A/N: It's getting tiring having to write broken English for Jin-Woo.
***
Ch'en Hui-chieh was at the front seat of a car with a passenger beside her, the Superintendent herself taking the reins over steering the vehicle. The first quarter had been in some silence, but it was eventually spoken when she noticed something.
"What are you staring at?" Ch'en asked the black-haired man, who had been glancing her way for quite some time.
"Sword. You use sword here too?" Sung pointed to the two sheathed blades nestled into a compartment of the car beside her. "Did gun become... obsolete here too?"
He utilized a rather 'advanced' Victorian word, coloring her impressed. "Guns becoming obsolete? No?" Ch'en replied with disbelief, keeping her eyes on the road. "Guns are sometimes rare to see and need a lot of skill to use, but they aren't obsolete to any degree."
"But gun easy to use? You point, pull, and it shoots." Sung motioned with his hand as if he held a firearm in his right hand.
"Do you use Mana to make the process of casting a bullet much easier or something?" At this point, Ch'en was inclined to believe that Mana and Arts were different enough in the sense that their explorative development must have diverged one another, but their origins were still the same: Originium.
"You don't need Mana to shoot gun," Sung elaborated. "Only gunpowder."
The more she talked with him, the more she found out how enigmatic his entire existence was. "I have no idea what gunpowder is."
"You don't know gunpowder? It make bullet for guns work," Sung said. "Well, not know too much either, but that's how it is for home."
"Saying that like firearms are commonplace from where you're at." She raised an eyebrow his way.
"They are. Is it not here?" He queried. "We have like, millions of guns make every year. Don't need Arts or Mana to use. Arts don't exist where I'm from."
He was dropping revelation after revelation on her, and Ch'en had to finally exasperatedly ask, "Okay, Sung. What you're saying sounds ludicrously absurd. So I have to ask, where are you actually from? You know more about this whole Gate business than me, like it's the back of your hand."
Barring the fact of different terminologies being used for what she believed was essentially the same powers drawn from the body, there was enough of a culture difference where his 'home' was able to produce millions of firearms a year.
What kind of production speed was that? Were they producing bootleg firearms? Because it did not seem plausible that guns which didn't require Arts or even that 'Mana' Sung talked about, would be any effective.
"I'm a Hunter from South Korea. It is my job to go into Gate and stop Dungeon Break," Sung said.
Ch'en made sure to take note of the new nomenclatures; reminding herself to search up 'South Korea' on the internet in the foreseeable future.
Sung continued, "Guns are not used by Hunters because bullets have no Mana. Can't damage Magic Beasts."
"...Could Arts work against them? Forget your bootleg firearms, since, from what you're saying, they apparently don't use Arts." Ch'en could feel her fingers fidget with the steering wheel of the moving vehicle. She already knew that point as it had been fed to her constantly before, but if all forms of conventional weapons were useless against these Magic Beasts he was broaching about...
"No idea," he divulged, resting his elbow against the car door and staring outside from the passenger seat. "Haven't seen Arts be used aside from you, so can't really tell."
"Great..." Ch'en exhaled, leaning back on her seat. The situation was one completely out of her expectations, with that phenomenon from...
...How much time had passed already?
She checked the time with a whisk of her eyes, noticing that it was already approaching the next morning. In short, she had already been exposed to a complete all-nighter, but really, it didn't matter much. She had stayed up for much longer periods of time, and yesterday hadn't required much exertion.
"So you're a 'Hunter'," Ch'en went back to another point. "You said it in a way that was implicating it as some sort of occupation. Am I right?"
Sung nodded. "There are Guilds for Hunters, but..." He drew out. "...Can't find them here, sadly."
"Would be nice to have a discussion with them..." Ch'en could feel another headache at the prospects. "Were Gates a localized and isolated phenomenon from where you came from?" If it were in Dan, then news would have already broken out about Gate's existence; and it had already been confirmed Sung was not from Dan.
Even if he spoke Danese, weirdly enough.
"They were..." Sung drew out as if to choose the right parlance. "Ubiquitous." He looked marginally proud to have pronounced a complex Victorian word, albeit butchered like pork atop a board. "But only from where I was at. It looks like they are spreading to here."
"What a pain," Ch'en spoke through a tense jaw.
There was nothing else to their conversation other than small talk or exchange over arbitrary information. Most were related to Lungmen in order to get the black-haired foreigner better conformed because of his severe lack of knowledge. He was the same person who didn't know what the hell Arts even were.
The sequence ended when Ch'en had to answer her communications device when the other side requested aid for settling the chaos within Lungmen. She could only give orders and suggestions, considering she had a meeting to attend with the Chief Executive himself, who was also her uncle.
...A meeting that she would become late to if the damn traffic wouldn't clear up.
***
Jin-Woo watched as their vehicle came to a stop, the doors automatically unlocking and Ch'en immediately stepping out, the black-haired man following not too long after. The dragon lady had suggested ditching the vehicle once before, but the traffic jam soon cleared itself like a pipe unclogging, making her drop the idea.
"Here we are," the voice of Ch'en filled Jin-Woo's ears as he stared up at the monolithic structure in front of him, piercing the sky in the vibrant District they've found themselves in.
He had visited a lot of Guild headquarters even before he had become a Hunter because they were within walking distance, the most notable of them all being the Hunters Guild. Becoming an Awakened individual and then S-Rank within the next passing years only had him becoming more acclimated to such views.
"If you want to gawk, then save it. We're short on time if what you said was true," Ch'en said, tapping him on the shoulder and walking forward.
"Sure thing." Jin-Woo placed his hands in his pockets as he walked through the entrance, a glass double-door with considerable thickness to its composition. It looked to be bulletproof, though not like the Mana-enhanced structures of Guild headquarters that he was used to, more so bulletproof with some type of glassmaking technique.
He assumed it to be due to glassmaking. Whether it used the same polycarbonate as his own world was still unknown.
From the corner of his eye, he saw a receptionist sitting at a white desk and watching her phone. Even from the low volume, Jin-Woo could tell it was about the latest affair within Lungmen, the S-Rank Gate.
She did turn to regard who entered—him and Ch'en—quickly hiding her device underneath her desk when registering their presence. A low, hasty nod was given to the two, granting them a small greeting.
Ch'en turned and nodded in her direction, no words given. Perhaps it was due to her status as the L.G.D.'s Superintendent, but there hadn't been any process done for her entrance into the building, or due to this 'Chief Wei' already telling the employees about their scheduled meeting.
When she first received the phone call from Chief Wei, Jin-Woo hadn't understood a single word from the side as the dragon lady had switched to her native tongue. Thankfully, she was able to inform him further on the specifics.
Chief Executive Wei Yenwu had called her in and a 'Beatrix Schwire' for an emergency meeting, one of which pertained to the current state-of-affairs within Lungmen and what to do moving forward. By 'current' affairs, it simply meant the sudden development of the S-Rank Gate; a phenomenon which the world didn't understand.
"You might be in luck," Ch'en announced when they stepped into the elevator. "Chief Wei has a lot of involvement in politics outside of Lungmen, Dan happens to be one of them. Maybe you'll finally have somebody who can speak your language."
"I understand," Jin-Woo responded. From what he understood, the Kingdom of Dan was basically this version's equivalent of Korea, even if it regrettably wasn't the modern Korea he knew. "Might visit someday."
"Dan? I don't have much to say about it. I've never visited that country myself." Ch'en placed a hand on her hip as she sighed. "By the way, you won't get cold feet during this meeting, will you?"
"Do I look like I will?" Jin-Woo genuinely asked.
She stared at him for a good interval, scanning up and down. "...Right, I forgot you didn't care when I pointed a sword at your throat." Her eyes rolled, huffing. "I guess providing a little explanation to a bigshot wouldn't phase you."
A 'little' explanation? That's underselling it, Jin-Woo thought.
He wondered how the rest of the world was handling the S-Rank Gates...
***
The streets of Chernobog had been crowded with a mass of civilians congregating in the middle of the city. An iridescent light was bathed down like a transparent drape casted over the entire middle sector of the city. The source emitting such an intense light was an enclosed portal-like fog hovering the way a halo would, obscuring the once cloudy skies.
Multiple flying drones suffused the air with their metallic squawks and buzzing rotors, ascending higher and higher as if to reach the firmament. But like birds with clipped wings, technological errors sprung up the higher they flew, electricity crackling with their deactivated descent.
Those below were unfortunate to have dead devices raining down on them, and once the news started to break—along with the riot suppression closing in—did citizens start vacating the area. At this point, confusion started to muddle the judgement of officers as they started to dally in the midst of the tumultuous situation.
"What do you think we're looking at?" An Ursine drones operator lowered his binoculars as he leaned on a railing atop a high-rise building, feeling the wind bristle at his Ursus ears.
"Hell if I know, looks like a brewing Catastrophe," another one replied, criss-crossed on the ground and attempting to tinker with a drone. "These standard-issue trash cans can't even get within
"Can Catastrophes even be blue?" the other man asked, rubbing his brows. "If it was a Catastrophe, then those emergency management folks would have already sounded the alarms and gotten this city moving."
"Ha, you're... hup...! right!" He exerted himself whilst replying, prying off a lid of the drone. "The circuits are... fine. What the hell?" His fingers brushed against the metallic innards.
"What's up?"
"Nothing's up, that's what," he sarcastically said. "Well, the fact that nothing's wrong with its exterior is what makes this weirder. Could be something like an EMP wave that disabled it." His hand reached for his radio, channeling to a different frequency.
"An Originium EMP wave?" The other man paled. "So this thing is a Catastrophe! The hell are those—"
"Other sides say it isn't, I just listened in," the Ursine guard cut in. "Instruments aren't detecting any Originium wavelengths from that thing." He waved the radio in his hand to accentuate his point. "So whatever's disabling our detector drones is completely unknown."
"Проклятие," he cursed, lazily squatting down. "And they expect us to get a drone past the quota for detection? The hell?"
"Nothing this junk can do, just say that." The other man set the drone down, shuffling his hands into his pockets. "Want a smoke before our shift ends?"
He snorted, reaching out a hand. "They're gonna extend our shift. How much do you wanna bet on that?"
"Probably will, not gonna go betting against you in that regard." the Ursine guard passed it on, popping one into his own mouth, before taking out a lighter and igniting both their sticks. "Think we're living in the period of a landmark discovery?"
His co-worker took a long draw from his cigarette. "Just take a look above us." He motioned upward, with the object he was smoking in-between his fingers. "I've never seen anything like this in my life! And neither has anybody else over on comms."
"Speaking of your comms, what's the brass saying now?" the squatting one asked, dabbing cigarette ash off the side of the rooftop. "Screaming at us to give them visual updates like it's gonna do something?"
"Dunno. Heard the Fourth Division already bailed," the other said after taking a drag. "Packed their shit and are attempting to get the mayor to get Chernobog outta here."
"Their asses are not getting their way." His partner chuckled. "Probably don't wanna deal with another crappy paperwork day, what a buncha frauds."
"Hey, better frauds than the Second."
"Those the ones with restricted artillery access?"
"Yeah, I heard they attempted to shoot a salvo with their ordnance."
"What the fuck is wrong with them?!" He exhaled through his nose, breaking off into a coughing fit with wide eyes. "We're in civilian territory! How did they even get the jurisdiction for that? Who greenlit it?!"
"They're the Second, man, they do whatever they want. Probably ate a bunch of Originite rocks when they were in kindergarten too," he spat. "At the very least, they used dummy rounds."
"Ugh, forget about them. What about the Fifth Division?"
"Don't even mention them. Those aristocratic ass-kissers make me want to vomit." He stuck his tongue out, faux-gagging. "Probably enjoying high-class pelmeni in their cafeterias right now."
The one squatting sighed. "What I'd not give to be them."
"Maybe in the next lifetime you'd get to be like them," he humored. "Being just as bad as those Victorian posies."
The two continued to blabber on nonchalantly at their station, ignoring the currently present anomaly. Below the high-rise building, trash cans were knocked down, cars bumped into each other, and riot control squadrons had been dispensed.