Gulp.
Sinhyeok swallowed hard without realizing it.
But the snake did nothing.
It looked at Sinhyeok for a moment, then closed its eyes again.
“Haaa….”
Seeing the snake ignore him, Sinhyeok felt relieved.
[For now, it does not appear to intend to eat you, Administrator.]
“I know.”
Even so, his movements were cautious.
“Akashic. That snake isn’t hostile or, like, insanely ferocious, right?”
Sinhyeok clung tightly to the central sphere of adamantium and moved carefully.
[There is no data regarding that. For now, as it is a snake, please act carefully so as not to irritate it.]
‘Is that supposed to be an answer?’
[It is the best answer available at present.]
“Damn it. Once I get out, you’re the first thing I’m overhauling.”
[Hahaha. I pray that you escape safely. Yes.]
It laughed as if he were ridiculous, then answered in an utterly off-putting way.
“You’re really annoying.”
[More importantly, the situation outside is serious.]
Sinhyeok put the small amount of orichalcum in his hand into his pocket and asked,
“What about Arin?”
[Through Hermes’s resourcefulness, she has forcibly entered a state of suspended animation for now.]
“Whew….”
[However, she appears to be, for all intents and purposes, dead.]
“…….”
Sinhyeok fell silent.
[Administrator, it is too late.]
Akashic delivered the painful truth to Bu Sinhyeok.
Clutching the orichalcum in his pocket tightly, he said,
“Not yet. Not yet.”
[It is more severe than Namgung Jincheon’s case. He at least still had life in him.]
“…….”
He could guess Akashic’s intention.
[Administrator.]
“I have no intention of going home with anyone dead. I’m taking everyone back alive and well. Find a way to revive her.”
Sinhyeok pointed to the orichalcum in his hand.
“Find a life-support device that uses orichalcum. Find something similar, at least, and then tell me.”
[Yes.]
[Searching for life-support devices that can be developed using orichalcum.]
Beyond the central sphere, Baek Arin flickered through Sinhyeok’s mind.
“No one is going to die.”
Ssk.
Suddenly, Jormungandr opened its eyes.
It stared at Sinhyeok without a word.
“…….”
At the sudden movement, Sinhyeok’s body went rigid.
‘Noi…sy….’
A psychic wave that dug into the soul rang out.
‘If you are not quiet, I will swallow you.’
Sinhyeok nodded and clamped his mouth shut.
Then Jormungandr slowly closed its eyes again.
‘Crazy…!’
‘I… can… hear… you.’
Startled, Sinhyeok flinched just as he was about to curse inwardly.
‘…….’
It seemed he couldn’t even make a racket in his own head.
‘I will overlook thoughts.’
Sinhyeok nodded awkwardly.
He had ended up sharing a space with that terrifying divine beast.
‘I’m screwed.’
For a long while, he watched the mood of the divine beast that filled the central sphere.
Only after briefly analyzing the situation did Sinhyeok move cautiously.
“First, let’s deal with this.”
He tapped the metal wall that made up the central sphere before his eyes.
Dooong.
Startled by the short ringing sound, Sinhyeok hurriedly turned around.
Sure enough, the divine beast Jormungandr had opened its eyes.
‘Noisy!’
“Sorry.”
Srrrk, Jormungandr closed its eyes again.
“Whew….”
Sinhyeok, who had jumped in surprise, focused on the wall again.
‘There’s only one way to solve this.’
Only pure physical impact could create a gap.
“I can’t break it with the Iron Body Technique.”
He had to use a tool.
The tool he had in mind was the uranium he had seen outside.
“Now that I’m inside…”
Unlike outside the central sphere, this place was quiet and vast.
There was nothing here except that divine beast, the snake.
‘Then how did all those countless fragments and refined minerals come out?’
Before entering, he had thought it would be filled with refined minerals.
But now that he was actually inside, it wasn’t.
‘Do you need it?’
Jormungandr opened its eyes and stared at Sinhyeok.
“Huh?”
‘I asked if you need it.’
At Jormungandr’s bewildering question, Sinhyeok nodded without thinking.
“Yeah.”
A familiar mineral popped out from Jormungandr’s scales.
‘Why would you need trash like this?’
The mineral it treated like trash was “uranium.”
With an incredulous expression, Sinhyeok answered,
“I was thinking of making some useful trash.”
Jormungandr, who had been expressionless, heard Sinhyeok’s words and gave a faint smile.
‘It’s laughing?’
As Jormungandr closed its eyes again, it said to Sinhyeok,
‘You… speak just like someone I know.’
Sinhyeok looked at the huge piece of uranium in his hand, then at the wall.
“I can break the wall.”
However, what he had originally considered a means to deal with the gods had become a new obstacle.
‘What now. Contrary to what you all think, I’m not the end.’
Reading Sinhyeok’s thoughts, Jormungandr spoke as if he were laughable.
‘I have no intention of leaving this place. So you should give up as well.’
It coiled its body and hid its face.
“Damn it….”
With a frustrated expression, Sinhyeok looked at Jormungandr, who had hidden its face.
It existed in stillness, without the slightest movement.
‘First, I’ll make something happen.’
Despite Jormungandr saying it had no intention of leaving, Sinhyeok decided to stir things up first.
Ssk.
He heard the sound of Jormungandr’s scales sliding.
Before he knew it, Jormungandr had pulled its face out and was glaring at Sinhyeok.
‘I told you. I have no intention of leaving yet….’
Under the gaze of a divine beast possessing an unfathomable divinity, Sinhyeok’s entire body stiffened.
‘Give up.’
Jormungandr coiled its whole body again.
Once the other’s gaze disappeared, Sinhyeok’s rigid body loosened.
“Haa.”
Sinhyeok had been driven completely into a corner.
In this situation, he was angry at that monster treating him like prey, but there was nothing he could do.
‘Still….’
When he glanced around and touched the uranium, its telepathy arrived with knife-like precision.
‘Hands off.’
Before he knew it, Jormungandr had raised its head and was glaring at him with a fierce gaze.
Sinhyeok raised both hands and dropped the uranium.
The fallen uranium floated into the air and drifted away.
‘Give up.’
Jormungandr mercilessly broke Sinhyeok’s will.
With his will forcibly crushed, Sinhyeok had no choice but to spend time blankly.
As an immeasurable amount of time passed like that—
[Administrator.]
Akashic spoke to him.
[I will share Miss Baek Arin’s condition.]
[Her remaining life energy has currently fallen to 15%.]
News of Arin, practically tragic, reached him.
“A method?”
[None has been found.]
[Her current condition is that of death. Only the authority of a highest-ranking god can restore one from death.]
In effect, Akashic was giving up.
“Keep searching…. Find something similar, anything.”
Sinhyeok realized this was no time to give up in a daze.
[I will continue searching for a method.]
Unable to give up like this, Sinhyeok sprang to his feet.
He threw himself at Jormungandr, who had pressured him by saying it was not time yet.
“It’s all or nothing.”
Landing on Jormungandr, Sinhyeok struck its scales with all his might.
Pap!
At the light, cotton-like punch, Jormungandr raised its head with an incredulous expression.
‘What do you think you are doing?’
Sinhyeok went berserk.
“What! What are you going to do about it!”
He decided to just go wild.
Jormungandr snorted and twisted its body.
“Keup!”
Sinhyeok was flung away and crashed into the wall.
‘Stay put.’
Kwaang!
After hitting the wall, Sinhyeok realized one thing from the fact that he still wasn’t dead.
‘It won’t kill me.’
He didn’t know the reason, but right now, that divine beast had no intention of killing him.
Then there was only one thing he could do.
Annoy it to death. It was one of his specialties.
“Haaaaat!”
Sinhyeok jumped with all his might and landed on its body again.
Then he shook it violently.
Pap!
A light sound rang out softly.
Jormungandr opened one eye slightly and released its presence.
“Ugh!”
Sinhyeok’s body stiffened as it was, and he fell backward.
‘If you go any further, I will kill you.’
After spending quite some time frozen, Sinhyeok rustled and got up.
“I’m. Not. Done. Yet, you bastard!”
Once again, Sinhyeok jumped and annoyed Jormungandr.
‘Haa.’
Jormungandr swung its tail and threw Sinhyeok far away.
“Kkeuak!”
‘I told you to stay still.’
Having been flung far away, Sinhyeok shouted at the top of his lungs.
“You damn coward!”
‘Ha?’
At the word coward, Jormungandr laughed as if it were absurd.
Then it loosened its body and slithered toward Sinhyeok.
‘I kept leaving you alone, and now you are getting insolent.’
Sinhyeok transmuted the small amount of orichalcum in his pocket and changed its form.
[Transmutation - Orichalcum Dagger]
Whooong.
When he infused it with a faint amount of mana, an extraordinarily brilliant mana blade burst forth.
Surprised by the unexpected amplification, Sinhyeok stared at it for a moment, then aimed it at the snake.
“So let’s get out!”
Without another word, Jormungandr opened its mouth and charged.
‘If you stay in my stomach, you will not be able to annoy me further.’
But Sinhyeok swung the mana blade like a madman.
The mana blade swept across the roof of Jormungandr’s mouth.
Kakakakakang!
Only a loud metallic clang rang out; it did not suffer any particular wound.
Jormungandr twisted its body upward and threw itself into the air to truly swallow Sinhyeok.
Positioned properly at Jormungandr’s maw, Sinhyeok slipped inside.
‘Stay quiet in there….’
After being swallowed, Sinhyeok plunged down into Jormungandr and swung his dagger in every direction.
Kakakakang!
Its interior, too, was no less solid than the scales outside.
Kakakakang!
However, Sinhyeok was astonished by the many minerals and metals filling the inside.
Soon regaining his senses, he swung his sword from within to get outside, but it was meaningless.
With an absurd expression, Sinhyeok entrusted his body to Jormungandr’s stomach.
Gurgle, gurgle.
After an unknown number of days, he was expelled through a different hole from the one by which he had been forcibly sent inside Jormungandr.
“Wow.”
Jormungandr sneered and warned him.
‘So stay quiet. Be careful, because next time I may chew you painfully.’
[I will share Miss Baek Arin’s condition.]
Akashic anxiously shared Baek Arin’s condition.
[The life force currently remaining in her body has fallen to 1%.]
Sinhyeok’s eyes went wild.
[Her suspended animation will soon end, and she will truly die.]
[Administrator. Please prepare yourself in advance.]
Akashic notified Sinhyeok of Baek Arin’s death.
“You eel bastard! Come at me!”
‘Haha. Hahaha. Hahahaha!’
Jormungandr chewed Sinhyeok with its teeth.
Undaunted, Sinhyeok drove the dagger into Jormungandr’s gums.
“Die! Just die!”
‘Thank you for the floss. Are you removing my tartar?’
“I said let’s get out!”
‘I refuse. Of course, you cannot leave this place either.’
Whoosh.
Jormungandr tossed Sinhyeok into the air and swallowed him again.
Gulp.
‘It should be quiet for a few days.’
Jormungandr twisted its body into coils again.
[Is it worth going that far?]
Jormungandr raised its head toward the hologram floating in the air.
‘Who is it?’
[An old friend, and that person’s child.]
‘Hmph, begone. Mimir….’
[Let him go.]
‘I refuse.’
[Jormungandr.]
Jormungandr revealed its savage pupils.
Sssssst.
The distinctive sound of a snake rang out.
‘This time, I will protect him. That is all. I have no intention of letting him go.’
Jormungandr coiled its body once more and ignored Akashic’s voice coming from somewhere.
[Jormungandr.]
But no answer came.
In the end, Akashic gave up and left.
‘I will never let him go again. Gah!!’
Jormungandr received a violent impact from inside its stomach.
“You! Transmutation works on you!? It hurts, doesn’t it!”
Sinhyeok’s voice rang out from within.
Jormungandr looked on the verge of tears and hurriedly spat him out.
‘Ptooey!’
Sinhyeok was expelled along with all kinds of debris.
“Haha! This is your flesh.”
Sinhyeok thrust out a piece of Jormungandr’s stomach.
“It melted pretty well with Dissolution.”
‘Damn it.’
Jormungandr was utterly flustered by Sinhyeok’s actions.
‘I saw wrong. You are not like that person.’
“I don’t know who you’re talking about. But I’ll tell you just one thing.”
With his body covered in blood, Sinhyeok raised the orichalcum dagger and aimed it at Jormungandr.
“Please, let’s just get out. Otherwise, you’re going to die too!”