Chapter 42

A small click sounded, and the surroundings grew bright. I could see Retake standing on the opposite side, beside a small switch set into the wall.

[System] The white, mysterious life-form has been exposed to a bright space, causing its sense of self to blur!

The system log appeared at the same moment the attack reached me. Since it was a piercing attack, the damage had been strong enough to make me gasp before, but now it was on a completely different level of weakness. Excited by the possibility, I attacked the long-tailed tit. Its health, which had been wearing down at a snail’s pace, dropped noticeably, and the amount of damage going into the monster had doubled as well.

[Party] Retake: Ah

Retake also gave the long-tailed tit a few experimental taps before letting out that one character like a sigh. I took my hands off the keyboard for a moment and pressed the space between my brows a couple of times. Relief that we didn’t have to waste nine minutes doing something pointless made all the tension drain right out of me.

[Party] Honeybun: hurry and burn it

[Party] Honeybun: i wanna stop killing adds

After my chat went up, he began hitting the long-tailed tit, whose glow had faded enough to reveal its soft feathers. The add’s health melted away as quickly as snow. It felt incredibly satisfying.

The long-tailed tit, which had been desperately pecking at me, puffed up its body. Then, no matter how much we hit it, its health would not drop below 1%.

Its body, swelling at a steady pace like air being pumped into a tube, soon grew large enough to crush us and threaten to burst through the ceiling. The long-tailed tit, huffing as it drew in breath, made a “peep!” sound as though it had resolved itself to something. At that instant, its body, which had been floating in midair, dropped heavily to the floor. I instinctively used an evasive skill and retreated backward.

[System] The white, mysterious life-form has swollen its body to an enormous size and is asserting its sense of self!

The system log appeared, and the long-tailed tit, which now felt as large as a house, flapped its wings broadly. If it grew that big, then sure, it could probably assert its sense of self or whatever.

The monster lowered the wings it had been flapping. Was this an attack pattern? I stayed on guard, ready to use Shield Block if necessary, but the enormous ball of fluff in front of me did not attack. Instead, it curled itself up as tightly as it could, truly becoming a ball of fluff, wobbled back and forth, then rolled away at high speed—not toward me, but in the opposite direction.

Thanks to that, the small room shook as though there were an earthquake, and the wall that suddenly found itself face-to-face with the long-tailed tit collapsed in vain, opening a path.

Beyond the narrow, winding path—or cave?—that had been forcibly bored open by that huge body rolling through, I could see a dazzling, spacious, pure-white space like a banquet hall. And the long-tailed tit, having reached that place, raised itself up and glanced anxiously at the hole, as if wondering whether we would follow or not.

So the add phase was over, and now it was the named phase, huh. Rather than fighting several trash mobs whose attack patterns were all more or less the same, I preferred beating the crap out of a single named boss assembled with gimmicks designed to screw us over perfectly. Wondering what new gimmick would be waiting for us, I stepped into the cave.

The lounge where the long-tailed tit was felt luxurious, yet for some reason it called to mind a temple with a solemn air. The long-tailed tit standing at the front of that space had an intimidating presence that anyone would identify as the second named boss. Still, because it looked like a plump, fluffy bird, it was also somehow cute.

Having been hit a few times in the add section, I had grown familiar with its patterns. Even if the add had been promoted to a boss, it was the same monster, so its attack patterns probably would not change too drastically. Vaguely thinking that we should be able to clear it without much trouble this time as well, I waited for Retake to rebuff.

However, the variable came from somewhere else. The long-tailed tit, which had been waiting for us to attack first, turned around.

There were occasionally dungeon bosses that struck first even if the players did not initiate, but I had never heard or seen of one turning around like that. At least, not in Dusk. If it were moving because of something related to the story, a cutscene would have played…….

As I watched silently in confusion, the long-tailed tit suddenly began hopping up and down as if delighted. Soon after, its body, which had been inflated full of air, rapidly shrank, and it started flying around in a frenzy. The whooshing sound of air leaking out also repeatedly grew farther and closer depending on the long-tailed tit’s position.

The long-tailed tit, which had been whipping through the lounge like a balloon with its opening untied, slowed down in proportion to its shrinking body. The white ball of fluff, now beginning to look like an ordinary bird, flew to the very center of the lounge. Then, as if there were an invisible branch there, it gently landed in midair and chirped happily.

Was that not the second named? Thinking that, I moved toward the center of the lounge.

[- Abrea: “In front of you, be careful!”]

Just when I thought I might draw aggro as I gradually approached the long-tailed tit, Abrea, who had been following behind, shouted, and at the same time, my character froze and would not move. Even when I frantically pressed the WASD keys, it would not budge.

In the meantime, the long-tailed tit fluttered away, and the quiet background music slowly changed into a song with an intro I had never heard before. At the same time, something transparent that had been invisible to our eyes slowly began to reveal itself.

The thing the bird had been sitting on was a finger as white as the bird itself. Starting with the long finger, then the soft-looking back of the hand, and along the slender wrist with its prominent bones, a rather gaunt arm appeared, giving off a hologram-like glow. And so, that transparent something fully revealed itself.

Its long white hair, parted exactly down the middle, did not show even a single stray strand. Its shimmering skin was white, and so were the eyelashes lying thickly over its closed eyes. The wings draped behind its back like silk also shone with a transparent light like diamonds.

Everything about it was so white that it did not seem human. It even had a faint halo glowing behind it, and though its clothing consisted of a shabby-looking stola-style dress and robe, there was an undeniable holiness to it.

The background music was serious, too. After a calm yet by no means frail opening, an orchestral melody flowed out, filled in by a Gregorian chant-style countermelody. It carried the dreamlike, majestic atmosphere unique to a game OST.

Even the unintelligible lyrics were perfect. However, the fairly audible noise that could be heard here and there gradually began to grate on my nerves.

Could this be the final named boss? Sometimes a dungeon ended at the second named instead of having three or four named bosses, and considering it even had a main theme song, that was probably the case.

It looks fucking strong……. More importantly, how were we supposed to go from beating up a crude golem in the first named to suddenly having this holy-looking thing show up? As I grumbled inwardly at how completely out of nowhere this felt, a speech bubble appeared above the white thing’s head.

However, there were no letters or symbols written in the speech bubble. It was simply blank. Judging by the way the character’s mouth was moving, it was definitely speaking, but there were no words in the speech bubble, and no voice could be heard. What was this?

[Party] Retake: Bun-nim

[Party] Retake: check the chat log

Retake, who had been quiet until now, urged me through party chat to check the chat log. As he said, I shifted my gaze to the general chat tab where all chat logs appeared, and found myself extremely puzzled.

　　　 : 　　 

Whether it was an error or something else, the most recent log aside from Retake’s chat was recorded as blank like that.

[Party] Honeybun: huh?

[Party] Honeybun: bug?

[Party] Retake: no text shows up in the speech bubble or chat, and even when I check the minimap to see whether it’s a mob or an NPC, it doesn’t show at all

[Party] Retake: and even if I click it, no name appears

After seeing Retake’s chat, I looked at the minimap. If something was there, whether a mob or an NPC, it should naturally have been marked, but the pale thing in front of us did not exist on the minimap. In other words, there was no circle marker.

The same went for the absence of a name above its head. Unless the name display had been turned off separately in the settings, players, monsters, NPCs, and items all had names appear, but nothing appeared for that thing.

That did not mean it truly did not exist. When I moved the mouse over it and clicked, it was selected as my focus target, and a health gauge appeared at the top of the screen. However, the part where its name should have been written was still blank. If this was not an error, it had to be some ingenious meddling by the development team.

Has the dev team been watching horror movies lately? Why would they make something this creepy?

[Party] Honeybun: it’s probly a bug, right?

Feeling for no reason as if the hair on the back of my head were standing on end, I spoke to Retake. Retake was silent for a while, as though seriously analyzing the situation, then rapidly filled the chat window.

[Party] Retake: I thought it might be a bug too, but...

[Party] Retake: Honestly, Dusk almost never releases content while it still has bugs, right? And this isn’t some dungeon that came out in a rush.

[Party] Retake: When we could hear the opposing race’s voice properly in the earlier cutscene, I could’ve thought, okay, they made one mistake for the first time in a while... But would they really have released a dungeon so hastily that they let two bugs like this slip into the same dungeon?

[Party] Retake: I don’t think so, so rather than a bug or an error, I think this might be an intentional effect.

Just as I was reading intently, I saw something move at the edge of my vision and took my eyes off the chat window.

The thing, which had been standing still with its head bowed and eyes closed as if asleep, had at some point opened its eyes and was looking toward us. Its right eye had a blazing yellow pupil that brought the sun to mind, while its left eye had the black sclera and pale blue pupil characteristic of the Bia race. It occurred to me that perhaps they were meant to represent the sun and the moon.

That thing raised its arm with an elegant yet by no means slow motion and crooked a finger.

At that moment, an enormous needle glowing white formed above Retake’s head.