Infinite Competitive Dungeon Society

I only realized this while I was taking care of overdue work. Among them, the first thing I had to solve was the dungeon outbreak that would happen in less than two months.

Thanks to Ciara, we knew that the fourth dungeon outbreak wouldn’t be like any of the past outbreaks. This time, demons from the Luka continent would invade Earth directly.

Although we wouldn’t be able to stop them completely, knowing what will happen gave us time to prepare against it.

I first summoned all the free Revival members to the guild house and practiced dimensional magic while I waited. After about ten minutes, the door to the conference room opened and Hwaya sauntered in feebly.

Last time I heard, she was going through Beyond’s 24th floor. I doubt she died on purpose to make it to the meeting, which meant she cleared the floor in such short period of time! That also explained why she looked so exhausted.

“Shin, Ciara was humming around me with a proud boasting look, did you do something?”

“Hwaya, didn’t she tell you something more important?”

“Yeah.”

Hwaya immediately changed her manner and let out a deep sigh. It was the kind of sigh a middle-aged assistant manager who had little chance for a promotion.

She spoke with a pitiful face.

“Your blessing didn’t last long. Give me another one. A stronger one.”

“I know you want to escape from reality, but this isn’t a joking matter... Come here.”

“Un!”

When I gave her the blessing she wanted, her expression brightened. But it seemed she wasn’t satisfied with just the blessing as she walked into my embrace with open arms.

Compared to her high level, Hwaya’s constitution was worryingly low. The lightness of her body made me worry about her even more. As if to confirm my thoughts, Hwaya whispered in a slightly dazed tone.

“Shin, I know we’re in a hurry... but let me stay like this for a bit.”

“Sure.”

“Huhu, unlike how you act, your shoulders are reliable.”

“Shut it.”

Hwaya only had a few people she could act spoiled around, and with how much she supported me emotionally, I was glad I could help her this way. Things were quite comfortable as neither of us talked.

At that moment, the door opened again.

“Mm.”

The one who walked in at this timing was none other than Walker. Because Hwaya had her face buried between my shoulders, she didn’t know who walked in. As for Walker, he immediately grinned when he saw us.

“Looks like I came in at a bad time.”

“Shut up and sit down, Walker.”

Hwaya grumbled without turning around or getting up. If it was like any other day, it wouldn’t have been weird if she shot a fireball at him. Walker seemed to have known this too as he sat down with a bitter smile.

“You better take care of her, Kang Shin. When she’s not in front of you, she’s noticeably weak and exhausted. If you abandon her, you’ll go to hell.”

“That won’t happen. You just worry about Sophie.”

“What?”

Sophie then walked in through the open door. Not only her, but Yua, Ludia, Ye-Eun, Father and other members walked in together. Yua furrowed her brows the moment she saw Hwaya and me, and Hwaya finally got up while grumbling once more.

Using my freed hands, I picked displayed the document I looked over with Ciara on a projection.

“Simply said, I wanted to talk to everyone about the upcoming dungeon outbreak. Everyone should know about Ciara’s foresight ability, right?”

With that, I explained how the Luka continent might overwrite parts of Earth. Everyone listened in in a daze.

Overwriting Earth’s lands. It was similar to how Event Dungeons became Field Dungeons when they were left uncleared. Lands that underwent such transformation couldn’t be changed back.

“W-Wait.”

Sophie spoke with an expression that seemed to say that her head hurt.

“The outbreak’s scale... Any predictions?”

“Sophie, this might be a bit shocking but...”

I wonder when it started. Was it when I mastered Peruta Circuit and reforged my body? Or was it when I killed the Beast King? I didn’t know exactly when, but from a certain point, I seemed to gain a bit of an intuition. Furthermore, it was especially strong when it came to matters relating to the world’s power, Heroes, and worlds’ enemies.

It wasn’t something like Ciara’s foresight ability. I believed it was a natural product of my League increasing. In any case, this intuition of mine was speaking strongly. I relayed the message my intuition was trying to say.

“This will be the final one.”

“Final one? ... Ah.”

Sophie and the others who weren’t sure of the situation turned pale. I then projected the world map. It was result of all the succubi’s countless hours of investigation and analysis.

“We don’t know how big Luka continent is, nor do we know how big the monsters’ world is. But we did find a rule that the previous ‘invasions’ followed.”

“What’s that?”

“Dungeons won’t appear where they’ve already appeared before.”

With that, I manipulated the projection. Parts of the world map began to turn red. Watching the map, Ye-Eun asked, tilting her head.

“Didn’t Event Dungeons appear more than once in Yeongdeungpo District?”

“The exact location didn’t overlap. It’s the same for other places. But if those two dungeons in Yeongdeungpo became Field Dungeons, they might not swallow all of Yeongdeungpo together.”

“So that’s...”

Over 60% of the map was red. I nodded and spoke.

“Those are areas that the Luka continent will overwrite. Monsters and demons will be crawling in these red areas.”

Up until now, we had destroyed many Event Dungeons. Considering how quickly they came and how uncooperative other ability users were, our accomplishments were truly praiseworthy. But even with that, we had not covered even half of Earth.

“This is hell...”

“None of the other worlds faced something like this.”

Ludia agreed with someone’s remark with a bitter smile.

“I’ve been thinking about this for a while. Event Dungeons are occurring too quickly on Earth and there are too many of them too. When Luka continent got invaded, demons didn’t move their previous world’s land. They only crossed over to our world themselves.”

“Panan continent also didn’t go through anything like this. How can Earth be this unlucky? Though, I have to admit, it’s lucky to have someone like Crown Prince...”

Ren agreed with Ludia. Kain, who came surprisingly, made an audible hurumph.

“This isn’t the first time something like this has happened... My world faced something similar. Monsters and their lands crossed over in the middle of densely populated areas. It was quite a tragic scene.”

“Tragic scene?”

“Don’t say it, I get it. Don’t listen to him, everyone.”

I tried to interrupt him, but Kain continued resolutely.

“It’s simple. Monsters or objects suddenly appeared where humans were, exactly on top of them. It wasn’t too bad when objects crossed over. If you were one of the unlucky ones who were at that wrong place at the wrong time, you would die, but at least it would be swift. But when monsters crossed over, it was a bit of a pain. Humans becoming chimeras was one thing, but monsters gained superior intellect when they fused with humans, becoming a even scarier threat.”

“Uuuk!”

“See, I told you not to listen.”

I mocked Walker who ran out of the conference room with a pale face. ...Wait, Walker?”

“S-Sorry.”

For some reason, Sophie apologized in his place. Seeing her apologetic and embarrassed face, I asked with doubt.

“Sophie, are you...”

“Uh, yeah. He has Couvade syndrome.”

Silence descended. Ye-Eun was the only one tilting her head, wondering what Couvade syndrome was. After Ludia whispered her an explanation, she became silent. Ludia knowing more about Earth’s knowledge than Ye-Eun was unexpected, but that wasn’t important at the moment.

Hoping to change the mood, I made a soft remark.

“C-Congrats.”

“Thanks. But I couldn’t say it because of everything happening recently...”

Seeing her extremely apologetic face, I sighed. I’m sure they were being careful, but I knew things didn’t always go as one planned.

Hwaya spoke quietly.

“This is great.”

“Come on.”

“It is! Congrats, Sophie. I thought I was going to be the first one. I’m jealous.”

“Says who?”

“Ha.”

Ludia sneered and Hwaya snorted back. Thanks to them, the awkward atmosphere went away.

“I know each of our strengths are important... I’m so sorry. We were careful, we really were...”

“I know, you don’t have to feel sorry. ...How long has it been?”

“Three months. I’m fine, but Edward is still like that.”

I closed my eyes and opened them before making an announcement.

“Sophie, rest from now.”

“But I’m fine for now!”

“No, rest. We don’t know what’s going to happen, we can’t overwork you. Don’t worry, we’ll make Walker make up for it.”

“Uuu...”

Sophie became silent. At that moment, Walker came back in with his head down.

I spoke.

“No excuses?”

“None.”

“You better get ready to work your ass off.”

“I’m at your command...”

“Let’s also talk about this now. We can’t do anything about what already happened, but everyone should be more careful so as to...”

With that, I closed my mouth. Along with Hwaya, all the girls were looking at me with sparkling eyes. As I knew understood exactly what they were thinking, I stealthily changed what I was going to say.

“... Ren, be careful with Lebuik.”

“Hm? What is this Couvade syndrome? Lebuik and I have to be careful? Is it a disease contagious to beastmen!?”

It seemed I didn’t need to worry about Lebuik. With a sigh, I clapped to signal this talk was over.

However, it seemed Kain wanted to keep talking about his damned chimeras, as he looked at me and asked.

“Did this never happen in Earth?”

“Never. There were monsters that appeared on Earth without going through Event Dungeons, I don’t know if it was luck, but no monster ever fused with a human. Though, maybe we just never discovered one.”

“Do you think it will be the same this time?”

“Of course not.”

I shook my head vehemently.

“That’s why we’re gathered here. To prevent incidents like that.”

“... We have to take such a huge land transmittance into account?”

Walker spoke unconvinced. Land transmittance, it was the perfect phrase to describe what would happen.

“... Looks like there will be a mass migration.”

Sumire added quietly. I nodded.

“We’ll contact each country’s Guardian and government. Directly.”

And that’s exactly what I did that day. Along with announcing humanity’s need to evacuate, I revealed the areas of land transmittance.

By a single sentence from me, a mass migration began the next day.