Chapter 49 : Into the Dungeon. (7)
Chapter 49: Into the Dungeon. (7)
Guhk—
A lump of bright red flesh spilled out of Instructor Nike’s mouth.
The red spear burrowed between his ribs and pierced straight through his heart.
The fanatic who had fallen into a cult was facing a fate where his life would soon come to an end.
“Finally.”
Instructor Nike murmured while staring at the sky with vacant eyes.
“Am I going to Cheonyangji.”
A religion that claimed to transcend even death.
Now, that madness had become downright nauseating.
Cheonyang (泉壤).
It referred to the world where a person’s soul went to live after death.
At a glance, it sounded like a peaceful and beautiful utopia.
But the Cheonyangji Cult Leader preached that only those he personally chose could remain there.
The leader’s words were truth itself.
If you did not listen to him, you could not go to Cheonyang.
It was said that you would wander the Nine Heavens forever, suffering in agony.
‘What utter bullshit.’
As the sun slowly sank, a long shadow stretched out in front of me.
Whether this dungeon was somewhere in the galaxy,
or merely a virtual reality copied from Earth, I didn’t know.
But here too, alongside monsters, the seven human emotions of desire existed.
Instructor Nike lifted his head and looked at me.
Perhaps the backlight was blinding, because he narrowed his eyes and muttered.
“Hunter Choi. Perhaps you are my savior. You saved me.”
The same Instructor Nike who had threatened to kill me with bloodshot eyes now finally wore a peaceful expression.
Suddenly, the reputation I had often heard about him within the Dio Guild came to mind.
All 365 days of the year, he wore shabby clothes and insisted on frugal meals.
The so-called Miser Nike.
Despite being an A-rank hunter with a high salary, he spent money with extreme stinginess.
‘He couldn’t have helped it.’
Cheonyangji demanded that most of an individual’s income be offered to the Cult Leader.
What a believer owned was essentially the leader’s property.
Aside from the money needed to maintain the bare minimum of living, everything was practically taken away.
Perhaps he had been living in hell.
“……Jye-jye. I’m sorry.”
The focus disappeared from the pupils of Instructor Nike, who had a spear lodged in his heart.
‘Jye-jye?’
In his final moment, the one he thought of wasn’t the Cult Leader, but someone named Jye-jye.
‘Who was that?’
After some time passed, the hardened alloy reverted to liquid and turned into blood.
Soaked in blood, Instructor Nike collapsed onto the floor as a cold corpse.
A heavy silence settled over the dungeon.
I had punished a traitor.
Yet this time, it wasn’t satisfying at all.
‘Disgusting.’
Instructor Nike had committed murder while being manipulated like a puppet.
I couldn’t say he was without sin.
However, there was definitely one more bastard who deserved to die.
I turned my head and looked at Hase-na.
The Cheonyangji Cult Leader had said he wanted Hase-na.
That was why he had ordered Instructor Nike to massacre the interns and bring her to him.
“Hase-na. Do you know anything about Cheonyangji?”
Hase-na panted for breath.
“I met the Cult Leader briefly before I awakened. The chairman of the high school I attended was connected to Cheonyangji.”
The Cheonyangji Cult Leader especially enjoyed standing in front of young students.
It seemed that when he gave speeches before students, he had made contact with Hase-na.
“He told me he’d support my living expenses and said I should come into the Garden of Paradise with him.”
The Garden of Paradise was the vast estate where the Cheonyangji Cult Leader lived.
There, together with thousands of believers, he had built his own kingdom.
“Of course I refused. Just him putting his hand on my shoulder was revolting.”
I couldn’t tell why the Cheonyangji Cult Leader wanted Hase-na.
‘If I trace things back through Hase-na, I might be able to reach the Cult Leader.’
As if she had read my thoughts, Hase-na spoke.
“Choi Yong-gi. I’ll help too.”
Her gaze was fixed on the dead Instructor Nike.
“There can’t be any more victims.”
Bang Su-hwan, who was beside us, chimed in.
“Me too! Hyung! Just tell me what to do.”
Everyone’s eyes naturally turned toward Lee Ji-jun.
He was the one who had provided practical help in defeating Instructor Nike.
“Well, if the boss says so.”
Lee Ji-jun shrugged.
Before I knew it, the intern classmates were recognizing me as the leader.
Thinking back to how we had bickered at our first meeting, it felt like our teamwork was gradually coming together.
Lee Ji-jun pointed at the gate.
“By the way. Is it true? They say it’s a total mess outside right now.”
I didn’t know if it was coincidence.
Unfortunately, the Cheonyangji Cult Leader’s prophecy had come true.
‘That said, there’s no need to let on that I know the future.’
I sheathed White Revenge.
“Well, we’ll find out when we go out.”
When we came in, there had been seven people.
Only four were heading toward the exit.
Uncoagulated blood pooled thickly on the floor.
This was the true nature of a dungeon.
No matter how much people called it an unexplored world or a gold mine that contributed to scientific advancement,
in the end, it was a horrific scene where humans died.
With me in the lead, the interns followed behind.
“Let’s go.”
Leaving the tragedy behind, we were once again sucked into the world of light.
Sure enough, when we came out of the gate, Gangnam had turned into pandemonium.
Avian monsters flew through the sky, smashing their wings into buildings.
Shattered chunks of concrete and shards of glass rained down like hail.
“Su-hwan.”
“Yes! Hyung!”
Bang Su-hwan raised his shield to block the debris.
On the ground, monsters were running rampant.
A Big Lava curled its body up and bounced around like a ball, crushing hunters.
Cerberus drooled as it gnawed on a leg that belonged to who-knows-who.
Because I had anticipated this, I could stay calm, but the rest of the team couldn’t.
“Damn it!”
“What the hell is going on…….”
“Isn’t it obvious? They failed to suppress a multi-gate.”
The number of gates that had erupted in the Gangnam area alone was thirty-five.
Even if thirty-four of them were blocked,
missing just one led to this kind of disaster.
A Hydra spat out thick saliva.
“Watch out!”
I shoved Hase-na aside, pulling her out of the attack’s path.
The acidic spit melted the asphalt.
“Th, thanks.”
“Stay sharp.”
Looking closely, I saw that among those participating in the battle, there were quite a few Dio Guild agents mixed in.
“Where did Hunter Na Sang-min go?”
“The other guild leaders aren’t here either.”
“I don’t see Bongseon or Balkan either.”
Everyone instinctively looked for an S-rank hunter.
That was also why the damage from the Gangnam Station multi-gate incident had grown so large.
It was later revealed that,
although they had exterminated the boss monster in a short time, they got lost inside the dungeon and wandered around for quite a while.
During that time, innocent victims piled up.
Republic of Korea Hunter Regulations Article 1 Clause 1.
First, protect citizens safely from monsters.
Even if I wasn’t a hunter.
The direction I, a hero, needed to take was already decided.
“First, let’s clean up this area.”
“Okay.”
At my words, Lee Ji-jun generated a Blood Knife.
We split up and moved to suppress the monsters.
Lee Ji-jun drove his blade into a beast’s neck, while Bang Su-hwan smashed down with his shield, separating a goblin’s torso.
Hase-na also faithfully carried out her role, healing the injured.
The one saving grace was that only relatively low-grade monsters were present.
That was when it happened.
From somewhere, a horned ogre tore four hunters apart and charged straight at me.
“Kraaah!!!”
A truck caught in its sharp claws was ripped apart like paper.
The ogre was an upper-tier <Ruin-class> monster.
It would take several A-rank hunters working together to take it down.
A powerful bastard had appeared out of nowhere.
And it wasn’t just one.
A total of five ogres rushed at me simultaneously.
“Hyung!”
From a distance, Bang Su-hwan shouted to me with bulging veins.
‘Damn it.’
I still had restrictions on me.
Instructor Nike’s special talent was still in effect.
Because I had been wounded by his sword, my hero abilities were sealed for twenty-four hours.
Super Kid’s <Judgment of the Superhuman> and <Aura of God>.
Even Speeder’s <Infinite Acceleration>.
There was nothing I could use right now.
If I had any weapon at all,
it was Mister Eden’s illusion magic <Alusia>.
It had been a powerful blow that threw Instructor Nike into confusion, but
showing illusions alone would only buy time.
I couldn’t immediately defeat monsters with it.
“Kraaak!!!”
The five ogres surged in from all directions.
They raised claws that jutted out like blades.
‘No, it’s possible.’
I stretched both hands out into the air.
Ten orange magic circles formed and were sucked into the ogres’ pupils.
It was illusion-type magic like before, but with one difference.
The ogres faltered and lifted their heads.
They no longer looked at me.
Soon, they fixed their gazes on other monsters right in front of them and began attacking wildly.
“Kra!”
“Kuaaah!!”
“Kkhuh!!”
Claws pierced through necks, horns stabbed into abdomens, jaws tore at throats.
Like snakes devouring one another, and then devouring again.
After inflicting fatal wounds on each other and killing instantly, all five ogres collapsed at once.
Thud.
In the midst of it all, only I stood tall.
<Alusia> didn’t merely cause ‘hallucinations’—seeing things that weren’t there.
It also had another function.
Forcibly making targets obey specific commands, so-called ‘brainwashing’.
The command I forcibly implanted into the five ogres was simple.
‘Kill each other.’
The operation succeeded perfectly.
Brainwashing didn’t work on intelligent humans, so it couldn’t be used on Nike.
However,
‘It can be used on monsters as much as I want.’
With this, I secured enough leeway to fight freely for twenty-four hours.
I climbed atop the massive ogre corpse lying before me.
As a cool breeze blew, my hair fluttered.
Having just exited the dungeon, I hadn’t even managed to wipe off the purplish blood smeared on my face.
Those watching gaped openly.
“Who is that guy?”
“He’s from the Dio Guild.”
“……I’ve never seen that face before.”
Since many large and small groups besides the three major guilds of South Korea had gathered on the battlefield, attention was drawn all at once.
Just then, someone emerged from the gate.
It was Na Sang-min and his group.
“Fuck! That shitty formation (陣法) made us wander around like crazy!”
The strongest member of the Dio Guild who had come out of the gate quickly grasped the situation.
“What the hell! Who are these scraps!”
A silver long spear flashed.
That alone was enough for a monster to be diced into cube-like pieces all over its body.
With his skill, he could have slaughtered every monster here with ease.
But.
“Why are there so many! Fuck!”
Because the gate hadn’t closed, monsters kept pouring out endlessly.
The so-called monster wave.
At this rate, even if we fought all night, more would just keep coming.
Na Sang-min stopped swinging and steadied his spear.
Then he planted it firmly into the ground and shouted.
“Everyone, gather up!”
At his summons, everyone converged in one place at once.
Spotting the interns, Na Sang-min asked.
“Why is it just you guys? Where’s Nike?”
“…….”
There was no answer, but Na Sang-min understood even that quickly.
Cases where someone entered a dungeon and didn’t come back out were common.
In other words, he was dead.
“Fine. From now on, we’re going to subjugate the other gates. I’ll reorganize the teams. You, you, and you!”
True to his simple-minded nature, Na Sang-min chose a frontal assault.
He planned to capture the multi-gates in Gangnam one by one.
Of course, it wasn’t a wrong solution.
If all the gates were closed, the situation would calm down.
The problem was—
‘It’ll take that much longer.’
Gate closure was a race against time.
The more we delayed, the more countless lives would fade away.
Since manpower was lacking, Na Sang-min even selected the interns.
“The remaining four of you, come along too.”
“Hunter.”
Na Sang-min’s eyes met mine.
“What? Choi Yong-gi. Did you piss yourself because you’re scared?”
I slowly wiped away the purplish blood stuck near my eyes.
“I won’t be going in.”
“What?”
Na Sang-min’s face twisted as if anger had surged all the way to the top of his head.
“Please send me separately, on my own.”
In truth, I already knew.
The only solution that could suppress the multi-gates all at once.