Chapter 60
D-Day.
All preparations were complete.
‘How long I’ve waited for this day.’
As expected, my phone had been flooded with missed calls and texts from Hwang Ji-young and the Two Wings since morning.
[From: Hwang Ji-young]
[All the materials are gathered in the lab on the third basement floor. If something’s going to happen, it’s today.]
[Estimated time is 5 PM.]
I’d been out since early morning, but even after reading Hwang Ji-young’s text, I just shook my head.
“No. Even 5 PM isn’t certain.”
‘I know the future. I know when things will happen.’
‘But I’ve decided not to be so certain anymore.’
Because the future I’d been so confident about had already started to change, little by little, thanks to my interference.
“Are we heading out right away?”
In front of the Rogue Guild, No Death approached with a huge yawn.
‘I won’t repeat my regrets. The future changing is what I wanted all along.’
Looking at No Death, I saw an image from my past life—his emaciated body behind the bars on the third basement floor of the department store.
The current No Death, free of worries.
And the No Death from my past life, who had thrown everything away for anger and revenge.
“Is there something on my face?”
This time too, No Death had to face the ones who had imprisoned him.
Park Chung-ho and his two arms, the Western Shaman and Yaksha.
And Jang Han-bit and Park Jae-hyun as well.
“This time will be different.”
I put on the [Death Knight’s Helmet] and gripped the [Immortal Demon Sword].
The [Dark Ring] sat on my finger, and [Poison Shadow Art] was in my Skill window.
‘This time, it’s possible.’
I didn’t know how much the future would change from here.
I didn’t care if the future I knew got flipped upside down.
‘It’s time to change that past life stained with regret and ash.’
Unlike my past life, I wasn’t alone.
The [Revenant]-No Death, and the Sogoe-Hyun-jung.
Clack.
Hyun-jung—the last party member we’d been waiting for—set her well-polished gun on the ground and smiled.
“I’m here.”
No Death, who had been leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, unfolded them and walked over.
“Shall we get going?”
Each of them was now indispensable.
Feeling my party’s presence again, I clenched my fists.
The steps I’d once halted.
“Let’s go.”
June 5th.
The time had come.
It was time to change the first regret I’d written down after gaining a new life.
= = =
Even if the future had shifted a little, trash was still trash.
Despite knowing the Forced Dungeon Development Experiment was happening today, the department store was still crawling with construction workers.
“Those sons of bitches.”
Hearing about it and seeing it were two different worlds.
Just imagining all those workers dying to those bastards’ greed made my stomach churn.
More than anything, the sight of my father this morning.
Remembering it, a rage beyond nausea flooded my entire body.
“Did you make sure your father couldn’t come?”
I nodded.
“How?”
“I told him I was in the emergency room.”
“The emergency room?”
In my past life, I hadn’t known.
But after spending time with my family, I’d come to understand my father better.
I felt sorry, but I had to use it.
“He’s the type to drop everything and come running if I say I’m sick. So that was the best way.”
“But he’ll find out it’s a lie soon enough. If he goes there and you’re not there, won’t he come right back?”
“I asked Hwang Ji-young for a favor, just in case.”
“Ah~”
Even a simple lie became a different story when the Black Label Company got involved.
My father wouldn’t be here for this incident.
Unlike my past life.
“Alright, then we’re all set. Let’s wait.”
No Death dropped into a plastic convenience store chair like it was a bother and closed his eyes.
“It’s not over yet.”
“Huh? Don’t we just need to keep your father away?”
As expected of a contract killer, No Death’s sense of humanity was nearly nonexistent.
While I looked at him like he was pathetic, Hyun-jung answered instead.
“The workers are still here.”
“What does that have to do with anything? They have nothing to do with us.”
“But they’re friends of Uncle’s dad. How can you say that?”
“Are you going to save them?”
No Death stared at her like he wanted an answer.
I shook my head.
“I don’t know either.”
“Then leave them. If we step in now and mess up the plan, it’ll just get more complicated.”
Hyun-jung couldn’t hold back anymore and flared up.
“You want us to just stand by and watch all those people die?”
“If the plan gets messed up, it’ll be an even bigger headache. Even more people will die.”
“Uncle! You tell me. Are we really… going to let all those men die?”
Hyun-jung knew the building would collapse when the Dungeon opened.
She just couldn’t understand why those bastards were still making the workers work.
I stroked Hyun-jung’s head as she trembled with anger.
“Hyun-jung is right. And No Death is right too.”
“Huh?”
Both Hyun-jung and No Death looked at me.
“We’re going to save them. But not now. Like No Death said, if we move now, the plan gets messed up, and more workers could get hurt.”
“Then when…?”
I took out my phone and checked the time.
Then, with a serious expression—
“When the Dungeon begins to manifest, we move under the cover of chaos.”
Once the Dungeon manifested, it would take about five minutes for the building to collapse.
“Save as many as you can. But your life and your party members’ lives come first. Don’t forget. We’re not a charity, and we’re not heroes. We’re just us, living tenaciously in this world like ants.”
“I understand, Uncle.”
= = =
11:30 AM, nearing lunchtime.
As workers started leaving the site to eat at nearby restaurants, a few of them spoke up in confusion.
“Doesn’t it feel like there are a lot of strange people around today?”
“Aren’t they from the district office? I thought they were getting ready early for the completion permit.”
“Nah. Why would the district office send that many? Aren’t they from the architectural firm? Maybe something’s changing.”
“It’s weird either way. There are over ten people not even working.”
“It is strange. What are they doing in the basement? I saw them going in and out earlier.”
“Don’t talk about the basement. We signed some kind of confidentiality agreement, remember? One wrong word and we could lose our jobs. Stop talking nonsense and let’s go eat.”
“Yeah.”
Just like they said, the construction site was surrounded by more people than usual today.
They said ten, but in reality, about twenty-five were deployed.
Dressed in unmarked clothes, they were guild members who stayed put even after most of the workers left for lunch.
They were all Azure Lake Guild members from the Haeundae Guild’s 1st Expedition Team.
“Are you all in position?”
A man emerged from the basement.
“Yes! Sir Western Shaman.”
It was the Western Shaman, Ahn Hyunwoo.
Ahn Hyunwoo stepped out, fanning himself, looked around once for no reason, then quietly issued orders.
“You know today is a special day, right? Are preparations going well?”
“All preparations are complete. To be absolutely certain, I’ll ask one more time. Is it ten people?”
“That’s right.”
“We’ve already arranged everything to proceed as soon as it opens, so you don’t have to worry.”
Ahn Hyunwoo nodded, then—like he’d noticed something—made an incomprehensible gesture in the air.
He pulled a yellow talisman from his sleeve and threw it.
Fwoosh!
The talisman ignited from his gaze alone, fluttered through the air, then stuck to empty space before vanishing.
As if there were an invisible barrier.
“Ten people are important, but it’s the Guild Master’s order not to neglect perimeter security.”
“You don’t think he’d actually come here when all our main forces are present, do you? It’d be like a fish swimming into a crocodile’s mouth.”
“Don’t be so certain. He’s not someone to take lightly.”
“I’d rather he came. With the Western Shaman’s layered Barriers, this place will be his grave. Better yet, let’s make him one of the ten.”
Ahn Hyunwoo listened in silence, his expression souring.
He snapped his fan shut and tapped the mouth of the guild member who’d spoken.
“Listening to you, you’re nothing but arrogant and insolent. Your mouth. Your mouth. Words have power. We should hope he doesn’t come. Do you want him to come and stir up trouble?”
“Th-that’s not what I meant. I’m just saying if he comes, we can kill him… and if we kill him, that’s even better…”
“Again. Just flapping your mouth. If that bastard comes and ruins this whole plan, you’d better know you’ll be in big trouble.”
“I under… stand.”
“This is driving me crazy. This is why I have to keep checking the Barriers. Sigh.”
Annoyed, Ahn Hyunwoo headed back into the basement without looking back.
After watching him go, the guild member looked around, scratched the back of his head, and barked.
“What are you gawking at?! Keep a close eye on the surroundings. If you see anyone suspicious, don’t even warn them—just get rid of them. I’m pissed off.”
“Yes, sir!”
Still dissatisfied, the guild member glared across the street and ground his teeth.
“Just you wait. Just show yourself. I’ll throw you right in front of that Western Shaman.”
= = =
1:30 PM, when the site started up again.
As the experiment barreled toward its final stages, a loud commotion erupted from the third basement floor.
“Guild Master! Guild Master!”
They were in the middle of an unprecedented experiment to forcibly open a Dungeon.
Everyone was on edge, and faces twisted the moment something happened.
For a brief moment, everyone in the lab looked at Park Chung-ho.
“Ahn Hyunwoo.”
“Yes.”
At Chung-ho’s call, the Western Shaman snapped open his fan and walked out.
And about a minute later—
The tightly shut lab door opened, and a blood-soaked man was dragged in by the same guild member Ahn Hyunwoo had scolded earlier.
Dragged by the scruff of his neck, his shoes and hands scraped along the floor.
“Guild Master! I caught him! It’s definitely that rat!”
The guild member threw him, and the blood-soaked man flew limp and slammed his face into the floor.
Park Chung-ho looked down with an annoyed expression, then glanced at Ahn Hyunwoo.
“What is it?”
“I believe it’s him.”
And the Western Shaman added,
“He is remarkably similar to the one who attacked Jang Han-bit’s mansion.”
Park Chung-ho’s eyebrow twitched.
“Kitae.”
“Yes!”
“Check him.”
At Chung-ho’s order, his other arm—Yaksha Hwang Kitae—cracked his neck lightly and moved with heavy strides.
Sniff. Sniff sniff.
True to his werewolf traits, he shouted the moment he caught the scent.
“It’s him. That bastard.”
He kicked the blood-soaked man onto his side.
Bang Hyuk-min’s face was revealed.
Park Chung-ho’s gaze slowly swept over me.
His eyebrow twitched again.
“Are you sure? His face is different.”
The Western Shaman and Yaksha answered in turn.
“The unique energy he possesses perfectly matches that bastard from back then. There’s no doubt.”
“His appearance is different, but my nose remembers. This scent, hidden under the smell of blood. It’s the same scent from back then. Grrrr.”
Park Chung-ho didn’t trust people easily, but he fully acknowledged the skills of the Western Shaman and Yaksha.
Both of them saying the same thing meant only one thing.
It was certain.
I was the same bastard from back then.
“It seems I misjudged him. I thought he’d be quite a nuisance, but to think this is all he amounts to.”
“What should I do?”
The guild member who’d caught me looked at Park Chung-ho with a hopeful expression.
Park Chung-ho glanced at him once, then gestured lightly with his chin.
“I’ve lost interest. I have no attention to spare for a fly. You take care of him.”
“Yes, sir!”
At that single glance, the guild member’s body tensed with excitement.
He drew his sword like he’d kill me on the spot, grabbed me by the collar, and hauled me out of the lab.
The Western Shaman, who’d watched in silence, approached Park Chung-ho and whispered into his ear.
“I have something to tell you.”
= = =
“Khahaha! You bastard Western Shaman, I was right in the end, wasn’t I? Huh?”
Remembering the Western Shaman’s surprised face, the guild member couldn’t wipe the triumphant grin from his lips.
Drag, drag, drag.
As he walked, two long streaks of blood trailed behind him.
“Hahahahaha!”
Following Park Chung-ho’s order, he headed for the prison area on the third basement floor to dispose of me quietly.
“To think he was scared of such an easy target. Tsk tsk. Just you wait—once I climb higher off this, I’ll teach that bastard Western Shaman a lesson.”
He’d caught the eye of Park Chung-ho himself.
That alone filled him with a joy so huge it felt like success was already guaranteed.
He forcefully shoved open the door to a private cell, one of more than twenty lined with iron bars.
Creeeeak.
The moment the door opened, he raised his sword to my neck to end it.
And just as he was about to drive it through my throat—
‘Huh?’
Something unfamiliar slipped into his peripheral vision as he looked down at me.
Something like the foot of a person in a long leather coat.
“What the—?”
The moment he slowly lifted his head, realizing the cell that should’ve been empty wasn’t—
Shwick!
Black smoke billowed, and hot liquid burst from his neck.
“Gack! Gack gack…”
Strength drained from his body.
Clutching his neck, his head tilted weakly upward.
And he met a monster face-to-face.
No Death, wearing the [Death Knight’s Helmet] and wreathed in black smoke, clicked his tongue as he looked down at the collapsing guild member.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk.”
The guild member tried to stop the blood gushing from his neck like a fountain.
As his knees buckled, No Death’s dagger swung a second time.
Two strikes.
Even the faint groans vanished.
Thud.
Eyes wide open, the guild member slammed face-first into the ground.
“We’re here. Get up.”
After he died, No Death’s dagger plunged into my heart.
Stab! Shwick!
When it was pulled free, blood sprayed out.
And a short while later—
Jwaaaaaak.
With the unique passive skill—revival of a [Revenant], my eyes opened. I wiped the blood from my lips and pushed myself up.
“Let’s begin.”
Sshhhk.
Gripping the [Immortal Demon Sword], I stood up, using the dead guild member as a foothold.
Black smoke rose from me just like it did from No Death.
Brimming with killing intent, I looked like a grim reaper coming for the Azure Lake Guild.