Chapter 137

***

"Hmm, this feels like a somewhat unfair dispatch."

"It's obvious why our team is the best fit..."

"Woof! Woof!"

"..."

The three members of Team 7 and one summoned creature looked up at the large building through the windows of the van they had arrived in. Black shadows flickered inside the windows on the 12th floor of the building. This scene also gave them a sense of déjà vu along with their simultaneous dispatch.

However, this tall building was not a school for students, but a company, a workplace for adults. At the very top of the building seized by the mimicry dungeon, a sign shone indicating it was the data research center of a major corporation.

Around them, people presumed to be office workers were being moved with support, their faces pale. These were people who had fled outside in panic after encountering frightening situations related to the company.

In other words.

"So... our team was living the least like office workers?"

Hunters are also office workers in some aspects. They couldn't help but be shaken by the various situations inside the company that the mimicry dungeon would portray. But the Director's judgment was that only one team would be unaffected.

"I'll be conscientious. I admit it. This is a dungeon exclusively for Team 7."

"Why us! What's wrong with us!"

Soram shouted. But no one sympathized with his indignation. Because, for better or worse, the biggest reason that made Team 7 unlike office workers was...

"You're both too much. I live so much like an office worker. Pressured from above, pushed from below, worrying about rabbit-like and bear-like team members, I can't even get a wink of sleep every day."

"That's why you sleep soundly for more than half of your work hours."

"Han Tae-un, no, Han Tae-un-ssi. I think our Ayoung is going through puberty. Quickly tell Ayoung how hard we've been working all this time."

Tae-un avoided answering with silence. The more these three continued to act like this, the more reasons there were for them to be dispatched here.

"Alright, Flight Team, deploy! Today, Ayoung will take the lead."

As the car door opened, Aila, who had been set down from Ayoung's arms, jumped out and grew in size. The height that didn't even reach Ayoung's knees instantly surpassed its owner's height. Ayoung climbed onto its back.

Following behind, Tae-un whispered to Soram, who was preparing to get out of the car.

"It's good when the relationship between the team leader and members is close. It means they follow without authority."

"Don't give me bear-like comfort at this point."

Hmph. He snorted, but before he went out the door, fingertips touched his side profile.

The touch stroked his cheek and was withdrawn when they both came out.

"What was that, suddenly?"

"You looked cute, so my hand moved first."

"...If you're going to use formal speech, treat me as a chief. Otherwise, use casual speech. Don't mix them. It's weird."

Soram unnecessarily touched the place where the warmth had passed. Although the situation facing the mimicry dungeon was very similar to a year ago, there had been quite a lot of changes in their gazes and relationship.

"Jin Soram! Han Tae-un! Lee Ayoung!"

"Gasp, Aila looks even bigger in person! But it's cute!"

As the three approached the building, cheers were heard. Fences had been set up around the building, and spectators who had heard the news had already gathered.

"My goodness. There are so many people. It must have been announced that a 2nd-grade dungeon broke out, aren't they scared..."

"It's about time for peace to become familiar again. Rifts have been quiet for a while, after all."

No matter how much the Director sheltered them, the fact that Soram and Tae-un, the few flying hunters, had gone out on only a handful of dispatches was because the intensity and number of rifts had actually decreased. This was a common phenomenon all over the world. After the Great Rift passed, peace came for a while as if all strength had been exhausted.

While some people, like those spectators, had completely melted into that peace, others had fallen into anxiety symptoms and were receiving psychological treatment just from encountering the Great Rift through screens. Even living in the same environment, people's appearances were always unpredictably diverse.

"Jin Soram! Crush everything like the Great Rift!"

A loud shout was heard as they almost reached the building. Normally, this was the kind of cheer Soram would have ignored.

"..."

Soram tilted his head for a moment and then turned to look in that direction. And he smiled like an idol on their first stage.

"Yes. Fighting. Thank you for cheering."

On top of that, he raised both hands high and waved them jingle-jangle. Not only were the spectators dumbfounded, but Tae-un, who was walking beside him, had an expression as if he had witnessed a transformed gumiho.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"...You..., what's wrong with you?"

Tae-un, the symbol of logic and composure, couldn't continue speaking. No, is this really something to be so shocked about?

"I need to start managing my image too."

"Suddenly?"

"Why, don't you like it?"

"No... that's not it."

Soram trudged forward, leaving behind Tae-un, who still hadn't shaken off his bewilderment.

To be honest, he had lived recklessly during the past 8 years when he had given up on this life. And now, the world he thought was a messed-up game had changed into a place he wanted to live in for a long, long time. If so, there was a need to turn around his ruined reputation.

Now that he had someone he was dating, he couldn't keep being called Dorami.

"Why aren't you two coming! When I said I'd take the lead, I didn't mean I'd take care of everything...!"

At Ayoung's voice from the front, the two hurriedly quickened their pace.

"Are you worried about ghosts again?"

"No way. This is where adults work, there can't possibly be ghosts, right?"

"Well. Adults don't grow at all in such primal aspects from a certain point."

"Aah... Please... I'm okay with zombies or monsters now. Just not Korean-style ghosts..."

Ayoung tilted her head back, pretending to cry. At that moment, something caught her eye as she looked up.

"Huh?"

"What?"

"Oppa. Doesn't the wall of the floor where the dungeon broke out look a bit dark?"

"It does seem so. Is it the shadow of mutants?"

"Ah, that must be it."

Eventually, the Flight Team passed through the main entrance and entered the interior consumed by the dungeon. Facing the deserted interior, Ayoung muttered.

"Why are sad premonitions never wrong?"

What greeted them was the scene of a lobby filled with a gloomy, hazy fog. The microphone on the empty information desk made a lone creaking sound. Next to it stood a silver sculpture, over which a mysterious black shadow flickered. A few lights blinked irregularly.

After looking around the interior, Soram tapped his pager.

"March 13th, 11:00. Field Operations Bureau Team 7 Chief Hunter Jin Soram and 2 others. Beginning the subjugation of the 2nd-grade dungeon."

"Whew, it's been a really long time since I heard this voice."

"It's been a while since the Flight Team was dispatched. It seems the entire building has fallen under the dungeon's influence, so everyone prepare for battle in advance."

"Yes!"

"Understood."

Shing.

The three drew the weapons they had strapped to their bodies. The first floor was still only creating a frightening atmosphere without any mutants directly attacking. However, as if warning of the next turn, a thump, thump sound was transmitted from above the ceiling.

The three approached the interior while surveying their surroundings and stood in front of a kiosk with a wide screen. It was a floor-by-floor facility guide device.

"Hello. ...Move the screen... to check... zzt... the guide for... the desired floor..."

Pop, pop.

Although the state of the guidance voice wasn't good, fortunately, it was working properly. After pressing various buttons, Soram said,

"It's obvious if you think about it, but... it's much bigger than a school, as expected."

The school corridors had the same straight structure on all floors and weren't very wide, so they just had to go straight ahead and crush the mutants. But this place had different structures on each floor and was wide too.

"This time too, as we clear each floor going up, will there be something that the strongest person here fears in front of the rift?"

"I'm not sure about that. In the school, there was a situation with hunters inside, but I heard that's not the case here."

In this case, usually the most common fears appear with exaggeration added. The more it's based on universal emotions, the harder it will be for hunters.

But even so, it's only a 2nd-grade dungeon, and there are three 1st-grades here. Whatever appears, there shouldn't be any problem in defeating it. The issue was how long it would take to catch the mutants one by one in this vast company building while going up.

'Haa..., how did we do this again?'

Soram mentally slapped his forehead. He only realized after arriving, but this was a dungeon that had occurred in previous rounds too. A 2nd-grade mimicry dungeon in the heart of the city.

It wasn't Soram who was dispatched then. But he remembered receiving the report as the Director who had taken Park Jae-seon's vacant position. It was resolved safely without casualties, but there was definitely something unusual. Ah, what was it...

Click.

What's that? Looking towards the sound, Tae-un was calmly taking pictures of the floor guides one by one with his phone camera.

"Do we really have to go around with those photos and clear each floor like picking lice?"

"Ugh, it's totally going to be overtime work."

"Hmm."

Click. Tae-un, who was finishing taking the photos, maintained his calm face as if cultivating enlightenment even in this situation.

At that moment, Tae-un, who had been looking at the guide, raised his head and looked around. At some point, his brow furrowed.

"Han Tae-un, what's wrong?"

"...It's nothing."

"What is it? If you've thought of something, say it."

"That's right. Anyone can see you're hiding something."

"...I think there might be a way to lure the scattered mutants."

"How?"

His eyes furrowed once again. But he continued his explanation.

"By becoming bait. With that."

Tae-un pointed to the elevator located in the center of the first floor. The elevator seemed to be visible from any floor as it was open on all sides.

"Hmm, so you mean if the three of us, isolated in a narrow space, go up towards the origin, they'll swarm like fish chasing a fishing hook?"

Soram nodded at Tae-un's hesitation. It was a suggestion he would rarely make in a situation where he was with Soram and Ayoung. Unless it was just him alone...

At that moment, something flashed through Soram's mind.

...Oh.

That's right. It was you.

In the past life, the person who was dispatched alone to this dungeon was Han Tae-un. With his stoic face, he had said "I'll be going" in the Director's office before leaving.

So... I just covered it up after hearing the report that it was resolved safely.