The Other Side (2)
The Other Side (2)
The Reverse Side.
I don't know why the system labeled this catastrophe the "Reverse Side."
In the original work, the system assigned the name. I was curious, but I never dug into it.
The system often names distinctive dungeons, so it's nothing unusual. I assumed it was just another category.
'The Reverse Side, huh...'
Now that I'm inside, I had a vague idea where the name came from.
Steadying my dizzy head, I tapped the wall beside me. Not stone, not wood.
When I opened Observation slightly, a dull gray wall surface spread through my senses.
It was a multi-unit dwelling, the kind you'd commonly find in a city residential district.
'Hm.'
The surroundings were all in a similar state.
Roads worn down past any use, utility poles snapped and scattered on the ground, derelict buildings caked thick with dust...
It was a cityscape that looked like it had been abandoned for decades at the very least.
I stepped into a nearby building.
A convenience store on the ground floor. The space where a glass window should have been was empty. On the display shelves, only dust and trash remained.
I used Observation on a piece of trash.
'1999.'
The barely legible expiration date was November 13, 1999.
It didn't match the present, long past the 200th year of the New Era Origin.
The city scenery from earlier confirmed it. Even accounting for a ruined city, there were far too many outdated facilities.
Especially the shattered utility poles strewn across the ground.
In modern times, most infrastructure runs on mana. You won't find utility poles or power lines in a modern city.
'The Great Cataclysm happened in the year 2000 of the Seoryeok Era, right?'
In other words, this city was built before the Great Cataclysm. That explains both the expiration date on the packaging and the city's strangeness.
'Did it swallow an entire city?'
That was my first guess. But a closer look quickly disproved it.
When I nudged a wrapper on the display shelf, it instantly lost its shape and crumbled like dust, spilling everywhere.
'It's only a superficial copy of the outside. The inside is completely different.'
The building I'd just entered was the same. It looked like concrete from the outside, and I could even detect the shadow of rebar inside. But when I analyzed its composition, it was an entirely different substance.
It feels plausible on the surface, but tear it open and look inside, and it's nothing alike.
The reverse side. The hidden face. The part behind an object, invisible from the outside.
'Is this space a copy of part of the world, materialized here?'
That was the most plausible guess I could come up with right now.
The idea that a city-like environment formed by sheer astronomical chance was less credible than the idea that the city's structure had been copied from the start.
Nodding to myself, I extended my hand. Crrrack! As my grip clamped down on the empty air, it shuddered as if thrashing in water.
The space itself seemed to peel away, crumbling, and a pitch-black thing was revealed, squirming in my grasp.
- Burble-burbururaaah—!
Its body rippled like water or shadow—a monster.
The struggling thing suddenly melted like ice cream, then reattached itself, reforming.
A pair of arms and legs. Eye sockets, ear holes, nostrils. A gaping mouth with blunt teeth arranged fairly neatly. Hair sprouting from the scalp...
A pair of glasses perched on the bridge of its nose.
'A person?'
It looked like a man you could pass on any street—a man who looked to be in his thirties.
Its clothing was convincingly materialized, but still only black or gray.
The internal organs hadn't been properly materialized either. Just like this space's environment—plausible on the outside, but inside, a mess of haphazardly clumped-together shapes.
- Argraaahreuganaya-gyaah?
The pitch of its voice rose and fell like waves, hitting me with sheer unpleasantness before anything else.
- Ugragaaaaargah!
With a crrk-crrrk, the monster wrenched its neck sideways and swung an arm at me. The wind tore apart under the force. My brow furrowed at the strength—greater than I'd expected.
Crrunch! I snapped its neck like I was wringing it out. The monster's limbs shuddered, then went slack.
'......'
I dangled the thing from my hand, swaying it back and forth.
Its trash-like, rippling body melted black once more and coiled swiftly around my arm like a snake.
A shape-shift.
- Ting!
A long spike shot out but couldn't pierce the Blood Cloud I'd wrapped around my body like compressed armor, simply bouncing off. The Blood Cloud surged back and coiled around the monster in turn.
Crr-crunch! The compressed Blood Cloud vortexed from the inside, efficiently dismantling the monster as neatly as possible.
Thud— Only then did the life signal I'd been detecting cut off.
A short, simple hunt. But my furrowed brow didn't relax.
'This place is dangerous.'
The body I'd briefly observed was roughly at 5th-Rank level. On top of that, it had freeform shapeshifting and the ability to mimic the appearance of whoever or whatever it copied, with alarming accuracy.
That alone makes it dangerous enough, and the area is crawling with entities like this.
Besides them, the place is swarming with all kinds of other monsters. If I hadn't suppressed my presence, monsters would have swarmed me from every direction immediately.
And that wasn't the only danger.
'It really is functioning like a dungeon.'
The Reverse Side was operating in a similar way to a dungeon.
Its space was divided into sections. It had its own unique laws. It generated monsters and applied a correction to those monsters.
'Both Observation and Space are difficult to manifest here.'
A strong Reverse Correction was being imposed on me.
Whenever I tried to expand it, my Observation kept getting crumpled, and my head throbbed on its own.
'First, I'll find the core.'
The priority was, as always, the core.
I needed to find the core, intentionally trigger the Reverse Side's rampage, and then mitigate the aftermath from the inside.
'The problem is...'
While I was searching for the core, there was a strong possibility I'd run into Spada's group.
I'd also braced for the possibility that I might trigger a trap and come under concentrated fire the moment I entered the Reverse Side.
Fortunately, I hadn't stepped into a trap like that, but there was no telling when we might cross paths and fight.
I shook off the dizziness by tapping my head a couple of times and rubbed the floor.
A very faint set of footprints registered in my Observation.
'A woman?'
The dimensions analyzed as female.
She was wearing something on her feet. Not shoes—monster hide. The weight was concentrated on one side.
'Let's try tracking it for now.'
The footprints led toward the Reverse Side's center.
I decided to follow the trail, both to get a bearing on the core's direction and to see where it led.
'Whatever it is, if I run into it, I'll just smash it.'
I could assume that any living thing of human-like dimensions that had entered this place was an enemy.
Just as some unknown force had allowed Spada entry, most people couldn't enter the Reverse Side on their own.
And moreover, this was a space packed full of monsters with transformation abilities.
I loosened my body, joint by joint, and concealed my presence.
Avoiding unnecessary skirmishes with other monsters, I stuck to the trail.
* * *
- Hssssss...!
"Ngh...!"
Top-quality recovery potion poured directly onto the wound. As the injury bubbled and seethed with the surge of pain, Spada clenched his teeth.
"Hey... you're not nursing some grudge and pulling this crap on purpose, are you?"
"If I were afraid of the consequences, I wouldn't do it, would I?"
Est, the man who'd been dousing the wound, answered flatly and placed his hand over it.
Whuum! A cluster of light spread from his hand and settled over the injury. Est's healing-type Unique Ability.
- Crunch!
"Well, now."
Red smoke erupted from the wound and chewed up the light cluster like a wolf.
Watching his light cluster get devoured on the spot, Est let out a murmur of admiration.
"You were bitten by a vicious one. Wound aggravation, suppression, and the Unique Ability itself is saturated with malice."
"That's what I'm telling you, dammit. That bitch who acted all sweet and graceful—once we started fighting, she came at me like a total lunatic."
Scowling as he checked the injury, Spada looked up at Est.
"So, how long until I'm fully healed?"
"A full recovery will take some time. But I can cut it down to the point where you're combat-capable."
"Ahahaha! For all that confidence you marched out with, your results aren't much!"
A broad-shouldered man, leaning against a rock and watching the situation, sneered as he hugged his spear.
"From what I'm hearing, you got beaten senseless by a girl. You're a real mess."
"Spear-for-brains, you think you'd have done any better?"
"Naturally. If it were me, I'd have crushed her and had strength to spare."
"Bullshit. You'd have gotten the same beating and run away whimpering like a dog."
At Spada's flat dismissal, accompanied by a click of his tongue, Est tilted his head.
"Was she really that strong? Honestly, I'm finding it hard to believe you got one-sidedly trounced."
"Hm. He's right. You're not up to my level, but a guy like you only getting beaten down?"
At the skeptical reactions coming from around him, Spada glared at the ground.
"Yeah. It wasn't just that level. That woman was... a genuine monster."
The strongest in the world? Spada wasn't without self-awareness. He knew full well there were plenty of people stronger than him.
But his sword could reach them.
Or rather, he believed it could. He was confident that, at the very least, he could scratch them.
...He couldn't. He was crushed so utterly he couldn't leave so much as a single scratch.
Physical ability. The quality and quantity of mana. The level of one's unique ability.
Before any of that, Spada had been completely overwhelmed in pure skill.
There was no room for excuses.
The perspective that grasped and guided the fight was on a completely different level.
From start to finish, he had danced in the palm of her hand. He only barely managed to escape by cowardly using a civilian as a hostage.
"Fuck..."
His fist clenched involuntarily. His nails dug into the wounds on his palm, but the sense of shame was far more excruciating.
He wanted to wield the sword.
Just wielding it wasn't enough.
More than those bastards who coasted on their talent.
More than those bastards who cared for nothing but the sword.
More than those bastards who ranked people by swordsmanship alone.
He wanted to be better. He wanted to surpass mediocre talent.
So he had worked for it. Sweat and bled for it. Strived until his mediocre unique ability was on the verge of deterioration.
And yet, he was still being beaten this overwhelmingly.
- Weapons are indispensable to conflict. Blades? You know better than anyone how many wounds are woven into the history of slaughter.
"......"
Spada ground his teeth and raised his head.
The red-haired man sat perched on a rock. He had heard the entire conversation, yet his eyes remained closed, maintaining his silence.
Hong Yeon-jun.
More precisely, the 'god' dwelling within him could teach Spada a superior sword...
- Thump!
"...So they did come in?"
"Huh?"
A heavy pulse echoed around them. Hong Yeon-jun's firmly shut mouth opened.
Est tilted his head.
"What came in? Ah, do you mean the owner of those traces we found before?"
"No, someone else. Probably that enforcer who beat Spada down."
"Oh, what the fuck, how do you even—"
"It's not strange. There were already other visitors here before us anyway."
"Let's put off searching for those visitors for now."
Hong Yeon-jun nodded slightly before asking Spada.
"Spada, was that enforcer strong?"
"I've been saying they're beat-the-shit-out-of-you strong this whole time, haven't I?"
"Really? What if we all rush them together?"
"...I'm not sure about that. We'd probably win, but..."
"Four against one and you can't even say for sure? Isn't that a bit too pathetic?"
"Shut up."
Seeing Spada's lack of confidence, Hong Yeon-jun nodded.
"If we run into them, we coordinate an attack. I don't know why they crawled in here, but their intentions can't be good..."
Thu-thump! A heartbeat everyone could feel pounded heavily.
Hong Yeon-jun blinked at the news from his heart, then let out a short, incredulous laugh.
"Hah, what a coincidence... Change of plans. We head to the trap and wait."
"To that extent? Can't we just go find them and each attack?"
"No. We prepare properly. And Est, have the artifact ready."
"Huh?"
Est, who had been about to obediently follow the order, asked back in confusion.
There were countless artifacts in the world, but only one artifact they could mean right now.
The Vessel of Divine Descent. An artifact they had barely managed to obtain in this vast Reverse Side.
* * *
The chain dungeon rampage that broke out in the Changhae Family's territory was slowly being suppressed.
That was only natural, considering the full might of the Changhae Family.
With forces completely intact—none diverted externally—and the clan head himself out in the field, there was no way it wouldn't be suppressed.
By the time Baek A-rin began to lend a hand, the crisis had already passed and they had moved on to simple subjugation.
"Hmm..."
After clearing out a few monster packs, Baek A-rin climbed a hill and steadied the reins.
Prrr! The Black Snow Horse carrying Baek A-rin snorted, and the black fur cloak draped over her shoulders like a mane fluttered.
"So, only this one's left?"
Baek A-rin soothed the Black Snow Horse with a practiced touch, stroking its mane as she looked down below the hill.
It was no exaggeration to say that snowstorms fell year-round in the Changhae territory.
Even now, snow was pouring down thickly. Yet one space below the hill remained untouched by the blizzard.
The Special-Grade Dungeon that had appeared in the Changhae Family's domain.
Having ended up in the vicinity, she had come to observe the Special-Grade Dungeon with her own eyes.
"Sitrep."
"Yes, my lady."
The adjutant, also mounted on a Black Snow Horse, reported the details.
"The Special-Grade Dungeon appeared 23 days ago. To date, we have deployed approximately 500 convicts and 3,200 undead."
Sending an advance party before a dungeon raid was standard procedure.
Sometimes a team of veteran explorers was formed and sent first, but when resources allowed, death row inmates paired with undead were deployed as well.
"Survivors?"
"None. Signals were lost within roughly ten minutes of entry in every case."
"Yikes..."
That's brutal. Baek A-rin murmured inwardly, tucking her hair behind her ear.
Though it bore the grand title of Special-Grade, a Special-Grade Dungeon wasn't purely dangerous.
On the contrary, sometimes the internal environment was extremely low-risk and offered great rewards.
"Seems like we drew a dud this time, though..."
The Special-Grade Dungeon that appeared in the Changhae Family's domain was, by all estimates, a dud.
"Still, no signs of an outbreak, right?"
"Correct. Cross-verification with the Association confirms the waveform is extremely stable."
"Though it'd be a disaster if it blew without warning."
"Ahem..."
"Ah, kidding, kidding."
Baek A-rin shrugged and smoothed out her wind-tossed hair.
Her homeland was like this. Mostly snow, cold, and wind.
A familiar environment. She had been born and raised here.
More than enough time for an ordinary person to adapt, and for Baek A-rin—whose body was saturated with Water Energy and Cold Energy—it was actually a comfortable place.
"It's cold."
But somehow, she felt cold.
She was wearing a fur cloak and clothes made from the finest materials and craftsmanship, along with a magic tool imbued with warming magic.
It hadn't been like this before...
When the thought reached that point, Baek A-rin let out a soft laugh.
It was because she had been too warm lately.
Having always been cold, warming herself by a gentle fire made the return to her original state jarring.
"...Ah."
As she was rubbing her chilled face, a thought suddenly struck her. She touched the pendant around her neck.
The gift Lee Ha-yul had given her on the day of the closing ceremony.
As she stroked the large red gem embedded in it, light flickered and it gently breathed out warmth.
The melting sensation seeped bit by bit from her fingertips, and her shoulders trembled softly.
"Haaah..."
"My lady?"
"...It's nothing."
Clearing her throat with a couple of coughs, Baek A-rin continued to touch the warm pendant.
"Ah, found you."
"Hm?"
What should she do about that Special-Grade Dungeon? As various thoughts crossed her mind, a familiar voice reached her.
Turning her head, she saw Hong Yeon-hwa and Lee Ji-yeon approaching through the snowstorm.
"Finished your work?"
"Yep. Five settlements or so? Wiped them out."
"Ooh... You didn't burn the villages down too, did you?"
"The hell would I burn places that were already wrecked, you bitch?"
"Ahaha... We didn't even get close to the villages. They'd broken the villages and were setting up their settlements on a nearby mountain slope."
Hong Yeon-hwa flipped her middle finger at Baek A-rin's teasing, while Lee Ji-yeon awkwardly laughed and vouched for her.
The two had arrived a few days ago to provide support for the Changhae Family.
"Ah, that's not what I meant. A-rin, the rampage suppression's almost done, right?"
"Uh... aside from the Special-Grade, I guess?"
"Does that Special-Grade need to be cleared urgently?"
"No? There are no signs of an outbreak, so we'll take our time raiding it. We've got the leisure; no point rushing and causing a catastrophe."
"Right?"
Why was she asking that all of a sudden? Baek A-rin tilted her head at the abrupt question, and Lee Ji-yeon awkwardly looked away toward the distant mountains.
Hong Yeon-hwa asked casually, as if it were nothing.
"Do you have command authority over troops?"
"Huh?"
Bewilderment surfaced over Baek A-rin's mask.