Lee Jian carefully approached the Wyvern caught in the net.
“Screeech!”
The Wyvern twisted its body, clearly annoyed by the net wrapped around it, but it couldn’t break free.
Unlike the struggling Wyvern, the rider on its back was silent.
Now that she thought about it, Lee Jian realized she hadn’t heard a single sound from him throughout the battle.
“I think I need to take off this helmet first…….”
Because the helmet covered his entire face, she couldn’t tell what expression he had.
But to remove the helmet, she would have to untie the net as well.
Crunch—
But Lee Jian’s thoughts about how to remove the helmet came to an abrupt halt.
“Kiiiii…….”
The Wyvern’s head drooped limply.
The rider pulled his hand out from where it had been buried in the Wyvern’s skull.
Brain matter and blood dripped down his hand.
“Did the rider just kill the Wyvern?”
It was exactly as one of the contestants, still watching the situation from outside the dome-shaped artifact, said aloud.
Tamers usually considered their tamed monsters as extensions of themselves.
“What the hell are you—”
Then, the mysterious figure shattered the gem embedded in his own chest.
The rider’s body, just like the Wyvern’s, went limp.
Lee Jian tried to undo the binding artifact, but it was already too late.
All she could do was watch in vain as the Wyvern and its rider turned to ashes and disappeared.
“They looked human, but were they monsters after all?”
“I know, right? I’ve never seen anything like this before either.”
At the PD’s words, Lee Jian’s expression grew grave.
This was an unpleasant variable.
The world had become relatively stable since the appearance of monsters, but in the early days, when Dungeons first opened, it was utter chaos.
Most people knew someone who had suffered during that time.
Lee Jian’s uncle had died back when the Dungeons first appeared.
“We’ve already reported to the Association. They said they’d send people as quickly as possible……. Oh, there they are.”
Hunters in Association uniforms landed at the entrance of the island.
Roy turned away as he watched the Association staff head toward the spot where only the net remained.
Roy’s eyes were darker than usual.
***
“They’re only giving us a week off…….”
Kim Chan groaned, clutching his head with both hands as he sprawled out on the bed.
“Hey, at least we got a week. From the production team’s point of view, they need to debut us as soon as possible.”
Roy sat next to Kim Chan and gently patted his hair, which was all tousled as if a mouse had chewed on it.
“The Association’s Hunters will be staying on the island until filming is over, too.”
After giving the contestants a week’s break, the production team pushed ahead with filming.
Even though a sudden Dungeon had appeared and even a Wyvern had shown up, there hadn’t been a single casualty, so it was possible.
They even made the contestants sign a pledge not to talk about what happened outside.
It wasn’t just the production team’s decision.
The Association had dispatched an investigation team because it was unprecedented for a person to appear in a Dungeon.
‘Don’t worry, hyung.’
In the midst of all the chaos, Kim Chan had come up to Roy and said those words.
Kim Chan had witnessed, with his own eyes, a living person falling out of the Dungeon.
But it was thanks to Roy that Kim Chan survived.
If not for Roy, he wouldn’t have made it this far in the survival program.
‘I really want to debut with you, hyung.’
It was Roy who had comforted him when he was devastated by Lee Chulhun’s betrayal.
And judging by the way things were going, if the Association found out that Roy had come out of the Dungeon, they’d probably drag him off as a test subject.
“It’s nice that the rooms are bigger now, but it’s kind of lonely.”
Now, there were only 30 contestants left on the island.
Thanks to that, the contestants were assigned rooms in pairs.
Roy’s roommate was Kim Chan.
“Oh? It’s time to eat.”
Kim Chan, who had been sprawled on the bed like a jellyfish, suddenly jumped up.
Just moments ago, he had been gazing around the room with a wistful look, but as soon as it was mealtime, he seemed hungry.
“Go ahead and eat. I’m not feeling well, so I’ll rest a bit.”
“You feeling that bad? Should I bring you some medicine?”
“No, I think I’ll be fine after a nap.”
The real mission would begin tomorrow.
***
Today, since it was the day the contestants had returned to the island, the production team had allowed them to rest.
“Alright, then. I’ll be back soon.”
Kim Chan looked worried about Roy, who seemed listless, but didn’t insist further.
Knowing Roy’s personality, if he really needed medicine, he would have said so.
Thud.
The door closed, and Roy lay down, making the mattress sway.
“Pihiii.” (The Contractor looks really serious.)
“Por.” (If you don’t get the hint, keep your mouth shut.)
Even if he looked spaced out, Roy was replaying the conversation he’d had with Earth a few days ago.
‘Earth, you know what’s going on, right? Why are those beings who should be on the Continent of As crossing over to this world?’
From the start, Earth had known everything.
Ever since it appeared before Roy, who had fallen into another world and couldn’t adapt.
Roy remembered clearly what Earth had said when the sudden Dungeon opened.
‘You said I shouldn’t have appeared so soon. That means you already knew, doesn’t it?’
{…….}
Despite Roy’s continued questions, Earth remained silent.
‘Tell me. If you really think of me as a comrade.’
Roy had a feeling that Earth wanted something from him. From the way it called him ‘Hero’ to how it tried to help Roy regain his lost powers as quickly as possible.
[Earth, I, no, I mean, this planet…….]
After a long silence, the voice that echoed in his head trembled at the end.
{The dimension and timeline where the Continent of As exists have overlapped with this one.}
It was a story that was hard to grasp at first.
‘What happens when they overlap?’
[Both planets will collapse. And the being that governed the planet where the Continent of As is… has disappeared.]
Earth’s name was the same as the planet Roy was currently on, but he’d never thought of Earth as the representative of this world.
‘Are you saying you govern this planet called Earth?’
[It hasn’t been long since I gained self-awareness.]
Earth said that one day, it just woke up. And naturally, it realized that this planet was facing a crisis.
[When I went there, the first thing I found was you, Hero. A strong soul in a body on the verge of death. The powerful energy in your Pendant also drew me in.]
Earth said it had tried to cross over to the planet with the Continent of As and talk to the being that governed it, but there was no one.
On a planet inhabited by highly intelligent beings, there always had to be someone, but there was none.
[Some call beings like us ‘gods’, but I think I’m closer to a system than a god.]
Earth could only endure in another world for a very short time, so in the end, it could only bring Roy back to Earth with it.
‘There are plenty of beings here stronger than me. Why me?’
If it were before he lost his powers, maybe, but now there were plenty of beings on Earth stronger than Roy.
[Your potential is limitless, Hero. More than anything…… since I brought you here, the dimensional overlap between the world with the Continent of As and Earth will only happen around you, Roy.]
In other words, Roy would constantly face rifts connecting to the Continent of As from now on.
‘……So I can’t cross over myself?’
Roy had only one reason for wanting to get his powers back.
He wanted to return to the Continent of As and take revenge on Kairus.
For the sake of all his comrades who died at Kairus’s hands, Roy had to see his revenge through.
He also had to save his younger sister and other comrades who might still be alive.
[Yes. If you go in as you are, your body wouldn’t last even a second. You’d be torn apart instantly.]
‘You’re the one who brought me here. Doesn’t that mean you still have that power?’
[……I overdid it back then, and now I can’t even manifest physically.]
Even for Earth, it was impossible to freely let a being from another dimension cross over.
Even crossing over itself came with huge restrictions, and after bringing Roy, most of its power was sealed away. Just like Roy.
‘Does that mean the Pendant’s power can do it?’
[That’s right. Another name for Orichalcum is ‘Jewel of Dimensions’.]
‘……If this planet is yours, why can’t you get Orichalcum?’
[I’m not the owner, just the overseer, more like a watcher. I can’t intervene beyond a certain point. The only being I can directly affect on this planet is you, Hero. And even that comes with lots of restrictions.]
The more Roy listened to Earth’s explanations, the more tangled his thoughts became.
[You have to obtain Orichalcum with your own power, Hero. Judging by how things are going, it looks like beings from the Continent of As will cross over to Earth very soon.]
‘Don’t they know? If this keeps up, both planets will be destroyed?’
[They’re probably busy shouting about how, after unifying their country, they need to conquer another dimension by divine revelation. That’s exactly the kind of thing they’d do.]
Knowing Kairus’s personality, he would definitely do that.
Challenging the impossible and rushing headlong into it—that’s what drove him.
That’s how he killed all the other heirs and seized the throne of the Lumen Empire for himself.
[So, about that…….]
Since things had come to this, Earth decided to reveal everything to Roy and gain his cooperation.
All the efforts it had made to help Roy regain his powers as quickly as possible flashed through its mind.
[You need to regain your powers even faster, Hero! And your comrades too!]
“Comrades?”
[Of course! They’ll be coming over in droves from that side. Are you going to fight alone? Absolutely not!]
Even though Earth could have helped Roy grow in other ways, it had chosen the path of Hunter Idol because it was a natural way for him to gain comrades.
[We need to gather lots of fans, too!]
Above all, there was something in this world that didn’t exist in the other: the existence of ‘buffers’.
Even if there was a difference in ability, having a buffer meant you could perform feats beyond those of someone with the same level of power.
The dimensional overlap with the Continent of As was happening faster than Earth had anticipated.
If the beings from the Continent of As started crossing over in earnest, it would be war.
And not just a war between nations, but an all-out war between planets.
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