Chapter 4
Chapter 4
“Siwoo! Lee Siwoo!!”
“Ugh... huh?”
“Are you awake? How do you feel?”
When I regained my senses, the empty cavern and the countless mountains of skeletons came back into view.
“Momo...? Wasn’t I in the corridor?”
“What are you talking about? You suddenly opened your eyes and walked outside.”
“I did?”
What the hell? Sleepwalking? But I’d never sleepwalked before, and I hadn’t even fallen asleep in the first place.
“Yeah! I kept calling you, but you wouldn’t answer. Then you suddenly started moving, so of course I panicked!”
“Ah... sorry. I don’t really understand it either...”
I was sure I had been concentrating and then saw someone who looked like me... no, another version of myself...
“More importantly, do you remember it?”
“Remember what?”
“What else? Emergency Evasion Maneuver! I went through all that trouble to make you learn it!”
“Ah... wait a second...”
I focused my mind again.
‘It’s not going to move my body on its own again, right?’
Thankfully, that didn’t happen. Instead, an image began appearing inside my head.
[Emergency Evasion Maneuver : OFF]
“What is this?”
“You can see it? Looks like it’s working properly! That’s the execution interface I created using all of my knowledge, a real-time analysis and interpretation correction system combined with the primordial blessing application ver.8.3.7.5!”
“Uh... so I just press this?”
I changed the OFF setting to ON with a thought.
“It changes just by thinking about it...”
[Emergency Evasion Maneuver : ON]
“Hm... but I don’t really feel any different.”
“Really? Then... ah! Pick up that rock over there.”
Following Momo’s instructions, I picked up a stone about the size of my fist.
“What? What are you trying to do?”
“Now look at the ceiling.”
I raised my head and stared into the darkness above where the ceiling couldn’t even be seen.
“Okay, I’m looking.”
“And now... throw it!”
Momo sounded as excited as a child playing with a brand-new toy.
“Throw it!”
I tossed the rock upward, and it flew above my head.
“Huh? But then wouldn’t this—”
Maybe I was weaker than I thought, or maybe the rock was heavier than expected, but it quickly lost momentum and started falling straight toward my head.
“AAAAAAAH!!!!!”
They say your body freezes when you panic hard enough.
Turns out it’s true.
The stone plummeted toward my skull, and I couldn’t move. At this rate, my head was definitely going to get smashed open by the very rock I had thrown myself.
But then—
Woooong—
“Huhhh?!”
Suddenly my body jerked backward, and I crashed onto my butt.
“What... just happened...?”
The falling rock slammed into the ground between my legs and shattered into pieces.
Right before the stone could crush my skull, some mysterious force had yanked my body backward. My ass hurt like hell, but at least my head was still intact.
“How was that? That’s Emergency Evasion Maneuver! The ultimate technique that can dodge any attack!”
“My body... moved on its own...”
“Ah, that’s normal. It automatically controls your movements.”
“Ugh... now I really understand why you said it was dangerous... If my body reacts by itself like that, I could seriously die.”
“Well... like I said before, the odds of that happening are very low, so don’t worry!”
Even with Momo sounding completely confident, I still couldn’t shake off my anxiety.
“So can we leave now?”
“Yeah. Since you learned Emergency Evasion Maneuver, you probably won’t die immediately.”
“Good. Which way do we go?”
Naturally, since I had no idea where I was going, I had to ask Momo for directions.
“First, go back to the center where you fell.”
“Okay!”
I immediately retraced my steps and returned to the place where I had first landed.
◆◆◆◆◆
“So many skeletons... What the hell happened here while I was gone...?”
The mountain of skeletons looked exactly the same as before.
Well, I hadn’t been gone that long.
“Head west. There’s an exit there.”
“West? Which way is west?”
I climbed onto the pile of bones and looked around, but I couldn’t tell directions at all.
“The place we came from is south, so just go left.”
“Left... that feels ominous.”
“Stop saying weird things and move already.”
“Okay, okay. Don’t rush me.”
I followed Momo’s directions and started walking left.
The farther we went, the darker and more sinister the surroundings seemed to become.
“Ugh... I’ve got a bad feeling about this...”
“Quit whining. If you don’t get out soon, you’re going to starve to death here.”
After walking for a while, we found another entrance about the same size as the corridor leading to Momo’s room.
“Is this it? Can we get out through here?”
“As far as I remember, just keep going.”
Unlike the corridor with Momo’s room, which had been sealed by a door, this one was completely open. Either it had never had a door, or the door had been destroyed long ago.
But somehow, the endless corridor only made my fear worse.
It felt like I was walking straight into the jaws of some giant beast as I slowly moved forward.
◆◆◆◆◆
“Oh! I can see the end!”
After what felt like forever, we finally reached the end of the corridor.
The opposite side was wide open too, letting us see what lay beyond.
“What the... it’s another plaza...”
Beyond the corridor was a massive open area similar in size to the one I had first fallen into.
“There are skeletons everywhere here too...”
Mountains of bones filled every corner of the plaza.
“Siwoo, wait.”
“Hm?”
Just as I was about to step out into the plaza, Momo stopped me.
“There’s... something ahead.”
“What?”
I tensed up and focused my eyes forward.
There—
“That’s...”
Clatter!—
A walking skeleton was wandering around.
“That thing again...”
I sighed and carefully sidestepped so it wouldn’t notice me.
“Wait.”
“Hm? Why?”
Momo stopped me as I tried to retreat.
“Look carefully. That skeleton is holding a sword.”
“Oh... you’re right. But doesn’t that make it even more dangerous?”
“You should fight it.”
“...What?”
Momo had just casually volunteered me for a death match.
“W-What are you talking about?! That’s not just a skeleton anymore, it’s a skeleton with a sword! There’s no way I can beat that!”
“Huh? You have Emergency Evasion Maneuver. You won’t die, so it’s fine.”
“T-That may be true, but still...”
“If you leave this place, you’ll have to fight things way worse than that.”
“Well... that’s true, but...”
Damn it. I couldn’t argue when she was completely right.
“Come on. Hurry up.”
“Haah...”
Unable to refute her logic, I hid behind a pile of skeletons and started observing the creature.
“Are you just going to keep staring at it?”
“Hey, wait! Know your enemy and you’ll win every battle!”
“It’s ‘never retreat in a hundred battles,’ idiot...”
“Whatever! Same thing!”
Ignoring Momo’s sarcasm, I continued observing.
Like the first skeleton, this one didn’t seem intelligent. It just wandered around aimlessly with a sword in one hand.
‘No intelligence... and it doesn’t seem very fast...’
The sword in its hand was a rusty iron blade. Old or not, it was still deadly to me.
‘Actually, the rust probably makes it worse... There’s no way they have antibiotics in a place like this...’
Even with Emergency Evasion Maneuver, I had to assume that getting hit once meant death.
But the real problem was that I had no weapon.
The previous skeleton had been small with plain white bones, but this one was larger, and its bones reflected a faint black sheen that gave off a sinister aura.
“Just so you know, that thing was probably a knight when it was alive.”
“A knight? Does that matter?”
“Of course it does. Undead monsters are heavily influenced by what they were before death.”
“So then...”
“Well, it’s weaker now since it has no intelligence, but it’s definitely not an easy opponent.”
“Ghk...”
I immediately discarded the sneak attack idea from before. If it had once been a knight, it would dodge that sloppy attack effortlessly.
I needed another strategy.
But just like before, if I got too close, it would notice me and charge with its sword swinging.
‘There’s gotta be something...’
I carefully scanned the area around the skeleton.
‘Huh? If I use that...’
And then, I came up with a plan.
A pretty dangerous one, but...
‘It’s the only option...!’
It was the best plan I had.
“Momo—”
“Oh, I forgot to mention. I’m absolutely not helping you.”
“That’s not it...”
I made a request to Momo.
“...What?”
“This much is okay, right? It’s not really helping.”
“No... seriously?”
“Yep!”
Momo sounded completely baffled by my request and kept asking if I was serious.
“Haah... fine. I guess there’s no helping it...”
◆◆◆◆◆
A little later, after finishing my preparations, I slowly approached the skeleton.
Clatter—
The skeleton noticed my footsteps and turned toward me.
I spread my legs apart slightly and raised one hand to my face.
“Hear me! The destroyer of worlds has descended upon this land!”
Clatter?—
Staring at the skeleton through the gaps between my fingers, I continued dramatically.
“Accept your miserable fate!”
I grabbed Momo, who had been strapped diagonally to my head.
“Now come! I shall destroy your world!”
Then I hurled Momo at the skeleton like a boomerang.
“I-I’m going! D-Destroy... Beat!!!!!”
Unfortunately, Momo only flew halfway before dropping pitifully onto the ground.
“Hm... this wasn’t really how I imagined the plan going.”
I scratched my head while staring at Momo lying on the floor.
Clatter?—
The skeleton also seemed confused by my behavior and froze briefly.
But—
Clatter!
It quickly remembered its purpose and charged toward me.
“Damn it!”
I faced the charging skeleton and ran straight at it.
CLATTER!!!
Once we got close enough, it swung its rusty sword diagonally toward me.
I lowered my body and charged even faster.
“Ghk!”
Woooong—
I felt my center of gravity suddenly shift, and my body rolled sideways automatically to avoid the attack.
‘It really does dodge perfectly...’
Once again, I realized how absurd Emergency Evasion Maneuver truly was as I quickly rushed over and grabbed Momo.
“Momo! Are you okay?”
“Yeah...”
For some reason, Momo replied while sounding deeply unimpressed.
I secured her back onto my head and stood up.
Clatterrr—
The skeleton stared at me, seemingly shocked that its attack had been completely avoided. This time, it lowered its stance like it had no intention of letting me dodge again.
“...I think it’s angry.”
“Well, if it was a skilled swordsman in life, it’s understandable that a rookie like you dodging its attack would piss it off.”
“But it’s dead.”
“It’s a high-ranking undead. Habits and instincts from its previous life still remain.”
“Huh? Really? I don’t get it...”
While I was talking with Momo, the skeleton’s aura grew even more sinister.
“Uh... then...”
CLATTER!!!!!—
The skeleton launched itself at me with terrifying force.
“Yeah, I’m screwed.”
Woooong—
Once again, my body was violently pulled away.