Free Web NovelIt was simple. Contrary to how it looked like they’d “steeled themselves,” the guys in the hideout were way more terrified of death than I expected.
'Is it because they didn’t come here planning to die in the first place?'
Even so, they were people who’d supposedly been filtered through a fairly picky process, and yet they turned out to be this cowardly. On top of that, the guy I’d sent to go fetch the others must have been the biggest coward of the bunch, because while he was waking people up and dragging them over, he kept throwing in weird little comments.
Thanks to that, I didn’t have to bother directly threatening them in little ways, but it still subtly got on my nerves.
While he was busy rousing the others, I cleaned up the corpse of the guy I’d killed earlier. It was my first time going through a dead person’s body, but if I told myself I was doing it with the attitude of “saving a pathetic life from further misery,” it wasn’t something I couldn’t do.
Once I’d roughly finished collecting the corpse, the assembly of the ones who’d been sleeping was done as well.
'I never did anything like this even in the army.'
Feeling oddly like a sergeant lining up a bunch of kids, I stared at them standing in a row. The overall hostility was pretty naked and heavy in the air.
“Did Cheongmin really not think I’d come back and slam into this place? Or is he just the type who tells everyone to survive on their own?”
I tossed out a short question before I started the real interrogation. The answer came from the guy in the very front row.
“We’re just all staying in the same place, it’s not like we’re some amazing comrades or anything....”
The way he was blatantly bullshitting to survive made me let out a hollow laugh. Not that it really mattered.
I met their eyes one by one and informed them.
“Okay, sure. Whether you’re comrades or friends, you can figure that out yourselves. Let’s just handle this efficiently.”
“......”
“If you know anything about the maze, talk. If I’m satisfied, I’ll let you leave this maze. If not, then... you’ll just stay here in the maze with me until you die. And no, that’s not a blessing to live a long life, it’s closer to a threat that I’ll kill you.”
“......”
“Who wants to start?”
When the strange little battle of glances dragged on and no one opened their mouth, I immediately drove my fist into the jaw of the guy sitting in the front.
Smack!
A sharper crack than I’d expected rang out and the guy toppled forward to the floor with a groan.
'Beating them up is probably safer than using a skill.'
At the very least, this way there was no risk of them dying.
I smiled lightly and tilted my head toward the rest of them.
“Want more?”
Their reaction, of course, was simple and clear.
After listening to their bullshit for quite a while, I quietly lifted my head and looked up at the sky. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm
'Hm, it’s not like there was nothing to gain.'
Filtering what they said and sorting it out properly, this is what I got.
First of all, it seemed to be pretty much confirmed that the “god,” the dungeon boss here, really did grant wishes. There were multiple testimonies to the same effect popping up. The one difference was that it wasn’t every wish you spoke aloud that was granted, but only wishes that were close to your truest, most primal desire.
'Well, that makes sense.'
If you say with your mouth, “Please grant my friend’s wish,” while inside you’re going, “Grant my wish first,” then it’ll grant the latter. Nothing complicated about that.
Next, I heard testimony about Gi Cheongmin’s strange behavior.
I’d been curious why exactly he was dragging people off, and after yelling at them a few times to make them answer, I learned that the reason wasn’t actually that complicated.
It was simply that that was what the god demanded in order to fulfill wishes. That at least someone else’s life was needed.
On top of that, according to the other guys, after a certain amount of time had passed, there really were a fair number of people who left the maze of their own will. Or else, Gi Cheongmin just one-sidedly kicked them out.
He said the reason was that it was hard to manage once the number of people grew.
'This is less impressive than I thought.'
And with that last part, it was practically confirmed that there really was an exit in this maze.
'So, what should I do now?'
I started to seriously ponder whether I should keep pressuring these guys to search for the exit, or just get rid of the ones I didn’t need and leave one or two to help me scout.
Or, I could simply wait until Gi Cheongmin and Ahn Jinha came back.
I stared quietly at the guy in the very front whose jaw I’d busted, then asked,
“When does Cheongmin usually get back?”
“......”
Naturally, there was no answer from the guy whose jaw was shattered. Instead, the guy next to him, who’d been watching me nervously, spoke up.
“I–It’s up to Cheongmin’s mood, but....”
“......”
“I think... he’ll be back soon.”
Did that mean the sun was about to rise? Well, either way, it was good news.
I looked over the guys who were obediently staring this way, then took out a binding item and started a simple bit of work.
It took a little time to tie them up, strip them of anything that could be used as a weapon, and herd them all into one section. I ended up using more strength than I thought to subdue the ones who suddenly resisted once I got close after they’d been quiet this whole time.
Still, after I beat up maybe two of them, the rest naturally gave up on resisting, so it wasn’t unmanageable.
Once I’d finished that bit of work, finally, I saw silhouettes through the barrier at the entrance that had been released.
I quickly scanned the people coming in.
'Hm?'
I saw a total of three bodies. Gi Cheongmin, Ahn Jinha, and Ryu Taejun.
'Where’s Do Yehyun?'
Ah... what kind of fucking bastards are these.
I’d gone through all that trouble to hide Do Yehyun properly and bring him here, and they’d snatched him right out from there.
'These fuckers didn’t even know he was a healer, so whose lives did these sons of bitches waste out there?'
In the midst of all that, Ryu Taejun’s life was annoyingly tenacious; he still hadn’t died and was just being carried on someone’s back, passed out.
Gi Cheongmin paused when he spotted me, then spoke in a casual tone.
“I didn’t think you’d come here. I thought you ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ were a more enterprising type. That if I left you, you’d go off and pioneer some new path on your own.”
I cleanly ignored his bullshit and asked,
“Did you kill the guy who came with me?”
“......”
“No answer, huh.”
Honestly, the odds were high that he was dead, so it felt a bit pointless to keep trying to drag an answer out.
Besides, now that I was certain that the “god” granted wishes in exchange for people’s lives, it would’ve been idiotic to think Do Yehyun might still be alive.
'I didn’t think they’d just kill him outright, though.'
I roughly took his silence as an answer and continued.
“Well, three of you are the only ones who came back, so I’m not dumb enough to not get what that means. Sure. But... why did you kill him?”
“You said you weren’t particularly close.”
“Cheongmin. I said he wasn’t a weakness, I never once said he wasn’t special.”
Gi Cheongmin furrowed his brow. Even after he’d neatly had his wish granted in exchange for someone’s life, he still somehow seemed pissed off.
In the middle of that, he scrunched up his face and stared up at the air.
“What are you looking at.”
“......”
“Why don’t you start by explaining why you wasted only one life when you went in holding three like extra lives in a save slot? You could’ve just offed them in order from the most useless.”
“What was his skill?”
“A healer. A really rare one at that.”
At that, Gi Cheongmin stopped dead and slowly lowered his head to meet my eyes.
“A healer.”
“Yeah.”
“That’s why you didn’t want him killed?”
I walked toward him, who was completely missing the point. Every step I took forward, the one backing away wasn’t Gi Cheongmin, but Ahn Jinha.
Standing right in front of Gi Cheongmin, I grabbed him by the collar and yanked him in.
'Ah... this is fucking irritating.'
I stared at him, acting all proud as he looked straight back at me, then tugged up the corner of my mouth.
“It feels a bit ridiculous to use skills in a fight against a person, so how about we just go with clean, straight punches? I think I’d be fine with that.”
“No matter how strong you are, you can’t fight me in this dungeon.”
“Why not?”
In response, Gi Cheongmin roughly knocked my hand away, took a step back, and said,
“Because in this dungeon, I’m unconditionally stronger than you.” fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
“I doubt it... it’s not that bad.”
I pulled up his status window again.
Name: Gi Cheongmin
Age: 26
Rank: E
Title: -
Main Skills: Body Reinforcement (E), Boundary (E)
Growth Limit: E
He’d already hit his growth limit, and none of his skills were anything special.
'Does he have some kind of solid basis for that claim? Or is he just talking shit to scare me?'
Whatever it was, it was an absurd line.
“Got a reason?”
When I asked him, instead of answering, he lightly stretched out his hand and made a motion like he was tidying up the surroundings.
Then, with the two of us inside it, a huge circle appeared on the ground.
Boundary (E) is being activated.
“What’s this?”
“Boundary. It’d be bad for me too if other people barged in.”
Before I could even fully parse what that meant, he rotated his wrist once, grabbed my arm, and yanked my center of gravity down.
Body Reinforcement (E) is being activated.
I let myself fall back reasonably and blinked lightly, then slowly lifted my head.
'This is...'
I narrowed my eyes and stared at the status window in front of me. The status window for Gi Cheongmin, which had been clearly visible just a moment ago, had completely changed into something else.
