Chapter 240

After the Dungeon Boss died, the cleanup moved fast. There were already a lot of casualties, so we couldn’t afford to waste more time here.

I brought out the two bodies that had been lying on the floor and handed them off to the on-site management staff stationed outside.

“How are they?”

“Looks like they passed. If they’re not breathing.”

I was running on empty. I’d scraped together what little magical power I had left, then spent it, and on top of that I’d moved two corpses. I cracked open two magical power recovery potions and drank them, then tore open an energy bar from the communal pile and chewed like my life depended on it to satisfy the insane hunger.

Once the urgent cleanup wrapped up, reporters naturally pushed their way in.

“Can you describe what it was like inside the Dungeon?”

“You’re an SH Hunter, right? Is this your first Gate since your rank correction—and it was an S-rank Gate?”

“Do you know how Guild Master Song Hwayoung is doing?”

With shutters flashing like crazy in my face, I finished chewing and swallowed the energy bar.

“I was out of my mind too, so. If you go over there, Hunters who are in better shape than me can answer you.”

“You’re Hunter Seo Jehyun, right?”

“Yes.”

The instant I answered, more questions flooded in. I ignored them as needed, opened and ate another energy bar, and only then pushed through the crowd and started walking.

“Coming through.”

“Ugh, what the—?”

“Don’t shove!”

I went over to So Yeji, who’d been with Song Hwayoung the whole time, and greeted her.

“Hello.”

“...Hello. You’re Hunter Seo.”

“Yes. Want a business card?”

I pulled out my wallet and handed over a card. So Yeji took it with an awkward expression.

“Thank you. I don’t have one.”

“Honestly, I shouldn’t have one either.”

Yeah. It’s not like there are that many lunatics who walk into a Dungeon carrying a wallet instead of gear. If it hadn’t been for Im Haekyung, I would’ve been stretched out in a warm room right now instead of dealing with this—so yeah, fuck this.

“Where’s the Guild Master?”

“I handed her over to the medical unit for now. But... a lot of time passed after she got hurt, so it’s....”

“.......”

“Go check her condition.”

“Yes.”

After finishing my light conversation with So Yeji, I moved away from the people still shouting questions and headed somewhere relatively less crowded.

And there, I met a familiar face.

‘Kwon Taehan.’

No—can I even call it a familiar face? I don’t know how many times I’ve actually faced him, but as I am right now, isn’t this no different from meeting Kwon Taehan for the first time?

Even if I know everything about him.

Meeting someone for the first time while knowing everything about them really did hit different.

How he’d lived, what he pitied, what he feared. What his weaknesses were, how he overcame them. Even the life he would live from here on out.

Of course, I wasn’t his acquaintance, and I didn’t have some shaman-like ability to see the future. I’d just read the novel he was in.

It wasn’t a novel I’d read because I wanted to, but with things turning out like this, it was surprisingly pretty fun.

“...Seo Jehyun.”

A voice sunk deep with anger. I knew exactly how I was supposed to react here.

“Who are you?”

***

When I casually asked Kwon Taehan who he was, his answer was pretty intense.

‘He said he’d kill me?’

It’s not like I did anything wrong inside the Dungeon. Was this rage about the past few lives?

Well, Kwon Taehan had started his fifth life pissed off out of his mind to begin with. It was also the timing where his resentment toward me would’ve been at its peak.

Even so—because I interfered, Song Hwayoung was still clinging to life, wasn’t she?

I fastened the shirt button Kwon Taehan had grabbed and got into Im Haekyung’s car. While waiting for Im Haekyung to return, I contacted the people I’d lost signal with while I was inside the Dungeon, one by one.

“Yehyun.”

-Hyung.

The last thing I’d told Do Yehyun was to stay inside the Dungeon, but the connection wasn’t cutting out, so it seemed he’d already gone in and come back out.

“You been good?”

-...Where are you?

“Good question.... Busan?”

-You told me to take you with me. I’m... I’m fine even if you get hurt. But you have to be next to me....

Do Yehyun stopped once mid-sentence, then [N O V E L I G H T] spoke like he was chewing each syllable.

-I can save you, hyung.

“I didn’t go in by choice. Im Haekyung shoved me in.”

-Why would they?

“Exactly. Want to go scold them for me?”

I shifted my gaze toward the bastard visible beyond the car window.

Then—clunk—the door opened, and Im Haekyung slid into the passenger seat.

“Jehyun, aren’t you a little too naturally parked in my car?”

“Hello, Guild Master.”

-Hyung.

Sitting down, Im Haekyung quickly took off their outerwear and tossed it into the back seat, then removed what looked like gear—gloves and a thick belt cinched tight around their waist—one after another and threw them back as well. Loosening the buttons that were fastened up to their neck, Im Haekyung looked my way and asked.

“You’re on a call?”

“Yes.”

“Seowon?”

“Yehyun.”

Before I could even finish answering, Do Yehyun’s voice—pretty damn vicious—stabbed into my ear.

-You’re next to them?

“Yeah. I’ll raise hell on my end first. Let’s meet up when I get back, Yehyun.”

The moment I ended the call, Do Yehyun immediately called again. I simply ignored it and started the car.

“What kind of hell are you going to raise on your end?”

“There’s someone who gets in a bad mood if I go into a Dungeon without bringing them.”

“Yehyun? He doesn’t seem like that kind of character. He’s nice.”

“Nice people go into Dungeons to get their dopamine fix and shit.”

“.......”

There were quite a few people gathered around the car. I turned the wheel and asked half-assedly,

“Is it okay if it gets scratched up a bit?”

“The car? Or the people?”

“Why did you bring the car all the way here?”

“For my gear. And if I take a train in this situation, every step of my movement gets broadcast, right? And I had something to say to Hunter Tae on the way.”

“What?”

“Not to enter the Dungeon. Ah—can you drive to Seoul right now?”

Could I drive to Seoul in my current condition? I glanced at Im Haekyung’s nonsense once, then looked away.

“Fine. I’ll switch with you halfway.”

I laid on the horn mercilessly at the crowd, then threw it into reverse and peeled out of there in one go. Im Haekyung looked at me like they had a lot to say, but in the end they just leaned the seat back without a word.

As soon as we got onto the highway for real, Im Haekyung’s voice came again.

“You went to see Guild Master Song’s condition?”

“Yes.”

“Do you think she’ll be okay?”

“No.”

At my short answer, Im Haekyung went quiet again for a long while.

“Do you think she’ll die?”

“Could.”

“Her recovery... should be fast.”

“Her magical power is unstable. Her recovery won’t be that smooth.”

On top of that, now that Kwon Taehan had appeared, Song Hwayoung being alive wasn’t exactly a good sign if the Dungeon was going to maintain that so-called plausibility. With a strange feeling, I glanced down at the hand gripping the steering wheel.

I remembered the pain from when I’d pressed on her bleeding wound to stop it for a moment.

‘It went against plausibility.’

This wasn’t even comparable to tossing out a few spoilers. It was a massive plausibility deviation. Had I wanted to break it?

“What about the other Hunters?”

“Both Haeseong Hunters are fine. One has internal injuries and will probably need treatment. The Hunter from Damyeon... doesn’t look so good. Among the ones still alive.”

“Damyeon’s Guild Master didn’t come as support, right?”

“No. Because I went.”

I nodded at Im Haekyung’s words. Im Haekyung checked my reaction briefly, then suddenly asked something else.

“That Hunter who came as support earlier—did you recognize them?”

“No.”

“You both acted like you knew each other....”

“Me?”

“Both of you.”

Kwon Taehan acted like he knew me? Well, he grabbed someone by the collar out of nowhere at the scene, so anyone who saw would’ve seen. Instead of giving some proper reaction, I just shrugged slightly.

“That Hunter is S-rank.”

While we were speeding down the highway, Im Haekyung suddenly threw out another random line.

“Who?”

“The Hunter who came as support earlier. I don’t know their face... and if they’re that strong, they must’ve awakened recently....”

“.......”

“It’s going to get loud.”

That last part was almost a mutter to themself.

An S-rank Dungeon that appeared out of nowhere, and an S-rank Hunter who also appeared out of nowhere. Excluding the other injured... and the dead, those two issues alone were enough to set public opinion on fire for a while.

And after that day, public opinion really was loud.

Just... not in the way I’d expected.