The Hidden Page (4)

Team Leader Jung had been spiraling for the past several minutes.

System messages he could barely comprehend kept flooding in without pause.

The most shocking message of all was this:

“What the hell is going on?!” Team Leader Jung exploded. “They’ve only been inside the city for a few minutes! How did the curse vanish? And what the hell is a hidden boss?!”

He had sent only Jang Lee-hyun and Kim Min-jung into the city for one simple reason: to screw them over.

The bastards had embarrassed him. He wanted them to suffer for it. If things went south, he planned to rescue only Kim Min-jung. That would shut her up and stop her from talking back to him. As for the thorn in his side named Jang Lee-hyun, he could simply write it off as an “accident.”

He had done it before in his previous team—quietly disposing of a few insubordinate hunters under the guise of unavoidable casualties.

But the situation was twisting in ways he had never expected.

“T-Team Leader! Shouldn’t we head into the city right now?”

The other Z-Team members looked just as stunned. The clearance rate that had been frozen for ten long years was climbing at an alarming speed.

Anxiety rippled through the team. If the official report showed they had simply waited outside without contributing, disciplinary action was inevitable.

“He’s right!”

“We need to see what’s happening in there!”

“There hasn’t been a single transmission from them either! It might be too urgent for them to call for help!”

Only then did Team Leader Jung snap back to his senses.

“R-right! Move out! If there really is a hidden boss, both Section Chief Jang and Assistant Manager Kim could be in danger! They’ll need support! Hurry!”

“Orders received!”

“Orders received!”

Z-Team began sprinting in perfect formation. They were confident—after all, this was now a dungeon without the flute’s curse.

Even as they ran while activating their mobility gear, more system messages continued to appear.

“Damn it, damn it…! It’s all because of that bastard Jang Lee-hyun! Ever since that guy showed up…!”

Team Leader Jung was convinced every bit of this chaos was Jang Lee-hyun’s fault. Everything had started going wrong the moment that man appeared.

Then, at that exact moment—

“A new page? An epidemic?”

The fresh system message sharpened his focus. It wasn’t phase—it was page. A new clear condition had been added to the quest.

Sure enough, the updated objectives appeared.

And then—

Squeak! Squeak-squeak-squeak!

From the streets just before the outer wall, the shrill cries of rats suddenly echoed. …But the sound was far louder than expected.

“Everyone, prepare for combat!”

Team Leader Jung shouted urgently, his instincts screaming danger.

The moment the team members raised their weapons with tense expressions—

Squeak-squeak-squeak-squeak-squeeeak!

From the wooded areas surrounding the fields, from the ramparts, from the crevices between boulders, an overwhelming tide of rats poured out. No—erupted.

Each one was larger than a human forearm, pitch-black, and there were tens of thousands of them moving in unison. The sight was so overwhelming it looked like a black tsunami racing toward them.

“Rotten Rats! They’re Rotten Rats! Run for the outer wall immediately!”

Individually, a single Rotten Rat wasn’t particularly strong. One good slash would take it down. The real problem came after they died. The corrosive poison they released upon death was so potent it could melt steel.

But when they moved as a single collective?

It became a literal plague.

According to the manual, the moment five or more were spotted, immediate evacuation was mandatory…

“Get away! Get away from me!”

The Rotten Rats had already formed a perfect encirclement around Z-Team.

“Damn it!”

“Die!”

Flashes of light erupted. Explosions thundered.

The team members unleashed every skill they had to shake the horde off. In an instant, over a hundred rats died—but that only provoked the rest.

Far more rats poured in to replace the fallen.

“N-no…!”

Z-Team was completely swallowed by the black tsunami.

Team Leader Jung flailed desperately until the very end, screaming.

“Jang Lee-hyun! Jang Lee-hyun! This is all because of you… uuurk!”

But he, too, sank beneath the tide.

* * *

There were exactly sixteen curse casters living hidden in the city’s underground sewers. They were all childhood friends ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠born and raised in the same hometown.

■■ was one of them.

‘The soul link with ■■■■ has been severed. I was the closest to that position. That means I’m most likely the next target…’

In the pitch-black sewer where not a single ray of light reached, ■■ layered multiple curses she had learned from her mentor.

Sound wave, detection, specification, tracking, observation, persistence…

They were tiny curses individually, but when combined with precise calculation like puzzle pieces, they formed a bizarre new curse.

It was a detection curse she had created and refined alone recently.

Whoosh!

Using the heightened senses granted by her curse, ■■ scanned her surroundings. She didn’t forget to suppress her presence.

『Is everyone safe? Can anyone see anything?』

『Nothing here.』

『Same on my end.』

『Nothing here either.』

『Everyone respond once.』

『I’m still fine.』

『Me too.』

The friends continued their soul-linked conversation until they noticed something strange.

『I can’t hear ■’s response. ■? Answer me, ■!』

『……』

『Damn it.』

『That rat-like bastard. Where the hell did he go?』

■■ bit her lower lip hard.

Another soul link had been cut.

『That’s the fourth one already! Where are they hiding…』

『■■■■? Shit, another one!』

A chill ran down ■■’s spine.

The fact that the soul link was severed mid-conversation meant the friend had been taken out before they even noticed an outsider’s presence.

Just as ■■ was about to speak—

Splash.

A very light footstep echoed from far away.

‘It’s here!’

Her mind snapped into focus. She briefly considered calling her friends through the soul link but decided against it.

‘No. It’s better to catch it first. They still don’t know I’ve noticed them.’

She lowered her presence even further and moved closer…

“I was wondering how you kept finding my presence. So you scatter random bait curses around the area and then track and observe anything that gets caught? Interesting.”

■■’s spine froze solid.

The voice that slithered into her ear was icy cold. Like a ghost.

She whirled around and tried to unleash her curses, but—

Grab!

Jang Lee-hyun’s hand shot out of the darkness faster and clamped over her face.

“Thanks to you, I learned something useful. Now just rest eas—”

Suddenly, a magic circle spun into existence above Jang Lee-hyun’s head.

‘Got him!’

■■, who had willingly become bait, cheered inwardly. Dozens of layered curse formulas merged and poured down like a waterfall.

■■ knocked Jang Lee-hyun’s hand aside and created maximum distance.

“Hah! I don’t know what trick you used to hide your presence until now, but there’s no way you can withstand this many curses at once and still be fi… ne…?”

She had expected him to collapse into the filth under the weight of dozens of curses.

But her voice trailed off.

“This is pretty interesting in its own way.”

The chains made of curses were rattling.

Bang!

The curse chains shattered. Far too easily.

“……!”

“You shaped the curses into ring forms and linked them together into long chains, then wrapped the opponent up to restrain them. Not bad. All of you casters are quite skilled. I’m learning a lot.”

“How… how is this possible…?”

■■’s voice trembled.

Jang Lee-hyun shrugged.

“My curse resistance happens to be pretty high.”

He hurled the axe in his hand at the curse caster.

Whirr!

She ducked desperately to avoid it, but—

Swish—

Grab.

Jang Lee-hyun’s hand once again covered her face. This time she never even got the chance to activate another curse.

His lightning had already pierced deep into her body, forcibly shutting down her magic circuits.

Crackle!

“Just sleep for a while. By the time you wake up, everything will be over.”

■■ never got the chance to reply. Her vision blurred, and the blow to the back of her head knocked her unconscious.

Thud!

* * *

Thump.

Jang Lee-hyun clicked his tongue lightly as he looked at the unconscious curse caster now cradled in his arms. The hood she had pulled low flipped back, revealing her face.

It was a young girl who looked no older than fifteen.

No matter how they were classified as “monsters,” seeing the face of a minor made him hesitate to strike.

“So the missing children were actually the hidden boss and its minions. What kind of messed-up fairy tale is this?”

He clicked his tongue again.

“When you think about it, all the citizens were probably their own parents and relatives. How can they harbor this much hostility…? Is this also because of that?”

He didn’t know the exact relationship between the flute player and the children.

But he could roughly guess the truth.

「It’s obvious. The flute player became the only friend to children who were disappointed by greedy adults, and now they’re taking revenge for his unjust death… Something like that.」

Sun Wukong grinned from atop Jang Lee-hyun’s head.

「But that’s not what you’re really interested in, is it?」

“Correct. Completing all clear conditions at 100% is the priority. And—”

Jang Lee-hyun smiled faintly at the message that had just appeared before him.

“This is what matters most.”

Through the curses of these casters, Jang Lee-hyun was able to glimpse fragments of Sun Wukong’s myth. Just like the flute’s curse, all of their curses were connected.

If his ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠prediction was correct, the owner of this fragment was…

‘A piece that must not be missing if I want to complete Sun Wukong’s myth. An absolutely necessary fragment.’

It was also the key item that would evolve his nearly immune S-rank curse resistance into Perfect Immunity.

This was exactly why he had left Kim Min-jung and Z-Team above ground and entered the sinkhole alone.

「You must find it. Do not miss it.」

“Of course.”

Since this fragment was precious to Sun Wukong as well, his voice was unusually serious.

Jang Lee-hyun nodded and activated the Fiery Golden Eyes.

Whoosh!

With the Fiery Golden Eyes active, the entire layout of the sewer was as clear to him as if it were mapped inside his head. The curse casters he had knocked out earlier had only had their magic sealed and were gathered safely in one place, so there was no need to worry.

‘I’ll keep moving until only the hidden boss remains.’

Swish!

Jang Lee-hyun moved again. The one-legged goblin prowled through the darkness.

* * *

“Damn it… to be defeated by an outsider…!”

Occasionally, a curse caster would detect Jang Lee-hyun’s presence.

Each time, a chill ran down his spine, but—

—he simply smiled.

New stimulation had always been the best foundation for growth.

‘Were there always this many different kinds of curses? There are so many I’ve never seen before.’

‘The techniques are incredibly diverse too. It would have been disastrous if they had all gathered in one place. Well, thanks to that, I’ve gained even more.’

In the process, even the Rotten Rats that ruled the sewers were consecutively obliterated by lightning. On the surface they were beings of terror to citizens and hunters alike, but to Jang Lee-hyun they posed no threat whatsoever.

Inside this sewer, Jang Lee-hyun was practically invincible.

‘Still, they’re impressive. To grow this much without a proper teacher. Their teamwork too… it really reminds me of Cheongroe.’

By the time those mixed feelings arose, Jang Lee-hyun had already subdued every single curse caster and reached the center of the sewer where the hidden boss awaited.

A circular clearing so vast it was hard to believe it existed underground.

The boss stood right in the middle.

It, too, had realized that all its comrades’ soul links had been severed.

‘I’ll end it in one strike.’

The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠moment it showed an opening—

Ding!

In the darkness, Jang Lee-hyun lifted his head.

‘It’s begun.’

It was the moment he had expected, yet he still felt a twinge of worry for Kim Min-jung. Even so, he wasn’t truly concerned.

If it was the Kim Min-jung he knew, she would handle it just fine.

Therefore—

‘Shall we start collecting it? Sa Oh-jeong’s fragment.’