Journey, IV

After that, I hung out with Sean around the city, the presence of a person missing was clearly visible between us.

"Well, hmm, this place has nothing to offer, does it?" Sean spoke his thoughts.

"It sure doesn't" I replied.

"Well, I'm going to go back to the inn right now." Sean continued and started walking.

"Wait, I have nothing to do here, either." I picked up the pace and was now next to him, the left side of mine being empty truly got me down.

***

[BREAKING NEWS: The newly announced 'Dungeon' that has been found recently will be raided tomorrow for the first time. It is not known what is going to be inside there, nor if it has been ventured in before…]

"Hmmm, Sean. Isn't the lady in the news talking about the Dune Dungeon?!" I called out to Sean immediately.

"Huh!?" He had that look of being flabbergasted on his face, the shock being visible.

"Wasn't it supposed to be a secret or something?" I continued.

"It was…" he trailed off as he started listening to the TV.

"Well, as it seems, it isn't." I got quiet after the TV also got my attention.

[As mentioned earlier, The 'Dungeon' is still a new thing, or should I say a phenomenon, considering that it didn't exist in that place before being sighted 3 weeks ago. Considering our mapping systems, a thing like that would never go unnoticed.]

So it really just spawned like that… I thought to myself.

[It was sealed off the public and still is being guarded by Special Forces so people don't barge in without a reason. It, being unannounced until now, was the reason for the lack of suitable personnel, meaning Fighters, Medics, and Hunters, that were willing to dive into mortal danger.]

"Wait, tell me they're not going to announce who is going in, right?!" as soon as Sean said, the voice of the lady from the news was heard next.

[The current number of people who will move in on the Dungeon is currently fifteen. The names…]

Soon a table showed beside the lady and names with face pictures were showing up.

[The names are:

1. Valen Weis,

2. Elijah Langston,

3. Micheal Donovan,

4. Harris Spence,

5. Sean Dayward,]

As Sean's name and face showed up on the TV, his eyes started darting more and more around the room, me, and the TV. His breath got erratic, but names being heard and displayed didn't stop.

[6. Todd Whitley,

7. Aoi Akihiko,

8. Mai Sakaguchi,

9. Ren Uemura,

10. Haruka Maki,

11. Sho Dae-Hyun,

12. Elias Ayla,

13. Li Hae-Won,

14. Qo Soo-Bin, and finally, fifteenth in the list,

15. Luke Crimson.]

My name, my face showed up on the TV, to the whole world, and finally Luke's did too.

Fuck, I did say I won't keep a low profile, but isn't this too much?! The whole world will know of me tomorrow, even though I did nothing in particular.

[That concludes the list of the participants that will dive into the Unexplored Dungeon. The raid will start tomorrow at two o'clock in the afternoon, at the 'Perpetuity Sand Dunes'.

The main Dungeon surface will be guarded but everyone can spectate the big event that might bring change to the whole world. This is it for the current news, I hope you reach out to us again.]

Just like that, I turned off the TV. An unsettling silence took over the room, Sean was frozen like that since his name got mentioned. Fuck, why did this happen!?

I don't know, and I will not know, that's certain. But isn't this a violation of privacy? Displaying our names and faces to the whole world without our permission…

Nah, it doesn't even matter anymore. The event is already spreading amongst the people, there's no point in contacting them.

K-Krack

I immediately whipped my head the way the noise came from, "It's me, guys!" Luke's voice was heard.

"Oh, welcome back, you returned early," I said calmly.

"Haha, well I just didn't have much stuff to do, I'll tell you all about this stuff when the time's right…"

He got over to the living room and noticed the weird tension around us. He opened his lips and talked, "Did something happen?" He asked.

"Look at this," I said as I opened the news on MeTube that were on just earlier.

[The names are: Valen…]

***

He started to watch what I showed him, name by name, second by second, frame by frame. He had a frown at first, and then a scowl, then his body started shivering and the look of a psychopath showed up on his face.

I started calling out to him, but I received no answer.

"Luke, Luke… Luke fucking reply!" I slapped the shit out of him to the point that I knocked him to the ground.

"Fu-, hah, what, chill bro, you almost broke my nose." He grumbled on and on and then he got up, his look down-casted as he said, "Well, sorry about that, I got a little too shocked to know that the whole Dungeon thing is out for the world to know, especially our information being shown out there too…"

He kept going on and on again like he does every time he gets to talk to a person.

"Okay, okay, I got it. Well, did you get all the necessary stuff we couldn't bring from home?" I questioned him.

"Hm? Oh, yeah yeah, I did. I got tons of water and snacks that can last for some days, as for the dried rations, yeah, we had them from home so for now, I guess we have to rest a lot since the time we'll dive into the dungeon is set for two pm, and it will take time until we get there."

"Hmm, well, yeah, you're right." I looked back in the living room and saw that Sean had already gone to bed, he was most likely watching anime or reading something.

"Well, I guess I got to go sleep too since we woke up early and all today." I voiced.

"Yeah, good night."

With that, another day went by, and thoughts started to overtake me…

Hmmm, considering how rare occurrences in this world are, my mind has gotten a little lazy for its own good, I was about to say many things were happening but damn, compared to my world this is nothing. Well, I'm excited for tomorrow, I wonder how that dungeon will be…