Error Code 666
"Error code 666, huh. Come to think of it, that popped up a few times back when I was working as an analyst."
Even with Error Code 666 blazing across his vision, Ryu Hwi was the picture of calm.
Confirmed. Error Code 666. A garbage error, if I may say so. The very structure of this game labyrinth is trash — the kind of error that feels like Yggdrasil throwing a tantrum. lololol
Ryu Hwi couldn't quite laugh at the phrase "Yggdrasil throwing a tantrum."
Because that tantrum had killed people — or reduced them to hollow shells — more times than anyone could count.
[On a related note, I can only sigh at your sheer foolishness, Master. Even the YggON system cannot simply wave off this particular error code. Should you die within the region where Error Code 666 has manifested, you will most likely die for real — Master or not.]
"Well, yeah. Figures."
If the source of Error Code 666 lay with Yggdrasil itself, then even YggON — the one and only UR — would be subject to its effects.
[Then why, pray tell, did you enter the boss room under these hazardous conditions?]
Ryu Hwi had charged into the boss room knowing full well that Error Code 666 had gone off.
It wasn't that he had no regard for his own safety.
But…
"Agos, you really are a piece of work, you know that?"
Ryu Hwi caught the conversation of a party that had just fled the boss room.
"Using a party member as bait to cover your own escape… if word of this gets out—"
A woman in the group, dressed head to toe in the gear of a thief, spoke with a worried expression.
"Get out? Even if that idiot somehow crawls back alive, it won't matter. I'll just say the slow-witted fool failed to escape and is trying to pin it on me out of spite. Who do you think people will believe?"
"…Fair point, I suppose."
The man holding the shield nodded along, apparently convinced.
Ryu Hwi pieced together the situation without much effort.
The moment Error Code 666's death game had triggered, they had sacrificed a comrade and run.
"He was dead weight anyway — no reason to mourn baggage."
"That's so cold of you. Weren't you two friends?"
At the thief woman's words, the man who seemed to lead the party gave an awkward, empty laugh.
"Friends? That guy's nothing but a fool who never learned to see the world as it really is."
In other words: trash doing what trash does.
And so…
"Got a minute? Let's have a little chat."
"Huh? Wha— Gah! Ryu7017?!"
First, he'd smash these annoying pieces of trash to bits. Then he'd head for the boss room.
The dungeon's standard design barred anyone from intruding on a boss fight while another party was running it. However, when Error Code 666 occurred, that restriction vanished.
It was a bare-minimum failsafe — a rescue mechanism for gamers trapped in mortal peril.
Ryu Hwi owed nothing to other gamers. He had zero desire to get tangled up in other people's messes.
But.
Deep down, irritation was boiling over.
"This is so filthy and annoying that I think I'll take it out on something."
[An answer of astonishingly low character. Truly, you are my Master. lol]
Pushing forward under the stream of YggON's insults, he arrived at last before the boss of Floor 10.
It was a knife's-edge moment.
A gamer on the verge of death.
And a colossal boss, axe raised high, about to bring it down on the man.
Ryu Hwi closed the distance in a single burst and batted the descending axe aside with a parry.
"R-Ryu Hwi?!"
A stunned voice came from behind him.
He glanced back at the gamer — a man who looked weak-willed at a glance, the type whose face promised he'd fold under pressure.
The way he sat slumped on the ground, drained of all strength, somehow reminded Ryu Hwi of his past self.
"If you walk out of here alive — what do you want to do?"
The question left Ryu Hwi's mouth before he even realized it.
He didn't know why he was asking it himself.
At the question, the man's face twisted into something complicated. In his wavering eyes, a fierce flame gradually took root.
"Revenge."
The voice that first left his lips was so faint it barely reached Ryu Hwi's ear — yet it carried a tremendous force.
"Is that so."
Ryu Hwi answered in an indifferent voice.
"I couldn't care less whether you go through with your revenge or whatever else you do…"
Just a stranger he'd happened to run into. Their paths would never cross again.
"But I'll at least give you the chance to get what you want."
Die here, and nothing would ever be achieved.
"Back off, so you don't get caught in the crossfire."
Ryu Hwi turned his back on the man and looked up at the boss.
[Designation: Giga Minotaur. It appears to be a reinforced variant of the Titan Minotaur that served as a boss in other dungeons.]
The Titan Minotaur.
Among the dungeon bosses Ryu Hwi had cleared, its attack patterns were relatively simple — but it was a monster that had boasted terrifying, backbreaking power.
[You were no doubt planning to challenge it after gacha-ing out a comfortable stack of upgrades. How unfortunate that things went sideways. lolol]
Ryu Hwi checked his own status.
Normal Tickets: 247
Guaranteed SR Tickets: 12
Random Box Points: 55,730 RP
▸ SR — Gunsword(ygg)
▸ SR — Shoes of the Wind God
▸ SR — Summon Beast: Rammut (Infancy Stage)
▸ SSR — Intuition Lv. 2
▸ SSR — Enchant Lv. 1
▸ SR+ — Sword Saint Lv. 4 (Parrying)
▸ SR+ — Instant Step(ygg) Lv. ☆
▸ SR+ — Dragon Ascension Qigong – Dragon(ygg) Lv. ☆
▸ SR — Iaidō Lv. 1
▸ SR — Hawkeye Lv. 1
▸ SR — Teleport Lv. 1
▸ SR — Meteor Strike Lv. 1
▸ SSR — Delete
▸ SSR — Limit Break
Since entering the Tower, Ryu Hwi hadn't so much as touched a single skill upgrade — not since the random box spree he'd run to celebrate breaking through Floor 1.
His reasoning was simple: better to hoard everything until he reached the pity ceiling, then pull all at once.
The pity system's current tally was entirely from those random boxes he'd spun back on Floor 1.
World of Phantasm
32 / 300 pulls
Even if he burned through every ticket he was holding, he wouldn't reach the pity ceiling.
Because I prioritized clearing fast…
He'd logged in every day to collect login rewards while grinding missions and achievements, but the accumulation was falling short.
"Well, since it's come to this — let's just spin the random boxes as our victory celebration."
[And then you'll cry when you bomb out of the pity. I know exactly how this goes.]
"……"
This damn robot vacuum!
Ryu Hwi cursed the thing out in his head.
The massive half-man, half-bull Giga Minotaur flashed its crimson eyes.
Ryu Hwi's objective was the Tower itself, top to bottom.
This enormous bull was nothing more than the first wall standing in his way.
<GWOOOOOOOOOOOAH!!>
Letting out a roar that threatened to split his eardrums, Giga Minotaur swung its axe.
Giga Minotaur's first attack pattern.
A crude, brute-force assault that relied entirely on its ten-plus-meter frame and raw muscle.
Blocking it head-on was impossible without a truly outstanding defense skill.
Unprepared parties routinely failed to handle even this opening attack, scrambling this way and that until they were wiped out to the last member.
To face Giga Minotaur, a tank capable of holding the line was an absolute necessity.
Of course…
Parrying — SR+ Sword Saint Lv. 4
That was a matter that had nothing to do with Ryu Hwi.
He stopped an axe several times his own size with a single blade.
And not merely stopped it — he deflected it so hard that Giga Minotaur's arm was flung up toward the heavens.
Even with the perfect opening laid before him, he didn't rush in to attack.
Relying solely on videos and strategy guides was a mistake he refused to make.
Ryu Hwi intended to verify the enemy's patterns with his own eyes.
Giga Minotaur swung its axe again and again, and each time, Ryu Hwi's parry turned it aside.
[Pattern change.]
After several blocked attacks, the minotaur's horns ignited a burning crimson.
Giga Minotaur's second attack pattern.
Crimson Thunder.
From its horns, red-tinged lightning swept outward in every direction.
Caught in that crimson storm, a target took devastating damage. Against anyone with weak health or resistances, a single strike was lethal.
And since the lightning's strike points followed no fixed pattern, dodging was its own nightmare.
[Intuition is straight-up cheat code. lol]
But to Ryu Hwi, the paths of those randomly falling bolts of crimson lightning were laid bare as if drawn in neon.
He strolled between the falling bolts with the light, unhurried steps of a man out for an evening walk.
Truthfully, the Witch's Hideout had been far more dangerous than this.
36, 37, 38…
Moving at his leisure through the crimson thunder, Ryu Hwi counted the seconds.
According to the strategy guides, Crimson Thunder held for forty seconds.
Right on schedule, at the forty-second mark the light in the horns faded and the lightning ceased.
Spent of its power, Giga Minotaur staggered.
It was the perfect opening — but this time, too, Ryu Hwi didn't move. He simply watched, quietly tracking the enemy.
The staggering minotaur steadied itself into a new stance.
[Pattern change again.]
YggON warned.
Giga Minotaur neither swung its axe nor spat lightning.
It simply stood there, glaring at Ryu Hwi.
Meeting that flashing crimson glare, Ryu Hwi steeled himself.
The most dangerous pattern — the third — was coming.
When its first and second attacks failed to fell an enemy, Giga Minotaur would escalate to the third.
The first two could be handled well enough with Parrying and Intuition.
The problem was the third. Ryu Hwi wanted to confirm whether he could actually stop this one.
Giga Minotaur's horns dyed crimson once more.
Unlike before, when its power had simply radiated outward, that force was now gathering and focusing into the axe.
Ryu Hwi's Intuition prickled and crackled, screaming danger.
Crimson Thunder Slash.
Exactly what its name promised — a single strike condensing the full might of the crimson lightning.
Its power was in a category the previous two attacks couldn't even compare to.
Most defense skills couldn't block it outright, and the shockwave of crimson lightning that followed would annihilate everything in its wake.
This was the moment Ryu Hwi had been waiting for.
Could he actually stop this attack?
That was what he wanted to find out.
[Master, I know exactly what you're thinking, but with Error Code 666 active, this is dangerous. Master. Master. Are you even listening to me?]
YggON babbled on, but Ryu Hwi pretended not to hear a word of it.
The Gunsword was wreathed in light.
Gripping it in both hands, Ryu Hwi drew a deep breath.
Intuition sounded its alarm.
The optimal path to survival surfaced in his mind, smooth and automatic.
But Ryu Hwi deliberately ignored it.
<GRAAAAAAAAAAH!!>
With that monstrous bellow, Giga Minotaur brought its axe down with everything it had.
A single blow carrying the minotaur's full power — the narrow instant where life and death crossed paths.
Into that narrow instant, Ryu Hwi gladly stepped forward.