# 037. The King’s Arrival (8)
Aram’s words were so unexpected that Jaehee couldn’t respond.
What he had anticipated was that eating the grass would make people violent like they were drunk, or cause hallucinations or auditory delusions. He had assumed people had eaten something they shouldn’t have in the dungeon because they couldn’t overcome hunger. But people turning into plants or animals? It was utterly absurd.
“What? People turn into what? Plants or animals?”
“Are you doubting me right now? Why do you think I stole this? If I get caught, everyone will try to kill me.”
Aram shouted angrily, feeling that his words weren’t being believed.
But honestly, it was hard to believe.
People becoming flora and fauna? He had never heard of such a thing before. It sounded like a fairy tale where a spiteful witch turns people she doesn’t like into frogs.
Yet there was something suspicious about dismissing the child’s words. The thought that the water deer that had made eye contact with him might have originally been a person sent a chill down his spine.
“Aram, it’s not that we don’t believe you, it’s just such an unexpected story. But knowing that it transforms people, the adults still burn this grass…? If they know burning this grass causes transformations, why do they continue to burn it?”
“You don’t transform just from eating or burning the grass once. After doing it several times, at some point, you transform.”
“Then, couldn’t it be that people changing wasn’t because of the grass? Maybe it was some other food…”
“No. Everything was fine before we first ate that grass. Until that noona suddenly appeared and gave us the grass.”
“Noona?”
“We first burned the grass because that noona said it would keep the monsters away. It caught fire easily, so it was good for burning. When we ran out, the noona would have the guy who came with her bring more. After burning the grass, monsters really didn’t come. So we burned it every day. Later, we even ate it.”
“Ah…”
Jaehee nodded. If they had experienced that burning the grass kept monsters away, people would have started using it.
“But after burning that grass, even though no monsters came, people kept disappearing. Isn’t that strange? But no one else thought it was weird. It was really… scary. Then one day, I saw the men on night watch burning the grass… and that man turned into a deer.”
“A deer?”
“I was so shocked that I woke everyone else up, but nobody said anything about that man disappearing. After that, one or two people continued to disappear.”
“Was the grass easy to find?”
“No. It was hard to find normally. Only that noona had it.”
“Who is this noona?”
“An Awakened One like you! She said her name was Ju Se-rin!”
“Ju… Se-rin?”
Jaehee was startled and stared at the child. Seeing Aram’s hostility at the name Ju Se-rin, he couldn’t dismiss it as a mistake.
Considering he mentioned a noona and a guy, it must have been Ju Se-rin and Yang Jeong-il.
It was impossible to understand what was going on.
Why would Ju Se-rin, who had entered the dungeon to rescue people, be doing such things…?
His mind was a mess. Though they didn’t speak because of Aram’s presence, everyone’s expressions showed they couldn’t comprehend the situation.
“Ju Se-rin… is a follower of the Doomsday Cult. Could this be related to the cult?”
“Doomsday Cult… I don’t know much about it, so I’m not sure.”
“Well, this is just my thought, but maybe it really is connected to the Doomsday Cult. There have been many rumors about the cult doing strange things lately. The Doomsday Cult has many ordinary followers besides Awakened Ones, so maybe Ju Se-rin isn’t the only cult member who entered this dungeon.”
“But that’s no reason to do something like this. Why would they do this to people…”
Jaehee glanced at Aram and swallowed the rest of his words. Maybe Aram had seen it wrong. Or there might be reasons Aram didn’t know about. While Jaehee didn’t particularly like Ju Se-rin, he didn’t want to believe she would harm people recklessly.
“Aram, where are the people? I think we need to meet the adults first.”
“No, you can’t! That noona might do something strange to you too! And I can’t go back anymore. If they find out I took this grass, they’ll all try to kill me.”
Aram’s face turned pale as he shook his head. Seeing the vivid fear on his face, it was hard to insist they should go. Jaehee reached out and held Aram’s hand. The child’s small hand flinched.
“Aram, what if I keep this grass for you? The others don’t know you’ve taken the grass yet. If I put it in my inventory, no one will know.”
“B-but, hyung. If you’re in danger too… if you also become an animal…”
“I told you, I came to rescue everyone, remember? This mister and this noona here are all very strong. We can easily handle all the monsters that come out of the dungeon. Now Aram needs to leave too.”
After repeated persuasion from Jaehee, Aram finally nodded and held out his bag.
The smell was terrible even from a distance, but up close, it was suffocating.
“Ugh. This really has a strong smell.”
“You can really smell it, hyung. Everyone else said they couldn’t smell anything, so I thought something was wrong with me.”
Jaehee grimaced and held out the bag of grass to Ji-su. Ji-su carefully sniffed a few times but shook her head. Yong-pil also shook the bag but couldn’t smell anything.
Could this grass really have such an effect? Even examining the grass taken out from the bag, he couldn’t find anything unusual.
Jaehee put the bag in his inventory and, guided by Aram, headed toward where the people were.
As they got closer to where the people were, Jaehee felt something was wrong.
The noxious smell was so strong it gave him a headache. Jaehee frowned and glanced at Yong-pil and Ji-su, but the two didn’t seem to feel anything.
People were using several modified train cars as homes. The area around the train was filled with signs of fires. Judging from the strong smell, they all seemed to be traces of burning the grass.
“The smell is no joke, it’s giving me a throbbing headache. This doesn’t seem like ordinary grass, so be careful.”
Before getting closer, Jaehee whispered in a low voice. Though Yong-pil and Ji-su couldn’t smell it, they nodded with grim faces at Jaehee’s warning. If Ju Se-rin was indeed doing something suspicious, they had to be prepared for a fight between Awakened Ones.
“Aram, is this the right place?”
“Y-yes, it is… but where did everyone go…?”
Despite their tense approach, there wasn’t a single person in sight. As they got closer, there were signs of people having been there, but no actual people to be seen. They searched the entire area but found no one.
Could everyone have transformed into plants or animals in the meantime? Or had something else happened?
Seeing that the places were left as they were with only the people missing, either they had to leave in a hurry, or they were temporarily away.
Looking at what people had left behind, their living conditions seemed quite harsh. Living in such a place for three weeks must have been really difficult.
“Aram, do you have any idea where the people might have gone?”
“W-well, the adults don’t tell me these things… Maybe they went to get more grass… but still, some people should have stayed behind…”
Since Aram had stolen all the remaining grass, perhaps they had gone out to find more.
“What if we take photos as soon as we find the people? Looking around now, if they’ve lived in a place like this for three weeks, their health condition probably isn’t good…”
“Yes, I think that’s a good idea too. Let’s take a photo of all the people from this camp at once. Ah, since we’ve found traces of people, should we make an interim report?”
Both nodded at Jaehee’s words. They also needed to report that time in the dungeon was so different, and that a rescue team should be dispatched quickly.
Jaehee took a leaf out of his inventory. Holding the leaf that emitted a soft golden light, he thought of the Management Bureau. It felt awkward and a bit silly to be holding a leaf instead of a phone.
“Is this an interim report?”
“Yes. I want to make an interim report about the Daejeon Station dungeon.”
“Go ahead.”
“Currently, three weeks have passed inside the Daejeon Station dungeon. A second rescue team should be dispatched quickly. We’ve met civilians. We’re still assessing the situation, but there may be a conflict with Ju Se-rin of the Doomsday Cult.”
After that, Jaehee made a few more simple reports. When he looked at the leaf after finishing the report, most of it had disappeared transparently, with just a small part of the leaf remaining near the stem. For such a short report, quite a lot of the leaf seemed to have been consumed.
Jaehee hesitated for a moment, looking at the leaf. He shouldn’t use it for personal reasons, but there seemed to be no other way to contact Jeongwoo. Jaehee glanced at the others and picked up the slightly remaining leaf.
“Jeongwoo!”
“Hey! Where ar&^l#$%^&!”
“Daejeon Station!”
At that moment, the leaf in his hand crumbled to dust.
“Ah…”
It was disappointing, but he was satisfied just to have heard Jeongwoo’s voice. Hearing Jeongwoo’s urgent voice, he thought Jeongwoo would lecture him endlessly when they met later.
Despite sometimes acting recklessly himself, Jeongwoo would follow Jaehee around nagging whenever Jaehee did anything even slightly dangerous.
“My, my, who do we have here. Isn’t it Jaehee-ssi?”
Just then, a familiar voice came from behind.
