Retire 570
by Cristae570 (Extra Story 37) Summoning_1
Present.
A freshly formed dungeon in Kansas, USA.
“Ellen Meyer. After immigrating to the U.S., she took her husband’s surname and became Ellen Donner. One of the founders of Atlas Pharmaceuticals.”
“Not to mention the neighbor, Christopher. But what about that sheriff? Was there anything on him? I don’t remember anything.”
“Me neither. I guess he never worked at Atlas. Or maybe he just wasn’t anyone noteworthy.”
“Didn’t you say the security team there was made up of Awakened?”
“We’ll have to check when we get back. It’s an old company, so who knows if any records still exist.”
Han Taekyung and Alex strolled along at a leisurely pace. Twigs snapped underfoot.
“What kind of dungeon do you think this is?”
“I don’t see any monsters.”
“Ugh, I’m sick of forest dungeons. Why is it always a forest?”
“I’d rather have a forest than a desert.”
“I’m sick of both.”
Alex kicked at the ground, grumbling. Australia had its fair share of desert, and most of Alex’s official Hunter experience was in desert dungeons.
Han Taekyung laughed quietly but didn’t disagree. It was true that most dungeons were forests or plains.
Of course, the appearance of a forest dungeon varied from country to country, but a forest was a forest, just as a desert was a desert.
“If Ellen didn’t swap husbands along the way, she must’ve been there since the pharmaceutical days. Who else did we hear about?”
Han Taekyung frowned, recalling the kindly smiling face that had seen them off.
“Luise Krüger.”
“Oh. That woman.”
She was the mage they’d encountered in Las Vegas, who had disguised herself as Cactus Mirage’s Hayley Lawton and created a dungeon.
Just like Sam Bloom had done years ago at the World Unconquered Dungeon Forum.
And now, a dungeon appearing at such a suspicious moment, right in front of two innocent college students? Han Taekyung wasn’t naïve enough to believe that was a coincidence.
Even within the guild, there had been debate about the so-called dungeon creation research at Atlas Pharmaceuticals. Surprisingly, Alex had made the sharpest observation about dungeons.
‘What are you talking about? Those are already there. You think people can just whip them up out of nowhere?’
‘I think “creation” only really applies to the gate.’
‘So then, how does the location get decided for a gate that forms naturally?’
‘So you don’t die the moment you step out—so it tries to find the most similar environment possible… You wouldn’t want aquatic monsters popping up in the desert, right?’
‘So the coordinates are set?’
‘I don’t know. Seriously, I don’t! If I did, I’d have told Sandra ages ago!’
‘…So the real question is how old Atlas figured out the location of a dungeon before the gate opened.’
‘There’s another possibility.’
Sandra had muttered in a low, ominous voice.
‘Recently, the academic consensus is that dungeons before gate manifestation are… well, to put it simply, like buoys drifting around. If the environmental conditions are right, they wander within an area until a gate forms and pins them to a spot.’
‘So what does that mean?’
‘I don’t know how the Atlas research ended, but judging by what happened in San Francisco… they might have found a way to summon a drifting dungeon.’
Sandra Gamble was far too brilliant to dismiss that as mere scientific fantasy.
And, according to Woo Huijae, in some futures, Kansas had the highest number of dungeons in the U.S. Once mana meters were commercialized and dungeon occurrences could be tracked, this was discovered. After that fact was made public, for some reason, the numbers gradually dropped to match the national average.
To those living in the past, it all seemed suspicious enough.
And look: the only road leading out of town, and a gate opening right along it?
Even sweet Chasy would scoff at that!
“Herve Schneider came up a lot, too.”
“Endlessly! That was the name I heard most!”
“The last outsider to visit, apparently.”
Surprising, but also useful. At least it meant there hadn’t been any other obvious victims in the meantime.
Herve Schneider was the one who had revealed the existence of that little cult village. After being caught attacking Hong Seokyoung, he’d spilled a few useful pieces of information in order to survive.
It also matched the period when he’d gone into hiding. Ellen Donner had also mentioned being acquainted with Luise Krüger.
“And the last night, just before we arrived, they mentioned someone named Yuri…”
“Kang Taewoo’s mother.”
Alex stuck out his lips as he spoke.
“She’s been caught now.”
“Nathan seemed to be that man, too. Nathan Burns. Chief researcher at Atlas Pharmaceuticals.”
They went over the faces they’d recognized in the village.
On the surface, it looked like something out of an old movie—peaceful, picturesque. Pretty flowerbeds, old men mowing lawns and greeting neighbors, roofs painted in cheerful colors.
It looked exactly like a village full of wealthy retirees.
Which made it all the more chilling, knowing what those old folks had done.
The original board members and researchers of Atlas had a lot of rumors swirling around them. The current Atlas Pharmaceuticals, famous for its potions, had nothing to do with them. The only records left about the previous management were about embezzlement. Even Sandra hadn’t found more.
The data left by Noah Michel was from the Atlas Foundation, created by the board and researchers ousted for embezzlement. After discovering suspicious dungeon experiments, information on the Atlas Foundation became the top priority in Noah’s files.
After the Schneider incident, the Atlas Foundation and the village had been under scrutiny by the Association and U.S. authorities. Han Taekyung and Alex received information from them as well.
About the people believed to be living in the village.
“Anything else? I’ve told you everything I know.”
“Hmm…”
Alex twisted his body this way and that.
“…Ah! Remember the woman who helped in the garden? On the second day. The grandmother who took the tomatoes.”
“I never caught her name. Did you?”
Alex grinned slyly. Seeing that smug look, Han Taekyung felt oddly annoyed.
“Nora Forrest. One of the founders of Atlas.”
Nora Forrest?
That was one of the top names on Han Taekyung’s memorized list. A person of interest.
He shoved his hands in his pockets, then flinched. He hadn’t brought his subspace bag with his weapons and gear. The Association’s team would have it at the rendezvous point.
It was a precaution. Young and Sandy were supposed to be ordinary college students, so carrying a subspace bag would have been suspicious. Who knew what could happen in a village full of Awakened and shady retired scientists?
Better safe than sorry. Woo Huijae had nagged him about it endlessly.
Anyway, he couldn’t check his notes, but he remembered Nora Forrest’s photo from her youth. He wanted to confirm it.
“She looks completely different.”
Nora Forrest had been a frighteningly thin woman. Exaggerating only a little, she looked like she’d snap if you poked her. With messy hair and hollow eyes that showed even in a blurry photo.
It wasn’t easy to get such a feeling from a picture, but honestly, Han Taekyung had thought she looked like a skeleton. He’d memorized her face, but never expected someone like that to still be alive.
And that grandmother was Nora Forrest?
That plump, glossy face had once been that skeleton?
“Why? The eyes are the same.”
Where?
But Han Taekyung didn’t argue. As long as one of them recognized her, that was enough. Yes. Nora Forrest…
“A lot of them are still alive. People like that always seem to have long lives.”
He hadn’t seen everyone in the village, but there were still too many familiar faces.
And there wasn’t a single young person among them. Even Sheriff Dave Donner and his wife Ellen looked about fifty, but considering Ellen Meyer’s age, they were likely older than that.
“Did you ever see any kids there?”
“No.”
“Right?”
Han Taekyung frowned.
Early reports said there was a school in the village. Kang Taewoo had mentioned attending one as a child…
Given that Kang Taewoo had been relocated, the school probably wasn’t operating anymore.
“So. What do you think?”
“My thoughts?”
“Your impression of the village.”
“Impression…?”
Alex didn’t even pretend to think before raising the white flag.
“I’m no good with people, you know that! You’re the one with the better read on them, sunbae!”
“Sometimes the outsider’s perspective is the clearest. Don’t overthink it.”
Han Taekyung turned to look ahead. Something was bothering him.
“What did you think of Ellen?”
“Ellen?”
His gaze dropped to the ground, about ten meters ahead. It would be easy to miss, but in a strange dungeon, a Hunter’s sharpened senses didn’t overlook it.
This dungeon’s ground was soft with fallen leaves and branches, just like a real forest.
If not for the stars in the sky, it would be easy to mistake this for a real forest. You might think you were walking in untouched woods, but the broken twigs underfoot showed clear signs of something having trampled them.
Han Taekyung turned his head. There were scratch marks on a tree near the broken twigs.
Just one or two. Not large. Something that walked on four legs, with rough skin. Judging by the way the branches broke, it wasn’t heavy.
There were footprints, so it wasn’t a flying creature. Probably light, quick…
“Did Ellen seem like she was lying to us?”
“…….”
Alex had noticed what Han Taekyung had. He adjusted the bag he’d brought from the car.
It was the bag Ellen had packed full of food for them, out of concern.
“…No. No, she wasn’t lying.”
“Yeah? You sure?”
“At least as far as I could tell.”
After working with Alex on so many missions, Han Taekyung had learned to trust his instincts more than he expected.
Whether it was a talent of Alex Hope the person, or a lingering gift from the nameless fae he once was.
Han Taekyung’s philosophy was to use whatever he could.
And it matched his own impression.
“Ellen said she was retired. I believe that’s true.”
“But Dave…”
“Married couples don’t always share the same intentions.”
“You think Dave was lying to Ellen?”
“Who knows. I don’t want to bother with that kind of mess, or even think about it.”
Han Taekyung disliked the complexity of human relationships just as much.
He pointed toward a pair of red eyes glinting between the trees.
“You know what to do, right?”
“How long do I have to keep pretending to be a college student?”
Alex asked in a bored voice.
“Just a little longer.”
Despite his calm tone, Han Taekyung stepped back. Alex hurled the bag toward the red eyes.
Shhk.
With a barely audible tearing sound, the bag was ripped apart. Food spilled onto the ground. Han Taekyung and Alex turned and bolted the way they’d come.
“First, we have to wreck the car!”
“This is such a pain!!”
“Look out, it’s a forest tick puma.”
“God, this is such a pain!!!”
Alex dodged the puma’s attack, leaping and yelling at the top of his lungs.