When I snapped at him out of irritation, Shin Tae-boem suddenly came to his senses like he’d just woken from a dream.
“Yeah. You being all serious about work doesn’t really feel like the Yeon Yu-jin I know, but… that temper of yours hasn’t gone anywhere.”
You wanna talk about temper? Yours is no damn better, you bastard.
What else could I even say to a baby chick Esper like him?
Just as I was about to bury myself in work out of exhaustion, Ra Ho-yeon came up beside me.
“What’s gotten into you? Working hard for once.”
“You call stirring a bit of tteokbokki sauce working hard? That’s a first.”
“You didn’t even want to do that much before.”
“……”
Damn Yeon Yu-jin.
I do feel bad for him, but what the hell was he doing with his life?
Grumbling silently to myself, I turned and gave Seo Yoon-chae some advice.
“Hey. Why are you just standing there? You need to prep this stuff ahead of time so you can hand it out quickly when the Ability Users start showing up.”
“I’ve never done anything like this before.”
“…And? So what?”
Sure, Seo Yoon-chae clearly grew up pampered like some delicate greenhouse flower, but I grew up more like a cockroach in the cracks—what do I care?
“At least pretend to help. It’s simple stuff. We should be efficient if we want to get out of here fast.”
“…You really have changed a lot.”
Ra Ho-yeon stared at me like I was some rare creature, but he still did what I said.
Checking the fish cake broth for saltiness, adding more stock if needed, stuffing little salt packets into the styrofoam trays to prep for the crowd…
All things considered, it was weird as hell to be working together with someone I once slapped across the face.
This is so awkward I could die.
Ra Ho-yeon must’ve felt the same, because after hesitating for a while, he finally spoke.
“…About last time—when I slapped you out of nowhere. I’m sorry.”
“I know. You already came to the hospital and apologized.”
“That… didn’t really count as an apology. I also yelled at you because I thought you’d done something stupid again.”
Hmph.
Turns out he’s more mild-mannered than I expected.
Out of Secreti’s four insufferable members, I guess Ra Ho-yeon was the least terrible.
Guess I’ll have to play the part of “diligent idol Yeon Yu-jin” for now.
It’d probably help me in the long run to maintain a civil relationship rather than starting fights.
Having done that mental math, I accepted his apology.
“It’s fine. I slapped you too. I must’ve really been a pain in the ass before I lost my memory for you to go that far.”
“…You seriously seem like a different person now.”
“Told you. I died and came back.”
I’d already resolved to keep bullshitting like this, so I didn’t even feel guilty anymore.
“Honestly, the weirdest thing is how chill you’ve gotten all of a sudden.”
“Is that so?”
It probably seemed that way because, no matter how rude these four Secreti members acted, they all looked like baby chicks going peep peep from my perspective.
No matter how much they strut around… When I tried reverse guiding Seo Yoon-chae the other day, he damn near collapsed like he hadn’t eaten in days.
If I just thought of them as fragile, pitiful little Espers, I could tolerate it.
At some point, Potato woke up and started drooling, mumbling in a daze.
[Ugh… Don’t be too mean to the Espers, okay…]
“Argh! My head!”
“…What? What happened? Did something get in your eye?”
Ra Ho-yeon, who couldn’t see Potato, thought it was just sauce splashing and tried to check my eyes.
“…What the hell are you two doing?”
Shin Tae-boem looked at us like he’d just seen something revolting.
“What is this, a late-blooming Vigefur confession or something? I’m gonna puke.”
As soon as our eyes met, Seo Yoon-chae spat venom.
“What the hell is Vigefur?”
“…Forget it. What would I even talk about with a dumbass like you?”
If I’m a dumbass, then you’re a weak-ass twig, bitch.
“I said, what the hell is Vigefur?”
I was genuinely curious, but Seo Yoon-chae just gave me that smug, aristocratic smile of his and taunted me.
“Not telling.”
“That little shit.”
Seo Yoon-chae clearly had zero intention of helping. He was too busy soaking up the stares from nearby girls who were gawking at his good looks.
Cha Si-yoon was sitting around yawning like a sleepy cat, making no move to work at all.
What the hell is this chaos?
Amazingly, the only people here who seemed ready to work were the ones I’d literally fought—Shin Tae-boem and Ra Ho-yeon.
Even without the whole “Yeon Yu-jin” mess, this group was already doomed.
I sighed and peeled some hard-boiled eggs to toss into the tteokbokki sauce.
That’s when it started.
Chzzzzzt—chzzzzzzzzzt.
A strange current crackled around the dungeon gate.
“Oh! Overflow Guild must’ve finished the raid!”
The waiting reporters and fans rushed toward the gate.
Can Jin Eutteum use electricity or something?
I watched curiously, but something felt… off.
There was no “raid complete” notification. Just that eerie current buzzing from inside.
“Uh…? Why aren’t they coming out?”
Just then…
–Krrrrrrrrrrrrrr…
What the hell?
What emerged wasn’t an Esper. It was a monster.
Its upper body looked like a bull, its lower half like a horse with hooves, and huge black wings like a raven’s unfurled behind its back.
Its red eyes gleamed with rage as it let out a bone-shaking roar.
–KRRRRRRRRROARRGH!
Just the sound alone made my eardrums throb.
Realizing this wasn’t some surprise show, the civilians screamed and scattered.
“What the hell is that?!”
“Oh my god!”
“A-A dungeon break?!”
“Everyone run!”
“KYAAA!”
The once peaceful square turned into pure hell in seconds.
Reporters who’d swarmed in to cover Jin Eutteum dropped their cameras and fled. Fans claiming to be Number One members shoved each other to escape the monster’s range.
It hadn’t even been a few minutes yet.
–KRAAAAGHH…!
The monster flapped its wings, agitated by the panic.
“No—!”
I knew that monster. I’d fought it countless times in my past life while clearing dungeons.
An A-rank monster: the Balrog.
The Balrog grows stronger the more noise there is and the more fear it senses from nearby humans!
This whole place was practically gift-wrapped for it.
I screamed at the top of my lungs.
“Everyone, STOP! The Balrog feeds off fear—it gets stronger the more afraid you are! Please stay still, even if you’re scared!”
[It’s no use. They can’t hear you.]
Potato had fully woken up and whispered anxiously.
Just like he said—no one heard me. Everyone was too busy running for their lives, and the noise was deafening.
Damn it. They should’ve blocked off at least a 500-meter radius around the gate!
Letting civilians this close to an active gate was a disaster waiting to happen.
Blinded by peace, no one was ready for this kind of chaos.
Ding. Ding. Ding.
A hollow emergency alert echoed through the air, warning of monster appearances and advising evacuation— completely useless now.
“Where’s Jin Eutteum?! What happened to the Esper?!”
“Wait—did they fail the raid?!”
“Somebody call the police—or Espers, anyone!”
“Please help us!”
But before they could flee, a transparent wall rose up and blocked their path.
“W-What is this?!”
“Oh, fuck.”
Cursing, I yanked off my apron and threw it aside, shouting at the other members.
“Get as many people out of here as you can!”
“What? But you just said we shouldn’t move—”
“The Balrog’s building a domain! It’s feeding off the panic! Just GO! It’s not safe here anymore—!”
RUMBLE.
Before I could even finish, the domain deployed completely.
“Oh, fuck me.”
We were completely screwed.
The transparent dome sealed overhead, trapping everyone inside.
No matter how hard people punched or kicked, no one could escape the set boundary between them and the monsters.
“What is this?!”
“I can’t move forward!”
“M-Mom…!”
Terror peaked. People sobbed and screamed.
The Balrog, having gorged on their fear, licked its lips.
–Krrrrrr.
–Finally, a true feast after all this time.
–How I’ve missed the taste of human flesh!
“Did… did that monster just talk?”
As if that weren’t enough, more Balrogs burst out of the gate one after another.
The onlookers turned pale, teeth chattering in horror.
Shit. It’s begun.
This was the worst-case scenario in a dungeon break— the creation of a Dungeon Dome, a monster-claimed territory.
Even worse—hearing the Balrog’s voice translated into human language. This is a full-blown nightmare.
The baffling part was how none of the civilians seemed to know this basic info.
Twenty years of “peace” and they said the dungeons were stabilized…
Had everyone gotten so complacent that no one even bothered teaching basic safety anymore?
Even in the middle of chaos, I cursed this era’s government under my breath.
What the hell are they going to do with all these civilians?!
Even if the emergency alert went out, unless there was a spatial-movement type Esper nearby, it would take too long for help to arrive.
Fuck, by then everyone in here’ll be dead already!
As for Jin Eutteum, who was supposedly clearing the dungeon— who knows what happened to him? Judging from this, he was probably already killed by the monsters.
What the hell is going on in that dungeon?
If he had cleared consecutive dungeons before, then he couldn’t have been weak.
Did something change inside the dungeon itself…?
