Chapter 21
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 21
Chapter Title: The Shadow Dwellers
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Seung-hyeon and Yoo A-han locked eyes without a word. Seung-hyeon just blinked silently. At the sight, Yoo A-han spoke as if sighing in resignation.
“I knew it would be like this. From the moment we first came in, I had a hunch it might be, but I never imagined it actually was...”
Yoo A-han let out a sigh as she thought to herself.
When they had first entered the dungeon, she had looked at the densely packed buildings and thought they were too similar. But in the end, it was a dungeon, so she figured it might just overlap with the real world to some extent.
“Guild Leader.”
“Yes.”
“Everything’s fine. Yes, it’s all fine, but this is a dungeon. Another world—no, just a single coded game. Don’t sweat every little detail.”
At least in Yoo A-han’s mind, the dungeon was nothing more than an artificial world, more precisely, a mere framework.
Sensing once again just how meticulous Seung-hyeon could be, Yoo A-han let out a sigh and said,
“...Anyway, I don’t think peeking through the windows would show us anything even if we tried. The real issue is how to slip through those black things.”
Both of them had a bluish hue that made them stand out all the more. Yoo A-han’s clothes were a pale color, making it even worse.
Seung-hyeon spoke up after a moment of thought.
“For starters, what if we just cloak ourselves in sword aura? Maybe they won’t notice us then?”
“Well, that’s possible... but it’s just speculation, so it’s still risky. We should probably come up with something else...”
A fluttering sound came from beside Yoo A-han as she agonized over what to do.
“Guild Leader?”
Yoo A-han looked up at the noise. Right in front of her raised gaze, Seung-hyeon held a black cloth in both hands. Clutching the black cloth, Seung-hyeon said,
“It’s a perception-lowering item. I’ve been carrying it around just in case.”
“Looks like you packed it specifically for a moment like this.”
Seung-hyeon handed the cloth from one hand to Yoo A-han. As she fiddled with it, Yoo A-han said,
“Will we be able to see ahead?”
“It’s pretty thin cloth, so we should be able to. Plus, the streets are well-lit.”
“Then let’s head back to the street.”
Seung-hyeon nodded.
Yoo A-han turned around and made her way back to the street. They must have walked quite a distance already, as it took some time before the street came into view.
“I hope this works.”
Flutter. Yoo A-han lightly tossed the cloth over her head. Even with it draped over her, there was no issue with her vision.
Yoo A-han took one step onto the street. The residents showed no reaction at all yet. She took another step onto the street with no response, so this time she strode right into the midst of the residents.
Yoo A-han whispered softly.
“...It’s working.”
Yoo A-han turned back to look at Seung-hyeon. Seung-hyeon, cloaked in the black cloth, gave a small nod. Yoo A-han nodded back and weaved between the black residents, proceeding down the street for now.
Yoo A-han kept her head still and rolled her eyes to scan the surroundings. Spotting a particular building, she headed toward it.
Soon enough, standing in front of the building, Yoo A-han turned to Seung-hyeon. She confirmed he was fine behind her and nodded; Seung-hyeon nodded back in reply.
Yoo A-han turned forward again and took a step closer to the door. Whirr—the door slid open automatically. At the sight, Yoo A-han thought,
‘...Whoever designed this has some awful tastes.’
She stepped lightly through the automatic door, eerily identical to those in the real world, and a space reminiscent of a mart came into view.
“......”
“......”
Yoo A-han thought as she rolled her gaze around. No sounds reached her ears, but it was clear. This place was just like an ordinary neighborhood where people lived.
She resumed her paused steps, moving deeper inside, and the surroundings sharpened into finer detail. Shelves meant for everyday goods brimmed with some pure white objects whose purpose she couldn’t even guess, and at what looked like the checkout counter, a customer handed over scrap metal to the employee in exchange for the white objects.
Suddenly curious about their use, Yoo A-han racked her brain, but as someone who wasn’t a local, she had no clue.
“Looks like food for the monsters here.”
“Huh?”
Yoo A-han turned at Seung-hyeon’s quiet words. Under his cloth, Seung-hyeon subtly pointed with a finger. And at the tip of that finger.
“Ah.”
A black resident sat on a crude chair, shoving the pure white objects into an invisible mouth. The scene filled Yoo A-han’s vision completely. Muttering at it, Yoo A-han said,
“We don’t have time to observe stuff like this...”
They had to rush through the stages and take down the boss. Yoo A-han sighed to herself.
She felt bad for the Guild Leader, but her initial stance had been to cut through the black residents and push forward—and now it felt like time to put that into action. With them everywhere, creeping around cautiously like this would never end.
Yoo A-han said to Seung-hyeon.
“Guild Leader, we don’t have time for this. We need to hurry and find the path to the next stage—”
Thud. Seung-hyeon’s back bumped against Yoo A-han’s. Thinking it wasn’t like him to slip up like that, she glanced at him—then around.
“...Oh, great.”
The black residents had surrounded the two of them in an instant, staring right at them.
“Yoo A-han Hunter.”
“Yeah?”
“Looking closely, these monsters don’t have shadows.”
“......”
At his words, Yoo A-han peered beneath the pitch-black monsters. Light shone from all directions, yet not a single shadow fell under the black residents. Their own shadows, meanwhile, loomed large.
Realizing something, Yoo A-han let out a groan.
“...Ah, that explains it. There weren’t any in the dark alley.”
The pure white objects—more precisely, pure white ‘light’—they devoured light and only moved where light existed, bearing no shadows of their own. Their true nature was plain without much pondering.
Having pieced it together, Yoo A-han said,
“Guess they’re shadows.”
“Seems that way.”
Flutter. Yoo A-han yanked off the stuffy cloth and crammed it straight into the bag at her waist.
The moment the two shed their cloths and revealed themselves, the shadow monsters faltered and backed away, as if frightened.
Turning her back on the sight, Yoo A-han said,
“We should get out of here first, right?”
Seung-hyeon nodded and thrust a hand toward the entrance. Rumble—a massive jet of water erupted from the mouth of the ordinary-sized water snake, sweeping the shadow monsters out of the entrance in one fell swoop.
The entrance stood wide open beyond the drenched floor. They bolted out through it. But it didn’t last.
Thud. Thud.
On the side path they were fleeing down, an enormous armored monster lumbered toward them. Gazing at the behemoth approaching with earth-shaking booms, Yoo A-han said,
“That must be what made the noise we heard from Ji-eon and Ryu Cheon-hwa’s direction earlier.”
Swish. Yoo A-han activated her heretofore unopened weapon and unleashed it at the giant armor in a flash. The slender sky-blue cloth lunging at armor that looked impossibly thick and sturdy was almost comical.
Crunch. The cloth wrapped around the armor’s neck in an instant and snapped back to Yoo A-han. She seized both ends of the returning cloth and yanked with all her might; the armor’s head tore free limply and went rolling across the ground. But before she could relax.
Thud. Thud. The severed head bounced right back up, returning to its original spot as if time itself had reversed. Muttering at the sight, Yoo A-han said,
“...Time to run.”
“Yoo A-han Hunter, things being what they are, we should stick to the road, move fast, and duck into wherever it feels suspicious.”
“Yeah.”
The words had barely left her mouth when the two bolted straight to the opposite side of the armor. Monsters clogged the path so thickly that Yoo A-han simply stepped onto the heads of shadow monsters and leaped ahead.
“Yoo A-han Hunter!”
Seung-hyeon called from atop the water snake, which had grown enormous by then. Yoo A-han leaped onto the snake as well.
Shadow monsters crumpled under the snake or went flying to the sides. Behind them, the armor monsters—now greater in number—thudded against the ground in a frenzy, chasing madly after the pair.
“Yoo A-han Hunter! See anything?”
“What about you, Guild Leader—”
Swish! The snake veered sharply. Yoo A-han nearly bit her tongue and clamped her mouth shut, only to open it again. But before she could even ask what was happening, the snake plunged into an alleyway. At the same moment, the two sensed something else.
Seung-hyeon asked.
“You feel it too, Yoo A-han Hunter?”
“If I didn’t, I’d have to quit being S-Rank.”
Whoosh. In a flash, they leaped down from the shrunken snake and approached the spot giving off the strange vibe.
Seung-hyeon muttered,
“...Doesn’t look like anything’s here.”
Just as he said—scanning the building wall only brought that odd feeling, with nothing else to see.
“Guild Leader.”
Seung-hyeon gave a small nod at Yoo A-han’s call. Moments later, the fish swimming around him glided through the air toward the building wall, drawing gradually closer until—
Boom. A vibration rippled from the fish, followed by pop! The fish burst apart in a spray of water.
“......”
“......”
The reason the fish had burst. Seung-hyeon’s fish had the ability to detect things. For it to burst mid-detection meant it had found something—but couldn’t withstand that something’s aura.
Press. Seung-hyeon pushed at the spot where the fish had burst, and the tip of his index finger sank into the wall. A small button.
Rumble—the wall at about head height split open, forming an entrance leading somewhere.
“......”
They had nowhere else to go. The entrance practically screamed its purpose. The two fell silent for a moment, let out sighs, and hopped right inside.