<Episode 83>
Bracing myself for the agony of the coming impact, I curled my body up tightly.
But then…
“Ugh…?”
Instead of the pain I expected from my entire body shattering, a strange sensation of floating wrapped around me.
When I slowly opened my eyes, an unbelievable sight entered my vision. I was hovering in midair with barely one meter left before the ground. A faint blue curtain surrounding me slowly faded away.
“W-What is this?”
The moment I lightly landed on the ground, a translucent system window appeared before me along with a cheerful notification sound.
—
Wish Ribbon (S)
: Accessory-type item. Generates a protective shield when detecting danger to the wearer (2/3)
—
Had it already been used twice? But when that man grabbed my arm earlier, there hadn’t been any item activation notification.
I reached up and touched the firmly fastened hair tie. Still, thanks to this S-rank item, it seemed I had survived falling from such a height unharmed.
“Phew…. I’m glad I wore this every day.”
Just as I sighed in relief while calming my pounding heart, I realized the surroundings were unnaturally quiet.
Only then did I notice that Hanyang’s body, clutched tightly in my arms, was hanging limp like a stuffed doll.
“Hanyang!”
I hurriedly dropped to the ground and checked Hanyang’s condition. Thankfully, there were no visible external injuries, and judging by the gentle rise and fall of its stomach, it was breathing steadily. It had probably fainted from the shock of the sudden fall.
“…Come to think of it, where is this place?”
Carefully holding Hanyang in my arms, I lifted my head and examined the surroundings.
Towering in the darkness were gigantic statues shaped like beasts. Their oppressive forms looked as though they were guarding something.
‘This place feels creepy somehow.’
A chill ran down my spine, and at that moment, a horrifying red warning window appeared before my eyes.
—
Gate “Millennial Underground Tomb (S)” Entry Complete
—
‘Wait. An S-rank gate?’
The rift had led us to the highest-ranked type of gate.
Swallowing dryly, I hugged Hanyang tighter against my chest.
‘We need to get out of here as fast as possible.’
An S-rank gate meant there was a catastrophic monster worthy of that ranking lurking here. Before it noticed our presence, we absolutely had to escape this place.
‘Where is Hunter Lee Hyunwoo?’
But no matter how many times I turned my head, I couldn’t see him anywhere. I was sure we had fallen together, so I assumed he would be nearby.
“…Hunter-nim, where are you?”
I lowered my voice and called out to him, but not even an echo returned.
Forcing my stiffened body to move, I cautiously started walking.
‘Don’t tell me we got separated into different spaces…?’
Inside the massive, empty underground chamber, only the sound of my trembling footsteps echoed loudly. My palms grew damp from the overwhelming tension.
I looked upward, but the collapsed ground we had fallen through was gone. In its place was a solid rock wall sealed shut without a single gap, as though the opening had never existed to begin with.
“Hunter-nim, it’s me, Jung Haneul! Please answer if you can hear me!”
An indescribable anxiety swallowed my entire body.
I had to find Lee Hyunwoo quickly and figure out a way to escape this place.
That was when…
“Kgh… ngh….”
A sound reached my ears, somewhere between breathing and the groan of a wounded beast.
Turning my gaze, I spotted a large shadow crouched in a corner, swallowed by pitch-black darkness.
“Hunter Lee Hyun… woo-nim?”
About to run toward him in relief, I instinctively stopped in my tracks.
Something felt wrong.
Lee Hyunwoo was scratching at the floor while gasping harshly for breath. His shoulders shook violently as though they might shatter apart.
“Hunter-nim! Are you alright?”
As I carefully reached out my hand, Lee Hyunwoo… who had been hanging his head low, slowly lifted it like a creaking puppet.
“……!”
Under the flashlight’s glow, his face looked completely different from usual.
His forehead was drenched in cold sweat. Blood vessels had burst in his eyes, staining them a horrifying red.
The moment he noticed me, he clenched his teeth.
“Hunter Haneul. Stay… away from me….”
Run away?
The moment I hesitated and instinctively stepped back in confusion, the red in his eyes clouded over dimly like dying candlelight.
Letting out a low groan bubbling from deep within his throat, he suddenly stretched a large hand toward me.
Just as I shut my eyes tightly, realizing I couldn’t avoid him…
“Kgh…!”
His large body staggered and collapsed helplessly onto the floor.
Looking closer, I saw his thigh was already soaked with dark crimson blood.
He had stabbed his own thigh with the dagger in his hand.
“H-Hunter Lee Hyunwoo!!!”
As I screamed and tried to rush toward him, he raised his blood-covered hand to stop me.
“…Do not come closer.”
A terrible agony leaked through his ragged, burning breaths.
His unfocused, fading eyes regained a sliver of clarity thanks only to the horrific pain of tearing into his own flesh.
“Ugh…. This entire space is under the influence of an extremely powerful mind-control skill.”
“This entire space? Then what am I supposed to do–?!”
Panting heavily, he shook his head.
“The fact that you haven’t fallen under it is fortunate enough. Get away. There’s nothing Hunter Haneul can do… Kgh!”
The thread of sanity he had barely maintained by injuring his thigh did not last long.
The thick veins on the back of his reddened hand bulged violently as if they might burst.
His entire body trembled like a leaf, as though suppressing some horrifying impulse.
“Go…. Please!!”
Gripping his blade again, he slashed deeply into his own forearm without hesitation.
Flesh split open, and crimson blood sprayed into the air.
It was a desperate struggle to bind his mind through unbearable physical pain.
“Hunter Lee Hyunwoo….”
Biting down hard on my trembling lips, I slowly stepped back once, then again.
Then I turned around and began running frantically in the opposite direction.
Even if I stayed by his side, there was nothing an F-rank like me could do.
If anything, the closer I stayed, the more he would tear apart his own body trying to suppress his murderous impulses.
“I-I need to find some kind of way…!”
At some point, my cheeks had become soaked with cold tears.
Roughly wiping them away with my sleeve, I gritted my teeth and forced my legs to keep moving.
“Aah!”
I tripped over a rock hidden in the darkness and crashed hard onto the ground, but I didn’t even have the time to feel the pain from scraping my knees.
Immediately, I pushed myself back up, covered in dust.
After hurriedly checking that Hanyang was safe in my arms, I started running forward again.
“Huff, haa…!”
How long had I run like that, feeling as though my lungs were tearing apart?
At the edge of the seemingly endless underground chamber, I came face to face with an utterly unexpected sight.
“A lake…?”
Spread before me was a gigantic underground lake.
Even within the pitch-black darkness, it emitted an icy silver-blue glow.
It was a place so quiet and beautiful that it felt unreal.
“Phew….”
Thankfully, there didn’t seem to be anything dangerous nearby.
Carefully setting Hanyang down, I collapsed onto the ground as though all my strength had left me.
The hand supporting my weight trembled faintly.
Slowly, I repeated the information I knew to myself.
Hunter Lee Hyunwoo had said he was affected by an extremely powerful mind-control skill.
And this entire place was the nest of an S-rank monster.
‘…So that’s why the defensive item’s usage count dropped by two.’
It seemed the item had recognized the large-scale mental manipulation covering the space as a fatal threat and blocked it, which was why I alone remained sane.
But merely resisting the skill wasn’t enough.
I had no idea how to destroy it.
I had no information whatsoever.
“Why am I only an F-rank…?”
The image of him cutting into his own flesh in agony surfaced in my mind, and the tears I had barely held back welled up once more.
“No! Jung Haneul, get yourself together!”
Grinding my teeth, I smacked both my cheeks hard with my hands.
Nothing would change if I just sat here crying.
In a hurry, I stumbled over to the nearby lake and plunged my face into the water.
The cold water… cold enough to feel like thin ice, touched my overheated skin, instantly clearing my dizzy mind.
“Pwah—!”
Feeling the cold droplets dripping from my chin, I closed my eyes.
‘The monster using the mind-control skill has to be nearby. If I can just kill it….’
But at the same time, a question surfaced.
Could an F-rank like me really kill an S-rank monster?
Just as despair began to consume me…
[Do you wish to save that child?]
An unfamiliar voice echoed inside my head.
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