Omniscient Sunfish (1)

"Hey, Dokja-ssi? Do I really have to tag along?"

"Yes. No exceptions."

I whined at Kim Dokja in all sincerity this time, genuinely not wanting to set foot in the Theater Dungeon. She paid my complaints zero attention, eyes locked on her phone. Still, she answered every time I spoke, which I was grateful for.

"Why me, though? Why do I have to go?"

"Who has the highest combat power in our party right now?"

"Everyone's good at different things, so it's hard to say. Hyunsung-ssi is an outstanding tank, Heewon-ssi is our damage dealer, Sangah-ssi and Gilyoung are supports, and you, Dokja-ssi, can handle offense or defense—basically an all-rounder… I'm just a merchant."

"You don't seriously think of yourself ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠as a mere merchant, do you…?"

Kim Dokja shot me a look of pure disbelief. I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠scratched my cheek and looked away under that stare.

"I only know how to protect myself. Merchant through and through."

"…Among our party members, not a single one could have lasted eight hours against last night's monster wave. So right now, the person with the highest combat power in our group is you, Jinwoo-ssi."

Damn it…

I hadn't jumped into that monster wave just to grind skill levels and combat experience. There was a very specific reason I hated the idea of the Theater Dungeon.

I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠get motion sickness like crazy…

Two of the movies inside the Theater Dungeon were set on the ocean: Titanic and The Battle of Myeongnyang.

I was born with severe motion sickness. Depending on my condition, even twenty or thirty minutes in a regular car could set it off. High-speed buses, city buses—I'd get so sick I'd pass out like I was dead. And boats… Anyway, and now she wanted me to board a ship?

Fuck… I hate motion sickness…

Just imagining myself on a boat already made the nausea rise. I wanted to tell Kim Dokja I couldn't go because of seasickness, but then she might ask how I knew we were heading somewhere that would make me sick. Worst case, I'd plant seeds of suspicion. Completely stuck between a rock and a hard place. I was going insane.

"Look at the time already. Everyone, let's head out…"

"Wait, Dokja unnie!"

After staring at her phone for several minutes, Kim Dokja slipped it into her pocket and was about to tell the party it was time to enter the Theater Dungeon when someone called her from behind. We turned. It was Lee Jihye.

"Where are you going right now?"

"Perfect timing. Jihye, you're coming too."

"…Where?"

"Yoo Joonghyuk is in danger."

"Our master? You're joking, right?"

Lee Jihye snorted, treating Kim Dokja's words as a joke. But when Kim Dokja's expression stayed stone-cold, the smile drained from Jihye's face.

"…You weren't joking? You meant that for real? How do you even know our master is in danger, unnie?"

"That bastard went into the hidden dungeon at Exit 1, didn't she?"

"Y-yeah?"

"And it's been eleven hours since she went in?"

"Y-yeah…"

Lee Jihye made a blank, idiotic face at Kim Dokja's words and let out a dazed sound.

"If we leave her like this… Yoo Joonghyuk dies today."

"……Then I'm coming too. But if that turns out to be a lie, I won't let it slide even if it's you, unnie."

"Fine. Just follow me."

Kim Dokja nodded with a hard expression at Lee Jihye's words, and together with her we headed for the entrance to the "Hidden Dungeon" on the basement first floor—the place called "Daehan Cinema."

I already want to leave…

I stared at the messages floating in front of me with dead eyes. Four thousand coins were tempting, but the motion sickness—and the future of me boarding a ship—terrified me more. The rest of the party had no idea about my suffering, so they strode into the Theater Dungeon without a shred of hesitation.

"Why are you so drained all of a sudden, Jinwoo-ssi? Are you feeling sick?"

"…I guess I'm just a little tired. Wait—are you actually worried about me? I'm touched, Heewon-ssi."

"If it gets too hard, just say so, okay?"

"Haha, thanks for saying that."

Jung Heewon watched me shuffle along listlessly with concern in her eyes. I wanted to make a big fuss over her kindness and thank her properly, but the seasickness waiting for me had my heart in too much turmoil. I just didn't have the energy.

"Unnie, was that for real? About Master being in danger?"

Lee Jihye asked Kim Dokja. She still looked suspicious, eyeing her doubtfully.

"How do you even know that? And why are you trying to save our master anyway?"

"She's a companion."

"Cut the crap."

"Because she's a useful bitch."

What the hell? Only Kim Dokja gets some?

"What about me? I'm going to save her too…"

"I might just yank that tongue out…"

Hm?

Just as I was feeling a tiny bit hurt that Uriel only looked after Kim Dokja, the Demon King Asmodeus sponsored me coins. I was genuinely grateful… but I was also the kind of man who would repay kindness with betrayal if it meant more coins.

Chance to earn coins.

Looking at Asmodeus's message floating before my eyes, I spoke in a voice thick with emotion.

"As expected, Demon Kings are better than Archangels? The Demon King is way nicer than the Archangel."

They're surprisingly easy to handle.

Thanks to that, I'd earned three hundred coins. Still, the fact that a little prodding made them start fighting through messages again really drove home how bad their relationship was.

We kept walking deeper into the Theater Dungeon. Then Lee Gilyoung spotted something and pointed.

"Noona, all the posters are torn up. Who would do that?"

"Who knows."

We looked around the basement first floor for a bit, but found nothing except the shredded posters. Then Kim Dokja pointed at a stopped escalator.

"Let's head upstairs first."

We started climbing the escalator at her words. From behind me came the voices of Jung Heewon and Lee Jihye chatting.

"Hey Jihye, you use a sword too?"

"Yeah, I love swords."

"Right? Swords are the best. There's just something about the feeling of cutting."

"Unnie, you know that feeling too?"

I couldn't help snickering at the banter of these poor melee damage dealers who had zero ranged options.

"Heh heh… This is why melee DPS are like this."

"What did you just say…?"

"What did you say, oppa…?"

Ah…

Looks like the words I'd been thinking had slipped out of my mouth. I carefully glanced back. Jung Heewon and Lee Jihye were glaring at me like they wanted me dead.

"…I said swords are the best. Melee over ranged, right? Wow~ and our Jihye's sword looks awesome! Where'd you get that?"

For the sake of survival I praised swords to the heavens, then immediately complimented the longsword hanging at Lee Jihye's waist. Her eyes lit up at the praise and she drew it. The way she whipped it out so fast made it pretty clear she'd been wanting to show it off a little.

"This is what Master gave me. Super cool, right? What about you, Heewon unnie?"

"Mine is… m-mine is nice too."

Jung Heewon seemed intimidated by the luxurious, gleaming blade in Jihye's hand and subtly shifted her horned knife to the opposite side of her waist, hiding it.

We were still joking around as we climbed when Lee Gilyoung suddenly yanked hard on Kim Dokja's sleeve. She put a finger to her lips and whispered to the party.

"Shh. There's someone else here."

Lee Jihye and Jung Heewon put their hands on the swords at their waists, eyes sharp with caution. We held our breath for a moment, and then small signs of people started coming from the lobby.

"What the hell? We already tore most of them. Anything left?"

"There's one left over here!"

"…But you're sure, right? That there's a ton of them here."

"I told you. Info I bought from the 'Prophets' for a thousand coins."

"They're a bit shady, but their info is solid."

Pressed flat against the escalator, we eavesdropped on the men gathered in the lobby.

While listening, Lee Jihye whispered.

"Who are those guys? I've never seen their faces around Chungmuro."

"Probably came in through the surface entrance."

"The surface? That place is covered in poisonous fog. And the scenarios…"

"The type and progress speed of scenarios differ by station. These are guys who finished their scenarios faster than ours. Mild poisoning can be handled by eating underground species meat."

Kim Dokja said it casually, but she was glaring at the men in the lobby with a fairly startled expression.

"Alright, let's go in."

The men finished talking, stood in front of a movie poster that hadn't been torn yet, and a blue spotlight suddenly switched on in midair. The men touched by that blue light vanished from sight.

"W-what just happened?!"

"All four of them disappeared…"

Jung Heewon, Lee Jihye, and Lee Gilyoung all jumped in shock at the men vanishing right in front of them.

We gathered in front of the movie poster where the men had last stood, and with a pop the blue spotlight switched on again—this time aimed at us.

"Aaaah! What is this?!"

"U-uuuh."

"Huh? Nothing's happening?"

"You guys are adorable."

Lee Jihye and Lee Gilyoung flailed their arms at the blue light in panic, while Jung Heewon squeezed her eyes shut in fear. When nothing happened no matter how much time passed, she carefully opened them again with a look of relief. It was genuinely cute.

Kim Dokja asked Jung Heewon, who was still spacing out behind her.

"Heewon-ssi, do you like movies?"

"Of course. Doesn't everyone?"

"Then from now on, you might start hating them."

"Huh? What do you mean all of a sudd—"

In the blink of an eye we were no longer in a movie theater. We stood in the middle of a dense forest thick with green undergrowth. Everyone except me and Kim Dokja whipped their heads around in pure panic, scanning the surroundings.

"Where the hell are we?!"

"Uwaah! Why are you screaming right next to my ear?!"

"O-oh? Sorry, oppa! I just panicked…"

Lee Jihye had squeezed her eyes shut and screamed at the top of her lungs—right in the direction of my ear. My eardrums got terrorized. But it wasn't on purpose, so I couldn't really yell at her…

"We're inside a movie."

Kim Dokja told the still-dazed party members.

"Seriously, the most ridiculous things just keep happening…"

Jung Heewon, quick to adapt, listened to Kim Dokja and looked like she accepted it right away.

"Unnie, what movie is this?"

"If I'm not mistaken… this is Jur■■sic Park…?"

"The dinosaur movie?! How are we supposed to clear that?! Wait—hey, kid, what are you doing…"

Lee Jihye was still reeling from my words when she spotted Lee Gilyoung walking alone toward the underbrush and called out to him. He ignored her and kept going.

In that instant the bushes rustled, and something shot out toward Lee Gilyoung. Its true form was a giant mantis—roughly forty centimeters long. Lee Jihye freaked out at the sight of the huge mantis, hastily drew her longsword, and shouted.

"Hey! Kid! Get back, now!"

Unlike Lee Jihye, who had drawn her blade in a panic to help him, Lee Gilyoung calmly snatched the body of the giant mantis flying at him and spoke.

"This is a Titanoptera. An insect from the Triassic period."

"W-what?"

Lee Gilyoung locked eyes with the mantis in front of him, studying it carefully, then broke into a bright smile. Lee Jihye looked back and forth between him and the mantis, then asked Kim Dokja with a blank face.

"That kid… what is he?"

"Fabre."

Kim Dokja's simple, clear answer left Lee Jihye speechless. She just stared at her with a vacant expression.

A moment later, though, Lee Gilyoung's face—while he seemed to be conversing with the mantis—started turning pale.

"Hm? Gilyoung, is something wrong?"

Jung Heewon spoke up at the sight of his ashen face.

"Noonas! Hyung! Something's coming!"

Lee Gilyoung spun around toward us in a hurry and shouted.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

"W-what the hell! The ground…!"

The moment Lee Gilyoung finished speaking, the earth began to shake. The sound of trees shattering, human screams, and something massive approaching made every face in the party go white.

"Kyaaaaah!"

"S-save me!"

The men we'd seen earlier in the theater lobby came running toward us, covered in blood and screaming.

"Those are the guys from the first floor earlier…!"

"They're covered in blood from head to toe…!"

Lee Jihye and Jung Heewon trailed off as they stared blankly at the jungle behind the men. Through the trees, the form of a massive dinosaur appeared. That giant dinosaur was a T-rex.

"W-we need to run too…!"

"What are we supposed to do if a T-rex just pops out like this?!"

"Forget that—get ready to run already!"

Lee Jihye and Jung Heewon stared at the T-rex in pure terror. Kim Dokja hurriedly scooped up Lee Gilyoung and prepared to flee.

GROOOOAAAR——!

"Kid's got some lungs on him."

And I leisurely looked up at the roaring T-rex.

"Jinwoo-ssi?! What are you doing! Hurry and run…!"

"Oppa, do you want to die?! What are you doing standing there!"

"Jinwoo-ssi!!"

"Jinwoo hyung!!"

The party members all screamed the moment they spotted me casually staring up at the T-rex. I ignored them. I couldn't miss the chance to check something off my bucket list.

Click!

Without a word I pulled out my anti-materiel sniper rifle and aimed it at the T-rex.

"I've always wondered! What dinosaur meat tastes like! So… get in my stomach! T-rex! I'll eat you deliciously!!"

"You crazy bastard—!!"