Chapter 14
Inside Bokbok Interior.
It was an unusually quiet day.
Cheonma sat at the reception table, reading a magazine titled Breakfast in the Dungeon, while Moomyung chattered endlessly beside him.
Meanwhile, Jang Chaewon was chatting with a clerk from a 7th-grade territory’s general supply store who had come to deliver some glue.
“Excuse me?”
Jang Chaewon suddenly widened her eyes mid-conversation.
“What do you mean there’s going to be a shortage of glue supply? Why?”
“Well, um…”
The clerk scratched his head and sighed.
“Apparently, some unregistered awakened person cleared the D-rank dungeon at the entrance of XX District. That was the only place where you could harvest Giant Sweet Potatoes in large quantities…”
“Wait, you mean the farm dungeon where Crab Pete lives?”
“Yes. Because of that, there’s been a continuing shortage of Giant Sweet Potatoes. The glue factories are in total chaos.”
Giant Sweet Potatoes were massive tubers that grew inside the dungeon where Crab Pete resided.
They were tasteless and nutritionally poor—useless as food—but served as high-quality, eco-friendly glue material that was safe for the body.
“That’s insane. What kind of lunatic would go after Crab Pete, a boss even 9th-rank awakened people avoid? All you get for killing it are stomach medicine drops like Gold Jade Pills.”
Cough, cough!
At that moment, the very lunatic who had done just that—Cheonma—choked on his drink.
“Drink some water.”
When Jang Chaewon turned toward him with an annoyed look, Cheonma cleared his throat awkwardly.
Ahem.
He straightened his magazine and fell silent, pretending nothing had happened.
Even Moomyung, perched on his shoulder and usually unable to shut up, froze midair and went completely still.
“So, what do we do now? We have several eco-friendly installation contracts due this month.”
“Well, until the dungeon regenerates, you’ll have to either postpone your schedule or switch to using regular glue.”
“That won’t work. These clients can’t be delayed—they need the installations done before moving in.”
“I’m sorry. We’re all short on supplies right now… please understand.”
The clerk bowed repeatedly and left with an apologetic look.
Jang Chaewon bit her lip as she examined the contracts on her desk.
“This really won’t do… I need at least fifteen more packs of eco-friendly glue.”
She picked up her phone.
“Hello, this is Bokbok Interior. Yes, hi—by any chance, do you have any Giant Sweet Potato–based glue left in stock?”
“Boss! Long time no see! How have you been? I’m actually calling because we’re running low on eco-glue at our store…”
While Jang Chaewon busied herself calling around and pleading for stock, Cheonma muttered quietly as he watched her.
“So that was what all those things filling the dungeon were—Giant Sweet Potatoes.”
[Which is why I told you to go easier on the monster killing, didn’t I? Stabilized low-grade dungeons are used for resource harvesting.]
It was an infuriatingly smug tone, but Cheonma couldn’t deny it.
After a moment of thought, he asked quietly,
“Is that the only place where Giant Sweet Potatoes grow?”
[Not exactly, but they’re extremely rare elsewhere. Only the dungeon where Crab Pete lives produces them in bulk.]
Moomyung’s eyes flashed as he added,
[Don’t tell me… you plan to harvest them yourself?]
“This is for a client. It concerns my cultivation and reputation. Find me a way.”
Whirrr… Beep-beep!
Moomyung’s mechanical body began to hum and click. The high-performance nanobot had entered deep computation mode.
[Cheonma.]
After a moment, Moomyung’s eyes gleamed with bright white light.
[There is one possible way.]
A little later…
“You’re going into a dungeon?”
Jang Chaewon looked baffled after hanging up her phone.
Cheonma had slung a large pack over his shoulder, Moomyung perched on top, and announced out of nowhere that he was heading for a dungeon.
“You, who spend every idle day reading, suddenly want to go dungeon diving?”
“That’s a contradictory statement. Reading cannot possibly be considered idling.”
“Reading during work hours isn’t exactly normal either.”
“It was an interior design book. I was cultivating knowledge relevant to my profession.”
“Oh, please. That’s like saying a bartender isn’t slacking just because there are no customers.”
Cheonma clicked his tongue and shook his head.
“How rude. How could you compare this seat to a bartender?”
Jang Chaewon’s eyebrows shot up.
Conversations with Cheonma always went this way—starting reasonably enough but inevitably derailing into pompous nonsense.
“Oh, is that so, my lord?”
Irritated, she puffed her lips and bowed mockingly.
“Then, my noble lord Cheonma, you believe reading during work is perfectly acceptable?”
“That strange tone again. Don’t use it.”
“Oh? Did that startle you?”
“A little.”
Delighted to have gotten under his skin, she grinned mischievously.
“So even the great Cheonma gets surprised sometimes?”
“Yes. I simply never imagined anyone would dare pout and mock me to my face like a duck.”
“…Hah.”
So he wasn’t offended—he was genuinely surprised. Trying to tease this brick wall of a man was clearly premature.
Suppressing her irritation, Jang Chaewon clenched her fists.
“Why are you really going to the dungeon?”
“To recover some relics. If I find something valuable, it’ll help the shop financially.”
“Oh, how thoughtful. Worrying about me, are you?”
Her smile vanished as quickly as it appeared.
“But no. Absolutely not. You’re not going.”
“Why not?”
“It’s fine if it’s for collecting materials for a commission, but entering a dungeon for profit is forbidden.”
There was a rare sternness in her eyes.
“People like us—those who complete divine commissions and receive blessings—can’t take private gains from a dungeon. Do you understand?”
“I see. Because of divine power.”
“Exactly. That power can shake or interfere with the human world. The dungeons that have taken root here are part of human territory now.”
“So that’s how it is.”
Cheonma nodded thoughtfully.
“In that case, I must go even more.”
“…What?”
Grinning, the man adjusted his enormous pack.
“It’s for the public good.”
Cheonma slipped through the hidden passage behind the store, entering the dungeon zone.
Out on the rooftop of an abandoned building, Moomyung finally broke the silence.
[I nearly had a heart attack earlier.]
“What do you mean?”
[I thought you were going to confess to Miss Jang that you were the one who destroyed that D-rank dungeon.]
“And why would that be a problem?”
[Because it would be my fault for failing to restrain you, sir.]
“What nonsense.”
Moomyung rubbed his round body with his thin mechanical arms as he replied,
[This industry is smaller than it seems. If word spreads that I failed to manage my user properly, I’d never find another one.]
Cheonma frowned.
“There are other users besides me and the shopkeeper?”
[Not right now, but someday there could be.]
Still rambling, Moomyung suddenly looked around. Cheonma followed his gaze.
“So, what’s your plan? Did you find another dungeon with Giant Sweet Potatoes?”
[No. None of the known dungeons produce them in bulk.]
“What?”
[None of the known ones, that is.]
Moomyung pointed not at the ruined cityscape below but toward the distant horizon.
[Beyond the safe-zone dungeons lies the variable dungeon region—uncharted, unstable zones with no set levels and monsters roaming freely.]
“You’re saying we find a new dungeon.”
[Exactly. According to posts on underground awakened forums, several unregistered awakeneds have claimed to spot Crab Pete near the entrance of those variable zones.]
“Hmm.”
[Based on all the gathered data, the probability of a dungeon inhabited by Crab Pete near the variable zone’s edge is extremely high.]
“Good.”
With Moomyung perched on his shoulder, Cheonma leapt across buildings toward the border of the safe-zone.
Just as he neared the edge, voices echoed from ahead.
[Cheonma.]
“I hear them too.”
[I recommend hiding for now, so other awakened ones don’t spot you.]
“Why?”
[You’re unregistered, remember? If anyone reports you sneaking into a variable zone, it’ll be troublesome.]
With a quiet grunt, Cheonma crouched low behind some rubble.
A group of eight elderly men sat beneath a collapsed building ahead, resting together.
“…Hm?”
Narrowing his eyes, Cheonma recognized one of them—the old man who’d gone to register as an awakened at the same time he had. The man was now burdened with a mountain of gear.
[Someone you know?]
“Just an acquaintance.”
Moomyung scanned them and began reciting data.
[Name: Song Geunsik. Age: 70. Rank 8, Strength Enhancement skill. Currently registered as porter for Team ‘Veterans.’]
“You can access people’s personal data too?”
[Just the public registry from the Association.]
They observed quietly.
“Damn it. With loot like this, it’s practically a bust.”
Park Moonsik, the team’s tanker and a 9th-rank awakened, spoke to Song Geunsik, who was hauling their supplies.
“Hey, Mr. Song. We might need to keep searching for another half-day. You up for it?”
“Of course. I’m still fit as a fiddle.”
Leaning on a wall, Song flexed his bulging biceps.
“I could carry this stuff all day if I had to, so don’t worry about me.”
“Sorry, dragging you into this. You were making good money before joining our team, weren’t you?”
“Nonsense. Working with folks I like is a blessing.”
Before awakening, Song had collected scrap with his granddaughter. After becoming an 8th-rank awakened, he’d found work as a dungeon porter and lived much more comfortably.
Then, by chance, he’d been invited to join Team Veterans, composed entirely of elderly awakened.
They weren’t exactly strong, and the pay was lower than at the agency, but he truly enjoyed working with his like-minded peers.
“My granddaughter’s in elementary school now, so I don’t worry much. But your grandson’s heading to college, right? Better save up.”
“My son’s doing fine. It’s Mr. Son’s family I’m worried about.”
Park nodded toward their team leader, Son Junghak, who sat drinking from a bottle nearby.
“His son’s an awakened too, but he got hurt badly. Hospital fees at an awakened ward are no joke. If he doesn’t pay for surgery soon, it could get ugly.”
“Alright, everyone up. Let’s check another dungeon before it gets dark.”
Son Junghak stood, grim-faced, and the others followed him back into the dungeon zone.
Once they were gone, Cheonma straightened.
[We’ve entered the variable dungeon zone.]
Beyond the safe zone, thick gray clouds dimmed the sun, and pale fog rose from the ground, obscuring everything ahead.
“I don’t understand.”
Cheonma muttered as he gazed into the haze.
“With this world’s manpower and technology, they could’ve conquered every region long ago. Why haven’t they?”
[When dungeons first appeared, governments did attempt it—deploying national strike forces. But back then, humanity knew nothing about awakened people or dungeon ecology.]
A whirr sounded as a bright holographic projection appeared in front of Cheonma.
[Humans used conventional weapons against monsters. But every time they did, the dungeons expanded, and monster populations multiplied. The more they tried to destroy them, the more unstable and widespread the dungeons became.]
In the hologram, hundreds of missiles rained down on a metallic wasteland of a dungeon—only for more to spawn in their wake.
[Variable dungeons are the result of that ignorance. But now, with an organized system of awakened management, it’s only a matter of time before they too are stabilized like the safe zones.]
“I see.”
Cheonma realized how little he still understood about this world—
and why Jang Chaewon had given him Moomyung in the first place.
She wanted me to learn… slowly.
[That concludes the briefing. Shall we move, Cheonma?]
“Let’s.”
Without hesitation, Cheonma stepped forward into the mist.
“Hmm.”
The smoke-like fog limited visibility to barely ten meters.
Broken chunks of concrete occasionally tumbled down from the skeletal remains of nearby buildings.
Cheonma had never seen hell, but if it existed, he imagined it would look something like this.
Then Moomyung spoke.
[Monsters detected—twenty meters ahead. Fifty Blood Seekers.]
“I see them.”
From the fog emerged gray, bipedal wolves with gleaming fangs—the Blood Seekers.
Something was off, though.
They looked bigger than before—at least half a meter taller than him.
[These resemble ordinary Blood Seekers, but their body mass differs significantly. Estimated danger level per unit: 75.]
Ordinary Blood Seekers were danger level 25.
Three times stronger—though to Cheonma, that was the difference between swatting a fly or two.
Thud. Wham.
Each time his fist or arm moved, a giant Blood Seeker exploded into a spray of blood and fur.
