Chapter 38
Chapter 38
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 38
Chapter Title: The Flowing Sand River's Geyser
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“Isn’t this a bit too cliché?”
“The Flowing Sand River?”
“Yeah.”
“What else do you expect in a desert? An oasis or stone architecture buried under the sand? Isn’t that the standard trope?”
“Pang, since when do you even know what ‘standard trope’ means?”
“I’ve been paying more attention to Korea lately.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah.”
Geon-woo and Pang sat side by side in the shadow of a dune, scanning the Flowing Sand River in the distance.
A river of quicksand that had appeared not far from Zarken alongside the Demon Race’s invasion.
The Flowing Sand River spanned about a kilometer wide and stretched roughly thirty kilometers long.
It started abruptly in the desert and vanished just as suddenly into the sand.
Pang claimed there was an Easter egg hidden inside.
However.
“When’s it gonna start?”
“It’s irregular.”
“Ugh.”
“But it happens at least once every three days, so it shouldn’t take too long.”
“This Flowing Sand River’s geyser was famous even before. The sand that erupts from it packs incredible power, sweeping away quite a few people into the quicksand.”
Every so often, an enormous column of sand would shoot up into the air like a fountain.
Naturally, that sand then rained down like a storm, in such massive quantities that anyone nearby got dragged into the Flowing Sand River like ants into an antlion pit.
That’s why there had been so many casualties in the early days after it appeared.
It was a big reason why the Easter egg here hadn’t been uncovered until now.
The deaths turned the area into a forbidden zone, with no one daring to approach.
Rumble rumble rumble!
“Huh? It’s starting.”
While Geon-woo pondered the Flowing Sand River and its geyser, an ominous rumble echoed from it.
Like the roar of some colossal beast.
“Let’s go! Hurry!”
Pang urgently launched himself toward the river.
“Over there.”
Geon-woo followed close behind, pointing to where the roar had originated.
Pang adjusted his path in the same direction upon seeing Geon-woo’s gesture.
Crunch crunch crunch!
Right after the roar, the river’s flow halted.
That allowed Geon-woo and Pang to sprint freely across its surface.
By the time they reached the source of the roar.
Whoosh! Boom!
A circular pillar of sand, fifty meters in diameter, rocketed toward the sky.
This was the Flowing Sand River’s sand geyser.
The fifty-meter-wide pillar was just like a water column from a regular geyser.
It spewed sand for about two minutes.
During that time, the sand shot skyward before spreading out and falling back around the river.
Whoosh! Boom!
“Now!”
“Got it!”
At some point, the sand pillar surging from the river came to an end.
And in that instant, the hole it left behind was revealed.
Like pulling a pillar from a sand field, a fifty-meter-deep crater formed.
Pang yelled and leaped into the hole first, followed immediately by Geon-woo.
Swish swish swish!
The moment Pang and Geon-woo vanished into the black maw, sand poured from the sky, blanketing the world in darkness. It funneled into the hole, briefly forming an antlion pit.
But even that pit was soon swept away by the restarting flow of the quicksand, leaving no trace.
* * *
Whoooosh! Hoooowl!
A space shrouded in darkness.
Filled with the howl of wind.
Geon-woo could tell from the sound alone that this place was vast.
“What is this?”
“Remind you of the old days?”
As Geon-woo looked around at the new surroundings, Pang asked.
“What?”
“Can’t you feel it?”
“Feel what?”
“The system doesn’t work here. No awakened abilities, no avatar powers.”
Pang shared the intel he’d gathered in advance.
“But the avatar’s still maintained, right? Isn’t that the system at work?”
“Technically, yeah, but that’s it. And right now, your avatar’s power is exactly at your Earth body’s level.”
“My Earth body...”
Geon-woo muttered to himself at Pang’s words.
Atop his shoulder, Ilryeong laughed merrily.
= Even if your avatar’s power is sealed, we spirits and the jiangshi aren’t affected. Plus, your jiangshi body remains intact, so this environment is actually more advantageous for you, my lord.
‘Not entirely good news. Opening the dimensional space from the giant takes longer now. Can’t do it instantly—takes about three minutes.’
= What? Why?
‘This place is a remnant of a dimension outside Onbiroad, like you or the giant.’
= So the Onbiroad system can’t exert its influence?
‘I’m not entirely sure, but the giant’s dimensional space power seems restricted in the dimension this ruined city belongs to.’
= Still better than not being able to open it at all. And honestly, your jiangshi body alone should be more than enough here.
‘As long as there’s no one using special abilities, I’ve got nothing to fear. But...’
“Wow, insane. Be honest, Geon-woo. How strong are you right now?”
Pang stared at him in shock.
He could sense it because he’d received part of the Jiangshi Grand Technique from Geon-woo—the power was still there in full.
“That doping ability. It’s still active. Strength, stamina, durability—all of it. What the hell is this?”
Pang couldn’t hide his excitement as he shouted at Geon-woo.
Pang’s avatar had a mercenary contract with Geon-woo and been granted the drug effects used in the Jiangshi Grand Technique.
Seeing those effects persist now shocked him.
“I told you, it’s independent of the system.”
Geon-woo replied calmly, almost indifferently.
“No way. Does it work on Earth too?”
“Earth what?”
“Back when I was poisoned. The thing you used to save me.”
“Hmm, similar to what I used on the avatar. A bit stronger, though.”
“I knew it! That’s why my physical abilities improved so much after. I thought it was just drawing on avatar powers.”
“The doping I grant the avatar does affect the main body. And vice versa.”
“And it works even here, where the system’s power vanishes?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“Total cheat!”
“Hmm?”
“You’ve been living in a whole other world by yourself! That’s how you pulled off those insane feats beyond our level!”
“......”
No need to respond to that.
Geon-woo fell silent and began scanning the surroundings, his dark-adapted vision piercing the gloom.
“Looks like a city? An artificial underground one.”
Geon-woo changed the subject.
Pang scowled slightly from under his hood but nodded.
“They say it’s a fragment from another dimension, not Onbiroad. Most Easter eggs are like that.”
“Huh, really?”
“System struggles to function in fragments from other dimensions. That’s what makes them Easter eggs.”
“Were they always there? Before the Demon Race invasion, I mean.”
Had the giant’s skull come over that way too?
Or had it been here before?
Geon-woo voiced his thoughts.
“There were some before, but not this many. The Demon Race’s dimensional invasion caused a ton of dimensional fragments to pierce into Onbiroad.”
“Ah, got it.”
“If the Demon Race sends reinforcements to Onbiroad, more fragments would flood in. It’s interference between their dimension and Onbiroad’s that lets other dimensions leak through.”
“But Easter eggs existed even before the invasion?”
Geon-woo blinked in surprise at the pre-invasion mention.
Pang shrugged it off casually.
“Earth has them too. OOPArts.”
“Oh, stuff science can’t explain? Like Earth’s Easter eggs?”
Geon-woo nodded at the term.
“Not all, but some. Think of it that way for Onbiroad too.”
“So if the Demon Race fully invades Earth, massive Easter eggs like this could appear there?”
“Very possible.”
“I see.”
“Alright, enough chit-chat. Let’s move. The city’s huge—we need to hustle to reach the goal.”
Pang wrapped up the talk and urged them onward.
But Geon-woo needed more details on this place.
“You know more about it, don’t you?”
“Nah. All I know is there’s something in the city center. That’s why Cheonsu-wan, Ivan, and Tucker headed there.”
“Yeah?”
“Not hiding anything, so quit with the suspicious glare. You saved my life—why would I screw you over?”
“That’s not what I meant. How do you know where the center is?”
“That. Right there.”
Pang pointed into the void at Geon-woo’s question.
Geon-woo spotted a faint light where his finger aimed.
Barely there, almost not.
A subtle shadow in the darkness, imperceptible without focus.
The light lingered like that.
“What’s that?”
“The flame atop the central skyscraper’s spire.”
“No way this place had airplanes too? Warning light to avoid collisions?”
“No idea. But it’s definitely similar. And it’s the only one in the city.”
“Aser and Alphonse?”
“Yeah. Intel from surveilling them.”
“Alright. Let’s go.”
Now they had a direction.
No reason to hesitate—Geon-woo took the lead.
Ignoring alleys, he leaped from rooftop to rooftop, straight toward the distant light.
Pang kept pace effortlessly behind him.
Thanks to his body enhanced by Gangsigong.
But then.
Crack! Crunch! Grind!
“You little shit?”
As Geon-woo landed on the opposite rooftop after crossing a wide street, something lunged and bit his arm.
It was a phainakal, a magic beast occasionally seen in Onbiroad’s deserts.
This stationary creature melted rocks or sand to form a shell around itself, hiding inside until prey approached. Then it extended an anemone-like mouth to chomp down.
Its teeth were devastating, slicing through well-forged plate armor like cookies.
Hard to detect early since it showed minimal life signs while shelled up.
Even Geon-woo hadn’t expected this one from what looked like rooftop decoration rock.
“You okay?”
Pang landed beside him and asked.
Crunch crunch! Snap! Snap!
The phainakal’s teeth were still grinding away, shattering one by one with eerie sounds.
“Ugh, makes my skin crawl imagining my teeth breaking like that.”
Pang looked pityingly at the flailing phainakal gnawing futilely on Geon-woo’s arm.
“What? I took the hit, and you’re worried about the beast?”
“Who’d worry about who right now? A body tougher than phainakal teeth? Is that even possible?”
“You could mimic it. Tense up hard—skin might scrape, but muscles and bones would hold.”
“Really?”
“Doubt it? Test it yourself.”
“You nuts?”
“Whatever.”
Squelch! Crunch!
Geon-woo grabbed the phainakal’s neck as it kept trying to tear into his arm and squeezed.
It yanked free from its shell.
Like a punctured bag, its guts spilled out as it died.
Geon-woo tossed the corpse aside and looked ahead.
“Looks like a phainakal colony here.”
Shells suspiciously like phainakals covered buildings in the direction of the city center.
Every visible spot had dubious lumps.
“What’re you waiting for?”
Pang nodded ahead at Geon-woo.
Go on.
Geon-woo shot him a sullen look.
“We’re in a hurry.”
“Hey, body aside—your clothes?”
Phainakals weren’t scary.
But tanking their attacks barehanded would shred his outfit.
Even magic armor wouldn’t last.
That many? It’d turn to rags.
“We’re both guys—what’s with fussing over that?! And it’s high-grade magic armor. Should hold, right?”
“Hey, you!”
“What?”
“Ugh.”
He couldn’t bring himself to say it.
Geon-woo groaned and leaped forward again.
Nothing to do but trust the premium magic armor.
“Hey, together! Come on!”
Pang’s trailing voice rang out brighter and clearer than ever.