All Day Long (1)
Yu Jihun had been staring at Sagosul’s back for a while when the masked man turned around, exposing the front of his mask. The moment he did, Jihun’s mind grew hazy.
A mask was meant to be worn on the face. Naturally, its effect manifested most powerfully from the front, not the back.
‘Huh…? What was I even thinking about…?’
Yu Jihun’s eyes went completely blank.
Right then, Kang Hae-il arrived.
“Thanks for speaking up for me, Yu Jihun.”
With a heavy thud, Kang Hae-il dropped into the seat beside him, clearly exhausted. Sweat poured down his entire body.
Yu Jihun glanced at him from the corner of his eye and handed over a bottle of ice-cold water—one he had created himself with his magic.
“Drink.”
“Ah… thanks.”
Kang Hae-il tilted his head back and chugged it without hesitation.
He looks more exhausted than I’ve ever seen him.
Having run several operations with Kang Hae-il, Yu Jihun could tell today’s version of the man was different. No matter the level, fatigue had never seemed to be part of Kang Hae-il’s vocabulary. He only stopped when an enemy knocked him down—he never stopped on his own. Even when injured, he recovered almost instantly.
“My wounds aren’t healing at all today…”
Kang Hae-il let out a shallow sigh and clutched his bleeding elbow.
“That’s strange. Isn’t recovery part of your ability?”
Yu Jihun eyed him with open suspicion.
“Someone’s injured here and you say ‘that’s strange’? Don’t you think that’s the strange part?”
Lee Suyeon cut in.
“I’ll heal you.”
Yu Jihun immediately objected.
“It is strange. You’re only saying that because you don’t know what Kang Hae-il’s abilities are really like.”
“Good grief. When people get tired, their abilities drop too. What’s so weird about that?”
A low hum resonated from Suyeon’s hands as warm light enveloped Kang Hae-il’s wounds, slowly closing them.
Even as the healing took place, Yu Jihun refused to drop his suspicion.
“Now that I think about it, what’s with the sudden change of heart today, Kang Hae-il?”
“Change of heart?”
Kang Hae-il answered indifferently, but Yu Jihun pressed harder.
“Why did you try to form some kind of peace treaty with Grozya? How could you trust a monster like that?”
Kang Hae-il hated monsters just as much as Sagosul did. From what Yu Jihun could tell, it stemmed from some incident involving his family. Yet here he was, trying to compromise with Grozya. Why?
“I was trying to get him to attack me.”
“What!?”
Yu Jihun’s eyes widened in shock. It was the last answer he had expected.
“You were trying to get hit? On purpose by Grozya?”
Lee Suyeon looked up from her healing, equally stunned.
Kang Hae-il nodded.
“Yeah.”
He had known that a clever monster like Grozya could use deception. In fact, he had counted on it.
“That way I’d have justification.”
He believed Grozya’s behavior would give them the justification needed to kill the World Boss on the spot.
“What if you died in the process?”
“Then you two would kill Grozya.”
“......”
It was astonishing tenacity.
“So why are you going this far to kill him?”
“Because I can’t trust him. Because he’s dangerous.”
Suyeon couldn’t argue. The near-death experience they had all witnessed had already proven his point.
“But Sagosul already had the right answer. I just ended up looking like an idiot. That’s all there is to it.”
Kang Hae-il muttered with clear defeat in his voice. He had been willing to throw his own body into the fire to find the solution, yet the masked man had known the answer from the very beginning.
“Don’t pay any attention to that masked pervert,” Suyeon said, trying to comfort him. “He’s… Ah, never mind.”
She shook her head, deciding against whatever she had been about to say. “Anyway, he’s not a normal person.”
“Is this because of the Porter?”
Yu Jihun suddenly interjected.
“Huh!?”
Lee Suyeon’s eyes went wide. “W-what does the Porter have to do with Sagosul!?”
“I was asking Kang Hae-il.”
“Ah…”
“I asked if he gave up on taking down the World Boss because of the Porter.”
“......”
Kang Hae-il denied it at first.
“I just didn’t have any justification, that’s all.”
“Since when have you ever cared about justification?”
“......”
He had no response. That was true.
“Looks like I’m right,” Yu Jihun said with a mocking smile. “Don’t let that guy jerk you around too much.”
“I… always repay my debts. That’s all there is to it.”
“That’s different from this.”
“Don’t tell the Porter.”
“Do you really think I’d bother talking to him?”
“Fair enough.”
Both men turned away from each other and let out simultaneous snorts of laughter.
“......?”
Suyeon couldn’t follow the conversation between these two manly idiots and simply looked confused. Her mind had already gone completely blank after Yu Jihun’s comment seemingly linking Sagosul to the Porter, making it difficult to think about anything else.
She quickly changed the subject.
“All done. Let’s just clock out already. Those two can figure out what to do with Grozya.”
Suyeon brushed off her hands and stood up to leave.
“Riel, you too. Come over here.”
“...Ah, yeah.”
Kim Ri-el, who had been sitting at a distance, walked over.
“We’re all heading out from here. If you guys have nothing better to do, go help carry other awakeners. We need to get as many people to level 30 as possible.”
“Yeah, that sounds good.”
The mood was settling into a calm conclusion when—
“GRAAAAAHHH!!”
Grozya suddenly began convulsing violently.
“!?”
Everyone jumped into combat stances, but Grozya thrashed as if bound by invisible chains, unable to move even a single step.
Then—
THUD!
“?”
Grozya suddenly collapsed.
“What the… Did the skill wear off?”
Yu Jihun assumed it was simply a temporary glitch in the skill’s effect.
Grozya
Health: 87%
The rate of decline only accelerated.
Grozya
Health: 70%
Grozya let out a gurgling, agonized sound.
“Krrrk…! Krrraaagh…!”
Grozya
Health: 41%
Yu Jihun panicked and shouted.
“What are you doing!? Grozya is dying!”
The constellations watching were equally shocked.
What was even more surprising was that Sagosul himself seemed just as confused. His head moved frantically as he whispered to Isilen.
“Isilen? I only asked you to make him light enough to fly away. There was no need to kill him like this.”
He had asked Isilen for two things: cognitive magic to help civilians evacuate, and a weight-reduction spell to make transporting Grozya easier. Reducing the mass of a creature this large required high-level magic, so he had needed help.
Apparently Isilen was providing far more service than requested.
“I didn’t do it.”
“...What?”
That couldn’t be right. If not her, then who?
Junil’s eyes grew urgent.
The World Boss was dying.
Grozya
Health: 22%
Junil had no idea why. Could it be Ram’s interference? Would they really intervene this blatantly? Wouldn’t that warrant punishment?
His gaze flicked to the right edge of his vision.
He was still far from level 30. This couldn’t happen. Why was Grozya dying? Or rather—was he actually dying?
Junil quickly examined Grozya’s condition. That was when he noticed a black pattern glowing intensely near the back of the monster’s neck.
That symbol… it’s the same one.
It was the same mark that had been engraved on the F-grade necromancers who had tried to pull that prank earlier. And now it was on the World Boss too.
Grozya
Health: 12%
I see.
Junil finally understood the situation.
He’s going to die.
He didn’t know why, but Grozya was definitely going to die. Which meant Junil would fail.
It was a hopeless situation. But he was a hero. A professional one. The more dangerous the situation, the colder his mind became as it searched for the best possible move.
There was only one thing left to aim for.
Grozya
Health: 3%
Even if it’s just the last hit… it has to be me!
Shing!
He pulled Syrvelis’s Sacrificial Sword from his inventory—the small dagger radiating an eerie light—and stabbed Grozya with it.
STAB!
Grozya would surely give a massive amount of experience. As a World Boss, it had to be enormous. If it was enough to push him to level 30, Junil would survive. It was a gamble, but it was his only option.
“KAAAAAAGH…!”
Being stabbed made Grozya writhe even more violently. His blackened body gradually turned white as it froze solid. The black flames were frozen by the cold of Syrvelis.
Grozya
Health: 0%
Grozya died by Junil’s hand.
“What the… What the hell are you doing!? Why kill him now!? Are you insane!?”
Yu Jihun roared.
“Shut up!”
Junil roared right back. You’ve already passed level 30, you bastard!
Of course he was upset. Among everyone present, Sagosul was the only one who hadn’t reached level 30 yet.
'Grozya' has become a subordinate of death.
📍 Effect: Can be summoned at any time.
Grozya’s body vanished, transported to another dimension as Syrvelis’s thrall. Only the dead could become subordinates of death. In other words, the World Boss was gone.
To the observers, Sagosul’s action looked like spitting on a perfectly good meal. But for him, it had been the best possible move.
Please…!
Junil closed his eyes and offered one last prayer.
Please!
Those few seconds felt like ten thousand years. In that brief moment, a massive number of constellations flooded into the channel. They had to come see his experience bar to know Sagosul’s fate.
This was the first time the viewer count had broken three thousand. Under the gaze of all those eyes, his experience bar rose.
His level did not rise.
“...To whom?”
That was when it happened.
CRRRRRRRRRK—
Static began to flood the connection.