DPGR 121

Standing in front of the dungeon entrance, Dojin briefed the Alpha and Beta team members on the dungeon.

He explained not only the internal environment of the dungeon, but also the types of monsters they would face, information about the boss monster, and a rough estimate of the boss’s lair location.

After speaking with the Esper Director, he had decided to withhold information about the dual dungeon.

Since no dual dungeons had appeared in Korea yet, bringing it up could raise unnecessary suspicion, and the Jeju dungeon had identical pre- and post-dungeon conditions despite being a double.

Even without that detail, Dojin provided a wealth of useful information. Fortunately, the Alpha team accepted everything he said without question.

Now that they knew he was living his third life, they seemed to think there was no harm in following his advice.

However, the Beta team, who didn’t know anything, showed signs of doubt. It was suspicious that Dojin knew so much about the dungeon interior when he hadn’t even been inside yet.

Dojin didn’t explain his source. He had decided there was no need to cause confusion by revealing he had regressed.

“Alright then, let’s each check our weapons one last time.”

With that, Dojin also took out his own weapon and artifact to check them. Then, he chewed and swallowed a guiding pill to forcibly boost his condition.

Just as he frowned at the lingering bitterness in his mouth—

Bzzzt—

His phone, which he hadn’t yet handed over to staff, started buzzing insistently. The screen showed Jiho’s name.

‘No way… did he find out?’

In truth, Dojin hadn’t expected he could keep his entry into the Jeju dungeon a secret from Jiho.

He had figured Jiho would find out when Geonwoo and Sena monitored the dungeon reports.

‘But I thought at least he’d only find out after I went in.’

Dojin hesitated. Should he answer? In the end, he shook his head.

If he ignored the call now, it would only make Jiho worry more.

The thought of Jiho anxiously fretting the whole time he was in the dungeon didn’t sit well with him.

“Yes, Guide ji—”

He answered the phone as lightly as possible. But he couldn’t even finish his sentence before falling silent.

—“Hyuuuuung!”

“……”

—“Liar, sniff, you lied again! Why do you always lie to me?!”

It wasn’t clear whether Jiho was swallowing his sobs or his rage. His soft sniffling came with harsh accusations.

—“You’re the worst! I hate you! You’re a liar!”

Jiho’s crying overlapped with his yelling, and the words that followed became unintelligible. The only thing Dojin could make out was that he was being cursed.

Dojin tried to recall when he had last lied to Jiho, and let out a groan.

Now that he thought about it, he had lied to Jiho as easily as breathing whenever he was trying to dodge guiding.

“Guide Jiho. Stop crying, okay?”

—“Y-you jerk….”

The moment he told Jiho to stop, he heard a furious huff on the other end. As expected, Jiho hadn’t been crying, he had been holding back his anger.

Dojin pulled the phone away from his ear for a moment, unable to help the laughter bubbling up at the ridiculousness of the situation.

Ahem. Ahem.

After a low cough, he brought the phone back to his mouth.

“Actually, I had a dream about this dungeon not long ago. Guide Jiho, you know, right? How I sometimes dream about things from my past life.”

Just like Jiho said, maybe he really was a liar. The lie slipped out effortlessly, not even a pause to wet his lips first.

Dojin said nothing else and listened quietly to Jiho’s heavy breathing full of frustration.

Did he buy it?

—“…That place is super dangerous….”

Ah. Thank goodness. He bought it.

A smile spread across Dojin’s face. With a much more relaxed tone, he tried to reassure and comfort Jiho.

“It’s alright. I know the dungeon’s environment and the boss monster well. I’ve brought artifacts this time, and I know the boss’s location too. It won’t be like last time.”

His low voice was gentle and calm. That composure helped Jiho settle down.

After a pause, Jiho asked tearfully,

—“If I, sniff, went there right now, w-would that be okay?”

“This is Jeju Island, remember?”

—“Hrrngh….”

“If you came, the dungeon might already be cleared by the time you arrive. Still want to come?”

—“You’re so mean…. You’re really awful…. Liar….”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to worry. When we meet later, do you want to hit me a few times? I’ll take it.”

—“That’ll only hurt my hand! Do you think I’m stupid?”

Pffft.

Dojin finally burst into laughter.

Every time Jiho had gotten upset, he’d always hit him and hurt himself instead. Dojin had always wondered when he’d realize it.

‘Better not tease him by asking if he is stupid.’

When Dojin couldn’t answer because he was holding back laughter, Jiho started grumbling angrily on the other end again.

The anger that had just settled down seemed to be flaring up again.

“I told you. I’ll be done in half a day. Don’t worry too much. Let’s meet later. I’ll finish this up and come back as quickly as I can, alright?”

Fortunately, Jiho began to calm down again at that point.

As much as he wanted to rush to Dojin’s side right then, he knew it wasn’t realistically possible.

In the end, Jiho let out a few more grumbles, then gave a trembling-voiced warning.

—“Hurry, no, go slowly… no wait, come back fast. Just… don’t get hurt, okay? If you do, I’ll really get mad….”

“Alright. I’ll come back fast, without getting hurt.”

In the meantime, the entry approval came through from the entrance.

Dojin apologized once more into the phone before ending the call.

“Haa…”

It wasn’t that he wasn’t afraid to enter the dungeon that had once killed him.

But hearing Jiho’s tearful, worried voice had given him courage.

‘I won’t make him cry anymore.’

Just the thought of Jiho sobbing somewhere without him made his heart ache.

Dojin tightly gripped the phone, still warm from Jiho’s touch, as if it were Jiho’s hand itself, then handed it over to the staff who would remain outside.

“Jeju A-rank ultra-large dungeon. Commencing raid.”

With that, he walked toward the dungeon entrance along with the other espers.

The dungeon stood quietly in place, even after swallowing over a dozen espers.

***

Even after hanging up, Jiho had to take a while to calm down, sniffling continuously.

Geonwoo and Sena, who sat beside him, glanced at him nervously.

“Are you okay? Here, have some water.”

“Th-thank, sniff, you….”

“But why were you crying like that? Is this dungeon especially dangerous or something?”

Sena, who had held back her curiosity ever since Jiho started yelling at Dojin over the phone, finally couldn’t resist and asked.

Her face was a mix of confusion, concern, and slight tension. Geonwoo was the same.

Their paired espers were also heading into the Jeju dungeon, after all.

“W-well…”

After wetting his lips with the water Geonwoo gave him, Jiho set the glass down on the table and began to stammer a reply.

Even though a lot of time had passed, Dojin’s death still remained a deep wound for Jiho, and he struggled to hold back tears while he spoke.

He managed to explain what had happened in their past life, and Geonwoo and Sena looked on with increasing worry.

“The dungeon where Team Leader Baek died… it was this one?”

“Wait, what? Then the other espers…”

If Baek Dojin had died there, Sena could only assume the other espers had barely made it out, or worse.

Jiho quickly clarified that wasn’t the case, but Sena didn’t seem to hear him.

“Either way, it means there’s a super dangerous monster inside the Jeju dungeon, right? Could it be a dual dungeon?”

“Y-yeah… A dual dungeon…”

Jiho nodded. As did Geonwoo and Sena, though their faces were now turning pale.

When they asked if he knew anything more, Jiho could only shake his head.

He had been an unpaired guide, cut off from the outside world, so there was little he could say.

“Oh no…”

“……”

Geonwoo and Sena were left speechless by Jiho’s answer. Silence quickly fell over the team leader’s office.

In that heavy stillness, the two sighed, checked their phones, furrowed their brows, and searched for any related news.

Now, all that was left for the three of them to do was monitor the articles coming out about the Jeju dungeon.

Jiho, too, kept sniffling with a red nose as he clumsily tapped at his phone.

Tap tap—tick—

His short crescent-shaped nails tapped awkwardly across the screen.

He had only ever used the phone to make calls or send messages, so he wasn’t very familiar with how to use it.

‘Like… this? Ah, got it.’

But Jiho had picked up some things from watching others, so though he fumbled, he managed to open a search window and started skimming through news articles.

He started with recent dungeon incidents.

‘There’ve really been… this many dungeons?’

There was no end to the articles about dungeons. They were all from just the past day or two, and more than a dozen locations were listed as having dungeon outbreaks.

‘It’s true everything’s happening earlier than in the last life… but this is too fast.’

The news photos showed espers rushing to suppress dungeons nonstop.

An esper being carried out, covered in blood.

An esper coughing up blood in front of a dungeon tent due to lack of guiding.

An esper walking into the dungeon entrance with a pale face.

Everyone looked exhausted.

Online, people were whispering that the end of the world was near, throwing out all sorts of conspiracy theories about the sudden increase in dungeon activity.

Jiho narrowed his eyes and scrolled through the absurd theories and comments.

[Ultra-large A-rank Dungeon Discovered on Jeju Island! Can It Be Cleared Safely?]

He had finally found an article about the Jeju dungeon that Dojin had entered.

When he clicked on it, the content wasn’t anything special.

Just the recent rise in dungeon activity, public anxiety, and a few details about the raid team. Nothing new.

Jiho sighed softly at the lack of fresh information.

‘Huh…?’

Suddenly, the phrase “dual dungeon,” which he had casually spoken just moments ago, began to feel out of place.

‘Dual dungeon…?’

Jiho tilted his head.

‘Dual dungeons haven’t even appeared in Korea yet…’

And the one that had emerged in Jeju had happened after the wave of dual dungeons had begun elsewhere.

He clearly remembered the chaos at the Center, espers insisting that unpaired guides should be deployed to the scene, and unpaired guides resisting, sparking heated debates.

‘Something’s wrong.’

Even if the timeline had accelerated, things had still been happening in the same order, until now.

That realization sent a chill down his spine.

It was the moment he recognized that something was truly off.

Ding—ding—ding—