DPGR 92

Dojin climbed the stairs to the second floor with Sehun, Yulchan, Sena, and Heendungi.

By protocol, the Espers who had survived on the first floor should have formed teams before advancing to the second floor, but—

‘The regrouping is taking too long.’

Even if the zombies on the first floor had been cleared, the Espers themselves hadn’t yet recovered.

They still needed to assess the casualties, and the injured required time to treat their wounds and regain their strength.

But Dojin couldn’t afford to just sit and wait.

And so, now—

Only four people and one beast were ascending the staircase to the second floor.

“These stairs are longer than they look….”

“And you can’t see the bottom well either. Something’s off about this.”

“They’re not ordinary stairs, clearly. Everyone, be careful.”

Though they had been climbing for a while, the staircase seemed endless.

Their vision was restricted by the flickering candlelight that looked like it would go out at any moment.

Even though they were trying to hurry, they couldn’t seem to pick up speed.

Not knowing what kind of danger Jiho might be facing above only made Dojin more anxious.

‘Jiho…’

Judging from the circumstances, it seemed like he had gone up with Kijoon, Jihye, and Geonwoo.

But even so, Dojin couldn’t help but worry about Jiho more than the others.

“…Ah.”

The one bit of relief was that the staircase didn’t go on forever.

Picturing only Jiho in his mind, Dojin pushed forward and finally reached the second floor before his body gave out.

The dark hallway on the second floor was silent.

There were no traces of blood or any signs of a struggle.

As Dojin sighed in relief and turned to look at the companions who had come up with him—

“Vice Captain…? Yulchan? Sena?”

Behind him was empty.

Having been so preoccupied with Jiho, he had climbed almost mechanically, unaware of when the others had disappeared.

A flicker of confusion passed over Dojin’s face.

At that moment, all the candles around him suddenly went out.

Darkness engulfed his vision.

“……”

As a trained Esper, Dojin first tried to adapt to the darkness.

But no matter how much time passed, nothing came into view.

That alone told him this darkness was no ordinary thing.

“…Hah.”

He snapped his fingers, attempting to conjure magic—but no flame appeared.

Just as he suspected.

This was the work of a monster.

‘An illusion…?’

His allies might still be nearby. They might just be invisible.

But with no way to know what was where, he couldn’t swing his weapon recklessly.

He might end up striking a comrade by mistake.

‘Then what now…’

At this rate, finding Jiho would be impossible.

Just as he began searching his mind for a way out—

In the pitch-black void, something glittered far off in the distance, catching his attention.

It blinked rapidly, then gradually formed the shape of a large glowing door.

‘That’s…’

But that wasn’t what shocked Dojin the most.

“Jiho?”

Jiho stood quietly near the glowing light.

He seemed to hear Dojin’s voice and glanced back at him—then turned again and ran toward the light.

“Jiho! Jiho…!”

Dojin’s heart dropped.

Without thinking, he sprinted after him.

Jiho, always just out of reach, disappeared into the light.

The moment Dojin’s outstretched hand touched it—

Paaat—!

The blinding white light swelled, engulfing his entire body.

As if it had completed its task, the light began to fade, then vanished entirely.

The candles lining the hallway reignited as if on cue, banishing the darkness.

The hallway was quiet, showing no signs of blood or battle.

The candle flames swayed softly, as if waiting for their next prey.

‘Where… am I?’

When Dojin came to his senses, he was in a strange meadow.

A vast field stretched out before him, dotted with broken ruins—

And among them roamed ogres.

‘A dungeon…? No way…’

Bang—bang—!

Dojin let out a hollow laugh.

He had only just realized that the Jiho he’d chased was a mere illusion.

‘You idiot…’

Muttering curses at himself, he began to wonder—

Was this all just a hallucination?

But unfortunately, he realized that the breeze brushing against his skin, the scent of grass carried with it, and the sunlight glaring down on him so sharply it almost stung—none of it felt like an illusion.

He could only assume that the white light he had passed through served as a portal to another space.

‘Can the monster use spatial abilities?’

If that were the case, it meant they were dealing with a boss-level monster. Dojin checked his weapon, bracing himself for the possibility of encountering the boss here.

‘It’d be better to return to the second-floor corridor…’

But the light he had passed through had already vanished. For now, there was no way back.

Dojin believed that the only way to return was to clear this gate. There was no other feasible method.

‘I’ll have to deal with this as quickly as possible.’

Gripping the spear in his hand tightly, Dojin attacked the nearby ogre.

He was in a hurry, uncertain what kind of danger Jiho and the others might be in.

But Dojin’s spear passed right through the ogre without hitting anything, as if both weapon and target were made of holograms.

‘……!’

Only then did he realize something was off. None of the ogres had noticed him or attacked first.

‘Can they not see me?’

He leapt forward, right in front of an ogre, to draw attention.

As expected, the ogre behaved as if Dojin was invisible. It even passed right through his body.

‘If it’s like this, I can’t clear the gate.’

He felt completely cornered. There was no clear solution, no visible path forward.

Still, Dojin didn’t give up. He decided to look around for another way.

Just as he made up his mind and took a step—

Bang—!

A gunshot echoed from far off, carried by the wind. Dojin turned his head in the direction of the sound.

Could it be Jiho?

Without a second thought, he dashed toward where the sound had come from. And when he finally saw what was there, his expression froze.

‘What the…?’

It wasn’t Jiho. It wasn’t Geonwoo, or Sena either.

It was himself.

But younger—by a few years, at least.

Bang—bang—bang—!

The other Dojin was firing a gun at the ogres.

Even with his whole body surging with mana that looked ready to explode, he wasn’t using any abilities.

Bang—!

The deafening gunfire tore through the air. Ogres rushed toward him.

He rolled across the grass with impressive agility, hiding behind a ruined structure as he continued to shoot.

His movements were deeply familiar.

‘Ah.’

Dojin finally realized.

The field, the broken ruins, the swarm of ogres around them—

He had seen it all before. No, he had experienced it himself.

‘…A B-rank minor dungeon.’

It was the first dungeon Dojin had ever entered in his life, back when he had just awakened as an esper at thirty years old—located in a factory district on Mars.

After awakening as an esper, Dojin had fallen into a deep depression.

He’d been discharged early from the military, where he had been doing well, and was immediately registered with the Center, branded with the label of “esper.”

No one had asked how he felt. No one had asked for his consent.

The law required all awakened espers to be affiliated with the Center, and his own opinion had never mattered.

Maybe that was why.

Dojin couldn’t accept himself as an esper, and he wandered aimlessly.

‘If I’m going to die during a dungeon raid living like this, I’d rather die right now!’

Eventually, his mentor—whom Dojin hadn’t even acknowledged as such at the time—dragged him to a factory on Mars and threw him into a dungeon.

It was his first time entering a dungeon.

The lush field scattered with ruins was so peaceful and beautiful that it barely felt like a gate.

If not for the ogres swinging their massive clubs, he might’ve forgotten the danger and relaxed for the first time in ages.

‘No wonder it all felt so familiar…’

He had assumed he was simply moved to a different space, but now it was clear that wasn’t the case.

Dojin concluded that this vivid, unnervingly realistic world was an illusion created by a high-level monster.

‘This is… uncomfortable.’

Recalling that time naturally brought back all the emotions he had felt then, and his stomach churned.

He quietly watched his past self pointlessly pulling the trigger from one side.

The bullets clearly hit the ogre in the chest.

But without mana reinforcement, the ordinary bullets couldn’t penetrate the ogre’s skin.

Grurrr—

The ogre just scratched at its chest with yellowed fingernails, as if the bullets merely itched.

At that, the younger, more hot-tempered version of Dojin clenched his teeth in frustration.