CHAPTER 98: CHAPTER 98 – THE WRONG “KYLE”

Chapter 98 – The Wrong "Kyle"

"...The rescue squad never came! Seriously!"

"Hey! Hey! Get something to drink! A potion—anything!"

The soldiers welcomed them with almost excessive energy. At that, Adonis shook his head with disbelief.

"Do you guys even know what’s going on out there?"

"Huh?"

"An S-rank monster popped up. Damn it, right now Kyle and the black dragon he summoned are tearing each other apart outside."

He seemed fully aware of what kind of monster Arman was. His tone turned grim as he spoke to his squadmates.

"You remember Arman , right? The black dragon who once killed Kyle. So no, we don’t have the luxury of joking around in here."

"...Hold on. Did you say Kyle?"

"That’s right. Kyle himself is out there right now."

That’s when Jhin realized something was off in their conversation.

Especially Adonis—he was making a huge misunderstanding.

"He’s fighting Arman for us. This is our chance. We need to clear the dungeon now."

He was referring to the Kyle who was currently battling Arman —believing that Kyle to be the real one.

Jhin narrowed his eyes, watching them more closely.

There was something else strange, too.

’They don’t know who Millie really is.’

They were treating her like she was just idol Millie—checking if she was hurt, asking if she was scared... that much made it obvious.

’Now that I think about it, even within ARC, only a few people know her identity.’

She was from Whitevalley, but still just a "sapling" who hadn’t fully matured. To avoid premature exposure and the dangers it might bring, her real identity had been kept top secret.

Only the top brass at ARC knew the truth.

Which meant these people had no idea Millie was stronger than anyone else in this room.

’...Well, whatever. That’s not the issue right now.’

Jhin frowned slightly as he turned to look at Adonis again.

What caught his attention more than anything else was whatAdonishad said just a moment ago.

’A dungeon...?’

Jhin knew there was a dungeon somewhere in this place. But its form, its scale—he had no idea what it looked like.

The strange energy flows and the mix of monster scents had made it impossible for him to get a read.

’These guys clearly know something.’

Jhin quietly stepped toward Adonis, who turned to him as he felt his presence.

"I have a question."

"Yes?"

"...Did you guys find the dungeon?"

Cutting right to the point. And without hesitation, Adonis nodded.

He gestured for someone on his team who was operating a tablet PC.

On the screen, a video played—an aerial view sweeping across Bey World.

"This is...?"

"A drone. It’s recording footage from above the park."

The drone, controlled via tablet, flew smoothly through the air, weaving between monsters. In emergencies, the drone could even fire bursts of stored sunlight through a mounted flashlight.

It was a method of exploration unthinkable in Exodia1, where science didn’t exist.

Adonis continued calmly.

"We’ve been here for a full week now. At first, we focused on understanding the strange phenomena happening across this place—even though it’s not officially a dungeon."

Their squad had been deployed to investigate the Bermuda Zone. A surge of mysterious disappearances in the area had pushed ARC to act.

"We were shocked at first too. Thought we’d somehow gone back in time. But then night fell, the park’s night operations began... and we realized it was all real."

Unlike Jhin , who had been forcibly switched to the night shift mode, they had simply watched Bey World’s time naturally turn to night—at which point the world around them shifted into the monstrous "nighttime park."

"And that’s when we discovered the dungeon. Although... we’re still not sure it really is a dungeon."

They had waited it out for a full week.

Eventually, they found a hiding place inside the Meteor Express ride and survived while feeding intel back to ARC through a soldier with teleportation magic. That’s how they even figured out the sunlight weakness.

"Captain, we’re arriving at the target zone."

The drone had flown over Bey World and into a new area—a part of the park that no one had looked at since the night shift began, due to the sheer number of monsters.

Just across the street from Bey World...

A tall building with dozens of floors.

As they got closer, a dark veil came into view—shrouding the structure.

The drone hovered nearby, capturing the entire scene.

"We can’t go any further in. Once we enter that zone, the connection cuts off. Like it’s an entirely different world."

"...So it is a dungeon."

"Yeah. But as you can see—it’s not a normal one."

Jhin nodded slowly.

Normal dungeons always had a "gate"—a door you could walk through.

No matter the style or culture, every dungeon had that key feature.

But the thing in front of them now...

"This just looks like a hole. Like a black hole..."

That’s when the drone suddenly jerked and spun—its controller frantically working to keep it steady.

Then—thud.

It dropped straight to the ground.

"...What was that?"

The drone lay still, unable to move.

It hadn’t even entered the dark zone. But something had taken it down.

Adonis narrowed his eyes.

"...An ambush?"

"No way. That drone’s built so monsters can’t even detect it."

"There’s no such thing as ’never.’ Maybe it got hit by a stray attack."

The drone was covered in monster blood and wrapped in their hides—making it hard for any creature to notice.

Unless they were incredibly unlucky... or something else was going on.

"But I doubt this was just bad luck."

Footsteps appeared on the drone’s screen—slow and deliberate.

And they were human.

"Can we move just the camera?"

"I’ll try."

The angle tilted upward slightly—revealing more of the approaching figure. First the torso, then the face.

As the full figure came into frame, Jhin finally realized...

Who they were.

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