Chapter 113 - The Dungeon With No Exit
Jhin wondered for a mont if his eyes were playing tricks on him.
’Log records.’
Among the endless system ssages flooding his vision, he focused on the most recent log entries.
There was no mistake.
At the exact mont he defeated Pierrot, the system had issued a ssage —
And not just one.
Two separate, conflicting ssages had appeared at the exact sa ti, their alerts overlapping in sound.
[You have defeated the ?-Rank Boss Monster ’Puppeteer Pierrot’.]
[You have discovered a hidden ending.]
[’Puppeteer Pierrot’s The Park’ has failed to dungeonize.]
[!]
[’Puppeteer Pierrot’s The Park’ has been completed.]
[Dungeonization failed to be prevented.]
[!]
Even reading them again now... it was absurd.
One ssage said dungeonization had failed because the boss was killed.
The other said dungeonization had succeeded anyway.
Two completely contradictory outcos — delivered simultaneously.
Jhin blinked and finally pulled his eyes from the ssage window.
He looked around.
Regardless of which ssage was "correct" —
One thing was certain:
He never received a proper dungeon entry notice.
Had they stopped the dungeonization after all?
He didn’t know.
He couldn’t even tell if anything had changed.
"Hmm..."
"...What the hell’s going on here?"
With Pierrot’s death, its domain vanished.
The Demonic Energy that had engulfed the area dissipated —
And one by one, the players who had been under its influence began to regain consciousness.
But it didn’t take long before panic set in.
"Arthur...?"
"Aaaahhh!"
"What is this?!"
Their hands were covered in blood.
And before their eyes —
The corpses of their companions lay cold and lifeless.
They wouldn’t rember anything.
Those poisoned by Demonic Energy weren’t just confused — their minds were fully consud, turned into bloodthirsty lunatics.
They had stabbed their comrades in the back.
Killed them.
Sotis even... eaten them.
But none of them rembered doing it.
All they had now were the consequences.
The aftermath.
Thankfully, Jhin thought, the amount of Demonic Energy they were exposed to this ti was relatively small.
Otherwise, they might’ve lost their sanity entirely — beyond recovery.
Still, for those who ca to their senses while holding a bloody weapon lodged in a teammate’s body...
There was only horror.
Hands shaking, they dropped their weapons and stared at their blood-soaked palms.
"Get a grip! It’s not over yet!"
Adonis rallied them together, trying to stabilize the chaos.
They still needed ti to fully recover their senses.
But his voice — his presence — gave them sothing to cling to.
Sothing to follow.
No matter how grim the situation, it still had to be managed.
With a heavy sigh, Adonis approached Jhin and asked cautiously,
"...Did you kill the boss monster?"
Jhin nodded.
The corpse lying in front of him —
The mangled remains of Pierrot — had already gone cold.
The monster was dead.
That, at least, was certain.
Because he’d gained experience points.
And not just that—
He had received a new title for defeating Pierrot:
[You have acquired the title ’Explorer of Truth’.]
[In unknown regions, your attack power increases by 10%.]
The dungeonization of BeyWorld had gone on for three whole months.
It had swallowed up countless people.
It had beco infamous enough to earn the na "Bermuda Zone."
And now... they had uncovered the truth.
There was no question:
Pierrot had been defeated.
Then, Millie spoke up.
"Mr. Jhin... I think you should co take a look at this. Sothing’s wrong."
She was standing by the theater doors.
Apparently, she had stepped out briefly.
Following her out, Jhin reached the giant viewing windows near the entrance.
And as he looked out—
He exhaled sharply.
Even he hadn’t anticipated this.
"H-Holy... It’s New Capital...!"
Adonis followed after, catching sight of the sa thing.
His face froze in disbelief.
He looked around, trying to spot landmarks beyond the BeyTower.
But he couldn’t find what he was looking for.
Because beyond the tower —
There was only blackness.
Like the city had been enclosed in pitch-black walls.
"What... What the hell is happening...?"
At last, Jhin began to understand what was happening.
The truth behind those two contradictory ssages.
The unnatural, almost bug-like shift in the landscape.
The hollow shell of the BeyTower.
The people stranded here.
And the window that now looked out into a black void —
A world of absolute nothingness.
Only one conclusion was possible.
"This place... we’ve been isolated."
"...What?"
Jhin stared again at the void beyond the glass.
Not just dark.
It was a bottomless pit of nothing.
Millie’s voice trembled slightly.
"What... What do you an by that?"
Jhin turned to face her, finally letting out the breath he’d been holding.
"Ms. Millie... Have you ever wondered sothing?"
"What if... the mont the boss dies, the dungeon is completed?"
"And I an exactly at the sa ti. Not a second off."
She paused, thinking it over.
Then slowly shook her head.
"I’ve never thought of that before... Is that even possible? Doesn’t the death of the boss automatically cancel the dungeonization?"
Jhin winced and pressed his fingers to his temples.
"It’s possible.
It’s rare — but sothing similar did happen in Exodia 1."
Standing nearby and listening to the entire exchange, Adonis spoke up, voice unsteady.
"...Wait. You an the first refund incident?"
"Yeah."
"Shit. Then... we’re really trapped here?"
Trapped.
That word... was the only accurate way to describe what had happened.
Jhin swallowed bitterly and clenched his jaw.
This place is a dungeon now.
He could still see the remnants of BeyWorld.
The areas swallowed up by the Parasites.
But beyond that?
Pure darkness.
A void without form. A world without content.
This is a dungeon with no boss monster.
There were people in Exodia 1 who had experienced sothing similar.
The First Refund Incident.
Where players killed the dungeon boss at the exact mont of dungeonization—
And due to a system bug, the dungeon finalized anyway.
And the result... was always the sa.
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