One Difficulty After Another (6)

“Pardon?”

“I told you before that I live in Sector C. Don’t tell me you forgot?”

“Ah!”

Because I was so intensely focused on Prince Edward, I completely forgot that Kim Se-hyun’s house was also located in Sector C. I looked at him with a worried expression.

“Sigh, what should I do? I wonder if my house got destroyed too.”

“…….”

He wondered if his house got destroyed, yet I couldn’t understand why he sounded so profoundly unbothered. Suppressing my wildly racing heart, I asked urgently.

“Se-hyun-ssi, where exactly is your house located?”

“Over there.”

Unlike other days, he looked utterly insincere. Gesturing toward the monitor with his chin while playing innocent, it was as if he were watching a situation involving a completely random third party. Displaying the entire live CCTV feeds for Sector C-4, I asked him once more.

“Where exactly is it?”

“Right there, right there.”

“…….”

Is he… teasing me right now?

True to form, he answered with a jerk of his chin again. While the movement of his neck was slightly larger than before, his lack of sincerity remained exactly identical. I slowly turned my head. And then, our eyes locked.

Meeting my gaze, he flinched and instantly squared his posture. With an expression written over with sudden fluster, Kim Se-hyun leaned his upper body forward and actively scrutinized the monitor. His immensely proactive attitude was a stark contrast to just a moment ago. Right—this was a matter concerning his own property, so it was only right for him to be this proactive. I kept my eyes pinned on him.

“Right where your mouse cursor is pointing, Hyung! Yes, that’s the exact spot!”

“Ah.”

I didn’t know why he had to point out that exact location. Seeing the cursor resting over a region completely shrouded in a grey hue caused my heart to plummet.

Kim Se-hyun’s house fell squarely within the dungeon’s effective radius. Fortunately, however, it wasn’t at the epicenter of the dungeon, but rather hovering along the absolute outer perimeter.

Since the outer boundaries occasionally escaped structural damage depending on the variables, as long as the dungeon was cleared rapidly, Kim Se-hyun’s property might emerge unscathed. Feeling a surge of urgency, I looked at Kim Se-hyun and spoke up.

“Shouldn’t you head over there immediately?”

A home was a sanctuary for rest, but it was also a repository filled to the brim with past memories. I asked if he shouldn’t head out, yet he barely showed a single shred of movement. Watching him look so completely detached filled me with anxiety. As Kim Se-hyun parted his lips, I swallowed hard.

“The Hunter Department already deployed personnel. We should trust them and wait.”

“…….”

I didn’t know since when he harbored such profound faith in the Hunter Department to utter such words. It was a lie so transparent that its entire inner mechanics were fully visible.

“I’m serious, you know? The Hunter Department went out, so what is there to be so worried about?”

Even though his lie had already been thoroughly exposed, he was too busy digging his heels in. I narrowed my eyes slightly.

“I didn’t realize you trusted us this much, Kim Se-hyun.”

“Tell me about it. Though it doesn’t entirely sit right with me.”

“Wow, Hyung. What’s with that look in your eyes just now? Do you think looking at me like that will make me scared?”

Click-click-click-click-click!

“…….”

“Do you honestly think, huh?”

Click-click-click!

“That I’ll be scared?”

Click-click-click-click!

Pulling out his smartphone, Kim Se-hyun began capturing rapid bursts of photos of me. Confronted by his utterly thrilled demeanor, I finally raised a white flag.

“Sigh.”

Only Kim Se-hyun could afford to be this profoundly relaxed while his own house hung in absolute jeopardy. The way he paid zero interest to his home, as if it were a matter completely unrelated to him, was nothing short of astonishing. I asked him one final time.

“Are you truly fine not heading over?”

“Of course. I have you, Hyung.”

“…Pardon?”

I didn’t understand what correlation existed between his house and me. Tilting my head, I caught a sudden flush blooming across Kim Se-hyun’s face as our eyes met.

“If the Hunter Department fails to do their job and my house vanishes, you’re going to feel sorry, aren’t you?”

“The Hunter Department has never failed to do their job.”

Right—whatever else anyone said, that was one absolute truth I would never compromise on. The moment I firmly corrected his statement, Kim Se-hyun let out a subtle smile and nodded along. While his docile agreement was well and good, I couldn’t shake the creeping sensation that something was spiraling terribly out of control.

“Fine. Even if the Hunter Department does a stellar job, if my house vanishes due to the dungeon monsters, I’ll be left completely stranded with nowhere to go.”

“…Th-That’s true, I suppose?”

“And the only person I’m close with is you, Hyung.”

“…….”

“If you don’t take responsibility for me, I won’t have a single place to go.”

Since I had already experienced his isolation firsthand, I had a vague inkling of how solitary his life was, but I hadn’t imagined he would be this entirely devoid of people. As I gazed at him with a heart swelling with pity, I noticed his blue pupils suddenly growing moist.

The way the corners of his eyes slumped down made him look more pathetic than anyone I had ever seen. Staring into those glistening blue eyes, an involuntary impulse welled up inside me to grant him whatever he wanted.

However…

Reflecting on Kim Se-hyun’s staggering food intake, I seriously doubted whether my household budget could handle him. I also wondered if someone who strictly draped himself in top-tier luxury items could survive a single day in a thoroughly ordinary residential house.

Yet, despite those valid concerns, it was simply impossible for me to turn away someone who claimed to have absolutely nowhere else to go. Swallowing down the dryness in my throat, I barely managed to part my lips.

“If that happens, we—”

“Ahem, ahem! Ha-neul-ssi.”

“Yes?”

Letting out a dry cough, the Deputy Team Leader called my name. Answering him immediately, I followed his chin as he pointed toward a specific direction. Naturally, my gaze drifted along with his gesture.

“…….”

I didn’t understand why he was suddenly pointing toward the exit door. …Ah?

“Se-hyun-ssi.”

Right—I didn’t know how that option had entirely slipped my mind. Meeting his eyes, I pointed my finger toward the exit—or more accurately, toward the Association building located in that general direction.

“How about staying at the Association?”

Setting aside how he felt about it mentally, the Association would undoubtedly be far more comfortable for someone of his stature. He could access high-end buffet meals completely free of charge, and I had heard that S-Rank hunters were provided with their own massive luxury private quarters.

While I was deeply grateful that Kim Se-hyun held me in such close regard, bringing him into my home was definitely crossing a line. I stole a quick glance at the Deputy Team Leader, who gave me a firm nod. I steeled my resolve.

“…Do you dislike the idea of being with me that much, Hyung?”

“No, it’s not that at all. I’m just worried that you’ll find it uncomfortable, Se-hyun-ssi.”

“I’m not close with the people at the Association, though.”

“…….”

Hearing him state so plainly that he wasn’t close with them left me utterly tongue-tied. The corners of his eyes drooped even further than before, making him cut an incredibly desolate figure. Looking exactly like a puppy trapped in a torrential downpour, he couldn’t have looked more pitiful. Confronted by such an absolute picture of misery, my resolve began to fracture. Unable to endure it any longer, I let my determination crumble entirely.

“Then let’s do that.”

“…Really?”

Blinking his eyes, he asked to confirm once more. I gave him another firm nod.

“Yes. But only for a few days.”

“Ha-neul-ssi.”

The very millisecond the answer left my mouth, the Deputy Team Leader barked my name. Turning toward him, I rolled my eyes as he let out a heavy click of his tongue, his face written over with immense displeasure.

I knew exactly why the Deputy Team Leader was reacting this way. After all, he had explicitly warned me in the past never to let Kim Se-hyun set foot inside my house.

But this was the absolute first time I had ever seen Kim Se-hyun look this thoroughly pathetic. Furthermore…

Scanning his attire, I swallowed hard at the sight of him draped from head to toe in items that practically screamed luxury brands. Right—no matter how much Kim Se-hyun claimed he wanted to stay at my place, it wouldn’t be easy for someone accustomed to enveloping his body in such exorbitant wealth to adjust to a thoroughly ordinary house.

Perhaps after staying for a mere couple of hours, he would conclude it was unlivable and promptly relocate himself to a luxury hotel. Setting a strict boundary of a “few days” was entirely due to that realization.

…Though the most paramount detail was that Kim Se-hyun’s house was still perfectly intact.

The heavy silence hanging over the office felt as though it were strictly placing the blame on me. As I shrank back into myself, the Deputy Team Leader let out a massive sigh and asked a question.

“Where did you say Kim Se-hyun’s house was located exactly?”

I rapidly verified the live CCTV feeds.

“It’s near the intersection of the Hyeonra Department Store in Sector C-4.”

“Is that so?”

The moment he received the exact coordinates, he tapped his network earpiece and directed his gaze forward. More specifically, the Deputy Team Leader stared straight at Kim Se-hyun.

“Can everyone hear me?”

– Yes, Deputy Team Leader! – Loud and clear!

“Officer Kim, Officer Park. And Team Leader. Leave the absolute epicenter of the dungeon to the Association and defend the intersection near the Hyeonra Department Store at all absolute costs!”

– Why all of a sudden?

“You must approach this with the absolute resolve that failing to hold that line means writing a formal letter of apology for negligence.”

– Pardon? – Is there something specific located over there?

At the sudden mention of a formal letter of apology, the three individuals currently deployed on the battlefield flinched in absolute shock. I was equally startled. Then, my eyes locked with the Deputy Team Leader, who had turned his gaze toward me.

“I have just been informed that Kim Se-hyun’s house is located at that exact spot.”

– Youngest, we will absolutely never let that happen! – We will defend it with our absolute lives!

The Deputy Team Leader had strictly limited his statement to the mere fact that Kim Se-hyun’s house was located there.

Yet, for an immediate declaration of “never let that happen” to burst forth from the comms.

And the subsequent vow to defend it with their absolute lives was on another level entirely. Caught off guard by their far more explosive reactions than I had anticipated, I stole a glance at Kim Se-hyun.

“…….”

Despite my explicit assurance that he could temporarily stay at my place if he became stranded, Kim Se-hyun was currently staring back at me with an expression that looked far more tragic than just a moment ago. A sense of pity began to well up, but I rapidly snapped my focus back to reality.

Right now, there was absolutely no leisure to be wasting on side-tracking thoughts or idle distractions.

Keeping my eyes pinned to the CCTV feeds surrounding the dungeon perimeter to monitor the battlefield, I rapidly magnified a specific screen where a highly anomalous movement had just been captured.

“…Uh?”

What on earth is that?

A section of the road came into view, violently warping up and down as if a massive earthquake had struck the area. A convex, bulging mass split the asphalt wide open, leaving a trail of collapsing structures in its wake that looked thoroughly ominous. Most notably, the path carved out by that bulging mass left the ground deeply hollowed out, mimicking a trench plowed into a field to plant seeds.

Desperate to decipher its true identity, I tracked its trajectory continuously until the subterranean anomaly traveling along the road suddenly veered sharply, causing me to suck in a sharp breath.

“Gasp!”

Advancing in a straight line directly toward a commercial building adjacent to the road, the anomaly collided violently with the structure. Though no audio was transmitted, a massive cloud of dust exploded into the air the exact millisecond of impact, mimicking a bomb detonation. I frantically raised my hand.

“Deputy Team Leader! You need to come look at this immediately!”

“What’s happening for you to be this frantic?”

Confronted by a phenomenon I had never witnessed before, words completely failed me. Watching the building that had collided with the unknown entity collapse into rubble within a mere fraction of a second made me grow increasingly desperate.

“Hurry!”

Prodded by my intense urging, the Deputy Team Leader rapidly closed the distance to scan the screen. I furiously flipped through the CCTV feeds to display the entity’s trajectory on the main monitor once more.

“…Don’t tell me.”

“Is there something located along this specific path?”

Scanning the chaotic movement on the screen, it seemed a specific realization had struck him. In response to the Deputy Team Leader’s question, I split the display to verify the entire regional CCTV network and swallowed hard.

“That’s…”

“Wow, if it keeps advancing in a straight line like that, it’s going to hit that spot perfectly.”

Given the absolute severity of the current crisis, I couldn’t understand how he could remain this completely nonchalant. It reached a point where I seriously questioned whether his actual home was truly located over there at all. Pushing his serene tone to the back of my mind, I blurted out.

“If it advances a mere 70 meters further along this trajectory, it will reach the exact intersection where Se-hyun-ssi’s house stands!”

“What?”

But that wasn’t the absolute end of it. Looking at the visibly shocked Deputy Team Leader, I pushed my words further.

“And if it advances just 100 meters past Se-hyun-ssi’s house, it will hit the exact hotel where Prince Edward is currently staying!”