EFME 123

The Andong S-14 dungeon Muyoung had entered had a maximum capacity of twelve people. In other words, he had entered a dungeon alone that normally required twelve people to clear.

“At least it’s on the shorter side, and it doesn’t have any gimmicks that require multiple people at the same time, but still…”

Jaehoon scratched his head aggressively.

“Ugh, that crazy bastard! Fuck, he’s really lost his mind!”

Sunyul completely understood Jaehoon’s shouting and cursing. In fact, Sunyul wanted to start screaming curses himself.

It wasn’t that Muyoung had never cleared an S-rank dungeon alone before. While he had never entered one completely alone from the very beginning like this, there had been quite a few times during the early days of the dungeon outbreak where the rest of the raid team died halfway through, forcing him to finish it by himself. Extreme situations like that had occurred multiple times back then. However, he had never attempted one alone from the very start. For the previous dungeons, at least his comrades had been by his side until mid-way. Going through this dungeon completely alone from start to finish would undoubtedly take a massive toll on him.

Sunyul felt his head boiling over, filled to the brim with all kinds of worries. He was so anxious that it actually turned into anger. He had to desperately blink back tears several times as a burning heat rushed to his face.

Sunyul grabbed Saebyeok and pulled him into a corner. When he pushed Saebyeok against the wall, trapping him with his hands, Saebyeok’s cheeks flushed.

“My, this is quite bold.”

“Do you… do you know a way to escape from the middle of a dungeon?”

“Hmm?”

“Or a way to enter one that’s already in progress.”

Clutching at straws, Sunyul looked utterly desperate as he asked.

“I do know a way to escape, but that requires an item. I don’t think that item exists on Earth yet.”

“Th-then what about entering?”

“There is… technically a way for that too, but, well.”

After thinking for a moment, Saebyeok shook his head.

“It’s a method I can’t use. And it’s a method you can’t use either.”

At Saebyeok’s words, Sunyul’s face fell into a tearful pout, looking as if he might break down at any second.

“Why… why can’t we use it? You can do anything.”

“I’m not omnipotent either. Especially here, I have heavy restrictions. If I were omnipotent, you wouldn’t have had to suffer so much back then.”

Saebyeok looked at Sunyul with pity.

“Instead of acting like this, why don’t you try trusting the Guild Master? He might just walk out completely safe.”

“I do… trust him, I trust him. But still…”

He couldn’t trust the outcome one hundred percent. The current Sunyul knew all too well that there was no such thing as an ‘absolute’ certainty in this world. Even the tiny one-percent chance of something going wrong was enough to drive him insane.

Sunyul now understood deeply, right down to his bones, why Muyoung had been so furious at him in front of the mirror back in the Gangneung dungeon. He hadn’t wanted to understand it this way, but he had found out through a thoroughly agonizing experience. This wasn’t the kind of emotion that could be rationalized with logic. Setting aside whether the other person was strong or weak, or what the statistical probabilities were…

In the end, the tears he had been holding back burst forth. Seeing Sunyul bite his lip as tears streamed down his face, Saebyeok let out a sigh.

“Don’t cry.”

“He’s really, really mean…”

“Right, right. He’s incredibly mean.”

“Ugh, hic…”

He tried his best not to cry, but the tears just kept coming. He couldn’t stop them. Not at all.

Passersby stared with wide eyes upon seeing Sunyul crying. Oblivious to their stares, Sunyul just kept sobbing. Saebyeok sighed, lightly wrapping his arms around Sunyul and using his clothes to shield him from view so no one could see him crying.

Having been given a safe space to let it all out, Sunyul wept uncontrollably as if a dam had burst, only stopping after a long time had passed.

⊹₊｡ꕤ˚₊⊹

Even though Muyoung had entered an S-rank dungeon, Sunyul couldn’t cancel the dungeon raid appointments he had already scheduled beforehand. The guild members who ended up running a dungeon with Sunyul because of this were all walking on eggshells. Everyone knew just how much Sunyul relied on Muyoung and how worried he was.

With hollow, exhausted eyes, Sunyul asked the raid team for their understanding.

“Um, I’m in a bit of a hurry… would it be alright if we cleared this as fast as possible?”

“Yes, of course!”

“Quickly! Let’s clear it fast!”

Fortunately, since they were Cheongyeon Guild members he had worked with a couple of times before, they understood Sunyul’s situation. Thanks to them, Sunyul was able to emerge in just two days from a dungeon that normally took three to four days.

Muyoung still hadn’t come out of his dungeon.

It was a dungeon that usually took three days to clear. When Muyoung ran it with a team, it was a dungeon they would finish by the second day. Yet even after two days passed, and then the third day came, Muyoung did not appear.

Sunyul set up camp in front of the dungeon gate and waited. Fortunately, the gate was located in an area with low foot traffic, making it manageable to control, but they couldn’t entirely stop photos taken through various means from circulating on the internet.

Sunyul waited endlessly, occasionally picking up the phone when a familiar number called.

Some calls were from close friends like Dakyung, Yoonjae, and Bada, while others came from people he had exchanged contacts with, such as Ryu Miae—the Guild Master of Juseung—or Jung Chankyu and Yoo Sunghyun whom he had met recently.

Sunyul received words of comfort from them, though at times he responded mechanically. People around him muttered that Sunyul looked like he was about to collapse, but no one could stop him since he was acting uncharacteristically sharp.

As the hours Muyoung spent inside dragged on, he felt like he was losing his mind.

What if Muyoung dies?

Just entertaining that hypothesis made his mind go completely blank… Sunyul just wanted to cry. And so, unable to do anything, the fifth day arrived.

Finally, the dungeon gate began to open.

Sunyul leaped to his feet.

His heart pounded violently. He had desperately wished for it to open, but now that it actually was, his anxiety grew even larger. He was terrified. Terrified to see what lay beyond those doors. There were only two scenarios when a sealed dungeon gate reopened: either the dungeon had been cleared, or everyone inside had died. He wanted to believe it wasn’t the latter, but what if—just by some terrible one-in-a-million chance—Muyoung was dead…

“…”

Beyond the threshold of the gate, a faint black silhouette came into view.

It was Muyoung.

One could easily tell from Muyoung’s appearance just how grueling the raid and battles must have been. Uncharacteristic of his usually immaculate self, he was covered in blood and dust. Scratches and scrapes marred his cheeks and forehead. He was even holding a weapon in his hand that he rarely carried around, and that hand was completely stained with blood.

Muyoung looked slightly surprised to see Sunyul right away, but he quickly stored his weapon into his inventory.

Sunyul walked slowly toward Muyoung before suddenly halting in his tracks.

“Healing, please heal him first…”

At Sunyul’s words, the healer who had been on standby stepped forward. Fortunately, Muyoung’s injuries were not severe. He simply had numerous shallow wounds all over his body, but nothing that could be considered a fatal injury.

Only after confirming this did Sunyul collapse onto the ground. Sinking down, he barely managed to hold back the tears welling up inside him.

“Lim Sunyul.”

“…”

“Look up at me.”

Sunyul raised his head. There stood Muyoung, looking entirely casual despite being the one at fault. Sunyul felt a sudden surge of rage. Making no effort to hide his anger, Sunyul glared fiercely at Muyoung.

“I’m going home.”

Having spat out those words, Sunyul used his warp ability and vanished into thin air before Muyoung could even say a word.

Muyoung let out a dry laugh at Sunyul’s rebellious attitude. After that, Muyoung dealt with the swarming reporters half-heartedly, gave vague answers to Jaehoon’s nagging inside the car, and finally arrived home. Inside the pitch-black house where no lights had been turned on, Sunyul was sitting curled up on the living room sofa. He didn’t even lift his head, completely ignoring whether Muyoung had arrived or not.

“Lim Sunyul.”

“I finally understand why you were so angry before, Guild Master.”

Sunyul lifted his head and glared at Muyoung. His cheeks were wet with tears, showing that he had been crying again in the hours it took for Muyoung to return.

“When I thought about how you might die, Guild Master… I felt like I couldn’t breathe.”

“…I’m sorry.”

Muyoung apologized sincerely. However, an apology wasn’t enough to make the anger fade.

“Then why did you get so mad at me? When you’re going to pull dangerous stunts like this yourself, Guild Master…”

“I believed I could pull it off.”

“Don’t use excuses like that!”

Losing his temper, Sunyul yelled out sharply.

“Then I’m going to enter an S-rank dungeon alone too. It’ll probably be easier for me. My rank is higher, after all.”

“Don’t do it.”

“Why? You did it, Guild Master.”

“…I will never do it again, so don’t you do it either.”

“You shouldn’t have done it even once! Why did you do something so dangerous?!”

Muyoung fell silent for a moment. He had tried to think of a plausible excuse on his way over, but since any of them would be a lie, he didn’t really feel like using them. Therefore, Muyoung answered with total honesty.

“I’m sorry. I did it because there was something I absolutely had to do.”

“…And what is that?”

“I can’t tell you.”

“…”

Immediately, Sunyul’s eyes narrowed into a fierce glare.

“I really won’t ever do it again. I swear.”

He won’t tell me a single thing, yet he expects me to just listen when he says he won’t do it again.

“You’re mean. I hate you…”

Muyoung reached out and cupped both cheeks of the crying Sunyul. Then, leaning down, he pressed his lips against Sunyul’s. Sunyul offered a faint resistance as if trying to push him away, but soon gave in.

Muyoung pulled the continuously weeping Sunyul into his embrace. Sunyul buried himself deep into the warmth he had been yearning for over the past few days.