Chapter 177
Chapter 177
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 177
Chapter Title: Part 2 Episode 40
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After knocking out all the people who looked disoriented, Pyo Sang-hun crouched low and crept stealthily toward the boss room entrance.
The moment he entered, he pressed himself flat against the wall and rolled his eyes around.
A tongue lizard monster with skin far thicker than the ones he'd seen earlier clung to the distant ceiling.
The area was shrouded in darkness, but fortunately, the monster emitted a faint glow, allowing him to make out the boss's form.
Whether it was sleeping or focusing intently to sense mana, the tongue lizard boss had its eyes closed.
At that moment, the boss lifted a foot and swiftly shifted to another part of the ceiling.
"......"
Pyo Sang-hun, slightly tense, let out a slow breath. The spots torn by the tongue lizards' claws earlier stung.
The boss of a B-Rank Gate was a monster he couldn't possibly handle.
He'd luckily obtained the uncut version of the B-Rank base gate exploration footage, and the B-Rank Gate boss monster was said to be so overwhelmingly powerful that only top-rankers could take it down.
If he faced it recklessly, he'd die without a doubt.
Pyo Sang-hun held his breath and pressed even closer to the wall.
It hadn't been long since he'd overcome his monster phobia, and now he was facing a B-Rank boss monster right away. Fear suddenly gripped him, and his hands began to tremble.
'At least I'll die knowing what this dungeon really is.'
By deliberately thinking such pathetic thoughts, Pyo Sang-hun eased his fear a bit and stayed perfectly still to avoid detection, waiting silently.
Suddenly, the sound of human breathing came from nearby.
Hiss, hiss.
It was faint, but somewhat ragged.
The surroundings were too dark to see, but it seemed someone else was nearby. Maybe swept up in the gate and hiding near the boss room entrance.
One thing was certain: even if it was a person, he couldn't acknowledge their presence here.
Pyo Sang-hun turned his head and checked the boss's movements for a moment.
It hadn't shown any further activity since shifting positions on the ceiling earlier.
By now, his eyes had adjusted to the darkness of the boss area, and the layout of the space began to come into clearer view.
Then, by chance, he turned toward the source of the faint breathing.
Right near the entrance, someone draped in monster hide was crouching with their mouth covered.
Judging by the school uniform, they seemed to be a student around his age.
And beyond that person sat another kid. A scrawny one, leaning their head against the wall, staring intently at the boss.
The uniform shirt they were using to staunch a stomach wound and the tank top underneath were soaked red with blood.
"......"
It was Yi Sae-byeok.
His heart sank, nearly calling out her name.
All thoughts of monster fear vanished as his mind went blank.
Yi Sae-byeok was right now in a B-Rank monster zone, her hair and body a mess of minor scrapes. And it looked like she'd taken a critical wound to the abdomen.
Pyo Sang-hun grimaced.
How deep was that abdominal wound? If she'd already lost a lot of blood, what then?
He urgently but carefully rummaged through his pockets for any remaining syringes, but he'd used them all on the severely injured Close Team member earlier.
It was hopeless.
A flood of thoughts hit him at once, tensing his shoulders in desperation.
As he kept staring at Yi Sae-byeok, she subtly rolled her eyes to meet his gaze.
Her eyes looked like they could drift shut any second if her focus slipped even a little. Letting out a small sigh, she nodded toward the boss.
'Focus on the boss.'
Her gaze seemed to say.
Pyo Sang-hun nodded and tore his eyes away from Yi Sae-byeok, turning back to the tongue lizard boss.
'I have to hold out no matter what until Brother Serim arrives.'
His heart pounded. If Yi Sae-byeok died here, it would all be his fault.
He had to get her out alive somehow.
The best outcome would be the support hunters arriving safely for rescue, but he also had to prepare for the worst-case scenario of getting spotted by the boss.
In a base-type gate, the moment your presence was detected by the boss, the boss area exit sealed shut, trapping you inside until a resolution was reached.
Since the boss managed the attack patterns and abilities of the remaining monsters, drawing its focus to an attack would weaken the regular monsters.
'If we're detected, get her out before the door closes.'
Even if she made it out, surviving the outside was uncertain, but it beat being trapped in the boss area—her odds would be higher.
Then his eyes caught the kid next to Yi Sae-byeok, also draped in monster hide.
'That kid stays here with me.'
They looked panicked from their state; having them with Yi Sae-byeok would only hinder escape. He knew from his own monster phobia experience.
With the monster hide covering them and no major wounds, their survival rate in the boss area would be relatively high if left behind.
Having made his decision, Pyo Sang-hun tensely kept watch on the boss.
It apparently hadn't detected them yet, as the tongue lizard monster's face was turned the other way.
Pyo Sang-hun and Yi Sae-byeok spent the next few minutes frozen in tension, watching the monster without moving a muscle.
An excruciating silence.
Their rigid bodies felt like they might cramp up from staying still.
He checked Yi Sae-byeok's condition intermittently. Her hazy eyes remained steadfastly fixed on one spot. Her gaze didn't waver.
Even when her eyelids trembled, threatening to close, her demeanor stayed the same.
Watching Yi Sae-byeok like this made Pyo Sang-hun's insides burn. It was admirable, but she looked so perilously fragile.
'Hurry......'
He grimaced, praying someone would come soon. In this situation, feeling utterly powerless made him seem so weak.
"Uweeeck!"
At that moment, the sound of someone vomiting echoed through the area.
The kid under the monster hide couldn't endure the tension, anxiety, and the foul stench from the monster blood and hide, spewing up their guts.
They made a loud noise and hurriedly clamped their mouth shut, but it was already too late.
The monster, plastered to the ceiling with its eyes closed, snapped open its yellow, glowing eyes.
Yi Sae-byeok, who had been glaring obsessively at the monster, clicked her tongue.
She whipped her head toward the exit and adjusted her angle, lifting her foot.
"S-Sa-byeok, I'm sorry. I-I didn't mean to, I didn't mean to......"
"Run. Get backup."
Thwack!
She kicked the apologizing, tearful kid hard, shoving them out the exit.
Pyo Sang-hun, sprinting over from afar to push with his foot, whiffed and fell flat on his butt.
Boom!
The exit slammed shut. Yi Sae-byeok grimaced, clutching her stomach as she breathed rapidly.
"Unnie Sa-byeok!"
He'd tried to run out too, but because he'd sent the kid first, the exit closed in the blink of an eye.
"Fuck, we're screwed. Really fucked."
She was losing consciousness. An F-Rank boss might give her a slim hope in this state, but from the aura, it was C-Rank or higher.
Seemed like a gate rank mislabeling had dragged her in; she'd have to raise hell with the association later.
Slap! Slap!
Yi Sae-byeok smacked her own face until her daze lifted, forcing her eyes wide. Her half-lidded gaze sharpened instantly.
"......Impressive."
Pyo Sang-hun, alternating between the monster's movements and Yi Sae-byeok, scooped her up from the floor in a flash.
"Fuck, how is that physique F-Rank? Not even E-Rank makes sense."
Yi Sae-byeok, staring at the boss monster, spewed curses for a while.
A simple gate rank measurement error should only be off by one rank at most, but that thing was hard to even call E-Rank. More like B to C.
She had a habit of eyeballing gate ranks before entering, so she'd closely observed the entrance, and the distortion was textbook F-Rank.
"The updated gate rank is B-Rank."
B-Rank? Yi Sae-byeok stared blankly. It felt like swallowing a chunk of ice, brain freezing.
No path to survival in sight. Ah, if she was gonna die like this, might as well have died sooner.
Stuck with buzzcut head now.
Her under-eye twitched faintly, then she burst into mad laughter.
"Pfft, pfuh. Puhahaha! Damn, been wondering when I'd bite it, and today's the day!! Haha!"
Pyo Sang-hun grimaced at Yi Sae-byeok, who looked unhinged.
"I'll get you out alive no matter what. Backup's been called; people will be here soon."
Yi Sae-byeok glanced at the firmly sealed boss door and gave a wry smile.
Looked impossible to break without an attack-type ranker, and they'd all been deployed to higher-rank gates. Considerable time to get here.
"Yol, reliable buzzcut~"
No need to crush his hope unnecessarily, so Yi Sae-byeok played it off playfully.
'If it's a hopeless death situation, I'd rather go before Pyo Sang-hun.'
If possible, send him off alive. She didn't want to die haunted by trauma to the end.
Her face hardened at the dire situation as she lifted her head to look back at the boss monster.
A subtle muscle twitch caught in the monster's leg, which hadn't moved while scanning between Pyo Sang-hun and her.
She had good eyesight, and having observed it closely throughout being trapped in the gate, she could roughly predict its movements.
"Dodge to the side."
Yi Sae-byeok spoke up, grimacing.
Pyo Sang-hun, trusting her words first and asking later, poured strength and mana into his legs and dashed sideways. Sparks flew faintly.
Kwaaang!
The tongue lizard boss gaped its maw and lunged from the opposite wall toward Pyo Sang-hun's position.
Stone fragments and water droplets scattered everywhere. The wall was deeply gouged.
A half-hearted dodge would've turned him to mincemeat.
Pyo Sang-hun, watching the monster and the cratered wall from afar, sighed in relief.
'Good thing the potion from the dungeon's effect is still lingering.'
Pyo Sang-hun and Yi Sae-byeok were now on the opposite side of the monster.
By entrusting his body to electricity and imagining swift movement, he zipped to the other side like teleporting.
"What the—cough, cough!"
Yi Sae-byeok coughed a couple times from the slight shock during the move.
"I'm sorry!!! Are you okay??"
Pyo Sang-hun's eyes widened round as he looked at her and apologized hastily.
Had she gotten shocked? He'd thought holding her would be fine. He'd even been careful not to let mana flow her way.
"What."
"Electrocuted......?"
Her interest piqued at the electrocution mention.
"Electrocuted? That earlier was an electricity ability?"
"Yeah."
"What abilities you got."
"Lightning web, wrapping knives in electricity to throw, drawing out electricity like a rope to whip, and short-range teleport. More importantly, you didn't get shocked?"
When Yi Sae-byeok oddly dodged answering, he asked again at the end.
Having heard them all, Yi Sae-byeok looked at Pyo Sang-hun with pitying eyes.
"You didn't know I have electricity resistance too?"
"......First time hearing it."
"Cough, cough! I succeeded in the electricity resistance drug experiment like you. Cough! So much damn dust here."
Yi Sae-byeok let out several awkward fake coughs before turning to the tongue lizard boss prepping its next attack and spoke.
"More importantly, we need to figure out that monster fucker better. Do some electric moves, Pikachu."
Pyo Sang-hun, eyeing her suspiciously, nodded.
The coughs from dust must've tricked him momentarily into thinking it was from mild electrocution itch.