# 026. Long Live the King (10)
“W-what’s going on?”
Despite being fully prepared with lights, the moment they stepped into the cave, darkness engulfed them. Neither flashlights nor torches were of any use. It was pitch-black darkness. Rather than lights going out and causing darkness, it seemed like a darkness where light had never existed at all.
By the time Min-gyu realized something was wrong, it was already too late. The others were nowhere to be seen. Without any warning, the group had been scattered.
They had come here to capture the Ouroboros.
Frozen with fear at the thought of what might emerge from the darkness, Min-gyu stood petrified.
“What is this! What’s going on! Come out…! W-whoever you are, come out!”
Come out—come out—
Min-gyu’s voice echoed throughout the cave, reflecting from all directions. Hearing those echoes made his skin crawl.
“Hey! Is anyone there? Answer me! Jeong-il! Where are you?”
Even though he knew shouting was futile, Min-gyu couldn’t stop himself.
The dark, chilling atmosphere evoked an unknown fear. An unbearable anxiety and impatience washed over him.
They should never have entered this cave in the first place. Entering a dungeon that had been upgraded to A-rank—they must all have been out of their minds. That bastard Jeongwoo, acting so confident, and now look at what happened? Waiting for the rescue team would have been the best option. Getting swept up in Jeongwoo’s confidence and ending up like this… He should have been the one to come to his senses and stopped them! But it was already too late for regrets.
H-help me…
“What? W-who’s there!”
The hair on the back of his neck stood up. It was a spine-chilling voice. Due to the darkness, he’d lost all sense of direction and couldn’t even guess where the sound was coming from. Min-gyu stretched out his arms and spun around in circles.
“J-just try to m-mess with me! I’ll, I’ll kill you all!”
Min-gyu was so tense that he didn’t even realize his voice was trembling like a lamb’s cry. His legs shook uncontrollably. Though he was naturally brave, this was his first time in a dungeon.
Help me, help me! Help me! Help me! Help me!
Aaaahh! Help me! Min-gyu! Save me! You’re an Awakened One, aren’t you? Help me!
The initially small screams gradually grew louder and clearer. Min-gyu became increasingly terrified. If someone had seen him in a well-lit place, they might have mistaken him for a critically ill patient—his face was bloodless, and his body was trembling like an aspen leaf.
Min-gyu flailed his hands in the air as if having a seizure. But he couldn’t touch anything. That made him even more frightened.
Aaaahh, it hurts! It hurts! I can’t breathe! Save me! Save me!
Mom! Mom! It hurts!
Is anyone there? Save us! We’re trapped here!
There’s nothing to eat! We can’t eat anything! I’m thirsty! Please give me water!
The pitch-black darkness filled with screams. Min-gyu’s face turned pale. Then, something grabbed his foot.
“Aaahhh! W-what is this! Let go! Let me go!”
Save us! Save us! If we stay like this, we’ll all die! We’ll all perish like this! This is all because of the King! Why don’t we have a King?
Min-gyu! Aren’t you an Awakened One? If you’re an Awakened One, why aren’t you a King?
Oppa! You’re an Awakened One, right? If you’re an Awakened One, can’t you become a King? Become a King and save us, Oppa!
Min-gyu! Dad hasn’t had water for three days already! We need to find water quickly. They say a King’s blessing can purify contaminated water or soil! Hurry and find the King and ask for his blessing! You’re an Awakened One!
“N-no…, I’m not a King… I’m not… a King…”
Min-gyu’s voice gradually diminished, mixed with faint sobs.
Min-gyu deeply regretted buying that item on the advice of an unnamed Constellation on the day he completed the tutorial.
Min-gyu had scored quite high during the tutorial because he hadn’t eaten or drunk anything. Since they were scheduled to take group body profile photos at the gym where he worked part-time, he was being cautious about drinking even a sip of water. Still, if he had felt thirsty or hungry, he would have eaten, but strangely, he didn’t feel any thirst or hunger throughout the tutorial. In the end, Min-gyu didn’t consume anything until he finished.
When he completed the tutorial, a Constellation approached him.
The Constellation said that although it couldn’t reveal its name because Earth’s channel hadn’t opened yet, it was very impressed with Min-gyu’s high score in the tutorial. This unnamed Constellation advised Min-gyu to buy ‘The Jewel of the Blindfolded One.’ Though ‘The Jewel of the Blindfolded One’ was a one-time consumable and expensive, it supposedly revealed the most important future for its owner.
After brief deliberation, Min-gyu bought the Jewel of the Blindfolded One at the Constellation’s urging.
And he saw something horrific.
The first thing Min-gyu saw was a blackened, rotten land. Countless corpses rolled about on the putrid earth that vibrated with a foul stench. Not a single corpse was intact. Distorted and broken bodies were scattered all over the ground.
That alone was shocking, but behind them, Min-gyu saw people who had strangely transformed. No, he wasn’t sure if they could even be called people anymore. Their bodies were bizarrely deformed. They looked like the monsters that appeared in the tutorial.
But the most terrible thing wasn’t over. The monsters all opened their mouths and began to speak.
We became like this because there was no King.
Oh King! Our King! Why have you abandoned us?
Even though he didn’t want to hear it, the monsters’ voices resonated through his mind.
Ah…! Earth has been destroyed… Destroyed because there was no King.
So this place… this rotten land was Earth.
Min-gyu stood dumbfounded, looking around at the black earth.
This was the future he had seen.
* * *
Jaehee was panting. Despite only being in darkness, his breathing was strangely labored. His body wouldn’t move freely. Something seemed to be constricting him. His chest felt tight. His limbs tingled, and cold sweat ran down his back. Though he was just standing still, it felt like he was engaged in a grueling battle.
Then, voices came from somewhere.
‘That kid, he’s from Seoul. His mother had an affair and got divorced, but she didn’t want to raise the child, so the old lady at the persimmon tree house took him in.’
‘Oh my goodness. The old hag at the persimmon tree house, that greedy woman, what’s happening to her in her final years? She used to brag so much about her son and daughter-in-law, but in the end, they got divorced and she’s left with the child.’
‘But I heard that it was Hyeongho from the persimmon tree house who had an affair first. His wife was so angry when she found out that she had an affair in retaliation. It’s only the child who’s pitiful. Oh my, the old hag at the persimmon tree house has sure got her hands full now.’
It had been a long time since he’d heard that story, not since he came up to Seoul.
It was a story that had followed him relentlessly.
At first, he didn’t go outside because he hated hearing those voices. But even if he didn’t go out, everyone in the village knew that Grandmother Kim from the persimmon tree house had taken in her grandson from Seoul who had been divorced and abandoned by his parents. On the rare occasions when he did step outside, the old people who sat idly in the pavilion outside the house would all excitedly gossip while looking at him. It seemed like no one cared that he could hear them. Until the foreign daughter-in-law of the Jang family from the rice mill ran away, Jaehee was the village’s top star.
“Well, it still makes me feel dirty to hear it now. Idle people with nothing better to do than gossip about other people’s business.”
Jaehee was surprised that he felt more indifferent than he’d expected. He felt bad, but that was it.
He was still irritated and angry, but he was no longer wounded by it. Now was different from those times when he was young and powerless. Back then, all he could do was sniffle when he heard such stories. But now, he could easily make them stop.
His fingertips, which couldn’t move at all before, began to stir slightly. Jaehee focused his mind on his fingertips and slowly started to move. A solid knife handle appeared in his previously empty hand.
He gripped it firmly. Now the darkness seemed shallow.
Such easily torn fake darkness no longer seemed frightening or impressive.
Jaehee stared directly at the darkness.
“Is this all you can do? Did you think those stories could still hurt me? You call yourself Ouroboros, but I’m disappointed. I expected something more impressive. Now get lost.”
Without hesitation, he slashed through the darkness. There was a sharp sound of something tearing.
