The Hero Returns

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The Ranking Wars was suspended.

This would be the first time such a thing happened. Granted, the tournament had been only held twice so far, but there were far more than just two in Su-hyeun's memories.

This has never happened back then.

He witnessed many Ranking Wars and personally participated in some. However, without a doubt, this sort of event had never happened until now.

Sure, it did get canceled due to a dungeon raid with high difficulty rearing its ugly head, but to think that it had to be suspended in the middle because so many dungeons were left undetected

Something is definitely off here.

Su-hyeun personally sought out the American Dungeon Management Agency.

The agency was tasked with detecting dungeons through satellites, as well as the energy that leaked out from the Ether stones found inside each dungeon. Since they couldn't be reached via phone, he had no choice but to go to the agency himself.

Smash—!

Su-hyeun couldn't avoid kicking the door down to enter. He didn't have the time to leisurely wait until someone answered him. He couldn't detect a human presence, after all.

His sense of urgency was validated when he got inside.

"I knew it."

The spectacle that greeted him wasn't all that different from his own expectations.

He thought it had to be one of two things: either the office was empty or the people inside were all dead.

The answer turned out to be the latter.

Rustle—

Su-hyeun took a look at the technicians working for the Authority that were lying dead. Five of them bled to death on the floor.

Their blood hasn't dried yet.

He didn't need to ask any complicated questions here because this scene could only mean that there wasn't even enough time for the blood to dry.

They weren't murdered by someone. It looks like…suicide.

All five of them held small fruit knives.

Without any hesitation whatsoever, they had cut open their own throats in one go. It absolutely made zero sense that not one of them displayed any signs of hesitation in their actions.

Step—

"Those are voices filled with resentment, I see."

Su-hyeun turned his head at the thin voice that entered the premises after him. It belonged to Daian Gedeck.

He had followed behind Su-hyeun and walked inside before being noticed, and after taking a look at the dead technicians on the floor, he continued on, "Which is understandable, seeing that these people died without knowing why they had to die."

"Why are you here?"

"I had a hunch after hearing that you were headed this way, you see. Besides, this event has a heavy and rotten stench coming out of it somehow," said Daian Gedeck before he continued to observe the dead people on the floor. "And it seems that my hunch was proven right. Well now, things have gotten interesting."

"This doesn't really qualify as an 'interesting' situation."

"Just what is it that you want to achieve? Is it to end this crisis without any big losses?"

"Honestly, I can't relax with just that."

They knew for certain that this was not a simple accident, which meant they needed to uncover the source of this problem and nip the bud as soon as possible.

Su-hyeun walked over to the dead technicians. He crouched down beside the nearest corpse and extended his hand toward it.

Daian Gedeck quietly observed him, curious about what he was trying to do here.

A short while later…

[The trait "Necromancer" has been activated.]

[By using "Death Aura," you can see or command the dead.]

Su-hyeun immediately activated his attribute, which allowed him to see the souls of the five people who hadn't left their spots.

They were still manning their positions as if they hadn't realized that they were now dead, or perhaps as if to deny the truth.

"I'd like to ask you guys a couple of questions."

This would be Su-hyeun's first time to command dead humans. He didn't feel particularly good about it, but he still needed their help right now.

"Who murdered you?"

Su-hyeun heard several answers from them.

Under the control of the Necromancer trait, they replied to his questions earnestly, and during this process, Su-hyeun heard the answers he was searching for.

<hr />

Click—

Su-hyeun operated the computer and sent emails to Lee Ju-ho and Gordon Rohan. The contents were of the detailed locations of the dungeons yet to be raided, when they had been generated, and the status of their progress toward outbreaks.

The current priority lied not with finding the arsonist responsible but putting out the spreading fire first.

Daian Gedeck piped up. "You operate these computers better than I thought. Here I was, thinking that you'd be technologically inept."

"Well, I'm fairly okay with doing sundry stuff, you see."

"I find things like this the hardest to do."

"I can see that. Rather than civilization and science, you have been following the occult and exorcism-related things your entire life, after all."

Tap, tap—

Su-hyeun continued to type away on the keyboard or click on the mouse as he replied to Daian Gedeck. It had been a while since he touched a computer, but doing simple tasks would not present any challenge to him whatsoever.

Back then, the situation was so bad that I had to personally search for them and make appropriate moves, didn't I?

Near the end of the world during his previous life, Su-hyeun had to search for the dungeons by himself. He asked the Authority for a favor and received a computer synced with satellites, and then, after he found the locations and learned of the ranks of the dungeons, he made his moves based on his independent analysis.

Compared to back then, the programs currently in use slightly lagged behind, but the overall layout was pretty similar.

Most of them are either orange or yellow. Red dungeons are almost non-existent…Two green dungeons, huh? Thankfully, it doesn't look like there are any blue-colored dungeons yet.

Su-hyeun diligently confirmed the locations and ranks of each dungeon.

While doing so, he tried hard to memorize the information. He needed to raid the dungeons as soon as he left the place, after all. Fortunately enough, no dungeons had become outbreaks yet. Su-hyeun let out a sigh of relief and then shifted to the location currently being monitored by the satellites.

However, the moment he saw a small island located near San Francisco…

"Huh!?"

Su-hyeun stiffened up immediately, while Daian Gedeck looked at the screen from behind him gasped in pure shock. "It's indigo?!"

"Sh*t!"

Du-ruck—

Su-hyeun hurriedly composed a new mail and sent it. The detailed location on the map had not been confirmed yet, but he could no longer sit there after learning about that dungeon.

He was in a hurry. He dashed outside so fast that Daian Gedeck was unable to chase after him.

"He's indeed fast," he simply muttered and took a look at the small island still visible on the monitor. "This is…"

It was a small island off the coast of San Francisco—Alcatraz.

A warning indication flashed brightly above the island visibly dyed in an indigo hue.

"It's already too late."

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Swoosh—

Su-hyeun urgently summoned Miru and rode on the dragon.

He just couldn't lounge around anymore. An indigo-colored dungeon had become an outbreak. Its location was on an island not too far from San Francisco.

Alcatraz Island.

He knew a bit about that place.

Fortunately, people didn't live on that island. It had been used as a prison for decades, after all. It currently served as a tourist attraction, but thankfully, there shouldn't be many tourists visiting it today.

The Ranking Wars was happening today, after all, so not many people would want to visit the island. That wasn't the real problem here, however.

It's indigo.

From what he confirmed at the agency, this dungeon had already become an outbreak. Nevertheless, San Francisco remained quiet. An indigo-colored dungeon of that magnitude would've been more than enough to throw the whole world in upheaval, never mind just the city of San Francisco or even the United States of America.

That's why he just couldn't relax at all.

Swish—, boom—

Su-hyeun leaped off Miru's back. He couldn't afford to wait until the dragon landed.

After landing on the island's surface, he quickly scanned his surroundings.

The island itself was small enough that he could see it from end to end. Above it, there were five or six buildings and roads where cars could drive on.

And above them all were…

I'm already too late.

The indigo hue that enveloped the entirety of the island had already grown faint by now. The outbreak was over and the dungeon's entrance was in the middle of closing up, which meant that it had been a full day since the outbreak.

To Su-hyeun, this was basically the worst situation imaginable.

No, wait. I can still turn it into the best situation.

Su-hyeun quickly changed his mindset.

If an indigo-colored dungeon went on to become an outbreak even before he could show up to stop it, then it wouldn't have been strange to see San Francisco completely destroyed by now.

The thing was, though, an event similar to this one did occur once before. In that event, nothing happened even after a dungeon went on to become an outbreak.

Back then, he mistakenly thought that such an incident was fortunate.

The Lich King.

It was the incident where that bastard managed to emerge outside through the dungeon.

Which means that the guy's already outside.

It was rather obvious what that bastard would do after emerging outside. It was pretty straightforward if you considered that guy's end goal.

Not being able to prevent the dungeon's outbreak ahead of time due to the unseen variables was indeed unfortunate, but the current situation was rather different compared to the last time.

Su-hyeun quickly started walking.

There were several buildings here in Alcatraz that used to be prison blocks. He chose one of them and entered it.

Smash—!

Rumble, tumble—

Su-hyeun kicked a wall down, and it powerlessly crumbled, revealing the interior of a room.

And almost at the same time…

Ka-kwa-boooom—!

Flames erupted out from the floor he was standing on, causing an explosion.

However, he casually walked away from the burning flames unscathed. Five Lichs stared at him from inside the room.

He already knew they were hiding in there. His eyes shifted away from the Lichs to the five corpses lying on the ground.

The people who died had small holes in their heads.

Lichs often murdered people to create second bodies to replace their aging ones. It was quite likely that these victims were to become the next bodies for the five Lichs present here.

"I will keep this short."

[The trait "Necromancer" has been activated.]

Shu-wuwuwu—

Death Aura began oozing out from Su-hyeun's body. At the same time, the Lichs who were preparing for the next wave of magic attacks all halted their movements.

"Where is your king right now?"

<hr />

Somewhere in a nameless slum in San Francisco.

On a dark alleyway where not much light shined through, which made distinguishing night from day difficult, two entities kitted out in glamorous robes were walking silently.

Step—

The one walking in front suddenly halted in its steps. The other one with a smaller physique following behind asked, "What is it, my king?"

"He is here."

"He? My king?"

"The one who killed my brother. The one who stole my brother's power."

Thick killing intent leaked out from underneath the Lich King's robe, but such intent to kill was unleashed for only the briefest moment.

"So, such a fate is indeed possible, I see."

The Lich King lowered its head and chuckled softly.

There was no sorrow or anger evident at losing its sibling. The Lich King's emotions had grown far too faint by now for it to feel those things.

"My king, will you seek him out right away?"

"No. He's too powerful. Perhaps even more so than I."

The Lich King could see the memories and share the vision of all the Lichs under its rule, so it was able to see everything clearly.

It saw just what kind of a human killed its sibling and what kind of abilities that man possessed.

It meant that the Lich King was not sure of its victory if they fought right now. If it was before the human came to possess the ability to rule over the dead, then sure, but now? His ability allowed him to interfere with its control over the undead.

"Encountering him now is premature. Do remember this point, however. The human we are about to meet is far greedier and more impure at heart than our future opponent."

"I understand, my king."

"Well then, let us go and meet him." The Lich King shifted its gaze over to the green-colored dungeon visible in a corner of the slum area. "This greedy human who has led us here."