Chapter 130

“We are grateful that you came all this way,” Glys Roban stated confidently, his chest puffed out. “However, we will handle this subjugation ourselves. You may leave and inform your superiors that there are no issues here.”

He spoke with the absolute conviction of a man who commanded the room.

“I can assure you we will clear this dungeon while guaranteeing the absolute safety of the civilians,” Roban added.

Under any normal circumstances, Shin-hoo would have gladly respected his jurisdiction. Given the labyrinthine nature of the dungeon, it would undoubtedly be a grueling, time-consuming slog, but it certainly wasn’t an uncleared death trap for a team of their caliber. However…

There was a sleeper agent hiding among them.

A loyalist of The Cradle of Genesis was currently lurking right beside Glys Roban, an explosive variable that could violently stab him in the back at any given moment.

“I would like to have a brief, private word with Hunter Glys Roban,” Haeju announced, stepping forward. “If you would follow me.”

Roban’s face immediately scrunched into a deep scowl at the unprompted request for a private audience. His eyes flashed with defensive pride, yet despite his clear reluctance, he begrudgingly followed Haeju.

He agreed much easier than I expected, Shin-hoo noted with mild amusement, watching their retreating backs.

Simultaneously, Shin-hoo analyzed the piercing, hostile glares the remaining American Hunters directed toward Haeju. From Bale Taylor to these strangers, the Americans seemed to regard Haeju with profound, deeply ingrained wariness. It made Shin-hoo intensely curious about exactly what kind of atrocities Haeju had committed during his four-year absence.

He had heard rumors that Haeju had violently clashed with the American Hunter factions after his disappearance, but for them to still react with this level of visceral tension years later was telling.

Well then, I suppose I should get to work.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Shin-hoo meticulously observed the other Hunters. The massively built, aggressive man was Silveron. The diminutive, bespectacled Hunter was a defensive specialist named Olive, who primarily wielded shields.

Silveron acted as the vanguard tank, Roban served as the primary offensive dealer, and Olive maintained the defensive perimeter. That was the established tactical foundation of Roban’s strike team.

This three-man core had been operating together for over five years. It was an incredibly tight-knit, battle-tested formation, making it almost impossible to believe that a deep-cover spy could be hiding among them.

And finally…

What exactly is that guy doing?

Shin-hoo’s gaze shifted to the lethargic, brown-haired Hunter, instantly recalling the dossier Bale had provided. His name was Harvey Lane, a Hunter with the ‘Tamer’ classification. And currently, he was crouched alone by the wall, diligently picking up fragments of coral and empty seashells.

“Ah, phew… Thank goodness,” Harvey muttered to himself.

He actually looked relieved as he meticulously inspected the durability of the garbage he was gathering. Furthermore, there wasn’t a single subjugated monster accompanying him, a glaring anomaly for a Tamer.

“Finding any useful items?” Shin-hoo asked smoothly, approaching him.

“Gah?! Y-Yes… Yes, sir!”

Startled so badly he practically jumped out of his skin, Harvey frantically rubbed his chest and bowed his head submissively.

“A-Ah, no, not really. I’m just trying to be somewhat useful…”

“Is that so? Then you should use a proper gathering tool instead of your bare hands.”

Reaching deep into his inventory, Shin-hoo pulled out a specialized harvesting tool and offered it to the trembling man.

“Use the flat edge rather than the sharp blade. It minimizes the damage to the material,” Shin-hoo instructed.

“…Pardon? W-Why are you showing me this…?”

“Because I also possess a Gathering skill.”

Harvey’s eyes widened comically. He looked incredibly feeble, radiating a distinct aura of cowardice. Shin-hoo had encountered plenty of Hunters like him before, but Harvey’s absolute lack of self-worth was exceptional even among that demographic.

“I-It’s just that I’m not originally a Gathering-class Hunter… I’m only doing this for this specific raid…”

Harvey’s voice grew progressively smaller as he spoke, trailing off into an unintelligible, embarrassed mumble by the end of his sentence.

“I know. You are an A-Rank Tamer. But there’s no law saying you can’t gather materials,” Shin-hoo replied easily. “I am an S-Rank Hunter, yet I still manually harvest resources when the situation demands it.”

“…”

“Deep-sea dungeons yield incredibly rare items. Those materials will fetch a handsome price on the outside market.”

Crouching down beside Harvey, Shin-hoo casually began picking up seashells as well. Silently harvesting the coral and various other items, he meticulously analyzed the dungeon’s composition. There was something fundamentally wrong with the materials they were gathering.

These are all incredibly old.

The seashells were severely weathered, and the coral fragments were rough, brittle, and completely dried out. Yet, Glys Roban had explicitly claimed they were exploring a newly discovered dungeon.

“What do you make of this dungeon?” Shin-hoo asked casually, tossing the question at the diligently harvesting Harvey.

“Sir?”

“It feels significantly different from standard dungeons, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Y-Yes, I suppose so. Sometimes those tentacles shoot out, other times the seaweed attacks us… It feels like a massive labyrinth constructed by fusing countless identical rooms together.”

“Is that so? Have you noticed any other peculiar anomalies—”

“Hey! Dog Walker!”

Silveron, who had been hyper-focused on Roban’s private conversation, suddenly snapped his attention back to Harvey and bellowed furiously.

“Stop blabbering useless nonsense! Who the hell do you think you’re leaking our operational intel to?!”

“Gah! Y-Yes, sir! I’m sorry!”

Jolting back to reality, Harvey frantically scrambled away, scurrying back to the safety of his guildmates. Meanwhile, Haeju and Roban concluded their private discussion and returned to the group.

“I have returned,” Haeju announced softly, stepping to Shin-hoo’s side.

“How did he react?” Shin-hoo whispered.

“He doesn’t believe a word of it.”

It was a perfectly natural reaction. Telling a man that there was a sleeper agent deeply embedded within his most trusted inner circle—and having that information come from a notoriously hostile foreign Hunter, no less—was a bitter pill no one would swallow easily.

“How would you like to proceed?” Haeju murmured. “I can neutralize them all immediately if you wish.”

“Let’s hold off on that.”

They hadn’t come here to start a war with Glys Roban. Furthermore, executing a sloppy, preemptive strike without positively identifying the spy would only ruin any chance of cooperation and severely damage diplomatic relations.

“Hmm…”

Just as Shin-hoo fell into deep contemplation, Glys Roban strode over to them, his face an impenetrable mask of cold authority.

“I understand the circumstances that brought you here. However, I must ask you to leave immediately. We will handle our own internal affairs,” Roban stated firmly.

“You will likely regret this,” Shin-hoo warned softly.

“If so, then that regret is mine to bear.”

It was an answer perfectly befitting the prideful S-Rank Hunter. However, Shin-hoo was not the type of man to obediently back down.

Shin-hoo tilted his head back, gazing up at the ‘ceiling’ where tiny tropical fish drifted lazily through the undulating water barrier, casting vibrant, colorful shadows across the chamber.

“Haeju-ya.”

“…Yes.”

“What should we do? They are adamant that they don’t require our assistance. But it feels like a waste to just turn around and leave immediately. The Return Stones are quite valuable, and honestly, the scenery in this dungeon is rather magnificent.”

Instantly catching on to Shin-hoo’s underlying intent, Haeju smoothly pulled Shin-hoo closer by the waist, closing the distance between them.

“Now that you mention it, we haven’t actually gone on a proper date yet. Would you care to take a leisurely stroll with me?”

“This seems like the perfect location for our first date,” Shin-hoo agreed smoothly.

Roban’s eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. His expression blatantly screamed, What is wrong with these lunatics? Silently daring Roban to do something about it, Shin-hoo casually leaned his head against Haeju’s broad shoulder.

Shin-hoo’s primary objective for entering this dungeon was to capture the sleeper agent alive and prevent Glys Roban’s abduction. If he couldn’t force an immediate evacuation, his best tactical option was to take a step back, buy time, and meticulously observe the team’s dynamics until the spy revealed themselves.

Flashing a brazen, infuriatingly relaxed smirk at the violently scowling Roban, Shin-hoo waved dismissively.

“Well, that’s decided. Don’t mind us; just go about your business.”

“Unbelievable… Fine. Have it your way,” Roban gritted out, turning his back on them in sheer disgust. He gestured sharply to his team. “We are accelerating our subjugation pace. Move quickly and adhere strictly to your assigned roles.”

“Understood!”

“Let’s clear this place so fast those arrogant idiots won’t know what hit them,” Roban commanded, raising his staff high.

Making a highly exaggerated show of completely ignoring Shin-hoo and Haeju’s existence, Roban led his team toward the opposite end of the chamber, rapidly clearing the obstacles in their path. Watching their retreating figures, Haeju spoke quietly.

“Do you intend to simply shadow them until they clear the dungeon?”

“No. That would consume far too much time.”

At their current methodical pace, Shin-hoo and Haeju could very well be trapped inside this labyrinth for months. If he had wanted to take the scenic route, he wouldn’t have bothered crashing a multi-billion dollar jet just to shave off three days of travel time.

“I would prefer they clear this place using a different methodology,” Shin-hoo noted.

And more importantly, to force the sleeper agent’s hand, he needed to heavily agitate the team.

***

KABOOOOM!

With a deafening explosion, a solid wall of dense coral violently shattered. Crushing the pulverized remains of seaweed and coral beneath his boots, Shin-hoo casually strolled forward.

“A-Are they out of their minds?!”

“Don’t mind us. We’re just looking for a romantic spot for our date.”

“Wow… I have never seen lunatics on this level before. Jesus…”

From several chambers away, Silveron’s horrified voice echoed faintly through the labyrinth. The American team was currently paralyzed with shock, watching the two Korean Hunters literally obliterate the dungeon’s structural walls to forge their own path.

“Master. Is it even safe to proceed like that?” Silveron asked nervously.

“…”

Roban clamped his jaw shut, unable to formulate a response. He, too, was utterly dumbfounded by the sheer, catastrophic devastation the two Hunters were unleashing under the utterly absurd guise of ‘scouting a date spot.’

His strike team had been meticulously, painstakingly clearing each cubic chamber one by one, constantly bracing for unexpected traps or ambushes. Compared to their grueling methodology, Shin-hoo’s approach was laughably simple—and overwhelmingly destructive.

Another wall was completely pulverized. Shin-hoo effortlessly swept away a massive tangle of hostile tentacles guarding the next chamber before brutally kicking down the subsequent barrier.

From their violently barbaric entry method to this terrifyingly brute-force clearing strategy, everything about their operation defied standard Hunter logic. While Roban’s instincts screamed that treating a dungeon with such reckless aggression was fundamentally wrong… technically, their methodology wasn’t flawed. It was just horrifyingly overpowered.

“We will… continue advancing along our original route,” Roban finally ordered, leading his subordinates in the opposite direction, desperately trying to put as much distance between his team and the two walking natural disasters as possible.

Once Shin-hoo confirmed the American team had moved sufficiently far away, he finally relaxed his grip on Luin Vuada, letting the immense power fade.