DPGR 97

“Nggh.”

Heendungi whimpered and licked Kijoon’s neck. As expected, the messy black markings woven across his skin didn’t fade—they remained as they were.

‘Is it because of the dream demon’s nightmare?’

Dojin’s expression grew even more rigid. Meanwhile, the black markings began to writhe slightly, expanding their reach.

If those markings ended up spreading over his entire body, something serious was going to happen.

Murmuring a quiet apology in his head, Dojin raised his hand—like he was about to slap Kijoon.

He figured a shock that strong would be necessary to wake someone unconscious.

But before his hand touched Kijoon’s cheek—

“Ugh… mm…”

Kijoon’s eyelids trembled, then flew open.

As people waking from nightmares often did, Kijoon bolted upright, panting heavily.

“Gasp—haa…! Wh-what’s going on, Captain?”

Still dazed, Kijoon blinked at the sight of Dojin and recognized him. His mouth fell open.

“A dream…?”

“No, it’s not a dream. Get a grip.”

“You’re really the Team Leader? Oh! Did you come to rescue me…?”

“Mm… something like that.”

Dojin gave a vague nod and looked closely at the area near Kijoon’s collar.

The black markings that had been creeping up his neck quickly retreated, slipping back beneath the collar.

He couldn’t relax until he was sure they were completely gone. Dojin roughly grabbed the hem of Kijoon’s clothes.

“Hold on, let me check under your shirt.”

“What? Wait, huh? Ack! Wait a sec! What are you doing! Eek!”

Still shaken from the nightmare, Kijoon screamed and tried to dodge Dojin’s hand.

But Dojin skillfully brushed aside his arm and pulled his shirt up to the collarbone.

Shhhk—

Just as expected, the black markings rapidly gathered around his heart and finally vanished.

Dojin let out a deep sigh as Kijoon crossed his arms over his chest.

“Waaah! My innocence! You must take responsibility now, Captain!”

“The dungeon boss monster is a dream demon. We don’t have time.”

“Dream—uh, what?”

Dojin quickly helped dress Kijoon properly and pulled him to his feet, roughly explaining what had happened.

“That nightmare you were having—it was the dream demon’s doing. You know what kind of monster that is, right?”

“Dream demon… Oh! Isn’t that the one that drains your life energy through dreams and kills you?”

“Exactly. That’s why we have to find the others and wake them up as soon as possible.”

Dojin checked the time on his watch. As he did, Kijoon’s confused voice reached his ears.

“Wait—wake them up? Us? How?”

“Well, by shocking them or something—”

“But… you can’t wake someone trapped in a dream demon’s nightmare just like that, right?”

“…What?”

“I’m kind of weak with horror stuff, so I memorized all the info about monsters like these.”

There was no known way to forcibly wake someone caught in a dream demon’s nightmare.

No matter how much physical shock you applied, if they didn’t wake of their own will, it was useless.

Hearing this, Dojin frowned.

“Then how did you wake up?”

“Oh. There was something in the dream that kept bugging me… like it didn’t belong. Something that wasn’t part of my memories. I smashed it just to see what would happen, and then I woke up.”

Something off. Something out of place. Something not part of his memories.

At those words, Dojin recalled a certain monster he’d seen in his own nightmare.

The one monster that had reacted to him—looked straight at him.

Until now, he’d assumed it was just the dream demon’s will sneaking into the dream—but maybe it wasn’t.

“So… you’re saying the person dreaming has to destroy something that wasn’t part of their past memories in order to wake up?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

Kijoon nodded and added:

“Just like I woke up on my own, I think the others might start waking up on their own soon too. I don’t think we have to go around looking for them.”

Dojin mostly agreed. If they were espers, they might be able to break free of the nightmare on their own.

But guides were different.

Guides, who were close to ordinary people, might not last that long—they’d be consumed by the nightmare and die.

“The guides’ bodies won’t hold out until then. We have to find them and do something—anything.”

“Ugh… but just the two of us—can we even do this?”

Yip!

“Oh, right. Including Heendungi, that makes three.”

“Well… we have to try. As fast as we can.”

Despite his firm answer, Dojin’s expression was a bit clouded.

Finding the guides in such a vast space within the time limit was already a challenge—and even then, there was no way to wake them forcibly.

Fortunately, Kijoon came up with a promising idea.

“What if we go into our teammates’ nightmares ourselves and help them?”

“…Go into their nightmares?”

“Yeah. If we find the thing that doesn’t belong and break it for them, maybe they’ll wake up faster. If we can destroy the nightmare quickly, I think it could work.”

“How would we even get into their dreams?”

“You know—Yulchan’s DoraeXmon pouch.”

One of Yulchan’s hobbies, thanks to his space-manipulating abilities, was collecting artifacts.

He had his own subspace where he stored his collection, and he’d pull out items to help teammates as needed.

Kijoon and Jihye often teased him by calling it the DoraeXmon pouch.

“He has something like that in there?”

“I think he once bragged about winning some candy at an auction that links consciousness between people.”

“Then we’ll have to find Yulchan first.”

“Yeah. It’s urgent—let’s split up and start looking.”

Dojin quickly nodded. He was still on edge, but now that the solution felt almost within reach—clear and tangible—he felt a little more at ease.

“Let’s go.”

“Yep!”

Kkyang!

And so, the two of them and one monster set off.

Thanks to Kijoon, who was practically doing the work of three people, Dojin was able to clear rooms and search for teammates much faster than before.

***

Kijoon, Dojin, and Heendungi made a surprisingly efficient team.

They moved from room to room—dealing with monsters, searching inside, then moving on to the next.

Along the way, they ran into Jihye and Sehun.

Like Kijoon, the two of them had broken free of the nightmare on their own and were also combing the second floor in search of their team.

“It’s such a relief we ran into each other.”

“Yeah. By the way, did you see anyone else while you were looking around?”

“Oh, we found Yulchan and Sena over that way… but we couldn’t wake them up.”

Jihye pointed in a direction, and Sehun added,

“There was a barrier over them, but they looked really unwell… so we broke the barrier and laid them side by side somewhere safe.”

“Then let’s hurry. Yulchan should be waking up soon.”

Dojin’s hunch was right.

As soon as they entered the room Jihye and Sehun had mentioned, they found Yulchan already awake.

“Yulchan!”

Dojin rushed over to him. Yulchan was in tears, shaking the unconscious Sena.

“C-Captain… Sena… she’s not waking up…”

Still mentally shaken from the nightmare, and then waking to see his guide collapsed—it had clearly left him in shock.

“Yulchan, calm down. It’s because of the nightmare.”

“Yeah, Yulchan. The boss monster here was a dream demon. You know what that is, right?”

“Y-Yeah… sniff… if you get caught by a dream demon, you dry up and die like a mummy, right…?”

“Exactly. That’s why we need to find the others and wake them up as soon as possible. We can do it. Actually—you can. Didn’t you say you bought some artifact at an auction?”

“Artifact…”

“You know, the one that links people’s minds. That candy or whatever it was.”

“Oh!”

Light returned to Yulchan’s eyes. He opened his subspace and pulled out a glass jar filled with star candies.

“This one.”

“Good. How does it work?”

“The person who wants to use it puts one in their mouth, then gives the same color to the person they want to link with. The connection ends once the candy melts.”

The star candies were only about the size of Dojin’s pinky nail. There was no way to know how long it would last in the mouth.

“All right, let’s try it. Want me to do it?”

“No! I’ll do it. She’s my guide.”

Yulchan was still pale. With slightly trembling hands, he opened the jar, pulled out a white star candy, and popped it into his mouth.

Before he could even register the taste, he grabbed another of the same color and forced it into Sena’s mouth.

Moments later, Yulchan collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.

A small white dot appeared on both Yulchan’s and Sena’s foreheads—a sign that their consciousnesses had connected.

“Let’s get Yulchan lying down properly first.”

“Okay. But… will Yulchan and Sena be all right?”

“They should be. We’ll stay with them just in case…”

“We need to find Guide Jiho and Guide Geonwoo right away too.”

“…Yeah.”

Dojin glanced at Sena and nodded. Black markings had spread all over her body except for her face and hands.

A little later, and her life might’ve been in danger.

‘We have to find Guide Geonwoo and Guide Jiho before it’s too late.’

Dojin was worried—but so was Jihye, who was anxiously biting her nails. She hadn’t been able to find her partner, Geonwoo, either.

Dojin made the call to split up.

“The vice-captain will stay here and watch over them.”

“Got it.”

“Jihye, you and Kijoon go together. I’ll head that way with Heendungi. Here’s the candy—take three sets just in case.”

“Yep!”

“Let’s hurry.”

The group quickly dispersed. Dojin moved fast, Heendungi keeping pace beside him as they walked down the corridor.

Once he felt they were far enough from the others, Dojin called quietly.

“Heendungi.”

Kkiiing.

“Why aren’t you looking for Guide Jiho?”

Dojin narrowed his eyes and looked at the little fox.

Heendungi’s body twitched. The white fox perked his ears like he couldn’t believe what he’d just heard and looked up at Dojin with round, startled eyes.