Geuru drew up the intuition she had developed as a victim of fraud.
‘If there’s anyone suspicious……’
The ugly teddy bear, toddling along, slowed her steps and looked around.
Before long, her gaze fixed on a man passing by her.
‘This mister?’
A thin man whose large eyes rolled this way and that.
He was the only A-rank among the raiding party, but they had said he was a support type, hadn’t they?
Perhaps that was why he was hanging back, wearing a vacant expression as he examined everyone’s faces.
Another peculiar thing about him was that he habitually pulled his sleeves down over the backs of his hands.
‘Hmm.’
He smells fishy.
Geuru scurried up beside him and stole a sharp glance from below.
‘A sword?’
An ornate tattoo resembling the tip of a sword was etched onto the back of his hand.
‘An extremely suspicious mister!’
Tight mark!
‘Is it time to take that out now……?’
Hmm, Geuru hummed, clinging close to him as she moved.
Meanwhile, Gidan had an arm around An Sanghoe’s shoulders as he sank into thought.
‘Is it this guy?’
He was the leader of the party Serhi was keeping a close eye on.
‘Part-time job, my ass.’
Gidan swept a sideways glance over An Sanghoe.
He had introduced himself as a B-rank, but judging from his clumsy, flailing movements, his stats didn’t seem to be anywhere near that level.
Seeing as he even tried to lecture Serhi and himself, he had no eye for skill either.
And yet, considering he was trying to act as the leader, he seemed like a greedy type who wanted the biggest cut……
‘Ugh, this naive gamer.’
Letting out a small sigh, Gidan stuck close to An Sanghoe’s side.
He didn’t know what they had said to lure him in, but seeing that even Serhi was wearing such a stupid mascot suit, it seemed he had been thoroughly deceived.
Jurim probably didn’t know what situation Serhi was in and had roughly given permission.
‘Hyung, seriously.’
Gidan arbitrarily assumed Jurim had let him roam freely because he didn’t know just how much of an idiot that kid was.
Gidan, who often went to play around in guerrilla dungeons, knew well that crime was rampant here.
No matter how strong Serhi was, he could still end up in danger.
‘How do I get that guy to come to his senses……’
While Gidan racked his brain, trying to subtly hint that he was being scammed right now—
Serhi’s head was spinning with irritation.
- ……With Gidan stuck next to him, I think it’ll be hard for An Sanghoe to move.
They didn’t know whether this was a solo crime or if the entire party was in on it, nor how they captured the boss, so they had to be even more careful in moving.
And at a time like this, of all people.
If Jin Siwon, who had a reading skill, had accompanied them, things would have been easier. But since there were many suspects, the two higher-ranked ones had no choice but to move separately.
- Oh dear…… Is there perhaps a way to secretly ask Hunter Gidan for help?
- Help?
From him? Just as he thought he had heard a truly unpleasant word, Gidan’s cheerful voice happened to ring out.
“Well, I came as a guardian, you know. I just can’t leave the kids alone.”
“……?”
Gidan openly glanced at Serhi. He was making it obvious that he was talking about him.
“Ha……!”
A hollow breath leaked from between Serhi’s lips.
‘What kind of bullshit is that now?’
His face crumpled fiercely, but Gidan continued speaking loudly as if to make sure he heard.
“He’s not some four-year-old kid, and yet he’s out here getting scammed.”
“……?”
What?
Gidan met Serhi’s eyes for a long, deliberate moment.
“So naive.”
……Those words became the fuse.
Snap. The thread of his reason broke.
Serhi’s jaw tensed.
- Help? I don’t need that crap.
- Pardon?
- We can just use force, can’t we?
Serhi reversed his grip on his dagger.
- There’s no need to take the long way around. Whether it’s An Sanghoe or anyone else, we just grab every suspicious bastard and drag them in front of Jin Siwon, and it’ll be solved. Right?
He should have done that from the start.
He should have realized it before putting on this shitty costume.
- Pardon?! No, you can’t just do that to civilians…… Wait a moment! Serhi!
But Serhi, already heated to the limit with shame and anger, did not hear the voice trying to stop him.
When he swung his hand, whoosh—the dagger flew.
Gidan simply shifted his face slightly to the side and easily dodged the dagger. Then he whistled and looked back at Serhi.
Serhi adjusted his stance and said,
“Hey, move if you don’t want to die.”
“Baldy’s completely lost it.”
“I can show you what really losing it looks like.”
“Yeah? I’m kind of curious about that.”
Gidan grinned, and An Sanghoe, caught between the two, blinked.
*
Meanwhile, Jo Jinman of the “Divine Legion” clicked his tongue.
‘Has internal strife broken out?’
The tension between the unhinged cat and Batman, whom he had thought were somehow unusual, was growing taut.
‘This is troublesome.’
He took out a black device the size of his palm from inside his sleeve.
[Jump Gate (A)]
Opens a portal for 5 seconds at a location designated in advance by the caster.
Jump Gate was an item that opened a portal at the current location when the switch was pressed.
The Divine Legion was a criminal organization made up of mercenaries, and his current mission as one of its members was to scout guerrilla dungeons.
He confirmed whether the dungeon raiding party was small, whether there were people who could be easily subdued, and whether there were no particular anomalies inside the dungeon.
If all conditions were met, he would use the Jump Gate to open a path to the outside and send the members in.
The prepared members would then suppress the boss in perfect order and capture it using a special net.
The captured boss would be smuggled through an illicit broker.
Previously, they had mainly smuggled ordinary monsters, but as demand for high-rank rare individuals gradually increased, they had even begun to dabble in capturing bosses.
‘Hmm.’
The madmen before his eyes were now even throwing daggers at each other.
‘Their movements are definitely unusual.’
From the way they threw daggers to the way they easily dodged them.
They probably weren’t just concept freaks because they were out of their minds. They must have confidence in their skills.
The members would be waiting, but he judged that it would be unreasonable to proceed under these circumstances.
Above all, the ugly teddy bear Batman had brought along kept glaring at him.
……What exactly is that thing? Why is it holding a fork?
‘Chucky?’
No matter how diverse Hunter weapons had become these days, even he found it hard to keep up with the madness of bringing a fork into an A-rank dungeon.
‘For today, a strategic retreat……’
Just as Jo Jinman was about to put the item back into his inventory, a thunderous battle cry followed the sound of rapid little footsteps.
- Hrahtcha!
“……?”
*
A moment earlier, Geuru had become certain.
‘A scammer!’
The way he held that strange device and nervously gauged the situation with a clueless face.
Just like with Iromi, he might be controlling Serhi with that cellphone-like device.
When she glanced at her brothers’ situation, the fight seemed to be growing bigger and bigger.
‘-Eek!’
When she even saw Serhi recklessly throwing a dagger, her heart grew urgent.
Geuru gripped her fork tightly.
‘I’ll defeat the scammer—’
Pitter-patter-pitter-patter!
‘And save Serhi-oppa!’
- Hrahtcha!
Crackle!
Sparks flew as the fork’s mana collided with the device.
The flustered Jo Jinman raised his voice.
“What are you doing—!”
Clang!
It was a familiar cracking sound. The sound of space splitting.
‘No! It activated!’
Jo Jinman tried to manipulate the device again to close it, but it was no use.
Craaaack—
Shatter!
With the sound of a mirror breaking, space opened.
“Hm?”
The unfinished teddy bear’s eyebrows shot up to the top of her head.
From within the split rift, people carrying weapons crossed into the dungeon one by one.
“Hey, Jo Jinman.”
“What’s with that look on your face?”
Sneering voices followed one after another.
Jo Jinman bit his lip.
“Hmm, this isn’t the boss room, is it? Jinman, what happened?”
A man with an ornate tattoo on the back of his hand stroked his chin.
“I’m sorry. There was a hitch in the plan……”
“What are those people?”
“What is this? Who are you?”
At the sudden appearance of a large group, a commotion began to stir within the guerrilla party.
Gidan tilted his head, and An Sanghoe also furrowed his brow.
“What’s that?”
“Hey, guys. I know this is a guerrilla dungeon, but barging in like this is bad manners.”
The only one who realized their identity was Serhi.
“Found you, poachers.”