The dungeon started acting weird everywhere so Woo-young is already on it for everyone. Vworp.

Cricket charges straight out the portal.

And outside, there is pandaemonium. The support team is reorganising itself so that 3/4 of it can be sent elsewhere because dungeons are spawning everywhere, and from the way some authorities have been called to try to get the crowd of onlookers to safety  it seems likely that a different dungeon appeared somewhere nearby, one that's probably started spewing monsters. His comms reconnect and if he pays attention he'll get confirmation of same, plus official warning that the guilds are quickly coming to the conclusion that the confluence has started.

It's not chaos, though, because they've been preparing for months; rather, it's the business and stress associated with putting a complicated and important plan into motion. And as it's literally only just started, this is just the opening salvo, which is typically followed by a short lull before a gradual but rapid ramp up.

He will hang around in case they want him to go back in there with a plan robust to the terrain being evil on top of the moths, but he is going to WAIT for such a plan to materialize.

They're going to need to find different espers because this dungeon just got ranked up but so did half the dungeons in the world. They get a Japanese speaker to tell Cricket that it'll be at least half an hour before they can get people to back in with him.

He will wait for half an hour. Can his escort get a guiding break in that time or is he getting a new one or what.

He's probably getting a new one, his escort isn't rated for this much danger.

Yeah the moths were pretty weaksauce. Cricket laboriously taps out a text to Haru while he waits.

Cricket's message won't be the first one Haru receives, though. Both he and Jaeha got notifications at the same time, and their schedules have been completely cleared. Quasar will also be holding an all-hands in about three hours, when every on-duty esper who isn't taking care of any emergencies is projected to be done with their current dungeons. Barring said emergencies, attendance is mandatory; all Korean guilds are doing the same thing, but staggered, so that they can all cover for each other.

"...well, fuck."

"This'll be my first one, I wasn't doing dungeons yet last time. What's to expect?" Haru asks, taking Jaeha's hand and squeezing it.

He squeezes it back, then puts an arm around Haru. "Fewer hours of sleep. As metonymy."

"Uh-huh. I'll... reschedule all my interviews." He gets on that.

Yeah.

"So... Nightmare is definitely going to show up. It always shows up for confluences."

"I should go with you for that. Force-multiplying you there is almost certainly more important than anything else I could be doing."

"I, uh, disclaim that I know that I'm being insane here but the idea of you going into Nightmare gives me nightmares."

"It won't be able to see me. I guess it can... see other people seeing me? But not me directly. I can be invisible to the victims, even, so only shielded people know I'm there."

"It almost certainly can't get to you. I can shield you for the double whammy. But the mere possibility of it touching you makes me want to hide you away forever. And even without touching you, it... sucks. It's going to be showing you horrible stuff, all the time."

"I've read about it. I don't want you to have to be alone in it, either, though, you realize?"

"oh"

Okay he's gonna hug Haru, now, because, because, because... just because.

Hug. "I love you."

Aaaaahhhhhh. "I love you too." Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!

Haru kisses him. "We'll be okay."

How could he ever believe otherwise, with Haru in his life?

"...so I'm not sure what your schedule will be like, but for me they usually bias towards sending me into dungeons I don't have to actually go inside of unless there's one that particularly needs me, so that I'll be close enough to comms for when Nightmare appears. And since it tends to be most active at night I'll match my circadian schedule with it, wherever it appears in the world."