Chapter 163

 

The floor suddenly dropped beneath me, but my feet landed firmly on solid ground. Looking around, it was still dark — we were inside a cave. I wondered if the warp had malfunctioned. 

Tae Jae-heon and Lee Jae-ah followed me inside shortly after. Tae Jae-heon gave me a sideways glare, as if unimpressed or curious where we had ended up. Avoiding his gaze, I muttered to myself.

‘If he curses one more time, I might actually kill him.’

“…My bad.”

“Tch, bringing your filthy habits in here.”

Shaking his head, Tae Jae-heon snapped his fingers and called Rune and Root back. I was flipping the middle finger to them when I caught Jae-ah’s awkward smile.

“Ah, haha… I didn’t expect the warp to lead here.”

“Isn’t it just the same cave?”

I asked, wondering if it was another floor. Lee Jae-ah took a wide look around and said,

“No. Even if it’s the same cave, the tower was more like a dungeon itself. This place feels… how should I put it, more natural?”

“Well, it’s definitely gloomier.”

Listening to her, I realized the atmosphere was different. The tower felt like a perfectly formed ideal cave, while this place was rougher and more raw. There was a gentle stream trickling on one side, and abundant materials scattered all over…

“Wait a minute,”

I hadn’t noticed in the dim light, but now that I looked closer, those mushrooms — their color was different. They were definitely the cursed Wonger mushrooms we had seen before: dark red caps and spores creating a smoky haze. And it wasn’t just one — an entire cluster of them!

We had already gathered some Wonger mushrooms before, but seeing an entire cluster suddenly appear made me think there must be a different reason behind it. Just as I was about to approach, Lee Jae-ah suddenly called out cheerfully,

“Ah! There’s a Location Stone here!”

“Location Stone?”

Location Stones are markers placed throughout dungeons. Usually, they serve as signposts to indicate position during emergencies or to certify dungeon progress. I knew the tower was a newly formed dungeon, so I assumed no Location Stones had been set up yet. But now that one was here—did we really warp somewhere else?

I knelt down next to Lee Jae-ah and helped brush off the soil covering the stone. After throwing aside some rocks and dusting it clean, deeply carved letters appeared:

 『Cheonji Shinyeon Dungeon — 3p 58˚』

“Cheonji Shinyeon Dungeon? That’s a name I’ve never heard before.”

Lee Jae-ah murmured, puzzled. But for some reason, the name felt familiar to me. I stared fixedly at the Location Stone with the dungeon name engraved on it.

 What is this? Where have I heard it before? Cheonji Shinyeon, Cheonji Shinyeon…

“By the way, it’s really strange — a warp connected to another dungeon? Are we the first ones to find this? If we get out of here…”

“…Ah!”

“Why? What is it, Eui-jin nim?”

Lee Jae-ah turned around, startled, but I couldn’t explain. My mind was filled with the words from a paper I had once seen:

『{Alpha Room Test Results}

• Survivors: 0, Deaths: 41

Cheonji Shinyeon Dungeon. During the first Alpha Room test, all participants died. Cause unknown. Dungeon sealed.

Kim Sunjae: Died during first test.

Shin Haneul: Died during first test.』

 

‘No way… could this really be… here?’

The dungeon where the Alpha Room kids were wiped out during the experiment… was the Cheonji Shinyeon Dungeon. The moment I realized I had come to that place, it felt like my heart dropped into my stomach.

Footsteps approached from behind.

“Cheonji Shinyeon Dungeon?”

Tae Jae-heon murmured slowly. Hearing his relaxed voice made something surge inside me. I clenched my fists tightly. The soil beneath my hands crumbled. I couldn’t just let it go, so I gritted my teeth and asked.

“…Why? You know this place?”

“Of course. It was a dungeon that got shut down a while ago. No idea how we ended up here.”

Tae Jae-heon answered nonchalantly.

That wasn’t the kind of answer I was looking for, but I didn’t say more — if I reacted too strongly, he might catch on. Still, I couldn’t hide everything from Tae Jae-heon. He must’ve sensed something off, because his voice lowered as he gave an order.

“Kang Eui-jin, stand up.”

“…Why.”

“Kang Eui-jin.”

Lee Jae-ah, who had been watching my expression the whole time, fidgeted anxiously. Then she suddenly blurted out, awkwardly.

“Ch-Cheonji Shinyeon—Cheonjiyeon! The names sound similar, don’t they? Maybe the original dungeon before the tower appeared in this spot was Cheonji Shinyeon Dungeon?”

“…Noona?”

Tae Jae-heon raised an eyebrow, clearly not amused as he looked at her. I turned to Lee Jae-ah too, curious, and in the end, Tae Jae-heon gave a slight nod.

“That’s right. The Cheonji Shinyeon Dungeon was originally located inside the Cheonjiyeon Waterfall. It was shut down long ago, and the tower that appeared later covered that whole area.”

So the old dungeon and the new one overlapped, and that’s why some of the internal warps resurfaced…?

Whatever the explanation, it didn’t matter. The fact that Nox had used the Alpha Room kids for experiments here, and they had all died, remained unchanged. The guilt of coming here with Tae Jae-heon was almost unbearable.

I stood up, brushed the dirt from my hands, and said.

“Let’s go back to the tower.”

“No. It’s safer to wait for the dungeon reset here.”

“I don’t care. I’m going back. You can wait here if you want.”

“‘You’?”

Tae Jae-heon’s lips curled up in a crooked smile. Ignoring him, I turned toward the warp, but a rough hand grabbed my shoulder and stopped me.

“Ugh…”

I winced at the force, strong enough to crack my shoulder blade, just as a pulse flickered from the warp and three figures emerged. Tae Jae-heon yanked me behind him in an instant, positioning himself between me and the strangers.

‘They’re already here?’

Rune and Root bared their teeth, wary of the newcomers. But the people who appeared weren’t enemies — they were Nox lackeys.

“Oh! Guild leader! You were here!”

“Phew, thank god. Let the others know the warp’s safe.”

More Nox hunters crossed through after them, with a few of Lee Jae-ah’s team mixed in. The hunters spotted Lee Jae-ah and rushed over.

“Lee Jae-ah!”

“Min-woo nim! What about Hyo-young? Isn’t she with you?”

“No… Hyo-young should still be with Jin-hyung. But are you okay? Your leg was definitely injured earlier—”

“Eui-jin nim helped me. I’m fully healed now.”

Meanwhile, Tae Jae-heon was receiving a status report from his lackeys about the tower situation.

“The situation’s not good. They’ve caused another uproar — the warp zone to the 18th floor has been partially destroyed. Even if the dungeon resets, there’s a chance they’ll destroy the warp again.”

“So they’re determined to fight until the bitter end.”

“We’ve already ordered all reachable guild members to come through to this side.”

“The warps?”

“Yes. So far, at least three sealed warps have been discovered on the 19th floor. But the enemy has learned about the warps too, so likely soon…”

It seemed the Nox people were communicating just fine, but what about Cheong and Zero? What about Cheon Rang? There was no way Cheon Rang didn’t know, especially if both Nox and the cultists had already figured it out. They weren’t idiots — they’d definitely try to come through the warp soon.

‘Only three are discovered so far…’

That meant the odds were 33.3%. I silently prayed they’d come through this one. While Tae Jae-heon was distracted, I slowly inched my way toward the warp. Rune noticed and started growling, baring his teeth. Tae Jae-heon glanced back at me and gave a small nod of his chin.

“Tie that.”

“…You son of a bitch.”

One of the Nox guys followed Tae Jae-heon’s gesture and realized that the “that” referred to me. He opened his mouth in surprise for a second before quickly nodding.

“Uh, ah… Yes, sir!”

Goddamn it. Goddamn it. In the end, my right hand was bound with a rope. The end of the rope, of course, was held in Tae Jae-heon’s hand.

“Are you trying to tie up both hands?”

I fought tooth and nail to stop them and barely managed to keep one hand free—but that didn’t mean it wasn’t humiliating.

“Fuck’s sake, am I a dog to you? Even actual dogs wouldn’t wear this leash—why the hell would you put it on a person?”

“Should I have added a muzzle too?”

“Why are you even listening to my muttering? The eavesdropper’s the one in the wrong here, no?”

Tae Jae-heon stopped in his tracks and turned to look at me. The moment his gaze met mine, I realized I’d crossed a line—shit.

But the shame of being dragged around like a dog in front of a bunch of Nox goons and other hunters outweighed any hesitation. I clamped my mouth shut and just glared at him.

“Um… Guildmaster?”

“Go ahead.”

Tae Jae-heon jerked his chin to motion the other hunters forward. Once we were alone, he gripped the rope in his hand, looped it once, and yanked.

With force I couldn’t resist, I stumbled forward until I stood directly in front of him. His voice came low and cold.

“Do you really want to be dragged around like a dog?”

“Aren’t you already doing that?”

“You’re walking on two legs. You’ve got all your limbs intact. How is that being dragged?”

“…”

Freak. Psycho.

The humiliation of not being able to do anything made my fists clench tight. Tae Jae-heon noticed—and still had the audacity to smirk. He tapped my cheek a couple times and said,

“Trusting Cheon Rang and acting out like this is cute and all, but don’t piss me off.”

Cheon Rang, my ass. May you rot in prison for life. No—drop dead instead.

“If you get it, answer me.”

“…Fine, I get it.”

“Not that.”

I bit my lip. The sheer disgust of saying what he wanted made me feel sick.
I glared at him, refusing to speak, but his face said it all—he wasn’t taking a single step until I did.

At last, I let out a long breath and spat the words like poison.

“…I’m sorry.”

Tae Jae-heon patted my head once, then turned his back to me, as if telling me to follow.

With one hand bound and the other holding Cloud—bag and all—I trudged behind him in silence. After a long while of walking, he suddenly spoke.

“If you’d just given up when I tore it off, things wouldn’t have gotten this bad.”

“…What now?”

“You know what I mean. Namsan’s next.”

His out-of-the-blue comment made me tilt my head. Tae Jae-heon glanced back at me.

Seeing that I hadn’t caught on, he frowned and asked,

“What do you think the sacrifice at Namsan will be? You’ve never thought about it?”