#077
“Aah!”
Suddenly, a hole opened up above, and a sharp bee stinger appeared right in the middle of the car body.
I swallowed hard, looking at the monster that had narrowly missed my face.
From a distance, I saw Hyun Dowoon get out of his car just as a monster jumped out and headed towards us through the window.
“Oh my, another new one has appeared!”
The taxi driver shouted in surprise at the sudden appearance of a new monster. It was understandable to be scared, with terrifying monsters shooting arrows everywhere.
But I felt relieved seeing that monster. It was because it was Hyun Dowoon’s summon that I had seen before.
“Get out!”
Hyun Dowoon shouted, knocking on the window. The driver and I hurriedly got out and stuck close to Hyun Dowoon.
As soon as we got out, the monster swung its blade-like stinger, half-destroying the taxi. The shocked driver fell backwards, gasping for breath.
“Be careful.”
I offered my hand to the fallen driver while glaring at the chaos in front of me. Something seemed off about the situation.
The bee-like flying monsters circled around and suddenly aimed their stingers at us.
Monsters are basically creatures that destroy everything around them. It was unusual for them to aim at a specific target all at once. Especially for monsters far away to fly in and attack immediately.
“This… they might be sensing power. Maybe we should move further away.”
“That can’t be. If so, they should be going after Haejun’s car too.”
It didn’t make sense that they weren’t swarming towards Shin Haejun, who had the same S-rank power, and only coming after us.
“Ugh… Aah!”
“Mister!”
As the blade-like bee stingers headed towards us, the driver suddenly ran away with his eyes rolled back. He seemed to have become anxious after hearing Hyun Dowoon’s words.
I shouted in surprise, worried he might get attacked by monsters while running like that, but strangely, the monsters didn’t target the driver.
Even though attacking the weakest one who separated from the group would be easiest.
“We should go to Shin Haejun Esper for now. It would be a big problem if Jaeha gets hurt while I’m using my skills.”
Hyun Dowoon said, looking at Shin Haejun who was running towards us after parking his car far ahead.
Indeed, since we were outside the dungeon, it wasn’t appropriate to use large-scale skills that might harm the surroundings, and Hyun Dowoon, who fought with summons, seemed more suitable for catching monsters than Shin Haejun, who used his power more broadly.
“I’ll block with my summons so you can go safely. Go now!”
Hyun Dowoon pushed my back. His summon shot arrows to attack the surrounding monsters and clear the way. As I ran towards where Shin Haejun was, suddenly there was a buzzing sound above my head, and a bee stinger attacked me.
“Aah!”
I reflexively crouched to avoid it and kept running while pressing my pounding chest. The situation really seemed strange.
‘Why are they all following me?’
I ran away as fast as I could, screaming “Aaah!” Then I bumped face-first into Shin Haejun’s chest as he was running towards me.
“That’s strange! They’re all following me!”
I explained frantically to Shin Haejun. He embraced me with a serious face and whispered not to worry.
“There are too many…!”
“There are two S-rank Espers here. Nothing to worry about.”
Shin Haejun used his skill towards the monsters with a firm voice and confidence. It was a skill I had never seen before.
As soon as he used the skill, 10 monsters turned around and started attacking other monsters of the same kind.
‘So that’s Love Rampage.’
Shin Haejun usually used skills to manipulate gravity or call forth frost storms. It was the first time I saw him use a charm skill. It seemed he was trying to avoid using skills that might harm the road or other people, like Hyun Dowoon.
‘It’s certain now. They’re all targeting me….’
I clenched my fists and watched as the monsters controlled by Hyun Dowoon and Shin Haejun alternated between attack and defense.
The monsters, which seemed to have intelligence and target specific targets, were still charging towards my direction as if making physical attacks.
It was an unusual situation, with monsters that couldn’t escape from the dungeon coming out.
‘Could this be the author’s intervention?’
I thought that since they couldn’t kill me inside the dungeon, they might have done this to attack me belatedly.
I suspected that if they couldn’t kill me normally outside the dungeon, they might be trying to secure plausibility and eliminate me by creating a new dungeon break.
Thinking about this, I suddenly felt a surge of defiance.
I couldn’t die here so helplessly. Even if I was suicidal, I had no intention of dying as the author and Kim Sehyun wanted.
‘If I’m going to die, it should be my decision. Why should I die for them?’
The thought of Kim Sehyun monopolizing Shin Haejun and Hyun Dowoon’s attention and laughing happily after my death made me even less inclined to die.
Dying like this here would be unfair to the people who have helped me so far and to Nine.
To the Lee Jaeha who might or might not return someday, and to Hyun Dowoon and Shin Haejun who said they liked me, abandoning their duties as characters…
“Why do they keep targeting you?”
Shin Haejun muttered, glaring at the situation in front of us while holding me tightly. He seemed to have realized that this situation was strange too.
“I guess this dungeon appeared to kill me.”
“What nonsense are you talking about?”
When I sighed and spoke as if complaining, Shin Haejun furrowed his brow.
This standoff had been going on for over ten minutes. No matter how many were killed, monsters kept pouring out of the portal.
‘Wait a minute.’
In this dungeon, I was trapped in a dungeon-like place within the dungeon. So when I destroyed the core of that place, I was able to return to the dungeon.
What if this time… this place, reality, had become a dungeon outside the dungeon? Otherwise, monsters couldn’t appear endlessly like this.
If these monsters came from inside the dungeon, maybe we need to kill the boss monster and break the core to solve this.
And… there was a sure way to find out if this area had become dungeon-ified.
‘It’s true. The inventory opens.’
As I realized my hypothesis was correct, I figured out what to do. My inventory only opens in dungeons. So… I don’t know the exact radius, but this area is a dungeon, and I can use items.
“We need to find the dungeon core. I think this whole area has turned into a dungeon.”
I told Shin Haejun that my inventory had opened and immediately took out my phone. It was to check the map to see where the boss monster was.
“Now… Head!”
I instinctively took out a Guardian Barrier Stone from my inventory, broke it, and shouted to Shin Haejun and Hyun Dowoon.
A giant queen bee-like monster poked its head out of the portal above us.
“Jaeha, can you use items?”
When I created a barrier with the power of the item and withstood the queen bee’s jaw attack, Hyun Dowoon shouted from far away.
“Yes! That’s the boss!”
“Shin Haejun Esper, I’ll cover you, so take care of it!”
Hyun Dowoon dealt with the monsters approaching us from afar with his summons. As he shot thick, solid arrows, the monsters exploded with a chilling sound.
Shin Haejun made the monsters he had been controlling attack each other and disappear, then immediately crushed the boss monster, which had squeezed its body out, with gravity. At the same time, he delicately controlled the storm to gather the exploded debris and drop it at the edge of the road.
“Ah, shit. How annoying.”
Suddenly, Shin Haejun wiped off some liquid on my cheek with his thumb. It seemed some debris had gotten on me as monsters kept exploding in the air. I felt goosebumps on my arms and rubbed my cheek hard.
“I should have controlled it more delicately, sorry.”
“No… It exploded above our heads… It’s more surprising that only this much got on me.”
I shook my head at the apologizing Shin Haejun and awkwardly moved away. I had been sticking close to avoid being killed by monster attacks, but it still felt awkward.
“Just as you said, after catching the boss, the dungeon core popped out from inside it.”
Shin Haejun said as he floated the core with gravity and crushed it. Simultaneously, the portal that had opened in the air disappeared. It was as if the air had seamlessly reattached itself.
I finally relaxed and collapsed on the spot.
“The taxi… became a rag.”
I could see the tattered, hole-ridden taxi in the distance. It was absurd in this situation, but I worried that the driver might get in trouble with his company or have to compensate when he returned.
‘What am I going to ride?’
As I sat there with a troubled face, Hyun Dowoon had already approached and held out his hand to me.
“Get up. I’ll take you home.”
“My place is right below, it’s better if I take him.”
As I blankly looked up at the two bickering again, I stood up abruptly instead of taking Hyun Dowoon’s hand.
“If I call another taxi…”
At my words, Shin Haejun frowned, and Hyun Dowoon looked at me with a firm gaze.
“The monsters just now kept targeting Jaeha. The probability might be low, but what if another portal opens while you’re alone? What would you do then?”
Hyun Dowoon’s persuasion clearly made sense. I also had a strange certainty that the author wouldn’t leave me alone like this. The undiscovered monsters that kept appearing inside the dungeon, and now suddenly turning an area into a dungeon. Moreover, strangely, there were no other cars passing on this road. Anyone could see the intention to deal with me in this situation.
They had created anomalies in the world to create a sense of crisis and set up an environment perfect for disposing of the villain, so the same thing could happen again at any time.
I bit my lip hard. Nothing was going my way.
“If something like this happens again, there could be civilian casualties even if Jaeha doesn’t want that.”
Hyun Dowoon’s words hit the nail on the head of what I was worried about. I slowly nodded.
“If you’re not sure whose car to ride, take Shin Haejun Esper’s car. It’s for Jaeha’s safety, not to make things difficult.”
Hyun Dowoon said something unexpected. He had been checking Shin Haejun all along, so I thought he would keep suggesting I ride in his car.
As I opened my eyes wide, Hyun Dowoon grinned and said to Shin Haejun:
“Let me catch a ride too.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
