Chapter 99: The Canyon That Sleeps No More
"The System clearly used terms like 'put to sleep' or 'slumber'—with the canyon as the subject."
In the heavy silence, Jayden spoke up in a calm tone.
"The System wouldn't use poetic metaphors like a poet, so we should take it at face value. Yes, there's a high chance this canyon is a 'monster' with a will of its own, alive and moving."
Everyone who heard Jayden's words turned pale without exception.
A field that's a monster? Even these mega rankers, who had experienced every hellish battlefield the world had to offer, were stepping into a dungeon of this scale for the first time.
"That said, let's hope it's not the 'boss monster.' If it is, we're done for. We'd have no choice but to nuke the whole canyon with a warhead."
Gates clear when you defeat the boss monster.
In other words, if Full Moon Canyon itself was the boss monster, they'd have to subjugate it to clear the gate.
Common sense said that was impossible.
So everyone firmly believed there had to be a separate boss monster.
Everyone except one.
'It is the boss monster.'
That was me.
Watching them desperately spin hopeful scenarios, I couldn't help but give a wry smile.
Yeah.
The boss monster of isFull Moon Canyon itself.
In other words, they had to somehow repel Full Moon Canyon to escape this place.
At least from what I knew, there was no other way.
'Sung Hyun-sook chuckles, curious what reaction they'll have when they learn is the boss monster!'
Reaction? Probably something like the five stages of grief.
Shock, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance.
'Well, we'll see similar reactions burst out in a few seconds anyway.'
Suddenly, I felt grateful that I knew about in advance.
If I had come in blind like them...
have their stats adjusted!>
Markers'!>
My heart would have sunk, and curses would have flown from my mouth.
"What the hell is this? Moonlight's Curse?"
"Our stats are being adjusted?"
"...Gah, fuck! What happened to my stats?!"
Just like that.
As I'd mentioned before, had a mechanism that forced everyone to be equal.
What did that mean?
The answer lay in their current status windows.
From Ender 7 Jayden to the relatively lowest-ranked Choi Kwang-hyun.
All those afflicted with had their stats uniformly adjusted to 100.
Unless you were a saint, it was only natural for curses to fly first.
"Everyone, calm down!"
It was a line that wouldn't have been out of place even if someone snapped back, "Calm down? You try it!" But since the speaker was Jayden, the commotion died instantly.
"Good. Everyone, take a deep breath and settle your minds... Hmm. Viola?"
Jayden turned to Viola Dash, the other American representative.
"You're a supporter, so you must have some skill to dispel curses, right? Use it on us."
"...I've been using it since the System mentioned the curse. But..."
Viola clicked her tongue, her face full of frustration.
"It's no use. The curse lifts for a moment, then comes right back."
"...As long as we don't avoid the moonlight, skills can't dispel it permanently."
Compared to Earth's moon, the full moon here looked unusually large—not because it was physically bigger, but because it hung so close to the ground.
Avoiding the moonlight with the moon that close? Impossible.
"In the end, we have no choice but to follow the System's guidance. Collecting these 'Markers' seems to be the only way."
Up to this point, things were following the pre-regression clear path.
Except they didn't have Xiao Lin's help to suppress the earthquakes.
As Jayden had just said, the first assault team would now search for 'Markers.'
And they would eventually succeed in collecting them to lift .
Of course, it wasn't a smooth process.
If it were just finding markers, wouldn't be called the worst gate.
Sssshhh...
A chilling aura that sent shivers down the spine enveloped the surroundings right then.
Grrrrr-.
Followed by eerie wails that grated on the ears, rising from underground.
"This damn dungeon keeps throwing new shit at us."
"...Monsters I've never seen before. This won't be easy."
Before we knew it, we were completely surrounded by grotesque black-mist-shrouded humanoid creatures.
Shrouded Wraiths.
Pre-regression, Jayden had described them in an interview like this:
"Those things need a new name. Not 'Shrouded Wraiths'—'Damn Stalkers.'"
After a brief pause, he continued:
"Simple reason. While we searched for markers, they stalked us relentlessly, popping out without warning for ambushes. Like stalkers."
Hard-earned markers? One would pop from the ground to ruin it.
And with stats crippled by , frontal assaults were out of the question.
Such creatures numbered around a hundred, visible just at a glance.
"Th-that's... a lot, isn't it...?"
"...Practically an army."
"Our stats are already trashed from the curse..."
The reason these normally solitary creatures had swarmed like this?
They had one key instinct.
'The more you collect markers and recover your weakened presence, the more their obsession intensifies.'
And right now, only one person here had a 'complete presence.'
' nullified!>
The one who never suffered from the start and maintained full presence.
"No chance of winning! Don't engage—retreat fir—"
"—No need."
Only me.
"I'll hunt every last one of them."
Thud.
Cutting off Jayden's urgent words, I stepped forward.
Choi Kwang-hyun yelled at me, incredulous.
"...What reckless bullshit is that?! With those stats, fighting them is insane—!"
"Hold on."
Jayden interrupted him mid-shout, fixing his deep gaze on me.
"...You're not afflicted by , are you?"
"......"
"You're not foolish enough to act this recklessly if you were."
'Sung Hyun-sook primly tosses her hair, praising his keen eye as befits an Ender 7!'
Why was Mom taking credit when I got the praise? Geez.
Taking my silence as confirmation, Jayden touched his chin in wonder.
"The more I see, the more mysterious you are. I'd love to ask how you avoided the curse, but..."
"No time for chit-chat now."
"True. Mind if I ask a favor? Feels like hitching a ride on the bus after ages."
"Leave it to me."
That was his endorsement as raid leader.
All the 'monsters' here were my prey.
Repel them, and the credit was all mine.
Or, put differently: 'Their purple cores are all mine.'
For me, who needed every purple core I could get, this was pure ecstasy.
Smiling, I slowly advanced toward the and opened .
And didn't stop there.
summoned!
"Finally getting to use this in real combat."
A golden-armored right hand appeared above my head.
- When we first fought them after lifting the curse, it was incredibly disorienting. Our attacks didn't land at all.
As per Jayden's interview, normal attacks couldn't damage the .
- Their shadow armor absorbed everything.
So the top priority was dealing with that armor.
And Jayden's solution for the shadow armor was simple.
- A power that drives out darkness. Divine power-infused attacks were the only way to destroy their shadow armor.
That's where Russian ranker Alexei Nazarov, a magic-type player, shone. He had a skill called that fired holy orbs in all directions.
But this was Jae-min's solo stage.
The spotlight wasn't Alexei's —it was .
Fwaaah—!
Blinding white light burst from the lantern held by the .
The lantern emitting divine power was, naturally, a weapon(?) summoned by .
Grrrr—!
Gaaah—!
The wraiths' shadow armor, bathed in intense radiance, scattered like dust in the wind.
With their black shells stripped away, their rotten cores were exposed.
Wraiths without armor? Just low-tier undead ripe for slicing.
Shing—.
The two curved swords drawn from Living Armor's core let out a chilling wail.
Seeing them gleam seductively under the moonlight, the mega rankers' eyes widened.
"Isn't that the 'War God's'...?!"
"He inherited it?"
"Wait, but one was broken, the other lost—how...?"
From the sudden golden hand to the pristine .
As they gawked at the inexplicable events, Jae-min—dual-wielding—plunged into the wraith horde.
Fwaaah—!
Manipulate the lantern with the to release divine power, then swing.
The moment the terrifying slash roared, carving a blue arc in the air.
Slash! Slaaash—!
The wraiths' bodies split perfectly in two, upper and lower halves flying skyward.
Not decapitated—bisected at the waist—for a reason.
confirmed their cores were in the 'brain.'
'Can't risk slicing the core with the head.'
That was also why no to sweep them all at once.
Splurt—!
Slash—!
As Jae-min carved through the wraiths in a frenzy of dual-wield fury.
"Aren't we just standing around watching? We're mega rankers, for crying out loud..."
"What can we do? With the curse active, we'd just get in his way."
"Man, first time feeling like set dressing since becoming a mega ranker... Like we're novel extras."
"More importantly, he's good. Almost embarrassing to call him a rookie now."
The last was Jayden.
Savoring the comfy bus ride, he grinned as he watched Jae-min's show.
37 minutes.
Time taken to wipe the wraith legion.
"Whew."
I caught my breath, surveying the mountain of corpses.
No level-ups despite all the slaughter was a bummer, but...
'Still, with all their cores mine, plenty to be happy about.'
In that sense.
Next up: crack open their skulls one by one and harvest the purple cores.
...Way too grindy.
'Wait, more importantly.'
How many purple cores exactly did I need to activate Eden's leyline?
Damn, shoulda asked beforehand.
But regretting it now wouldn't help...
Sung Hyun-sook' has invited a guest!>
Self-Proclaimed Saint: I was napping when Hyun-sook dragged me here by force...
"......"
I'll apologize on behalf of my son...