* * *
Late at night, the tracking team gathered at Incheon Port.
They headed out to sea on rubber boats prepared in advance.
Soon, they arrived at a large vessel.
It was a marine research ship dedicated to studying the Incheon Port dungeon gate.
The time limit for a dungeon is usually as short as 30 minutes or as long as six months.
The higher the rank, the longer the duration.
For example, a Rank 6 dungeon that appeared three years ago had a time limit of 1,000 hours.
Most dungeons appear with a time limit suitable for their rank.
However, sometimes dungeons appear with a time limit of over a year, regardless of their rank.
These dungeons, which appear only once or twice a year worldwide, are called Long-term Dungeons.
The unique wavelength emitted by a gate is very helpful for system research.
Usually, time limits are short, making it hard to secure enough time for study.
In contrast, Long-term Dungeons allow for stable, long-term research of the gate’s wavelength.
Because of this, when a Long-term Dungeon appears, research facilities are built first.
They study the wavelength to stall for as much time as possible, only clearing it at the very last moment.
There is even a joke that just as tow trucks arrive first at a car accident, construction companies arrive first when a Long-term Dungeon gate appears.
There are three Long-term Dungeons in South Korea, and one of them is this Incheon Port marine dungeon.
It is Rank 5.
It appeared ten years ago, and with only about a month left until the time limit, now was the perfect time to clear it.
Long-term Dungeons themselves are rare.
Marine dungeons that appear in the air above the sea are also rare, as are Rank 5 dungeons.
The Incheon Port dungeon had all three characteristics.
It was unique in the world, so it had drawn public attention since it first appeared.
There were many guesses that it would be harder than other Rank 5 dungeons or that there would surely be a special hidden mission.
From the beginning, requests to form agreements and share information had flooded in.
“The higher-ups were very disappointed. If it wasn’t for this incident, they would have stalled for another fifteen days before clearing it.”
“That’s crazy. The nearby residents and fishing workers wouldn’t have stood for it. How can anyone live in peace with a Rank 5 dungeon only fifteen days away from its limit?”
“Yes. That’s why I actually think it’s a good thing this happened. I’ll give the authorization to Team Leader Ko first.”
Choi Jihyung turned on his watch and sent temporary access permits starting with Go Junyoung.
Wolf pulled up the pass on his watch and looked at it with curiosity.
“I’ve been to gate research centers a few times, but a ship research center is a first.”
“Of course it’s a first. We are the only country with a ship research center, and it’s a major national facility that no one can just enter.”
“I guess I should say it’s an honor.”
Wolf grinned at Go Junyoung’s words. His attitude showed he didn’t consider it an honor at all.
Everyone now had the authority to enter the invisible barrier surrounding the research ship.
The group moved from their boats onto the ship.
The ship was quiet.
The places where people in white coats smelling of chemicals would have been busy walking around were now empty, except for the tracking team.
Since it was Rank 5 and had only 29 days left, everyone had naturally evacuated.
The terrorist organization must have aimed for this timing when they made their plan.
“But why leave this research ship in front of the gate? It looks like it’ll get destroyed if a fight breaks out.”
“Because today’s raid is a secret. If a massive ship like this disappears, everyone will get suspicious.”
“Aha. Still, it’s a waste if this ship gets broken.”
“It won’t get broken. The fight will happen beyond the gate. Now, everyone gather around.”
Go Junyoung called the team members who were looking around the ship.
“Myeongtae and Dongtae will approach by submarine. Since the gate is in the air above the deck, they will board the ship. They think this place is empty, so everyone must hide their presence perfectly.”
The plan was to hide and monitor the terrorist organization.
Once the main figures, including the Cult Leader, Elders, and soldiers, entered the dungeon, Team 1 would follow them in.
Team 2 would stay behind to suppress the followers left outside, hand them over to the Department of Awakening Affairs waiting at the port, and then enter the dungeon.
Seohwa was in Team 1, along with Kang Yigeon, Kim Tuyeon, Dam Yunjin, and Cho Wookwon, who would enter the dungeon immediately.
“Team 2, try not to cause any deaths when suppressing the followers. And Team 1…”
Go Junyoung spoke in a clear and firm tone.
“It can’t be helped even if you kill them by mistake.”
He meant to just kill them.
“We need to capture the Cult Leader alive, but there’s no need to capture those at the Elder level. Of course, as Awakeners, killing non-Awakeners is a very unethical act. But they are not ordinary humans, the dungeon is a dangerous place, and once the gate closes after the raid, all traces inside will disappear with it… you know what I mean, right?”
There was no one among the members who didn’t understand what he was saying.
Kim Tuyeon was especially excited.
“Uncle Dong-baek, who always said ‘You can’t!’ whenever he saw me, is finally saying it’s okay.”
“I’m not saying it’s okay to kill, I’m saying it can’t be helped if they die.”
“I should turn them all into ice statues and then pull off their necks, arms, and legs in that order. It’s so fun to break them with a crunching sound. If I freeze them to death, it’s clean and no dirty blood gets on me. Do you want to join, Yunjin and Anis?”
“No… I’m okay, Tuyeon.”
“Me too, unnie…”
When Dam Yunjin and Anis declined with awkward looks, Kim Tuyeon muttered that they were pitiful for not knowing the joy of ripping limbs off frozen corpses.
Meanwhile, Yoon Youngin’s expression brightened as he said that sounded fun and that he also wanted to rip apart some frozen squids.
“After Team 1 clears out the followers, wait for Team 2 at the gate location. When Team 2 enters, we will move together. Hunter Dam Yunjin, please locate Gaius Jung in advance.”
“Yes. If nothing goes wrong, I’ll finish the map in six hours.”
“Vice Guild Leader, please handle the interrogation of the two Cult Leaders. Find out exactly what kind of betrayal Gaius Jung committed and what ‘D-Day’ actually is. In the meantime, Wookwon and Ha Seojin will build a base.”
Team 1 had much more work to do than Team 2.
“Once everyone enters the dungeon, we will secure Gaius Jung first and then proceed with the raid. I’ve set the estimated period for the raid to ten days. Our goal is to secure Gaius Jung and wipe out the terrorist organization, but remember that the most important thing is for no one in the tracking team to die. Especially Tuyeon. You need to control yourself.”
“Don’t worry, Uncle. I’ll be able to hold back because my stress will be gone after I kill a bunch of them.”
“I said ‘maybe’ is not allowed…”
“Then you shouldn’t have recruited me.”
Faced with her bold attitude, Go Junyoung gave up on talking and signaled Kang Yigeon to take care of it.
He was the only one who could stop Kim Tuyeon here.
Kang Yigeon gave a slight nod.
“Alright, let’s take this chance to wipe out Dongtae and Myeongtae and burn away whatever D-Day is before it can even sprout. Everyone, to your positions!”
“Wait a second. We are finally achieving the purpose of forming this team today. It’s our last team activity, so let’s shout a slogan.”
Seohwa was horrified.
Even though he looked fine on the outside, he was trembling because of Wolf.
A slogan?
“I agree. Shouting a slogan together definitely makes us feel like one team.”
“Fuck. Why would I do something so childish?”
“A slogan is good. How about ‘For Lee Yuje, who sadly left our side’?”
“The only person I care about in this world is my baby.”
Luckily, thanks to a fantastic combination of people with zero teamwork, they scattered without any slogan.
Seohwa took on ship surveillance duty with Kang Yigeon.
The gate was 300 meters above the deck.
Although drones were monitoring it, the gate was large and surrounded by empty air, so it was basically wide open.
That was why they couldn’t stop the forced entry of the synthetic human soldiers before.
Seohwa hid behind a pillar on the right, and Kang Yigeon hid behind a container on the left.
Since the sun had set over the sea, it was quite chilly.
They say S-ranks are born with the ability to regulate their body temperature, so why do I feel the cold so much?
As he wrapped his mage robe tighter, Kang Yigeon, standing behind the left container, signaled to him.
‘……?’
He watched to see what he was doing, and then Kang Yigeon tossed a small object.
It was a heat pack.
It even had the caption “Stay warm if you love” written on it and was decorated with pink hearts.
‘Wow… what is this? Why is Kang Yigeon so cute?’
Seohwa made a heart sign with his fingers and tucked the heat pack inside his robe.
They had been together the whole time; when did he prepare that?
Imagining him with that blunt face picking out heat packs made him feel like he was going to die from cuteness.
Even though he was facing a battle with Evil Humans, instead of being nervous, he could only think about finishing quickly so he could roll around on the bed with Kang Yigeon and the baby snake.
He tried his best to raise his guard and stayed quiet.
How much time had passed?
He heard the sound of water moving.
It wasn’t the waves created by nature, but an artificial splashing.
* * *
