Once again, the SS-grade Hunters were gathered around the conference room table.
Bae Hyeong-seok stood and spoke to everyone.
“It seems recruitment for the advance team is complete, so let us hear from each of you.”
Then he looked at Lee Cheol-heon.
“First, what about Typhon Guild?”
“Mm.”
When Lee Cheol-heon nodded with a short hum, four shadows appeared behind him.
“Four S-grade Hunters.”
“…Four?”
Bae Hyeong-seok looked at him with a rather surprised expression.
“Are you sure it is all right to spare that many S-grade personnel?”
“We lost three S-grade Hunters in this ‘Yoo Da-huin’ and ‘Curse of Immortality’ incident. I am not the only one burning with a desire for revenge.”
“I see.”
Bae Hyeong-seok nodded at his explanation.
“…Thank you for your cooperation. Then, may we hear the report from Lotus Guild?”
This time, he looked at Lee Chae-rin.
“A report, huh? The wording makes it sound like we’re offering something up from below to someone above. I don’t really like it.”
Lee Chae-rin sneered while chewing gum, and Bae Hyeong-seok frowned as he spoke.
“Do not make these already repetitive meetings more exhausting with that tone.”
“Oh, dear. If the great SSS-grade Hunter says so, I suppose I have to listen.”
Lee Chae-rin spat out the gum she had been chewing with a spit and flicked her hand. Then.
-Knock, knock.
“Come in.”
With the knock on the conference room door and Lee Chae-rin’s permission to enter, five Hunters came inside.
“Two S-grade Hunters and three A-grade Hunters. Three damage dealers, one tank, and one mage. This is the best our Lotus Guild can put forward.”
At Lee Chae-rin’s gesture, the five guild members of Lotus Guild stood at attention. This time too, the SS-grade Hunters all looked surprised at the high grades of the members.
“To be honest, I thought we would have the most S-grades, so this is unexpected. Looks like Typhon Guild is really grinding its teeth.”
“Even so, their grades are higher than expected. Two S-grade Hunters. Does Lotus Guild have that much room to spare?”
“Room to spare? Are you picking a fight?”
“…It is a simple question.”
Bae Hyeong-seok shook his head and asked.
Lee Chae-rin snickered and said, “Let’s be honest. This patrol team isn’t just a group that’s going to crawl up the tower, say, ‘It’s like this, it’s like that,’ share it here, and then tell everyone to work together nicely, right?”
-BANG!
She roughly put her foot up on the table.
“…Whoever catches him first keeps him. That bastard called ‘Yoo Da-huin.’”
“What is that supposed to mean!”
Lee Cheol-heon sprang to his feet and shouted at Lee Chae-rin’s words.
“We have all gathered together to cooperate in suppressing the Curse of Immortality….”
“Ahh, you old geezer. You really don’t get it.”
The one who interrupted while blowing on the pinky finger he had used to pick his ear was Oh Yuk-il.
“I’m saying we’re not volunteers. If we’ve decided to climb Gyeonggi Namyangju Tower No. 2, then at the very least, we have to secure Yoo Da-huin’s person for the numbers to add up.”
“B-But then, what about cooperation….”
“When did we ever say we were cooperating? This is a competition, old man.”
Oh Yuk-il chuckled, and Bae Hyeong-seok sighed, shook his head, and asked Oh Yuk-il,
“Oh Yuk-il, does Mudbones Guild have any selected personnel?”
“We do.”
Oh Yuk-il took the knife he had been spinning in his hand.
-STAB!
He drove it into the table and spoke.
“Just me.”
“…What?”
Oh Yuk-il smiled a fishy smile and said,
“I’m climbing it myself.”
***
My upper body above the waist was inside the Wolf King’s maw.
-CRUNCH!
“Kuhuk!”
The part around my waist melted away smoothly between the bastard’s teeth without resistance.
But the bastard seemed startled by my sudden movement, or perhaps wary.
-SPAT!
It spat out my upper body and quickly retreated.
“Haa, haa….”
Why? Why is it acting like that?
While I was thinking that.
[ Ding! ]
[ Death Detection skill activates! ]
[ Boss: Scent of death detected from Giant Wolf King! ]
“…?”
There is something.
What just happened is a clue to killing the bastard.
The Death Detection skill was telling me that.
But what am I supposed to do?
What did I do?
“…Damn it!”
The first thought that came to mind was that I had to touch the bastard somehow.
Usually, if I was stabbed with a sword, I grabbed the sword and attacked the opponent’s neck or eyes.
If something bit me, I grabbed its head and refused to let go.
But this bastard was different.
That was far too difficult.
Its claws cut through me and passed by quickly without getting caught on anything.
My fists cut through empty air too late.
Its jaws bit me fiercely and tore me apart, but before I could grab it, it ripped my body apart and spat me out.
What about its tail?
My organs and bones were crushed so thoroughly that I did not even know what had hit me, and I regenerated only afterward.
I had not even brushed against a single strand of the bastard’s fur that looked so soft.
“Fuck….”
The upper body that had been bitten and spat out by the bastard faded away, and a body grew from the lower half left behind.
“…!”
That was when it occurred to me.
As I met the Wolf King’s blue eyes, and looked at my blood still remaining in the bastard’s mouth, the thought came to me.
‘What happens if I resurrect inside the bastard?’
And the moment I had that thought.
Before my eyes, with a sound.
[ Ding! ]
[ Death Detection skill activates! ]
[ Boss: Scent of death from Giant Wolf King intensifies! ]
“This is it!”
The notification window confirmed my thought.
I did not know exactly what was going on, but it seemed to agree that this method was right.
“…Then there’s no need to hesitate.”
By now, after climbing to the 20th Floor, there was only one posture I had grown used to.
-Step.
I spread both arms and stood defenseless before the Wolf King.
“Now, try eating me. You son of a bitch.”
“…Grrrr….”
As if the Wolf King had understood my shouted abuse, it growled low.
-THUD!
After vanishing from my sight in an instant.
-SLASH!
It split my body in two with its claws.
My vision flipped and tilted, but this was not the attack I wanted.
“Hoo, hoo.”
After opening my eyes again, I focused my mind.
This time, I stared at its legs.
But as if the Wolf King had read my thoughts.
-WHOOSH! CRASH!
It approached quickly and struck my body with its tail.
“Kuhup!”
For a moment, my vision and spine twisted.
“Haa, haa!”
After opening my eyes once more.
“Y-You fucking…!”
I moved as if I no longer cared what happened and leaped in.
-WHOOSH!
I swung a fist that had no chance of reaching it, and sure enough, this fist did not reach.
-SLASH!
Its claw lightly cut through the air, and while doing so, it smoothly split my upper body apart as if cutting me along with it.
“Uwegh!”
My organs spilled out, and I vomited blood once again as if painting red over the floor where the green grassland spread out.
“Haa, haa. Haa.”
But I recovered, and I did not give up.
No matter what, I would be eaten and tear apart the bastard’s insides.
That alone was my goal.
“Grrrr…!”
The bastard bared its teeth and growled low.
This is my chance!
This attack will definitely come from its jaws.
-FLASH!
I turned my back as if pretending to dodge the attack.
-TAP!
And sure enough, the moment I heard heavy, swift footsteps behind me.
-SNIP!
My vision cut off, and my waist was severed by the bastard’s jaws.
“Kh, huh. Gh…!”
I held onto my fading consciousness.
If I died like this, I would simply resurrect outside, just as I always had.
I had to, absolutely had to.
I had to enter the bastard’s belly and die there.
-GRAB.
Even in my fading consciousness, I seized the bastard’s jaws.
“Finally, I caught you. You son of a bitch…!”
Once more, I shoved my head into the bastard’s mouth.
“Grrrr, grrrrrrr!”
The bastard growled low and tried once again to spit me out, but now that I was inside its mouth, I grabbed its fangs with both hands and absolutely refused to let go.
Soon, my consciousness and vision grew blurred.
-Sssssss, sssssss….
The last thing I confirmed was that the lower half of my body outside the bastard’s mouth had vanished.
I succeeded.
I resurrected inside the bastard’s mouth.
“Huaaaagh!”
I screamed as I slid down the enormous Wolf King’s esophagus and beyond.
‘I succeeded!’
That was what I thought up until then.
But…!
“…Krrgh!”
-Hiss, hiss!
Stomach acid that burned my skin and melted my bones just by touching me soon welcomed me.
But….
“This much… I already overcame it on the 3rd Floor!”
I recalled the Acid Slime.
Compared to back then, it did not hurt much thanks to Pain Numbness,
and thanks to Enhanced Regeneration Speed, I could attack faster.
“Hah!”
Before my recovered arm could be burned by the acid again, I struck the bastard’s internal organs with all my strength.
-…SMACK!
“…Ghk?!”
Soon, the bastard’s organs, far sturdier than I had expected, welcomed me.
“Eek!”
I tried scratching with my nails, but my fingers bent.
When I clenched my fist and struck its organs, my arm broke from the recoil.
And even.
“Fuck!”
I bared my teeth, sank them into the bastard’s stomach wall, and tried to tear it off, but rather than the bastard’s flesh tearing, my own teeth broke first, scattering out.
…This was certainly unexpected.
The space was narrow too, but honestly, I did not know if anything would have changed even if it were wide.
On top of that.
-CLAMP!
“Kuhuk!”
The moment its stomach contracted, my body was crushed at once. I died and resurrected.
This bastard noticed.
It realized that the human it had swallowed was alive and moving inside its body, and it was tensing and relaxing its abdominal pressure.
That alone was enough to keep killing me.
-CRUNCH!
I resurrected inside its belly again.
This time, the bastard put even more strength into its abdomen.
-CRRRUNCH!
Pressure covered my whole body.
Again and again, my body was crushed like a sponge, then burst as though being wrung out.
Death.
Resurrection.
Death.
Resurrection.
Death.
Resurrection.
I died endlessly, was pressured endlessly, and repeated resurrection.
“In, Intimidation….”
Clutching at straws, I activated Intimidation.
[ Ding! ]
[ Intimidation skill activates more strongly! ]
-CRUNCH!
“Gguhuk!”
But what came back in answer was not the bastard shrinking back in fear, but my whole body being crushed and fractured by abdominal pressure.
“Fu, ck, what the hell am I supposed, to do…!”
-CRUNCH! CRACK! CRUNCH!
I died countless times just trying to finish a single sentence, and I screamed as if wailing.
…How many hours, how many tens of hours passed like that?
-CRUNCH! CLAMP! CRACK!
I was digested, then resurrected.
I endlessly repeated being digested and resurrecting.
Once again, I recalled the moment when I had been killed over and over by the S-grade Hunters.
With blank eyes, I looked at the Wolf King’s viscera.
That black-red glow, that flesh that looked as if it would burst if it were cut even slightly.
To think I kept bursting and dying from acid and abdominal pressure because I could not even tear apart that one thing.
Was I not truly a bastard who could do nothing except ‘not die’?
“…You fucking son of a bitch….”
-SPLAT! CLAMP!
As my entire body shook and burst apart,
I closed my eyes in surrender.
And then.
[ Ding! ]
I opened my eyes at the notification chime that rang out between the sounds of flesh bursting.
[ Many deaths experienced in a short period of time! ]
[ Hidden Skill: Overcoming Death acquired! ]
“…Overcoming Death?”
As if responding to the words I muttered to myself, the notification window expanded and displayed an additional explanation of the Overcoming Death skill.
[ Ding! ]
────────────────
Skill: [ Hidden Skill: Overcoming Death ]
A body imbued with the ‘Curse of Immortality,’ having repeated death countless times, analyzes the cause of bodily damage with each death and recovers in an enhanced state upon resurrection.
Physical abilities increase when death is repeated over a short period of time.
If death occurs consecutively in the same manner, resistance to that attack increases.
────────────────
“!”
At that moment, I felt my eyes, which had been closed in surrender, snap open fiercely as I kicked off from where I was.