Chapter 15

Chapter 15

“Huh?”

Han-sol froze in place.

Her short exclamation drew the eyes of everyone around her.

It made sense.

It was like how, at a game developer, a single “Huh?” right before quitting time meant overtime had been scheduled.

This could be considered a similar situation.

“What is it? What happened? If you act like that, the others get shaken up for no reason. Things are already tense because of the Gangseo-gu incident, so do not do that. All right? You are not an amateur.”

“W-well, you see. It’s… it’s…. Ah… um, how should I put this? Please check it for yourself first!”

“Good grief, drawing it out over something that probably isn’t a big deal. Do you think this is my first time seeing you? A contract reply? Let’s see, the other party is….”

Kang Han-seok’s eyes widened as he looked into the monitor.

Not only that.

He collapsed into his chair and stared blankly.

“Sol, is this real? My eyes aren’t wrong, are they? Or is it an impersonator?”

“Could that happen? This is a government agency. What kind of lunatic would hack a government agency? What would they gain from it?”

“You’re saying we got a message from that Pingkkyu Gyongdyu? Really?”

He could not believe it at all.

It was none other than Pingkkyu Gyongdyu.

The Crisis Response Committee had continuously sent offers to Pingkkyu Gyongdyu from before he started climbing the Tower.

There had been no separate reply.

Not [Accept] or [Reject], but only [Contract Pending].

So they had given up.

But now, contact had come.

“Why?”

It was funny to question it after they had been the ones to make the contract offer first, but still.

Pingkkyu Gyongdyu had climbed the Tower at an incredible speed, and as if that were not enough, had even shattered a world record.

Not only the government, but also renowned large guilds must have sent offers.

They would have pushed forward contracts with unimaginable sums written on them.

Why had he contacted their side?

Kang Han-seok was dumbfounded.

“Yes, no mistake. It is an official document from the department that contacted Pingkkyu Gyongdyu through the system.”

When he checked, it was exactly as she said.

It was a reply that came directly from Pingkkyu Gyongdyu himself.

That was why he had no choice but to be even more surprised.

He had achieved tremendous feats all this time, yet not once had he been exposed to the media.

Contact had come from Pingkkyu Gyongdyu, who had consistently maintained secrecy.

It was an extraordinary event.

“But I think you need to check it once.”

“Check what?”

“We did get an answer to the contract offer, but…. There is a slightly unexpected requirement. It is a bit surprising, I guess. Anyway, it is something I have never seen before.”

“What is it?”

Kang Han-seok checked the document Han-sol handed him and chuckled.

Indeed, it was a request even Kang Han-seok, who had jumped into this field and gone through every hardship imaginable, had never experienced before.

Separate from that.

No Chosen would ever make such a demand.

“So what should we do? Even if it is Pingkkyu Gyongdyu, isn’t it a little uncomfortable to make an exception like this? If we make one wrong move, other Chosen might file complaints.”

“Complaints, my ass…. If they do not like it, tell them to set a world record themselves and verify it on the front page of the news. They cannot even do that, yet they complain. Anyway, process it the way he wants. Do not worry about the upper departments. I will go settle that side myself.”

Kang Han-seok made a quick decision.

This chance.

It would never come again.

If they fumbled around, another guild would snatch him away.

If that was going to happen, they had to make the first move even if it meant taking responsibility.

Pingkkyu Gyongdyu was not a promising talent.

He was already a completely overpowered monster.

Perhaps even his current skill as he climbed the 10th Floor already surpassed one of the Seven Stars.

“What was it called? We need to buy low, right? Trust me. I am an expert in this field.”

“Team Leader… Last time I saw it, your stock screen was completely blue, wasn’t it? I didn’t know where all-blue existed, but I think I finally found it. Or maybe your political leaning is on that side?”

“Please shut your mouth. Ha… your face looks perfectly fine, so why is your mouth like that?”

That was why she still had not gotten married at her age.

Kang Han-seok clicked his tongue and grumbled.

“Anyway, accept every condition Pingkkyu Gyongdyu wants.”

Pingkkyu Gyongdyu was an opponent worthy of that level of treatment.

***

“Please wait a moment. From here onward is a dungeon occurrence zone, so entry is restricted to authorized personnel only. We ask for your understanding….”

“Ah, I’m authorized personnel.”

“Affiliated with Eunhye… Ah, you are a porter. Yes, your identity has been confirmed, so you may enter.”

When I handed over my ID, the military police guarding the police line permitted me to enter.

About an hour and thirty minutes after I received the call.

That was how long it had taken to arrive at the dungeon occurrence site.

The team leader I had spoken to earlier.

I did want to see that bastard’s face, but that was not actually my main purpose.

Sung Ha-jin, the original owner of this body.

I wondered if coming here might let me dig up information about Sung Ha-jin.

There was also the fact that he was surviving as a porter.

Until right before I possessed him, Sung Ha-jin had been an ordinary person.

He had only become a Chosen of the Tower after I possessed him.

And yet.

‘He was afflicted by the Lich King’s Curse.’

That was the reason my body was terminal.

The Lich King was a Boss Monster that appeared in the middle floors of the Tower.

But an ordinary person who could not even enter the Tower was cursed?

That made no sense.

Looking only at the sequence of cause and effect, something impossible had happened.

‘Even when I searched the records, there was no news about the Lich King appearing in a Dungeon.’

The mastermind behind the Gangseo-gu incident this time was the Imugi.

Even the Imugi would be treated as a mere nobody before the Lich King.

The Lich King.

If that bastard had appeared in a Dungeon instead of the Tower, it would have become a major scoop one way or another.

Well, separate from that.

It was strange in many ways that an ordinary person had met the Lich King, received only a curse, and survived.

‘Let’s just check for now.’

Digging into Sung Ha-jin’s interpersonal relationships might help.

Step, step.

When I entered the site, Everyone was busy preparing to enter the Dungeon.

No one paid attention to me.

Because they were busy, they merely glanced sideways at me from time to time before passing by.

If they had been close to Sung Ha-jin, in other words, the original owner of this body, I had thought they might approach me first.

This was unexpected.

‘Do not tell me he was a loner even on-site.’

Maybe that really was the case.

His phone did not even have a single ordinary friend contact, after all.

It was while I was thinking that.

“Oh! Wait a moment!”

Someone from a distance recognized me and approached.

“You remember me, right?”

?

A question mark appeared in my head.

Who was she?

I had no idea at all.

“No. I do not. Who are you?”

“Y-yes…. We participated in a dungeon subjugation together in Changwon before. And you also told me I would be able to survive….”

At my curt answer, she lost heart and mumbled her words.

Who was she again?

I searched my memory for a moment.

‘Ah, come to think of it.’

I felt like I remembered.

When I first fell into this world, there had been a porter I helped escape from a Dungeon.

Her name was definitely….

“It’s Seo-rin, Seo-rin! Now that you’ve heard my name, you know right away, don’t you? I did introduce myself once before.”

Ah, right.

I think it was something like that.

But why was she here?

“I’m also a porter affiliated with Eunhye. Though I was on a different team from you.”

“Ah, yes.”

“Ahem. You came here for dungeon subjugation, right? The camp where the porters stay is not here, but somewhere else, and the camp where the Chosen are is near here. To get there, turn left at the alley up ahead, then go in a little, and it should come out.”

Ah, I had taken the wrong path.

No wonder there was no one who knew me.

But before that, there was one thing I had to correct.

She was seriously mistaken.

“What on earth are you talking about? It seems you have mistaken me for someone else. I am not a Chosen. I am a porter.”

“Yes? A porter…?”

At my following words, Seo-rin looked at me as if I were a strange person.

There was only one person in this world who knew I was Pingkkyu Gyongdyu… no, two people.

One was Poing.

And the other was Seo-rin, her.

During that earlier dungeon subjugation, she had found out unintentionally.

“But you are Pingkk….”

“You must have dreamed it. I do not know anyone like that. You understand, right?”

I placed a hand on her shoulder.

It was a kind of warning.

Then Seo-rin nodded with a pale face.

Apparently, she could take a hint.

***

The porters’ base camp was easy to find.

It was thanks to Seo-rin taking charge of guiding me.

I learned while talking with her on the way that, whether it was a coincidence or not, during this dungeon subjugation—I would be moving together with Seo-rin.

“Hehe, I checked. We’re in the same group.”

It was around the time we arrived at the base camp.

“Hey! Sung Ha-jin! You bastard! Why are you so late?! Did I tell you to come early and get everything ready, or not?!”

A familiar voice came from beyond.

It was the voice I had heard during the call.

The team leader.

Sure enough, his face was just as nasty as his gruff voice.

He approached me with his temper fully up.

“You had better prepare yourself today…. Huh?”

The team leader’s gaze stopped on Seo-rin.

For a brief instant, the team leader’s pupils shook greatly.

“Seo-rin? Why are you with that halfwit?”

“Ah, I met Mr. Ha-jin in front of here. Did you need something?”

At Seo-rin’s question, the team leader watched her reaction.

Well now.

I could feel it.

As a career veteran who had rolled through female-dominated groups from university to working life, I could feel it.

That one was a woman-crazed creep.

That sly old snake seemed completely crazy about women.

“Ha… never mind. Sung Ha-jin, you know my personality, right? Once this subjugation is over, you are going to properly explain what happened between you and her.”

Maybe he wanted to look good in front of a woman, because the bastard whispered so only I could hear and turned away.

In his mind, it seemed like he had said it as a warning.

Well.

‘What right does he have to tell me what to explain or not?’

It was laughable.

Right as I snorted, a booming shout rang out from the front.

“Everyone, pack your bags! We are entering the Dungeon now!”

The signal that we were entering the Dungeon.

I picked up my Wand and chuckled.

I had been waiting anyway, so this was perfect timing.

***

Dungeon subjugation.

Usually, the team composition for a subjugation consisted of two Chosen as the main combat power.

And three porters were in charge of various supplies and combat support.

Chosen and porters had a cooperative relationship.

Therefore, Chosen and porters should strategically approach dungeon subjugation based on the principle of mutual respect—That was the theory known to the outside world.

But theory and practice were different.

Chosen who climbed the Tower and porters who were ordinary people.

It was already decided who held the power and who did not.

“Porters! What are you doing, not moving faster?! Damn it, f*ck. Our team luck is shit too.”

“Tch, aren’t they way too pathetic? If I had known this, I wouldn’t have bet dinner with another team. If we keep crawling around like this, we’ll barely kill a few monsters before we’re done.”

The Chosen fought monsters at the front while spitting curses.

The porters, not even dreaming that they were being belittled, followed behind them and collected byproducts from the monsters.

“We are lucky today. The Chosen we matched with are good fighters. I spent a fortune preparing self-defense weapons and magic, but thankfully, I saved my money.”

“Yes, I know. Compared to others, they definitely fight well.”

The porters watched the Chosen’s battle and exclaimed in admiration.

Meanwhile.

‘Those things climb the Tower? They fight way too poorly for that.’

Sung Ha-jin was admiring them in a different sense.