Chapter 30
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Translator: MJK
Chapter: 30
Chapter Title: 5. Moon Haze Dungeon (3)
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Her shoulders trembled slightly, but she stood straight.
Yoo Han-seong seemed to mutter something briefly, though the broadcast didn't pick it up.
Instead, his gestures looked like a signal for Sol to slowly back away.
The team members reorganized behind him.
Passed psychological shock phase
I only let out a very quiet breath after seeing that message.
In the original story, Lee Hae-sol would have collapsed right here, and two team members would have gotten endangered trying to help him.
But not this time.
All the team members were still standing.
They were enduring the psychological waves.
I'd thought it was just a small change, but I hadn't expected it to create such a huge difference.
The broadcast screen zoomed back in.
The core floor was cracked open.
Glowing fragments floated into the air, swirling into a vortex.
It was the sign of the boss appearing.
The Moon Haze boss was a fusion of shadow and ice.
Its voice always creaked, scraping at people's minds.
Recalling that moment, I lowered my hand.
Core pattern commencing.
The caption appeared.
The lounge swallowed their breaths in unison.
The two teachers muttered in voices barely above a whisper, like they were in the fight themselves.
"Pattern's faster."
"Support team's not there yet?"
"How are they supposed to endure that?"
I kept my eyes glued to the screen.
The boss's silhouette flickered in a twisted shape, and shadow hands split off into several from behind it.
The team members swiftly shifted positions.
Yoo Han-seong was directing the entire movement.
His silhouette blurred with speed.
He was dividing the area to block the attacks.
Amid it all, Hae-sol's silhouette cautiously raised a hand.
Maybe because Hae-sol's attribute was ice-based—at one point, the screen flashed a deeper blue.
That was Hae-sol's first counterattack.
It felt like watching from a distant overlook.
Hae-sol was focusing as hard as he could within his limits.
The anxiety was slowly fading from his face.
Once the mental waves passed, he didn't waver anymore.
The boss swung its shadow wide, and the screen tore black.
One team member's silhouette was flung back hard.
Yoo Han-seong yanked the kid back while rerouting the attack path at the same time.
Points of light splashed out in an instant.
That was the Moon Haze boss's fragment assault.
I clenched my fists tight.
Soon, a massive rumble shook the core, echoing loudly.
Every student in the lounge jolted in surprise.
And in the next moment, the screen stuttered and flickered.
Boss pattern phase 1 cleared successfully.
I exhaled.
This was fine.
Really, if it was just this much.
The "Boss pattern phase 1 cleared successfully" message lingered, but the screen was still shaking.
The Moon Haze core had low detection rates from the start, so the graphs kept cutting out.
The lines vanished midway, only to redraw themselves over and over.
I kept tension in my fingertips.
If it would just stabilize a little more, it'd be okay.
As long as it didn't fall apart.
That was everything.
Someone in the lounge murmured softly.
"That team's really holding strong."
Surprise laced their tone.
A little slow, a little shaky, but still pressing forward.
The screen switched back to silhouettes.
The boss's shadow surged again.
Black hands branched out in all directions.
One lashed toward the team.
One team member staggered back.
I gripped my hands on my knees even harder.
That attack gnawed at the mind before the body.
In the original story, two would have died right around this timing.
Yoo Han-seong moved.
His silhouette split like a smear of speed.
It plunged into the fragments, and the shadow hand severed—the sensor graph spiked with it.
Mana output values popped up, and a teacher murmured quietly.
"Was that kid... always at that level?"
Deep doubt colored his voice.
Yoo Han-seong's speed was already known to be fast.
But today, it felt sharper, more solid.
Like an unbreakable core.
While he held the front, Hae-sol scanned the other team members' movements from the rear.
Every time Hae-sol's silhouette wavered, blue light rippled faintly.
The subtle tremor of ice-attribute mana.
I followed the screen intently.
Hae-sol looked on the verge of losing his footing several times, but he held firm each one.
Having endured the mental waves, he was definitely more stable than before.
The teacher spoke up again.
"Mental resistance is weirdly high."
"Hae-sol's a top student, but that's beyond most hunters."
I barely kept my face from heating up.
I didn't want anyone catching on to my secret help.
It'd be trouble if they kept drawing attention like this.
I quietly dropped my gaze to the floor, then back to the screen.
The boss silhouette suddenly swelled.
The Moon Haze boss always shook its body massively once at the end.
That signaled the pattern shift.
If the team didn't scatter then, they'd get hit all at once.
Even in the original route, this pattern claimed the most casualties.
The lounge students held their breaths.
I hunched my shoulders without thinking.
The vibration graph flushed red.
Final wave detected.
The caption blinked onscreen.
The silhouettes began to scatter.
Yoo Han-seong darted right from the center, while the team reformed from the rear.
Hae-sol shifted left of center.
It was a slow move, but he clearly knew his spot.
The boss's shadow crashed right, fragments bursting like light.
Yoo Han-seong blocked it.
His silhouette barely shook.
A shadow fell left too.
Toward Hae-sol.
I leaned forward in my seat.
Hae-sol gathered ice energy.
A blue dot flared at his silhouetted fingertip.
Then a shadow collided and dissipated.
A short blue line spiked on the sensor graph.
Hae-sol never lost his center to the end.
Someone in the lounge let out a tiny gasp of awe.
The sound lodged right in my ears.
I exhaled, eyes on the screen.
The boss shook slowly after its final wave.
Its form began to crumble.
The silhouettes slowed, fragments peeling from the surface.
Boss pattern phase 2 cleared successfully.
Moon Haze Dungeon entry team breakthroughs final pattern.
I slowly uncurled my hands, drawing in a quiet breath.
We'd made it this far. It'd be okay now.
Hardly any chance of collapse.
They could come back.
Maybe... all of them.
The sound of elevator doors opening echoed from the hallway.
Someone shouted.
"That's an S-rank! It popped up in the staff room!"
Two or three kids rushed off in a herd.
I paused to listen, then slowly rose from my seat.
Onscreen, the last traces of the Moon Haze were dispersing.
The core was sealing shut.
The blue Moon Haze rift faded slowly.
It looked like the crisis was over. But I knew better.
It was a trick.
I whispered softly.
"Come back alive."
If possible, without a scratch.
[Tch, no need to worry your pretty little heart.]
The deeper they went into the Moon Haze interior, the more the screen shook.
I sat with my hands clasped in front of the monitor.
The team members' stamina graphs had plummeted like a single line until moments ago, but now they were ticking up, ever so slightly.
If that meant real recovery, it'd be perfect.
As the one who'd slipped them the healing potions, I let out a small sigh.
It was a corridor where light barely reached.
Silver, sparkling dust coated the walls, and every crack of the ice underfoot sent a long, crumbling echo down the hall.
The team members slumped against the walls, panting hard.
The boss was down, but the residual patterns weren't over yet.
Dangerous air currents lingered nearby—a moment's carelessness, and frozen shards would fly again.
One team member rummaged through their backpack with trembling hands and pulled out a small glass vial.
It was the recovery potion I'd secretly slipped in.
A faint, warm light pulsed inside the bottle.
"Will this... even work here?"