Chapter 194
Translator: uly
Chapter: 194
Chapter Title: Part 2 Episode 57
Dun, who had been diligently burrowing into the gate's ceiling, kicked off the footrest the moment it formed and leaped upward.
By persistently digging into the blocked gate area, one could open a new exit from the gate.
As he reached the edge of the gate's domain, a new blue rift appeared like something from the deep sea, and Dun burst out.
Seol Do-yoon had thrown it well. Looking up immediately, he spotted a gate with a monster bursting out.
Dun held his breath, adjusted his angle toward that gate, and kicked off hard with his feet.
Guuuuung! Splash!
Thanks to the shockwave Dun created, massive waves surged across the water's surface.
“It's a tsunami!!!”
“Must be the monster's doing!”
Chaos erupted outside as a result.
Having measured the angle perfectly and kicked off, Dun safely entered the gate's interior.
‘Ah, damn, the gate's inside is filled with water too.’
He had thought he could breathe once inside the gate and took a big breath, only to choke down a lungful of seawater.
Dun, struggling for air, quickly summoned Kaedong.
Lately, Kaedong had been sleeping a lot, always drowsy when summoned, but fortunately, this time its eyes were wide open.
[Dun...?]
‘Kaedong, I can't breathe.’
As Dun grabbed Kaedong and sent a telepathic message, it swiftly engulfed his head and changed the liquid inside its body to breathable Uhl's water.
They had agreed it would turn transparent for underwater breathing, so Kaedong matched its color to the ocean blue.
Dun's tense expression relaxed completely. With a softened look, he leisurely swam through the gate's interior.
Inside the gate, hunters were fiercely battling monsters.
To evacuate them, Dun bit down on the item called 'Mermel's Voice.'
“Everyone, get out of the gate.”
Thanks to the item, Dun's clear voice echoed even underwater.
The people locked in fierce combat with monsters froze at the voice piercing their ears and turned their heads.
Swimming toward them was a girl with light brown hair and red eyes.
Her strikingly familiar features made everyone's eyes widen.
‘Dun???’
‘She looks just like Dun????’
Even in their confusion, they didn't stop attacking the monsters before them.
Their focus wavered slightly, but their hands gripping weapons kept moving busily.
Dun, who had been swimming, pulled a harpoon from his inventory and took a deep breath.
Kwaaaang!
Kwaaaaang!
In Dun's wake, multiple monsters were impaled on a single harpoon and pinned to the wall.
The intense battlefield around them was suddenly cleared.
The presence of that being, who appeared and vanished so swiftly, was overwhelmingly intense, leaving everyone staring blankly at each other.
‘Reinforcements from overseas?’
‘Air's running low. Let's get out.’
‘She looks exactly like Dun.’
The emission-type team, signaling their varied thoughts with hand gestures, quickly exited the gate.
Dun swam busily toward the boss's domain.
His lungs burned from the extreme exertion, and exhaustion made his eyes droop—he hadn't slept a wink.
Finally reaching the boss's area, Dun bellowed.
“Byun Woojin!!!!”
The guy seemed unconscious and wouldn't respond, but Dun called his name again, hoping it might help him cling to consciousness just a bit longer.
“Byun Woojin!!!!”
As Dun moved through the spherical maze interior searching for him, he grimaced.
“Damn, what the hell. This is dizzying.”
Thud-kwaaaang!
The sturdy maze walls crumbled all at once.
Remembering that Byun Woojin had been at the maze's edge, Dun swung his fist toward the center, directing the attack away from him.
Kwaaaaang!
The wall blocking Dun's path collapsed effortlessly. Mazes existed to be navigated by smashing walls and pushing forward.
With the space opened by breaking the walls, Dun swam through the gaps, searching for Byun Woojin.
‘The water's turning red from this side.’
Spotting the reddening water, Dun swam there quickly. Fortunately, at the end of that area, Byun Woojin lay slumped against the wall.
The ice spear that had pierced him had already melted away.
“Kaedong, fill his body with recovery potion.”
Dun instructed while swimming, and Kaedong, turning reddish, wrapped around Byun Woojin and began healing his wounds.
Dun placed a hand on Byun Woojin's neck to check his pulse.
Fortunately, it was still beating.
While Kaedong healed him, Dun held his breath and swiftly moved ahead to close the gate.
This maze had no exit to begin with. There was no way the monster would create one for them to attack it.
But the boss was likely hiding beyond the wall at the maze's end.
Dun swam a bit farther from Byun Woojin, raised his fist, and punched with real force for the first time in a while.
Through the water mirror, he'd seen Hwang Ki-tae's clone slumbering at the gate's end. Not wanting to swing at that sight, he put extra power into it.
Kwaaaaang!!
The walls ahead crumbled in succession. The shockwave didn't stop, smashing the final wall at the maze's end as well.
Beyond the maze's final wall slept a crude clone resembling Hwang Ki-tae.
The clone, showing no reaction beyond sustaining the gate, had its heart and poorly replicated monster core shattered by the shockwave.
Rumble!
With the sustaining monster dead, the gate began closing rapidly.
The gate started expelling everything not native to its interior.
[Dun...!]
As Byun Woojin recovered somewhat, Kaedong spat him out and desperately called for Dun.
[Dun...]
Remembering the path Dun had taken, Kaedong wriggled after him, calling his name.
To help Dun find it easily, Kaedong glowed bright fluorescent and began shedding fluorescent tears.
[Dun can't breathe... Dun can't breathe...]
Heading toward where Dun might be, suddenly two hands grabbed the swimming Kaedong.
[Dun!]
Dun, with Kaedong on his head, inhaled deeply with an utterly exhausted expression.
The shockwave had flung him farther away, and searching for Kaedong brought him back inward.
Now able to breathe, Dun relaxed his face slightly and surrendered to the powerful current. It carried him out of the gate.
Greeted by fresh seawater instead of the murky, debris-filled gate water, Dun let his body go limp in relief.
Lying in the middle of the ocean, gazing upward, he saw Byun Woojin floating up with the wall fragments on the surface.
‘Exsanguination, drowning...’
Realizing Byun Woojin could die if left like that, Dun carefully controlled his strength and swam weakly toward him.
‘World Shift.’
Holding Byun Woojin, Dun shifted to Daboseok.
Rolling onto the warm floor, Dun coughed several times, spitting out water.
The moment he arrived at Daboseok, Dun felt immense relief.
No trauma-triggering monsters, no constant surveillance—just the welcoming sunlight of paradise.
“Boss!”
“The boss is sleeping on the bare floor again!”
“Warm up the leader's nest!”
The area of Daboseok Dun arrived in was home to the dark elves.
At Dun and the stranger's appearance, the dark elves bustled about.
They brought a bed made of fluffy material like sheep's wool clouds and gently lifted Dun onto it.
‘Sleepy. But what about the Hisis Gate?’
Dun dozed off briefly, then snapped his eyes open and sat up.
Right in front of him, Tiaren, who had rushed over at his arrival, grinned intrusively close to his face.
“Duuuun!”
Embraced tightly by Tiaren, Dun blinked sleepily, assessing the situation.
‘Closed Hisis emission gate. Rescued Byun Woojin. Shifted to Daboseok.’
Dun's eyes flew wide open as he pushed Tiaren away. This wasn't the time to sleep.
“Tiaren, take good care of that unconscious Byun Woojin over there.”
Dun lifted Byun Woojin from the floor and placed him on the cloud-like bed he'd been lying on.
Byun Woojin's eyes remained peacefully closed, still unconscious.
“Who is he?”
“An old friend.”
“Hmm... He has that adventurer vibe, so like your ancient ancient ancient past?”
Tiaren teased playfully, recalling past stories Dun had shared.
“Yeah, around that time. Please.”
Leaving those words with Tiaren, who clung protesting like a song, Dun gathered his mana as much as possible, promising to return later.
Recalling the gate where Yeo Woo-hee had been, seen through the water mirror, Dun performed another world shift.
* * *
Seated atop a pile of monster corpses, Yeo Woo-hee staunched the blood from her abdomen, wrapped it in bandages, and firmly jabbed recovery syringes around her.
One hunter dead, two severely injured and evacuated.
While roaming the gate interior with the remaining team members, they'd fallen into the gate's traps, scattering everyone. She had no idea if the separated ones lived or died.
Arriving alone at the boss's domain, Yeo Woo-hee searched for the hidden monster's heart but found no puzzles or traces of the boss monster.
Then, monsters suddenly swarmed the domain. Their circular formation attacks were notoriously tricky.
This emission gate wasn't a puzzle type—it was an endless arena designed to wear her down.
Raising the blade of her handcuff gauntlet, Yeo Woo-hee scoffed and boldly slashed the encircling monsters.
Golden mana flowed wherever her blade went.
Killing the first wave that pushed her hard, she felt confident.
The second wave felt annoying.
From the third, she started feeling tired; fourth, out of breath; fifth, minor scratches appeared.
Only on the sixth did she realize the boss had no intention of appearing, so she focused on scouring the domain for monster traces instead of attacking.
Coming up empty, she faced the seventh turn and sustained critical wounds to her legs and abdomen.
‘By now, Byun Woojin’s probably already closed his gate and left. The top assassin’s reputation is ruined. Can’t show off to that dawn bitch like this.’
Clicking her tongue, Yeo Woo-hee staggered to her feet. The monster corpses underfoot disgusted her.
Shaking off the gore from her feet, she exhaled at the regenerating common monsters.
‘Multiple Hooks.’
Golden mana and black claw marks appeared in the air, shredding the surrounding monsters.
Yeo Woo-hee ducked low to dodge a blade swung from behind and whipped her leg out.
Another blade extended from her leg, severing the monster's lower body.
‘The common monsters' respawn rate is slowing slightly. Could it be I can’t beat the boss until my mana’s depleted?’
No corner seemed to hide the boss. It was probably behind a wall, but no suspicious ones.
Analyzing common monster patterns repeatedly yielded no clue to the boss's location.
Eventually, she punched walls at random, wasting energy.
After defeating the seventh turn's monsters, Yeo Woo-hee collapsed to rest briefly.
Her wounds from the fight were too numerous. She jabbed syringes taken from dead hunters into herself and rose to face the monsters again.
Thus came the eighth turn, ninth turn.
Having used most recovery syringes and enhancers, Yeo Woo-hee sprawled gasping on the floor.
Then the tenth turn began.
‘The pattern’s changed...?’
From the tenth, the stale circular formation introduced new patterns.
Monster corpses gathered and merged into a massive monster form.
A huge shadow loomed over Yeo Woo-hee, leaning against the floor.
She spat blood and staggered up.
‘Not a big deal.’
But her legs and arms began trembling.
Quick with calculations, Yeo Woo-hee compared her current strength to the unknown monster before her.
‘Not a big deal.’
Sneering, she turned and bolted with a pale face.
Kwaaaaang!
The monster's hand slammed where she'd been, the shockwave alone lifting her body airborne.
Rolling with a breakfall, debris scratched her skin. Yeo Woo-hee racked her brain for a solution.
Direct confrontation was impossible.
Blind flight had limits.
‘Hide and wait for backup?’
As she fled, the monster's massive foot descended. Yeo Woo-hee leaped aside, sent a support signal, and grimaced in frustration.
‘Not a big deal. Simple. I can do it. I’ll get out alive.’
Self-hypnotizing, Yeo Woo-hee bit her lip hard. Blood seeped from her anxious bite.