# 024. Long Live the King (8)
“Fuck! What the hell is going on here! We almost died! You! Aren’t you the guide? Answer me! I’m going to kill every single one of those Bureau bastards.”
“Brother! Show them who you are, Brother! These people must have lost their minds!”
They say a sister-in-law trying to stop a fight is more hateful than a nagging mother-in-law.
Yang Jeong-il was more detestable than Kang Min-gyu, who was shouting with a disheveled appearance as if he had rolled in a mud puddle several times.
The two appeared with messy hair and limping steps. Considering their filthy appearance, it was rather surprising that they didn’t have any major injuries.
“You disloyal scum! No matter how much you beg, I’ll never accept any of you as my subjects! Look at yourselves, sneaking out without a scratch. You should have taken care of your brother first! Jeong-il! I have no one but you!”
“Thank you, Brother! I’ll always be by your side to support you. This time, it was my fault… *sniff*”
“No, it’s not. You don’t have dungeon experience, so I should have been more careful… No matter how much these people kneel and beg, I’ll never accept them! You’re all dead now!”
His voice was so loud and resonant that it hurt the ears to listen from nearby. Ju Se-rin waved her hand in front of her face and stepped away from Kang Min-gyu.
“Ugh, we get it, so go speak over there. Did you roll in a dung heap? What is this smell, seriously?”
“You, you…!”
Kang Min-gyu’s face turned bright red at Ju Se-rin’s rebuke, but he couldn’t say anything more. He had been shoved into putrid puddles several times while trying to avoid the grotesque monsters digging through the ground. He knew he smelled, but having it pointed out so bluntly was embarrassing.
“Coming this way means safety, yet none of you said anything and just ran away by yourselves! Cowards!”
It was pure coincidence that Kang Min-gyu and Yang Jeong-il discovered the red ground was safe. While frantically fleeing, they accidentally stepped onto the red ground and noticed the floor stopped moving. Realizing this, the two ran as far as possible from the black ground. But when they arrived, didn’t they hear familiar voices?
Following the voices, they found their team members looking immaculately clean, unlike themselves. Seeing that they had escaped without him, the group leader, made his body tremble with rage. To think he had formed a group with such people!
“Well, at least you arrived safely. It’s fortunate that Brother is here. I was worried since the dungeon changed to rank A, but now that Brother is here to solve everything, I’m relieved.”
“Huh…? W-what did you say?”
“Can you believe those terrible people attacked the instructor and used an amplifier to raise the dungeon rank?”
Jeongwoo answered Kang Min-gyu with a smile. Kang Min-gyu’s face gradually turned pale. Yang Jeong-il asked again with a stupid expression.
“A, A-rank…?”
“That’s right. We were worried, but it’s reassuring to have the King, our Brother, here. Instructor, Min-gyu hyung’s classification is King. I don’t know much about Kings, but wouldn’t he have some special abilities?”
“Uh, um…? S-so…”
Kang Min-gyu stammered as he watched Jeongwoo speaking fluently. Jeongwoo treated Kang Min-gyu like a cat playing with a captured mouse. Instructor Jang In-ho stood up and approached Kang Min-gyu. There was something peculiar about the way his eyes scanned Kang Min-gyu up and down.
“Kang Min-gyu is a King? But in the documents I saw about Kang Min-gyu, it clearly said…”
“Ah, n-no, I mean! I-I’ll tell you! I’ll explain… Haah…”
Kang Min-gyu stammered with a reddened face. Jaehee elbowed Jeongwoo once. Though Kang Min-gyu was an annoying person, seeing him cornered made Jaehee feel uncomfortable.
“The truth is, well, I-I’m not really a King…”
“Brother?”
The only one surprised by Kang Min-gyu’s confession was Yang Jeong-il, who had been diligently calling him “Brother.” Most of the others hadn’t believed Kang Min-gyu’s claim about being a King. They were simply curious why he was impersonating a King. It seemed unlikely that he would do so simply because “King” sounded impressive, especially since almost nothing was known about Kings yet.
“I knew it. There’s no way someone like you could be a King. I’ve had an audience with the real King, so I know what kind of person the King is. How dare someone like you impersonate the King!”
“Ha! What would you know!”
Kang Min-gyu snapped at Ju Se-rin’s words, but there was no strength in his voice. It was both amusing and disappointing to see how quickly he became intimidated after his lie was exposed, despite how domineering he had been.
“Enough. Let’s stop this. What matters now is what’s ahead, not what’s already happened.”
Jaehee reluctantly mediated after assessing the atmosphere. It wasn’t his style to step into such situations, but he had no choice since Jeongwoo didn’t seem likely to intervene. Jaehee shot a glare at Jeongwoo, who was smiling at him. He had the strange feeling that Jeongwoo was deliberately instigating this conflict. He would have a lot to say to Jeongwoo when they were alone.
“Y-yeah… Don’t be so petty about something that’s already happened… And… I didn’t just talk about being a King for no reason… I had my own thoughts about it.”
“Ah, I see…”
“Huh? What thoughts? You tell such lies and show no remorse at all?”
Kang Min-gyu muttered words that showed no sign of regret, but Jaehee decided to pretend not to notice. Ju Se-rin, however, wouldn’t let it slide. She seemed to think there was no longer any need to hide her temperament and openly taunted Kang Min-gyu.
“D-do you think I just randomly talked about being a King? None of you know what a King is or why it’s necessary, do you? I had my reasons. Just because my initial awakening classification wasn’t King doesn’t mean I can’t become one!”
“Then what do you know? Everyone knows what the system has told us. You should think carefully before you speak, Kang Min-gyu-ssi.”
Trembling at Ju Se-rin’s words, Kang Min-gyu sighed with a flushed face.
“Fine. Since I started this, I have no choice. After the tutorial ended, I bought something from the Galaxy Shop. It cost most of the points I had.”
“What was it?”
At the mention of the Galaxy Shop, everyone including Ju Se-rin stared at Kang Min-gyu. The Galaxy Shop consumed points even just for searching, so it wasn’t easy to casually search for or buy things. They couldn’t help but be curious about what Kang Min-gyu had purchased. Seeing all eyes on him, Kang Min-gyu lifted his reddened face.
“The Jewel of the Blindfolded One.”
“What does that do?”
The others all had blank expressions, not knowing what it was, but Jaehee noticed that only Jeongwoo looked slightly surprised.
“It’s an item that reveals the most important event that will happen in the future. But it can only be used once.”
“What?”
This time, both Jang In-ho and Ju Se-rin were shocked. It was hard to believe that something bought with points from the system-managed Galaxy Shop would be fraudulent. Kang Min-gyu, who had been feeling defeated, now wore a somewhat triumphant expression.
“I thought that would be the most important thing. And I found out that the most important thing is being a King. Becoming a King is more important than anything else. Do you know what’s going to happen? It will become a world where you can’t survive without a King. Those without a King will eventually be unable to sleep or even breathe. I was told that even the rock worms that appeared in the tutorial became that way because they had no King. It’s not exact, but those without a King will become like that…! And I said I was a King because it’s possible to become one if you gather multiple followers. So I wasn’t exactly lying!”
Jaehee’s mind went blank at Kang Min-gyu’s words. For a moment, he looked at Jeongwoo and their eyes met. Jeongwoo was smiling at him. Jaehee didn’t know exactly how long Jeongwoo had been watching him.
Jaehee rubbed his coldly numb hands against his pants. He couldn’t pinpoint exactly why, but a corner of his heart felt chilly.
“Hey, is that true? You’re not lying again, are you?”
“Don’t believe it if you don’t want to. Do you think I enjoy just giving away information that I paid points to learn?”
“Okay, okay, we can talk about that later. For now, let’s discuss how to conquer the dungeon. Instructor, you’re a supporter, and Ju Se-rin-ssi, Kang Min-gyu-ssi, and Yang Jeong-il-ssi are all fighters, correct? Jaehee and I are Whisperers.”
This time, Jeongwoo stepped in. The atmosphere changed as he shifted the topic to the dungeon. Jaehee had the feeling that Jeongwoo had intervened because he had extracted the answer he wanted from Kang Min-gyu.
