“Whaaa?!”
For the first time, Hae-jin realized that the ground could move like a living creature.
This was no ordinary earthquake.
The ground shook, and at the same time, the earth itself surged upward, transforming into a gigantic wave that swallowed the entire area.
It was a natural disaster on such an absurd scale that even a high-ranking Hunter, let alone an ordinary person, would have had no conceivable way to respond.
Buried beneath the earth and debris, Hae-jin eventually lost consciousness.
* * *
“Ugh... Cough, khh!”
How much time had passed?
Hae-jin, who had been unconscious, finally managed to open his eyes.
He felt something warm and damp against his cheek.
“Guard? Did you stay by my side?”
“Woof!”
It was none other than Guard.
The dog had been keeping watch over their surroundings while continuously licking Hae-jin's cheek.
Could there possibly be another Watchdog in the world as good and diligent as this one?
Hae-jin stroked the admirable fellow and calmly examined his surroundings.
‘It looks like a cave, but this strange feeling... Damn it. So I really am inside a Dungeon.’
It looked like the middle of an enormous cavern.
There were torches mounted here and there, but there were so few of them that even making out the terrain was difficult.
He took out his phone to check the situation.
There was absolutely no signal, so his livestream had already been cut off.
The last thing recorded on the phone was the emergency alert from the Demonic Zone Management Headquarters announcing the appearance of a Dungeon.
Combined with the sinister energy filling the surroundings, there was no doubt that he had been caught up in the Dungeon.
‘At least I was lucky enough to fall in here with the camper van. Still, being inside a Dungeon I know absolutely nothing about is terrifying.’
What grade was this Dungeon?
What kinds of monsters appeared here?
For that matter, were there traps, poisonous gas, or some other special gimmick?
He knew nothing.
For a Hunter, information was a lifeline.
Fighting monsters was reality, not a game.
A single mistake could cost someone an arm or a leg, and in the worst case, they could die a miserable death.
WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!
Guard, who had been watching the surroundings, suddenly began barking loudly in one direction.
Hae-jin instinctively grabbed his Anti-Materiel Rifle from where it had fallen beside him.
The moment he quickly loaded a round—
-Grrrk!
A monster emerged from the darkness.
It stood only a little over a meter tall and wore shabby rags crudely stitched together from some creature's hide.
The red-skinned monster held a sharp dagger fashioned from chipped obsidian.
Hae-jin knew what it was called.
‘A Red Goblin? One of those is here?!’
This was no ordinary Goblin.
Red Goblins only appeared in Mid-Level Dungeons or higher and were notorious for being especially powerful and difficult to kill.
As though determined not to give him even a moment to react, the Red Goblin charged without hesitation.
“Get back, Guard!”
The pitch-black blade came hurtling toward him at tremendous speed.
Hae-jin escaped unharmed only because he quickly retreated into the camper van's Safe Zone.
BANG!
-Grrk!!
Hae-jin immediately fired back.
However, the Red Goblin ducked beneath the bullet, then turned and fled, disappearing into the darkness.
The immediate danger had passed.
But cold sweat began pouring down Hae-jin's back.
‘If Red Goblins are appearing here, that means the Dungeon I've fallen into is at least Mid-Level. This might be a lot more serious than I thought.’
He had been extremely fortunate to get swept into the Dungeon together with the camper van, which had saved his life.
He was protected by the ‘Safe Property’ Skill, but the problem was getting out.
‘If this is a newly formed Dungeon, there's no way out until the Boss is defeated. The Hunter Association has probably sent people in, but that means I'm trapped here until they clear it.’
The moment he encountered an actual monster, the reality of the danger came crashing down on him.
With slightly trembling hands, Hae-jin checked the message on his phone again.
[If you have been caught inside the Dungeon, hide yourself and remain calm while waiting for government-affiliated Hunters to enter.]
It said Hunter Association Hunters were already mobilizing.
However, nobody knew how long clearing the Dungeon would take.
‘For a Mid-Level Dungeon where Red Goblins appear, five days would be the absolute fastest. If things drag on, it could take more than two weeks. I'm supposed to stay trapped here that entire time? Without food or supplies?!’
This was serious.
He was honestly beginning to feel genuinely anxious.
Even if he was safe from monster attacks, in the worst-case scenario, he could still starve or die of thirst inside the Dungeon.
‘Wait. But my Skills are still working perfectly fine.’
As Hae-jin thought about it, an idea flashed through his mind like lightning.
He had the camper van, which was recognized as his home, and his Skills were still functioning.
In that case...
‘No way. Can this actually work?’
Half doubtful, he approached the camper van.
Holding his pounding heart in check, he opened the door while activating his Skill.
‘Go Home!’
At that moment—
“No way.”
When he opened the camper van door, a familiar scene came into view.
Bright afternoon sunlight.
Chirping birds and the fresh air of the surface.
It was The Forest Lodge, the place he had established as his base.
‘I really escaped. And it was this easy. This is insane!’
It was the moment Hae-jin first realized that all of his Skills worked perfectly well even inside a Dungeon.
* * *
Perhaps the Skills he had once thought useless were far more outrageously powerful than he had ever imagined.
In all his life, Hae-jin had never heard of a Skill that allowed someone to travel between the inside and outside of a Dungeon without any restrictions whatsoever.
“The whole country's in an uproar. Well, I suppose that's only natural. It's a Dungeon with Red Goblins in it.”
For the time being, he went inside the house and turned on the television.
An emergency news bulletin was already airing.
A man identified as the Deputy Director of the Hunter Association stood behind a podium and began to speak.
-Our Hunter Association is currently making the clearance of the Dungeon and the rescue of stranded civilians our highest priorities.
-Accordingly, we have urgently dispatched eight government-affiliated Hunters ranging from C- to B-rank, and we confirmed that they entered the Dungeon one hour ago.
-The Association will do everything in its power to resolve this situation.
-We therefore ask the public not to give in to anxiety and to return to their normal daily lives.
-The Dungeon will be cleared. The public will be safe.
It was the obvious response under the circumstances.
Whenever a new Dungeon appeared, it had to be cleared as quickly as possible by whatever means necessary.
Rescuing the people who had been caught inside was naturally important, but the greatest reason was the possibility of a Dungeon Break.
‘If enough time passes while the Boss Monster is still alive, monsters start pouring out of the Dungeon. Once that happens, it becomes a catastrophe.’
With even the Deputy Director of the Hunter Association personally stepping forward, the Dungeon would probably be cleared eventually.
Still, as Hae-jin continued watching the news, he could not stop his doubts from growing.
He drew in a troubled breath through his teeth and muttered quietly.
“But this is a Mid-Level Dungeon with Red Goblins. Only eight C- to B-rank Hunters? Can they really clear it with that? Hmm... I'm not so sure about this.”
* * *
“Whew... There are a lot of them.”
After finishing the emergency press conference concerning the Dungeon incident, the Deputy Director of the Hunter Association hurried through the crowd of reporters and climbed into a car.
The vehicle began driving off, blaring its horn as it pushed through the crowd.
Aside from the driver, there was one other person sitting beside the Deputy Director.
He was a neatly dressed man in his thirties wearing a black suit.
He was the head of the National Intelligence Service's Special Hunter Management Team and used the nickname ‘Yeombani’ on internet livestreams.
“So, what's the situation with the Hunters who entered the Dungeon, Department Head Yeom Myo-il?”
“I was just about to report that to you.”
“Judging from your expression, it doesn't look good.”
“My apologies, Deputy Director.”
Yeom Myo-il finally spoke in a subdued voice.
“We received a report ten minutes ago. It isn't very detailed because of the limitations of our equipment.”
Normally, communication between the inside and outside of a Dungeon was nearly impossible.
As though a Dungeon were considered an entirely different world, radio signals simply could not pass through.
However, the Hunter Association had somehow developed a device capable of transmitting communications.
Of course, it was extremely limited, allowing only the most basic information to be conveyed, much like the pagers used several decades ago.
“The message wasn't good.”
“How bad is it?”
“Too many Red Goblins. Three dead. All five remaining members injured. Unable to continue combat. Currently taking shelter. Request rescue... That's what it said.”
“Haah.”
A dark shadow fell across the Deputy Director's face after he heard Yeom Myo-il's report.
He pulled a cigarette from his pocket and lit it.
After exhaling a long cloud of smoke as though releasing a sigh, he rubbed a hand over his face.
“Do you know what I just told the public? The Dungeon will be cleared. The citizens will be safe. I put my position on the line and said exactly that. And now the team is being wiped out? They've sent an SOS?”
“For now, we've taken measures to prevent that information from leaking.”
“I have less than a year left in my term. Why did something like this have to happen now, of all times? Fine. So what about the backup team? What did the Rankers say?”
Naturally, as soon as the Dungeon had been discovered, the Hunter Association had begun contacting Hunters to recruit them for the clearance operation.
Their highest-priority contacts were the Hunters near the top of the national rankings.
However, contrary to the public perception of them as something akin to heroes or idols, most Rankers were not particularly admirable people.
To put it simply—
“I'm sorry, sir, but we haven't been able to reach most of them.”
“Those arrogant bastards.”
As the Deputy Director said, they were arrogant bastards.
“We did reach one of them. The fourth-ranked Hunter, ‘Radiance.’ We immediately requested that he clear the Dungeon, but...”
“Why are you trailing off again? You're making me nervous.”
“...He's currently in Japan. Even under the best circumstances, it will take him more than five hours to reach the site.”
“Damn it.”
Anxiety crept across the Deputy Director's face.
Of all things, it had to be Red Goblins, monsters notorious for being both powerful and difficult to kill.
The fact that they were appearing meant this was a difficult Dungeon of at least Mid-Level.
‘The people inside won't last five hours. If they all die... I'm the one who authorized the deployment. The responsibility will fall on me.’
And the lives of the Hunters trapped inside were not the only problem.
‘If we can't clear it quickly enough and a Dungeon Break occurs... If Red Goblins start pouring onto Korean soil...’
The greatest danger was a Dungeon Break.
If enough time passed without the Boss being defeated, the Dungeon would connect to reality and begin spewing monsters into the outside world.
If a Dungeon Break truly occurred, it would become a disaster of enormous proportions.
Forget about being promoted after his term ended.
The Deputy Director could wind up taking the blame and going to prison.
And where was the Director of the Hunter Association, one might ask?
That man was already sitting in the Seoul Detention Center after being held responsible for failing to stop another Dungeon Break.
As a result, the position of Director was currently vacant.
At this rate, the Deputy Director might end up in the cell next to the former Director.
“This is driving me insane...”
The Deputy Director smoked one cigarette after another, his leg trembling uncontrollably.
Yeom Myo-il, who had been watching him, cautiously spoke up.
“Deputy Director. If you're willing to hear me out, I may have a plan.”
“A plan? Oh, yes. Yeom Myo-il! A plan sounds good. What is it?!”
“I don't know what you'll think of this, but... right before the Dungeon opened, I was actually watching an internet livestream.”
“An internet... livestream? Wh-Why bring that up all of a sudden?”
The topic had come completely out of nowhere.
The Deputy Director stared at him with confusion written all over his face.
“You still watch those things?”
“Just hear me out. It was a broadcast by an unidentified Hunter calling himself the ‘Masked Man.’ It appears that Hunter was caught inside the Dungeon as well. If you watch the replay, the stream cuts off immediately after the Dungeon opens.”
The Deputy Director looked puzzled.
Yeom Myo-il pulled up a video he had personally recorded and edited and showed it to him.
It was a highlight clip from the Masked Man's broadcast.
In other words, Hae-jin's broadcast.
“What in the world is this...?!”
The video showed him in some mysterious invincible state, calmly grilling meat while shooting at the monsters charging toward him.
The sight was so unimaginable that the Deputy Director's jaw dropped.
“This man is strong. We don't know his identity, but he also appears to possess an unprecedented Skill like this.”
“Y-Yes. It certainly seems that way.”
“If the Masked Man is inside the Dungeon, he should be more than capable of dealing with Red Goblins. And judging from this Skill, which seems to specialize in protection...”
Department Head Yeom Myo-il's eyes gleamed.
“Couldn't we entrust the safety of our government-affiliated Hunters stranded inside the Dungeon to him? We can always pay him afterward.”
Not letting the opportunity slip away, Yeom Myo-il drove the point home.
“How much budget does the Hunter Association have left right now?”
There was only one possible answer the Deputy Director could give.
“Uh... How much would we need?”
“We'll have to ask the Masked Man that. Assuming our people survive long enough to meet him.”