Chapter 196

Im Haegyeong wiped the snow off their cheek and came to an abrupt stop.

“Snow, huh....”

It was truly a curious thing. When we first entered the dungeon, it had startled people by blasting out absurd, senseless firepower, and yet what it actually possessed was a freezing-type skill.

And the fact that seeing sudden snow fall in this maze let you know at once whose doing it was—that too was truly curious.

The snow that fell from the sky melted the moment it touched the ground. But it didn’t stop there. Even as the snow melted, it kept falling from the sky.

It kept falling even into the places caved in by the collapse. Until it no longer melted and covered the ground.

At some point, the movement tearing the maze down also stopped.

When they turned their head to check on Do Yehyeon, he too calmly looked up at the sky, as if he knew whose work this was. Confirming his reaction, Im Haegyeong spoke.

“It’s snowing.”

“......”

“Which makes no sense.”

Their quiet, near-awed exchange spread through the spaces between the frozen walls.

The artificially started snowfall gradually intensified, soon turning into thick flakes that beat down harshly onto the floor. Leaving the silent Do Yehyeon alone, Im Haegyeong muttered to themself.

“I’ve seen this sight before. It definitely wasn’t time for snow, but it came down in a wild dump.”

“......”

“Back then, Jehyun was beside me. This time, I get to watch it with you.”

“......”

“Interesting....”

Letting the words trail off with a small laugh, Im Haegyeong fixed their eyes on a figure visible beyond the rubble of the fallen wall. There was a big trough carved out between them so they couldn’t cross, but even from afar, it was obvious who it was.

It couldn’t be anyone else.

With a gait far too leisurely for the situation, Seo Jehyun came right up to the edge of the dug-out pit in the center, then stopped and looked this way.

Do Yehyeon, who had been standing quietly beside him, flinched and took a step closer.

Perhaps seeing that, Seo Jehyun made a simple “get back” gesture and cocked his head slightly to the side.

At the same time, a familiar voice flowed through the comm device.

—Guild Master.

“Yes, Jehyun.”

The comm device that had been dead outside connected in an instant.

When Im Haegyeong promptly answered, Seo Jehyun didn’t speak for a moment, then tilted his head slightly and looked toward Do Yehyeon.

“Ah, Yehyeon’s fine. Not injured anywhere.”

—That’s a relief.

“Did you have a nice meeting with a god? Yehyeon told me.”

At Im Haegyeong’s question, Seo Jehyun gave a short laugh and answered in a low voice.

—I’m thinking of getting a bit religious. Turned out he was closer than I thought.

“Closer?”

—Yeah. Anyway... I’ll get straight to the point.

“Okay.”

Tossing out a line you couldn’t tell was a joke or not, then diving straight into business, Seo Jehyun spoke evenly.

—First off, the dungeon boss is gone.

“You killed it?”

—No, I think it ran. I don’t know where.

“So that’s why the dungeon collapsed. The thing propping it up disappeared.”

—Right.

Im Haegyeong was silent for a beat, then asked,

“The snow—you’re making it fall?”

—Yeah.

“Why?”

—I can’t control it well.

“Control?”

—Yeah. My body’s suddenly brimming with energy... but it’s a slightly different case.

Was this also a case of meeting a god and raising one’s stats? Narrowing their eyes slightly, Im Haegyeong asked again.

“So that being called a god really does boost people’s stats. What do you mean by a different case?”

But the response this time didn’t come from Seo Jehyun; it was from Do Yehyeon. When Im Haegyeong pressed, Do Yehyeon turned his head, and they could feel the gaze coming this way.

—It’ll take too long to explain.

“I see....”

At Seo Jehyun’s brief parry, Im Haegyeong let their words trail off and answered.

“So what’s the plan now?”

—Ah.

“Yes.”

—What’s your range for activating mind-control skills?

“Mm....”

They reflexively started to answer and then halted. Because it occurred to them that Jehyun wouldn’t ask such a thing without a reason.

“Why ask that?”

—I think we’ll need some mind control.

“On who?”

The answer came back as if it were the most obvious thing.

—Me.

***

What I felt after my body hit the ground was straightforward pain.

“Hurts like a bitch, fuck.”

Still, I wasn’t injured. That alone made it clear my physical sturdiness had spiked at once.

The fact that there was pain, fortunately, meant there was someplace for my mind to be tugged toward. As I pushed myself up, I tried to check my condition as objectively as possible.

“Doesn’t feel like anything’s broken. I can move.”

The variable now was that the thing that had been sleeping quietly in my hand had spread through my entire body.

I could feel another entity’s mana wrapped around my body. The truly annoying part was that I was slowly getting used to this mana.

I clenched my fist tight and flicked a small shard of ice up toward the sky.

“Goddamn it.”

But controlling the mana wasn’t easy the way I usually did. I thought I’d flicked up a small piece of ice, but a big hunk formed and thudded down right at my feet.

“Can’t control it.”

Maybe that’s only natural since I’m not using it alone in the first place?

I scrapped the plan to try and regulate the mana and shot ice into the sky once more.

FWAAT—!!

The ice that surged sharply soon turned into small pieces and fell lightly at my feet.

In other words, it started to snow.

“Enough.”

Because the snowfall was getting stronger than I expected, I reached out to reel it back in, but instead of the size decreasing, the flakes doubled.

“Haha... I’m screwed.”

I swallowed the laugh that wanted to come out and rolled my stiff neck.

Despite being knocked around and beaten here and there, my body’s condition was anything but bad. No—better than that.

I hadn’t asked for this much, but the power was overflowing. To the point of feeling alien.

I lifted my head and called the fiend.

“Hey, come out.”

Of course there was no answer, but from the mana flowing through my body, I could roughly guess what state it was in.

“They say we knew each other before. Did you know and rub up to me on purpose?”

Even if memories fade as the runs repeat, is there something that remains to some extent?

I thought for a moment, then slowly opened and closed my hand. It wasn’t curled up just in my palm anymore, but whether out of habit, I kept fidgeting with my fingers.

“Anyway....”

Yeah, right now getting out of here is what matters.

Top priority is escape. If I set priorities coolly, getting Im Haegyeong out comes first.

If something happened to them here, predicting what’s to come would get much harder. Even if not that, the Haeseong guild master had an absurd amount of uses.

“The good news is, Im Haegyeong doesn’t die easily.”

There’s no way someone who walked all the way here didn’t come with safety measures. They’re bound to have a way to get out on their own, and even if by some chance not, they’ll have plenty of armor for self-protection.

In that case, what about Do Yehyeon?

If we’re talking variables, his side was a bit more prominent. If Haegyeong learned the exit method, they’d dash to escape at once, but that wasn’t the case for Yehyeon. He’d say he’d stay by my side even if it killed him.

“Then tell him to stay by your side.”

He’s not going to listen anyway, so there was nothing more to think about.

As for the others....

I was running the numbers for a moment when I paused. ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) Because I remembered that the ones still remaining at the hideout—including Ryu Taejun—had been swept up in the collapse without knowing why.

“Unlucky. Did they die?”

Even if I ended up rescuing them later, for now there was nothing to do but hope they each found their own way to survive.

One thing that bugged me was that even if we got out of this dungeon, it didn’t mean we’d toppled Cheonmyeonggyo.

Cheonmyeonggyo was bound to come back regardless. I didn’t know why Jin Haedo had put me in here, but Jin Haedo was someone who could continue to draw in believers under his own power.

“Then should I kill him while I’ve got the chance?”

The flow would diverge from the original work, but so long as it helped me, I didn’t care.

I slowly clenched my fist and looked straight ahead.

I already knew how to escape this place. I’d gone through it twice in a row.

It was a crude space made artificially, a mere “rift” that at best imitated a dungeon.

So of course a masterless space would collapse.

“Break it.”

Once I destroyed the space, we’d naturally have no choice but to slip out. At the end of the day, this too was a mental domain. A lump of the thoughts of the one claiming to be a god, and a collective of human desires—plenty destroyable. Even if its master had fled and left it cut loose for now.

The wall had fallen, so there was no longer any need to wander.

If I smashed this place physically, just like I’d escaped that ice-walled area a moment ago, I was confident I could get out.

But the snag in this plan was....

“Can I control my skill?”

Could I steer this fiend that was ready to rampage the moment it had the chance, bend it to my taste? Even if I set aside worries about Haegyeong, one slip and I could go berserk and kill everyone else.

I recalled the image of “me” from the previous run standing alone atop a heap of corpses.

I can’t control myself.

It was to avoid that risk that I hadn’t taken this grim option, but in the end, here we were.

“I need to use another method.”

Another way to use my skill effectively. As things stood, I needed a way to control my skill perfectly, and also to control this fiend shamelessly living inside my body, apart from me.

And fortunately, a plan B existed that could do that.

I moved my feet slowly and walked toward the center where traces of collapse were heaviest. The closer I got, the larger the bits of debris smashed this way and that appeared.

At last, I arrived right at the edge of the sunken pit.

I quietly watched the two figures visible on the far side, then opened the comm.

“Guild Master.”

I hadn’t thought I’d end up handing my body over to someone else again.

—Yes, Jehyun.

Hearing the familiar answer come back, I lifted the corner of my mouth.