During break time between dungeons, Mu Yichen placed a fresh fruit drink beside Lee Aseok’s seat.

  Kang Juwon casually walked over and, without breaking eye contact, set down a neatly packed bento box beside it.

  Lee Aseok didn't even glance at them.

  He gave Pudding a boiled egg, pulled out a dented can of cold coffee from his own pocket, and sipped it while watching the dungeon entrance in silence.

  The only reaction came from Pudding, who barked once at the bento box and then attacked the egg like it owed him money.

  The third competition turned philosophical.

  “Being chosen by the holy sword means fate has plans for you,” Mu Yichen said gently one evening, as they gathered near the dungeon campfire. “Even if you try to run from it.”

  Kang Juwon leaned on a nearby tree, smiling faintly. “Fate is for those who don’t have the power to choose. Lee Aseok has plenty of power.”

  Lee Aseok, sitting with his back to them and his iron rod across his lap, spoke at last.

  “I don’t believe in fate.”

  Then he laid down on the grass and used Pudding as a pillow.

  The conversation ended there.

  Park Taegun and Seo MinHyun watched the drama unfold with all the detachment of office workers watching their manager argue with the HR director.

  "At this point, it’s not even a love triangle," Seo whispered. "It’s a love battlefield. And the only one winning is the puppy."

  “Actually,” Park Taegun replied, eyes half-closed, “I think the rod is also winning. It gets more attention than either of them.”

  One morning, before they entered a B-rank gate, Kang Juwon handed Lee Aseok a new enchanted glove. “For better grip on your iron rod.”

  Mu Yichen wordlessly handed over a cold compress and an energy drink.

  Lee Aseok patted Pudding’s head, adjusted the strap on his rod, and walked into the gate without a word.

  “You know,” Seo MinHyun whispered to Ziqin, “If someone wrote a drama about this, no one would believe it.”

  “I’d believe it,” Ziqin said, standing up and cracking his knuckles. “But only if they added subtitles and background music.”

  Park Taegun looked at them and calmly went back to polishing his shield.

  That day, Lee Aseok cleared the boss by himself again.

  As always, without waiting, he appeared silently beside the group, and took Pudding from his arms like a mother collecting a child from daycare.

  He sat down on a nearby rock, petting the excited pup.

  Mu Yichen approached with a towel. Kang Juwon brought water. Both extended their offerings at the same time.

  Lee Aseok took neither.

  He opened a bag of puppy treats and gave one to Pudding, then leaned back, closed his eyes, and muttered, “Too noisy.”

  Park Taegun and Seo MinHyun backed away slowly.

  Ziqin drank a mana potion and looked up at the sky.

  And Mu Yichen and Kang Juwon stood there, two powerful men, completely defeated by one man, one puppy, and one rod.

  Mu Yichen and Kang Juwon, once towering figures of dignity and command, had somehow fallen into the most unflattering roles of their lives: background characters in the story of Lee Aseok’s indifference.

  It wasn’t their fault. It was just that Lee Aseok had only three priorities.

  First: Gates.

  Second: His trusty, beat-up iron rod.

  Third: Pudding, the puppy who ruled his world with a wagging tail and absolutely zero awareness of how powerful her owner was.

  And so, the days fell into a pattern.

  Kang Juwon would start the morning by handing Lee Aseok a thermos of rare herbal tea brewed specifically for stamina recovery.

  Only to be interrupted by Mu Yichen appearing at the exact moment with a meal box meticulously arranged by a professional chef specializing in combat diets.

  Lee Aseok? He usually took a bag of dried jerky from his pocket and fed Pudding first.

  Then he sipped his lukewarm canned coffee without saying a word.

  Later in the day, Kang Juwon would offer a new upgrade for the iron rod—a mana amplifier attached to the grip, custom-forged by the Moon Guild’s best craftsmen.

  Lee Aseok tested it once, frowned, and put it aside.

  Mu Yichen, undeterred, appeared that night with a gift box wrapped neatly.

  Inside? A reinforced, S-rank sheath designed for swords... which Lee Aseok completely ignored in favor of duct-taping his rod back together.

  Park Taegun quietly took the discarded sheath and stored it in his bag. “Might as well use it for holding snacks,” he muttered.

  Three months passed like that.

  Lee Aseok didn’t rest. He traveled nonstop, moving across continents like a ghost. He cleared gates at an impossible rate.

  Some were S-rank. Some were deemed “unclearable.” Yet somehow, after each one, Lee Aseok emerged without a scratch and simply asked where the next one was.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  The world began to notice.

  Guild leaders who once laughed at him now whispered his name behind closed doors. Government agencies across Asia, Europe, and the Americas began to panic as their carefully mapped dungeon outbreak patterns fell apart.

  The number of A-rank and S-rank dungeons was reduced. Not gradually, drastically.

  In just ninety days, the appearance of the high level gates reduced to nearly forty percent.

  No warning.

  No explanation.

  Only one shared detail: the change began after Lee Aseok started to clear the gates.

  But asking him directly? Suicidal.

  Lee Aseok wasn’t exactly known for his social skills.

  He stared at people like he was mentally categorizing how heavy they looked and whether they were edible. And when he spoke, it was usually short, dry, and never helpful.

  So instead, the world turned to those around him.

  Unfortunately for them, those "around him" included:

  —Mu Yichen: expression gentle, hands elegant, aura screaming “back off.”

  —Kang Juwon: smile calm, but eyes colder than an S-rank frost gate.

  —Seo MinHyun: always two seconds away from causing a PR disaster.

  —Park Taegun: who somehow managed to look both threatening and done with life.

  And finally, poor He Ziqin, who hadn’t signed up for any of this.

  Interrogation requests were subtle at first, diplomatic meetings, polite inquiries, tea invitations from international guilds.

  They all failed.

  Mu Yichen responded to the first inquiry by smiling gently and asking, “Why would I monitor a teammate’s behavior inside a dungeon? Are we suggesting now that trust no longer exists within allied teams?”

  The representative from Germany tried again. “But surely, as the vice-leader”

  “I suggest you rephrase that sentence before I report your guild for harassment.” Smile still intact.

  Kang Juwon was worse.

  When approached by a ranking officer from the European Hunter Coalition, he merely stared for five seconds and said, “Do you believe in ghosts?”

  The officer blinked. “Excuse me?”

  “You should start.” Then he walked away.

  Seo MinHyun was more direct.

  “Yeah, I don’t know what he does in the dungeon. But I do know he once hit a gate boss with a broken Iron rod and killed it, so honestly? I stopped questioning things. I suggest you do too.”

  Park Taegun just handed them a formal legal disclaimer and left without a word.

  Even He Ziqin, who was usually helpful, snapped during his seventh inquiry meeting.

  “I teleport him in. I teleport him out. I am not his emotional support human. I don’t know what he does in the dungeon! Stop asking me!”

  The investigators had no answers. And worse, no courage to press further. After all, Mu Yichen and others in the hero teams all have high status and powerful hunters.

  No one dares to openly make enemies out of them.

  Even as panic quietly spread through guild circles and government meetings, Lee Aseok continued to do what he always did: clear dungeons, feed his dog, and ignore everyone else.

  Back at base camp one evening, the tension between Mu Yichen and Kang Juwon reached a new high.

  Lee Aseok was sitting on a bench, petting Pudding. His rod rested beside him like a sleeping dragon.

  The holy sword is still sulking in the corner.

  Kang Juwon approached with a scroll of gate maps. “There’s an anomaly reported in the Australian zone. Want me to mark it for you?”

  Mu Yichen arrived a second later. “No need. I’ve already had the intel compiled into your preferred format, Aseok.”

  Lee Aseok didn’t even look up.

  He fed Pudding another treat and sighed. “Don’t care.”

  Kang Juwon cleared his throat. “I also got a new mana tracker, just in case you want to monitor fluctuations.”

  “I have one,” Mu Yichen said coldly. “Custom calibrated. More accurate.”

  Lee Aseok gave them both a long, tired glance.

  Then he turned to Pudding. “You’re the only normal one here.”

  The puppy barked happily, unaware that two high-ranking hunters were seconds away from physically brawling over her owner’s affection.

  Seo MinHyun walked by, sipping a cola. “Why does this feel like a dating sim with only bad endings?”

  Park Taegun didn’t even blink. “Because it is.”

  By the time night fell, Lee Aseok was already reviewing the next gate coordinates. Alone, in the dark, with Pudding curled up on his lap and the iron rod in his hand.

  Mu Yichen stood nearby, silently offering a thermos.

  Kang Juwon sat across from him, holding a heat pack.

  Lee Aseok ignored both.

  “Get some rest,” he muttered.

  “To me or the dog?” Kang Juwon asked.

  “Both.”

  They stayed like that in silence, the moonlight casting long shadows over the field, two men waiting, one man silent, and one puppy snoring loudly enough to be mistaken for a bear cub.

  It was day three.

  Three days of nonstop meetings. Three days of pointed questions, raised eyebrows, and not-so-subtle interrogation attempts.

  Three days of being trapped in conference rooms with people who had PowerPoint slides on dungeon patterns and conspiracy theories involving magical flux particles.

  Mu Yichen, Kang Juwon, Park Taegun, and Seo MinHyun had survived it all. Barely.

  The final meeting had ended with a very polite threat disguised as a suggestion: “If any of you happen to recall what Lee Aseok might have done inside those dungeons, please report to us immediately.”

  Sure. Let’s just march up to the man who treated S-rank gate bosses like mild inconveniences and ask, “Hey, by the way, are you secretly altering the fabric of the dungeon ecosystem?”

  They’d like to keep their internal organs inside, thank you very much.

  When they finally returned to the base compound, dragging their bodies like overworked salarymen returning from a corporate war, they were greeted with a peaceful scene:

  Lee Aseok, stretched out on a bench like a cat in sunlight, idly brushing a now four-month-old Pudding.

  The once tiny husky had grown surprisingly fast, now lean, bright-eyed, and still somehow always vibrating with chaotic joy.

  The scene was picture-perfect. Tranquil. Domestic.

  Infuriating.

  Aseok, dressed in his usual battered black shirt and worn combat pants, didn’t even blink as they arrived.

  He lazily turned his head, glanced at them, then turned back to brushing Pudding’s tail.

  As if they were leaves blowing by.

  Seo MinHyun was the first to crack.

  “Unbelievable,” he muttered, marching toward the bench with the righteous indignation of someone who hadn't slept in seventy-two hours.

  “You—! We’ve been stuck in meeting after meeting, getting grilled like we’re criminals! I’ve listened to fifteen different dungeon theorists arguing about magical gate resonance! I drank four cups of instant coffee that tasted like melted plastic!”

  Lee Aseok blinked at him, unbothered. “So?”

  “So?! What did you do inside those dungeons?! Why are the A-rank and S-rank gates vanishing like your social skills?!”

  Aseok didn’t answer. He finished brushing Pudding’s fur and, with perfect calm, opened a bag of dried jerky and gave her a treat.

  Pudding barked happily and rolled over.

  Lee Aseok smiled.

  Not kindly.

  Not warmly.

  No, he smiled the way a villain in a low-budget webtoon might smile after revealing that he’d swapped the princess with a double and blown up the kingdom’s treasury for fun.

  Seo MinHyun took a step back.

  “Oh my god,” he said. “You did do something.”

  Mu Yichen rubbed his temples. “We shouldn’t have asked."

  At that, Aseok finally looked up.

  His lips curved into an even bigger smile.

  It was terrifying.

  The kind of smile a villain gives right after pushing a world-ending button.

  A chill ran down everyone's spine.

  Mu Yichen subtly stepped back.

  Kang Juwon stopped mid-sip of his protein shake and slowly lowered the bottle.

  Park Taegun’s eyebrows twitched, and He Ziqin, who’d just teleported in, suddenly looked like he wanted to teleport right back out.

  Seo MinHyun’s arms dropped to his sides. “Why are you smiling like that? What did you do?”

  Lee Aseok stood up slowly, brushing imaginary dust off his pants, as if to mark the end of his grooming session.

  Pudding barked proudly, like a general reporting a successful operation.

  Without a word, Aseok turned his back and walked toward the team’s black van, ignoring the holy sword still sulking in the corner like a jilted lover.

  Literally sulking. The sword had turned blue, dimmed its light, and refused to make any holy hums ever since Lee Aseok ignored its last ten attempts at divine bonding.

  “Is he… ignoring the holy sword again?” Park Taegun asked flatly.

  “I don’t think it even recognizes him anymore,” Kang Juwon said.

  “Pretty sure it’s going through abandonment issues,” He Ziqin added.

  They all watched in silence as Lee Aseok casually opened the van door, tossed in his bag, and climbed in like a man headed for a vacation, not his twenty-first dungeon of the month.

  “Are we really following that guy?” Seo MinHyun muttered. “He’s supposed to be the chosen one, right? The hero of prophecy? The one blessed by the heavens?”

  “Then why does it feel like we’re part of a villain’s entourage?” He Ziqin mumbled.

  “I feel like I’m in a drama titled ‘I Was Supposed to Be the Hero, But I Accidentally Joined the Final Boss’s Support Group’,” Seo added.

  Park Taegun gave them both a look. “Stop talking like NPCs.”

  But even he couldn't deny the strange energy surrounding Lee Aseok lately.

  Author Note:

  Thank you all for sticking around and screaming with me in the comments, you have no idea how much your reactions fuel me.

  Update Schedule:

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