VSP 32

Not long after, Lee Dohun arrived. He waved at Cha Dogyeong to greet him, then he saw Sejun and scoffed right away.

“Why did the useless guy come again?”

Sejun ignored Lee Dohun. He knew very well that dealing with Lee Dohun for long only made him tired.

Lee Dohun snorted, then, like the other two, he came closer to the gate entrance to wait. Only when he came close did he notice something strange about the two waiting.

“……?”

Aren’t these guys standing oddly close? Normally they stayed far apart like cows and chickens looking at each other, but today they looked unusually close……

“You should hear some explanation for this dungeon.”

But Lee Dohun’s thought did not continue. The words of the Association staff who approached sounded unusual.

No one could know the inside of a dungeon except for the hunters who went in. No matter how good the Association’s dungeon prediction team was, it was hard to know better than veteran hunters.

But if an Association staff member came forward first to explain, there was only one case.

“A dungeon assimilation phenomenon has occurred.”

“Ha, I knew it.”

Normally, dungeons appeared suddenly regardless of the place and then disappeared.

Just because one formed in the middle of skyscrapers did not mean the inside was a modern city. Even if the place was a modern city, the inside could be a forest or a desert.

But sometimes, dungeons that caused assimilation recreated a new space by connecting with the open space of the entrance.

“This dungeon seems to have assimilated with the attraction where the entrance opened.”

That meant, if a dungeon appeared inside an amusement park attraction, then the inside of the dungeon would also resemble that attraction.

The staff member pointed with his finger. It was an attraction where a giant Dracula model hung with its mouth wide open.

The attraction’s name was written in giant letters shaped like they were dripping blood.

“Super Horror House?”

The name left no doubt what kind of ride it was. Its very appearance screamed it.

“…Don’t tell me this is a haunted house?”

Even upside down, it was a haunted house, but Sejun asked in denial. The staff member nodded brightly.

“That’s right.”

Sejun shut his eyes tight. Oh no, of all things.

[Oh dear, if it has become dungeonized then the inside will be terrible, this is serious.]

The system sighed, and Sejun almost wanted to cry.

“Please give us the attraction map.”

Unlike the tearful Sejun, the other two stayed calm. When Lee Dohun asked for the map, the competent staff, who had already prepared it, handed it over to the three of them.

Sejun’s hand shook pitifully as he received the map.

Since an assimilated dungeon followed the existing structure of the attraction, having a map was useful.

Sejun studied the map with his trembling hand.

But of course, such structures were built to scare visitors, so nothing about where something might pop out was written. Only a simple layout was marked.

The inside had an overall bottle shape, first splitting into two paths, then joining again at the center.

“Then you and I split up.”

Lee Dohun naturally divided into a team of two with Cha Dogyeong. He treated Sejun as if he was invisible.

It was expected. And because the haunted house had become a dungeon, Sejun was so dazed that he did not even react to being ignored so openly.

He only gulped his saliva as he looked at the map.

Sejun was someone who could not even watch a children’s horror cartoon because it was too scary.

He was the kind of person who screamed and hid under the blanket just from a ghost popping out on Tv.

Amusement parks? He barely remembered going to one, but even if he did, he had been too scared to look at the haunted house from afar. Today, too, he believed it was just coincidence that the dungeon had appeared here, and he pretended to stay calm.

But go inside a dungeonized haunted house?

“……What if I faint?”

[……If you faint alone, I will report it to the Association.]

Even the system had no way to help him. The only way for Sejun to escape was to give up the dungeon entirely.

Of course, no one here would accept the words of an adult man, much less an S-rank hunter, saying he did not want to go in just because he was scared of a haunted house.

Sejun bit his lips at the system’s warm words that if he fainted it would at least report it to the Association.

“What are you doing? Let’s go.”

Lee Dohun naturally entered on Cha Dogyeong’s opposite side, and with only the two of them left, Cha Dogyeong tapped Sejun’s arm.

“Waah!”

Of course, Sejun was so anxious from the single fact that he had to enter a haunted house that just one tap made him scream.

“……?”

Cha Dogyeong looked at Sejun, who overreacted excessively, with a puzzled face. Then he saw Sejun flinch like a frightened small animal and glance nervously at the sinister dungeon entrance. He seemed to understand the situation and said “ah.”

“What, are you scared right now?”

He chuckled as if it was truly funny. Sejun got annoyed.

“No, I’m not? I have Hoya, so what’s there to be scared of?”

Even with Hoya, he was terrified. But Sejun bluffed.

“Does that mean without Hoya you’re scared?”

“It means I’m not scared because I have Hoya?”

“You can’t summon Hoya whenever you want. Because of your mana shortage.”

Sejun grew annoyed at the blunt remark again.

It was the first time he saw Dogyeong since the kiss incident.

Of course, he thought it would be unbelievably awkward, and when their eyes first met it almost was.

But maybe because of the haunted house’s impact, or maybe because of the word ‘scared?’–a word no man could easily let slide–Sejun completely forgot about the awkwardness.

“No! My mana increased a bit!”

“Your mana increased?”

Sejun flinched at Dogyeong’s unexpected question.

Mana was rare worldwide. A stat everyone longed for. A stat so hard to raise that even one point was not easy.

To answer how it increased, he would have to reveal the truth about the sub-missions. He would also have to reveal that the target of those sub-missions was none other than Cha Dogyeong.

Of course, Dogyeong did not have the ability to read someone’s thoughts. For a moment, Sejun pictured the face of a certain person who specialized in digging through others’ minds, but he quickly erased that face. There was nothing good in remembering that guy now.

If he only did not react too much, it would be fine. But Sejun, who could not lie, unconsciously avoided Dogyeong’s eyes.

“Uh, uhh…….”

“Hmm, even if it increased, you still can’t summon right now because you have to save it for when you need it, right?”

“……That’s true, but…”

Unexpectedly, Cha Dogyeong did not insist about the statement “mana increased,” something most would find absurd.

“Then just follow me. Dungeons that assimilate entire spaces like this…….”

He looked at the sign that read “Super Horror House” with letters shaped like dripping blood.

“Strange things often happen.”

Strange things.

What kind of strange things would happen in a dungeon based on a haunted house attraction? At the very least, Sejun did not want to imagine.

After saying that, Cha Dogyeong entered through the entrance opposite the one Lee Dohun had gone into.

“Wait, let’s go together!”

Sejun flinched at the entrance, but he decided it was better to follow behind Dogyeong than go in alone. So he followed after Dogyeong.

Wait, doesn’t this look kind of like I’m naturally going in together with Dogyeong? Even if I don’t get along with Lee Dohun……

Wooo

Creak creak creak

As soon as Sejun entered, the strange sound effects made him forget everything.

Pride or whatever, he should have just collapsed and said he couldn’t do it, or claimed his stomach hurt, or suddenly fainted……

“Ch-cha Dogyeong.”

He didn’t want to strain his eyes to look into the dark inside, Sejun kept his gaze on the floor and quickly stuck himself to Dogyeong’s back.

“What?”

Unlike Sejun, Cha Dogyeong did not care about any eerie sounds around them and walked forward without hesitation.

Sejun had not played many horror games, but usually when a dark space like this continued, normal people became scared and hesitated to move forward, or went so slow it was almost crawling. What was wrong with this guy’s head?

“Scared?”

Cha Dogyeong still looked straight ahead when he asked that. Sejun almost reacted violently again like earlier with the word “scared?” but he realized it was no use. So he nodded right away.