I Became a Foreign Element in the Guideverse 80

# Chapter 80

Despite the murderous tax rates, the number of people leaving their Central increased day by day.

It was the result of dungeons continually appearing while no one stepped up to conquer them.

I couldn’t understand the situation.

This could have been an opportunity for Topaz Espers, so I couldn’t comprehend why they weren’t taking action.

Cha Yoon took charge of the people who wanted to relocate.

I thought that was the best choice.

The S-class Espers, except for Cha Yoon, had emotional aspects similar to mine, but Cha Yoon focused on practical benefits.

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that Central could only be maintained if there were people with money.

The outside situation wasn’t good, and news occasionally reached us about important Centrals in various countries collapsing.

It now seemed as if the world was racing toward the end.

The S-class Espers became even more passionate about training other Espers.

The research team, which had made great contributions to developing stabilizers, now shared data with the situation room and found ways to quickly detect dungeons in their early stages.

They researched the signs that appeared when dungeons formed and developed methods to identify places where such signs appeared in advance.

It was during this series of events that we gathered again in the small conference room.

Seeing the S-class Espers separately was no longer as easy as before.

Previously, we used the same dormitory as them, but here there was no accommodation where we could all stay together.

The situation wasn’t relaxed enough to build a new building to create a place for us to live together either.

We tried to match our meal times to eat together if possible, but since everyone had their own responsibilities, even that wasn’t easy.

The frequency of having meals with Ha-min was also decreasing, which said everything about the situation with others.

The expressions of the S-class Espers gathered in the room weren’t good.

“I’ll get straight to the point. Signs of new dungeons have appeared, and the situation is bad. We’ve gained time to respond thanks to the research team’s achievements in predicting where dungeons will appear, but according to the situation room’s report, there will be more than twenty new dungeons appearing this week. We’ve almost never had so many dungeons appear at once before. The problem is that the monsters appearing in the dungeons are getting stronger. The research team has put forward a new hypothesis about this. I’ve gathered you here today to share that information.”

Byun Tae-young presided over the meeting, and we listened to his words tensely.

Everyone had felt that dungeons seemed to be forming at a faster rate, but it was shocking to hear that so many dungeons would appear within a week.

Byun Tae-young asked the Research Team Leader to continue the explanation, and the Research Team Leader stood up.

“It’s still just a hypothesis, but I think it has a high probability. We believe there are similarities between the dungeons that have appeared recently and those that caused major Centrals overseas to disappear.”

As he spoke, he displayed some data on the screen.

“Where did the unconquered monsters go? What’s the relationship between dungeons and monsters? Do monsters that come out of dungeons eventually disappear? If so, where do the vanished monsters go?”

These were questions I had also wondered about.

But I didn’t know the answers.

The Research Team Leader moved to the next slide.

A familiar monster appeared on the screen.

At first, I couldn’t exactly identify what the monster on the screen was.

Then I heard the Research Team Leader’s explanation.

“These are all monsters that appeared in now-vanished Centrals. They were photographed by people who were on the scene.”

After speaking, the Research Team Leader looked at Ha-min and me.

I understood why he was looking at us.

As the scout team, we could tell that all these monsters had appeared in previous Centrals.

“No way…”

Ha-min also looked at me with a surprised face.

These were all monsters that had been so strong that we had to go in directly with other S-class Espers to conquer them.

“I’ve heard they were all difficult to conquer. I heard it was difficult even when S-class Espers went out to conquer them. This is just my thought, but it seems that somehow it’s become known that there are many S-class Espers here, and that dungeons are well-conquered whenever they appear. Known to them, that is.”

The term “them” was quite vague, but he probably had no choice but to express it that way.

The side that creates dungeons.

Or the side that sends monsters.

If someone was creating dungeons and sending monsters, it would mean they were aware of this fact.

I wanted to ask who was doing such a thing, how such a thing could possibly happen, but why did my sister come to mind at that moment?

Why had I forgotten that anything could happen depending on how that person had set things up?

This was the danger of entering a game or novel.

Especially dangerous were the creations of someone who couldn’t tie up loose ends as the story progressed.

Like my sister.

Watching the S-class Espers become aghast while the Research Team Leader spoke, I felt unnecessarily embarrassed.

Then I realized that this was no time for such idle thoughts.

‘What on earth should we do?’

As I was sinking deeper into worry, he spoke.

“We don’t know how much time will pass between the appearance of each dungeon. Since they haven’t formed yet, we also don’t know what kind of monsters will come out. However, looking at the monsters that have appeared before, I think we can make some predictions.”

New photos appeared on the screen.

They were photos of monsters I had never seen before.

They were probably the monsters that had made Centrals disappear.

“I sincerely hope my prediction is wrong. Really.”

From that point on, I couldn’t hear what he was saying.

Going forward, monsters as strong as those that had appeared until now would come out one after another, wouldn’t they?

Even when all the S-class Espers went out together, they barely succeeded in conquering them, but if about twenty dungeons of similar difficulty appear this week…

‘Is there any possibility?’

After hearing the Research Team Leader’s explanation, all the S-class Espers’ expressions hardened.

The Research Team Leader looked at us as if apologetic for saying such things and sat down.

“Thank you. You may go now.”

“Yes. I’m truly sorry for having to tell you this.”

With those final words, the Research Team Leader left the conference room first.

The rest of us maintained silence for a while.

Then Ha-min spoke first.

“Should we split up?”

It was right to decide that first, but a long silence followed again.

If we split up, the question of whether we would have any chance of success became more intense.

“Could we have succeeded in conquering without Ha-min? I think even if all S-class Espers went out to conquer, we would have failed without Ha-min’s amplification ability. I think dividing S-class Espers is possible. But I don’t think it would work without Ha-min.”

When Shim Woo-jin spoke, all the S-class Espers nodded in unison.

“I think Cha Yoon and Shim Woo-jin can be separated. There’s an overlap in their abilities. And I think Tae-young and I can be separated too. But that’s as far as we can divide. Me and Shim Woo-jin, Tae-young and Cha Yoon. We can divide like this. But I don’t think we can divide any further. I believe Seo Eunwoo and Lee Ha-min must be part of both groups for successful conquest.”

Everyone agreed with Kyun In’s words.

“Then isn’t that meaningless division? If Eunwoo and I have to be included every time. Is there no chance of success if Eunwoo and I each join separate groups?”

Ha-min spoke and waited to see what everyone thought.

I also considered the composition he suggested.

But there was no need to think for long.

Without Ha-min, it would be difficult.

Attempting a conquest without Ha-min, just me, Kyun In, and Shim Woo-jin…

If the dungeons were the same level of danger as before, it would have been worth trying.

We wouldn’t even need to go as three; there would have been a chance of success even if the three of us went separately.

But entering the current dungeons that way seemed like it would lead to annihilation.

We were already shaking our heads before coming up with an answer.

It seemed too difficult no matter what.

“Ha-min, what do you think? Could you succeed without me?”

My question made Ha-min think for a while.

“I’m not confident, but it seems like we need to try that anyway. Somehow I feel like these dungeons won’t take long to open. And while we need to look at accurate data, I feel like the monsters after a dungeon opens are stronger than when they first appear in the dungeon. The monsters we conquered in the dungeons, don’t you think they were stronger than when they appeared in the previous Centrals? They seem to move faster too.”

At Ha-min’s words, I recalled what the Research Team Leader had displayed on the screen.

Now that I thought about it, that was definitely the case.

When I first saw them, I only thought they looked familiar, but the monsters on the screen were slower than those we had encountered in the dungeons.

There was a high possibility that Ha-min was right.

An anomaly.

And then another anomaly.

Anomaly upon anomaly was created.

This was absolutely unfavorable for us.

It was like a game had started where new rules applied, rules that rendered what we knew useless.

The S-class Espers sighed, unable to hide their tension.

If Ha-min was right, we had to set out to conquer while separated, even if our chance of success was very low.

“If we take high-level Espers with our composition, the chance of success might increase a bit.”