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The consciousness is somewhere in the mind. Shin Jiho was calm as he was swept away by this familiar feeling.

While he was in a coma the past two years, Shin Jiho’s consciousness often drifted around aimlessly like this.

Though he doesn’t remember exactly what he saw at that time, the feeling was clear.

Longing. And unidentifiable regret. 

According to his family and the nurses, Shin Jiho often shed tears for some unknown reason while he was unconscious.

He doesn’t remember what he had dreamed of back then. 

But every once in a while, his past shows up in his dreams like this. 

This is not real, but a dream.

And this is something that happened in the past.

Certain that this was a dream of the past, Shin Jiho opened his eyes. 

The dream world materialized inside of his consciousness.

It is bright. A curtain is fluttering gently in front of his eyes, receiving the light and casting shadows like clouds. Looking further out, desks and chairs made of wood and steel are spread out. Someone’s voice and footsteps can be heard from afar.

A familiar, yet somewhat distant scene. Jiho is inside of a classroom where class had ended.

Even though he’s inside of a dream, the dream is so clear that he feels like everything is real. At that time, the heat from someone else’s body could be felt on top of his own arm. Jiho cast his gaze down.

Under the white uniform, his pale wrist is caught under someone else’s larger and tougher hand.

‘Wake up, Shin Jiho.’

It’s Joo Yiwon’s teasing voice. Shin Jiho lifts his head. But because Yiwon’s back is to the window, Jiho couldn’t see what face he was making.

Yet for some reason, he feels a bit of longing when he sees the slight smile on Yiwon’s lips.

‘What kind of dream are you telling me to wake up from?’

Shin Jiho’s voice when he questions Yiwon is unfamiliar to himself. Though it sounds like he’s pouting, it was drenched in affection. Joo Yiwon’s raised lips slowly opened.

Suddenly, the other’s eyes could be seen. Fond and warm eyes, as though he was looking at the most precious thing in the world….

‘You coming first. Next time, you’re still going to be second, you’ll never be able to beat me.’

This f*cker?

“Ugh….”

Shin Jiho woke up fully annoyed.

Joo Yiwon, this cursed bastard. Did he say something like that in the past? Despite this not being the first time he’s been teased by Yiwon, Jiho still gets angry whenever he thinks about it.

In his anger, he tried to sit up quickly, but his head started to spin.

“You should’ve just died, why’d you wake up?”

While Jiho was holding his head in pain, he heard Seon Tae Woong’s gruff voice. Jiho squinted as he turned to the direction of the voice. Perhaps because of the impact before he fell unconscious, his vision hadn’t fully returned yet.

“Oh? You’re really a work of art.”

“Wait a minute. It will get better soon.”

“It doesn’t matter. The two of us are f*cked anyways.”

Unlike his usually mocking tone, Tae Woong’s voice was strangely down.

Shin Jiho finally remembered what happened before he fell unconscious.

The darkness that had swallowed the two of them without warning.

It is a situation that he had only seen from videos. 

Not wanting to believe it, Shin Jiho took a look around his surroundings. 

Even though they were just in the middle of Seoul, they are now in a space where there is not one bit of sunlight. He can’t feel the familiar feeling of sunlight shining down on him. 

As soon as Jiho realized how dangerous this space was, a fishy smell suddenly surged up his nose. The thing that had been supporting Jiho’s unconscious body was a rough boulder, very different from the common asphalt.

Through his slowly returning vision, Jiho could see a huge clump of gems that cannot be seen in the middle of Seoul. 

A sudden unknown space. There’s only one explanation.

The two people had entered through a gate into a dungeon.

“Dungeon…”

“That’s right, we’re in a dungeon.”

For a dungeon to appear in what was supposed to be an F-rank fissure….

Fissures and gates are fundamentally the same thing. 

A gate, on the other hand, is a fissure that expands and evolves into the form of a door. Past the gates are dungeons, which are generally thought of as other dimensions. 

Like with fissures, monsters come out of the dungeons through the gates as well, but dungeons must be cleared within a certain amount of time. The condition for clearing a dungeon is usually killing the boss monster.

And clearing a dungeon–or raiding–is the job of A-rank guilds or higher.

In countries that lack hunters, there are many occasions where B or even C-rank guilds are assigned to dungeons. But Korea has the most hunters compared to its population. Because there are enough A-rank guilds to raid dungeons, dungeons are a far-away concept for mid-tier guilds.

In other words, dungeons are a far-away concept for No Name and Shin Jiho. 

At least, up until a few moments ago.

An F-rank fissure expanded into a gate?

Although there are times where the predictions are slightly off, it was very rare for it to be this far off.

Seeing Jiho’s expression morph into despair, Seon Tae Woong sighed.

“The guys lurking around in the passage are all at least B-ranks. That means the boss is at least S-rank. If we’re unlucky, it could be SS-rank.”

“…”

“If you didn’t wake up, you could’ve died peacefully, what a shame. Should I have been merciful and killed you before you woke up?”

Although Seon Tae Woong was being sarcastic, in this situation, dying really was a blessing.

If the boss is actually higher than S-rank, the possibility of the two defeating it is close to zero.

“It’ll probably be best to choose between starving to death or committing suicide.”

“Are you being serious?”

“They say dying of starvation is agonizingly painful, so it might be better to just commit suicide.”

Instead of his usual look of confidence, Seon Tae Woong had sunken eyes and was mumbling depressingly to himself. However, because the situation is what it is, Jiho couldn’t even think about laughing at Tae Woong’s miserable state.

In general, dungeons are one of four types: Open Dungeon, Closed Dungeon, Sunken Dungeon, or Special Dungeon.

Of those, dungeons that suddenly close over people like this are Sunken Dungeons.

Sunken Dungeons are different from Open Dungeons, which leave the gate open for people to come and go as they please; Closed Dungeons, which only allow a certain number of people to come in before it closes behind them; and Special Dungeons, which only allow people who meet its conditions through its gates.

Sunken Dungeons pull the people around the gate inside like it’s hunting. And like Closed Dungeons, its gate closes. Once the gate closes, it becomes impossible to enter from the outside, so people cannot request for help.

The only way a Closed or Sunken Dungeon opens back up is if all of the people inside are dead or if someone meets the condition and escapes. That condition is usually killing the boss monster located in the deepest part of the dungeon.

It is for this reason that the people who first discover a Sunken Dungeon usually die. There’s no way a normal person can defeat a boss monster.

If a hunter is the first person to discover it, they might have more luck, but… unfortunately, the situation right now still isn’t the best.

According to Seon Tae Woong, the rank of this dungeon is extremely high. It’s impossible for an A-rank and B-rank hunter to clear it by themselves.

Shin Jiho bit his lips as he looked at Seon Tae Woong, who was cursing and pulling at his hair. Jiho was also worried.

‘Mom, dad….’

The first people he thought of were his parents.

Unlike his older brother and sister, who were raised in a strict environment in order to take over the company later, Jiho received only love from his parents, who just wanted him to be healthy.

Jiho remembers how his parents pleaded that they would rather him be like other second-generations who act like degenerates and drink or do drugs than become a hunter.

Yet he, this unfilial son who was unconscious and in a comatose state for two years, argued against them and even ran out of the house….

In the end, his parents had no choice but to support their son. They are still constantly worried.

The result of that is this situation right now.

What should he do?

Like Seon Tae Woong said, one option is to commit suicide. If the both of them commit suicide, at least his parents can retrieve his body in one piece.

However….

‘You’ll never beat me.’

Joo Yiwon’s infuriating face from the dream popped up. 

The number one hunter in the world, as well as his cursed childhood friend.

When they went to school together, they were at least at around the same level. Yiwon was always first, and Jiho always second. There was no one standing between them. 

But now, there are at least tens of thousands of people between them. If you were to go off of reputation, there might be several billion.

What would Yiwon think if he saw how pathetically Jiho died?

‘He wouldn’t have made it anyways. If he had just lived comfortably, he wouldn’t have died.’

Would he mock him like that….

…No, that’s going too far.

Even if Yiwon doesn’t laugh at Jiho, he’ll probably forget all of the memories he had with his pathetic childhood friend in a couple of years.

Moving forward, he’ll continue to gain fame and success, and then pass his name down to his future descendants.

As opposed to Yiwon, even though Shin Jiho is known as the first hunter, his name will forever be scorned as the person who died pathetically. He’ll be mocked even worse than now before eventually being forgotten.

‘I don’t want that.’

Jiho tightened his jaw and clenched his fist. When his fingernails drew blood from clenching down too hard, he woke up. 

That’s right, no matter how he dies, he’ll become a laughinstock, so why should he die here? He should at least try to fight.

Jiho looked at Tae Woong, who was still holding his head.

“Seon Tae Woong-ssi, if you want to die, I will kill you.”

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LaZ Bird Corner

The dream was so sweet until Yiwon ruined it.

Let’s go Jiho!!!

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