Chapter 49

"Han Tae-un ssi."

In the darkness, a hazy figure appeared in front of Tae-un. After blinking a few times, a silhouette clear enough to recognize the physique was revealed. The man, similar to Soram, placed his hand on Tae-un's chest and shook him awake.

A dream?

"..."

Has it already reached the point of appearing in my dreams?

While feeling conflicted, there was also a sense of relief. If it was a dream, he thought he could do as he pleased a little more than when he was hesitant to cross the door. Moreover, it was Soram who had come to him first this time.

Suppressing his stinging conscience, he tried doing what he most wanted to do.

Tae-un's hand reached out to Soram. Thanks to his large hands, he could completely cover from his cheek to his neck. Even in a dream, he could feel the warm and soft sensation. He thought it had become softer than when he briefly touched it in the guard floor. Although it might have been in a very rough state at that time.

"Why did you come?"

A low voice, not fully awake, escaped. The figure remained still without much movement. It seemed to be a dream indeed. If it were reality, Soram would have already asked what he was doing with a dumbfounded expression.

A moment later, Soram grabbed his wrist and lowered it. His fingers wrapped around Tae-un's arm, just like when he treated it earlier.

"I'm sorry for crossing over without permission, but it's an urgent matter. You need to wake up."

"...Ah."

Tae-un abruptly sat up. Every sensation in his body was vivid. He got up from his spot and turned on the light next to the bed. Then Soram's appearance came into view. His expression was more hardened than usual.

"Jin Soram ssi."

"I came because Han Tae-un ssi wasn't answering his phone. If you're awake, change your clothes."

"...I must have fallen into a deep sleep. What's the matter?"

"It's an emergency dispatch for the flight team. Teams 1, 2, 3, and 7 are to gather at the scene immediately, and the rest are to stand by at the headquarters."

"Pardon?"

Tae-un was fully awake now. Soram was already fully dressed, including his jacket.

"There's a large forest fire on Bukhansan." [TL: a mountain on the northern periphery of Seoul.]

In addition to rift phenomena, the power of hunters is also borrowed for unavoidable natural disasters. Tae-un got up from his spot, turned on the lights in the room, and changed into the clothes he had briefly worn and put down in the afternoon. Meanwhile, Soram made a call in the living room.

"Ayoung. Ah, you were awake. Yeah. It's an emergency dispatch. Did you see the news? No. Come to the headquarters. We'll be going armed."

It was already past 10 o'clock, Ayoung's usual time to go home. After that time, Ayoung is rarely called out unless it's necessary. The fact that an emergency dispatch order was given even to Ayoung meant that the situation was that serious.

―Why? Can't we just go and help put out the fire?

To Ayoung's question, Soram answered firmly.

"No. Absolutely do not go directly and come to the headquarters. Understood?"

―Yeah... got it.

Tae-un came out of the room, tightening his necktie. Soram, who had ended the call, bit his lip.

No matter how many times he regressed, he couldn't change the major events in the world. The upcoming 3rd and 4th Great Rifts, and the large dungeons in between, were like that.

Soram pulled back the curtains and looked out the window. The reddish sky was visible even from here. The flames that started from the middle of Bukhansan widened their range and gradually spread up and down. Even though it was a season without wind, the wind that blew from somewhere unknown shook the firefighting helicopters and carried the flames here and there.

This Bukhansan fire leads to a large dungeon.

Soon, it will be discovered that there is a rift in the burning mountain. However, due to the surrounding fire, the golden time for rift removal passes, and dungeonification begins.

The mutants created in the dungeon amidst the flames attack the intruders with a fierce spirit, unaffected by the fire. However, many firefighters and hunters who approached without knowing about them at first lose their lives.

The headquarters belatedly engages in an all-out battle and barely manages to prevent the mutants from descending to the foot of the mountain. However, the hunters from the headquarters who fought against the mutants hiding and attacking between the burning forests suffer severe damage. The aftermath even reaches the 3rd Great Rift.

And the Bukhansan fire had always occurred around the end of the year in all three of his previous lives. Now, it was only the end of May.

He couldn't understand why the date had changed like this. But there was no time to hesitate.

The atmosphere of the flight team was distinctly different from when they were going to clear a 4th-grade dungeon.

The three of them brought all their main weapons. In addition, at Soram's insistence, they also wrapped emergency kits and secondary weapons around their thighs. Ayoung changed from the hoodie and jeans she had worn into a specially made black suit.

The three of them flew directly to the scene. The closer they got, the more they could feel the crimson flames and the heat emanating from there. Ayoung, who was riding on Aila's back and watching the live broadcast on her cell phone, spoke with a frown.

"They must be crazy. They're trying to deploy fire trucks at the foot of the mountain in case the fire spreads further, but they can't get in because of the illegally parked cars. Oh, Ga-eul unnie is at the scene."

"The directors and Teams 1 and 2 are at the scene now. Team 7 and Team 3 were additionally called a little while ago."

And Soram adjusted the channel of the in-ear headset to the team leaders. Various sounds, including sirens, were ringing at the scene. As Ayoung said, a conversation about struggling with illegally parked cars was heard.

―They're not answering the phone? They say they're already off work and at home, so what can we do? Tell them to catch a taxi and run over here! They hung up...

Even though they hadn't arrived at the scene yet, just listening to the content made their brows furrow. That's when it happened.

―Fuck, move your cars! You crazy bastards who answered the phone and hung up, come out right now and move your cars! There's a rift that opened at the top of the mountain, and at this rate, everyone living at the foot of the mountain will die!

"Ow!"

Soram's ears rang with the voice. Ayoung, who was watching the live broadcast, also groaned, "Ga-eul unnie exploded..." as she saw the scene of Ga-eul grabbing the camera and shouting.

―Move them right now, you murderous bastards! You're killing the firefighters and hunters here right now!

―Ga-Ga-eul! For that reason, we ask the car owners to quickly respond and move their vehicles.

Team 1's assistant belatedly stopped Ga-eul's rampage. However, that assistant was also quite angry at the moment.

Illegal parking on the roadside leading up to the mountain, well, parking chaos is so severe in Seoul that it can happen. It has become a custom for cargo trucks to park on the roadside with few people at night, and other cars may follow suit. It's illegal, but still.

But if there's a forest fire and fire trucks need to enter, shouldn't they move their cars? Ga-eul, who had cooled down, spoke as if chewing each word.

―If they don't come out in 5 minutes, we'll push all the cars and send the fire trucks up.

Exactly 5 minutes, after that, Ga-eul really intended to crush the cars to the side and make way for the fire trucks to go up, even if it meant damaging them.

The three people landed in front of Ga-eul, who had turned around. Ga-eul quickly approached them.

"Jin Soram."

There was an apologetic look in her eyes as she saw the two who had done a public training session and hadn't been able to properly recover from fatigue. Soram smiled as if it was fine and pointed to his in-ear headset.

"Where are the fire trucks? I'll move them."

"No. If that worked, I would have already moved them. The road is packed with cars all the way to the entrance of the mountain, so there's nowhere to put them down. Rather, use your ability to hold the firefighting helicopters. If you can just put out the fire roughly around the area where the rift opened, our team will jump down from Aila and break the rift and come out."

"And how will you escape after that? It's fine. That's why the director called the flight team, right?"

Ayoung, who was a step behind the two chief hunters, stroked the growling Aila and looked up at the burning mountain. The smoke rising from various parts of the mountain filled the sky with black. The flames swaying with the wind cast red shadows on the surrounding buildings.

"What the hell is going on? Why is Ga-eul unnie saying she'll go into the fire? Can't we put out all the fire first and then get rid of the rift?"

Ayoung looked around for helicopters or fire trucks.

"...The problem is that the rift is widening. Usually, when a rift receives a physical attack from the outside, its size decreases. But even though the area around that rift is a sea of flames right now, it's not recognizing the heat as an external attack and is widening even faster."

Tae-un's answer was heard from the side. Ayoung looked at him, but since he was looking up at the mountain and there was a height difference, his expression was not visible. However, his voice sounded a bit dazed, perhaps because he hadn't recovered from the fatigue of the training yet.

"If the rift bursts like this, mutants carrying embers will spread to the surrounding mountains. To prevent that, breaking the rift in the fire is the top priority right now."

"Aha..."

Most of the mountains in Seoul are connected. And the city is also formed around the mountains. As Tae-un said, if the mutants spread through the mountains, it would be a disaster with no way to handle it.

"But how did you know that, Tae-un oppa?"

"...Huh?"

Tae-un's eyes widened slightly upon hearing the question. Then, as if retracing his words, he pressed his lips. His brows furrowed in confusion and then smoothed out again.

"...I guess I saw it while searching for something before."

"I see. You sounded a bit like Soram oppa just now."

"..."

While Tae-un was silently lost in thought, Soram returned to the two.

"Flight team. Let's go up and check the location of the rift together."

The three of them flew up, a little distance away from the fire scene.