Dungeon & Commander (181)
PD's eyes were pitiful. There was probably a bit of resentment toward Skyla in there, along with calculations about the profits this broadcast would bring.
Skyla drained the last of her bottled water. Her thirst still wasn't quenched.
Her phone buzzed.
It was Choi Hee-yeon.
"Got it."
She fell for the temptation of the "front page." No, Skyla had leaped into it herself.
Uramata Guild was now at war with Jushin. She had to reveal the truth as thoroughly as possible. One misstep, and she'd give the dinosaur-like Jushin an opening to crush them. Striking first and shattering them was the only way to gain the advantage.
Skyla pulled out her laptop.
He poked his head out just enough to scout the barricade, and a bullet whizzed past right above his head.
Eek!
Bang Su-cheol leaned back against the wall with a sigh, inwardly cursing the rigid security guards. They'd surely heard everything over the radio about what Jeong Yong-min, head of Security 1, had done.
Bang-bang-bang. Gunfire echoed deafeningly.
They had to get underground somehow.
Both Plan Zulu and Operation Vacuum were cleanup operations. A horrific plan to kill and erase anything that caught their eye was likely underway, so they needed to hurry if they wanted to help Uramata Guild.
Bang Su-cheol glanced at Nam Jun-sang.
Nam Jun-sang shook his head.
The mobile strike team's firepower could potentially sweep away the guards shooting from behind the barricade, but for team members trained to capture villain-like criminals, it would be an irreversible murder.
Understanding that, Bang Su-cheol couldn't demand they push recklessly. But he hated just waiting here until Operation Vacuum ended.
He frowned without realizing it.
Amid the ear-splitting gunfire came a dull thud. It was growing closer, bit by bit.
"Fall back."
He warned the strike team, then retreated himself.
At that moment, the wall crumbled.
The strike team aimed their core guns at the wall.
Something burst through the debris and dust. Just before they fired, Bang Su-cheol raised his hand and shouted.
"Hold! Hold fire!"
Bang Su-cheol stepped forward.
"It's you."
Choi Min-su swept his hand once, summoning a gust of wind that blew the dust aside.
Behind him stood Moon Hyo-rin, the buffer from Dal, glaring at the strike team. Overwhelmed by her fierce aura, they lowered their guns. They recognized Choi Min-su and Moon Hyo-rin too.
"Did you just... break straight through?"
"Says the man who snuck in through a dog hole. That's rich."
Bang Su-cheol burst out laughing at Choi Min-su's retort and pointed down the hallway.
"We need to head that way, but the guards are putting up a real fight..."
Choi Min-su looked at Moon Hyo-rin.
She shrugged playfully and extended both hands. A hazy gray fog spread across the floor around the corner. It felt like thick, black mist.
"What the hell is that?"
"It's a Raider!"
"I can't move!"
"Run!"
Moments later, silence fell.
"Lady Moon's Parmist never fails to amaze."
Choi Min-su said.
"You're too kind."
Moon Hyo-rin smiled faintly.
"Let's go."
Choi Min-su took the lead, followed by Moon Hyo-rin, with Bang Su-cheol and the strike team running behind.
"What the hell are you?"
Kim Se-wi's voice.
Kim Jun opened his eyes. Kim Se-wi's glare was intense.
Kim Jun smirked teasingly.
With the knowledge this man possessed, he couldn't explain Kim Jun's current state. Kim Jun could provide answers, but he had no intention of just handing them over.
"Who told you to kill me?"
"What?"
"Lockdown, releasing the Magic Creeper to kill the guards. Even if it was to eliminate a carrier-born examinee, a mere team leader couldn't pull that off."
"You want to know?"
"Let's trade info. What do you say?"
"Fine. The order to kill you came from... the entire Raider world. They won't accept trash like you as a comrade."
Kim Jun sighed. This guy didn't even grasp the basics of bartering.
He grinned and said,
"My turn. I'm Kim Jun. Former Uramata Guild carrier, just passed the awakening test."
Kim Se-wi glared but held back his insults. He was sharper than Jeong Taek-su or Yoo Gwan-ho. He'd realized why Kim Jun phrased it that way.
"Planning Coordinator."
Kim Se-wi said.
Kim Jun was startled. He'd studied the Dungeon Association structure, so he knew the Planning Coordinator's position and role roughly.
Why would the Planning Coordinator take an interest in him?
Would someone who researched and advised the Association President on the organization's overall direction plot something like this just to eliminate one examinee?
No way.
In that instant, Kim Jun realized one possibility. Staring at Kim Se-wi, he said,
"Who's the real target?"
"......"
Kim Se-wi flinched in shock.
His balance wavered slightly. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth—proof he wasn't immune to internal injuries.
Kim Jun realized a plan to capture the true objective was unfolding beyond the sealed underground sector. It might even be complete by now.
A normal person might quail before such a conspiracy.
Am I the weird one?
Instead, strength surged through Kim Jun. Sure, he was just an examinee, and the Pink Team trusting him was feeble compared to Jushin or the Dungeon Association's Planning Coordinator.
Yet he felt no real worry.
First things first, the Master.
Kim Jun focused on the Master's dantian. He wanted to draw out the strange things coiled there.
The method was surprisingly simple.
The things reacted to the Mukhon Gong he injected. But they wouldn't emerge fully.
Kim Jun switched bait.
Thunder Heart Technique!
Surprisingly, the Thunder Heart Technique now flowed easily into the Master's body at his will. It barely navigated the narrow, uncomfortable meridians to reach the dantian, where the root-like things began thrashing.
Kim Jun waited until they rooted into the Thunder Heart Technique, then withdrew his internal energy laced with lightning essence. They came with it, firmly attached.
They resisted to the end.
But greed won. Blinded by the fresh prey of the Thunder Heart Technique, they abandoned the Master's dantian, slithering through the meridians into Kim Jun's body. Adapted to his bone-transformed physique, they swarmed his dantian.
Entering the sea-like dantian, they seemed to dance in joy at first. It held the immense internal energy Yeon Chung-jae had amassed over a lifetime.
But the moment they rooted into the core of the Thunder Heart Technique, lightning cracked through the dantian. They burned on contact.
The survivors fled through the meridians.
Having root-like forms, they rejected the Master's weak body with scant internal energy, choosing the fresh, abundant new host.
They burrowed into Kim Se-wi's body and reached his dantian in an instant. They rooted firmly into the floor and walls, even piercing parts into the dark-red internal energy filling it.
Only then did Kim Se-wi sense something wrong.
His internal energy flowed unevenly. It stuttered intermittently, rampaging wildly and injuring his meridians.
...No way?
Kim Se-wi circulated his internal energy.
Not just the governing and conception vessels, but the major and minor meridians—all showed the symptoms frequently.
No room for doubt.
Dungeon Sickness!
The disease had no relation to contagion. Shared space, meals, even blood transfusions didn't transmit it. That's why he'd felt no concern after learning Go Cheol-min had it.
Damn it!
A confirmed case meant stepping down as Medici Team leader.
No, worse.
Jushin would expel him. All the privileges he'd enjoyed would vanish. Scorn, contempt—no, outright disgust. And beyond that, living in dread of the unknown day his existence would fade.
Kim Se-wi's body trembled with rage as he glared at Kim Jun.
"You... you dare!"
Kim Jun turned from Go Cheol-min, whose condition was visibly improving, and looked at Kim Se-wi with puzzled eyes.
He didn't understand the outburst.
"I'll kill you!"
His face twisted demonically.
Kim Se-wi's prized reason was paralyzed. The Dungeon Sickness symptoms—something he'd thought irrelevant to him his whole life—had half-maddened him with the ruin it promised.
He summoned his remaining internal energy and shoved it into Kim Jun's meridians, but got no desired result. Too little to flood and destroy them. The fierce momentum dissipated in the broad channels.
Instead, a reaction came from within his body.
Two streams of blood trickled from his nostrils. His ears suddenly went deaf, capillaries burst.
Fear gripped Kim Se-wi.
He'd prided himself on his robust body, fortified since childhood with elixirs against qi deviation.
Dungeon Sickness was scary, but qi deviation terrified him more.
Dungeon Sickness gave time to fight it; qi deviation could end life instantly.
He struggled to compose himself.
I'm a Raider. I've faced dangers like this countless times. Dungeon Sickness and qi deviation... I'm just panicking because they're new.
Go Cheol-min had definitely suffered from Dungeon Sickness.
That bastard with the formless body had transferred it to him. He needed to coax Kim Jun into reversing it, but the method was the issue.
Would revealing the truth help?
No chance. Pride wouldn't allow it.
A method occurred to him.
Back to the wall!
Those who seek life shall die; those who seek death shall live.
Kim Se-wi recalled the skill he'd painstakingly mastered but hoped never to use.
Suicide Skill!
When overwhelmed by monsters in a dungeon with no escape, Raiders activated the self-destruct skill, also called Suicide Skill.
Exploding his vital essence skyrocketed his internal energy, black veins bulging across his face. They spread to his neck, shoulders, hands—his entire body.
One step further, and no return. His body would tear apart, scattering corrosive death everywhere it touched.
Dark Acid Bomb.
This magic, turning the body itself into a weapon, was banned for its life-for-life cost.
Kim Jun's eyes changed as he watched Kim Se-wi. True to his formless body, he sensed the shift.
"Bone Transformation."
Kim Jun startled.
Kim Se-wi felt better. Despite the kid's genius talent, he was a fresh awakening test passer. Inexperience showed in critical moments.
"Revert it. Or else."
Kim Se-wi slightly raised his left index finger.
His blackened nail popped off with a pop. Excruciating pain, but he endured.
The nail flew straight at Kim Jun. He dodged lightly, frowning, but it exploded nearby, exposing him to the fine shards.
Sizzle.
Fragments melted his Armani special suit.
Some pierced his skin. Pain twisted his face.
"Revert what?"
"Dungeon Sickness."
He clearly didn't grasp it at first. But exactly one second later, his face filled with an unexpected mosaic of emotions.
Horror, confusion, sorrow, regret, relief, joy—an array of them.
Kim Se-wi realized what it meant. The kid had no idea Go Cheol-min had Dungeon Sickness.
The guild master had hidden it.
Makes sense. Once known, he couldn't continue as guild master. Who'd raid under a Dungeon Sickness-afflicted leader?
Kim Se-wi exercised patience.
Fortunately, Kim Jun was sharp. He quickly grasped the intent.
"What if I don't want to?"