Contribution: 100%
"Branch Director! We've got a serious problem!!"
The Hunter Association's Seoul Branch had been enjoying a perfectly peaceful day.
Then, on what had seemed like any other ordinary afternoon, a bomb went off.
"An A-rank dungeon has spontaneously appeared at Seoul Station!!"
"What?! What the hell are you talking about!!"
Dungeons manifested by warping the space around them. And an A-rank dungeon was a high-tier threat that typically required gathering around twenty high-grade hunters to clear.
For something like that to erupt at Seoul Station — essentially the Association's front yard — was the equivalent of a fire breaking out under their own feet.
It was a crisis that demanded faster response than anything else on the board.
"What about the civilians who were at Seoul Station?!"
"They were all pulled inside the dungeon…."
"You've got to be kidding me — issue an emergency summons to every guild, now!!"
How many people would be at Seoul Station on a weekday evening? Even a conservative estimate put the number well above five thousand.
And if a catastrophe of this scale went off right on the Association's doorstep, it would escalate into a national disaster.
"Dear God…."
The Branch Director felt the world go dark before his eyes.
You have boarded the Heavenly Railway: Hellbound Express.
The train will now depart.
"Oksun, hold on tight!"
System messages floated up into the empty air as the train lurched into motion.
The subway car jolted hard and accelerated without warning, throwing me off balance so completely that I went tumbling across the floor in a daze. Worried Oksun might get hurt, I twisted my head toward her — only to find…
"Summoner! Are you all right?!"
Oksun was floating along just fine, bobbing gently in midair.
Ah. Right. She was a ghost.
"I'm fine, don't worry about me."
"Well, that's a relief, but…."
"More importantly — are there any people nearby?"
Feeling awkward, I changed the subject. Getting fretted over by my own summon was a little embarrassing.
Whether she picked up on the intent or not, Oksun answered my question without fuss.
"I can sense people's presence a short distance away."
"How far?"
"You would need to pass through about six of those doors."
What she pointed to was the connecting door between subway cars. Six cars down, and we'd reach the civilians.
"In that case, we should head that way first…."
"Oksun, quiet for a second. There's an announcement."
This station is Bleeding Death. Bleeding Death Station.
Please step back one pace so that passengers may board.
A voice thick with static crackled out of the speakers, delivering the station announcement.
At the same time, the subway doors slid open and people came walking in.
Well — whether you could still call them people was another matter entirely.
"Summoner, those people…."
"Shh. Let's just watch for now."
Blood was pouring freely from their bodies. Some had knives buried in them; others were missing entire limbs. They were the perfect embodiment of the name "Bleeding Death."
"They're ghosts."
"All of them?"
"Yes. And ones carrying some fairly powerful grudges, at that."
So every last one of them was a spirit. Come to think of it, Oksun's class was Exorcist — I'd half-forgotten, since most of what I usually saw from her was clumsy fighting.
"I'll handle this myself!"
"What? Oksun, wait a—"
I was still trying to figure out how to approach the dungeon when Oksun boldly stepped forward on her own. A sixteen-year-old kid rolling up her sleeves and marching straight at a pack of ghosts.
Acting on her own in a situation like this was dangerous, so I moved to stop her —
"Kyaaaaaaagh!!"
"S-stay awayyy…!"
— right up until the ghosts suddenly freaked out and started thrashing in panic.
The moment Oksun so much as approached them, the things shrieked and dropped dead on the spot. The ones that managed to hang on a little longer got a paper talisman thrown their way and exploded into nothing.
"Wh-what the hell. How did you do that, Oksun?"
"Heh heh. Nothing more than basic exorcism techniques."
Oksun said it like it was nothing, but it was genuinely startling. A dungeon this large-scale had to be fairly high-rank — and she'd just wiped out its monsters with a wave of her hand.
She'd been overshadowed by Yeonbi, but maybe Oksun was an outstanding summon in her own right.
"Is something the matter?"
"Hmm. So three-stars aren't complete garbage after all."
"…Summoner?"
"I'm kidding. Just kidding."
I teased Oksun with a light joke and moved on toward the next car.
At this rate… maybe this dungeon wouldn't be such a big deal after all?
"Branch Director! We've summoned every guild in the area!"
"Good work."
Three hours after the dungeon appeared, one hundred and twenty hunters had gathered in front of Seoul Station.
This incident had swept thousands of civilians into its path, so their goal was the fastest clear possible.
"All right — we enter in one minute!"
The moment the full force had assembled, the Seoul Branch Director — the man in charge of the crisis — spoke up.
"This dungeon is ranked A. But its priority exceeds even S-rank."
"Because of the civilians?"
"Exactly. So I need all of you moving fast."
Everyone present already knew the score. An A-rank dungeon? With this many people, they could take it slow and clear it cleanly in about three days.
But the number of civilians trapped inside was five thousand at minimum. If they took their time, the casualties would multiply exponentially.
"We're out of time. Let's go in."
One hunter urged them forward, and every head nodded. Whatever else they might be, every person here had a rock-solid sense of duty when it came to saving lives.
"I'll take the lead."
"We'll go with you."
The Association Branch Director and the officers of the major guilds claimed the front of the formation. For them, an A-rank dungeon was easy work — but with speed as the priority, injuries were almost guaranteed. A few of the lower-ranked hunters might even die.
Pushing those worries aside, one hundred and twenty hunters filed into the subway station.
"What is this…?"
"What happened here?"
But the Seoul Station that greeted them looked nothing like what they'd expected.
Instead of blood-soaked floors and twisted rails, a clean, ordinary Seoul Station welcomed them. None of the grotesque scenery a dungeon was supposed to show was anywhere in sight.
It was almost as if this weren't a dungeon at all.
"Is this… actually a dungeon?"
"Don't let your guard down. Begin surveying the area."
Suspicion prickling at them, they carefully approached the train — and finally grasped one simple fact.
They were one step too late.
"…What?"
A status window blinked, announcing the dungeon clear. And inside the train behind it, the vast majority of the civilians were alive — without a single wound among them.
Children, women, the elderly — every last person who had been at Seoul Station.
"…What on earth just happened?"
"A miracle, maybe."
In the dead of night, a miracle had taken place at Seoul Station.