DPGR 103

At last, Jiho took his hands off his face and, now looking much calmer, peeked out through the gap.

Dojin had told him to stay hidden here—but…

‘…I want to protect him too. I want to protect Baek Dojin.’

Unable to swallow his worry, Jiho poked his head out through the narrow opening.

He sighed in relief as he watched Dojin, now using his powers to dispatch the monsters faster than before.

‘Maybe I was… just a little helpful.’

Jiho’s heart, which had shrunk under the weight of fear, now brimmed with something fuller.

He didn’t want to be a useless bystander, or an ant, or a weed, or dust.

He just wanted to be Dojin’s guide.

‘I want to be more helpful.’

With a bit of confidence returning, his thoughts began to move swiftly.

Jiho recalled the basic combat instructions he’d once learned from Kijoon.

‘Sharpen your senses as much as you can. Stay alert to your surroundings but keep your vision wide…’

Kijoon had once said that fighting in a dungeon was like solving a quiz or math problem.

Even if it seemed hopeless and impossible at first, if you calmly looked around, there would always be an answer.

Jiho remembered the unusually serious expression Kijoon had worn as he said those words.

Now, to find that ‘answer’ Kijoon had spoken of, Jiho began carefully observing the monsters—their types and movements—the layout of the dungeon, and everything that made up the environment.

‘Huh…?’

Something came into Jiho’s view.

‘They’ve been pouring out from that direction.’

Not all the monsters—but nearly half of them were coming from the same place.

It was beyond the horizon of the vast grassland.

Jiho narrowed his eyes and watched closely. Then, faintly, he saw something odd.

‘A wall…?’

It wasn’t visible when he looked away, but when he focused intently on the horizon, something hazy like a heatwave shimmered there.

At first he thought it might be one of Yulchan’s transparent walls—but this felt different.

‘There are patterns on the wall.’

The wall wasn’t flat. It had textures, almost like wallpaper, and in places there were paintings and golden candelabras hanging.

They were familiar things—even to Jiho.

‘They look just like what I saw on the mansion’s first floor.’

Jiho quickly turned his eyes away. He wondered if others couldn’t see that pale wall.

He wanted to ask, but everyone looked too busy fighting.

Maybe they simply couldn’t observe their surroundings properly with monsters constantly charging at them.

Jiho narrowed his eyes again and continued studying the wall. He vaguely remembered hearing that the boss of this dungeon was a dream demon.

‘The dream I had… they said that was the dream demon’s doing too.’

Jiho sifted through his memory. Thankfully, he recalled some information he had read—over and over—about dream demons.

‘They lure people in with illusions and mirages, then suck out their life force.’

If that was true, then this space itself was an illusion created by the dream demon. Kijoon had been right—there would be an answer if he looked around carefully.

‘I can find a way to break this illusion too.’

Just as Jiho leaned his head forward to get a better look at the wall—

Screeeeeech—!

The ground beneath his feet began to rumble. The shaking grew stronger, and the monster’s shriek grew louder in his ears.

Through the narrow gap in the ruins, a monster had spotted Jiho’s head sticking out and was charging at him with a screech.

“……!”

Startled, Jiho sucked in a breath. For a split second, he moved to pull himself back in—but then changed his mind.

There was no way this crumbling ruin would withstand the monster’s attack and protect him.

He might not even die from the monster—but from being crushed under the collapsing debris.

There were only two ways to survive now: run, or take down the charging monster.

It didn’t take long to decide. Jiho knew all too well that his legs weren’t fast.

Click.

He grabbed the gun Dojin had given him. It was more than twice as heavy as the one he used before. Even when holding it with both hands, it wobbled in his grip.

‘No—I can do this.’

KRAAA!

The monster was just a few meters away.

Jiho waited until it came even closer.

His shaky arms couldn’t aim precisely—so he wanted to narrow the distance to his target.

“Hoo…”

He inhaled deeply and exhaled. Held his breath in his lungs. Fixed his gaze and locked onto his target.

Once the monster was almost upon him—

Bang!

Without hesitation, his finger squeezed the trigger, and the muzzle flashed with fire.

The recoil was stronger than expected, and his slender body staggered.

Screeech!

Unfortunately, Jiho’s first shot grazed past the monster’s head.

But he didn’t stop there.

Bang!

Another shot.

This time, remembering the recoil from the last shot, Jiho aimed slightly below the head—toward the monster’s neck.

Because of the recoil, the gun jerked upward, and the bullet hit the monster right in the center of its head.

Direct hit.

“……!”

But there was no time to feel relieved.

The gunshot had revealed Jiho’s location to the surrounding monsters.

With snarls and bared fangs, the monsters nearby began charging toward a new prey.

“Uh, uhh…”

Jiho’s face froze with panic. He might be able to handle one or two, but he didn’t have the skill to fight off monsters swarming from all directions with just a single gun.

No—anyone else in his position would have been overwhelmed too.

As Jiho fumbled with the gun, not knowing what to do—

KWA-BOOM! BANG!

A massive explosion rang in his ears. A thick cloud of dust swept in and clouded his vision.

Because of it, Jiho couldn’t see what had happened.

But he quickly pieced together the situation from the voice that followed.

“Guide Jiho! Are you all right?”

It was Dojin, emerging through the cloud of dust.

He rushed straight to Jiho, breath ragged, and stabbed his bloodstained spear into the ground.

Then he took Jiho’s face in both hands, turning it this way and that as he nagged him.

“I told you to stay hidden—this place is dangerous. Are you hurt anywhere? I heard gunshots earlier. Did the recoil make you fall? Did your arm get dislocated?”

“Uh, uh…”

“Hold still. Your palms? Your knees? Are they all right?”

“No, no, I’m fine…”

“We can’t stay here any longer. It’s dangerous, but we should move to the safe zone. I’ll clear a path first—until then…”

Dojin poured out all his words at once. He fired off questions at Jiho without waiting for any answers—he didn’t seem to have time for it.

In the end, Jiho had to tap him a couple times to get his attention while Dojin moved on to inspecting the rest of his body.

“Hyung.”

“Yes. Just wait here for a moment—”

“No, hyung…!”

“What? Do you want to say something?”

Jiho nodded quickly. He was afraid Dojin might leave without listening.

Thankfully, Dojin waited for him to speak—though he had already gripped his spear again, ready to sprint off at any moment.

“Over there. There’s a wall. That’s where the monsters… are coming from.”

Jiho’s throat still hurt, so he kept his words short and broken.

Dojin glanced in the direction Jiho pointed.

“You mean the horizon?”

“Yeah. If you look closely… there’s a wall. It’s like the mansion’s wall. Maybe… cough! the dream demon…”

His voice cracked. Dojin gently patted Jiho’s back as he coughed, then narrowed his eyes, staring out at the horizon.

And finally, he saw what Jiho was talking about. Dojin let out a soft gasp.

“A wall… It really is a wall.”

“Yeah, cough! it is.”

“Then that must be…”

The wall disappeared from sight unless you looked very closely. It had to be the dream demon’s doing.

Quickly catching up with Jiho’s deduction, Dojin nodded.

‘No wonder the monsters never stop coming.’

He knew the way to escape a dream demon’s illusion: destroy what doesn’t belong in your memory.

‘Even if this isn’t exactly a nightmare…’

Still, it was a situation created by the dream demon. Maybe the same principle would work here too.

“I need to destroy that wall.”

“Huh?”

Why the wall?

Jiho’s eyes widened—he didn’t know how to break a dream demon’s illusion.

But Dojin didn’t stop to explain. He quickly turned and prepared to move.

“I’ll be back.”

He grabbed his spear and ran. Slashing, stabbing, dodging, and pushing through the monsters, he made his way toward the wall.

But it was impossible to break through all of them alone.

Shhhh—

His spear sliced across a monster’s torso. Blood sprayed and soaked his entire body.

Once, twice, three times.

Struggling to deal with the monsters, Dojin came up with another plan.

‘I just need the wall destroyed.’

There was no need for him to reach it himself.

As a monster lunged at his neck, he dodged and looked back toward where Jiho was.

“Guide Jiho!”

Jiho, who had been watching anxiously, quickly raised his head. Dojin shouted at the top of his lungs.

“That wall!”

“…What?”

“That wall! Shoot the wall!”

Even from a distance, he could see Jiho’s confused reaction. Jiho looked down at Dojin’s gun in his hands, then at Dojin, then at the far-off wall.

Then, as if choosing to trust Dojin, he gave a firm nod and assumed a firing stance.

It was the stance Dojin had drilled into him over and over again.

Click.

Jiho gripped the gun’s handle tightly.