Chapter 18

Chapter 18

This felt strangely uncomfortable.

At first, I thought it might be because even in my previous life I had always been the one supporting others from the rear, but that did not seem to be it.

It was probably because everyone else was fighting their hearts out while I was merely standing by and watching, and my conscience was pricking at me.

Bang, bang!

As I mechanically pulled the trigger, I thought, ‘I can’t exactly show off here either. Haa.’

My position was a little awkward.

If a newbie who had only just Awakened suddenly started performing like a battle-worn veteran, it would look highly suspicious, and then Captain Im’s group—not to mention the Defense Strategy Department—might get the wrong idea.

For example, they might suspect that I was an unregistered Awakened who had spent his time committing crimes.

“Hey! Block that side! They’re heading for Mr. Cha!”

“Gah! Sorry, sir!”

Captain Im and his men were in a frenzy, running here and there in case even a single hair on my head got hurt.

Which was why I had told them not to follow me.

Our brave soldiers were working tirelessly day and night again today.

All this hardship over one little fledgling.

Inwardly offering my sincere respect for Captain Im’s group and their hard work, I finished off the monsters they spoon-fed me and steadily absorbed Ether.

“Are you all right?”

“Of course.”

“Your shooting is quite impressive. And you stay calm under pressure.”

Captain Im smiled faintly.

He seemed to like the way I raised the muzzle and checked the number of rounds left in the magazine.

“Not at all. I feel bad, since it seems you’re all suffering on my account.”

“We are only doing what we ought to do. Though, of course, it would have been better if you had entered the field after completing your formal training, Mr. Cha.”

“I’m sorry. I was in a hurry.”

“No, I believe I said something unnecessary. Please do not take it to heart, and focus only on your growth. We will do our utmost to assist you.”

At that, Choi Yura said with a sour look on her face, “Well, aren’t the babysitters out in full force.”

“What, are you jealous?”

“Jealous of what? If it were me, I’d be too embarrassed to accept babysitting like that.”

Choi Yura snorted.

“Um, Hunter Choi Yura?”

“Yes?”

Captain Im spoke cautiously.

“As I understand it, Hunter Choi Yura also received help from senior Hunters for about three months after graduating from the Special Force Training Center.”

“I-I never—”

Choi Yura flinched in surprise and glared at him.

“Do you have proof? Huh? Do you have proof or not?”

“Major Park Daewoo. One of my seniors was the instructor assigned to you, Hunter Choi. I don’t know whether you remember, but I heard that during a dungeon raid, you accidentally attacked Major Park…….”

“…….”

Choi Yura clamped her mouth shut.

Was she not the one who had just said that she would be too embarrassed to accept babysitting?

I was not an idiot, so I had figured out long ago that it was all bluff.

Choi Yura had been a highly promising prospect from the moment she Awakened, and as a Damage Dealer, she was valuable enough to merit the Defense Strategy Department’s babysitting.

In fact, Choi Yura’s rapid rise to become a 4-Star Hunter might itself have been proof that she had received that help.

After all, her growth had been overwhelmingly faster than average.

“What? What is it?”

Choi Yura glared at poor innocent me.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Then why are you staring?”

“Am I not allowed to look?”

“No, you’re not.”

“It’s fine. That can happen.”

“What can?”

“I understand.”

“What would the likes of you understand? Huh? What exactly are you saying you understand?”

“Just~”

I gave her a broad grin, and Choi Yura trembled.

So she did know how embarrassing it was?

Still, that was understandable.

Hunters were allowed a little swagger now and then.

“Let’s go.”

“M-Mr. Cha! It’s dangerous! We will take the lead!”

When I brushed past Choi Yura and moved ahead, Captain Im and his men hurried after me in alarm.

***

Once we crossed the plain thick with sunset, we arrived before the enormous citadel.

The great gate visible in the distance stood wide open.

“Mr. Cha, from here on out it will be truly dangerous, so you must be especially careful. You must never let your guard down.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

When we reached the bridge crossing the moat, Captain Im gave me that earnest warning.

Choi Yura was no exception.

“Of all the places you could have picked, you had to choose a place like this. What a troublesome customer you are. Enough to make me want to throw you away and leave.”

Choi Yura shot me a sidelong glare.

“Hahaha……”

Feeling a little sorry, I scratched the back of my head.

It was easy to understand why Captain Im’s group and Choi Yura were reacting this way, because once we crossed the bridge and passed through the gate, true hell would begin.

Monsters of every kind would pour out in such numbers that it would not be an exaggeration to call it a monster wave, to the point that an ordinary Strike Team would have to fight almost continuously for two full hours.

Of course, it would be a different story if the Strike Team had a Mage.

They could wipe out anywhere from dozens to hundreds of monsters with a single area-of-effect spell.

“I’ll do my best to be careful.”

I deliberately put on a slightly tense expression and followed behind Choi Yura and Captain Im’s group, but something felt wrong.

‘This feels bad.’

Why was it that bad premonitions never missed?

Rumble!

The world shook as though an earthquake had struck.

Woooooo!

The concentration of Ether thickened, and my breath caught in my throat.

“Ah, fuck.”

The curse came out on its own.

The others were no different.

“Ha.”

“This is fucking awful.”

Captain Im’s subordinates ground their teeth.

“What is today, anyway?”

Even Choi Yura complained with a deep frown on her face.

The reason everyone was reacting like this was because what was happening right now was called an [Eruption].

An Eruption referred to the phenomenon in which a previously quiet dungeon suddenly ran wild, just like the fixed Gates in TechnoMart.

When a dungeon underwent an Eruption, entry into that dungeon was blocked and its difficulty rose sharply.

After that, if the dungeon was not cleared within the time limit, the Gate opened, a Transference phenomenon occurred, and a monster outbreak followed.

The monster outbreak that occurred at such times was truly terrifying—so severe, in the worst cases, that it could completely reduce an entire region to ruins.

So what happened to Hunters like us who were already inside the dungeon when an Eruption occurred……?

This.

Flash!

Together with a blinding burst of light, I felt my body being moved into a different space.

And yet, the scenery before my eyes was identical.

Choi Yura was still here. So was Captain Im’s group.

But this place was clearly different from the dungeon we had been in only moments ago.

The notification window was proof enough.

The dungeon we had been in was [Cursed Citadel] NO. 331721, a 3-Star dungeon.

This place was different.

★★★★

1. 0

When an Eruption occurred, the infinite dungeons merged together, and the Hunters scattered throughout each one were all moved at once into a single dungeon.

That was Dungeon No. 0.

“We’re fucked.”

Choi Yura summed up our situation in a single sentence.

She was right.

We were fucked.

The dungeon had originally been 3-Star, and now its difficulty had jumped straight to 4-Star.

You think we could simply join forces with the Hunters who had been in the other dungeons because they would all be here too?

Since when was the world such a beautiful place?

Inside a dungeon, the only person you could trust was yourself.

In this line of work, even teammates in the same Strike Team had to be doubted again and again, so what basis did we have to trust the people we happened to run into here and cooperate with them?

“Just pray that the ones who got dragged in here have their heads screwed on straight.”

Choi Yura spoke with open sarcasm.

She was right.

I had no idea how many Strike Teams had been raiding [Cursed Citadel] like we were.

Still, the best we could do was hope that the teams brought here were composed of Hunters who were both competent and sane.

The more there were idiots—or malicious bastards like Wreckers—the more complicated the situation would become.

“For now, going in through the front is far too dangerous, so we should take a detour……”

It was just as Choi Yura, with the citadel at her back, was speaking to us.

“Uh, uhhhh?”

I pointed over Choi Yura’s shoulder.

“SKREEEE!”

“KEH-HEH-HEH-HEH!”

“SCREEEE!”

Monsters of all kinds were charging straight toward us.

Ordinarily, nothing happened until you passed through the citadel gate, so seeing them come out to greet us like this meant they must have been awfully glad to see us.

“Everyone, this way!”

I sprinted straight ahead—in other words, toward the monsters.

“You fucking lunatic!”

Choi Yura’s stream of curses rang out behind me.

***

Choi Yura was not the only one hurling abuse at me for my sudden move.

“What are you doing?! Stop him!”

“Fucking hell!”

“You crazy bastard!”

At Captain Im’s shout, his men ran after me.

Choi Yura’s chains were faster than Captain Im’s subordinates.

Rattle-rattle-rattle-rattle!

‘Ghk!’

Hurriedly rolling out of the way of the chain, I shouted back at them, “Get over here, quickly! Hurry!”

“What kind of bullshit is that, you madman?! Do you want to die? Huh? If you want to die, then die by yourself!”

At first glance, Choi Yura was right.

What sense did it make to run toward the monsters?

And yet, it made perfect sense.

You did not have to pass through the gate to enter the citadel.

Nor did you need to wipe out every monster to clear the dungeon.

“I know the route!”

“Y-You know the route?”

“Even if we run back, we’ll be surrounded anyway! We’ll all die! You know that! Follow me! Hurry!”

Wait.

It suddenly occurred to me that there was no need to persuade them.

Wouldn’t it be enough to just show them?

I drew the [Search] card from the deck and fed Ether into it.

Ssssss!

A green line spread across the ground.

The line stretched straight along the direction from which the monsters were charging, then left the bridge and headed beneath the surface of the moat.

“I’m going first!”

I ran along the green line.

I knew about the secret passage, so I did not need the help of the [Search] card, but this was the only way to get Choi Yura and Captain Im’s group moving.

They would not put even the slightest trust in the words of a newbie.

“You! If this goes wrong, just you wait!”

“You said that last time too!”

With that, I dove into the moat as if to prove it.

Splash!

Choi Yura and Captain Im’s group jumped into the moat after me.

Splash! Splash! Splash! Splash!

The monsters jumped into the moat after us as well.

An underwater chase began.

We swam quickly beneath the surface and shook off the monsters pursuing us.

Not just me—Choi Yura and Captain Im’s group were all highly skilled swimmers.

The Special Force Training Center did not exist for nothing.

It taught all kinds of survival skills and military knowledge precisely for moments like this.

‘This way.’

Since we were underwater, I used hand signals to guide the group.

The place I headed for was a sewer connected to the underground of the citadel.

GRRK!

The iron bars blocking the sewer did not budge an inch.

Clang!

I pulled out the [Full Moon] card and tried to cut through them, but perhaps because I was underwater and could not build up speed, I failed to leave even a scratch.

Tap, tap.

Choi Yura nudged me as though telling me to move aside.

Clink!

Choi Yura hooked her chain around the iron bars.

Captain Im’s group and I grabbed hold of the chain and pulled as if in a tug-of-war, but the bars did not budge in the slightest.

Meanwhile, the monsters drew closer and closer.

It was fortunate that they were poor swimmers. If they had not been, we would have been surrounded and wiped out long ago.

‘Isn’t there some way?’

At this rate, I was about to become fish food…… no.

Monster food.

Think.

There has to be some way……

Huh?

Shhk.

A single card slipped out of the deck on its own and glided into my hand.