Into the Dungeon (3)
I’d come to the factory after a long time away.
From far off, Karki came running toward me.
“Boss!!!”
He wagged his whole body like a puppy that had just seen its owner.
“You’ve been doing well?”
“Yup! Last week, professor even praised me! Said I’m super smart!”
Lately, Karki had been attending night classes at a university.
While receiving structured education there, he’d been learning new things about hunter equipment.
He’d always been sharp, with a hunger to learn, so he looked genuinely happy these days.
“Oh, right! Wait, what’d the prof tell me?”
Karki tilted his head.
“He asked if I wanted to try grad school, like, maybe? Said he wanted me to help with his business and his research. If I do that, I can write papers too, and anyway, it sounds amazing!”
“……”
A hero wasn’t some big, fancy thing.
When a life-or-death crisis was staring you in the face, wasn’t the real hero the one who reached out and saved a comrade who’d been swallowed by the devil’s whisper?
“Boss! Should I do grad school?”
“Don’t.”
“Huh?”
“I said don’t do it.”
“Yup! Got it, Boss!”
With that reply, Karki grinned brightly and shot a hand up into the air.
“Oh, right! Wait!”
Then, after glancing around to make sure nobody was listening, he leaned in and whispered into my ear.
“P3 finished.”
The name of the third suit Karki had invented.
P2 had been struck by lightning and burned to ash during my fight with Go Ju-hun last time.
Lunch had only just ended, and I could see workers heading toward the prefabricated building with instant coffee in one hand and cigarettes in the other.
That was the lounge I’d recently made for them.
I’d put in sofas they could actually stretch out on, so they could take naps if they wanted.
And the bookshelves lining the walls were packed with used books.
Adult magazines, comics, martial arts novels, and the like.
Perfect for killing time.
Mixed in with them were old classics, humanities books, and specialized magazines on hunter equipment.
It was intentional.
I’d arranged it so that once the easy stuff ran out, their hands would naturally drift to the rest.
Through the window, I could see workers lying back on the sofas.
Every last one of them had a book open.
Karki followed my gaze and smiled with obvious satisfaction.
“Boss. Everybody loves it. Even Uncle Kim Chun-bae and Professor Jang don’t go to the lottery shop anymore. When they clock out, they head straight there!”
Until not long ago, they’d been spending each day with no dream and no hope.
Most of them had been drowning in booze and gambling, so it was only natural that reading was miles outside their usual world.
I wanted to help them improve, even if only a little, and keep growing steadily.
Just as planned.
After taking over the factory, my own kingdom had been taking shape.
If possible, I didn’t just want Factory 4.
I wanted the entire Ilsan Hunter Industrial Complex.
Nothing impossible about that.
Once I stepped outside the narrow field of vision that had once been fixed on money alone, my ambitions only grew larger.
In this life, I wasn’t going to be the only one living well.
I’m taking care of the people around me too.
With that solitary vow in my heart, I walked with Karki toward the container.
When I opened the steel door, a dust-covered space came into view.
This was where Karki’s new inventions were born every time.
This place needs an upgrade too.
I couldn’t keep burying a genius scientist in some shabby little hole like this forever.
“Karki. I’ll set up a private lab for you soon.”
“Eh? This place is fine too. Heehee.”
Karki whistled as he headed for the center of the room.
There, a mannequin stood draped in purple cloth.
“Noooow…… prepare yourself!”
“Ta-da!”
Karki yanked the cloth away.
My lips parted slightly.
It was the most polished design he’d made so far.
Before, he’d stitched together scraps of brown dragon hide left over from the factory, making it look almost like rags.
This time, it was a clean purple mask with no visible seams at all.
“I bought the entire Bronze Knight material, just like Boss told me!”
I had given him instructions beforehand.
Don’t skimp on the money when it came to suit development.
I lifted a hand and touched the mask.
P2 had rough inner surfaces because of the seams, and it hadn’t felt good to wear.
But this one was different.
“Smooth.”
What pleased me most of all was this:
“At last, the P’s gone.”
“Right? Boss said it looked tacky!”
The cosplay outfit that looked like it belonged in some children’s hero show had improved a lot.
On the suit’s chest was an inverted star.
In other words, an inverted pentagram.
“What’s this?”
“It’s shaped after Algol!”
Algol was Beta Persei, and its name meant “the demon.”
Perseus was actually more famous for the monster he slew than for himself.
That monster was Medusa.
Medusa, the very symbol of terror, hid inside the constellation of a hero and radiated her presence there.
That was Algol, Medusa’s head.
In any case, I liked the inverted star on the chest much better than the P.
“Put it on already, Boss!”
Karki stripped the suit off the mannequin.
The first suit, P1, had been a prototype.
It had been closer to armor than a suit.
It was too heavy, and there were way too many useless features.
P2 had improved in practicality, but aesthetic-wise it had been a complete bust.
And now, at last.
I put on the suit and looked at myself in the full-length mirror.
“Now I finally look like a hero.”
Seeing a suit-up that actually looked the part made my chest swell a little.
I ran my hand over my arms and thighs.
Unlike the snug mask, the outer layer had a rough, uneven texture.
There were even cracks here and there around the elbows and knees.
“This is Bronze Knight too? Looks like a defective product.”
“The body’s a Chinese knockoff.”
Karki’s shoulders slumped.
“Bronze Knight is so rare I couldn’t get enough of it! I only managed to buy the mask on the black market, and even that was crazy expensive.”
Bronze Knight was a costly raw material on the market.
Even then, it was so rare that you could only get it in tiny amounts.
There wasn’t nearly enough material to make the entire body out of Bronze Knight.
Karki let out a long sigh.
“Would be nice if we had a whole mountain of raw material.”
He muttered on, continuing his train of thought.
“If there’s somethin’ better than Bronze, even a little bit, that’d be even better.”
There were higher grades than Bronze Knight.
Silver Knight and Gold Knight, the silver and gold dragons, existed too, but even if you had the money, getting your hands on them was as hard as plucking a star from the sky.
And then there was the jet-black dragon.
Dark Knight was, by all accounts, impossible for humans to obtain through normal means.
“Any way around it, Boss?”
A hero’s suit was as good as his life.
It wasn’t just for looking cool.
Upgraded equipment was directly tied to my safety.
While I was turning it over in my head, something in my mind flashed.
What day is it today?
I checked the year and date.
Then I nodded.
“I’ll get it somehow.”
“Oh. How?”
“I’ll leave it to the Purple Devil……”
I lowered my stance in front of the mirror.
Sunlight slipping in through the window lit up the purple costume.
“There’s nothing I can’t solve.”
It was three days before dungeon entry.
“Your next session is the mental fortitude class. Everyone shower and gather in the lecture hall.”
After finishing physical training, I wiped the sweat from my body.
“Hah, huff……”
Trying to steady my ragged breathing, I gulped down a whole bottle of water.
As always, it had been one brutal round of training after another.
Flexibility drills, high-intensity weight training, extreme intervals, mana cultivation methods, and more.
It was all training meant to build the basic abilities a hunter needed.
Before work, I’d wake up before dawn and run my own private regimen.
Judgment of the Superhuman practice, plus basic conditioning through mana marathons.
It was twice as hard as what other people went through.
But I have to do it.
I didn’t have any special talent as an Awakened.
I’d managed, by sheer luck, to use hero abilities, but even those came with limits.
If I wanted to stand on my own without leaning on a talent, then blood-soaked effort was mandatory.
“Hah……”
I staggered and leaned against the wall in the hallway.
Sleep hit me like a wave.
Maybe I’d pushed myself too hard by cutting down on sleep and grinding without a break.
I closed my eyes and waited for the dizziness to pass.
“Are you all right?”
At the sound of a voice, I lifted my heavy eyelids.
Instructor Nike was standing there.
“Just a little dizzy.”
“I see. Here, drink this.”
Nike handed me something.
It was a liquid with a faint fluorescent glow.
“This is……”
“A new potion. It’s also a fresh product from Bihwa Pharmaceuticals.”
Bihwa was a major corporation that stood shoulder to shoulder with Seosan.
At present, my factory was also part of Seosan’s third-tier subcontracting chain.
I looked down at the swaying liquid.
Dio Guild also received support from Seosan.
If it’s Bihwa, aren’t they Seosan’s rival?
It didn’t make sense at first glance.
Besides, potions were usually blue or red.
Fluorescent green……
I took the bottle and shook it lightly.
“I’ve never seen one like this before.”
“That’s because it’s new. Go on, drink it down. It’ll work.”
I took a sip of the potion.
The liquid slid down my throat.
In an instant, my eyes snapped wide open.
Mana surged through my entire body.
“How is it?”
“Sure enough, it’s strong. How much do I owe you?”
Potions were expensive products.
Instructor Nike had always been kind to the interns, but that didn’t mean I could accept material benefits for free.
Nike tapped my shoulder.
“Forget it. You’re the intern who works the hardest, Hunter Choi Yongki, so I’m giving it to you because I thought you deserved it. You’re going into the dungeon tomorrow, right?”
“Yes.”
“Take care of yourself, then. The world beyond the Gate is dangerous. I’ll be watching over you from here on out.”
With a kind smile, he disappeared down the hallway.
What he’d said was ordinary enough.
And yet it sounds strangely loaded.
I looked down at the empty potion bottle.
It was, indeed, a new potion.
But from my perspective, it wasn’t new at all.
I’d already seen it in my previous life.
This fluorescent potion……
Along with healing wounds, it had one other function.
Tracking.
With a special device, you could locate the position of whoever had consumed the potion for twenty-four hours.
In other words, they were trying to keep tabs on me.
Why?
I looked at Instructor Nike’s suspicious retreating back.
Of course, I also knew how to evade tracking.
I shoved the bottle in my hand into the trash can.
“Fine. Let’s see who’s watching who.”
“Kids. The more your mind starts to crack, the calmer you need to be. The instant you start hyperventilating or get hit by a panic attack, it’s over! You hear me?”
The instructor who ran the class in a rough, casual tone used the call sign Deimos, the god of fear.
Right after such grueling training, everybody looked exhausted.
Lee Ji-jun yawned so wide it looked like his jaw might split open, and Ha Se-na’s eyes were already starting to droop shut.
Bang Su-hwan was nodding off openly.
I’d recovered physically thanks to the potion, but a thin layer of fatigue still lingered in my body.
Just as my eyelids began to sink again—
Wiiiiiing!
A siren rang out across the entire building.
Ping! Ping!! Ping!!!
Phones began blaring everywhere, and emergency disaster alerts flooded in.
[Ruins-class appearance!] A Gate has opened in the Gangnam area. Nearby residents, please evacuate immediately.
I stared at the alert in disbelief.
It was a disaster two whole tiers higher than the Big Lava incident.
Instructor Deimos hurriedly pulled out a radio and checked the situation.
“What? A Multi Gate has appeared?”
A Multi Gate meant multiple Gates opening simultaneously.
Originally, the information team had predicted only a single Gate in Gangnam, opening at around 10:00 a.m. tomorrow.
Deimos lifted his head.
“The Hunter Association’s requested support. They’re asking each guild to send help. Tch. Looks like our Dio Guild has to join the fight too.”
Gates appeared almost every day.
And with them came monsters in numbers too large to count.
Which meant there was always a shortage of manpower.
“If we don’t close the Gate in time…… you all know what happens, right?”
Deimos wore a grave expression.
If monsters started pouring out from multiple Gates, devastating damage was a foregone conclusion.
“Anyway, you kids just prepare yourselves for tomorrow’s Gate. I’ve got to go now. Dismissed!”
The Gate opening tomorrow was a crisis-class course, harmless enough for interns to enter.
Deimos stacked his books on the podium.
Then the door opened.
“Oh? Team Leader.”
Lee Yu-seol walked in and swept the classroom with a hard, cutting look.
Her eyes met mine.
Lee Yu-seol knew exactly who I was, but given the situation, she pretended not to.
“What’s going on here?”
“Send these six new recruits out too.”
“What? They’re still rookies……”
“Enough talk. Follow me!”
Lee Yu-seol shouted and stormed back out.
Deimos scratched his head vigorously.
“Kids, you heard her. You’re all being deployed too.”
At the sudden development, nobody moved right away. Everyone just glanced around in confusion, and Deimos barked again.
“What are you all standing there for? Gear up and wait on the first floor. Move it!”
“Move it!”
The new hunters sprang out of their seats like coiled springs and rushed off in a stampede.
“A Multi Gate, of all things……”
“There’s no way they’d send the interns in, right?”
Everyone looked lost, thrown off by the unexpected turn of events.
Among them, I alone smiled inwardly.
So it’s finally here.
The Gangnam Station Multi Gate incident.
The event where the dungeon’s dragon first appeared, a disaster worth going down in history.