Chapter 106: Luring Out Nada

“Kyaaah! It’s the Four Heavenly Kings!”

The ear-piercing cheers I hadn’t heard in a while instantly woke me up.

‘Wow, screams at school really do sound different.’

Since it was the first day back, my Eomma had woken me up early, so I was dozing off on my way to school when the girls’ screams snapped me fully awake.

I propped my chin up and watched the playground scene beyond the window.

A cloud-like crowd of female students had gathered around the Four Heavenly Kings as they all entered the school.

It looked like everyone had been waiting eagerly for the first day, all busy admiring the Four Heavenly Kings’ radiant faces.

Even the girls in the classroom ran outside when they heard the news of their arrival.

“Dana, hey!”

Sitting alone in the empty classroom, I heard a cheerful voice.

“You came early? I heard you had something going on last night.”

Yesterday, I remembered Han Ji-bin had left a grim chat message about going to carry out a bloody judgment, so I expected him to show up late, but Yeon Ha-yeon had arrived surprisingly early.

Soon after, the Four Heavenly Kings entered the classroom, bringing with them a huge number of female students.

“Dana, Dana, it’s great to see you at school!”

“Wasn’t everyone tired this morning?”

“I’m going to nap a bit.”

The Four Heavenly Kings each had their say and loudly took their seats right after arriving.

“Sleeping right after you got here?”

Ban Eun-hyeol scolded Ji Gang-han, who immediately put his head down to nap, then dropped his bag next to me.

Despite the huge changes in my relationship with Ban Eun-hyeol over the break, it didn’t feel obvious once we were back at school.

Since we both treated each other pretty much the same as always, no one seemed to notice the massive event that had happened between us.

“You also slept as soon as you got here?”

“How’d you know?”

“Pfft, you can tell by your face.”

Ban Eun-hyeol reached over to my face and brushed off a stray strand of hair from my cheek.

Suddenly, the noisy classroom quieted down.

Everyone stared at us with expressions that said they couldn’t believe what they were seeing.

Seeing the hostile looks from the girls nearby, I subtly pulled my head back.

“I’ll take care of it.”

I brushed my face and rolled my eyes to look around, noticing that Yeon Ha-yeon and the Four Heavenly Kings were also giving us strange looks.

“Why?”

“Huh? It just looked like you two were getting along well.”

When I asked cautiously, Yeon Ha-yeon replied lightly, but her lips trembled slightly.

I narrowed my eyes, watching her curiously, and she lowered her gaze to her workbook before suddenly diving into solving problems.

Eun Ba-da also pulled out a workbook from his bag and started studying, while Han Ji-bin kept glancing back at us before turning forward and humming a tune.

As if by agreement, they all stopped paying attention to us and focused on their own tasks.

Watching this, I felt a bit uneasy but couldn’t really press further, so I just sat there as if nothing had happened.

“Hey, did you see Mark is a Nada fan? He even came to Korea just to see Nada.”

“I saw Mark yesterday. He’s covered in Nada merch.”

“There are a lot of Nada fans at our school now, too. This one has merch, that one has some.”

At that moment, I overheard my classmates talking about me. Naturally, my attention shifted as soon as Nada was mentioned.

Now that I thought about it, a few students in our class did have Nada merch.

Even in the hallways during breaks, I spotted quite a few Nada fans.

‘That one’s a fan of mine too?’

Even Shin Sena’s phone case was Nada merch featuring the hoodie girl design.

Of course, many were uncomfortable openly showing they were Nada fans, but seeing so many at school gave me a reassuring feeling.

Reassuring as it was, the first day back passed by in a whirlwind.

The girls crowded around the Four Heavenly Kings as they appeared after a long time, and some had come to see Yeon Ha-yeon and me as well.

By the last period, we even escaped to the rooftop to avoid those fans.

“Is it okay to skip class and come find us like this?”

“I didn’t sleep well…”

“Still, isn’t it fun to come to the rooftop after so long?”

We were all goofing around on the rooftop, skipping class with the Four Heavenly Kings and Yeon Ha-yeon.

[Hwan(6): Dungeon Break has occurred in Suwon. Citizens are evacuating. Support requested nearby.]

Ihwan, who rarely sent messages, reported the Dungeon Break in Suwon.

“Suwon? Who’s nearby?”

“The closest is… us.”

“That’s right?! Baek Jiwoo lives in Gwanak-gu, and the rest all live in Gangbuk.”

“If this chat is going out, the situation must be serious, right?”

Eun Ba-da spoke worriedly, and everyone who had been lounging or sitting on the rooftop suddenly stood up.

“What’s the fastest way to get to Suwon?”

***

At that moment, in Suwon, citizens were fleeing in panic due to monsters suddenly appearing.

“This is unacceptable. Stop this now.”

Watching the scene, Ihwan frowned and spoke to the director in a low voice.

The director, who was observing the scene from afar using a drone, clicked his tongue.

“Tsk, I didn’t want it to come to this either, but what choice do I have? This is the only way to uncover Nada’s true identity.”

“Leaving the gate open on purpose to catch Nada is crossing the line.”

“We don’t know when a high-rank gate will open. We need a Dungeon Break to happen to lure Nada out. There’s no better way.”

The director felt uneasy but justified the decision as necessary.

Since Mark had entered the country, the plan was to use him to reveal Nada’s identity.

First, they created an incident that would force Nada to appear.

Then, once Nada showed up, Mark would secretly cast hallucinations on her.

If Nada fell into the hallucinations, it would be a success.

If not, they planned to use Mark’s power to forcibly capture her.

Top-ranked awakened in the country would never join this plan, but thanks to the arrival of America’s number one rank, they dared to set up this bold operation.

“And if we manage to capture Nada and send her back to her original dimension, wouldn’t this minor damage be worth it?”

If Nada was sent away, the gates would disappear completely, and there would be no casualties caused by the gates.

Capturing Nada would make the neighborhood damage a small price to pay.

They had already evacuated the local residents, so there would be no loss of life.

Damaged houses and stores could be compensated for later.

The director looked at Mark, who was holding and stroking a hallucination-based monster with pride.

He had worried Mark might refuse, but it turned out Mark was a fan of Nada, so everything went smoothly.

Mark, who desperately wanted to learn Nada’s true identity, gladly joined the operation when told he could be the key to uncovering it.

“But do you think Nada will really come?”

Mark craned his neck anxiously, peeking toward the site of the Dungeon Break.

“Absolutely. She feels guilty about causing the gate, so if she hears about the Dungeon Break, she’ll come running right away.”

Ihwan headed to the Dungeon Break site, worried that someone might have been left behind.

Mark and the director waited silently, just hoping for Nada to arrive.

How much time passed, no one knew.

Suddenly, among the monsters, someone appeared.

The director, nervously shaking his leg, instantly stopped moving.

“She’s here!”

Distinctly different from the others and unrecognizable, the person swiftly slaughtered the monsters.

***

‘Thank goodness the others told me to stay at school.’

As soon as I arrived at the Dungeon Break site, I quickly began taking care of the monsters.

Although the Four Heavenly Kings and Yeon Ha-yeon left earlier, I had arrived much faster.

I planned to clear the situation before my friends arrived and then return to school.

It bothered me a little that Ihwan from the Dungeon Management Bureau, who was desperate to find out my identity, sent that message, but I figured the bureau wouldn’t bait me with a Dungeon Break, so I came without hesitation.

‘But the damage doesn’t seem severe enough for us to need help.’

The more monsters I killed, the more puzzled I became.

This level of threat could easily be handled by the other nearby awakened if they cooperated.

I couldn’t understand why they asked for help in a chatroom with as many as ten top-ranked awakened.

Unless it was a situation beyond the other awakened’s control or the monsters were high-ranked, which didn’t seem to be the case.

Besides, the residents had already been evacuated, and there wasn’t a single person around the Dungeon Break site.

The only people I saw were a few suspicious-looking awakened and Ihwan passing by at a distance.

‘I need to wrap this up quickly and go.’

Since the situation wasn’t normal, I thought it best to finish and leave quickly.

After swiftly dealing with the monsters that had come out, I entered the gate to close it.

While advancing, killing monsters trying to escape, an incongruous excited voice came from behind.

“LFCt! **|”

“What’s that?”

Because it was in English, I only caught that someone was calling me. But the voice sounded familiar.

I turned around and frowned at a foreigner with neat platinum blonde hair swept back.

‘Mark?’

Mark, who had said he wanted to meet Nada in person, was approaching me, stepping over monster corpses.