Shopping

A week after the incident with the royal family, Maria finally had a day off to herself.

She only closed the store once every seven days to give herself a break and she had used her last break day to go with Alexander to his family dinner.

Now that she finally had a day to herself, she decided to go to the mall to buy a gift.

After all, it was her brother's birthday in just a month and she wanted to get ahead in preparing for it.

Even though he always said that the only gift that he wanted was for her to spend his birthday with him, she still felt like she needed to get him a gift.

She took the bus to the mall in the center of the city.

This mall was the biggest mall in all of Hunter City and the place that the most hunters gathered in.

This mall wasn't a normal mall, but rather a mall that specifically catered to hunters. It was filled with different shops that had different items that were needed for hunters, such as weapons, tools, food rations, and many other things.

Since her little brother was a S Rank Hunter, naturally she felt that she should get something that would help him.

Of course, it completely slipped her mind that as a S Rank Hunter, he would already receive the best equipment from his guild. This equipment was stuff that couldn't be bought on the market and was sold privately, but it was considered the best in the world.

It was not something that the things that she bought at the mall could compare to.

But Maria was a bit of an airhead like this…

After arriving at the mall, she went up to the second floor.

Whenever she came here, she always had a ritual that she followed…even though it was something that she regretted when she got home, but she just couldn't help herself…

The second floor of this mall was where the food court was located and at this food court, there was a very popular store.

It was always packed full of people any time of day because they just couldn't help themselves. It was like a poison that corrupted their minds, making them completely helpless to buy more.

It was the poison known as crepes.

The crepes here were specially made by a world famous Michelin Star chef, so they were in a league of their own.

It would normally be impossible to get some without lining up for hours, but Guang Liang had gotten her a special card that would allow her to cut the line and get a crepe right away.

This was him fully using the influence that he had as a S Ranker, but there was nothing that people could do about it.

As for Guang Liang, he was happy as long as his big sister was happy.

When she got her crepe, she also had a few words with the chef since they were friends. With her Cooking Skill, she was able to tell what kind of ingredients that he used in his cooking and would give him suggestions that would inspire him to think of all new recipes.

So all in all, they were actually quite close friends.

After receiving the crepe, Maria started heading around the mall for a present for her little brother. The only problem was that she really didn't know what kind of thing he would need.

She was someone that didn't know what was involved in raiding dungeons, she just heard about them on the TV and didn't really have an understanding of what it meant to raid dungeons.

So whenever she came to buy things, she would always rely on recommendations from the clerks.

It was just too bad that she had already bought most of the things that the clerks could recommend to her, so she really was in a bind on what to buy this time.

After all, it was Guang Liang's birthday and she didn't want to buy something that she had already bought, that would seem insincere. She wanted to pick just the right thing that would help her little brother in clearing dungeons in the future.

It was just too bad that she didn't know a single thing about any of this.

So as Maria was wandering around aimlessly, she started thinking about calling Seul Ah to ask for help.

But before she could take out her phone, there was a sudden tremble on the ground.

It was only a slight tremble, so it wasn't enough to make her lose her balance. However, it was still enough for her to find it strange that she couldn't help looking around to see what the source of it was.

"Was it an earthquake?" Maria couldn't help muttering.

As she looked around, she saw that the people around her had also noticed that slight trembling of the ground and they were also looking around.

However, before anyone could find the source, there was a sudden explosion before the floor collapsed beneath them.

Even the floor under Maria collapsed and she suddenly started falling through the hole that was created.

In her panic, she started waving her arms around, but there was nothing that she could do as she fell to the first floor.

…

"Report! There's been a dungeon break at the Fair Light Mall in Hunter City!"

"What?!"

"Immediately report this to the nearby hunters and have them on scene for search and rescue. Has the grade of the dungeon break been measured yet? I want an exact measurement as soon as possible!"

The moment that the dungeon break happened, there was an immediate response from the Hunter Organization.

They not only managed all the hunters in the world, but also monitored the entire world for dungeon breaks. As the organization that managed all the hunters in the world, this job was perfect for them since they could immediately mobilize nearby hunters for search and rescue.

But this was a very strange situation…

There had never been a dungeon break in Hunter City because Hunter City was protected by a special barrier. This barrier prevented any dungeon gates from being formed in the city.

It was a special barrier that had been made with all the resources that every country had to protect the headquarters of the Hunter Organization, so it wasn't a weak barrier.

In the past decade since it had been laid down, it had been impossible for any dungeons to form in Hunter City.

So why was there a sudden dungeon break in Hunter City?

Many people had a very bad feeling about this. Once the dungeon grade measurement came out, this bad feeling was confirmed.

"Are you sure about this? Did the equipment malfunction?"

"No…I've checked it several times with multiple different machines, but they are all showing the same grading…"

No one in the room could say a thing as they stared at the result on the screen.

Nine star dungeon!

This was a grading that had never been measured in the human world before. The highest grading that they had ever measured was a seven star dungeon and now there was a dungeon that was two stars higher that had appeared in Hunter City.

For these people who had enjoyed peace over the past few years, this was a calamity…

They had always assumed that higher grade dungeons would appear one day, but they never expected such a high grade dungeon to appear so soon…They had thought that there would at least be an eight star dungeon that would appear before it…

After a long period of silence, the leader of this team immediately roared out, "Call every S Ranker and have them immediately head to the site of the dungeon! Declare martial law in every country and prepare the Eggshell for deployment around Hunter City! Do not make a single mistake!"

All of the people in the room were pulled out of their shock by this and immediately shouted, "Yes!"

This was a crisis for humanity, so of course they couldn't allow themselves to make a single mistake. After all, a single mistake now might just determine the very fate of humanity itself…

…

In the cafe.

Xiao Bai had taken advantage of Maria going out to buy a present for Guang Liang to catch up on his stories. It had been a long time since he had been able to watch his dramas because he had to act like a dog when Maria was around.

It was only in the short period of time that Maria was gone that he would be able to watch the dramas that he wanted to watch.

However, right when his drama had reached the climax…

"This is an urgent report! All citizens of Hunter City, please head to the shelters and prepare to evacuate! A dungeon break has occurred at Fair Light Mall and while hunters have already been deployed to take care of this, we advise all citizens to evacuate immediately!"

Xiao Bai was enraged that they would show this special report right in the middle of his drama, but then he realized something that immediately wiped that anger clean away.

Xiao Bai couldn't help muttering to himself in a slow voice, "Didn't…Maria go to the Fair Light Mall…today?"

As he finished his words, his dog eyes suddenly popped open to give him a very strange and funny look, but he didn't have time to care about that.

He immediately knocked on the cage and said, "Hey, little chick, wake up! We have a big problem!"

The bird in the cage looked up at him and said in an annoyed voice, "What is it?"

He ignored her annoyed voice and said, "Maria's been caught in a dungeon break."

The bird was about to insult Xiao Bai again, but then her words were stuck in her mouth as she processed Xiao Bai's words. After a moment of being in a daze, she suddenly shouted, "What did you say?!"

Xiao Bai ignored this and said, "There's no time for this right now, we have to contact the others and go save her right away!"

The bird didn't waste any time and just responded with a nod before bursting out of the cage.

It was covered in flames as it flew out of the cafe, heading in a certain direction.

Xiao Bai didn't care about this and pulled out his phone from his fur. He quickly dialed a number and said, "Guang Liang, we have a problem. Maria's been caught in a dungeon break."

"What?!"

That was the only thing that the other side could say.

Xiao Bai ignored it and said, "Call all of the other S Rankers and have them come immediately. We have to rescue her right away."

"Un." That was the only reply that came before the other side hung up.

Maria would never know…No one in the world would ever know that all the S Rank Hunters in the world were moved not because of the nine star dungeon, but rather because of one girl.