Chapter 371: The Idol's Leather 13
Jung Haseong concentrated on the dungeon clear with a highly cautious attitude. He was now confident that he would not waver, no matter what kind of sweet talk the dungeon set up for him. Moreover, judging by how quickly that man who tore down his old room had joined him, his resolve was likely no different.
'The more I think about it, the more I realize what incredible ntal strength he has.'
Jung Haseong cast a single, admiring glance at the hunter, whose expression was as cold and composed as ever.
'Whoa, I found Haseong!'
Oh my. I was startled, thinking I'd lost the Earthling.
I secretly boosted all sorts of resistances, so there was no need to worry. Still, once I decide to protect the human, I can't help feeling uneasy if they slip out of my sight.
It was around the ti I reunited with the previously missing Jung Haseong. Inside my perfectly composed face, I made all sorts of fuss. Being separated from a private tutoring fraud victim who shouldn't be hard in the slightest—even as a grand magician, I was montarily flustered. But the scattered tension quickly faded from my mind. After all, finding the lost person had just been handled with magic.
'What kind of 'impenetrable' dungeon is this? Seeing it in person, the rescue setup is ridiculously sloppy!'
In this otherworldly space nad 'Are You Happy?', a strategy for clearing it was hidden that was so simple it was almost uninspired. It was obvious just by looking at how the dungeon was laid out. To reveal a small part, this place was even easier to escape than the lion statue maze he had encountered in the early stages of his reincarnation.
'So, instead of looking for various shortcuts, we're just going to face it head-on.'
I walked along the path, checking every few seconds to make sure I didn't lose sight of Jung Haseong again. But while I was focused on one side, the black-haired hunter glanced around the other side and spoke.
"Soccer ball."
Ah, co to think of it, I haven't given this explanation yet.
"Could all of those things over there really be soccer balls? Are they the sa ones I'm thinking of?"
Jung Haseong's clear gaze was fixed on the northern part of the dungeon. There, pristine soccer balls—ones he had likely never kicked before—and yellow cushions were scattered about. And the group of people who typically used such items was, in fact, already well-known.
"This is the place where the police dog I'm holding was buried."
"Aha."
Even after that, the dungeon revealed several scenes that hardly seed like the lair of a monster.
"Huh? Hunter Kim? There's a missing person here—!"
A manifestation of happiness, huh. Still, compared to other places teeming with monsters, this might be the lesser of evils.
An environnt where you can sleep wrapped in blankets that sll like fabric softener. Or a feast of delicacies that you could never even dream of affording on a low wage. And the most ridiculous of all—piles of gold and counterfeit bills that you can't even spend here.
Soon, we spotted the stranded Turks scattered across the various landscapes.
"What is this? A banknote?"
By the way, any hunter with a sane mind wouldn't feel happy receiving sothing like that. If they hadn't yet found the exit leading out of the dungeon, that would be the case with 100% certainty. So all of this was likely evidence that this particular dungeon was also exploiting the [Confusion] status ailnt.
In other words, it's like a dream—using magic power to gloss over and bypass contradictory elents.
If one's cognitive abilities are impaired by a status ailnt, even such shallow tricks could easily deceive people.
What year is it right now? Why did they even enter this place? And, moreover, what their own purpose was, and so on.
If one had forgotten those details, Jung Haseong probably would have lingered in that room for quite so ti.
"Hmm."
I tilted my head in slight puzzlent. But then, thinking it over, I realized that the status ailnts inflicted by this dungeon weren't actually that strong.
"Excuse . Everyone, wake up. Co to your senses."
Whoosh—.
Like when playing in a bathtub, I pressed my palms together and shot a stream of water between them. I began splashing cold water over people's heads to wake them up—not by carefully reversing the brainwashing magic, nor by using so grand recovery spell. Yet, even with this cheap and simple water play, people gradually ca to their senses, and I couldn't help but feel a twinge of doubt.
"Heuk!"
"Wh-where... is this...?"
"So the point to watch out for in this dungeon becos clear. The [Confusion] status ailnt it inflicts is low-level, so for soone like Seo Esther, with proper attributes and size, it won't even make a dent."
Roughly calculating, even an A-rank would be enough to easily notice the incongruity in a flimsy dungeon's illusion. So how on earth did an S-rank from Turkey, standing in such a strong position, end up stranded like that?
"Sothing about this feels strange."
For reference, the rescue operations of the treasure hunters that took place throughout the dungeon weren't really worth explaining. Jung Haseong and I saved, and saved again, the Earthlings who had been lost in various forms of happiness.
"Aaaah! Leave alone! I'll just stay here! I'll never going back to a world overflowing with monsters and swindlers!"
Whenever a rebellious entity like this appeared, I gave them a choice.
"Have you ever eaten anything in this dungeon?"
I calmly inford the raging missing person of the reality.
"What?"
"Just so you know, monsters born within a dungeon are often inedible."
"You... you know how to speak Turkish...? Ah, a translator?"
"The ecosystem may seem plausible, but if you examine most monsters, their energy source is just magic stones—like batteries, just chunks of rock."
"--"
"So the flesh of monsters, unless it was intentionally designed to be useful, is mostly of no benefit to us from the start."
"What exactly are you trying to say?"
"But do you really think those that produce cold flesh can turn it into proper food?"
"If they insist on staying despite all the persuasion, things are a bit more complicated.
"Don't trust the food here too much."
"Heuk."
"It might taste good and fill you up for now, but if you lived on nothing but that, you'd definitely run into trouble."
"U, ugh...?"
"For reference, those of you who were just satisfying your appetite, don't worry too much. What I an is dying from nutritional imbalance, not from so imdiate lethal poison."
Are you really going to die from the bliss of the dungeon? When I asked this, no one actually nodded.
"No, I was mistaken for a mont. I'm sorry. I really do need to get out of here sohow.
Since most of them were still young, they couldn't afford to throw everything away for a fleeting mont of joy. Each ti they rescued a raider, Jung Haseong handed them a status ailnt recovery potion to prevent them from falling back into confusion.
Looks like it's about ti to retrieve the last survivor."
And as we searched through the dungeon like this, we were fortunate enough to finally co across the last person on the missing list provided by the Turkish governnt. Yes—turns out the initial raider, that S-rank, had survived after all.
"Gasp!"
"Ah... That person..."
Hahaha, hahahaha.
By the way, could that laughter we'd been hearing all along have belonged to this mammal? A man with a head full of thick hair—enough to make one think he'd never have to worry about balding—was standing before us, laughing heartily.
Görkem. He was an S-rank hunter from Türkiye. From what I'd heard, he wasn't quite on the level of representing his entire nation like Jung Haseong.
"I did a quick search on the internet before coming here."
"Haha."
If one had to compare him to another, he resembled a Doberman Pinscher—stern, solid features, a middle-aged man now rolling about in the dungeon. At the mont, he was resting his head on the thigh of an elderly stranger. And as for the illusion he had fallen so deeply into—well, I already knew its identity, having exchanged more than enough video calls with it.
"This is the couple who'll give 5 billion won."
But that S-rank hunter's family was clearly alive outside.
It was only for a brief mont that I questioned it. Setting aside the matter of why he was deceived even after seeing an illusion so obviously fake, I first created a small ripple—just as I had done with Jung Haseong—so we could communicate smoothly.
"Could it be that he's deceiving himself, even without any status ailnt in effect?"
I had originally planned to attack the illusion with this water and see how the brainwashed person reacted.
"No, that's not it. He's genuinely resisting."
But there was no need to test further—the truth beca clear. The S-rank hunter from Türkiye, despite possessing such a high level of magical power, was genuinely imrsed in the dungeon's illusion. When I tried to attack his parents—or more precisely, the illusions of them—the hunter reacted, standing up and even attempting to use a skill to block the wave.
"So he specialized in manipulating tal, huh."
Still, fortunately, there was no need for a showdown with the foreign powerhouse.
"--Clank!"
I skillfully splashed the water I had prepared over his head, and the cold shock soon opened the S-rank hunter's eyes.
"Sir, are you coming to your senses?"
"--"
"Can you hear what I'm saying in your native language?"
The man, startled, froze in place for a mont. While he was regaining his senses, I quietly whispered sothing to Jung Haseong nearby.
"It seems the status ailnt has been lifted. But if he charges at us again, Haseong, do you think you can handle him?"
"Oh, yes. I understand."
"Thank you. This is what teamwork is all about."
Well, as for ... I don't have the money to pay a settlent for assault.
"According to Kim Goryeo's basic knowledge, it seems that on this planet even firefighters can get sued while performing their duties. So naturally, a hunter's immunity wouldn't be absolute either..."
A remark, nine parts serious and one part joking, slipped out, worried about his assets being diminished. Around that mont, the hero of South Korea, who had been waiting, sohow brightened up at hearing it.
"You, Korea?"
Finally, the S-rank hunter at the center of the situation spoke up.
"I don't know your na, but you're a famous hunter.
Yeah, anyway, I'm not good at rembering the nas of foreign hunters either, so that part evens out.
"Hello. We are Awakened who ca to assist at the request of the Turkish governnt."
"I... I haven't been able to clear the dungeon yet, and you're saying you ca to help even without knowing the strategy?"
"It's not entirely accurate to say we know nothing. But that's not the issue right now."
However, he would be disappointed if the other person continued to feign ignorance even on this point.
"How on earth did you fail to ntion the negative effects of this place? As Jung Haseong and I just experienced ourselves, this gate shouldn't be able to deceive even S-rank hunters."
For reference, about half of what was just said is false. The archmage is exempt, given the caliber of his soul. And as for Jung Haseong, before entering the dungeon, I secretly reinforced him with protective magic just in case sothing went wrong in an EX-rank, so that's why we were fine.
But would the outco have been any different without these factors? Not at all. As I hinted by saying only half of it was false, this dungeon is such that even an A-rank ntal-type magician can display complete immunity.
"Of course, according to the strategy I figured out, that's precisely why Seo Esther shouldn't be here."
But that doubt was quickly resolved.
"It's ti."
"What?"
"When I first entered this dungeon, yeah, I completely rembered. I was even relaxed enough to scoff at this ridiculous thing that took the form of my parents."
The raider then began to testify.
"But as I just watched what they were doing, at a certain point my sense of incongruity faded. I completely lost the thought that what this space had set up was fake. It's ti, the observation ti—that's the problem!"
That was indeed a correct statent. In this case, I could use a primitive man nad Su Yahei as an example, as magic that affects the mind generally tends to increase in power the longer the exposure ti.
But...
"Wait a mont. Then, if it was obvious they were fake, why were you just quietly observing them?"
As this question arose, the hunter in front of us hesitated for a mont before finally answering.
"Because it's a paradise."
"Yes?"
"Well, I didn't notice when everyone ca in, but so many challengers have attempted this, the dungeon's rules must be clear by now. Here, the most tempting visions appear to make us happy. So what I an is..."
"Those fake figures combing your hair... was that what you were dreaming of?"
"It's a bit embarrassing now that I'm a grown adult."
The rescued S-rank hunter spoke with a complex expression:
"But now that I can't hide it anymore, I'll be honest. Since my childhood, I've been sowhat neglected by my parents, so I have a bit of a complex regarding affection... I suppose that's why I couldn't keep my wits about in front of these kindly illusions."
He hadn't received much attention from his parents since childhood. But by this point, there were also small details that needed correction.
"Uh, for soone who supposedly doesn't care about their kid, they sure burned through their assets in a big way..."
"Yes?"
"To explain in advance, the fundantal reason I ca to this gate was actually because of a certain article. Outside, your parents put up a reward of what I believe was 100 million Lira to hire a rcenary. To be exact, they publicized the incident as a request to rescue and bring back their son."
The S-rank hunter from Turkey reacted with shock.
"That's impossible! There's no way they would spend that kind of money on , soone who might already be dead..."
They were a family whose relationship was so poor they had to rely on a dungeon's illusion. And to think that an ordinary couple would sell off all their assets just to raise 5 billion?"
"Those miserable parents who only knew business... genuinely for a son they'd lost contact with?"
"Go out and see for yourself."
It seed like a touching mont was unfolding. But sorry, the main character is a mammal of uncertain disposition, so emotional synchronization is impossible. The only thing I could sense was that, at the very least, the S-rank hunter would follow along without any need for persuasion. So I imdiately moved on to wrap up the incident.
"Hmm."
Ssshk.
I stopped mid-glance at the dungeon ceiling. Feed boxes for space travelers, seemingly wishing for human happiness. Taken at face value, the space might even seem pleasant—but considering all the information, this gate is one that a lone B-rank or lower hunter has a 100% chance of death. Therefore, the best course of action was to deal with this pace imdiately rather than foolishly neglecting it. But the thod for clearing the gate that ca to mind now was, of all things, that kind.
"Well, anyway, since we've found all the survivors, let's just clear it now."
"Oh, I'd like the, but I still haven't figured out the conditions for opening the exit..."
"I'll take care of it."
This gate is filled with nothing but simple, benevolent illusions. And besides, pain is also the quickest antidote to happy happiness.
"Unlike other EX-rank dungeons that demand grueling hardships, this place simply judges you cleared once the conditions are t. A low-rank hunter has a 100% chance of death. The best course of action is to deal with this pace imdiately rather than foolishly neglecting it. But the thod for clearing the gate that ca to mind now was, of all things, that kind."
What a half-hearted feeding box this is.
"Are these things Gainche, or just trap fishern?"
The thod to break through this space, where there are no traps, no hidden chanisms, and no monsters at all, was, as expected, simple.
"Gates that are excessively safe like this usually collapse just by letting yourself get caught in the trap."
"Yes?"
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