The Watchful Eye (1)
Kim Jun drew the slender golden thread from his waist.
“Thread of Ariadne.”
“Show me the optimal route to the 13th floor.”
The thread swayed in the air for a moment, then snapped taut in one direction, stretching out in a straight line dead ahead.
The 12th floor, the second layer of Heaven, unfolded before him.
Ribbons of blinding radiance were woven so finely that they seemed to form the very floor beneath his feet, and the endless channels of light spread out like embroidery stitched from gold and silver. Each step sent a soft shimmer rippling outward, as though the ground itself were breathing.
Warm air filled the surroundings. Gentle and languid, it brushed against Kim Jun’s skin like sunlight on a spring afternoon.
But then—
A shrill, piercing screech split the peace.
“Still the same.”
The sound was somehow insect-like and yet disturbingly close to a human scream, and when Kim Jun turned toward it, he saw something writhing between the bands of light.
A celestial light-attribute monster: a Lumina Worm.
Its body was made of white light, and dozens of tentacle-like legs rippled along its length in a grotesque parody of motion.
“This can’t be Heaven.”
It was a hideous creature, so repulsive that the name Heaven felt almost mocking.
Around him, more shrill cries echoed from every direction.
“This isn’t Heaven at all. It’s a nest of vermin.”
Kim Jun raised Dragon Eater.
Black Flame
The greatsword was wrapped in Black Flame.
The tentacle-like legs twitched and crawled toward him, but no matter how grotesque the sight was, to Kim Jun it was nothing more than an obstacle blocking his path.
With a sweeping stroke, the black-flamed greatsword cut the Lumina Worm cleanly in half.
The body made of white light melted away into nothingness beneath the black fire.
Monster defeated: Lumina Worm
Experience gained: 250
Materials obtained: Lunarium x2
Kim Jun flicked the blood from Dragon Eater’s blade and scanned his surroundings.
Shrill cries still echoed from all around him, but there was no reason to kill every monster he saw. That wasn’t the purpose of this floor.
He looked ahead and mapped the structure of the 12th floor in his mind: endless corridors of light, with marble pillars rising here and there between them, and far in the distance, the staircase leading to the 13th floor.
Then he felt it—a strange presence, as though someone were watching him.
A familiar killing intent.
The pressure drifting through the air grew denser and denser until he could feel a gaze from somewhere above.
Slowly, Kim Jun tilted his head upward. Beyond the clouds, a massive shadow was wavering in the sky.
Far above, thousands of eyes flashed as they continued their relentless watch over everything below.
Ophanim. The boss of the 12th floor, and the condition for clearing it.
But unlike the other floors, Ophanim was not an enemy that had to be slain directly.
Do not be seen.
The clear condition for the 12th floor was simple: avoid Ophanim’s surveillance, make it to the far end of the floor, and ascend to the 13th.
On the surface, it sounded easy. In practice, it was anything but.
“There are damnably a lot of them. Still disgusting, no matter how many times I see them.”
With a low, unnerving hum, the colossal being hung in the sky above. Centered around a single giant main eye the size of a house, thousands of smaller eyes embedded around it rolled ceaselessly as they began to scan everything below, like a living watchtower.
Warning! Divine surveillance count activated.
Divine surveillance count: 02 seconds
If it exceeds ten minutes, it's instant death!
Use cover!
To clear the 12th floor, brute force mattered far less than proper cover and mobility.
The problem was that he had to cross this long, exposed stretch. What was more, Lumina Worms were swarming everywhere.
Worm-like monsters twisted through the corridors, waiting in ambush with their shrill cries.
Kim Jun remembered the days before his regression.
Back then, this floor was a true hell.
Hunters without enough mobility were forced to keep alternating between cover and movement, and in the end they’d exposed themselves to Ophanim’s gaze and lost their lives. Worse still, they had to keep fighting the monsters while moving.
Divine surveillance count: 03 seconds
Because the monsters shared Ophanim’s line of sight.
The instant a Lumina Worm spotted a hunter, that information was transmitted straight to Ophanim, and the surveillance count would rise.
So the hunters had to kill a monster from behind a pillar, slip back into cover, move again, kill the next one they encountered, and repeat the process over and over until the whole day had been spent in a vicious war of nerves.
Before his regression, hundreds of hunters had died on this floor alone.
The ten-minute time limit was far harsher than it sounded.
But Kim Jun had the perfect solution.
“Shadow’s Embrace.”
It was a trophy he had obtained while wiping out the bastards from the Dark Guild, and with this item, all the problems on this floor would disappear.
Item equipped: Shadow’s Embrace
Status activated: stealth engaged. Movement speed reduced by 30%
At once, Kim Jun’s outline blurred.
He hadn’t become fully invisible, but he had grown hazy enough that ordinary detection would have a hard time locking onto him.
This should do it.
Before his regression, he’d had to play that deadly game with nothing but cover and timing, like a sniper waiting in one spot for days on end.
But not now.
With a stealth item in hand, the monsters wouldn’t detect him, and he would be able to slip past Ophanim’s surveillance as well.
Kim Jun began striding confidently down the 12th floor’s passage, still cloaked in stealth.
He passed the first pillar, then the second, and then...
Ophanim surveillance status: blocked
As expected.
Everything was going smoothly. The Lumina Worms nearby hadn’t noticed him at all.
I’ll clear the 12th floor without breaking a sweat.
Kim Jun kept advancing in satisfaction. At this rate, he could reach the 13th floor within thirty minutes.
But something felt off.
A chill began crawling up his spine, the distinct sensation that someone was walking behind him.
Kim Jun stopped and looked around.
He was definitely in stealth mode, and the Lumina Worms still hadn’t detected him.
Am I imagining it?
Divine surveillance count: 04 seconds
“What?”
He was definitely hidden. The monsters hadn’t found him, and he had already slipped the direct gaze of Ophanim.
Then why is the count rising?
Divine surveillance count: 05 seconds
Kim Jun’s expression hardened. Something was happening that he had not expected.
That’s odd. Before my regression, nothing like this...
He looked around again. Was it because of the Lumina Worms nearby?
Away from him, two of them were writhing through the light.
They hadn’t found him, but could simply being near them be affecting the surveillance count?
Let’s deal with them first.
Kim Jun quietly approached with Black Flame wrapped around Dragon Eater.
In an instant, the two Lumina Worms were dealt with.
Monster defeated: Lumina Worm x2
Experience gained: 500
Materials obtained: Lunarium x4
That should fix it.
Divine surveillance count: 08 seconds
“What the hell is wrong?”
Kim Jun’s eyes went cold.
If the surveillance kept climbing even after the monsters around him were eliminated, then some other variable had to be at work.
Could it be the monsters farther away?
Kim Jun began finding and exterminating every Lumina Worm within a fifty-meter radius.
But the result was the same.
Monster defeated: Lumina Worm x5
Monster defeated: Lumina Worm x3
Divine surveillance count: 30 seconds
The monsters weren’t the problem.
Kim Jun slowly looked around again. Something had to have slipped past him.
Divine surveillance count: 35 seconds
Time kept ticking by. He still had some room to breathe.
One option flickered through Kim Jun’s mind: use Acceleration and break through the floor in one shot.
But he immediately dismissed it.
No. It’s too late already.
He looked around.
It had already been twelve seconds. And from the moment Ophanim’s surveillance had begun...
Shrill cries erupted from all sides.
Hundreds of Lumina Worms were already swarming toward him.
Stay calm.
Kim Jun ground his teeth.
Gurgling and squelching, the Lumina Worms were spraying thick, sticky slime from their grotesque mouths.
The floor around him was already caked in it.
He tried to move, but his feet stuck to the ground. The slime had sharply slowed his movement.
If I use Acceleration in a situation like this...
No matter how fast he burst forward for an instant, he would never be able to build real speed on a floor this sticky and under this much slime.
And in the meantime, Ophanim’s surveillance time would continue to pile up...
Divine surveillance count: 52 seconds
If it goes over ten minutes, it’s over.
Kim Jun sorted through the situation at once.
Right now, finding the cause mattered more than forcing a head-on breakthrough.
He was certain he had missed something.
Thread of Ariadne was trembling strangely at his waist, the golden thread he had obtained in the Minotaur Labyrinth on the 10th floor quivering as if it had lost its way.
It can’t find the path. That means something is interfering with it.
Kim Jun’s instincts issued a warning. This wasn’t a simple malfunction.
If the thread couldn’t find its destination, then someone was deliberately interfering.
Sense
And then, at that very moment—
There.
Kim Jun’s eyes flashed.
Behind him, beyond the pillar he had already passed, he felt a faint current of energy moving.
“Who are you?”
It was a person.
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