Chapter 127:
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108 years. Even the strongest L-class Hunter in the world couldn’t utter a word in the face of such an unfathomable time.
“108 years…?”
“That’s ridiculous! Someone who lived for 108 years maintaining the appearance of someone in their 20s? Even Healers can’t stop aging. What have you done?” Monique, who had treated countless patients as the world’s greatest Healer, couldn’t cure herself from aging.
“I don’t know why my youth has been preserved. However, while 108 years passed inside the dungeon, only five years passed on Earth. Maybe that’s the reason.”
“Is such a thing possible…?”
“No one predicted the world would change like this.”
In a world where things had changed so drastically, there was no room to deny the impossible. Seong Jarim’s words were plausible, and Monique couldn’t refute them anymore. She sighed and sat back down. “Well, your words aren’t entirely wrong. Hmm. I wonder if someday I’ll get to examine your body thoroughly.”
“Don’t talk about it as if you’re going to dissect an experimental subject…”
“Aren’t you curious about the exact reasons too?”
“Not at all!”
“Too bad.”
Seong Jarim shuddered at words of sincere regret. Somehow, she felt Monique didn’t quite fit the Healer stereotype, even compared with the Chihuahua in Korea.
“Alright, let’s assume you are the world’s only dungeon survivor. If Alex acknowledged it, then at least it can’t be entirely false.”
As she propped her legs up on the table, Ali’s words brought a bit of calm to the confused conference room. As Seong Jarim said, Alexander Rodrick, the head of WDO, was not the type to easily acknowledge frivolous claims without reason.
“The true nature of the dungeons and the gates that only you know. What is it exactly?”
“Extraterrestrial planets.”
“…Extraterrestrial?”
“Yes. The gates are interdimensional portals capable of traveling between star systems. And the dungeons are planets, just like Earth, where lifeforms inhabit the cosmic bodies.”
The conference room that had momentarily calmed down now fell into awkward silence. The silence pierced Seong Jarim like a sharp needle, but she remained unfazed, having experienced life and death countless times. She didn’t expect them to believe her so easily in the first place.
“The name of the planet I was on is Baskar. The environment there is entirely different from Earth, but there’s one thing that’s exactly the same: Awakened beings, gates, dungeons, and the Labyrinth. They exist there too.”
“Wait a moment. I’m suddenly getting too much information, and I’m confused…” Rodrick rubbed his forehead and interrupted Seong Jarim’s words. “So, you’re saying that dungeons are not just lands where monsters live, but actual planets existing in space?”
“Yeah. I know it’s hard to believe, but believe it. When I was in Baskar, I saw five satellites like the moon. It’s true.”
As Seora listened to Seong Jarim, she recalled her time in the dungeon. Five planets floating in the sky—ah, they were not planets but moons.
“Since I have seen things like that, it’s only natural that I would know about the World of Revelation in the Labyrinth.”
“…”
“Myths can be based on real events from other dimensions, you know. Look, gods we used to dismiss as mere fantasies are now among us.”
Rodrick couldn’t help but sigh at the unimaginable scale of the story. Dungeons and gates were not just holes spewing out monsters.
Even though they now had a rough idea of what they were dealing with, Rodrick still couldn’t see a way to solve this crisis. In fact, he felt even more clueless about how to completely stop the monsters from coming in. How on earth could they prevent the monsters from flooding through?
And what about Seong Jarim, claiming to have lived for 108 years on another planet? Was she really someone they could trust completely?
“From the moment I first saw her, I knew she wasn’t ordinary, but to think she has lived for over a hundred years… As a dungeon survivor? Julian chimed in, finding it all fascinating. “A returnee from another planet?”
His chuckling caused Rodrick to frown harder. “Julian Martinez, is this a time to laugh?”
Despite Rodrick’s reprimand, Julian shrugged his shoulders. “There’s no need to be so serious. It’s not like it’s her fault that she got trapped in a dungeon. And if dungeons and gates are related to space, so what? We just learned their true nature, but nothing really changes.”
Julian was right. No matter what dungeons and gates were, Seong Jarim was simply a victim of bad luck, getting trapped in one of them. In fact, they should be thanking her for enduring so much and returning to reveal the truth they didn’t know. Though it did make things more complicated in their heads.
“I never expected to hear such words from a chick. How intriguing.”
Ali laughed aloud at Seong Jarim’s words. Garcia and Monique chuckled along. Rodrick realized that he was the only one taking this situation seriously.
As Julian said, nothing really changed.
“But there’s one thing I’m curious about. You said you were there for 108 years?”
“Yeah.”
“Then it’s been long since Awakened individuals appeared there, right? Unlike us, who have only experienced a significant upheaval 12 years ago.”
Ah. In response to the unexpected observation, Rodrick suddenly raised his head.
“Then, wouldn’t we be able to prepare for the future based on what Seong Jarim saw there?”
“Julie, what’s gotten into you? You’re thinking way too productively.”
“Indeed, he’s better than Garcia in that regard. I sometimes wonder if he even has a brain.”
Ali and Monique admired the intriguing idea. Julian suddenly felt he was being treated somewhat poorly.
“I’ve become interested in Korea recently and have been studying it. They have a proverb that goes something like ‘Even dog poop can be used as medicine.’”
“…”
“…”
“…”
The really impressive one was none other than Oliver. Even the three Koreans were blown away by his serious bombshell. Well, there was a proverb like that, but the fact that Oliver said it seemed insane.
Everyone couldn’t help but laugh when they saw Oliver smiling as if wondering if he had used the idiom appropriately. They were curious about how he was studying Korea.
“Are you crazy? You’re treating me like some kind of dog poop?”
“So, the proverb means…?”
“After ‘chick,’ it’s ‘dog poop.’ Julie, you must be enjoying having so many nicknames these days, right? It’s a pity that only we know, isn’t it?”
“I like being called ‘chick,’ but I hate ‘dog poop’!”
As the calm meeting progressed, the ‘dog poop’ topic started flying around.
“Please focus on the meeting.”
In the end, Rodrick banged the table to disperse the atmosphere. These damn L-classes lose their focus for even a moment, and it becomes a problem.
“But Julian Martinez’s opinion is quite appropriate. Hunter Seong Jarim, could you tell us what you saw there?”
Yun Seora and Kang Sejun reflexively looked at Seong Jarim, who led the planet to destruction. Recalling that experience was somewhat harsh for Seong Jarim.
However, the person in question shrugged lightly as if it didn’t bother her much. “Well, that’s the extent of it. There’s not much more to say. Even though there is a Labyrinth there, what’s inside each one is completely different. In fact, this 8th floor was different from the one that opened there previously.”
Disappointment flickered on Rodrick’s face. “Do you know how to make the dungeons and gates disappear?”
“Well, there is one way….”
“There is? What is it?” With a glimmer of hope, Rodrick asked.
Seong Jarim scratched her head, wondering if she should say it. She hesitated for a moment before revealing it. “…The destruction of the planet.”
“…”
“When all living beings are gone… they will no longer appear.”
Everyone’s faces turned perplexed. Their expressions were a mix of wanting to ask how she knew that and feeling like they probably already knew.
Yun Seora and Kang Sejun raised their hands as if to signal they shouldn’t ask anything further, making everyone remain silent.
They were afraid to ask anything more than that.
***
After the summary meeting, Seong Jarim and Kang Sejun gathered in Seora’s suite room. There were still a few things left unsaid during the meeting.
“Kang Sejun, when will you reveal you’re a regressor?” Seong Jarim had disclosed her identity, but Kang Sejun was still silent. “I don’t think it would make much of a difference just because there were regressors in the yard where returnees appeared.”
“You’re right. Since so much has already changed from my past life, revealing the truth shouldn’t be a problem now. However, something is bothering me. I want to hear your thoughts.”
Seora and Jarim tilted their heads. It was the first time they had heard him speak like this.
“What is it?”
“I mentioned that this life is very different from my previous five lives, right?”
From Seora’s survival, the unexpected appearance of returnee Seong Jarim, the sudden appearance of the Key, and then the Cheorwon Dungeon incident—countless things had changed.
“The Labyrinth was no exception.”
“It did feel strange. You said the Labyrinth has never changed, but the scenery inside was quite different from what you described.”
Kang Sejun had clearly said that the Dragon of Revelation would only appear when Oliver activated the mark Michael gave him. He had never mentioned that the snakes they dealt with would unite, transforming into a dragon.
“Come to think of it, the dragon’s last dying words were also strange.”
“What did it say?”
Seora, who had been unconscious then and didn’t know the situation, asked, and Kang Sejun replied, “It definitely mentioned something about an ‘ally’.”
“I can’t die here! Ally! My ally! Where are you!? Save me…!”
Seora’s face hardened. “Ally. So there’s something like an ally for the owner of the Labyrinth?”
“I’ve killed the Dragon of Revelation several times but never heard such a thing. That’s why I’m uneasy. I haven’t revealed that I’m a returnee because of this. I want to look into it, but if it becomes known that I’m a returnee, unnecessary attention will be drawn.”
“That makes sense. An ally that didn’t exist in the past… Could it be related to the Key incident?”
If that’s the case, the situation becomes serious. It would mean dealing with a monster that can even form an alliance with the owner of the Labyrinth.
‘But why am I reminded of the beauty of that jewel mansion right now?’
Seora recalled the dream she had in the Labyrinth. The unnamed beauty who talked with her mother, Hyeon Jaehui.
‘No way, he can’t possibly be the ally, right?’
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