Chapter 494
‘Good.’
‘This is exactly why you need to corner your prey completely before striking.’
‘Even if they know it’s poisonous, they’ll be too desperate to escape.’
“The rules are simple. Whoever captures the Queen below first wins. If you win, the slave contract ends immediately. If I win, the contract extends by a week. But you can’t kill the Queen. There are things I need to extort from her.”
“You want me to take her hostage?”
“Exactly.”
“Damn it, fine. So I just need to move faster than you.”
Chun Yoosung nodded.
He had no choice but to go along with it.
Unless he wanted to keep spending his days in tacky clothes.
[The bet regarding the slave contract has been reset.]
The speech act activated the contract’s binding force.
Just then—
BZZT!
Blue flashes blinked across the sky again.
More lightning, falling at irregular intervals.
They’d already seen how dangerous this was, judging from the severely injured being carried out of the 32nd floor.
“Uwaaah!”
“It’s coming!”
“Rocks… These are the right rocks, right?”
The party screamed as they lifted stones over their heads.
Kang Jinhyuk, however, calmly called out instead of panicking.
“Thor-nim.”
[Divine Being ‘Howling Thunder’ activates Lightning Authority!]
In sync with the descending lightning, Thor layered a faint veil of lightning onto the stones.
Rather than nullifying the strike completely, it only partially absorbed the force.
KRA-KA-BOOM!
“Gaaah!”
“Ugh!”
Screams burst out as the lightning hit directly.
Still, no one was severely injured due to the reduced power.
Tingle!
“Urgh… my head’s spinning.”
“But we’re alive thanks to it. And I’ve got healing. We won’t die from this much.”
Everyone rubbed their limbs, likely tingling all over.
Except one person.
“Yowch, that stung a bit.”
Ahn Ilman seemed unfazed.
Jinhyuk narrowed his eyes.
To endure that level of lightning with no damage…
That guy was highly likely to be an Old Guard plant.
‘Let’s keep him nearby and confirm first.’
Feigning ignorance, Jinhyuk spoke up.
“Is everyone okay?”
“We barely made it. Thank you. It’s all thanks to Player Kang Jinhyuk telling us about the lightning-absorbing rocks.”
Kang Sua barely managed to reply.
The rest also signaled they were fine.
“You won’t have to worry about lightning for a while now.”
“Whoa. Did you find even better rocks or something?”
Kang Sua’s expression brightened instantly.
But—
“No. We’re about to head down there now.”
At Jinhyuk’s next words, her cheerful face instantly soured.
Typically, insect-type monsters like ants or spiders have lairs of extreme difficulty.
Not a place for a small raid team—usually, only a joint effort between large guilds could stand a chance.
Of course, Jinhyuk or Chun Yoosung could probably solo it.
But for average players like her, surviving would be next to impossible.
Maybe sensing that thought, Jinhyuk added:
“Don’t worry too much. Reinforcements are coming from our side. Around now, actually…”
He glanced back toward where he came from.
Flap flap.
Then came the sound of flapping wings.
“Ugh, using me as cargo like this… My back! It’s going to snap! Kyaaa, relax your body! You wanna crash?!”
“S-sorry! But if we don’t hurry, we’ll miss the appointed time!”
Alice flapped her wings furiously—
While Teresa clung to Alice’s legs for dear life.
At the same time—
Rustle…
The shadow under Jinhyuk’s feet rippled.
[Wolyoung activates unique ability ‘Extreme Shadow Execution’.]
“Apologies for the delay, my liege.”
Wolyoung, who had been handling business on the Murim side, joined them.
And with ancient species like Goguma and Fried in the subspace, plus the spirits, they wouldn’t be outmatched by even a large guild alliance.
“Feeling reassured now?”
In an instant, the group had grown.
And not just anyone—this was a gathering of elite veterans.
“Y-yes! Definitely!”
Kang Sua nodded fervently.
⁕ ⁕ ⁕
Fwoooosh!
The [Primordial Flame] lit up the dark interior of the cave.
The clear condition for clearing the 32nd floor was to ‘extinguish the Embers of Calamity.’
Which meant finding and stopping the sources of lightning, tsunamis, earthquakes, fires, and other disasters occurring throughout the floor.
Now that the objective was known, various guilds had been pouring resources into creating items that could block lightning, with advice from modern scientists. But…
Would it really be that easy?
‘Normally, you’d have to explore for an entire month just to find a clue.’
Time was critically short.
Jinhyuk was planning to bypass the conventional approach with a trick.
“Blegh! Gross bugs everywhere. Contractor, do we really need to go down there? Wouldn’t it be better to just blast the whole place from above?”
“Alice.”
“Yeah?”
“Please… try thinking before you speak. If we do that, Yoosung down there gets buried alive. You want that?”
Chun Yoosung had already gone ahead solo.
Probably pouring everything he had into avoiding the bunny girl outfit.
“Hmph. Still, that idiot Swordsman might survive somehow.”
“You’re not wrong…”
That idiot could probably survive being launched into space. Still, regardless of Chun Yoosung’s fate, they needed the Queen alive to copy her ability.
“Mr. Jinhyuk. Who are those people?”
Teresa glanced back at the approaching players from the Prime Service Guild.
“Just some folks we decided to temporarily team up with. They offered a pretty decent deal. And they seem capable of keeping themselves alive, so they shouldn’t drag the raid down.”
“Really? Hm…”
“Is something bothering you?”
“No. It’s just… for someone without a known name, I get a strange feeling from them.”
As expected, the Saintess’s instincts were sharp.
She must’ve sensed the ominous mana unique to the Old Guard.
“There’s a reason for everything. Don’t worry about the minor details.”
“If you say so with such confidence, then I’ll trust you… Huh?”
“This is…”
“Enemy!”
Everyone dropped into a stance.
Rumble rumble rumble!
The sound of stomping echoed down the corridor.
It was a Black Retana—no, something more advanced.
ROOAARR!
It resembled a centipede but had five heads.
If the Black Retana they encountered earlier were soldiers, this one was their commanding officer.
[Black Kaiser]
As the [Acid Tendril] activated, the ground turned into a warzone.
KRA-KRA-KRA-KRA-BOOM!
“Damn brute…!”
Alice deployed a blood-made barrier.
And almost at the same instant—
[Teresa activates Lv16 ‘Divine Flame’!]
FWOOSH!
Golden fire shot out in a straight line.
The intense sacred flame engulfed the entire cave, vaporizing the acid completely.
Next came Wolyoung’s ambush.
In the blink of an eye, he struck from behind with his blade.
Slash!
Green blood spurted out.
ROOAARRR!
Unlike the standard type, the Black Kaiser didn’t die even after repeated strikes.
Slash slash slash!
Its tendrils lashed out violently.
From above and below.
The invisible-speed attacks were incredibly sharp.
However—
[Activating unique ability: ‘Right Arm of Tombgrave’!]
A flying tendril was seized midair.
⁕ ⁕ ⁕
GRRRUMBLE…
“R-Rooar?”
Despite being over 30 times heavier…
It was the Black Kaiser that was being pushed back.
The Black Kaiser groaned in disbelief.
No matter how much it struggled or twisted its massive body, the opponent didn’t budge.
It was clearly a small and weak prey—
So why did it feel such overwhelming fear?
“What’s wrong? Weren’t you so confident before? Scared now?”
A smirk curled up on Jinhyuk’s lips.
“GRR… ROOAARR!”
Tremble!
Only now did the Black Kaiser realize—
It had mistaken predator for prey.
It had to escape.
Not just to save itself, but to warn the Queen—this intruder could threaten their entire species.
The Black Kaiser moved instantly.
It turned to flee back the way it came.
The earth churned as its massive body began burrowing underground.
But of course—
Jinhyuk wouldn’t just let that happen.
“Who said you could run?”
[Activating unique ability: ‘Earthquake’!]
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK…!
The ground shook violently as dirt and debris exploded in every direction.
A terrifying roar and tremor, like a natural disaster, followed.
And moments later—
There wasn’t a single monster left moving in the tunnel.
“Hmph. We got all the small fry, but the big one escaped. Was that on purpose?”
Alice sensed distant movement.
“Yeah. I gave it a good scare. That thing will head straight to the Queen.”
Which meant they didn’t have to dig through all those giant tunnels.
With [Heavenly Net] already spread out, it wouldn’t be long before they found the shortest path to the objective.
“You really are cunning. I’ll give you that—your brain works overtime.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Jinhyuk smiled brightly.
And—
The rest of the group, who had been silently watching everything, stared with jaws dropped and murmured:
“Unbelievable…”
“So this is what it means to be a member of the veteran corporation…”
“They’re incredible. Offense, defense—there’s nothing they’re lacking.”
“Sure, we paid a hefty price… but it was worth every penny.”
As long as they kept the channel running, Unchul could mass-produce more footage.
If edited well, this footage could be worth its weight in gold.
⁕ ⁕ ⁕
Rustle rustle…
The sand shifted—and out crawled a battered Black Kaiser.
“Grr… rooaar…”
It looked like it could die any second.
Still, the Black Kaiser dragged its mangled body toward the figure before it.
A massive underground cave.
Seated on the throne of a colossal kingdom that reached nearly 100 meters in height was the Queen.
Though she bore centipede-like antennae and a tail, her upper and lower body was largely humanoid in form.
“…! My child, what happened to you?”
The Queen stood up in shock.
“Grr… ROOOAR!”
“Humans… they’re coming here? And one of them is at least commander-level?”
They’d lived in this place for decades—no one had ever dared attack them.
At least not on the 32nd floor.
But now, without even a shred of fear…
How dare they invade this domain?
At that moment—
“Didn’t I tell you? From the start, we should’ve handled this together.”
Step.
A figure emerged from the shadows.
“Work together? You mean release the restrictions. So you can go wild on this floor.”
“If you want to defend this tiny territory, that much is necessary. Judging from the state of your precious Black Kaiser, you should realize it now—your forces alone can’t stop him.”
“…Are you saying you can?”
The shadow receded, revealing the man’s face.
Red eyes and silver hair.
A striking middle-aged man with an impressive beard.
“Of course. If it’s ‘us,’ it’s more than possible.”
A sinister smile curled across Excension’s lips.
