SSS-Grade Cafe in Front of The Dungeon

.

The site of Yongsan was filled with chaos.

“Hunter-nim, be careful!”

Kim Jina shouted at a Hunter who was distracted. The called Hunter quickly turned around and swung his weapon.

Splosh! The monster that appeared from behind was hit with the weapon in the head, but there was no damage. The black mucus limped for a moment, and only took a step back.

‘Monster? No, it can’t be … I’ve never seen a monster like this before.’

An amorphous black mass that constantly changes shape. With slow action, it only showed little aggression. As if looking for something, it tapped the people around it and wandered around.

The strange thing is that attack doesn’t work on it. It’s physically possible to push it slightly, but no attack could defeat that monster. Some people with sensitive constitution were confused when they saw the monster. Just looking at it seemed to shock their mental strength.

Kim Jina has memorized numerous books about dungeons so far, but there was no data on such a thing in any book. She’s not even sure if it’s an actual living thing in the first place.

And there was another surprise.

‘Otherworld Gate….’

Kim Jina looked up at the sky. There was a huge hole in the sky emitting a strange light. So far, it’s still quiet, but the magical light is getting stronger. The sky seems to be looking at her.

It looked similar to a rift, so she tried to measure the mana with a measuring instrument, but the ether-meter only gave an error. It’s different from the usual rifts. No rifts have ever shown this pattern.

‘Then that’s…….’

Suddenly, the data she read recently crossed her mind.

A confidential document found in the Awakening Center, the now-defunct predecessor of the Dungeon Management Office. It was a record of an ‘Otherworld Gate‘ that occurred only once about 10 years ago. It bears a striking resemblance to that.

[Gate of The Faceless One █████

Time Remaining until it’s fully open 00:58:32]

The Faceless One.

If Jina’s prediction is correct, what is going to appear through that Otherworld Gate is….

She felt a burning sensation in her stomach. It’s hard to believe, but it’s an incredibly dangerous situation if her predictions are correct. They have to evacuate people quickly.

“Sir, you can’t go that way!”

“Follow the agent to the shelter. It’s safe in the shelter!”

She shouted loudly at themuddled crowd. There was little Jina could do as she was only a civil servant, not an Awakened. She just encourages people so that even one person has less damage.

However, the gate of the sky emitted a stronger light, and the power of the black monsters grew accordingly.

In the moment when discouragement rises like a mist, a white bird appeared from somewhere, cutting through the sky.

A bird with a long golden tail flew from the direction of Namsan Mountain and slowly circled the air. The figure shining yellow in the moonlight looked like lightning.

Jina immediately recognized what that bird was.

It was such a mysterious wonder that even those who were in chaos would inadvertently be distracted.

It’s so noisy, yet so peaceful at the same time. The traces of light embroidering the dark sky erase the anguish.

The next moment, the Long-tailed Phoenix flew into the Otherworld Gate.

“Ah….”

It scattered into pieces of light.

Kukukung━

A heavy thunder rang out, and thunderstorms poured down. The rain began to melt the surrounding black mucus.

The monsters, which had been messing around and attacking people until a while ago, quickly lost its strength, melted down, and absorbed into the earth.

Little by little, the hole in the sky closed.

Beyond the evacuation barricade, someone belatedly cheered. After that, a big round of applause and cheers followed.

“Oh, my God!”

“We survived! We survived!”

Everyone was stunned, but it was the real that they survived.

There are still some remaining questions about why this happened. The investigation, post-processing, restoration, and-so-on … thinking about the rest of the work made her eyes turned dark. Still, even after this moment passed, she sympathized with the cheers.

It’s over now. After everything, she survived.

At that time, she was trying to take care of the remaining civilians and guide those who did not have any injuries home.

Jina, who was passing near the mucus, was startled. It was because a familiar shape emerged from the black mucus that had just melted.

It’s her troublemaker older brother. Her older brother who ran away from home a few years ago after changing his name to Jijon, declaring that he would make a name for himself in this world. She made flyers and inquired about his whereabouts, but there was no news.

Then, all of a sudden he was involved in some kind of injury case. He became an important witness forr the Dungeon Management Office’s investigation team, but he went missing again. Jina was so worried about his brother getting into all sorts of trouble.

After being released from mucus, he looked stunned as if he had not yet grasped the situation. Jina rushed to to him in a fit of emotions.

“Huh? Why am I here … Kim Jina?”

“Eugh, this … this stupid person!”

Bugh! A powerful blow blew through his back.

Ah, the stupid person who rubbed her back was exactly the image of her brother she remembered.

As she felt the relief, her tears welled up.

The last time she saw her brother was clearly pictured in her memory.

“Kim Jihoon, what is all that baggage? What are you doing this late at night?”

“Fufufu, little sister, I forsook that name. From now on, call me Jijon.”

“You must be crazy….”

“Then, Adios! I’ll see you again when the name of this Jijon rules the Hunter World!”

“Wait, Mom, did she know? Where are you going? Hey! That name…….”

Jina is finally able to say things that she couldn’t say to him a few years ago.

“Oppa, Jijon … it’s really a bad name.”

“…….”

So, please come back home.

***

I was relieved to see the system notification that appeared in front of me.

[Congratulations!

The power of The Faceless One █████ has been disabled.

The Gate disappeared.]

[Congratulations! You have completed ‘Stop The Chaos!’.

Please collect the reward.]

[Ether-Wiki has been updated.]

[The Grade of the cafe has become D.]

[A new area has been opened in the space. You can install new items.]

It’s done.

As I watched the hole in the sky gradually close, I thought so.

There are still questions and things to deal with, but the biggest crisis has been overcome.

Rain started pouring down from the sky that had completely met the night. The heavy rain in early winter is chillingly cold.

Hot coffee is the best on a rainy day.

He must have been surprised because I suddenly pushed him into the space. First, I’ll go back to the store, pick up Ash, and drink coffee together.

I’ve already done so many things that don’t suit a Cafe Owner today, so I need a break.

Yeah, it’s already late, but I’ll have to ask Ki Yoohyun, who has always helped me, to come with me.

For Kwon Jiwoon … let’s call him tomorrow.

After deciding so, I looked for Ki Yoohyun and turned my head.

Then, a red light shone in front of me.

[Warning!

Location: The barrier of the White Silver Guild has been destroyed.]

What … do you say?

***

After a short deliberation, I decided to go back to the White Silver Guild.

There is probably nothing I can about the destroyed barrier, but there must be a reason why the system deliberately raised a warning notification.

Well, when Kwon Jiwoon says, ‘It’s fine, so go home‘, I’ll go home and drink some hot coffee.

With that thought, I headed to the White Silver Guild with Ki Yoohyun, but the situation was worse than I expected.

“What happened?”

“Wait, you are not allowed to come in here.”

“I’m the family of Kwon Jiwoon! Please let me pass.”

A person, who appeared to be a public official and was blocking the way, stepped away with a sad expression.

Why? Why are you making that face?

Even though it was almost 1:00 in the morning, there were quite a few people in front of the basement of the White Silver Guild.

However, the strange thing is that most of them were public officials, and the people of the White Silver Guild were nowhere to be seen.

Including Hunter Park Heeyoung, there were only four of them. Even considering the late hours or the absence due to the Dungeon Raids, the amount is too small.

Where did everyone go?

And where is Kwon Jiwoon….

“……Ah.”

At that moment, I saw the inside of the open barrier room through the crowd.

Rift? No, the barrier?

In the middle of the translucent membrane with intricate patterns on it, there was Kwoon Jiwoon.

There was no sign of consciousness. Someone called him out loud, but he didn’t budge. He looked like he was hurting somewhere.

A Hunter, who appears to be a wizard class, forced the barrier to open. However, while muttering for a while, the wizard who used his skill shook his head.

“Keuh … I can’t. It does not respond to any external connection attempts. I don’t think it will be possible to forcibly destroy it at this rate.”

I didn’t understand.

It was less than two hours after I left this place with the Long-tailed Phoenix.

What has happened in the meantime that Kwon Jiwoon is trapped in there alone? Wasn’t that just a barrier maintenance device?

I looked back at Hunter Park Heeyoung.

“Heeyoung-ssi, what happened? You were next to Kwon Jiwoon the whole time, weren’t you?”

“That … it’s….”

Her face was pale and her lips trembled. At other times, she would have said something unpleasant to me, but Park Heeyoung also seemed to be greatly shocked.

“The deputy guild leader … the barrier in the barrier room can only be operated by the current deputy guild leader. Earlier … he said that he would check it by himself to see if there was anything wrong with the barrier. I’ve been watching the situation outside for a while, and in the meantime….”

The Long-tailed Phoenix has been brought back to life, and the contamination of the barrier room must have been handled. Now that the barrier room is safe, she left Kwon Jiwoon to do what he wanted, and she went outside to check out the chaos caused by the monsters.

And when she returned, the situation was like this, so she reported it to the Dungeon Management Office.

She said that the cause or circumstances are unknown.

……there was something suspicious about it, but anyway, that was what she said.

Translator’s Corner:

I was thinking about how neat the author put the scenes in order while translating this chapter … someone got his brother back, and the other lost her brother ….

anyway, I’m sorry for ruining the mood by making a fuss, but even though the translation quality isn’t that great (this blog is actually a personal blog runs by only me, myself, and I, if you didn’t notice it), please do not be such a shameless person and indirectly (or worse, directly) claiming this is your translation when all you did was copy-paste the whole thing … and yeah, I’m talking about you, lightnovelpub. Big sites like them really have the time to delete the translation credit and the occasional chatter in translator notes but still keeping things like this …

Welp, I’m going to take few days break after the next chapter. This kind of thing really feels demotivating lol