Nine Heads Fall
All nine heads of the Nine-Headed Dragon tore free from its body at once.
Three to the sword scars of Brand of Dusk [B].
Three to the explosive force of Heaven-Rending Fist [B].
Three to the golden tide of Gold Rush [B].
The unrelenting assault of the 3 No completely pulverized the nine heads of the hidden boss monster.
KRAAAAAAAAAAASH—!
The colossal carcass toppled, and a small earthquake rolled out from the impact.
"Hah—, hah—!"
Park Ji-hoo dragged in ragged breaths. The fine tremor in his arms alone was enough to show how thoroughly spent he was.
Vivian, by contrast, was only a little short of breath; she didn't look especially worn down. She'd focused more on recovery and support than on dealing damage.
And the last of them—
Lee Sia was sprawled flat on the ground, screaming at the top of her lungs.
"Ugh, seriously! Would it kill you to help a little?!"
The rant was aimed squarely at Yujin.
"Why would I?"
"Why?! Didn't you see we almost died?"
"I saw."
"Then you could've helped!"
"But you didn't die."
"You—you…!"
Thinking she could ever win a shouting match with Yujin had been a joke from the start.
"If you've got the breath to yell, get up and start packing to leave."
Yujin snorted, scolded her, and walked toward the Nine-Headed Dragon's corpse.
"Let's see."
The center of the nine heads. The fifth. Yujin stopped in front of it and drew the Requiem Sword [C]. Using the B-grade Galaxy Sword [B] for this would have felt wasteful.
Shhk—!
Scales that the 3 No had only managed to nick after dumping every last drop of their mana parted like melting butter.
"Holy crap, Ji-hoo. You see that? Something that easy, and he still won't lift a finger. So cheap."
Sia's nonsense drifted up from behind him. He ignored it.
Found it.
The reason they'd hunted the hidden boss—the Nine-Headed Dragon—in the first place.
The Nine-Colored Dragon Core [B].
A B-grade concentration of pure mana. In other words, a spiritual treasure. Swallowing it would flood a person with an absurd amount of power in an instant, but…
This is a key.
He swallowed the regret. Yujin already possessed mana that far outstripped the limits of his level, and what the 3 No needed most right now was levels, not raw power. Using it for its original purpose was the right call.
Yujin stuffed the Nine-Colored Dragon Core [B] into Chunbae's mouth and turned around.
"Can you move?"
"Can't we rest a little longer? We just took down a field boss from the 23rd floor by ourselves."
"If you can talk, you can move. Up. We're busy."
The 23rd floor—the Infinite Mountain Range.
Yujin and the 3 No had only climbed up here yesterday. After killing the Glacier Dragon, they'd returned to Frost Veil, taken a single day of rest, and gone straight for the 22nd floor. Barely three days had passed since then—meaning they'd cleared the entire 22nd floor in just three days. And in that same stretch they'd already secured three of the conditions needed to reach the Abyss.
That was how hard they'd been pushing.
Which was exactly why Sia kept whining and playing up her exhaustion. It didn't work on Yujin in the slightest.
"The longer we stall, the more the danger multiplies. Already forgotten?"
The Administrator. There was no telling when that overwhelming presence would come looking for Yujin again. They were moving this desperately precisely to prepare for that—there was no room left to complain about being tired.
"Ah…"
Sia shut her mouth, as if the forgotten fact had just slapped her across the face.
She was tired. That much was true. They'd killed the 21st-floor boss, then the moment they hit the 22nd floor they'd gone insane racing around to meet the conditions—and now the same grind was starting all over again on the 23rd. Doing all of that in three days, of course it hurt.
Even so, they had to keep moving. If the thing they truly feared ever arrived, none of them wanted to die having done nothing.
"So get up. Don't waste time now and regret it later."
At Yujin's words, Sia hesitantly pushed herself upright. She seemed to realize she'd overstepped.
"I know it's hard. But all of this is deliberate—to make you stronger. I'm not holding back for fun."
"How many left?"
Vivian cut across his excuse without acknowledging it.
"Conditions?"
"Yeah."
Yujin clicked his tongue, glanced at Sia, and answered.
"That one just now was the last."
The Nine-Colored Dragon Core [B]. The final key to the Abyss.
"Then?"
"Then we go there."
Vivian took a short, steadying breath at his words.
"It's going to be really hard there, isn't it?"
This time the question came from Sia, who had already gotten up and stepped in close. Thanks to the briefing back at Frost Veil, she and Ji-hoo already knew what the Abyss was.
"Yeah. Hard enough that everything you've done so far will feel like a joke."
"Dangerous too, right?"
"What, you think you're going to die?"
Yujin huffed a short laugh at Sia's worry.
They would suffer like hell, sure. The Abyss was no easy place. But if the question was whether there was a real risk of dying?
Yujin didn't think so. Alone, the 3 No might be another story—but he was with them. This wasn't a fight against an Administrator or some true upper-floor boss. With his power, mere monsters weren't something to fear.
He was sure of that.
"We'll see when we get there."
With the 3 No at his side, Yujin started toward the peak sunk deepest in the Infinite Mountain Range—the mountain called Nakmyeongsan, where the hell known as the Abyss lay hidden.
How many days had it been?
Or rather—how many had they killed?
Park Ji-hoo's mind was starting to blur. He didn't even have the strength left to lift his arms. The fact that he was still on his feet at all, right this second, felt unreal.
"Hhk—, hhahhk—!"
His throat felt like it was burning out. He had no idea how many times he'd already blown past his limit. I can't go any further. I have to give up. He'd said it hundreds of times.
And yet Park Ji-hoo was still standing.
Because of the two people whose backs were pressed against his.
Lee Sia, and Vivian.
Propping one another up, the three of them held on—and because of that, Ji-hoo could still endure.
"V-Vivian nuna."
Sia called out to Vivian.
"…What."
The answer came late. Vivian was just as worn down to the bone.
"Is recovery… possible at all?"
Ji-hoo wondered. From the moment they'd entered the Abyss until now—how much had Vivian spent? An amount of money he couldn't even begin to imagine. The Financial Healing [C] she'd burned in here alone was several times what she'd used from the day they first met all the way through the Nine-Headed Dragon.
"No."
Vivian shook her head.
"Nuna… did you go bankrupt?"
A tremor ran through Sia's body. The thought that Vivian might actually be broke seemed to rattle her.
"No. I'm out of mana."
"Ah."
Was that good news? The fact that Vivian's account still had money was a relief—but without mana, they couldn't hope for any more healing either way.
"What about Bursters?"
"We used the last of those two days ago."
"Th-then… nothing we can do."
She forced the words out calmly, but despair clung to every syllable.
Aoooooooooo—!
Not far away, the howls of hundreds of wolves rose into the air.
"How many of those bastards even are there?"
No one knew. The nameless wolf monsters Ji-hoo had killed with his own hands already numbered in the tens of thousands.
"I honestly don't know if this thing ever ends."
Sia's self-mocking laugh traveled through the press of their backs.
"If we… hold on just a little longer… it should be okay, right?"
Ji-hoo forced his mouth open. Breath clogged his throat and the words came out broken, but they were clear enough to understand.
"Yujin hyeong… said he was coming."
"When the hell is that damn old man even getting here?"
About a week, maybe? That was how long it had been since Yujin, after entering the Abyss, had suddenly said he was going to hunt separately and vanished.
It was a decision that made sense. As Vivian had explained before, because of the party system, hunting apart was far more efficient than hunting together. Thanks to that, Ji-hoo had piled on levels at a ridiculous rate over the past week—enough that he kept thinking, Is this even allowed?
The old saying about renewing yourself day by day was almost funny. They weren't improving day by day; they were reaching new heights every hour. All of it thanks to the absurd density of monsters and the party system's experience share.
But the high of rapid level-ups only lasted a day or two. For a full week they hadn't slept a single second. Food was nothing but the rice balls they'd packed in advance. No bathroom breaks. No sitting down, even for a moment. They'd been driven to the absolute edge of human endurance. If any of them had dropped dead of overwork right then, no one would have been surprised by the look of them.
"H-he'll be here soon, won't he? He said he'd come before we died."
Ji-hoo spoke without much conviction.
"Isn't that right about now?"
Sia sighed and swept a look around them.
"They're coming."
The brief lull—the first real quiet in a long time—was over. Thousands of pairs of murderous eyes fixed straight on them.
"Starving Wolves, right?"
"Yes."
The new monsters that had started appearing today. Born hunters, the Starving Wolves had been steadily chewing away at the 3 No's stamina, waiting for a gap. Even that short rest a moment ago had probably been their design—a way to let the tension drop, then snap it tight again, bleeding their will dry.
"Way too cunning for monsters."
"Not much left. Just today."
"R-right."
The monsters of the Abyss changed species on a daily cycle. Sometimes easy ones swarmed them in mad numbers; other times, like today, something as vicious as the Starving Wolves wrung them dry. At most three or four hours remained. Hold until then, and they'd be free of those damned wolves' jaws.
Of course, whatever came next might be even worse—but this was no time to worry about that. All they wanted was to escape the pain in front of them.
KYAAAAAAANG—!
A single, enormous howl rose, and thousands of Starving Wolves surged in.
"Fine. Let's try dying for real today."
Sia lifted Black Wing [B].
Vivian forced the last speck of mana she had into Vajra [C].
Ji-hoo clenched fists that still wouldn't stop shaking.
And so a battle of pure desperation began.
Thousands of monsters against three exhausted players. A fight so overwhelmingly one-sided that the 3 No didn't have even a one-percent chance of winning.
"Whoa. You held out pretty long, huh?"
That was true—until Yujin showed up.