It was during a mont when I had sunk deep into thought.
Clatter!
Finally, the top predator in the feeding box was dead. The people standing beside seed to have other concerns upon seeing the fallen boss monster. Before long, an unexpected topic sprang from their mouths.
“Sothing about this feels strange.”
The first to start the conversation was Esther, who was handling the monster’s corpse.
“Feeling?”
“You’ve probably already guessed just from seeing my na and my brother’s. Most of the people in my family are religious.”
“I see.”
“But lately, when I look at the dungeons that appear, I feel a bit unsettled. Concepts that used to be written only in the scriptures are now plainly presented. On top of that, the monunts in front of the castles even use human language to say things like, ‘Don’t live that way.’”
Esther pulled the magic stone from the boss’s chest and continued speaking.
“To be honest, I don’t think the gate was created by soone like us. If that’s the case, could this whole series of dungeon shocks really be the will of God?”
It seed that my colleague from the industry had suddenly developed a fundantal question.
“Ey, that can’t be.”
But I quickly dismissed the other person’s nonsense.
“We just saw how they couldn’t even pin down the gate’s location properly and ended up flooding everything with seawater—so what are you talking about?”
“Hearing it that way, it makes sense. I guess the gate was too lacking to be worthy of such veneration, after all.”
The mistakes are so frequent that it’s hard to even call them trivial, so naturally, the likelihood that the master of this otherworld is a higher being is low.
“Oh, my goodness. Then I guess the hypothesis that this is the work of aliens might actually be correct?”
“_ _”
“Co to think of it, in other countries there were official reports claiming UFO sightings from ti to ti. Of course, until now I never believed any of it and just scoffed, but maybe all those absurd claims from the past were actually true.”
“_ _”
“Was that joke not funny? OK, Giryeo-ssi, so you don’t like the occult.”
At that mont, I suddenly had to close my mouth for an unavoidable reason, but it didn’t escalate into a big problem. The image I had sohow built up as a ‘quiet, indifferent man’ seed to help. With the crisis thankfully averted, it was now ti to wrap things up.
“This halo of light is...”
“Ant That’s right. Once the raid here was over, they imdiately kicked the hunters out!”
“Then everyone, hold your breath for a mont. I just stopped controlling the currents, and at this rate, it looks like we’ll end up stranded in the middle of the sea.”
Even if humans are left in a dead space, no new glimrs will grow. Therefore, these emotional fry must be sent back to their ho. Through such obvious gate logic, we soon caught sight of the light of the surface.
“Pfft!”
“Ah, damn it. I got completely soaked~ My gear!”
“Everyone, it looks like a Korean Coast Guard ship is a bit far out. Should I blast it all the way over there with a water cannon?”
“N, no. Hunter Kim. I can swim, so I’m fine...”
“What’s this? Looks fun, I’m in.”
Considering we survived the Pride Castle, there didn’t seem to be any imdiate aftereffects. In any case, the dungeon had been cleared. We returned to the white ship that had been waiting nearby. And once we safely set foot on the deck, we began the final cleanup.
“Honestly, I was worried. But it’s such a relief that the speedrun plan we prepared in advance worked so well.”
“Still, I guess this was only possible because South Korea is the country that has Hunter Kim Giryeo. At the sa ti, it just occurred to —other countries must really be pitiful...”
“Oh, what? I hadn’t realized because you hadn’t said much, but Jung Hasseong... you were affected by a status ailnt?”
Ignoring the occasional nonsense that popped up along the way, Esther, whose mind remained clear thanks to her innate Awakening ability, smoothly carried out the necessary procedures.
“Alright, once we check this, today’s work will be done.”
Since we obtained a total of three types of loot from this run.
Magic stones embedded in the bodies of important monsters. An epic-grade artifact that the top boss guarantees to drop. And a mysterious postcard made of a special material that doesn’t dissolve in water.
Because we deliberately hunted an extrely small number of creatures to minimize exposure to status ailnts, the sheer quantity of loot was inevitably modest. However, this mysterious postcard dropped by the boss-level monster turned out to play an unexpectedly important role.
“Oh dear, those Gisimche... they even wrote all of this in English.”
As I had briefly thought earlier, [Sin Classification] always left a preview of the next [Sin Classification] when it collapsed. So I examined the alien docunt that Esther had collected and brought back.
“Since we’ve received so much help up to now, we should share this information with other countries—not necessarily by international agreent, but at least morally.”
But even before the alien could bring over a translator, she instinctively interpreted it. I had suspected this for a while, but it seed Esther’s language skills were impressive, even though she hadn’t completed university. Using her usual ability, she imdiately converted the text before her into Korean and read it.
*[To my last lies the Castle that Punishes Gluttony.]*
The ntion of the place that humans nicknad the Castle of Sloth. In fact, it was only natural. Just as it wasn’t called the Seven Sin Castles for nothing, the symbolic sins were said to be seven in total. Now that the identities of six dungeons have all been revealed, it was inevitable that this na would surface.
“So, as expected, the final one is the Sloth Dungeon.”
And since all the notes collected so far followed the sa format, Esther craned her neck to examine the bottom of the docunt. In previous [Sin Classification] dungeon rewards, this part of the note always revealed the specific ans of attack used in the dungeon.
“It’s certain that it’ll hit, at least. From the Gisimche’s perspective, maybe it’s just being kind enough to give them a head-up before they get hit.”
But little did I expect that the truth of the final dungeon would turn out like this.
*[One must not succumb to laziness.*
*Doing so is an act of neglect, and the peculiar beings of the world commit a grave error by remaining in a “do-nothing” state of pure idleness.*
*Extravagance that wastes life without any special reason is an unforgivable waste.*
*Moreover, such neglect withers not only oneself but also the souls surrounding them.*
*Thus, my diligent compatriots, unable to bear it any longer, take it upon themselves to punish the slothful.*
*Those who occupy the surface, beware.*
*The walls of the next castle will collapse within 365 seconds.]*
For reference, you can ignore all the elaborate lines above. Those are just characteristic quirks of the Gisimche species.
‘Judging by how natural the sentence flow is, they might have even copied an entire paragraph from a real book that exists on Earth.’
“If we disregard all the unnecessary parts, in the end there’s only one sentence we need to focus on.
*[The walls of the next castle will collapse within 365 seconds.]*
Castle walls. This term had been rarely used before the Dungeon Shock era. However, for hunters with so experience, there was no way they could be unaware of its other aning. Ever since the Gate began speaking human language, it had been using “castle walls” with a very specific implication.
“Castle walls? Wait a minute, this is...”
“It ans a ‘Dungeon Break’ in our language!”
Even though his status ailnts hadn’t fully worn off, Jeong Hasseong snapped back to full alertness. The warning that the Sloth Sin Classification dungeon would explode soon was naturally formidable enough to demand it.
365 seconds. Converted to a slightly larger unit, it’s about 6 minutes.
It looks like we sohow need to contact Japan as soon as possible.
“E, everyone! We’re in big trouble!”
At that mont, we all turned our heads in unison toward the sound of a human voice coming from sowhere on the deck.
“This is already troubling enough. What on earth could be the big problem this ti?”
The figure who appeared was the Hunter Association President, who had been waiting on the coast guard’s ship all this ti. But the person on the other end, clutching his phone tightly in one hand, kept sounding impatient.
“Our prediction was wrong—the final Sin Classification appeared imdiately after the Pride Dungeon was cleared!”
Truly the actions of the monsters of Diligence and Sincerity. In that case, rather than causing such a fuss, wouldn’t it be better for us to try calling the Japanese authorities?”
“Did the neighboring country’s Awakening Managent Bureau not answer the phone?”
It was around the ti Esther voiced her question that the Association President in front of us added, his voice trembling.
“No, that’s not the problem, Hunter Esther.”
“Yes?”
“The dungeon... was observed in Seoul...”
It’s an ergency.
“Huh.”
Could this be a joke? Had soone just said sothing silly to calm down hunters who had just cleared a dungeon? When I first heard about it, that thought briefly crossed my mind.
“No, the researchers clearly said that the minimum interval between dungeon appearances is fairly long... Didn’t an article say there was an 80% chance that Masudashi or sothing would be the seventh location?”
“So charlatan did the research!”
“True, according to the usual rules, it would actually make more sense for it to appear in a densely populated area nearby...”
But the serious expression on the association president’s face made us all realize imdiately.
“The final stage of [Sin Classification] isn’t in Japan!”
The deck quickly beca chaotic. It would have been one thing if it had just appeared early, but it had just been revealed that the Sin of Sloth, like a hot-tempered mackerel, was expected to be fast even on the brakes. What made matters even more serious was that South Korea’s elite hunters were present here.
“Damn it. It’s going to take forever to get back to land by boat from here!”
Two imdiate solutions ca to mind. First: use the mobility-focused artifact [White Bird]. But even that expensive magic tool couldn’t reliably cover the six-minute window. The fact that the Chinese hunters who had been at the scene earlier took quite so ti to show up was proof enough. The second option would be to act like a grand wizard and cast a [Teleportation] spell...
“W, what should we do, Hunter Kim?”
“For now, you two use [White Bird] and go first.”
“Just us?”
“If two people use that item, it’ll be incredibly slow. I’ll take care of it myself.”
This was a fact I hadn’t revealed to my companions: my body’s magic power was low! In fact, if you really counted what was left, it was almost completely drained, like a drought-stricken area. Of course, why else would a guy aiming to be unemployed have co to a gate like this?
“Today, to put it taphorically, I’ve drugged the dungeon. I was wondering if it might work, so I cast a spell to ‘lower the difficulty of the upcoming gates’...”
Glance.
I continued my thoughts while watching the S-rank hunters aboard their personal flying devices called [White Bird].
“I’ve tried a ton of things using those clueless mammals as interdiaries. There’s really no energy left.”
Who could possibly be blad in a situation like this? In the end, it was the archmage’s fault for not accounting for such trivial variables.
“Hah... I was too lazy to go to the dungeon multiple tis, and now I’m getting divine punishnt in a way I never could’ve imagined.”
Still, it’s too early to give up. The distance from here to the capital of South Korea is over 200,000 ters. Moreover, teleportation-type magic isn’t sothing to take lightly. To leap through space in a state of near-empty magical energy, I had to use the traditional conservation thods that all mages have relied on.
“Let’s complete the spell as slowly and ticulously as possible to reduce the strain.”
Put more simply, it’s like the thod of squeezing water out of a dried squid. But if you take that painstaking approach with magic, it naturally becos difficult to et the critical six-minute window this ti as well.
“Why give the coordinates in Earth terms! I can’t teleport accurately using just these mammals’ maps!”
Sigh. Even here, the perfect human side of the grand archmage ends up showing. But such regrets aside, the conclusion of this situation was that no matter what, we’d be late. So while preparing the spell with one side of my mind, I pulled out my phone and sent a ssage to contact soone.
“Hunter Kim Giryeo!”
“Wait a mont. Just a mont, I need to make a call too.”
I’ve set up my base far from the capital. To an outsider, this incident might easily seem like sothing unrelated to extraterrestrials.
Various regions of South Korea were like the body’s veins and kidneys, for instance. And the capital—honesty—was the heart. In this society, if the nation’s capital were to collapse or stop, the entire system was bound to face a major crisis.
*[The Castle of Sloth erupts in Seoul Reassessnt of South Korea’s gate disaster safety KOSPI drops Economy crashes The value of my beautiful mansion, bought with won, turns into trash]*
“No. Please, not that one...”
It was enough to make even the most desperate delusions co to mind. So, I spared no ans to protect Seoul.
“H, hello? Is the call connected now?”
Then, a certain na slipped from my mouth. The civilians remaining on the ship widened their eyes in surprise.
“Hello, this is Kim Giryeo. Excuse , but is this Hunter Kang Changho’s number?”
That’s right. South Korea had originally had four S-rank hunters in total.
“Why are you asking that when you already know?”
Moreover, around the ti I heard that voice, I quietly cheered to myself.
“Haha, as expected!”
That’s why tasks need to be dealt with as they co. Brushing your teeth is a pri example. Next up: washing the dishes. And, like now, blocking the contact of an annoying conversation partner, and so on. Small chores, once forgotten, tend to pile up endlessly.
And I knew all too well the acceleration of such laziness.
“He’s an S-rank hunter. No matter what promise was made, I knew he’d eventually co looking at least once!”
In fact, I had deliberately treated him like an excessively invisible person all this ti. To put it more bluntly, it was also true that I’d been saving the opportunity to use him when it really mattered.
Now, the key was how to get this embodint of individualism to move. In a crisis like this, nothing beats my unique skill, [Eloquence], which has shined since the very start of my reincarnation.
Author's Thoughts
Hi, from now on, I will update this novel 3 chapters/week. Thank you for all your support so far:)
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