Alone in the Darkness
The absurdity of it all left me speechless. This was the result of trying to pull one person back from the brink of hell.
“What a fucking dogshit life.”
If I’d been killed by some random passing hunter or monster, I could have at least chalked it up to natural disaster and accepted it. But no—my childhood friend, the kid from next door I’d played with since kindergarten, had gotten high on drugs, lost his mind, and dragged me down to die with him. Setting aside whether it was unfair or not, all I could do was sigh deeply.
The arrogance of thinking that since I’d already lived through my school days once, the second time would be smooth sailing. The foolishness of failing to step in properly even as my friend spiraled into drug addiction and madness. The regret of knowing I could have become a top-tier office worker through sheer study, even if I couldn’t become a first-rate hunter using my game knowledge.
In the end, it all meant there had been a fatal flaw in the way I’d lived these past seven years. Practically speaking, I had thrown those seven years straight into the trash. And now, I was about to throw away however many years of life I had left.
‘Even if I die, I’m going to starve to death? Ha.’
The broken leg hadn’t crushed me to death. Instead, it had gotten wedged in the debris, slowing my fall until I landed in a relatively safe spot. Not being crushed or falling to my death was a stroke of luck. But being trapped, unable to move, staring at the floor with my leg pinned beneath me? That was utterly miserable.
To describe it more accurately: you know those “triangle of life” things they teach in earthquake safety drills? The idea that if a structure collapses diagonally, the triangular space it creates is safe. That was exactly where I was—stuck right next to a diagonal support beam.
The one small mercy was that when the ruin collapsed, the baseball-sized magic lamps attached to the walls and ceiling had fallen too. Unlike LEDs or light bulbs, they were surprisingly sturdy, and they were now illuminating the dark underground ruin. That was why, even after several hours had passed since the fall, I hadn’t gone completely insane. For that, I felt a faint sense of gratitude.
I was just about to name one of the lamps Wilson when—
Crack. Craaack—
Thud!
“Gah!”
The ice holding me in place split apart and slammed me into the floor. There was a metallic clunk, and when I lifted my stomach, I saw a half-crushed magic lamp.
“……”
Sorry, Wilson. You were a good lamp.
The moment of mourning was brief. I groaned and twisted my body. The space was so cramped there wasn’t even a visible exit. After wriggling around for a while, my hand brushed against what felt like a chunk of stone.
“Huh?”
A faint light was leaking through. Another space—maybe even the outside. It was too narrow for a person to pass, so I kicked away the surrounding stones to widen the gap. Once it looked passable, I rolled the magic lamp through first. Then, carefully, I slid my legs out after it.
It was still a tight squeeze. I grunted and twisted my body through, enduring the pain in my chest until I finally emerged.
The corner barely lit by the magic lamp. I looked around. After taking a few steps, I saw nothing but pitch-black underground stretching out before me.
“At least I didn’t fall all the way to the bottom.”
The relief was short-lived. Questions quickly followed. What on earth had caused that earthquake? Who had fallen? Had one of the hunters tried to destroy the gate with magic? Was that the conspiracy behind the collapse?
It was something that appeared in Gray Zone—if someone tried to destroy a gate with overwhelming magical power, earthquakes often occurred. But to pull that off, you needed to be an exceptionally skilled mage. Ordinary swordsmen or spearmen couldn’t even dream of it, and even a mage risked dying in the resulting quake. So the odds were practically zero.
“I have no idea.”
The cause was as invisible as the darkness itself. In the end, I could only dismiss it as a simple coincidence.
Still, it wasn’t entirely bad. Thanks to that quake, I had avoided getting an icicle through the skull and turning into an ice unicorn. If my leg hadn’t collapsed, I would have met a far more horrible death at the hands of the deranged Lim Hana.
With that in mind, I decided to treat it like dropping an extra coin into an arcade machine and began climbing the central staircase.
It would be a long walk, but if I could just keep heading upward like this, I should be able to survive without too much trouble.
“Ah.”
Just like any building after an earthquake, the staircase was broken off halfway.
I had no choice but to look for a detour. After searching around, I found a ladder. It looked dangerous, but there was no other option. I carefully gripped the rungs and began to climb, trying not to look down.
When I reached the next floor, the first thing I saw was a hunter collapsed on the ground. I rushed over in surprise.
“……He’s dead?”
The corpse was covered in countless stab wounds. The attacks were crude and amateurish. It looked like someone had simply beaten him to death with a knife after removing his brain.
“Don’t tell me it was a monster?”
A wave of anxiety washed over me. If that was the case, I couldn’t afford to climb leisurely like this. I scanned my surroundings constantly, preparing for anything. Fearing the monster that might be lurking somewhere.
Only then did I realize that quite a lot of time had passed since I had been bound by magic. Thinking back, the monster had probably already moved on, or perhaps this person had died during the initial ruin-clearing process. With a small sigh of relief, I checked if there was anything worth taking.
There were no weapons. All the consumables were destroyed. The armor was far too big. Just as I was about to give up, something caught in my hand.
“A Hunter Watch?”
A watch-shaped multi-purpose device specialized for hunters. As was well known, electronic devices didn’t work beyond the gate. But this equipment had special processing and a unique structure, allowing stable use even inside gates. Naturally, it was very expensive. Reflecting that, this particular Hunter Watch looked rather worn-out.
Click.
Even if it felt a bit like grave-robbing, it was better to wear it just in case. I removed the watch from the corpse and fastened it around my right wrist. The moment I felt a slight prick, the watch’s rim lit up.
[Vitality: 0/0]
[Shield: 0/0]
[Analyzing body with magical power…….]
The rim was divided into ten segments. Five for vitality, five for shield. In the game it had been a gauge rather than segments, so this must have been a cheap model. Still, better than nothing. After waiting a little longer, lights other than white finally appeared.
[Vitality: 4/5]
[Shield: 0/5]
One of the five vitality segments was missing, and there wasn’t a single shield segment. It made sense that I had no shield since my magic power was terrible and I didn’t know any related spells, but my vitality…
“Must be serious internal injuries……”
On top of that, I could feel occasional vibrations from the floor. It didn’t feel like I should stay here long. Clutching my chest, I started moving again.
I passed through narrow gaps, climbed stairs, took detours, scaled ladders, and jumped over broken sections. The abyss of darkness was deep and endless. Just as I began to wonder how much farther I had to climb, I spotted a shadow flickering far ahead.
It was too thin to be a person and too still to be a monster. I couldn’t tell what it was. Still, just in case, I lowered my body and slowly approached.
Clatter.
The sound reached my ears. That was when I realized what the shadow belonged to.
‘A skeleton?’
A skeleton—a dead being wandering the mortal realm. A corpse that had lost its sanity, reduced to nothing but bones and shriveled flesh, endlessly seeking to harvest life. It was so famous it had become the very symbol of the lowest-tier grunt.
Unless you knew magic or had received professional training, a middle-school first-year trying to fight a skeleton bare-handed was pure insanity. I slowly backed away, but the clattering sound grew steadily closer.
If things continued like this, combat was inevitable. I needed another way to resist—anything, even a weapon—
‘Ah.’
There was a dagger tucked into my ankle. The weapon Cheon Mari had suddenly given me. Had she predicted this? Had she given it to me simply to be friendly? Or had she just done it on a whim, like her usual personality?
Friend and enemy mixed together. Whatever the case, the fact that a regressor with such an ambiguous relationship had helped me remained unchanged. For the first time in a while, I felt genuinely grateful.
‘I can at least try something.’
I pulled the dagger from my ankle and gripped it in a reverse hold. I stopped retreating and stepped forward instead. Then I waited—and waited—until the skeleton came around the corner.
Just as most of its elongated shadow touched the light and became visible from my side, a dirty white bone entered my sight.
‘Now!’