Chapter 02: A Dungeon?

Mercenary Captain Mason raised the alarm.

"Hurry up. And gather everything. Every sheet is money."

At the captain's urging, all the mercenaries except the tankers and support team set to work collecting the papers. Yunho also threw himself into the task.

Memory loss recovery, dimensional exchange project.

The strange voice that suddenly rang in his head left Yunho confused, but he had a job to do.

'Let's finish the dungeon first and think about it later.'

Still, he thought.

'Kim Bu-jang? Oh Da-ri? Park Gwa-jang? What the...'

Yunho could read. The names of the monsters, written in the common language of the Aron continent, were Kim Bu-jang, Oh Da-ri, and Park Gwa-jang.

'The office, and could this be Korea? ...Sigh, I'll think about it later.'

Yunho frantically collected the A4 papers that had fallen to the ground among the mercenaries.

The paper collection was progressing smoothly.

Mason waited at the rear, timing the end of the raid. It was still okay for now.

Kim Bu-jang was still randomly throwing papers at the mercenaries' faces. As an irrational monster, if someone stood in for Oh Da-ri and Park Gwa-jang, the papers would keep flying at their faces endlessly.

"Healer! Heal!"

They had to extract as much as possible.

Killing all the undead and clearing the dungeon was easy, but it would take a week for them to respawn. Not killing them and extracting daily would be insane, right?

In the middle boss's room, there weren't just three monsters. There were over thirty undead minions as well.

Interestingly, when Kim Bu-jang went into a frenzy, the other monsters would tremble in fear, burying their heads in their desks and not moving.

So, by enduring the pain from the papers, they could leave with items without hunting directly.

The amount of paper obtained from one raid was between 500 and 700 sheets. Some had one side blank, some were rare items with both sides blank, and some were filled with text on both sides. These were used for research and sold.

"Just a little more! Just a little... It's not over yet, it's not over..."

Then! The sound of wheels rolling from behind.

Rattle, rattle.

"It's the cleaner! The cleaner! Quickly, gather the papers! Pick up everything on the ground!"

A strange voice rang out as an undead, a patrolling monster on the third floor, appeared, pulling a wheeled cart. It was lucky if it didn't show up, but today wasn't their lucky day.

The monster's name was .

Watching this, Yunho was utterly baffled.

'Cleaner... lady? No, why is she here...'

It was truly inexplicable.

"Grumble, grumble!"

When she appeared, all the monsters in the room suddenly panicked.

The number of times Kim Bu-jang threw papers decreased significantly upon seeing the boss.

Oh Da-ri and Jeong Gwa-jang also suddenly became quiet. The undead who had been trembling with their heads buried in their desks stood up, making incomprehensible noises and wandering around the office.

Mason said,

"Ah, it's time to wrap it up. Gather the rest of the papers! Everyone, get to it!"

was the most terrifying undead on the third floor. Not because it was strong—mercenaries were stronger. It was an untargetable monster, impossible to hunt. Damage didn't even register.

The biggest problem was that, true to its name, it would take back the precious paper items that had fallen on the ground. It was already scooping up the papers into its cart with a terrifying speed.

They needed to wrap up quickly. Once the cleaning was done, all the undead in the tower would regain their ferocity.

"Hurry, hurry up!"

Mason, the mercenary captain, shouted at the top of his lungs, trying to block the cleaner from sucking up the papers. When it seemed like they had gathered enough,

"Alright! That's it! Retreat! Rapid retreat! Head for the stairs. The undead will be a headache once they regain their senses!"

The party retreated in an orderly manner.

* * *

Yunho emerged from the dungeon with the mercenaries.

Entering the Ant Free City, everyone seemed to know Yunho. Not just the mercenaries, but the staff of the restaurant famous for its grilled ribs, the auntie selling vegetables at the market, and even the troublesome little beggars who roamed the back alleys of the free city, all recognized him.

"Uno! You finally got your head up?"

"Congratulations!"

"Are you a proper mercenary now?"

Yunho knew them too. They were neighbors he had grown quite fond of.

"Thank you all. I'll treat you later."

He knew the house he lived in. It was here, in Ant. The place where he had lived for three years...

Currently, Yunho's memories were a mess, not yet fully sorted.

He had lived for 32 years in Daejeon. But he had lost those 32 years of memory and lived for three years in this unknown place.

It was confusing. Everything was unclear, but one thing was certain.

'This isn't Earth. It's a different world, a different dimension.'

That's why the message about dimensional exchange appeared. This was the other world (異世界) from fusion fantasy novels.

Let's summarize.

He died in a dungeon in Daejeon, Korea, on Earth. But he had been living in this other world for three years, as a mercenary.

The memories of the past three years were slowly surfacing.

He was first found in the Free Dungeon in the outskirts of Ant City.

Anyone could enter and exit without restriction. It was common for curious civilians to enter the dungeon and be found as corpses.

He was rescued by mercenaries, but with no memory. What could a person with amnesia and unable to speak properly do to survive?

He had to eat, so Yunho started working as a dung collector at the Goldrian Guild's fertilizer workshop, mixing animal manure and hay for fermentation.

After about a year, he gained trust and was promoted to a central warehouse manager. Another year passed, and he became a dungeon mercenary support worker. After six more months of labor, he was lucky enough to catch the eye of a mercenary squad leader and became a trainee.

For six months, he practiced the mana cultivation techniques and spear skills that the Goldrian mercenaries learned, and today was his first time entering a dungeon.

After six months of training, he went on a dungeon hunt? What had he learned... He was the weakest in the mercenary group. He had only come to observe the dungeon.

In a sense, it was an internship. He had come to experience what a dungeon was like. But to regain his lost memories there!

'Did I see something familiar?'

To become a proper mercenary, one needed at least two years of intense training. Then they would be allowed to wield a sword.

The people here were strong.

In today's dungeon, they hadn't killed a single undead. They just played with them. A few tankers took hits without shields and only collected the papers.

'Captain Mason is at least S-rank or higher by Earth standards.'

If Mason were to dimensionally travel to Earth, he could easily join a Hunter Named Group. But here, on the Aron continent, he was just an average mercenary, not even as strong as a low-ranking knight.

Yunho could sense it. He was no longer F-rank. He couldn't even gauge how much his strength had increased.

'After all, it's mana cultivation and spear skills. These are skills. Free skill books.'

Skill books existed on Earth too. S-rank and above Hunters on Earth all learned skills.

Mana cultivation, swordsmanship, spear skills, magic, spirits... But they were extremely rare and expensive. Even selling all his shares in the Five Dragons Guild wouldn't be enough to buy them.

Now that he had recovered his memories, there were many strange things.

The high-rise building called a tower, the office-like rooms, the names of the undead monsters like Kim Bu-jang and Oh Da-ri.

'Is the dungeon's background on Earth? And it was in Korea.'

Ugh.

His head suddenly throbbed.

Recalling his Earth memories, the last moment in the dungeon surfaced.

"Kim Kyung-il, you bastard...!"

He had to return to Earth.

The betrayal by a friend, and if it was just a friend, that would be fortunate. It might involve his wife, a thought he didn't want to entertain.

Facing the truth would be painful, but he had to uncover it. And make them pay. He couldn't live properly without revenge.

There was another reason to return. This wasn't the place he had lived. It was another world. He had to return to Earth. His entire life was on Earth.

But there was still an unresolved question. Why had he come here, and why was he still alive? It seemed like dimensional travel, but...

He was grateful for being brought back to life. But in such clichés, a god, a saint, a dragon, or a 9th Circle Dark Mage should appear. No one did.

They should at least give a warning before moving someone. That's the basic courtesy, right? And explain why things turned out this way.

'Maybe that strange voice I heard in the dungeon...'

Then!

"What? What is this...?"

Of course. It finally appeared.

"Who are you? Did you bring me here?"

The same voice repeated. Enter the dungeon, and alone at that!

"Dimensional contribution? What's that? What can I do with it? And why do I have to enter the dungeon?"

Yunho's eyes were wide with shock.

"What?"

"Hmm... I can return to Earth? And dimensional cross-trade..."

He didn't know. He couldn't possibly know.

But it was truly strange. The voice, though monotonous and emotionless, gave him a strange sense of trust.

So, he felt he should go. To the dungeon.

The paper-producing dungeon was owned by the Goldrian Guild, a place that regularly brought in good money, so personal entry was impossible, and of course, there was a guard at the entrance gate.

But there were many other dungeons in the outskirts of Ant Free City besides the paper-producing one.

Was this place unique? There were countless dungeons throughout the Varian Kingdom, and the entire Aron continent.

Many were free dungeons open to anyone. Since no specific dungeon was mentioned, he could try one of them.

Yunho slipped out of the free city's gate at night and headed to a free dungeon. The condition was to enter alone.

"Should I go in?"

Yunho slowly passed through the gate.

For a rookie mercenary to enter alone was extremely dangerous, but Yunho had no choice.

He could return to Earth. He didn't know how or when, but he had to grab any straw.

He would return. And take revenge. He would correct what was wrong.