BRH 11

Moon Tae-yi slowly blinked, gazing up at the dusky sky. An upgrade, huh….

Unlike Gates, which spew out monsters within hours of appearing, Dungeons have a grace period. However, sometimes, when the Boss of a Dungeon is killed, a ‘Double Dungeon’ occurs, and the rank is upgraded. It was rare, but it did happen occasionally, so it wasn’t anything special. After all, it only went up by one rank.

“What was the original rank of the upgraded Dungeon?”

-It was originally Rank 2. But Tae-yi, this is-.

“If it was upgraded from that rank… it’ll be Rank 3. Just pick a few A-rank Hunters and send them in, why are you nagging me? Is the Hunter Management Bureau saying it has to be S-rank or nothing? Seriously… they have no conscience.”

But the other person was silent. An eerie sense of foreboding spread. Gwak Chan-uk chose his words carefully before finally sighing weakly.

-Rank 3? Ha… ha! If it was just that, I wouldn’t have even contacted you.

The people listening exchanged glances. Rank upgrades were extremely rare. It happened maybe once a year. But most upgrades occurred in low-rank Dungeons, so the aftermath wasn’t difficult. But why?

-Damn… Three days ago, a suspected upgrade was reported in a Rank 2 Dungeon near Munryeong Mountain in Namyangju. And today, after the Hunter Management Bureau identified the Energy Source of the Dungeon upgrade, they made an official statement.

People moved closer, one by one. In times like these, bad omens never missed.

-Do you know what they’re saying? According to the Hunter Management Bureau’s standard, it’s Rank 5. Crazy, Rank 5! And the Hunter Management Bureau is predicting the complete death of all Hunters who enter. Are you still not coming?

Rank 5. The first Rank 5 Dungeon to appear in Korea, no, the entire world. Moon Tae-yi’s expression changed. Only his hair fluttered faintly beneath the dusky night sky. Tension filled the faces of the others as well.

-Ha… damn it, you bastard. Still don’t get it? Namyangju, Namyangju! I vouched for you to the Hunter Management Bureau, saying it had to be you!

Namyangju. While other Hunters were shocked by the appearance of the first Rank 5 Dungeon, Moon Tae-yi sensed unease for a different reason. Something flashed in Moon Tae-yi’s eyes. And when he raised his wide pupils, Gwak Chan-uk roared like a man who had swallowed a train’s firebox.

-Ha Do-heon is inside that Dungeon…! You son of a bitch!

---

Hmm… How did it come to this?

Ha Do-heon was currently leaning against a wall, arms crossed, racking his brain. His face, lost in thought, was no different from usual. Apathetic and dry. But his gaze was fixed on the dripping ceiling, drifting for the past 20 minutes.

Ha Do-heon was at the biggest crossroads of his life, contemplating which path to take.

‘I definitely heard news that the Dungeon was cleared.’

[You have cleared the Underground Bat Dungeon.]

[Experience and rewards will be calculated based on contribution.]

[The contribution rankings of the top Raiders are released.]

[1st place – Gi Yeong-tae, 2nd place – Jeon Da-ram, 3rd place – Shin So-yeong]

That was the expected ending. But what came next was the problem. Immediately after the Hunters’ screams were heard.

[Warning! The terrain of the Dungeon is changing due to an ‘Unknown Entity’!]

[A Double Dungeon has occurred!]

[The name of the Dungeon has been changed to ‘Dungeon Created by □□’.]

And now, this was the situation. What situation, you ask….

“Hey, hey! More monsters are coming out! Oh shit, that one’s charging at me again?”

“Ah, move aside, let me see too!”

The survivors were holed up in a narrow gap in the Dungeon cave, staging a sit-in. No, to be precise, they were watching a fire.

The people gathered in the narrow gap were watching the monsters hitting and fighting each other. Actually, they weren’t fighting… Lime was transformed into the same monster and beating them to a pulp.

Of course, this was just a delaying tactic.

Just yesterday, immediately after the screams were heard from inside the Boss Room, the quick-witted Team leader of the mining team quickly got up and called the miners back. And after discovering a gap in a corner of the Dungeon, a place where only humans could barely fit, they all evacuated there.

“Damn it, it was a Double Dungeon!”

As soon as some of the raiding Hunters opened the iron door and joined the workers, they began to resist the monsters with a small gap between them. Naturally, the powerless and mentally weak miners huddled inside the cave, trembling.

Although not a miner, Ha Do-heon was also among them, pretending to tremble.

‘Ah… should I just go out and smash them all?’

But to do that, he would have to use his power, and of course, those who saw his true form would freak out, calling him an incarnation of a monster. The worst-case scenario was that those who survived the Dungeon would make a fuss about Ha Do-heon being a monster, and the Hunter Management Bureau would step in, arrest him, lock him up in a research ward, and experiment on him day and night…. Ah, I suddenly feel like crying.

Ha Do-heon wiped his eyes for no reason and looked at Lime, who was wagging its tail and fighting hard, with pity. If it weren’t for Lime, everyone here would be dead by now.

Do-heon snapped his fingers silently.

‘I know it’s upgraded… but what did it upgrade to?’

This place was Rank 2… so is it Rank 3? But those guys are monsters that can’t come out of Rank 3.

They are called Scorpion Monsters or Half-Human Scorpions. Monsters belonging to the half-human, half-beast category, with a human torso attached where the scorpion’s head should be.

As far as Ha Do-heon knew, Scorpion Monsters only appeared in Dungeons of at least Rank 5 or higher. The problem was that Do-heon remembered the appearance of a Rank 5 Dungeon being a year later.

But it appeared so quickly? He didn’t know why… but the cause and effect were twisted.

Lost in thought for a moment, Do-heon suddenly flinched.

‘Huh?’

He could faintly hear the breathing of the Hunters left in the Boss Room. They were all still alive. Now that two days had passed, those outside would have noticed the strange changes in the Dungeon.

From Rank 2 Dungeons onwards, one Hunter is stationed outside to watch for changes in case of an emergency. So, if the Hunter who noticed the Dungeon’s changes reported it to the Hunter Management Bureau, rescuers would definitely come.

However, the problem was that he didn’t know when they would come. There were a total of 8 Hunters collapsed in the Boss Room. Their breathing was so weak that it wouldn’t be strange if they died at any moment.

‘Should I try to move them out…?’

I could roughly lure the monsters to Lime and run to the entrance.

But the combat Hunters were so engrossed in watching Lime become a fighter that they were clenching their fists, watching the game from the sidelines. The workers were terrified and didn’t even think about leaving this place.

Dungeons are relatively free to enter and exit, but that’s only if you can get to the entrance, and right now, if you leave here without Lime, you’ll die immediately.

Ha Do-heon was once again searching for a way to break through this tedious situation when he burst into lamentation. Ha… why does this kind of thing happen to me…?

“No, where did that huge thing suddenly come from and start fighting them?”

A young miner sitting among the workers whispered to Ha Do-heon. He was amazed, saying he had never seen monsters fighting each other in his life, and he was giggling with delight.

“Hyung, do you know how many monsters that monster has killed? It’s killed 36. It’s so strong on its own. Wow, you’d think it was protecting us. I thought we were going to die as soon as it became a Double Dungeon, but I don’t know what’s going on.”

“…I know, haha.”

Ha Do-heon smiled awkwardly and shrugged his shoulders for no reason. But even so, his broad shoulders didn’t shrink by an inch.

Let’s… cheer up, Lime.

Even now, he thought it was a really good thing he brought Lime. Because it wasn’t the Yakum Dungeon, it could only output 20% of its original power, but Lime had such a gap in power that it could handle these small fries for a month even with 20% of its power.

Ha Do-heon also had a hard time dealing with Lime, who had the ‘Doppelganger’ skill. It had the ability to copy not only the appearance of its opponent but also their stats and skills.

Moreover, once it changed its appearance, it was stored in its cells, allowing it to change back at any time. It was truly an infinite ability, an infinite prodigy.

When Ha Do-heon fought Lime, it had transformed into a total of 32,000 creatures, and it probably had the ability to copy even more creatures now. It might even be able to copy Ha Do-heon’s abilities. Of course, it wouldn’t be able to exert 100% of its power.

‘…It’s scary when I think about it.’

“The Hunter Management Bureau will come to rescue us, right? They… haven’t given up on us, have they?”

The youngest one asked Ha Do-heon again, as if he was bored of watching the monsters. The answer came from among the miners instead of Ha Do-heon.

“They’ll come. Surely… they won’t give up. After all, they have to raid the Dungeon….”

“But it’s been two days and they haven’t come…!”

“I know, so, speak quietly.”

Afraid that the monsters might hear them and swarm in, people were startled and hushed each other. Next to the youngest, the young man with the hat was also biting his lip with his head down. Even though he was pretending to be calm, he couldn’t hide his trembling hands.

Something about him was strangely bothering me….

From the first time he saw him, his voice, which resembled someone, and his familiar actions made his heart ache. Is he someone in a fragment of memory that he hasn’t remembered? Ha Do-heon’s mind was so worn out and eroded that parts of his memory had flown away.

So there would be a blank space, and the things that originally shone in that place have now lost their light.

But when he saw him.

Throb-

“…….”

Strangely, his body and mind throbbed. As if he needed to know. As if he needed to save him.