Slaying the Twin-Headed Ogre! (5)
I jumped back into the hole, following the wrecking ball to check the results.
Since I’d left the rope slack, my descent speed was only slightly slower than the tumbling iron ball.
By the time I positioned myself in the open air of the second basement level, the golden sphere had already fallen nearly halfway.
But then…
While watching the bullet’s fall through my scope, I instinctively realized something had gone wrong.
Damn it!
The massive wrecking ball had rolled down at an angle, and at the very last moment its weight had shattered the dirt near the launch chute, causing it to veer ever so slightly off course.
Did it miss?
Fortunately, it hadn’t missed completely.
It wasn’t a headshot, but it looked like it had still connected.
And then…
Booooooom—!
The iron ball slammed into some part of the ogre’s outstretched body, and an enormous cloud of dust exploded upward from the impact.
Grrrruuuuaaaaak—!
A soul-wrenching scream tore through the dust and echoed across the entire second basement level.
Did I get him?
Is he dead?
Those five or six seconds it took for the dust to settle felt like an entire hour to me.
Little by little the cloud thinned, and the ogre’s form appeared through my telescopic lens.
The creature was still sprawled out, only its four remaining movable arms twitching intermittently.
The high-magnification lens also captured his expression in vivid detail. After letting out that massive groan, his face looked exactly like…
A man who had gone bankrupt and lost every last penny.
A man who had been divorced by his wife and had all his children taken away.
A man who, the moment he was taken into custody, received a terminal cancer diagnosis.
That was the exact expression the ogre wore.
Once the dust fully settled, I checked where the iron ball had landed.
The seven-ton wrecking ball had, by some cruel twist of fate, scored a direct hit on the vital organ between his legs before burying itself halfway into the ground.
Tears began streaming down the ogre’s face.
Even when his brother’s left face had been crushed by the wrecking ball and turned into a handful of bloody mush…
He hadn’t shed such hot tears.
But now…
His most precious body part, the one he treasured above all else, had been smashed flat by a seven-ton iron hammer and reduced to something resembling a single flattened squid and a puddle of broth.
That was when it happened.
Clap! Clap! Clap!
A huge round of applause rang out from somewhere.
It didn’t sound like anything a human could produce.
And then…
What had started as a single pair of clapping hands gradually multiplied—two, three, six—until the sound spread all around the second basement level.
Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!
Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!
They were all shouting something in unison along with their applause.
Katangka! Katangka! Katangka! Katangka!
Katangka! Katangka! Katangka! Katangka!
I switched on my scope and scanned the entire floor.
From the darkness along the edges.
Massive ogre hands were stretching out from the stone walls and clapping.
Clink— Clink—
Every wrist was locked in enormous iron shackles.
I hadn’t realized the ogre prisoners were chained along the perimeter of the second basement level.
And there were… dozens of them…
Katangka! Katangka! Katangka! Katangka!
Katangka! Katangka! Katangka! Katangka!
They seemed absolutely delighted by the despair of the twin-headed ogre below.
More precisely, by the tragic downfall of his crotch today.
That was when it happened.
Kapaah—!
The twin-headed ogre let out a short, fierce roar and suddenly sat upright.
His eyes gleamed inside my scope.
He was staring straight at me.
A chill ran down my spine.
In the next instant, he grabbed the heavy wrecking ball—the very thing that had turned his precious organ into something as limp as a sheet of paper—with both hands.
Then he sprang to his feet…
Ran a few steps, spun around three full times like a hammer thrower, and hurled the wrecking ball skyward with tremendous force.
Shot put? Hammer throw?
Either way, he was insane!
I lifted my goggles and tried to gauge whether it could actually reach me.
My vision swam.
The iron ball grew larger and larger until it flew to within a dozen meters of my face, then gradually lost speed and began falling back down.
Every hair on my body stood on end. I quickly climbed back into the hole to hide.
If I stayed out there, I’d get caught in his second or third throw for sure.
But at that moment, I saw it.
The clapping hands.
The hands that had been stretching out from the edges of the second basement level, clapping vigorously while shouting “Katangka!” were now all retreating powerlessly back into their prisons.
Disappointment.
Failed salvation.
Despair.
And the same dreary days repeating once again.
It was no wonder they felt that way.
The enraged twin-headed ogre was roaring at me, swinging every weapon he had, while I tucked my tail between my legs and fled back into the hole.
Kuhahaha—!
I admit it.
I was overpowered.
Considering his insane regenerative ability and the lesson he’d learned from this fight…
It wouldn’t be easy to get another chance to kill him.
This was defeat.
Total defeat.
After roaring at me, the creature finally turned and staggered toward the remains of his brother, now reduced to meat soup by the bombardment.
Still sobbing, he buried his head in that semicircle and began slurping up the burst remains of his precious organ with loud, wet gulps.
He had turned his back to me.
And that back was positioned exactly below me at the perfect striking distance.
For some ridiculous reason, I suddenly remembered the happy time I’d spent with Han Yejin a few days earlier.
* * *
“Why bungee jumping all of a sudden, oppa?”
“Just because. I’ve always wanted to try it. Have you ever done it, Yejin?”
“Nope, never. I’ve done plenty of rappelling while rock climbing, but this is my first bungee jump… I’m a little nervous? Hehe.”
“They say this is the tallest bungee platform in Korea. Around 140 meters.”
Right then, we heard the woman ahead of us scream as she jumped.
—Aaaaaaaaaah!
“Haha. Just watching other people jump is already making my heart race.”
“Do you think you can do it?”
“Of course I can, oppa. It’s 100% safe, so why wouldn’t I?”
“What if it wasn’t safe? What if your survival chance was only 50%?”
“…50%? Then why would I do it? I spent most of my life as a climbing athlete, but I’m not the type who enjoys dangerous stuff like free soloing. I’m actually a bit put off by extreme sports where you literally risk your life, like wingsuit flying.”
“……”
“Why? Are you the type who’s into extreme sports, oppa?”
“Not really… I wasn’t. But… something’s been changing little by little lately.”
“Lately? Why?”
“Let me ask you again. If your survival chance is 50%, but you get 100 million won if you live, what would you do?”
Han Yejin thought for a moment before answering.
“Even 100 million seems too risky.”
“What about a billion?”
“A billion? That might make me hesitate a little. I… really need money right now. But the premise itself is too unrealistic. I doubt anyone would pay a billion just because someone like me risks their life. What about you, oppa?”
“……”
“Would you bet your life on 50% odds if a billion was on the line?”
I shook my head and answered firmly.
“I wouldn’t.”
“I figured you’d say something like that.”
“But what if the conditions were a little different?”
“How?”
“After you win the billion game, you get a chance at a 10 billion game… and after winning that, you get a shot at a 100 billion game, and so on…”
“……”
“So if there was a crazy series of games waiting for me—1 trillion, 10 trillion, 100 trillion… even 1,000 trillion…”
“……”
“Wouldn’t you bet your life then? If only so you wouldn’t feel sorry toward the fate that gave you such an insane opportunity?”
Han Yejin looked into the distance, smiled faintly, and shook her head.
“I… don’t really have anything to do with a fate like that, so I wouldn’t know. But if you ever decide to take on a challenge like that, I’ll cheer you on. Always!”
Just then, the safety instructor approached us.
“Which one of you wants to go first?”
I stepped forward without hesitation.
“I’ll go first. Yejin, I’ll be waiting for you down below.”
Following the instructor’s instructions, without the slightest hesitation…
* * *
I jumped.
You crazy bastard, Hwang Geumpa.
I had actually jumped from the second basement level.
It wasn’t a controlled descent using a descender.
It was a true freefall relying on a bungee rope.
I had measured the exact distance and set the rope length perfectly.
I had even done several test jumps while the twin-headed ogre was asleep earlier.
Exactly two to three meters.
If the ground below had been empty, I would have bounced back up from two or three meters above the floor.
But right now…
The place I was falling toward wasn’t empty ground.
At the exact spot where the wrecking ball had landed earlier…
The ogre was burying his one remaining head into the ground, greedily slurping up the remains of his own genitals.
The ogre’s head grew rapidly larger in my vision.
Thirty meters!
His skull was right in front of me. Then, a jolt ran through my harness.
The rope had reached its full length.
But that was where the real thrill of bungee jumping began.
Bungee ropes are different from regular climbing ropes.
They have powerful elasticity.
So you drop a little further. That’s the key.
And from there, I began spinning at high speed.
===
You have selected the skill Screw Spade.
Overview: Spin at high speed and pierce the target. Rotational force allows penetration even through targets your strength would normally be unable to pierce.
Caution: May experience blackout during high-speed rotation.
Duration: 30 seconds
Cooldown: 5 minutes
Skill Points Invested: 6
Stage 2: Destructive power increased by 50%.
Stage 3: Rotational speed increased by 50%.
Stage 4: Duration increased by 50%.
Stage 5: Cooldown removed.
Stage 6: Destructive power doubled.
I had poured all six of my remaining skill points into Screw Spade.
Brrrrrrrr—!
Krrrrrr—!
The moment the area grew noisy from my jump, the ogre lifted his head and looked up.
Direct impact!
Shuuuuuuuaaaaaaaaang—!
My titanium spade, spinning at high speed, collided with his skull like a powered drill.
An unpleasant yet incredibly satisfying sensation traveled through the hand gripping the shovel.
The feeling of the ogre’s bones—bones my current strength shouldn’t have been able to pierce—being ground apart!
Then came the sensation of throwing fruit into a blender!
The human drill that had fallen from a hundred meters up had bored fifty centimeters into his skull and partially damaged his brain.
Gaaaaaaaaaaah—!
He clutched his head like a soccer player who had scored an own goal, trying to swat me away like a fly.
Splat—!
But he was a step too late.
My body had already exceeded the rope’s elastic limit and was being yanked back into the air.
Because I had pulled the still-spinning spade out, the damage to his brain was doubled.
Almost at the same time, he leaped into the air.
The furious bastard had hastily cast Earthquake.
It wasn’t a normal Earthquake. The target wasn’t the ground—it was the air.
The height of the Earthquake was roughly fifteen meters.
My rebound reached twenty to thirty meters.
But he had a long reach.
He swung that crudely shaped club, trying to smash me.
Whooooosh—!
Yet he missed by a hair—thirty to forty centimeters!
He tried to hit me again with the club.
Whooooosh—!
Another clean miss!
The fact that his four left arms were disabled was a godsend for me.
Now he was falling.
And I was falling too.
So much adrenaline was pumping through me that my eyes felt like they were about to pop out!
Kwaaaaaaaaaaaang—!
When he landed, a small earthquake shook the entire second basement level.
I caught that he had been momentarily stunned by the skill’s recoil.
Maybe the partial brain damage helped…
Like a madman, I unfastened my harness in midair.
Then, like a diver entering the water cleanly, I straightened my body and aimed straight down, spinning Screw Spade once again now that its cooldown was gone.
Go!
Charge!
All or nothing!
Live or die?
Mother, Father, Eunpa, Dongpa!
My friends! Yejin!
Thank you all for everything up until now!
Shuuuuuuua—!
This screw had no brakes.
With the full force of gravity from a thirty-meter drop, I broke straight through!
Penetration!
Piercing!
Shuuuuaaaaaaaaang—! Shuang—!
As I spun at high speed, the scenery entering my eyes gradually shifted from green to black.
I felt dizziness and nausea at the same time.
“Uwaaaaaaaaaah!”
A scream burst out of me involuntarily.
But I couldn’t stop.
I had to go all the way!
Shuuuuaaaang—!
Shuaaaang—!
I lost consciousness.
* * *
“Huup!”
The brief blackout caused by the high-speed rotation passed.
Even during that time, I had kept my hands clamped tightly around the shovel handle, dangling from the ogre’s massive head.
I regained my senses, climbed on top of his head, and stood up.
The spade had sunk completely into his skull, leaving only the handle exposed.
Looking down from above, I saw the ogre’s shoulders had already slumped.
All eight of his arms hung limp like those of a knocked-out pro wrestler, palms facing the sky.
The meaning was simple.
Just as a person with a powered drill buried in their skull could no longer move…
He too had finally become immobile.
But I wanted to make sure.
And this would also serve as a ceremony to celebrate my great victory.
I bent at the waist, gripped the handle of my sacred titanium spade with both hands.
As if it were Excalibur itself, I yanked it upward with all my strength.
Green blood sprayed everywhere, splattering across my protective mask.
===
You have selected the skill Whirlwind Shoveling.
Overview: Rotate around the digging point and scatter the excavated material like a whirlwind.
I drove the spade deep into the hole in his skull and began furiously scooping out his brain, spinning 360 degrees and spraying it everywhere.
“Uwaaaaaaaaaah! Uwaaaaaaaaaah!”
His brains rained down across the entire second basement level like a grotesque shower.
Then the sound began again.
Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!
Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!
The applause of those hoping for liberation!
The clapping that poured in from every direction of the second basement level turned into a whirlwind, resonating throughout the vast space.
Along with a chant whose meaning I still couldn’t understand!
Katangka! Katangka! Katangka! Katangka!
Katangka! Katangka! Katangka! Katangka!
And then the status window appeared.
===
You have slain the Twin-Headed Ogre Dogma.
📍 Reward: Massive EXP acquired
📍 Reward:Master Key: Second Basement Level