I Picked Up the Greatest Villain in the Story

84.

As the situation calmed down a bit, Yongho took charge.

“I agree.”

“Me too.”

With the safe zone established, there wasn’t much difficulty in dealing with the monsters. Moreover, they had already figured out the strategy.

Under Yongho’s leadership, Team 1 began clearing the 5th floor while analyzing the monsters.

“The monster’s name is Shadow Hunter. It’s A-rank. As you can see, its ability seems to be parasitizing the host’s shadow and controlling the target like a puppet. It appears vulnerable to intense flashes of light, and physical attacks are mostly ineffective.”

Jinwoo, who had a detection skill, shared the information he gathered during the battle with his team members. Jian was secretly impressed.

He had felt it when Jinwoo instantly analyzed the Sand Worms, but the detection skill seemed quite useful.

In the original story, the reason for the heavy casualties of the advance party on the 5th floor was entirely due to the Shadow Hunters’ abilities.

The first advance party to enter the 5th floor was initially shocked by the intense darkness.

While they were assessing the situation, Shadow Hunters invaded their shadows, and more than half were controlled by Shadow Hunters to attack their comrades.

The situation quickly deteriorated when they were suddenly attacked by allies in conditions where they could barely see.

Someone belatedly used a flash artifact to repel the Shadow Hunters, but by then, more than half were already dead or injured. As a result, the advance party had no choice but to retreat with painful losses.

Jian generously distributed flash artifacts from his inventory to those who entered the 5th floor after Team 1.

It took about the same time to clear the 5th floor as it did to clear floors 1 through 4.

Yongho, breathing heavily, looked around at the advance party members. There were no major injuries, but healing potions were used extensively for the occasional wounded.

Everyone looked visibly tired. Although they could eat and sleep inside the dungeon, if the forced march continued, casualties could occur.

He lightly snapped his fingers to get the advance party’s attention. The leaders of other teams had tacitly agreed to let Yongho lead the entire advance party.

Even with the appearance of a new S-rank hunter, unless Yeon Siyun showed up, no one surpassed Yongho in terms of ability or experience.

“…I propose we end the first raid here. Does anyone object?”

Not a single person failed to hear his small, gloomy voice. After confirming each other’s tired faces, everyone agreed with Yongho’s suggestion.

“Hyung, want me to carry you?”

“…I’m fine.”

As everyone was preparing to return to the first floor, Sehun sat down in front of Jian, offering his back. Jian met Jihwan’s sour gaze and pushed Sehun’s shoulders away with a wry expression.

He was very tired, but definitely not to the point where he couldn’t walk on his own. Sehun stood up, unable to hide his disappointment.

The journey down the tower was peaceful. Uniquely, the dungeon inside the tower had no boss monsters, and once all the monsters inside were dealt with, they didn’t respawn.

Everyone maintained their tension, ready to use their skills at any moment, as the cooldown might not have fully reset.

However, they didn’t encounter any additional monsters until they reached the castle with the portal to the first floor.

‘The monsters do respawn, but it takes some time.’

This was a fact only Jian knew. The tower changed slightly every five floors. The problematic Cerberus appeared on the 45th floor.

Even Jian didn’t know how many floors there were in total. He was just guessing that the 50th floor might be the last, given Cerberus’s tremendous abilities.

“I’m opening the door now.”

While Jian was lost in thought, Yongho stood in front of the door leading outside.

Creeak.

As the heavy iron door slowly opened, various noises poured into the tower.

“The advance party is out!”

Starting with someone’s voice, people waiting nearby began to approach the advance party members.

Jian and Sehun came out somewhere in the middle. They saw Jihwan and Jungsu, who had left the tower earlier, talking with someone.

A welcoming smile appeared on Jian’s face as he recognized the familiar back of a head.

“Hyunwoo hyung.”

“…Good job.”

Hyunwoo turned around, approached Jian and Sehun, and patted their shoulders. It felt especially good to see him, even though not much time had passed.

“I heard you did great? They say clearing the 5th floor was easier thanks to the flash artifacts.”

“We were lucky.”

“Give me half of that luck. So I don’t get caught lying to Hyunsu.”

“Where is Hyunsu?”

“At the guild. It was hard sneaking out.”

Indeed, Hyunwoo’s face looked as worn out as those who had entered and exited the tower.

As they were reuniting with Hyunwoo, Hunter Management Bureau staff gathered the advance party members.

Following instructions, Jian returned the body camera and communication artifact he was wearing, and also took out the magic stones and items he had put in his inventory.

They said they would send them to the research institute under the Hunter Management Bureau, and return them once they were deemed safe, except for some taken for research purposes.

“Thank you for your hard work. Please wait nearby for a moment.”

“Okay, understood.”

Sehun also completed the same process following Jian. However, Sehun couldn’t go home right away. Due to his special status as an S-rank hunter, he had to have an interview with the Deputy Director of the Hunter Management Bureau.

Jian stood in front of the container box set up as the Hunter Management Bureau’s control tower, waiting for Sehun to come out.

The sky was full of red clouds. They had entered when the sun was setting, and now it was setting again.

His eyelids felt heavy. Although they had taken breaks in between, they never had a chance to sleep peacefully.

“Hyung.”

As Jian was pressing his fingers hard against his brow, Sehun came out. Jian erased his tired expression and smiled brightly at Sehun.

“Did the talk go well? Was there any trouble?”

“Yeah. It was fine.”

When faced with the Deputy Director’s passionate speech trying to recruit him to the Hunter Management Bureau, Sehun momentarily imagined biting the man’s neck, but he endured, thinking of Jian.

“…I’m sleepy. I want to sleep.”

“You must be very tired.”

Jian immediately looked sympathetic at Sehun’s attempt to change the subject. Sehun always liked seeing Jian worry about him, so he smiled tiredly and grabbed Jian’s arm.

“I booked a nearby hotel.”

“One room, right?”

“…Yeah.”

While waiting for Sehun, Jian had booked a hotel room not far away. Although there was space to sleep in the Dark Net Guild building, it felt cramped with bunk beds crammed together.

They couldn’t go back home, and it felt awkward to go to Hyunwoo’s house, so he chose a suitable hotel.

Due to the impact of the tower’s appearance, the prices were cheaper than usual. With many vacant rooms, it would have been easy to book two rooms, but knowing Sehun would react like this, he only paid for one.

He thought they could rest comfortably in a room with two single beds.

But he soon realized he had underestimated Sehun.

* * *

“The bed broke.”

“…Suddenly?”

Jian’s mouth fell open at the sight he encountered when he came out drying his wet hair with a towel. Sehun was sitting on the bed like a bride on her wedding night.

That much was fine. He had seen Sehun’s naked body several times, so seeing him with just a towel covering his lower half wasn’t enough to break his composure.

The problem was that one of the beds had a deep dent in the middle.

“I guess I still can’t control my strength well. I just tapped it lightly, and it just broke.”

The words “That doesn’t make sense” rose to the tip of Jian’s tongue. But looking at Sehun’s innocent face, he could only let out a helpless laugh.

“…I’ll ask for another room.”

“I already asked. They said they’re all full. I agreed to compensate for the bed at checkout.”

“There’s no way all the rooms are full.”

Until the time of booking, there seemed to be plenty of rooms available. It was suspicious that they became fully booked in just a few hours.

“Do you think I might be lying?”

Sehun’s face looked genuinely puzzled as he tilted his head.

“No, it’s not that…”

Jian felt awkward about calling the front desk to check. Haah. He sighed softly and threw the wet towel into the basket.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t anticipated the possibility of sleeping in one bed. He just didn’t expect Sehun to go this far.

After a refreshing shower, his body felt extremely heavy. Though not as much as Sehun, Jian had also used his abilities quite a lot in the tower.

He had kept moving without rest to get used to fighting while drinking life recovery potions.

‘If I knew this would happen, maybe I should have just gone to Hyunwoo hyung’s place.’

He felt belated regret. When Sehun finished his interview and came out, Hyunwoo had suggested they rest at his house. He was subtly offering to share Hyunsu’s nagging.