The Unintended Success
“W-we have to fight now!”
“…What did you say?”
“Before Ginteon digests those people! We have to fight now!”
“…Excuse me?”
“……What?”
“Those people! They’ve been swallowed into Ginteon’s stomach!”
The survivors were thrown into a panic by Jung Shin-woo’s desperate shout. “Fight now? There are only six of us—no, five, excluding you—left!”
“What do you mean they were swallowed into Ginteon’s stomach?”
“I don’t have time to explain everything right now, but… if it’s now, we can beat the boss!”
“What kind of…”
But Jung Shin-woo was just a useless F-class hunter. Hearing his words, the S-class hunters, including Pi Yuri, couldn’t easily bring themselves to move. Just then, Kim Yeo-won fired a shot at the boss’s head. Cracks appeared on Ginteon’s skin, which had remained unblemished until now.
“…It seems he wasn’t wrong. Yuri. We have to fight now.”
“You—I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m definitely going to hear the full story later.”
There was no room for doubt anymore. The six remaining hunters began to assault the boss once again. The giants moved, and the boss attacked the hunters. But just as Jung Shin-woo had said, its power had clearly diminished. It was still overwhelming, but they fought with their lives on the line.
‘To think a similar dungeon would appear again… No, in a way, it’s plausible. Low-level dungeons like goblin nests appear several times a year.’
Jung Shin-woo remained alone on the altar, watching the battle and thinking. As an F-class, he was of no use anyway, so he had no choice but to stay behind. Instead, he pondered this dungeon and the strangely ragtag party.
‘Shin Jiwoo definitely knew. There’s no way he put together a party like this without a plan.’
The name of this dungeon was GN-493688, The Temple of the Last Ginteon. And a dungeon similar to this had existed in the past. Of course, Jung Shin-woo hadn’t experienced it himself. He had merely seen the records left in ancient history. It was so old that it had been forgotten in the modern era.
It was the era immediately following the Korean War. It was when gates and hunters first appeared. It was an S-class dungeon that, like GN-493688, went by the name "Giant Temple." Back then, the management system wasn’t as established as it was today. The name "Giant Temple" and the related records were only organized much later. And because of that, even those were not entirely accurate. They were based solely on the memories of surviving hunters.
Back then, dungeon clearing was a life-or-death endeavor. There was no way to confirm in advance if it was an E-class or an S-class. When a gate appeared, they simply poured in their forces. Then, the deployed hunters would enter and confirm the danger of the dungeon themselves. If it was E-class, they were lucky, but it could have been S-class. It was truly a life-risking expedition.
The "Giant Temple" was one of those S-class dungeons. And the records related to it could only be preserved through the memory of the [Dignified Patriarch]. That was because the [Dignified Patriarch] was the only survivor of the "Giant Temple."
‘According to the records of the past "Giant Temple," the [Dignified Patriarch] went through the exact same situation.’
It was said that at that time, all of the [Dignified Patriarch]’s party members were terrified and ran out the door. However, the [Dignified Patriarch], convinced it was a trap, remained alone on the altar. And thinking he was going to die anyway, he decided to struggle to the end and fought the boss alone. But for some reason, Ginteon had been weakened. After a desperate battle that lasted over six hours, he had barely managed to kill Ginteon.
The [Dignified Patriarch] had said that Ginteon’s belly grew fuller every time his companions ran out the door one by one. Perhaps the place his companions ran to, thinking it was an escape route, was actually Ginteon’s stomach. And he speculated that Ginteon had become sluggish as it grew full.
There was no way to verify it. It had ended as a short record. Moreover, even that record was gathering dust in a corner of the Hunter Association’s archives. Only someone like Jung Shin-woo would look for such old records.
The moment he arrived in the boss room, information about the 1960s "Giant Temple" had surfaced in Jung Shin-woo’s mind. He hadn’t thought of it at first because it had been quite a while since he read that story. It was also a heavily damaged record, containing only a few lines of what the [Dignified Patriarch] had said at the time.
‘If it was Assistant Manager Shin Jiwoo, he would have obviously grasped it. But why didn’t he tell us?’
Jung Shin-woo was certain that Shin Jiwoo must have read that record as well. He was the one who discovered how to identify magic mines that even experts couldn’t find. It was certain that he had read everything from ancient documents to modern records without omission. But if that was the case, the reason he didn’t inform the party despite anticipating the nature of this dungeon was—
‘Because someone must be sacrificed to clear Ginteon.’
Ginteon was so strong that even a decent party couldn’t kill it in its full state. On top of that, there would have been no budget due to two consecutive failures. In such a situation, he couldn’t have told the party entering the raid, “One of you must sacrifice yourself to clear the boss.”
‘…No way. Is that why he formed the party like this!’
When he thought that far, goosebumps broke out all over Jung Shin-woo’s body. Finally, he understood the intention of Shin Jiwoo, who had formed this ragtag party. Excluding the S-class hunters, most of the other party members were hunters whose skills or character were lacking compared to their rank. Hunters who had no sense of duty and were only interested in authority or making money. If they were such hunters, it was natural for them to run out to save themselves in a situation like the one just now.
The light shining on the altar was a trick. It was merely a device to instill fear in people and make them run outside—no, into Ginteon’s mouth. Shin Jiwoo had prepared people who would be deceived by that and run away selfishly. People who would self-destruct without him having to ask for a sacrifice. Seeing them scrambling to save themselves earlier, it was clear.
‘Just what kind of person is Assistant Manager Shin Jiwoo…?’
He was beyond capable; he was a terrifying existence. He even wondered if he might be a psychopath. To set up such a meticulous plan for the sake of clearing this absurd dungeon. By sacrificing hunters who were essentially useless, he saved the budget and cleared the dungeon. He had even composed the party with just enough power to reach the boss room.
When he thought that far, the temple began to collapse. They had cleared Ginteon. The giant, which had been so massive it touched the sky, was cracking all over its body and crumbling down.
“Haa… haa… It really did get weaker.”
“Still, it was dangerous. We cleared it by the skin of our teeth.”
“To think it was actually possible… Who the hell are you? How are you F-class…”
The hunters who finished the raid were covered in blood. Lee Jiyoo was still busy healing the party members. But fortunately, no one had lost their life.
———♬
“Suddenly, the singing…”
As the giants collapsed, a song of unknown meaning flowed out from the temple. A bizarre melody echoed through the crumbling temple.
“…Let’s get out of here quickly. If we stay any longer, we’ll be crushed to death by these stones.”
“Yeah. We can’t die in such an absurd way after clearing it!”
A blue gate tore through space and formed above the altar. It was an escape gate created upon clearing a dungeon. Although they had only spent about a day in the dungeon, it felt like they had spent a very long time here.
“I’ll hear the details after we get out. Mr. Jung Shin-woo.”
Kim Yeo-won said to Jung Shin-woo while they passed through the gate one by one. Perhaps because she had used many high-recoil skills, her shoulder was dislocated.
“Y-yes.”
Jung Shin-woo answered awkwardly and took a step toward the gate. And before escaping, he turned his head for a moment to capture the scene of the collapsing temple. It might become an S-class dungeon that he could never enter again. The sight of giant stones falling from the sky was, for some reason, awe-inspiring.
Whoosh—
With a strange sense of lingering regret and liberation in his heart, Jung Shin-woo crossed the gate.
***
“Ah, this is the life.”
After getting off work late at night, I set up the chicken I’d picked up on the way and sat on the floor under the sofa. Every day after work, I had to sneak in, watching out for my younger sister. But today, I was alone. I could turn up the volume as much as I wanted and eat chicken without a care in the world!
“Oh, wait. I need to go dump the water.”
I forgot to dump the liquid from the pickled radish. While I was at it, I should go dump the water from the spicy fire noodles, too. I had been craving this combination so much. I mixed the fire noodles skillfully. Coming home after overtime, having a beer with chicken, and watching Netflix—it was the life.
Speaking of "the life," I hadn’t even been able to date properly until now. For one, I couldn’t bring a girlfriend home because I lived with my younger sister and older sister at my age. Even if I miraculously had a "thing" with someone, they would somehow find out and interfere. Thinking about it, it’s infuriating. They even ruined my love life. Is it because of my face, you ask? No. I’m actually quite decent-looking. …I’m serious.
“Whatever. It’s over anyway. Hahahaha!”
It didn’t matter what happened. Because the moment I quit, I was leaving for the land of freedom, America! Goodbye, office life! Goodbye, Assistant Manager Kim! Goodbye to the damn family and my sisters! It was filthy being with you, and let’s never meet again!
“To think quitting is this good.”
Soon, the results of the dungeon raid would come out, and my resignation would be decided. My guess was that the party would make an emergency escape around 2 or 3 AM. Considering the party’s power, they would reach the boss room by that time. If Lee Jiyoo was in an environment where she could use her escape skill immediately, they would come out right away. If it was later than that, it would probably mean they were in a situation where escape was impossible.
“Hmm.”
If escape was impossible, the party would essentially be wiped out. My mother and sister would die.
“Come to think of it, I ate chicken a while ago.”
I thought it had been a long time since I ate chicken, but I had eaten it recently. After the magic mine incident, my sister had bought it to get magic stones. Of course, I knew it was a bribe, but I couldn’t even say thank you. She was someone who had a fit just seeing chicken, so she had bought two whole chickens.
“Slurp.”
For some reason, I didn’t feel like reaching for the chicken, so I just grabbed the fire noodles. The spicy, savory fire noodles went down well. “Wait, this is chicken too.” What? Isn’t fire noodles chicken? Then was there any reason I couldn’t eat the chicken? Thinking that, the chicken started looking delicious again.
Forget my sister. I was able to devour the chicken while watching a movie.
“The news is late…”
And as more time passed and it was well past midnight, the news about the dungeon hadn’t been updated, unlike my expectations. Did it mean escape was impossible?
“I don’t know. I should just try to set my mind at ease…”
Being anxious was only bad for my health. The results would come out by tomorrow morning at the latest. I turned off the TV and closed my eyes. Contrary to my thought that I would fall asleep soon, I tossed and turned for quite a while. For some reason, I felt afraid of tomorrow morning coming.
And after barely getting a nap, the next morning. Information about GN-493688 was piled up like a mountain.
“Failure… If they had failed, there wouldn’t be this much information—wait, raid success?!?”
My groggy mind cleared in an instant. As soon as I saw the raid results, my mind snapped to attention.
“What kind of nonsense is this, is it a bug? A bug? A bug?!?!?!”
This damn phone. Laptop. I should have replaced them sooner. I washed up roughly and ran straight to the company. I immediately turned on my office computer and opened the GN-493688 information.
“No! Why! Raid! Success! Is it! Showing! You crazy! Bastard!”
Bang- bang- bang-
Now the company computer was acting up, too. I kicked the tower like a madman. It looked as if the computer tower was saying, ‘P-please, spare me…,’ but then do your job properly! Does it make sense that this was cleared!
“No, the IT team isn’t doing their job properly.”
I called the IT team’s duty officer.
-H-hello…
“What are you doing! The dungeon management system is completely broken right now!!”
-Y-yes?!
The IT duty officer was startled, as if he had been dozing off.
-I-I’ll take a look.
And through the phone, I heard the sound of him typing on a keyboard in a hurry. The IT staff member’s subsequent answer was:
-A-Assistant Manager Shin Jiwoo. I’m sorry, but there’s no problem at all.
“What did you say?”
-I said there’s no problem. With the dungeon management system.
“How does that make sense!?! It says GN-493688 has been cleared right now!”
-I think it’s correct that it was cleared? Information has been coming in from the field for an hour now.
“No, what kind of nonsense is thaaaaat!!!!!”
Why are you like this from the morning… The IT staff member, muttering to himself, hung up the phone just like that. He would probably go back to slumping over his desk and sleeping. But I couldn’t sleep right now.
“My plane ticket!!!”
A scream echoed through the quiet morning office.