A corner table on the second floor of the large café.
Joo Do-gyeom and Kim Han-yul sat across from each other.
After taking a sip of the iced Americano he had ordered without much thought, Joo Do-gyeom spoke first.
“It seems we know enough about each other, so let us get straight to the point. Kim Han-yul. I want to recruit you into my team.”
Kim Han-yul let out a faint laugh, took a sip of her coffee, and replied.
“Name, Joo Do-gyeom. Face…… Well, you’re not bad-looking.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, for someone who says we know enough about each other, I don’t know a thing about you. You haven’t even told me your age.”
“Does age matter in a dungeon? I believe showing you my ability was enough.”
“You…… No, I mean, Mr. Joo. People tell you that you have no social skills a lot, don’t they?”
Joo Do-gyeom calmly took another sip of his iced Americano.
To be honest, it was not something he had never heard before.
Plenty of people had said similar things to him before his Regression.
He had not cared.
Social skills were hardly important in a world heading toward destruction.
Even now, that had not changed.
“Judging by the silence, I guess you do know. Seriously. What am I even supposed to say to that?”
Kim Han-yul drank from her Americano as well.
Her brow remained deeply furrowed.
Even so, her looks were outstanding.
Enough to naturally draw the gazes of the men around them.
Joo Do-gyeom silently waited for Kim Han-yul’s response.
He had said all he needed to say, so he believed the choice was hers.
Kim Han-yul set down her Americano, crossed her arms, and sank into deep thought.
About ten minutes passed.
Kim Han-yul finally parted her lips, breaking the long silence.
“First of all.”
“Speak.”
“I understand how skilled you are. You’re like a mon…… No, um, hmm…… Right. You were impressive.”
“…….”
“Don’t misunderstand. That was a compliment.”
“…….”
“Couldn’t you at least smile a little?”
“I will try.”
“Good grief. Fine, I suppose that is simply your personality. I won’t drag this out any longer either. I’ll get to the point. My answer is no. I’m not joining your team.”
“That is unfortunate.”
Joo Do-gyeom rose from his seat.
Kim Han-yul stared at him in disbelief.
‘Unbelievable. He came all this way to recruit me, and he’s giving up this easily?’
If that was the kind of person he was, then she had no further business with him either.
That was for the best.
To make her resolve clear, she sharply turned her head and looked out the window.
Then Joo Do-gyeom’s voice reached her.
“……What are you doing, Kim Han-yul?”
“What?”
“…….”
Without a word, Joo Do-gyeom looked at the cuff of his long sleeve.
Kim Han-yul looked there as well.
Her face instantly turned red.
Her index finger and thumb were unmistakably pinching his sleeve.
“W-Why are these here? Ahahaha……!”
Kim Han-yul burst into laughter and quickly released her fingers.
Then she continued.
“Don’t misunderstand. I didn’t do this on purpose. How should I put it? Unconsciously? Right, so…… my body just moved on its own…….”
“Ah…….”
“Oh, you understand!?”
“Of course. It seems you have madness in your head too.”
It was strange.
There had been no such information in the future he knew.
In any case.
As someone with experience, pity naturally entered his eyes.
The moment Kim Han-yul saw it, irritation rose within her for no apparent reason.
‘Should I confront him?’
She was still wrestling with the thought when—
“Then I will be going.”
Joo Do-gyeom spoke briefly and began turning away again.
Kim Han-yul shouted.
“Wait!”
“……?”
“I-I have something to say too.”
“Something to say?”
“Right. Y-You can at least hear me out, can’t you?”
“Hmm…….”
Joo Do-gyeom let out a short hum and returned to his original seat.
“Phew…….”
Kim Han-yul released a shallow sigh without realizing it as she watched him.
Her flushed face refused to cool down easily.
She needed some time to calm herself.
Thirty seconds…… Sixty seconds…….
‘This isn’t working.’
Kim Han-yul drained the remaining coffee in one shot.
“Ahh……!”
Joo Do-gyeom tilted his head.
It was not even a carbonated drink.
“Refreshing. Ah, I feel a little calmer now.”
In any case, she did not appear to be joking.
Kim Han-yul’s bright red face had returned to normal.
She continued.
“Then let me tell you my side. Mr. Joo Do-gyeom. No, Joo Do-gyeom. The truth is, I want to make you an offer instead.”
“You mean…… you want me to join your team?”
“That’s right.”
“I refuse. Then I will be going.”
Joo Do-gyeom shot up from his seat.
“W-Wait!”
“Why again……?”
“Can’t you at least listen to what someone has to say?”
“I have no intention of accepting any proposal you make. Is this not better than wasting both our time?”
“Well, if you put it that way, you’re not wrong…….”
Why?
What was this?
Kim Han-yul had made a name for herself as a super rookie.
Naturally, she had received recruitment offers from many guilds and teams, but she had never once been led around by any of them.
To be honest, it was because she had an exceptionally willful personality.
Yet whenever she spoke with Joo Do-gyeom, she kept letting him take the lead.
Even though she did not want to.
“Then I will be going.”
It was already the third time.
Joo Do-gyeom repeated the same words and turned his back.
Kim Han-yul hurriedly spoke.
“If you join my team, I’ll take responsibility and treat you well. I know you might think it’s nothing special since I’m only an individual, but I’ll do my best to provide whatever equipment you want. I’ll even let you choose the other member of the team. This really is a special offer, you know?”
“I am not intere…….”
Joo Do-gyeom shook his head, repeated the same response, and was about to leave for real this time when a flash of inspiration crossed his mind.
“Then I will turn that around. I know a way to dramatically advance your Manifestation.”
“……What?”
“Join my team, and I will tell you.”
This sort of thing was not Joo Do-gyeom’s specialty.
There were many people far more skilled than him at coaxing and persuading others.
But now that he was alone, he had to handle matters like this himself.
‘It feels unfamiliar, but…….’
He thought it might work.
That judgment seemed roughly correct.
“I know you’ve got something in mind, but…….”
Kim Han-yul had crossed her arms and legs before he knew it.
Her tone was crooked, but her eyes brimmed with curiosity.
“Just how much do you know about my Manifestation to talk like that?”
Reading Kim Han-yul’s emotions, Joo Do-gyeom answered calmly.
“I believe I know more about it than you do right now.”
Because he had seen the Kim Han-yul of the future.
Joo Do-gyeom’s gaze remained calm.
A sigh escaped Kim Han-yul as she looked at him.
“Haa…….”
Conflict surged within her eyes like waves.
Joo Do-gyeom continued.
“I will make you an offer. Kim Han-yul. Let us enter one dungeon together. If you do not like the result afterward, we will go our separate ways. But if you are satisfied with the result I produce, you will become a member of my team.”
“One dungeon? You’re saying you can dramatically advance my Manifestation in a single dungeon?”
Joo Do-gyeom answered with a nod.
Then he asked with his eyes.
‘What will you do?’
If she still refused here, he truly intended to leave without lingering regrets.
Kim Han-yul’s talent at this point in time was valuable, but another teammate could replace her to some extent.
Amid the silence—
Tap, tap.
Kim Han-yul moved her left foot, clad in a black leather shoe, and tapped it against her right foot several times.
At last, she uncrossed her legs and spoke.
“……Fine. Let’s give it a try.”
Her arms remained crossed.
Her eyes were still filled with suspicion.
To be honest—
‘I’ve got nothing to lose.’
She would simply check.
She would find out whether this mysterious man named Joo Do-gyeom was merely a pathological liar or the real thing.
‘If he’s telling the truth…….’
Then she would surrender.
She would accept it.
She had no intention of stubbornly denying the truth.
Kim Han-yul’s gaze settled.
Joo Do-gyeom extended his hand toward her.
Without a word, Kim Han-yul uncrossed her arms and held out her right hand.
Their hands clasped.
Joo Do-gyeom spoke.
“Party Invite.”
At the same time, a message rang out in Kim Han-yul’s head.
『User Joo Do-gyeom has invited you to a Party. Accept? Y/N』
“I accept.”
Immediately afterward.
Joo Do-gyeom declared.
“Enter dungeon. Set destination: Broken Munitions Factory.”
The two vanished from the café.
***
Broken Munitions Factory.
Like Zombie Burst, it was one of the dungeons with a restriction on the Hunters who could enter.
The limit was a combined stat Grade of C or lower.
That meant it was fairly difficult, but from Joo Do-gyeom’s perspective, it was a dungeon with nothing to gain and nothing of interest.
‘But it’s different for Kim Han-yul.’
For ordinary Class Skills, the most important factors were naturally the influence of various stats and support Skills.
Manifestation, however, was slightly different.
The Magic stat and the support of auxiliary Traits and Skills were important.
But imagination and self-belief affected it just as much.
For example—
A motorcycle was one of the representative objects Kim Han-yul could currently create.
Few means of transportation inside a dungeon could compare to it, and it was fast, but it was not without shortcomings.
That was only natural, because the Kim Han-yul of the future had ridden an antigravity flying motorcycle.
And that was not all.
She had mounted a plasma Gatling gun on that antigravity flying motorcycle and unleashed limitless bombardments upon the ground.
It was far removed from her current self, who could only produce a two-wheeled motorcycle and carry a single pistol.
As he had said repeatedly, the difference came partly from her Magic, auxiliary Traits, and Skills.
But it was also a problem of her still-limited imagination and self-belief.
Joo Do-gyeom believed there was no better place at this point in time than the Broken Munitions Factory dungeon to develop those two qualities.
For reference, it was not a dungeon with the mechanized atmosphere of the modern twenty-first century.
It had a more magical construction.
Even the monsters wandering around were half-broken golems.
Immediately after entering—
Kim Han-yul looked around and spoke.
“Broken Munitions Factory…… Wasn’t defeating the boss monster the clear condition? It’ll be hard with only the two of us…….”
She had been about to finish when her gaze fixed upon Joo Do-gyeom holding the great hammer.
Her head shook on its own.
The image of the warrior who had reduced the gigantic Corpse Giant to pulp with a single hammer blow naturally surfaced in her mind.
“Who was I even worried about……?”
Kim Han-yul let out a faint laugh and followed Joo Do-gyeom as he silently took the lead.
‘Fine, he’s impressive. But I still don’t know how he plans to improve my Manifestation…….’
She intended to wait and see.
If he failed, she could laugh at him once.
‘Now that I think about it, I’ve got nothing to lose.’
A smile naturally spread across her lips.
***
A short while later.
Joo Do-gyeom destroyed the first broken golem they encountered with a single strike of his great hammer.
Kim Han-yul’s eyes widened slightly.
“What? It didn’t look like you hit the core. How did you take it down in one blow?”
A golem’s defining feature was that its core had to be destroyed.
Otherwise, it would continue moving even after being broken apart.
Yet a single hammer strike from Joo Do-gyeom had completely ruined the golem and stopped it from moving.
Even at a glance, it felt fundamentally different from complete destruction.
Startled, Kim Han-yul asked.
“What was that? How did you do it?”
Come to think of it, had she not felt something similar when he killed the undead in Zombie Burst?
Joo Do-gyeom calmly answered.
“It is one of my abilities. So it works on machines as well.”
“What do you mean?”
“I have confirmed it. The same situation will not occur again.”
It was an answer that could be considered somewhat irrelevant.
Kim Han-yul understood what he meant.
‘He has no reason to tell me.’
She accepted it.
Honestly, she would have reacted the same way.
Just then—
A second broken golem appeared.
As he had declared, Joo Do-gyeom tore off its limbs as though crushing it and sent its head flying.
It was technically still moving, but for all practical purposes, it was no different from dead.
Joo Do-gyeom brought it before Kim Han-yul and spoke.
“How does it look?”
“How does it look? Like a half-crippled golem?”
“That is not what I mean. I mean as a target for Manifestation.”
“What kind of nonsense is that? How am I supposed to manifest a golem……?”
Kim Han-yul had been shaking her head, but her mouth closed.
Joo Do-gyeom’s intense gaze was telling her something.
It was possible.
“……Really? It’s actually possible?”
“You know this as well. Imagination and self-confidence are important parts of your Manifestation. Believe that you can manifest a golem like this. Study its structure carefully too. That will make your conviction stronger, will it not?”
“Uh…….”
As Kim Han-yul drew out the word in confusion—
Joo Do-gyeom’s great hammer completely smashed the mangled golem apart.
It was the same as before.
He had struck somewhere other than the core, yet the broken golem stopped moving.
“But why? You told me to study its structure.”
“You have taken a rough look and formed an assessment, so we should move on. We did not come here to make broken tin cans like this.”
“Huh? If I’m not manifesting this, then what exactly am I supposed to……?”
Once again—
Kim Han-yul’s mouth closed mid-sentence.
Her eyes opened wide.
In the Broken Munitions Factory dungeon—
There was only one thing that could be called a tin can that was not broken.
“Don’t tell me…… the boss monster……?”
“That is correct.”
Joo Do-gyeom answered briefly and nodded.
As he continued forward, his back radiated intense conviction.
Kim Han-yul swallowed without realizing it.
She had never once considered attempting it.
She had never even imagined it, but…….
‘He wants me to manifest the dungeon’s boss monster as an ally?’
How could she resist that?
She had entered the dungeon thinking she would watch him try if he wanted.
Now her heart began to pound.
As though it might burst.