Chapter 277: Labyrinth of Change: Labyrinthos (6)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 277: Labyrinth of Change: Labyrinthos (6)
Blood.
The head of the man who had been charging at me, screaming, spun through the air, spraying a crimson mist.
The absurd part was that his face still wore that same expression of fury, as if he hadn’t yet realized his head had been severed.
A beat later, the man’s body lost its balance and collapsed, and the man responsible for the carnage came into clear view.
His appearance wasn’t much different from what I remembered.
He stood over two meters tall, with a massive frame reminiscent of a bear.
His unkempt, dark-red hair was so greasy it had clumped together, giving off a repulsive vibe. The stench radiating from his body made it clear, in more ways than one, that he was no ordinary individual.
His face, more beast than human, was exactly as it had been in my memories. For a fleeting moment, a sense of nostalgia…
No, that’s not right.
No matter how broken I might be, I haven’t reached the point where I’d feel nostalgia looking at this piece of shit.
The man swung his axe to flick off the blood, spared us a brief glance, and then hung his former subordinate upside down nearby.
“Hmm, there are more of you than I thought. It’s a problem when the meat loses its freshness.”
…Hearing it again, it really was the talk of a madman.
This guy, who struggled the least for food in this entire dungeon, ate human flesh purely as a hobby.
In this dungeon, where people fought in real-time over scraps and others starved to death, I wondered how they would feel if they saw this bastard.
How would they feel? They’d want to kill him and strip him of all his supplies.
I knew that feeling well because I had experienced it firsthand.
I stole a glance at my companions’ faces. As expected, his presence was profoundly unpleasant.
Even those who had maintained a poker face since entering the dungeon were now wearing expressions of intense disgust.
Yeah, this is exactly why I didn’t want to bring my kids along.
If even those relatively desensitized to criminals reacted like this, a saintly man like Lilac or a villain-hater like Cheon Yu-hak would have lost their minds and charged in blindly.
And unfortunately, in this place, losing your cool was no different from walking straight toward death.
“Just wait a moment. If you wait quietly, I can send you off without any pain. If you run, Mister is going to make it hurt, okay?”
But his eccentricities didn’t end there.
After slicing the arteries and Achilles tendons of the hanging corpse, the man smiled at the inverted monstrosity.
“You have to drain the blood properly so the meat doesn’t taste fishy.”
Laughing heartily as if he were a neighborhood butcher, he turned his gaze back toward us.
“Oh? Ooh? I didn’t realize it, but you’re all girls. You should have said so. We don’t usually kill women~”
A repulsive light began to flicker in the eyes of the man as he absentmindedly scratched his head.
…Haha, this son of a bitch. Is he actually insane?
“…I will handle this, Cadet Kang So-hyun.”
“Ah, no. I’ll do it. He’s a bad match for you, Chairperson.”
“…What? Do you think I would lose to someone like that?”
“You would win, Chairperson. Provided he fought you in a fair, head-on confrontation.”
“…So there’s a catch.”
“Yes, so just watch. That goes for everyone else, too. Even if I look like I’m in danger, don’t step in.”
The man, who had been listening to our conversation, burst into a ridiculing laugh.
“Little lady, you want to fight Mister~? You’ll die if you do that~ Instead, why don’t you come do something that feels good with Mister? I’m being generous here. It’s a waste, really, but female meat usually tastes better than male meat anyway.”
…This bastard is at it again. Maybe it’s because we met when he was older in the last timeline, but back then he was confused; now he’s completely mistaken me for a woman.
“Hey, Wild Dog.”
“Oh? How does a little lady like you know my name? I must have been locked in here since you were in diapers.”
“First of all, I’m a man, not a woman.”
“…Oh my, my mistake. But Mister doesn’t really care about that. Isn’t it the looks and the tightness that matter?”
Truly, his mouth was as filthy as ever.
“And you might not know this, but I have a very personal grudge against you. I once swore I’d tear you apart.”
And I actually did tear him apart once before.
“Is that so~? That’s a shame. You’re just my type, so I was planning on having some fun before eating you.”
The look on his face didn’t seem the least bit regretful as he said that, though.
“Well, whatever. Mister also likes faces twisted in agony.”
The man hoisted a massive, jagged axe.
Setting aside his madness, his skill was the real deal.
In terms of pure physical ability, he was slightly below Professor Cathy, but because he had hoarded all sorts of troublesome artifacts that had drifted into this place, his actual combat power was likely on par with hers.
Surviving for a long time in the Labyrinth Dungeon Labyrinthos wasn’t just a matter of luck.
The man swayed his body slowly.
In combat, his first move was always to move his massive frame sluggishly, planting the prejudice in his enemy’s mind that he was slow.
And when facing multiple opponents, his course of action was always fixed.
Suddenly accelerating, the man lunged and took a position at the rear.
Not behind me, but behind Aisha.
Just like that, he used his specialty—speed—to get behind the person who looked the weakest.
The technique he specialized in was called the Body Flickering Technique. Simply put, it was a movement art that allowed for high-speed maneuvers even in mid-air by instantaneously exploding mana.
“Hey.”
“Yeah?”
“…How the hell did you know?”
Naturally, the moment the man got behind Aisha and the moment my shadow extended to pierce his heart happened almost simultaneously.
I knew his methods and his tricks; there was no way I’d just let him have his way.
The man, who had maintained a playful attitude the whole time, finally dropped the act after being stabbed through the heart and began to stare at me intently.
“It’s because what a piece of shit like you would do is so predictable.”
“…It’s not a matter of predictability. No, no. Right. I suppose I’ve grown soft because it’s been so peaceful here lately. What kind of idiot reveals his tricks to the enemy? Right?”
The man laughed hollowly and slowly collapsed.
“To think a man like me would meet such an end… you never know what the world will throw at you…”
With those final words, he closed his eyes and slumped completely onto the floor.
“What? That was easier than I thought.”
“Aisha. Don’t go near him. He’s not dead.”
“…Pardon? What do you mean?”
With a hole gaping through his heart, he looked every bit a corpse, but unfortunately, he was just acting.
I’d fallen for this trick myself once; did he think I’d fall for it again?
When I threw a blade made of Black Shadow at him, sure enough, he sprang up and dodged the attack.
“…Ah, shit. Who the hell are you?”
“Me?”
Ah, seriously. Yeah, I really wanted to see that expression on his face one more time.
“The Grim Reaper come to kill you.”
Realizing that a surprise attack wouldn’t work, the man began to glare at me, coating his axe in mana.
* * *
Wild Dog.
The leader of the Human Butchers and an A-rank Villain who was imprisoned in the Labyrinth Dungeon Labyrinthos twenty years ago.
Well, he was A-rank at the time of his imprisonment; now, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call him S-rank.
Excluding pure combat power, the artifacts he possessed and his fighting style complemented each other so well that most people couldn’t help but let their guard down.
I suddenly recalled the first time I met him in the 1st Timeline.
— Hehe, I didn’t even have to work for it, and such fresh meat just drops right in front of me.
Unluckily, I had encountered him the moment I was thrown into the Labyrinth. He stared at me for a moment before asking if I was a girl or a boy.
— Don’t even think about running. Your arms are useless, and your body looks like a wreck. Seeing as you made it this far in that state, were you some famous villain on the outside?
When I didn’t answer, he used his axe to blow away one of my two relatively healthy legs, nearly ending me right then and there.
He said he had plenty of food for now, so he’d play with me by torturing me. He’d beat me whenever he was bored, saying he’d keep me alive until the light left my eyes, and he even fed me things like insects.
During that time, the one who took me away from him was an old man called ‘Old Man Poison Mist.’
To be clear, he took me because he had a purpose for me, not to save me.
That old man was a crank who had been researching illegal poisons and started using things he shouldn’t as ingredients. He ended up causing an accident while resisting and was sent here.
Even here, he couldn’t break his habits. He teamed up with that Wildcat bitch to find materials for ‘Gu’ and snatched me away from Wild Dog.
…And then he actually threw me into the Gu pit.
— I can’t let a vengeful spirit with a grudge as magnificent as yours die at the hands of a man like that!
— …So you’re going to throw me in there now?
— Yes! Poisonous insects and ordinary killers were starting to feel lacking, but I can’t tell you how happy I am to have met a vengeful spirit like you!
— Aww, Gramps. Let’s put something else in. His face is too pretty to waste!
— If it’s such a waste, just skin his face off then.
— Wha…?
The Wildcat bitch had asked as if she didn’t understand, but then she replied with a bright smile.
— Gramps, you’re a genius!
…And I decided I’d rather just take my chances in the Gu pit, so I threw myself into the trench they were using instead of a jar.
Ah, what fond memories.
Back then, I endured that pit by thinking of those three: Wild Dog, Old Man Poison Mist, and the Wildcat bitch.
I swore I’d crawl back out and slit their throats.
I was actually disappointed when I killed Wild Dog so easily back then, but here I was, getting a chance to kill him a second time.
“Don’t you think this is a wonderful turn of events?”
“Crazy… You’re crazy…! What the hell are you…! What do you mean, wonderful?”
“Wow, look at this guy’s lack of empathy. A person is this happy; couldn’t you at least crack a smile for me?”
When I neutralized the artifact he used and stomped on his protruding belly, he began to squeal like a pig.
Yes, Wild Dog’s artifacts were all things that were difficult to deal with if you didn’t know about them.
That’s why it was incredibly hard to beat him upon a first encounter.
However, unfortunately for him, I was aware of almost all his artifacts.
First, the most annoying one was the Miracle Table, which could heal him up to three times a day by consuming his food supplies whenever he took a fatal wound.
Well, the amount of food required to perfectly heal a wound was staggering, and the efficiency dropped the more it was used, so you just had to keep beating him until he died.
Next was his primary weapon, an axe called Wild Dog’s Tooth.
It was his main armament; anyone struck by it would feel an intense sense of hunger, and repeated hits would eventually lead to mental collapse.
Of course, as long as I didn’t lose in a head-on clash, I just had to watch out for surprise attacks using the Body Flickering Technique or him playing dead.
The Basilisk’s Eye, which could momentarily freeze an opponent’s movements? It couldn’t exert much power in the face of my Fiery Eyes and Golden Pupils.
Next, he tried to use the subordinates he had stationed nearby for a pincer attack? Did he think I didn’t bring allies?
I had already asked my companions to stay on guard, so there was no problem.
As I crushed his hidden trump cards one by one, the confidence he had initially shown—acting as if he would eventually win—began to give way to anxiety.
Yeah, it was like this back then, too.
“D-Don’t come any closer…!”
An artifact that sprayed a poisoned whip from a bracelet? There was no way I’d fall for it if I knew it was coming.
He tried to use an artifact that obscured vision while pretending to kneel and apologize? My kick landed on his jaw faster than he could hit the ground.
If he had just come at me properly from the start, I might have at least been flustered.
How could he move exactly as I expected?
After some time had passed and I had blocked every single one of his seemingly endless surprise-attack artifacts, he began fumbling around, looking for something else.
“So, do you have any more combat artifacts left?”
“Ugh, aaah…! Don’t come closer! Not yet, it’s not over yet!”
The funny thing about this bastard was that while he pretended to have nothing when he was hiding something, he pathetically pretended to have something when he was truly out of options.
He did the exact same thing when I beat him up last time.
However, knowing it was a bluff, I didn’t hesitate to kick him. Losing his balance, his massive body hit the floor, and he began to crawl away.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Aaaagh…!”
Haha, why scream like that? I stepped on you specifically so it would hurt.
I was trying my best to restrain myself, but it was a struggle because I felt like laughing.
Seriously, you have no idea how much I wanted to destroy this son of a bitch.
If I had my way, I’d spend some quality time with him, snapping his teeth one by one, but unfortunately, if I went any further, the others might try to stop me.
“Hey, there are a few things I need.”
There were two things among his artifacts that I required.
One was the ‘Infinite Canned Food Generator,’ an artifact used to provide food for the Miracle Table and as bait to control his subordinates.
The other was a map of Labyrinthos, something very few people inside this dungeon possessed.
It was an artifact that showed new paths in accordance with the shifting labyrinth.
“Give me the canned food artifact and the map.”
He looked at me with a face full of resentment, as if wondering how on earth I knew about all of that.
If you’ve got a problem with it, try regressing yourself.