Chapter 34
Next Sunday morning.
The time was 11:30am.
Ha Jun left the academy early to look around the city center.
He walked along the roads, looking around like he was taking a light walk.
A time when he would normally be sleeping.
The reason why he still went out to walk was, unusually, because of the dimensional dungeon that had been advanced this time.
[Time of dungeon occurrence:(29 min 43 sec)].
Dimensional dungeon.
The remnants of a chaos that is said to have vanished 70 years in the past.
It suddenly arose in the middle of Soul.
It is also a dungeon with special conditions that make it the most complicated.
“Is it here?”
When I arrived near where the dimensional dungeon would soon arise, I looked around.
Somewhere in this bustling city center, where people move quickly and actively through the streets, a gate, the entrance to a dimensional dungeon, is born.
The gate would quickly swallow up the people in the vicinity and trap them inside the dimensional dungeon.
It is impossible to save even the people trapped inside the dimensional dungeon for the time being.
Not only do I not know the exact location of the dimensional dungeon, but the kinetic energy of the dimensional dungeon instantly sucks everyone around it in at a speed that is hard to react to.
It was obvious that I would probably be late, even if I had checked with the naked eye and activated the time stop.
(I have to work quickly and go to bed…)
Still, the others, excluding those people, could be saved.
Ha Jun went into a nearby café and passed some time drinking an iced Americano.
The current time is 11:40.
There were still 20 minutes left in the hour.
Obi-ring.
At that moment, the doorbell rang and a peculiar light green girl who caught his gaze entered the café.
With a strange look in his eyes, Ha Jun stared blankly at the girl, and shortly afterwards, the girl in question began to approach Ha Jun.
“Huh…”
Hajun gasped and broke out into a frown.
Riera Harness.
She sat down opposite him and smiled spontaneously .
“What, did you tail me?”
“I wasn’t tailing you, I was following you normally. I was worried about what happened yesterday.”
“That’s called tailing.”
“Hmph, how could a guy as strong as you not know I was following you? You knew and didn’t say anything, so I thought you didn’t mind.”
An annoyed sigh escaped Ha-Joon’s mouth.
‘Does this old lady have some kind of weird illusion…’
“So what’s the matter?”
“I just told you. I followed you because I was worried about yesterday.”
“It’s okay. I forgive you.”
“Hey you!!! I clearly see that your words and expression don’t match.”
Ha Jun immediately relaxed the rotten expression he was making and shrugged.
He continued to drink his iced Americano and shifted his gaze out of the window.
Riera gazed at Ha Jun carefully.
Riera recalled Choi Joong-won’s words from yesterday.
-Maybe the moment I teach the boy will be my last.
(This is the boy who will protect Choi Joong-won’s last moments…)
After that, Choi Joong-won did not say anything more.
He just keeps the future he knows in his heart.
(Choi Joong-won. Your destiny is also really strange…)
Riera did not know whether this was his by birth, as he was a sage.
However, she shook her head naturally at the thought that such an ignorant child would protect Choi Joong Won’s end.
(This time you’re wrong. At least this guy is not that guy you think he is.)
Chae Joong-won has already told me that he is a powerful man and that he has saved many people with his power.
That must be why Choi Joong-won thought he could be a symbol of peace in the future.
However, as Riera, who understood Ha Jun’s character and realized it inwardly, she unavoidably thought that it was the wrong decision.
(Above all, this child…)
There was no (responsibility) that a hero should have.
“I heard a lot about you from Choi Joong Won. You saved a lot of people.”
“That’s because I don’t want to die”
Riera looks at Ha Jun with serious eyes for a while at these words.
“…That’s right.”
Then she realized that he meant what he said.
Of course, it was an answer that an ordinary person would say.
An ordinary person who is not a ‘Hero’.
“So you’re putting your own life as a priority”
“Isn’t that a natural thought?”
“Yes, it’s a natural thought. You only save them because you can. You don’t weigh it against your own life, do you?”
“Yes.”
A simple, decisive word.
That’s the general answer, so Riera understood.
It is not a judgment of right or wrong.
He just doesn’t have the heart to become a symbol of peace.
This guy has the power, and he must have acted only with good intentions.
Those good intentions will one day return to a sense of responsibility, to a sense of pressure that will oppress this boy.
And this boy will not be able to bear that sense of pressure.
Because that is also why he hides his power and the fame he has achieved so far.
“Are you going?”
Riera got up from her seat without saying a word.
She looked at Ha Jun and nodded, then opened her mouth.
“Yes.”
“I think it would be better if you went later.”
“…What do you mean?”
Without any reply, Ha Jun turned his head and looked out of the café, and Riera followed Ha Jun’s gaze.
Soon after.
[Dungeon occurrence time:(1 second)]
–
–
–
[Dungeon occurrence time: (0 seconds)]
Kukukukukun!!!
An earthquake began to shake the entire city center.
* * *
It happened within a fraction of a second.
A dark purple mass of energy materialized in the blink of an eye, swallowing everybody, and at the same time the energy gathered in one place to form a huge gate.
It all happened in just one second.
“That, that?! Um, what is that thing?!”
“I, it swallowed people!!!!”
“Argaaaaaah!!!!”
Dimensional dungeon.
In the past, the cause that created the era of chaos arose at Seoul’s Dongdaemun Station.
And.
Boom!
Soon the aftermath created by the dungeon returned to impact and began to hit the surrounding area.
Boom! Boom!
“Whoa!”
“What, what? What on earth! What the hell!”
“hel, help!!!!”
While the windows of the buildings lined up around the area were shattered one after another, cars were caught in the shockwave, and broke.
Screams of people filled the air around them.
And then…
It was quiet for a moment.
“?!”
Riera looked around with bewildered eyes .
The screams around her stopped for a moment.
It was quiet and still.
She looked blankly at the bizarre situation and after a moment noticed an anomaly in the café.
Riera immediately began to look around .
And there wasn’t.
Everyone.
Everyone had disappeared except for herself.
Right then, when she was looking at that astonishing scene in a daze.
“What the hell is this…”
“Can I not help you?”
“?!”
Riera, who turned her head at the voice of a boy she heard shortly afterwards.
There stood Ha Jun and was looking at Riera in a tired appearance unlike before.
“What does this mean? No way? All of this, you…”
“It looks fine, so I’ll leave you to it.”
Ha Jun disappeared out of sight, leaving those words behind.
Riera blinks in confusion.
Immediately afterwards, Riera cautiously opened the door of the café and began to look at the landscape outside.
The landscape she saw was horrific.
Buildings with cracked outer walls and half-destroyed cars.
All the windows around her were broken, as if a fearsome demonic being had attacked the place.
-But the most important thing…
There was no sign of life in the surrounding area.
* * *
In front of the gate of the dimensional dungeon stood an association personnel with a slender young man.
The association member bowed towards the man, but the man was looking through the entrance to the dimensional dungeon with a serious look in his eyes.
“Is this the dimensional dungeon?”
The man’s name is Kim Seung-hwan.
He was a man called Wingman, the most senior hero in Korea with a world ranking of 80.
Wingman looked at the dimensional dungeon with serious eyes and asked the association personnel.
“When will the other Heroes be here?”
“We have contacted them and they should be arriving soon.”
The association had already requested assistance from all the most senior heroes in Korea to rescue those trapped in the dungeon.
“Huh… what about the loss of life?”
“That seems to be almost none, except for the people trapped in the dungeon.”
“Hm?”
“I don’t know exactly what happened either, but unknown transference phenomena have occurred…”
This was how the key personnel described it.
The moment the dungeon was created, the people surrounding the dungeon suddenly transferred to the same place at the same time.
“In the meantime, we are also investigating the matter. Because no matter how much we think about it, it seems to be a phenomenon caused by a human.”
“I’m glad that’s still the case.”
Whoever it was, Wingman thanked the brave hero for saving the people.
Because of that, we could reduce the great loss of life.
Now all you have to do is save the people who are trapped inside this dungeon.
“I will go in first and start the rescue.”
“Oh, no! No matter how much Kim Seung-hwan Hero, you can’t go in alone -”
“I’m not going to attack. I will only rescue people quickly and then exit. It is possible with my abilities, so don’t worry.”
Wingman’s well-known abilities in Korea were (‘Buoyancy’).
The ability to float any object of one’s choice and move at will.
There is a restriction on the weight of the object, but no limit on the number of objects he wants to float.
Presumably, the wingman’s ability would be able to quickly rescue many of those trapped in the dungeon.
“When the Finest Heroes arrive, ask them to come in immediately. I will go in first, send the rescued people to the entrance and join them.”
“Hero Kim Soon Hwan, Sir!”
The cries of the personnel did not stop the wingman.
The moment he reached the dimensional dungeon gate as it was.
“…this…”
Wingman’s face hardened as it was.
Clenching his fist as it was, Wingman punched his fist towards the dungeon’s entrance.
And then.
Boom!
Wingman’s fist was only blocked by the huge barrier surrounding the gate.
Further, his expression began to grow more serious.
This was because he had realized the true nature of this suddenly arising dimensional dungeon.
“…”
The dungeon was a conditional dungeon where even a unilateral entry was impossible.
* * *
[The (‘dimensional dungeon’) that arose in the heart of Soul, the nightmares of the past are coming back again!]
[An unknown transitional phenomenon?] As many as 200 people come together in an instant!!!]
[32 people trapped in a dungeon] The Korean Heroes’ Association immediately enters into an emergency meeting…]
“Huaam…”
Two hours after the dimensional dungeon was created.
Ha Jun woke up from sleep and read the articles reported by various media on his smartphone.
Various articles were published, but the most noticeable article was the one about the failure of the first attack team of the dimensional dungeon.
Fortunately, after reviewing the articles, there were no significant deviations from the storyline in the game.
That included the location of the dungeon, and the fact that it is a conditional dungeon, famed for being the toughest of all the dimensional dungeons.
(Well, was it good, for a change?)
Frankly, I was a little worried.
I intervened to help people because I felt bad.
This action also changed the future for a moment, so I thought the system would penalize me, but it was surprisingly meek.
Maybe because it was a future that had already changed a lot, with the episodes being moved up a lot?
I felt that the system was not sensitive to the slightest change.
The fact that the system’s notifications did not come to mind, despite two hours having passed, was evidence of this.
(Then…)
There was nothing more for me to do.
For the time being, I know how the dimensional dungeon episode ended, so I just had to wait comfortably.
