Chapter 140

Everyone was terrified by Blaine’s impulsive action. They screamed his name frantically, but Blaine did not reappear. Theo wanted to run over immediately and check what had happened. The others likely felt the same, but they couldn’t move recklessly; if they stepped off their pressure plates, the bridge would vanish.

The only relief was that despite Blaine jumping off, they were all still standing right where they were.

“Why on earth did he jump?”

Theo muttered anxiously while waiting for the missing Blaine. As if in response, Holanghee checked her own status and replied, “It seems he’s not dead yet….” Father stood on her tiptoes and strained to see beneath the bridge, wondering aloud, “Is there something down there?”

While the three were struggling in their own way, Noquia, who had been suspiciously quiet, finally spoke up.

“Could it be a treasure room?”

The three of them froze instantly. They looked at Noquia, then wordlessly exchanged glances before snapping their eyes back toward the bridge. If there was any reason for Blaine to act independently like that, a treasure room was the most likely candidate.

Thanks to the four of them holding down the plates, Blaine had been able to cross the bridge, staying alert for any potential traps. However, when he reached the midpoint, he spotted a faint, glimmering light deep within the abyss.

“What is that…?”

Muttering quietly to himself, Blaine headed to the edge of the bridge to confirm. Below the seemingly hollow chasm were various cliffs of all sizes, and light was seeping out from one particular ledge directly beneath the bridge.

Due to the near-vertical angle of the cliffside, he couldn’t see exactly what the light was. However, thanks to the rugged, uneven surface of the cliff, there appeared to be plenty of footholds.

Blaine searched for the nearest spot to land. It was a height that required a significant leap, but it didn’t look impossible—though a single misstep would mean falling to his death.

After a moment of deliberation, Blaine steeled his resolve, looked up, and shouted toward the group lined up on the opposite cliff.

“Hyung! Noonas! I see a light down there! I’m going down to check it out!”

But the people on the other side couldn’t seem to hear him. They tilted their heads, shouted something back, and then crossed their arms in an ‘X’ while shaking their heads.

Thinking the ‘X’ and the head-shaking were signs of disapproval, Blaine made a troubled face. He pointed down again and yelled.

“I think I can make it down! It might be a treasure room!”

After shouting his heart out, Blaine waited for an answer, only to suddenly realize:

“Ah, they can’t hear me…. Since I can’t hear them either.”

Giving up on communication, Blaine quietly rested his chin in his hand and stared down. Based on experience, once he crossed this bridge, he would likely never be able to enter whatever treasure room lay below again.

After a long while, Blaine looked up. He smiled and waved at everyone watching him.

“I’ll be right back.”

Leaving behind that brief farewell, Blaine leaped off the bridge without hesitation.

Landing precariously on the nearest ledge, Blaine steadied himself on the unstable foothold. He felt the ground beneath his feet crumbling. He quickly scanned for the next spot to descend and began scaling down the cliffside.

He didn’t forget to keep checking the position of the light. Moving closer to the source as he continued his descent, Blaine discovered a refined platform about three meters down. It looked like polished marble.

Blaine aimed carefully and jumped onto the marble. Relieved to have arrived safely, he caught his breath and looked up, only to be met with a magnificent arched door. It was identical to the door of the first treasure room they had found.

Looking up at the grand entrance, Blaine swallowed hard and reached out to touch the door. It felt incredibly heavy—the kind of weight that suggested it wouldn’t open even if he pushed. Blaine leaned in closer, braced both arms against the surface, and began to push with all his might. Despite appearing immovable, the door surprisingly began to budge, bit by bit.

With a loud creak, the door swung open. A blinding light poured out from the wide-open entrance, and Blaine instinctively covered his eyes and turned his head away.

However, the light soon faded. Blaine narrowed his eyes and slowly turned back. Inside a vast, dome-shaped room, all sorts of treasures were piled up to the ceiling. Hundreds of interaction prompts appeared before his eyes. it was a breathtaking sight.

Blaine walked into the room as if possessed. With every passing step, an interaction called out to him. He walked dazed to the center of the room and looked around, but every name that popped up via the system windows was simply “Treasure.”

It seemed impossible to tell exactly what each item was. After much agonizing, Blaine reached out for a single treasure; the moment he claimed it, all other interaction prompts vanished.

“Uh…?”

A hollow sigh escaped him. Apparently, you could only obtain one item per treasure room. He hurried to open his inventory and found a new treasure chest inside. He tried to see if he could open it, but the chest wouldn’t budge. It seemed he would have to clear the dungeon and exit before he could open it.

Blaine looked back and forth between the chest in his hand and the mountains of treasure. To think he could only get one out of all of this…. He felt strangely wronged and indignant. He was so bitter he could hardly bring himself to leave. After lingering and pacing inside for a long time, Blaine finally forced his reluctant feet to move, his chin trembling in disappointment.

Stepping outside, Blaine tucked the precious treasure chest safely back into his inventory and looked up at the daunting cliff. Going up was going to be much harder than coming down.

Surviving several near-falls, Blaine finally managed to crawl back to the top of the cliff. He glanced down one last time to check; there was only pitch-black darkness and not a single speck of light. Because he had entered and left, the door to the treasure room had turned back into stone.

Standing on the crumbling foothold at the top, Blaine took a deep breath and jumped with all his might. The foothold broke just as he jumped, so his leap lacked a bit of power. Blaine reached out desperately to close the dangerous gap and managed to grab hold of the bridge at the last second.

Dangling from the bridge, he used his momentum to scramble back up. Wiping away the cold sweat from the tension, he took one look back down into the abyss before looking up for the group waiting on the other side.

“I’m safe!”

Blaine, conveying his safety with a smile, even went so far as to wave the treasure chest over his head for his curious teammates. The party members, spotting the chest, began to raise an indescribable racket, though as expected, their words remained unintelligible. However, it was clear that the noise was one of pure celebration.

Blaine crossed the rest of the bridge to fulfill his original objective. He began to scan the area for the mechanism Theo had mentioned and found it without much trouble—there was a pressure plate right in front of the cliff.

Sprinting over to the plate, Blaine stepped onto it and signaled a large circle over his head with his arms so the group on the other side would notice.

Recognizing his signal, they began to step off their own plates one by one. Even though they had moved, the bridge remained perfectly intact, allowing everyone to finally reunite on the opposite side.

“Show us the treasure!”

Before they could even celebrate the reunion, Holanghee flew in like a lightning bolt and began pestering Blaine.

“What did you get?”

Father lunged in right after her. As a flustered Blaine hurriedly pulled out the treasure chest, Theo and Noquia crowded around as well.

“There really was a treasure room down there?!”

“This brat! Well done, seriously, well done!”

Noquia guffawed and gave Blaine several hearty thwacks on the back. Theo, who was too preoccupied with the treasure chest to care whether Blaine was being beaten or not, inspected the box from various angles before asking in confusion.

“Wait, you haven’t opened it yet? Why is it still a chest?”

At Theo’s question, Noquia, still laughing, chimed in, “He probably didn’t open it so he could do it with us. What a thoughtful kid!” She then made a gesture urging him to open it immediately.

Four sets of eyes locked onto Blaine. Their gazes were sparkling with silent pressure and anticipation, practically demanding he open it. Blaine swallowed hard under the heavy stares and shook his head.

“I think we have to leave the dungeon before we can open it. I tried, but it wouldn’t work.”

The soaring morale plummeted in an instant. With drained faces, everyone looked at the treasure chest as if to say, Is that so? before sinking to the ground in a row.

“This dungeon really knows how to suck the soul out of you,” Holanghee muttered, and the others simply nodded instead of replying.

Since they had already sat down after crossing the bridge, they decided to take a short break. They sat and chatted without a campfire, but soon reached a consensus that time was wasting and they should just clear the place and get out. They dusted themselves off and stood up once more.

The bridge they had crossed didn’t vanish even after Blaine stepped off his plate; it seemed to be a permanent fixture now. The area across the bridge wasn’t much different from the side they had left: a wall on one side, a chasm on the other. It felt like the exact same path, just flipped horizontally.

They walked for a long time, sharing various bits of idle chatter, until they reached a path identical to the slope where the boulder had rolled down on the other side. It looked like they had to climb up this time, and they couldn’t help but worry about what they’d do if another boulder came rolling down.

Watching the daunting uphill climb with tension, they let out a long sigh and began to ascend. Even if a boulder did come, if this was the only way, they had no choice but to break through.