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Infinite Competitive Dungeon Society (Web Novel) - Chapter 244. What Happened Once Will… (4)
Chapter 244. What Happened Once Will… (4)
I shot up from my cross-legged position. When I woke, it was already five in the afternoon. I had been focusing on Peruta Circuit without moving an inch for the past five hours. That said, focusing on Peruta Circuit seemed to be effective as my body felt much more like my own.
I’ve gotten somewhat used to all the changes to my stats and the gods’ powers have also somewhat calmed down. Even so, they were still roaming around my body unstably. I thought about cornering them somewhere in my body, but for now, they wouldn’t budge an inch.
“I’ll think about that later…”
I kicked open the door and walked down to the living room. Yua in her school uniform was running into the house.
“Oppa, have you heard!?”
“Yeah. Did you go to school like that!?”
I looked at the red egg in Yua’s arms and shouted in shock. Yua smiled and replied.
“Students and teachers both know I’m an ability user. The teachers allow this much.”
“Well… If Yua’s okay with it, that’s fine.”
“Huhu, I can feel the child moving. It won’t be long before it hatches!”
“Y-Yeah.”
Is it just me or did my younger sister change somewhat after getting her ability…!?
In any case, I headed to the guild house with Father and Ludia who left the dungeon as soon as they heard the message. Everyone besides the guild members outside the country were all gathered in the guild house. A few succubi were stationed in front of the mansion and greeted me when they saw me.
“Dear Husband… Master has arrived!”
“Shin, you were outside? That was quick!”
When I entered the conference room, Hwaya greeted me with widened eyes. Mm, I could tell what she thought of me with those words. With a bitter smile, I asked.
“We haven’t determined the number yet, right?”
“Un. We have the succubi units on it right now. We already reported the situation to each country’s Freedom Wing and Guardian.”
“Dear Husband, the situation seems rough. Just the number we have now is…”
Licorice put her hand on the crystal ball in the middle of the conference room. Immediately, the video projected on the wall changed. On a world map, numerous red dots were being drawn.
“This is what I think it is, right?”
“Yeah, these are all Event Dungeons.”
The succubi’s dungeon search started from Korea. As we were getting live updates from them, the red dots looked like they were spreading from Korea to surrounding countries. In this short period, Korea, China, and Japan had already been completely explored. The number of red dots seemed to easily go past 100…
“How many Event Dungeons did we clear last time…?”
“About 300.”
Hwaya answered. Her expression was also a bit stiff. Even as we were talking, more red dots were being drawn.
“We plan on getting Freedom Wing and Guardian’s help for this time’s investigation and dungeon clear. With the Philippines videos, our approval rating grew to equal Freedom Wing’s and Guardian’s. They won’t be able to decline our request for cooperation.”
“Right, with this many…”
“Un. We have Licorice’s succubi, but even with their strengths taken into account, it might be difficult to clear all these Event Dungeons in time. It’s not like we can split the units further either… We can’t sacrifice more of them.”
“… Right.”
I looked at the world map on the wall and pondered. In the past, Event Dungeons didn’t spawn in the ocean, but this time, there were more red dots in the water than on land. There might be a thousand or even more. Eliminating all these within two months with the power of humanity? It would be impossible without the succubi’s help.
“Thank god Licorice came to me…”
“Good, Dear Husband, I recorded that. We’ll play it repeatedly as a background music for our wedding.”
“I can’t even casually comment on something now!?”
“I thought you’d say that this time, so I was prepared!”
Licorice quickly hid the recorder in her clothes, so I couldn’t even steal it from her. Yua who was standing to my side growled at her threateningly, but she only looked cute.
While I told Licorice off and soothed Yua, Hwaya who was staring at the world map murmured in a serious tone.
“Fast. This is too fast… The gap between the first wave of Event Dungeons and the second wave of Event Dungeons was over a year. This time, it only took four months. If this continues, all of Earth might get covered in Event Dungeons.”
“Earth’s current situation, middle stage of invasion.”
At that moment, Daisy opened her mouth. She was already in her battle uniform. She had come ready to fight.
Her calm and quiet voice rang out in the conference room.
“People of Earth, defended well until now. But the real invasion starts now. It was the same, for my continent. Rather than humanity’s preparation, the invasion was faster.”
“You were born before the start of Sylon continent’s invasion?”
“Un… I was young. Kang Shin, very young.”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it.”
She was emphasizing the fact that she wasn’t that old.
“It didn’t take, long. The Book Walker’s captain descended, 50 years after the first invasion. That was, 80 years after the dungeon, came to Sylon.”
“50 years since the first invasion?”
“At first there were, only a few Book Walkers. Few years later, there were dozens. Ten years later, there were hundreds. That was, when we first started, paying attention to them. Explorers didn’t care much. They were overconfident, in the continent’s power.”
“Because unlike on Earth, monsters already existed in Sylon continent and there were many ability users who could wield mana.”
On Earth, ability users only appeared after the invasion began. The dungeon seemed to have existed long before then, but there were only a few explorers and no proper organizations either. Earth’s situation was vastly different than Sylon’s.
However, even Sylon continent had several tens of years before the invasion really began. What did Sylon continent’s ability users do during that time?
“Wars between empires and kingdoms. No one paid attention, to the Book Walkers. It was different from Earth. Book Walkers were, considered common mutations of monsters.”
“That’s how they missed several tens of years of preparation.”
“Dungeon explorers… knew other worlds were in danger. But until they were directly faced with danger, they didn’t prepare. What was important to them was land, soldiers, wars, women, and political power. Only a few small kingdoms, like Selone Kingdom, prepared.”
Greed moved people. It was the same on Earth. Everyone thought of monsters as a resource to be exploited. No one considered them as a source of danger threatening humanity even after several countries and regions were lost because of them.
“Earth feels weird. There are very little ability users, it’s easy for strong people to shine. Kang Shin holds the lead, and is very aggressive on monster extermination. This is, our advantage.”
Unfortunately, the reality wasn’t so simple.
“But the invasion is, too fast. Compared to my continent, it’s faster by ten times, or even more.”
“You mean the invasion will only get quicker from now?”
“Invasion, accelerates. Mass infestation… Maybe, next time is the last.”
I knew what the ‘last’ signified. The Demon Lord Army and the monsters, one of the two forces would descend completely… If that happened, it would really be the end. Humanity had started a difficult fight. However, before I felt hopeless, I shook my head.
“No, Loretta said we had two years. We should have 22 months before one of the forces completely descends.”
“Even the dungeon’s Lord, cannot guarantee the time, we have. It would be nice, if we had two years, even if it was two months, we couldn’t say anything. The world is irrational.”
Daisy spoke calmly.
“Kang Shin. Be ready, to lose a little.”
I stopped breathing. It felt like she had seen through my heart.
“You are already, a miracle. But complete defense of Earth is, too hard. It’s nice to have high hopes, but when you fall, there will be, greater pain.”
“I don’t need to hear that right now, Daisy. We’ve defended well until now. Rather than talking about discouraging topics, isn’t it better to talk about how to effectively get rid of those Event Dungeons?”
Hwaya interrupted Daisy. Daisy shrugged and stepped back.
“I just thought, Kang Shin needed to be determined. With determination, it will hurt less. I was a bit worried, for Kang Shin… I experienced, the same thing.”
“I’m worried about Shin too, but…”
Hwaya and Daisy exchanged glances. A few seconds later, Daisy squished her beret down and took a step back, while Hwaya took a step forward with a small sigh. After the inexplicable exchange of glances ended, Hwaya glared at me and pointed at the wall with a stick.
“Let’s change the topic to forming teams.”
The number of red dots on the world map had gone past 200 now, and not even a fifth of Earth had been explored. Hwaya let out a dry cough and touched the crystal ball, making about ten figures next to the world map.
“We’ll need to wait until we finished investigating, but for now, we’ll split into teams.”
On the screen, she displayed the names of Revival’s members and the 7 explorers we’ve chosen so far.
“First, all the explorers broke through the 20th floor. They haven’t appointed anyone yet either.”
“If we knew more Event Dungeons would break out, we would have selected more.”
“There’s nothing we can do about it now. This won’t be the last time Event Dungeons appear either. We just have to increase the number of dungeon explorers before then. In any case, we have to focus on the growth of these seven explorers and other Revival members who didn’t participate in the last Event Dungeon subjugation. We’ll let them form teams and add in one or two Revival members. They’ll focus on conquering low ranked Event Dungeons to farm as many stat points and skill points as possible.”
“We’ll have to be prepared for Event Raids too.”
“Of course. We’ll just add more ability users to the teams and have them clear Event Dungeons quickly. It’ll get busy for a while, so be ready, everyone.”
“I’m ready. I’ve been waiting for this moment. I’ll be of help to everyone.”
Ilayda Van was the first to answer. Mm, it was still hard to talk to her. Michel, haven’t you conquered Ilayda yet!?
“Me too. I won’t be a burden!”
“I’m happy I can get even stronger.”
As Yua clenched her fists, Lebuik also spoke with a wild beast-like smile. On the other hand, Ren stared at the red dots silently and finally spoke with a low tone.
“It’s time to pay back my debts. Crown Prince, what you’ve done for the Panan continent, I will do the same for Earth.”
“Ah, but don’t get a hole in your stomach, Ren. That hurt a lot.”
“You got a hole in your stomach!? Show me, Oppa! Why didn’t you tell me this before!?”
Ah, oops…
Soon afterwards, the seventeen members of Revival, the other seven explorers, and 176 succubi from the battle units formed a total of 16 teams. Although there were teams made of just succubi, there weren’t any made of just explorers. It was because succubi’s special trait allowed them to share information faster and more accurately than explorers’ messaging system.
As for my team, I was the only one in it.
“Hey!”
“We don’t have enough people. It’s not like I don’t want to be with you, but honestly, you do everything yourself anyways!”
At Hwaya’s heartless selection, I cried. Thankfully, I would at least have Licorice, Plene, and Lotte with me.
Just like that, our third Event Dungeon subjugation mission started.
