Chapter 20: Promotion Exam (1)

Is this a call device?

It was a circular mechanical device that fit snugly in the palm of his hand, with a single button protruding like a timer. At its center was a black-and-white analog LCD screen.

“The devices you’ve received have two functions,” Choi Jinho said, holding up the device. “First, it can summon a mentor. However, be warned that calling a mentor for assistance will result in automatic disqualification.”

He continued, “The second function is to monitor the viewer count of your streaming channel. This new feature was added due to the bonus point system. Through this device, you can check the number of viewers for both yourself and your team members.”

I took the device Choi Jinho handed me and checked it.

The black-and-white LCD screen displayed the message: [ #16 Lee Taejun: 2 viewers ].

With a light press of the button, the screen cycled through other entries:

So this is how it works.

It seemed that only members of the same group could see each other’s viewer counts.

Having confirmed the pager’s functions, I found myself staring at the screen displaying [ #16 Lee Taejun: 2 viewers ], lost in thought.

Someone is actually waiting for my stream?

Curiosity piqued, I checked my streaming channel on my smartphone.

There really are two people watching.

Were they just waiting in the Yoo Se-rin or Kang Gun rooms, bored, and decided to drop by?

But that didn’t make sense; both of them had been waiting for over an hour.

I don’t know.

Maybe they’re just viewers with exceptionally good taste.

Well then.

It wasn’t particularly significant, just my way of showing gratitude.

After setting them both as channel managers, I tucked my smartphone away.

“If everyone is up to speed, we’ll enter the dungeon immediately.”

Choi Jinho, having finished giving instructions, pointed to the dungeon entrance.

But at that moment…

Yoo Se-rin, who had just finished storing her device in her suit, raised her hand abruptly.

“Ah, Jinhyuk oppa!”

“Call me ‘Mentor.’”

“Hehe, Jinhyuk Mentor! Before we enter the dungeon, can I have a quick word with her?” she said, pointing at me.

Choi Jinho followed Yoo Se-rin’s gesture to examine me, his face twisting into a frown.

“Discussing strategies with your team members is included in AGMS’s measurement criteria. So, the conversation will have to wait until after we enter the dungeon…”

“I just want to introduce myself briefly!” Yoo Se-rin pressed, clasping her hands together with an expression like a puppy begging for food. “Please, Mentor Jinhyuk! Can’t I?”

“Hmm.”

“Huh?”

Choi Jinho pretended to consider it deeply, but judging by his wavering pupils, his answer was obvious.

“I can manage about five minutes. But you’ll have to settle for exchanging names.”

“Yes, yes! Absolutely!”

Tsk, that guy would sell his own country if he fell for her charms.

Yoo Se-rin, her face lit up with excitement, bounced over to a spot slightly farther away from Choi Jinho. Then, she waved at me.

I slowly walked over.

“Hello! I’m Yoo Se-rin from the Cheongyeon Guild!” she said with a bright smile.

But instead of introducing myself, I asked, “What’s your business?”

“My business?”

“Exchanging names is something we can do during strategy discussions after entering the dungeon, as the mentor suggested. There’s no real reason to do it now.”

“Ah, um.”

“We’ve already seen each other’s names in the team member list on the website anyway.”

“That’s… true.”

Yoo Se-rin nodded, looking a little dazed.

The teardrop tattoo at the corner of her eye twitched slightly, so she clearly hadn’t anticipated my reaction.

“Hmm, well, since we don’t have much time, I’ll get straight to the point as you wish, Taejun oppa!”

But that was only for a moment.

With a radiant smile blooming on her face, she opened her mouth.

“Taejun oppa, this time, you should come with me—”

“No.”

“Huh?”

“I said no.”

Yoo Se-rin’s expression went utterly blank for the first time.

“But oppa, I haven’t even finished speaking!”

“Still no.”

“At least listen to the offer before you answer!”

“I don’t even need to hear it. No.”

Only then did Yoo Se-rin’s brow furrow sharply.

”…But this isn’t an offer that would cost you anything, oppa!”

“It sounds like a losing proposition to me.”

“No! I was going to ask you to come with me to the dungeon!”

Most split-path dungeons divide into two distinct攻略 routes.

To clear the dungeon quickly, we need to work in pairs. Yoo Se-rin wanted me as her partner.

But I shook my head.

“As expected, it wasn’t even worth hearing. I refuse.”

“Why…?”

I cut her off like plugging her mouth. “Hunter Yoo Se-rin doesn’t want a partner.”

“What?”

“She wants a tool—a slave—to easily extract the conquest points.”

It wasn’t explicitly stated on the Management Headquarters’ website, but the other team members knew I was a D-rank hunter. That’s precisely why Yoo Se-rin had approached me.

Partnering with a powerless D-rank porter would allow her to…

Dump all the troublesome tasks on me and comfortably monopolize the conquest points.

She likely feared another team member might snatch the opportunity first, so she tried to recruit me before we even entered the dungeon.

“No, it’s not…”

Yoo Se-rin opened her mouth.

The cheerful expression she’d been wearing earlier was gone, her face flushed crimson.

“It’s not like that…”

“Isn’t it?”

“W-well, even if it is… how about you let me have the points this time?”

As expected.

“If you teamed up with me, the viewership would skyrocket! Even if we don’t get bonus points, our public recognition would soar…!”

“I’ll handle the viewers myself.”

The atmosphere turned abruptly cold.

But I didn’t blink and continued.

“So don’t try to pull any cheap tricks from the start. They’re transparent as glass.”

”…”

Yoo Se-rin bit her lip, clearly struggling to retort.

She’d likely never been so openly humiliated before.

A twenty-year-old rookie who’d been pampered and groomed since childhood by a major guild.

It was only natural, considering how he always monopolized the public’s attention.

But life is about real-world experience.

That kind of trickery might work on suckers like Choi Jinho, but it won’t work on a dashing man like me, Lee Taejun.

“Hey! Five minutes are up!”

Choi Jinho’s voice rang out a moment later.

The dungeon entrance, which had been firmly shut, now swung open.

”…”

Yoo Se-rin quickly wiped the tears from her eyes and strode away.

She brushed past Choi Jinho and entered the dungeon without a word.

Kang Gun and Kim Junhyun hurried after her.

Manager Mi remarked with a sour tone:

Well…

But even those tearful performances…

“They won’t work on a dashing man like me.”

Grrrumble, crash!

As the stone door rumbled shut, resealing the dungeon entrance once more, I was greeted by a musty air and the thick, earthy scent of dirt. Within the dark cavern, a faint, foul odor hung in the air.

So this is the restored Spirit-Sealing Cave.

The tunnel stretching deep before us was remarkably wide—even Junhyun and I could extend our arms without touching each other. The ceiling appeared to be about three meters high. What’s more, the rock walls composing the cavern contained luminescent stones. Though no external light penetrated the darkness, we could still make out our surroundings fairly clearly.

“We will now begin the dungeon raid,” Choi Jinho announced from behind us.

“From now on, all strategic operations of the evaluation subjects will be transmitted via action cameras to the Automatic Gauge Measurement System and their personal streaming channels. You may proceed with the operation immediately.”

With those words, Choi Jinho leaned against the firmly closed entrance of the cave. He’ll probably wait here, ready to move in case of an emergency.

Now it’s time to discuss our approach.

”…”

Yoo Se-rin remained silent. Instead, she abruptly strode forward into the pitch-black depths of the cave.

“Brother. What should we do?”

“We should follow her for now.”

Discussions about conquering split-type dungeons are rarely complex. It’s usually as simple as, “We’ll take this path, you take the other.”

According to the existing information about the Sealed Demon Cave, we should encounter a fork in the path shortly after the starting point. All we had to do was choose the direction opposite to the one Yoo Se-rin and Kang Gun had taken.

But three minutes later…

”…Huh?”

Just as we reached the spot where the fork should have appeared, based on the previously known structure of the Sealed Demon Cave, Yoo Se-rin, who had been walking silently ahead, suddenly stopped.

Something was wrong.

“H-hyung? The fork… it’s…”

“It’s not a fork.”

Contrary to the information about the Sealed Demon Cave, the path wasn’t divided into two. Instead, at the bottom of a surprisingly spacious hollow, narrow tunnels radiated out in twelve directions, including the path we’d just taken.

The tunnel at the six o’clock position was blocked by a stone engraved with indecipherable patterns, likely sealing off the boss room.

“Did they deliberately alter the structure to restore it?”

Well, of course not.

There’s no way they would’ve restored the evaluation dungeon to its previously known layout.

Still, since the basic structure remains unchanged,

we’ll need to find a key hidden somewhere to enter the boss room.

“It seems they’ve deliberately twisted the dungeon layout to make it more complicated. What should we do?” Junhyun asked Yoo Se-rin, his gaze sweeping across the branching tunnels.

”…”

But once again, Yoo Se-rin didn’t answer. Instead, she immediately started walking in one direction: the tunnel at the ten o’clock position.

She just guessed.

Kang Gun also silently shifted his feet towards the eight o’clock direction.

After the two disappeared beyond the dimly lit cave, I turned to Junhyun, who was standing beside me.

“What about you? What will you do?”

“Huh? Me?”

“Since there’s no fork in the path, there’s no need for us to stick together as a two-person team.”

“Well, I…”

He wiped the sweat from his brow before asking, “I want to follow you, Hyung. Is that okay?”

“There’s no reason it wouldn’t be.”

If it were Junhyun, he wouldn’t harbor thoughts like Yoo Se-rin. From the start, he had expressed his loyalty, vowing to give me his share of everything. I had no intention of pretending not to notice if he wandered off on some bizarre detour.

“Instead, if we get promoted to B-rank this time, you owe me a lifetime of gratitude.”

After all, I was literally putting him on the VIP bus to promotion.

Manager Mi…

Staring into the maze of branching tunnels, I silently asked myself…

“Ready?”

“So… did it work or not?”

And then, almost immediately, the newly unlocked feature in the Status Window appeared before my eyes.

Alright, then.

Using the downloaded terrain data, I activated “Parsley Navigation.”

Time to start some map hacking, perhaps?

The larger the dungeon, the higher the danger level of the resident monsters, and the greater the difficulty to clear it, the slower the data download speed becomes. (Download speed increases with the Synchronization Rate.)

With the exception of cases where NPCs are present, ordinary dungeons provide no information to challengers.

The types of monsters that appear, the optimal routes for conquest, and the location and type of boss monster.

Hidden treasure troves or item locations.

All such information must be uncovered by the expedition team itself, at great personal risk.

In that sense, this is almost a cheat-level skill.

As Manager Mi had mentioned, in high-difficulty dungeons, the current Synchronization Rate might mean an indeterminable wait time for data download.

But for now, I had no intention of challenging any maze above grade 1.

I glanced at the navigation window that had materialized before my eyes.