#175
“Damn it, doesn’t that bastard Choi Tae-hyuk ever get tired? He even chases after me in the gate and makes a fuss.”
Lee Han-sol, who had been watching the dazzling battles breaking out everywhere with indifference, frowned. His eyes briefly met with Choi Tae-hyuk who was fighting at the frontline, and it seemed Tae-hyuk had already rushed over. Quickly approaching, he grabbed Han-sol’s arm.
“Ki Baek-woo, what are you doing! Don’t you know he’s a C-rank? It’s already concerning to have him at the rear, and you’re keeping him by your side in the center. What are you doing!”
Choi Tae-hyuk shouted in an irritable tone.
“And Healer Jung Yi-dam! You’re the same! You’re not even a combat specialist, so why are you dragging your precious self around here! If something happens to you, we’ll be the ones taking the blame! Fall back to the rear!”
Jung Yi-dam merely shrugged with a smile in his eyes at Tae-hyuk’s words. Only Han-sol responded dryly.
“I’m a combat specialist, so mind your own business and get lost.”
“Shut up, who are you to talk, trash-rank! Have you lost all concept of gate ranks because you’ve only been handling worthless gates? Fire, was it? What do you think you can do here with that lighter-level ability! Is an S-rank gate a joke to you?”
“I am weaker compared to this place…”
Han-sol muttered as if it were nothing, looking up at the narrow crevice in the ceiling. Soon, a massive destruction would fall from there. He remembered it precisely. Han-sol had broken his arm trying to avoid it once. It was the third time, perhaps.
Thinking calmly, he immediately pushed Choi Tae-hyuk strongly to the side and then moved exactly five steps back.
And then, BOOM!!!
The blackly burning destruction crushed exactly where Choi Tae-hyuk and Han-sol had been standing. And before it could make the strange sound unique to destruction, it was instantly torn apart and burst. It was because Ki Baek-woo and Choi Tae-hyuk had attacked the destruction simultaneously.
“C-rank, how did you…!”
Choi Tae-hyuk looked at Han-sol in surprise, who had avoided with timing too perfect to be coincidental. Han-sol shot a sneer at Tae-hyuk and said:
“I may be weak, but I dodge better than you. So just focus on doing your part well.”
Baek-woo brushed off traces of destruction that had fallen on Han-sol’s shoulders and checked various parts of his body. Only after confirming there were no more dirty traces did he look at Choi Tae-hyuk.
“My hyung will handle things himself, so lose interest. I clearly told you not to flirt with him.”
Choi Tae-hyuk, who had scanned the two people and Jung Yi-dam multiple times as if they were strange since they showed no tension at all, retreated hesitantly at the support request coming from behind and said:
“Fine, do whatever you want, live or die.”
Choi Tae-hyuk, though bothered, frowned deeply as if he had no choice due to the oncoming destruction and jumped into formation.
The raid continued. They took turns standing guard and resting after a certain amount of time, and one day passed, then two. Everything seemed to be going smoothly. Han-sol relied on his memory to dodge destruction here and there, and whenever he did, Baek-woo invariably appeared and eliminated the monsters.
It was easy. Han-sol, who had always felt sad or distressed inside the gate, no longer felt miserable. The reality that had changed from before kept becoming apparent. An inevitable confidence was building up. At this rate, he might really be able to end everything soon. So very easily. His sense of reality gradually dulled.
“Yeah, it was really almost torture-level all this time. Since it’s been tough throughout, the ending should at least be easy for balance’s sake.”
Han-sol giggled with his mood completely relaxed. As he was heading forward without thinking, Jung Yi-dam stopped him. “What?” When Han-sol turned around, Yi-dam spoke without inflection.
“What are you going to do there?”
“What are you talking about? Should I not go and just live here?”
“Don’t you remember?”
“Remember what?”
“We retreated from here, remember? The mass combat going on there—even if you know about it, you won’t be able to dodge.”
Hearing that, Han-sol finally noticed the surrounding terrain. It had been familiar since entering the gate, but this place especially… Han-sol thought with some confusion. How absent-minded had he been? Not even noticing where he was. As he was biting his lip and just blinking, Baek-woo intervened.
“Hyung, just a moment.”
Baek-woo, who had been sticking close to him all along, now restrained Han-sol as if he had no choice.
“Hyung, we can’t just pass through there. There are too many of them to dodge. I think it would be better for me to go quickly finish it and come back.”
I’ll finish quickly and come back, I’ll really be back quickly, so just wait here for a bit.
He ran off with reluctant steps, but with the gesture of wanting to end everything as quickly as possible if it couldn’t be helped. Han-sol watched his retreating figure silently and then shrugged.
‘Well… since I know everything that’s going to happen from now on, there’s nothing particularly to worry about. I just need to dodge the destruction before it appears.’
His mind had become lax and relaxed. It was when Han-sol was thoughtlessly kicking the rock wall forming the dungeon.
“Han-sol.”
Jung Yi-dam called him.
“What?”
“You look fine. Are you really not bothered?”
“You’re treating me like a social outcast. Of course I’m fine, why wouldn’t I be? What, are you scared?”
Jung Yi-dam, who had been expressionless, smiled gently again. As if recalling some happy memory.
“No way. This is my sacred ground.”
“There you go again with the nonsense. Please speak normally.”
“Han-sol, I think this world is so fucked up.”
“What?”
“This shitty world is no better than a sewer. I’m so happy that I can finally die. I’m beyond happy—I’m excited. I was so thrilled I couldn’t bear it, so I masturbated nine times in a row last night. I was trembling so much yesterday that I could only fall asleep after doing that, and it’s the same today. That’s how much I despise this place.”
“Fuck, you pervert… Shut up, my ears are going to rot. I don’t give a shit about your sex life.”
Jung Yi-dam continued speaking whether Han-sol showed disgust or not. Like a dramatic monologue. “But.” His smile became sweeter as he opened his lips. A face like he was dreaming.
“This is the only place I like in that world.”
“I said shut up! I’m not interested in your story at all!”
“Because…”
A blush like crushed roses spread over Jung Yi-dam’s fair cheeks. Why does this guy never know how to speak normally? Psycho bastard. Fucking bastard. I want to kill him right now! Han-sol was so creeped out, and since he had to kill Yi-dam anyway, he was thinking maybe he could just beat him up a little now, and his fists were trembling.
Kik, kikigik, kigik…
An unfortunate sound was heard.
“This is where you proved your love to me over and over again. It’s the only sacred and valuable place in this twisted world.”
Jung Yi-dam recalled Han-sol dying here—torn apart, swallowed, in pieces—and let out a tender sigh, “Haaa.” Like feeling some nostalgia for an achingly beautiful time… Han-sol made an “Ah” sound.
It’s a disaster, he thought.
He was too relaxed and now it’s too late. He had no sense of crisis while dealing with Jung Yi-dam without any tension. He should have kept thinking about it, but he failed to do so. He had become too assimilated into the atmosphere without anxiety.
He made a pathetic mistake.
He belatedly blamed himself.
I should have run away before it appeared. I definitely meant to do that. I knew it was going to appear.
A black and grotesque mass crawling out and sticking to the damp floor. Kikigik, kik. A terribly irregular sound that pierced the eardrums and entered the brain.
This place was too familiar to him. The very place where Han-sol had been brutally torn apart and died countless times.
And the last space of the gate that he knew. Because he had never lived beyond this point. Han-sol always died here. At the hands of this destruction standing enormously in front of him.
‘It’s okay, I just need to avoid it. I can avoid it.’
Han-sol consciously thought. The red eyes of the destruction staring blankly at him. I can avoid it. I’ve experienced this so many times. So, I know exactly where and how it will pounce. So I just need to move. Move, Han-sol. Move now. Run away. Avoid that monster, move now…
Ah.
Strange. He couldn’t move. Han-sol’s body had stiffened like stone.
Memories rushed in. The fear that had been coiled up throughout his body, silently, as if everything was already fine. As if they had just been waiting for an opportunity to reappear, the desperate sensations began to vividly come back to life. The sound of bones being crushed, the pain of intestines being pierced, and the back of Ki Baek-woo turning away from him as he was dying.
In the face of familiar reality, the trauma he thought he had completely forgotten was revived. It bound his entire body tightly. Han-sol couldn’t move.
‘Fuck… I thought things were going too well.’
He sneered inwardly. It had always been like this, how could he have forgotten? Why did he believe this time would be different? It’s the same all over again. There’s no way things would go as I wish. The confidence he had excitedly built up collapsed at once like a sandcastle swept away by water. It was a damn world. A truly dog-shit world that invariably grabbed his ankle and threw him into the mouth of destruction the moment he held hope.
Krrrrlruk, kiiiik.
The sizzling black body of the destruction heaved in a grotesque manner. Han-sol couldn’t even blink in front of the enormous thing approaching.
KUUUUNG!
The sound of the destruction striking the floor echoed throughout the dungeon. It was the exact same sound as any other time Han-sol was dying.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
