VSP 36

“Then what else do you say when you’re grateful? I’m not like you. If I’m grateful, I say thank you! I don’t put up useless pride like you do!”

“And what the hell does that mean? When did I ever put up pride?”

“You always do that?”

Tok, tok, tok-tok-tok.

While the two bickered, the strange sound continued, then stopped.

At that moment Sejun felt chills run over his whole body. The creaking noises and the eerie moaning he had faintly heard around him all vanished at the same time, and it was unnerving.

“……!”

Then Sejun saw something. A huge long hand of a monster came out from behind Lee Dohun. Much bigger than the white hand he had seen earlier, with chunks of flesh missing, grotesque to the point of disgust.

The dripping sound had been from blood trickling off that hand. It pulled its arm far back, like taking a running start before a jump. Sejun instinctively grabbed Dohun.

“What–“

Sejun pulled Dohun’s body sideways with all his strength. As Dohun staggered off balance, the monster’s sharp hand stabbed into the spot where he had just been standing.

“Argh!”

With a chilling sound of flesh being scraped away, Dohun screamed, and both their bodies rolled roughly across the floor.

The monster’s claws had grazed him. Blood sprayed from Dohun’s shoulder.

“Ugh.”

Sejun grimaced at the pain of being crushed. Dohun’s body, clearly weighing over a hundred kilos in his beast form, had landed on top of him.

Then Sejun froze. Behind Dohun’s back, the blood-soaked hand waved in the air. The massive white hand that had came from the floor was much bigger than the one that had chased Sejun earlier.

This was it. This was the boss. Anyone but a fool could tell.

“Shit!”

Dohun’s eyes shined with a violet spark, humiliated from being injured off guard. He swelled his fist explosively to smash the boss, but at that instant a light flashed.

“……!”

It came from the direction Sejun had originally run from. The light dyed everything white, then shot out like a bullet and pierced through the monster at incredible speed.

Kiaaaaaak!

An even more horrific scream than the monster that had vanished under Dohun’s fist ripped the air.

The shriek was so painful to the ears that Sejun reflexively covered them, and even Dohun frowned.

Chiiiik.

The stench of burning meat and smoke filled the corridor. Before long, the monster with the rotten, gigantic arm was completely burned away.

Thud!

With a deafening noise like a log falling, it toppled over. It squirmed and wailed in agony a few more times, then finally sagged limp.

Its flesh still sizzled but no one would think it was alive.

And when the fresh breeze of a cleared dungeon swept through the corridor, it confirmed this was the boss, and the dungeon was finished.

If anyone could fell an A-rank dungeon boss in one blow, it would be Lee Dohun, or Na Yukyoong, or Ryu Sehyun…

Or Cha Dogyeong.

Sejun turned his head quickly away from the melting boss and looked down the corridor. Cha Dogyeong was walking slowly toward him. Sejun’s expression melted into relief.

Cha Dogyeong. It was Cha Dogyeong.

His face looked sterner than usual, and when he saw Dohun pinning Sejun down, his eyebrow twitched. But Sejun did not notice any of that.

The one he had been so desperate to find was there. Sejun decided not to think any further.

“Move.”

Sejun shoved Dohun, who was still weighing down on him.

“Ugh.”

Dohun, caught off guard, rolled across the floor, Sejun paid no attention. He ran straight to Dogyeong and threw himself at him.

“……!”

Dogyeong caught Sejun reflexively.

Even when a man over 180cm hurled himself at him with full force, Dogyeong held him without swaying. As Sejun wrapped his legs around his waist and clung to him with his whole body, Dogyeong unconsciously supported his butt.

Their bodies locked together instantly. Sejun held Dogyeong’s thick neck with all his strength to.

“Hng where did you go? You bastard.”

Even though he already had him in his arms, Sejun squirmed closer as if he wanted to bury himself deeper in Dogyeong’s chest.

It was his own fault for vanishing, but he accused Dogyeong without hesitation.

But Dogyeong could hear the voice shaking with sorrow. He had no thought to argue back. Instead of pointing out the error, he said something else.

“Sorry.”

And patted the back and the butt of the one who had thrown himself into his arms with an apology.

•••

[Sejun-nim!]

When they cleared the dungeon and came out, the system, which had lost connection at some point inside, hurriedly spoke again.

[Sejun-nim, are you all right? Can you hear me?]

“Uh, yeah, I hear you.”

[Are you hurt anywhere? No, just stay still. I will scan you.]

The system’s voice was more urgent than usual. Maybe because it almost never lost connection. Or maybe because the connection had been cut inside the kind of dungeon Sejun feared the most. Either way, the system was unusually worked up.

Of course, Sejun did not have a single scratch. Embarrassed, he scratched the back of his head. He had not been any help at all.

If he had to name something, maybe slightly lessening Dohun’s injury? But it did not even seem like Dohun was grateful for that.

Sejun unconsciously looked at Dohun. Beast-types normally had strong recovery, but his blood had splattered too much for it to be a small wound. Seeing the Association staff panic and rush to give emergency treatment, it must have been serious.

Yet Dohun himself sat there with a sullen face, looking very displeased.

He lifted his head as if he felt Sejun’s gaze. Dohun’s expression distorted as soon their eyes met.

“What are you staring at?”

He hated Sejun and openly treated him as an enemy. Even just locking eyes seemed to annoy him, and he picked a fight right away.

Sejun turned his head away without answering. Of course, he could have argued back, but what would he gain from fighting with someone who was already injured?

Be patient, I’m the older one.

Only by a year, but Sejun insisted on calling himself the elder. He swallowed his irritation, but his restraint only seemed to bother Dohun more. Dohun raised his voice.

“Don’t tell me you were expecting me to thank you?”

Sejun looked puzzled.

“What kind of bullshit is that. Why would I expect that from you?”

“Hah? So you weren’t even expecting it?”

He got angry at such a weird point. By then, even Sejun, who had tried to let it slide, started to get angry too.

“Why the hell are you getting mad about that?!”

It made no sense. He had not expected thanks yet Dohun was angry about it. He had not asked for anything in return.

Dohun always nitpicked Sejun’s words, but he had never invented something out of nothing to get mad about. This time was truly strange.

Dohun stared at him like he had more to say, but in the end, he did not.

“Aagh!”

Irritated, he kicked a nearby landscaping rock for no reason, and the solid stone split apart with a crack.

Why the hell would he break the landscaping of an amusement park that would reopen tomorrow? Except when picking fights with Sejun, Dohun usually acted within common sense. Sejun had no idea why he suddenly did that.

Showing off his strength all of a sudden? Sejun already knew he was crazy, but what exactly had set him off this time?

[Sejun-nim, fortunately it seems you have no external injuries. Your heart rate is a little fast, but it is not at a dangerous level.]

While Sejun heard the relieved system’s voice finishing its scan, he answered, “Yeah, I’m fine,” and left the place.

He could feel Dohun’s glare stabbing into his back, but Sejun did not turn around this time. That guy was really strange.

Sejun headed straight for the parking lot.

It seemed all the people had been sent home while they cleared the dungeon. On the way to the parking lot, not a single person was in the amusement park except for a few staff.