“!”
The hand I’d been holding slipped and pulled free. If left alone, he’d have smashed his head into the ground, so I hurriedly pulled the other person’s arm back to stop him from collapsing.
What’s going on?
The druggie’s eyes were closed. I slapped his cheek with my free hand, but his eyes wouldn’t open. He’d lost consciousness in that brief moment of entering the dungeon.
Thankfully, I could feel a heartbeat through our touching bodies.
“…Ha.”
After laying the druggie down on the floor and looking around, I lost the ability to speak.
Every direction was covered in iron walls. It seemed the hotel’s security system had activated in that short time. Yeom Hajae, who had followed me in, seemed startled and drew in a breath.
“Could this be a precaution against monster intrusions?”
I nodded silently. It was the kind of design you’d only see in old buildings. It might be effective if an attack came from outside, but in our current situation, it only served to trap us in.
Sensing this was going to be a hassle, I approached the iron wall. No matter how carefully I checked, I couldn’t find any gap.
I slowly ran my hand over the surface, then pressed my palm against it and sent electricity through.
“…..”
Nothing changed.
Yeom Hajae tried something similar afterward and shook his head.
They built this thing needlessly sturdy.
Regardless, we needed to get out of here first.
“I’ll carry the Director.”
“Ah, I’ll—”
“This guy’s heavier than he looks.”
He really was heavy. Honestly, I wanted to just dump him on someone else, but I held back since I needed to check the Director’s belongings.
So we carried our baggage out into the hallway. Fortunately, no barrier had come down over the stairwell either, so we headed for the lobby via the stairs.
Since the restaurant was on the second floor, it didn’t take long to reach the lobby. Given the situation, you’d think someone might be evacuating down the stairs, but the stairwell was completely silent.
But then—
“!”
Stepping into the lobby, we were met with a strange sight.
People collapsed on the floor, people slumped over on sofas and chairs.
No one’s conscious.
Every single one of them had their eyes closed.
“What the—!”
Yeom Hajae quickly moved toward the nearest person.
Meanwhile, I laid the druggie down somewhere convenient behind the front desk.
I can’t keep carrying him around forever.
It absolutely was not because my back was aching. Just as I was that, while I was patting my stiff lower back—
At exactly my eye level, a long crack running along the wall caught my eye. I carefully ran my hand over the wall. It was damage I hadn’t seen yesterday. And it was fairly deep, too.
A crack…
There was a risk of collapse. The moment I realized it, I glanced over at Yeom Hajae. He looked busy checking on the people’s conditions.
It was impossible to take care of everyone here. Rather than waste time for nothing, the best course of action was to clear the dungeon quickly so everyone could be rescued.
Should I tell him or not.
Mulling it over, I walked up to Yeom Hajae.
“How is it?”
“…Just simple fainting. But they might have gotten hurt when they fell…”
“Seems like making people lose consciousness is this dungeon’s characteristic.”
While answering, I looked around once more. The first floor’s doors were closed, same as the floor we’d been on.
“Why are we the only ones unaffected?”
“That’s what I’m wondering too. Because we’re Awakeners?”
There was no way to know right now. And it wasn’t important in this situation anyway.
“We need to get outside to do anything.”
“…Would it be okay if we first went to the room to properly grab the detector and weapons?”
Now that he mentioned it, the sword that always hung at Yeom Hajae’s side was missing. I suppose even he couldn’t bring a sword to breakfast with the Director.
“Floor 30, right?”
“Yes…”
That meant we’d have to walk all the way up to the 30th floor. Yeom Hajae looked away, seemingly embarrassed.
“My room’s on the same floor, so we’ll stop by while we’re at it.”
I nodded along easily and was looking at his troubled face when—
Click.
“?”
My vision went dark.
“Looks like the emergency power ran out.”
It happened much faster than expected, probably because of the dungeon’s influence. Yeom Hajae, being a hunter experienced with entering gates, didn’t panic and pulled out a flashlight.
Tatat!
The moment the light came on, something white darted past in front of us. In the brief flash of light, it had looked like some kind of small furry animal. He redirected the flashlight elsewhere a beat too late, but the creature had already vanished.
Yeom Hajae tilted his head.
“A puppy…?”
“Let’s hurry.”
And so, we had a smooth start.
It was when we’d entered the emergency stairwell to head up to the 30th floor, where Yeom Hajae’s and my rooms were.
Sasak!
Something slipped in through the closing door gap. Soft fluff brushed against my ankle.
“…..”
Yeom Hajae, walking ahead, didn’t seem to notice. I quietly began climbing the stairs. After climbing for a while, I suddenly felt a sharp sensation at my ankle.
“Ugh!”
Looking down, I saw a silhouette gnawing at my ankle through my pants.
“What’s wrong?”
Yeom Hajae turned around at the sound of my groan. The silhouette that had attacked me darted away, vanishing over the railing of the stairs below.
“It’s nothing.”
“…..”
And a moment later—
“!”
“…Hyung.”
This time, even though I held back the groan, Yeom Hajae turned around. The monster had already fled. Yeom Hajae’s expression darkened, not knowing what had happened.
“You seem to be in pretty bad shape.”
“I’m not.”
“Is it because of what happened yesterday…”
“No, it’s just a stomachache.”
“You don’t have to cover for him just because he’s a colleague.”
“It’s really not that.”
No matter how much I denied it, Yeom Hajae couldn’t hide the sympathy on his face. It was nice that he thought well of me, but…
This guy’s being rude.
Hiding my irritation, I urged him to hurry up. At my prompting, Yeom Hajae started walking again.
“I hate that you do such dangerous work, hyung.”
“…..”
“Even that person yesterday—when you’re working, you never know when you might run into them again. If you went through that again, I’d really…”
That…
“Um, Hunter.”
The uneasy feeling slowed my steps. I hesitated, then spoke up.
“…I don’t know what you mean by something happening to me yesterday.”
“What?”
The moment I finished speaking, Yeom Hajae spun around to face me. Looking at his surprised expression, I smiled awkwardly.
“I think you’ve misunderstood something. Yesterday, we just had a normal conversation in the room.”
Honestly, I didn’t properly remember what happened in the early morning. Was the misunderstanding from when Jang Ijung and I put on that act still continuing?
There was no way Yeom Hajae could know what happened between the Director and me at the penthouse.
…Right?
Anyway, it would be a problem if he kept whining like this.
“By the way, you sure figured out which room I was staying in yesterday. Did you secretly follow me, by any chance?”
“No, I just went out because I was worried, and then I heard a strange noise…”
He was lying through his teeth without a hint of shame.
Yeom Hajae looked down at me with a sullen expression. When I smiled gently, he scowled hard and turned to look ahead again.
He seemed angry about something. Not knowing what had set him off, I kept quiet.
“I should report it after all.”
Yeom Hajae spat out the words as if grinding them between his teeth.
“?!”
He’s reporting me to the police?
Before I could ask more about that shocking statement, Yeom Hajae quickly climbed the stairs. Bounding up two steps at a time, his red head of hair pulled away in an instant.
I followed his movements, climbing the stairs one floor at a time. The more I did, the faster Yeom Hajae’s steps became, almost like running.
“Huff, huff.”
“Haa, huff, huff…!”
Two grown men panting and playing tag like this.
Thud!
Hearing a loud noise, I looked up to find Yeom Hajae had fallen about half a floor above me.
In that gap, I finally caught up to Yeom Hajae and blocked his path. Then I grabbed the fallen man’s hand and pulled him up.
“Ngh…”
“Hunter.”
Flicker, flicker, flicker, flicker.
The flashlight’s light flickered erratically. Annoyed by the chaos, I wrapped my hand around his, fiddling with the power button. With the light on, I held it so he couldn’t press the button anymore.
“What is it you want to say?”
“…..”
“Report it? You can’t possibly think that’s actually feasible.”
Yeom Hajae stayed silent.
“…You need to tell me what you want for me to know.”
Even with my urging, his bowed head showed no sign of lifting.
“Ha…”
I couldn’t hold back a sigh.
“If you’re going to keep this up, let’s just part ways here.”
I walked past him and grabbed the emergency door handle.
I had no real intention of leaving. It was a kind of performance to scare him.
Was I really going to just send him off without even a flashlight?
The moment I turned the doorknob—
“Wait!”
“!”
Yeom Hajae, who had been frozen, grabbed onto me hard. But of all places, the spot he grabbed happened to be the shoulder right next to the wound on my back. A sharp pain shot through me, and I flinched reflexively.
“…?”
I could feel Yeom Hajae’s confusion behind me.
Damn it.
This body was needlessly sensitive. Just a few hours ago, I’d been whipped badly enough to tear the flesh. And it wasn’t even an ordinary whip—even with the Ring of Healing on, the artifact-grade wound still hadn’t fully healed.
To divert his attention, I first tried to speak as casually as possible.
“Well then—!”
Thud!
Suddenly, a blunt impact struck my back.
My body trembled involuntarily, against my will.
“…..”
Yeom Hajae slowly lowered his hand and grabbed the hem of my clothes.
I quickly pulled his fingers off and turned away so he couldn’t see my back.
We stood facing each other in silence for a moment.
“Hyung.”
“…Ha-ha.”
“Turn around.”
Yeom Hajae said in a flat, monotone voice.
Hajaes gonna lock him away at this point 😭