Chapter 65

As expected of a kind-hearted god, the God of Life had many awakened beings under their protection.

Yoon Seo took a pill bottle out of his pocket. As he calmly took out a pill and swallowed it, Park Soobin quickly handed him a bottle of water.

"Please, drink it with water."

"Thank you."

After drinking the water and returning the bottle, Park Soobin put it into his personal inventory instead of the guild's subspace. No one noticed him hoarding the bottle Yoon Seo had put his lips on. Everyone's attention was focused solely on Yoon Seo.

"Yoon Seo hyung even keeps his pill bottle in his pocket instead of his inventory. That's so analog. Does it not go into your inventory?"

"The bottle does go into my inventory, but I'm not used to the Gaia System. Do the people here know a lot about the Gaia System?"

"We know most of the basics. Do you have something you're curious about?"

"Is there a way to hide messages from the guardian gods?"

"…What?"

"The guardian gods talk too much, so I'd like to turn them off."

"...."

Soo Jaehee blinked. His youthful face slowly shifted into one of shock and disbelief.

The reaction was strangely similar to the one he received earlier when he used , making Yoon Seo suddenly feel uneasy.

"Look at this! Just look at this! This bastard Yoon Seo is the only one who's ridiculously special. What the hell even are you?!"

Hong Euiyoon immediately stormed toward him in an uproar. Alec and Park Soobin also looked at Yoon Seo with wide eyes. Even the guild members who had been paying attention to him gradually stopped whatever they were doing and fell silent.

A low chuckle broke through the silence, it was Kwon Jihan.

Sitting a few steps away, Kwon Jihan had been listening quietly, but now he was laughing as if watching an entertaining play. Yoon Seo found it strange.

"Why… are you all reacting like this…?"

As Yoon Seo grew flustered, wondering if he had made some kind of mistake, Park Soobin spoke quietly.

"Yoon Seo, I've been in this dungeon about three hundred times, and in all that time, I've only received messages from the guardian gods five times…."

"...."

"I got them seven times over twelve years."

"I only ever got three."

"I got two."

Why? Why?

[The God of Life bursts into laughter.]

[The God of Death enjoys your predicament.]

Damn it, I was hiding it so well(?) and now, of all times, I get caught.

Yoon Seo wanted to take back his words, but he knew it was already too late.

Ten years ago, he couldn't even dream of receiving messages like this, but with so many updates to the Gaia System, he had simply accepted the flood of messages as normal. Even now, in an era where communication with the guardian gods was so rare that it warranted a special trait like "prophet," he should have realized that casually interacting with these talkative gods was far from normal.

'I messed up. How do I fix this?'

As Yoon Seo struggled with his dilemma, an unexpected hand of salvation reached out.

"The God of Life does talk a bit too much."

Kwon Jihan's voice sounded particularly handsome.

Yoon Seo recalled Kwon Jihan's profile. He had three guardian gods, and one of them was the God of Life.

Kwon Jihan spoke in a relaxed tone.

"You and I are both under the protection of the same god, Yoon Seo hyung. It's the God of Life, but they talk so much that I sometimes want to turn off their messages. They're a kind god, but kind of an idiot."

"Right? I thought they were the god of chatter."

[The God of Life is hurt.]

[The God of Life sheds sorrowful tears.]

[The God of Life is sulking.]

[The God of Death has fallen silent.]

"No, but still, how much do they have to talk for you to say something like that…?"

Park Soobin asked, looking skeptical. Yoon Seo chose to stay quiet and let Kwon Jihan answer.

"It's too much to even count. They're apparently shedding sorrowful tears right now, but what am I supposed to do about it? It's not like I can wipe them away. Hyung, you feel the same, right?"

"Yes, they're crying about being hurt."

Kwon Jihan smiled innocently. His expression was so confident, as if he'd just given the correct answer, that Yoon Seo felt an indescribable sense of unease.

"I can't believe this. A chatty guardian god… Ha, even at my age, there are still things that can surprise me."

"But since it's the God of Life, doesn't it sound like they must be incredibly special? Maybe they have the authority to send messages because they're an extraordinary god?"

"What do you mean by that? My guardian gods are extraordinary too, you know?"

"I wasn't trying to start a fight."

As Hong Euiyoon snapped, Park Soobin quickly raised a white flag.

"It's not because the God of Life is special."

Kwon Jihan spoke with a meaningful smile.

"I was also curious about why I was the only one constantly receiving messages from the gods, so I looked into it. Apparently, awakened beings who receive Gaia's protection have a resonance rate with the Gaia System that's more than ten times higher than ordinary awakened beings, making it easier for them to receive messages from the gods. The God of Life does talk more than most, but other gods—"

"W-Wait. Hold on a second."

Park Soobin interrupted him.

"Whose protection did you say?"

"Gaia."

"Gaia's protection…?"

Park Soobin's eyes widened to their absolute limit. The others' reactions weren't much different. Kwon Jihan nodded with a benevolent expression.

"Yeah, those who receive Gaia's protection tend to get messages from the gods more frequently. Until now, I thought I was the only one with Gaia as my guardian god, but it turns out Yoon Seo hyung is one too. Nice to meet you."

A surprisingly polite explanation followed.

"...."

"...."

All eyes were on Yoon Seo.

[The God of Death gives a round of applause to 'Kwon Jihan'.]

[The God of Life is sulking.]

[The Watcher smiles for the first time in a long while.]

The Watcher had finally made an appearance after a long time, but Yoon Seo didn't even register it.

At that moment, all he wanted to do was use and disappear.

Kwon Jihan is definitely not righteous. What even is justice…?

"And hyung… I was too harsh earlier. Sorry."

At those unexpected words, Yoon Seo's eyes widened. Kwon Jihan was looking at him with a slightly awkward smile. As Yoon Seo sat there, dazed, with his eyes round as saucers, Kwon Jihan continued.

"It's not about always helping weak people when they're struggling. I also just stand by when I'm not needed. But when a strong person's help is absolutely necessary, I believe it's right to step in."

After expressing his values, he continued without giving Yoon Seo a chance to respond.

"To be honest, that wasn't the first time I said something like that to an S-rank who just stood by. I once went into a dungeon with some S-rank hunter from the U.S., and instead of fighting, the guy just went around looking for treasure chests. So I called him out on it back then too. I already knew I'd be hated for saying it, so it didn't bother me. But with you, hyung… I actually wanted to apologize."

"...."

"I'm sorry."

The surroundings fell silent in an instant. Yoon Seo felt bewildered.

He was openly apologizing in front of so many people?

It wasn't even something to apologize for. He had said what was right, yet he was apologizing for it…?

Where was the arrogance of an S-rank? Their pride?

Yoon Seo felt both exhausted and impressed. At the same time, he found himself wondering… What really is justice?

Since Kwon Jihan was being sincere with his apology, Yoon Seo answered just as sincerely.

"There's no need to apologize. You said that to provoke me on purpose, didn't you? I can tell the difference. It wasn't even that harsh."

"I'm glad if it wasn't too harsh… but it probably was."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Hyung, you should get mad if someone says things like that to you."

"It wasn't something I should've been mad about."

"If it actually was, I wouldn't even be able to lift my head in front of you."

"So what exactly are you trying to say?"

As Yoon Seo pressed him, Kwon Jihan narrowed his eyes. A quiet mutter slipped out, "Was it really not…?"

Of course, Yoon Seo knew exactly what Kwon Jihan was trying to figure out.

'He's sure I'm an S-rank, but he still isn't completely certain that I'm Seo Chaeyoon.'

In that case, the only answer was to deny it to the end. Yoon Seo strengthened his resolve.

***

As soon as Kwon Jihan and Yoon Seo's conversation ended, Hong Euiyoon started poking at him again. When did he awaken? What skills and items did he have? Other than Gaia, who were his guardian gods? And so on.

What saved Yoon Seo from this crisis was . This was still a dungeon, and even if it had been partially stabilized, everyone was mentally exhausted. Unraveling Yoon Seo's identity was less of a priority than clearing the dungeon.

They boarded the armored vehicle and reviewed their pre-planned strategy as they moved.

According to the briefing, the boss monster was a flying type with both fire and ice attributes. During Phase 1, it would summon A-rank monsters periodically, but its behavior in Phases 2 and 3 was unknown. Their plan was for Team 1 and Hong Euiyoon to focus on attacking the boss monster, while Team 2 would handle the summoned monsters. Normally, an S-rank boss monster raid would take several days, but since they needed to finish before was complete, they decided to add one more combat member.

"Hunter Hwashim, you have fire-based skills, correct?"

"I don't."

"Then you'll be joining the boss attack team."

"…Understood."

Even though he kept insisting that he was just an ordinary, low-ranked hunter, Yoon Seo had continuously displayed incredible skills, and on top of that, he had Gaia's blessing. Because of him, even Hwashim was receiving special treatment. Whether it was just his nature or he simply didn't care to deny it, Hwashim didn't strongly refute the claims, so now people seemed convinced that he was an S-rank hiding his true identity.

However, Hwashim was now off the list of potential Seo Chaeyoon candidates. The same went for Hong Euiyoon.

Ever since , Hong Euiyoon had been acting awkward around Yoon Seo, constantly sneaking glances at him. The suspicion surrounding Seo Chaeyoon's identity was now almost entirely focused on Yoon Seo.

'Whatever. I keep saying it's not me, so what does it matter?'

Yoon Seo decided to just let them think whatever they wanted. He had chosen to stay in the back and support Team 1 with shields, which meant it was fortunate that Hwashim would also be fighting alongside Team 1. Keeping him within sight made it easier to ensure his safety.

The boss was located in an underground cave, quite far from where they had been.

"Whoa, this is crazy. So the cave was underneath the lava? Without , we wouldn't have been able to handle this. We would've had to swim through lava to get in. Even with strong shields, they wouldn't have lasted long. How the hell are we supposed to fight an S-rank monster inside lava?"

"This could've ended in failure."

"No, we wouldn't have failed. With Hunter Kwon Jihan here, we would've cleared it eventually, but the rest of us would've died. Except for the S-ranks…."

"Without Seo Chae… I mean, Yoon Seo's , even Hunter Kwon Jihan would've had a hard time, don't you think?"

"Hmm, yeah, maybe."

The Team 2 guild members were whispering among themselves, but Yoon Seo heard them clearly when they almost said "Seo Chaeyoon."

He was just going to stubbornly deny it no matter what. Strengthening his resolve, Yoon Seo followed after them.

At the cave entrance, had been completely shattered. It seemed that the drones had provoked the boss monster.

The group entered the cave. What had once been a magma-filled area now looked like a deep mountain cave, covered in moss and greenery. Breaking through the rocks, they moved straight toward the deepest part. Not even a single bat or insect, common in caves, appeared.

As they ventured further, they encountered increasingly strange sights where ice and heat coexisted. Icicles hung from the ceiling, while steam rose from the ground. With the risk of icicles falling from above and flames erupting from below, they maintained their shields as they proceeded.

'Ah… So even prophets can be wrong sometimes.'

After walking for quite a while, Yoon Seo sensed the boss monster's movements. It slithered beneath the ground with a hissing sound, and it had no wings.

That meant Alec's pre-prepared wing-capturing items from , along with all their other strategies for dealing with a flying monster, were now useless.

Since some of his power had already been revealed anyway, Yoon Seo decided to speak up before the others figured it out on their own.

"Everyone, stop."

Kwon Jihan raised a hand, bringing the group to a halt. Alec, who had been leading the way, turned around with tense eyes.

"What is it?"

"There's something off. It's not a flying type."

Kwon Jihan spoke calmly before driving his sword straight into the ground.

Shhhiiiik!

"A snake?"

"A giant snake. Stay on guard!"