“What did you just say? That we’re going to kill the boss monster?”

Park Sutae reacted at once.

Go Byeonggap checked how many potions were left in his backpack as he answered.

“You heard me right. If we want to survive, we have to take out the boss monster before it’s too late.”

“No, we’re already struggling with the grunts—how the hell are we supposed to kill their leader?”

“Right now it’s only a struggle. If more time passes, it’ll be outright impossible.”

Go Byeonggap zipped his backpack shut. Two low-grade potions. Combined with what the other hunters carried, they should be able to push through a few critical moments.

Park Sutae gestured for an explanation. Go Byeonggap obliged.

“Like I said before, this dungeon isn’t complete yet. I’m sure of it now, seeing the lesser monsters. Right now it’s sitting at D-rank. But as time goes on, the overall difficulty will keep climbing.”

“You mean the monsters will get stronger?”

“Something like that. D to C is fine. But the moment it jumps from C to B, we’re finished.”

“If what you’re saying is true, shouldn’t we be hiding even more?”

Jo Yeonghun cut in. His tone had softened considerably since witnessing Go Byeonggap’s prowess.

Instead of answering, Go Byeonggap turned to Yeom Jeonghwa.

“Ms. Jeonghwa, you’re skilled at sensing karma—you must feel it too. The movement happening in this dungeon.”

Yeom Jeonghwa wet her lips as if they were parched. Then she slowly nodded.

“Yes… karma is surging from every direction. You’ve been aware of it too, Mr. Byeonggap.”

Go Byeonggap wasn’t particularly skilled at sensing karma. But his instincts—sharp as any wild animal’s—were already flashing danger signals.

“The monsters know we’re here. Pretty soon a whole pack of them will come looking for the intruders. And all because some idiot human tipped them off.”

Byeonggap shot a glare at Choi Minyeong as he said it. He drooped his head, face crumpling as he stared at the floor.

“Playing hide-and-seek in their own living room? The outcome’s obvious. All dragging it out does is give the monsters time to grow stronger.”

“…”

“So we do it now. Strike when the dungeon’s at its weakest—that’s our only way out.”

The others mulled it over in silence.

Byeonggap broke the quiet.

“I’m not asking you to think it over. If you don’t want to follow my lead, do as you please. But from here on, we split up. Huddling together just draws attention.”

He spoke like he was laying down the law.

The rest exchanged glances.

‘He’s right. Hiding and holding out stopped being an option a while ago.’

Yeom Jeonghwa made up her mind.

“Mr. Byeonggap’s right. Fighting back is our only answer now.”

“…If a B-rank says so, I’ll go along with it. Not like we’ve got any other choice.”

“I’ll follow you too.”

Park Sutae and Jo Yeonghun both sided with Byeonggap.

Choi Minyeong glanced around nervously, then hesitantly got to his feet.

“Then here are the rules. Don’t fire your guns until I signal. Absolutely not a single shot before that. And keep yourselves alive—I’m not babysitting.”

“Keep ourselves alive? We can’t fight like you can, pal.”

Park Sutae looked appalled. Byeonggap immediately explained.

“Ms. Yeom Jeonghwa and I will handle the fighting. The rest of you stay well back once combat starts. But there’s no guarantee stray monsters won’t come at you anyway. Handle it yourselves. You didn’t step into a rift expecting a bodyguard, did you?”

“…Fine.”

“Don’t take it personally. This isn’t a situation where anyone can look out for anyone else.”

“I’m not taking it personal, so don’t worry about it. You’re not wrong.”

Park Sutae smacked his lips.

Byeonggap turned his gaze back to Choi Minyeong, glaring. The more he thought about it, the more certain he was—if he let that brat keep his gun, he’d open fire again.

“Hey, you.”

“Y-yes?”

“Unload the magazine and fix bayonets.”

“Y-you want me to take out the magazine?”

“Why? Got a problem with that?”

“I-it’s not that I have a problem…”

“Or how about this? If my ears catch a gunshot, you’re dead that same day. How’s that sound?”

“I’ll—I’ll take it out!”

At Byeonggap’s threat, Choi Minyeong trembled as he removed the magazine.

Yeom Jeonghwa gave him a pitying look.

“Was that really necessary? We’re surrounded by monsters, for heaven’s sake…”

“Because I’m not about to die because of that man. I didn’t enter this rift just to die a dog’s death.”

Go Byeonggap swept his gaze over the party. They looked ready to move.

“Ms. Yeom Jeonghwa. Can you tell where the Boss Monster is?”

Higher-rank awakeners were naturally adept at sensing karma. A few with exceptional senses could pinpoint a Boss Monster’s location from kilometers away.

Unfortunately, Yeom Jeonghwa shook her head.

“Too many monsters nearby make it difficult. I’ll need to get closer.”

“Understood. Let’s move, then.”

The five of them began moving again.

* * *

Twenty-eight years had passed since Deep Impact, yet humanity had uncovered little. No—one could say it had uncovered almost nothing.

Even exploration of the rifts and the hidden world was lacking; how much less was known about dungeons?

But while scientists racked their brains, hunters had managed to uncover a few facts.

Precious knowledge gained not through research or inference, but purely through experience.

Those sweat- and blood-soaked facts were as follows:

First: Dungeons are fucking huge. There’s no end in sight.

Second: Dungeons are fucking full of monsters. Records showed some dungeons had over twenty thousand monsters.

Third: Time flows fucking slowly in dungeons. Inside, time moves at one twenty-fourth the pace of the outside world.

Go Byeonggap was feeling those crude findings firsthand.

Fucking huge, fucking full, and fucking slow.

BEEP.

‘Hell. Ten hours already.’

He’d started a stopwatch the moment he entered the dungeon.

And now, ten hours had elapsed since their entry.

‘Goddammit. Only ten hours in?’

But by outside reckoning, barely twenty-five minutes had passed. The people waiting outside probably hadn’t even grasped the situation yet.

Maybe they were killing time with some mobile game, not even imagining what was happening on this side!

Maybe fifty or sixty minutes.

By dungeon time, that meant another twenty to twenty-four hours before they’d start thinking something was off.

A B-rank Hunter sent in—why’s it taking so long? That minor flicker of suspicion.

“Huff, huff!”

Jo Yeonghun gasped out hot breath. Blood poured from his abdomen, a deep gash left by a skeleton’s sword.

Beside him, Park Sutae panted heavily. He wasn’t badly hurt, but the repeated battles had worn him down.

“Th-the organs are intact. Thank goodness.”

Choi Minyeong’s hands trembled as he treated Jo Yeonghun.

Go Byeonggap had worried Minyeong might pull some stupid stunt again. But thankfully, it didn’t happen.

As time passed, Choi Minyeong instead found his composure settling like still water.

‘He’s resigned himself to death.’

Anyone facing death falls into chaos at first. But once you push past that chaos, an uncanny calm sets in.

Go through that process enough times, and you can stand serene even before death itself.

If Minyeong made it back alive, he would grow that much stronger as a hunter.

“Hoo……”

Go Byeonggap caught his breath for a moment and glanced to the side. Yeom Jeonghwa sat with her eyes closed, her fingers groping at the air.

A moment later, she opened her eyes.

Byeonggap asked at once.

“Did you find it?”

Jeonghwa shook her head, her face rigid.

“The direction’s right. But I can’t pin down the exact location. There’s too much interference around us……”

“I see.”

“Let’s rest for a bit. The monsters have gone quiet. We should have a little while to breathe.”

“Let’s do that.”

Go Byeonggap decided to take a short rest.

Over the past ten hours, a fight had broken out every thirty minutes on the dot. Between him and Yeom Jeonghwa, they’d put down nearly five or six hundred monsters.

Even Go Byeonggap couldn’t help but feel the exhaustion creeping in.

Byeonggap slid down the wall until he was sitting, his back pressed against the cold stone. Yeom Jeonghwa sank down beside him.

“Haah.”

Jeonghwa buried her face in her knees and let out a long sigh.

She was the cleanest person in this place. Her Karma Barrier had nullified every attack that came her way.

But that didn’t mean she was invincible. She’d been burning through her karma without pause, and the cost showed. Her face was gaunt, dark circles carved deep under her eyes—plain evidence of her exhaustion.

She stayed like that for a long moment, then lifted her head. Without preamble, she asked,

“I know it’s late to ask now, but… Mr. Byeonggap, what exactly are you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t play dumb. You know what I mean. Your strength—it’s clearly not something a low-rank awakener should have.”

“……”

Go Byeonggap swallowed his words in silence.

“At first, I thought you were just hiding your rank. But your karma was clearly low-tier, Mr. Byeonggap. So I wondered if you might be an Amplifier. There are occasionally people like that.”

An Amplifier.

It meant an awakener who could temporarily amplify their karma.

Go Byeonggap hadn’t heard that term in a long time.

“But that wasn’t it either. After all, you never even used your karma in battle.”

‘That’s because I don’t have your overflowing karma.’

He didn’t bother voicing the thought.

Yeom Jeonghwa stared at him steadily.

Her expression held pure, naked curiosity.

“So you’re not hiding your rank, and you’re not an Amplifier — then what are you, Mr. Byeonggap? Are you an android or something?”

“…Well. That doesn’t seem very important.”

“You don’t want to talk about it. That’s fine. I don’t have the right to force you.”

Yeom Jeonghwa gave up easily. As Byeonggap said, it wasn’t the most important topic right now.

“Speaking of which, let me ask you something. Ms. Jeonghwa, why didn’t you abandon us?”

“Huh?”

“You’re different from us. You’re a higher-rank hunter. If you were alone, you could’ve hidden somewhere and held out until rescue. So why’d you choose to drag along a bunch of dead weight?”

At Go Byeonggap’s question, Yeom Jeonghwa gave a bitter smile.

“No particular reason. I just wanted to live together. But Mr. Byeonggap, you didn’t run off alone either, did you?”

“I simply judged that my survival rate would be higher sticking close to you.”

“So if the survival rate goes down, you’d abandon us?”

“Abandon is a strong word. I’d just be finding a way out for myself. It’s not like anyone’s in a position to look out for someone else’s meal ticket.”

“Is that so.”

Yeom Jeonghwa gave a faint smile and buried her face in her knees.

Go Byeonggap closed his eyes for a moment too. He had to keep his wits together to avoid slipping into sleep.

Silence stretched for several minutes. It was truly golden stillness.

But the very next moment—

“Hah!”

“Huff!”

Yeom Jeonghwa and Go Byeonggap raised their heads at the same time. They both turned to look in the exact same direction without a split second of difference.

“It’s the boss!”

Yeom Jeonghwa sprang to her feet and shouted.

Go Byeonggap quickly gathered his gear.

“It’s really close! Th-this is weird! I couldn’t feel it just a moment ago, so how…?”

“Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter. Everyone, on your feet!”

Go Byeonggap quickly roused the people who had been sprawled on the ground.

“You can use your guns now. Shoot everything you see.”

“Damn, finally get to pull this trigger.”

“C-can I shoot too?”

“Are your ears clogged! Blast everything you see!”

“O-okay!”

They quickly prepared themselves, faces full of determination.

“This way! Follow me!”

Yeom Jeonghwa ran forward, sword leading the way.

Go Byeonggap and the others hurried after her.

Finally, the high ground came into sight.