#81
“Well then, let’s meet again soon.”
With these words promising a future meeting, Lee Han-pil got into his car and closed the door.
He seemed like the type who didn’t speak idly. It meant there would be a next time. His motives remained unclear, which made him even harder to read. Lee Han-pil had mentioned Normal awakened individuals going missing, but why would he bring this up to Seo Yi-young, who was considered a representative of Normal awakened people? He must have a purpose.
Seo Yi-young narrowed his eyes as he looked down at the document envelope.
*
The materials Lee Han-pil had provided turned out to be entirely factual.
The data he had collected was organized starting from when new-type dungeons first appeared. Proper evacuations had been carried out according to dungeon appearance forecasts, and although the dungeon raids were successfully completed, there was always at least one missing person. Without exception. They didn’t discriminate by age or gender, but they were all Normal awakened individuals. People who had received D to E grades—unable to enter dungeons but who had awakened and used their abilities to find jobs and live their lives. The number of missing persons was in the triple digits.
When Seo Yi-young wondered why this fact had never been covered by the media, Lee Han-pil’s words came to mind. Hadn’t he said the annual number of missing persons reached tens of thousands? Perhaps the number of missing Normal awakened individuals didn’t significantly impact the total number of missing persons. But even so, how could there not have been even rumors or urban legends about this? It was simply incomprehensible.
Seo Yi-young clutched his forehead as he sat in front of the computer monitor.
Is this realistically possible?
Seo Yi-young closed his eyes with his head bowed. After sitting like that for a while, he took out the items he had brought from the new-type dungeon and placed them on the table.
These must be connected too. Things that came out each time a new-type dungeon was cleared.
Surely not, he thought.
“…”
It’s an absurd thought.
But he had to check.
Seo Yi-young examined the materials he’d received from Lee Han-pil. One Normal awakened person goes missing for each new-type dungeon, and an item appears when the dungeon is cleared. There’s no need to discuss frequency—it happens without fail. The probability is 100%.
He looked through the original dungeon data that was included, but missing persons didn’t occur in the same way there. As unbelievable as it was, what this data implied was singular:
There is some relationship between new-type dungeons and the disappearance of Normal awakened individuals.
And these items.
Seo Yi-young looked at the items placed in front of him one by one in order. He would need to investigate further, but he was certain these were also related. He had an inexplicable certainty that one of the names on this list of missing Normal awakened individuals would be on the purchaser list for the modular block.
He didn’t want to think ahead about how they might be connected. Seo Yi-young bit his lip firmly once. Feeling suddenly tired, he rubbed his eyelids vigorously with his hands.
He’d rather not know. Couldn’t he just remain ignorant?
Lee Han-pil probably didn’t know about the existence of these items brought from new-type dungeons. Couldn’t Seo Yi-young just pretend he didn’t know either? There wasn’t necessarily a reason to uncover the truth here. He was already busy sorting out what had happened to him. Just figuring out the identity of the drug the original Seo Yi-young had taken and Jo Tae-su’s purpose in instructing him was enough to handle. He didn’t want to step into something else on top of that.
But.
Seo Yi-young’s gaze fell on the list of missing persons.
These people.
This is just the number investigated in South Korea. How many would there be if other countries were included? Would these people just be classified as “missing” and that’s it? With only their families suffering in anguish while the truth remains unknown to everyone? Like that?
He could just close his eyes for a moment. Whisper to himself that he doesn’t know and deceive himself. If he was going to quit, he shouldn’t have started in the first place. Rather than dabbling a little and then giving up saying he couldn’t do it.
Seo Yi-young lifted his head and exhaled deeply. There was no need to think about it so dramatically. Contemplating without taking action wouldn’t yield answers. First, he needed to confirm the facts. He could make decisions after that.
The owner of the Lego block could be found with just a few phone calls. It was such a famous Lego collection that when he gave the reason that he wanted to purchase it, they agreed to look into it without much suspicion and then hung up. The power of Seo Yi-young’s name worked effectively even in such places.
While waiting for the call, Seo Yi-young sat quietly, gnawing on his knuckles. He prayed dozens of times that the name would be different. That his prediction would be proven completely wrong.
Brrrr.
His phone vibrated. When he answered immediately, it wasn’t the call he was waiting for.
“Hunter Seo! This is Jung Ah-young. There’s an emergency assembly order!”
“Emergency? Right now?”
“Something unbelievable came up on the dungeon prediction meter. You need to come see this…!”
Jung Ah-young tried to calm her excitement, but she couldn’t hide her agitation.
“Calm down. What kind of prediction would make you react like this?”
“An S-Class, no, a Disaster-class new-type dungeon appearance has been predicted. In North Chungcheong Province!”
A Disaster-class dungeon?
This was the collective term for dungeons above S-Class, which were difficult to classify precisely, so they were commonly called “Disaster-class dungeons.” Disaster-class dungeons had appeared only about thirty times worldwide until now, and in the past, they were so difficult to conquer that even with S-Class hunters deployed, they often couldn’t be cleared within the time limit and experienced dungeon breaks. In fact, the damage in Africa, where a dungeon break occurred due to failure to conquer the most recent Disaster-class dungeon, was enormous.
Until now, they had only appeared as original-type dungeons. But a new-type? At this point? It was too much of a coincidence to be believable.
“When, when is it predicted to appear?”
“Tomorrow, tomorrow!”
“…What?”
Tomorrow? This was the first time he’d heard of such an urgent prediction.
Moreover, North Chungcheong Province has a large population. Just evacuating citizens would be quite difficult. This was no time to stand still. Seo Yi-young decided to hear the details at the scene and hung up. If Jung Ah-young, an operations staff, was this flustered, the situation at the scene would undoubtedly be chaotic. Just as Seo Yi-young was about to get up, his phone rang again, and he answered immediately.
“Yes, Ah-young. I was just about to leave.”
“Ah, Hunter Seo Yi-young. This is Park Joo-hyun.”
“Ah. Right. Yes. I’m sorry. I answered right away without checking.”
“Not at all. Um, I found the person who purchased the item you were looking for, but this person is now… in a difficult situation.”
Just hearing that far made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He tried to maintain his composure as he spoke.
“What’s wrong?”
“Well, they don’t know where this person is. They say he suddenly disappeared a few weeks ago…”
“Is that so? Ah… that’s unfortunate. Do you happen to know his name?”
“Ah. The name is… Byun Hye-cheol, I believe.”
Seo Yi-young’s gaze froze. It was a name he had seen on the list of missing persons in the materials received from Lee Han-pil. No way. Even so… No way it could be this extreme.
“Hunter Seo?”
“Ah. Yes, yes. I’m listening. Um, excuse me, but is the ‘Hye’ in Byun Hye-cheol spelled with ‘ㅐ’?”
Seo Yi-young asked as if grasping at one last hope.
“What? Oh, no, no. It’s ‘ㅖ’. It’s quite an unusual name, isn’t it?”
But the answer crushed Seo Yi-young’s hope. It’s not a common enough name to think it might be someone else. Seo Yi-young cleared his throat softly before continuing.
“That’s unfortunate about him. It would be awkward to contact them in this situation, so I’ll have to give up.”
“I suppose so. …How about, would you like me to look for a different item? There might be some available overseas.”
“No, that’s fine. Please convey my sympathies to his family.”
After finishing his words, Seo Yi-young exchanged a few parting pleasantries and ended the call. While the name certainly wasn’t common, he still wondered if it might not be the same person. As Seo Yi-young sighed, he opened the status window of the Lego block once more. But the description in the status window had changed.
“…Huh?”
[Owner: Byun Hye-cheol
Lego block.
A block that was part of a globally limited 100-piece modular series. A special part that only came one per package.]
“…”
This time he was truly speechless.
The situation had completely shattered any possibility of it being a coincidence of names. After staring at the block for a moment, Seo Yi-young quickly hurried on his way. The block was important, but right now, dealing with the Disaster-class dungeon took priority.
When he arrived at the assembly point in Yeouido, Seoul, there were hunters who had arrived before Seo Yi-young. Choi Do-jun was among them. It seemed he had also received the call and come here. The two greeted each other with just a simple eye contact.
They traveled by helicopter to North Chungcheong Province, which had been designated as the area where the dungeon would appear. They could see roads packed with cars trying to leave the province. He had thought they would have put an embargo on the news for a few hours considering the social unrest, but it seemed someone’s warning to their family to evacuate had spread uncontrollably. The roads resembled parking lots.
Although dungeons had become common, it was obvious that people were agitated at the news of a predicted Disaster-class dungeon appearance.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
