"I thought I'd gotten used to Hunters' expressions changing in an instant..."

The Association employee who had gone to check on Hunter Yu Seongun, whose eyes were bloodshot, muttered.

"I guess I'm still not there yet."

"Don't let it bother you too much. Hunter Yu Seongun acting like that isn't common."

"Ah, it isn't common?"

"No. He's basically a person who's unflappable about most things..."

An employee with enough experience to be dispatched to a disaster like this looked troubled.

"It's been a long time since I've seen him get that angry."

"When you say a long time...?"

"That's just how the Curators of Collector are, you know."

"I know they're not people to take lightly."

"That too, but how should I put it? They have very clear triggers."

As long as you did not prod them where they were sensitive, they absolutely did not cause trouble.

"It's a guild that manages appearances very carefully."

"Is that... because of the Collector?"

"Most likely."

The guild members of Collector were all Bi Sabeol's collectibles.

They had a duty to maintain the dignity that satisfied Bi Sabeol's standards.

That was also why they always made sure to wear their uniforms.

"But that doesn't mean the members of Collector go out of their way to put on some kind of act."

That was just how their personalities were.

They were people who looked at the world with a cynical eye while still faithfully carrying more than an average sense of responsibility.

But there were times when those guild members of Collector, especially the Curators, could not do that.

"Usually, it's when a problem occurs with a work they're in charge of..."

"A work they're in charge of? Those monsters?"

"Watch your mouth a little. Yes, those dangerous items."

"The Curators sure do care about those terrifying things."

"It's connected to their sense of responsibility."

The "affection," "free-range management," and "duty" demanded by the guild all combined into an enormous burden, and that burden must have manifested as such obsession.

The employee, who had once briefly worked in a research lab, understood how they felt.

"That may be true, but..."

"... Hunter Seo Jio isn't one of those dangerous items, is he?"

"... That part is unusual."

As he had said before, it was not a common case.

"It's extremely rare for Hunter Yu Seongun to get that angry."

Even when an error had once occurred in the function of a work he was in charge of, it had not been to this extent.

The employee, who had been out in the field at the time, knew very well what kind of Hunter Yu Seongun was.

"Even if he had a bit of a temper when he was younger than he is now, he wasn't the type to wear multiple people out."

"Do you mean he didn't pressure other employees the way he's doing now?"

"To put it simply, yes, more or less. The members of Collector really hate causing trouble for other people."

"Then why is he acting like that? Hunter Seo Jio isn't even Hunter Yu Seongun's 'assigned work.'"

"Well, maybe I was looking at it from too narrow a perspective."

He might simply be worried about the safety of a close friend.

"... Even so, I still find it hard to understand..."

The members of Collector tended to show camaraderie in an extremely dry form.

So much so that, if there was a valid reason, they could use someone as bait and discard them without leaving even the slightest ill will toward one another.

That did not mean they had no affection or trust.

If anything, their strong faith in each other manifested in that harsh form, but what Hunter Yu Seongun was currently showing was far from what the employee knew.

"..."

"... Um, I heard that rumor..."

"I know what you want to say."

It was a sensitive topic, but it was a rumor everyone knew in bits and pieces.

'The rumor that Hunter Seo Jio is the Collector's blood relative.'

Supposedly, Bi Sabeol had viewed his own son as a "work" and secretly locked him away to raise him.

'I thought it was an absolutely absurd rumor, but when even Hunter Yu Seongun shows that kind of reaction... even while I think it can't be true, somehow it gains credibility.'

Hunter Seo Jio, who was said to sometimes show a lack of common sense.

Hunter Yu Seongun, who never reacted sensitively unless it was a problem with a work.

And the Collector's abnormal affection toward his works...

"..."

The employee let out a low groan and cleared his head.

It was not a subject that would bring any good from thinking deeply about it.

"However Collector runs itself isn't our business to get involved in. Once Hunter Seo Jio returns safely, Hunter Yu Seongun will probably come to offer compensation and an apology, so don't worry too much."

"What? How do you know that?"

"Curators usually do that when a problem related to their own work ends well."

"Then doesn't that mean he really does see Hunter Seo Jio as a work...?"

"I said it isn't our business to get involved in, didn't I? From what I've heard, he's tall, handsome, and capable. Isn't that enough to be treated like a work? In this day and age, it's not exactly rare for people to lock kids away and raise them."

"It's unsettling because a major corporation like Collector supposedly did something like that."

"It's not even certain."

Though it was a situation one could picture quite vividly.

"I made an inquiry after receiving Hunter Yu Seongun's suggestion, but an official document came down from the Association. Until the coastal cleanup is more or less finished, a full-scale dungeon entry is impossible. Their stance is that even if we carry out a diversionary operation, at least the most urgent suppression has to come first."

"But..."

"Even outside the entrance, it's this chaotic. How are we supposed to get all the way to the deep sea? It isn't something that will work just because we're in a hurry. It's right to clear things step by step from the front."

"Even so, how am I supposed to tell that to Hunter Yu Seongun when he's probably still glaring with his eyes wide open? I really feel like he's going to grab me by the collar this time."

"I'll go tell him this time, so don't worry."

"Is there no problem inland?"

"I haven't heard anything separately, so, well, it's obvious."

The employee clicked his tongue as if he could tell.

"Everyone must be trembling in fear."

For a disaster like this to arrive before the aftermath of The Great Catastrophe had even fully faded—what an end-of-days world.

There were still many people in the world who remembered The Great Catastrophe.

"G-Grandma..."

"Come in quick, quick! At times like this, you don't go outside."

"I'm scared."

"It's all right. We live without looking at the sea, don't we? It'll be fine."

The elderly, of course, remembered.

"Honey, how much food do we have left?"

"I think we can probably last a month..."

"Let's save even more, just in case. I took annual leave too."

"Wouldn't it be better to talk to the neighbors?"

"No. At times like this, staying still is the best thing."

"I'm really scared..."

"It'll be fine. The major guilds are stepping up like that."

"I hope this dungeon matter ends well."

The middle-aged and older generations were not much different.

"Oh dear, they say people died on the coast because of this incident."

"How did that happen?"

"They say the sea went mad and thrashed around like it was alive."

"No, weren't all the people on the coast evacuated?"

"If that many people are packed in and even hiding here and there, how can they drag them all out..."

It was an age of overpopulation, one in which even the existing lives were difficult to handle.

"Good grief... that's why they keep telling people to come out and live in the open."

"What can you do when they're scared?"

Most of the people who had scattered during The Great Catastrophe and fled to hide in deep mountain valleys or deserted regions were not even registered as residents, and they could not be found easily.

When a disaster like this came, people like that died first.

"It seems dangerous."

"Right?"

The children were just as anxious.

"Why did it have to be the sea..."

"Aren't we surrounded by sea on three sides?"

"What if we get submerged by seawater?"

The country was already closely tied to the sea, and after The Great Catastrophe, sea levels had slowly risen and submerged the land.

With the appearance of a disaster related to the sea, a sensitive topic to begin with, even young children began to grow unsettled.

The Sun Cult was no exception.

"Cha Yisol."

"Oh, yeah."

"Did you contact your family?"

"My older sister and brother said they're at Collector right now."

"At Collector...?"

"They helped us before."

"That's unusual."

Iru-da, who had come because she was worried about Cha Yisol, tilted her head.

Through various events, Collector had gained a citizen-friendly image, but fundamentally, it was closer to a financial company that invested and managed capital.

'It's not the sort of generous guild that would look after the safety of Grade 3 citizens separately, is it?'

But she nodded, thinking there must be something she did not know.

"Anyway, that's a relief. If it's Collector, they're trustworthy."

"Mm-hm. Aside from my older sister, there aren't any Hunters in the village, but they said they'd help with that too..."

"Collector decided to protect your village too?"

"No, Justitia? They said Hunters were dispatched from there."

"Ah, them."

Cha Yisol's hometown was not near the sea, but the sea was such a massive factor that could bring about all kinds of disasters that it seemed Hunters had been dispatched all over South Korea.

"Justitia is famous for volunteer work."

"Right. We did get help from them a few times before..."

"But you're still worried, aren't you?"

"It's not like there's only one village sitting there by itself, so it'll be all right."

Cha Yisol had received all the help he could receive from adults.

"..."

Even so, the reason he could not cheer up was simply because this entire situation was frightening.

"... I heard people died."

"... In a situation like this, it's unavoidable."

"I hoped no one would die."

"It's hard to hope for that in a dungeon break like this."

A dungeon break referred to the phenomenon of monsters invading outside a dungeon.

It was not a case of numerous monsters causing a commotion like usual, but the emergence of a small number of major monsters, as was happening now, could also be seen as the same phenomenon.

Iru-da told him the information she had heard from her mother.

"From what I heard, all the villages along the coast seem to have been devastated. Most of the people who were registered as residents were evacuated, but it seems casualties occurred because of a few exceptional cases."

"Casualties?"

"It's obvious. People who weren't registered, or people who didn't follow the instructions of the Association and the government and acted on their own. Or people who hid based on their own judgment... and met with disaster."

"... Could the Hunters who came to help not find them?"

"It's sad, but there are limits to Hunters evacuating people one by one. Hunters with search skills would have been able to find them, and there must already have been many cases like that, but even so, there were still people they couldn't find."

She had heard that among them were people who stubbornly stayed put on purpose.

The Hunters, who already had a lot to do and bore a heavy burden, could not take care of every last one of those people.

There were too many people hoping for their help for them to look after even the uncooperative ones.

"Still, once this dungeon raid is over, the Association or the government will probably push forward with reconstruction. They'll also prepare places for people who have nowhere to go until then, and, well, this is why they collect taxes."

"Taxes... my older brother and sister pay them too."

"Right. The government collects taxes, and we pay them, so they can be used at times like this. We learned this in class, didn't we? Insignificant creatures like us can't endure disasters like this unless we band together."

"Yeah, that's why they said harmony and peace are important."

"We all give and receive help together. The reconstruction work will only happen after the dungeon raid is finished, but I know the government is working even now to find housing for disaster victims and supply them with food."

"That's a relief, but..."

Cha Yisol hesitated before asking.

"Won't there be more damage?"

"Of course there will. Hunters are dying out there even now."

They were literally dying out there.

"Apparently, strange hail falls and turns into monsters, and waves crash in like they're alive. In all sorts of ways, they say the sea side is a total mess."

A considerable amount of information was being controlled in order to ease citizens' anxiety as much as possible, but Iru-da had been able to obtain a little information through her mother's authority.

"Not only have villages where evacuation was already completed been destroyed, but they say aquatic life that had been playing its role in its own place has also left its proper habitat. The most serious part among them is that the ocean currents are gradually changing."

"What are ocean currents?"

"They're the flow of seawater. Even before, this kind of phenomenon was sometimes observed because of the movements of marine monsters, but they say this case is a little different. It's not like before, when magic could control it."

The sea itself was truly moving.

"There was probably a similar problem during The Great Catastrophe too."

"W-What happened then?"

"The climate changed."

"What happens when the climate changes...?"

"The weather changes unpredictably."

To put it in extreme terms.

"The entire planet becomes either a steamer or a freezer. To the point that Earth's living beings could never naturally endure it."

An environment was created where humans could not live because it became too hot or too cold.

"It hasn't even been that many years since the world's capable Hunters put their heads together and barely managed to adjust the aftermath from back then. There's a reason so many people still fear The Great Catastrophe."

An ecosystem thrown into chaos by the influx of monsters flowing in from other dimensions.

Horrendous infectious diseases that seeped into daily life due to entirely different germs and air.

Space problems caused by all sorts of creatures and objects forcing their way onto a narrow planet...

Humans had been forced to artificially analyze and adjust all these various problems in order to survive on Earth.

And they had barely managed it.

"But for a problem like this to happen again..."

"Then what should we do now?"

"There isn't much an insignificant prospective priest can do."

"But couldn't we help a little?"

"Of course, you or I could. We have abilities. But we can't."

"Why?"

"We'll be treated like pushovers."

"Huh...?"

"People will handle us however they want."

There were rare people who looked at them with warm eyes, but in most cases, young and inexperienced prospective priests only became high-quality prey in this chaotic age.

Even if the Sun Cult ended up dispatching them, Iru-da resolved to hold out together with Cha Yisol.

"So I'm telling you to take it a little easier. I know you're worried about people, but in a situation like this, you have to know that the most important thing is ourselves. If not us, then who will protect us?"

"Ruda...?"

"... Of course we'll protect each other, but..."

"..."

"..."

After a brief silence, Iru-da opened her mouth.

"Acting cute like that won't work. I won't allow it."

"Ruda, I think you look at me strangely sometimes."

"I know you're a rare creature who likes helping people, but this still isn't the time to step forward."

"..."

"... Don't be too heartbroken."

Iru-da comforted him as if she felt sorry for him.

"Th-The famous guilds have all gathered, so the raid will be cleared soon. Your family is in Seoul, so they'll be safe, and you said Justitia dispatched Hunters to protect the village too."

"... Yeah."

She spoke only of the safety of the people who knew and loved Cha Yisol.

"..."

And Cha Yisol worried about even more people than that.

'... I'm good at healing. Couldn't I hide somewhere safe and heal injured people?'

He was worried about Jio hyung too.

Cha Yisol, who had been left standing blankly by himself, made a decision.

"Teacher."

"What is it?"

"Ch-Cha Yisol..."

"Excuse me?"

"Where is Cha Yisol...?"

Iru-da asked with a haggard face.

"Where did my round little pebble go?"

"What are you..."

"Don't tell me you sent that tiny kid to the coast, did you?"

"Sent? Sister Iru-da, please calm down..."

"Give me Cha Yisol! What did you do to my pushover partner!"

"N-No..."

There was a major problem with Cha Yisol's decision.

First, as soon as he made his decision at the wrong moment, he recklessly entered the portrait without telling his partner, Iru-da, the news.

Second, he belatedly sent a letter from inside the portrait, but it was lost in the process of crossing the frame.

As a result, veins bulged on Iru-da's face.

"What did you do to our boy!!"

It was the price of having a capable, well-connected, quick-acting pushover as her partner.