Chapter 112
Chapter 112
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 112
Chapter Title: Already Opened It?
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◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Jang Jojun and his group continued wandering through the building. It had already been three hours since they entered. Yet they still hadn't found anything—not even a Buddha statue, let alone the exit.
Moreover, the windows that should have connected to the outside were shrouded in darkness, making escape through them impossible. They had no choice but to keep opening doors endlessly, until something worthwhile appeared.
The only gain Jang Jojun had gotten from entering this concrete building was a single exhausted gumiho whose magic power was depleted. Of course, that alone was a massive profit, but the ever-greedy Jang Jojun wanted more—the gumiho's little sister and whatever dangerous thing was hidden somewhere in this building.
If that was impossible, he at least wanted to walk out with either Lee Ju-ha's sister or one of the building's hidden treasures.
'Damn it... where the hell is that thing...'
In the meantime, Lee Ju-ha desperately searched for her missing little sister. Hours had passed without a single trace of Lee Eun-ha. Despair was slowly creeping into Lee Ju-ha's heart.
Eun-ha might already have been captured by the ethnic Koreans who entered the building. Or some threat lurking inside might have already claimed her life.
The thought filled Lee Ju-ha with anxiety and fear. She had told her sister to run because she might die at the hands of those ethnic Koreans, but now she was the one surviving while her sister faced death. Regret gnawed at her, driving her to the brink of madness.
'Eun-ha... please... be safe... Your big sister will come find you soon...'
Lee Ju-ha's throat burned dry, and she felt like she was losing her mind worrying about her sister. Seeing her anxious and frantic state, Jang Jojun placed a hand on her shoulder to comfort her.
"We'll find her. So don't get too worked up. That's how accidents happen."
"Y-yes, I understand... I don't have any abilities anyway. I was just worrying too much... Sorry for making you worry..."
Lee Ju-ha wanted to urge them to search faster, but she was already intimidated by Jang Jojun, so she could only mumble excuses in response.
Soon, they opened another door. This time, it revealed a cramped room with a cabinet and a desk. It was so small that all five of them could barely fit inside—like a staff break room.
"Looks like a break room for mart employees this time. My lord, shall we go in?"
"Nah, too cramped. Close it and open again."
"Got it!"
The building's interior contained thousands of rooms, countless corridors, restrooms, and all sorts of spaces. With such variety, Jang Jojun couldn't get a sense of what the building had originally been used for.
One door led to a hospital room with an operating table; another to a hotel bedroom; yet another to an old elementary school classroom. The inside felt like a twisted mash-up of times and spaces.
'All these spaces gathered in one building... that's definitely weird... Maybe...'
Jang Jojun suspected these random spaces weren't real parts of the building but illusions created by something within it.
It was as if the building was randomly generating places etched into human memories.
'There has to be some rule... The problem is figuring out what it is... Still, to escape quickly, I need to find it.'
Jang Jojun racked his brain to uncover the rules. Over the next hour, he tried opening doors in various ways repeatedly, and finally grasped the building's principles.
The first rule of the concrete building:
It reflects the psychology of the person opening the door to create the space beyond.
For example, someone desperate to escape would find endless corridors for running; someone craving rest would get a staff lounge or empty hotel room, like just now.
If hungry people opened doors, restaurants or supermarkets appeared—though they only mimicked food, with nothing edible.
Thinking it showed what people desired, Jang Jojun had Lee Ju-ha try opening a door. He hoped her desperate wish to find Eun-ha would lead to her. But all she got were detective agency offices or police stations.
'It never gives what you want—just rooms that make you think you might get it. Next question: where does it pull the detailed designs and forms from...'
He soon found the answer to that too.
“…This looks like my grandma’s house…?”
“…It looks that way to me too…”
"What?"
"Oh, I mean... this is Grandma's house."
"This is your grandma's house?"
"Yes."
The room Hotaru opened was the living room of an old wooden house with tatami mats. She suddenly felt the same nostalgic vibe as her grandmother's home. Even her girlfriend, the gyaru Nanasawa Rei standing beside her, sensed the same.
From this, Jang Jojun inferred the building created spaces by drawing from the memories of those inside.
'The type of room changes based on current desires or emotions... and it pulls fragments of the opener's memories to build the details... Then...'
Now he had all the clues to find Lee Ju-ha's sister.
First, Lee Ju-ha had to open the door. As North Korean sisters, she and Eun-ha likely shared similar sensibilities. Plus, if Lee Ju-ha channeled the emotions Eun-ha felt while fleeing the ethnic Koreans...
They might reach wherever Eun-ha had gone.
"Got it? Imagine what Eun-ha felt, then open the door. You're the key to finding your sister."
"Y-yes... The emotions she felt while running..."
Lee Ju-ha placed her hand on the doorknob and pondered deeply.
Her powerless sister must have felt suffocation and terror in the forest, guilt for abandoning her big sister, and a desperate wish to escape. It wasn't hard to imagine.
'Eun-ha above all... wanted to get out of here... So, with intense desire to escape... mixed with fear... and terror...'
Creak...
Lee Ju-ha opened the door, revealing a corridor utterly different from before.
It felt ancient and dilapidated, thick with dust, footprints from previous passersby imprinted on the floor.
She had nailed it instantly. By mirroring Eun-ha's emotions almost perfectly, she reached the last corridor Eun-ha had passed through.
As Jang Jojun predicted, the concrete building built spaces from the opener's emotions and memories—only interior locations from those memories, excluding anything outside.
It also made entrants wander endlessly if they sought something or fled from something, until exhaustion.
That's why the ethnic Koreans hunting the Lee sisters kept looping through rooms. Jang Jojun's group, after the idol, did the same. The sisters, seeking escape from the ethnic Koreans, spun in circles too.
The building only guided those with one pure purpose—escape—to its deepest core. Most humans had entered this massive structure in the forest seeking gains.
But they could never reach the core. Only those who gave up everything, yearning just to breathe outside air, were lured deepest.
Ironically, it drew in those who abandoned all desires except escape. It wearied people, then devoured those desperate to leave. A truly malevolent curse.
Eun-ha, fleeing after abandoning her sister, felt various emotions until she thought: I don't need sister, idol, or god—just let me escape this freakish place and go home.
At that moment, the building invited her to its deepest heart.
Thus, Eun-ha reached the red door at the end of this rundown corridor. Lee Ju-ha had precisely captured her sister's mindset to arrive here.
"I have a feeling your sister's beyond this door."
"Me too..."
Gulp...
The group reached the red door at the corridor's opposite end. Lee Ju-ha couldn't shake the sense that Eun-ha was behind it—her sister had opened it and was trapped inside. She was certain.
"Alright. Opening it..."
The one fixed destination in the concrete building: the red door.
Jang Jojun opened it.
Creeeak...
"Uh..."
Nothing beyond the door.
Just dark and ominous. Walls blackened, candles that had burned moments ago melted down, extinguished.
A grotesque, twisted-neck Buddha statue glared at them with a ferocious scowl.
The group hesitated to enter the chilling room. While peeking from the entrance, Seong Ha-rin spotted something.
"There's a wooden box over there..."
"Yeah... The one covered in talismans. It's wide open now..."
In one corner lay a square wooden box, newborn-baby-sized, top ripped off, talismans torn away, lid flung open.
Someone had clearly opened it already. Maybe Eun-ha.
'That's definitely the kotori bako... Problem is, someone already opened the sealed box... and whatever was inside escaped...'
Jang Jojun grabbed Seong Ha-rin's shoulder as she curiously stepped in, pulling her behind him.
Yang Ji-sang had been freaking out since the entrance opened, screaming to run.
"Ha-rin, wait. Something's in there. Entering starts the fight... No guarantee of survival."
"S-sorry..."
Seong Ha-rin stepped back. Her Blue Moon Beast instincts made her charge ahead, but Jang Jojun stopped her—wrong move could mean death.
In that split-second distraction, Lee Ju-ha tried rushing in. Jang Jojun hugged her from behind, holding her back.
"B-brother... Eun-ha's scent... it's here. Eun-ha...! Eun-ha!!! Big sister's here!! Come out quick!! Eun-ha!! No!! Eun-ha's in there, I tell you!! Let me go!! You bastard!! Let go!! I'm going to find my sister!! Let go of my hand!!"
"You crazy bitch! You can't go in there! You'll die!!!"
"Let go!!! Please...! I'll just die anyway...! S-sob... Just let me go, please... Oh, Eun-ha..."
Jang Jojun held Lee Ju-ha tight, refusing to release her. She was too valuable to lose. Enslaving her was his only gain here—losing her meant wasted time.
'Damn... What the hell's in there... Feels so ominous...'
He'd felt this chill before: facing the Boxman in the black market, head in a wooden box full of eyeballs.
Viscous malice seeped out, prickling his skin. One mistake, and half his group could die. Only he and Ha-rin might survive. Too big a loss.
'Evil gods... you there? Need some help...'
Jang Jojun pulled his cheat key: the evil gods monitoring his every move, even sleep.
Bound by event rules from giving much info, they'd at least hint on escape now that he'd reached the end.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Hm. It was blatantly a trap, hoped you wouldn't enter... No helping it now. To escape that space, kill what's occupying the room.] Indicron's words made Jang Jojun think they were doomed. A blatant trap. Had he over-relied on his Luck 666?
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [But killing the trash occupying it grants rewards. Summon Kyseria. Or call that vicious dragon slayer.] Indicron advised using an ultimate move. Kyseria's cooldown was up, and he had one 'Dragon Slayer's Amulet' to summon the dragon slayer once, earned as a reward.
For reference, summoning Kyseria unleashed a massive version for ~3 minutes of devastation, but the summoning burden made Jang Jojun faint, with a 2-week cooldown.
The dragon slayer had no risks but lasted only 1 minute per use, and might ignore if busy.
'Damn, who to call...'
Both hated being summoned for weak fights, dropping affinity. Was the kotori bako strong enough?
Absurdly, Jang Jojun now worried the enemy was too weak.
Hotaru, the onmyoji trembling at the deathly scent, would call him insane if she knew—he'd never seen them personally.
'If they deem it trivial... damn.'
As he pondered, Kashnax spoke.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [My First Tentacle... is available too... She never drops affinity, no matter what.] 'No, that's even scarier to summon...'
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Ahem...] Kashnax cleared her throat awkwardly and vanished.
After the forced contract he couldn't break, Jang Jojun warily eyed uncontrolled Ainax. Her lewd scheme just fizzled.
'Too cramped for Kyseria. Ainax... might reverse-rape me. Only option: dragon slayer...'
Jang Jojun pulled the Dragon Slayer's Amulet from his inner pocket. If busy, it might fail, wasting the summon.
'Please be free... and satisfied with this guy...'
He tore it.
⚠️ WARNING!! WARNING!! ⚠️ ['Unmanned Zone' Ravager enters the simple dungeon!!!]
⚔ SUMMON ⚔ [Demon Dragon Hunter, 'Great Dragon Slayer Siegfried' manifests in the mortal realm!!!] [NPC not meant for current version!!!] [Summon burden borne by Dragon Slayer!!] [Penalty removed!!] [Summon duration ~1 min. Amulet destroyed!!] Alerts cleared his vision.
Jang Jojun's reliable ally—the strongest human he knew—appeared.
A nearly 3-meter-tall giant of a man, radiating overwhelming presence that questioned his humanity.
In his hand: a dragon head the size of a human torso. He'd been dragon hunting moments ago.
'What the...?'
Hotaru couldn't stop shaking at his arrival—facing him felt like defeat. Lee Ju-ha, hysterical for Eun-ha seconds ago, hiccuped and collapsed.
"Hahaha! Long time no see, or is it?"
The dragon slayer tossed the dragon head aside, laughed heartily, and slapped Jang Jojun's back. HP visibly dropped.
"No time—tell me the enemy to slay! The glasses guy? The fox? Blue Moon Beast is here, but not her. Come on! Which one!! Who's your foe!!"
Jang Jojun swallowed his churning guts and pointed beyond the red door.
"Th-there. Inside."
"Hoo... That's... something viciously evil possessing a human body. Hold on."
Boom!
He leaped past the stunned group, sheathed his sword, entered, and shut the door—to contain the destruction.
Soon, sounds of crushing, pulverizing, shattering echoed from beyond.
Creeeak...
The door reopened in a blink. The dim storage room now blazed with light. The grotesque Buddha lay in rubble; the kotori bako box burned to ash.
Above all, unconscious Eun-ha was cradled in the dragon slayer's arms, soot smeared on her skin.
'What the hell happened in there...?'
Jang Jojun couldn't imagine it. The monster that could've wiped half his group was shredded in seconds, Eun-ha rescued.
"Hahaha! No big deal. Forgot the strategy since it's been ages—took extra time. That baby-stealing box was novel. Next time, smash the warped Buddha first, then the box. Most don't know, but those two are the real body. Black aura's pointless—destroy them to start the true fight."
"Uh, th-thanks!!"
"Heh. Time's up—heading back. Oh, exit and rewards inside. See ya! Drinks next time!"
"Y-yes! Truly, thank you!!"
In 25 summon seconds, he shredded the kotori bako and saved Eun-ha unscathed.
He even shared the strat, left drops and the dragon head, then departed—trivia to him.
An NPC with insane, detached specs. More shockingly, Jang Jojun was buddies with him.
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