Infinite Competitive Dungeon Society

I saw it the moment I came back to Earth. It was hard to miss something so big flying in the sky. How big was it? You could most likely see it no matter where you were on Earth.

“That’s…”

I immediately got a headache. When I first awakened as an elementalist, I saw a dream. This dungeon looked exactly like the dungeon I saw back then.

In that dream, the sky was reddish black, the sun couldn’t shine down on earth… and countless number of people had died in the dungeon. If I remember correctly, Father and I talked before entering the dungeon…

“O-Oppa.”

Turning around, I saw Yua walking in through the door.

“Yua.”

“It really is Oppa…”

Yua murmured seemingly in disbelief. Luna wasn’t in her arms.

“Where’s Luna?”

“Luna grew up. I can’t carry her around anymore.”

“In just one month?”

“A lot happened. Follow me. Many people have been worried sick about Oppa.”

We were seeing each other for the first time in a month, but Yua was acting strangely calm and collected. I thought only a month passed, but did ten years somehow go by? I was filled with all sorts of thoughts, but I decided to be content with seeing Yua safe and sound.

As we came out through the door, Yua spoke in a soft voice.

“I’m glad you’re safe, Oppa. I was worried so much.”

“Sorry, it won’t happen again.”

“Really?”

“Of course. It’s almost over too.”

With that, I made a bitter smile. Yua looked a little surprised as she looked up at my face, but she soon nodded and smiled.

“I trust you.”

“Good.”

“But is Oppa’s confidence coming from that strangely shaped horn? Ah, you have two of them now.”

“Don’t mind the horn, hahahaha.”

Rubbing the two horns curving up on my forehead, I smiled sweetly.

“Shin! Where were you until…”

Hwaya, who was looking at a projection screen on the wall, shouted the moment she saw me entering with Yua before stumping down on her seat.

With her eyes trembling and tearing up, she spoke as she glared at me.

“I feel like I lost 30 years of my lifespan worrying about you.”

“Sorry, I couldn’t do anything about it.”

“… What about now? Are you okay?”

“Of course.”

“Whew… Hic.”

Seeing Hwaya break out into tears, I softly stroked her head. Hwaya then let out what she had been holding in for the past month.

“It was so hard by myself. Everyone only listens to you. It was so sad and annoying at the same time, I…”

“You did well. I won’t suddenly cut off contact again, so don’t worry.”

Hwaya pouted and rebutted.

“You said you’d always be by my side before you disappeared.”

“But for real this time!”

“Really?”

“I pinky swear.”

Though I didn’t have much choice, since I had left everything to Hwaya for a month, she deserved some praise and comfort. Just looking at her, I could see she was on the verge of collapsing.

She might have looked fine to others, but I knew how troubled she must have been.

“Thanks, Hwaya. I’ll take care of everything now so don’t worry.”

“Un…”

“Uuuu, I, I have to endure it…”

It seemed Yua was feeling great pain from my intimacy with Hwaya. There were many things I wanted to say, but I decided to wait until later.

Looking up, I happened to see the screen Hwaya was looking at.

Then, I froze.

“What’s this?”

“Areas that underwent land transmittance. Look at the areas in red.”

“But this is…”

“Well… That’s how it is.”

Hwaya spoke rather calmly. I pointed at Jongno, where our guild house was located, and asked.

“Wasn’t there an Event Dungeon here before?”

“Yeah, but that Event Dungeon had monsters, not demons.”

I immediately felt a chill go down my back. I had understood what she meant.

“Then…”

“Don’t worry, Shin. It’s not your fault. We were all fooled.”

Although Hwaya seemed calm about it, I couldn’t calm down at all. We had made a critical miscalculation.

Thinking about it now, the previous land transmittances had only been between the Luka continent and Earth. But we included Event Dungeon areas from the monsters’ world into our safe zones. We didn’t even stop to think.

Why? Why didn’t I think of it? Why did I assume the Luka continent and the monsters’ continent operated under the same rules?

I knew the answer. It was because the demons’ Event Dungeons had never overlapped with the monsters’ Event Dungeons. As a result, we concluded that the land transmittance would follow the same rule.

But that had been a trap. The demons might have even planned their invasion paths to be that way for this moment. When I thought of it like that, the hair on my body stood on ends.

We were played for a fool. We thought we were prepared, but that was arrogance. The Demon Lord and the demons had completely tricked us.

I asked solemnly.

“… How many died?”

“2.3 billion.”

Seeing my expression stiffen, Hwaya added.

“It all happened in an instant. Land transmittances in areas that we believed were safe zones… My heart dropped when I heard the news.”

“What about now?”

“It’s been taken care of. It happened about a week after you disappeared. Almost as if they knew you weren’t here.”

Hwaya’s expression darkened as she recollected the past few weeks.

“None of Revival’s members died. Ilayda and Ludia made sure everyone survived… That’s why people resent us more.”

“Resent? It’s not like we wanted other people to die! How can they resent us just because Revival members didn’t die!?”

“It’s precisely because we didn’t die against those strong and fearsome demons. Countless number of ordinary people died… but we didn’t.”

I could imagine how hard Revival’s members worked to protect others. But people were resenting us because none of us died? The absurdity of the situation left me speechless.

At that moment, the door opened. Ludia quietly walked in.

“Sorry, I only planned to listen in… But I couldn’t calm down until I saw you with my own eyes.”

Ludia looked just as exhausted as Hwaya. I then remembered they were on the same shift. Ludia quickly approached me and closed her eyes as she held me. After the energy she released covered me, she got off with a satisfied expression.

“Great, you’re not hurt…”

“Sorry, I planned on seeing everyone after talking to Hwaya…”

“Don’t worry, I understand.”

Ludia didn’t seem to mind it too much, as she turned towards Hwaya and spoke.

“You forgot something important.”

“Something important?”

Ludia nodded her head.

“That Shin is seen as separate from Revival.”

“What do you mean? I’m Revival’s master.”

“This disaster happened when you were gone. People are saying this wouldn’t have happened if you were here.”

I understood what Ludia was saying, but I was still dumbfounded.

“What kind of a nonsense is that? Nothing would have changed even if I was here.”

Without replying, Ludia put up another video on the screen. It was a live news coverage.

[The voices of condemnation against Revival is becoming louder and louder. Many are supporting the theory that Revival’s members have plotted against Kang Shin, who has not appeared for the past month. Revival’s spokesperson, Miss Hwaya Mastiford…]

Hwaya sighed.

“This is why I didn’t say anything. I was afraid you’d get angrier.”

“I am angry.”

“See.”

“Since when did you become a spokesperson? Aren’t you the vice-guild master?”

“People don’t care about it.”

Hwaya spoke bluntly.

“To them, Revival is Kang Shin and Kang Shin is Revival. Without you, Revival is nothing more than a militant group that can’t be controlled.”

“… The timing was too perfect.”

Ludia said with a shrug.

“At first, we ignored it and thought it would go away, but the voices became louder at a speed we can’t understand.”

“To the people, you were no different than God. It became worse over the past month, practically to the point of blind worship… And we were the devils that killed God.”

I pressed my forehead. I began to understand Yua’s strange calmness and Hwaya’s frustration. Even I wanted to cry.

“Damn, why now…”

I thought to the month I spent absorbing the dragon’s power. It was a necessary time to grow my strengths and reaffirm what I learned about my halo and Enigma.

But during this time, the demons made a frontal assault as though they knew about my situation. Revival’s members managed to stop them, but it couldn’t be called successful by any means.

A third of humanity had died. It was hard to say whether the world could go on the way it was.

“The demons must have taken a catastrophic damage too. What they did wasn’t what invaders would do. They were practically on a suicide mission!”

Or maybe, they didn’t care about the number of casualties.

After thinking that far, I raised my head.

I looked at the entrance to the dungeon in the sky.

“Has anyone entered that dungeon?”

“Not if you were here, Shin.”

Hearing Hwaya’s words, I shut my eyes. Ludia added to the explanation.

“No matter how many demons we killed, people wouldn’t believe us. Almost like they were being controlled, they hated us and cried out your name. We were certain the Demon Lord was in that dungeon, but we didn’t have the confidence to go in without you.”

“That’s good. I would have been furious if you went in without me.”

“… But other people didn’t listen to us.”

I slammed my fist down on the table.

Ciara’s prophecy was coming true.

Even after devouring the blood of countless number of ability users, the dungeon in the sky seemed hungry for more, spreading blood red light across the entire world.