The Harem-Ruling Newbie Awakens in the Dungeon
Kang-jun got up early in the morning. Hye-mi was also awake from the first rays of dawn and took care of him as if it were her own duty. She even slipped on her slippers before seeing him off at the entrance. Wang Zixu, who had been woken up as well, was wandering around near the entrance.
"Please be careful, Senior."
"Yeah, don't worry about me."
Kang-jun flicked his wrist dismissively, as if telling him to go inside quickly because it was cold, and turned his body. Hye-mi stood there with her arms crossed, shivering, jumping in place until he disappeared from sight.
6:10 AM. The entire surroundings were still pitch black like night. The solitary streetlight casting a glow over him in that darkness was the only light.
It seems the plot has him working manual labor and filming in the smut novel. Kang-jun suddenly realized that thought and let out a faint chuckle. He hadn't written the novel with any such intention, yet the plot had rolled out in an oddly natural way. …It was probably because of his personality.
If you want to get strong, you have no choice. Just like in any game, you need manual labor—repetitive tasks—to grow stronger. Here too, repetitive tasks were necessary. Or rather, isn't that true for life itself? Life is nothing but endless loops, like a hamster on a wheel.
While lost in these random thoughts, Kang-jun had already boarded the train. Clack-clack. The train was moving. The passengers swayed lightly left and right with expressionless faces. Kang-jun glanced at them and thought that his own expression probably looked similar.
Kang-jun got off in the 44th Zone. Almost no one got off there. Who would want to head to work in a zone that had already gone to hell? If anyone was going, it had to be someone handling work related to the labyrinth team.
He checked his phone screen again. It was 7 AM. He wiped the frost-covered screen with his thumb, then shoved the phone into his pocket. The route was already fully memorized in his head. He walked down the lonely street where even the neon signs were dark. Because of the level-1 evacuation order, there was not a single person on the streets. Only the occasional car sped past.
After walking for about ten minutes, Kang-jun spotted a light in the distance. It was the labyrinth team. It seemed all the idiots who smelled money from across the country had gathered. Judging by the visible numbers alone, the team size easily exceeded ten fingers.
Kang-jun scanned them and noticed a familiar emblem. It was the secret mark of the 41st Branch. There were only three of them. The meeting time was still far away, and there were clearly many members yet to arrive.
"Who…?"
"It's Lee Kang-jun."
"Oh, Lee Kang-jun? I've heard a lot about you."
A man with sharp eyes extended his hand. Of course Kang-jun didn't know him, but he didn't refuse the handshake.
‘This bastard…’
The moment he clasped hands, a nerve battle began. It was a power struggle. Unless the other party was a complete bastard, they wouldn't start such things right from the first meeting. In other words, the opponent was definitely a complete bastard.
Of course Kang-jun had no intention of losing in this nerve battle, so he gladly engaged in the power struggle. The opponent's relaxed expression cracked slightly. It was more formidable than he thought.
"224th batch, right…?"
"Yeah. Which side are you on?"
"A bit more senior than you. 211th batch."
By batch numbers, the opponent was three years ahead. He had completed his first awakening, yet his mana reserves were decent. Of course, that wouldn't make much difference against Kang-jun, but still.
Even if they cycled mana as much as they wanted, it was almost impossible to reach 20 mana points after only three years. Only if they were true prodigies would it be different.
"What is your name, senior?"
"Wang Gang."
"Wang Senior, huh?"
Kang-jun smiled leisurely. One of the men watching the scene snapped, "Stop messing with the newbie already." Wang Gang seemed to seize the moment and pulled his hand back, leaving. It seemed he wanted to save face at least.
"I'm Kagul."
"Yeah, nice to meet you. Senior Kagul."
The man named Kagul seemed to be from a different race originally. Of course, he didn't ask. It wasn't particularly necessary.
"This side is Abdul Rahim."
The man's name was Abdul Rahim, and he looked partially Middle Eastern. His thick double eyelids made him look somewhat sensual.
"Why isn't the woman coming? All there is now are a bunch of shitty men."
Wang Gang grumbled like that. Kang-jun agreed with him. Still, they had to hole up in the labyrinth for days, and he didn't want to just rub shoulders with these shady men.
At that moment, two people arrived at the same time. One was a man in his late thirties, and the other a woman in her early thirties. Wang Gang had gotten what he wanted, but his expression wasn't exactly good. It seemed their relationship wasn't great.
"Four of us already. So we just need two more?"
The man's voice was familiar. He must be the team leader. He was large, muscular, and had particularly sharp eyes that looked intelligent. He looked perfect for a guard. As if to prove it, he carried a circular shield on his back.
The woman had a sharp, angular jawline and an imposing look. She was exactly the kind of hysterical female salesperson people usually described. Her gaze sweeping over Kang-jun carried a hidden meaning. He seemed to understand her personality.
"Have you introduced yourselves?"
"We did."
Actually, the others had greeted each other and exchanged pleasantries a couple of times already. The team leader extended his hand to Kang-jun, who shook it politely.
"Lee Kang-jun, right?"
"Yeah."
"I'm the team leader, Rakunda."
"Nice to meet you, Team Leader Rakunda."
It was the female salesperson's turn now. Her voice, like her appearance, was sharp.
"Shigemori Ayumi. Nice to meet you, Kang-jun."
"You can call me Kang-jun."
"You can call me Ayumi too."
After the introductions, two more people arrived in succession. Again, one man and one woman. Both looked around Kang-jun's age. The man introduced himself as Kane, and the woman as Camilla.
"Well then, are we all here?"
The team leader counted them off with his fingers. One, two, three, four… pointing at himself last, the total became eight. It wasn't many. For a level-2 labyrinth, it was usually over ten people. But he had heard they gathered this many in a hurry.
Before entering the labyrinth, the team leader explained the rules to them.
"As you know, this is a newly created labyrinth. Naturally, we don't know what's inside or the routes. We'll need to be extra focused."
He emphasized by raising his index finger.
"Never put your teammates in danger. And never trip them up. It would be better to just die gracefully. That way is more helpful."
"Any rookie who dies is an idiot."
Wang Gang looked at Kang-jun and grinned. It seemed he was still sulking from earlier and hadn't calmed down yet.
Before entering the labyrinth, the team leader gave them a final preparation time. Then he quietly approached Kang-jun and said something.
"Like I said before, leave behind anyone who falls behind. We don't have the luxury to watch over everyone. Got it? I have no intention of fitting into a first-year newbie's playground."
"Yeah."
Kang-jun's expression showed no fear at all. Normally, a first-year newbie would be scared off by a fierce glare, but there must have been special reasons in his trainer's eyes. …He'd find out once he entered.
After the final preparations, the team leader gave a signal to go in. There was already a long line at the entrance claiming to enter this nodaji board. They waited about thirty minutes and finally entered.
Since it had only been created recently, the labyrinth entrance looked fresher than other places. The smell of decay was still strong, and a faint scent of blood lingered.
Because he was the youngest, Kang-jun took the role of carrying the lamp light. It was annoying, but there was no choice.
The light moved sporadically. Since there was no map, they had to record the route on their phones. Getting lost here could be fatal.
The slope was initially gentle but suddenly became steep. The floor was quite slippery from frozen moisture. So they had to stay vigilant not to fall every time they took a step.
Scattered along the corridor were corpses of monsters that hadn't fully decayed. They had been abandoned after leaving only the unusable parts. Kang-jun didn't know if it was the labyrinth team's skill or the hero organization's.
Kang-jun turned on his phone to check the time. It was already past 8 AM. Outside, the sun was about to rise.
The air inside the labyrinth was cold. Every time he breathed, it felt like his throat was being scraped raw.
The team walked in silence. They knew each other just enough to say hello, but not close enough for casual chatter. They hadn't gathered for friendship, so that atmosphere would likely continue.
The labyrinth was incredibly vast. At some point, the light from the team that entered first had become as small as fireflies. It kept spreading. Rakunda's team wasn't moving with a clear direction either. Since they didn't know the way at all, they just followed where their feet led. The best method was to keep a wall on one side—left or right. So they walked keeping the left wall.
"There."
Camilla, with the brightest vision, pointed in a certain direction with her finger. She said there seemed to be some kind of passage there. When they got closer, it really was a passage. It wasn't natural; it was clearly a hole dug by a monster. Rakunda asked for opinions.
"What do you think?"
"There are still many places to go. Do we really need to enter here? We can just explore more and turn back if we don't find anything."
Ayumi the female salesperson said that. Everyone seemed to agree. The team leader agreed too. So they continued on the same path they were walking.
No monsters were visible around them. This area must have been completely cleared already. Of course, the hero organization wouldn't leave delicious prey untouched. They had surely swept up anything worth money first. These guys were probably just scurrying around looking for leftovers, like hyenas.
"It's really wide."
The labyrinth was surprisingly vast. They had walked for an hour, but the end wasn't in sight yet. Of course, talking about whether it was big or small with just an hour was meaningless, but the height of the ceiling and width were generally proportional, so Kang-jun could roughly estimate the size. To him, it still seemed like they would need another one or two hours.
And exactly as he predicted, after two hours they reached the end of the first region. There was at least one passage, but they didn't know if similar ones existed elsewhere.
The team took a short break before entering. Everyone sat down on the cold floor and gulped down water. They had come in for money, so if it weren't for that, they would have been doing something else for sure. Exploring the labyrinth was a damn miserable job.
"Kang-jun, right? I've heard rumors about you."
"What rumors?"
"That you're a real genius. You look really handsome too."
Camilla subtly flirted with him. She seemed to have some bloodline from South America; her body curves were clearly different from Asian features. She had it all—everything out there and nothing missed. Her face was quite debauched, overflowing with sexual appeal. She must have quite a bit of experience.
"Genius? Nah."
Kang-jun feigned modesty. As the youngest, he didn't want to look bad getting pressed hard from the start. …Even if he was strong, life required social skills. From experience, being kind tended to be more beneficial in many ways than being bad. Of course, being taken advantage of like an idiot wasn't kindness; it was being stupid.
"Really? I expected a lot from you."
"How good can a newbie be?"
Camilla seemed to think the same. How good could a newbie be!
‘…Well, since he's a newbie after all.’
He was already a veteran newbie who had experienced everything.
…It wouldn't be long before they were shocked and dumbfounded.