Free Web NovelGo Jaewon, faced with overwhelming resentment, broke into a cold sweat that poured down like rain as he stumbled backward. They were people so familiar to him, and yet their strangeness was unbearably chilling. Then he suddenly realized—why was Lee Chanha so silent? He looked toward the former vice-captain of the Sunrise Team. And flinched.
Lee Chanha, who had not blinked once since earlier, was streaming tears of blood. It was a gaze seething with hatred so fierce Jaewon could not even dare to guess at it. The fury was so consuming, the blood vessels in his eyes burst from the pressure of holding it back.
The only one sitting quietly with a gentle smile, Lee Hyunmook, glanced down at his wristwatch and spoke.
“Ten seconds.”
The shadow beneath Hyunmook stretched too deep, too dark. No, it wasn’t just darkness—it was emptiness. His eyes were black. Black, of course, since he was Korean, but so black it was horrifying. To the frozen Jaewon, Hyunmook began the countdown.
“One.”
At the same time, the shadow shot out toward Jaewon.
“Two, three...”
No matter how much he repeated to himself it was just a hallucination, it was useless. Terrified, afraid the shadow might touch him, Jaewon bolted without even looking back. Pathetically, he tripped once and scrambled to his feet, crawling up before staggering out of the building.
Watching nearby, Yohan sighed in disbelief. He had been hiding himself under Chanha’s hallucination so Jaewon wouldn’t notice him. To conceal his presence even more perfectly, Hyunmook had sat down on Yohan’s side. Approaching the group, Yohan began to vent his anger.
“What a bastard. Doesn’t he even think about what he did? He just got angry, flipped it around, and ran.”
From Yohan’s perspective, Jaewon had simply pricked his own conscience, made excuses, got worked up, then abandoned the conversation and fled. Not only Yohan but everyone nearby had seen the same hallucination. Jaewon thought he alone was hallucinating, but in truth, he was the only one not hallucinating at all.
“Right? Still the same rotten bastard.”
Seo Yakrin muttered, seething with rage, only to be gently held back by Yoon Seungryong, who pretended to laugh while glaring murderously in the direction Jaewon had fled. Joo Hoyoung wordlessly pulled out a game console, and Chanha, with a calm smile, used his illusion to hide the traces of his bleeding eyes. Only Hyunmook remained serene and indifferent, as if nothing had happened.
Since Jaewon’s visit had caused a stir, they decided to have an early lunch. The menu was food provided free to guild members in the cafeteria. When Seungryong heaped his tray high like a mountain, the others eating nearby stared in surprise. After a few bites, Yohan exclaimed in awe.
“Wow! This is amazing!”
“Tastes just like the food from the Sunrise Guild.”
Hyunmook smiled as he sipped hot galbitang broth. Among the staff who had transferred to Taeyang Guild were Sunrise’s chefs and nutritionists. Seungryong, especially, had gone out of his way to seek them out and lure them with far better conditions. He was truly sincere about food.
After the meal came a guild tour. With drinks from the first-floor café in hand, they headed upstairs to the second floor. There were fitness facilities, sleeping quarters, even a music room, but what stood out most was the arcade space—unsurprisingly, heavily influenced by Joo Hoyoung. On the third and fourth floors, the training rooms were excellent, featuring unique punching dolls tough enough to vent frustration on endlessly.
“They can take about ten hits before they go down.”
Seo Yakrin, who had already tried, grinned as he explained to Yohan. Everything else was ordinary—except it all gleamed with cleanliness, and disinfectant was visible everywhere. Chanha smiled brightly. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
“Sanitation is important, after all.”
Everywhere there were things prepared for the team, but nothing for Hyunmook himself. He only watched warmly as his people rejoiced.
The last stop was the support office, where survival kits, food supplies, and various weapons were issued for rift missions. Entering the Taeyang Team’s private armory, Yohan nearly jumped.
“My weapon!”
There lay his weapon inlaid with the black-and-white Eternal Stone, neatly placed. He picked it up, stroking the stone, savoring its smooth, cold touch. But the joy was short-lived. As he was not an official member of the Taeyang Team but only a regular guild member, it was natural he could not carry such a precious weapon. And something felt off. Yohan tilted his head.
“Is this really mine?”
“Nope, that’s a fake. The real one’s here. Security’s still too lax at the guild.”
Seungryong, with a flourish, pulled Yohan’s spear out of his subspace and handed it over. As soon as he held it, Yohan felt the strength—this was truly his weapon. He clutched it fondly, stroked it, then reluctantly let it go.
“See you later...”
Yohan handed the weapon back to Seungryong with regret. With that, the simple guild tour ended, and they returned to the conference room. Chanha resumed the meeting that had been interrupted by Jaewon’s visit.
“Once guild preparations are complete, we’ll begin official activities—rift expeditions, monster subjugation, and so on. Until then, Yohan, you’ll be temporarily assigned to another team.”
“Another team? Which one...?”
Yohan, both expectant and a little uneasy about joining the Taeyang Team, asked.
“The Little Sheep Team. Mostly made up of new recruits.”
“What?”
Yohan doubted his own ears. Little Sheep Team? Did I hear that right? Chanha chuckled at his reaction.
“We allowed teams to choose their own names, and they came up with this. No need for it to be sheep-related, but here we are.”
Currently, Taeyang Guild had five expedition teams:
Taeyang Team – Hyunmook, Chanha, Yakrin, Seungryong, Hoyoung.
Golden Mary Team – former Sunrise members, renamed from Golden Bug.
Taeyang-Orium Team – former Sunrise members, renamed from Haeoreum.
Any-yang Team – new young recruits.
Little Sheep Team – new young recruits. freewebnovёl.ƈom
Yohan pointed at one name.
“Eni-yang...?”
“Not ‘Eni-yang,’ it’s ‘Ani-yang,’ apparently.”
Hoyoung corrected him. Clearly a pun. While Yohan ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) was curiously scanning the Little Sheep Team’s profiles, Yakrin’s phone buzzed. Glancing at it, he suddenly exclaimed.
“Hey! Yohan made the news!”
* * *
“Low-rank strength-type Awakener...”
Reading the just-published article, Jaewon’s face twisted. It was about the unidentified man who had escaped the Abyss alongside Hyunmook and the others. Referred to only as “A-so-and-so,” his name wasn’t revealed, but the report detailed his ability, and concluded by announcing his entry into Taeyang Guild.
Public reactions varied: envy, remarks that living together in the Abyss would naturally build bonds, accusations of favoritism, even ridiculous comments like, “If I could join Taeyang Guild, I’d gladly fall into the Abyss”—which earned heavy downvotes.
But none of that mattered to Jaewon. His eyes fixed on the recorder sitting on the table.
To confirm what had happened that day was just a hallucination, Jaewon played it. But before long, he shut it off. Shockingly, those dreadful, insane words had not been hallucinations at all. Terrified, Jaewon muttered.
“...Have they all gone mad in the Abyss?”
He next thought of a certain foreign high-rank Awakener specializing in hallucinations—someone who even yesterday had been publicly hunting monsters abroad, saving people. There was no way that person had secretly come to Korea to help play tricks like this. Physically impossible.
Then what, a mid-rank Awakener? But could a mid-rank truly project identical hallucinations across such a vast space to so many people all at once...?
