Chapter 281: Yet, People Are Love
[Blue-Yellow]
A clash ensues as the two challengers choose different colors.
Having reincarnated in an F-Class body, even the slightest penalty feels tough to bear.
So, should I stick to yellow from now on without considering the opponent’s choice to prevent further shock before it accumulates?
‘Huh?’
But reflective thoughts quickly fade away.
The scenery of the next room that opened resembles something deeply etched in my soul’s memory.
‘There are no pillars.’
A faint sound of wind echoes in the hollow.
‘And it seems that there’s even teleportation magic covering the entire area…’
This was the last room of the gate.
‘Shall I recover first?’
Since it’s a trap designed for simple surveying rather than extracting pain, the dungeon’s length is indeed short.
With that in mind, I repaired my damaged body just enough to manage walking.
After all, there wouldn’t be many occasions to use my physical body from here on anyway.
Thud.
Stepping into the unknown space that eagerly awaits a creature to enter.
Once I stepped in, the last room of the dungeon flooded with bright light.
However, this wasn’t the glowing indication of space movement like other dungeons.
[Completion]
“Hmm?”
It wasn’t anything particularly important, and I had actually forgotten about it until now.
In fact, there was a message from the Ki-simche attached to the end of this gate.
[In this world, there’s earth, stone, wind, and many things, but ultimately, there’s only one primary resource.]
Whoa, they even kept the performance intact.
As expected from a race that loves light representation, the end of the EX-Class gate concludes with their rather pointless event.
Even those who can’t hear can sense it. Soon, the beam text engraved during the gate design phase was thrust before the challengers’ faces.
[Many things fill the head, but the heart is often emptied, like the curiosity of a beast.]
Words that appear and vanish into thin air.
[Yet, people are love.]
Well, since these are all set by the Ki-simche.
It’s not really heartfelt, just some jumbled phrases fitting the situation.
[Rain and gusts. Heat strokes and cold. The force that preserves humanity through all of this is, in fact, a small number of incomprehensible sacrifices. A noble wound.
Therefore, I judge the sacrifices occurring here as valuable, and I consider the one who suffered the most as the final victor and wish to reward him with the essence of life…]
The message concluded.
With another glow blossoming that covered the light text completely, I finally encountered the true exit of this gate.
*
Come to think of it, this was something I couldn’t get to the bottom of in my previous life as well. Why do Ki-simche always accompany teleportation magic with light or shadow?
As many scholars have thought, is it just a matter of preference?
“!”
“…!”
A moment later.
When I opened my eyes again, my sworn enemy was standing right in front of me.
It was the moment the third S-Class and fourth S-Class of Korea reunited.
Unlike the road I had traveled thus far, the room we stood in now was a vast area with no clear end in sight.
‘Huh?’
Just as I realized the final area was circular in shape, the awakened one on the opposite side suddenly moved.
With an F-Class’s reaction speed, it was nearly impossible to detect his swift run.
If I were to collide with an S-Class charging at that speed, even the weakest at the bottom of the pyramid could get crushed and injured.
However, just before the shadow of Kang Chang-ho could close in on him, something emerged to stop him…
Swish!
A thin beam of light suddenly shot up from the ground.
Completely different from the iron chains commonly used on Earth, this was an arcane binding device.
Though it appeared as a simple white string, up close, it had a texture like human muscle. What was the nature of this glowing mass?
‘Similar to [Binding].’
This was a suppression magic used to strongly inhibit movement.
And as evident from its enormous thickness, it was vastly more powerful than the bindings used by Earth’s casters.
Thus, Kang Chang-ho was thoroughly trapped by the dungeon’s trap and couldn’t escape carelessly.
–Thud.
If only people could live nicely from the start, wouldn’t it be good?
Soon, Kang Chang-ho’s arms and legs, abdomen, and neck were all ensnared by the binding spell.
Especially the magical lengths on his upper body were so short it looked like it had been designed for a six-legged crawling beast, forcing him to kneel just to avoid having his neck torn off.
“Ah, geez.”
Thud.
The following scene was quite strange in many ways.
It seemed like I’d never seen him lower his posture before, and I let out a surprised exclamation.
Hearing that, Kang Chang-ho, with a gaze not suited for his massive frame, spoke his first words.
“…You managed to maintain this façade while deflecting my questions outside, huh? Your true colors are revealed now?”
True colors?
I could only realize it after rolling my eyes for a while.
In hindsight, this EX-Class gate appeared rather timely.
So.
‘Aha.’
This unintentionally strengthened the suspicion.
In Kang Chang-ho’s eyes, did I not indeed look like I was in cahoots with the Ki-simche?
Would it not appear reasonable for the sacrifice of the enhancement heart, previously captured and encumbered, to have suddenly been freed through the gate’s unique teleportation?
Even if he repeated so-called rational choices in his position, if, in the end, he stood in the position of the defeated according to the dungeon’s judgment, it made sense for him to think that way.
‘But the misunderstanding that I am allied with the Ki-simche and kin is rather disrespectful from an Alphauri’s standpoint.’
Still, I felt relieved that the situation unfolded better than I thought.
The emergence of this EX-Class gate risked leaving great losses for the victim if things went slightly wrong.
Since this dungeon ensures to capture pairs of challengers, even a slight ambiguity in range settings could lead to the wrong person being dragged into the trial.
It might have been possible for Kang Chang-ho, a third party, Or my body, or even an entirely uninformed ordinary person to be selected as a challenger.
‘Not knowing the dungeon’s content and pulling the Ki-simche while in pain would just be a gamble no matter how well-packaged it is…’
As an Alphauri who had previously analyzed this gate, I knew what I was stating.
This feeding box moves challengers back to their original positions after observing them, creating an array of problems.
Kidnappers. Victims.
If it weren’t for the fact that the two perfectly matched up, I might have been in a situation where the disadvantages for the alien were exacerbated during the clearing process.
It was then.
–Whoosh.
Lost in my thoughts, I realized the ‘reward’ spoken of in the latter part of the dungeon had finally arrived.
A glowing ring before me, not much different from the one piercing the S-Class hunter, appeared to be woven together like a thread collective.
This was the bracelet given to the one who suffered the most inside the EX-Class gate, and it also served as a sign of victory.
“What is this supposed to be?”
I displayed my arm adorned with the glowing ring to Kang Chang-ho.
“Are you really pondering that after seeing my current state?”
Swish.
However, that gesture of mine wasn’t to show off the victor’s bracelet but rather to reveal my upper body more clearly.
After all, due to the accumulated losses from the [Blue-Yellow] situation, I was nearly in a state of being unrecognizable as a human.
What was that winner status even worth?
At present, I was nearly indistinguishable from a charred form, where my neck and arms had become nearly entirely blackened.
Using this, I insisted strongly to Kang Chang-ho.
Damn dungeon; this is why I ended up like this—do you still think I’m part of the same gang as those monsters?
“Oh…”
But Kang Chang-ho, this guy reacted to such questions with a response of his own.
“That’s a bit unexpected.”
He thought that because I was the kin of the gate’s creator, I would obviously have no impact from the penalties.
“What do you mean by severe losses; was it a fire trap?”
“It’s even worse than that. If I didn’t have any recovery-type skills, I would have already died halfway through!”
“Oh.”
I mean, could this be the kind of thing to say while standing next to the burnt body of a fellow kin?
‘This guy’s hopeless.’
The more the conversation continued, the more my determination solidified.
I turned my head while adorned with the light band granted by the dungeon.
What I then saw was the emblem on the wall significantly involved in the creation of this dungeon’s exit.
【A white bracelet is needed for selection.】
【*Final Question:
If you would like to safely return the challenger who came with you back to their hometown and sacrifice yourself to open the exit, choose ‘Blue.’
On the other hand, if you want to open the exit here without any losses by offering your fellow challenger as a sacrifice, choose ‘Yellow.’】
I had taken some time to explain the question as I found it, but now that it had materialized, I could provide some context.
This EX-Class gate discovered in Alphauri has a survival rate of merely 52%.
52%.
A feeding box where nearly one in two challengers gets killed.
The reason this gate only spares half of the intelligent beings it has devoured is that, as seen, a terrifying system exists at the end of the space.
‘This dungeon demands a sacrifice to open the exit.’
So, as soon as I discerned the identity of the dungeon, I had decided I could kill Kang Chang-ho.
‘It’s no different from my previous life.’
The defeated one, bound completely with the higher magic of [Binding], soon had their fate determined by that final question.
‘Curiously enough, choosing blue means Kang Chang-ho dies and the exit opens.’
The visual of being unable to protect one’s own life made me feel like a sinner with a knife to my throat.
But this was an expected scene.
A seasoned hunter with ample exploration experience would have already grasped this by now. The theme of this gate centers around the recognition of good deeds, often found in fairy tales.
Thus, it’s only natural that a fool who never once chose ‘Yellow,’ which could harm the opponent, finds himself in the light.
“Hunter Kang Chang-ho, do you see this inscription?”
Pitter-patter.
The S-Class, caught by the magical mold, struggles to rise.
With only a small movement, Kang Chang-ho’s skin on his arms tears away, but I felt no reaction from the blood of a mammal and continued speaking.
“It seems like this has a shape similar to that ‘Iron Maiden’ gate. From reading the inscriptions, it appears one must become a sacrifice for the exit to open…”
The atmosphere around my voice began to change.
“But don’t worry! Of course, I’ll choose Blue.”
“…!”
Blue.
This simply describes a choice where the victor dies, and the defeated escapes if only you read the writings inscribed in the dungeon.
Yet there’s a meticulous reason I assert this.
‘This dungeon is designed so that the final question yields reversed outcomes!’
This gate, with a survival rate of 52%, was a demon that consumed as many as thirty top-tier mages from Alphauri.
During my preparations for the battle against the Ki-simche in my previous life, I had to ensure complete eradication of this deadly trap.
Even after the Ki-simche caused the [Descent] phenomenon, they constantly scattered their feeding grounds, and this moralistic trap would quickly result in the death of one mage if mistakenly caught in range.
Back in those days, it was exhausting enough dealing with the descendents; why would I have to dismantle traps?
‘Examining those blueprints in detail helped immensely now.’
Now, those days were all in the past.
I internally chuckled while opening my mouth again.
“Why are you so surprised?”
“Blue?”
“I’m going to choose Blue and sacrifice myself. Given everything you’ve put me through, it’s only fair that I don’t have any good feelings toward you, Hunter.”
“…”
“Ha, there’s no other choice now.”
Anyone who heard me might find it strange that my feelings differed greatly from what an outsider might expect, but yes.
“If I must choose just one person to survive in this dungeon, of course, I should pick a perfectly healthy S-Class over my nearly broken self.”
I was now completely roasting Kang Chang-ho.
