[Title: So, why did Seo Chaeyoon disappear?]
Why did he disappear all this time…?
Was he injured?
┗Nobody knows.
┗I'm curious too, but there must have been a good reason.
┗Maybe he was gathering strength in preparation for the new Great Dungeon.
┗┗What nonsense, lol.
┗Does it really matter? Let's just assume he had his reasons.
[Title: Somehow, I'm not scared because of Seo Chaeyoon's existence, lol]
It's like,
"Oh, the Great Dungeon appeared."
"Will the college entrance exams be postponed?"
That's all I thought, lol.
┗Same here.
┗Seo Chaeyoon is back, and Kwon Jihan is here too, so I'm not really worried.
┗Me neither, lol. With the world's strongest shield and the world's strongest weapon, what is there to be scared of? lol.
┗Before, 1203 people went in, but this time only around 400-500 are going in. That's a lot of confidence, lol. But it's understandable, lol.
┗Even Seokyoung's guild master's announcement had that feeling. He seemed really determined but also full of confidence. At first, the idea of the Great Dungeon scared me, but after hearing the announcement, my anxiety faded away.
┗For real, lol. The articles say it's because citizens' awareness has improved, but really, it's just that the awakened ones have become super strong.
[Title: Why are they only telling us now?]
What the heck? Why did they wait until after the market closed to announce this…? Damn ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
Tomorrow's gonna be a crash, isn't it?
┗The market might not open at all.
┗┗It probably will, there's still more than a month left…
┗What are you talking about? It's a good thing they waited until after the market closed.
┗┗Exactly! If they announced during trading hours, people would've gone nuts.
┗Why is crypto going up instead of crashing?
┗┗????? Why is it going up???
┗┗Crypto is impossible to predict.
┗Oh, by the way, what happened to gold prices?
┗┗Gold's been worthless for a while. With magic stones around, who's buying gold?
[Title: Why people aren't panicking]
10 years ago… there were no potions, no inventory.
There wasn't even proper stat screens or skill descriptions, and there weren't many items either.
But still, we managed to clear it somehow.
Now, we live in a time where even an S-rank orange dungeon can be cleared by one person (Kwon Jihan).
The Great Dungeon is an S-rank red-black dungeon, two levels above the orange one.
Both Kwon Jihan and SCY are active in this era.
– End of explanation –
┗LOL, no fear at all.
┗For real, lol. This is an opportunity for revenge.
┗Why is Seo Chaeyoon's name written in consonants only?
┗┗(Author) I don't know, it just felt like my humble fingers weren't worthy of typing his full name.
┗I hope people aren't being too optimistic. This is the place where 1,200 people were massacred just 10 years ago. Sure, it's better than the mass panic and extreme reactions back then, but we still need to stay vigilant.
┗┗I get what you mean… but honestly, the situation has changed a lot since 10 years ago. I can't prove it, but I'm a field hunter too. Dungeons that were life-or-death struggles back then, I can now clear while practically half-asleep.
┗┗Well, for starters, the top expert in this field—the Seokyoung Guild Master—is overflowing with confidence. As the Alliance Leader said, the Great Dungeon will appear next month. We've already completed all preparations. Kwon Jihan and Seo Chaeyoon have already confirmed their participation. His eyes were blazing when he said it, lol. Can you still be scared after hearing that? That was the vibe.
Yoon Seo had the same thoughts as he listened to Yoo Juncheol's announcement.
It was an announcement that had been prepared for a long time, ever since the first prophecy descended. They had carefully thought through how to reassure people, how to prevent mass panic. After long deliberation and research, the final announcement was brimming with confidence—almost to the point of arrogance. In fact, it was more of a declaration of conquest than an announcement.
Even if Yoon Seo hadn't been Seo Chaeyoon but just a regular non-awakened person, after hearing that confident voice and seeing that determined expression, he would've thought, "Ah, even a Great Dungeon isn't something to be that scared of."
Yoon Seo continued reading the posts that were being uploaded for quite some time.
Once he started reading, he couldn't stop. He settled into the sofa and lay down, reading thoroughly. There were more posts mentioning both Seo Chaeyoon and Kwon Jihan together than he expected.
There were always posts like, "Who's stronger, Seo Chaeyoon or Kwon Jihan?", "If Seo and Kwon fought, who would win?", "Analyzing Seo and Kwon's combat power." Yoon Seo skipped over all these clichéd posts.
Beep!
"Ah."
Riceball, who had been crawling up the back of Yoon Seo's neck, jumped onto the U-pad and landed right on top of it. Riceball quickly scurried off and this time started enthusiastically crawling across the living room floor. Yoon Seo briefly wondered when he last cleaned the floor, then remembered he had mopped yesterday, so he felt relieved.
He glanced back at the U-pad, and it seemed to have recognized Riceball's tiny footprints, as a new post had appeared on the screen.
It was unusual—a forum with white text on a black background.
"Did this kind of forum exist here?"
Yoon Seo tilted his head in confusion and started reading the post.
[Title: Is it Seo x Kwon or Kwon x Seo?]
Personally, I lean towards Kwon x Seo.
Because Kwon is on the offensive side,
while Seo is more defensive, right?
It's just their natural positions, isn't it?
┗Correct.
┗Plus, Kwon is the younger one.
┗Seo would totally overpower Kwon with his experienced, older vibes.
┗┗222, Kwon's actually pretty gentle and soft-hearted.
┗┗┗Kwon? Soft-hearted?
┗┗┗Yeah?
┗┗┗Okay, he's kind-hearted, but soft-hearted might be a stretch.
┗This is definitely Kwon x Seo, lol. Seo is shorter, after all.
┗┗How do you know that?
┗┗┗The "small savior," right?
┗┗┗┗But that was 10 years ago; he might have grown by now.
┗I have a friend who knows Seo, and they said Seo's short.
┗Kwon x Seo.
┗┗22222.
┗┗33.
┗┗33333.
┗┗44444444.
┗┗66666 (organizing the numbers).
┗Seo x Kwon.
┗┗2222.
┗┗33333333.
┗For me, visuals are the most important thing, but we have no idea what Seo looks like, so I can't even imagine it.
┗┗Exactlyㅠㅠ How is it possible that in this day and age, there's not a single description of his appearance?ㅠㅠㅠㅠ Is his hair curly or straight, does he have bangs or not, monolids or double eyelids… Not even one line of description?ㅠㅠㅠㅠ
┗Personality is the most important to me, but we don't know anything about Seo's personality, so I can't even imagine that either.
┗┗Come to think of it, Seo is really mysterious, lol.
The post had an unusually high number of comments. Most versus posts didn't get more than three or four comments before disappearing off the page, but this one quickly passed a hundred.
Why were visuals and personality important in determining who was stronger? And why was Kwon Jihan being younger even a factor? Was it because people thought he would have an advantage physically?
That part made sense. Yoon Seo had been doing squats and running with Kwon Jihan, and he definitely had the upper hand in terms of physical endurance.
"...."
Yoon Seo, who had been deep in thought, tossed the U-pad aside and began stretching. Today, he planned to do some intense core workouts in addition to squats.
Kwon Jihan probably felt that this hyung was weaker than him in terms of physical strength. Yoon Seo could never be the one who needed protection; he had to be stronger than Kwon.
Kwon Jihan was already too strong… almost all living beings on this planet seemed weaker than him now.
Yoon Seo didn't want to add even a speck to the weight Kwon Jihan carried.
***
15. Change
After the announcement of the Great Dungeon, there was no major chaos, but it wasn't completely quiet either. Cults claiming the world would end began to raise their voices, and those still haunted by the trauma from ten years ago joined these groups in droves. Within just two days after the Wednesday announcement, the number of cult members increased by thousands.
In response, Seokyoung announced a ten-year plan for the future titled the "Seokyoung Decadal Plan." It included plans for training hunters, establishing hunter schools, and developing manned spacecraft to travel back and forth to the galaxy. As always, there were media outlets stirring public anxiety, but in Korea, Seokyoung had such a firm grip that more people began to look forward to the dawn of the space age rather than feeling anxious.
While Seokyoung was calming the public, Yoon Seo and Kwon Jihan tackled the Martial Arts Party and low-level dungeons.
Yoon Seo's control had nearly returned to the level it was at ten years ago. He intended to keep entering low-level dungeons to regain his feel for the game, but he felt he might not need to do that anymore. When he conveyed this to the party leader, the leader was quite disappointed.
"Are you two planning to participate in the Great Dungeon raid?"
"No, we won't."
Yoon Seo quickly replied. Kwon Jihan simply chuckled at his response.
"I see… Well, if all the strong hunters enter the Great Dungeon, it would be a disaster for Earth."
"What about you? Are you going to support the raid?"
Kwon Jihan asked.
"We've already registered to support."
Yoon Seo was puzzled by Kwon's question but was taken aback by the response.
"Registered?"
"Even though I'm only a C-rank, hearing about the Great Dungeon made my blood boil. I want to go in and burn myself up rather than shivering outside like a coward."
The party leader clenched his fist. Then he added.
"Oh, of course, I don't mean to say that you two are cowards for not participating in the raid…"
"As soon as I heard the dungeon announcement, I thought, 'This is where I'm going to die.' It would be nice if I came back alive, but if I were to die, I wouldn't have any regrets if it were there."
"After seeing so many Revengers sacrifice themselves ten years ago, I've grown tired of just watching. They say the raiders for this Great Dungeon are the new Revengers; I want to wear that title as well."
The party members each expressed their own resolve, even without being asked. Kwon Jihan quietly admired them, whispering "Wow" from the side. One even shouted,
"We'll be raiding the same dungeon as Seo Chaeyoon! We can't miss this opportunity."
They had already tackled over ten dungeons together.
"Right? Who knows? Maybe we'll even get to exchange a word."
They were already mixing in completely.
"I'd be satisfied just to catch a glimpse of the famous 'Existing Spirit' from afar."
It wasn't just a glimpse; he had even been able to pet it freely.
Kwon Jihan laughed out loud next to him, while Yoon Seo felt slightly uncomfortable.
"You all seem to have no idea how terrifying the Great Dungeon is. You want to go in for such childish reasons…"
At that, they pouted, looking as if they were wronged.