Ch.138Season 2 – The Underground Village

# The Future’s Many Talents

Many of humanity’s countless talented individuals died by my hand.

And the person leading the nearly annihilated rebel forces was none other than Dorothy.

From being the Villain’s Troupe’s mascot character to becoming the leader of the human faction 20 years later.

After hearing the story so far from Jaewon, she seemed to understand…

“AAAAAAHHH! S-SCARY!”

“Commander, please calm down!”

“…Is she an idiot?”

…it seemed to take her some time to process everything.

But her hostility toward us appeared to have mostly dissipated.

“To think the person brought to defeat the future Han Shinwoo would be the past Han Shinwoo…”

Dorothy looked like she was genuinely about to die from shock.

Of course, there’s an Eastern saying about “using barbarians to fight barbarians.”

But this wasn’t about barbarians—this was more like having a “Demon Lord” defeat another Demon Lord.

The scale was completely different.

But looking at it another way, there couldn’t be a better ally than myself.

Therefore.

“Hmm… I guess it doesn’t matter?”

“Commander Dorothy. We barely have any rebels left anyway. This is actually an opportunity.”

“Hmm… you think so?”

“Hey, how can someone who’s supposed to be a commander be so naive?!”

“Dorothy, please just let us in.”

“That’s right! The Villain’s Troupe leader Katarina came to this world with us!”

“W-what?! The leader! Katarina is here?!”

People brought by Leader Katarina.

With that, Dorothy completely trusted us.

She immediately ran to Kang Mirae, who had mentioned this, and started asking about the leader.

“The leader! Where is the leader now?!”

“Uh, well… she’s waiting in the time machine…”

“The time machine! You brought our rebellion’s final secret weapon. Well done, Jaewon!”

“Yes, Commander. We even modified it so multiple people can ride. Though we only have one more chance to go back to the past.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

By the way, it was surprising that Dorothy from the Villain’s Troupe was now playing the role of commander.

So what exactly did the current human rebellion look like?

I was curious about this and wanted to quickly head to the underground rebel headquarters.

And then.

“Alright. Everyone come in.”

“…?”

“Come in where?”

As soon as Dorothy said that, showing complete trust in us.

*Rumble rumble*

“?!”

“O-oppa! A door just emerged from the ground!”

Suddenly, a massive door rose from the ground behind Dorothy, beckoning us to enter.

“Could this be…?”

“Yes, this is the entrance that connects to our rebel base.”

“It’s built at least 1,000 meters underground. Without warping like this, it would take days just to dig down that deep.”

“…! Indeed, at that depth, no one would be able to find it.”

When they said it was underground, I thought it would just be subway-level deep.

After all, Jaewon had told me that the current human rebellion was in dire straits.

But did they still have this kind of talent left?

More importantly, the ability to summon a door and warp people to another location.

I knew this National Authority-Level ability very well.

‘I never thought that person would still be alive…’

“Well then, let’s go in!”

“Yes, let’s do that.”

One by one, we began walking through the door that emitted a white light.

Then I suddenly noticed Shina carefully walking at the very back.

“What’s wrong, Shina?”

“Huh?! Oh, yes. Actually, I’m a bit scared…”

“About going to the humans’ stronghold?”

“…Yes. I’ve only seen humans once at the palace. So I’m nervous… What if they all attack me and try to kill me?”

Shina hesitated and stopped in her tracks.

I gently stroked her head to encourage her.

“That won’t happen.”

“Dad…”

“If it looks like it might, I’ll protect you.”

“But then you’d completely turn against the humans of this world.”

“I can’t just watch my daughter die, can I?”

“…! Thank you, Dad.”

Reassured, Shina started walking toward the door connected to the humans’ base again.

Dorothy and Jaewon went in first.

Then Cheran, Clan Head Kurumi, and Lia followed.

I held Shina’s hand and entered after Kang Mirae, who was grumbling reluctantly.

Beyond the glowing door, I expected to find vigilant soldiers waiting for us…

“Oh! The commander is back!”

“Commander noona!”

“Hehe. Have you kids been well?”

…or so I thought.

Usually, the entrance would have the tightest security.

That’s common sense, but the human territory of 20 years later that I first stepped into—

This place was in worse condition than I had imagined.

Beyond the door was an underground tunnel 1,000 meters below the surface.

It was quite spacious, but beneath the enclosed ground, there were only emaciated-looking people rather than those with robust builds.

Even those guarding the door were just a few children disguised as soldiers.

They were armed with broken tin pots and bamboo swords—equipment that would be utterly useless in combat.

“Is this… everyone?”

“There are a few more inside, but currently only about 1,000 humans live in this underground city. Most of them are either elderly or children. The rest have gone out to search for food, but…”

“They usually come back empty-handed. There’s nothing edible on the surface except monsters, and any humans skilled enough to hunt monsters were killed long ago.”

“…!!”

Well, this was a world where my future self had waged war against the entire world and won.

In a way, this might be expected, but I still felt my fists clench in anger.

“Commander, who are these people behind you?”

“Ah, they’re new survivors from the surface.”

“W-what?!”

“The surface! Can we finally live on the surface too?!”

“No. These people survived because they’re strong, but we still can’t go up to the surface yet. So please be patient a little longer.”

“Aww…”

“Got my hopes up for nothing…”

The children’s eyes had lit up when they heard we were people from the surface.

Jaewon whispered to me why they were acting that way.

“Actually, these children were born in the underground city. They’ve never been to the surface even once.”

“Really?”

“Yes. As you just saw, the surface is overrun with B-rank monsters. The members who went up to the surface just now were only able to do so because they’re the only former Hunter in our ‘End of the Earth Village.'”

“I see…”

Children who had been raised underground since birth.

Jaewon told me that instead of proper education, these children spent every day with drills in their hands, digging to expand their village.

It was horrifying.

There were no words to justify this.

And the person who was even more shocked than me was, of course, Shina.

“This is… a village?”

People living in houses that barely resembled homes made of dirt, compared to the magnificent kingdom within fortress walls that she was used to.

I wondered how it looked to her.

I didn’t ask. This was something she needed to think about for herself.

“Shall we go inside?”

“Is this place… really safe?”

“It looks like it could collapse at any moment!”

“Hmm… honestly, I can’t completely deny that, but it’s still a place where people can live.”

The place Dorothy led us to was a mud house with a relatively spacious area.

The light inside came not from electric lamps but from archaic torches.

“All the ability users who could generate electricity died…”

“Ah……”

Anyway, we passed by curious elders and children in rags and finally succeeded in entering the humans’ stronghold of 20 years later—the “Tunnel Village.”

“Fortunately, it’s only about a 30-minute walk from the time machine.”

“Yes, that’s right. At this distance, we can run straight to the time machine if anything happens.”

“By the way, I never thought the person guarding the time machine would be Han Shinwoo’s first child, Leon…”

“Commander Dorothy. Those four… no, three of them said they want to form an alliance with us. They’ve just been abandoned by their father.”

“Ugh…! Honestly, in terms of pure power, there’s no one better than them, but why did it have to be Leon! Do you know how many of our Villain’s Troupe members he killed?!”

While it might be good officially, she couldn’t accept it personally.

That’s because Prince Leon, during the time when Han Shinwoo waged war against the entire world—

He was a “human hunter” who honed his skills by his father’s side more than anyone else.

And now we’re supposed to trust someone like that?

No matter how she thought about it, Dorothy simply couldn’t accept it.

“For now! Let’s not let him come here.”

“I agree with that, Commander.”

“By the way, I never dreamed that Kitsune Kurumi and a young Queen Lia would come to this era.”

“You’re Dorothy, right? I look forward to working with you.”

“I’m on the current oppa’s side now! Don’t worry about me!”

As Dorothy let out a somewhat relieved chuckle, Clan Head Kurumi and Lia introduced themselves.

Then Dorothy stiffly turned her head to look at me and Shina.

“But… I understand about Shinwoo, but who’s the child behind him?”

“?!”

“…!”

“Hmm…”

“Was there such a child 20 years ago?”

Dorothy tilted her head, trying to recall if Shina had existed 20 years ago.

I hesitated, wondering how to answer.

But then.

“Commander, think about it.”

“…?”

“Though he may have gone astray, in the future he’s a father with nearly 10 wives. Wouldn’t he have already been dating a woman or two that you didn’t know about?”

No, Jaewon, there’s no way she’d accept such an excuse…

“Ah, that’s right! That makes sense!”

…she accepted it?

“Well, looking at Han Shinwoo now, that’s certainly plausible. Another woman, huh…”

“That’s right, Commander. Another woman.”

“……”

“Haah…”

“Oppa, seriously…”

And so Shina seemed to have safely passed scrutiny, but the pain in my heart was definitely not just my imagination.