The Player Who Stands Above All

Chapter 88

"Huh? Oh, you're here."

Lee Shin, who was sitting in a cafe drinking coffee, saw the two people walking together from afar and waved his hand lightly.

"Hahaha, still the same, right?"

"Haa~ You can say that again. It would have been fine if he had changed just a little."

Eun Yeon-woo let out a soft sigh as he looked at Lee Shin, who was exuding a unique presence that could be recognized even from a distance.

As far as Eun Yeon-woo could remember, nothing good had ever happened when Lee Shin smiled that brightly.

***

Vroom-

"Hmm, I couldn't pay much attention to you, but it seems you haven't been lazy with entering dungeons and training separately."

"I figured if I didn't, you'd surely use it to find fault with me."

"That's right. To be honest, I'm a little disappointed about that."

At Lee Shin's words, which felt sincere, Lee Hyun-seok thought he had done well to listen to Eun Yeon-woo.

While driving, Lee Shin observed the two through the rearview mirror.

To Lee Shin, it seemed that Eun Yeon-woo had barely reached the upper level of LV.2, and Lee Hyun-seok was around the mid-to-lower level.

'It feels like checking on a character I left on auto-hunt after a long time.'

Simply put, Lee Shin was satisfied with the growth of the two.

Considering that the time the two had properly started entering dungeons was later than other players, he could tell how much effort they had put in.

As Lee Shin was smiling pleasantly at the fact that Eun Yeon-woo and Lee Hyun-seok had grown smoothly, Eun Yeon-woo, who was sitting in the passenger seat, spoke sharply.

"Haa, I think you've forgotten, hyung-nim, but my job is to be your supporter, not a player. But what am I supposed to do if you, the important one, don't go to dungeons?"

"Ah, I'm sorry about that. I was also doing something that could be called training in various ways. I'm much stronger now than before, you know?"

Lee Shin said, and as if to show off, he lifted his shirt to reveal his abs.

They were muscles so well-defined that they were admirable just to look at, but Eun Yeon-woo's expression, the one who was actually looking, just soured.

"Please cover up quickly before my eyes rot."

"Aish, you prickly fellow."

"Haa~"

Eun Yeon-woo let out a small sigh, feeling a headache for the first time in a while.

"By the way, what was with yesterday all of a sudden?"

"Huh? What about?"

"I'm talking about you suddenly sending Hyun-seok and his sister to my house."

"Eum~ Don't be so stingy. You guys got a little closer while going around dungeons together, so it doesn't matter, does it?"

At the words that blatantly avoided the answer, Eun Yeon-woo tried to argue again.

But before Eun Yeon-woo could open his mouth, Lee Hyun-seok, who was behind him, stuck his face between Lee Shin and Eun Yeon-woo.

"Hyung, but how did you know we entered a dungeon together?"

'I gave your sister a little bribe.'

However, since he couldn't be completely honest, Lee Shin gave a suitable reason.

"I knew by seeing how much closer you two got compared to the last time I saw you."

"Ah, I see."

Lee Hyun-seok, who was easily convinced, went back to his seat.

"Haa, but what have you been doing all this time? Knowing your personality, hyung-nim, you couldn't have just been resting at home."

Eun Yeon-woo asked with a certain degree of conviction.

The Lee Shin that Eun Yeon-woo knew was a person who hated staying still.

Eun Yeon-woo thought that the reason Lee Shin entered several dungeons a day was not only because he enjoyed fighting, but also because he didn't want to be still.

It made sense, as he was a person who, after coming out of a dungeon, would watch novels or comics with truly emotionless eyes, never thinking of staying still for even a moment.

"Hmm... Are you curious?"

"A little."

"I'm curious too. Hyung, you always went out in the evening and only came back in the morning."

Lee Hyun-seok, who was living in the same house as Lee Shin, also had no information on what Lee Shin had been doing, so he expressed his interest.

"Hmm, well, alright. I was planning to tell you guys anyway, and there's nothing to do while driving, so this is perfect."

After setting the stage, Lee Shin began to tell the two about what had happened.

"After telling you guys to train on your own, I put on a mask to hide my identity and went around hunting Black Guilds. You can probably find articles about the incidents from that time if you search the news."

"While hunting the Black Guild guys, I met these three fellows, and they seemed interesting, so I made a deal with them and stepped up the Black Guild hunting."

"While doing that, I naturally learned about an organization called [Dawn]. Ah, for reference, [Dawn] is like a secret organization in Japan, and they seem to be of such bad quality that they commit any crime without a second thought."

Literally from beginning to end.

"Wait, just a moment! Stop!"

Eun Yeon-woo, who noticed that things were taking a strange turn, hurriedly covered Lee Shin's mouth to prevent him from hearing any more.

-And you asked why I suddenly sent Hyun-seok and Hyun-young to your house yesterday, right? Actually, last night at my house, Kim Jae-hyun, the vice-guild master of [Wonderland], and those three people I mentioned gathered and...

However, when his mouth was blocked, Lee Shin used telepathy to pour out the story of what had happened yesterday to the two.

Lee Shin's mouth, as he poured out the story, was smiling broadly as if he couldn't contain his amusement.

***

"It might be hard to understand with just my words, so I will provide a supplementary explanation."

The person who broke the silence created by Lee Shin's words was Kim Jae-hyun.

"The story might get a little long, but I hope you will be understanding of that part."

At Kim Jae-hyun's words, the rest of the people who had come out of the silence nodded with slightly dazed faces.

Lee Shin, who had been pushed from the role of moderator to an audience member before he knew it, watched the situation unfold while eating the food on the table with Yeonhwa.

Although it was a story he had roughly heard on the way, seeing it with a stage and an audience was a new experience.

"First, to get to the main point, our guild master predicts that if time passes uneventfully as it is, a part of human territory will be taken over by monsters in about half a year or a year."

"...Yes?"

"To put it simply, it will be easy to think of it as a world where monsters naturally live on Earth."

"...Is there a reason you think so?"

"Of course."

Joker, the first of the three to emerge from the confusion, asked Kim Jae-hyun.

At that, Kim Jae-hyun nodded as if it were obvious.

Kim Jae-hyun tapped the tablet he was holding a few times, then floated it in front of the three using his psychic powers.

"When dungeons first appeared, the number of dungeons that appeared in the world was about 100 million. Whether it should be called fortunate or unfortunate, about a third of them appeared in unpopulated areas."

On the tablet, a world map with red dots scattered all over was displayed.

"From the next day, the number of dungeons appearing in a day decreased by a thousandth. However, the number of dungeons appearing per day continued to draw an upward curve, and when LV.2 dungeons first appeared, that growth became even faster."

Shrug-

To lighten the suddenly heavy atmosphere and to wet his throat, Kim Jae-hyun paused for a moment and drank the lemonade next to him.

"Well, you might think it's serious hearing it like this, but in fact, there have been no particular problems so far. Rather, it's a situation closer to a surplus than a deficit."

After saying that, Kim Jae-hyun changed the picture on the tablet a few times with a pen controlled by his aura.

"As items are created and information exchange about monsters becomes active, the growth of players is smooth. Now, LV.1 dungeons are cleared as soon as they appear, used as resource mines, and in the end, they are on the verge of turning into garbage dumps."

Since Kim Jae-hyun's words were true, the three who were listening to the story nodded.

"Recently, it has become quite rare for a dungeon break to occur. So, some people have appeared who think of the present as a golden age where tremendous opportunities are rolling around."

"...Are you saying that all of that will be reversed as time passes?"

At Joker's words, Kim Jae-hyun nodded his head lightly in affirmation.

"Yes, I can assert that it will be so."

"......"

Joker quietly listened to what Kim Jae-hyun was saying.

"This is only possible now because the level of the dungeons is low. If a little more time passes and LV.3 dungeons appear, the number of players who can respond immediately will decrease sharply."

"......"

Honestly, Joker had never seriously thought about this topic until now.

For Joker, the appearance of dungeons was nothing more than an opportunity for revenge, and he had focused more on grasping the movements of Black Guilds than the trends of dungeons.

But after listening to Kim Jae-hyun's words and thinking for a moment, he couldn't think of anything to refute.

'No, rather, the story he's telling now is only possible if everything goes as expected without any problems.'

Although people were now so used to dungeons that they would take a selfie if they saw one on the street, in the first place, a dungeon was an unknown phenomenon that could not be explained by any of modern earth science.

It was the kind of thing that, no matter what happened, could not be understood and could only be accepted.

After watching Joker lost in thought for a moment, Kim Jae-hyun continued.

"In such a situation, it is our judgment that the existence of each and every player who can be a source of strength will become precious."

"Hmm..."

"To prepare for such a future, we intend to eliminate in advance the pests that aim their swords at the same humans while wearing human skin."

"Hearing it like that, the words 'world peace' that I heard at the beginning don't seem so wrong."

At Joker's words, Lee Shin, who was eating boneless chicken, smiled faintly.

"The pests you are talking about are the Black Guilds."

"Among them, [Dawn] is a considerably large pest."

Kim Jae-hyun cleared his throat slightly and said.

"With Yeonhwa-nim's help, the Black Guilds across the country have been dealt with to some extent. Of course, there are still some minor ones, but it would be more efficient to catch the big ones rather than those."

Swoosh-

After finishing his words, Kim Jae-hyun extended his hand towards Joker.

Joker looked at the hand for a moment, then soon took it.

"I'm sorry to say this just as we've joined hands, but we will take care of the ones on our kill list."

This was a line that the three of them could never compromise on.

Grin-

And fortunately, Kim Jae-hyun had no intention of crossing the line in front of him.

"We will be satisfied simply when the organization called [Dawn] collapses. Therefore, we will actively help you on our side so that you can get the revenge you want."

***

"...is the story that happened."

Lee Shin ended his recollection with that story and looked at the two.

"These are the things I went through after we parted ways. Ah, for reference, those guys are currently investigating the data on [Dawn] and building up their strength. They said it would take about two weeks."

"......"

"......"

Even though Lee Shin's story was over, the two couldn't say anything and stood frozen in place.

Their heads were complicated, but they could tell very well that they had just stepped into a place where they shouldn't have.

(End of Chapter)