‘I was even deliberately holding back my mana.’
Since he had come all this way, he had intended to rack up plenty of experience for Geuru, but at this rate, it seemed there would be little to gain.
‘Should I just snatch the boss?’
If he took the boss for himself, he would receive quite a lot of experience. Taking down a B-rank dungeon boss wasn’t even a difficult task.
However, the problem lay in the fact that there was a group who had found the boss room first.
It was an unspoken rule to leave the raid to the first discoverers.
Of course, even so, there was nothing they could do if he stole the boss right from under their noses. At best, they’d whine about it on some community forum.
‘Still, that might be a bit much.’
While Gidan’s somewhat lacking ethics compared to others had greatly contributed to Hyeonak’s notorious reputation, acting the villain in front of Geuru wasn’t something he welcomed either.
Gidan watched the hunters’ movements with eyes dripping with regret.
Judging by the absence of familiar faces, they all seemed to be B-rank or lower.
Seeing them gathered before the massive door, listening to someone’s orders, it looked like they were preparing for a boss raid.
But what was odd was this:
‘Two parties, huh…’
Gidan smiled.
If two parties were together, he could more or less tell what was going on.
Gidan took out a disguise item from his inventory.
It was a patch-type item that attached like a medicated patch, meant to interfere with facial recognition.
[You use the ‘Self-Censorship Patch©’.]
[Effect lasts for 1 hour upon equipping.]
Gidan picked up Geuru, who was fiddling with a magnifying glass and duck tongs.
*
“You’ll be fine as long as you’re careful.”
At the man’s words, B-rank Healer Son Ayeong clenched her fist.
Baek Hoseung, who had been giving orders to her team for some time now, was smirking.
“Now, now, the briefing is over. All that’s left is for you to go on in.”
‘Go on in,’ he says. Those bastards were basically telling them to go die, and they said it so easily.
“Let’s go! Move out~”
Baek Hoseung waved his hand.
But when Son Ayeong’s team didn’t open the boss room door, the people behind Baek Hoseung gripped their weapons.
If they didn’t move quickly, they would use force. Truly a dog-like performance.
The two team members who had come with her hesitated, glancing at Son Ayeong.
The reason Baek Hoseung’s team had dragged them along was simple.
To make them open the boss room door and use them as meat shields.
The White-Eyebrow Yeti boss was the type that targeted and attacked the first three who entered.
Son Ayeong herself thought she could somehow endure it, but the two who had come with her were fledglings who hadn’t been Awakened for long.
This was a hastily assembled bus meant to hunt ordinary monsters and gain a bit of experience, not a team prepared for a boss raid.
If she had known she would run into such scum, she wouldn’t have brought just two fledglings.
“I’ll remember all your faces. I’m going to report all of you to the Management Bureau! You hear?!”
“Sure, then just survive with that spirit and report us. Right?”
As he asked for agreement, roaring laughter burst out from behind him.
“Look here, Healer lady. Hurry up and go in, will you?”
Baek Hoseung and his team members roughly shoved Son Ayeong’s team toward the door.
Those dog bastards. Just as Son Ayeong bit her lip.
“Noona, do you need a mercenary?”
At the suddenly heard voice, everyone retreated in alarm.
Turning their gazes to the source of the voice, they saw a boy with deep shadows cast across his face spinning a baseball bat nearby.
‘How did he get this close without making a sound?’
Most of them were B-rank.
B-ranks were superhumans who far surpassed ordinary people. For them to be caught off guard this helplessly was practically unheard of.
‘Is he a powerhouse?’
The group began to buzz with wariness toward the strange uninvited guest.
In contrast, the boy who alone remained calm amid an atmosphere filled with hostility stuck the tip of the baseball bat into the white snow while hugging the teddy bear doll.
“What do you think about us? We’d make decent pinch hitters.”
Pinch hitters. Son Ayeong chewed over his words, her eyebrows trembling.
A savior appearing at a time like this? She ought to bow down in gratitude and welcome him.
‘That would be the right thing to do, but…’
The person before her was a crazy concept freak holding a teddy bear in one hand and a baseball bat in the other.
Normally, she would have ignored whatever nonsense he spouted, but……
“Pinch hitter? What kind of crazy concept is this?”
Right now, whether the other party was a concept freak or a demon, she wasn’t in a position to be choosy.
“Fine! I’ll hire mercenaries, whatever!”
Baek Hoseung stepped forward a few steps with a displeased look.
“What do you think you’re doing right now. Huh?”
As if he had been waiting for that answer, the boy smirked.
“No take-backs, noona.”
[‘Gidan’ has sent a party request.]
“What?!”
Son Ayeong suddenly let out a sharp scream at the pop-up window that appeared before her eyes.
In that instant, Baek Hoseung’s brow furrowed.
“What the hell. Scheming right in front of people, are you?”
Regardless, Gidan smiled brightly and took the lead.
“Then let’s open the door. Ah, it’s fine if I open it, right?”
“Y-yes! Of course!”
“This is hilarious. Stand right there!”
Baek Hoseung tried to stop Gidan.
No, was that lunatic about to lay hands on them?! Son Ayeong growled back.
“It doesn’t matter who I hire as mercenaries, does it? You just need the headcount to draw aggro up front, isn’t that right?”
“There have to be three people drawing that aggro!”
It was then.
Screeeech—
The boss room door began opening by itself out of nowhere.
“…W-what?”
“Why is the door opening?!”
Everyone raised their heads, their faces pale.
Thud—
The sound of a giant’s foot stepping on the snow filled their ears.
A giant covered in thick, pure-white fur. The White-Eyebrow Yeti boss strode out through the door.
“Uwooooooah!”
‘The boss came out of its territory?’
Gidan’s brow slightly furrowed.
Everyone was frozen as if they had encountered an error in an unbelievable situation.
Bosses existed to protect the core that maintained the dungeon, and they never left their territory.
That was basic knowledge common to all hunters.
As the boss howled long and loud and tried to direct its gaze toward the hunters, Baek Hoseung’s team moved first.
“Evade for now!”
“Move back! Hurry!”
The group quickly moved between the giant’s legs to avoid its gaze. It was to avoid becoming the target by staying in the back.
Soon, the boss’s gaze locked onto Gidan.
‘Did it recognize me?’
Son Ayeong and her companions standing next to Gidan stamped their feet anxiously, not knowing what to do.
‘Its condition seems a bit strange.’
Fixing his gaze on the boss, Gidan handed Geuru over to them.
“Play with these noonas for a bit.”
Son Soyeong, Son Ayeong’s younger sister who had received the teddy bear in a daze, shouted urgently.
“What? W-wait! We need to run away together first—!”
As Soyeong reached out to grab Gidan,
Gidan turned around and tore off the disguise patch. The patch crumbled into dust and scattered from his hand.
At the same time, as the shadows disappeared, a handsome face was revealed.
Son Soyeong, who had checked his face, opened her mouth in disbelief.
There was no hunter who wouldn’t recognize him.
Gidan smiled brightly.
“Noona, please take good care of that teddy bear.”
He gripped a black combat knife.
“I’ll be right back.”
For a moment, the boy’s figure seemed to stretch long.
‘…!’
In the blink of an eye, his form had vanished.