Free Web NovelChapter 24: More Death
Rojo frowned.
"So that’s the trigger?"
Shen Yu shook his head.
"No."
"What?"
"That’s only pressure."
He looked toward the family apartment.
"If a man blames his wife and child because of other people’s words..."
"The problem isn’t the relatives."
"It’s him."
The group fell silent.
No one argued.
Because deep down, everyone knew he was right.
The timeline advanced again.
Arguments became more frequent.
Voices grew louder.
Doors slammed harder.
The warmth from the hospital scene slowly vanished.
In its place—
Resentment.
Bitterness.
Violence.
The dungeon was showing them a family collapsing in slow motion.
Floor by floor.
Memory by memory.
And every new scene felt darker than the last.
Eventually they reached another apartment.
The date on the calendar read:
Eight years.
The hallway felt colder.
The walls looked dirtier.
Inside Room G04—
Someone was screaming.
"Stop!"
"Please stop!"
A woman cried helplessly.
"Please!"
A loud crash followed.
Then another.
The players exchanged grim looks.
The final floor.
The final memory.
The final crime scene.
Shen Yu slowly exhaled.
"We’re almost there."
Rojo tightened his grip on his weapon.
"You think this is where everything happened?"
"No."
Shen Yu finally arrived after Lily disappeared but not before killing him twenty more time. Shen Yu was planning to find her again so he could farm her again.
He stared at the blood-stained door.
His eyes narrowed.
"I think this is where everything ended."
And somehow—
That answer felt even worse.
The hospital corridor flickered and twisted.
One moment it was bright and sterile, the next it became warped and gray, like an old photograph left too long in the rain.
Shen Yu stood at the center of the distortion, arms folded as he listened to the information everyone had gathered.
"If a man blames his wife and child for the words of strangers," he said calmly, "then the problem was never the wife or the child."
The group fell silent.
Even the usually loud Shiao nodded.
"That’s what we found too," he said. "We tried getting into Akai’s old ward for more clues, but the nurse threw us out. Called us troublemakers."
Rojo adjusted his glasses.
"So we’re still missing something."
Shen Yu glanced at the system notifications only he could see.
Deaths: 30
Challenge Progress: 30/50
A smile tugged at his lips.
Only twenty more.
This dungeon was turning into a gold mine.
"Amazing spot," Shen Yu muttered.
"What?"
"Nothing."
The others didn’t know he had spent the last ten minutes repeatedly throwing himself into death traps and farming rewards.
Honestly, he was almost sad to leave.
"One floors left," Rojo said.
"We go down."
Everyone nodded.
The elevator groaned.
The rusted doors opened once more.
Floor Four
The air smelled of mold.
Room 404 stood at the end of the corridor.
The number plate hung crookedly.
As they approached, a date appeared on the wall. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
2029
Shiao’s eyes widened.
"Eight years."
"What?"
"Eight years"
The hallway suddenly erupted with screams.
"Stop hitting me!"
A woman’s desperate voice echoed from behind the apartment door.
"Please! Stop!"
A heavy crash followed.
The players froze.
Then a man roared from inside.
"My family is none of your business! Get out!"
The door exploded outward.
A shadow rushed toward them.
Too fast.
Far too fast.
Before anyone could react—
BOOM!
One player vanished.
Instantly.
Not wounded.
Not injured.
Gone.
Reduced to a burst of blood and shattered bones.
Everyone’s faces turned pale.
"Level twelve minimum..." Rojo whispered.
"No."
Shen Yu narrowed his eyes.
"Higher."
The thing standing in the doorway wasn’t a human anymore.
It was Akai.
Or what remained of him.
His body bulged unnaturally.
Black veins crawled across his skin.
His eyes glowed with madness.
A monster born from years of resentment.
"Take the wife!" Shen Yu shouted.
"You two distract him!"
The group scattered.
Inside the apartment, they found a woman curled on the floor.
Bruises covered her arms.
Tears stained her cheeks.
"Where are your children?" Rojo asked urgently.
The woman shook.
"My... my son..."
Her voice broke.
"He died before birth."
The room went silent.
"What?" Shiao whispered.
"The miscarriage..."
The woman hugged herself.
"There were two..."
Her eyes became hollow.
"I lost both."
Shen Yu felt something click.
Another piece of the puzzle.
"What about your daughter?" he asked.
"Take her and leave."
The woman smiled sadly.
"He’ll change."
"He wasn’t like this before."
"He’ll change."
Shiao clenched his fists.
"He won’t."
The woman didn’t answer.
Some people lived their whole lives waiting for someone to become the person they used to be.
Back in the hallway, Akai’s roars shook the building.
The walls trembled.
Dust rained from the ceiling.
Shen Yu stepped away from the group.
"Prepare yourselves."
Rojo looked over.
"For what?"
"The final floor."
Shen Yu stared toward the elevator.
"Floor one showed us gender bias."
"Floor two showed pregnancy."
"Floor three showed child disappearance."
"Floor four showed abusive marriage."
His eyes darkened.
"The next floor is where everything breaks."
The realization hit everyone at once.
The murder scene.
The end of the story.
Shiao swallowed.
"We have to stop him."
"Too late."
Shen Yu shook his head.
"This dungeon isn’t about fighting."
"What?"
"Think."
He pointed toward the memories.
"If brute force worked, the dungeon wouldn’t keep showing us the past."
Rojo’s eyes widened.
"You mean..."
"The clear condition is understanding the truth."
"Not killing the monster."
For a moment nobody spoke.
Then the building shook violently.
The elevator arrived.
DING.
The doors opened.
Ground Floor.
The moment they stepped out, a knife pierced Shen Yu’s chest.
THUD.
He fell instantly.
You have died.
Reviving...
Death Count: 31
The others screamed.
"SHEN YU!"
A second later he stood back up.
Perfectly fine.
Everyone froze.
Shiao rubbed his eyes.
"...What?"
Shen Yu dusted off his clothes.
"That was annoying."
The ghost bride’s furious scream echoed throughout the building.
"I WON’T BELIEVE YOU CAN’T DIE!"
Shen Yu grinned.
"Oh?"
His eyes gleamed.
"Challenge accepted."
The next hour became absolute madness.
Death after death.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Ghost walls crushed him.
Cursed blades impaled him.
Monsters ripped him apart.
The ghost bride personally hunted him through the corridors.
Each time—
He came back.
Each time—
She became angrier.
And each time—
His rewards grew better.
Death Count: 40
"Hahaha!"
The ghost bride’s laughter echoed.
"Look at him!"
Death Count: 41
"Still alive?"
Death Count: 42
The players watched in stunned silence.
This wasn’t courage.
This wasn’t bravery.
This was insanity.
A completely different species of insanity.
Finally—
Death Count: 49
Shen Yu rose once more.
Covered in blood.
Smiling.
The ghost bride stared at him.
Her expression twisted.
Something felt wrong.
Very wrong.
Then—
Death Count: 50
Hidden Challenge Complete.
Reward Granted.
Golden light exploded around Shen Yu.
The system announcement echoed through the dungeon.
Congratulations.
You have completed the hidden challenge: Die Fifty Times.
The ghost bride froze.
Everyone froze.
Even Shen Yu blinked.
"...That actually worked?"
The system continued.
Reward upgraded.
Special Evaluation Unlocked.
The ghost bride suddenly felt a chill.
A terrible premonition.
Shen Yu slowly looked up.
Then smiled.
The kind of smile that made ghosts nervous.
"Oh."
He cracked his neck.
"Now things are getting interesting."
The ghost bride took a step backward.
"So, the angrier she gets, the higher my death rating becomes."
Shen Yu leaned against the rusted hospital wall, studying the latest system notification.
A slow smile spread across his face.
"Interesting."
His eyes narrowed.
"Then I just need to make her even angrier."
Far away, somewhere within the darkness of the dungeon, the Ghost Bride shivered.
The next time she appeared, she came with enough killing intent to freeze the corridor.
Long black hair covered her face.
Blood dripped from the sleeves of her wedding dress.
The temperature dropped instantly.
The other players backed away.
Shen Yu, however, walked forward.
"Back already?"
The Ghost Bride slowly raised her head.
"You are asking for death."
"That’s the idea."
Shen Yu grinned.
"Don’t be so shy. We’ve already shared a coffin together."
The surrounding players nearly choked.
The Ghost Bride’s body trembled.
Whether from rage or embarrassment, nobody could tell.
"You worthless human..."
"Worthless?"
Shen Yu looked her up and down.
"I’d say you’re worth less than the coffin."
Silence.
Then—
BOOM!
The corridor exploded.
A dozen ghostly arms erupted from the walls and tore Shen Yu apart.
Blood splattered everywhere.
The players screamed.
You have died.
S-Rank Death Evaluation Triggered.
Reward Obtained: UR Card Fragment.
A moment later Shen Yu reappeared.
Completely unharmed.
His eyes widened.
"A UR fragment?"
He immediately forgot about being murdered.
"Now that’s valuable."
The Ghost Bride stared.
This lunatic wasn’t even paying attention to her anymore.
He was excited about loot.
"Speaking of which..."
Shen Yu opened his status screen.
"I’ve died fifty times already."
His smile widened.
"Still not enough."
The others looked at him as though he were insane.
Because he was.
Normal people feared death.
Shen Yu was disappointed when he didn’t die enough.
"The worse the death, the better the reward."
