South Corelands's tallest building, reaching up to the 123rd floor.
Jhin stood at the top of Bey Tower, surveying the wide-open cityscape around him.
"So? Is any of it coming back to you?"
They were supposed to head straight back to Ark, but they had made a deliberate detour toward Bey World instead.
Dreams fade with ti — and if they waited any longer, most of the mory would be lost.
They had to co here while she could still recall sothing.
"Yes. This was the place. I'm sure of it…"
Karin, who at first had been fascinated and a little frightened, had quickly adapted to New Capital.
As she looked around from the top of Bey Tower, she spoke.
"In my dream, I was this high up. Everything… everything was burning."
It seed that this was, indeed, the place she had seen in her dream.
A tower so high it could pierce the sky.
One clue, deciphered.
The problem was the rest — the other images were still too vague.
A burning sky… a light so blinding it could sear your eyes…
What had she seen? So sort of explosion?
That's when it hit him.
"Wait. You said you were this high up in the dream?"
"…Yes. I'm pretty sure."
Jhin looked out from Bey Tower at the sprawl of New Capital.
The buildings that had once stood tall now lay in various states of collapse. But none of them reached even close to this height.
Of course not.
This was the highest point in New Capital.
But the sky was burning?
Normally, if sothing was burning from this kind of vantage point, you wouldn't call it a "burning sky."
You'd say the ground was on fire — or maybe the whole city was ablaze.
The sky was burning… Wait a second…
Jhin tilted his head back and looked up. Blue sky, a few clouds drifting gently above.
He tried to picture it — a sky on fire.
What if the fire didn't start below… but above?
His gaze followed the sky upward — and that's when it struck him.
Why hadn't he realized it sooner?
Jhin turned to Millie.
"Can you… see the surface of the moon?"
She nodded and looked up.
Her skill, Hawk's Eye, had beco an S-rank ability after her class advancent. It might just be enough.
After a brief mont of focus, she replied,
"…Yes. I can see it."
She must have understood what Jhin was thinking.
No doubt she saw even more than he did just now.
Millie said softly,
"Don't tell … the precognitive dream was referring to that?"
A day moon.
Even before the world had beco a ga, the moon was sotis visible during the day.
But this ti, it felt different. The moon he was looking at now — it had a different weight, a different implication.
Because—
"I think the moon has beco a dungeon."
The moon… was falling.
Back at Ark, Jhin went straight to et Bellatris and imdiately called for an ergency eting.
It wasn't just the urgency of the new intel — they also had news to report about the successful C-rank dungeon raid and other developnts.
People quickly gathered.
"Ahem, everyone, please take your seats."
Dean took the microphone and addressed the buzzing room. The players, who had been chatting and laughing, quickly fell silent.
"Today's eting was called at the request of Mr. Kyle. You all know him, right? The one who brilliantly cleared the C-rank dungeon and returned victorious — the real Kyle!"
He flashed a sharp smile and glanced pointedly at a few players — especially those who had been strong supporters of Nazoral.
Dean grinned.
"What's everyone waiting for?"
"…?"
"Aren't you going to applaud?"
The high-level players who had once been part of Nazoral's team began clapping reluctantly.
So of them couldn't even lift their heads.
Understandably so.
No matter how many excuses they had, it didn't change the fact.
Nazoral wasn't even human.
In the end, not only had they been manipulated by a monster, but they had also pledged allegiance to a lackey of the Company.
The trolling… was truly next level.
To make things worse, they had spent the entirety of the dungeon conquest locked in a cell, sleeping it away.
How could they even show their faces now?
"Congratulations to everyone for clearing the C-rank dungeon!"
anwhile, Jhin's team had beco the celebrated champions.
Not only had they played a key role in the conquest, but they had monopolized the quest rewards and grown imnsely stronger as a result.
All eyes, all accolades — they were focused on them now.
And at the center of it all was one man.
"K! K! K!"
"Woooooo!!"
The eting hall erupted with cheers. Whistles, stomps, chants — the energy in the room soared.
And then—
Zzt!
Bellatris stepped forward and cast a dazzling spell.
A vivid magic display captivated everyone's eyes — and just like that, silence fell.
She spoke.
"That's enough. eting ti. Shut up."
The mbers of Nazoral's old team — now shrinking in their seats — shot her discreet looks of gratitude.
For them, unable to join in the celebration without guilt, the loud festivities had been torture.
Bellatris's interruption was a small rcy.
These two really make it work…
Jhin could see now how Bellatris and Dean had powerged to keep this chaotic bunch together all this ti.
One played the bad cop, the other the good — switching roles as needed.
Trying to unify this ragtag group from the start would've been futile.
Splitting them and adjusting the pressure point by point had clearly been the smarter move.
Bellatris looked around the room.
"I've got good news and bad news. Which do you want first?"
But she didn't wait for an answer. She just started with the good.
"The Lizardman's Well has been cleared. Which ans… we can now eat the food there. Our food shortage is over."
The crowd swallowed their urge to cheer.
They'd just conquered the C-rank dungeon and solved the food shortage — they should've been celebrating.
But that wasn't possible.
"Now for the bad news."
Bellatris casually tossed a nuclear bomb across the room.
"The moon's falling."
"…What?"
The words ca too fast.
Everyone stared at Bellatris, unable to process what she'd just said.
"What are you talking about?"
"Exactly what I said. The moon is currently falling."
She tapped her smartphone, and data appeared on the projection screen — evidence supporting the claim that the moon was descending.
Bizarre phenona, spreading across Ark and the rest of New Capital.
Signs.
The kind of ominous ons you'd see at the start of a disaster movie — and they were happening, here and now, across the entire city.
It made you wonder — had Bellatris known about this all along, even before Karin's precognitive dream?
"…Is this for real?"
"With all this evidence, anyone who still denies it is just an idiot."
In a world that had beco a ga, talking about what's "possible" was laughable.
In a place like this, even the moon crashing down wasn't surprising anymore.
"It's perfectly feasible — especially if the so-called Moon Dungeon is on the verge of becoming a B-rank."
The excitent from earlier vanished like smoke.
What remained in the air was a heavy, choking silence.
Nazoral's forr team, Jhin's team…
Those labels didn't matter now. Everyone just stared, dumbfounded, at the screen.
Because it sounded too unreal.
The moon is falling?
Even Jhin didn't want to believe it.
But Bellatris didn't care what anyone else thought.
"As you all know, once a dungeon evolves into B-rank, the surrounding environnt starts to change to accommodate its monsters. That's how they prepare to break out."
That was why external disasters often followed a C-rank dungeon's promotion.
If the Lizard King had beco the dungeon's master, Gwanghwamun might've turned into a swamp by now.
Whatever kind of monster it is this ti, the environnt must require a teor impact.
He had a few guesses about what kind of monster might be behind this, but he didn't jump to conclusions.
This was Exodia 2.
Soone raised a hand.
"How long do we have?"
"Based on estimates — a month."
"…Only a month."
Bellatris's tone was firm.
"If we don't clear that dungeon within the next month, we'll be hit by a teor like nothing we've ever seen."
That… was the truth behind Karin's dream.
The discussions went on from there.
"To clear the moon dungeon, we need to get to the moon first. How do we even do that?"
"…Should we try going to NASA?"
"Is that place even still intact?"
Clearing the dungeon was one thing — getting a spaceship to the moon was another matter entirely.
Where would they even start?
Surprisingly, it was Dean who answered.
"A spaceship… I think I've heard of one."
"…Huh?"
"I don't know if it's functional, but I heard there's a secret project — so group was building one in secrecy on a remote island."
As a forr National Assembly mber, he had access to classified intel — and he now powerged the intelligence agency as well. That's how he knew.
It was worth checking out.
"You take care of that, Park. Choose your players accordingly."
"What about Jhin—"
"No. He's not going."
"I figured. Just thought I'd ask."
So Dean selected a team focused on speed and mobility.
Naturally, Millie was chosen.
She was now a silent assassin — having completed her class advancent, she was a skilled combatant who could also act in ergencies.
"Alright, that's settled."
The moon should've been their only focus.
But Ark, as always, had problems piling up at its feet.
They couldn't afford to ignore them.
The biggest headache?
The Death Gardens spreading all over New Capital.
"According to the intelKylebrought back, there are seven just in this area. You know what happens if we leave them alone."
Everyone knew what a grid was.
To stop the infection, Ark needed to form a special strike team.
It had to be built around mages.
Because when it ca to plants, fire was the best option.
"I'll take that one. and the musclehead."
Tempah looked ready to protest, but Bellatris didn't even flinch.
That she volunteered for the Death Garden mission was unexpected.
It would be a brutal campaign — clearing seven separate dungeons.
And during that ti, neither she nor Dean would be in Ark.
"We're keeping the lockdown in place."
While Jhin had been off clearing the C-rank dungeon, Bellatris had extended the magical lockdown periter to include District 3.
Still, people were uneasy. The room's tension was palpable.
Bellatris noticed and responded imdiately.
"Don't worry. He'll protect this place."
And with that, the door opened — and Ji Sang-su walked into the eting room.
"Jack and Oh Calebwill oversee Ark. Any objections?"
There were none.
Ji Sang-su might still be a high schooler, but he was part of Cheonoecheon.
And Jack, the dungeon rchant, was practically famous now in Ark.
In fact, the city's economic and food situation only began improving after Jack's "train" started running through the dungeons.
Lately, he had even started ferrying players like a real subway system — for a fee, of course.
Oh, and rumor had it he was running a bank too.
Hopefully no one's dumb enough to borrow money from that guy…
So faces went pale the mont Ji Sang-su walked in, but no one said a word.
They'd decided not to care.
With Ji Sang-su and Oh Calebwatching over things, Ark would be fine.
Oh Calebwas a forr police officer — sharp and dependable.
Bellatris spoke evenly.
"Keep your heads on straight. We don't have ti to waste on internal power struggles. Honestly? The moon is a hell of a lot more dangerous than any lizardn ever were."
If the moon falls, the end is no exaggeration.
High-level players might survive — but the land they live on would be obliterated.
As for Ark's residents? Their survival was far from guaranteed.
If worst cos to worst, the Lizardman's Well could serve as a shelter…
But that would be a last resort.
No one wanted New Capital to beco a wasteland.
If they could stop it — they would.
And just then—
Adonis, who had been quietly focused on the eting, raised his hand.
"Um… What about Mr. Jhin?"
"…Hmm?"
"Where will he be going?"
Bellatris answered,
"He has sothing else to do."
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