The conference room again.
Amid the murmuring, Bae Hyeong-seok rose from his seat, and even that small disturbance fell silent.
“It has been confirmed that the monster appearing on the 25th floor is the Incomplete Golem, the monster previously reported by Hunter Lee Cheol-heon of the Typhon Guild.”
“Mm. No doubt about it.”
“The Lotus Guild confirmed the same thing.”
Lee Cheol-heon and Lee Chae-rin spoke one after another.
“…Therefore, the Immortal Golem will, for now, remain in unknown territory….”
-CRASH—!
The one who slammed the table at Bae Hyeong-seok’s words was Oh Yuk-il.
“…That makes it sound like I lied.”
There was none of his usual sneering.
His eyes and expression were deadly serious.
“…Listen until the end. I’m not saying I don’t believe you, am I?”
“It’s weird, fuck! Why did that fucking monster only appear when I went up…?!”
“It is exhausting to listen to you whine.”
Lee Cheol-heon smiled, shook his head, and spoke.
“The advance party made up of S-grade Hunters and A-grade Hunters subjugated the Incomplete Golem with ease. Is that not enough to satisfy you?”
Of course, the sentence itself was clean, but beneath those words was a sneer implying, ‘a floor you failed to clear.’
“…You son of a bitch…!”
Oh Yuk-il ground his teeth and glared at Lee Cheol-heon.
“…Be careful your throat doesn’t get slit in the next battle.”
But perhaps because of Bae Hyeong-seok’s repeated warnings, he stopped after throwing back a suitable retort.
Bae Hyeong-seok nodded at that sight and continued.
“Thank you for understanding, Oh Yuk-il.”
“Fuck off.”
Oh Yuk-il propped his chin on his hand and gave a careless reply.
“…In any case, as originally planned, the advance party has now finished exploring up to the mid-to-upper floors.”
The part the advance parties from Typhon, Lotus, and several other guilds had finished exploring was the climb up to the 60th floor, the range covered by the Typhon Guild’s information.
And the remaining floors were….
“Now it is our turn.”
The SS-grade Hunters.
“We will proceed by having everyone join forces and climb all the way to the end of the floors.”
After speaking, Bae Hyeong-seok looked around at the people in the conference room.
“Any questions?”
“Plenty.”
The one who answered was Lee Chae-rin.
“First, let’s say we subjugate the tower all the way to the end.”
“Mm.”
“And then let’s say we catch Yoo Da-huin.”
“Mm.”
“What are we going to do then?”
“Mm?”
Bae Hyeong-seok looked at Lee Chae-rin as if he did not understand and asked back.
“What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said.”
With a thud, Lee Chae-rin put her feet up on the table and continued.
“Among the SS-grade Hunters gathered here, is there really anyone who came for purely, I mean… how should I put it… justice? That kind of crap?”
Pretending she could not think of the word,
Lee Chae-rin deliberately twisted her tone and blurred the end of the sentence.
“Anyway, what I’m saying is, nobody here gathered for that kind of reason. Hell, even that old man over there is moving for an extremely personal reason called ‘revenge.’”
The one Lee Chae-rin pointed at was Lee Cheol-heon.
As he had announced from the start, he was chasing Yoo Da-huin to avenge the three S-grade Hunters from his guild whom Yoo Da-huin had killed.
“Then the rest of us honestly don’t have any motive. Feels like we’ve done more than enough by coming this far….”
Lee Chae-rin glanced at Bae Hyeong-seok.
“You must have something in mind, right? Whether it’s money or whatever.”
“Hmm.”
Bae Hyeong-seok stroked his chin and thought for a moment.
“First, I am presiding over this meeting and project at the Association’s designation. I do not have any particular personal reason.”
Bae Hyeong-seok spoke while extending one finger, then extended a second finger.
“Second, the four primordial curses. One of them has appeared in our South Korea, and there is no telling what effect it may have. I believe securing it is important.”
Then he extended a third finger.
“And third.”
He spoke with a serious expression.
“As you said, we are Hunters. This is a profession, and if there is no profit in it, there is no need to move.”
Then he finished extending his fingers.
The fingers held out were not four, which should have been next, but five.
“5 billion won.”
“…5 billion won?”
“Yes.”
Bae Hyeong-seok crossed his arms and nodded.
“It is the bounty placed on ‘Yoo Da-huin,’ the bearer of the Curse of Immortality.”
At the figure of 5 billion won, murmurs rose even among the highest-grade Hunters.
“…Are you sure?”
“Yes. As long as you secure him in any form and bring him to the Hunter Association, 5 billion won. Those are the promised terms.”
“Fuck, why are you only telling us that now?”
Lee Chae-rin spat out a curse.
“The negotiations took a long time. I am telling you today as soon as it was decided, so I ask for your understanding.”
Bae Hyeong-seok answered calmly.
Then he placed his palm on the table.
“So listen, every SS-grade Hunter here.”
He spoke quietly to everyone.
“From this moment on, climb the tower with all your strength, force him out of the tower, capture him, and hand him over to the Hunter Association.”
Yoo Da-huin.
“Whether you cooperate or act independently does not matter.”
The bearer of the Curse of Immortality.
“He does not die anyway, so you may butcher him or crush him. It does not matter. He will resurrect.”
Upon his once-ordinary life.
“…Therefore, I now declare this.”
A massive wave had already been crashing down.
“Everyone. In other words, every SS-grade Hunter here who wishes to participate will pack your belongings starting today and climb Namyangju Tower No. 2 together.”
But an even greater wave.
“…And seize the 5 billion won.”
Came rushing in to strike and tear apart his cheeks and entire body, his organs and bones, his nerves and bundles of muscle.
***
To start with the conclusion, I was fucked.
The bastard’s digestive organs were conceptually different from the Giant Wolf King’s, and they were more like a kind of blood vessel.
Very narrow, and hard.
I couldn’t even try anything.
Because, well, it was a blood vessel.
How did I know?
I didn’t particularly want to know either.
-Crunch, crunch….
After entering Sylvatera’s mouth, I was digested and passed through its roots into the bastard’s massive tree trunk.
Up to that point, that was fine.
I had thought I could keep dying in there, raise my stats, and tear my way out from the inside just like I had done to the Giant Wolf King.
-Crunch, crunch….
But that was my enormous mistake.
The moment I entered the root, I was broken down into tiny pieces and torn apart almost at the cellular level, and without recovering into my original body, I was unable to return from death.
In other words.
Death, restoration, resurrection.
This was the mechanism of infinite resurrection caused by my Curse of Immortality, but among those three stages, I had failed at restoration, leaving me stuck in death over and over.
[ DING! ]
[ Death count has reached an extreme within a set time. Stats rise greatly! ]
So what good was it if my stats kept rising like this?
I had no nerves to transmit commands, no bones to hold my center, and no muscles to release power.
-Crunch, crunch….
So the next thing I thought of was ‘Blood Absorption.’
Since I must have died more than enough, my blood must have been wrung out as much as it could be.
Wouldn’t it have been absorbed throughout the bastard, from its roots to its body?
Then, like that Golem I met on the 25th floor, couldn’t I draw blood directly from its body and use it like a weapon, or raise my biological capabilities and restore my body?
But that, too, was an absurd thought.
-Crunch, crunch….
My blood had already been completely absorbed by the bastard and was being supplied to it as other nutrients.
How did I know that?
[ DING! ]
[ Death Detection is activating. ]
[ Sylvatera’s stats are gradually rising with the user’s blood! ]
Because Death Detection was diligently explaining it to me.
So I.
Became an entity barely capable of thought alone, and kept, kept.
Repeating death countless times.
…Just how much time had passed?
It was the greatest helplessness I had felt since being swept up in the Curse of Immortality.
I was simply melting, disappearing, and being crushed slowly in the bastard’s xylem and phloem.
…And then.
[ DING! ]
[ Overcoming Death is activating! ]
[ User’s stats rise! ]
That sound had already rung dozens of times.
I was listening to it now without feeling much of anything, when.
-Crrk, craack… crack…!
The bastard’s body creaked with a rhythm different from before.
No.
What was creaking this time was not the sound of the bastard digesting me.
“…Huh?”
My voice came out.
I could feel the bastard’s bark touching my fingertips.
My thoughts were moving smoothly.
My eyes were still in darkness, but my vision had recovered.
-Thump, thump!
A heart.
Was beating.
Inside the bastard’s womb.
My body.
Had taken shape.
“…Status Window?”
I opened my mouth and called up the Status Window.
-DING!
────────────────
Name: Yoo Da-huin
Job: ??? (Curse of Immortality)
Level: 1 (Unable to level up)
────────────────
Vitality: ∞
Strength : 8 ( + 3200 )
Stamina : 5 ( + 5820 )
Agility : 6 ( + 1100 )
Magic Power : 0
────────────────
Trait: 『Curse of Immortality』 (Detailed information available)
Skills:
[ Pain Numbness LV.5 (MAX) ]
[ Enhanced Regeneration Speed LV.5(MAX) ]
[ Death Detection LV.5 (MAX) ]
[ Blood Absorption LV.1 ]
[ Hidden Skill: Intimidation ]
[ Hidden Skill: Overcoming Death ]
────────────────
Death Count: 49,102 times
────────────────
“Holy fuck.”
Impossible stats, an impossible Death Count.
-Creak, snap…!
One theory came to mind then.
That famous movie.
A hero whose power was shrinking and growing giant
could just enter the body of a powerful purple main villain, grow bigger, and burst the bastard apart, right?
But that hypothesis was impossible.
Because the main villain’s durability was terrifying,
the hero’s body growing larger inside the villain would instead burst apart in reverse.
But that was right.
My stats had kept rising and rising until, at last, I had become a human with enough durability to take shape inside the paper-thin vascular bundles of that thick, enormous tree.
…Then?
-Creeeak, crackle…!
I slowly spread both arms left and right, and I felt the space gradually expand.
Even if someone struck it with fists, even if someone chopped it with an ax for days upon days, for months, even if someone brought a chainsaw and ground it away.
The thick body of the tree had looked as if it would not take even a scratch.
-Crack, craaaaaack…!!
I was slowly prying that enormous body apart from the inside with both arms and breaking it open.
-…RUMBLEEEEEEEEEEEEE…!
Instead of Sylvatera’s scream, a massive tremor began to reverberate through the entire forest, and I, inside it, received that tremor more directly than anyone.
But why should I give a fuck?
You chewed me up and swallowed me over and over.
This time, it’s my turn.
-Creak, creak, craaaack….
“…Kh, ghk…!”
I expanded the muscles of my entire body, then raised my arms into the space that had formed and set my hands against it.
-GRAB, THUD.
“Ugh, aah… ah…!”
Then I began pushing the inside apart to both sides with all the strength in both hands.
-Creeeak, crack, CRACK—!
Sylvatera’s enormous body slowly began to spread open.
The being called me had gone inside, been digested into tiny pieces down to the cellular level, and in the end had restored his body, and was now splitting that enormous tree in half.
“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
-Crunch, craaaaaaaaaack…!!
If this was not the Curse of Immortality, then what was?
-…CRACK!
In the end, Sylvatera’s enormous trunk was split wide in two from the center.
“Kha, haa, haa, haa!”
-THUD.
Having exhausted almost all my strength despite my high stats, I collapsed face-down on the floor at its center and caught my breath.
-Pat, pat-pat-pat….
The forest lost its color in an instant.
-Thud, thud-thud-thud….
Sylvatera slowly lowered its enormous body.
“…Haa, I won….”
And announcing that victory.
[ DING! ]
The notification window….
[ The top floor of Namyangju Tower No. 2 has been cleared! ]
“…What?”
[ All users will be moved outside the tower! ]
An absurd, ridiculous, and far too sudden notification window greeted me.