Chapter 303

Not in some foreign country, but right here in South Korea, a dimensional nest known as the [Tower of a Hundred People] had suddenly appeared.

The news shocked Jung Haseong to his core. He immediately canceled their plans to shop for dinner, using the time instead to verify the facts and exchange critical information.

***

Sejong Special Self-Governing City, Republic of Korea.

A man dressed in light-colored, comfortable clothes stepped out of the car. Beside him stood another man wearing black leather gloves.

'In this weather?'

At first glance, the outfit seemed a little too warm for the season. Yet the hunter wearing it carried such a cool, detached air that the incongruity somehow faded the longer one looked at him.

'Not a single drop of sweat. Does he naturally run cold, or could it be some awakened ability he hasn't disclosed?'

Several unfamiliar Hunter Association officials had gathered at the scene in Sejong, along with an A-rank awakener who possessed a [Beef Up] buff skill.

"Did Hunter Kang Changho not see the summons?"

Of course, even under such a tight emergency response system, there was one awakened individual who never failed to live up to expectations.

"Well... I'm not even sure whether he's inside a dungeon right now."

Kang Changho.

The awakener with a history of assault had recently been clearing dungeons across various regions, supposedly in pursuit of settlement quotas. At first, he had seemed almost excessively diligent... but then—

At some point, he began relying on an A-rank hunter team brought in from overseas to clear dungeons on his behalf. In other words, he was effectively "auto-hunting," doing nothing more than putting his own name down as party leader.

Because of that, Kang Changho himself was most likely staying outside the dungeons, and, sure enough, he had not checked the Association's messages.

「Hunter Jung Haseong.

The agreement we signed doesn't say I have to personally enter the dungeons. It only says I need to clear a minimum number every month.

So technically, I haven't broken any promises, right?」

Even remembering those words was enough to make Jung Haseong feel as though he were gaining a few more gray hairs.

"Hey, Hunter Jung. Are you all right? You look a little pale."

"Don't worry about it."

In the end, however, Jung Haseong had turned a blind eye to the man's behavior.

It was simply too exhausting to deal with.

He had never expected Kang Changho to fulfill his obligations sincerely in the first place, and when he thought about it, the fact that the man was at least spending money to have dungeons cleared was already something worth being grateful for.

Still, if he was going to go that far anyway, couldn't he have shown up for a dungeon like this?

"Hunter Kim Giryeo..."

Swish.

Jung Haseong raised his gaze toward the enormous gate before him. Then he squeezed his eyes shut and spoke.

"I'm sorry, but... could you perhaps intimidate Hunter Kang Changho by force and persuade him to participate in the raid?"

The man in black gloves standing beside him pressed his lips together, wearing a vaguely displeased expression, like a frog that had swallowed something foul.

"Right....... Of course, someone as upright as you would never resort to violence like that. I know. I do. But still..."

The blond hunter remained silent.

"Haa..."

South Korea's undisputed number one hunter quietly interpreted his colleague's silence as a tactful refusal and suppressed his frustration by himself.

In any case, setting the Kang Changho issue aside for the moment, an exceptionally troublesome incident had now landed in their laps.

The dungeon before them was notorious for its difficulty.

"Excuse me."

At that moment, a reinforcement-type awakener from Sejong City spoke up.

"Hello, Hunter Jung! I was dispatched as soon as I received the official notice, but... when I checked the Pixy database, there wasn't much information."

"Yes?"

"It seems like an extremely dangerous dungeon, but what exactly is the [Tower of a Hundred People]? Why did two S-ranks come all the way here?"

The saying "Seeing once is better than hearing a hundred times" applied even in this industry.

The Association's administrative staff worked tirelessly day and night to provide Hunters with the best information possible. More precisely, they devoted enormous effort to collecting data.

But no matter how hard they worked, there were limits to how much they could learn compared to the field operatives who actually entered and traversed these otherworldly realms.

"Don't tell me... if this thing erupts, is Sejong City doomed?"

Perhaps the person best suited to explain the situation was the living legend whose firsthand experience numbered in the thousands.

At the Sejong resident's question, both men turned their heads at the same time.

The A-rank awakener flinched.

"Well."

Contrary to the resident's fears, the response that followed came in nothing more than the gentle, courteous tone of the nation's beloved hero, accompanied by his naturally pleasant voice.

"First of all, since this is the first time this type of dungeon has appeared in South Korea, it seems that information based on actual cases hasn't been properly circulated."

"Aah, yes."

"Then allow me to explain. The [Tower of a Hundred People] is..."

Haseong continued.

"The name comes from the idea that it would take a hundred people to clear the dungeon."

Something already felt wrong from the very beginning.

"Simply put, that's how difficult it is."

"Heuk."

"I first encountered a dungeon of this type, called the Tower of a Hundred People, in Singapore. Hmm... According to what I looked into afterward, the term apparently originated from some game..."

"What game?"

"If you're someone who plays games, this might be easier to understand. This particular Special Blue Gate can be summarized in one phrase: its interior follows a 'Boss Rush' format."

Aha! Boss rush!

As soon as he said it, several of the younger people on site murmured in understanding.

Of course, the alien, who had no chance of knowing what they were talking about, kept glancing restlessly toward Haseong.

When Jung Haseong noticed his reaction, he immediately stiffened.

Korea's number one-ranked hunter interpreted the man's behavior as a subtle warning.

Ah, right. There are plenty of people here who aren't familiar with technical terminology, so I should explain everything properly. Not everyone studies these things all the time like Hunter Kim does.

It was the kind of misunderstanding no longer worth commenting on.

"Hmm, and since the Tower of a Hundred People is such a rare dungeon, I'm sure there's still a great deal of information that hasn't been publicly disclosed. So I'll try to explain as much as I can based on my own experience."

The national hero continued.

But the longer the explanation went on, the harder it became for Giryeo to hide his astonishment.

The black-haired mammal remembered and explained every detail of the dungeon down to the smallest point.

The conditions of the Tower of a Hundred People were complicated.

1 Despite its name, the Tower of a Hundred People cannot actually accommodate a hundred people. Its interior is only about as spacious as a coliseum, which naturally limits the number of challengers.

2 There are ten floors in total.

3 Once inside, boss-class monsters from around the world appear at random, provided they fall within the dungeon's difficulty range.

4 Here, "random" also applies to the number of enemies. In Jung Haseong's experience, the number of bosses appearing on each floor followed no fixed pattern—for example, 3-1-2-2, and so on.

5 Once someone enters the gate, the entrance closes roughly thirty seconds later and the first-floor trial begins. In other words, no additional personnel can be sent in midway through the raid.

You could tell at a glance that this dungeon had been deliberately designed to wring as much suffering as possible out of its challengers.

A gate where nothing but boss-class monsters appeared one after another.

'I think I heard something like this mentioned in the news before.'

For a moment, the awakened individuals gathered at the scene were about to nod along casually.

But the instant they heard the example that came out of Haseong's mouth next, everyone's jaws dropped.

"To give you a comparison—imagine three of Golden Fragrance's [Grid] appearing at the same time. One is shaking the ground with an earthquake pattern, another is throwing punches at the Hunters, and the last one is charging straight at you for a tackle."

"Whoa..."

Oh my God.

"Just imagining it is overwhelming, isn't it? And apparently the dungeon becomes harder with every floor. Once you reach the later stages, monster species you'd never want to see grouped together start appearing in the same place..."

Anyway, it was brutal.

As Jung Haseong concluded his explanation with those words, a heavy silence fell over the group.

"Jung Haseong. Didn't you say you once cleared this Tower of a Hundred People completely by yourself?"

The one who broke the silence was the blond man.

"Yes. When I cleared the Tower of a Hundred People, Singapore was overwhelmed by the Dragon's Nest... They were in a very difficult situation. Korea was short on available personnel as well, so I remember being dispatched alone."

"Hmm."

"At the time, I was also going through an extreme period of overwork. There were weeks when I'd stay awake for three days straight, so looking back now... I honestly don't know what state of mind I was in to keep going like that..."

Fidget.

The number one-ranked hunter glanced nervously toward the blond hunter beside him as he spoke.

At the same time, his expression briefly suggested that he had become lost in old memories.

Putting that aside, the Tower of a Hundred People was also a dungeon whose difficulty was amplified by the basic physical limitations of the human body.

Jung Haseong raised his head and continued listing its key characteristics.

"Above all, 'camping' is impossible."

"Camping?"

"The rooms are small. The moment all monsters in a round are defeated, the space immediately transitions to the next floor, so there's no opportunity to rest."

"Hoo."

"That's why this dungeon kills people."

Once the raid began, you couldn't even sit down until you reached the final floor.

The expressions of the awakened individuals gathered there stiffened simultaneously.

They looked like office workers who had just been told they had to come in on a holiday.

With a gate whose mechanics were this complicated, even gathering the best A-rank Hunters would inevitably involve all sorts of risks.

Had the reputation of the [Tower of a Hundred People] really not been exaggerated at all?

"Don't worry too much, everyone."

Fortunately, South Korea had little reason to fear even such an abnormally difficult dungeon.

Different elemental attributes. The long corridors commonly found in tower-type dungeons. Any number of bizarre disadvantages could be added, but in the end, it was still only a nest.

And as far as available manpower was concerned, South Korea's hunting industry was second to none.

"I've been talking for quite a while. According to the arrangement I've already made with Association headquarters, I'll be taking responsibility for this gate."

"Gasp!"

"Y-You will?"

A solo raid.

On the [Tower of a Hundred People], of all places?

"I only explained everything so you'd have something to refer to if another dungeon like this appears while I'm away."

Even more surprising was how cheerful he looked while saying it.

"Since the Tower of a Hundred People is fixed at A-rank anyway, it's actually much cleaner to have one high-ranking individual handle it than to crowd the place with a large group."

For reference, Esther had declined the assignment, saying there was no reason to rush into a dungeon that wasn't even S-rank.

"One person?"

But setting aside that purple-haired curse user, wasn't there another companion standing here right now?

"One person? What about Hunter Kim Giryeo beside you?"

"Ah. Hunter Kim is..."

Swish.

While the Association employee and the top-ranked hunter were talking, the hunter who had been standing motionless like a straw dummy quietly leaned his head into the gate.

"I'm only here to accompany him and analyze the rare gate."

"Aah~"

"I also possess [Appraisal] skills."

So that was why he had been standing there with his hands behind his back as though none of this concerned him.

Come to think of it, it was quite rare for an appraiser to accompany a dungeon raid...

'An S-rank appraiser, huh.'

Was it really appropriate to protect a special-ability user even in a situation like this?

While the Sejong City employee was still flustered by the appearance of an absurdly powerful appraiser, the dyed-haired man who had leaned into the otherworldly passage drew his body back out.

"Have you finished your inspection, Hunter?"

An inspection.

Right. At first, that really had been the only reason he'd come all the way here.

"Hunter?"

After finishing his observation, the appraiser showed a faint reaction.

With an expression so unreadable that no Earthling could possibly interpret it, Giryeo thought,

'This is troublesome.'

This dungeon known as the [Tower of a Hundred People] felt strange no matter how he examined it.

Especially the atmosphere.

If he were to borrow an expression commonly used by the humans of this land, it felt downright ominous.

'Hmm.'

According to the Pixy analyzer, it was unquestionably classified as an A-rank nest.

But the mana he felt after peering inside was subtly different.

It was something he could sense directly against his skin.

'Why does this feel so unpleasant?'

In the Archmage's judgment, the mana levels inside the dungeon were far too uneven from floor to floor.

"Hmm."

"What's wrong?"

But explaining that to Haseong would be difficult.

'No matter how I look at it, the lower floors definitely fall within the A-rank gate category... but somehow, I have a gut feeling that the upper floors brush right up against S-rank.'

The ominous sensation inside could only barely be detected by someone who possessed transcendent magical power on the level of an Archmage.

"Hunter Kim, are you perhaps worried that I might overexert myself in this dungeon?"

"...."

"But I've already experienced the Tower of a Hundred People once before, and based on that experience, I'm confident I can clear it much more easily now."

....

"I'll make sure to produce results so you won't regret everything you've taught me. P-Please, trust me."

There was no benefit in revealing such unnaturally sharp intuition in front of an Earthling.

Once Giryeo finished weighing his options, he lightly tugged at the wrist of his glove and spoke.

"Haseong-ah. I've changed my mind. Contact the Association."

"Yes?"

"It's not that I don't trust you. I just want to take a closer look at the gate."

There was no point trying to explain the real reason, so he simply invented another excuse.

"Anyway, I need to see the results of your training with my own eyes if I'm going to figure out what still needs correcting...."

"Aah."

Jung Haseong was usually a calm young man who rarely showed much emotion.

Yet now his reactions were becoming increasingly obvious.

And by the time the hunter beside him placed a hand against his forehead and continued speaking, even the usually unshakable top-ranked hunter looked visibly startled.

"Ugh... Suddenly, that stress-induced tension headache from my fierce battle with Kang Changho is acting up again..."

"Heuk?!"

"...Since it's still lingering, I won't be able to assist you in combat. Just keep that in mind."

At first it was difficult to tell because the man's expression was so utterly emotionless.

But after listening carefully, it became obvious that he was simply joking, and the tension quickly faded.

"Ah, yes! Of course. I'll make sure to handle everything so you can focus entirely on your analysis, Hunter."

Like oil and water refusing to mix, the mana density of each floor inside Korea's [Tower of a Hundred People] seemed strangely divided.

If that was the case, could the dungeon's final boss actually be an S-rank monster that had absorbed most of the available resources?

'There's an eighty percent chance it was just my imagination.'

It didn't matter much either way.

'Even if a borderline S-rank boss really does appear, there's a ninety percent chance Jung Haseong will roast it anyway.'

As demonstrated during the previous [Six-Legged Corridor] incident, Jung Haseong's current level of ability was entirely different from what it had been when he cleared the [Tower of a Hundred People] in Singapore.

'And even if something goes wrong by some one-in-a-million chance, if this body, equipped with gear worth tens of billions, steps in to help, our survival rate becomes one hundred percent.'

Heh.

Still, if he got lazy and the carefully trained S-rank ended up dying, that would be a disaster.

So Giryeo decided to accompany him as insurance, preventing a loss on the scale of a delisting.

The nation's top-ranked hunter, who had endured grueling training!

And beside him, a living trap detector more capable than most appraisers!

With two such monsters entering a gate classified as merely A-rank, surely nothing could possibly go wrong... right?

"Haseong-ah, let's get ready quickly."

"Yes."

"Come to think of it, I have plans with Ahn Yoonseung tomorrow morning. He's an acquaintance from the industry, and he got invited to a popular restaurant through the social media platform Gram, so I somehow ended up joining him..."

But the Archmage and his apprentice regretted stepping into the nest barely thirty seconds after entering the dungeon.

– Ding ding ding ding ding ding...

– [Welcome Greeting]

More precisely, what they regretted was having challenged the nest together.

– [Life is no fun if it's too easy.]

– [So this time, something new]

– [I prepared it.]

Seriously, how had beings that constantly omitted basic sentence elements ever managed to inhabit the complex mammalian bodies of Earthlings in the first place?

– Penalty

– [In this space, your vertical and horizontal vision will appear inverted.]