Chapter 113

[The Safe Zone will be deactivated in 30 seconds.]

We were given thirty seconds. For now, the most urgent thing to do was to use a poison resistance item to protect us from the Poison Fog and the attacks of the Venomous Vipers.

"Use the Centipede Pearls."

Thanks to Darongi, I had a lot of Centipede Pearls. Under everyone's watchful gaze, I put a Centipede Pearl in my mouth and swallowed it.

"It should be more effective to physically eat it than to use it in an assigned slot."

That was knowledge from the future, of course.

The black smoke in front of me dissipated a little. To be more precise, I was resisting a little more to the smoke's ability to hinder my vision.

"No matter what monster shows up, endure with potions and follow me."

The location of the Venomous Vipers was too unlucky for us to get past them relying on the Centipede Pearls alone. They were positioned in a spot we had to pass to reach the escalator.

My original plan for the worst case scenario was for Sunhwa and me to tank the attacks while going through. But as soon as I was face to face with the real situation, something even better occurred to me. With this new plan, we would be able to get past here no problem.

'Yeah, this method's better.'

I turned my head to stare at the squirrel sleeping on my shoulder. He went from a [zzZ] to a [?] mark at my gaze.

'This squirrel…'

I was amazed he could sleep in such a situation. He was my pet, but even I was astounded by his carefree attitude.

"Darongi. I have a favor to ask."

The question marks on his head multiplied to [???].

I pulled out a Fruit Basket from my Inventory.

[!]

Darongi's nostrils began to flare. From the way his fur stood up on end, he seemed to have an astonishing sense of smell for food.

"Sure looks tasty, doesn't it?"

There was a small apple in my hand. I threw it far into the distance. Darongi nearly jumped off my hand, but then froze, clearly having seen the Venomous Vipers coiled up not far away.

Sitting on my shoulder, Darongi emphatically shook his head, and a mark I'd never seen before popped up.

[;;;]

I thought this might happen.

"Darongi. You need to distract them a little so that we can safely get past them."

He vigorously shook his head again, but his eyes were visibly drawn to the apple on the ground. His nostrils flared, and his tail swayed from side to side. It was hard to tell whether he was a squirrel or a dog.

"Can't be helped."

I pulled out a few acorns from my pocket. I had bought them at the market for Darongi.

[!!]

An additional exclamation point showed his increased urgency. I brought my hand to Darongi's nose, the acorns ensconced tightly by my fingers. His nose flared like crazy. He clawed at my hand as if to dig a hole through it, but it didn't hurt since he lacked claws.

[!!]

With two exclamation points above his head, Darongi stomped his feet. I felt the vibrations of his small feet very distinctly on my shoulder.

"You want them, yes?"

Darongi nodded his head emphatically. But then, he glanced at the Venomous Vipers and shook his head again, acting like he didn't want to eat any stinky acorns.

"I'm gonna throw them, alright?"

Darongi shook his head. He whipped his head away, but he was still eyeing the acorns out of the corner of his eyes.

"Alright, then."

Ready…

"Go get 'em!"

I scattered the acorns far into the distance. Now, there were a whopping three exclamation points over Darongi's head.

[!!!]

And they were even red. The Gluttonous Theft Genius flew off my shoulder, landing lightly on the ground and shooting off. He must have used his special ability 'Stealth', because I couldn't even see him. A genius thief that even Eye of Perception could not perceive went scuttling after the prizes I'd scattered on the ground.

"Let's go."

The Venomous Vipers were hot on Darongi's tail. This squirrel might look adorable and harmless, but he was still a theft genius. He was weak to food, but he was a dauntless rascal who had dipped his nimble paws in the Demon King's Inventory of all places. He was more than capable of escaping the Venomous Vipers' jaws.

"Everyone memorized the path we learned last time, yes? We're going to the escalator."

Before the building dungeonized, we came here to fully familiarize ourselves with its layout. Even though the Poison Fog was obscuring our vision, it wasn't so bad that we wouldn't be able to find our way.

"Sunhwa, in the front."

"Roger."

It looked like Sunhwa was very scared of snake monsters, but she didn't run away. Sunhwa immediately took the front and started running. Thanks to Darongi's efforts in distracting the Venomous Vipers, things got a little easier for us.

On top of that—

[Using the special skill Conductor's Song.]

Golden dust showered the heads of all the Players around me, the people in my party, indicating that I had used Conductor's Song.

[Conductor's Song is in effect.]

[Curing status abnormalities of party members at a low chance.]

No one had a status abnormality yet.

[Increasing the crit chance by 3%.]

We wouldn't be fighting here. If we did, it would stimulate the Venomous Vipers, and a battle with a swarm of snake monsters in this Poison Fog wasn't a very desirable outcome. However, the next skill effect would be very useful here.

[Increasing the effect of 'Centipede Pearl' by 20%.]

With Darongi's distraction efforts, the effects of the Centipede Pearls amplified by Conductor's Song, and Sunhwa's tanking ability in addition, we were able to reach the escalator without taking much damage. There was a purple crystal near the escalator, which Yoohyun destroyed.

[Escalator Going to the 4th Floor]

The escalator going to the 4th floor of the U-Plex Dungeon. Can transport 15 people at once.

Cooldown: 20 minutes

*Can be used

I began to pick up on a whistling sound with Eye of Perception. It was a little odd to say I could 'hear' with an 'eye', but that was definitely how it felt.

'He's coming.'

At the very front, was a familiar presence, a presence that was running like crazy with Venomous Vipers hot in pursuit. That presence belonged to Darongi.

He was pulling all the Venomous Vipers our way.

'Fuck.'

It was hard to say exactly how many there were, but there had to be at least twenty. We would absolutely die if we were mobbed by them.

"We're going up right this instant."

I immediately activated the escalator, and all of my teammates ported up via the escalator. I stayed back, waiting just a little longer for Darongi.

[!!!]

He was scrambling desperately with red exclamation points above his head, fleeing so urgently he couldn't even use his Stealth properly.

"Hurry!"

I grabbed a handful of acorns. As soon as he saw my hand, the exclamation points increased to [!!!!]. A sparkling yellow light started gleaming in his eyes, and his speed increased.

'Hurry…!'

I had to get out of here with Darongi in tow. I reached out my hand towards him, and he leapt with every last bit of his strength and grabbed on. To be more precise, he flung himself towards the acorns in my hand.

[Moving to the 4th floor.]

We made it.

It was no exaggeration to say that the true danger that lay in wait for us wasn't the 3rd floor, but the 4th. We had just arrived on the 4th floor. Darongi was sulking, crossing his arms while avoiding my gaze even though he was a freaking squirrel. However, there was no time to coax him.

"What's going on, Boss Hyukjin? What took you so long?"

There wasn't much time to explain. We were in the safe zone right now. Normally, you discussed strategies and how to approach the clear while in the safe zone—that was what it was for. But not on this 4th floor.

"We're going right away."

Yeonseo understood me. "We're running, right?"

"Yeah."

I took off, running at the front. Gong Jinhoon stuttered a confused "Wh-What?", but he pumped his legs and ran after us.

After some time, a notice came.

[The Safe Zone has been deactivated.]

And with it—

[The U-Plex Dungeon '4th Floor' is starting to collapse.]

When Players reached the 4th floor, the U-Plex Dungeon would start collapsing. We had to survive it, and there was only one path of survival—escaping the 'U-Plex'.

We already had the layout memorized and knew very well that there was a skywalk that connected the U-Plex with the Hyundai Department Store. Everyone made a beeline precisely towards the goal.

C-c-c-c-raaash—!

The ceiling started coming down on us. Thankfully, there weren't any monsters here. We just had to get out before we were crushed. That was the reason why you couldn't linger around in the safe zone.

'The collapse… is happening faster than I thought.'

As we ran, the passage going to the Hyundai Department Store—a 'gate', in dungeon terms—felt so far away.

[U-Plex–Hyundai Department Store Skywalk]

A skywalk connecting the U-Plex Dungeon and Hyundai Department Store.

It didn't have any special usage restrictions. We just had to run through.

[Leaving the U-Plex Dungeon 4th Floor.]

[Moving to the Hyundai Department Store.]

Everyone fell to the ground, gasping.

"Haah—! Haah—! Haah—!"

The priest Gong Jinhoon and flame magician Choi Sung-gu were particularly winded.

"Hahh, hahh. Fuck. Thought we were goners. The hell was the ceiling comin' down for, dammit."

In comparison, Yoohyun was still breathing pretty evenly. He came up to me.

"Hyungnim, is this really the Hyundai Department Store?"

It looked the same as the Hyundai Department Store and had the same name, but it wasn't. The 'U-Plex Dungeon 4th floor' collapsed, but the U-Plex Dungeon itself didn't. In other words, we were still inside the U-Plex Dungeon.

'This is a field called the Hyundai Department Store within the U-Plex Dungeon.'

It was easy when you thought of it like that.

"No," I responded, looking around. This field was slightly different from the real building, which we visited to survey before. The fact that it was deserted aside, I could sense it was different somehow. I would probably be able to say what was different if my Eye of Perception proficiency was higher, but for now, it was only a vague feeling. "An artificially made space. That's how it feels."

"..."

Cheon Sooji's gaze lingered on me. She probably had a lot of questions she wanted to ask, but with the situation the way it was, she didn't step forward to ask.

"I can't really sense any monsters. For now, we'll split up and look for a clue on how to get out of here."

I already knew what that clue was. There was definitely an NPC called 'Noah' here. He was the final clear NPC who would enable the clear of the U-Plex Dungeon.

"Shit. I hate dungeons. Fucking hate them. Why're they so complicated to clear?" Sung-gu grumbled, but he searched more diligently than anyone else. "All you gotta do for a gate is break the Clear Crystal, but dungeons, I fuckin' hate 'em, man. Terrible. Gah, gotta just burn this shit to the ground."

I, of course, joined in the search. The 4th floor sold casual womenswear. Right in front of me was a 'Lacoste Women' shop.

'Noah is in the Calvin Klein store near the escalator.'

I kept my guard up. In some ways, Noah was a more terrifying existence than the Intermediate Administrators.

'One misstep, and he could kill all of us.'

He wasn't an NPC you were supposed to fight in the first place. Even before I regressed, there weren't any Players who could win a 1 vs. 1 against Noah. He wasn't an NPC you were supposed to fight, but one you needed to win over.

The problem was whether Noah could be convinced with words alone to let us out, or not.

'I just have to make it so he lets us out.'

If it didn't work, I'd just have to make it work. When I passed a store with a 'Lanvin Collection' sign, I heard a voice coming from some distance ahead.

"Who are you guys?"

The NPC I was looking for showed up. As expected, his name was Noah. There was nothing to deliberate. I had the answer key in hand and was going to act according to the strategy I knew.

[The 'Conductor of Sound' expresses deep interest.]

[The 'Conductor of Sound' recommends you keep your guard up against Noah.]

Right on the heels of those notices came another set.

[The 'White Hunter' expresses deep interest.]

[The 'White Hunter' recommends exercising caution against Noah.]

Despite only discovering me today, these Guardians were scrambling to send me messages. I could understand their worries in full. All the Players who first came here and attacked Noah thinking he was a monster perished.

I would clear this place with a different method.

And I had an item that would allow me to pull off an absolutely perfect clear.

____