The lights dimmed.
---
Hyun-woo moved through the dark at the edge of the room.
Black suit.
Red tie.
His face sharp.
Alert.
Reading everything around him the way someone reads a room they've been trained not to trust.
---
Then he found him.
---
White suit.
Red tie.
A face so symmetrical it looked like something that had been decided rather than born.
Standing still in the dark at the edge of the curtain.
Waiting.
---
Hyun-woo's voice low.
"It's almost time."
---
Gun-woo looked back at him.
His expression even.
Composed.
Something underneath it that only someone looking closely would find.
"Very well."
A breath.
"Let the show begin."
---
The lights went down fully.
The room settling into its own anticipation.
---
All twelve guilds seated at the front row.
Their presence filling the first section of the room completely.
The weight of what they represented sitting in each chair with them.
---
Gun-woo emerged from the curtain.
---
The cameras found him immediately.
Every lens in the room turning.
---
He looked at them.
Black glasses.
A smile that reached far enough to be genuine.
Not performing warmth.
Just carrying it naturally.
The kind of face that understood what people needed to see right now.
---
"Ladies and gentlemen."
His voice finding every corner of the room without effort.
"Friends. Loved ones."
A pause.
"We are gathered here for the future of our country."
He looked across the faces in front of him.
"But I would like to believe we are gathered for something larger than that."
A breath.
"For the future of mankind itself."
---
He didn't linger there.
---
"Without further delay I will get straight to it. Your time is too valuable to waste."
---
He moved through it directly.
His voice steady.
Measured.
---
"As you know all twelve guilds have been receiving aid from countries around the world. With that aid we have managed to clear a significant number of A and B ranked dungeons. We have pushed back the monster presence in multiple zones."
A pause.
"This would not have been possible without the hunters who gave their lives inside those dungeons. I would like to take a moment to honor them."
---
Silence.
The room holding it properly.
Not performing it.
Just holding it.
---
Then he continued.
---
"I would also like to thank every guild represented here tonight. For working through proper channels. For choosing cooperation over competition in a time when both options were available."
His eyes moving across the front row.
Acknowledging each guild.
Each face.
"You chose peace. South Korea is still standing because of that choice."
---
A breath.
---
"I know we are confused. I know we are living at the edge of what we can endure. I know many of us have suffered in ways that have no adequate description."
He looked directly at the cameras.
"But I truly believe this is not the end of us."
Steady.
Not shouting it.
Just saying it.
"We will rise to this occasion. Together."
---
He adjusted slightly.
His tone shifting into something more specific.
---
"Many of you will be aware of the information spreading throughout the world regarding the hunter known as Tears."
A pause.
"I am certain many of you watched the speech he delivered to the world when Olympus was created."
He let that name sit a moment.
"To recap for those who need it. He told us he comes from a time when humanity's technology had reached its highest point. That the first disruption of that technology came directly from these dungeons. These tears in space and time."
His voice careful now.
Precise.
"Little is known about the creatures that create these dungeons. What they want. Why they are here. Why this is happening."
A pause.
"We do not know."
He said it plainly.
Without apology.
"But the hunter Tears has shared survival information. Training requirements for hunters. Methods that have already saved lives."
---
He straightened.
---
"With all of this. With everything that has been sacrificed and everything that has been learned."
A breath.
"We arrive at tonight."
---
The room leaned forward slightly.
Collectively.
Without being asked.
---
"This is the convergence."
His voice finding a different register now.
Something underneath the composure that had been there the whole time finally becoming audible.
"All twelve guilds. Working together. For the first time."
A pause.
"We will be attempting to take back a red zone."
---
The room went very still.
---
"This will be the first operation of its kind at this level."
He looked at them.
At all of them.
The journalists.
The cameras.
The twelve guilds in the front row.
"We are going into an SSS rank dungeon."
---
Silence.
The kind that follows something that changes the shape of the room it lands in.
---
Gun-woo stood in it.
Let it be what it was.
---
Then looked up.
And kept going.