trouble - evnne

13

Outside the dungeon, everything was in a mess since all seven members of Evnne stormed into the dungeon. Seowon looked frazzled, running a hand through his hair and swore, "First day back on the job and this happens?" Suddenly, he heard a chime and Woongki was speaking to him.

"What now?" Seowon hissed, "I am in a crisis-"

Woongki cut him off, "Seowon, I'm outside the A-class dungeon Onepact went into. Seowon. The dungeon...just closed."

"That's a good thing, isn't it?" Seowon asked absently, typing on his tablet.

"Seowon. Onepact is still inside the dungeon."

The telepath's heart immediately sank. "What? But that's never happened be-"

Another chime, and another telepath, Jang Yeojun, joined the conversation channel. "Is Seowon there? Holy fucking shit-"

"Talk, right now," Woongki demanded.

"The B-class Tiot went into just closed. All of a sudden. There was this weird howling noise and it closed. Tiot hasn't sealed it yet. They are still in there. I-"

Seowon felt as though his head was going to explode, taking in the horrifying news while receiving frantic orders from superiors to please explain what the hell was going on.

Suddenly, the staff all around him started to fuss and panic, when he raised his head, Seowon watched the entrance of the B-class dungeon that the entire Evnne had just entered shrink, before it vanished, as though it had never existed. "Oh my god," Seowon gasped.

Another frenzy of voices filled his head, before Seowon finally yelled, "I'll tell you in person, okay? Sit tight and I'll get to you." He only had time to run a trembling hand through his hair with a wince and a silent curse, before he made his way to the headquarters of the Hunters association, briskly walking to the conference room where a hurried board meeting was taking place. Upon entering, he was greeted by the nine board members, looking stressed and concerned.

"So?" Han Yujin, the youngest board member, urged when he took notice of Seowon's arrival. "We are working on figuring out what the hell is happening," Seowon tried to deliver the news calmly but was evidently failing, "But as you may have heard, all three dungeons that suddenly opened today, two B-class and one A-class, has sealed with the hunters still inside."

Kim Jiwoong, a senior board member of the Hunters association, asked, "Are you telling me, almost all the members of the three biggest guilds we have are stuck inside a dungeon?"

"Technically, it's multiple dungeons," Seowon corrected meekly.

"Let's leave that aside for now. Who do we have left?" Sung Hanbin, the head of the board, questioned seriously.

Seowon bit his lip, "Only the Toz section of T-guild, they couldn't be deployed since they were having their health checkups."

"They'll be on leave for the next two days," Zhang Hao sighed, leaning back into his chair.

"We need to contact as many hunters as we can," Kim Taerae urged, "Who knows what will happen next?"

"Whatever it is, we need to find out how to get them out," Park Gunwook said, hands clenched together tightly, "If not, this would be a disaster."

Seowon made a face. It was already a disaster.

"Seowon!"

"What now!" Seowon yelled, looking up to the ceiling, scaring every single board member.

"You gotta get back to your site," Woongki demanded, sounding breathless, "You won't believe what's going on here."

With a lot on his plate, Seowon rushed back to the dungeon site, where staff were starting to pack up with much confusion and concern. Woongki and Yeojun were chattering in his ear like starlings but not willing to divulge what was happening to receive such frantic pleas, evidently too flabbergasted.

The site looked empty, no trace of the dungeon entrance, and more importantly, no trace of Evnne. Then Seowon brought his eyes up to the sky, where a startling large silvery rectangle hung like a banner.

"What the hell is this?" Seowon asked the nearest person, restorer Hyunbeen, who made a face of helplessness, "It appeared out of nowhere. Maybe fifteen minutes after you left? It's not a dungeon entrance, we checked."

"Then what is it-" Seowon's question died at his lips when the form rippled like water, before a scene was painted across it.

"That's Hanbin," Hyunbeen whispered in disbelief, "And there's Keita. What the hell are they in?"

"This has gotta be some sort of sick trick," Seowon seethed, but they continued to watch the Evnne members, as though they were the cast of an elaborate reality show.

-

Evnne was, for the lack of better word, going through it. It seems Keita and Hanbin's common coping mechanism was pacing, the two leaders were doing exactly that. Junghyun was taking this chance to study the dungeon. It was as though they were in a vacuum, there were absolutely no physical forms around them, they were surrounded by a bright, multi-coloured space. Before them, was a cross-road. Two paths, snaking into the distance, looking abstract and unstable.

Hesitant, Seungeon asked, "Should we split up and try both ways?"

Keita swiftly answered, "Absolutely not. We'll stick together, no matter what."

Jihoo faked a swoon at Keita's touching response, then composed himself and said, "Then let's, uh, toss a coin or something. Fifty-fifty chance."

"You have a coin?"

"Well, I had to bribe Hwanhee with cash."

"We're gonna have a talk with you when we get out of here."

The coin was quickly flipped and a pathway was selected. "Here goes nothing," Jeonghyeon sighed, eyeing the chosen pathway nervously.

"We're all gonna be fine, and we're all gonna have a good time," Hanbin said, his voice high-pitched and his smile strained.