
Both hunters quickly left. I soon reached the center. There stood a square one-story building.
Each corner was guarded by a four-story stone pagoda. They were a kind of barrier.
Barriers that preserved the concrete, which would otherwise erode quickly inside the Gate.
I pulled a key from my pocket and opened the door.
Inside was brightly lit by the mana lamps hanging from the ceiling. Thanks to that, the emergency mana generator, which activates when the main mana generator fails, was clearly visible.
“Huff, huff…”
Panting, I walked toward the emergency generator.
The lever was dusty, showing it had never been used.
Actually, the emergency generator was automatic.
When the mana generator shut down, it automatically starts producing mana.
The problem was the time it took to activate.
There was a five-second delay from when the mana generator stopped until the emergency generator kicked in. During that time, everything that needed mana stopped, including the defense system blocking Gate mana.
Five seconds was far too long.
Many, including me, would be crushed to death by Gate mana. That was why I had run here—to manually operate the emergency generator before the main one shut down.
“What’s going on?”
“Is it another monster?”
“If so, just let us work. There’s so much backlog!”
“Wait, I’ll explain!”
Thanks to the alarm, I could hear people gathering outside. Deputy Lee’s confused voice as well.
“Team Leader! Oh, right.”
He breathed out in relief when he saw me.
“Hurry and explain the situation—ugh!”
At that moment, the mana lamps inside the building went out.
The mana generator had stopped.
Instant darkness swallowed the room.
The Gate mana wrapped around me like that darkness. The pain was unbearable, as if I’d faint, but I couldn’t. If I fainted now, I’d die.
I pulled the lever with all my strength. The emergency generator hummed to life. The pressing mana instantly vanished.
“Damn, damn…”
A curse slipped out in terrible pain. If I hadn’t been prepared, I would have passed out. Just like Deputy Lee, who was lying unconscious near the door.
Those outside were probably in a similar state. If the delay had been the full five seconds, some might have died.
I exhaled and stepped over Deputy Lee’s collapsed body to go outside.
Outside, Lee Jae-wook and Kim Sang-cheol calmly tended to the fallen.
“Team Leader! Are you okay?”
“Don’t worry. Everyone just fainted.”
“Thank you for helping with the evacuation.”
When I thanked them, they both waved off my gratitude with “It’s the least we can do!”
Then they asked seriously,
“How did you know?”
“Yeah. How did you know?”
“The mana lamps flickered.”
“The mana lamps? You predicted this from that?”
“Yes.”
“Whoa…”
I ignored their stunned faces and walked through the fallen. I was curious how the culprits behind this would come forward.
Their plan must have been to disguise the casualties as accidents from the mana generator failure. But so far, there were no casualties.
“You noticed that from something so small? Amazing!”
“Totally agree! Team Leader, you’re really smart!”
“I never thought about it just from flickering lamps.”
“That’s right. I just thought it was time to replace them.”
They made a fuss. But I hadn’t deduced anything special—it was a gut feeling after seeing the phenomenon. Their compliments were far too generous.
I didn’t mind, so I let them be. Compliments always feel good.
“No one’s dead? That’s impressive.”
A low male voice accompanied by applause came from behind me.
I turned to see about ten men walking toward us.
The apparent leader clapped his hands. He had gray hair, long and sleek, and a sharp appearance. All ten were unfamiliar faces to me.
People who didn’t feel pressure from B-grade Gate mana and weren’t famous…
That alone was enough to guess they were from the world beyond.
Lee Jae-wook and Kim Sang-cheol drew their weapons and approached me.
The man clasped his clapping hands together and looked only at me. His right index finger pointed at me.
“It’s you? The one who saved these bastards.”
“……”
“I knew it. Baek Do-woon.”
“…….”
“What, surprised? Friend of Lee Tae-cheon, Vice Guild Master of Baek Uncheon, and older brother of Baek Do-hee, the Vice Guild Master.”
“… Was I the real target?”
“Indeed! Lee Tae-cheon sure knows how to pick friends. Smart, huh!”
It happened in an instant. The man was suddenly standing before me. In his hand was a dagger, gripped backwards, as if he’d drawn it earlier.
The dagger pierced my chest.
“Team Leader!”
“Son of a—!”
Lee Jae-wook and Kim Sang-cheol swung their weapons.
The man avoided their attacks without looking and kept his gaze on me.
A sneer spread across his face.
“Say goodbye, Baek Do-woon.”
“Ugh, huff…”
A strange sound escaped my lips. I guessed blood was about to come up.
My legs trembled and staggered backward. I couldn’t die like this… huh?
“… What the—?”
Why?
Suddenly, my throat felt clear. My legs didn’t give out.
The mocking look on the man’s face disappeared.
“…….”
“…….”
“… Why aren’t you dying?”
“… Good question.”
I was stabbed in the heart, so why wasn’t I dying?