Chapter 193

I didn’t get my consciousness back until long after that.

To be precise, it was long after that when I recognized that I had regained consciousness.

Lying sprawled on the floor was the last thing I remembered, but when I came to, I was standing up just fine. No, is it okay to call it “just fine”?

I didn’t know how long I’d been walking through the dungeon, but judging by the state I wasn’t in my right mind and a considerable amount of time had passed while moving, the surroundings were entirely unfamiliar.

I was sure it had been a scorching fire pit, and you could tell just by looking at the sides frozen solid and chilled.

‘What the hell?’

Can a dungeon’s attribute be this different? One side burns you, the other side freezes you—what a mess.

‘It’s not like I signed up for a tour of hell.’

I knit my brows and slowly looked ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) around. It seemed there had been a battle of some sort; I saw frozen corpses of monsters scattered across the floor along with bloodstains.

‘Hold on. Frozen?’

Creatures that live in a dungeon, yet they couldn’t adapt to the dungeon’s environment and froze solid? That made no sense, logically speaking.

At that moment, a jutting ice wall fell with a loud crash and shattered. Reflexively stepping back, I saw—through the shock of the falling ice—a transparent, smooth wall behind it.

And on that smooth wall, “I” was reflected.

If the place was littered with ice and everything was dead, then naturally I should have suspected the only living thing that hadn’t died there. But faced with it, my suspicion jammed in my throat.

I went closer and, looking at the unique pattern gleaming on my face, I absentmindedly placed my hand on the surface. Then, as if it had been waiting for me, ice spread in an instant along my hand.

“Ah-ha....”

Letting out a low exclamation, I paused. Given the situation, I finally felt the alien sensation in my body that I hadn’t noticed.

It was an unfamiliar kind of mana.

No, to be fair, any mana that coursed through me was always unfamiliar.

I was someone who mostly stole and used other people’s skills. I don’t just mean a mere mimicry skill... I mean it in the “plundering” sense.

But this time was a little different. It wasn’t simply killing someone and plundering their skill—its very structure felt strange. Like another living thing was breathing inside my body.

“I should’ve suspected this from the moment I blacked out.”

I patted my chest and confirmed the space there was empty. The last thing I perceived was the fiend twitching inside my coat... and me losing consciousness.

So, is this its way of repaying me for escorting it gently by my side all this time? Whatever the case, given I’m still alive despite looking like this, that seems to be the case.

The skill flowing through my body was too alien to control properly. If it were human mana, I could manage it to some extent, but since the fiend itself had been absorbed, exercising my own will over it was close to impossible.

Right then—

“Seo Jehyun!”

At the sound of my name, I reflexively turned my head and saw Kwon Taehan running toward me in a hurry.

“Where are— ...what the hell is wrong with you.”

His question cut off abruptly. So I wouldn’t brush against him, I naturally placed my hands behind my back and faced him. Kwon Taehan’s expression instantly turned grave.

“Your clothes—what is... Are you hurt—no, wait. Hold on—”

“Backup arrived?”

“Is that what matters? Where—this is torn, and what is that on your face? Did you... did you touch something wrong? Are you hurt?”

Watching him fluster—so unlike him—I lightly tapped his shin with the tip of my shoe.

“Kwon Taehan. Did you clear the dungeon?”

“......”

He seemed to come to his senses and nodded.

“What happened? Why are you—!”

“I don’t really know either. What’s certain is that nothing good will come from touching me right now.”

“What?”

“I kind of almost died just now. Then I blacked out for a bit... When I came to, I was here. Judging by the situation, it looks like I temporarily merged with a fiend.”

“A fiend? What fiend is here?”

“Feel inside my jacket.”

“...What?”

“Hurry.”

Kwon Taehan hesitated, then cautiously slid his hand inside my jacket. He rummaged through the pockets, naturally took out the fiend storage cage, and slowly opened it.

“...It’s empty.”

“Mmm, then I guess I’m right?”

I snorted at Kwon Taehan staring straight at me. He still didn’t say anything, so I kindly added once more:

“Looks like I did this, Taehan....”

“......”

When I lifted the corner of my mouth and whispered, his expression hardened even more than before.

Once we left the dungeon, I sought out Seong Eunha to find out about the fiend merger. Seong Eunha, who had left the guild not long ago after constant friction with Neo Core, had set up a private lab and continued her research. On the side, she strengthened artifacts for money and wrote papers on magi-engineering.

We had almost no personal connection, but there are only a few unmoored yet excellent researchers in our country, so that’s why I went to her.

After carefully examining my condition over several days, Seong Eunha reached a conclusion.

“You’ve merged... but if you want, I think we can separate it. It hasn’t put down roots yet.”

I listened and thought for a moment.

Would it be okay to try something new “this time”? In any case, me dying has no meaning. At worst, it’s a “deletion” and restart.

So trying something new didn’t sound bad. Up to now I’d chosen to plunder and use skills of water-attribute hunters; merging with a fiend that handles ice—akin to that—seemed worth attempting.

Anyway, my current goal... is very clearly set.

“How do you want to proceed?”

“I’ll leave it as is.”

“The merger will only become more solid.”

“If we separate, what happens to the fiend?”

“Well... it’ll die.”

“Exactly. I’m a bit soft-hearted.”

I answered as if it were the most natural thing, and Seong Eunha looked at me in disbelief.

To be honest, I meant it to a degree. I’d practically gotten it a home like a pet dog, topped off its mana, and even took it on walks to various dungeons; if it just up and died, that would really sting.

This way, stuck to my body and at least being useful, it might be better from its perspective too.

“There could be side effects to merging with a fiend. You know that.”

“Sure, I know.”

I’d had a crash course from the start, so I wasn’t scared either. It killing monsters freely while my consciousness was gone? That’s basically auto-hunting.

The one thing that worried me was that it might, without my knowledge, kill Kwon Taehan “now” and ruin everything. But if I put safety measures in place first—well, I could cover it to some extent.

‘If worst comes to worst, Kwon Taehan will dodge on his own.’

He’s an S-rank hunter, after all.

Hearing my answer, Seong Eunha hesitated and asked,

“Will you report it?”

“Report what?”

“If you’ve become a fiend-merged hunter... the rule is to report it.”

“Ah, if I feel like it.”

That alone seemed to be enough for her to understand; she nodded. A scholar buried in research happily accepting a bit of amorality, she left.

On the way home, I sifted through all the thoughts I’d been putting off.

This run... is going to be a very special exception. If I’m lucky, it might be the first run that doesn’t get “deleted.”

‘Kwon Taehan.’

Right, my goal was to stay by Kwon Taehan’s side so he could go all the way to the end.

Even if I ended up having to kill him, I wanted “Kwon Taehan” to survive to the bitter end if possible. Not just because it’s interesting; that way benefits me too.

If I end up being the first to kill the never-yet-dead Kwon Taehan, will it feel different? If I get the chance to move on to the next stage by “plundering” Kwon Taehan’s ■■ ■■, and thus get to see a run that isn’t “deleted,” will that feel any different?

Well, it didn’t feel real yet.

Living out life repeated over and over, pointlessly deleted many times—it wasn’t all that bad. As my mother emphasized, I, how should I put it... had to live a slightly dull, calm, and boring life.

Even if a small exception got added, I still had an endless number of lives left to repeat anyway.

***

Viewing complete.

I slowly opened my eyes. The sensation of lifting my eyelids felt vivid to an excessive degree.

“That’s odd.”

My rough, cracked voice echoed off the wall.

Of everything I’d ever seen, what I’d just seen was the most vivid memory. The thoughts “I” had also flashed by clearly. And yet, there was a bit of alienness. Were those really thoughts “I” had?

It also felt like I was watching someone slightly different from me in their way of thinking. Accounting for my body being swallowed up—me? Deciding to repeat it again and again for a calm, boring life....

And repeating “deleted” runs that don’t even have any effect?

“Yeah... that’s really odd.”

Maybe because life kept repeating. The past and present didn’t link up; they snapped apart. No, maybe you couldn’t even call it the past. They were just other lives I’d repeated.

Still, one thing was certain: by experiencing the last run, a great many of the things I’d truly wondered about were resolved. Not that I’d expected it to happen like this.

When I looked up, the status window flickered and brought up letters.

‘Seo Jehyun’, we fervently welcome you!

Right, a familiar line. There was no need to “fervently” welcome me anymore, though.

The next moment, the letters on the status window rapidly changed.

We explored existing previous runs, but because the possibility of entering the indi■iduality approaches 0, we have sought a new method.

By viewing ‘Seo Jehyun’s’ unapproved ‘deleted runs’, we will explore another unapproved possibility and proceed with the route thereafter.

“Who’s the one judging unapproved possibilities and pushing ahead with them?”

My voice echoed dully. Yeah, that was one of the things I’d wondered for a while. Who exactly is behind this status window? What kind of “administrator” has the authority to manipulate it?

If Moros—the one who just called himself a god—has power on this level, then whoever’s behind this must have something similar. What do they even gain by going this far?

This is a question you will eventually reach if the runs repeat.

“So, that means I can’t know now.”

I stared blankly at the status window and lifted a corner of my mouth.

“But it doesn’t feel like I’m talking with the System right now.”

The status window felt subtly different from System Chat. In that case, what’s behind this—an administrator?

But this time, the status window gave me no answer.

Instead, it continued with something else.

This space is a temporary dungeon created to stimulate ‘Seo Jehyun’s’ fear.

The longer you remain, the faster your mind will collapse, so use the last possibility we found and get out of here.

indi■iduality for ruin...... 34%

It would be nice if I couldn’t understand even that much, but the bastard had arranged things so precisely that I could roughly grasp what it meant.

Just like “then,” I set my hand on the smooth ice wall, and ice spread out in an instant from the point of contact.

Fwooom—

The vast space was sheathed in ice, and with a light twist of my wrist—crash—it shattered with a tremendous noise.

“Haa....”

Even being alone in a place smothered with ice, I didn’t feel cold at all. It was clearly my body, and yet an alien power flowed through it.

“Did I do this before, too?”

With that, I stomped down hard on the ground. With a tearing sound, the floor slowly split, and the crackle of ice breaking began to pop off in scattered bursts.

Chyeoong—!

Starting with a clear note striking my ear, a thunderous rumble rolled as the ice slowly caved in.

The ground split apart, and chunks of ice fell from the sky like snow, thudding against the floor.

Kwaang!

With a massive boom, a tremor shook my entire body. A quiet elation rose.

This space—meaning, not merely an ice cave ringed by ice walls, but the entire vast chamber—was collapsing. Because of “me.”