Beyond Measure

Mu-saeng smiled for a very simple reason.

Park Dohyun was an Awakened who had climbed past the 30th floor. His destructive power was a given, but if he had charged forward with full killing intent, an ordinary low-floor porter shouldn't have even been able to track his movements with their eyes.

At least, that was true for the Mu-saeng of the past.

If he were still that bottom-tier Awakened—someone forced to halt his climb after barely scraping through Floors 1 to 3 in a carried raid party—he would have eaten that fist squarely.

Whoosh—!

Park Dohyun's knuckles wouldn't have cleaved empty air; they would have smashed Mu-saeng's jaw clean off his skull.

"Hm?!"

"Whew, climbers from the thirtieth floors really pack a punch, don't they?"

Mu-saeng had stepped back two paces, smoothly sliding out of the trajectory. It wasn't a panicked flinch born of instinct. He had clearly seen the exact instant Dohyun lunged, calculated the vector, and responded in kind.

"A measly sherpa getting cocky—!"

Dohyun threw another punch, convinced his initial strike couldn't have missed through skill alone. Having run the 15th Dungeon with Mu-saeng, he knew the man's capabilities: the sherpa might have been brilliant at using the surrounding environment, but he hadn't landed a single point of meaningful damage against the monsters.

"'Measly sherpa'? Since when did honest work come with a caste system?"

Mu-saeng slipped the strike again. It was only natural.

On paper, his record still showed Floor 3.

Unlike the past, where he had been dragged along in a group, his slate had been wiped clean and conquered entirely solo. Achievements and hidden rewards that had never existed in his previous life were now branded into his soul.

"Shut your mouth!" Dohyun roared.

Fwoooosh! A vibrant emerald aura wrapped around his fist. It was the activation of his B-rank ability, Wall Builder—a technique that didn't just summon static barriers, but coated individual limbs in hardened mana to expand the surface area and lethality of his strikes.

Seeing the shimmering fist tear through the humid air, Mu-saeng gritted his teeth. There was no room to dodge. If dodging was impossible, he had to take it head-on.

Thud—!

Mu-saeng crossed his forearms in an X, catching the blow directly.

"Oof... Yeah, that still stings."

His boots skidded back through the mud, his body lifted slightly off the ground from the sheer kinetic impact, but he never tumbled over.

The one left paralyzed in disbelief was Dohyun.

"How...?"

He blocked it? A Floor 3 sherpa? And he's just casually shaking out his arms? His bones aren't shattered?

Only then did Dohyun notice the gear on Mu-saeng's hands: black, open-fingered combat gloves.

"An artifact. What's on those gloves?"

Did that thing boost his defense?

"Oh, these gloves have something on them, sure," Mu-saeng replied with a casual shrug. "Though probably not what you're imagining."

"Quit with the pathetic wordplay. With stats like yours—"

"And what do you know about my stats?"

Mu-saeng's previous total stat sum had been a miserable 39. And now, even with his clearance still capped at Floor 3?

124 points. He was more than three times stronger than before.

"Enough," Dohyun snapped, his face darkening. "I don't have time for your games. Hand over the antidote. Leaving you behind weighed on my conscience, which is why I'm trying to spare your life, so cooperate."

Mu-saeng ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was well aware of his limits. Even if his base stats had tripled, that only allowed him to read Dohyun's swings and barely evade by a hair's breadth. He couldn't overpower the man in a straightforward, physical brawl.

Park Dohyun, having cleared up to Floor 37, had a total stat pool of 242. Furthermore, he had allocated those points strictly to maximize his defensive and blunt striking potential. Compared to Mu-saeng's evenly distributed attributes, the raw gap in physical power was even wider than the numbers suggested.

"Even in a mess like this, you corporate dogs never change," Mu-saeng chuckled dryly. "Fine, you want it? Take it. It's right here."

Mu-saeng had already factored the gap into his calculations. That was why he had taken the hit, and why he was waving the small vial of antidote right before Dohyun's eyes.

"You insolent little shit! I should've just made you a corpse—aaaargh?!"

Dohyun lunged forward. But mid-stride, his feet met nothing but thin air.

Fwump—!

A horrifying sensation of falling gripped his stomach. The ground vanished completely beneath him. With an ungraceful crash, Dohyun tumbled straight into a concealed pitfall.

It was over six meters deep and three meters wide.

What the hell is this pit? When and how could anyone dig something this massive right next to the Gate?

Panic flared, but Dohyun didn't freeze. With his physical stats, this wasn't fatal. He could escape. A standing jump would take him halfway up, and by coating his fingertips in barriers, he could dig into the earthen walls and climb out in seconds—

"Pfft— what the hell is this?!"

His escape plan evaporated instantly. Above the circular opening, framing the sky, Mu-saeng's smirking face appeared. In his hands was a hollowed bamboo tube.

Trickle, trickle, splash...

A steady stream of liquid poured straight down into the pit, showering Dohyun from head to toe.

"You have no idea how close I came to a herniated disc ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠setting this up," Mu-saeng said with a grin. "Hold your breath and try climbing up if you think you can, heheh."

A squirt gun? Or... piss? No way in hell—

"I will tear you limb from—urk! Hrk!"

The liquid burned. It was laced with poison. Dohyun felt a terrifying, numbing paralysis electrify his nerves. The impossible toxins of the 22nd Dungeon. The unnatural movements of the pit vipers. Had all of that really been orchestrated by this lone sherpa?

As vague suspicion hardened into cold certainty, Dohyun bit his tongue until it bled. Pain forced his senses awake. If he stayed down here, he was dead.

"You son of a bitch! I will slaughter you!"

Blood erupted from his eyes and nose like miniature geysers under the sheer biological stress of the venom, yet Dohyun ignored the agonizing burn. Pouring every ounce of his mana outward, he enveloped his entire body in a thick, spherical barrier and propelled himself upward toward the surface.

Mu-saeng's eyes widened. Then, his jaw set hard.

"Right back at you. And we're about the same age, so drop the informal bullshit, you asshole."

Tossing the bamboo cane aside, Mu-saeng pulled his right arm all the way back. A deep, cerulean luminescence condensed across the surface of his open-fingered glove.

Dohyun's upper torso breached the rim of the pit, glowing with an impenetrable green force field. Mu-saeng's descending fist, engulfed in roaring blue aura, drove downward on an angle.

KABOOOOOOOM—!

The shockwave ripped through the damp jungle air. What shattered wasn't bone, but the green light. The barrier fractured like tempered glass, exploding into iridescent shards.

At the same time, Dohyun's body was hammered straight down, crashing violently into the muck at the bottom of the trench.

"Whew... haah..."

Mu-saeng exhaled raggedly.

The C-rank artifact, Power Enhancement Gloves. Combined with the specific skill Mu-saeng had chosen as his Floor 3 reward:

"Man... that really was close. A hair later and I would've been the one eating dirt."

Normally, Awakened only invested in stats that directly complemented their innate ability. A long-range magic caster had no reason to dump points into Willpower, Accuracy, or Agility. As a result, the gap between their highest and lowest attributes inevitably stretched into vast chasms, making Steel Bone completely useless to nearly everyone who encountered it.

Mu-saeng, however, had discovered a crucial truth: the rewards from hidden conditions almost always granted flat increases across all attributes. If he could manage his standard level-up points to keep the gap within the threshold, and since his unique ability wasn't confined to physical or magical boundaries...

He could squeeze every drop of efficiency out of it. To confirm that mathematical certainty, he had spent thirty-three agonizing hours comparing skill trees inside the Tower.

His total effective stat pool was 248. Granted, in a straight contest against someone who dumped every point purely into Strength or purely into Mana, he would be overpowered in that specific domain. But...

"Heheh... Pwahaha."

Backing up the Power Enhancement Gloves with Wahsh's help to dig the trap, then luring Dohyun into the pit where his mobility was crippled—as long as Mu-saeng controlled the engagement, he had more than enough power to crush him.

Wahsh scoffed from his invisible perch, watching Mu-saeng bask in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the afterglow of tactical victory. Mu-saeng simply smirked, letting the insult roll off his back.

"That's my line. You're great at teleporting paralyzed guys around, so why couldn't you just paralyze him directly? You were bragging earlier about how easily you could delete people."

"Didn't you claim that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠inside a 'Dungeon,' unlike the Tower, you could use your full authority?"

The only reason Mu-saeng had concocted this elaborate scheme was to compensate for Wahsh's current administrative limitations. Stung by the counterattack, the rubber duck squawked indignantly.

"Hey, hey, don't throw a tantrum. Of course I'm grateful. If you hadn't hauled the paralyzed bodies and excavated the trench, I never could've pulled this off solo... Oh, wait, this isn't the time to chat. Gotta dose this bastard with venom before he wakes up."

Brushing off Wahsh's complaints, Mu-saeng dragged Dohyun out of the pit and began lining up the unconscious Goldmoon personnel neatly beside the Gate.

"One, two, three, four... Wait. Thirty-one?"

Mu-saeng blinked. Dohyun had been the final target. The pit vipers were no longer reacting to his mental command to hunt down Korea One Way employees, which proved every registered hostile had been subdued. So why were there only thirty-one?

"One is missing."

The radar map had distinctly displayed thirty-two.

Mu-saeng tilted his head, his brow furrowing in confusion.

Geum Soo-ah had witnessed everything.

From Park Dohyun's entrance, to the fierce melee exchange where Mu-saeng matched him blow for blow, to the terrifying culmination of the trap.

A stat-enhancing potion...? No. That's outside anything a dungeon sherpa could afford. Especially before he's even liquidated the artifacts from Dungeon 66.

It was unbelievable. Utterly incomprehensible. Yet the reality unfolded plainly before her eyes.

Kim Mu-saeng had dodged Park Dohyun's strikes, parried his attack, lured him into a deadfall, and drenched him in paralytic venom. And when Dohyun unleashed his full, desperate power to break free, Mu-saeng had shattered that barrier with raw, concentrated force.

Even if Dohyun had been severely weakened by the poison...

Those gloves are likely the Power Enhancement Gloves. Judging by the shade of blue aura, C-rank at best... But how on earth...?

Temporary attribute enhancement potions were extraordinarily rare. On the black market, a single vial traded for hundreds of millions of won—especially those that boosted raw Strength.

This isn't something an Awakened with a Floor 3 record should be capable of... But none of that matters anymore.

Geum Soo-ah gave a slow, measured nod. While she might not possess the legendary eye for talent her father had, her judgment of character had never failed her. Looking at the scene, she arrived at an objective conclusion.

He isn't a man I can measure.

There was no need to analyze him further. He was someone she could neither read nor predict. But more importantly: he was someone who must never, under any circumstances, become her enemy.

Accepting the reality of the situation was the smartest move she could make. All that remained was to step forward and etch this reality into her memory.

The distance makes it hard to hear, but he definitely has a habit of muttering to himself.

Better to reveal herself openly. To approach him with complete sincerity and transparency.

"One, two, three, four... Wait. Thirty-one?"

Just as she prepared to step out, Mu-saeng's voice drifted across the damp breeze.

"One is missing."

The missing one was Geum Soo-ah herself. She began releasing her stealth technique, stepping forward from the treeline.

In that exact split second, she felt Mu-saeng's gaze lock onto her.

"Ah. Over there. You're hiding right over there, aren't you?"

It wasn't a general glance. He was staring directly at her.

Geum Soo-ah's eyes widened to their absolute limits.

The mirage clone she had manifested using her SR-rank ability, Luminous—a masterwork of refracted light that should have been utterly undetectable—had been seen through effortlessly by a mere dungeon sherpa.