The Rejected Guardian: I Was Just a Gatekeeper, But I Saw Everything

"Hey, Yun! Stop daydreaming and clean up that blood already!"

The sharp voice of a C-rank team leader pierced through the air. I snapped back to reality, stood up from my small stool near the dungeon gate, and rushed over to wipe away the leftover blood — again.

A member of their team had lost an arm in the last raid. That was their battle, and this... this was my job.

I'm just a gatekeeper. One of the many nameless souls assigned to dungeon entrances to check IDs, open doors, and make sure no monsters leak into the city. Easy job, really. Boring. Invisible.

In this world, only those chosen by the System can become Hunters — people granted powers beyond imagination. They shoot fire from their hands, summon weapons, bend shadows. Me? I've never received a single notification in my life.

"You're 21 already, Yun. If the System hasn't chosen you by now, it never will."That's what they all say. Every day. I just smile and nod. If I talk back, I lose my job — and this job, for all its misery, is still something.

The gate I watch isn't just any gate. It's Black Maw, an S-rank dungeon — the deadliest type known to man. Only the elite can enter.

Today, the most famous S-rank team on the continent, Heaven's Fang, entered the Black Maw. They strutted through like gods among mortals. Everyone cheered.

I just looked down and logged the entry time.12:43 p.m.

It's 1:08 now. Still early. No reason to worry.But something… doesn't feel right.

The dungeon gate's surface — normally pitch black and smooth like obsidian — now had thin cracks running across it. I leaned in, narrowing my eyes.

The cracks… pulsed.

I touched the surface.It felt warm. Alive.Like something was breathing beneath.

Suddenly—

BOOM!

A muffled explosion echoed from deep inside the dungeon. I stumbled back, heart racing.

No one else was around. During S-rank operations, the area is locked down for civilians and lower-rank Hunters. It's just me here.

I looked up.The crystal lights around the gate flickered… then went dark.

Then came the whispering.Voices — hundreds of them — speaking all at once in a language I didn't understand.

My hands trembled as I reached for the emergency alarm switch.But before I could press it—

[SYSTEM ALERT: ANOMALY DETECTED][UNLOCKING SEALED SYSTEM…][SYSTEM GRANTED: WATCHER OF DEATH]

I froze. My eyes widened.

I… just received a system?

Impossible. No way. I was never chosen. I wasn't even qualified.

[CONGRATULATIONS, YUN. YOU SEE WHAT OTHERS CANNOT.]

Everything around me dimmed. Colors faded. Time slowed.

And then—I saw them.

Ghostly figures, one by one, began to emerge in front of the gate.They were battered. Broken.Blood dripped from their eyes, limbs missing, chests caved in.

It was the Heaven's Fang team.All of them.

Dead.

Their eyes — lifeless, yet locked onto mine — stared directly at me.

"You're the one left behind. You saw it all."