The Slowly Tightening Chains (2)
I wondered for a moment if I was dreaming. The kids who should have been fast asleep by now were standing right in front of me. I forced down the complicated thoughts swirling in my head and cut straight to the point.
"What are you doing here? You're early."
"Lee Seol said she was curious, so we came early. It's huge, just like they said. If we'd come in the afternoon, it would've been packed with people and we wouldn't have gotten a proper look."
This was a place we'd be coming in and out of for the next three years. And they showed up at the crack of dawn just because they were curious? That didn't make any sense.
I turned my gaze toward her. Whether by chance or not, our eyes met. Just like always. Her smile was the kind that put people at ease. There didn't seem to be any malice in it.
She slowly walked toward me. I turned my body slightly to avoid her gaze, but Lee Seol still made her way right up to me.
"Seonghyun, this is the first time we've seen each other since OT, right?"
"Yeah. I was busy back then and didn't get to greet you properly. Jihun didn't do anything weird last night, did he? He's got a few screws loose, so I was worried."
"Nah. Jihun wouldn't do anything like that."
Fair enough. Plenty of guys had tried hitting on Lee Seol only to end up as ice statues. Someone who valued his own life would at least know where to draw the line. Not that it mattered to me right now. The only thought in my head was why Lee Seol had come here.
Why else? She came for the reward.
Regression. The idea that this girl had followed me back to the past was gaining more weight in my mind. What reinforced that suspicion was her next action.
"What about you, Seonghyun? Did you get any sleep? Ahyeon and Yuri are both so pretty, I bet your heart was racing."
She leaned down slightly to meet my eyes from below. Black pupils. I wondered if it was just my imagination that I could see something dark hidden beneath their calm surface. I took a quick breath and forced a small smile.
"There's a saying that if someone's too pretty, you stop seeing them as the opposite sex. Besides, I care more about personality than looks."
"Hmm. Really? Okay, I'll believe you."
A meaningful smile. My heart sank. Just then, a lifeline appeared.
"Hey! Lee Seonghyun! When are we going?!"
"I'll be right there! Sorry, Seol. Yuri's calling. Let's talk again when we have time."
"Yeah. Be careful."
Leaving Lee Seol waving her hand behind me, I quickly walked over to the others. Han Yuri stood with her arms crossed, looking displeased.
"What were you talking about for so long?"
"I told her not to misunderstand what happened at OT. I can't keep making you worry about it."
"Huh? OT? Seonghyun, did something happen with Lee Seol?"
"Yeah. Something like that. Anyway, let's go in. We don't have time—we need to clear the assignment before they do."
I tore the sticky note in a hurry. White light enveloped us, and soon dense trees came into view. Lee Seol wasn't around. Realizing that put me at ease.
If Lee Seol really has memories from the previous timeline and came here to claim this reward…
I couldn't afford to waste time. Since Lee Seol was one step above Han Yuri, I had to move fast. Han Yuri, as if already familiar with the place, started walking toward the forest on her own. An incredulous laugh escaped me.
"Hey! Where are you going?"
"I said I was going to work separately."
"Cut the bullshit and get over here. Even if we can handle low-level assignments alone, teamwork becomes essential once the difficulty goes up."
"Teamwork?"
Han Yuri looked at me like I'd said something ridiculous.
"Do you really think you two can keep up with my level? Or what, should I crawl on the ground to match yours?"
She had a point. Han Yuri's rank was already D. She was far beyond first-year level. Of course a genius like her would find it absurd to adjust to amateurs like us. But I wasn't backing down.
"I'll admit we're behind right now, but give us a little time and Ahyeon and I will stand on equal ground with you."
The moment those words left my mouth, Han Yuri's eyes turned ice-cold.
"Equal ground? You sure talk big for someone with a hole in their mouth. Or do you think you're something special just because your unique skill is S-rank?"
"That's not what I meant—"
"Let me make this clear. If you followed me thinking I'd carry you, you picked the wrong person. I'm barely managing my own growth, and I don't have the spare energy to help anyone else. Got it?"
After firing that sharp dagger of words, Han Yuri turned and disappeared into the forest.
"Yuri! Wait a second!"
When it became clear I wasn't going to stop her, Choi Ahyeon rushed after her into the woods. Our team was on the verge of falling apart before we'd even started fighting.
"Shit."
With Lee Seol already chasing us from behind, this was the last thing I needed.
In that case…
Time to change the plan. Han Yuri was indispensable for claiming countless future rewards. Even if her solo play worked now, it wouldn't be sustainable later.
I need to train her from the start.
All I had to do was show her our potential. The reason Han Yuri preferred going solo was because she didn't want to drag around dead weight. So I just needed to prove we wouldn't be dead weight in the future—that we could actually help her.
To do that…
I need to make a move.
This was an F-rank dungeon. The Goblin Habitat. The gateway every beginner challenged first, and the same place that would later become a notorious D-rank mutant dungeon—a hell for newbies. Han Yuri could wipe it out alone at F-rank, but what about when it turned D-rank? She'd have no choice but to rely on us.
I walked in the opposite direction from where the two had gone. A large stone monument came into view in the distance. The goblin totem. Destroying it would turn this dungeon into chaos. The goblins hiding in tunnels would surface, and the shamans buried in caves would crawl out into the sunlight. The academy's escape artifact would also stop functioning.
A risky gamble. But there was no other way.
Crack.
With one swing of my sword, the monument split in half.
"Alright. Let's all die together."
"Yuri! Let's go together!"
Choi Ahyeon followed after me. Lee Seonghyun probably wasn't coming.
Doesn't matter.
She didn't have time to play house here. If she wanted to catch up to her father at the top of the hunter world, she needed to hunt more monsters even now.
Two heads are better than one—that was what her father had drilled into her until her ears bled. But that saying was only half right. When levels matched, synergy was possible, but when the gap was too wide, everyone would just drag each other down. She'd experienced that plenty during her time at Hunter Middle School.
The widening gap over time. Teammates who grew jealous and distanced themselves. She'd watched teams fall apart more times than she could count.
At least Lee Seol is on a similar level.
But their combat styles were different. Han Yuri fought with precise, efficient prediction. Lee Seol crushed everything with overwhelming power. Their approaches didn't align, so while raids might work, smaller-scale fights would be problematic.
In the end, after much deliberation, she'd chosen solo play.
This is the most comfortable.
The duality of genius. The way ordinary people thought and the way geniuses thought were fundamentally different. Therefore, the two could never coexist. That was what she'd realized while growing up.
But what? We can stand on the same level?
All talk. The man who'd once terrified her now made her wonder why she'd ever been afraid of him.
Let's just clear this quickly and go review.
She'd fallen behind because she'd gone drinking yesterday on a whim. This wasn't her first time in the Goblin Habitat—she knew the layout by heart now. But something felt off.
What is this?
The atmosphere had changed completely.
Was it always this cold?
The calm before the storm. The forest had gone deathly silent in an instant. Then, at some point—
"Kirrrk! Kirrrrk!"
"Kieeeek!"
Roars filled with rage shook the forest. Something was wrong. Acting on instinct, Han Yuri summoned meteors.
Meteor A / C
Dozens of meteors rose into the sky.
"Yuri?"
"Something's wrong with the dungeon. You go find Lee Seonghyun. I'll come get you after I wipe them all out."
"What are you saying?! You want me to run away alone?!"
"That's right."
I gave a cynical smile and pointed ahead.
"Think you can handle those?"
"……"
Roughly a hundred of them. A wave of monsters that couldn't possibly belong in an F-rank dungeon was rushing toward them. Choi Ahyeon's expression hardened. It was probably her first time seeing something like this.
"Let's escape! Yuri! There's no way we can handle this many!"
Grabbing my hand, Choi Ahyeon shouted into the air.
"Escape!"
But despite that bold cry, the artifact didn't activate at all.
"Ah…"
"The moment something went wrong with the dungeon, the safety measures stopped working. Obviously."
At my calm tone, Choi Ahyeon's eyes wavered. She looked visibly panicked. But soon she forced a smile and drew daggers in both hands.
"Still, I can't just run away alone. It'll give me nightmares later."
"Ha… Do whatever you want."
Deciding it was already too late to run, I launched a meteor forward.
Boom!
Each strike crushed a goblin's head with a rock the size of a face.
"Hah!"
Choi Ahyeon charged through the meteors to take on the goblins rushing in. She could handle two or three at a time without issue. But—
"Hup!"
A meteor suddenly grazed her cheek, and her body stiffened. The meteor that had brushed past Choi Ahyeon embedded itself right in front of a goblin's feet.
"……Sorry."
"No, no! It's my fault for being slow. Don't worry about it!"
To an outsider, it might've looked like I'd missed my aim—like a friendly fire incident. But it was the result of careful calculation. If I hadn't thrown that meteor, Choi Ahyeon would've definitely taken a blade to the stomach.
I always thought several moves ahead. But other people never understood or appreciated it.
"……"
If I'd been alone, I could've used that mental processing power to kill monsters faster instead. Would Choi Ahyeon ever realize her attempts to help were actually getting in my way? No—she was doing this precisely because she didn't understand.
We'd been fighting for about five minutes when—
"Yuri! Shamans on that hill!"
"Got it."
I tried to blow up a shaman's head with a meteor, but over a dozen shamans still remained. They annoyingly launched fireballs at us from the hill.
"Yuri!"
"I'm fine, just watch your front!"
They focused their attacks on me, as if trying to disrupt my skill. My attention was pulled away dealing with the fireballs. Maybe that was why Choi Ahyeon got grabbed.
"Kyaaah!"
"Duck!"
Boom!
I immediately launched a meteor and blew the goblins apart.
"Hah… hah… Thanks, Yuri……"
"Don't mention it. Cough…!"
Blood welled up in my throat. Proof that my mana was running dry.
"Are you okay? Yuri?"
"Yeah. You?"
"I can manage."
She forced a smile to reassure me, but the dark shadow on her face wouldn't fade. I gritted my teeth and looked ahead.
I can't see the end.
The monsters weren't that strong, but there were too many. My mana was nearing its limit, Choi Ahyeon was getting exhausted, and shamans in the distance were still targeting us.
Dead end. No matter how fast I calculated, only a bleak future awaited.
I haven't even reached A-rank yet.
I hadn't even caught up to my father's heels yet…… And I was going to die here?
Tears welled up at the thought. My will crumbled. The determination to scrape together my last bit of mana and launch one final meteor faded, replaced by despair.
It was impossible from the start.
Surpassing her father as a failure like herself had always been nothing more than a distant dream.
Just as she was halfway to giving up—
Boom!
A massive explosion erupted from the direction of the shamans targeting them.
What?
Through the blast, a man walked toward them with steady steps.
"Lee Seonghyun……?"
From zero percent to one percent. From impossible to possible. Light began to shine through.