ALL NOVEL Chapter 292
Green City is a world constructed with a city civilization similar to modern Earth, slightly larger than New York.
Of course, no one knows who built this vast forest of buildings.
“No one knows when Green City was established. This damn city has looked like this since our family first arrived here!”
BAM BAM BAM
Night of Green City.
Dungeon names are usually determined by the Hunter Association or the person who discovers the dungeon first, but in the case of Green City, the name was decided by an intelligent being that can communicate in Green City, not by humans from Earth.
“Ah, Green City!”
About 38 years ago, the [Night of Green City], an ungraded dungeon, first appeared on Earth and has remained a troublesome area to deal with until now.
“Our new hometown. Our savior. And a filthy sewage where there’s no hope for salvation!”
As the gray-toothed Grakshar said, this dungeon, known as Green City, is a place where the world itself resembles a gigantic trash can.
In fact, the residents of this area call Green City a sewage.
All kinds of non-human beings and lives gather like trash. The green mist and green sunlight swirl around the city like a storm, making it look no different from a sewage pit far away.
Anyway, there’s no boss-like figure that leads or governs the dungeon known as Green City.
The core that maintains the dungeon has to be somewhere, but so far, they haven’t found the core or anything similar to it.
“Humans from the outside! Welcome to the concrete sewage stained with drugs and madness! Hahaha!”
As a result, this writhing city, where human rights and lives are completely disregarded, is treated as a dungeon by the Hunter Association and has been left untouched for a long time.
By the way, this dungeon randomly opens gates to other dimensions, pulling in an undefined number of humans or non-humans to make them residents of this world.
With buildings towering high enough to block the green sun, there must be construction workers or designers, but according to Grakshar, buildings appear out of nowhere at some point, and new back alleys systematically occupy space like a maze.
A heavy, smog-like green mist hangs throughout the city, creating a gloomy atmosphere, and among the mists and back alleys roam humans or something resembling humans.
CRASH!
“Ugh!”
“Kill!”
“Hand over everything you’ve got!!”
“Hehe, heheh…”
“Please, give me some drugs. Just one, just one, please. Please… huff, haah… ugh…”
The vast concrete jungle.
Neon signs flickering like mana stones.
Green drugs that can’t be obtained on Earth.
In the back alleys piled with trash, something resembling a person.
The delicious meat hanging at the food stall isn’t pork or beef; instead, it’s the limbs of the residents of Green City, filled with non-humans. The streets are littered with unidentified drugs and syringes, and real-time gunfire and knives fly through the air.
“Sniff sniff…”
“Ughhh…”
“Aaaaaah…”
Somewhere, jazz swing is playing.
The crude combination of mechanical sounds and cello music.
To the almost noise-like music, fairy prostitutes with chains around their necks sing sorrowfully like a funeral song; the sound seems incredibly beautiful.
“I’m hungry. I’m hungry. I’m so hungry…”
“Poor thing. Here, have this to eat… cough!”
A child who hasn’t even reached the age of adulthood begs miserably for food.
Just as the sympathetic, suited Goblin hands over money, numerous boy gangs appear from behind, brandishing knives.
“Tonight’s meal is this fancy kid!!”
“Kyahahaha!”
“Bro, I want to eat the hind leg!”
“You little… cough…”
“Suit-wearers have fat that’s juicy!”
“If you all come back, you’re dead…”
“Yeah, we’ll all bounce back~”
An empty wallet.
Torn suit.
A food stall overcharging.
The restaurant owner stabbing a customer trying to skip out without paying.
The smell of drugs seeping from the sewer.
Following the sounds of blood and flesh being squished in the back alleys, one can see the downtown area riddled with holes and soot, as if a shootout had occurred.
Below, old, powerless non-human prostitutes line up, and to suck the life force from destitute homeless people, succubi tempt customers from the street.
“Ah! There are so many life force wallets…!”
“Oh my, brothers and sisters~ such fresh faces! Is this your first time in Green City?”
“I can do all sorts of play~ Would you like a limb cut off or a neck squeezed? Shy, are you? Oh no, how dreadful!”
“No money? How about food or other goods? We don’t discriminate against genders as customers~”
Hunters shook off the advances of approaching prostitutes, moving as if to flee.
“How about that! Isn’t it a cute and peaceful town?”
“What?”
“Is this… peaceful?”
Certainly, from a human perspective, Green City was a hell for mortals, but Grakshar looked at the hunters with a grin, seeming quite pleased.
Actually, it wasn’t even the hell described in Buddhism.
At least the hell humans speak of is a place one reaches in payment for sins, but here, lives are tortured without sin. If you are weak, you suffer for no reason.
“Ugh… what the…”
“What the hell is this….”
“Wow haha! I know what this is! It’s a post-apocalyptic city!”
“It’s like a living hell.”
“Look over there. The fresh meat hung at the butcher’s looks exactly like a human leg.”
“Ah, our organization delivers ten arms and legs every week to that butcher! They charge a premium, but since the owner has been running business here for a long time, it’s hard to ignore it. It’s about respect among our family!”
“…Legs?”
“Anyway, once arms or legs are chopped off and die, they will just come back to life by the next day, so I have to earn money this way! If I manage to sell fresh limbs before night falls, it’s quite the good gig!”
“Ugh, fuck…..”
“Haha! Such a weak human! You’re not even weak yet you’re so cowardly!”
Seeing the extremely harsh urban ecology of a post-apocalyptic world right before their eyes, some hunters were already feeling nauseous.
And what’s worse is that every non-human that dies in Green City comes back to life when night falls and day breaks.
The hunters who boarded the Hunter Train to enter Green City were all A-grade or higher, so unless a suddenly threatening hostile entity appeared, they wouldn’t be in physical danger.
However, it seems that everyone, regardless of A-grade or S-grade, felt a severe mental blow.
Seeing the state of Green City, the hunters had the thought:
“Oh, if Earth couldn’t deal properly with the Great Rift, this level of hell would have unfolded.”
No, if this kind of disaster had occurred globally, it would have been even more horrific.
Seeing life utilized as a unit of currency and flesh thrown into the sewage of a living hell, the hunters abruptly realized the preciousness of Earth, civilization, ethics, and humanity.
“Wow, it’s a mess.”
“Hehe, I’ve never seen a place like this before. Truly fascinating.”
*
“Our Hunter Train hasn’t come to tackle the Night of Green City dungeon.”
Just before the hunters officially entered Green City, an association agent informed them about the ecology of Green City.
“Countless factions, gangsters, and mafia-like organizations are competing against each other here. While there’s a lot of unverified information, fundamentally, this place is closer to a predator-prey type citizen ecology, and we’ve built a temporary cooperative relationship with Grakshar, the gray-toothed orc.”
“So our goal is to help this orc named Grakshar?”
Supporting the orc named Grakshar is not a difficult task.
Everyone here is a veteran hunter and is regarded as a divine being in the hunter world, especially since there are even 21 S-grade hunters capable of annihilating this green city on their own.
If it’s just fighting, hunters excel at that.
“No, we came to help, but we must not help.”
“What do you mean?”
“The first contact between the association and Grakshar was a year ago. Guilds from Korea, Japan, and Russia, and China collaborated to visit this place to investigate Green City. After several conversations, the association gained some understanding of the ecology of Green City, and Grakshar requested help from the association to become its ruler.”
“An orc asking for human help, now that’s something.”
“Isn’t he quite handsome for an orc?”
“I think he’s better looking than you.”
“Shut it.”
“Ahem Anyway, the association has been planning to elevate Grakshar to a position close to the next ruler or regent of Green City, and to coordinate various issues with the Grakshar family, agents including myself will join them. What we would like to ask the hunters is to serve as essential personnel to guard our agents in case of unforeseen events.”
“But to pull a friendly orc up as the city’s representative, we need to assist this Grakshar and his clan even more, don’t we?”
“I think so too.”
Upon a hunter’s question, the agent shook his head.
“It is true that working with Grakshar to bolster his power is a fact. However, the goal is merely to elevate him to a representative position of this city, not to actually make Grakshar the ruler of this city.”
“Hmm.”
“I understand.”
“If Grakshar becomes the ruler of the city, could he suddenly change his attitude and turn threatening towards Earth or humans?”
“That’s one of the reasons, but… the most peculiar and bizarre gimmick of this dungeon is that even if life loses limbs or dies, as long as the green sun rises again, it comes back to life intact.”
The process of life reviving in Green City cannot be explained by magic or physical phenomena.
Once, the association showed a video with Grakshar’s cooperation where a subordinate’s limbs were cut off, and he died.
It was a violent and gruesome video, but what was even weirder was the process of revival.
First, a vividly glimmering orb, as if composed of mana and spirits, came out from the corpse of the limb-severed orc and vanished into thin air. Then after a long night has passed, at the moment the green sun rises, an orb, reminiscent of a soul, descends back onto the earth, and in what seemed like rewinding time, the deceased’s body is revived.
“The basis for revival is the state before the injuries of the previous day. Although the revived party retains all memories intact, pre-existing ailments or symptoms of hunger or drug addiction are also based on the ‘previous day.’ It is presumed that they resurrect in the body they had before any ‘trauma.’
“Furthermore, even if the party comes back to life, the severed bodies remain. The association has confirmed that these corpses are treated as a kind of meat or currency in Green City.”
“Hmm, that means…”
“Sometimes people get so hungry that they end up killing and eating themselves.”
“It also means you could cut off parts of your body to sell if you’re out of money…”
“That’s not a common occurrence. Even if one can resurrect, enduring the pain of mutilating their own body isn’t an easy task.”
Of course, there are frequent cases of being forcibly severed by external violence.
After all, the gray-toothed Grakshar, with whom the hunters cooperate, can be seen as a kind of massive non-human mafia.
“The Hunter Association has judged that should the gimmicks of this dungeon and the green sun leak to Earth, it may cause a catastrophe at least as devastating as a continental collapse.”
“Therefore, I’ll inform you that the ultimate goal of the association is either to completely neutralize or annihilate Green City.”
“Even though non-humans here don’t pour out into Earth right now, if monsters that resurrect daily stop their infighting and come pouring out into Earth, the damage would be impossible to measure.”
Therefore, the association decided to start building a cooperative relationship with Grakshar.
“Thus, we will assist Grakshar to ‘some extent,’ while your goal as hunters is to infiltrate throughout Green City and investigate everything about this dungeon’s gimmicks, ecology, and environment.”
“Social structure, types of non-humans, culture, buildings, environment… Anything goes. All information about Green City will be essential for the future annihilation of this dungeon.”
“The method of investigation is free. You can explore or attack the monsters and non-humans in Green City to gain information.”
“Of course, if you feel uneasy about the investigation or if you judge your abilities as unsuitable for the ecology of Green City causing danger, you may remain on the train. However, please focus on protecting the Hunter Train along with those not deploying.”
“Moreover, while this is an investigation, it’s not mandatory. You may enjoy Green City at your leisure, limited to those who find this green sewage delightful.”
“The timeframe is one month from now. On the 30th at 14:30, we will gather again at the Hunter Train hidden outside Green City.”
“Please keep your smart watches and Hunter Assistant Drones on for emergency contact.”
Finally, the agent earnestly advised the hunters.
“As I said earlier, you are free to do whatever. However, do not die under any circumstances. It’s still unclear whether the resurrection gimmick of Green City applies to us.”
“Good luck, Hunters.”
Enjoy your delightful journey in Green City.
*
Shia clearly understood the agent’s notice about Green City.
If they wanted to explore, they could. If they wanted to travel, they could. If they wanted to play, they could.
‘Wouldn’t it be nice to interact with other clans or mafia besides Grakshar and play mafia?’
In fact, there were rumors that some hunters were hiding their identities and appearances to contact forces that were hostile to the Grakshar family.
‘Hmm, that does sound fun… but I’ll pass.’
Shia and Menelapie were people who had reached the pinnacle in their previous world.
The Emperor and Hero.
The Mangja Seongnyeo who killed the Demon King and was the Grand Seongnyeo of the order.
Thus, they were not inclined to bow their heads and follow anyone else.
Rather than pretending to be Grakshar’s subordinates, wandering around like they were on an adventure was better.
The Hunter Association, after all, was established to fulfill the noble duty of protecting humanity, rather than being a power-holding institution.
Regardless, under Shia’s leadership…
“In this mafia city, let’s become mafias ourselves!”
“Hoho, that sounds good!”
Shia and Menelapie tossed aside their typically unique casual wear and donned black suits with white dress shirts and black sunglasses obtained from the Hunter Train’s operating committee, beginning to walk the streets of Green City.
Since Shia and Menelapie were tall and had flamboyant appearances to begin with, they looked even more striking in their mafia outfits.
CLICK CLICK…
“…….”
“So, what now?”
“……I wonder.”
However, while they were thrilled to dress up in their cool mafia attire, they quickly fell into boredom less than 30 minutes after entering Green City, which wasn’t directly a fighting dungeon.
Green City itself pulled in people from various aliens, so when unfamiliar faces appeared, the residents hardly paid any attention to Shia.
Of course, they weren’t completely indifferent. Street vendors or robbers, pickpockets or succubi glanced at Shia’s group, looking for something to take from them, but nothing special happened beyond that.
While they had confidently arrived in this desolate and dangerous Green City dressed as mafias, they found themselves unsure of what to do upon arrival.
“If we’ve come to travel, then it’s all about food.”
“Since we aren’t actual hunters cooperating with those orcs, doesn’t it make no difference to us?”
Certainly, if they were on a trip, food was the first priority.
If they could discover a decent restaurant, it surely wouldn’t be bad to dine out in Green City with Yane guarding Yoonjeong.
And naturally, getting recommendations from locals regarding restaurants would be the best way to go.
Shia headed toward the location of Grakshar’s family, as previously provided by the association.
Without any tension, it felt almost like collecting a travel guide, and while a few suited orcs glared at Shia, it seemed that since the boss had announced cooperation with humans, the lower-ranking orcs couldn’t cause any trouble.