“Um, Guildmaster Kwon Taehyuk.”
A staff member opened the waiting room door with a worried look.
“I think it’s time for you to head out.”
Current time: 8:52 PM. It had already been 22 minutes since the match was scheduled to begin.
The commentators had been stalling with opening chatter, but even that had reached its limit. Kwon Taehyuk swallowed a sigh and replied with a calm face.
“I’ll go now.”
His opponent, Cover, never showed up. The waiting room prepared for Cover remained completely empty.
Following the staff member, Kwon Taehyuk stepped out and walked down the hallway toward the arena.
Although the match had been canceled due to Cover’s absence, the spectators still didn’t know that. Kwon Taehuk would have to go up to the stage himself and announce that the match was canceled due to unforeseen circumstances.
Since the event was hosted by Yesung and he was both their representative and the match’s contestant, it was only proper that he address the audience himself.
The spectators came all this way only to return without seeing a thing—of course they’d be disappointed. Some might even blame Kwon Taehyuk directly.
There were no ticket refund issues since entry was first-come-first-served, but even so, the whole situation left a bitter taste in his mouth.
He didn’t care much if the audience blamed him. What truly bothered him was that the match had to end without even getting to meet Cover, let alone fight him.
“I’m honestly shocked there was still room left to be disappointed.”
He already knew Cover was a self-centered bastard, and yet he still found himself disappointed again.
Apparently, he’d been holding out hope for Cover without realizing it. Because Cover had confirmed his participation through Cha Seohu, he really believed he’d show up.
“What happened to Hunter Cha Seohu?”
When there were 30 minutes left before the match, Kwon Taehyuk, unable to wait any longer, tried calling Cha Seohu. But no matter how many times he called, Seohu didn’t pick up.
“Don’t tell me... something happened again?”
It was one thing for Cover to vanish, but Cha Seohu wasn’t the kind of person to disappear without a word. And considering how he always got swept up in new incidents if you took your eyes off him for a moment, it only made things more concerning.
If something had happened, maybe Cover didn’t come to the arena because he was with Seohu.
After all, Cover was Cha Seohu’s personal dealer.
If it was to protect Seohu, a ranking match wouldn’t matter. Kwon Taehyuk would’ve done the same.
“I’ll have to confirm it.”
Once this mess was cleaned up, he needed to check Seohu’s whereabouts. Seohu had said he was staying at a hotel near the Circle Guild, so it shouldn’t take more than an hour or two to track him down.
Just as Kwon Taehyuk reached for the door leading to the arena, thinking about Seohu—
BEEEEEEP!
A piercing alarm suddenly rang out.
The loud blaring echoing down the hallway made Kwon Taehyuk stop in his tracks—just as another staffer came sprinting from the opposite side.
“G-Guildmaster!”
The pale-faced staff member shouted in a panic.
“Something’s happened! T-There’s just been an alert—!”
“An alert?”
“A d-dungeon—there’s been a dungeon break!”
The staffer standing beside Kwon Taehyuk gasped and staggered back.
“Monsters are heading straight for the arena!”
“......!”
At the same moment the staff shouted, Kwon Taehyuk’s phone in his pocket shrieked with an emergency alert. It was a high-priority disaster message.
He scanned the text for the location of the dungeon break and current situation—then clenched his jaw and issued a command.
“Evacuate the spectators immediately.”
Given the dungeon’s location, the first place the monsters would arrive was the arena’s main entrance.
To ensure everyone got out safely, they needed to predict the monsters’ path and intercept them before they reached the arena.
The blaring alarms pounded inside his skull.
As he sprinted down the chaotic corridor, Kwon Taehyuk considered who he could count on to handle the situation.
Ironically, the first person to come to mind was Cover. Maybe it was because Cover had helped during both the Uidong and the front gate of the Royal Palace incidents.
Every time monsters attacked, Cover had shown up from somewhere and lent a hand. That was probably why Kwon Taehyuk still hadn’t given up on him.
Cha Seohu naturally came to mind as well—but he was not someone to consider right now.
With monsters pouring out unpredictably, he couldn’t possibly call Seohu, a Supporter, into such danger. Not that he could reach him anyway.
With Cover and Seohu ruled out, only two people remained. Kwon Taehyuk frowned and called one of them.
“Hunter Ryu Sunghyun.”
A heavy, cold pressure weighed on my shoulders.
The energy pouring from Cha Sahyeon was flooding the space around us. My throat tightened like someone was choking me, and my hands trembled like I’d been thrown into the dead of winter.
“W-Wait, hang on—!”
Before I could even finish the sentence, my body was blown backward. With a shockwave, a storm of black shadow exploded like a bomb.
“Ugh!”
Still bound, I was flung across the floor and slammed into a wall. No sooner had I swallowed a groan than a blinding light and earth-shaking tremor followed.
KUUUNG!
Chains and shadows twisted in the air like snakes. The more the black and white clashed, the louder the sound of collapse became—and thick dust began to rise.
“Grk...!”
Through the mist of dust, I heard Eun Woojeong’s muffled cry. There was no way he could endure that relentless L-rank assault.
“Fuck, we’re gonna end up hauling a corpse out of here.”
What happens if Eun Woojeong dies? The system? The world?
More importantly—Cha Sahyeon is the Catastrophe... can a Main Character die to the villain?
Cold sweat poured down my back. For entirely different reasons, a real sense of danger set in.
“No, wait—!”
All I could do in my bound state was shout. I frantically opened my mouth, trying to stop Cha Sahyeon.
BOOM!
A thunderous crash, far greater than any before, shook the room as one of the walls collapsed.
The one flung through it could only be Eun Woojeong—even without looking, I could tell.
His presence, which had been so vivid throughout the fight, was suddenly fading fast.
My heart dropped.
“Shit—no way. Really?”
The way his aura was rapidly diminishing gave me chills.
When a Hunter dies, their aura disappears. For an Awakened being, aura was like breath. Sometimes it faded slowly, sometimes it stopped abruptly—like cardiac arrest.
A disturbance in that flow meant their condition was critical.
This wasn’t good. This was seriously dangerous.
Beyond the settling dust, I could see Cha Sahyeon walking toward the broken wall. I didn’t hesitate.
“Ow, ow!”
Cha Sahyeon flinched mid-step. I seized the chance and shouted again.
“Owwww! It ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) hurts, it really fucking hurts!”
Wailing dramatically about my pain seemed to do the trick—he stopped.
I was afraid he’d ignore me like before, but thankfully, the fake cry worked.
He rushed back to me at once, his face pale and twisted as he burst through the darkness.
“Hyung, are you okay?”
His soft voice was thick with worry. He knelt beside me and reached out.
Clang!
Cha Sahyeon grabbed the chains wrapped around my torso—and they snapped immediately.
“...What?”
The chains disintegrated into glowing powder, scattering into the air.
I was speechless. No matter how hard I’d struggled, those chains never budged. But Cha Sahyeon tore through them like paper.
It hit me again, just how terrifyingly powerful L-rank was. My mouth went dry.
“Are you really hurt?”
“A little?”
I replied reflexively, and Cha Sahyeon helped me up.
“Wait here. I’ll finish this, then we’ll go get you treated.”
“F-Finish...? You mean... kill Eun Woojeong?”
Like someone with unfinished business, Cha Sahyeon turned to head toward the rubble where Eun Woojeong lay buried.
I quickly grabbed his arm.
“If he’s going to finish it, that means Eun Woojeong is still alive.”
No idea how badly he was hurt, but if it got too dangerous, I could always sneak in a bit of holy power while he was unconscious and heal him.
Right now, calming down Cha Sahyeon was priority one.
He looked at me like he was asking, “Why are you stopping me?” I coughed and spoke up.
“Ahem, Sahyeon. I mean... do you really have to kill him?”
I tried to be as cautious as I could, but his expression immediately turned cold.
“There’s no reason to let him live either.”
“...Well, actually, we kinda know each other. We just had a disagreement—”
“You think I’m dumb enough to fall for that kind of lie?”
“......”
I couldn’t say anything to that.
It was obvious—Cha Sahyeon had started regaining his memories, and that clueless innocence was gone. Even his way of speaking had gotten sharper.
“It was easier to convince him before he remembered.”
This wouldn’t work. I remembered my last resort and let go of his arm.
“Anyway, just wai—”
As soon as I let go, I wrapped my arms around Cha Sahyeon’s neck.
His upper body tilted toward me slightly, and his warm body heat touched the nape of my neck.
“......!”
He must’ve been pretty shocked, because his shoulders twitched hard.
It was a desperate move—grabbing him in a hug—and it worked brilliantly.
Whether past or present, Cha Sahyeon had always been weak to physical affection. Just hugging him would calm him down like flipping a switch. There was no way I wouldn’t take advantage of that.
Relieved, I hugged him tighter.
“Just let it go this once. Nothing really happened.”
I tightened my grip, rambling whatever I could to keep him from pushing me away and charging off to kill Eun Woojeong.
“I mean, yeah, I got roughed up a bit. But you already got revenge for that. It’s not worth killing him over. A life’s not something to take so lightly.”
“......”
“And... he’s the one who told me the location of that cult’s church when you were kidnapped. Think of this as repaying that debt.”
“......”
“You listening?”
I asked, suspicious he might be ignoring me—then came his reply.
“Yeah.”
A breath followed that short word.
“...Okay.”
Cha Sahyeon wasn’t the type to go back on his word. If he said “okay,” he meant it—he wouldn’t lay a hand on Eun Woojeong.
Only then did I feel relief. And then I felt his arms wrap around my waist.
Looking down, I saw the solid arms encircling me from behind.
It gave me a weird feeling.
Now that I thought about it, this was the first time I’d hugged an adult man like this—so closely, in a situation like this.
“Huh......”
It felt strange. Awkward, even.
Feeling a little embarrassed, I lifted my head from his shoulder and looked at his face.
Cha Sahyeon, who met my gaze directly, was bright red.
His pale face had gone crimson, his ears—visible through his curly hair—were strawberry pink.
“...This is kinda...”
Wasn’t this a little strange?
The arms wrapped tightly around my waist... and Cha Sahyeon’s face, so close I could feel his breath—
Suddenly, the whole thing felt way too intense.

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