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Chapter 156: The Demon Realm of Section 1 (2)

It seemed Chano wasn\'t exaggerating.

On the day the Demon Realm of Section 1 opened, the atmosphere was completely different.

From early morning, a considerable number of spectators had gathered on both sides of the main street near Section 1, not far from the regular branch office. Alliance members were widely deployed in front of the barrier.

The number of investigators examining the inside of the barrier seemed much larger than usual.

"Oh, you\'ve arrived."

As we approached the barrier, Chano, who was talking with people, came over to us.

The surrounding mercenary group members also approached and greeted us.

"We\'ve heard a lot about you. We are the Life Mercenary Group, following Captain Chano. We look forward to working with you inside."

"We are the Crazy Mage Squad of Samael."

Chano\'s expression was a bit different than usual.

He seemed slightly nervous.

Zion looked around and said,

"The atmosphere is quite different. They say this is the most difficult among the low-level Demon Realms."

It felt like only skilled individuals had gathered.

Unlike other Demon Realm openings, there was no competition. Instead, people seemed to be exchanging greetings and conversations.

At that moment, a man who was at the center of the crowd glanced at us and approached.

"Chano Hyung, introduce us."

Chano smiled and looked back and forth between me and the man.

"Of course. This is Urek, the young master of the Northern Pasirek clan. We\'re like brothers. And this is the Crazy Mage Squad of the Samael family, who recently made a name for themselves. Say hello to each other."

The man called Urek said,

"Nice to meet you. I\'m Urek Pasirek. I\'ve heard a lot about you."

"I\'m the Commander of the Crazy Mage Squad of Samael."

Urek glanced at Makan and asked,

"I heard you\'re from a magic family. Is that right?"

While Makan met Urek\'s gaze, I said,

"That\'s correct. You seem to use a spear."

A spear, almost the same size as Makan\'s, was strapped to Urek\'s back.

Without taking his eyes off Makan, Urek said,

"You have a good physique. But it would be better to focus on either the spear or magic."

Makan retorted,

"I\'ll decide that for myself."

I said to Urek,

"You\'re quite interested in others\' affairs for a first meeting. Are you always this nosy?"

Urek shook his head and replied,

"It\'s up to them to accept advice or not. I\'ll be going now. See you inside."

After saying his piece, Urek returned to his group.

Chano cleared his throat and said,

"They\'re a family famous for spearmanship. Especially that young master, he\'s quite skilled. He even survived a Level 1 Demon Realm recently. People outside say that in 30 years, he\'ll be able to rank among the renowned clans. Anyway, don\'t take it the wrong way. He\'s stubborn, but not a bad person. It\'ll be helpful to be acquainted with him."

I watched Urek\'s retreating figure for a moment.

Then, Chano started pointing out other groups and telling me about them.

Excluding all the unnecessary details, there were roughly four groups:

1. The group of clans led by Urek.

2. The group of small mercenary groups like Chano\'s.

3. The group of unaffiliated wanderers.

Among the wanderers, the one-eyed swordsman seemed to be the de facto leader.

4. Sahwa Party

The ones I was most interested in were the Sahwa Party.

There were about ten of them.

While the other groups exchanged greetings with each other to some extent, the Sahwa Party remained isolated, keeping to themselves.

However, they seemed even more suspicious than the two Sahwa Party members I had seen before.

"What\'s with those guys wearing masks? Aren\'t they hot?"

As Zion said, there were two people wearing strange lion masks.

One with a blue lion mask.

One with a red lion mask.

\'Hmm.\'

I looked closely to see if they might be demonic soul humans, but they didn\'t seem to be.

"The one with the red lion mask is the leader."

Chano continued, with a dubious expression,

"I\'ve never seen his face. They\'re not the kind of people you want to get involved with, so it\'s best to avoid them from the start."

As I was observing the Sahwa Party members, the one with the red lion mask suddenly turned his head towards me.

Our eyes met for a moment.

I felt a red glow from between the eyeholes of the lion mask.

Just as I tried to get a closer look, the masked figure turned away again.

I looked at Arin and asked,

"Have you seen those guys before when you were in the Demon Realm?"

Arin shook her head.

"No, I haven\'t. We left from the entrance of the Demon Realm back then, so we didn\'t stay long."

Chano looked towards the barrier.

"It\'s about to start."

The investigation team was coming out of the barrier.

Those waiting to enter also checked their equipment and gathered towards the barrier.

A moment later, a large number of Alliance members, led by Porter, appeared from the direction of the branch office.

Porter, standing at attention in the center, shouted,

"Entry to the Level 3 Demon Realm of Section 1 is now permitted."

Whiiiirrr—

A loud noise reverberated throughout Section 1.

As if waiting for this moment, Urek led his subordinates and entered the barrier first, followed by the group of wanderers and the mercenary groups.

It was an orderly movement, as if there was a predetermined sequence.

There were hardly any instances of people presenting entry passes; it seemed those gathered here were already being managed by the regular branch office.

As I observed the scene from behind, Chano patted my shoulder.

"Don\'t be too nervous. We\'ll go in first, so follow us."

Chano led his team members inside, and now only our group and the Sahwa Party remained outside the barrier.

The Sahwa Party members looked at us, and we glared back at them.

"..."

Suddenly, it felt like a battle of pride.

Let\'s see who enters the barrier last.

But in my opinion, there was a reason why the Sahwa Party members were entering late.

I caught the lion mask and Porter secretly exchanging glances.

Not to be outdone, I stared intently at Porter.

Then, when Porter happened to look at me, I nodded with a solemn expression for no particular reason.

The lion mask immediately looked back and forth between Porter and me with a strange look.

I had successfully sown confusion.

"Guys, this isn\'t working. Lie down."

My quick-witted subordinates started lying down on the street.

I also sprawled out on the ground, face up, and looked towards the Sahwa Party with only my head raised.

Only then did the Sahwa Party members swallow their pride and start entering the barrier.

I was satisfied.

Indeed. How dare they have a pride contest with the Crazy Mage Squad?

"Let\'s go too."

As we entered the barrier last, the surrounding scenery rapidly changed.

Once again, the ash-gray sky unfolded.

I looked at the entrance to the Demon Realm in front of me.

"I\'ve never seen that kind of shape before."

"It\'s the same as the one I entered before."

Suddenly, Arin\'s voice became slightly subdued.

"It was like this back then too."

The Demon Realm was shaped like a large cave.

It felt like a cave from a mountain had been plucked and placed on flat ground.

The inside of the entrance was pitch black, like an abyss.

I briefly opened my circles and looked around, but I still couldn\'t sense any demonic energy.

"Let\'s go."

This time, I entered the cave first.

Swoosh—

As soon as I stepped inside, a white fog filled my vision.

* * *

"The Crazy Mage Squad has entered too. It seems everyone is in now."

The entrance of the Demon Realm.

The groups that entered before us hadn\'t proceeded further in and were gathered in the cavity at the entrance.

Urek Pasirek was in the center, checking the number of people, while the other groups were exploring the surroundings.

I also looked around for a moment.

\'Strange.\'

I had clearly entered a cave, but strangely, the ceiling was wide open.

The dark night sky stretched above.

The surroundings of the entrance were filled with thick fog in all directions.

Zion, who had been wandering around with an intrigued expression as soon as we entered, approached me and said,

"This place looks interesting. I have a feeling."

"It\'s not really my style, meow."

Then, Zion glanced at the group gathered at the entrance.

"Why are they all dawdling? Should we go first?"

Makan shook his head.

"That\'s not a good idea. The fog is too thick. It\'s better to observe for now."

Zion looked at Makan with a strange look and then suddenly smiled.

"Are you afraid of getting lost?"

"No."

"I think you are."

"...No, I\'m not afraid of getting lost."

I pointed at the two of them in turn.

"Be quiet."

Just then, Chano approached us, leading his mercenaries. They were all heavily armed with various weapons and equipment.

"You\'ve arrived."

Chano opened his mouth with a more relaxed expression than before.

"I\'m relieved. I was worried that this might be a completely new type of Demon Realm, but fortunately, it doesn\'t seem to be. It\'s a type that has often appeared in Section 1. This isn\'t bad."

"Do you know anything about it?"

"Two groups of high-ranking monsters will likely appear. Usually, bat-type monsters and another type appear together. It\'s not that difficult, but the rewards are good. Even if a variant appears, we should be able to catch it without significant casualties. Many skilled people have entered this time."

A moment later, Urek, after receiving a report from his subordinates, drew everyone\'s attention.

"I\'d like to give you some advice."

Urek looked around.

"As some of you may have noticed, this is a type of Demon Realm that has appeared many times. We\'ve thoroughly searched the entrance, but no noteworthy peculiarities have been found. However, unforeseen circumstances can always occur, so please don\'t let your guard down."

Then, a strong Mana fluctuation emanated from Urek\'s body, and he scanned the surroundings with a forceful gaze.

"I hope you won\'t cause any unnecessary trouble. Cooperation is important. The rewards will be sufficient. We\'ll move together. If anyone disagrees, please leave now."

"We\'ll go separately."

The Sahwa Party members scoffed and quickly disappeared into the fog one by one. The knights following Urek looked at them with displeasure, but Urek shook his head.

"It\'s fine. It\'s better to filter out troublemakers early on."

But there was someone who wasn\'t fine with it.

That was me.

Feeling dumbfounded, I quickly approached the Sahwa Party members and asked one of them,

"You\'re just going to leave like this? Why aren\'t you collecting money this time?"

The lion mask turned his head sharply and met my eyes for a moment before disappearing into the fog.

"...Who am I talking to? These guys are discriminating when collecting money."

Meanwhile, Urek started leading his group eastward.

I quickly joined the rear with my subordinates.

Swoosh—

The moment we left the entrance area, a thick fog enveloped us, clinging to our bodies.

After walking for a while, Zion asked,

"...Are we just going to follow them like this, Commander? What about the contribution points?"

I shook my head and replied,

"Let\'s just go. Contribution points aren\'t important right now."

The priority was the monster.

If there was a demon here too, staying with this group would increase our chances of encountering it.

As I walked along at the rear, I continued to observe the surroundings.

The fog still showed no signs of clearing. We were clearly walking straight in the same direction, but it felt like we were going in circles.

\'Hmm.\'

It felt like being trapped in a magic circle.

An unsettling sense of déjà vu had been growing within me.

I suddenly stopped and looked ahead. My subordinates also looked into the fog.

Flutter—

A strange sound came from ahead.

Suddenly, something flew towards us in a swarm, obscuring the sky.

My subordinates and I chanted simultaneously.

Whoosh—

"Screech—"

The swarm of black creatures that flew towards us were hit by the fireballs and crashed to the ground.

Thud—

After the last one was pierced through the body by Makan\'s spear, we looked down at the ground.

Bats.

Their bodies were black, but their eyes were all red.

Footsteps approached from ahead, and Chano appeared with his subordinates, clapping.

"As expected, you guys are amazing. You perfectly handled the group we missed."

Chano smiled and looked at me.

"As expected, it\'s bat-type monsters. We should be able to clear this without much trouble."

I met Chano\'s eyes.

"By any chance, Chano-hyung, is there anything else that seems off?"

Chano laughed heartily.

"You\'re nervous. Don\'t worry too much. At most, another group of monsters will appear. If they swarm us, even if a variant appears, there won\'t be much damage."

An unsettling sense of déjà vu, similar to something I had felt before, was growing stronger.

What was this familiar feeling?