Chapter 4: Conversation with the Boss

[4:58 minutes]

Splash!

"…!"

As soon as he got sucked into the secret dimension of the boss, Raydel fell onto the silver, glittering water.

The surroundings became the darkness of the universe. He could only see the sparkles of millions of stars and the lonesomeness of the atmosphere. Raydel gritted his teeth, his body trembling from the cold. Right now, he was not pierced through by a tentacle and hung upside down in the air. His body had no wounds, but when he touched his belly, it strangely hurt.

He choked on the salty water, and his head was spinning when the waves rose high up in the sky even when the weather was nice. He saw a message box that was shining so bright in front of him.

[You have passed the 1st secret level to unlock the condition to converse with the boss 'Cthulhu.']

Zoom!

Waves crashed into his face so hard that it felt like his face was burning. He was almost submerged by breakers, so he put all his focus into recalling the swimming lessons he had when he was a child. Despite this, it was difficult to float steadily in the middle of the water. He gasped for air but accidentally breathed in seawater, so as a reflex, he started to sneeze the water out of his smarting nose.

Soon after, waves began to calm down, giving Raydel the chance to take a full breath. But then, he noticed something swimming toward him.

His eye widened.

A shark!

The panic almost caused him to flail in the water to get away and lose the rhythm he used to float on the surface. Raydel cursed the arena in his mind and tried to calm himself. He dove under water and stared at the incoming shark. Reaching out his hands, he fixed them before the shark's nose softly. He proceeded to gently gliding his hands across its body like he saw an expert do in a documentary. He swam to the side and out of its way, so it headed in the other direction.

"Pwah!"

Raydel resurfaced before realizing that there was another message box.

[You have passed both secret levels.]

[Unlocked the condition to converse with 'Cthulhu.']

Rumble.

At that moment, an island with nothing else but sand broke out in the middle of the ocean.

Raydel swam toward the island without thinking. As soon as his hands touched the land, he violently coughed out all the seawater he had drunk accidentally. His throat felt like it was lit on fire as his whole body trembled, causing him to clenching his fist as he dragged his exhausted body to the center of the island. His eyes gazed at the pitch black sky painted by star lights and galaxies with bewilderment.

The countdown was still going.

[3:55 minutes]

Something emerged from under the water abruptly.

An enormous figure with fog lingering around slowly looked down at Raydel. It stood in front of him, drowning him in its shadow as if it were the night itself. Raydel stopped breathing. He only saw the blood red eyes of the boss that was staring at him. He could not tell what it was thinking. It started talking.

The boss said something. At first, it spoke in a language he did not understand. Upon hearing those words, it caused an intense pain across his head as if it was being pierced by thousands of needles. His brain was trying so hard to comprehend its meaning, it almost exploded in the attempt to do so.

When he finally understood, he heard its voice again.

"You'll die before the time is up."

Suddenly, Raydel felt a sharp pain in his stomach like something was twisting inside. The pain from the invisible tentacle that stabbed him had remained.

"Urgh!"

He laid down writhing in pain, his arms wrapping around his stomach. His heart rate raced faster and faster. The boss' tentacles began emerging from the water and slid across the beach. They wrapped around his body. Each suction cup left on his skin some sticky substances. Raydel turned away from the tentacles, heaving till his entire body trembling. He managed to force out a sentence.

"I'm not dying." He coughed several times. "You won't kill me because you want a friend, don't you?"

The boss narrowed its eyes. The voice it spoke with was low and deep, sounding like no human nor any living creature Raydel had known before.

"What did you say?"

"You… you want to find someone worthy, right?" Raydel said. "I know from the prayer that letting blood blend in with the seawater unlocks this secret dimension. The fact that after I threw my sister out of the arena, you dragged me back. You may have wanted to talk to me ever since that moment."

Raydel smiled.

"Now that you woke up, you wanted to learn more about the outside world since you've been sleeping for so long." he asked. "If that's the case, I can be your tour guide."

Silence ruled over the area for a while.

"You made all that up in your head," the boss said.

Right. Raydel thought and smiled sheepishly. The seawater hurt his throat so severely that he had been coughing the whole time. He looked at the countdown and saw the number three became two. There were only two minutes left. He gathered all his courage to continue talking with the boss.

But…

Raydel spitted out blood. His heart pumped so fast because the pain in his stomach suddenly rose up. It felt as if all his organs were being torn apart. He curled up, sweat breaking on his face. Everything became blurry as the boss in front of him looked just like a flickering mirage.

[2:50 minutes]

It hurt… like dying.

Raydel started to get scared. At first, he thought that he would definitely survive, but now, worries were filling up his mind. Two minutes felt like forever, and each second was like torture. A simple act like breathing or swallowing hurt to the point he thought he was going to die.

To die here all alone…

He could not avoid his death flag in the end.

[2:40 minutes]

But he just needed to bear with it till the time was up, didn't he? With that resolve, Raydel gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. His fingers buried deep into the sand to distract the ache in his stomach. He gasped for breath with his whole body. Even when his consciousness was fading away, he kept trying to convince the boss.

"You really don't want… a tour guide?" he asked.

Raydel tightened his toes, swallowing his viscous saliva.

"I don't know how long you've been asleep. But right now, a lot has changed outside… so, if you reject my offer… that would be such a waste of an opportunity… kaff!" The taste of blood spread throughout his mouth, filling up all his throat and nostrils. "You might lose a chance to… meet a 'friend,' Cthulhu…"

Once he finished talking, the boss' tentacles started moving as it said,

"I'll let you live if you perform 'the sacrifice'."

[The countdown stopped.]

[2:23 minutes]

[Unlock the alternative condition to clear the tower: Worship the boss 'Cthulhu.']

Raydel's eyes went wide.

The sacrifice…

He never thought he would get to hear the word since the beginning of the story.

The sacrifice was one of the ways to unlock the massive power of hunters. To receive the ultimate power, hunters had to perform 'the sacrifice,' which was to sacrifice a part of their body to the owners of legendary artifacts. It could be fingers, toes, eyes, or even internal organs. It was the way to make a contract with Satan, selling one's soul for one's greatest desire.

The more hunters sacrificed their organs, the more disabled they became.

But it was something that happened only when high-class hunters fought against each other, not a situation where he had to survive for five minutes!

Raydel looked at the message box before cursing in his head.

This was an exploitation! The boss froze the time at two minutes twenty-three seconds to force him to sacrifice an organ!

He knew well enough that destroying an S-rank dungeon was one of the most challenging things to accomplish. Even the high-class hunters thought of it as a life-risking mission to clear those dungeons. So, the fact that he did not have to fight the boss should be considered the best luck he could ask for. Still, he did not expect that he would end up in this situation. If the condition to clear the dungeon was 'the sacrifice,' then how was it any different from fighting with the boss and losing his arms or legs?!

Raydel pursed his lips. His stomach was still hurting, and so did his head. But he needed to figure this out. What should I sacrifice?

The boss would not let him sacrifice one of his useless toes. It might even get angry and kill him instead. Raydel had to think hard about what the appropriate sacrifice for the boss would be. This time there were no zombies praying, so he could not find any clues or hints.

Legs? Hands? Eyes?

"..." Raydel's heart beat so violently that his chest almost exploded.

Or his heart?

Cthulhu was a god in ancient legends. When talking about ancient things, we all thought about ancient civilizations. Some of them, like Maya civilization, would worship a god by plucking a living human's heart out. That might be what Cthulhu was looking for. Raydel had no other ideas what people in the past sacrificed for their gods. The only option left could be his beating heart.

It wanted me… to tear out my heart with my own hands?

If things were to happen that way… even though he would manage to get out of here alive, he would still die because he had no heart anyway!

Raydel gritted his teeth and thought, Eventually, I couldn't escape my death flag, huh?

Even though he survived the death written in the novel, destiny still brought him to the underworld's door.

Anger heaped up in his chest. Raydel felt like crying. The only thing he could do was banging his fist on the sand to release his emotion. He let himself believe that he could live a peaceful life just to be disappointed with this destined death. He knew that if fate had determined that he died, he could never get away with it. It was just… sad that he started to get used to this life with Jinny and his parents. It was sad that he only got one month to experience it…

He even managed to leave his previous, crappy life behind.

Raydel took a deep breath.

If he would die anyway, then there was only one choice left.

"I'll sacrifice," Raydel whispered before struggling to sit up. He stared right into the bloody eyes of the boss and yelled, "your fucking dungeon that has killed who knows how many people already, you fucking shit. Go to hell!"

He gave it his middle finger.

The boss burst out laughing, the kind of thunderous laugh that shook the whole ocean.

"You're a strange human."

At that moment, the countdown that had been frozen began to move again. The boss still laughed as if it had just listened to the most hilarious thing on earth. Raydel was so close to losing his consciousness. Darkness gradually swallowed his vision. He collapsed onto the floor, sending sand flying in the air and making them sparkling glitters in this blurry vision of his.

Death was creeping up on him. The deadly coldness grabbed a hold of him and pegged him down like at the bottom of a waterfall, swallowing him with pressure.

Raydel was about to close his eyes and let the grim reaper take him away, but then, he heard something cracking behind him.

Suddenly, there was a hand that grabbed his shirt collar and dragged him away easily.

Raydel was stunned. He opened his eyes and saw the boss and the secret dimension in front of him getting further and further away because of a mysterious hand that was dragging him along. He caught a glimpse of the light-colored hair of the person. That person wrapped their arms around him and held him up so high that his feet did not touch the ground. He then whispered in his ears.

"Don't you die on me."

Han.

"Tell me first what you meant when you said you'll never interfere with my life ever again."