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#47. Doghole

Song Jong-Chul’s laugh was somewhat creepy. It was accompanied by a terrible smile of self-loathing and hatred.

But Kim Jin-Woo wasn’t bothered. After all, all dungeon babies hated the Underworld, and all of them had a story of their own to tell. Song Jong-Chul was simply one of them.

“After that day, I couldn’t even venture near the Deep Floors. My injuries would ache to death whenever it rained. But you know what the most miserable thing was?” Song Jong-Chul asked. Kim Jin-Woo didn’t answer.

But it seemed Song Jong-Chul didn’t expect him to, as he immediately answered his own question. “Those fucking bastards didn’t give a single shit about me. After all, I’ve just become another burden to them.”

He took a swing at his glass of whiskey and downed the whole glass before continuing, “The war on the 11th Floor is basically those crazy bastards doing their own thing. I don’t know the reason why, and I’m not interested to find out either. Besides, there’s no way for me to find out anyway.”

There was something discomforting about his story, and Kim Jin-Woo knew the reason why.

“They say that the Underworld is vast and huge, but I’ve never met an explorer that went beyond the 8th Floor. That’s despite the fact that I was active near the entrance to the Underworld,” Kim Jin-Woo said.

In truth, he wasn’t the one who had made the observation; rather, it was the Naga Rangers and the many labyrinth masters under him who had reported this detail to him, but he was fine with twisting the truth a little bit.

“That’s it?” he asked after a while.

Song Jong-Chul replied indifferently, “There’s a path that only explorers who specialize in the Deep Floors utilize. Ordinary explorers have no idea of its existence.”

“You mean like some kind of secret passageway?”

“Yeah, something like that. If you’d only stuck around Lee Jun-Young and the others, you’d still be an amateur at this. They talk a lot, but the truth is, none of them have ever been to the Deep Floors.”

At the revelation that there was a passageway to the Deep Floors that bypassed the 9th Floor, Kim Jin-Woo found himself tightly gripping his glass without even realizing it. But he kept his composure as he casually asked his next question. “That secret passageway of yours…”

“And that’s it for today. All the information up to this point was simply me doing you a favor. Everything else is rather sensitive. My own lifeline is at risk here, after all.” Song Jong-Chul quickly cut him off. He had been rather accommodating thus far, but it seemed this was as far as he would go.

Kim Jin-Woo looked at the down gems on the table as he asked, “You want some kind of reward?”

But Song Jong-Chul shook his head. “Instead of calling it a reward… Let me offer you something.” He raised his glass towards Kim Jin-Woo as he continued, “Join my group. Then I’ll tell you everything I know, including the secret passageway.”

***

If there was indeed a secret passageway that led to the Deep Floors while bypassing the 9th Floor, its strategic value was unfathomable. Naturally, Kim Jin-Woo had no choice but to accept Song Jong-Chul’s offer.

However, since he was pretty much a resident of the Underworld himself, he forced Song Jong-Chul to agree to the concession that he wouldn’t be involved directly in any activities that could jeopardize his position in the Underworld.

In return, Song Jong-Chul himself didn’t seem to have expected Kim Jin-Woo to get involved directly in the first place, and was content with getting the name of the Explorer’s Association out. He seemed to value Kim Jin-Woo’s title of ‘South Korea’s highest-leveled dungeon baby’ very highly.

And as he had expected, it wasn’t long before many other explorers in the country also joined the association, simply by virtue of the fact that the famous Kim Jin-Woo was alive and part of the association.

It was clear that the association had leaked more information than necessary, and the results were immense. After all, Kim Jin-Woo was the only Level 12 dungeon baby in the nation.

[Damn, I put your name out there and our association head count increased multiple times over. To be honest, something unfortunate happened not too long ago and I got a lot of flak for it.]

“What happened?” Kim Jin-Woo asked as Song Jong-Chul spoke over the phone. He had a rough idea what the situation was about, but he pretended to be totally clueless.

[The association had an opportunity to take over one of the labyrinths, but suddenly, it just disappeared. Because of that, there were a lot of accusations flying around, saying we had actually stolen it and whatnot.]

It was as Kim Jin-Woo had expected. The Labyrinth Core he’d intercepted had ended up framing the association.

[Urgh. Even when I think back on it, I feel so upset. It wasn’t even something that was in my possession, yet all the blame was thrown on me. They made a thief out of me for something I didn\'t even do.]

Kim Jin-Woo wondered what kind of expression Song Jong-Chul would have on his face if he found out that the very person he was ranting to right now was in fact the real “thief”.

He entertained the thought in his head, but knew that it could never really happen. Song Jong-Chul would never find out that he had intercepted the Labyrinth Core, after all.

“Anyway, about that secret passageway, are we ready yet?” he asked.

[Just wait. Man, you have an attitude problem, I’m telling you. We should have some insurance of our own, no? This is the problem with someone who’s never trusted others. If you take all the information and just leave, my reputation is screwed.]

Based on what he was saying, it seemed Kim Jin-Woo’s name would be tied to the association for a long time. Only after cementing his reputation in the association would Song Jong-Chul finally hand him the information he desired.

Kim Jin-Woo didn’t care if his name was being used for the association’s purposes, but he saw no reason to let Song Jong-Chul know his true feelings either.

After the call ended, a couple of days passed before the two finally met again.

“Do we really have to go through this much trouble?” Kim Jin-Woo’s irritated voice echoed throughout the dark passageway.

“My man, it’s not that I don’t trust you. But protocols are protocols,” Song Jong-Chul retorted, his expression unchanged.

“You should at least tell me about the true identity of this so-called secret passageway. You’re not lying, are you?” Kim Jin-Woo shot back..

That seemed to have struck a nerve with Song Jong-Chul. “Bullshit! What would I get by bringing us all out here to this godforsaken place, only to be lying about it in the end?”

And everything was back to square one. Song Jong-Chul continued to refuse to reveal the identity of the secret passageway.

“Let’s just go. Once we go deep enough, you’ll know everything,” Song Jong-Chul said as he led his team, which was composed of only dungeon babies, down the passageway.

Kim Jin-Woo quietly followed behind them. He was disappointed, despite having been told the day before that everything would be revealed to him, but nevertheless, he decided to follow along.

But his patience was running thin. He merely said, “Okay. I’ll trust you, so let’s head down.”

“Now this is getting embarrassing. Am I supposed to say thanks?” It almost sounded like a threat, but nevertheless, Song Jong-Chul pressed on.

Only the explorers seemed to have been affected by Kim Jin-Woo’s words. They weren’t used to seeing someone so brazenly talk back to Song Jong-Chul, especially given his reputation and position within the association. No one had dared to disobey him thus far, after all.

Or perhaps they were all just trying to sucker up to him. Whatever the case was, it was clear that the explorers were uncomfortable with the pair’s interaction.

“Hey, who’s that guy? The one who dares to talk back to Jong-Chul?”

“Do you guys know? Song Jong-Chul didn’t even say anything about that guy, nor was he introduced to us.”

“Man, I’m so curious.”

“Let’s move along. Song Jong-Chul already told us not to talk to him before the departure. Let’s not get involved; I don’t want to hear an earful again.”

The explorers whispered among themselves, but thanks to his heightened senses, Kim Jin-Woo could hear everything they were talking about. It seemed apparent that Song Jong-Chul hadn’t revealed his identity to the rest of the team.

Was it because it would have been too troublesome to explain everything? Or was there some kind of ulterior motive behind it? In any case, Kim Jin-Woo felt that it was perhaps for the better. He felt more comfortable not having to engage in small talk with any of them.

As they continued to head down into the Underworld, Kim Jin-Woo found himself already at the 5th Floor before he even realized it. And oddly, they had yet to encounter a single creature. Was this purely luck? Or was it by design?

Song Jong-Chul seemed to have read his mind completely, as he slowly came up to Kim Jin-Woo to strike up a conversation. “It’s best to avoid any encounters with lowly creatures that don’t even hold any worth.”

He must have had some knowledge that let him navigate around the creatures. Kim Jin-Woo simply nodded, knowing there was no way Song Jong-Chul would divulge that knowledge to him.

The tiring descent continued for a long time. Bored out of his mind due to the lack of any combat engagements, Kim Jin-Woo started to pay closer attention to the rest of his teammates.

The dungeon babies didn’t seem very formidable, but it was clear that they were pretty high-leveled. For starters, their demeanor was different from most. They moved as a unit, and despite the nervousness on some of their faces, there was not a shadow of doubt or fear in them.

Perhaps these were the Deep Floor explorers Song Jong-Chul had talked about.

As Kim Jin-Woo continued his observations, he noticed the explorers’ unusually large and heavy-looking backpacks. The more he thought about them, the more out of place they looked.

“What’s inside those packs? They’re way too big just to be carrying food supplies and tools.” Curiosity eventually got the better of him, as he went to ask Song Jong-Chul about them.

Song Jong-Chul laughed it off with a grin. “You’ll see when we get there.”

Kim Jin-Woo couldn’t get even one straight answer out of him. Feeling disappointed, he didn’t probe any further and stayed quiet as they moved along.

“Check for any other explorers in the area!”

The procession finally stopped after a while. But oddly enough, Song Jong-Chul’s orders were to scout for nearby explorers in the vicinity, not creatures. It was highly suspicious, but Kim Jin-Woo didn’t question it.

Instead, Song Jong-Chul took the initiative to clear his doubts. “There’s no good in letting many people know about the secret passageway. Better safe than sorry.”

“Ah…”

At last, the secret passageway had to be close by.

“There are a couple creatures fifteen minutes from here, but there’s no presence of explorers.”

“I felt none of them as well.”

Some of the dungeon babies who had left for reconnaissance returned and reported their findings.

“Well, no sane man would be here off the beaten path anyway.”

They had now stopped at a secluded passageway on the 7th Floor.

“This is our final rest point; check your equipment! Those who brought along the goods, be extra careful!” Song Jong-Chul turned to Kim Jin-Woo and grinned as he gave his orders. “Hang on a little longer. I’m going to give you a huge surprise in just a bit.”

***

The team continued to move down into the Underworld before stopping near an unidentified labyrinth.

“We’re here.”

“What?” Kim Jin-Woo couldn’t help but be confused at Song Jong-Chul’s words. The emblem of the ordinary-looking labyrinth had completely faded, and the only certainty was that it had a master. He thought Song Jong-Chul had perhaps taken a wrong route or was possibly lost.

But that wasn’t the case.

“Here it is. Our secret passageway.” Song Jong-Chul folded his arms as he looked toward the labyrinth.

“That’s an inhabited labyrinth, no matter how I look at it?” Kim Jin-Woo asked, thinking he might have misunderstood the situation.

“That’s right. That labyrinth is inhabited,” Song Jong-Chul replied matter-of-factly.

“And?” Kim Jin-Woo couldn’t comprehend what Song Jong-Chul was saying.

“As I said, that’s our secret passageway.” Song Jong-Chul seemed to be enjoying every last ounce of Kim Jin-Woo’s confusion as he chuckled with laughter. “I told you I was going to surprise you!”

Just as Song Jong-Chul finished speaking, a large number of troops poured out of the labyrinth.