Chapter 215

When we stepped out of the dungeon, it wasn’t the inside of that RP dungeon, naturally.

“Whoa, pollution.”

The moment I inhaled, what hit me—picked up even more sharply by my SS-rank senses—was the sensation of fine dust.

But even that felt so damn welcoming.

We’d cleared that godforsaken L-rank dungeon!

And in our hands were items that felt both familiar and strange, one by one.

And yeah, the God’s Shop was actually activating. For real?

But I couldn’t just be purely happy about it.

“The air feels familiar, but why’s the vibe like this?”

Was it because we’d somehow ended up in a flower field?

The area in front of the dungeon we were standing at was completely covered in pure white chrysanthemums.

“No clue what’s going on here.”

Shin Jae-heon scratched his head, clearly as lost as I was.

“……This is.”

Joo Hunter Yian’s voice came next.

He’s out. Safe and sound.

The relief lasted only a moment before his words short-circuited my brain.

“Chrysanthemums?”

“Pardon?”

Chrysanthemums? Here? Why?

So Yeri Hunter craned her neck to peer into the distance and said,

“It’s all chrysanthemums?”

“?”

What the hell is this situation?

Asking the chrysanthemum flowers wouldn’t help, so I reached into my inventory.

To pull out the phone that gets stored in the Galaxy Server when entering a dungeon.

Thank goodness the battery doesn’t drain while it’s in there.

But the date? Not thankful at all.

“……When did we enter the dungeon?”

I asked with a blank face. Shin Jae-heon glanced at the date and replied,

“About two months ago.”

“……We were in there a long time.”

Even regular S-rank dungeons are cleared in a week, so two months was beyond “taking a while”—it was no news is bad news territory.

I looked at the date and the chrysanthemum field in front of me, then concluded,

“They think we’re dead, don’t they?”

At my words, the three hunters’ gazes turned to the piles of chrysanthemums.

“Seems like it.”

So Yeri Hunter responded with utter bewilderment.

Right? Looks that way? Probably?

We’re getting national-level mourning right now?

SNS probably has #PRAYFORSHINYURI trending?

The moment I opened the internet app, half-jokingly,

A massive live broadcast banner flashed on the main screen.

“What the hell is this now.”

No way we’re heading straight to another gate, right?

The other three hunters crowded around my screen.

As So Yeri Hunter rested her chin on my shoulder, I tapped into the live feed.

The urgent voice belonged to a gate scholar.

The man opposite him, adjusting his glasses with a flick, seemed to be another gate scholar.

“Isn’t that guy the one who hangs around the Hunter Association a lot?”

Shin Jae-heon pointed him out. I nodded. I’d seen him a few times.

……Friend of the Hunter Association President, maybe?

No, wait a second.

“Another L-rank gate popped up???”

Now wasn’t the time to worry about the Association President’s connections.

The moment I said that, all four of us froze.

Gate info popped up in the bottom right as the video played.

“We cleared it though?”

I could see it said “video from one day ago.”

And sure enough, the gate was rippling, just like the scholars said.

It didn’t take long to piece it together.

“They don’t know the dungeon’s cleared yet.”

Joo Hunter Yian said. Of course they don’t—we just got out.

The gate scholar started spitting again as he shouted.

“Two days?”

I turned back to where the gate had been. Normally, a dungeon being raided by hunters stops rippling.

Then, if the raid team dies, it starts rippling slowly again, speeding up until it’s ready for the next team.

But why did this one ripple?

So Yeri Hunter had the answer.

“Seems like it started when I got declared dead?”

My heart dropped at “declared dead.” I shot her a glare.

“Ahem.”

It’s in the past, so she’s brushing it off lightly!

My heart was still pounding. I glanced back at the hunter team.

All three of them, focused on the live feed—they were real. Not a dream.

We’d made it out alive.

That’s when I started grinning without realizing it.

The meeting grew hectic. I glanced back at the spot where the gate had vanished.

A mound of chrysanthemums sat there.

If mana had still been leaking, it would’ve been dangerous. And with the area controlled, delivering the flowers would’ve been tough too.

Thankfully, they were piled up nicely.

Wow! Noble sacrifice! Mourning! Gratitude!

Bullshit!

As I grimaced,

My name dropped, and I whipped around to the screen.

“Whoa, look at this asshole.”

—Krunch!

I crushed the phone without thinking.

“Uh.”

Then panicked. But it was unavoidable.

How could I not crush a phone with the Hunter Association President’s face on it?

“Pissed me off.”

I shook off my hand, and Joo Hunter Yian pulled out his phone to resume the live.

Meanwhile, So Yeri Hunter scanned the surroundings again.

“We really got declared dead, huh?”

“Getting memorialized?”

Unbelievable.

The live interviews kept rolling urgently.

Well, two people had been declared dead…

I narrowed my eyes.

Hwihwang was a top guild out in Gyeonggi Province. Their guild master was an S-rank tank, after all.

The screen switched, showing the Hwihwang Guild members at their table.

The guild master’s seat was empty, and the members looked somber.

“What, he dead?”

As if answering me, they raised a screen.

And there was the Hwihwang Guild Master, speaking in a pained voice, live.

“Well, well.”

Not easy for an S-rank—especially a tank—to end up hospitalized like that.

“Isn’t this a foreign hospital?”

So Yeri Hunter sharply pointed at the screen corner.

Unfortunately for the guild master, the crystal-clear quality caught the English text in the corner.

“Looks like it.”

As Joo Hunter Yian confirmed, the guild master spoke.

He looked utterly heartbroken.

“……”

All four of us wore the same expression watching him. Even Joo Hunter Yian.

What a load of crap…

But the officials and scholars had no time to verify if the guild master was really sick—they just sighed.

Better to scout other guilds in that time.

But every guild that followed was either bedridden or mid-raid, all showing reluctance.

One guy even said,

“……”

Joo Hunter Yian watched with a sour face.

“These guys are only shutting up ’cause Ian Hunter’s gone?”

So Yeri Hunter spat out.

Right? This is gold.

“Man, the country’s running great!”

I marveled as every top guild squirmed to dodge the L-rank raid.

The meeting wasn’t reaching any conclusion anytime soon.

I eyed the pathetic spectacle and the chrysanthemum mound, then asked the three,

“Wanna do an after-party?”

Popping up out of nowhere with a “Ta-da! We cleared it!” would just help these dodgers.

We’d reveal it eventually for those who worried, but letting these clowns hit rock bottom first? Fine by me.

“Shall we?”

Joo Hunter Yian chimed in abruptly.

He was pissed too, clearly.

“Let’s sneak out!”

So Yeri Hunter piled on. Shin Jae-heon nodded.

“Time they ate some shit.”

And so, united, we bolted home.

Hunter Association hunters had the 4km radius locked down, but we wouldn’t get caught.

Crazy? By A-ranks?

If we could get nabbed by them, we wouldn’t have cleared an L-rank.

The live droned on, but we headed home anyway.