Chapter 115 - The Dungeon That Shouldn’t Exist
Jhin thought his eyes were mistaken.
’Log history.’
He looked through the endless stream of system ssages floating before his eyes and checked the most recent records.
There had definitely been a system ssage that appeared the mont he killed the Pierrot.
ssages had overlapped almost simultaneously, their sounds even colliding—
[You have defeated the -grade boss monster ’Puppeteer Pierrot.’]
[You have discovered a hidden ending.]
[’Puppeteer Pierrot’s The Park’ has failed to undergo dungeonization.]
[!]
[’Puppeteer Pierrot’s The Park’ has been completed.]
[Failed to stop dungeonization.]
[!]
Even looking at it again, the contents were absurd.
One ssage said the dungeonization failed because the boss monster had been killed, and another said the prevention of dungeonization had failed and the area had beco a dungeon.
Two contradictory ssages were reporting the situation simultaneously.
Jhin pulled his gaze away from the ssage window and looked around. Regardless of which one was correct, the important fact was that the system had not shown him any ’Dungeon Entry ssage.’
Had he stopped the dungeonization?
He didn’t know.
He couldn’t even tell if anything had changed yet.
"Hmm..."
"...What the hell is going on?"
Maybe it was because Pierrot’s domain—which had been dominating this place—had vanished upon his death. The ominous aura that had saturated the area disappeared, and the players who had been ntally consud by it began slowly regaining their senses.
But the mont they did, panic struck.
"Seo... Jhin?"
"Uwaaah!"
"What is this?!"
Their hands were stained with warm blood, and before their eyes lay the lifeless bodies of their teammates.
They probably wouldn’t rember it.
Those addicted to the miasma had their brains infected along with their bodies. They had turned into nothing more than ’maniacs’ who craved blood.
They had stabbed their comrades in the back, killed them—and sotis even eaten them.
None of that could be rembered.
Only the result remained.
’At least the miasma infused this ti wasn’t enough to drive them completely mad. If it had been...’
Still, even without the mories, the mont they ca to their senses and realized they had a knife buried in a comrade’s body, there was no avoiding panic.
They stared at the weapons in their hands, dropped them, and trembled uncontrollably.
"Get a grip! It’s not over yet!"
Adonis pulled the squad mbers together and tried to rally them. They still needed ti to fully co to their senses, but Adonis’s shout was enough to get them moving.
Whatever the situation was, it needed to be cleaned up.
With a sigh that carried the weight of his thoughts, Adonis approached Jhin and asked cautiously,
"...Did you kill the boss monster?"
Jhin nodded.
At his feet lay the sprawled corpse of the Pierrot—already cold and lifeless. It was dead. That much was certain.
’The experience points ca in.’
And not just that.
For slaying the Pierrot, he’d even earned a title.
[You have acquired the title, ’Adventurer Who Explores the Truth.’]
[Attack power in uncNazoraled regions increases by 10%.]
The dungeonization had stretched on for three months. This place, where so many people had gone missing that it had been dubbed the Bermuda Zone, had finally revealed its truth.
So yes, the boss monster had clearly been defeated.
That’s when Millie spoke.
"Mr. Jhin... I think you should co over here. Sothing’s not right."
He hadn’t even noticed her step outside, but Millie now stood on the threshold of the movie theater. Following her, Jhin walked over and looked through the tall window that revealed the outside of the theater.
He let out a quiet breath.
This was honestly unexpected.
"...Gasp. New Capital...!"
Adonis, who had followed behind, gasped and muttered. He looked around frantically, trying to catch a glimpse of the surroundings beyond BeyTower, but he never found the sight he was hoping for.
All directions were now shrouded in pitch-black, like the world had been surrounded by walls of shadow.
"What the hell is happening right now?"
Only then did Jhin begin to grasp what had truly happened here.
Two system ssages—completely contradictory—had appeared at the sa ti.
And this wasn’t so visual glitch or artifact. The scenery of New Capital looked real.
BeyTower and the people within it were the only ones left behind.
Beyond the window was a void, an expanse drowned in black.
Jhin let out a deep breath as the information from Exodia 1 ca to mind.
There was only one thing this situation could an.
"We’ve been isolated."
"...What?"
Jhin stared out again beyond BeyTower, narrowing his eyes at the deep blackness.
It wasn’t simply "dark"—it was a bottomless abyss, a space of pure nothingness.
Millie asked nervously,
"What... what do you an?"
Jhin turned to her and exhaled the breath he’d been holding, then answered in a low voice.
"Ms. Millie. Have you ever thought about this? What if, at the very mont the boss monster dies... the dungeon becos completed? That kind of possibility?"
"..."
"And what if it happens at the exact sa timing—down to the second?"
She thought hard about it, then shook her head.
"I’ve never thought of that. Is that even possible? Doesn’t dungeonization stop the instant the boss dies?"
Jhin pressed a finger to his temple and muttered, like he had a headache.
"It’s possible. It’s rare, but similar cases did occur in Exodia 1."
At that mont, Adonis—who had been listening—spoke in a trembling voice.
"...Are you talking about the ’First Refund Incident’?"
"Yes."
"Damn it. Then we’re really trapped in here?"
Trapped.
There wasn’t a better word to describe it.
Jhin swallowed the bitter taste in his mouth and bit down on his lip.
’This place is a dungeon.’
BeyWorld and the surrounding areas the parasites had devoured were still visible.
But everything else—everything beyond—was covered in darkness. A space of literal nothingness.
A dungeon without a boss monster.
There had been people in the past who experienced a similar situation in Exodia 1.
The First Refund Incident.
A bug that occurred when the boss monster was killed at the exact mont dungeonization reached completion.
The result back then... was only one thing.
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