Chapter 101
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 101
A B-Rank Hunter.
“……”
Sure, anyone could become a Hunter if they Awakened, but that didn’t make a B-Rank a nobody.
Above all, he was a 1st-Grade Citizen by birth.
“……”
He didn’t just live in the city; he was classified as 1st-Grade because he helped protect it.
As such, he was treated with respect and admiration wherever he went. That was what it meant to be a 1st-Grade Citizen in this world.
“……”
It was a status that warranted immense confidence.
“…Uh…”
Enough confidence to dispose of a mere 3rd-Grade Citizen however he pleased.
“…W-what… Where is this?”
Staggering to his feet, he barely managed to push up his limp, strengthless body.
“What on earth…?”
Park Eun-gyeom, a 1st-Grade Citizen and B-Rank Hunter, looked around.
“…Is this a Dungeon?”
There was a reason a man with his experience was asking such an obvious, foolish question.
“A Dungeon like this actually exists?”
Everything was completely achromatic.
Glaring white. Abyssal black. Light gray. A slightly darker gray. A gray bordering on black. A gray close to white. A gray that gleamed like glass. A gray that shimmered as if it were alive. Gray. Gray.
He had been dropped into the middle of a gray city.
“……”
His breath hitched, his lungs feeling as if they were stuffed with cotton. He clawed at his chest instinctively.
Reason told him nothing was physically wrong, but it wasn’t a feeling of being filled with something. This was…
“…W-what is this…”
A chilling, terrifying lethargy. He couldn’t muster any strength. It felt as though every muscle in his body had vanished.
“Where the hell is this?”
He felt so hollow, as if the very concept of lungs had ceased to exist within him. Even as he spoke, his tongue felt absent. He couldn’t tell if his vocal cords were vibrating, and his own voice sounded alien.
“…What on earth…”
The emptiness encroached on his body with an eerie sense of wrongness, yet the transition felt so natural it was as if someone were whispering in his ear, This is how it should be.
It began with his breath catching in ragged gasps, until his airway seemed to disappear entirely. His once-pounding heart fell into a silence that was incomprehensible amidst the bizarre terror.
Even the warmth at his fingertips was fading.
“This is crazy. No, no way…”
Faltering, the man quickly scanned his surroundings.
Gray here. Gray there. Gray this way. Gray that way.
The buildings were dull, simple rectangles, yet they also captured the characteristic curves of Seoul with an artistic touch—some built incredibly tall, others extremely short.
Built?
Who could have built this?
This is… this is a Dungeon. Right, a Dungeon.
But something was wrong. Too many things were completely empty.
This damned gray city looked obscenely vast, packed with countless buildings, yet there wasn’t a single trace of life. What kind of Dungeon in the entire world could be this quiet?
I can’t even feel any hostility.
He used to think terror was Monsters rushing to kill him, but he was wrong. The true terror was this endlessly vast Dungeon simply staring at him, doing absolutely nothing.
It was just watching him.
“……”
I’m scared.
Scared?
Am I scared?
…I can’t even distinguish a single emotion anymore…
First, his breath had gone.
Next, the organs extending from his lungs and the warmth they generated. After that, his emotions.
“Ugh, ugh…”
What would be next?
Bit by bit, the existence known as ‘Park Eun-gyeom’ was vanishing.
“…Ugh!”
Shaking his head violently, the man rubbed his hands together.
Don’t think weird thoughts. What do you mean, vanishing? My hands are right here, and they aren’t even cold.
All of this was just an illusion. It was a form of mental attack from the Dungeon, meant to make him wither and die.
He had panicked for a moment because he’d never been in such a silent Dungeon, but he wasn’t about to go down so easily.
“If this is a Dungeon, what kind is it?”
Was it a Mobile Type or a Fixed Dungeon? A Virtual Dungeon, a Villa Dungeon, or an Entry Dungeon?
Forcing himself to take a calm, deep breath, the man’s eyes darted around.
“I was definitely… dragged by those… those hands…”
He couldn’t remember the exact details. He did, however, remember encountering a certain Frame in the ‘Vein of Jewels’ and being forcibly dragged away by transparent hands that crawled out of it.
The man’s expression, which had been hardening with the resolve to survive, instantly crumpled.
It wasn’t anger, but despair and terror.
“……”
He remembered the moment he was dragged into the Frame.
“…Gasp…”
The memory of his body melting and flowing away like Paint was terrifyingly vivid.
…I-I shouldn’t think about that. Panicking more in a situation like this will only lower my chances of survival… Right, I need to pull myself together. Pull myself together…
He tried to force himself to stay composed, but it wasn’t easy.
It had been a truly bizarre sensation. Had it been painful? It felt like it. Had it been peaceful? No, definitely not.
The feeling of those transparent hands grabbing him, starting from his feet, as he was devoured by the Frame, his body slowly melting like wax. That pain.
How could he ever forget the feeling of becoming a living, thinking liquid?
“……”
He had lost consciousness from the pain and been dragged all the way here, unable to resist…
“……”
And so.
“……”
What was he planning to do again?
“…Ah, ah, ah.”
Thud!
The staggering man collapsed backward onto the ground.
“Ugh…”
Now, even his thoughts were dissolving into the void.
I can’t go on like this.
He didn’t know what kind of Dungeon this was. Its structure might be similar to Dungeons he knew, but its nature was entirely different. Still, as a B-Rank Hunter, he instinctively realized that this Dungeon was like a mutant.
That meant his chances of survival were even lower, but it didn’t matter. To be precise, he was losing the ability to think.
Realizing that after pain and fear, he was now transitioning into a state where he couldn’t even think, the man struggled desperately to do something.
“Get up. Let’s get up. Get up and…”
His body had been devoid of strength for a while now. It was a sensation similar to his pre-Awakened days, when he had just woken up or collapsed from overwhelming emotions.
But even that thought sent a shiver down his spine.
Is this Dungeon draining away the very strength I should naturally possess?
The suspicion had taken root.
After floundering on the ground like an overturned bug, the man finally managed to stand. Incomprehensibly, black soot now covered him, perhaps from rubbing against the dark gray asphalt.
No, not soot. It felt like… Paint was rubbing off on him.
Paint?
Only then, far too late, did the man realize whose Dungeon he was in.
“…Black Cloak…”
Hadn’t it been a popular topic of conversation lately?
“…Black, Black Cloak…!! Right, that bastard…!! That monster bastard!!”
Even in a place like this, his deep-seated arrogance and rage couldn’t be contained.
His current state—dragged here like a stray dog, floundering so miserably—was the work of that monstrous bastard.
A mere vulgar monster, no better than a beast, doing this to a human…!
“Fuck, fuck, fuuuck!! You’re just a pathetic monster who goes around handing out useless gifts…!!!”
He didn’t even know what he was screaming.
If he were a more knowledgeable and capable Hunter, he might have realized this place was inside the ‘Black Cloak’s’ stomach and shown the utmost humility and remorse.
But if he were that kind of person, the ‘Void City’ would never have dragged someone like Park Eun-gyeom here in the first place.
Gio’s children knew exactly what their parent disliked. It was beings like this, who didn’t know their place.
“Pant, pant… sob…”
After thrashing about for a long time, the man moved his trembling feet and slowly began to leave the spot.
Even though everything looked the same, every Dungeon had to have an exit. A Dungeon with no way out couldn’t exist. Such a thing couldn’t be called a Dungeon. So there had to be one. Of course there was. Yet, the question still remained.
Why on earth did the Black Cloak…?
Although the Hunter Association had assigned it a high response rank, the people managing that information were all human. They might have just been overly cautious. The description said to exercise caution, but in reality, the Black Cloak had never harmed a human.
Though a few dumbasses died because it suddenly left its post…
The man, briefly recalling the ‘Deep Sea Kingdom’, shook his head.
I’ve never heard of it attacking like this.
The ‘Black Cloak’ he knew was a pathetic monster that would pop out, give a gloomy greeting, hand over a gift, and then vanish. It was so trivial that he had even heard nonsense about people gathering to chat about it to pass the time…
Why would a monster like that target me?
He was painfully dragging his feet, one by one, when…
“……”
He froze.
His body went rigid.
“……”
Ignoring his jaw, which creaked like an unoiled hinge, he turned his head to look behind him.
“……”
“……”
A Suit was standing there.
“…What…”
“……”
“What are you?”
It was a pitch-black suit.
Its color seemed modeled after the shadows of a lightless basement. Even the shirt was black, with every single button fastened so meticulously it looked suffocating. The matte black shoes somehow looked incredibly solid.
With its hands clasped behind its back, it was simply staring at him.
…Staring?
What was he babbling about? He was looking at something that didn’t even have a face.
No, in the first place… how did I…
…know that thing was behind me?
“……”
Despite not feeling a single trace of a presence, he knew the ‘Suit’ was there.
“…Ah…”
He couldn’t tell what kind of ink was seeping into his emptying brain. He had no idea what he was turning into.
“…G-get away.”
“……”
“Get away, you monster bastard. This, this is just… I’ll…”
“……”
“I’ll seriously…”
Keeping the Suit in his line of sight, the man faltered and backed away. He constantly checked behind him, fearing he might bump into another Suit, but there was nothing.
As he retreated, the Suit he had first seen didn’t come any closer either.
“……”
“……”
Even after he had put a considerable distance between them, the Suit remained perfectly still.
Having made up his mind, the man bolted.
“Hieek…!!”
His legs lacked strength, causing him to trip and fall onto the rough asphalt multiple times, but he was in no state to care.
“Haa, pant, gasp…!!”
As he ran…
“Ack…!!!”
“……”
“Ah, ugh. Ugh…!!”
Once again, a pitch-black suit caught his eye.
It was walking slowly with its hands behind its back, but from the angle of its turned body, he could tell it was staring at him. Its moderate pace, like someone on their way to work, gave off an unbearable sense of wrongness that forced him to choke back a scream.
Even so, he ran. He fell, scraped his skin, and ran again. He didn’t have the luxury to wonder why he, a B-Rank Hunter, was feeling pain from mere asphalt.
Crazy…!!
After that, he kept encountering Suits.
When he looked to the left, there was a pitch-black suit sitting on a bench, staring at him as he ran.
When he looked to the right, there was a Suit running slightly slower than him. It, too, was turned toward him, staring.
When he looked ahead, there were two Suits. They stood still, watching his movements.
And when he looked behind…
“……”
Right behind him, behind that, a little further away, and in the alleys, inside the buildings, beyond the glass windows, on the rooftops, under the streetlights, next to the benches, inside the bus stops, inside the convenience stores, inside the cars, inside the buses—there were black suits walking, running, and standing still, all staring at him.
“……”
And then…
What if he looked ahead…?
“……”
If he looked ahead…
What would happen?
“……”
The man felt a black suit exhale right beside him.
“Ugh…”
He couldn’t turn his head forward again.
It had no presence, yet it possessed an undeniable existence. Even though it was just clothes moving, it felt as if a living person were inside. No, it could never be called human, nor should it be… but still.
“…Gasp…”
The man slowly turned his body and sank to the ground.
“Ugh, uuuugh…”
As he crouched pathetically, his own state came into view.
“Haa… Argh… Ugh…”
From his skin, raw and stinging as if scraped by sandpaper, black Paint was rubbing off instead of blood.
“Ugh…”
With trembling, pitch-black hands, the man clumsily felt his face. It was wet.
“……”
Turning his head to look at a building’s glass window, he saw his own reflection, mottled and pitch-black. The dirty black stain, like a patch of rot, resembled a hollowed-out chunk of flesh.
“……”
He hurriedly felt around his face, but there was no hole. Yet, the shadow was there.
The man bowed his head and repeatedly felt his body. He looked at his pants, now pitch-black as if smeared with wet tar, and at the legs inside them, and then…
“……”
“……”
“……”
He raised his head.
“Wow, look at this person.”
A chillingly familiar voice rang out.
“Why is he so mottled?”
“He’s incomplete.”
“So he can be called an unfinished Work.”
It was his own voice—Park Eun-gyeom’s.
He looked at the crowd of pitch-black suits that had surrounded him at some point, all looking down.
“……”
They didn’t surround him so tightly that there was no escape, but there were many of them. They looked just like citizens spectating a person having a heart attack on the street.
He shuddered at the terrible sense of wrongness.
“Wow, look at this person.”
The exact same voice.
“Why is he so mottled?”
“He’s incomplete.”
“So he can be called an unfinished Work.”
The exact same lines.
“……”
And.
Park Eun-gyeom felt his throat.
“Wow.”
“…”
“Look at this person.”
…He couldn’t speak.
“Why is he so mottled?”
“……”
“He’s incomplete.”
“……”
“So he can be called an unfinished Work.”
“……”
“……”
“……”