VSP 132

“This is the worst…!”

That was his line. Sejun complained in his head and moved ahead first.

Even while holding the rebar, Sejun hoped he wouldn’t have to use it. Maybe there wouldn’t be that many snakes after all. Maybe the boss would show up right away.

However, contrary to his expectation, Sejun was swinging the rebar a short while later.

Clang!

He sent a snake flying, like a baseball player swinging a bat. He didn’t even get a moment to feel satisfied. Another snake appeared, like the next batter stepping up.

The deeper they went, the more snakes there were with blades wrapped around their entire bodies. Their size also increased.

“How many of them are there?”

The spirits were helping, and Sejun stayed highly alert as he moved forward, so he could still immediately react when the snakes attacked like before. Even so, the snakes were so small and fast that the number of cuts on his body continued increasing no matter what.

“Ugh!”

Jeong Siwoo placed mental control on the snakes whenever he could to support Sejun, but it didn’t help much. The snakes hid and revealed themselves too quickly, which left him almost no opening to act.

Under normal circumstances, considering Jeong Siwoo’s original ability, he would’ve paralyzed an entire area with large scale mind control. That just didn’t work this time.

‘What, this much mana still isn’t enough?’

Jeong Siwoo tried mental domination with an amount of mana that had always been enough in A-rank dungeons, but it didn’t seem to work well. Sejun confirmed that his bad feeling had been right and frowned.

He stopped Jeong Siwoo as he tried to force another attempt at mind control.

‘Let’s not push it for now.’

‘What? Why?’

‘Save your mana. I think that’s better.’

Something feels off. Sejun murmured that to himself, tightened his grip on his weapon, and stepped forward. After that, this was how things went.

As expected, his instincts were right. Sejun sighed while thinking that he had to report the dungeon’s abnormal signs to Ryu Sehyun once they got out.

As Sejun moved forward, his body grew increasingly battered. His clothes tore, and blood stained his entire body.

In contrast, Jeong Siwoo still looked smooth and clean.

“…Ha.”

That was because Sejun was advancing in front of him, but he didn’t feel resentful about it.

Jeong Siwoo was behind Sejun, holding the rebar tightly while trembling nonstop.

If he shook like that, he wouldn’t be able to land even a single proper attack, even with the rebar in his hands. It seemed that him usually staying in a support role wasn’t an exaggeration.

“Hey, are you scared?”

Sejun asked as he moved ahead, and Jeong Siwoo flinched.

“…No, I’m not.”

He tried to act tough, but his voice had no strength.

Sejun snorted. Well, it made sense for him to be scared if he had always stayed in a support role. He must’ve focused only on supporting the other hunters from behind them, without ever thinking about taking the lead himself.

There were always reliable hyungs and noonas in front of him. Not a bare bodied guy like Seo Sejun.

A bare body that became more and more ragged the farther it went. A body that quickly turned into a mess of wounds and blood, like soft tofu getting gouged out, didn’t look reliable. It probably made his conscience sting too.

But even so…

Sejun looked back. Jeong Siwoo looked pale and tense as he scanned their surroundings, clutching the rebar tightly. Even so, his shaking hands looked like they could never swing it.

Sejun sighed.

“Jeong Siwoo, don’t worry so much.”

“What?”

“I’ll make sure you don’t die, so don’t worry. You know how strong my Hoya is.”

People might not trust Seo Sejun, but they trusted the strength of his summoned beast, Hoya.

The reason Sejun was covered in wounds right now wasn’t because they had no way to respond. Both he and Jeong Siwoo were saving their mana, just in case.

“We’re saving mana, and if things really go bad, we can just retreat.”

This wasn’t an escape room dungeon where you couldn’t leave until you cleared it. It had a normal entrance, and it was an A-rank dungeon. Even if the inside was a bit different from usual, it wasn’t a serious problem.

“……”

Jeong Siwoo pursed his lips, then started to open his mouth to say something.

“…!”

Sejun suddenly felt a chill run down his spine and looked straight ahead.

Thump! Thump! Thump! The ground started to shake like it had gone insane. Sejun wondered if it was an earthquake, but this wasn’t just the ground trembling. The sound felt like something was approaching from deep underground.

He didn’t hesitate. He grabbed Jeong Siwoo’s arm, who was standing there awkwardly, and yanked him along.

“Wh….”

“Don’t argue, just follow me!”

Sejun scanned the area, spotted a building that still looked somewhat intact, and ran toward it. Jeong Siwoo snapped out of it a beat later and ran after him.

They rushed up the stairs that were still mostly intact, higher and higher.

A moment later, something emerged from the ground where they had been standing just moments ago, accompanied by a deafening crash.

With a thunderous roar that rang in their ears, the adjacent building completely collapsed. To be precise, a massive hole had opened in the ground, and the building lost all support.

“Fuck.”

For a split second, Sejun made eye contact with the huge snake emerging from the ground, its yellow eyes glaring at him, and he cursed before he could stop himself.

Calling it a snake felt insulting to snakes. Its massive, elongated body, reminiscent of a train, was more than enough to call it a dragon.

And its entire body was covered in spinning blades. One wrong move, and he’d get shredded on the spot. The threat from those sharp blades made Sejun freeze.

Clangclang

A metallic screech rang out as metal ground against metal, tearing through buildings and pavement alike. The giant snake showed itself only briefly before burrowing back underground in an instant, and two or three buildings collapsed down from the impact.

At the same time, countless snakes that had been hiding between the buildings and beneath the ground revealed themselves from all directions.

Sejun didn’t hesitate and summoned Hoya. A blue tiger appeared in midair, landed beside him, and the quick-witted Hoya immediately identified the enemies he had to deal with, even without an explanation. A low growl rumbled from his throat.

“Jeong Siwoo!”

“I know.”

Jeong Siwoo, who had been trembling behind him the whole time, finally pulled himself together. If he couldn’t do anything even at a moment like this, he wouldn’t have been fit for real combat in the first place.

Blue mana enveloped Jeong Siwoo’s body. The amount was far denser and greater than before.

An invisible wave spread out in all directions. The snakes that had been writhing between destroyed buildings and across cracked asphalt stopped moving one by one. Their red glowing eyes dulled, and the tongues that had been flicking through the air turned limp.

Sejun let out a whistle. At the same time, Hoya growled and charged through the ruins.

Hoya kicked off the rubble of a collapsed building, jumped into the air, and snatched the nearest snake with his claws. The snake struggled as it let out a piercing shriek.

That was the opening of a hellish battle.

•••

Cha Dogyeong arrived at the meeting place first. He looked around the unnecessarily spacious room with its refined atmosphere, then crossed his legs and hummed as he sat down.

Today’s meeting place was in Seokchon. It wasn’t far from Jamsil, and a massive skyscraper over 100 floors tall came into view in the distance, known as the symbol of major corporations and the Eye of Sauron and countless nicknames.

Dogyeong sat by the window, he looked at the distant building and thought of Sejun, who was raiding a dungeon not too far from here. Then he turned his head around when he heard the sound of someone approaching.

He casually raised a hand in greeting toward today’s meeting partner as he entered, then shifted his gaze back to the view outside.

Ryu Sehyun, who had been walking in, paused briefly when he saw Cha Dogyeong acting as relaxed as if this were his own room. He sat down across from him without making a fuss.

Cha Dogyeong was famous for not caring about other people in the first place. He crossed lines, yet no one called him arrogant for being an EX-rank hunter or accused him of getting conceited just because he was supposedly one of a kind. That was simply his personality.

The eight year age gap played a part in why they hadn’t grown close despite crossing life and death together several times, but the biggest reason was their personalities. They were like oil and water, completely incompatible.

The two sat in silence for a while. It wasn’t because things felt awkward or uncomfortable. They weren’t exactly close either, but they knew each other well enough not to worry about reading the room. That created a subtle, undefined atmosphere.

After looking down at the scenery beneath the towering buildings for quite some time, Dogyeong turned to Ryu Sehyun as if he’d seen enough.

“This place is way too nice for two grim looking guys. Did you make the reservation, hyung?”

“No. I asked for a quiet place for a personal meeting, and it seems my secretary misunderstood something.”

“Ah.”

Someone who rarely had personal appointments asked for a place without many eyes on it, and that must’ve led to some misunderstandings.

Thanks to that, the two of them ended up having a meal in an unnecessarily elegant room with guaranteed privacy.