"Good morning dear viewers."
The man's voice bright.
Practiced.
The kind of voice that had learned to sound warm in front of a lens.
"I hope you're all doing well on this fine morning."
He turned slightly.
Showing his good hair to the camera.
His face round and soft.
Eyes eager behind it.
"My name is Young-ho."
A breath.
"And this morning we are doing something different."
---
He stepped aside.
---
Gun-woo.
Gold and red armor catching the morning light.
Black at the edges.
A crimson cape falling from his shoulders.
The red of it matching the soft red of his hair.
He stood the way people stand when cameras have stopped being something they notice.
Just present.
Just easy.
---
He smiled.
"Hello dear viewers."
His voice carrying that quality it always carried.
Something underneath the warmth that was genuine enough to trust.
"Today we enter a dungeon together."
A pause.
"I want to show you what this looks like.", "", "What our hunters face.", "", "Day to day.", "", "I assure you it is not easy.", "", "But it is necessary.", "", "To protect this nation.", "", "To protect all of you.", "",
He looked at the camera directly.
"Please follow me."
A beat.
"Camera crew — stay beside me at all times."
A small smile.
"Alright.", "", "Let's go.", "",
---
Young-ho turned back to the lens.
His smile matching Gun-woo's.
"Thank you Mr. Gun-woo."
---
They moved forward.
---
Around them the operation breathed.
Military vehicles parked in formation.
Tents erected along the perimeter.
Drones hovering above.
Steady.
Patient.
Soldiers in red and black armor standing at intervals.
Scientists in yellow and orange radioactive suits.
Masks covering their faces entirely.
Moving between equipment.
Reading instruments.
Writing things down.
---
And at the center of all of it.
The rift.
---
Space bending around an opening that had no right to exist.
Brilliant blue at the edges.
Deeper at the center.
Moving the way water moves when something stirs it from below.
The morning sun above it.
Its light and the rift's light meeting in the air between them and becoming something neither was alone.
---
Somewhere outside all of this.
On screens in living rooms.
On phones held in hands.
People watching.
A mother spooning food for a child while glancing at the corner of the screen.
Someone at a desk in an office building leaning toward the monitor.
A man on a train watching through earphones.
All of them seeing what the camera saw.
The rift.
The armor.
Gun-woo walking toward it like it was a door he used every day.
---
The formation closed around the camera crew.
Shields on the outside.
Swords ready.
The journalists and the cameraman at the center.
Moving with them.
Matching their pace.
---
They stepped through.
---
The blue took everything for a moment.
Consuming color.
Consuming sound.
Consuming the morning sun and the military tents and the scientists and the watching world.
---
Then releasing.
---
A forest.
Dark.
But not the dark of absence.
The dark of something else entirely.
Trees stretching upward in ways trees don't stretch.
Bending at angles that had nothing to do with light or wind.
Their trunks wide and pale.
Their branches reaching in directions that suggested something other than growth.
---
Some of the trees held crystals.
Blue.
Small.
Growing from the bark the way moss grows.
Pulsing faintly.
Giving the forest its only light.
---
Gun-woo looked at the camera.
His voice easy.
Controlled.
"Don't be alarmed."
He gestured at the trees around them.
"Dungeons like this are cleared regularly.", "", "Mined for materials.", "", "After a certain period the monsters respawn.", "", "So we come back.", "", "Do it again.", "", "Sometimes after a full clearing they disappear entirely.", "", "We don't know why.", "", "We're still learning.", "",
He looked ahead into the dark.
"Just stay close.", "", "Stay calm.", "", "Let us do what we do.", "",
---
The formation moved deeper.
The shields large against the dark.
Boots finding the strange ground.
The cameraman keeping pace.
Young-ho at his shoulder.
Both of them at the center.
Protected on every side.
---
The trees moved differently here.
The light from the crystals shifting.
A sound somewhere in the dark.
Not close yet.
Not close enough to name.
But present.
---
Gun-woo felt it.
Before he heard it.
Before anything moved.
Something in the air changing its quality.
Something that had been still deciding not to be still anymore.
---
His hand came up.
"Shields."
---
One word.
---
The formation responded.
The sound of shields rising all at once.
Metal and mana finding each other.
The energy building along the line.
The forest going very quiet around them.
Waiting.