The Phantom Thunder Dragon
Hmm.
Hyun Si-woon stared in silence at the massive rock island.
Where do I begin?
The upper section—the Prisoner's Sanctuary—had a clear strategy. The reward waiting at the end was just as certain.
A shield skill: Guardian's Barrier.
Yeon-ho hyung needed to learn it, and so did he. The one relief was that, unlike the second floor, it wasn't limited to a single person. Anyone holding a shield could acquire it, and the difficulty was manageable enough.
The real problem…
was down below.
That unknown whirlwind waiting to shred a body to pieces the moment you fell. In truth, the answer had already been decided.
I go in from there.
Why? Because the difficulty of that whirlwind was hell itself. The odds of succeeding on the first try were nearly zero. Failure meant death, and death meant regression—meaning he would have to redo everything he had accomplished since entering the fourth floor.
“…….”
Knowing he would die and still having to walk in. The knowledge that he would have to repeat it all over again pressed down on him like a suffocating weight.
It's fine. You're used to this.
Hyun Si-woon soothed himself. Even so, he couldn't stop the faint tremor in his fingertips. Familiarity dulled nothing. Pain did not vanish simply because he had grown accustomed to it. Flesh tearing, bones shattering. The terror of being flung into cold empty air as consciousness snuffed out. All of it would lodge in the fragments of his memory and devour his mind.
And after he regressed? Hwang Dae-un would freeze in terror again, and Si-woon would have to coldly drive him forward once more. Then he would have to cross these islands all over again.
Heh heh.
Ha-wol, reading his emotions, laughed.
As expected, a fraudulent power always comes with a savage price. Nothing in this world is free. Keep your wits about you, you brat. If you collapse, who will carry out this lady's revenge? Did you set your sights on treasure without even that much resolve?
Her words were a dagger—and a whip at the same time. She was right. No one here had shoved him toward that spear. Every step had been Hyun Si-woon's own choice. Because he wanted to grow stronger. Because he refused to miss even a single hidden route. So who was there left to blame?
Let's go.
Hyun Si-woon's eyes hardened, becoming far calmer and more unshakable than before. There was no more wavering. He turned to his teammates.
“Everyone wait here.”
His voice was low but firm.
“From this moment on, no matter what I do, do not follow me and do not panic. Just stay put and hold position. Even if I fall while crossing. Got it?”
“W-what are you talking about?”
“……Fall?”
Tap!
Hyun Si-woon didn't wait for an answer. He kicked off the ground and sprinted across the chain bridge, racing toward the massive rock island. His movements were fluid—swift and sleek as a black panther.
“Si-woon!”
“Oppa!”
Desperate cries erupted behind him and scattered on the wind. He never slowed. He rolled across the ground, planted a foot on a jutting boulder, and launched himself forward, carving through the space as if it were a perfectly designed parkour course. And when he had nearly reached the great rock island, his gaze was already fixed on its lower edge.
Then—
“Hup!”
He leapt without a second's hesitation.
Whoooooosh!
His body surrendered to gravity and plummeted.
“H-Hyeong-nim!”
“No!”
Watching him fall without understanding why, the teammates could only scream in horror.
Pressure crushed his entire body. The wind screaming past his ears grew sharper by the second. Even as he fell, Hyun Si-woon kept his eyes open.
I'm sure of it.
Back when he had played the fourth floor, he had fallen thousands of times. Drop anywhere else and it was a straight death by impact—but fall toward this whirlwind and some force would seize the character and drag it in. And then—
Whoooooosh!
Just as expected. The instant his body entered the whirlwind's reach, the downward plunge turned sideways. He was pulled horizontally, like iron filings caught by a colossal magnet.
Crack! Zzzzzzt!
Blue lightning coiled around him. A searing jolt spasmed through his muscles, but it wasn't enough to kill him.
Wooooom…….
How long was he dragged? The ferocious gale simply stopped, as if it had never existed. Hyun Si-woon's feet touched solid ground. He steadied his staggering body and looked around.
He stood inside an enormous cavern. But it was no ordinary cave. Floor, walls, and ceiling were all made of golden sand, and between those grains of sand blue lightning writhed and crawled like living snakes.
……This is insane.
Ha-wol's voice trembled with shock.
This place…… is the heart of that whirlwind?
Her gaze drove deeper into the cavern, toward the darkness coiled at its farthest end. And there she saw it.
Grrrrr…….
A low, threatening growl. Two enormous eyes flared open in the dark. Golden sand began to writhe, shaping itself into a single form. A massive horn. Razor claws. A mane of lightning covering its entire body. It was an Eastern dragon formed of sand.
You have discovered the ‘Phantom of the Thunder Dragon’.
You have been granted 30 minutes.
Within 30 minutes, pull the spear embedded in the phantom’s head.
H-how are we supposed to face something like that……!
Ha-wol recoiled in terror. That aura was no mere illusion.
The grade of the soul dwelling inside it is far too high! That level is High Ranker territory—maybe even beyond! No mere Climber could ever stand against it! How in the world is something like that sitting on the fourth floor of the Tower?
Her cry was only natural. The pressure radiating from the Thunder Dragon surpassed every existence they had faced so far. The alligator-headed Ranker? The Hound-race Ranker Penlark? Even they would crumble to a handful of sand before this creature.
But I’m not here to kill it.
What Hyun Si-woon had to do was simple: pull the spear from its head.
Krrrrrm!
The Thunder Dragon rose. Golden sand cascaded down like a waterfall. Between the two horns on its crown, a pitch-black spear was driven deep—like an enormous wedge.
“……I’m going.”
Hyun Si-woon did not hesitate. The first time he had encountered this quest in the game, he had died thousands of times. Through those deaths he had learned. The Thunder Dragon possessed a full forty-eight patterns. Simple tail sweeps, claw rakes, and Thunderlight Breaths were actually the easy ones. True hell lay in the unpredictable combos—slamming its tail into the ground to scatter sand shrapnel while firing lightning from its wings, or warping the surrounding space with a roar alone to lock movement before unleashing its breath. Every pattern was an instant-kill, and the tell that preceded each one lasted barely a second.
Kyaaaaaaah!
The Thunder Dragon roared and charged. Hyun Si-woon dredged up his gaming memories and flung himself sideways on pure reflex.
Early on: right foreleg stomp followed by left-wing lightning.
He barely slipped past it.
Next?
Which pattern was it? He whipped his head up—and the creature was simply too vast. He couldn’t see properly.
……Damn it. My field of view—
That was as far as the thought went.
BOOOOM!
“Ghk!”
A tail he never saw coming smashed into him from outside his vision. He felt his body burst apart before he could even register the pain.
It had been a long time since his last death.
Special Privilege Ability, ‘Regression’, has activated.
This is your twenty-second regression.
“Haa.”
He opened his eyes. He had expected this, but he had still died faster than planned.
“The Floating Prison, Asphodel.”
Baek Yeon-ho was reciting the words right in front of him.
“That’s the other name for the fourth floor. Everyone stay sharp. One wrong step here and it’s over.”
“Hoo.”
Hyun Si-woon exhaled. What came next was obvious. Hwang Dae-un would freeze up again because of his fear of heights, then overcome it. But Si-woon’s patience was not generous enough to wait for that. What if he died again in the meantime?
“Everyone, listen up.”
His low voice pulled every gaze to him.
“Change of plans. We stop advancing here. For the time being, we train right where we are.”
“Train?”
“Here?”
Baek Yeon-ho asked, puzzled.
“Yeah. Drill the martial arts basics I taught each of you until they’re solid again. I’ve got somewhere I need to go alone. It’s a critical hidden route only I can take—extremely dangerous.”
“Y-you’re going alone?”
The members were flustered, but Hyun Si-woon was already sprinting toward the chain bridge.
Grrrnd……!
An island tilted; the next one tilted with it. He hopped across them in rapid succession and vanished into the distance in the blink of an eye.
“……!”
Every member stood with their mouths hanging open, staring after him. Hwang Dae-un muttered,
“Yeah, that really does sound dangerous. I’ll shut up and train. Ahahaha!”
“I definitely had the wrong idea.”
Hyun Si-woon muttered as he ran.
Wrong idea about what?
“It worked when I was a character.”
From a wide third-person view he could watch the Thunder Dragon’s entire body, catch the minute twitch at the tip of its tail or the rise of its mane, and react in advance. Reality was different. First-person perspective. Standing at the feet of that colossal Thunder Dragon, all Hyun Si-woon could see were its legs and part of its belly.
From this lady’s perspective, you should give up. There is simply no Climber who could dodge something like that.
“No. Giving up isn’t an option.”
Hyun Si-woon cut her off at once.
“If I were the type to quit, I never would have pulled you out of the depths of the Path of the Dead either.”
Y-you little……! The way you talk……!
“Stop heckling from the sidelines and think about how you can help. The stronger I get, the sooner you’ll find that Moon Spirit group or whatever it is, right?”
His blunt words left Ha-wol momentarily speechless. There was not a single falsehood in them.
……Hmph. So what exactly do you want this lady to do? Pluck out your eyeballs and stick them on top of that dragon’s head for you?
“Pretty much that level of help.”
What?
“Memorize every single word I’m about to say.”
What are you talking about?
“You’re floating right beside me. Your field of view is wider than mine—exactly like the monitor I used to stare at when I played the game.”
If his own vision couldn’t cover it? Then he would use Ha-wol. A woman who had memorized countless martial manuals beyond her own arts would have no trouble locking down a mere forty-eight patterns.
……So you intend to use this lady as your support, is that it?
“What, you don’t want to?”
Hmph. When did I ever say I refused? If that is the only way, then let us try it.
“When the mane on its back rises and turns blue, that’s the Breath. Shout ‘Breath.’”
“When both forelegs lift at the same time, it’s a ground slam. ‘Ground!’”
“When the tail curves into an S…….”
As he moved, Hyun Si-woon began furiously drilling the tells for all forty-eight patterns into Ha-wol. He explained every strategy down to the last detail, and the explanations were far more meticulous and concrete than anyone could have imagined.
Before long he stood once more at the edge of the whirlwind.
“Let’s go again.”
Whoosh!
Hyun Si-woon threw himself in.