Rattle, rattle, rattle!
Two off-road vehicles tore along a rugged path.
It seemed they had only hurriedly erased the most obvious traces; while it wasn’t quite a road, there were still clear marks of vehicles passing through, making it easy to follow.
Han Jaeyeong, Shin Jieum, and Jeong Daon were riding together in the lead vehicle. Won Deokcheol, who vehemently insisted it was impossible; and Lee Yunho, who begged desperately, claiming he had nothing to do with it; were tightly bound and tossed into the trunk.
“Putting the pieces together… there’s a high chance that Shining
is just a front company meant to lure people in.”
They entice people with promises of easy, high-paying work, only to ultimately drag them into illegal activities. In a way, it was a type of scam already all too familiar in modern society.
“They were pretty clever about it.”
As the Truelight Sect had done, if you wanted to conceal inhumane acts like human experimentation in the modern world, it made sense to recruit people with vulnerabilities like this, especially if the base was a laboratory inside a dungeon. It was practically a deserted island beyond the reach of human law.
“I’ll admit, I had my doubts at first. No matter how cult-like they are, I couldn’t believe there’d be an illegal lab in modern society.” Shin Jieum shook her head. “But still, how did they even think of setting up experimental facilities inside a dungeon? Aren’t they afraid of the system’s safety regulations? Who knows what could happen to their bodies—ah.” She stopped mid-sentence, apparently realizing the contradiction in her own words. “Well, I guess people who conduct human experiments wouldn’t care about things like that anyway. But, Guildmaster, if there really is an illegal facility inside the dungeon, why would they sell us the dungeon access rights? They could’ve just refused from the start.”
“This is only speculation, but it seems like the people on the ground and the higher-ups got tangled up. It happens often when subcontracting piles up.”
“Ugh. Subcontracting to subcontractors, then sub-subcontractors, with the middlemen skimming off the profits. Such a painfully familiar scene from modern society.”
Shin Jieum clicked her tongue. It was probably done to cut off loose ends if something went wrong, but that kind of structure made information-sharing difficult. In fact, Won Deokcheol himself didn’t even know what the CEO of his company had ordered Lee Yunho to do.
At the moment, the party holding the dungeon access rights was merely the subcontractor, Shining. That made it highly likely that the group actually operating the experimental facility either learned about this late, or still didn’t know at all.
The poison he used was sloppy.
If an organization large enough to establish an illegal lab had known that an S-rank Hunter like Han Jaeyeong was entering the dungeon, they wouldn’t have settled for interference this half-hearted.
“Or maybe they didn’t expect us to dig this deep.”
Han Jaeyeong’s follow-up had merit as well. They had already surveyed the map once before entering, but the dungeon was vast. If they had simply cast the agreed-upon magic and left, there wouldn’t have been any real problem. Even if the existence of an alchemist had been discovered, given how poor relations usually were with the HP Guild, it might have ended with cutting off Lee Yunho alone.
This time, however, there was the variable known as Jeong Daon.
“When did you notice the snake engraving on the bracelet? In that short moment?”
At Han Jaeyeong’s question, Jeong Daon, who had been looking out the window, answered indifferently, “Guess I’ve got good dynamic vision.”
“That alone doesn’t explain it.”
“…The person who gave us the information was from the Truelight Sect to begin with. I figured there’d be some connection, so I was keeping an eye out.”
“Hm. I see.”
Jeong Daon’s actions weren’t illogical. Everything sounded plausible when explained. Still, it fit together a little too perfectly to dismiss it as mere competence, leaving an uncomfortable feeling behind.
It feels like she’s fitting her actions to information she already knew.
Suspicious, to say the least.
Thump. Thump!
As the car continued on for some time, a persistent banging came from the trunk. It seemed Won Deokcheol was kicking it from inside.
“By the way, are we really taking those two with us like this?” Jeong Daon asked. “If they escape, it’ll be a hassle. Why bring them along when we don’t even know what they’re capable of? We should just leave them. Or kill them.”
“What? Ahaha, that’s a pretty extreme joke—” Shin Jieum laughed, assuming it was a joke, but froze when she saw Jeong Daon’s expression. “Y-you’re serious?”
“Wasn’t it you who pulled out a knife earlier and said you’d kill them?”
“That was just a threat! We’re not that barbaric a guild. We can leave them like this and hand them over to the police!”
“Really? I thought maybe you were holding back, worried about reading my mood, and wouldn’t even kill someone who deserved it.”
“…D-Daon, I’m really not that bad of a person.”
Thinking she was being misunderstood because she had beaten up Lee Yunho earlier, Shin Jieum began desperately trying to explain herself.
That criticism probably wasn’t aimed at Shin Jieum. It was aimed at me,
Han Jaeyeong thought.
Jeong Daon’s first meeting with them had been during the Gwanghwamun Dungeon Break, and because Han Jaeyeong’s abilities had been temporarily restricted at the time—and they had prioritized something other than rescuing children—a deeply negative impression had taken root.
They didn’t particularly regret the choice they’d made back then, but if they’d known they would be hated this much, they might have chosen their words more carefully.
Some time had passed when the guild member at the wheel furrowed their brow.
“Guildmaster, something feels off.”
“In what way?”
“It’s like…the scenery isn’t changing.”
At that, Han Jaeyeong looked around. “You’re right. We’re not getting any farther from where we started.”
The guild member was right. The landscape hadn’t changed much at all. It was a wasteland wide enough for the horizon to be visible, which was why it had taken them so long to notice.
“Judging by how the car’s just going in circles, it looks like a perception-interference spell has been deployed.”
This kind of thing happened surprisingly often inside dungeons, so Han Jaeyeong wasn’t particularly flustered. Even if it looked like the car was driving straight, there was a high chance they were actually circling the same spot. In cases like this, you either had to find and dispel the core of the perception-interference spell, or attack the entire affected area to break it. The former was impossible right now, and choosing the latter would be tantamount to advertising their presence to the enemy. Given the guild members’ high level, fighting was certainly an option, but since they still didn’t know the enemy’s scale, caution was necessary.
Besides, the HP Guild’s purpose in infiltrating this dungeon wasn’t to destroy the laboratory, but to locate and secure the item inside it.
If Yu Hanul were here, he’d already have run off on his own.
He would have shot everyone a look full of contempt, sneered that this wasn’t the time to worry about items, and then rushed off alone to rescue anyone being detained in the laboratory. In that sense, Jeong Daon and Yu Hanul were clearly different. Though sending a contemptuous glare wasn’t all that different between them.
Han Jaeyeong turned to Jeong Daon, who was standing quietly, stroking the summoned creature in her arms.
“Hunter Jeong Daon, what would you do in a situation like this?”
At the question, Jeong Daon’s eyebrow twitched. “Why ask a dead weight something like that?”
At the very least, it was clear she held grudges to an impressive degree. Still, there was no need to bother Jeong Daon over something this trivial. Han Jaeyeong shrugged. “Well, I’ll handle this much myself.”
“Isn’t that obvious? You’re the guildmaster.”
“…So now you’re just calling me ‘you’ outright?”
“You said to call you whatever’s comfortable.”
“That’s true.”
It left a bitter taste in their mouth. Still, until their curiosity was satisfied, indulging Jeong Daon a little wasn’t a big deal.
“For now, let’s abandon the vehicles here.” If they’d entered the range of a perception-interference spell, there was a high chance the laboratory’s main base was nearby.
At Han Jaeyeong’s instruction, the guild members poured out of the cars. Han Jaeyeong was the first to pull out a glasses-shaped item they’d prepared in advance from their inventory. It was meant precisely for situations where perception-interference magic was in play.
When they handed one to Jeong Daon as well, she stared at it in disbelief. “What is this, some kind of Doraemon pocket?”
“If you’ve got money, an inventory isn’t much different from a pouch that can produce anything.”
Given the guild’s nature, and the fact that prototype items were always lying around, that was especially true.
“That sounds like something a chaebol would say… though, considering the signing bonus you gave me, I guess you really are rich.”
“If you sign an exclusive contract, I could give you even more.”
“I don’t have much interest in material things. I’ll pass.”
Considering she’d casually spent an amount of money most people would never touch in their lifetime just on defensive magic for her home, the comment was shameless beyond belief.
Han Jaeyeong immediately put on the item and looked around. As they felt a large amount of mana being drained away, their vision sharpened.
“…Hngh.”
A low groan escaped Han Jaeyeong’s lips. Shin Jieum asked, “What is it? What is it? Are there monsters everywhere?”
“It’s worse than that. Hm… what is this?”
“Hey, I want to see too! Guildmaster, let me try that item. What’s there?”
Shin Jieum moved to snatch the glasses off Han Jaeyeong’s face, but they stopped her. “I wouldn’t recommend it. The mana consumption is enormous.”
Jeong Daon looked incredulous. “Then why did you give one to me?”
“In case you’re secretly hiding an absurd amount of mana? …Though this probably isn’t the time for jokes.”
Han Jaeyeong gazed at the scenery revealed through the glasses. At its core, nothing had changed; the dungeon was still essentially an empty wasteland.
But where there had once been nothing but endless desolation…
“There’s…something like a village.”
“A village? Huh? Not an experimental facility?”
“Yeah. I was expecting a laboratory too, honestly…”
They had assumed that if a laboratory had been built, there would be modern-looking structures. But the scene reflected in Han Jaeyeong’s eyes was different.
“…Medieval Europe? I don’t know why they’d build such small structures. It doesn’t look like a laboratory.”
Because there was no zoom function, the view was still hazy, but what Han Jaeyeong could see were buildings in a style rarely found in modern-day Korea.
“The company name already felt ominous. Are they seriously worshipping some strange religion here too, like the Truelight Sect? Otherwise, it’s hard to make sense of this.”
“…Wait.” Jeong Daon, who had been quietly listening to Han Jaeyeong, furrowed her brow. “What did you just say? Medieval Europe?”
“Yes. But they look extremely old. Honestly, almost like ruins. I can’t even tell if people are really living there—ah.”
Han Jaeyeong caught sight of Jeong Daon lifting the item they’d handed over earlier to her eyes.
Shin Jieum panicked. “H-hold on, that thing drains mana— …Huh? You look fine?”
“Yeah.”
For a newly awakened Hunter, it wouldn’t have been strange to collapse unconscious the moment she put the glasses on, her mana completely drained. Yet Jeong Daon stood there rigid, wearing the item for quite a while.
“G-Guildmaster. Jeong Daon—she’s not standing there unconscious, right?”
“No. Her mana is still moving.”
Whoosh!
A terrifyingly fast current of mana could be felt being drawn into Jeong Daon’s body.
“Wh-what the—!”
“How is her mana control this insane…? Is she really able to handle that?”
To a swordsman like Shin Jieum, it might have felt dull, but to mages sensitive to the flow of mana, it was painfully clear. The mana in the surrounding area was swirling smoothly around Jeong Daon, centered on her, as if it had found its rightful master.
After a moment, Jeong Daon took off the glasses.
“How on earth…” Han Jaeyeong, who had been about to press Jeong Daon with questions out of sheer curiosity, fell silent.
Because Jeong Daon’s face was deathly pale, far paler than anything they had seen before. Jeong Daon finally spoke.
“…Immediately.”
“Yes?”
“You all—get out of here. Right now.”
The moment she said that, a system message appeared.
System Guide: Synchronization within the dungeon has increased, and the effective range has expanded. It is strongly recommended that you clear the dungeon as quickly as possible.