Kim Giryeo and Jung Haseong exited from the gate. They looked as neat as when they entered the dungeon, with not a single crease in their clothes. They had applied healing medicine to the outside, creating a haphazard appearance. But even with just that, they were able to avoid the guard's interrogation at the gate. Haseong, the only one whose [White Scale Armor] was not destroyed, walked out slowly, covering his torn shirt with it.

"Oh, right."

But at the moment they parted ways with the association staff who had seen them off,

Giryeo caught Haseong, who was about to head home, and continued the conversation for a while.

"Haseong-ah, by the way, why did you come to the dungeon at 4 in the morning?"

"Yes?"

"Is it that you still feel like you'd do if you don't work hard these days? Isn't it about time for you to rest again?"

Of course, the response that came back was neither positive nor negative, but rather an ambiguous awkwardness.

"Are you the one asking such a question, when the person who arrived before me already asked it...?"

Haseong was seriously flustered. At the same time, he immediately understood how others had perceived him until now. Somehow, he hadn't gotten the sense of it until he was on the receiving end of such a perspective. A hunter going around for a dungeon conquest in the early morning... Yeah. From a third-party's point of view, it definitely looks pretty strange. He also genuinely felt concerned about his health. But this wasn't how he had originally planned things, and he had only come out because he woke up early and couldn't help it.

"Hmm."

Didn't Hunter Kim Giryeo actually stay in that dungeon as if it were part of the plan...? It wasn't hard to tell that the other person had purposely gone to work. The savior who had rescued him appeared with a state, dungeon-like smell, as if they had been in the dungeon for hours.

'A machine that runs dungeons...'

Even in the moment they were having this conversation, Hunter Kim Giryeo showed no change in expression. Seeing this, Haseong didn't show much on the outside, but on the inside, he felt a chill down his spine.

The Beast's attack. And after the battle, the fact that he killed the enemy—despite experiencing all these intense events, he still maintains his composure. Is this really a human? The cold nickname of being a machine seems to suit such a hunter more than anyone else.

'...'

Haseong observed the other person's reaction while quietly organizing his thoughts. At that moment, the blond in question was thinking to himself.

'My hands are still trembling. Ugh, I'm scared... I should lock the door properly as soon as I get home today and not come out of bed.'

As you can tell from this, Giryeo was actually so frightened that he had no time to focus on his expression. Honestly, killing an Earthling wasn't a big deal from the perspective of an archmage who had taken many lives with his own hands.

Brooklyn, who charged forward as if to tear apart the [Protection] effect of the Sacred Tree. The overwhelming magic of an S-class hunter. The slow death that they moved as he wished. Certainly, the situation just now was enough to drive an alien into fear. That's why this man had been maintaining a stern expression until now.

"...I'm sorry for what happened in the past."

"Hmm?"

This is a situation that appears as cold-blooded to a third party. Haseong, who was securing the [Sunset Sword] back in its holder, lowered his gaze.

"When I knew nothing, I once scolded Hunter Kim Giryeo, saying things like, 'Why can't you even fulfill a single duty?' and 'Why is a person so selfish?'"

"Yeah."

"Now that I think about it, those were really presumptuous words."

"That's..."

"Hunter Giryeo is the kind of person who goes around for dungeon conquests at this early hour."

Siren. Kagoshima. And today's incident. The hero of the people stood next to the hunter, carefully reflecting on the things he had solved so far, and raised the corners of his mouth. It was a complicated smile that seemed to be filled with regret.

"Do you know that, thanks to you, Hunter, I've been able to live much more peacefully lately?"

Jung Haseong said that and raised his head. The young man's face was now free of the shadow that had once lingered.

"Come to think of it, Hunter Kim's dungeon conquest scores are generally low. But seeing how you start your hunter-related work from the early morning..."

"Huh?"

"As expected, I guess you were usually busy with other important tasks that the country ordered you to do."

For some reason, Giryeo kept his mouth shut and remained silent.

"I think I understand now why you always worried about me. Meeting another hunter at dawn really makes me think a lot."

"..."

"I really hope you don't push yourself too hard, Hunter Kim."

However, even though Jung Haseong did not receive a response from the other person, he continued speaking as if it was expected.

"Anyway, thank you for saving me today. Truly, I'm always grateful."

Haseong repeatedly expressed his gratitude, saying that he had narrowly escaped thanks to Giryeo. However, he also unconsciously made self-deprecating remarks about his own abilities.

Though he had been flustered by the sudden attack, he couldn't understand how he had ended up being so one-sidedly defeated, even after using a high-level potion. At this rate, even after all the lessons on gaining experience, it might be impossible to team up with that person.

"Haha..."

As Haseong said this, the rising anxiety made him unknowingly break into a cold sweat. However, his mentor's reaction was just calm. The fire mage hadn't lost because of a lack of skill. The alien archmage decided to take today's incident as a lesson and personally address his disciple's small weakness.

And some time later. The weekend that came back.

During this lesson, Giryeo suggested a different kind of practice than usual. He said he didn't know he was so weak in battles against others and came up with a new curriculum.

"Yes?"

The method the archmage had prepared to overcome weaknesses was practice that involved setting someone on fire. From his perspective, it seemed he had lost because of his weak nature, unable to harm his own people. So, he suggested reducing his aversion to using his abilities in order to gain an advantage in future duels with awakened individuals. And, of course, the target for this training would be the body of a certain sambagean eyes man.

"Now, at this point, you're telling me to use my abilities on you, Hunter Kim Giryeo?"

Upon hearing those words, Haseong expressed his refusal with a face that had turned half-pale.

However, his will, as always, had little impact on the lesson.

"Then what, you're saying you'll just stand there and take the hits if a crazy person like a Beast comes charging at you next time?"

Giryeo wanted to take this opportunity to make sure Haseong learned how to protect himself.

"Excuse me, but I think Hunter Kim Giryeo still doesn't realize that this kind of thing is not normal...?"

"I know."

"Yes?"

"Now I know everything, and I'm telling you what to do."

Thus, Jung Haseong, unable to resist the instructor's threat, overcame his weakness through a very harsh method. The fire created, seeing the fire mage now able to set someone on fire, gave a satisfied compliment. Although it was a bit twisted, this was also his way of taking care of his students.

***

Monday came around.

"Hmm."

While others were busy heading to work, I finished preparing an early lunch by placing a simple homemade meal on the table. As you can tell from this scene, everything has returned to normal on my side. Since I handled the situation before Kang Changho woke up, I wasn't subjected to any interrogation. And since the evidence of the battle was completely erased in time for the dungeon reset at 6:30, all the concerns I had were smoothly cleared. From now on, I just need to maintain stability and avoid getting involved in any unnecessary accidents.

'Why does it seem like whenever I try to gain something, something unfortunate happens?'

Of course, it's unfortunate that I didn't achieve my intended goal, but since I've already acquired the byproduct, from now on, all that's left is time. I can think more about how to acquire the body later.

Thus, I decided to stay at home and continue with the creation of the dummy to deceive the contractor.

[Breaking news.]

On the 8th day of the lunar calendar. More precisely, it was the day after boss was killed and passed since Brooklyn's death. At this point, a breaking news message about the clearing of [Mimic City] came through on my phone, but honestly, I didn't feel anything special about it.

[...Mimic City was a dungeon where a boss monster appears after certain traps are solved.]

Right. It's just a C-grade dungeon, so if the Earthlings set their minds to it, there's no way it wouldn't be cleared.

The dungeon had a special escape system called 'transfer', so when the boss is killed, it forcibly teleports all the explorers inside the dungeon out. In other words, it triggered a teleportation similar to the one previously seen at the [White Tower] gate. The announcer congratulated everyone on the successful clearing of the gate and shared various pieces of information, but in the end, there was no mention of the Beast's whereabouts.

'Brooklyn Morgan.'

However,

'Hmm.'

Even though it's quiet for now, there are certainly people in this world who know about Brooklyn's death.

'Are they hiding the information...?'

Because Brooklyn Morgan's body was bound by an unknown [Knight's Oath].

"The spell has a distinctive form, so if you focus, you can distinguish it from an ordinary curse."

However, that item includes a function that notifies the other party when the contract holder dies. The person who had made a firm promise with the American S-rank hunter is the only one who can know the exact time of Brooklyn's death and that woman's death. The gate has already been reset, and the dungeon has been cleared, so I don't think there will be any physical evidence left, but...

"Hmm."

I rolled my eyes and got up from my seat.

"I can't help it."

Anyway, even if the trail of murder is caught, it doesn't matter much since I'm planning to switch bodies. I pretended to think about it for a moment, then quickly erased this problem from my mind. After that, I decided to have a delicious meal and gather my strength to continue my research diligently.

By the way, today's menu is Doenjang-jjigae with zucchini and tofu. I've recently realized that this body has some decent functions. Surprisingly, our Giryeo is quite good at making stew.

***

Day 1 of Brooklyn's death.

[AA new chat room]

[P: I checked the message.]

[Youth: Oh my god! Losing Morgan! How did you manage things, you idiot!:t]

[Youth: I should have stopped that stupid game a long time ago.]

[SPECTRUM: Did I know it would end up like this? We only recently found out that Morgan was the Beast. Who would've thought that crazy woman would put that off while only sleeping 2 hours a day? And besides, you guys didn't stop her at first. When you heard she was going around killing Awakener, you even encouraged it, saying it was a good thing.]

[333: I'm worried.]

[333: You should have put a proper leash on her from the start. If you had trained her properly so that she couldn't do anything without your permission, we wouldn't be dealing with this kind of accident.]

[SPECTRUM: LMAD (laughing while crying emoticon)]

[SPECTRUM: If I had pushed through such negotiations and an S-rank Hunter exploded, I would have been the one to take the blame alone.]

[SPECTRUM: I made sure to put a restriction on that woman to not touch certain individuals with additional contracts. I've taken all the precautions I could from my position.]

[SPECTRUM: Anyway, the guy who barely made it in by throwing money around sure has a lot to say.]

[P: Calm down.]

[Youth: Friends, anyway, what are we going to do now? The deadline is pretty close, do you really think we can manage without Morgan?!]

[SPECTRUM: Don't worry. I still have two more.]

[Youth: But why exactly did Morgan die...]

[SPECTRUM: Before she died, we confirmed through surveillance that Brooklyn entered the Mimic City under her own identity. Honestly, there was nothing in there that could have killed an S-rank, so it's definitely murder by someone. The problem is that damn gate entry list has a critical omission.]

[Youth: Entry time. And exit time.]

[SPECTRUM: F***, there were so many S-rank hunters who went in and out of that place in just one night still, I think it's likely one of either China or Korea, where at least two people entered together.]

[Youth: That's a dangerous statement.]

[P: And I'm even more worried because there's a 50% chance that the culprit could be Korean.]

[333: Definitely.]

[SPECTRUM: Mr. P, but there's no way this situation would result in me losing my rights, right?]

[P: Hmm...]

[P: Yes.]

[SPECTRUM: Right. Then how should we handle the EX-class dungeon that Brooklyn was tackling?]

[P: If we leave it alone, it will retreat on its own. The rewards for that gate are meaningless anyway, so don't worry about it. Focus on your own work.]

.

And on the third day.

"Slurp."

It had been a few days since the Beast was dealt with.

[This is shocking news.]

It seemed that the United States wanted to hide the unprecedented situation of their most famous hunter going missing, but these days, controlling information isn't as easy. Eventually, the System Guild reached their limit and officially acknowledged the disappearance of Brooklyn Morgan.

During this chaotic time, the alien was absentmindedly eating in the corner of the room. Ever since realizing that his physical body was particularly skilled at making stews, he had been trying out various dishes, including kimchi stew and soybean paste stew.

"No I mean, this is really delicious. Should I quit being a Hunter and just open a restaurant instead?"

It was a peaceful day. Despite the fact that he had directly killed an S-rank Hunter, he was somehow managing to live his life in an eerily normal way.

However, about 48 hours later, just before the heat from the rumors of Brooklyn Morgan's disappearance had fully subsided, the archmage's gaze landed on a newly posted article while he was having his meal.

[China, controversy over discussions to host an international tournament...]

'A tournament that allows magic?'

One East Asian country, taking advantage of the period of chaos, caught people's attention by planning a certain international event.