Dungeon Odyssey [EN]: Chapter 224

Dungeon Journal – Episode 225

# 224

Dungeon Journal

Episode 225

Kim Jin-woo was momentarily stunned by the unexpected question.

He hadn’t given it much thought, what with the Labyrinth collapsing and the sudden merging of floors. But the moment he recalled the missing Moais [large, monolithic human figures], he felt a chill as if he’d been doused in ice water.

“Isn’t it unsettling that so many of those guys have vanished without a trace?”

Woo-seo churned his gelatinous body, expressing his disgust.

“Come to think of it, I haven’t received any reports about them.”

The Under Elf patrols, who were scouring the area, hadn’t reported anything about the Moais’ whereabouts. It was as if they had disappeared to a place beyond the Labyrinth’s influence.

Kim Jin-woo, who had been walking non-stop, paused and fell into thought. He didn’t say a word, even as Woo-seo gathered the slime that had dripped from his body and stuck it back on.

Where could the Moais have gone, disappearing as suddenly as they had appeared? It seemed unlikely they were annihilated in the earthquake, as there was no sign of them.

Their complete disappearance weighed heavily on him.

“They were pretty good watchdogs in their own way.”

Woo-seo’s words were disjointed, whether out of unease or regret. But Kim Jin-woo was just as confused.

“Woo-seo.”

He finally spoke after a long silence, lost in thought.

“Yes, speak.”

“We need to expand the scouting range.”

Woo-seo’s gelatinous body bubbled and frothed.

***

Without delay, Kim Jin-woo headed to the surface. Yoon-hee and Lee Jun-young greeted him with joyful faces at their reunion, but he didn’t have time for pleasantries and went straight to the gate in Paju [city in South Korea].

“Hey, you bastards! Move it, move it! Did you lose your edge after taking a break?”

“Jung-hwan isn’t here yet!”

“What? I told you to contact him ages ago! Call him right now, and if he can’t make it, leave him behind!”

The Paju gate, which had been deserted since the Moais had devastated the underground, was now bustling with explorers preparing to enter. It wasn’t as crowded as before, but there were still quite a few experienced-looking individuals.

“Hurry up! Hurry up!”

The explorers subtly kept each other in check, eager to avoid falling behind.

“Is the situation underground resolved, by any chance?”

He stopped one of the explorers who was hurrying by and asked. The explorer paused, looked him up and down.

“Which association are you with?”

“Ah, I’m with the Association…”

His tone was curt, as if he wasn’t pleased with the question during his busy schedule. The explorer told him to check the official notice if he was with the Association and quickly disappeared into the group before heading underground.

“It’s all in the official notice.”

“Official notice…”

He stopped a few more people and asked, but they all gave him wary looks and told him to check the official notice, offering no further explanation.

In the end, Kim Jin-woo decided to go underground himself to assess the situation.

“Hold on, stop!”

Just as he was about to enter the underground, a guard at the outpost called out to him.

“Which association are you with?”

So many people were asking about his affiliation today. He replied that he was with the Association again and tried to move on.

“Please show me your entry permit.”

What was this about? He couldn’t figure out the situation at the Paju gate, which he hadn’t visited in a while. Just in case, he presented his explorer license, but the guard shook his head and asked for the permit again.

“I mean the underground entry permit, not the license. Do you not have an entry permit?”

But Kim Jin-woo, who had just returned from the underground, had no such permit. In fact, he had no idea what it was.

“Explorers without permits are not allowed to use the gate at this time. Please turn back.”

Come to think of it, the explorers coming and going had name tags around their necks. He noticed this belatedly and stepped back to observe the situation.

“I heard Hyung-tae’s group already left. Damn it, are we just wasting our time?”

“We can catch up quickly if we hurry. Anyway, they’re just as likely to get lost as we are.”

From the conversations, it seemed like they had been given some kind of mission.

“Hmm.”

He was capable of avoiding the guards’ eyes, but instead of sneaking into the underground, he turned around. Unfortunately, his phone battery was dead, so he couldn’t call Mr. Baek or the Association. It was a shame.

“Is something going on above ground?”

Kim Jin-woo, who returned to the hideout in Paju to borrow a phone, asked Lee Jun-young abruptly.

She had been engrossed in growing her Labyrinth lately and had neglected the outside world for a while. She belatedly contacted various people.

“What? What are you talking about? You should have told me if something like that happened! If you can’t answer the phone, you should at least send a text! Ugh, you’re so frustrating!”

After contacting several places, she seemed to have gained some information. She stopped the call, fuming, and explained the situation.

“I’m sorry. I was too complacent.”

“Explain the situation first.”

Since he hadn’t paid attention to the situation above ground either, he felt awkward blaming Lee Jun-young now.

As he urged her to explain, she quietly revealed the information she had gathered.

“The underground has completely changed.”

She explained that creatures that should only be found in the lower levels had started appearing in the upper levels. The Moais had disappeared, and the distinction between the upper and lower levels had become blurred, making it difficult to distinguish between floors. Most of it was what he had experienced firsthand on the 9th floor.

But he didn’t know everything.

“A gate to China has opened near the 2nd floor.”

It was surprising, but not unbelievable.

Since the 9th floor was connected to another underground, the same must be true for the other floors. So, it wouldn’t be strange if an exit to another underground was connected somewhere here.

“But the crazy thing is, we weren’t the ones who discovered the gate on the 2nd floor. Chinese explorers poured out in large numbers, and we found out about it late. The government is having a headache because of diplomatic issues and immigration control. They’ve requested the Association to set up a line to prevent the Chinese from crossing over, but they’re being so unreasonable…”

“What does that have to do with the entry permit?”

“The government doesn’t want information to be leaked at this point.”

“I heard an official notice was issued?”

“Among the people I contacted, many didn’t know anything about this. It seems the Association selectively sent out the notice.”

Lee Jun-young said that the government was unofficially protesting to the Chinese government because various domestic and international issues were complicatedly intertwined. But it wasn’t effective, so they were urgently mobilizing explorers to block the Chinese explorers.

“It would be better to ask Park Sung-jin from the Association for more details. Since he directly received the cooperation request, he’ll probably know more than the average explorer. You don’t have your phone battery, right? Use mine to call him.”

He thanked her for considering his situation, as he had been in the underground for a long time, and immediately called Association President Park Sung-jin.

[I was looking for you anyway. Where have you been?]

***

“So, the explorers are searching the floors in case another gate is discovered.”

Park Sung-jin, who came to the hideout in person because there was a limit to what could be explained over the phone, explained the situation in full.

“That’s what we’ve been asked to do. If another gate is discovered, whether it’s to China, Japan, or Southeast Asia, it’ll be a big problem. The government knows the problem is serious, so they’re moving quickly for once. Those guys who never cared about the underground are even offering rewards for gate discoverers.”

The Republic of Korea is surrounded by the sea on three sides, and North Korea, with whom it is still in a truce, exists to the north.

Thanks to this, ships and flights were the only ways to enter the country, but suddenly, a border that didn’t exist was about to collapse, causing trouble in many ways.

Moreover, the first country to be connected was China, which was incredibly unlucky. The Chinese government, which was unreasonable from the start, was unlikely to listen to Korea’s requests.

“I’ll prepare a permit separately so you don’t have any inconvenience.”

Park Sung-jin seemed to think that the general explanation was over and called the office to order the issuance of an underground entry permit.

“Even though it’s the upper levels, monsters that should only appear in the lower levels are often found. The passages are a complete mess, and the terrain has completely changed, so even experienced explorers are getting lost. You should be careful.”

After the war, there were almost no intact Labyrinths in the upper levels, which had been cleared by humans.

With the Moais running rampant, there shouldn’t have been any Labyrinths left in the upper levels.

But due to the first restoration, the floor that came into contact with the Korean underground happened to be a lower level somewhere, and a Labyrinth that didn’t exist was created.

Now, there may not be any creatures breaking out of the Labyrinth due to the earthquake damage, but in time, they will also run rampant.

“Hmm?”

Kim Jin-woo, who had been talking for a while, suddenly felt a sense of unease. As he pondered the nature of it, he soon realized what he had been missing.

If such a large earthquake had occurred in the underground, it should have had an impact on the surface as well. But Lee Jun-young and Park Sung-jin only talked about the suddenly opened gate and didn’t mention the terrible earthquake at all.

“How long has it been since you’ve been in the underground?”

“I’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t been able to take care of my Labyrinth at all. I was planning to take some time off and visit it once this is settled, but why do you ask suddenly?”

“Have you heard anything about an earthquake?”

“If you mean an earthquake, I heard there was a big earthquake in Southeast Asia that caused a lot of damage, but that was a while ago.”

When asked to confirm, Park Sung-jin looked like he had never heard of it.

“Hmm…”

It was the moment when the fact that he had vaguely guessed so far, that the underground and the surface might be completely separate worlds, became a little more solid. But he couldn’t make a judgment right now, so he stood up with a firm face.

“I’ll contact you separately if I need anything.”

“If you’re going to enter the underground…”

“I’ll let you know if I find a gate.”

Kim Jin-woo sent Park Sung-jin back and called Mr. Baek again to match information. But he also seemed to know nothing about the earthquake.

In the end, it seemed right to assume that the surface and the underground were completely separate worlds for now.

“I’m going to the gate.”

“Wait a minute.”

As he prepared to leave the hideout again, Lee Jun-young ran up and grabbed him.