Chapter 49

Cut off from any contact beyond the gate, Kim Chul takes over as the highest-ranked hunter on hand and cautions that whatever guards the dungeon is probably B-Rank or stronger. Since protecting the whole group is impossible, he separates them into two camps. The first holds the capable fighters who will accompany him after the boss; the second is everyone too weak to matter, abandoned to fend for themselves. Every A-Rank and B-Rank member falls in behind him at once, while those at C-Rank, along with the E-Rank fighters, are left stranded. Go Myung-Hwan, a C-Rank, requests a spot on the strong team only to be refused, since Kim accepts nobody who would slow them down.

One grim fact Kim shares is the gate's twisted clock: an entire day spent inside equals merely an hour beyond it, so a sluggish clear risks leaving them caught for months. He assures the weaker bunch that holding out until his crew finishes the boss is all they must do. Then, against expectation, B-Rank Park Heejin asks to remain among the weak, which Kim permits with little protest. She pulls Jinwoo aside first, mentions that Kim never spotted the ice arrow from before, and asks him directly if his E-Rank label is genuine. With that exchange done, the two halves split apart, Kim heading for a clearing and Jinwoo guiding his people into the trees, both trading short wishes that the other endures.

Kim Chul divides the trapped hunters into a boss-hunting strong team and a discarded weak group, turning down Go Myung-Hwan. He exposes the gate's time distortion, where one inside day costs only one outside hour. Park Heejin breaks from the strong side to stay with the weak and privately presses Jinwoo about his real rank. Jinwoo assumes leadership of his group and steers them into the forest. The Ice Bears appear for the first time as a fresh danger.

Falling within the Red Gate Arc, this entry maps to anime Episode 13. The time-dilation twist sharpens the cost of any delay, and Heejin's choice to trail Jinwoo hints at how clearly she has begun to read his concealed power. Their debut here, the Ice Bears, sets up the clashes that follow.