Free Web NovelI gathered the two men on the ground into one spot. One was unconscious, and the other had no intention of resisting, so the work went even faster.
Both of them had some damage to their bodies, but not enough to die.
Strictly speaking, the one whose tooth I pulled was a little more at risk, but when I felt it, it was a tooth that had already shown signs of being loosened.
If he dies, it’s not my fault.
And if he really looked like he was going to die, I was willing to keep him alive. Keeping someone breathing doesn’t exactly profit me, but it’s not like I intended to kill him from the start.
I was just trying to make things... a bit simpler.
I looked at the guys sprawled on the ground and put the Stealth Orb in my mouth.
Leaning against the wall, I sorted out what had just happened.
From the moment the toothless bastard approached, I’d planned to squeeze him for information. If I hadn’t intended that, I would’ve kicked him out right away.
But a few things snagged.
First was his condition.
He claimed he’d stayed here a long time, and he didn’t look great. Staggering was the default, and his rambling speech made him look exactly like a lunatic.
His eyes never fixed—constantly jittering—and he kept fidgeting his hands, stamping his feet, then scraping the ground with his toes: everything about him was noisy and scattered.
I figured the chances were fifty-fifty. Either terrified, or literally insane.
In a maze that supposedly makes you face your desire, going off the deep end after staying too long wasn’t exactly surprising.
Cheonmyeonggyo is a gathering of crazies to begin with; leave crazy people in a dungeon and of course they’ll go even further off the rails.
So first, I tied him up.
Mm.
When a suspicious guy shows up, killing or restraining him is common sense.
I made him a proposal.
“Then do you want to stay here until it’s day?”
It was a meaningless question from the start. Obviously the answer would be yes.
Sure enough, the moment the words left my mouth, he bobbed his head eagerly. If he’d hesitated any longer, he probably would’ve dropped to his knees and begged.
“Then let’s do a few things.”
“Uh, like what...?”
Instead of answering, I took out a binding rope and gave it a shake.
There’s nothing easier than restraining a guy who’s out of his mind. He was more compliant than expected; halfway through it felt less like tying up a prisoner and more like doing some shitty play.
Anyway, once I immobilized him, I conducted a body search.
Tie first, then search. Obviously.
There was a reason for it, too.
Too many artifacts.
Even a quick skim via the status window showed more than a couple artifacts on him. Outwardly, he didn’t seem to be carrying anything special.
Which meant he’d planted them all over—simple accessories, shoes, skin...
I’ve done kidnappings, so I can roughly estimate where people hide what. This is why people say you learn from experience, huh?
After stripping whatever was easy and searching him, within minutes most of the artifacts on his body were stripped out. From offensive artifacts to defensive gear to binding artifacts that synergized well with his ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) skills.
‘Hyung. ...Wouldn’t it be better to just send him back?’
‘I was thinking the same.’
Do Yehyun had been watching with a dubious look; around the time the fifth artifact came out, he made a serious suggestion.
I toed the artifacts rolling on the floor aside, bent down, and met the guy’s eyes.
‘For someone not in his right mind, you’ve got way too much on you. You fine with getting caught for all this?’
‘Huh...?’
‘Your condition’s crap. How long have you been here?’
‘A month... no, maybe three? Somewhere... between?’
‘That’s a ridiculously wide range.’
For fuck’s sake, how are we supposed to have a conversation?
I watched him quietly. With his body trussed up tight, all he could do was wiggle his fingers, but his gaze was still darting all over the place, and even his teeth were clacking.
Is he scared?
I let out a dry laugh, stood, and spoke to Do Yehyun.
‘Should we just send him back? Whatever we ask, he won’t answer properly anyway.’
‘We can’t!’
And the answer came from somewhere else.
‘......’
‘It’s night. Heh-heh...’
He’d yelled and then mumbled; clearly there was something there.
I pressed him again.
‘What comes out at night?’ fɾēewebnσveℓ.com
‘......’
But he didn’t answer that one. He only blinked.
Ah... for fuck’s sake, annoying.
Fine. Do I need to hear it spelled out? Dangerous things are all the same. It’s a dungeon, so monsters show up, and if monsters show up, obviously it’s dangerous.
I raked my hair back, irritated, and asked:
‘You dragged yourself all the way here on such a dangerous night... so what scares you so much you’re shaking?’
His shoulders flinched. Like I’d poked the right spot.
‘......’
‘...Aha.’
Ah. So that was the problem.
Come to think of it, it was weird. If the night was that dangerous... how did some deranged bastard get delivered here without any big injuries? No matter how thick the maze walls were, if “dangerous things” were happening nearby, it couldn’t be this quiet.
Plus, we hadn’t met a single living thing even after moving all day in the maze—so how did he find us here?
Strange.
‘......’
Was it really coincidence he made it here?
No—even if it was coincidence... did he really tell the truth?
The constant jittery posture, the mountain of artifacts on his person, the spaced-out face...
I immediately pulled up the status window again.
I cleared every familiar window and focused on the one panel left on his body.
‘Comms device.’
What an odd coincidence. A comms device made by processing a magic stone, similar to what I’d used, was “still” embedded in him.
I watched him quietly, then lifted my head.
‘Yehyun.’
‘Yes?’
‘I don’t think we should stay here.’
If there’s a comms device, that means there’s someone on the other end to hear it.
Didn’t line up with his claim that all his teammates were gone.
We’d just casually blamed the night’s danger on monsters, but what if it wasn’t that?
Hmph.
Truth is, humans are more dangerous than monster bastards. Especially in a maze that makes you face personal desire—if it’s churning out people this unhinged...
There aren’t many left in their right mind, are there?
Even if monsters were outside, as long as it wasn’t the dungeon boss, a few wouldn’t be impossible to handle. And enough time had passed that we could probably hold out until “night” passed.
My mind tilted in an instant.
We’re getting out of here.
If by any chance he’d already transmitted our location with that comms device, the safest move was to leave now.
I didn’t have a solid conclusion—just suspicions—but it was more than enough to be wary. And if we’re measuring “intuition,” I beat Do Yehyun.
He nodded obediently without asking for reasons.
‘Ryu Taejun...’
There was still that bastard snoring on the floor. Honestly, I didn’t have the kindness to wake him and take him along.
Do Yehyun didn’t look desperate to bring him either.
Still, abandoning him outright is a bit...
We didn’t yet understand what this dungeon really was; we needed someone to take a knife if necessary. And I didn’t exactly want to cut ties with Ryu Taeyoung either, so I probably should keep him alive to a reasonable degree.
After weighing it, I first took Do Yehyun and slipped out of there.
‘...Where to?’
‘Thinking.’
No matter how much self-heal we have, you don’t put a healer on the front line. Hiding Do Yehyun behind me was the obvious strategy.
But if my hypothesis was right and other guys were converging on the crazy one...
Sure, stepping away made sense now, but long-term, it wasn’t a good plan.
We’d be cutting off a potential source of hints about the dungeon.
When the second fork appeared, I stopped dead.
‘Wait... We’re going back.’
Do Yehyun didn’t ask why this time either. He just whined that he wanted to come.
‘I’m coming too.’
‘No.’
‘......’
‘If it comes to it, I’ll circle back here, so I’d rather have one person stationed on this side. I can track your position.’
He nodded slowly. Whether he accepted it or not didn’t matter much now...
There was only one thing to do.
I slipped off my watch and pocketed it, then handed Do Yehyun the Teleport Box.
