* * *
Of course, they had always worn masks during operations, so most people wouldn’t recognize them.
But sharp-eyed reporters might pick up on something if they caught even the slightest clue.
“The Beom Sinje Guild Master approved this, so don’t worry.”
“The Beom Sinje… Guild Master?”
What she said caught him off guard.
It was news to him that Beom Sinje had given her permission to bring these people.
“When I mentioned I’d be on-site and needed a few hunters for security, they agreed.”
A playful smile tugged at her lips as she spoke.
Doyoung sighed.
It seemed clear there had been a deal between the two that he wasn’t privy to.
“I’ll have to ask them about it later.”
He decided to address it with Beom Sinje directly when the time came.
For now, he focused on the immediate task.
“Have the hunters search the area.”
“Looking for stragglers?”
Sarah quickly understood his intent.
At her direction, Park Bora and a few hunters began scouting.
Meanwhile, Doyoung led the arriving guild members toward Lee Namsoo and Kim Jinsoo’s position.
“Have you found anything?”
As he spoke, the two hunters turned to face him.
“The structure here feels odd. I went through the collapsed area, but there’s no gap to progress further.”
Kim Jinsoo looked uneasy.
“It seems to be blocked by something unusual.”
Lee Namsoo shook his head as well. He appeared to have something to say but hesitated, perhaps aware of their surroundings.
“There was a tank in the African research facility that contained a substance making monsters invisible. Could it be a similar phenomenon?”
When Doyoung tactfully brought it up, Lee Namsoo finally nodded, seemingly conflicted about revealing their visit to Africa.
“First, we need to clear the debris. Only then can we figure out what’s being hidden.”
Haste wouldn’t help.
They needed to tackle this calmly, one step at a time.
Doyoung clenched his fists tightly, trying to quell his restless thoughts.
The Great God was somewhere below.
It was difficult to assess the situation, and even calling hadn’t worked—there was no connection.
‘He’ll be fine. He’s the protagonist, after all.’
Doyoung understood who the world revolved around.
The Great God would be in a safe place, sheltered.
He repeated this to himself like a mantra.
“Hunters with clairvoyance, gather here. Hunters with telekinesis, come this way.”
Both the guild members and old subordinates who had discreetly joined in took positions based on their abilities.
“…Sigh.”
Doyoung sighed in disbelief.
Noticing this, the others flinched but didn’t step back, their determination to contribute evident.
“Use clairvoyance to identify what needs clearing first. Let’s handle the safest parts one by one.”
“Yes!”
“Understood!”
Following his orders, the hunters moved in perfect sync, as if they’d trained together numerous times.
Three hours later.
The work progressed slower than expected.
“No, not that way! It’ll collapse if you’re not careful!”
“That wall’s crisscrossed—lift them together. Yes, like that!”
The issue wasn’t their abilities but the scale of the lab, which was larger than anticipated, and the debris, far more extensive than expected.
On top of that, sporadic explosions interrupted their work, seemingly to hinder them.
“Damn it…”
Doyoung bit his lip. It was already injured, evidence of how much stress he was under, though he didn’t seem to notice.
“I see something!”
Finally, after the grueling effort, they cleared the debris to reveal what had been hidden—a massive, black iron plate.
“…What the hell is this?”
Amid everyone’s shock, Doyoung strode forward and frowned as he confirmed the object.
“So this was blocking the way.”
“Yes, we’ll need to remove this to check below,” Lee Namsoo said.
Doyoung realized it was his turn to act.
He carefully surveyed the surroundings, trying to determine how far the iron plate extended.
‘It’s doable.’
Determined, his eyes glinted in a fiery shade of crimson.
The massive black plate began to tremble, shifting slightly.
“W-what?”
“Holy…”
The guild members and Kim Jinsoo watched in astonishment, while Doyoung’s old subordinates couldn’t hide their excitement at witnessing their former leader’s power again.
Gradually, the colossal plate lifted into the air.
“Lee Namsoo!”
Doyoung shouted, and Lee Namsoo immediately used his ability.
“I see something!”
‘What is this…?’
The Great God looked around. He was standing before a door, and a large, brightly lit TV caught his attention.
On the screen, he saw a familiar face—Doyoung—talking to someone.
The other person’s back was turned, but their long hair and slender figure suggested a woman.
The Doyoung on the screen was different from the one the Great God knew—colder, and strangely conniving.
‘That expression doesn’t suit him.’
Doyoung had never worn such an expression before, one that seemed to conceal schemes.
As he unconsciously stepped forward, something tripped him.
He hadn’t noticed the single-seater sofa in front of him while fixated on the TV.
He sat down, almost as if compelled.
By then, the conversation had ended, and the woman turned around.
‘Sarah Choi?’
He recognized her—CEO of ATE Pharmaceuticals.
While he knew she had ties to Doyoung, he hadn’t expected to encounter her like this.
Sarah, too, appeared different—her demeanor sharp and brimming with venom.
‘It’s like she’s carrying the weight of the world’s anger.’
From an observer’s perspective, the two resembled perfect villains.
‘Why am I being shown this…?’
Before he could dwell on it, time fast-forwarded, and new faces appeared, including Park Bora, Lee Namsoo, and Herewoon.
Oddly, they also seemed different from what he remembered.
Then, to his shock, another version of himself appeared on the screen.
‘That’s… me.’
The scene shifted to when he had just entered the Hunter Training Academy.
Unlike reality, this version of himself had awakened due to hardship, taking care of a sick mother and securing admission through his own efforts.
It was here that he met Doyoung for the first time.
Strangely, the screen version of him regarded Doyoung with a mix of admiration and suspicion, sensing an unsettling dissonance in his actions.
Doyoung was kind, reliable, and supportive.
Yet, his demeanor felt calculated, his involvement in academy incidents suspicious.
By the time they graduated, this alternate self had grown dependent on Doyoung’s judgment.
However, the scenes grew darker—Doyoung leading students to their deaths, causing chaos in society, and clashing with the government guild.
Finally, Doyoung sabotaged a dungeon raid, leading to an overflow disaster.
‘What is this…?’
Through a series of harrowing events, the video of Beom Sinje depicted a man not only deeply scarred but also disillusioned.
The moment he took Doyoung’s life with his own hands, despair consumed him entirely.
Following that, as a hunter working for a government agency, he operated not as a human but as a machine.
Trusting no one around him, he ventured into dungeons, slaughtering monsters indiscriminately.
His actions mirrored a wounded, enraged beast.
When he looked upon the ruins of a city and muttered, “Why is there no one left by my side?”—even though it was just a recording, the scene filled me with a profound bitterness.
“If Hyung Doyoung had turned out like that, I wouldn’t have been any different.”
But despair was not the end.
The second dungeon overflowed, unleashing massive monsters into the world.
“Charybdis, of all things.”
The fact that it was the boss monster he had recently defeated left Beom Sinje with an indescribable feeling, as though reality and dreams had collided.
Perhaps that’s why he couldn’t look away, even though it unsettled him.
He kept cutting down monsters, over and over.
The seemingly endless battle drained him.
Or perhaps, he had already reached a state of resignation.
“If Hyung hadn’t betrayed me… If he’d stayed by my side…”
As he dwelled on those thoughts, a blue system window appeared in Beom Sinje’s view.
It resembled something straight out of a game.
[Hero who has sacrificed everything for the world!
Unfortunately, you’ve failed again. ಥ_ಥ
To console a hero disheartened by repeated failures, we’re offering you a chance to directly input the mission you desire upon restart~ (≧▽≦)~
Would you like to restart?]
‘What restart?’
‘And what mission?’
‘More importantly, why is this even appearing in front of me?’
* * *
