Employment... Success? The Dungeon Has Closed.
The dungeon was closed. The situation had ended. That meant someone had removed the dungeon core. It also proved that the vanguard I’d been worried about had survived safely. Yes, that was exactly what happened. So in a way… it seemed like it would wrap up as a somewhat happy ending… but the moment I returned to reality, something completely unexpected had occurred.
Ah… this is fucked…
Who’s going to come clean this up?
It was literally shattered to pieces. I clicked my tongue as I stared at the flesh and organs tangled between the fragments of spine.
“Tsk.”
It was completely smashed. That wolf bastard must have bitten down and shaken it furiously from side to side. Looking at the scattered remains of what had once been an upper body, I thought a rat flattened by a car would have found a more peaceful eternal sleep. With that in mind, I pulled out a cigarette instead of incense.
Idiot…
If only you hadn’t run and stayed by my side, you could’ve lived…
Pity flickered for a moment, but when I remembered what he’d done to me, I figured he deserved it. Even while clicking my tongue, part of me wondered if it was okay to think such things while looking at a dead man… Ha… Fuck it, I don’t know. He was already dead anyway, and there was no point wasting any more thought on him. I offered a silent condolence by slipping the cigarette between my lips, then glanced at the team leader who was puking his guts out beside me.
“Ugh… Urk!”
“Want me to pat your back?”
“No… I-I’m fine…”
“…”
He didn’t look fine at all. Sure enough, after just a little vomiting his face had gone deathly pale. I handed a bottle of water to the team leader, whose hollow eyes stared vacantly into space.
“Thank… you. I… really showed you something ugly.”
“By the way, are you okay, Chanhyuk-ssi?”
“Huh? Oh… yeah. I’ve got a strong stomach, so…”
“Is that so… Honestly, just thinking about it makes me…”
He looked like he might throw up again. With half-glazed eyes he muttered that it would probably haunt his dreams tonight. Well, that made sense. In the beginning I couldn’t even eat properly after seeing things like that. Of course, I’d grown immune by now—dismembered corpses in all their dynamic glory barely registered anymore. But this guy clearly hadn’t reached that stage. He’d probably suffer for a while. When I thought about it that way, he seemed a little pitiful… Still, he was young. He’d get over it.
“Anyway, thanks to you I survived. If you hadn’t been there, Chanhyuk-ssi… I would’ve ended up like that Lee Chaeman bastard.”
“Since we’ll be seeing a lot of each other from now on, would it be all right if I called you hyung-nim?”
“?”
“What I mean by seeing a lot of each other is…”
“No need to spell it out. It means you passed the test. So… shall we greet each other properly this time?”
“…”
With a thin smile, the team leader extended his hand. I gave a small nod and took it.
Well… this was escaping unemployment, I supposed. Yes, it was something I ought to be happy about. That was why I smiled too. But I never imagined there would be conditions like that attached. At least not until that moment.
The conditions the company offered were so good they were hard to believe. A salary just for breathing, standard holiday bonuses, transportation and meal allowances provided. On top of that, a bonus every time a dungeon was closed. They even said they had prepared accommodation for me to stay in during the contract period.
“No… seriously…?”
“Yes. It’s written exactly like that in the contract.”
“…”
The terms were so exceptional I couldn’t believe them even after hearing them. Maybe that was why, instead of joy, suspicion rose first. Honestly, it didn’t make sense by any common standard. Strictly speaking I wasn’t even a hunter, nor was I an adventurer… I couldn’t understand the offer at all, but the employee answered my question with cool indifference.
“It’s an investment. We’re investing in you for one year, Chanhyuk-ssi.”
“Since it’s an investment, of course we’re taking on the risk as well.”
“If the results are good, we’ll renew the contract after a year. If not, we won’t.”
“…”
An investment that accounted for risk… Just how much money did they have to burn to pull something like this? Well… honestly, it was their business how they spent their cash. I had no right to comment. Yeah, how convenient was that? I didn’t even have to commute. I just needed to check the dungeon information they provided, go in like a freelancer, and close it. And not alone, either. They said I should close them together with their people in case anything went wrong. So the normal reaction would have been to sign the contract immediately… but I stood up, saying I needed time to think.
“Huh? No… hyung-nim?”
“Well… that’s fine. However, we can’t give you much time either. One day.”
“…Understood. One day is enough. Thank you for your time.”
“W-wait a second? Huh?”
With a troubled expression, the man left the office and started walking away. Kim Minhyuk, who had been at a loss, quickly stuck close to my side and began glancing around nervously.
“Hey, hyung-nim. Why did you say you’d think about it?”
“Honestly, you won’t find conditions like this anywhere else. You know that, right?”
“…”
He was right. From the start, the fact that I wasn’t a hunter would have gotten me rejected at the door… So it wasn’t that I disliked the conditions. I sighed and pulled out a cigarette.
“Then what is it? Don’t tell me you hate the other world?”
“No.”
“Really? You’re not lying, right?”
“Yeah.”
“…It doesn’t seem that way…?”
“Honestly, isn’t the other world nice? Sure, it feels a bit too rural, but…”
There were lots of pretty girls, the air was clean—what wasn’t to like? Haa… Yeah, just like you said, it’s good. Lots of pretty girls… clean air… beautiful scenery… It really was a gorgeous place where game-like landscapes melted into everyday life. Of course, when I first set foot in that world, there had been more than a few uncomfortable things. The place I stayed was a complete backwater, and… these days, thanks to the influence of modern Earth, they apparently had department stores, supermarkets, and convenience stores. So it wasn’t that I hated the other world or had any major problems living there. From the start, I wasn’t in any position to be picky. The real problem was…
“Is it… because of your girlfriend, hyung-nim?”
When I got home, the sun was already sinking low, getting ready to clock out. The slave who should have been sitting in front of the computer was nowhere to be seen. Even when she heard the owner come in, she didn’t show her face.
…Where did she go?
Don’t tell me she’s masturbating in her room?
Fuck… If that was the case, running into her right now would be awkward as hell. Fortunately it didn’t seem to be that. The moment I took off my shoes, the smell of something burning hit my nose and I instinctively knew.
What the…
Don’t tell me… she’s cooking?
Wow… fuck. No exaggeration—it felt like months since I’d had a proper dinner. What on earth was she making with such determination? Even though her master was right behind her, Elphy didn’t say a word.
“…What are you doing?”
“Eh?! Uh!! Um… you’re back?”
“…”
What the hell… What was she making that she looked so startled? With suspicious eyes I scanned the scene vibrating with the smell of burning. Something charred black sat pathetically on the wire rack.
“What is that… Is that supposed to be tonkatsu?”
“Huh? Uh… well… yeah?”
“…”
Fuck… The tonkatsu I remembered didn’t look like this. How insanely high had the heat been to turn it into that? I couldn’t bear to watch the black breadcrumbs swirling in the furiously boiling oil. With a sigh I immediately turned off the gas and looked at the slave standing there awkwardly.
“Elphy… What did I tell you when I cook…?”
“…Medium heat?”
“Right… So where is the fire right now?”
“Strong… No… I knew that, but the oil wasn’t boiling fast enough, so…”
“I was just about to turn it off…”
“…”
It somehow ended up like this… I didn’t understand. Ha. Well… at least she hadn’t burned the house down. Since she went through the trouble of making it, I’d eat it as gratefully as possible even if it wasn’t healthy. It had been a long time since I watched my slave bring me food. I took a bite of the tonkatsu first.
“Crunch…!”
“…”
Fuck. This wasn’t just crispy—it was sharp. Feeling the inside of my mouth get scraped, I stared at the bitten piece. What the hell? No… why was it so bitter? Even after scraping off all the burned parts, it was this bitter. Honestly, until a moment ago I had been so moved by this rare “owner treatment” that I felt like tearing up… but eating this meat crayon made that emotion feel like it was being dyed pitch black.
“Is it good?”
“Uh…?”
“…”
I couldn’t bring myself to say no. It was a little bitter, but still good… I gave her an awkward smile.
“Really?”
“Uh… um… by the way… did you make all of this yourself?”
“Yeah…! It’s been a while since you went out to work, right? So I wanted to cheer you on for the future…”
She said she watched YouTube and worked hard on it… Fuck… The bitter taste spreading through my mouth felt like swallowing powdered medicine. I couldn’t say it tasted bad. I simply watched my slave’s back as she went to get the sauce, praying that at least the sauce… would be a properly made commercial one. But… the color of that sauce didn’t look normal at all.
“Here… dip it in this. It’s the tonkatsu sauce I made.”
“…”
Fuck… What was this? This bizarre sauce? I was extremely curious what ingredients could possibly turn sauce green. When I asked, she said it was a Southeast Asian fusion sauce made with chili peppers and fish sauce. Fuck, whose brain came up with that idea?
Southeast Asian fusion sauce?
And she made it after watching YouTube…?
It was suspicious… but she was smiling brightly in front of me, so I couldn’t refuse to try it. I had no choice but to close my eyes, dip a piece deep, and put it in my mouth. Surprisingly, the sauce tasted pretty decent.
“Good, right?”
“Uh… it’s good? You really made this yourself?”
“Yeah. I followed a YouTube video.”
“…”
YouTube, huh… Ha… What a blessed product of civilization. Thanks to the perfect harmony of sweet, salty, and sour, the bitterness was neutralized. Now it finally tasted like meat instead of crayon. Only then did I relax and take a spoonful of rice. But her casually tossed question made me uncomfortable again.
“By the way, how was today? What did they say? Did you pass?”