The Hunter’s Gonna Lay Low

Chapter 139

“The hangover soup restaurant? Suddenly?”

Sayoung looked at Uijae, his face full of disbelief. Gaeul, too, stared at him, clearly confused. But Uijae wasn’t in the right state of mind to respond. He grabbed his head in frustration.

‘Damn it, how could I have forgotten that?’

He was certain he had the watch since his awakening. After all, the system had given it to him as a gift when he became an Awakened.

At the time, there didn’t seem to be anything special about it, so he had just assumed it was a system trinket, something to show off.

‘I thought it was just for show, damn it.’

On top of that, for someone like Cha Uijae, who lived a rough, action-packed life, a decorative item like the watch seemed like a luxury. So, he had thrown it into his inventory and promptly forgotten about it.

Life had been too chaotic to remember it!

But why was Cha Uijae wearing the watch when he escaped from the rift?

‘Why did you do that?’

He didn’t know.

Even when he asked himself, the answer didn’t come. Solving one mystery only led to more questions. The frustration was maddening. Uijae let out a low, frustrated scream.

Meanwhile, since Uijae was the only one who knew why they needed to go to the soup restaurant, and he was busy pulling at his hair, the other two could do nothing but watch. However, Sayoung couldn’t stand watching him beat himself up any longer.

Sayoung clicked his tongue and clapped his hands loudly, drawing attention.

“Alright, fine. Let’s assume we need to go to the hangover soup restaurant. Either way, we need to get back, right?”

“Huh?”

“Do you have a way to return to the original world?”

Uijae froze, still gripping his head. Sayoung’s sharp gaze grew more intense.

“…Ah, so you came here without figuring that out? Just jumped right in?”

“……”

“You didn’t plan at all, did you? No escape route secured, nothing—basic, fundamental stuff.”

“…I’m sorry.”

Uijae muttered an apology, looking flustered. Sayoung, who had been scolding him harshly, paused. Uijae lowered his head, his hair still a mess from where he had pulled at it.

“It’s my fault. I didn’t know you would get dragged in too.”

“……”

“If I had known, I wouldn’t have let you get caught up in this…”

Sayoung felt his chest tighten at the sight of Uijae bowing his head. It was a strange feeling, like a dull ache near his heart. The last time he’d felt like this was back at Incheon Port, when Uijae had appeared in such a pitiful state.

Grinding his teeth, Sayoung suddenly reached out and grabbed Uijae’s arm. Uijae’s eyes widened as he looked at him. In those bright, pale-blue eyes, Sayoung’s image was reflected clearly.

Sayoung spoke through gritted teeth.

“Don’t apologize.”

“What?”

“Don’t apologize.”

Cha Uijae had done nothing wrong to him. Absolutely nothing.

“No, but still, this is—”

Sayoung reached out and ruffled Uijae’s already messy hair, deliberately making it worse. Uijae, who had started to protest, instinctively grabbed Sayoung’s hand.

“Hey, you little punk, don’t mess with your hyung’s hair—”

“Yun Gaeul.”

“Y-yes?!”

Ignoring Uijae’s protests, Sayoung nodded toward Gaeul.

“Do you remember anything?”

“Uh, can I think for a second?”

“What, you think I’m joking?”

“You’d better think fast.”

Ignoring Uijae’s attempts to swat his hand away, Sayoung began to smooth out the bird’s nest of hair he had created.

“From what I can tell, it seems like only our souls came here… If your soul and body stay separated for too long, it’s not good.”

“…Ah, right. Jung Bin said the same thing. We need to move quickly.”

“Hmm…. Oh! Then, J, what about the Erosion Dungeon?”

“Huh?”

Before long, Uijae’s hair returned to its usual neat state—well, almost. Something was different. Sayoung narrowed his eyes. Uijae’s hair color had lightened slightly. It was as though someone had spilled white paint over the black strands.

Or as if the color had faded.

“……”

“You said to Hong Yeseong that the reconfiguration of the dungeon happened because of you.”

“That’s right.”

“What made you so sure?”

“I had a reason….”

Uijae trailed off. The faint, grayish hair fell over his eyes.

“Both of us saw the fragment. The reconfigured dungeon looked just like a world on the brink of apocalypse. Like this place.”

“……”

“When Gaeul mentioned the Erosion Dungeon, I couldn’t ignore it because… just hearing about the Erosion made me think of the West Sea Rift. They’re too similar.”

Uijae muttered in a low voice.

“They’re so alike… It can’t be a coincidence. There has to be a reason.”

“……”

Uijae’s fists were clenched tightly by now, and they were trembling slightly.

“So, you’re saying the West Sea Rift, the Erosion Dungeons, and this… ruined world are all connected?”

“…Yeah. It’s just a theory, but…”

“If your theory is correct.”

Uijae lifted his head. Sayoung looked around.

“Then the source of the Erosion phenomenon is here somewhere.”

The gray-haired man nodded silently. His face, normally warm and full of color, had turned pale. Did he even realize how transparent his emotions were on his face? Sayoung looked out toward the landscape beyond the walls.

In this ruined world, the sun never set. It was a never-ending day, an endless white sky. If Uijae had spent too long in a place like this, staring at nothing but the blinding light, it was a miracle his eyes hadn’t been destroyed. Sayoung crossed his arms and gestured with his chin toward the outside.

“Then, let’s assume the theory is true and move based on it.”

“…You believe me?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

Sayoung tilted his head in confusion.

“After everything the world’s been through since the day of the Rift, and the fact that our souls got dragged into this Memorial Dungeon, why wouldn’t I?”

“Oh, right. There was something else I needed to tell you about the Memorial Dungeon…”

“Another thing?”

Just then, Gaeul raised her hand tentatively from the edge of their field of vision. Sayoung finally looked down to see her gazing up at them with a determined look on her face.

“Um… I’m really, really sorry, but…”

“Yes?”

“What exactly is a Memorial Dungeon?”

“……”

“……”

The three of them exchanged glances in silence. It was clear that they needed to stop and organize the information they had. Uijae was a good person, but he tended to bounce around unpredictably, like a rubber ball. Sayoung sighed in frustration, rolling up the sleeves of his white shirt to his elbows.

“Alright, let’s all go outside.”

A short while later, the three of them were standing on the white ash-covered ground. Well, two were standing while Sayoung squatted down, scratching something into the ash with his fingers. After a few moments, he blew the ash off his blackened fingertips and stood up.

“…To summarize.”

On the ground, Sayoung had written several words in the ash.

“We didn’t know it, but apparently the world has already faced two apocalypses. Not just one.”

“Yeah.”

“Gaeul’s only seen one fragment so far, and that was…”

The world where Uijae died. Sayoung swallowed the rest of his sentence. Why had the Sayoung from that world allowed Uijae to die? What was he doing while someone as strong as Uijae died? It was incomprehensible.

And then Uijae, as if oblivious to the weight of the words, said it so casually.

“The world where J died first. Right?”

It sounded so morbid. Sayoung grimaced. Uijae lightly tapped his side, but Sayoung ignored him, crossing his arms and closing his eyes.

“Yeah… that’s right. I’ve seen many fragments, but in all of them, the worlds where Hong Yeseong and J existed together never appeared. It was always the worlds where Lee Sayoung survived. But there’s something strange about it.”

“What is?”

“Why was it that… let’s call it the first world—why didn’t anyone know it existed? In both worlds, time was turned back using J’s watch, wasn’t it? So why are there differences?”

“I’m curious about that too, but Hong Yeseong spewed nonsense and disappeared.”

“The watch is at the hangover soup restaurant, isn’t it?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah.”

“Then we’ll have to move.”

If the mysterious cloaked figure was indeed the Sayoung who had lost Uijae, would he really do something to harm the living version of him?

If so, then that person wasn’t Sayoung.

Of that much, Uijae was certain.

There had to be a reason Yun Gaeul had been brought here. Sayoung opened his eyes. It was likely to push Uijae into action. The moment Uijae had regained consciousness, he had searched for Gaeul. There was something nearby.

“Follow me.”

“Did you figure something out?”

“Probably.”

The sound of two

 pairs of footsteps followed behind him. His highly sensitive sense of smell quickly picked up a strange scent. After walking a bit further, the ground became uneven. It was far too bumpy to be normal. Then, from behind, a startled cry rang out.

“Are you okay?”

Uijae had grabbed Gaeul’s arm just as she was about to stumble. She clenched her jaw and nodded, her expression determined. He bent down and pulled out the thing she had tripped on.

It was a bone.

“……”

Sayoung kicked away the ash that had piled on the ground. A skull, cracked near the head, emerged from beneath the white dust, its jaw gaping open like it was about to speak.

“This is… No, this place… Wait, wait a minute.”

“J? What’s wrong?”

His muttering voice was trembling. Then came the sound of someone collapsing to the ground. Sayoung turned around quickly.

Uijae had dropped to his hands and knees, frantically sweeping away the ash with his hands. More bones appeared wherever his hands moved.

“No, no…”

Tears fell onto the bones below.

Uijae was crying.