CH 226

“Can I go with you?” Lee Jun-Young asked.

Kim Jin-Woo didn’t ask why. He simply nodded slightly and stood in front of the door for a while to give Lee Jun-Young time to finish her preparations. As if she had prepared beforehand, she picked up a bag and hurriedly stood next to him.

By the time they reached the gate, the sun was already starting to set.

“Have they all gone in already?” Lee Jun-Young wondered.

Until just a few hours before, the place had been bustling with explorers, but now, there was not a single one to be seen. It seemed everyone had already gone in, and the area around the gate had fallen silent.

“Oh, you’ve arrived.”

Park Sung-Jin must have made the necessary preparations in advance, as a man had been waiting for Kim Jin-Woo to hand him an access permit, as well as a couple of items he had requested.

“We were rushing to have these prepared, so we could only get you two temporary permits for now, but there should be no problems entering the Underworld.”

There was nothing special about the permits that hung from neck straps, but strangely, they were a different color from the normal ones. When Kim Jin-Woo asked about them, the man gave a lengthy explanation.

“This Underworld expedition is supposed to be a large-scale mission, so all the explorers have registered with the Association. Usually, teams would act on their own, but there might be a situation a team can’t resolve by themselves, in which case they’ve been told to follow the Association’s instructions.”

In short, in case of emergency, the Association was supposed to take command and lead the explorers; however, they were indirectly telling Kim Jin-Woo to take over the role of the explorers’ commander.

“I’m going in for a personal investigation, and I have no desire to get involved in the Association’s matters,” Kim Jin-Woo said seriously.

The man was startled by Kim Jin-Woo’s tone, but he barely regained his composure and nodded. After informing Kim Jin-Woo that he was free to make use of the Association’s name to his advantage as much as possible, he quickly left the gate.

When the man left, Lee Jun-Young praised the Association’s head for doing a relatively good job of keeping the rowdy explorers in check with a look of slight admiration. “Park Sung-Jin sure does his job well.”

“Let’s head in.” Kim Jin-Woo had no intention of wasting any more time at the entrance, and started to move.

Buzz buzz.

The passageway that had been well laid out with cement was nowhere to be seen, and the entrance to the Underworld had turned into a complete mess. A couple of lights flickered on their cables, making the atmosphere even more eerie.

“Whoa, this is tragic. Looks miserable.” Lee Jun-Young shuddered when she saw the cracked and collapsed passageway. Perhaps it was because the degree of damage to the Underworld was worse than she had thought, and there was a slight trace of anxiety in her gaze as she looked across the ceiling.

“It’s said that there are no sane, normal beings in the Underworld, but for people to crawl into the Underworld even after seeing this? I’m questioning their sanity right now.” After throwing out a couple of her usual quips, she stretched her shoulders and started to relax.

“So, are you going to head back?” Kim Jin-Woo asked.

“No way. I was born in the Underworld, remember?” Lee Jun-Young grinned widely and shook her head, before walking forward ahead of Kim Jin-Woo. However, she soon remarked, “It’s even worse inside here.”

They soon realized that the damage was way worse the deeper they went. Their path was blocked by piles of collapsed rubble, and the usual paths that the explorers had used previously were now completely useless.

“No matter how you look at it, it looks like it’s connected to the Lesser Floors.”

To make matters worse, the paved passageway started to show signs of passageways that could only be seen on the Lesser Floors, dramatically slowing the pair’s progress downward.

They had a map that had been prepared by the Association, but it only showed where the gate to China was, and it wasn’t detailed enough to rely on in the current situation.

“Thank goodness those who went in first left behind markings…”

Judging from the traces of battle everywhere, anyone could see how hard it must have been for the initial group of explorers to push through. Compared to them, Kim Jin-Woo and Lee Jun-Young didn’t encounter a single creature.

“We’re lucky we don’t have to deal with the creatures. I would really hate to get caught up dealing with them and wasting my time in a situation like this,” Lee Jun-Young said while looking directly at Kim Jin-Woo. She must have figured out that the creatures weren’t approaching them because of Kim Jin-Woo’s presence.

It was to be expected. The moment they had entered the Underworld, Kim Jin-Woo emanated a completely different presence that far exceeded what Lee Jun-Young categorized as a dungeon baby.

Blue streaks of light flowed faintly from his eyes as soon as the world around them became dark, and the majesty that emanated from him was enough to make her want to kneel in front of him and worship him right away.

That was the majesty of the Highlord.

Lee Jun-Young shook her head upon feeling the indescribable presence. He was on the same side as she was, and yet she was trembling like this. In that case, what kind of creature would dare approach him?

Realizing what kind of existence her master was, she became more emboldened with each step. She now focused on following the traces of the advance squad of explorers, totally ignoring all the traces of creatures.

“Hmm…” Kim Jin-Woo, on the other hand, felt her gaze at him and wasn’t able to figure out what she was thinking, but he didn’t let it show on his face.

“This looks like the entrance to the 2nd Floor.”

The two of them had gained stamina incomparable to that of regular dungeon babies ever since they each obtained a labyrinth. As such, they were able to walk continuously without sleeping or taking breaks; despite that, it took a long time for them to finally arrive at the location.

“Let’s hurry.” Without showing any signs of exhaustion, Kim Jin-Woo inhumanly declared that they would pick up their pace. He had hardly drank any water at all, let alone eaten, and anyone would have wondered if he was human at all.

“Phew.” Although Lee Jun-Young herself had also achieved rapid growth by becoming a labyrinth master, she didn’t yet possess such transcendental stamina. However, she was the one who had requested to tag along in the first place, so she sighed and quickened her pace.

The 2nd Floor was different from the 1st Floor. If the 1st Floor felt as if it had been partially mixed with other Floors, the 2nd Floor felt as if the entire Floor had been flipped inside out.

Despite that fact, the map that the Association had most certainly rushed to create was fairly accurate, which was quite a surprise. It was likely that someone specializing in navigational skills had made the map with quite a bit of care, even if it had been done in a hurry.

“Ah, we’ve finally caught up,” Kim Jin-Woo said faintly off in the darkness.

Lee Jun-Young turned to Kim Jin-Woo and said, “But if you continue to stay that way…” Her joy was short-lived, and her expression quickly turned serious.

Blue streaks of light continued to flow from the corners of Kim Jin-Woo’s eyes, radiating his terrifying presence, and she was worried about how the other explorers might perceive them. After all, his clear eyes and presence were way too much to explain using the title of “Deep Floor Dungeon Baby”; thus, her worries weren’t unfounded.

“Don’t worry about me,” Kim Jin-Woo said bluntly.

“Even if you say so… Urgh, I understand.” Lee Jun-Young turned around with a sigh and went in the direction of the explorers’ voices.

“What the… Ah, you’re with us.”

As she turned a corner, Lee Jun-Young bumped into a group of explorers whose stiff expressions suggested they were ready for battle, but when she showed them her permit and waved her hand, they immediately relaxed. However, they continued gripping their weapons, indicating that they were very experienced.

“We thought we were the last group, but I guess there was another team that started later than us,” an explorer remarked.

Even as Lee Jun-Young observed the vigilant explorers, she herself stayed calm. She cursed the map and the Association, saying, “We started off late, and we got lost on the way too. The map they provided was so trash.”

“Well, at least they got the direction right.” The explorers giggled and finally accepted her.

“That aside, why are you so nervous? You smell something?” Lee Jun-Young asked.

No matter how bad of a place the Underworld was, their reaction was definitely excessive. If anything, they even looked more scared than nervous.

“Our guide is a sensitive fella, saying something big is coming and whatnot.” The explorer spoke ill of his fellow colleague, making fun of the way he was afraid of a Deep Floor monster hunting them. He continued, “You son of a bitch, we’re the same rank, so what’s with that Deep Floor monster nonsense? He’s never even been to the Deep Floors before, so I find it strange that he’s the one setting the mood of our group.”

Upon hearing the word ‘monster’, Lee Jun-Young turned to look at Kim Jin-Woo, who had been silently watching them. “Ah,” she exclaimed softly.

Unlike before, Kim Jin-Woo suddenly had the face of an ordinary explorer. Those streaks of blue light were nowhere to be seen, and his immense presence had long since disappeared. However, it was certainly his presence that had been felt by the explorers’ guide.

“That aside, you look pretty familiar. Aren’t ya Lee Jun-Young?” one explorer asked.

“You recognize me?” Lee Jun-Young responded.

“Well, you’re a pretty famous one,” the explorer said.

One of the explorers recognized Lee Jun-Young, who was well-known amongst the explorers, and immediately relaxed. They likely thought that given her reputation for being upright, there was no chance they would be backstabbed by her.

“Well, anyway, let’s share some information, shall we? Because we fell behind, I was too busy chasing you guys to obtain any useful information on the way.” Lee Jun-Young skillfully pretended to be friendly and suggested they share their information with her.

The explorers also seemed to have become more sympathetic after finding out her true identity and immediately agreed to share their information with her. “If you’re here, then you’re pretty much at the destination. The 1st Floor has changed quite a bit, but compared to it, the 2nd Floor has gotten a lot more spacious than before, that’s all. There’s not a single enemy to be seen.”

If a gate had been discovered, there was no way that the Floor adjacent to the 2nd Floor would be a Deep Floor. Perhaps due to that, the explorers seemed to be in a fairly relaxed mood. One asked, “We’re going to give up on finding the other gate and head on to the Chinese gate; what about you guys?”

“We’re going to start by seeing that gate for ourselves before we decide our next move,” Lee Jun-Young said.

“Then let’s move together until we reach that gate. This guy here’s a pretty good guide,” the explorer said.

Lee Jun-Young turned to Kim Jin-Woo and asked for his opinion. Since they had no reason to split up, he nodded and the two teams began traveling together.

“By the way, did you not see any labyrinths as you passed the 1st Floor?” Lee Jun-Young asked.

“Labyrinth? We didn’t see any labyrinths, did we?” The explorer, who introduced himself as Bang Jun-Hyuk, was a rather talkative man.

He talked about various things that Lee Jun-Young hadn’t asked about, and each time, she responded appropriately as she squeezed out information about the advance squad.

“Well, I thought the 1st Floor suddenly changed, and lo and behold, there was a random, intact labyrinth. One of the forward teams unfortunately ran into that labyrinth, and I heard they took a lot of damage. Those guys were selected by the Association, so the enemies must have been from at least the Middle Floors. That’s unlucky of them.”

Kim Jin-Woo nodded slightly at the information, silently blending into the party. As he had already expected that the Floor adjacent to the 1st Floor wouldn’t be a Deep Floor, he was unsurprised by the news.

“But how about your friend over there? I heard his team has been disbanded for quite some time.”

Lee Jun-Young frowned momentarily as if she had recalled memories from her past, but as it seemed that Bang Jun-Hyuk had asked her that question innocently without knowing her past details, she quickly composed herself.

She gently looked at Kim Jin-Woo and asked with her eyes how she should introduce him to them. But when he stayed silent, perhaps because he was thinking about something else, she frankly revealed his identity. “He’s… Kim Jin-Woo, the sole dungeon baby born on the 12th Floor in South Korea.”

Upon hearing those words, the explorers immediately froze on the spot and looked back at Kim Jin-Woo. Despite all the attention falling on him, he appeared to be looking blankly at the middle of nowhere. However, in fact, his black eyes were moving busily as if he was reading something.

[The previous owner of the Mask, whom all beings in the Underworld believed and trusted, ironically never once told anyone about himself. Nevertheless, everyone who remembered him did not hesitate to identify him as the most trustworthy being.]

[If you would like to go down that path, put on the Mask of the Hypocrite right now.]

[Others will see and believe only what you want to show.]