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

The world outside resumed its rhythm. The sky was a gentle orange, a quiet sunset falling over the city. But Yun stood frozen at the dungeon's edge, heart pounding. Something was off. The rift didn't just shimmer—it pulsed.

It was breathing.

Not metaphorically. He could feel it. The way the air thickened near it, the way his skin prickled like standing next to a beast pretending to sleep. His instincts screamed: this was not just a dungeon. It was alive.

[Passive Skill Activated: Soul Sense – Beginner][You can now perceive lingering emotions and presences tied to objects and areas of death.]

Yun staggered back a step. His vision blurred—suddenly filled with shadows. Screams. Fear. Countless hunters trapped inside, echoing cries of terror that hadn't reached the outside world.

Ren wasn't the only one.

He grabbed his sword—Ren's sword—and clutched it tightly. A thin crack had appeared on the blade, glowing faintly. Yun leaned in.

A voice—soft, desperate—whispered through the steel.

"It was never supposed to open…"

Yun flinched. He looked around. No one else seemed to hear it. The other gatekeepers were gone. Hunters had started to arrive, elite units forming a perimeter. Military trucks. Media drones. S-Rank Hunters landed like gods from the sky, barking orders and assessing the rift.

Yun backed away, unnoticed. To them, he was just a low-level nobody. A background character. A shadow.

And that was exactly how he had survived this long.

But now, something had changed. That rift—that thing—had shown him something. It had… chosen him?

[New Objective: Reconstruct Ren's Memory – Progress: 2%][Memory Fragment Detected: Sector 14 – Restricted Zone]

"Sector 14…" Yun murmured. It was a forbidden place. A collapsed gate no one talked about anymore. Officially, it was declared "cleared and sealed."

But if a memory fragment was there…

He tightened his grip on the sword. The crack on the blade pulsed once more.

"Help me," it whispered.

Yun swallowed hard. There were still things left undone—voices that hadn't been heard. Something inside that dungeon wasn't finished.

He turned away from the growing crowd of elite hunters. The spotlight didn't belong to him. Not yet.

But he had seen what others hadn't.

And now, he couldn't unsee it.

If the world wanted to ignore the truth behind these dungeons, then so be it.

He would uncover it alone.

Even if it meant stepping into the dark.

Even if it meant dying for the answers.

Because Yun was no longer just a gatekeeper.

He was the only one left who remembered the dead.

And the dead… were calling him.