Chapter 136

When he opened his eyes, he was in bed. Theo sat up groggily and looked around. Blaine was nowhere to be seen. He remembered watching movies on the living room sofa until the eastern sky began to brighten, but everything after that was a total blackout; he must have fallen asleep right there on the couch. It was undoubtedly Blaine who had carried him to his room.

Theo got out of bed and stretched. Assuming Blaine was also sleeping, he quietly left the room and headed downstairs. However, halfway down the staircase, he heard low voices murmuring from the living room.

Wondering who could be visiting, he reached the bottom and saw Blaine sitting on the sofa. He had a display window open and was watching something.

“Blaine?”

At Theo’s call, Blaine whipped his head around, stood up with a bright smile, and hurried over. He looked like a large dog welcoming its master home.

“You’re awake?”

It felt as though an invisible tail was wagging furiously, so Theo glanced briefly at Blaine’s lower half before nodding slowly and asking, “What are you doing here? Didn’t you sleep?”

“No. It turns out the last movie we watched together is part of a series. I couldn’t really fall asleep, so I stayed up to watch the rest. Did… did the noise wake you up? I stayed downstairs and kept the volume low because I didn’t want to disturb your rest….”

Blaine watched Theo’s expression tentatively, worried he might be the reason Theo’s sleep was cut short. Seeing the drooping ears and hearing the shrinking voice, Theo quickly waved his hands to reassure him.

“Huh? No… I didn’t wake up because of you.”

At those words, Blaine’s worried eyebrows and drooping ears vanished instantly, replaced by his usual vitality.

“Would you like something to eat? Some coffee?”

“No, go back to your movie. I’ll get something myself.”

Theo tried to head toward the cooking tools, but Blaine beat him to it, asking, “I’m already finished. Should I just make you some coffee?”

“Ah, no… just water is fine.”

Theo gave up and checked the time as he sat on the sofa. It was past 2:00 PM. It was that awkward time of day where it felt too late to start something new but too early to call it a day. As he pondered what to do, he noticed a letter had arrived in his mailbox. Thinking it might be a quest, he checked it, only to find the sender was Holanghee.

“?”

Tilting his head in confusion, he opened the letter to find a brief message:

[Take this just in case.]

Attached was an antidote.

“…….”

Theo stared at the letter in silence for a moment, then took the antidote and downed it in one go. There was no harm in taking it. He smacked his lips at the bitter aftertaste, but luckily, Blaine arrived with water at that exact moment, providing the perfect chaser.

The two enjoyed a late lunch in the backyard taking in the scenery, then headed out to the sea to fish until late into the night.

The following day, they planned to tackle the newly added “Treasure Hunter” mode in the Survival Dungeon along with Father, Holanghee, and Noquia. Daize had subtly hinted that he wanted to come along, but since a party of six would change the dungeon’s difficulty—and because none of them had the slightest desire to spend time with him—the five of them ignored him and set off for the Survival Dungeon.

True to its name, Treasure Hunter was a dungeon where players had to locate numerous hidden treasure rooms. If done right, one could make a fortune in a single run, but the interior was riddled with life-threatening traps. It operated on a roguelike system where everyone would be sent back to the start if even one party member died. Additionally, players had to manage hunger, thirst, health, stamina, and fatigue gauges, and they couldn’t leave the dungeon until it was cleared.

Players who had already attempted Treasure Hunter unanimously described it as atrocious.

Upon selecting Treasure Hunter in the Survival Dungeon lobby, they felt a sensation of falling before a new environment unfolded before them: a dense, jungle-like forest and ancient, ruinous structures.

To assess the situation, they surveyed their surroundings and opened their inventories. Each person had a skinning knife, a full canteen of water, a sleeping bag, five matches, and two chocolate bars. They compared items, but no one had more or less than the others. Furthermore, everyone’s clothes had been swapped for explorer outfits. Having finished their assessment, they turned their gaze toward the ruins.

“Looks like we’re supposed to go in there, right?”

Father asked, pointing toward the stone steps leading into the ruins. Holanghee nodded.

“Yeah, there’s no way to go back.”

They pushed through the thick undergrowth and carefully climbed the steps. Moss and vines hung everywhere; one wrong step looked like it could lead to a slip or a nasty fall.

Moving with extreme caution, they reached the entrance of the ruins and paused to look back at the stairs and the surrounding area. All they could see was the dense forest being swallowed by greenery. They felt a mixture of excitement and anxiety about the new dungeon raid.

Whether she was oblivious to the group’s somber mood or not, Noquia stomped her foot and spoke in an excited voice.

“Hey, let’s get inside already.”

She took a hasty step forward. Instantly, countless spears lunged up from beneath her feet. No one even had time to gasp. By the time they regained their senses, they were standing back at the bottom of the ruins’ steps, exactly where they had first been summoned.

It was an absurd situation. The group slowly looked up toward the ruins, their gazes mechanical. Curses naturally escaped their lips.

“What the f…”

“What just happened…?”

“It’s insane right from the start?”

Father, Theo, and Holanghee muttered in succession. Blaine and Noquia looked completely dazed. They hadn’t expected a trap to be waiting right at the very entrance.

“Let’s make sure to remember exactly where Quia stepped.”

Everyone nodded solemnly at Father’s suggestion. They carefully entered the ruins, making sure to avoid the spot where Noquia had triggered the spears.

The interior lived up to its appearance as an ancient ruin, with crumbling walls and sections of the ceiling missing. Moss covered the floor like a carpet, and lush grass and trees grew through the cracks in the walls and floor, blocking out the sunlight that poured through the holes in the ceiling.

They had no idea what traps were hidden beneath the moss or behind the foliage. Everyone moved with tense, meticulous steps. However, Holanghee soon stepped on a trap, sending a terrifying saw blade swinging down and forcing them all back to the start. After that, Blaine triggered a trap, and back to the beginning they went again.

They had been in the dungeon for less than ten minutes and had already died three times. Now they understood why other players called it atrocious.

Still, thanks to everyone taking turns triggering the traps, they were successfully mapping out the hazards. However, the next obstacle was one they couldn’t simply avoid just by seeing it.

“…….”

The group stood before two pressure plates, their faces grim. Behind the plates was a passage blocked by an iron gate. One was likely the switch to open the gate… and the other was undoubtedly a lethal trap.

Father let out a resigned sigh. Then, she reached out her foot toward the right-hand plate.

“What’s the point in overthinking it?”

Click. The sound of the pressure plate engaging was followed by a literal rain of arrows. In an instant, everyone was back at the very beginning.

“It was the left one,” Father muttered hollowly.

The group stood before the plates once again. This time, when they pressed the left one, the iron gate opened with a heavy, grinding noise. The passage revealed was just wide enough for one adult to pass through at a time. They entered in a single file. High walls lined both sides of the corridor; stepping stones ran down the center of the floor, flanked by patches of dirt and weeds.

They moved with bated breath, terrified of where the next trap might trigger, when suddenly a beast lunged out from a small hole in the wall. It was a wild boar with a single horn protruding from the center of its forehead.

Everyone froze, their minds racing. What is that? Why did it jump out? Is it a trap?

That was when Theo spoke up tentatively.

“Isn’t that… food?”

“What?”

As Father asked for clarification, Theo pulled out his skinning knife.

“We have hunger gauges. There’s no way we can clear this whole dungeon on just two chocolate bars… Don’t you think they set it up so we can gather food along the way?”

Theo approached the boar with his knife raised. Immediately, an interaction window appeared.

“I was right. It says we can harvest meat.”

Everyone’s eyes lit up. They charged at the One-Horned Savage with their skinning knives, and after a relatively easy struggle, they managed to take it down and collect the meat.

Each carrying a hefty hunk of meat, they resumed their trek. Before long, the end of the passage came into view. Fortunately, there were no traps inside the corridor, and they were able to exit with a collective sigh of relief. However, before they could even catch their breath, they hit another wall: a fork in the road.

Before even worrying about traps, they had to figure out which path was the correct one. But there wasn’t a single hint or signpost in sight.

“The button earlier was on the left, so let’s try going right this time,” Noquia suggested. It was total guesswork, but what other choice did they have? Without any counterarguments, they headed down the right path.

The moment they stepped onto the right path, the center of the floor gave way, sending Theo and Father plummeting. When they came to, everyone was back at the start. Veins began to bulge on several foreheads. They trudged back to the fork and carefully walked around the pitfall.

Up ahead, they saw a corner. Expecting another trap, they inspected the area and noticed countless small holes near the floor. Nine times out of ten, that meant a trap. Blaine picked up a stray stone and tossed it toward the perforated floor, but nothing happened.

“?”

They looked at each other in confusion until Holanghee cautiously approached the holes. She waved her hand over them.

“…….”

Still nothing. After a moment of thought, Holanghee took a leap to jump over the holes. But the spot where she landed went Bang!—and everyone was back at the start.

“Ah… I’m going lose my mind.”

The sight of Holanghee’s retreating back as she muttered those words made it clear to anyone that she was fuming. Even after that, they fell into trap after trap, repeatedly returning to the beginning. It felt as if their patience was being systematically tested. They paced around, cursing the developers and the operators, but of course, no one could hear them. In fact, the developers were likely enjoying the thought of the players’ reactions. No, they definitely were. They were probably loving it like total perverts.

Part of them wanted to just quit and leave, but the fact that they literally couldn’t give up until they cleared it only fueled their rage. Gritting their teeth, they continued to die over and over in a fierce struggle.

Finally, they reached another corner. Bracing themselves for whatever horror lurked around the bend, they peeked around—and noticed something strange.

“Why does this look familiar?”

Just as Theo muttered, the path around the corner looked strikingly familiar. Forgetting the fear of traps for a moment, they rounded the bend and gasped in horror. The place they had just reached was the very end of the passage where the fork had first appeared.

They had gone in a complete circle only to end up right where they started through a hidden door.

Standing there dazed, they all sank to the ground one by one. Overwhelmed by a speechless, indignant rage, they could do nothing but pound the ground in frustration.

After taking a long time to let their anger simmer down, they noticed their hunger, thirst, and stamina gauges were hitting rock bottom.

“Let’s rest here for a bit,” Father said in a lifeless voice. The others merely nodded, lacking even the energy to speak. Father stood up, gathered some twigs, and started a fire using the matches. As the campfire crackled, their depleted stamina gauges began to slowly fill up.

They pulled out their canteens to drink and decided to grill the One-Horned Savage meat they had harvested to save their chocolate bars. Each person skewered a piece of meat on a branch and roasted it over the fire. It tasted much better than expected. Even without seasoning, it tasted as if it had been marinated.

The good food brought back some of their lost vitality. They were enjoying a pleasant meal, chatting about how good it was, when they suddenly found themselves back at the starting point.

“…….”

In the sudden silence, everyone stared at each other with wide eyes. And then, they realized the reason they had died.

“Crazy bastards….”

They decided then and there: they were never eating One-Horned Savage meat again.