Chapter 7
Near Yeonsinnae, a large crowd had gathered in front of an unidentified portal that had appeared at a commercial building.
“Has the support from the B-rank Hunters not arrived yet?”
“We’re running out of time! When are we going in?”
“Ha, let’s be honest. Do you really think the people who went inside are still alive? If you go in with insufficient forces and people end up getting killed, can you take responsibility for that?”
Nearly two hours had already passed since the dungeon appeared.
At this point, it was becoming increasingly certain that the civilians who had been caught inside were already dead.
Amidst the situation, a middle-aged man finally voiced the thought that everyone had been deliberately avoiding.
Their argument was heated, but the conclusion wasn’t particularly different.
The woman who had been insisting they enter clenched her lips tightly, while the young man who had been trying to mediate the situation let out a sigh as well.
Honestly, even they didn’t think the people trapped inside a B4-rank dungeon could possibly have remained unharmed for this long.
Just then, a woman came running into the midst of the silent crowd, breathing heavily.
“……Has the rescue team been assembled?”
“Who are you? You can’t just enter this area—”
“Has it been assembled?”
Faced with Baek Seo-ha’s firm question, the young man had no choice but to answer.
“As you can see, not yet.”
“……”
At those words, Baek Seo-ha immediately began walking forward.
Toward the dungeon entrance.
Toward the portal.
“Hey! What are you doing?”
“Damn it, everyone’s losing their minds! I’m telling you, we don’t have enough forces!”
The Hunters hurriedly blocked her path when they saw what she was doing.
But when Baek Seo-ha raised her head, they all fell silent.
Her eyes were filled with such raw emotion that it seemed as though she would tear apart anyone who dared stand in her way.
“Uh, uhh……”
While everyone stood frozen, Baek Seo-ha entered the dungeon alone without the slightest hesitation.
Only a moment later did murmuring begin to spread through the crowd.
“Wasn’t that Baek Seo-ha just now?”
“Huh? Yeah, it was! I saw her from a distance when I went to support the Cheongbaek Guild.”
“An A-rank came here to provide support?”
“Then should we just follow her inside?”
At that moment, the middle-aged man spoke with a puzzled expression.
“What nonsense are you people talking about? The First Assault Team of the Cheongbaek Guild should still be clearing their dungeon.”
“Huh? Come to think of it……”
No one could reach a definite conclusion.
But everyone there could feel it.
Something unusual was clearly happening.
Halloween Knight was one of the original undead I had frequently used in my world.
Of course, it wasn’t a high-level undead, but at least in close combat, it boasted simple yet outstanding performance.
Slash!
CRACK!
“Keheek!”
Under the might of the Halloween Knight, the Devourer and Revenant, reduced to little more than their bodies, were being utterly demolished.
Crack!
Snap!
Crunch!
The two remaining Skeleton Archers hurriedly tried to provide support, but each took a hit in turn and had their heads split apart.
It was obviously a positive situation.
But I sternly hardened my expression.
Because I was fully aware of the problem that would arise soon.
It won’t last long.
Thankfully, we’d overcome the immediate crisis, but the Halloween Knight had been created by borrowing the death energy of Song Ha-yeon, who was, at best, a beginner Necromancer.
Naturally, its duration couldn’t possibly be very long.
In fact, the fact that it was performing this well could be considered a miracle.
There’s no way it can take down the Giant, too.
Even if I conserved its strength as much as possible, at most, it would be able to deal with perhaps two more undead on the level of a Devourer.
I’d only brought one magic stone with me, so obviously, I couldn’t perform the same trick again.
In other words, if a rescue team didn’t arrive, we were genuinely going to die.
After calmly organizing the facts in my mind, I closed my eyes and remained silent.
There was nothing left for me to do except pray.
……
Just as I was about to send my wishes to Serezia, who had once been known as the Goddess of Harmony in my world, I sensed several presences once again coming from beyond the passage.
Creak.
Creak-creak.
Not the rescue team.
The undead.
I cried out inwardly with a surge of betrayal.
Serezia! How could you?!
Soon, new undead appeared, and the girl beside me looked at me with a pitiful expression in which despair and hope coexisted.
She was clearly looking to me for salvation.
I avoided her gaze and answered awkwardly.
“W-We might die here……”
“……”
The light of hope disappeared from the girl’s eyes in an instant.
And then, a new hope appeared.
BOOOOM—!
“If anyone can hear me, answer me!”
A voice came from somewhere beyond the passage.
It was an unexpected appearance, but I immediately knew who the owner of that voice was.
Seo-ha.
I’d expected her to still be inside the dungeon she had been clearing, but apparently she’d cleared it much faster than I expected.
“Eek! We’re here! Here!”
The girl instinctively realized that it was the rescue team and hurriedly began calling for help.
The violent sounds of battle grew closer and closer.
BOOOOM!
CRACK!
As we held our breath and waited, I saw the Skeleton Giant guarding the passage have its limbs destroyed and its body blown into countless fragments.
Watching that scene, I turned the Halloween Knight, whose remaining duration had only barely lasted this long, back into ash.
Apparently, we’d somehow managed to survive.
[“Spear Saint” Baek Seo-ha Safely Rescues Two Civilians Trapped in a B4-Rank Dungeon.]
[A Model Hunter, Noblesse Oblige.]
[She Rushed to the Scene Immediately After Clearing a B3-Rank Dungeon.]
Later, it was confirmed that the dungeon that had appeared in the basement of a commercial building near Yeonsinnae had been classified as a B4-rank dungeon.
And its boss was a Kobold Bane.
It was a monster that had transformed after a kobold survived for an exceptionally long period of time, becoming a lesser existence commonly referred to as a Lich.
[Disaster and Safety Management Headquarters Once Again Emphasizes the Importance of Early Warning for Dungeon Seeds.]
After the incident, mourning continued for the victims who ultimately could not be rescued.
Meanwhile, the Internet was in complete uproar.
—Wow, how the hell did they survive a B-rank? They were insanely lucky.
—Apparently this is the first case of civilians being rescued after being trapped in a dungeon above B-rank. It’s even making waves in foreign media, lol.
—But seriously, Baek Seo-ha is insane. I hear people are saying she basically cleared it solo.
—For real, how does a second-year Awakened Hunter solo a B-rank dungeon? She’s basically a walking national pride machine.
Even ordinary people who had only heard fragmented accounts of the incident reacted that way.
Among high-ranking officials who had been more directly involved in the incident, Baek Seo-ha became an even hotter topic of discussion.
“Essentially, you could say she solo-killed two B-rank bosses. And she did it all in a single day.”
Somewhere in Seoul.
A heated discussion about her continued in a conference hall where influential figures from various sectors of South Korea had gathered.
“The Puppet Spider is actually known to be one of the more troublesome bosses even among B-rank monsters.”
“If it’s her, don’t you think she could reach S-rank before long?”
S-rank.
The significance of that word was anything but simple.
In the modern era, there was even a saying that an S-rank Hunter was equivalent to national power.
“……She’s achieved this much in only two years, so the possibility is certainly high.”
South Korea currently had three S-rank Hunters.
‘Magician’ Seo Min-ah, ‘Vajra’ Choi Ha-min, and Lee Ji-cheol, who was called a tyrant in both the good and bad senses of the word.
Considering the country’s population, three was by no means a small number.
But honestly, it was still woefully insufficient to protect an entire nation.
“You all remember what happened in Hungary.”
When an S4-rank dungeon appeared, Hungary deployed its only S-rank Hunter, Gerzer, along with dozens of A-rank Hunters.
But they ultimately failed to clear the dungeon.
As a result, they lost all of their national power and even now remained dependent on stronger nations.
There was no guarantee something similar couldn’t happen to South Korea.
“If only Chae Hwa-in were still alive……”
South Korea had originally possessed one more S-rank Hunter.
No, to be precise, it would be more accurate to say that there had originally been only one.
Chae Hwa-in.
She had been the greatest Hunter of the first generation and the first person in the world to have the S-rank title officially recognized.
But she was gone now.
Back when dungeon ranks hadn’t even been clearly categorized, she had been practically forced to provide support for the clearing of an S-rank-level dungeon in the United States.
She never returned alive.
“……It still makes my blood boil.”
There was still considerable controversy surrounding that incident.
Some claimed that the United States had plotted against Chae Hwa-in because they felt threatened by her power.
Others said that, in the midst of the crisis, she had been sacrificed simply because she was a foreigner.
They were absurd claims, but no one could completely deny that they were impossible.
The despair of being pressured into sending one’s own national hero to a foreign land, only to receive her cold corpse in return, was impossible to put into words.
“The loss was enormous in many ways. Truly enormous.”
Her body was still interred in a corner of a memorial park in Seoul.
Perhaps she might even still be lingering there, unable to find peace.
“Anyway, this is an important period. Given the matter concerning the family of the Returnee, I don’t think anything like that will happen, but please keep a close eye on movements by other countries aimed at attracting our talent.”
With those final words, everyone in the room returned to their respective positions.
After the dungeon incident, I was lying at home beneath my blanket, once again completely immersed in the Internet.
[Dungeon Accident Survivor, Ms. Lee, “I don’t remember much about what happened inside. It was just one desperate moment after another.”]
[Expert Yoo Hae-man, “The dungeon’s structure was unusual. That’s why the survivors were able to hide themselves.”]
Was this what people called ego-searching?
Checking the public’s reaction to an incident I’d personally experienced was surprisingly entertaining.
“The final spell seems to have worked well, too……”
I’d crushed the magic stone I’d brought inside in the Devourer’s mouth.
But before being rescued, I had used a fragment I’d left behind to cast a confusion spell on the girl who had been with me.
Because of that, although she would probably remember running around with me, she likely wouldn’t remember many of the specific details.
—Anyone still not supporting Baek Seo-ha is a traitor to the country, right?
—BAEK SEO-HA! BAEK SEO-HA! BAEK SEO-HA! BAEK SEO-HA!
—A ray of light among all those third-generation flashy wannabes……
I’d already known she was popular, but after going around various online communities, I realized that Seo-ha’s popularity was even greater than I’d imagined.
Judging by the reactions alone, she was receiving more attention than most sports stars or musicians.
—She’s still only A-rank. She can’t compare to Shin Yu-ha or Choi Ha-min. No matter how much you hype her, she’s not breaking through.
└ Their careers aren’t even comparable. Give her another year and she’ll surpass them.
Tap-tap-tap-tap.
Whenever public opinion occasionally turned against Seo-ha, I would furiously type away at the keyboard, leaving comments to argue against them.
Knock knock.
As I aimlessly let time pass, I heard a cautious knock on my bedroom door.
It was Seo-ha.
“Oppa, do you want to go for a walk today? Staying in your room all the time isn’t good for your health……”
After the dungeon incident, Seo-ha had become even more concerned about my increasingly lazy lifestyle, while also constantly worrying that I might have been traumatized by what happened.
Thanks to that, I was taking full advantage of her concern and indulging in my laziness.
“……Can’t we go another time?”
“Ah, okay. I understand.”
Her dejected voice made me feel solemn despite myself, but there was nothing I could do.
I had to finally win the promotion match I’d failed last time.
I can’t stand being 2–0.
I only needed one more victory to rank up.
The odds were practically one hundred percent.
This was already my third promotion match.
Surely it was about time I succeeded.
BOOOOM!
[You have been defeated.]
[You have been defeated.]
[You have been defeated.]
Thud! Thud! Thud!
WHAM!
I turned off the computer and proceeded to mercilessly beat my blanket.
