VSP 44

Kim Jinyoung watched Hangyeol and Sejun talking, and he grew restless. He could not figure out if it was okay for him to join in or not.

Then, while Sejun had stayed quiet no matter what Hangyeol said, he suddenly turned his head toward Jinyoung.

He looked at Jinyoung with a strange expression for a moment and mumbled.

“Are you Conan? What are you guessing about?”

“…Yes?”

Jinyoung blinked blankly. Conan? That boy detective Co*nan? Why was that coming out here?

However Sejun looked puzzled when Jinyoung asked, “Huh?” As if he was asking why he was reacting that way.

As Jinyoung lost control of his expression and looked flustered, Sejun went “Ah” belatedly and scratched the back of his head.

But the explanation came not from Sejun but from Hangyeol.

“Just let it go. Sejun-hyung feels lonely a lot, so he talks with the system all the time.”

“…Ah.”

So he had been replying to the system. Telling it not to act like Conan, that was talk meant for the system?

Sejun got annoyed at Hangyeol for explaining in his place.

“You crazy bastard. If you say it like that, it makes me look like a weirdo.”

“Then are you not?”

“What is wrong with putting a self in the system!? Lee Dohun does it too. It is you guys who are making a fuss!”

I have never seen a hunter who put a self in the system…

Jinyoung thought but he read the atmosphere and did not say it out loud.

Since this was the first time he had ever seen an hunter like this, Jinyoung stood there blankly, and Hangyeol shrugged his shoulders.

“But now that we are all gathered, can you tell us quickly what we need to do? Is it not urgent?”

“Ah.”

Only then did Jinyoung come back to himself. That was right. They had been waiting for Sejun to handle things together, but actually this was not the time to be taking it easy.

He hastily pushed up his glasses. Now was the time to focus on his actual work.

“This morning, a B-rank dungeon nearby overflowed because the raid time expired. The guild of Busan handled the inside of the dungeon, but the problem is the monsters that spread outside. Most of the people in Busan have taken shelter in each district’s shelters, but critical hospital patients, elderly people living alone, and others with limited mobility or difficulty receiving news are being handled by separate teams from the Association. Because of the shortage of personnel, we have requested additional support from the Seoul headquarters…”

He briefed the current situation like he was rapping.

“…So right now, the most important thing is to find the boss.”

“The boss escaped too?”

“Yes, according to the  guildmaster, the boss was not inside.”

That was the biggest problem. The inside of the B-rank dungeon had been handled by another guild, but there had been no boss inside.

A B-rank dungeon’s boss required at least an A-rank hunter to clear easily. With a monster of that size roaming the city, Busan was in a state of emergency.

“We need to find it fast.”

Sejun sighed as he said that.

“What is needed now is eliminating the monsters that spread into the city and evacuating the citizens who could not escape. Evacuation is being carried out as much as possible with the current manpower, but monsters left in places out of sight are the problem. We want you to detect those.”

“Hm.”

A B-rank dungeon itself was not impressive. The monsters inside were not impressive either. It was not the kind of job that required S-rank hunters.

But the problem was that once a dungeon overflowed, the monsters inside could move anywhere within the region, and Busan was a wide metropolitan city.

On top of that, even if the inside of the dungeon was cleared, unless all the monsters that had escaped outside were eliminated, the dungeon would not disappear.

Even if the dungeon this time was in an abandoned industrial complex, unless it was going to be permanently shut down, all of the monsters had to be dealt with.

“If you just handle detection, we can immediately contact the relevant districts and help evacuation or eliminate the monsters. Please.”

Hangyeol and Sejun’s eyes met at Jin-young’s words.

“It makes sense to split roles.”

That was Hangyeol’s line. Sejun nodded.

“I will take care of the rest, just find the dungeon boss, hyung.”

“Alright.”

They quickly assigned the roles.

Ah, right.

The most famous thing about Sejun’s ability was his summon Hoya, and most people thought that was his only ability, but in fact, he was also a summoner contracted with spirits.

Since spirits had no combat power and were rarely used for detection, it was not well known. Outside of moments like this, there was no reason to use them for detection, and with Hangyeol, a more famous detection ability user, around, there was no need to ask Sejun.

The search began in earnest.

•••

Choi Hangyeol’s “detection” had no actual form.

It was close to him designating all areas within his recognition range. Even if the place was far away, if it was inside the range he was detecting, he could see it like it was right in front of him, and it was not limited to one place at a time. As befitted the rank of S-rank, he could detect several places at once.

“Starting.”

Choi Hangyeol closed his eyes for a moment and opened them, and with that he made all of Busan his domain and began searching.

In short, for him it was like a kind of scanner. It would take a bit of time, but he scanned this wide area like scanning a map spread out in front of him.

The problem was that it was still a human brain handling the scan, so there was a limit to how much incoming information he could process. Instead of a precise scan, it was closer to a light sweep, so the accuracy was a bit lower, but he reduced the margin of error by repeating the scan multiple times.

“…Hm?”

The Busan Association employee who introduced himself as Kim Jinyoung looked confused, not knowing what Hangyeol had just done.

That reaction was normal. Ordinary hunters usually showed flashy performances when using powerful skills, but Hangyeol was saying he had used a skill without showing anything.

The truth was that an enormous amount of information was now being received into Hangyeol’s head, but only people who had seen him use his ability a few times would know that.

But it was unfortunate for Kim Jinyoung that there was no one here who would kindly explain, “Hangyeol is using his ability right now, it just does not show on the outside.”

Choi Yerin and Seo Sejun kept their mouths shut so they would not disturb Hangyeol. From now on he had to focus as much as possible.

Sejun also prepared to search.

If Hangyeol was like a supercomputer that could process a huge scale all at once, Sejun’s case was more like auto hunting.

He gave one command to the spirits, then spread them across the entire region to search for what he wanted.

Sejun clenched his fist with one hand.

In that moment, a mischievous giggling voice came out of his closed fist. From inside his clenched fist, multicolored light shone, and when Sejun opened his hand, the spirits trapped inside flew out instantly.

“Ah!”

Startled by the sight he was seeing for the first time in his life, Kim Jinyoung screamed, and some of the spirits flew toward him, then laughed with high-pitched voices.

“Find the boss. Search everywhere.”

At those words, some of the spirits burrowed into the ground, and some flew into the sky. The way the multicolored spirits spread in all directions was beautiful like a painting, and Kim Jinyoung admired it.

“…Wow.”

It was a breathtaking and mysterious scene, like something from a fairy tale.

“Wow.”

Even for Choi Yerin and Choi Hangyeol, who were also hunters, that sight seemed amazing. Hangyeol even forgot to stay focused and spoke to Sejun.

“Hyung, I think this is the first time I have seen you use this ability up close.”

“What, when have you ever seen it before?”

The answer came from the system.

[You used it once in the Final Dungeon.]

“Ah.”

At that time, everyone had given their best. Sejun had done everything he could too, saying he wanted to make a contribution… but he had been so distracted that he could not remember much in detail.

If the spirits found the boss, they would automatically contact Sejun through their mental connection, so unlike Hangyeol, Sejun did not need to focus further. He brushed off the dust piled on construction materials and sat down.

Sejun looked at Choi Yerin, who was standing still, and asked carefully.

“Choi Yerin, should I take off my clothes and lay them down for you?”

She looked dumbfounded.

“No thanks.”

“Ah.”

Sejun scratched the back of his headin embarrassment. The system clicked its tongue right away.

[ Tsk tsk, you should just stay quiet. ]

“Shu—…”

Sejun was about to say, shut up, but he held his tongue.

Because of past mistakes, Sejun automatically went into guilty mode in front of Yerin. That was why he showed kindness that was unlike him.

Of course, that did not mean Yerin had any reason to accept Sejun’s sudden kindness. The atmosphere instantly turned awkward.