X
“Welcome.”
Seeing an unfamiliar customer after a long time put Sung Ji-woo in a surprisingly good mood.
“Are you looking for anything in particular?”
At first, handling customers had made him stutter and fumble, but lately he’d gotten quite natural at it. His smooth, service-worker-like tone made the man across from him look a bit awkward.
“Uh… well… I’m looking for an artifact with a shield function. Something small. Preferably not noticeable…”
The man rubbed the back of his neck. Only then did Ji-woo notice the bruises around his wrist—dark and ugly. He must have rolled around in some mess and hurried here to buy a shield.
Hunters were always the same: they only realized “Oh, maybe I shouldn’t do that” after getting themselves smashed up. Unless their life had been genuinely on the line, they never learned. Reckless to a fault. Ji-woo pointed toward the display shelf.
“Basic shield artifacts are over there.”
General, non-custom artifacts were arranged there for open sale. Prices varied wildly depending on duration and coverage. The man pretended to examine the items, but he kept glancing back at Ji-woo.
“Um… boss, by any chance… your name…”
“Yes? Mine?”
People occasionally asked his name, though not often. Usually it came up while asking about the shop’s name.
“If you’re asking about the shop name—it is named after me.”
“Ah, I knew it! So your name is… Sung Ji-woo?”
“Uh, yes…”
Ji-woo frowned slightly. The question felt different from what he usually got. This man wasn’t just curious—he seemed to be confirming something he already believed.
“Do we… know each other?”
Instead of answering, the man quickly held out his phone. On the screen was a post from an online community.
Recently returned from serving inside X-Gate. Got injured, applied for early return, approved today.
Since I finally got my official hunter license, here to spill some X-Gate lore.
Not gonna bore you with the usual dungeon grunt stories. You’ve heard enough of that crap.
But any of you ever break through 30 floors?
(Not trying to brag. I was literally carried.)
Some crazy ability user dropped out of the sky and annihilated the entire dungeon, so I got dragged to floor 30 without even realizing it.
If any of you hunter hopefuls are reading this:
If you ever get the chance to go that deep — DON’T.
Hide in a rift, cling to life, and get out when you can.
Yeah, they pay better the lower you go.
Yeah, the pay skyrockets.
But get your priorities straight.
Money is useless if you die.
You’ve heard of the notorious Floor 25, right?
After that, honestly floors 26–28 are easy.
But on 29? You start thinking: “Oh… this is hell, huh?”
I begged the bus driver like a dog to spare me. Barely survived.
That bastard must be above S-rank… maybe SSS-rank.
Felt like facing a mythical creature that shouldn’t exist. Still feels unreal.
Sometimes I wonder if I’m actually dead lol.
Anyway, for anyone who won’t believe me, I’m leaving the names of the legendary beings I saw. Someday they’ll be huge shots.
They were looking for someone named Yoo Hee-ro and… Sung Jin-woo? Sung Ji-woo? Something like that.
********
Threads exploded beneath it.
(omitted here since you know the rest; translated fully above in Korean)
*********
Ji-woo skimmed through several more posts mentioning Yoo Hee-ro.
“Ah…”
“So it is you? I wasn’t sure, so I came to check…”
“No. Must be someone with the same name.”
He denied it immediately. He had no idea what type of person this customer was—he couldn’t carelessly reveal anything. And the last thing he wanted was rumors.
Hee-ro… thinks I’m inside the Gate? What am I supposed to do with that…
What surprised him, though, was the part about Hee-ro looking for him. Then again, it wasn’t that strange. Yoo Hee-ro had always been timid and shy around strangers. Making new friends would’ve been difficult.
In that harsh dungeon environment, loneliness must have hit him. Seeking familiar faces… it was only natural. Maybe he’d just been asking out of simple curiosity.
When you enter a foreign society, you miss the one you left behind.
Once he got used to hunter life, he’d probably forget soon enough.
…Maybe I should’ve told him I wasn’t becoming a hunter.
He’d thought they’d never cross paths after graduation, so he never mentioned it. Now, imagining Hee-ro believing so confidently that Ji-woo was somewhere in the Gate… it tugged at his heart.
The customer, sensing awkwardness, didn’t press further and left.
Not long after, Gam Joo-an came to invite him to lunch—with an extra topic in mind.
“…Ji-woo, did you see that?”
“If you mean the online posts, yes. And yeah, it’s me. I met Hee-ro through the school mentoring program. I was his mentor.”
Ji-woo explained everything before Joo-an could ask. No point hiding it from him.
Joo-an hesitated, then lowered his voice.
“That pendant… from back then…”
“I gave it to him. Yeah.”
Joo-an exhaled sharply. He’d figured out the relationship in an instant.
“So… Hee-ro has no idea you’re here.”
“Yeah. Seems like it. I didn’t even imagine this could happen…”
Ji-woo rubbed his face, frustrated.
Maybe he’d been too wrapped in his own situation to think clearly.
“It’s just temporary. He didn’t have many close friends besides me… He’ll meet new people soon.”
But his expression looked unexpectedly lonely.
Joo-an instinctively doubted it — but he held his tongue.
“I still think you should tell him. He’s searching for someone who isn’t even inside.”
“…Yeah. I guess.”
Ji-woo slowly got up. He’d been planning to send supplies anyway; now was the perfect time.
He prepared a care package and a letter addressed to Yoo Hee-ro.
***************
Inside the Dungeon
“…Yoo… Hee-ro?”
People deeper inside the dungeon turned toward the loudly opened entrance. They recognized him instantly—Lee Hye-rin, Shin Yoon-jae, and Koo Min-ah.
Their three additional party members looked startled. Unless it was a crisis, no one barged into a Gate already claimed by another party.
“Is it an emergency?” one asked Hye-rin urgently.
“No… not exactly…”
She looked confused herself. She gave Hee-ro a look, asking him to explain.
He ignored it, scanning the party.
“One person is missing.”
He swallowed, his throat dry.
“Missing who?” Hye-rin asked.
“My hyung. Where is he?”
“…What are you talking about?”
“You’re not looking for… Sung Ji-woo, are you?” Yoon-jae asked cautiously.
“Sung Ji-woo isn’t here. We’ve been six from the start.”
Hee-ro, who looked ready to tear the dungeon apart searching, froze mid-step.
“…He must have been assigned to another party, then.”
A shame, but he’d have to move on. If Ji-woo was ahead, he needed to clear the dungeon quickly.
And then—
Hye-rin frowned, as if she’d heard the most absurd thing in the world.
“What are you talking about? Sung Ji-woo never entered this Gate.
…Don’t tell me—you didn’t know?”
You think this chapter was thrilling? Wait until you read The Extraordinary Witch’s Guide to Ascension! Click here to discover the next big twist!
Read : The Extraordinary Witch’s Guide to Ascension
If You Notice any translation issues or inconsistency in names, genders, or POV etc? Let us know here in the comments or on our Discord server, and we’ll fix it in current and future chapters. Thanks for helping us to improve! 🙂
Dear translator, i can’t hold it anymore. This made me mad cuz it keeps bothering me. Plz. Fix. Your. Translation. Read the sentences carefully. Don’t use machine translate or smth. You misgender the guildmaster previously as woman but he’s a man. Idk even i became confused now about his real gender. Now that certain dialogue for this chap “He gave it to me” when it certainly should be ‘I’ gave it to him!!! This made me so mad cuz the same problem kept occuring and ruined my mood!
I’m so sorry you had to go through this. I will make sure this does not happen anymore! TT