“Next is the head. Where is the four-year-old girl you took?”
Even without his Reading Skill, forcing someone to open their mouth by inflicting pain was something he had done countless times.
“Ow, ow.”
Irina smiled more brightly than ever.
Pain? No. This was a thrilling pleasure that stimulated her nerves.
“You can’t read my thoughts? Ah, is it because this is an RP Dungeon?”
Under normal circumstances, he would have been able to use his Reading Skill to learn that Irina truly did not know the whereabouts of the girl named Gru.
But if he couldn’t read her, then the environment of the RP Dungeon must have restricted his skill.
Bang!
This time, the bullet pierced her side. Irina bent at the waist and smiled softly.
“So that’s the answer.”
The mana-infused bullet tore through her living flesh, bringing excruciating pain, but it didn’t matter.
Whenever Irina found traces of herself in her older brother, born only a year before her, she finally felt something akin to belonging in this world.
That feeling would come when her brother beat the welfare worker who had tried to lay hands on her until the man became a vegetable, or when he entered underground matches for the sake of his starving younger siblings and handed them bread stained with his opponent’s blood.
The gentle and kind Yevgeny could sometimes become merciless for the sake of his younger siblings.
Irina liked the emotionless face he wore when he unleashed his violent nature without restraint.
Just like now.
The fact that the family connected to her by blood resembled her was proof that she was not entirely different from ordinary people.
Under the pretext of protecting his family, his methods had grown ever more brutal, and Irina found that side of him lovable.
That was why, just as Siwon wanted to protect his family, Irina wanted to protect him as well.
In that hellish orphanage, she wished that he alone would be spared, no matter who else had to be sacrificed.
“Are you unable to shoot because you want to find that child, or because you still have lingering attachment to your only family?”
“Where is Gru?”
He spoke coldly, but Siwon’s brow had drawn together ever so slightly. It was proof that he still regarded Irina as family, at least to some degree.
By then, her body had completely regenerated. Straightening herself, Irina pressed her lower lip firmly with her index finger.
“I missed you, Zhenya. I missed you so much.”
Siwon clenched his teeth.
He no longer wanted to hear Irina’s voice. He wanted to cut out his own ears.
“What do you think? Can you really shoot this time?”
Pointing to her heart, his sister smiled like a flower.
At that sight, memories of the past—unchanged from the present—invaded him.
It was only years later that he learned his youngest sibling’s accident had been fabricated.
The youngest had been sold under the guise of an accident, and the trail had ended in a black market that trafficked children.
A poor country, a poor city.
There, selling children was profitable.
People all over the world needed children for various reasons.
Only after joining a government agency did Siwon learn of the countless facts surrounding the matter, and he fell into despair. The destinations awaiting the children who were sold were, in most cases, nothing but death.
It had all been carried out under the direction of the government and with the silence of countless adults.
And there was one more person who had taken part in it.
The person who had taken his youngest sibling by the hand and led them to the director. The person who testified that the whereabouts of the sibling who had been sold were merely the result of an unfortunate accident.
“I mean, the director said one more child was needed.”
Irina.
“We were family. They were our sibling!”
He barely managed to suppress the nausea rising in his throat.
“Don’t you wonder? Handsome, healthy, clever Zhenya. You were so perfect that anyone would have wanted you, so how did you manage not to be sold from the orphanage even after turning fifteen?”
Now I wonder too. How did I not know?
“I selected the children for the director. Children who were docile, the kind their owners would like. Children with a rebellious streak, the kind special customers would want. Children who were strong enough to be used for special purposes….”
Even then, Irina pressed her lower lip firmly with her index finger.
“The truth is, I was the one who protected you from that hell, Zhenya.”
So the responsibility for everything that happened lies with you, who knew nothing.
Irina seemed to be saying exactly that.
“If I hadn’t stepped forward to help the director, he would have sold you somewhere. I didn’t want that.”
“There had to be—there had to be another way!”
“What way? Back then, you didn’t have the strength to protect anyone. Are you saying that so easily because you have strength now? That’s just hypocrisy, pretending to feel good about yourself.”
“…….”
He desperately tried to think of another way. But every possibility was nothing more than a meaningless fragment of imagination.
Irina knew that.
His only remaining family whispered as though she knew him better than anyone.
“This is a terrible country. The children never stop crying, and all the adults simply look away.”
“…….”
“I know what you truly hate.”
“…….”
“Zhenya, I’ll make everything you hate disappear.”
In the end, Yevgeny Markov could not pull the trigger.
Without thinking, his gaze dropped toward his shoes.
“You think I can’t shoot?”
Strength gathered in the finger hooked around the trigger.
I can kill her.
Now, I can.
That was when—
“Barrett.”
Jin Siwon, who had slipped backward, called Barrett forth.
The spot where he had been standing was bombarded by attacks from the mannequins, and the solid ground caved in.
The moment the white serpent Barrett revealed itself, the countless mannequins trying to ambush Siwon from behind were sucked into the snake’s mouth.
“…….”
“…….”
Jin Siwon faced Serhi with an expressionless face.
The boy with dark-brown hair who had once played along with his family games now stood before him as an enemy.
But all the pain had been left behind at that train station.
With a hardened expression, Serhi held up the acorn.
“Did you come looking for the acorn?”
“Where is Gru?”
“She ran away.”
“Where to?”
“I don’t know. She jumped straight out of the train.”
“…….”
Jin Siwon studied Serhi intently, as though trying to determine whether he was telling the truth.
Serhi lowered his head slightly, avoiding his gaze.
Even though he knew Siwon no longer had his Reading Skill, he felt as though every thought hidden deep within him would be exposed.
Serhi curled his hand into a fist, tucking the acorn into his palm.
“It doesn’t matter whether you believe me or not.”
Before he could finish speaking, Siwon looked toward the canal with startled eyes.
The sound of countless footsteps rang out.
They weren’t mannequins.
Every guild member who had been fighting in the canal was being driven into the swamp.
The lower-ranked Hunters’ skin flushed red in the heavily polluted air. Yet even as they suffered, they did not stop pushing forward.
“Help, help me! Somebody! Ugh!”
“My body won’t move the way I want it to…!”
“No! Sowon! Stop! Please stop!”
It was utter chaos. The desperate screams calling out the names of comrades pressing ahead struck sharply against their ears.
The crowd, no longer able to control their own bodies, drew closer and closer to the pollution according to Irina’s intentions.
“Irina!”
Siwon roared.
“It’s gotten fun now, hasn’t it?”
Irina smiled like a flower, pressing her lower lip firmly.
Meanwhile, Serhi began moving toward the blood mass.
Siwon chased after him, first intending to stop Serhi.
For now, the dungeon攻略 took priority above all else. To accomplish that, he had to retrieve the acorn.
Bang! Bang!
Mana-infused bullets flew toward Serhi.
Serhi twisted his body, but one of them grazed his arm.
In the midst of it all, one of the countless mannequins evaded Barrett and seized Siwon by the ankle.
Bang!
The instant Jin Siwon destroyed the mannequin gripping his ankle—
Serhi threw the acorn away with his uninjured arm, as though he had no regrets.
Siwon turned his head in surprise. The acorn flew toward the blood mass.
Why?
If the “special purification acorn” touched the blood mass, the pollution would be purified.
Hadn’t Gnosis’s purpose been to interfere with the conquest of the RP Dungeon?
His hypothesis was swiftly revised.
Their goal wasn’t to interfere with the conquest. Then…
They were after the dungeon’s core.
A forced Dungeon Break that would occur if the core were taken outside the dungeon.