“Gyeol, keep your eyes closed.”
“It’s okay, Dad! I want to see too!”
I really shouldn’t expose him to such violence. Bringing him to this fight was a mistake from the start....
As I approached, Chatterbox scrambled to his feet. Before he could straighten his posture, I delivered a heavy punch. Whack! With a crisp sound, his head snapped to the side. Ah, my hand stings. I bent my knee and drove it upward. Chatterbox’s arms shot up to block the knee aid at his solar plexus. I reached for his head, grasped it, and slamd him down with all my weight.
His long body flailed and toppled forward. He tried to lift his legs high to strike on the back of the neck with his heel, but I rolled aside and avoided it. Still mid-flop, I landed on the ground and kicked his rolling form with my other foot.
“Guhk!”
“You’ve never fought with your body before, have you?”
Look at you stumbling now that you’ve lost your stats. Even if you had, it’d be centuries ago. Since becoming Transcendent you probably haven’t had a proper fight. You could have ended this with just a gesture.
I kicked his knee again as he tried to rise. His leg buckled and he collapsed to his knees, powerless. I drove my knee into his jaw, the perfect target. Crack! With a crunch, his jaw broke and he slumped backward.
“Feels gross bullying soone weaker like this.”
“W-weak....”
“You’re utterly weak, anyone can see.”
I drew my gun. Perhaps biting his tongue in frustration, Chatterbox spat blood. Bruises were already blossoming across his face. Yet his eyes remained fierce.
“Han Yujin.”
“Yes. Han Yujin.”
My gun was aid at his forehead. His trembling jaw forced out a laugh—croaky and tearlike.
“I’m... trying to—die at your hands—like this!”
“You ca at Han Yujin first.”
I pressed the muzzle into his brow instead of pulling the trigger. Chatterbox’s brow contorted.
“The Harmless King’s funeral? Not anymore. This party was yours, Han Yujin’s, from start to finish.”
I claid the beginning and the end. There is no Harmless King, no Chatterbox.
“Han Yujin’s party.”
It was a party for . Anyone who witnessed it would admit so.
“But—but—!”
“Chatterbox even exited on your own, didn’t you? Good effort~”
“No!!”
As mana gathered around the barrel, Chatterbox scread like a dying animal. His eyes darted wildly, searching for Ruga Peya. He stared at her, who was watching from a short distance, with desperate pleading.
“Harmless King! Please, at least make this the last ti—!”
“Why should I?”
Ruga Peya cocked her head. Chatterbox’s expression shattered entirely. In the deepening despair, his fingers scraped the ground.
“My tea-ti partner is gone. I might’ve considered her request if I’d gotten anything from her~”
“You gave up yourself.”
No one else, but himself, was the reason. Chatterbox, already pale, went completely white. Soil sifted through his fingers. What other Transcendent has disappeared so pitifully? Even if bested by a fellow F-rank, Diarma and Ruga Peya remained themselves until the end.
But Chatterbox held nothing.
“You leave behind nothing. Even if a mana stone drops, I’ll erase it as a byproduct.”
He had no intention of preserving his essence. Whether anything would remain was doubtful.
“I—I!”
I didn’t listen further. His final scream was re aningless death throes.
I raised my hand, covered Gyeol’s eyes on my shoulder, and pulled the trigger. Chatterbox’s head vanished. I fired again at his twitching body. The shattered form slumped and coalesced like a ghost.
[...Han Yujin]
“Persistent.”
[As a forr Transcendent, I curse you.]
Bang! The bullet tore through the phantom and snapped a tree. If he’s cursing, he really is dying.
[You too will vanish aningless. Forgotten and forsaken by your world!]
“You done?”
The ghost wavered.
“Thanks for cursing only .”
“D-dad! Don’t you dare!”
“Sorry, sorry. But my curse resistance is the highest, after all.”
If he’d been in his cold state, he might’ve hard Yuhyun or those around . But he didn’t even have the chance.
“I don’t really believe in curses.”
I shot again. The gust from the bullet scattered the phantom. Thud—a mana stone fell to the ground. He gave sothing, at least.
Rumble!
“Ugh!”
No sooner had I scooped up the stone than everything began to shake. This wasn’t a re earthquake. The very space was collapsing.
“W-wait! How do we get out? What about the others?”
That bastard Chatterbox—could this be the effect of his curse? The tremors grew stronger. Trees toppled, the sky darkened, and long cracks ford. Fragnts of clouds rained down like shattered glass.
“This isn’t exactly a dungeon reset~ The others seem to have exited. I only sense you and that little guy.”
At least the others were safe.
“Then what about us? Will we be ejected automatically too?”
“Hmm~ Probably.”
Ruga Peya drifted close, peering at my face.
“I doubt it. You’ve killed the dungeon’s owner. Usually that revokes your privileges.”
“Privileges?”
“Yes. But you have no power as dungeon master, so it’s collapsing like this. To leave, you must create a door yourself.”
“How do I do that!”
Should I shout Open Sesa? I’m not Myeong-woo—I know nothing of this!
“Oh, now that the authority has transferred, you get the party loot too~”
“Really? Great—No, first we have to survive to claim it!”
I pulled out the Harmless {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} King’s drawer to try escaping—but it wouldn’t activate.
“The space itself is a wreck.”
Ruga Peya floated serenely as she explained.
“It might’ve been repurposed as an escape, but the drawer isn’t万能. It’s a kind of spatial transfer. If the space is unstable, it won’t work for safety.”
“What? Damn it! Gyeol, stick close to !”
I can’t rely on the drawer. Clutching Gyeol, I looked around anxiously. Trees fell in a cascade, cracks spiderwebbed across the ground toward .
Could the blessing hold? If the shock plunged us into water or erased the air, we were done. This can’t be the end! Newcors or other dungeon masters might help—didn’t those brats give this dungeon in the first place?
Rumble, rumble!
The roar of collapsing everything echoed. I tried to stay calm and checked my inventory. I had underwater gear. If we fell, the blessing might save us... I should have grabbed an oxygen mask from Myeong-woo’s pouch! Why didn’t I think of that? I tried emptying a potion bottle to fill it with air—
“Want to use this~?”
Ruga Peya kissed my forehead and held her hand before . Reflexively, I closed my eyes. When her touch swept over my eyelids and I opened my eyes again—
“...We’re here.”
We stood in an unfamiliar dark space. Ruga Peya, now translucent as if about to vanish, drifted like a jellyfish.
“When the dungeon fully disappears, you’ll be transported sowhere in your world. The location’s random~”
She’d helped us? I didn’t know why suddenly.
“Thank you! I’ll prepare a feast fit for a burial table! What should I bring? Hmm?”
I promise to honor you every year without fail! ...But when’s the anniversary? Though it was the Japanese dungeon, it revived in the Chinese one too. Ruga Peya winked and tapped her own eyelid.
“You stayed just as you were. That’s why.”
“Ah....”
Co to think of it, I never used the help she offered back then. Though it summoned her again, I didn’t truly expend it.
“You said it was a ssage.”
“ssages are mories. Pieces of my power. You’ve now expended them all~ every last one!”
Ruga Peya grew ever more faint. I felt a pang of regret at her departure.
“Now that even that’s gone, is this really the end? Is it okay? Even if it’s fake, is it still okay?”
“Fakes can’t last. Or they’ll warp. Better to end cleanly, right?”
“Warp?”
“Yeah. I experinted. If you perfectly copy a body and transfer all mories, will it truly be the sa person~?”
...Unpleasant topic, but a fitting experint for a jellyfish.
“The clone looked identical at first. But soon died suddenly, or gradually diverged from the original. Though the copy claid blue was its favorite, it started liking red, vision improved or declined, even sexual preference changed.”
Ruga Peya shrugged, saying such clones end up entirely different despite shared appearance and mories.
“Those around you felt uncanny. Even though it fooled them perfectly, so reacted with strong revulsion.”
Her words reminded of the dungeon’s and Yuhyun.
“...Then, the people in the dungeon?”
“That’s different.”
Ruga Peya shook her head.
“Beings born of the primal power aren’t clones. Once they step beyond the resetting monster’s space, they’re distinct. You and the dungeon you are both created from the sa source. It’s complicated, but think of it as division rather than duplication. You were twenty-nine, right? The twenty-nine-year-old you split into two: one remained in the dungeon, the other is the you here. From that mont you beca two separate individuals.”
“But it was my pre-regression past.”
“What power created this world that it couldn’t handle ti itself? Just understand it that way.”
...Anyway, he and my brother must be living well sowhere. Then, Yuhyun now and Yuhyun pre-regression—are they two different people? I’d sensed it already. They’d changed a lot.
“mories make a person, but sharing mory doesn’t an you are the sa. The past is fixed; the future always changes. So the current is different from the dead .”
Because we differ, no lingering regrets, smiled the Harmless King.
“Hmm, shall we say farewell? I grew attached a bit.”
“Why? I’m a mory~ And I spread throughout this world. I may fade, but there’s no rule I can’t return.”
Then. Ruga Peya stroked my head as if caressing.
“You’ll rember too, right? About the feast you promised?”
“..ing for the ceremonial al, are you?”
It wouldn’t be strange for a ghost to reappear. No, she might really pop up. Gyeol extended a forepaw toward Ruga Peya.
“I’ll bow twice too. Before we fought, but this ti you helped Dad.”
“Right. I’m curious how you’ll grow! Fairy-types are greatly influenced by their caretakers, so you’ll likely beco a fairy-dragon unlike any other.”
Regretfully, regretfully, Ruga Peya murmured. Truly the unchanging Transcendent.
“Oh, before disappearing, could you teach the drawer’s operation? Sothing about control levels?”
“I gave it for you to take items only. Hmm.”
Ruga Peya drifted around in circles.
“I can’t just teach you, but now you’ll naturally be able to handle it more. The mana imprint integrated more.”
“Really?”
“Yes. And take care of yourself~ Be cautious for a while.”
At Ruga Peya’s words, Gyeol’s ears drooped.
“...Dad, you pushed yourself too hard.”
“Well, I have to survive first. I’ll rest at ho. Really. After all, the party’s over.”
I need to take the loot and go ho. She seems wealthy too—could I claim that? It’s not Chatterbox’s legacy but my spoils.
“It’s done!”
She said lightly, and before I could even regret it, Chatterbox’s form vanished. Then my consciousness gently drifted away—
“Na .”
I shot awake at the unfamiliar voice. A boy holding a small furry creature looked down at with black hair and red eyes. His face was strangely familiar.
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