Chapter 85: 85

Hak-joon sucked in his breath after hearing Kim Seok-jin’s question and looked at Su-hyeun . To think, it’s a blue-colored dungeon .

There had only ever been talks of such a dungeon potentially appearing in the future, but it had never appeared until now . But still, such a dungeon was waiting for them in their destination .

Now that he thought about it, Su-hyeun had never explained the reason why they were going to the United States of America in the first place . No, he simply told the younger man to tag along, that’s all .

“I heard the news, and I’m certainly intrigued by it . ” Su-hyeun opened his lips a beat later, but his voice remained calm and collected . “I was thinking of stopping by there, actually . ”

“What I’m asking you is, did you have foreknowledge of a blue-colored dungeon generating in that location?” Kim Seok-jin asked .

Su-hyeun brought up the need to go to the States before the blue dungeon had appeared . But then, a blue dungeon did indeed appear in that very same country . This all could have been nothing more than pure coincidence, but Kim Seok-jin was feeling this unexplainable sense of incongruity .

However…

“There’s no way that’s true . How can I predict something like that?” Su-hyeun’s reply was as expected .

There was no sure-kill method to make him talk . Not only that, Su-hyeun’s initial purpose wasn’t the dungeon, to begin with . Even within the Reaper Guild, only two people — Kim Seok-jin and Ji-yeon — knew of the information related to this event .

Kim Seok-jin thought .

He then nodded his head at Su-hyeun’s reply . “I see . In that case, I’ll let you know when we have touched down . Please rest until then . ”

“Thank you . ”

Kim Seok-jin stood up and headed to the next cabin . Hak-joon, unable to breathe until then, spat out a long sigh and spoke up . “A blue-colored dungeon? Is that for real?”

“Probably . It should show up on the evening news later today . ”

“How did you find about it?”

“I heard from Park Ji-yeon . ”

“Didn’t you say a minute ago that you wanted to go there… . ?” Hak-joon asked again . “Were you being serious?”

“Of course I was serious . ”

“Wow… . ”

“If you’re scared, you should turn back now . I’m not planning to force you . ”

“Scared? Who, me?”

Su-hyeun asked in case Hak-joon was scared by the prospect, but the latter was forming a completely different expression from fear .

“No way . I’m actually looking forward to it, you know . ”

“…You’re also a weirdo, aren’t you?”

Although Su-hyeun said that in a somewhat unhappy tone of voice, a smile floated up on his face soon after .

It was a uniquely satisfying reply . Well, if Hak-joon got scared by events like this one, then it’d be a bit hard to expect greater things from him in the future, after all .

The private plane flew for ten hours and finally reached the other side of the globe .

As soon as he stepped on the brand-new country, Hak-joon looked around at the surroundings as if they were all too strange to him . Nothing seemed too different from home so far, but just the fact of being in America alone must’ve been too stimulating for him .

“Is this your first time in America?” Su-hyeun asked .

“That was my first time riding on a plane, actually . ”

“Ah, that’s right . ”

“Have you been to America before?”

“Nope . ”

At least during this lifetime, this would be his first . Of course, he came here often in his previous life . He had traveled to America at least twice before he even became an awakener . After that, he came here around two or three times a year; he didn’t have much of an impression of this place anymore .

“Please at least pretend to be excited, will you? Where is your humanity, man?” Hak-joon lamented .

“Well, it doesn’t matter where people live . It’s all the same, anyway . Besides all that…”

Su-hyeun scanned the people on standby near the airport’s runaway one at a time . Around ten folks showed up today, and they were all awakeners, to boot .

Kim Seok-jin, climbing out of the plane along with Su-hyeun, approached them first . Maybe they were already acquainted to a certain degree because he formed a bright expression and did a simple hug with a man stepping forward from the waiting group .

Kim Seok-jin then proceeded to converse for a little while before beckoning at Su-hyeun . “Please come this way . ”

He introduced the man he was talking to to Su-hyeun and Hak-joon .

He was a white male with blonde hair and blue eyes, kitted out in a comfortable-looking tracksuit . While studying Su-hyeun with mystified eyes, he spoke . “You’re a lot younger than I thought . ”

“My name’s Kim Su-hyeun . And this is Choi Hak-joon, my closest friend . ”

“I’m Josh, from the Medical Guild . I’ve heard your name many times . You’re a hot topic even in this neck of the woods . ”

The rankings within the Tower of Trials were applicable to all countries . As no such thing as one’s nationality applied within the Tower, the rankings had been unified .

Su-hyeun’s ranking on each floor always showed the overwhelming first place . He was the only one who climbed up to the 30th floor and passed the 10th level trials every single time .

“Personally, I’m a huge fan of yours . I’ve been cheering you on your challenges so far,” said Josh .

For a first meeting, they sure were rather embarrassing things to say .

Unsurprisingly, though, this man named Josh was a rather excellent awakener .

The United States possessed the highest number of awakeners . However, that didn’t necessarily equate to their overall quality being high . So, even in America, someone with an A-Rank should be considered as occupying a pretty high plateau .

On top of this, Josh was the chosen representative of the group of ten waiting here to offer their greetings, so he must have occupied a very high position in the guild .

“We heard that you were hoping to get in touch with our guild,” said Josh .

“I have a favor to ask of you, actually,” Su-hyeun replied .

“If we can build a friendly relationship with you, Mister Su-hyeun, then we will do everything within our power to accommodate you . ”

That was a considerably positive reply .

It was around then that Kim Seok-jin, quietly listening to Su-hyeun’s and Josh’s conversation, decided to butt in . “Well, then . I shall be on my way back now . If you’re in need of anything, please don’t hesitate and give us a call . ”

“Ah . Thank you . ”

Su-hyeun and Hak-joon shook hands with Kim Seok-jin to bid him farewell . They certainly didn’t expect the vice guild master of the Reaper Guild to personally guide them here .

“Shall we talk more while on the move? My guild master also wishes to speak to you as well, Mister Su-hyeun . ”

Su-hyeun nodded his head at Josh’s suggestion .

All three of them climbed aboard a large SUV . Josh rode shotgun in the front passenger seat, while both Su-hyeun and Hak-joon settled down on the back .

The ignition was turned on, and when the vehicle finally set off, Josh spoke again . “You said you have a favor to ask us earlier . Do you mind if I ask you about it now?”

“It’s not something too difficult, actually . I was wondering if you’d let us participate in the upcoming dungeon attack, that’s all . ”

“The dungeon attack, is it?”

“Yes . ”

Josh’s eyes trembled as he stared at Su-hyeun’s and Hak-joon’s face through the rear-view mirror . At that moment, he was recalling a rather special dungeon in his head .

“Are you by any chance talking about the blue-colored dungeon that showed up this time?”

“Yes, that one . ”

Josh had to work extra hard to keep his lips straight at Su-hyeun’s reply .

The blue-colored dungeon .

As a matter of fact, Josh’s guild was having issues with the lack of high-ranking awakeners to deploy in that dungeon — especially so with the number of S-Ranks, as that was even more insufficient .

There were a total of five S-Ranks in the whole of the United States . Unfortunately, three of them hadn’t returned from the Tower of Trials yet .

In fact, the newly-appearing blue-colored dungeon had garnered quite a lot of attention, and its difficulty was currently impossible to estimate .

It was the same story back in the past with the green-colored dungeons, as well; it was a normal practice to send the highest-ranking awakeners you could find into the dungeons that had never appeared before .

They should be able to have quite a sizeable voice in the upcoming blue-colored dungeon attack .

As a matter of fact, they were thinking of requesting Su-hyeun for his participation in the assault team during his visit, so him bringing the topic up first was doubly great from Josh’s perspective .

“I think I’ll have to speak to the guild master first regarding this matter . But, please be rest assured . I believe my guild master will be rather enthusiastic with his response,” said Josh .

“I see . ”

Su-hyeun also didn’t think Josh could give him a definite answer to his request . From the get-go, this was a matter only the guild master could decide on . No, he simply let his intentions be known for the purpose of starting the talk a little earlier than expected, that’s all .

Su-hyeun decided to take it at a leisurely pace .

From the outset, the United States was infamous for its unwillingness to accept other countries’ awakener’s manpower . If this were any other case, they wouldn’t even agree to Su-hyeun’s participation .

However, the situation this time was different . The difficulty of the dungeon Su-hyeun wished to attack was blue-colored . On top of this, the Americans were currently dealing with a void within their home-grown S-Rank manpower .

Su-hyeun couldn’t tell how they would respond to his demands . Now normally, they would’ve agreed to his request in a heartbeat, but…

The guild master of the Medical Guild, Robert William .

Su-hyeun knew that man pretty well . Among all the filthy-rich awakener guilds, he was rather famous for being the greediest of the lot . Would such a guy be satisfied with this?

The bait had been set .

It probably wouldn’t take long before an answer came in his way .

Under Josh’s guidance, Su-hyeun and Hak-joon arrived at a massive house .

The building was empty from its first to the third floor, and as if it had been tidied up ahead of time, it was also quite clean as well .

Josh told them to unpack and rest for a little while and went somewhere . It seemed that he needed to have a private chat with the Medical Guild’s guild master .

“Their treatment is better than I expected,” said Hak-joon .

“It’s probably due to the Reaper Guild’s influence . ”

Not only was the Reaper Guild famous in Korea, it was also deeply respected internationally as well .

The guild master Ji-yeon being an S-Rank had something to do with that, but some part of their fame was also based on the considerable number of awakeners affiliated with the Guild itself .

“First of all, the States just don’t have enough high rankers when compared to the overall number of the awakeners living here,” said Su-hyeun .

“Really?”

“The number of Awakeners living here ranked B or lower is overwhelmingly high, sure, but there isn’t much difference when compared to South Korea on the ranks A and above . Actually, they have one less S-Rank compared to Korea at the moment . ”

“Is it because of you?”

“Yeah . ”

“I guess the Americans did have a reason to be worried about you, bro . Plus, their pride of being the world’s number one must’ve taken a knock because of you, too . ”

Compared to its population numbers, South Korea enjoyed a relatively high percentage of high-ranked awakeners . One only had to take a look at how the number of S-Ranked awakeners was higher than America’s to understand this . America only had a total of five S-Rank awakeners while South Korea had six, including Su-hyeun .

“That’s why they won’t be able to ignore my suggestion,” said Su-hyeun .

“If they only have that many S-Ranks, they will definitely need awakeners from other countries for the upcoming blue-colored dungeon attack . ”

“Correct . Not all of the S-Ranks would be manning their positions, after all . ”

Most of the S-Ranks chose to continuously climb the tower, which meant that it was only natural for the time they spent walking on the American soil to be a lot shorter than when they were not . If they learned of a blue-colored dungeon being generated beforehand, sure, but they didn’t have a reason to interrupt their trials in the middle without knowing what happened .

“The only variable is their pride . ” Su-Hyeun dropped his luggage on the side and spoke while sitting down on a comfy couch . “The pride of being the best . ”

No matter what anyone said, America was still the world’s largest and strongest awakener powerhouses . The pride of its citizens ran high accordingly . It was no shock that they had never borrowed awakener manpower from other nations until now, too .

There being no precedence meant that it’d be that much harder for them to make it happen .

“Will they be able to let go of their pride?” Hak-joon asked .

“It’ll be difficult, I think?”

“…Eh?” That way-too-easy of a reply caused Hak-joon to form a puzzled expression, instead .

Difficult? If Su-hyeun knew that, what was his reason for making that request in the first place?

“Just wait, and you’ll see . ” Perhaps he found Hak-joon’s expression rather entertaining since Su-hyeun grinned as he laid down on the couch . “A human’s greed knows no bounds, you know . ”