The Hero Returns

It was quiet. No one spoke a word. No one even took a step. Everyone looked at one person.

"Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five…"

Tramp—

The footstep sounded exceptionally loud. Lee Kang-hee had observed the ten seconds that Su-hyeun had requested. He finally walked out when they were almost over.

"Are you talking about me?" Lee Kang-hee asked.

"Isn't that why you came out?" Su-hyeun said.

His voice was very cold. Lee Kang-hee tried to relax the frown on his face. He forced his smile and reached his hand out to Su-hyeun.

"I am sorry about what I did before. I did not mean anything by it, but…" Lee Kang-hee said.

"But…" Su-hyeun said.

"…Yes?" Lee Kang-hee looked at Su-hyeun with puzzled eyes. "But what?" he thought.

"I was wondering whether you would say that or not. But of course, you did."

Crash—!

"Argh, ugh—!"

Su-hyeun grabbed Lee Kang-hee's hand reached out and used the other hand to break his arm. At the sudden pain, Lee Kang-hee widely opened his eyes and keeled over. The pain from the arm spread all over his body.

"When you apologize, you should not use words like 'but' or 'still' or 'actually.' The moment you do, it becomes an excuse, not an apology. And…"

Crash—

"Argh, ugh—!" Lee Kang-hee screamed.

"Your intention is not important. An apology for the people your actions have harmed is. To everyone, including me," Su-hyeun said.

"I…I am sorry…"

"It's too late. And actually, I did not plan to forgive you even if you apologized."

"Damn…you…!"

Slash—!

Lee Kang-hee drew the sword with his left arm. The sharp blade passed over Su-hyeun's head in a flash.

Bang—!

Lee Kang-hee had another plan. With his skill, his sword multiplied into dozens, all flying to strike Su-hyeun. It seemed to observers that Su-hyeun's body would be cut into pieces.

"Yes!" Lee Kang-hee yelled for joy.

At that moment…

Crack—!

Lee Kang-hee felt the same horrible pain in his left arm. He screamed in pain.

"You have a good skill. If you drew the sword with your right arm instead of your left, you might have been able to cut me a little."

Lee Kang-hee was not able to use both arms anymore. Although he was the A-Rank awakener, it would take a while for his broken and crushed arms to recover. At that moment, it was impossible for him to fight.

"Do…do you think you can gloss over this?" Lee Kang-hee ground his teeth while he knelt. He was trying to not stammer. "What you are doing now… Many people are watching you right now. And we're recording all this. Remember? If we leave this dungeon…"

"Do you just want to die?" Su-hyeun asked.

Lee Kang-hee got chills. He shut his mouth up. He thought if he said something wrong, he might really die. Once more, Su-hyeun twisted the shoulder of Lee Kang-hee who apparently still had some excuse.

Crack—!

"Ah-argh…"

"There's something you're wrong about."

Lee Kang-hee moaned.

"In a large team like this, a raid leader is responsible for planning the attack and having the power to lead the team. Of course, that's when the team is in agreement."

At Su-hyeun's words, Lee Kang-hee's eyes shook. He knew very well. But…

"If somebody," Su-hyeun continued to say, "was blinded by the reward or Ether stone or contribution and harmed the team, the raid leader has the right to punish that person immediately. It is also possible to kill that person in some cases." Su-hyeun paused and asked again, "Do you want to die?"

"No, no…"

"If you get it, shut your mouth. And…"

Su-hyeun released his hold on Lee Kang-hee's shoulder. Instead, he grabbed his throat and lifted him.

"I am still annoyed… So, let me beat you up a little more."

Act8

It was the first time for Lee Ju-ho to see Su-hyeun hit someone that much. He had never seen Su-hyeun fight with someone before. He could not even imagine Su-hyeun was capable of that.

"When I heard that he killed Jung Dong-yeong, I thought that he's quite spiteful…" Lee Ju-ho thought.

But when he actually saw it with his eyes, he could tell that was not true. Nobody could restrain Su-hyeun. The way he beat Lee Kang-hee seemed as if he derived satisfaction from the act. Not even the Papillon Guild members stopped him.

"What kind of idiot would die for the guild master who abandoned them and ran away?" Lee Ju-ho thought and sighed.

At least Su-hyeun did not kill Lee Kang-hee. However, he left him covered with wounds. If Lee Kang-hee were injured, he would not be able to fight anymore.

"Are you done yet?" Lee Ju-ho asked.

Su-hyeun nodded with a relieved face and answered, "Roughly."

"If that was rough, you would probably kill if you were precise."

"There are people who kill their teammates to keep the rewards for themselves. Compared to that, this guy is a gentleman. But he won't able to work in this field anymore. Because of what he did today, he'll probably lose his reputation. Word gets around quickly, you know."

"To me, he looks like someone who would kill others like if it were nothing, so long as he gets his power," Lee Ju-ho said.

"It's hard to kill someone because of the possibility. Also, people are watching…"

At Su-hyeun's words, Lee Ju-ho asked in surprise, "What if people didn't watch?"

"Well…"

"Wow. You are a scary man."

"This is nothing…to be called scary." Su-hyeun shrugged.

Su-hyeun's answer sounded like a joke, but he was serious. To Lee Ju-ho, it looked like Su-hyeun was just a pure and kind person.

"Well. His perception will gradually change," Su-hyeun thought. He turned and started to walk to one side.

"Where are you going?" Kim Taek-hyun asked.

"Rest for a while, please. Nothing will happen if you stay around here," Su-hyeun said.

"I was asking about you, Mr. Su-hyeun. Not us."

"I have to check on something. I'll be back soon."

From the beginning, it seemed like Su-hyeun did not have any intention to ask for permission. Even before Kim Taek-hyun or other people opened their mouths, Su-hyeun moved quickly. When Su-hyeun left, Kim Taek-hyun sighed and turned his head.

"Argh…gg…"

Lee Kang-hee wiggled intermittently as if he was losing his breath. Even if Su-hyeun did not say that, it looked like they could not move at the moment.

***

Swish, swish—

Su-hyeun jumped lightly and looked around the dungeon. With the light from above and its landscape, this city did not look like a dungeon. He felt like he was walking around an old village.

"This was a real village. People lived here."

It was clear that people had lived here, and it was also obvious who they were.

The soldiers, who lost their bodies and only had souls and armors, were probably the residents in this place.

Su-hyeun stopped. He found a slightly bigger house than others and went in.

Creak—

The old door opened with a loud noise. The dusty room was dim, lit only by the light coming through the window.

Achoo—!

Miru, who was hanging on Su-hyeun's shoulder, breathed dust and sneezed.

Su-hyeun looked at Miru and asked, "Do you want to wait outside?"

Miru briskly shook his head as if this was not a big deal. Su-hyeun stroked Miru's head a few times and looked around the living room.

"It is pretty old," Su-hyeun thought.

With all the old dust about, he could tell just how long the people of this town had suffered.

Stomp—!

Su-hyeun entered one room. In the room, there was a bed, a small desk, and a chair. On the desk was a small notebook. Under the desk, there was a pen that had fallen. He picked up a notebook—it was a diary. The diary was written in a language that wasn't exactly English, but it was familiar enough. He could decipher them, although it was not perfect. Su-hyeun slowly read the diary.

"January 13th, I decided to write in this diary for the first time, because I didn't want to forget the happy moments. I…"

The beginning was ordinary. No, more than that, this person looked pretty happy. Was this person a man or a woman? There was no clue about gender. There was a name for someone who appeared to be a spouse, but it was difficult to determine whether that name was male or female. For the first few pages, a happy routine was recorded in the diary. And…

"A man came to our village. His face was half-human and half-skull. He had a huge octopus. He suppressed our village. He said if anyone left, they would die. He had the power to do it.

"Those who had sailed out of town had returned. No, they should not have come back. I couldn't do anything."

Su-hyeun clenched his teeth. While reading the diary, he could imagine what had happened in this village. The man written about in the diary was the Lich King.

"The village was cursed. We slowly died. Why? Why did he do this to our village? It seemed like he did not want anything. That made it even more frightening."

Crunch—

Unwittingly, Su-hyeun grabbed the diary tight. The dried diary was crushed into powder. He couldn't read anymore. There was no reason to continue—he already knew. He had seen a lot of cities in such a background.

"The problem is not the background, but the dungeon itself," Su-hyeun thought.

Su-hyeun came out and looked around the inside of the dungeon. The city had sunk into the sea. It became the green-colored dungeon.

"I have to investigate further."

Su-hyeun continued his search, hoping some additional clues might emerge.

***

He could not find anything special in the town. Like the diary, most of the findings were records about how the village used to be.

After the raid, everybody emerged from the dungeon. The raid ended after one day. All that was left was the collection and distribution of Ether stones.

When Hak-joon came to Su-hyeun's house, he found Su-hyeun lying on the bed, reading a book.

"What are you doing, Su-hyeun?"

" I have to check something," Su-hyeun answered.

"What is that?" Hak-joon was curious and tried to look closer at the book Su-hyeun was reading. It wasn't actually a book, but a small booklet about the dungeons.

"The dungeon appeared in 2020. Sorted by the difficulty… Why are you reading this?"

"I'm curious."

"Are you going for the raid in earnest?"

"No. I'd rather climb the tower at that time."

"Of course you will. So why are you reading this?"

"I'm just curious."

Hak-joon did not really believe Su-hyeun's words because his face looked more serious than curious.

"Fortunately, the future hasn't changed completely," Su-hyeun thought.

Su-hyeun skimmed through the booklet. He read about the locations of the dungeons in countries and regions, their difficulty levels, and other detailed information. In fact, all the dungeons that appeared so far were recorded. And of those, Su-hyeun mainly skimmed over the dungeons than were above yellow-level.

"I will never forget about more than yellow-colored dungeons…" he thought.

In his previous life, Su-hyeun had worked for the government institution. Because of his job, he was fully aware of the major dungeons above yellow. In particular, if green-colored dungeons appeared in succession, there was no way that Su-hyeun could remember. Except for one that appeared to be special. Other than that, there were no other dungeons he could remember.