I Became a Raid Boss-Chapter 197: It was a business trip, not a vacation (1)

"Kana?"

"Yeah?"

The three of us huddled together, staring at the small screen, and Da-eun cautiously broke the silence and spoke.

"Shouldn’t you pick up? It’s strange that the call is even going through with the service disconnected, but if it’s Edel... there shouldn’t be anything impossible."

"It could be a phishing call."

"...With the service disconnected, there’s no way it’s a phishing call."

"They say scams happen when you think they’re impossible."

"Who said something that stupid?"

"My dad."

"...I mean, you really think he’s warm, wise, and intelligent?"

"You just repeated the same thing twice."

"It’s a rhetorical style, emphasizing how wise he was."

"Da-eun, you really have a way with words."

Is that why she can do personal broadcasts?

"This is going to cut off soon. Hurry up and pick up!"

Da-eun pressed her phone towards me, urging me on.

Even while we were talking, the call didn’t disconnect.

It hadn’t been long, so it wasn’t odd that it hadn’t cut off yet, but enough of the jokes.

I grabbed the shaking phone.

"Hello?"

-...Why did you take so long to pick up?!

"...Ugh."

As soon as I answered, Edel’s voice hit my ear with a sharp tone.

Her natural high pitch was made worse by the fact that she was intentionally shouting, and my ears couldn’t handle it.

I dropped the phone a bit, but Edel’s voice still rang loudly in my ears, so I eventually gave up and just held it close again.

-Do you have any idea how worried I was?!

I switched the phone to speaker mode and placed it on the table. Edel’s voice spilled out of the speaker.

I rubbed my aching ears and tilted my head.

"Worried? What’s there to worry about?"

-What do you mean, what’s there to worry about? Aren’t you in Jeju?

"How did you know?"

-Do you think I wouldn’t know? Anyway, how’s the situation there?

"What do you mean, how’s the situation?"

Is she really asking me this, when she can just look at the news?

Instead of pondering Edel’s thoughts, I answered her question.

"It’s flooded enough to swim on the ground."

You want to swim?

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There’s no need to go to a distant beach or pool.

If you just step outside, there’s water flowing everywhere, so why spend time and money going to a place like that?

The only downside is that it’s a bit dirty.

But hey, it's free, so that’s bearable.

-...The ground? Swim?

However, Edel sounded confused, as if she had no idea what I was saying.

I thought it was a pretty easy metaphor, but she couldn’t understand it.

I sighed and rephrased it in a way Edel would hopefully understand.

"It’s raining so much that it’s like you could swim in it."

-Do you think I asked because I didn’t understand that?

"...Wasn’t it?"

-What do you think of me?

"Umm..."

-Forget it. Don’t say it. I’ll just get even more frustrated hearing it.

Just as I was about to speak, Edel cut me off with her words.

...She asked me, so why is she getting mad at me?

If she hadn’t said it like she didn’t understand, I wouldn’t have done that.

I closed my mouth, sulking.

-So, nothing else happened, right? That’s a relief.

"Is this what you call 'nothing else happening'?"

I glanced out the window.

A river had formed where there had been a road just yesterday, flowing relentlessly.

Even though we were in a relatively high place, I could easily imagine what the situation was like in the lower areas.

-In the worst-case scenario, one of the islands could have been swept away, so yeah, no big deal.

"It’s definitely raining a lot, but it’s not that bad."

-You don’t know the situation, do you?

"I know the situation better than you, Edel."

After all, I’m the one on the ground.

But Edel’s opinion was different from mine.

-No, you don’t.

Edel declared with a voice mixed with relief and urgency.

-If I knew, I would have immediately understood what I was saying.

Edel sighed heavily before continuing.

-The boundary between the worlds has been separated.

"...Huh?"

I looked up, surprised by her sudden statement.

I didn’t really need to be staring at the phone, but when I looked up, I saw Da-eun and Yuki with confused expressions.

I couldn’t see my own face, but I probably looked just as confused as them.

"..."

"..."

"..."

We nodded.

"Did you get that?"

"Yeah, me too."

The three of us nodded at the same time, as if we were telepathically connected.

An unknown sense of solidarity flowed between us.

It seemed that I wasn’t the only one who didn’t understand what Edel had said.

"What’s a boundary?"

Finally, I stepped up and asked on behalf of the group.

What exactly is this "boundary," and what does it mean that it’s been separated?

-Oh, right. I should explain that first.

Realizing her mistake, Edel cleared her throat.

-A boundary is... a dimensional wall.

I tried to explain it simply, but it wasn’t something you could actually see or touch.

It’s a barrier that prevents the energy inside the dimension from flowing out, while also acting as a wall to block external intrusion.

It’s the boundary between dimensions.

Of course, just crossing the boundary doesn’t immediately send you to another dimension, but at least crossing the wall is the minimum prerequisite.

And what this wall surrounds is the dimension, or "world."

-The boundary is... to put it simply, think of it as a "server." Actually, we just came up with the name ourselves.

It’s not a completely independent world, but it’s not easy to go in and out of either.

-So even if the servers are different, they’re still part of the same game. It’s just that you can’t travel between them.

"Edel, there are games these days where that’s possible."

-...Yeah, I know that. You think I don’t know that? Do you want to be cursed?!

"Ah, yes..."

Da-eun, who couldn’t hold back and had made a sarcastic remark, shrank back.

Why are they always picking on Da-eun?

...Though, it’s hard to feel sorry for Da-eun with all the karma she’s built up.

I ignored her, who was now crumpled up like a can, and spoke.

"So, what you're saying is, it’s like a burglar broke into the house and built a wall in the living room?"

-Exactly.

Edel praised my metaphor.

I let out a sigh as the sound of clapping reached me through the phone, trying to brush it off.

"And that wall was built and the boundary was separated right here. In Jeju."

I didn’t ask why it had to be Jeju.

It was clear that even Edel didn’t know, and honestly, there was something more pressing to ask.

"So what were you doing, Edel?"

-...

Edel was silent.

Well, it makes sense that she was silent.

When she said she was paying close attention to the dimensional beings' invasion, it didn’t seem like she had noticed when they secretly snuck in and built the wall, separating part of the world.

That was the current situation she explained to us.

Because of the boundary being separated, we couldn’t travel between the areas anymore, and all communications had been cut off.

The TV going out suddenly, the phone being dead, and the strangely pouring rain, all of it was caused by the separation of the boundary.

-...You know, defending is always harder than attacking.

After a long silence, Edel muttered defensively.

-I did my best. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be able to talk to you right now!

"Mm, I see."

-Wow, this is really frustrating.

"Whatever."

I cut off her voice, which was tinged with faint irritation.

"Do you have a solution?"

Da-eun flinched slightly at the cold tone in my voice, but I couldn’t afford to care about something so trivial.

Edel and the administrators hadn’t noticed, so it wasn’t strange that I hadn’t either.

...But if I were to take solace in that, it would be too easy.

My unnecessarily high pride wouldn’t allow me to accept that.

'...'

I hadn’t noticed this mess happening around me.

It was fortunate it was a relatively mild one, but if it hadn’t been...

My eyes narrowed as they met Da-eun’s, who was carefully observing me.

-Are you sure?

"It doesn’t matter."

When was the last time I only chose things that were certain?

My future had always been filled with uncertainty.

Hearing such words now didn’t surprise me at all.

A faint laugh slipped out.

"Stop laughing and answer me."

-...

I had no idea how I ended up in this situation.

Even while grumbling, Edel gave me a solid answer.

-I’ve come up with a few hypotheses. Even if they’re the ones doing this, they couldn’t have pulled it off easily.

This world, which had been managed by gods, including the ones who had once been gods, couldn’t have been easily infiltrated and walled off by intruders.

-They must have been working on it from behind the scenes for a while, or the wall was hastily built. I’m leaning toward the latter.

"Edel, what do you think it is?"

-I don’t know. Maybe the latter? I know it sounds unconvincing, but we’re not that incompetent.

"Hmm."

Her tone carried an undertone of self-deprecation...

No, it was outright self-deprecating.

At the same time, she was also justifying herself a little.

-Considering what happens next, it has to be the latter. If their abilities were that strong, it wouldn’t be a good thing.

"That’s true."

Waiting around for the enemy to be incompetent is a foolish thing to do, leaving your future to luck.

But if it isn’t that, maybe we can hope for just a little bit.

-Whoever sneaks into your house and builds a wall, what should you do?

"...Break down the wall?"

-Also one more thing.

There’s no entrance or exit, so it’s impossible to get through.

But if you were left with a burglar on the other side of the wall...

-You could stab the burglar and kill them, right?

Now’s the time for you to do what you do best.