CHAPTER 160

Liam White answered as if he had been waiting for it.

"Please do me a favor later."

"A favor?"

"Yes."

What kind of favor?

I looked at Liam White in disbelief and asked.

"What kind of favor?"

"Honestly, I haven’t thought of one yet."

"…"

"I’ll let you know when I come up with something."

"Ha…"

What on earth does he want? I gave Liam White, who was grinning from ear to ear, a suspicious look. Still, if I could get a legendary weapon for Kang Yoo-hyun in exchange for just one unspecified favor in the future, it seemed like a pretty good deal.

The problem was, I had no idea what kind of favor he might ask for—but that could more or less be sorted out with a contract. With that thought, I made up my mind and opened my mouth.

“A request that puts me or the people around me in danger is off-limits. And don’t ask for anything I’m not capable of. I want those terms clearly written into the contract.”

“Sure.”

Liam White responded immediately and pulled a contract out of his inventory.

“This is an S-grade contract. I believe that should be sufficient to earn your trust.”

“…”

As expected of a rich guy. Since when did S-grade contracts become so common?

Liam White took one out of his inventory like it was nothing.

Not that I had any right to talk, considering I’d been receiving unlimited S-grade items from Sim Dante and Lee Chae-jin. I cleared my throat and signed the contract. Liam White handed over the legendary weapon with a satisfied look on his face.

[The boss monster ‘Greedy Hreidmar’ of Svartalfheim-S666 has been defeated.]

[The title ‘One Who Resisted Greed (L)’ has been awarded to the first player to conquer Svartalfheim-S666.]

[

Connection to Svartalfheim-S666 will be terminated shortly.]

“…!”

“…!”

At that moment, the system notification announcing the boss monster’s defeat echoed through the dungeon. We looked at each other in surprise. It seemed Kang Yoo-hyun’s raid team had defeated the boss earlier than expected. Still, with part of their strength currently assigned to the exploration party, I hadn’t thought they’d defeat the boss monster this quickly. Kang Yoo-hyun seemed to be growing faster than I’d anticipated. ȓаNȱ𝔟ĚS

“Then shall we hurry back before the portal disappears?”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

I nodded at Liam White’s words. We immediately tried to contact the raid team through the communicator. Before long, Andrew Bailey found the way, and we followed behind him.

The raid team was waiting for us where the portal had opened. They looked shocked by my sudden appearance. But Kang Yoo-hyun, who already knew my identity, approached with a calm expression.

“Did you get any results?”

Kang Yoo-hyun asked, and Liam White simply shrugged in response.

“Of course.”

“…!”

Liam White’s answer caused a stir among the raid team—it meant they had actually gotten a legendary weapon. Even Kang Yoo-hyun, who hadn’t expected much, raised his eyebrows in surprise.

“…What about that dwarf?”

“He disappeared somewhere along the way.”

“…”

Kang Yoo-hyun glanced around the exploration party and fell silent for a moment. It seemed the dwarf’s disappearance was bothering him, too. But soon, he continued speaking with an indifferent expression.

“Let’s talk about the rest when we get back.”

“Agreed.”

“…”

Since we had to leave before the portal disappeared, there wasn’t much time to talk here. Liam White nodded without hesitation at Kang Yoo-hyun’s words. Before turning away, Kang Yoo-hyun’s gaze briefly landed on me.

“…”

“…”

Was it just me, or did his gaze say something like, “We’ll settle this when we get home”?

It had to be my imagination… right? I really hoped it was. Feeling guilty for no reason, I avoided Kang Yoo-hyun’s eyes.

With that, the dungeon raid came to an end, and the hunters began entering the portal. I, too, waited at the end of the line for my turn. But Kang Yoo-hyun’s anger wasn’t the only thing waiting for me back at the accommodation. As soon as I arrived, I came face-to-face with the one who had been waiting to confront me.

“You're finally back, Hunter Han Yi Jin.”

“H-Haha…”

Park Yoon-sung smiled at me. I gave him an awkward smile in return. His gray eyes looked at me calmly.

"I told you clearly not to go to that dungeon. But I guess Hunter Han Yi-jin thought my warning as a guildmaster was a joke."

"No, it’s not like that…"

"I must have looked pretty ridiculous for you to ignore me like that, don’t you think?"

"Ugh."

Even though Park Yoon-sung was smiling and speaking softly, he was still scary. Honestly, him staying calm was more intimidating than him getting angry. I couldn’t think of anything to say—I was completely caught off guard.

Park Yoon-sung, Kang Yoo-hyun, Kang Soo-hyun, Eden, and even Do-gyul were all in the room, staring at me like I was being interrogated. It didn’t look like I’d get off easy this time. I clenched my teeth.

“I mean… I had my own circumstances to deal with.”

“What kind of circumstances?”

“…”

It was a situation that was really hard to explain. Even if I tried to talk about it, I doubted they’d believe me… they’d probably just think I was out of my mind. What was I supposed to do?

As I mulled it over in my head, frustration slowly started to boil up inside me. Suddenly, everything just felt unfair. I mean, seriously—was I doing all that just to save myself? Wasn’t it all to keep everyone alive? And now I was the one being interrogated? It was just too unfair.

None of this would’ve happened if they hadn’t forced me to stay locked up in the accommodation in the first place. I looked at Park Yoon-sung, clearly upset.

“Have you decided to come clean?”

“I mean, it was my fault… but honestly, if you hadn’t forced me to stay locked up in the accommodation, I wouldn’t have gone that far.”

“Hoo?”

At my rather sincere complaint, Park Yoon-sung stroked his chin, looking intrigued. A moment later, he replied in a firm tone.

“It seems there’s a misunderstanding. I’m not scolding you, Hunter Han Yi-jin.”

“…Yes?”

“I just want to understand—why you were so determined to go to the Svartálfheim dungeon, even after everyone tried to stop you.”

“…”

“I’ve read some reports. About what you did there, too, Hunter Han Yi-jin.”

Park Yoon-sung slowly closed his eyes, then opened them again. His eyes looked darker than usual. The sharpness in his gaze told me he wasn’t going to back down. I swallowed hard. It was true—Park Yoon-sung had been very considerate of me.

He knew I was secretly in contact with Sim Dante, but he never questioned me about it. He must’ve known I was hiding other things too, yet he never brought them up. I wondered if he’d been holding back all this time—and now that he’d finally snapped, he was more determined than ever not to overlook it anymore.

“I won’t press you now about your connection with Hunter Lee Chae-jin, the potion master.”

We had barely returned from the dungeon, and he already knew everything.

Just how fast does the Odin Guild’s information network work…?

Clicking my tongue inwardly in disbelief, I listened as Park Yoon-sung continued speaking.

“You went into the dungeon with a purpose from the start, didn’t you, Hunter Han Yi-jin? Otherwise, you wouldn’t have done those things, as if…”

“…”

“…As if you already knew what was going to happen in the dungeon.”

Park Yoon-sung’s low voice echoed faintly through the room. That was when I realized—I couldn’t hide it from him anymore. Too much had already been exposed. I had tried too hard to change the course of the original story. I let out a quiet sigh and slowly opened my mouth.

"Alright. I’ll tell you everything. But…"

"…?"

I glanced around the room. Countless eyes were fixed on me.

With an awkward expression, I turned back to Park Yoon-sung.

“Do I really… have to say it here?”

“Ah.”

Did I really have to talk about this while feeling like I was being publicly executed?

I glanced around the room nervously.

“Yeah, Yi-jin’s right. You’re all in the way, so get out.”

“…”

“Yi-jin-ah, come on, tell me everything, okay?”

Eden walked up to me and placed a hand on my shoulder.

The way he spoke—acting all smug—left me momentarily speechless. I was so taken aback, I couldn’t even respond.

Whoosh!

“Argh!”

Something shot toward Eden at high speed, clearly aimed at him.

But Eden, an A-rank hunter with good evasion skills, dodged right away and turned his head with a fierce look.

“You bastard!”

“Get lost.”

“You get lost!”

“Sigh…”

Eden and Kang Yoo-hyun were at it again. I sighed as my head started to hurt, and Park Yoon-sung nodded.

“Let’s move somewhere else.”

“Okay.”

I stood up quickly and followed Park Yoon-sung into a small meeting room. It was the place where we often had private talks

Tak.

“Huh?”

“…”

Kang Yoo-hyun followed us into the room but didn’t sit down—he just leaned against the wall. What was he doing here? I gave him a puzzled look, then turned back to Park Yoon-sung. Park Yoon-sung glanced at Kang Yoo-hyun quickly before replying.

“It seems Hunter Kang Yoo-hyun has something to say as well. Since we’re being honest here, let’s have an open discussion—all three of us.”

“H-haha.”

Kang Yoo-hyun has something to say to me? That really made me nervous. A cold sweat broke out on my forehead. But right now, the most important thing was getting Park Yoon-sung to understand my actions. And since Kang Yoo-hyun was the protagonist, it probably wouldn’t be a problem to say it in front of him. I cleared my throat and started speaking with a serious expression.

"So, I actually…”