EFME 115

The raid squad had all gathered, and Sunyul was the very first to step inside the dungeon.

The moment he took a step inside, his head began to ache as if it were splitting open. He felt dizzier than ever before. His entire body was racked with tearing pain, as though his limbs were being pulled in entirely different directions.

[The trait ‘Lost Child of Dimensions’ triggers.]

[Due to the effect of the trait ‘Lost Child of Dimensions’, you fall into a state of Confusion. In exchange, all stats increase by one stage.]

Sunyul barely managed to open his eyes.

‘….’

The strange thing he had seen before was right in front of his eyes. The strange thing that used to mimic humans.

Back then, it didn’t have a proper shape, but now it had formed a plausible human appearance. Yet bizarrely… it had a face that closely resembled Sunyul’s. Its hand slowly touched Sunyul.

─Why did you abandon me?

‘What?’

─I asked why you abandoned me.

Sunyul found what the strange creature in front of him was saying to be completely out of the blue.

‘What are you talking about? When did I ever abandon something like you?’

─I am the loneliness, the agony, the boredom, the memories, and the remnants of emotions that you left behind. I am all of those things.

Sunyul swallowed hard. Every single one of them was something Sunyul did not want to take upon himself. Sunyul desperately shook his head.

‘I don’t know anything about that.’

─Are you happy now that you’ve forgotten everything?

‘I don’t know. I said I don’t know.’

─Even if you abandoned them, those things are still inside you.

It poked Sunyul squarely in the chest with its finger. Then, it smiled with a grotesquely twisted face.

─One day, I will come find you. I will devour you. When that day comes….

The form in front of him smiled radiantly.

─Wh-When th-that day co-comes, c-comes, o-comes, whe-when it co-comes, c-comes, whe-when-when-when-when-when-when-when, th-that, th-thing, i-it, th-that, i-it, th-th-th-that th-thing, th-that thing w-will, w-will co-come. To-to, y-you, y-you, y-y-y-you, y-you, y-you, y-you, y-you, y-you, all, a-all, a-all of, a-all of you, ea-eat, ea-, ea-eat, a-at, eat up, f-fi-fin-finish, finish you o-off.

He didn’t want to listen anymore. Sunyul pushed the form away with all his might and fled.

A lightly worn white T-shirt came into view. What brushed past the tip of his nose was a refreshing yet unfamiliar scent. Blinking his hazy vision, he lifted his head to see Yoonjae’s face.

“…Go Yoonjae?”

“Are you conscious?”

“Mmh….”

He was somewhat flustered by the unfamiliar embrace, but Sunyul staggered as he raised himself up.

You have entered an S-rank dungeon.

Current Entrants: 6 people (Capacity: 6 people) The dungeon entrance will close in 4 minutes and 7 seconds.

To think more than five minutes had already passed. Sunyul pressed a hand to his forehead. Yoonjae watched Sunyul with a worried look in his eyes.

“I was startled because you couldn’t snap out of it for a long time.”

“I’m fine now.”

“As if you’re fine….”

Yoojae’s voice trailed off in concern, but he didn’t pry further. Just a moment ago, Sunyul had looked in agony while unable to wake up. Yoonjae didn’t want to give Sunyul any unnecessary stimulation.

It would be nice if he told him what kind of distress he was going through.

While he felt sorry for his always-precarious friend, he also found it frustrating on the other hand. If Sunyul had been just a little weaker, he would have locked him away somewhere so he couldn’t go to places like dungeons. It was truly a shame.

Oblivious to what Yoonjae was thinking, Sunyul was looking around at his surroundings.

“But where are we…?”

Sunyul was a bit taken aback by the scenery stretching out before him.

Having always seen wide-open landscapes before, this was the first time he had opened his eyes inside a completely enclosed ordinary house.

The first thing that caught his eye was a dirty, wrinkled wallpaper with a tacky pattern printed on it.

Turning his head, he could see a window with dusty blinds pulled down, and beneath it lay a bed so filthy that it would actually be better to sleep on the floor. In every corner of the room, discarded alcohol bottles and the like were lined up.

Sunyul peeked slightly outside the room door. The outside was in a similar state. In the living room, a sagging sofa, a broken picture frame that had fallen to the floor, and a dead, dried-up potted plant were strewn about.

Beyond the living room, there was a refrigerator and microwave that didn’t seem to work, along with a sink; inside that sink, bowls and plates were piled up high, encrusted with dried-up food.

“They say it’s an abandoned apartment.”

Yoonjae explained briefly, shrugging his shoulders.

“That’s not the only strange thing. Look at the clear conditions.”

[Dungeon Raid Quest]

Clear Condition 1: Find 4 ■ cursed dolls in the abandoned apartment ■nd burn ■ll of them at the incinerator behind ■■e apartment.

Clear Condition 2: Find thirteen mirrors that have not yet broken ■n the ■ospital and br■ak them all.

Clear Condition 3: Smash all the lights illum■nating the underpass to make it a dar■ space■.

Clear Condition 4: After completing clear con■itions 1■ 2, and 3, hunt the boss monster that spaw■s.

The text was corrupted. Whether the system wasn’t doing its job or couldn’t do it, Sunyul glared at the quest window.

“Why is it like this?”

“I don’t know. It’s certainly not normal.”

Indeed, it could not be considered normal. Sunyul felt a sudden chill for no reason. It was a dungeon that had been strange even before entering, but after stepping inside, it was even more bizarre.

“Don’t be too anxious. The core members should have all made it in anyway.”

“What about the other people?”

“Dungeons where group members start separated from each other like this happen occasionally. They won’t be too far away. Let’s go out and look for them.”

“…Yeah.”

With an anxious heart, Sunyul opened the front door and stepped out. However, the moment he stepped outside, he sensed a presence. Unlike Yoonjae who immediately went on guard, Sunyul relaxed his stance at a very familiar set of footsteps.

“Guild Leader!”

When Sunyul called out, Muyoung, who was far off in the distance, turned around. Muyoung was together with the other companions. It seemed Yoonjae and Sunyul were the last to regroup.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine.”

Muyoung, who examined Sunyul once from the front and spun him around to check from the back, finally let go of him in relief. Sunyul grinned happily and stood by Muyoung’s side.

Once the six of them were gathered, everyone began discussing this dungeon with serious expressions.

“It’s my first time seeing a quest sentence get corrupted in that manner.”

“It’s certain that this place is no ordinary dungeon.”

“We won’t be able to run an article on this.”

Wondering if he knew something, Sunyul stole a glance at the Constellation. When their eyes met, Saebyeok tilted his head to the side.

[‘The Traveler of the Eternal Night’ blushes, asking why you are looking at him so intensely.]

‘When did I ever look at you intensely?’

[‘The Traveler of the Eternal Night’ twists his body back and forth, claiming it was quite a passionate gaze.]

Thinking that he really ought to give him a smack, he started heading that way but was caught by Muyoung.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Pardon? No, I was just….”

“You need to focus.”

Muyoung’s voice was exceedingly firm, so Sunyul nodded his head reflexively. Then, he quietly listened to the group’s heated discussion. As he thought, beating the answers out of the Constellation would probably be the fastest way.

The discussion ended quickly. It was a topic they couldn’t reach a conclusion on anyway. Since their primary goal was to clear this dungeon, the conversation wrapped up with the decision to move fast.

“Song Jihyun, look for the dolls.”

At Muyoung’s command, Jihyun grimaced in embarrassment.

“The thing is, I’ve been trying to look for them since a while ago… but I can’t tell for sure. I know they aren’t on this floor, though.”

“You can’t tell?”

“I’m sorry.”

Song Jihyun apologized as if she had lost face. In the first place, the reason they had included Song Jihyun—who was an A-rank and possessed low combat capabilities—was to find things in a dungeon that had search elements. Since she wasn’t doing her part, Jihyun looked somewhat anxious.

“It’s fine. Once we find one, it might become a bit easier to find the rest.”

“Yes. I’ll search as best as I can.”

Jihyun focused intently with a tense face. Then, she abruptly snapped her head up.

“Wait, it’s a monster!”

The monster appeared suddenly, without a single trace of presence.

Sunyul flinched in surprise upon seeing the monster’s form.

It didn’t have a head, but from the neck down, it was a monster with a shape incredibly similar to a human. Instead of having a head, a hat was floating idly in the spot where a head ought to be.

“To think a monster could resemble a human to this extent….”

Someone lamented. Up until now, there had been no monsters that looked exactly like humans.

Though there were a few monsters referred to as humanoid because they walked on two legs and had limbs, it was his first time seeing a monster that resembled a human as closely as the monster right before his eyes.

“If a monster like that had appeared first before I did, would everyone have been less shocked when a monster resembling a human showed up?”

Sunyul whispered to Muyoung.

Because when Sunyul first appeared, everyone had been horrified and disgusted, saying the monster looked exactly like a human.

Perhaps if a guy missing only a head like that had come out first, and then a perfectly fine Sunyul came out, people might have thought, ‘Ah, I guess there can be monsters that resemble humans too’… Sunyul thought that way.

“….”

Sunyul looked around at the surroundings, which had grown quiet at some point. It was a question he had asked without much thought, but everyone was staring at Sunyul.

The monster, which had been mindlessly groaning and clacking without reading the room, had long since been sliced in half and blasted away by Bada.

Sunyul laughed awkwardly.

“I just said it as a jo…ke….”

“Lim Sunyul.”

Muyoung called Sunyul. Sensing it meant to come closer, he stepped forward, and Muyoung tightly hugged Sunyul, completely unconcerned by the fact that other people were present.

“G-Guild Leader….”

Muyoung’s embrace was warm and wide.

It was the warm embrace that had protected Sunyul even when he was misunderstood as a strange item or a monster.

Sunyul hesitated for a brief moment before clinging to Muyoung just like that.

Though he felt like he could hear the sounds of throat-clearing, humming, and sighing from behind… he didn’t feel bad. No, he liked it. Sunyul rubbed his face against Muyoung’s chest.