Chapter 33

As if he couldn’t hear her scream, his wind didn’t stop.

Kagagagagak!

The monsters were damaged as they crashed, ground, and shattered against the sharp surrounding terrain. Their blood became a storm. Cho-i was mixed in with the monsters, equally stabbed, cut, crashed, and shattered. Her whole body felt like a lump of meat. When the storm stopped, the monsters’ byproducts rained down from the sky. And. Thump! Her body also fell to the ground in the same way. Covered in blood, she wasn’t breathing, and her whole body was so ground up that her regeneration was slow. Taehyeok Sa descended from the air and looked down at her. Then he started counting.

“One, two, three, four, five…”

He waited, slowly counting how long it would take for her to revive, and Cho-i, whose mind returned before her regeneration was complete, looked up at him with wide, lifeless eyes. Nothing could be read in her eyes, and Taehyeok Sa rather thought that the Entity was even more terrifying.

“You’re almost fully back.”

“I feel like I’m going to die.”

“You died and came back to life.”

“I feel like I’m going to die from annoyance because of you.”

“Unfortunately, no one has ever died from annoyance.”

Most of her body had regenerated. Cho-i sprang to her feet and punched him. Taehyeok dodged with annoyingly light movements, avoiding several more punches and kicks. Then he snatched her wrist firmly, lifted it, and pulled her towards him.

“Don’t waste unnecessary energy. We’ll go straight to the boss monster now.”

“If a precious SS-Rank like you had stepped up, we would have been there ages ago.”

“That would be too boring.”

“This situation is too boring for me right now.”

She violently shook off his arm, and Taehyeok willingly let go. Cho-i strode ahead. After passing several more groups of monsters, they stood before the boss monster. With huge wings and hundreds of mouths all over its wings. And a large eyeball in the center. Cho-i tilted her head at its size, which seemed more than fifteen times that of a human.

“It’s really big.”

“It’s probably about three times bigger than the boss from the previous dungeon.”

“Ahahaha.”

Cho-i laughed and looked back at him.

“This one’s also just me?”

Taehyeok nodded as if asking what was obvious, and Cho-i kicked the ground hard to step on his foot, but unfortunately failed. She squatted down at a certain distance from the boss monster for a moment, staring at the Entity.

‘I’m annoyed, I’m annoyed, but.’

Why doesn’t she feel anything more than that? Cho-i thought. Taehyeok Sa threw her among the monsters, just like her party members threw her to the Mantis swarm. But the same hatred didn’t rise. She forgot fear there. And she had rehashed and rehashed old grudges.

“Ah.”

Suddenly, she realized. That what she lost there wasn’t just fear.

“It’s gone now.”

Since her life was no longer precious, she no longer hated even those who treated her life cheaply. She suddenly felt an emptiness inside. She asked Taehyeok Sa, as if to confirm.

“Did my life seem that cheap?”

Taehyeok Sa replied.

“Not really.”

“Funny.”

“What is?”

“For someone who says that, you’ve taken hundreds of my lives.”

“Indeed.”

Cho-i looked up at Taehyeok Sa.

“Indeed, it is right for me to hate you.”

She painstakingly filled her emptiness with what little reason she had. If she lost her hatred, she would fill it with the fact that she had to hate. She smiled brightly and stood up.

“I’ll pay you back.”

“I look forward to it.”

“I want to kill you.”

“The Entity, too, looks forward to it.”

With those words, Cho-i lunged at the boss monster. And until then, she didn’t know how things would turn out. Not even Taehyeok Sa.

***

She had charged at the dungeon’s boss monster, but it wasn’t an opponent she could handle alone. An S-Rank monster. A monster that no one below S-Rank could ever endure in a one-on-one fight.

“Haa, huff.”

Every time she exhaled, the pain piercing her lungs made her dizzy. The teeth on the wing were embedded in her lung.

“Ugh-!”

Cho-i grabbed the Entity with her hand and pulled it out. Then she looked at Taehyeok Sa.

‘You’ve seen enough, haven’t you? I can’t beat that alone.’

She had already died over a hundred times against the boss monster. And coming back to life, she was still enduring the Entity. There was no breakthrough to defeat this alone.

“That’s enough! Damn it, Jin, huff!”

When she swung her sword, the Entity merely took the hit. But there wasn’t even a scratch, let alone an injury. Cho-i gasped, then quickly moved her body to dodge the monster’s wing that seemed to envelop her. But then she couldn’t avoid a shot feather, and the Entity pierced her neck.

“…!”

Her body, unable to even scream with her neck pierced, collapsed again. She had no more strength. She had already fought monsters of her own rank and taken damage from Taehyeok Sa. The things that had accumulated without a moment’s rest or sleep were finally affecting her.

“Sa, Tae… hyeok.”

Just before her breath stopped, she looked at Taehyeok Sa. At him, watching her from afar. Then he mumbled something. Her eyes, looking at the Entity, widened. Ah, haha. Cho-i let out a silent laugh once, then, with a thud, her head was blown off by a wing.

“How boring.”

Taehyeok Sa muttered. The fact that she didn’t die was amazing, but she was just an A+ Rank who wouldn’t die. It wasn’t very meaningful to an SS-Rank who would never die early. Even if Cho-i attacked, she wouldn’t be able to lay a finger on him.

“Should I finish this soon?”

He began to approach the boss monster. Soon she would revive and fight a battle she couldn’t win again…

“…?”

The closer he got, the more he felt something strange. She wasn’t twitching. She wasn’t getting up. Ding. And in front of Cho-i, whose body had regenerated but hadn’t yet regained consciousness, a system window opened.

[Your mind has reached its limit. Rewards will be automatically confirmed.][Confirm][Rewards have been confirmed.][Skill: Sanity Paralysis (EX)][Awakens the sanity of the unknown before hatching and lowers the host’s sanity. Duration: until the host’s mind returns.]

Her body slowly began to rise. Taehyeok swallowed hard. It was a sensation he, an SS-Rank, thought he would never experience on Beondo Island. That feeling of being a herbivore receiving the predator’s gaze in front of a higher rank.

“Ha, haha.”

He laughed involuntarily. And even though he was quite a distance from Cho-i, he unconsciously took a step back.

“What in the world is going on?”

There was no one to answer. When Cho-i opened her eyes, there was only white. She swung the sword she still held. With that one swing, the sword immediately shattered, and half of the boss monster was severed along with it. Kiiyaaahhh! A scream that sounded like eardrums tearing was heard. Taehyeok Sa fully understood that the current situation was strange, but he didn’t know why it had become strange. Cho-i’s white eyes now turned towards Taehyeok Sa, not the dead boss monster. Cho-i’s lips parted, and a voice emerged.

“…Male?”

The voice was very low and sounded like boiling static. Cho-i, no. The Entity grinned, tearing its mouth wide, and immediately lunged at Taehyeok Sa. It was instantaneous.

“Ugh!”

Taehyeok Sa blocked the Entity with Telekinesis. But overcoming that power, Cho-i’s fist landed on Taehyeok Sa’s shoulder. Crack! Something in his shoulder broke. The Entity didn’t miss his stumble, taking a step forward and grabbing Taehyeok Sa by the collar. Then it tilted its head slowly, examining Taehyeok Sa’s face. That familiar voice was heard again.

“He is male, but…”

The Entity grumbled, as if dissatisfied.

“Weak.”

And still holding him by the collar, it slammed him into the ground. With a loud clang that made his ears ring, the hard stone floor shattered.

“Gasp!”

Fortunately, he avoided being slammed to the floor by Telekinesis, but the damage was not light. Blood was flowing from his forehead.

“How did things turn out this way?”

Taehyeok Sa braced himself and threw his body backward to get away from her. Then the Entity pushed off the floor and charged at him with the same speed. There was no escape. For the first time in his life, Taehyeok felt fear. The tearing, laughing lips were close.

***

“Ugh…”

“My head,” Cho-i muttered, opening her eyes. She thought she had been knocked unconscious by the boss monster. She tried to stand up, gripping something in her hand more tightly. But she was already standing.

“If you’ve, come, to, your, senses, let go?”

Taehyeok Sa’s voice was heard. Only then did Cho-i, whose eyes were properly open, look at her hand. She was gripping the neck of Taehyeok Sa, who had been toying with her just a moment ago.

“What’s going on?”

Cho-i asked, tightening her grip despite being told to let go.

“Let, go, and, talk…”

“I don’t want to?”

His body was covered in blood. It was a mess, and his usually clean face was full of scratches. They looked like fingernail marks. Cho-i stared for a moment, then punched him hard in the face.

툭.

And finally, Taehyeok Sa fainted after those words. Cho-i looked down at him with a dazed expression.

“What’s happening?”

She let go. The body of the esteemed SS-Rank hunter fell to the floor with a thud. She had no idea how much time had passed.

“Since the exit is open, it doesn’t seem like it’s been hours.”

Once the dungeon exit closes, it’s over. No one has figured out how the dungeon reset works.