An Yumin and the Dungeon's Special Zone (1)
Silence hung between them.
Lee Junwoo looked at her with a faintly puzzled expression.
"Something you want to say?"
The words made her heart drop.
Even after entering the Old Campus, An Yumin had been far too conscious of Lee Junwoo alone. Being caught out like that left her burning with embarrassment.
"No. I just... didn't expect the Old Campus to have turned into a dungeon like this."
She brushed it off with a vague answer—and immediately regretted it.
This is the chance I finally grabbed. Am I really going to end the conversation like that?
It felt like the sky had fallen in. Yet nothing useful came to mind. He had already refused her apology for the past. Blurting out another apology in the middle of a mission would only make it look like a joke.
Then he spoke first.
"You okay? Your face looks off. Are you nervous?"
"Th-that's..."
An Yumin was so startled she couldn't even finish the sentence. There was no sarcasm in his tone. He genuinely sounded worried about her.
"It's natural to be tense. I saw your hero work the other day—you were solid. But getting trapped in a dungeon out of nowhere is a different story. Here."
He tossed something to her.
This is...
A fruit-flavored candy. Watermelon, the flavor she liked best.
She had a routine for missions that made her more nervous than usual: eating a watermelon candy and using it to settle her mind. Of course, that habit had started because of Lee Junwoo.
Aegis's first mission. The first real hero operation that might restore her mother's honor. That day, Lee Junwoo had eased her tension the same way.
Even famous heroes get nervous before a mission. Some of them chew gum, some carry a lucky charm—everyone builds their own little routine, I guess.
The candy he had held out then had been watermelon-flavored too.
This is all I've got, but you don't need to be tense. For you, hunting villains should be easier than eating this candy.
Simple encouragement, yet it had given An Yumin enormous strength. Back then it was Aegis's first mission; she hadn't been jealous of the other members or suspicious of Junwoo yet.
I want to go back to that time.
If she were the person she had been then, she would never have doubted his sincerity. She would never have wounded him with empty jealousy and delusions.
But him giving me that same candy now... does that mean maybe...?
She found herself hoping, against all reason, that the small kindness meant something more. It was impossible, and she knew it. She was no longer anyone special to Lee Junwoo. Just a little while ago he had handed chocolate to both Student Council President Jo Arin and her. Lee Junwoo was always kind to people; this was simply another piece of that kindness.
That's not true. Why else would he specifically pick watermelon? He got angry last time, sure, but Lee Junwoo is a soft man. He wants to try again with you.
She hurriedly rejected the voice rising from inside her.
Shut up! Just shut up!
Yet the whisper—the villain's voice—shook her heart hard.
Lee Junwoo... might want to try again with me?
It was absurd. But if it were possible, An Yumin felt she would do anything. The empty space he had left was that large.
So listen carefully to what I say. Heh. In relationships between men and women, breaking up and getting back together is nothing special.
She could barely refuse the devil's temptation.
No. No...
She still could not become a villain. An Yumin had to become a hero—no matter what.
Their eyes met again. Lee Junwoo gave a light smile.
"I'm a lot weaker than Senior Jo Arin or you, but I won't get in the way. Don't feel too much pressure."
"No! That's not—"
She startled at the words. Apparently her silence had started to bother him too. Being in a party with the academy's number-one student Jo Arin and the freshman representative herself...
Right. Ha Yeeun... she especially used to call him useless and look down on him.
That mockery must have left its own scars. But the truth was, Lee Junwoo's strength had never mattered to An Yumin. If anything, she had hated how capable he was in Aegis—because it meant she had to pour more time into Song Sia and Ha Yeeun instead.
Still, the Lee Junwoo of now was different. He had left "useless" behind. More and more people besides An Yumin might start wanting him.
"Alright, let's move again! I need both of you!"
Jo Arin returned just then.
Even Senior Jo Arin... is acknowledging Junwoo now.
The senior she had always admired so much. Yet right now An Yumin's mind held only thoughts of Lee Junwoo.
If you move any later, you'll lose him completely.
The whisper started again, and An Yumin's heart swayed hard.
I can't wait any longer...?
Today's Lee Junwoo was kind enough to remind her of their high-school days. Kind enough that she wanted that gentleness back. An Yumin listened more carefully to the voice inside her.
The three of us headed deeper into the Old Campus.
The map Student Council President Jo Arin had brought was useless, but she herself was still impressive.
In the original, the Old Campus was a dangerous place.
With Jo Arin here, though, it was different. Dangerous monsters laced with Chaos Attribute charged us, and most of them turned to ash under her fire spells.
"Watch out!"
A few that survived without taking a critical hit were finished off by An Yumin's sword a moment later.
Crack-crack-crack—
Her ice-attribute sword strikes froze the monsters solid and shattered them.
Both of them are strong.
I had raised An Yumin beyond her original growth, so even with the higher difficulty we were progressing faster than in the source material.
The quest notification still hasn't activated...
As expected of a quest that required An Yumin to take the lead, nothing had triggered on my end yet. Still, I was a veteran of the original. I calmly reconstructed the quest flow in my head.
At this rate we've already entered Phase 2.
Before long a villain would ambush the three of us—not Ash Monk, who was tailing the party, but another high-ranking villain behind him.
I surveyed the surrounding terrain. This place should have looked like a university campus, yet it had transformed into ruins that seemed abandoned for centuries.
"This was definitely Theia's campus once... How did it end up like this?"
Jo Arin murmured almost to herself. I answered her.
"Come to think of it, I heard there was an accident at the Old Campus. Theia Academy itself was built on top of Seoul's Ground Zero, after all."
"Ground Zero... But the demonic energy here should have been completely suppressed by Leticein's Ark..."
Ground Zero. Just as the name suggested—the hypocenter, a place where a high-rank gate had opened. A massive gate in the middle of the city had produced enormous casualties. Seoul had finished its postwar reconstruction, of course.
Theia's history isn't what matters right now.
Ground Zeroes existed all over Seoul. What I needed to focus on was the special phenomenon occurring at Theia specifically. The super-rank monster born from this Ground Zero had been hunted personally by Leticein.
The villains are moving because they've grabbed some kind of lead.
There might be something hidden here using even the Ark itself. In the original story we only glimpsed a tiny fragment of that secret before it ended. I needed far more information.
Time isn't exactly on my side.
Ever since the Pure White Festival, Seoul's political landscape had been shaking. During the Crimson Teeth terrorist attack, Valhalla's Apostles had carried out their security duties perfectly, while the Hunter Association had been humiliated—several holy relics stolen right under their noses in the same zone. Rumors were already circulating that the Holy See was considering Valhalla's Apostles as a new partner over the Association.
Naturally the effects were spreading into the underworld. With the Association's influence weakened, minor organizations were openly expanding their power.
So I need to grow Blood Jaguar even faster.
There was no leisure to expand forces at the original content's leisurely pace. The sooner I moved, the larger the pie I could claim.
I need an organization strong enough to completely absorb Crimson Teeth.
That meant I, as Unknown, had to move personally. Blood Jaguar's current strength was honestly pathetic.
A name suddenly floated up in my mind.
Come to think of it, Jeong Siu's father is an underworld boss.
Not a major organization, but a mid-tier one—still larger than Mad Knife, the group above Blood Jaguar.
Useful enough to exploit.
My thoughts raced. If I could secure a solid item from this episode, I might create an opportunity to move openly in the underworld myself.
There's a Unique item. If we enter that room in the dungeon...
In the original, only the protagonist An Yumin—not even Jo Arin—entered the special zone alone. If I timed it right, I could enter with her.
I glanced at An Yumin. Her condition today didn't look bad. As always, I felt nothing emotional toward her, but I had deliberately treated her kindly today.
"Careful! Those aren't monsters—they're villains!"
Jo Arin shouted. Phase 3 had begun.
Crackling electricity—
A villain's lightning spell streaked toward the three of us.
"Look out!!"
An Yumin immediately stepped in front of me, as if trying to protect me. The corner of my mouth lifted before I could stop it.
Ever since the small kindness I had shown earlier, An Yumin had been constantly conscious of me.
Don't tell me she actually thinks that?
As if the two of us could go back to how things used to be. As if she had fallen into that ridiculous delusion.
Well, only An Yumin can trigger the special effect of Leticein's Ark anyway.
The odds of entering the dungeon's special zone together with her had just risen.