Am I a Little Stupid?
“Unnie, am I a bit stupid, by any chance?”
This was the very first thing Seoya said the moment she arrived in Korea and met Lee Gayeon at the airport.
“What?”
“Yeah, I guess I just live without thinking much compared to other people.”
As Seoya said it with a serious expression, Lee Gayeon's eyes shook uneasily.
She hadn't slept properly for a whole week in Korea after hearing Seoya had collapsed from illness all the way in Greece. She'd rushed to the airport the second she got word of the arrival, only for the kid to spout something bizarre.
Why? Our Seoya's always had sky-high self-esteem—she's never once thought her lack of thinking was a problem.
Her gut churning with worry, Lee Gayeon replied in a calm tone to soothe her.
“Hmm, kinda, but it doesn't really matter much in life, does it? Though it'd be great if you thought a little more than you do now...”
She'd phrased it carefully, but it still boiled down to you're a bit stupid, so Seoya nodded with a bitter look.
“What about Yena-unnie?”
“Monster wave.”
“Aah, please, let's just get home quick... I think I've been out in the world too long...”
Ji Sein, her complexion noticeably worse than when they'd left Korea, muttered in a hoarse voice from under her hat and mask.
Lee Gayeon shook her head with a sigh but decided to head straight home for now.
And when they finally arrived, Seoya got the full rundown on how the Greece dungeon incident had played out in the global news.
“Seoya, you called it a trap, right?”
“Yeah.”
The man from her dream had told her. That dungeon at the center of all those circles—it was a trap designed to lure in Earth's strongest hunters.
After recovering fully and waking up, Seoya had passed the message to Go Heejae: tell the Dungeon Safety Bureau the Greece dungeon wouldn't help resolve the crisis at all. In fact, it was a trap meant to kill off the strong hunters.
Because of that, Go Heejae and hunters worldwide had been pushing hard for more details.
“Even Go Heejae said he couldn't get the full story from you. So, what do we say?”
Seoya caught how Lee Gayeon was deliberately asking what to say instead of why, and her lips twitched.
It was painfully awkward, the way she was pretending not to know.
“Well, uh... I got a hint in a dream or something...”
“One of my 112 prepped excuses will do. We'll say you used your skill to dive into the boss monster's mental world via a dream.”
“Uh, y-yeah.”
Seoya nodded, flustered out of her mind.
Lee Gayeon was thorough to a fault, as always.
“Anyway, the world's in total chaos right now... We were hoping for clues from that dungeon, but we came up empty. And worst of all...”
Lee Gayeon put on a grave expression.
“According to Go Heejae, it looks like the System observes and records our past, present, and future, just like some kind of logbook.”
“Ah.”
Seoya rolled her eyes awkwardly, realizing she meant that book from the library.
Yeah, that made sense from Go Heejae's perspective.
“Uh-huh, spot on.”
“Experts are working on decoding it now. Could be a prophecy book about the future.”
“Hmm...”
Seoya wasn't so sure. She'd read it fluently, but the experts might spend years chasing patterns.
Of course, it didn't seem helpful to her anyway, so she had zero interest in translating the whole thing...
Anomaly dungeons keep popping up. What if Earth just... ends up perishing like this?
In the end, Seoya let out a heavy sigh.
She'd gone all the way to the Greece dungeon, and it felt like they'd gained nothing major.
“Baby! You're home?!”
The front door flew open with a familiar shout, and Seoya looked up.
Baek Yena, dark circles hanging deep under her eyes, stared at Seoya with a gaze that looked ready to burst into tears any second.
“Unnie, hey.”
“How's your body! You feeling okay?!”
“Gayeon-unnie already checked me from head to toe.”
“Then I'll check you from A to Z.”
“Ah, geez.”
Seoya leaned back a little, eyeing Baek Yena's exhausted face.
“You got something tough going on?”
“Nah, just overwork... Way too much on my plate lately.”
“Shouldn't you be the one resting, unnie?”
“I'm fine. Every other hunter's in the same boat these days.”
But that only hardened Seoya's resolve.
At this rate, the hunters are gonna drop first.
She needed to start seriously pondering the higher world, and soon.
Back in her room, Seoya fired up the chat window.
Time to consult Jeong Sira.
Something clicked for Seoya at those words, and her mouth fell open slightly.
If there was no System, Earth would've perished immediately? Because of higher world intervention?
Yeah, that's my guess for now.
Then what about now?
Now, when it looked like the higher world was intervening more and more?
If the higher world's intervention in Earth's System keeps ramping up...
Seoya stared blankly into space and murmured.
“Earth might really perish...”
I have to sleep. I have to sleep. I have to sleep...
That night, before bed, Seoya even shouted into the air, “See you in the dream!”
She couldn't be sure the man would show up just because she slept.
And as the familiar lucid dream kicked in, Seoya realized with relief that she had her chance to talk to him.
Soon enough, the man's form shimmered into existence in the void.
“Got questions.”
The moment he appeared, Seoya unleashed the barrage she'd been dying to ask.
“How do we keep your world's beings from messing with ours? Can we talk them out of it? Can't you help? I get it now—Earth's in crisis.”
But the man, who'd answered so readily last time, stayed silent today.
Was he ignoring her again? Seoya stared straight into his eyes.
“...Something wrong?”
She sensed it immediately—something was off.
He, who always held a statue-like composure without a flicker of emotion, now gazed at her with what looked like pity.
The rare expressions he did show were usually disdain for her foolishness or exasperation at her words. This was the first time he'd looked this grave.
“You've come at the right moment... Still so young, weak, and stupid.”
Realizing young, weak, and stupid referred to her, Seoya shot him an incredulous look.
But even more absurd was how she was getting used to it...
The man spoke.
“I'm sorry.”
“What?”
“Couldn't change it. Couldn't stop it.”
With those cryptic words, his form began to fade away.
“Where are you going? Wait!”
Seoya shot to her feet, voice desperate, but he gave no sign he'd heard.
She stretched out with all her might, but grasping at a dissolving silhouette was futile, of course.
“But I'll help however I can. I'll give you power somehow. So don't worry.”
He looked down at her like she was some pitiful fool, eyebrows drooping, and said,
“My young and weak individual.”