7-Lost Again

Baek Ryeo-woon stared down at the strange, sickly-beautiful man in front of him.

He crossed his arms, muscles flexing under his tight black shirt, red eyes narrowing slightly.

"You," he said crisply. "Where do you live?"

Kim Byeol-ha blinked at him, looking for all the world like a cat woken up from a nap it didn't agree to.

"Uh," Byeol-ha said eloquently, brain gears grinding.

Where did he live again?

He squinted dramatically up at the cracked sky, as if divine inspiration would fall on him.

House number, house number...

He reached deep into the random junk drawer of his mind and pulled out the first thing that sounded familiar.

"Number 8," he said confidently.

Technically, he had seen Park Jun-ho's (the neighbor's) house number earlier when he got dragged here.

Was it his own?

No clue.

Minor details.

He wasn't about to open that messy file called "Memories from Ten Years Ago" unless he absolutely had to.

Besides, it wasn't even three full hours since he'd set foot back on Earth.Felt like a decade already.

Time was fake.

Responsibility was an illusion.

Ryeo-woon looked at him sharply.

"District 8, House Number 8?"

"Yup," Byeol-ha said, popping the 'p.'

Ryeo-woon gave a glance to Park Ji-hwan.

Ji-hwan, still recovering from the whiplash of this whole encounter, fumbled with his comm device.

A quick search later, he said:

"Yeah, there's a slum row here. House 8 still exists. Mostly. Structurally, it's... questionable."

Ryeo-woon grunted.

Then, with a small, clipped nod, he dismissed Byeol-ha like a teacher sending off a particularly problematic student.

"You can go. Stay out of the dungeon area. It'll be dangerous."

Byeol-ha gave a lazy two-finger salute.

"Roger that, Cap'n," he said cheekily.

He turned on his heel and sauntered away toward the nearest alley like he had not a single care in the world.

Ryeo-woon watched him disappear into the shadows, still suspicious.

"That guy..." Ji-hwan said hesitantly, "he's weird, right?"

"You think?" Ryeo-woon deadpanned.

The other seven Oblivion Guild members chuckled lowly but returned to business.

They huddled up, beginning to plan their approach to the dungeon.

"If the portal opens here," Ryeo-woon said, pointing at the hologram map, "we'll need two teams. One deep into the dungeon. One staying near the entry to guard civilians."

Ji-hwan nodded.

"We can split the elites. I'll organize a relief group for evacuation and clean-up."

Everyone nodded along seriously.

Then—

"Sounds inefficient."

A very familiar, very annoying voice piped up from right behind them.

Seven members of Oblivion almost jumped out of their skins.

Baek Ryeo-woon spun around sharply, hand going to his blade.

Standing there — casual, like he never left — was Kim Byeol-ha.

He was munching another apple, golden eyes shining like he had no idea he'd just broken the sound barrier of "how the hell did he sneak up on us."

"You again?" Ryeo-woon said sharply.

Ji-hwan's jaw was halfway to the ground.

One of the scouts actually made the holy sign of warding, half-jokingly.

How had none of them sensed him coming?

"Why are you back?" Ryeo-woon asked tightly.

Byeol-ha looked genuinely confused.

"I walked the way you told me," he said with an innocent shrug, "but somehow, I ended up back here."

Dead silence.

Everyone stared at him like he was an endangered species or an alien badly pretending to be human.

Byeol-ha crunched into his apple and added helpfully:

"Maybe I'm cursed?"

Ryeo-woon pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose.

"Maybe you're an idiot," he muttered under his breath.

Byeol-ha beamed.

"I get that a lot."

The Oblivion members exchanged looks, half-concerned, half-incredulous.

Ji-hwan coughed awkwardly.

"Uh, Guild Leader, what do we... do? With him?"

Ryeo-woon frowned, thinking hard.

In theory, they could just kick Byeol-ha out again.

But something about this guy nagged at him.The way he moved.The way he appeared and disappeared without a sound.

No average civilian could slip past SSS-rankers like that.

No average anything could.

Byeol-ha, completely ignoring the tense air, flopped onto a half-destroyed crate like he owned it.

He took another juicy bite of his apple and spoke like he was giving sage advice to a bunch of kindergarteners.

"You guys," he said seriously, pointing his half-eaten apple at them, "should just clear the dungeon first. Then clean up the mess later. Less work, more loot. More efficient."

Everyone blinked.

Ji-hwan whispered, "Wasn't that... basically what we were planning?"

"Yeah," one of the scouts muttered. "But it sounds way ruder when he says it."

Ryeo-woon narrowed his eyes at Byeol-ha.

"How do you know about dungeon clearing strategies?" he asked slowly.

Byeol-ha shrugged.

"I know a lot of things," he said, vaguely.

Like how to collapse an entire divine army with three words.Or how to bake the perfect sweet potato under a volcano.Or how to navigate the existential dread of being half god, half tired teenager.

Useful stuff, really.

Ryeo-woon exhaled slowly.

For now, fine.

He had a dungeon to clear.He'd deal with the weird stray cat later.

"You," he said sharply to Byeol-ha."Stay out of the way."

Byeol-ha gave a sleepy thumbs-up.

"Roger, Supreme Overlord of Dungeon Conquest."

Ji-hwan choked violently.

The team moved out cautiously, still throwing suspicious glances back at Byeol-ha, who simply kicked his legs lazily and started whistling.

As they disappeared toward the forming dungeon portal, Byeol-ha grinned to himself.

They were funny humans.

So serious. So dramatic.

If only they knew, he thought lazily, that the real boss monster is already sitting on their furniture.

He leaned back and stared at the swirling sky above.

For now, he was just a lost stray cat.

But when the time came?

Even the gods would remember that Kim Byeol-ha had returned.