“Listen carefully to what I’m about to say.”
Gong Siyoung grabbed Yurian by the arm. To someone who clearly had no idea what was going on, he explained as calmly as he could.
“If you go near that monster, the condition will activate. When it asks you a question, just answer yes.”
“What?”
“Just say yes.”
Yurian blinked. At his blank reaction, the grip on his shoulders tightened.
“Just—no matter what—say yes.”
Threat or not, Yurian nodded.
“Okay.”
“Good. Let’s go. You two stay here.”
Siyoung warned Woo Yujin and Gu Jayeong as they tried to follow. No further explanation.
Following behind Siyoung, Yurian glanced back at the two. Yujin shrugged. They seemed just as clueless.
The moment Yurian slowed his pace, Siyoung immediately noticed and turned around. Yurian, suddenly deflated, hurried to catch up.
“You don’t feel like explaining this in more detail?”
“I already did. Go near the monster, the condition activates. Just answer yes.”
“…Never mind.”
Yurian smacked his lips. Siyoung’s back was just as stubborn as his tone.
Nothing about this situation was going the way Yurian expected. Not the way he’d ended up joining them, not the way Siyoung naturally took charge and started giving orders.
‘I wasn’t planning for this…’
How did it turn out like this? He’d only meant to sneak in and watch the fight. He’d even used an invisibility spell to do it—and now all that mana had been wasted for nothing.
And of all timings, why did he have to notice them falling out of the air? When someone’s about to die right in front of you, you can’t just stand there and watch.
Setting aside the fact that he’d stepped in without thinking, Yurian still didn’t understand why they had suddenly dropped like powerless corpses.
“But that thing isn’t a monster.”
He met the giant’s red eyes. Even with the mask, he knew exactly what it was.
“That’s a Custos.”
As if reacting to his voice, the giant opened its mouth.
〈This is the domain of the chosen. Are you chosen?〉
Gong Siyoung immediately jabbed him hard in the side. Yurian rubbed the sore spot and shot him a look. Siyoung mouthed the words silently.
‘Say yes.’
…Seriously, what is this?
Well, if he’s telling me to, I’ll do it—but what changes if I say yes?
Yurian pursed his lips. Full of doubt and annoyance, but with a “fine, whatever” mindset, he answered.
“Yes.”
+
[ All conditions have been met by <The Chosen>’s response. ]
[ The First Circle (D): ‘Limbo’, protected by “Guardian of Niflheim”, has been unlocked. ]
+
The giant turned and began to walk away. With each heavy step, the ground trembled—and its body crumbled like sugar.
One step. Two steps.
Leaving fragments behind, it broke apart completely.
Where only destruction remained, a pitch-black door revealed itself beneath.
Just wide enough for a single person to pass through, the black door had a timer floating above it.
+
[ Gate opens in 48:00:00 ]
+
Yurian looked at Gong Siyoung like a dog waiting for its next command. He pointed at the door.
“What’s that?”
Staring at the steadily decreasing time, Gong Siyoung spoke.
“…It means we’re screwed.”
* * *
As the crumbling giant vanished, the black door stood exposed.
The footage froze on the image of Gong Siyoung staring at it with a grim expression. Pressing his tired eyes, Gong Sijin let out a long sigh.
“We can’t handle this on our own.”
He muttered while watching the screen.
Giving Yurian a body cam hadn’t been intentional, but it turned out to be the right decision. Thanks to that, everything inside the dungeon had been recorded in full.
Gong Sijin looked around the conference room. Gong Siyoung, Yurian, Woo Yujin, and Gu Jayeong—all of whom had entered the dungeon—were present. Along with them were Guild Master Gong Sijin himself and Vice Master Park Ildo.
That alone showed how serious the situation was.
“I’ll contact the Management Bureau myself. Once they see the footage, they’ll come up with a response.”
He rubbed between his brows, his expression shadowed with fatigue.
Understandable. The dungeon they thought was “a bit strange” had turned out to be far beyond that.
The door beneath the giant was clearly a gate.
A gate inside a gate.
No one knew what kind of dungeon lay beyond it.
The unprecedented situation weighed heavily on the room. Only Yurian, who didn’t understand any of it, calmly looked around.
No one had properly explained the severity of the situation to him—and even if they did, he wouldn’t fully grasp it anyway.
No matter how perceptive Yurian was, he couldn’t understand something he’d never encountered.
Since entering the dungeon, Yurian had never once seen a status window.
So he hadn’t seen the time limit floating above the door. The “unlock” messages meant nothing to him either.
Trying to help him understand, Gong Sijin had started explaining—but ended up going all the way back to “what is a status window” and launching into a full lecture.
If Gong Siyoung hadn’t cut him off, they might still be dissecting its fundamentals.
In any case, this wasn’t the time to sit around explaining things.
A gate inside a gate. Just hearing it sounded ominous enough.
And in 48 hours, they would have to enter it.
“The only silver lining is that it’s D-rank… but that’s not the part I don’t understand. Why specify ‘First Circle’?”
Why “First”? Unless there’s a Second, a Third…
In the worst-case scenario, there could be a gate inside the gate—and another inside that one.
Silence fell. Everyone seemed to be thinking the same thing.
Except Yurian, who casually rolled his chair back and forth.
The grating sound finally pushed Gong Siyoung over the edge. He grabbed the backrest and dragged the entire chair closer.
After confirming Yurian was sitting properly, he began to speak—though his gaze remained fixed on him in warning.
“As you saw, our skills were disabled mid-combat. That makes no sense.”
If even Gong Siyoung’s S-rank skill was shut down, the rest didn’t need mentioning.
If it happened again, they could all be wiped out.
Without skills, hunters were barely different from civilians. Facing a monster in that state meant death—no matter how you looked at it.
Up until then, Vice Master Park Ildo—who had remained silent—tapped the table lightly.
He jerked his chin toward Yurian.
“Then how did he use skills?”
The body cam footage clearly showed everything—Yurian turning invisible, flying in, and saving them. Recorded from his perspective, there was no room for confusion.
“Well…”
Everyone’s gaze turned to Yurian.
He had been staring only at Siyoung’s hand, waiting for a chance to roll the chair again. Under the sudden attention, he flinched.
“…Why are you all staring at me like that?”
“We’re curious how you used skills.”
“Skills… oh, magic?”
“Magic, skills—whatever.”
Park Ildo cut in sharply, pointing at Yurian like a weapon.
“Yurian, was it? I didn’t believe your whole ‘came from inside a dungeon’ story from the start. Thought you were just some screw-loose bastard who wandered into a gate. But this? This is different. There’s a big difference between a nutcase and someone who conveniently uses skills alone.”
In a situation like that, only one person being able to use abilities?
If he had bad intentions, he could kill people without even lifting a finger.
From his sudden appearance to his identity, nothing about Yurian wasn’t suspicious. And Park Ildo had no intention of hiding that distrust.
“I kept quiet because the Master said so. But I still think you’re shady as hell.”
He raised his voice, even suggesting that the whole “Chosen” thing might be part of Yurian’s scheme. If this was a trap, then entering that gate would be suicide.
“We hand over the gate-in-a-dungeon situation to the Bureau, form a joint guild team to clear it—that’s the only option anyway. That can proceed separately. But I think we should beat something out of him first and get answers. Doesn’t it bother you? A guy who claims he can’t even see a status window is casually naming monsters like it’s nothing.”
Park Ildo clenched his fist, shaking it in the air like someone well-versed in intimidation.
Despite the open suspicion, Yurian didn’t react much.
Threats like that?
Cute.
“They’re not even related. What does a status window have to do with monster names? And that thing isn’t a monster.”
Who calls a Custos a monster?
Yurian clicked his tongue.
“These otherworlders really don’t know anything.”
“Custos are summons.”