We took care of the monsters faster than ever and killed the boss monster.
At first, I thought the Gate had only opened at Gamseong High, but after seeing the chat, it turned out there were plenty of places in need of help.
As the scenery around us gradually shifted back to the rooftop of Gamseong High, a heavy sigh escaped from between us.
“Where do we go first now?”
Ban Eunhyeol asked, brushing monster flesh off his clothes.
Everyone was hesitating, unable to suggest where we should go first.
“I guess we should head to the place where the Dungeon Break happenedโฆ But we can’t just be relieved, thinking we can close the Gates later, not right now.”
“Since the situation is special, things might be a lot different from before.”
Normally, a week after a Gate opens, a Dungeon Break occurs.
But now, there was no way we could just leave the Gates alone, not with so many opening all at once.
This was the first time Gates had opened simultaneously like this; who knew what else had changed?
If we ignored the Gates thinking, โit’s fine for now,โ and tried to deal with other things first, only for monsters to suddenly pour out all at once, it would be a disaster.
“I think we should split up and each go help where we’re needed.”
Yeon Hayeon, who’d been watching us discuss with her arms folded, stepped forward.
“Moving all together isn’t efficient. Let’s split into pairs.”
“That’s better than going alone.”
No matter how high our ranks, it still took quite a bit of time for one person to close a Gate.
It was safer and more effective for two people to quickly finish up and move to the next place.
“Then I’ll go with Eunbada.”
Yeon Hayeon immediately grabbed Eunbadaโs arm, declaring her choice without a hint of hesitation.
Han Jibin looked wounded for a moment, but when Jiganghan picked him, his face brightened right away.
“Looks like everyone’s decided.”
Ban Eunhyeol looked down at me as he spoke.
Kang Yedam and Haemalgeum would obviously move together, so there was no need to think about it any further.
“Wow, it didnโt even take ten seconds.”
Haemalgeum said in amazement, seeing how quickly the teams had formed.
Then he scratched the back of his head and pointed toward the sports field.
All the vehicles and crews from various broadcasting stations were filming the rooftop.
“Uh, so who wants to go out first?”
Even though the situation was urgent, his tone was full of concern that reporters would swarm us as soon as we appeared.
I looked at the two small familiars flapping their wings beside me, as if to say, โwhy worry about that?โ
“Letโs all go out at once.”
Bisharp and Red puffed themselves up.
We climbed onto the backs of the two dragons and soared into the sky.
When we first faced the monsters that appeared in the Dungeon on Gamseong High’s rooftop, we attacked with every skill we had, without hesitation.
Since all my friends present knew my true identity, I didnโt have to hide my strength and fought with everything I had.
All I could think was that we had to clear this Dungeon and get out.
So I even summoned the familiars I never thought Iโd see again, but there was no time to be happy.
Right as I was using the familiars to restrain and attack the monsters, Sahin carefully spoke to me.
[My lord, thereโs something I need to tell you privately.]
Seeing his grave expression, I became serious as well, focusing on Sahinโs words while beating down monsters.
Sahin looked as though he wasnโt sure where to begin.
[Just say it already, quickly!]
Pressed by Redโs urging, Sahin finally spoke up and told us something unbelievable.
As my expression shifted from moment to moment while listening, my friends glanced over at me.
They looked curious about what we were discussing, but I was too busy listening to Sahin to explain right away.
“So, youโre saying Idana seems to have come over to this side?”
[We definitely moved together in the Dungeon, but suddenly we found ourselves by your side, my lord. Iโm certain that passage is a dimensional corridor.]
“Heh, it opened again? When I heard โintruder,โ I thought someone forced dimensional movement or something, but what kind of dimensional corridor is so shoddy?”
It was already shocking that Idana, who used to be terrified of entering Dungeons, started running through them like a madwoman, and to hear sheโd experienced something similar to me left me speechless.
Crossing between dimensions isnโt something that happens every day.
And yet, I had no idea how many times there had already been movement between this dimension and the one I lived in.
Ever since I possessed this body, it felt as if the once-sealed dimensional gate could open at any time.
“So, after crossing dimensions, you havenโt seen Idana?”
[No. I suppose, like you, sheโs inside a Gate somewhere in this world and just hasnโt come out yet.]
“That makes sense.”
So, the โintruderโ mentioned in the status window must have referred to Idana.
โDoes that mean sending Idana back to the other dimension is the only way to resolve this?โ
Iโd swapped bodies to change the future Kang Yedam saw, but now something this ridiculous had happened.
โEven if closing an S-rank Gate caused severe casualties, at least everything was restored to normal back then. But now, thereโs no way to restore things, is there?โ
If Iโd failed to swap bodies and the S-rank Gate had opened on graduation day, Iโd have known how to fix everything right away.
All I had to do was go back to the other dimension.
But now, the situation was tangled in all the worst ways.
โBut even if Idana goes back to her dimension, can she undo the damage already done?โ
Since this scenario never happened in the future, I couldnโt say for sure.
Plus, knowing that Idana wanted to come to this dimension made me worry that sending her back wouldnโt be so easy.
Already, my head was starting to ache.
My grip on the spear tightened, the deeper my thoughts went.
“Hold on, I have to tell you all something quickly.”
After finishing off the nearby monsters, I gathered my friends and relayed Sahinโs story.
Their expressions didnโt look much different from mine a moment ago.
They were shocked at the possibility that the intruder was Idana, and when they heard that she wanted to return to this dimension, they let out hollow laughs.
When I said we needed to find Idana right away, everyone wore expressions struggling to suppress their rising anger.
Especially Ban Eunhyeol, who had suffered a lot from Idana before; his anger was so palpable, it was hard to approach him.
“Letโs get out of here quickly. We need to move fast if we want to find Idana.”
As soon as I finished, Han Jibin, whoโd had his mouth agape the whole time, raised his hand.
“But how do we even find herโฆ? Last time when Dana possessed someone, there was only one Gate, but now there are too many.”
“Weโll just have to check them all.”
Jiganghan answered bluntly, in his usual offhand way.
As soon as he said that, everyoneโs faces hardened. Realizing weโd have to keep moving non-stop until we found Idana made it all seem daunting.
But we needed to find her as soon as possible and send her back to her dimension, so we quickly snapped back to our senses.
After taking down boss monsters at a remarkable speed, weโd been moving from Gate to Gate without rest.
Riding on Bisharpโs back, Ban Eunhyeol and I looked down with heavy expressions.
“Itโs practically a war zone down there.”
Just as Ban Eunhyeol said, it looked like a battlefield below.
Flames rose in various places, and the corpses of dead monsters lay scattered among collapsed buildings.
Awakened ones were busy slaughtering monsters pouring out of the Gates.
“Letโs go down over there.”
As we descended toward a street lined with trees between the warring buildings, a chat window popped up in front of me.
HTMLTagsinsideStringsToConfuseParsersGiyomi (9): Move to the next Gate! แ ฎแ ฎ]
Since it was hard to communicate by phone inside the Dungeons, we agreed to use chat to share updates.
But since there were awakened ones who didnโt know about the situation, we also set up a code among ourselves.
That code was simply saying to move on to the next Gate.
“Do you think Kang Yedam and Haemalgeum are alright?”
We could report our status in real time by chat, but Haemalgeum and Kang Yedam couldnโt.
You could only chat within your own chat window.
Up until now, weโd been sending group texts to share updates, but if someone spotted Idana, there was no way to notify us in real time.
“It wasnโt supposed to be just the two of them.”
Regret washed over me for hastily forming the teams.
Just as we landed with Bisharp on the tree-lined street between the buildingsโ
[Gaonnuri(2): Onsaemiro moving to the next Gate.]
I saw the nickname in the chat window and my eyes widened.
“Doihyunโs here!”
“That was fast. Did he come straight over and join the others as soon as he heard?”
“Looks like it. Thank goodness.”
Kang Yedam and Haemalgeum were strong enough on their own, but knowing that Doihyun, the number two, had joined them made me feel much more reassured.
Even Ban Eunhyeol, who usually didnโt like Doihyun much, seemed to agree with me this time.
“Letโs finish up here quickly and move on.”
Relieved, we dove back into battle once again, for what felt like the hundredth time.
Dawn was breaking between the towering buildings.