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As far as Lee Juwon knew, today was his last day going to this school. The unidentified virus, believed to have originated from a dungeon in Qatar, spread rapidly in various places around the world, and two days later, schools across the country were closed early. The following year, his parents died and he moved in with his aunt in Busan. So, he would have to wait at least a decade to see Kang Inheon again in this uselessly accurate and archaic dream.
“Ah, I’m hungry…”
He hadn’t eaten breakfast because he was in a hurry and he had skipped lunch so he was hungry, but was there really a need to feel hunger in a dream? He hadn’t felt hunger, thirst, or taste in his dreams before, but this dream seemed far more real because all five senses were alive.
As Lee Juwon was grumbling and catching his breath, a pair of worn-out sneakers stepped noiselessly toward him.
A beautiful and young voice came from above.
“…Y-you’re h-hungry?”
Lee Juwon quickly raised his body in joy. The Kang Inheon whom he thought to have left long ago looked at the ground and spoke, “I-is that why you’re f-following me?”
Kang Inheon looked puzzled as he asked in a clear voice. Lee Juwon was also momentarily speechless at Kang Inheon’s words. Still, what do you see me as…? I’m not a son of a bitch who follows behind just anybody because I’m hungry…
Lee Juwon was recently listed as one of the top 100 young and self-made people selected by Economy, and although he was nicknamed Scrooge, he did not like to beg from other people. He believed in the saying that there was no free lunch in this world, so he didn’t take on formless debt. He’d rather steal, cut, or beat if necessary.
“Yeah… I’m hungry, so…”
However, he couldn’t believe he was saying such things to a poor middle school student at his age… However, if the young Kang Inheon’s temperament was similar to the one he had now, he would be able to ignore someone offering to buy him something, but he won’t be able to ignore someone saying they are hungry.
As expected, not only did Kang Inheon’s face instantly relax, but a glint of concern appeared on it too. Kang Inheon muttered in a more subdued tone than before, “Wh-why didn’t you eat lunch…?”
“Because you didn’t eat…”
“S-since when did we eat together?”
Kang Inheon was so stunned that he spoke quickly, barely stuttering. Ahem, Lee Juwon had no words to reply, so he could only clear his throat. Kang Inheon looked at Lee Juwon and rubbed his earlobe, then walked ahead again. It was a much slower pace than before.
Lee Juwon looked at his back and followed him again. His skinny fingers, sticking out of the sleeves of his large uniform jacket, twitched restlessly. His fingers bent and unbent, wiped at his uniform pants, and then clenched into a tight fist. Kang Inheon spoke without turning around, “W-what do you want to eat?”
“Pizza.”
At Lee Juwon’s unhesitating words, the back of Kang Inheon’s head nodded. Lee Juwon thoroughly admired the back of his head.
He had a rounded head and a long neck, like a combed chestnut. He wasn’t sure if it was because he had a small face or shoulders that were broad for his skinny body, but he was well-proportioned and had a nice frame.
His uniform pants were long and wrinkled even after covering his sneakers. It was fortunate that his shoes were also big, so the ends of his pants didn’t drag on the floor. To think that he could attach modifiers such as fragile and soft to Kang Inheon. It was hard to imagine him as he was now, being called the final boss of physique.
Kang Inheon suddenly stopped. It was in front of a shop with a sign that read ‘Delicious Great King Pizza’. It was a small stall where you could stop, buy something, and eat on the way.
Wondering if it tasted as good as its name, there were about five or six people lined up in front of the shop. The owner, wearing a green apron, pulled a slice of pizza out of a large oven.
The owner put the pizza in a large paper cup and handed it to the customers. A child with a woolly hat pressed down and a man who appeared to be the father were handed paper cups with slices of pizza that were quite thick and disappeared around the corner of the alleyway in quick and short steps.
Kang Inheon said, scraping the soles of his worn-out sneakers against the bumpy asphalt, “What do you want t-to e-eat?”
The price tags on the stall ranged from a thousand won to three thousand won for a slice of pizza. Cheese pizza was 1,000 won, Hawaiian pizza and salad pizza were 1,500 won, combination pizza and pepperoni pizza were 2,000 won, bulgogi and sweet potato pizza were 2,500 won, shrimp pizza was 3,000 won, and the price went up depending on the toppings.
“…Cheese pizza?”
Kang Inheon said, his eyes still fixed on the tip of his shoes as Lee Juwon summoned his long-dead conscience to name the cheapest option, “Y-you can pick something expensive too.”
“Salad pizza, then.”
“Y-you don’t need to look at the prices, so…”
“I picked it because I wanted to eat it, though.”
Kang Inheon hesitantly raised his head at Lee Juwon’s words. Then he asked back with a doubtful face, “R-really?”
When Lee Juwon nodded naturally, Kang Inheon blurted out in a moment of embarrassment, “S-sorry… T-this is my first time seeing some choose something like that…”
“…Something like that… don’t you like it too?”
“…M-me?”
“…You don’t?”
“Students, are you going to order?”
At some point, all the waiting customers had received their pizzas, and there was no one in front of the stall. “W-we w-will,” said Kang Inheon, startled by the pizza shop owner’s loud voice, and he went to the front of the stall.
“T-two salad pizzas, please… C-cola, too…”
The two sat on a bench in a park near the pizza place and ate pizza from paper cups.
Whether it was because he was hungry, because he hadn’t eaten in a long time, because he was eating in a dream, or because he was eating with Kang Inheon, it was one of the most delicious pizzas Lee Juwon has ever had. The fresh, crunchy veggies paired beautifully with the savoury cheese and crispy crust.
He didn’t know if Kang Inheon would think so too, though. Lee Juwon watched Kang Inheon’s expression as he chewed silently and asked, “How’s the taste?”
Kang Inheon’s eyes shook a bit. After a moment of searching for the right words, he said, “I-it tastes healthy…”
With an unhealthy expression, Kang Inheon gulped down the cola. Seemingly, that meant Kang Inheon didn’t like salad pizza when he was a child.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“So, do you like Hawaiian pizza?”
“…K-atf bcf klat qlcfjqqif bc la?”
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“Ft, la’r rjlv atja qlcfjqqifr jgf q-qgfmlber ogelar.”
“……”
“K-atfs’gf ugbkc lc ugffctberfr jcv fjafc kjgw…?”
“…Tbe’ii ilxf la bcf vjs.”
Djmx lc atf vjsr bo atf gbboabq tberf, atf ogffhfg lc Gfmfwyfg’r boolmf kjr oeii bo Ljkjlljc jcv rjijv qlhhjr atja Bjcu Pctfbc tjv qea lc la…
Well, it was natural for people’s tastes to change. Many people dislike mushy eggplants and slimy seaweed, only to grow to love them later in life. When you become an adult, your stomach starts to hurt so you inevitably have to find less stimulating foods…
Crumpling up the empty paper cup and cola can, Kang Inheon said sheepishly, “Are you s-still h-hungry…?”
Two slices of pizza were a small amount for growing boys, but it was nothing to be embarrassed about. Lee Juwon reminded himself again that he and Kang Inheon were very different.
Lee Juwon had never spent a penny on anyone, no matter how much money he had or how little, but when a classmate Kang Inheon wasn’t even close to said they were hungry, he quickly gave his share and felt bad for not being able to give more. As an adult, Kang Inheon’s physique, voice, and impression were different as if he was another person, but his nature hadn’t changed.
He thought that Kang Inheon’s personality was frustrating and foolish, but that wasn’t the case anymore. When he tried drawing the diagram in the dungeon, it was difficult even drawing a straight line on a blank sheet of paper. But how difficult was it to live in an upright way in this world? He was amazed anew at how his trajectory, easy and crooked and so different from Kang Inheon’s, had managed to somehow coincide.
“No, I’m full.”
At some point, the winter sun had grown dark. A dark sunset set against the overcast sky that looked like it might snow as the weather forecast predicted.
Flicker!
The sparse streetlights in the park came on. The strings of lights wrapped around the park’s Christmas tree also twinkled. A beam projector was set up above the tree, and white lights in the shape of stars and snowflakes danced on the park floor, growing and shrinking. Lee Juwon muttered as he watched, “How pretty.”
Kang Inheon looked at the side of Lee Juwon’s face in the light. Lee Juwon also looked in his direction, so their eyes met at an extremely close distance. Kang Inheon’s gaze quickly turned forward. However, Lee Juwon continued to look at him and said, “Don’t you think it’s a little strange?”
“…Huh?”
“It’s too quiet.”
“M-me?”
“No, here.”
“H-here? R-really…?”
Kang Inheon looked around his surroundings and rubbed his ear with the palm of his hand. There were not many people in the park because of the cold weather, but the carols flowing from the music fountain were close to making it feel noisy. When Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer ended, Jingle Bells began to play.
Something didn’t seem right to Lee Juwon. The sounds he had been hearing since earlier weren’t heard.
Looking around his surroundings again, he grabbed Kang Inheon’s hand and blindly pulled him to his feet. Suddenly, he started running and pulling Kang Inheon out of the park. Kang Inheon ran after him in the heat of the moment and asked, “W-where are we going?”
There were no birds in the park, even though there were quite a few trees. It was strange to hear no birds at all in a city centre space that uncommonly had so much water, trees, and insects. These signs could only mean one thing.
A dungeon is going to appear soon.
Wasn’t he dreaming while in a dungeon? He tried to pass it off thinking it wasn’t a dream inside another dream and that it would be strange for a dungeon to appear in another dungeon, but the signs were suspicious.
There were several signs of dungeon creation. The wind would suddenly blow too hard, the air would stop flowing altogether, the ground would shake, or insects would disappear. Sometimes there were no signs at all.
In the case of Gnipahellir, where Lee Juwon was trapped, the surrounding area went dark the moment it happened. The disappearance of birds was a precursor to the appearance of Spirin, a small D-class dungeon. But even D-class was dangerous for the average person.
Lee Juwon took out his phone as he ran. It had been so long since he’d used a flip phone that it was a little difficult to press the small buttons, but it was only a three-digit number anyway.
– Yes, this is Gangsan City’s Dungeon Suppression Center.
He didn’t even have time to think about the detailedness in which the illusion reproduced the guiding speech accurately. He quickly got to the point.
“A dungeon has appeared in Daeyong Park, Danseok-dong. It is estimated to be the D-class dungeon Spirin.”
“W-where’s the dungeon…”
Whoooosh!
Before Kang Inheon could even finish his words, a stream of water gushed out of the fountain in the centre of the park and shot up into the sky. It was winter and the fountain had been drained, revealing a dry base. Kang Inheon’s eyes widened at the sight of the sudden surge of water from a fountain that had stopped operation and only played music.
The rising column of water immediately solidified into ice.
Crack, crack-.
A moment later, the ice pillar cracked and shattered. Broken shards of ice fell to the park floor and into the fountain.
“T-that’s a dungeon?”
“Yes, when the ice breaks, chiropteran-type monsters will come out.”
Kang Inheon nodded at the strange appearance of the ice. However, it seemed like he still had questions.
“H-how do you k-know such a thi… gasp!”
There wasn’t enough time to question or to answer. The ice was breaking much faster than usual. The ice cracked open to reveal a steel skeleton-like crevice inside.
Jok, jojok, jiiik!
As Lee Juwon and Kang Inheon approached the entrance of the park, several bat-like monsters called Manjo emerged from the elongated crack in the ice. The size of the Manjo was small for a monster, but a small monster was much bigger than the average bird.
They were as long as a man’s torso, and only their eyes were bright red. The sight of grotesque birds fluttering through the sunset sky was enough to give anyone a phobia of birds.
Lee Juwon halted in his tracks. He locked eyes with Kang Inheon, who had unconsciously come to a stop with him, and said in a low voice, “Don’t move.”
The Manjo had an unconditional tendency to run toward any moving creature. It would be best if they could get out of the Manjo’s line of sight, but with the dungeon appearing faster than usual, it was too late for that. So for now, it was better to stop than to run.
“It’s more dangerous if we move.”
It was common sense to Lee Juwon, but to Kang Inheon, it could sound like him telling him to die. Since staying still when a monster was approaching was much harder than running away. But Kang Inheon listened to Lee Juwon rather than the survival instinct that told him to run.
Kyaak, kiik!
Even as the creature flew overhead, making bizarre noises, Kang Inheon stood unmoving, holding Lee Juwon’s hand in a tight grip. His eyes blinked more frequently and his breathing became a little ragged, but that was all.
Kiii, kyaaak-!
The Manjo circled over their heads. Perhaps due to the proximity it was flying at, their hair whipped in the wind caused by the flapping of the Manjo’s wings. Lee Juwon bravely told Kang Inheon not to move, but his own legs were shaking as well.
Just as he was holding his breath, wondering if he’ll die like this, the Manjo swerved back towards the fountain. Only when the Manjo’s long tail was out of sight did Kang Inheon let out a breath and sink down.
“Pant, hu…”
Lee Juwon was familiar with monsters, but Kang Inheon, a minor who hadn’t even awakened yet, was seeing one in reality for the first time. It wouldn’t have been strange if he screamed and fell into a panic.
“Good job. Let’s go.”
They had to get out of the park before the monsters could fully get out of the dungeon. Just as Lee Juwon was about to raise Kang Inheon up and lead him out of the park, he heard a booming gunshot.
Bang!
Something quickly shot above their heads. The bullet, fired from outside the park, grazed the Manjo’s wing and thud, embedded itself into the ground. The stone floor impaled by the bullet crack.
Hunters who had arrived near the area must have used their guns to shoot. But the failed attack had only opened a wider gap.
The Manjo that had been flying towards the fountain changed its trajectory again. Blue blood dripped from the tip of its right wing where the bullet imbued with pulse had grazed it.
Kyaaaaaak!
The Manjo flew like an arrow, leaving a long line of blue mucus on the stone floor. Towards Kang Inheon, whose posture was much more unstable than before.
You can’t even hit one? Then just don’t shoot! Lee Juwon cursed on the inside as he blocked the front of the pale Kang Inheon. He had to buy time because the Manjo wouldn’t touch anything else until it’d finished tearing apart its one prey.
It was a good thing the young Kang Inheon in his dream was small. In reality, Lee Juwon wouldn’t have been able to cover that big frame. No, in reality, Kang Inheon would be able to take care of Manjos and the like in one second.
The Manjo flew fast, its sharp toenails approaching to grab Lee Juwon’s head.
Kwiiiik!
The cry of the monster rang right in his ears.
Just eating pizza together was enough.
Lee Juwon squeezed his eyes shut, ready for his head to explode. He’d already died a few times, but among all those times, this was the least regrettable.
Kwadu, duk!
“Gasp…!”
He felt something black and huge pass in front of his eyes. Without realizing it himself, he gritted his teeth. The rushing pain would make it hard to hold back a scream.
“…Huh?”
But even as time passed, he strangely didn’t feel any pain. Had the claws crushed his brain and killed him before he could feel the pain?
Kwooook!
He heard the Manjo’s scream in his ears again. Were his hearing cells still alive? But why couldn’t he feel any pain?
Lee Juwon opened his eyes slightly. He was confident he wouldn’t be surprised if he was back in the dark dungeon or even in the real afterlife this time, but he was still in the winter park. In his arms was a young Kang Inheon. He looked up at Lee Juwon with wide eyes.
Kwook! Kwuuuk!
Less than a metre away from the two, the Manjo fluttered to the ground with a torn wing. A large arrow was lodged in its right wing joint and body.
Tadadadadadak!
Footsteps sounded. Hunters who looked to be the dungeon suppression forces were running from afar.
One of them, a hunter wielding a sword, stabbed the writhing creature in the neck and shot it again to make sure it was dead. The deep blue blood that flowed from the Manjo’s neck stained the stone floor of the park.
“Student, are you okay?”
The other Hunters headed straight for the fountain. At some point, the pillar of ice rising from the fountain was almost broken. Lee Juwon looked at the fountain and said, “…After the Manjo, the Rainple will come out.”
“What? Rainple?” The hunter asked back at the absurd words. Not caring, Lee Juwon continued to speak, “They’re small things that gather in groups so it can be a pain to catch them one by one and they’re poisonous, so there’s nothing you can do if they start spewing some. Just wait and spray them with a fire extinguisher as soon as they come out. There’s a fire extinguisher by the second bench in front of the fountain.”
“No, something like a fire extinguisher against a monster is…”
“It’ll be effective if you imbue pulse into the fire extinguisher.”
Fire extinguisher powder is a suffocating agent that sticks so tightly that it can’t be sucked up by a vacuum cleaner and gets into microscopic pores, making it perfect for fighting skin-breathing monsters like the Rainple. It was a relief that the fire extinguisher, which would have been a discarded decorative prop for years, was able to save the park like this.
“And when catching Manjos in the future, aim for the left wing. That’s its pivot point.”
“S-student, what are you saying?”
“Keep up the work.”
Lee Juwon pulled Kang Inheon to his feet and ran out of the park again. Civilians were now a hindrance to the hunters and food for the monsters.
Judging by the way they used their weapons and their ability to operate their pulse, the hunters who had arrived in the park were all C-class hunters. It was enough to suppress the small Spirin dungeon, but if they knew the exact way to deal with it, it’ll be easier. At this point, 18 years ago, dungeon research hadn’t really taken off.
Once outside the park, they ran for a while. It was safe to stay at least 500 metres away from the dungeon appearance area, as the monsters were affiliated with birds and a few could be missed by the hunters.
Lee Juwon found a building with few windows. Taking shelter in a building with a closed ceiling and walls was the best option in the event of a Spirin appearance.
Once inside the building, Lee Juwon leaned back against the cement wall and gasped while saying, “Pant… It’ll, haa, actually be, okay now…”
As if on cue, his legs gave out. Unlike Lee Juwon, who collapsed to the ground because he found it hard to even stand, Kang Inheon didn’t lose his breath even after running like that.
As expected, even without realizing it, Kang Inheon had a good amount of hunter qualities. When Lee Juwon was looking up at him in admiration, Kang Inheon muttered, “Your… f-face got hurt…”
Kang Inheon’s expression was so serious that Lee Juwon also turned serious. He touched his head, wondering if he looked like a zombie with a caved-in skull.
Fortunately, the head he felt in his palm was still round. His forehead just stung a little. If this had happened in the real world, it would’ve left a scar because he was touched by a monster while being an unawakened person, but it didn’t matter since this wasn’t the real world anyway.
“It’s okay. It looks like I just got scratched by the claw.”
“O-okay? W-what if that c-claw was poisonous…!”
“There’s no poison in the Manjo’s claws. Its grip is just strong.”
Unlike Lee Juwon, who was relieved, Kang Inheon’s expression was still serious. Was he that surprised? Wanting to reassure him, Lee Juwon looked up at him and grinned. However, far from laughing along with him, Kang Inheon burst out, “Y-you… W-what are you doing?”
“……?”
“A-are you crazy?”
Up until now, Lee Juwon had done a lot of things he deserved to be cursed at for and heard many curses so he was familiar with it. Still, he was a little embarrassed because it didn’t seem like the right time to be cursed at.
Why was he getting angry all of a sudden? Was he just a middle schooler who couldn’t help it at the moment? When Lee Juwon was confused by the unpredictable mood swings of an adolescent boy, Kang Inheon ruffled his hair wildly.
“W-why did you cover m-me in t-that situation…”
“Ah…”
Lee Juwon looked at Kang Inheon. The image of him furrowing his brows was the same whether he was young or grown up. Come to think of it, he’d seen him frown countless times, but he had rarely seen him smile in front of him. He smiled so well in front of other people, though.
If it was like before, he would’ve clicked his tongue and said “He’s kicking up a fuss even though I saved him” but he didn’t want to say that now. Sarcasm did not convey the true meaning of what he wanted to say.
In Lee Juwon’s first dream, no one could hear him no matter how much he spoke and in his second dream, he couldn’t speak as he wished. So, in this dream, he chose his words. Even if he was in an illusion, he wanted to speak kindly to Kang Inheon, even if it was just a little bit. He didn’t know when the last time would be.
“I don’t want to see you die again, even if it’s in a dream.”
“…W-what?”
“It was upsetting.”
Kang Inheon’s eyebrows furrowed further. His gular sack moved and he swallowed hard before speaking, “W-why are you…?”
“It’s just, you bought me a pizza.”
“…W-what’s so great about that?”
“I know…”
“……”
“What’s so great about it, I just wanted to eat it that badly.”
Kang Inheon’s downward gaze met Lee Juwon’s upward gaze. The inside of the building was silent.
After a while, the regular sound of step, step, step grew louder and louder in the silent building. Lee Juwon’s gaze shifted to the stairs. A middle-aged man in a suit descended the stairs.
The entrance to the building was narrow, so the man grazed against Kang Inheon, who was standing by the door. The man looked at the two with an expression wondering why two middle school students were here before busily leaving the building.
Kang Inheon’s gaze fell on the man’s back. Thinking it was just like Kang Inheon to even worry about someone just passing by, Lee Juwon said, “It should be safe outside now. If it hadn’t been suppressed by now, the sky would already be…”
“L-let’s go, t-then.”
“Where…?”
Kang Inheon grabbed Lee Juwon’s wrist and led him out of the building. After being dragged out of the building by Kang Inheon in the heat of the moment, Lee Juwon took a look at his surroundings and the sky.
It was the right time for Spirin to be suppressed, but he actually just said that to try and reassure Kang Inheon, who was worried about the middle-aged man. Thankfully however, there was only the usual noise outside.
lee juwon in the past and kang inheon in the present thinking the other liked hawaiian and salad pizza:
yall i dont think we’re gonna make it to under 10 parts 
Thank u for the chapter
Orcinus-nim , I’ve been wondering if your profile picture is related to LJW and KIH . It’s because it looks like them from the cover page of this story 😁
Aigyoo ಠ益ಠ
haha noo my pfp is ilay and taeui from passion
Oh! I’ve seen (not read) passion,I thought
They were from Y &Y cause LJW smokes and KIH is a hunter and thus was holding a sword/knife
I feel Stoopid 😳😭
LMAO inheons the smoker 😭😭 he just doesn’t do it in front of juwon tho cuz juwon hates it and thinks cigarettes are a waste of tax money
I forgot 😣🥺😔
oooh that one’s good (im clinically insane, the art is peak tho) (i have been looking for the novel for two years now 😀 felt like mentioning that dunno why :DD)
Thank you for the chapter <3
Fighting, Orcinus, you can do it! 💪🏻
Thank you for the chapter!!! Woooo!!
Thank you for the chapter ♥️
Hahajjaajgah they were so cute damn I can’t wait to see the development of they relationship ಡ ͜ ʖ ಡ
Btw THANKS FOR THE CHAPTER AUTHOR-SAMA ♡!!!-☆
Thanks for the chapter 😊
Thanks for the translation! Seems like this time he might’ve actually gone to the past and created some sort of time paradox?
So…did inheon buy the salad and pineapple pizza in the future cuz he remembered that juwon of the past liked it? So silly…and now juwon thinks inheon likes them too? HAHA
Lmao I can see the confused.jpg coming up