A scene from the past suddenly flits by.
“Don't be too scared. That mutt's nothing once you take away his ability.”
“Huh? Ah, well…”
“You ever seen him get hit by the Boss? You haven't, right? He goes flying like a sheet of paper, I'm telling you. Take away his ability and he'd get wrecked even one-on-one with me.”
“B-behind, behind you…”
“You called for me, senior?”
“Aaagh! Wh-what, what is this. No, this is-!”
“I-I didn't say anything…”
And after that, the part where he personally helped me come to my senses with an electric shock.
Thinking back on it now, it wasn't entirely wrong.
The fact that I—someone not especially remarkable in any other respect—could survive as a strong figure in a world like this.
That was mostly thanks to my relatively powerful ability and the Boss.
The one who turned me, someone who'd been scraping by hand to mouth with my ability, into what I am—was the Boss.
The one who taught me the proper way to make use of my ability.
The one who taught me how to survive among monsters and among humans, all of it…
“Don't tell me you're planning to chicken out now that we've come all this way?”
…Come to think of it, even right now I ended up in this mess trying to do some thieving behind the Boss's back.
For an awakener, an ability was like a part of the body.
Humanity had yet to develop a method of suppressing an awakener's ability.
So suddenly being unable to use your ability?
For most awakeners, wasn't it something they'd only ever imagined? I, too, had lived without particularly assuming a situation where I couldn't use my ability.
If you had a strong ability, that was enough.
If your physical ability and intelligence were at a decent level, that was enough.
That's what I'd thought.
Until I was caught by Choi Haegang.
When I'd come to, bound in his torture chamber, my ability hadn't come out at all.
Whether he'd used some special artifact or done something else, I don't know. That was a part to figure out after surviving and getting out first.
What mattered was that the second situation where I couldn't use my ability had now arrived.
Suddenly losing your ability inside a dungeon was the same as losing your limbs.
Still, compared to the moment I woke in the torture chamber having lost both arms, it was a hopeful situation.
My ability would probably come back in about twelve minutes.
I just had to hold out until then.
Twelve minutes. If I could keep its curiosity piqued for just twelve minutes…
How?
Even while I was lost in thought, the monster kept pestering me.
Poke poke.
I held an inward hope that it might just not eat me once it got bored.
The core can be destroyed with plain grip strength.
So as long as I got into its belly, I could handle it even without my ability. It was the simplest solution.
But going by the way it kept jabbing at me rather than eating me, it had apparently already lost any mind to gobble me up nicely.
The worst case was that it'd lock me back in the jar.
If time passed while I was trapped, Yeom Hajae would wake up, and then Atlas would begin raiding the dungeon.
Fortunately, Choi Haegang didn't seem to have any intention of saving me, but Yeom Hajae would be different. Once he came to, he'd surely come to the rescue, burning with pointless self-sacrifice. Probably.
I had to get eaten now, somehow.
And to do that, I needed to show it something right away, but…
Is this how a comedian feels, standing before an audience that won't laugh?
Stopping my train of thought, I firmly pushed away the pestering finger. The monster, pushed back obligingly, withdrew its finger.
Rummaging through my pockets to see if there was anything, I grabbed a small box.
When I opened the box of fine material, a single necklace with a cubic-zirconia pendant remained.
With this…
“…”
What do I do.
Clink.
The metal in my hand clinked with a clear sound as it knocked together.
It suddenly reminded me of the cat that would go wild and lunge whenever I shook something in my hand.
After deliberating, I started by shaking the necklace.
“!”
The monster reacted.
A hand approaching again.
For an instant I held out hope—is it reaching for me?—but…
The giant hand grabbed the necklace dangling and swinging below.
“…”
With a rustling sound, the snapped necklace crumbled to dust in the monster's hand.
“…What am I doing.”
Pulling on a dungeon monster the kind of stunt you'd pull on a cat.
“Hahaha.”
Nothing but laughter comes out.
Sweat trickled down my cheek.
It's not tears. Really.
[Penalty triggered: 〈Sealing〉 now active. (00:10)]
A precious gold necklace I'd barely even gotten to touch a few times. The monster bastard that had just smashed it to bits was again staring blankly at me.
Had I really been registered as a boredom-killing toy?
For all that staring, I had nothing left to actually show it now. By this point I'd dredged up every trick I'd ever pulled in my life.
Should I do a dog impression?
…No. That's the Boss's favorite.
Vomiting.
Ah, this one too…
No matter how I thought about it, there was nothing to do.
What now.
What would it take to make it want to eat me?
I studied the monster's reaction.
It looked mindless. The hand that had crushed the necklace had dropped low.
In short, the opponent was off guard.
“Tonight's main performance resumes in ten minutes…”
Trigger the hunting instinct?
But behind me was a cliff edge.
“…”
My mind made up, I abruptly broke into a run forward.
The monster's arm was thinner than expected. On top of that, with no flesh on it, the bone pressed right up underfoot, making it hard to keep my balance.
If possible, I planned to ride up the arm to the shoulder like this and get into its mouth somehow.
It was the instant I planted my foot on the inside of the elbow, where the joint jutted out grotesquely.
Whack—!
“Ugh!”
My vision flared white.
…
My head rings.
When I barely came to my senses, I was back on the monster's hand.
What just happened?
A forehead so throbbing it had gone numb.
Ah, did I get hit in the head?
It seemed the giant palm had caught me as I got struck in the head and tumbled off.
In other words, that thing had flicked my head.
…Fuck, a monster bastard gave me a flick on the forehead?
Should I be grateful it didn't kill me in one hand?
I was too dizzy to keep my thoughts going for long.
That's when it happened.
Trickle.
“?”
A thin liquid ran from my nose. There was a salty taste in my mouth.
My hand went up on reflex.
When I wiped it with the back of my hand, bright red blood came off.
A nosebleed…
To think the day would come when I'd get a nosebleed from a single forehead flick.
“Ha…”
I should've practiced my running.
I scrubbed my face irritably with my dry hand.
The road ahead looked bleak.
Without even giving me room to think, a palm approached my face. Not in a grabbing shape, but in a covering one.
My body was squeezed tight. It was because the monster pressed the edge of its hand against my upper body.
Had it gotten tired of waiting? Or had the sudden flight changed its mind?
Pinning me with the pinky-side edge of its hand, the monster lifted my lower body with the rest of its fingers.
The monster bent my body at a right angle, then pinched my shin between its thumb and forefinger.
“…?”
A strange pressure registered. My leg, caught between fingers thick as pillars, looked thin as a straw.
I thrashed belatedly, but it was useless. The huge hand snaps a human's leg with ease.
Crack!
“!!”
My leg broke.
Crack!
Then the other one was snapped in a single go too.
“Haaah, hah…”
It was only after the monster's hand pulled away that my body was free.
I lowered my trembling eyes and checked below.
I could see my shins, mercilessly bent backward.
Fuck…
It's fine.
The breaking sounds had been clean.
I'm an awakener, so the bones will mend again quickly.
It's no big deal. It's not like some crazy bastard cut off my arms.
I barely held on to a mind threatening to fade into the pain. Checking the surroundings, I realized I'd been set on a dining table at some point.
The monster, which had headed off somewhere, reappeared holding a plate and a fork.
My head bumped against the hard plate.
Sparkling powder was sprinkled over me, body and face alike.
And then.
Stab!
A fork pierced my side.
“Agh!”
Shit, what the hell?!
Why is a wooden fork this sharp?!
…
Thankfully, it didn't hurt much.
The truth was, ever since my legs broke, my head had gone hot and my heart pounded, so I couldn't really feel much.
Instead.
“Khuk…”
Blood gushed out of my mouth.
Following the path the fresh blood traced, my body and the floor grew warm.
Ah…
This is so unfair.
You knew how to use a fork too, huh.
Why is it always me…
Trying to understand it was useless.
I accepted my fate.
It's fine. I'm an awakener with life force as tough as a cockroach's…
Still, chopsticks would've been nicer.
My body rose into the air.
Right. A plate and a fork means that, doesn't it. It's going to eat me.
I thought as I desperately gripped the fork so I wouldn't fall.
Finally, I'm going in.
As my view rose high, the surroundings opened up. Looking around with blurry vision, I could see Choi Haegang, small, behind the planks.
Seeing that mug brought up memories of the past.
Getting my waist seared with a torch hurt more. Ah, I was also sliced open alive once. Seeing my own intestines was a fresh experience.
Hm. Yeah, getting pierced by a giant fork is nothing.
In any case, the plan was on the verge of success.
“Up…”
Spitting out the blood that welled up again, I smiled and looked him in the face.
And.
Before I could even check Choi Haegang's expression, I dropped inside the golden cords.
“…Come to think of it, where'd my necklace go?”
The maknae searched his pockets. The inner pocket of his jacket, the side pockets of his pants, the back pockets too.
No matter how thoroughly he checked every corner, all he found was his wallet, phone, and the like. The item he was looking for was nowhere to be seen.
“Nyaang…”
“Did I lose it? Ugh, it was a present from my girlfriend…”
It felt like the cat was sending him a look of pity. Of course, there's no way a cat understands human speech, so it had to be his imagination.
Meanwhile.
Yeom Hajae, who'd been lying among the injured, opened his eyes.
The instant he opened them, he sat up and looked around.
Everyone was where they'd been. Except for two.
The maknae spotted Yeom Hajae glancing around and approached.
“Leader-hyung? When did you wake up?”
“Hyung… No, where's Kim Cheolsu?”
The maknae carefully gestured toward Choi Haegang with his eyes.
Yeom Hajae followed the maknae's lead and looked that way. His reddish eyes took in Choi Haegang. Even as he sent his silent gaze, Choi Haegang said nothing.
“…Haegang? Where's Cheolsu?”
