Chapter 162

Chapter 162

From morning, countless people gathered in the slum plaza.

“Wow!”

“There are so damn many.”

Briel and Levin gaped at the people gathered in the plaza.

Today was the day the Pegasus Raid Team departed.

Naturally, they had thought many people would come out to watch their departure ceremony, but the crowd gathered in the plaza far exceeded their expectations.

It was an era without much entertainment.

Even a departure ceremony like this was entertainment for people.

“They’re coming out.”

“It’s the Pegasus Raid Team.”

Along with the cheers of the crowd, the Pegasus Raid Team appeared.

Ten desert-use buggies and twenty large transport vehicles. With more than two hundred Awakened accompanying them, it was an enormous force.

There were countless dungeon raid teams in Neo Seoul, but not many could mobilize this many people for a dungeon clearing.

At the head of the Pegasus Raid Team stood Lee Ji-ryeong.

“Waaaah!”

At Lee Ji-ryeong’s appearance, the people let out tremendous cheers.

Although he could have ridden in a buggy, Lee Ji-ryeong walked on foot, giving off an overwhelming pressure like a male lion.

Lee Ji-ryeong stopped in the plaza and enjoyed the crowd’s cheers for a moment.

At that moment, the wind blew and scattered Lee Ji-ryeong’s hair. At the sight, which resembled a male lion shaking out its mane, the people responded even more fervently.

“Lee Ji-ryeong! Lee Ji-ryeong!”

“Waaaah!”

After enjoying the crowd’s reaction for a while, Lee Ji-ryeong walked toward Zeon.

He spoke to Zeon.

“You came.”

“We made a promise.”

“Are you ready to depart?”

“As you can see.”

Zeon looked at Levin and Briel.

Lee Ji-ryeong frowned slightly.

That was because the only luggage they had was the backpack Levin was carrying on his back.

“Will that be enough?”

“Everything we need is inside it.”

“A subspace backpack? If so, that is fine.”

Lee Ji-ryeong did not ask where they had obtained a subspace backpack. He thought that a man of Zeon’s caliber would naturally be able to obtain one.

At that moment, a woman wearing a gray robe approached Lee Ji-ryeong. Unusually, even her hair and eyes were gray.

She asked Lee Ji-ryeong,

“Is this Lord Zeon?”

“That’s right! The only Sandmancer in Neo Seoul. Introduce yourself!”

“It is good to meet you, Lord Zeon! I am Kelda, the rescue team leader of the Pegasus Raid Team.”

“It is good to meet you too, Lady Kelda.”

Zeon bowed his head slightly in greeting.

Kelda looked closely at him.

Perhaps because her eyes were gray, they revealed almost no emotion. Because of that, they looked like gray glass beads.

“I look forward to your help with the dungeon clearing. If anything inconveniences you while you are traveling with us, please tell me at any time. I should be able to resolve most matters at my level.”

“I will remember that.”

“Then......”

Kelda bowed her head in greeting and left.

Lee Ji-ryeong said,

“Then we should go as well. Ride in the buggy at the very rear. I left it empty for you.”

“Thank you.”

It was then.

Levin, who had been quiet until now, raised his hand and said,

“May I drive that car?”

“You?”

“Yes! I really wanted to try driving one. Is that not allowed?”

At Levin’s bold remark, Lee Ji-ryeong frowned.

Within the Pegasus Raid Team, he was a god.

No one dared to add objections or counterarguments to his decisions. Once he decided something, that was the end of it.

Naturally, an Awakened from the Pegasus Raid Team had been assigned to the car Zeon would ride.

He was both the buggy driver and a watcher. But if Levin drove, that person would have to get out.

Just as Lee Ji-ryeong was thinking it over, Zeon spoke.

“I would also prefer for us to ride by ourselves. Having another person with us would be rather uncomfortable.”

“It cannot be helped. Do as you wish.”

“Thank you. I’ll be careful not to damage the car.”

After thanking Lee Ji-ryeong, Levin ran toward the buggy.

Lee Ji-ryeong said to Zeon,

“Then we will meet again at the Mana Stone Mine.”

“So you are indeed stopping there to reorganize.”

Zeon nodded.

The Mana Stone Mine, located one hundred kilometers from Neo Seoul, was a major supply point.

Raid teams or Caravans departing on long expeditions, like the Pegasus Raid Team, almost always stopped there to inspect their preparations or obtain any supplies they lacked.

Once they left the Mana Stone Mine, no safe shelter existed from that point onward. They would literally face the desert heat and monsters with their bare bodies.

That was why, on rare occasions, people said they would turn back from the Mana Stone Mine.

Zeon got into the buggy with Briel.

Levin was already seated in the driver’s seat.

“Hehe!”

For some reason, Levin looked so happy that he kept laughing while touching the buggy’s steering wheel.

Briel looked at Levin, who was drooling with joy, and said one thing.

“You look like a pervert.”

“You don’t understand.”

“Understand what?”

“A man’s heart.”

“What bullshit are you talking about?”

“A buggy is a man’s dream. Once anyone directly grabs the wheel like this, they’ll all become like me.”

Levin stroked the steering wheel as if touching a precious treasure.

“Hopeless!”

In the end, Briel turned her head away and ignored him, but Levin did not care.

For a boy from the slums, getting a chance to drive a buggy was impossible.

No matter how sturdy a car was made, it broke down easily once it went out into the desert. Because of that, driving was not entrusted to just anyone.

Because this was a special situation, and because they were traveling with Zeon, they had entrusted the driving to Levin.

Under ordinary circumstances, there would never have been a situation where he held the wheel.

Zeon yielded the front seat to Briel and sat in the back.

At that moment, the vehicles in front began to move. Levin hurriedly shifted gears.

Then, when he pressed the accelerator, the car began moving with a rattle.

Levin shouted excitedly,

“Here we go.”

“You really know how to drive, right?”

“Of course. Just trust your older brother.”

“I would, if I had any faith in you.”

Briel muttered with an anxious expression.

Several years had passed since she had been captured by human hunters and brought into Neo Seoul.

At first, she had thought this place was like hell. That was why she had only waited for the day she could escape. But now that she was actually thinking of leaving Neo Seoul, even briefly, she felt strange.

She was not leaving forever. She would only be away for a while for the dungeon clearing. Even so, she already missed the home where she now lived.

“Tch! I’ve really become strange.”

Briel pouted.

---

The Pegasus Raid Team was broadly made up of four teams.

The first was the exploration team.

Their mission was, as the name suggested, to explore dungeons.

Finding hidden dungeons and identifying their scale and information was their main mission.

The dungeon discovered this time had also been found by them.

The second was the base team.

They built bases inside dungeons and helped the raid team carry out the clearing comfortably.

The third was the clearing team.

They were the main force of the dungeon raid team.

Based on the information gathered by the exploration team, they made and executed the clearing plan.

The fourth and final team was the rescue team.

They waited at the base and, if the clearing team fell into danger, played the role of rescuing them.

Naturally, they were made up of outstanding Awakened.

The one leading the rescue team was Kelda, the gray-haired woman.

Her nickname within the Pegasus Raid Team was the Gray Witch.

Kelda sat beside Lee Ji-ryeong.

She was the rescue team leader, but she was also Lee Ji-ryeong’s secretary.

In truth, rather than her role as rescue team leader, her main duty was serving as his secretary. That was why, whenever they went on a dungeon clearing like this, she always sat beside Lee Ji-ryeong.

She spoke in a calm voice.

“A total of three hundred Awakened have been mobilized for this mission. Of them, two hundred belong to Pegasus, and the remaining hundred are mercenaries. All the mercenaries have been loaded onto the transport vehicles.”

Even transport vehicles had grades.

Good transport vehicles had facilities where one could cook simple food and shower. The Awakened of the Pegasus Raid Team were assigned to those vehicles.

Naturally, the old transport vehicles fell to the mercenaries.

Because they were vehicles made to transport dungeon by-products, they naturally had no convenience facilities, and the ride comfort was poor.

Even so, the mercenaries could not complain.

That was because mercenaries were almost never given opportunities to participate in clearing such a large dungeon.

Even joining a dungeon clearing in this way immediately became part of their career.

Those careers would accumulate and later give them opportunities to clear even larger dungeons.

Because of that, they rode in the cargo beds of transport vehicles without a word of complaint.

“Food for a total of ten days has been loaded, and we plan to purchase another ten days’ worth at the Mana Stone Mine.”

“Then it will be enough to last twenty days in total?”

“Yes! We have never spent more than ten days clearing a dungeon, but this time, considering the dungeon’s difficulty, we prepared double.”

“Was the food stored in subspace?”

“Yes! It was divided and stored in two subspace items, and the food purchased from the Mana Stone Mine will be stored in another item.”

“Perfect.”

Lee Ji-ryeong smiled in satisfaction.

Kelda’s handling of work was always perfect, which pleased him.

As if suddenly remembering something, Lee Ji-ryeong asked,

“Why are the Awakened of West District not visible?”

“They agreed to join us at the Mana Stone Mine.”

“They went to the Mana Stone Mine first?”

“Yes! The Supervisor dispatched by City Hall also agreed to join us at the Mana Stone Mine.”

“Everyone does as they please.”

Lee Ji-ryeong frowned.

Just because one discovered and cleared a dungeon, as in this case, that did not mean every excavated item became entirely the raid team’s property.

To clear a dungeon, one had to receive City Hall’s permission without fail.

That was because if someone cleared one without City Hall’s permission and was caught, they would be driven out of Neo Seoul entirely.

Nor could anyone deceive City Hall.

Generally, clearing a large dungeon required numerous Awakened and supplies. Moving all of them naturally required an enormous amount of money.

City Hall grasped the flow of all that money as clearly as the lines of its own palm.

Because of that, deceiving City Hall was impossible from the beginning.

Once a dungeon clearing application was submitted, City Hall dispatched a Supervisor.

The Supervisor watched the dungeon clearing process and checked whether any items or objects were being hidden away.

It was nearly impossible to sneak objects past their eyes.

The Supervisor investigated the items excavated by the raid team and reported them to City Hall, and City Hall levied taxes based on that.

In other words, the Supervisor dispatched to a dungeon was a kind of tax collector.

Naturally, there was no raid team that liked Supervisors.

“Have you identified the Supervisor?”

“I apologize. We will identify them as soon as they join us and determine whether they can be recruited.”

“Handle that matter yourself.”

“Yes! And about Zeon.”

“What about Zeon?”

Lee Ji-ryeong looked at Kelda.

“Isn’t Zeon the one who killed your younger brother?”

“That is right.”

“And yet you are accompanying him?”

“Are you asking why I do not kill him?”

“Yes!”

At that instant, a cold smile appeared on Lee Ji-ryeong’s lips.

“I made a promise.”

“What?”

“That I would forget the grudge for killing that bastard.”

“Do you intend to keep that promise?”

“What do you think?”

Lee Ji-ryeong asked Kelda in return.