The next day arrived quietly.
Morning sunlight spilled through the curtains as Ezekiel finished preparing for work. After a brief breakfast, he left the house, closing the door behind him with a soft click.
Viola remained standing in the living room for a moment after he left. Then she walked over to the table and picked up her phon, opening the schedule her agency had prepared for her.
As expected, it was full.
But not with performances.
These days, most of the requests flooding her schedule were not from television stations or music producers.
They were from guilds.
Viola stared at the long list of messages and sighed.
Guilds seemed to be constantly recruiting her lately. Some of them had even gone as far as waiting outside her agency building, hoping to catch her when she arrived or left. It had become a strange, exhausting routine.
And the most persistent of them all was the Palladium Guild.
Not only did they send messages through official channels—emails that her agency had to filter every single day—but they also pursued her outside of work.
Relentlessly.
As if that wasn't enough, they had started delivering gifts.
Unusual gifts.
A bouquet of flowers every single day.
Viola had stared at the first bouquet with genuine confusion.
The second had made her uncomfortable.
By the fifth, she had started feeling irritated.
By now, she could only sigh in disbelief.
Were they trying to recruit her… or court her?
She honestly couldn't tell.
Either way, it was becoming a serious inconvenience and gifts coming from that awful place made her look at those things with disgust.
Avoiding them had become part of her daily routine. Every time she returned home, she had to take careful precautions. She would change routes repeatedly, stop at random stores, or enter buildings only to leave through another exit.
Sometimes she had to change her clothes two or three times in different locations just to make sure no one was following her.
At this point, she had identified no fewer than twenty different spots around the city that she used to break potential tails.
It was exhausting.
But necessary.
Because if any of them discovered where she actually lived—
Viola shivered slightly.
That would be a disaster.
To prevent that possibility, she had already spoken to the agency staff. She made it absolutely clear that her personal information was never to be shared with anyone.
Not under any circumstances.
Fortunately, the agency president had supported her completely. In fact, he had gone even further and issued a strict internal order.
Anyone caught leaking Viola's personal information would be fired immediately.
That declaration alone had scared off anyone who might have been tempted to sell her address.
It gave Viola a small measure of relief.
Still, none of that solved the larger problem.
The Palladium Guild.
They were far too persistent.
Viola leaned back in her chair and closed her phone.
It was still not the right time.
She was not ready to enter Palladium yet.
Not until she had everything prepared.
Her weapon.
Her equipment.
And most importantly, her strength.
Entering a major guild without preparation would be reckless. Especially when she knew exactly the kind of dangers waiting inside that world.
She needed to train.
And luckily for her, she already knew where to begin.
Viola stood and walked toward the window, her gaze drifting toward the distant skyline.
Not long from now, something would appear.
A hidden dungeon.
Hidden dungeons were very different from normal gates.
Ordinary dungeon gates appeared inside cities, often in crowded places where the Hunter Association could immediately secure the area. Once the boss inside the dungeon was defeated, the gate would close and disappear.
But hidden dungeons did not work that way.
They appeared quietly.
Unpredictably.
And usually in remote places like forests, mountains, rivers, oceans, even deserts.
Unlike ordinary dungeons, defeating the boss inside a hidden dungeon did not close it. The dungeon simply remained there, permanently connected to the outside world.
However, monsters inside could not leave.
No matter what happened.
Because of that, hidden dungeons were treated differently by hunters.
Guilds rarely organized large-scale raids for them. Instead, they became open territory.
Any hunter could enter freely.
Some went there to train.
Others searched for rare resources.
And everything inside operated under one simple rule.
First come.
First served.
Viola's eyes hardened slightly.
In her previous life, it had taken months before anyone even discovered the hidden dungeon she was thinking about now.
Once news of it spread, hunters flooded into the area.
Everyone hoped to find something valuable.
And many of them did.
But many more never returned.
The dungeon was far more dangerous than people realized.
In the end, after countless hunters had entered and failed, Palladium Guild had finally stepped in.
They were the last ones to attempt the deeper levels.
And they succeeded.
What they found there became one of the most shocking treasures the world had ever seen.
A fruit.
At least, that was what it looked like.
But its true name was far more infamous.
The Forbidden Fruit.
It was said that anyone who took even a single bite would gain unimaginable awareness.
Knowledge.
Understanding.
Some even believed it allowed the eater to perceive the truth of the world itself.
When news of the artifact reached the public, it caused an uproar not just in this country but across the entire world.
It wasn't just a treasure.
It was proof.
Proof that legendary relics described in ancient myths might actually exist.
The guilds that discovered it—Palladium and Ozburn—gained enormous influence from that single event.
They studied the fruit.
Displayed it.
Sold research rights to other countries.
The wealth they accumulated was beyond imagination.
And with that wealth came even greater power.
Viola slowly clenched her hand.
Her eyes grew cold.
"I won't let them have it this time."
In her past life, she had been nothing more than a spectator to that event.
Someone watching from the outside as powerful people reshaped the world.
But now things were different.
She knew where the dungeon would appear.
She knew what was hidden inside.
And she knew exactly how valuable that treasure was.
If Palladium obtained it again, their influence would only grow stronger.
Stronger than ever.
That was something she could never allow.
Not after everything that had happened.
Not after everything they had taken.
Viola turned away from the window.
Her expression had hardened into quiet determination.
"I'll take it first."