Chapter 345. The Cockroach Cave (3)

“The path is starting to get more narrow,” Miller said, dragging his gloved hands across the cavern walls. Just like he said, the path was getting narrower the deeper they went. Near the entrance, there had been enough space for ten young, well-built men to stand shoulder-to-shoulder. But now, there was only enough room for five. They couldn’t even guess how much narrower it would get further on.

“…How would you like us to line up?” Miller asked carefully.

Seo Jun-Ho didn’t even think before speaking, “I’ll stand at the vanguard.”

In a confined space like this, the most dangerous positions were the vanguard and the rearguard. However, the front line was more dangerous than the latter, so Seo Jun-Ho decided that he would take that.

“Players with ranged fighting styles should be in the middle and the back, and as for the rearguard…” He scanned the party, and his eyes settled on two people. “Elder Phantom Sword and One-Eyed Blood Spear. I’ll leave it to you two.”

“It would be my honor.”

“I understand…”

There was no one else better for this role than the people he had personally sparred with and judged as skilled.

“Don’t let your guard down no matter what.”

Once the expedition team reorganized themselves into this arrangement, they started moving again.

At some point, they stopped talking. Instead of conversing with each other, they sharpened their focus even further.

‘Huh?’

After moving in silence for twenty minutes, Seo Jun-Ho held up his hand and stopped the party. He crouched down and carefully studied the ground and the wall.

‘…The surface is slightly slanted.’

This was proof that the cave led downward, not upward.

‘The cave may be bigger than I thought.’

Like Miller had said, the cave didn’t look extremely big from the outside. But seeing how the cave lead deeper and deeper underground, it was now a different story.

“Miller,” Seo Jun-Ho called out. The Player had a detection skill, but when received no answer, he turned around and couldn’t see Miller, so he asked, “Where did Miller go?”

“He was always next to you, Specter…”

“Huh? Wait. I don’t see him. Where did he go?”

“H-he was here just a moment ago.”

A Player had suddenly disappeared, and he had been following right behind them.

‘How did I not notice?’

It made no sense. From the moment they entered the cave, Seo Jun-Ho had spread out his sensory field. He could sense every single party member’s breathing and all of their minute movements. Considering this, Seo Jun-Ho’s face fell in an instant.

“Count the number of Players. Right now.”

“Hey, what’s going on up there?”

“I don’t know. He suddenly asked us to conduct a head count.”

The party members bustled as they counted, and they grew pale and turned to Seo Jun-Ho with fearful eyes.

“T-there are a total of… fifty-seven.”

“…”

Seo Jun-Ho was sure that there had been eighty members aside from him. They left no dead or injured behind, so they should still be a complete group of eighty.

‘Twenty-three players disappeared?’

The bigger issue was that he didn’t notice when they disappeared.

Seo Jun-Ho bit his lower lip.

‘It’s definitely not a mind control skill…’

The reason he knew was simple. If it were that sort of skill, Hero’s Mind would have resisted it.

‘Of course, I can’t completely exclude it.’

The Gluttony Squadron Leader had consumed the blood of a mare and trapped him in a hallucination. However, those situations were extremely rare.

As such, there could only be one possibility.

‘It’s most likely a large-scale hallucination from an illusion skill.’

If their opponent had a skill that could interrupt their cognition all throughout the cave, it made sense. Hero’s Mind only blocked mental attacks and prevented his mind from crumbling.

‘Is this also the work of the cockroaches?’

Something was off. Up until now, the only special traits the special entities had were that they were being big and strong. Most of them only had physical enhancement abilities.

‘But the monsters we’ve encountered inside this cave…’

They each had their own special, unique features. They could explode, or they were carrying guns and missiles. This place was a spawning ground for cockroaches, but not those ordinary ones.

“W-what should we do?” asked the party members.

“…” Seo Jun-Ho thought for a moment. However, his answer remained the same. “We’ll keep going.

Even if they retreated, more members could disappear on their way back. Moreover, even if they managed to make their way out of the cave safely, they wouldn’t be able to save the Players who had already disappeared.

‘At the very least, I have to find the source of this illusion and find the missing members.’

His feet started to feel itchy. “From now on, we will be going a little faster.”

“Um… Then, should we send more fighting power to the front?” asked a Player whose name he still hadn’t heard.

“No, just… Put all your energy into running,” replied Seo Jun-Ho.

***

“Kyaaak!”

“Kiii!”

Another horde of special entities appeared, but Seo Jun-Ho didn’t care about what abilities they had or how strong they were.

Fwoosh!

A giant mass of darkness fell from the ceiling and crushed the monsters. The monsters weren’t spared even one second to process what was going on before they were crushed.

‘Faster. Faster.’

Seo Jun-Ho had decided to go all-out. He was moving sharply and swiftly. He had already encountered five mobs of special entities in the past thirty minutes, and every time, the battle ended within one second.

And at last, he arrived at the end of the cave.

However, the only thing there was a vast, empty cavern the size of a stadium.

“Contractor.”

“…” Seo Jun-Ho didn’t answer. All he did was stare at the clearing.

‘Goodness.’

The Frost Queen understood his distress, and she let out a small sigh as she looked at his back.

When they entered the cave, there had been eighty members of the expedition team trailing behind him. Now, not a single one of them was left.

‘He must be in great shock.’

As the number of Players steadily decreased, the members started reacting in their own ways. Some cried, saying they didn’t want to disappear, there were others who implored them to find the truth and avenge them, and finally, there were those who gave up on everything and fell to the ground on their own.

Seo Jun-Ho should have been able to hear their voices, but he kept running without stopping a single time.

‘You… Is it because you are disappointed in yourself?’

The Frost Queen looked at him with pity and patted his arm tenderly. “This is not your fault… Everyone, including I, know that it is not.”

At that, Seo Jun-Ho finally tore his eyes away from the cavern wall. “Huh? What did you just say?”

“…That it is not your fault.”

“Of course, I know that. I didn’t do anything wrong.” He pointed with his index finger. “More importantly, can’t you see that?”

“That?” The Frost Queen turned. All she saw was the earthen wall of the cavern. Her face turned even more sympathetic. “Oh, you poor child…You poor thing… are you seeing the faces of the missing members now?”

“Of course not,” Seo Jun-Ho replied, shaking his head. “I see a door.”

“A door?” The Frost Queen’s eyes grew wide.

“Yeah. It’s a big metal door about five meters tall. If you can’t see it, that probably means…”

“I see. It has to be being concealed by some powerful sorcery.” What a relief. Her contractor hadn’t lost his mind after all.

“Why can I not see it?” The Frost Queen muttered.

“I don’t know. It could be because of Hero’s Mind. And if that’s not the case…” Someone could be inviting Seo Jun-Ho into it.

The Frost Queen started to feel uneasy. “Contractor, will you go in perchance?”

“I have to.” Seo Jun-Ho immediately nodded. “Though it had only been for a short while, those people were my responsibility.”

The other Players had acknowledged him as their leader. They had given him their faith, so he would never betray them.

Seo Jun-Ho approached the door. “I’ll be back.”

“Be careful…”

All alone, The Frost Queen sat down on the cold, earthen floor and prepared herself. If something went wrong, they would go back to the past. “Then, I shall give you words of reassurance.”

With how often his emotions overflowed these days, her contractor would surely become sad and cry his eyes out again. What could she say to cheer him up? She carefully started to pick her words out.

***

Once Seo Jun-Ho passed through the large metal door, he stumbled upon a small, clean, white space.

He didn’t feel any magic energy fluctuation, so he wasn’t teleported here.

‘All they did is carve out the cave walls until they were completely flat, and then they painted it over in white.’

It very much resembled a mental hospital or a research laboratory.

– Kodi mungafune chiyani chamasana?

– Malizani ntchito.

He heard a strange conversation happening somewhere up ahead and slowly walked forward. He passed through a very long hallway and entered a large space.

‘…A laboratory?’

There were nearly a hundred large glass chambers arranged in a line. They were filled with a green liquid and held a variety of animals, and each one had dozens of electrodes attached to them. Humanoid, bipedal creatures wearing long, white gowns were researching something in front of them.

“…”

Seo Jun-Ho gently summoned his magic power.

“N, Ndithandizeni!”

The cockroaches were startled when they saw him and started running away. But that wasn’t enough to escape the darkness Seo Jun-Ho wielded. It cut their bodies in half, and the researchers started crawling away, trying to escape with their lives.

“…Clean them up.”

In the shape of wolves, Watchguard of Darkness devoured the monsters. While they were doing that, Seo Jun-Ho promptly made his way to the next room.

‘Is this an armory?’

No. More accurately, this was another laboratory. However, the chambers contained weapons they were studying rather than animals.

“Die, you pests.”

Seo Jun-Ho killed all the researchers and scanned the weapons. He guessed that they had brought them over here from the city.

‘Did they make special entities by studying these items?’

He saw man-made bombs, missiles, machine guns, and other weapons sprawled all across the table.

He stepped on their corpses and made his way over to the next room.

“Ah.”

In that place, there wasn’t a large group of researchers. There was only one cockroach standing there. He was wearing a lab gown, and he had an enormous head.

The cockroach turned.

“So we finally meet again.”

Again?

There was only one monster in the world who would say that.

“Erebo…”

“Keke, what a strange feeling to see you in another body.”

“What are you doing?” Seo Jun-Ho demanded, glaring at him.

There was a Player strapped onto a machine in front of Erebo. There were dozens of needles poked into his head, and for some reason, the Player was laughing hysterically.

“Oh, this?”

Erebo’s other body lifted a slender hand and pulled out a needle from the Player’s head.

The man was still hysterically laughing as he spoke and rambled about Earth’s history, “Humans cleared the 1st floor 27 years ago, and currently…”

Erebo grinned. “I have been studying your world.”

“…”

“It is a planet by the name of Earth. It is part of a solar system and has a satellite moon. A beautiful, azure planet orbiting a star. From what I have heard, it seems like an extremely… fine planet. It even has a human population of ten billion[1].”

It was hard to describe the disgusting yet uncomfortable feeling that washed over Seo Jun-Ho. However, he couldn’t help but abruptly ask.

“Why are you studying it?”

Erebo rubbed his hands together as if he had been waiting for that question. “Why do you think? I am done cleaning up here, so shouldn’t I move to my next destination soon?”

Erebo’s mandibles clicked as he cackled.

Seo Jun-Ho looked at him with cold, chilling eyes.

1. Remember, this takes place decades ahead of our current time. ☜