#77: Nonhyeon-dong Dungeon Explosion Incident (13) — The Constellation Hunting Life of an S-Class Porter

[Do-ol is afflicted with status ailment ‘Irrecoverable’.]

[Status intensity: Permanent]

‘Yes……!’

Seeing the new alert, Hyeonseong clenched her fist hard.

The sound when Do-ol slammed into Infinite Corridor had felt off, and sure enough, that collision seemed to have exceeded what it could endure.

‘So the inside was already shredded compared to that tough-looking shell.’

It meant ‘Creator of the Four Fiends’ hadn’t been exaggerating—its earlier panic had been genuine.

“Hey! Do-ol hunting teams!”

Either way, when the opening appeared, they had to pour everything in. Hyeonseong grabbed the megaphone and shouted.

“Get ready to finish that bastard!”

“What about me?”

Hearing the shout, Song Jiwoo shoved the Enemy Knight’s sword aside and asked.

“You keep holding the Enemy Knight.”

“Not my favorite order.”

“If you can take its head off right now, I’ll change it.”

At that, Song Jiwoo made a helpless face and went back to crossing blades with the Enemy Knight.

The moment she redirected Song Jiwoo’s attention, Hyeonseong turned her gaze back to the Awakened fighting Do-ol.

“Do you see any new weak points?”

She asked while pulling out the ‘Mad Gatherer’s Eye’ card from Infinite Corridor.

“I don’t know!”

“Nothing obvious, at least…….”

[It doesn’t look like anything new appeared.]

While listening to the responses, Hyeonseong activated the skill card. Golden points immediately rose in clusters around Do-ol’s head and near its heart.

‘None on the torso. So no added weak points.’

It was a little disappointing, but not a problem. Now, just properly exploiting the existing weak points would be enough to bring it down.

“Then the teams I call—move to the head side or turn your direction that way!”

Hyeonseong kept calling out the names of the teams assigned to strike Do-ol’s head. The called teams moved as ordered.

While the attack teams shifted into position, she ordered the remaining teams to grab Do-ol by the ankles.

Those teams stabbed places that weren’t vital but would be irritating, or tried to hook its legs and trip it.

None of it dealt huge damage, but it was more than enough to achieve the goal of tying down its ankles.

In the meantime, all attack teams finished repositioning.

“Prep your highest-penetration skills!”

Hyeonseong shouted at each team’s main damage dealer.

There was no need to specify which skill. No one knew their best option better than they did.

“Everyone else—do exactly what you always do when you set up a boss for a killing blow!”

At the follow-up order, the rest of the attack teams readied their skills—some prepared attacks, others prepared buffs or debuffs.

‘I should keep one card in reserve too.’

While that was happening, Hyeonseong pulled out one of the piercing-type skill cards Hyeonyeong had made, as insurance in case their damage came up short.

“All set!”

One by one, people shouted they were ready. Even to Hyeonseong, it looked like preparations were complete.

“Then…… go!”

Hyeonseong shouted the final command.

KWAANG——!

Every prepared attack skill fired at once. Do-ol’s head was completely swallowed by the light of aura and magic from countless attributes.

KEEEEEEK—!

[‘Creator of the Four Fiends’ screams along with their creation.]

The monster, battered by the concentrated barrage, let out a shriek.

‘Not enough. I didn’t get the kill message.’

Judging by the scream and the Constellation’s reaction, it was definitely threatening—but it was just short of cutting off its breath in one blow.

The instant she realized that, Hyeonseong leveled the skill card at Do-ol’s head.

[‘Creator of the Four Fiends’ hurriedly rummages through the reinforcement spells and items they currently have.]

Swae-aek—

[‘Creator of the Four Fiends’ hurls an empty pocket and sprints for the lab.]

It looked like Do-ol’s owner wanted to do something else, but it was already too late.

Pak—

The skill Hyeonseong fired last—Hyeonyeong’s—pierced straight through Do-ol’s head.

Immediately after, the message she’d been waiting for appeared.

[You have successfully slain Do-ol.]

[‘Authority of Fusion Life Sciences’ bursts into loud laughter.]

[‘Creator of the Four Fiends’ sits back down and flings away the handkerchief.]

“Got it!”

“We got it!”

Seeing Do-ol’s corpse collapse after losing its head, the Awakened shouted in excited voices.

“Then now what’s left is…….”

“So now, how about you deal with this one too?”

Song Jiwoo’s voice cut in over theirs.

“That’s what I was about to do.”

Hyeonseong lifted the megaphone.

“Everyone, come over here!”

She called over the Awakened who had just finished Do-ol. They ran in immediately.

Their movement was remarkably orderly. Without being told, they stayed grouped by team, holding their spacing as they moved.

“Same as before?”

A few asked.

“Similar. But this time—”

“My turn.”

Song Jiwoo shouted, shaking off the Enemy Knight’s sword.

“……Since she says so, please bear with it, everyone.”

Hyeonseong sighed. That had been the plan, but seeing how completely Song Jiwoo failed to hide that she wanted to land one big hit made her sigh anyway.

“First, we strip its focus.”

Hyeonseong backed off and began issuing formation orders.

This time too, the formation encircled the Enemy Knight from all sides—spreading out the harassment Song Jiwoo had been handling alone and preventing it from escaping if they failed to hold its gaze.

Teams specialized in defense and drawing attention held the front with Song Jiwoo to prevent the Enemy Knight from leaving the battlefield. Teams in the rear occasionally fired heavy attacks to disrupt its concentration.

[‘Steel’ asks if this means ‘Authority of Fusion Life Sciences’ ultimately won the wager.]

[‘Space-Time Designer in His Room’ says isn’t that obviously the case.]

[‘Lucky White Rabbit’s Foot’ says Do-ol died first, so of course that’s how it should be.]

Even as the Awakened wore down the Enemy Knight’s stamina and mental state, the Constellations’ chatter didn’t stop.

[‘Creator of the Four Fiends’ claims they didn’t lose because Red Horse fell far earlier than their own creation.]

[‘Information Broker of B-1st Street’ watches your multi-feed video reading skill closely.]

[‘Aesthetics of Division’ tells ‘Creator of the Four Fiends’ that’s an incredibly ugly thing to say and maybe they should retract it while they still can…….]

‘So far it’s running fine, but…….’

Watching both the battle and the messages, Hyeonseong narrowed her eyes slightly. ‘Creator of the Four Fiends,’ who had just lost its minion, was clearly trying to force the issue again.

‘Don’t tell me they’re about to drop something else. Or piss off the Enemy Knight’s owner and…….’

[‘Creator of the Four Fiends’ rages that they’ll flip the betting table.]

[‘Lucky White Rabbit’s Foot’ panics and tries to retrieve the Ghost Coins they bet.]

[‘Steel’ says someone should calm that bastard down…….]

‘What a mess.’

The scene felt weirdly familiar—like a gambling den. Hyeonseong clicked her tongue internally, exasperated.

[‘Authority of Fusion Life Sciences’ snorts at ‘Creator of the Four Fiends’’ antics.]

[‘Authority of Fusion Life Sciences’ says if they’re so wronged, then go on—set a condition they can actually accept, to ‘Creator of the Four Fiends’.]

‘…What are these idiots planning this time?’

Her experience-based “big data” sensed an ominous turn again. Hyeonseong tightened her grip on the megaphone.

[‘Creator of the Four Fiends’ insists that flipping this damn betting table is the only acceptable condition and flops down in protest.]

[‘Steel’ coaxes them to think of a fun condition instead.]

[‘Lucky White Rabbit’s Foot’ says ‘Creator of the Four Fiends’ has always had the habit of throwing tantrums and flopping down whenever something doesn’t go their way…….]

[‘Steel’ hurriedly clamps a hand over ‘Lucky White Rabbit’s Foot’’s mouth.]

‘…Was I just being paranoid?’

Listening to the pathetic exchange, she let herself hope so.

[‘Prankster of the Beginning’ says then they should simply prove that the Rider of the Red Horse can overwhelm the mortals over there without saying a word.]

[‘Authority of Fusion Life Sciences’ shows interest, saying the lower god actually made a pretty plausible point.]

[‘Creator of the Four Fiends’ calms down and listens closely to ‘Prankster of the Beginning’’s idea.]

‘Of course.’

At the messages, Hyeonseong wore an enlightened smile. From the looks of it, the Enemy Knight was practically guaranteed to get another buff.

‘Now I just need to see whether it’s an offense buff or a defense buff.’

[‘Creator of the Four Fiends’ says to ‘Authority of Fusion Life Sciences’ that if the Enemy Knight can endure alone for twice the time it took Do-ol to fall, they will humbly acknowledge defeat.]

‘Before defense goes up, taking the neck…… would be hard, right?’

The moment she heard the condition, Hyeonseong could tell.

‘Authority of Fusion Life Sciences’ wouldn’t pick a risky option when they had an easy win—so they’d likely choose a buff tied to defense or invincibility.

‘If I’m wrong, it’s fine. If it’s offense, defense stays about the same, so we just do what we were doing.’

She ruled out buffing both offense and defense. It wasn’t efficient—and forcing too much reinforcement could instead accelerate the Enemy Knight’s physical breakdown.

[‘Authority of Fusion Life Sciences’ accepts ‘Creator of the Four Fiends’’ proposal.]

“Song Jiwoo!”

“Meaning: hit it now, right?”

At Hyeonseong’s shout, Song Jiwoo aimed her blade at the Enemy Knight’s neck—and immediately thrust, firing a strong stream of red aura.

“Everyone, stack every debuff you can use!”

As Song Jiwoo raised her sword, Hyeonseong ordered the others too. Its debuff resistance could rise along with defense. Anything they could land beforehand, they had to land now.

[‘Authority of Fusion Life Sciences’ sponsors ‘Status: Ironwall’s Guard’ to their minion.]

Puuuk—

“Tch.”

At the message that appeared the instant Song Jiwoo fired her skill, Hyeonseong clicked her tongue.

She’d already judged that beheading it at this timing was unrealistic. There was too little time to concentrate enough firepower.

Even so, it wasn’t pleasant to watch a failure become certain.

‘At least we put a wound on it before the defense went up.’

Blood dripped steadily from the Enemy Knight’s neck. Song Jiwoo’s hurried aura strike had connected.

It wasn’t enough to cut its breath off, but it did meaningful damage. The bleeding debuff strengthened too.

‘And most of the minor debuffs got in.’

The sponsored buff didn’t have any effect that dispelled existing debuffs. It could block new debuffs after activation, but it couldn’t shake off what was already applied.

[‘Authority of Fusion Life Sciences’ clicks their tongue at their minion’s underwhelming condition.]

[‘Authority of Fusion Life Sciences’ says even so, they’re confident they’ll beat ‘Creator of the Four Fiends’.]

[‘Creator of the Four Fiends’ snorts, saying they were anxious enough to drop a reinforcement spell and now they’re posturing.]

[‘Steel’ asks if the time limit is about forty minutes or so…….]

‘We need a way to kill it before the time limit runs out.’

Obviously, Hyeonseong had no intention of holding out for dozens of minutes. They’d landed real injuries and stacked debuffs.

They’d carved out an opening—if they couldn’t shorten the fight from here, that would be the real problem.

‘We’re going home before sunset. And…… I’m going to flip that damn betting table too.’

If they killed the Enemy Knight within the Constellations’ arbitrary time window, another fight would erupt over whether the table got flipped or not.

Putting everything else aside, Hyeonseong decided she absolutely had to see that spectacle.

‘Alright. Let’s do this.’

Hyeonseong lifted the megaphone again.