The client blinked a few times. “Huh?”
“I asked why you’re the only one who’s fine,” Eun-Ho repeated, pressing her again.
“Ah, maybe it’s because of a buff?”
“A buff?”
“Um, y-yesterday I received a buff from a colleague,” she answered in a daze.
Since she had been included in the research team dispatched by the lab the day before, she’d received a buff.
Hmm.
Swear-Master bristled and launched into his usual tirade. “So you’re saying this woman fucking knew and still sent us in there bare-assed? Isn’t that completely insane?!”
Ptooey—
A cloud of grimy black smoke drifted toward the client. Startled, she hopped in place and hurriedly apologized. “Kyah! W-what is this? I’m sorry!”
“Hey, shut the hell up!” he snapped. “You deliberately herded us in there, didn’t you?! Huh?!”
“N-no, that’s not it! The principal researcher said you’d never go in if you knew, so I was told never to tell you in advance...”
“Son of a bitch!”
So that was it?
“Fucking hell!”
As Swear-Master kept cursing, black smoke wrapped around the client’s ankles and began to creep upward.
Eun-Ho stepped forward before it went too far.
“Even so, you could’ve at least given us the buff without saying anything,” he said evenly.
“T-the one responsible for that is off today!”
That’s unbelievable.
“What about the abandoned ward?” Eun-Ho asked. “Did you make it in that far?”
“Ah, n-no... We couldn’t enter. Too many researchers collapsed because of the hallucinations.”
Swear-Master clicked his tongue. “Should we fucking ditch that dungeon after all?”
[Congratulations!]
[You have discovered the Sealed Ward.]
[Would you like to enter?]
Eun-Ho understood why everyone was hesitating. After all, the dungeon housed treasures that demanded sacrifices. Moreover, it was entirely possible they were being pushed in just to fill the headcount. This was exactly how people got betrayed.
“But the ability that centipede used was called Illusion Barrier,” Eun-Ho said.
“Sorry?”
“What was that barrier meant to stop?” He threw out the question and waited in silence.
The client fidgeted with her fingers and avoided his gaze.
He turned away without hesitation. “Then I suppose we’ll just head back—”
“No! W-wait!” Panicked, the researcher hurriedly said, “... I heard that a very long time ago, experiments were conducted here.”
“What kind of experiments?”
“I-I don’t know the details... It was before I joined, but they were forbidden experiments. Extremely dangerous ones...”
In that case, that wretched bug barrier had been meant to hide the experiments from the outside world.
“It was supposedly configured so outsiders couldn’t get close,” she whispered while glancing around, like someone sharing a secret.
“You seem to know the cause pretty well,” Eun-Ho said calmly. “So why didn’t you handle it yourselves?”
“Ah, t-that was a long time ago, and there are no responsible staff left...”
“No staff?”
“Y-yes... So it stayed quiet for a hundred years, and they told us to find out why it suddenly started acting up.”
Her whispered story sounded plausible enough. Conversely, it could also be the kind of lie someone could carefully construct.
“So you’re not dragging us in to set a trap, are you?”
She waved her hands frantically in denial. “A trap?! N-no, of course not!”
Well, whether it was true or not, he’d know soon enough.
“Piercing Gaze,” he muttered under his breath.
[Activation has failed!]
[The rank difference is too great.]
What?
[Increase your skill level to expand the range of applicable targets!]
It failed? No way. That’s impossible. But I’m a team leader, Eun-Ho thought.
The woman still appeared completely flustered. “I-I mean, what would it take for you to trust me?”
She’d introduced herself as a newly appointed researcher when they first met. As the lab’s youngest, she was stuck doing all the menial work no one else wanted.
So that was a lie. Hmm.
If her rank was above a team leader’s, she’d have to be quite powerful.
If she wanted to kill us, she had plenty of chances. Like when we first entered the deserted forest, or when we were distracted by the centipedes...
Therefore, he ruled out a simple assassination attempt.
“Eun-Ho, what should we do about the dungeon?” Ji-Eun asked.
What this suspicious researcher was trying to show them, and whether it was worth the risk—he still didn’t know.
We don’t have enough information.
At present, a judgment was impossible.
“Then, let’s start with a signature.”
“H-huh?”
Eun-Ho decided to judge using his way. “It’s a consent form for establishing the labor-management council. Just read it and sign. Oh, and don’t forget to stamp it.”
“Ah, y-yes! H-here!”
[A new signature has been obtained.]
It was a hint he had personally created.
“Hyungnim, what’s wrong?” Jae-Hyuk asked.
“Nothing. It’s nothing.”
So this was it.
The woman had been acting all along, and he now had the proof.
Eun-Ho could’ve let it slide but since he’d noticed, he decided to play along. “Let’s go in.”
Ji-Eun’s head snapped up in surprise. “What?”
A moment later, she even sent him a private message.
Kim Ji-Eun: I’m sorry to say this, but that person feels really off. And I don’t like that she hid things from us on purpose.
How she had changed from the trusting woman she used to be. Even her mind used to be a pure flower field.
It’s only natural to be suspicious in a situation like this, especially when she hasn’t seen the woman’s signature.
He turned his head toward Ji-Eun.
Lee Eun-Ho: Do you trust me?
Kim Ji-Eun: Of course I do!
The conviction came through not only in her words, but also in her expression. He gave her a faint smile, as if to reassure her.
Lee Eun-Ho: Let’s just try and go in once.
Kim Ji-Eun: But...
Lee Eun-Ho: I’ll save my Acceleration skill. That way, I can respond no matter what happens.
He wasn’t kind enough to say that if she felt uneasy, she didn’t have to go in.
Lee Eun-Ho: I’ll feel safer going in with a sharpshooter too.
Ji-Eun, who had been chewing on her words in hesitation, suddenly lifted her head again. “Let’s go.”
It looked like she’d tensed her neck on purpose, bracing herself.
“Shall we?” he said.
***
A stump, as wide as a round dining table, split open with a sharp crack. A narrow gap appeared, barely large enough for someone to squeeze through if they crouched low.
“It’s slippery,” Eun-Ho warned. “Come down slowly.”
They carefully climbed down the rusted ladder.
“Hyungnim, watch your step!” Jae-Hyuk shouted. “There’s a puddle down there!”
A musty stench, like something out of a sewer, stabbed at their noses. Eun-Ho moved with exaggerated care, trying not to ruin the sneakers Guk had given him.
Fzzzt—
A fluorescent light flickered on, half shattered and half blinking weakly. A narrow corridor stretched ahead, with rusted rails installed at waist height.
Bzzz—
Strangely enough, an announcement played.
[Welcome to the... Research Ward...]
[You have entered the Sealed Ward.]
The contrast between the broken mechanical voice and the perfectly clear system message only deepened the chilling atmosphere.
“We won’t know anything until we go in,” Jae-Hyuk said. “I’ll take point, Hyungnim.”
The solidly armored Jae-Hyuk moved to the front. Eun-Ho and Ji-Eun stayed in the middle, while Swear-Master and the researcher took up the rear.
[Sealed Ward - Entry Complete]
[Updating Information...]
Beep— Beep— Beep—
[Purification Rate - 0%]
After a brief loading delay, an utterly devastated ward came into view. How long had it been left like this? Moss crept between shattered furniture, while vines had grown along broken walls, spreading so far they covered the ceiling.
“What the fuck. This is an apocalypse,” Swear-Master muttered.
Apocalypse.
Those words were akin to a trigger.
“Hieek! Over there!”
At the far end of the narrow corridor, figures came barreling around the curve at frightening speed. A staple of apocalypse movies, the Zombies, had appeared.
“Z-zombies?!”
“Graaaaaah!”
A man with his waist bent grotesquely to the left and his right leg twisted outward. A woman whose head barely clung to her body swung loosely with every step. An old man staggered forward, clutching his dangling organs.
[Defeat Test Subject No. 1312]
[Defeat Test Subject No. 832]
[Defeat Test Subject No. 991]
...
From the end of the corridor, from doors bursting open as if torn apart, and from behind creeping vines, Zombies rose and advanced.
Thud! Splat—
From their hands flew dark, indistinct objects.
“Ugh!”
“Jae-Hyuk!!”
“What the hell are they throwing?!” Swear-Master shouted.
The moment it hit him, Jae-Hyuk’s face turned pitch black.
[95.5%]
[95.6%]
[95.7%]
His Stamina dropped nearly five percent in an instant, then slowly began to recover.
“I think it’s something poisonous,” Jae-Hyuk said.
Black stains spread across armor that had been clean enough to reflect light. Embedded in the ground was the thrown object.
“Intestines?” someone muttered.
“Looks like internal organs,” Eun-Ho said.
[You have been hit by fragments of a Rotten Entrails Bomb.]
[Your Stamina will continuously decrease.]
An entrails bomb?
The reason Eun-Ho’s head felt dizzy probably wasn’t the stench clawing at his nose, but the bomb fragments themselves.
“What are those things?! Were they already here?!” Swear-Master demanded.
“Ah, I-I’ve never seen them before...” the researcher stammered.
“Do we have to kill those things to raise the purification rate or what?!” Swear-Master shouted furiously.
The client recoiled in terror.
[Purification Rate - 0%]
It seemed everyone was trying to figure out what the window floating at eye level actually meant.
“Let’s deal with this quickly,” Eun-Ho said.
Rather than standing around speculating, it would be faster to move.
Then, Eun-Ho raised the Sky-Shattering Blade at shoulder height, swinging it as if he were taking a full cut in a batting cage. His target was a Zombie that was pulling its own intestines out like sticky candy, preparing to throw them.
“Wind Blade.”
Swoooosh—
A sharply honed crescent tore through the heavy air. In the blink of an eye, he was standing in front of the corpse.
Splurt—
The loosely dangling head dropped cleanly away.
[You have defeated the Test Subject No. 1312.]
[You have earned 2,000 Welfare Points.]
He cut through a body whose waist and legs were twisted at jagged angles. He sliced apart torsos that were neither fully attached nor fully separated.
[You have defeated the Test Subject No. 832.]
[You have earned 2,000 Welfare Points.]
Organs crawling with worms spilled out. Clotted black blood sprayed and rotting bones riddled with holes snapped apart.
[You have defeated the Test Subject No. 991.]
[You have earned 2,000 Welfare Points.]
He granted eternal rest to those who were neither truly alive nor truly dead. In doing so, the ward was being purified.
[Purification Rate - 1%]
“So that’s how it works,” Eun-Ho muttered.
A brief gasp leaked from Swear-Master.
“Everyone, raise your shields!” Eun-Ho shouted. “Fight so you don’t get hit by fragments!”
He himself pulled out a shield made of solid wood and raised it.
“Jae-Hyuk, take the front! Ji-Eun, provide cover fire from the rear!”
“Leave it to me, Hyungnim!” Jae-Hyuk replied.
“W-what about me?” Swear-Master asked.
“You protect the client,” Eun-Ho said. “Make sure nothing happens to her.”
It was essentially an order to keep watch on her. Perhaps sensing the meaning behind Eun-Ho’s glance, Swear-Master nodded without protest. The real concern, however, was elsewhere.
“Ji-Eun?” Eun-Ho called.
“Ah... Yes?” she answered.
Her face had already gone pale.
“Please, Assistant Manager Yoon! Don’t come any closer!”
“Uuugh...!”
She was remembering Assistant ManagerYoon, charging forward with blood-stamped footprints, legs severed at the knees. She also remembered Team Leader Lee, with brain matter spilling out like congealed soup from an empty skull. They were colleagues she had been forced to face in similar states during the early days of restructuring.
Ji-Eun swallowed dryly and squeezed her eyes shut. However, this time was different.
“Eun-Ho, they’re enemies, right?” she asked.
The woman standing here now was no longer the twenty-six-year-old office worker Eun-Ho had once had to shield behind his back.
“Yes,” he answered.
She exhaled softly, then clicked the device fitted over her ear.
Pop—
A pair of translucent sunglasses slid down over her eyes.
“I’ll aim over your heads! So be careful!” she shouted.
Ji-Eun then raised her gun, her eyes stripped of emotion, filled only with targets and trajectories.
Bang—
The bullet arced overhead, tracing a clean parabola. The golden round slipped neatly past the party and drilled straight into a Zombie’s crown.
Krrrreeeek!
Brain matter exploded with a grotesque shriek. Rotten liquid, mixed with something that was neither liquid nor solid, spilled out like vomit.
Ji-Eun bit down hard on her lower lip, already reloading.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
She fired, fired, and fired again—both forward and backward. She also didn’t forget to shoot up at the ceiling and past Jae-Hyuk’s shoulder as he swung his mace. No matter where she aimed, every shot ended in a headshot. It was an absurd level of precision.
“What the fuck? That’s insane!” Swear-Master muttered.
“And her ammo’s infinite, too,” Eun-Ho said.
“What the hell?”
With each gunshot, more corpses piled up beneath their feet.
[Purification Rate - 60%]
[Purification Rate - 61%]
[Purification Rate - 62%]
Thanks to that, the purification rate climbed rapidly.
“Raaah!” Jae-Hyuk roared. He was pulling more than his own weight as well. “Hyungnim, take a breather! I’ve got this!”
Perhaps because the armor’s pain feedback had been lowered, he seemed to be growing more confident by the second.
“Did you hit me?! Was that all of you?!” he yelled. “Hyahaha! Doesn’t hurt at all!”
“Is that guy insane? Did he trade sanity for strength?” Swear-Master muttered.
“Haha...”
Maybe he did.
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