# 038. The King’s Arrival (9)
“Ju Se-rin-ssi.”
Turning around, Jaehee saw Ju Se-rin. Aram slowly backed away, increasing the distance between himself and Se-rin. It seemed he really disliked her.
“I called but you didn’t answer, and now we meet again in a place like this?”
“Haha… I was getting too many calls for a while, so I didn’t answer any of them.”
Since Se-rin had already seen Jeongwoo use a potion, the excuse of being sick wouldn’t work, so he just admitted to not answering her calls. There was no point in making excuses; it would only make things more tiring.
Surprisingly, Se-rin didn’t seem too angry that Jaehee hadn’t answered her calls, which was fortunate. He couldn’t just outright accuse her of being suspicious either.
“I was just needing more people! And you’ve come at just the right time. Is that friend from before not with you?”
Something about her smile as she mentioned Jeongwoo gave off an inexplicable chill. Jaehee forced himself to smile back.
“He’ll be coming soon. We’re just the first wave, so he’ll be setting out with the second rescue team.”
“Hmm. I wonder if there will be time for that. The Daejeon Station dungeon has a different flow of time, so it’ll be difficult for him to come quickly. Everyone here has gone that way, would you like to come along?”
“We’ll come. We came here for the purpose of rescue, so we need to check on the survivors.”
Park Yong-pil stepped forward. Se-rin looked at him and shrugged lightly.
“If you want to rescue people, shouldn’t you clear the dungeon first? People won’t be able to leave until the dungeon is cleared, right? Well, I guess it doesn’t matter much whether they leave or not. Outside or inside, everything has become a dungeon anyway, right?”
“We haven’t heard anything like that yet. Until we entered the Daejeon Station dungeon, the outside situation, though difficult, was being handled one by one. The second rescue team will probably come in soon.”
Se-rin made a strange expression for a moment. On one hand, she seemed to look at Park Yong-pil with pity, and on the other, she seemed to be sneering.
“I see. We’ve been desperately waiting for that to happen too. Well then, would you like to go where the people are? You’ve come at just the right time. Jaehee-ssi, there’s someone I really want to introduce you to.”
Se-rin spoke while clapping her hands lightly. Her words about this being good timing made Jaehee shiver. He had a feeling that what was good for Se-rin probably wouldn’t be good for him.
Se-rin was quite friendly toward Jaehee, if not toward Park Yong-pil. Because of this, Aram, whose likability Jaehee had raised by using his skill, moved far away from him. With Se-rin acting so familiar with Jaehee, even Jaehee seemed suspicious to Aram.
Throughout the journey, Jaehee inwardly sighed as he saw Aram glaring at him from a distance with an expression of betrayal.
The place Se-rin guided them to wasn’t very far.
It was unclear how they had discovered such a place, but a wide clearing spread out in the middle of the dense jungle.
There were many more people in the clearing than expected, divided into groups by appearance. People in dirty, unkempt clothes and people neatly dressed in black clothing—two distinct groups.
Suddenly, an unpleasant smell hit him. As Jaehee looked around, his eyes met Aram’s.
Aram was also frowning, apparently due to the smell.
Could it really be that no one else could smell this?
Jaehee looked around at the group standing in the clearing. Those in ragged appearances stood in the center, and these were the survivor group that Aram had been with. All the survivors had blank stares. In contrast, those dressed in black surrounded the survivor group, but it didn’t seem like they were there to protect them.
“Oh, Sister Se-rin. You said you were going to get herbs, but you’ve brought guests.”
Se-rin went to one of the men in black and respectfully bowed.
Jaehee immediately recognized him as the leader of the Doomsday Cult that Se-rin had been praising so much.
Was the Doomsday Cult leader such a young person? When he heard “cult leader,” he had imagined an elderly man, but the Doomsday Cult leader was not that at all. His sturdy physique visible even through his flowing clothes and his handsome face reminded Jaehee of a celebrity.
Maybe that’s why he was so popular.
“Pleased to meet you. My name is Kim Shin.”
The man seemed more like an idol at a fan meeting than a cult leader. His face was even quite likable. Jaehee felt bemused looking at Kim Shin. Then a strange thought occurred to him.
Was the Doomsday Cult leader on a train going to Daejeon? Or was he at Daejeon Station when he got caught up in this?
Well, considering how quickly Se-rin had entered the Daejeon Station dungeon, it seemed possible. The leader must have been swept up in the dungeon, which is why she hurried here.
Jaehee nodded briefly, giving a perfunctory greeting. While Park Yong-pil and Kim Ji-su were greeting him, Jaehee looked around.
The Management Bureau had definitely said that Yang Jeong-il had entered with Se-rin. Considering how Yang Jeong-il had always followed Kang Min-gyu around, it was a very unexpected combination.
As he looked around, Jaehee spotted Yang Jeong-il standing in black clothes. Their eyes seemed to meet, but Yang Jeong-il didn’t acknowledge him.
Jaehee also examined the survivors. He was checking if his stepmother might be among them. He saw a few middle-aged women around his stepmother’s age, but none of them was her. Jaehee wasn’t sure if it was fortunate or unfortunate that his stepmother wasn’t among the ragged survivors.
“Today is a very important day for our Doomsday Cult. It’s the day new members join us. All these people have decided to join our Doomsday Cult.”
At the leader’s words, the group dressed in black applauded enthusiastically. Was there a Doomsday Cult headquarters in Daejeon? Where had so many cult members gathered in the dungeon, and why were only they so neatly dressed?
The cult members grabbed one of the survivors and brought him in front of the leader, forcing him to kneel. The process looked quite rough, making Jaehee frown. It seemed far too forceful to be called voluntary.
“I will give the Doomsday Cult baptism to our new family member. The Doomsday Cult believes that a new beginning comes through complete doom. We know that our end brings about a complete new beginning. Now, brothers and sisters, bless our doom.”
The leader waved a smoking branch. The man who had been forced to kneel suddenly began to struggle. Jaehee gasped in surprise despite himself.
The man’s struggle was violent and desperate. It was like watching a fish pulled onto land, gaping its gills and thrashing about. The man curled his body and let out choking screams.
Jaehee wondered if he should rush in and stop this. But the leader hadn’t actually harmed the man. He had only waved a smoking branch over him.
Then the grotesque event began. The man’s body started to elongate and change color. Everyone was shocked at the bizarre sight. The man continued to groan. His spine twisted and his leg bones bent in hideous ways. It was like something out of a movie special effect.
And at some point, the man’s arms elongated and wings sprouted. If Jaehee hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn’t have believed it.
The man had become a giant hawk. After briefly staring at the leader, the man flew up into the sky.
Jaehee’s head throbbed at the shocking scene.
Aram looked at Jaehee with an expression that said, “See, I told you.”
Aram had been telling the truth. The problem was that this wasn’t some dungeon anomaly but something created by the Doomsday Cult leader.
“Wh-what is this…?”
“Th-that’s impossible. How can a person…?”
It seemed only Jaehee’s group was surprised. Everyone else appeared relaxed and even leisurely.
As the cult leader gestured again, this time a middle-aged woman was brought forward. The woman screamed and thrashed her head, so “brought” was the only way to describe it.
“Sister. Do you not wish to go through doom to meet a new beginning?”
“I, I…! I have a family waiting for me! I have family outside. I have a child. Leader! Pl-please have mercy…! Please show mercy. My child is only in second grade. Pl-please…!”
The woman desperately cried out while struggling. The cult leader watched her and clicked his tongue as if finding her pathetic.
“You are not dying. You are going to meet a new beginning. All of you were useless humans. Humans not worthy of becoming my subjects. I’ve offered you a new use, but you’re refusing a new life because you can’t forget your family? How pathetic.”
