I couldn’t shake the worry that Je-ha and his comrades might get caught by the Bureau’s agents.
Je-ha’s a state-classified enemy of the government.
I saw it myself when we copied the national database.
His record was plastered with all sorts of top-secret classifications—Level 1 Secret, Red Code, and other ominous keywords.
…And there was that terrifying phrase: “If capture is impossible, eliminate him by any means necessary.”
The Bureau had been relentlessly tracking Je-ha and the Baekho Unit for the past 20 years. If they crossed paths now, they wouldn’t let this chance slip through their fingers.
No employee would ever let a live bounty walk away.
“Are you worried about me?”
“Of course I am.”
Je-ha gave a dismissive chuckle, like it was nothing.
“I’ve never been caught, not even once. There’s nothing to be scared of.”
He shrugged casually. Even to me, he looked like an insufferable bastard.
“…You’re proud of that?”
“Damn right I am.”
That playful smile of his didn’t carry a trace of fear or hesitation.
Behind me, the Secreti members booed at Je-ha.
“Boo! You’re the worst!”
Seo Yoon-chae, in particular, was passionately vocal about it….
Ra Ho-yeon, Shin Tae-boem, and Cha Si-yoon were all glaring daggers at him too.
And yet Je-ha remained unfazed, seemingly unaware of the burning glares directed at his back.
He even used the Baekho Unit’s private comms device to summon his teammates like a seasoned pro.
Dozens of unit members emerged from the shadows, gathering swiftly at their captain’s command.
After confirming no one was missing, Je-ha turned to me and asked,
“It’s going to be dangerous. I want the Baekho Unit to join the fight too. Is that okay with you?”
“Of course. The more firepower, the better.”
Especially since the Baekho Unit possessed resistance skills against psychic abilities, I felt much more secure about possibly facing Ban Noah.
“All present and accounted for. Let’s go.”
Once Je-ha had made up his mind, he was like a brilliant, unpolished gemstone.
He was so anxious just a moment ago.
Still… a captain is a captain.
Seeing him standing tall with that same confident posture he used to have—it almost brought tears to my eyes.
It’s a critical moment. Since I’m the one who suggested we enter the dungeon first, I can’t afford to look weak now.
I could cry later—after we deal with Ban Noah and this bizarre dungeon break.
I wiped the corners of my eyes with my sleeve and reached out to Je-ha.
Just like we always did when entering a dungeon that showed signs of spiraling out of control in our past lives.
“Let’s go. Who knows what’s waiting on the other side, but I doubt we’re gonna lose.”
“…Yeah.”
That simple gesture seemed to stir something wistful not only in me but in Je-ha too.
For a moment, a soft galaxy of memories shimmered behind his eyes.
With our hands tightly clasped together, we pushed open the door of the mutated dungeon, its surface crawling with hardened nodules.
As soon as it opened, thick crimson mist engulfed us whole.
[Ent%#@ing corru@#$ted dun%$#on in proce#ss.]
And then the world went black.
***
When I opened my eyes, I saw a sky I didn’t recognize.
A strange, otherworldly sky, where orange mirages shimmered over a deep red canopy.
“Gah!”
I snapped to attention and shot up from where I lay.
“This place…”
I tried to retrace my last memories before losing consciousness.
Is this… the inside of the dungeon?
Where’s Je-ha?
The Secreti members?
The Baekho Unit?
“Is anyone there?”
I looked around, but all I could see was a desolate desert of red sand—nothing else in sight.
The only thing stretching out before me was a seemingly endless wasteland.
I brushed off the unsettling red sand clinging to my clothes and started surveying my surroundings.
This dungeon space is much larger than I expected.
I couldn’t even guess where the boundaries of this place might be.
It reminded me of those simulations in the Simulator Gate.
Sure, dungeons often reflect various environments, but this one felt more like we had been dropped into another dimension. Dungeons with this kind of expansive interior weren’t exactly common.
Most dungeons are shaped like towers, and only a rare few take on open, nature-like environments with defined limits.
Still, in any dungeon, there are always strange elements in the environment that mark it as dangerous. Like this crimson sand.
Is this what the Little Prince felt, stranded alone on a distant, unfamiliar star?
I raised my voice and kept shouting for Je-ha, the kids, and the Baekho Unit.
“Je-ha! Brats! Baekho Unit! Can you hear me?”
But the only answer I got was the echo of my own voice.
“Well, that’s not good.”
It looked like this dungeon had scattered us all—broken the party apart and spread us to the winds.
This is bad.
Even as an SSS-rank, I was still a Guide.
Without an Esper to sync with, I’d be completely vulnerable to enemy attacks.
Gritting my teeth, I forced one foot forward through the sand that kept sucking me down with each step.
“If Ban Noah isn’t here, I’ll eat my own hand.”
A dungeon this artificial… that had torn our party apart so violently…
There was definitely something more going on.
At this point, the only option is to find someone—anyone—and team up to bring Ban Noah down.
As I walked with grim determination, something poked its head out of my pocket.
[You’re really going all in, huh.]
“There’s no other way.”
[This whole decision was reckless. You basically stuck your head into a tiger’s mouth.]
“Well, they say to catch a tiger, you’ve gotta go into its den.”
Ban Noah could deny it all he wanted, but at the end of the day, he was a coward.
He spent twenty years avoiding a direct confrontation with Je-ha and the others, laundering his identity and living under a new persona. That said it all.
“It may have been my reappearance that lit the fuse, but if we don’t catch Ban Noah now, we might never get another chance.”
[……Because he’s obsessed with ‘Resurrection’—with me?]
“Exactly.”
A coward like him would only take a gamble like this when greed outweighed fear.
And what he wanted—what he craved—was my power: Resurrection.
“I don’t know what’s happening with the others right now, but if I’ve been separated like this, then odds are either the dungeon boss monster or that bastard Ban Noah is gonna show up soon… Oh.”
A silhouette emerged through the swirling red sand.
Potato instantly shrank back into my pocket, trembling in terror.
[H-he’s here! It’s him!]
“……!”
I froze in place.
As the storm settled, standing before me in a perfectly tailored suit was the one we’d been hunting all along—Ban Noah.
He wore a ridiculous silk hat encrusted with flowers and jewels, the kind only a deranged Mad Hatter would wear.
Curling his eyes, he greeted me with a smirk.
“It’s been a while, Yeon Yu-jin.”
“……”
“Oh, right. Silly me. Last time we met, you told me you were Ahn Ga-hyun.”
“Don’t talk to me.”
Ban Noah’s expression fell as if I’d wounded him.
Disgusting.
“Oh dear. If you silence me like that, how will we keep the conversation going?”
“I have nothing to say to a low-grade murderous bastard like you.”
At the word murderer, Ban Noah’s gaze narrowed.
“Murder? Tsk. I’m merely a prophet—one who understood where those abilities truly belonged.”
“What the hell are you babbling about, you lunatic?”
I couldn’t stand how he spewed delusional rhetoric to justify ripping other people apart for their core powers—just to feed his own greed.
Potato trembled violently, trying to dissuade me.
[Wh-what if you die?!]
I won’t.
The moment Ban Noah lunged at me, I planned to use the only defense I had left: reverse guiding.
The only thing I’m worried about… is whether it’ll even work on someone like him, who steals others’ abilities.
I scanned his surroundings—no partner Guide in sight.
Either he had some unique purification ability that made a Guide unnecessary, or…
Maybe he never Awakened in the traditional sense—so he doesn’t suffer from corrosion penalties at all.
If that was the case, then my last-resort tactic, reverse guiding, would be completely ineffective.
I bit my lip, wracking my brain for any other weaknesses.
Just then, Ban Noah looked at me with amusement and clapped his hands.
“…What now?”
“Oh, I just wanted to introduce you to someone, Ahn Ga-hyun.”
Introduce someone? Now of all times?
Potato and I both instinctively stepped back, suspicious.
Was he hiding a partner Guide this whole time?
[No… That’s not it.]
Then what?
[Something’s wrong. I feel a presence. It’s… familiar. And bad.]
Potato shivered like he’d been stuffed in a freezer.
Holding my breath, I watched as Ban Noah’s “introduction” took shape.
FWOOOSH—
The red sandstorm split apart in multiple directions, scattering behind Ban Noah.
I shielded my eyes and throat with my arm, bracing against the stinging sand.
And then, when the wind cleared, I saw who stood behind him—and I was horrified.
“…The kids. And the Baekho Unit too.”
The ones Ban Noah had brought to ‘introduce’ me to…
Were the very comrades who’d entered the mutated dungeon with me.
With a devilish grin twisting his lips, Ban Noah spoke.
“So? How does it feel to reunite like this?”
