By Zephyria 
It was a boss monster that looked like at least an S-class, or rather, an SS-class.
Kuuuuuuuuu-!
The scorpion monster, spewing out a thunderous cry, was threatening in itself.
“Crazy! How are we supposed to take that down?!”
I exclaimed with a disgusted look, and Jae-ha also looked perplexed.
“That… I don’t think we can just easily blow it up like the lugworm monster.”
Moreover, it was full of poison, and as soon as the breath spewing from its mouth touched the sand, that part turned black.
‘It’s deadly poison!’
Even touching that thing’s breath would mean death, and probably getting hit by its bodily fluids would also mean death.
‘This is driving me crazy!’
Not missing the chance while we were dumbfounded, Ban No-ah used some ability again, took off his outer garment like a shed skin, and ran away naked.
“Haha! Have fun with that scorpion in there!”
“That, that bastard…!”
Eventually, Ban No-ah disappeared beyond the barrier.
We also tried to chase after him into the barrier, but the barrier only allowed Ban No-ah and then disappeared.
“Damn it….”
We were left empty-handed, holding only the slimy, slough-like skin that the lizard had shed.
‘We’re trapped.’
Ban No-ah wouldn’t lie about something that was advantageous to him, so the
Probably forever.
To confirm, I tried to escape the
“
Then the system window refused our escape.
[ ERROR ]
[ Cannot be permitted. ]
“……This is really driving me crazy!”
As expected.
We were completely trapped in this transformed
Seeing me clenching the sand and panting, Jae-ha, still unaware, took out a
“
Of course, this was the same.
[ ERROR ]
[ Cannot be permitted. ]
“…….”
At this point, Jae-ha’s face also turned pale.
“…We really can’t get out.”
Besides, that wasn’t the only problem right now….
Krrrwaaaaaaaack-!
“Ah.”
“Ah.”
The boss monster scorpion, which we had momentarily forgotten due to the shock of being trapped in the
Perhaps because its magnificent presence had been ignored, it was bursting into a cry of rage.
“L-Let’s get away from that thing first!”
At my words, Jae-ha tucked me under his arm first.
I hurriedly shouted, worried that Jae-ha would only take me.
“Comrades! Take the fallen
Something sparkled in my hand, which was clinging to Jae-ha like baggage.
How long had we been running?
Even after the scorpion became a small dot, Jae-ha put the fallen comrades and me down on the sand only after running for a long time.
Thanks to Jae-ha’s
“If we’ve come this far, it should be okay.”
“How far did we come?”
“I’d say we’re at least 100km away from that monster.”
“That’s a long distance.”
Hopefully, that boss monster doesn’t have the characteristic of moving too fast.
Being able to catch my breath, I flopped down on the sand like my fallen comrades.
Then I spoke to Jae-ha.
“What are you going to do now?”
“…I don’t know.”
Jae-ha, perhaps experiencing being trapped in a
“We have to try to escape. Even if it means using
“Are you going to destroy the
“Is there any other way?”
“No…. It’s just that, with your ability, it’s worth trying, but I’m worried that some comrades might get hurt or die.”
“That’s… true.”
Silence fell between us for the first time.
Jae-ha awkwardly continued, unlike his usual self.
“I-It’s definitely not because I don’t value my comrades.”
“…I know you’re not that kind of person.”
If Jae-ha was a cold-blooded person who didn’t care whether his comrades lived or died, he wouldn’t have recognized me again, or rather, he wouldn’t have missed me.
‘And he wouldn’t have thought of avenging me either.’
Still lying comfortably, I patted the spot next to me and gestured to Jae-ha.
“Come here.”
“……?”
“Lie down here. There’s not really anything else we can do right now anyway.”
Jae-ha chuckled.
“…I guess so.”
Not caring about getting sand on his body.
We lay on the desert like the other fallen comrades, looking up at the endlessly red sky.
Whether Jae-ha’s words that we were 100km away were an exaggeration or not, no signs of monsters were detected nearby.
‘It’s a blessing in disguise.’
But what to do?
‘If we’re completely trapped in the
At this rate, there was no hope.
‘When there’s no food against
That wasn’t food for humans.
Even eating rotten, stinky chunks of meat would have been better than that.
Recalling the unpleasant memory, I felt nauseous.
“Ugh….”
“What’s wrong? Don’t tell me you were poisoned by that scorpion…?”
Jae-ha even took out an antidote from his inventory, but I declined because I was fine.
“No, it’s okay. It just reminded me of when I dealt with and ate the Kraken in the past.”
Jae-ha’s complexion also turned pale, as that memory was terrible.
“Ugh…. That was really the worst.”
That time was in the summer, when a typhoon was rampaging across the Korean Peninsula.
The people who were supplying food from the government were unlucky enough to get caught in the typhoon and lost both their food and their lives.
Because of that, our unit, which was fighting monsters while waiting for supplies, was in trouble.
We needed to eat something to use our abilities. There was no food, our energy was running out, and monsters were everywhere….
“The monster we were fighting was a Kraken, an octopus-like creature.”
“Yeah.”
The starving
‘Let’s catch and eat that!’
…As if possessed by someone’s cry, we showed amazing cooperation, defeated the Kraken, and grilled it to eat.
But the result was disastrous.
“Even thinking about it again makes my stomach churn.”
“Agreed.”
I turned my gaze to Jae-ha, who nodded.
“Considering that, even if we catch and eat the monsters here, it’ll probably be similar…?”
“First of all… their appearance alone doesn’t make me want to eat them.”
“Kgh.”
I groaned, recalling the lugworm-like monster with countless legs like a centipede, one eye, and covered in gooey mucus.
“…Right. The Kraken was similar to an octopus, so we at least tried to eat it.”
“The same goes for the boss monster scorpion. It has poison, so if we catch and eat it, we’ll be poisoned and in critical condition.”
“What’s the probability of other monsters besides those being in this
“We’ll have to search to find out…. Ga-hyeon, you saw it too, didn’t you? Have we seen any other monsters in this
No, we haven’t….
‘Damn it.’
Ban No-ah was definitely a mean, despicable, and sneaky bastard.
‘He should have just let us fight honorably and die!’
To be trapped in a
‘The only thing we can hope for in this situation is….’
I raised my clenched fist and looked at the contents inside.
Several red gems emitting a faint light.
‘If possible, I wanted to steal that purple gem that had the power to interfere with the
Perhaps Ban No-ah realized my intentions, he desperately tried not to have it taken away, so I failed.
In the end, all I got was a few other red gems from Ban No-ah’s pocket.
Haaa.
“I don’t even know what abilities are in here, so what do I do?”
I repeatedly sighed as if the ground was sinking.
‘I just took them recklessly, but I don’t even know how to activate them?’
In the worst case, they might not react except to the energy of their owner, Ban No-ah.
Seeing the red gems on my palm, Jae-ha’s pupils widened.
“When did you get those?”
“I swiped them when I was fighting with Ban No-ah earlier.”
“Amazing…?”
“What’s so amazing about it? I couldn’t get the bead with that strange ability that could interfere with the
Jae-ha, staring intently at the red beads, asked if he could borrow them for a moment.
“Why?”
“I want to examine them. There might be a clue to our escape in here?”
“I hope you find it. I just took them recklessly, so I have no idea what abilities they might have.”
When I handed the red beads to Jae-ha, he scanned them intently and began to inject his energy into the beads as if shooting
“Hey! What if they break…. Huh?”
The red beads sparkled.