* * *
No wonder we were tired.
Avoiding the main roads and weaving between buildings had taken longer than expected.
We’d also gotten lost at one point.
To think I did delivery work for years and still couldn’t find my way properly—honestly, pathetic.
“This route shouldn’t have taken this long.”
“We’re almost there.”
“Ha…”
I sighed, drained by the situation, and adjusted my hoodie before moving forward again.
Just like Soohyuk said, once we crossed the Jungnangcheon stream, this nightmare would finally be over.
From a glance, the other side of the stream looked like an entirely different world.
Not a single strand of a Yeti’s white fur in sight.
Actually, upon closer look, there weren’t any monsters at all.
That struck me as strange—but maybe it was an area monsters avoided.
Like, maybe there was some kind of energy they didn’t like.
I didn’t want to get my hopes up, but I couldn’t help it.
‘…Hm?’
Just before crossing the guardrail, a strong arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me back.
“What is it?”
I turned around to see Soohyuk staring seriously across the stream.
There was nothing there but leafless trees and ruins. I couldn’t understand what he was seeing.
Then he said something completely out of left field.
“They’ve set it up so we can’t cross.”
…What the hell did that mean?
The guardrail barely reached our waists, and Jungnangcheon looked more like a wide ditch compared to the Han River.
At a run, we could cross in under five minutes.
“Watch.”
As soon as Soohyuk reached forward, it became clear what he meant.
His palm hit something elastic, and a faint shimmer appeared where nothing had been visible before—a transparent barrier, stretching endlessly along the guardrail.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
A barrier? Now?
If there were a physical wall, fine.
But the path ahead had looked wide open—like we could just walk through.
I couldn’t believe it was sealed with an invisible wall.
After everything I’d been through… I wasn’t about to accept this reality easily, not after all that effort.
I looked up at the invisible wall, whose height I couldn’t even guess, and pressed against it with all my strength.
When that didn’t work, I even pulled out my S-Class dagger, trying to tear through it.
But the barrier just flexed elastically—completely useless.
Frustrated, I had to choke back the curse words rising in my throat.
“So, what, the dungeon ends here and everything beyond it is just background scenery?”
Soohyuk, who had been silently watching me, turned slowly to glance back the way we came.
Even he looked irritated despite trying not to show it.
“They probably only programmed the Yetis as monsters.”
“…”
So basically, they want us to die.
If that was true, clearing the dungeon was practically impossible.
Hell, even surviving the night would be a miracle.
I leaned my head back and let out a long breath.
A puff of white mist clouded my vision, like a grim forecast of what lay ahead.
The temperature was dropping fast as the sun dipped lower.
At least the snow had stopped.
That was… something.
“This is the worst…”
According to Soohyuk, we had about two hours until sunset.
What could we even do in that time?
Was there any place where we could hide from a Yeti’s senses?
The sheer hopelessness made me laugh under my breath.
Looking up at the sky and chuckling to myself—I probably looked completely insane.
“So this is a test of how long we can last, huh?”
Guess I’d reached my limit without realizing it.
The fact that this kind of thought crossed my mind said it all.
“Soohyuk, want to follow me?”
“You have a plan?”
Soohyuk looked at me strangely but was already stepping closer, carefully tightening my jacket.
Like that would help now. I pushed his hand away and instead grabbed his wrist, pulling him closer.
“At this point, I’m just thinking of doing something crazy.”
Really crazy.
‘Inside a convenience store within an apartment complex.’
We wasted a little time looking for a hidden spot, but it was worth it.
It couldn’t compare to the first convenience store we found, but the condition of this one wasn’t bad.
“Ah, damn… my hands.”
I’d hunkered down in a corner of the drink storage area, totally focused on what I was making.
My hands were freezing and barely moved, but I had no choice but to push through it with willpower.
Thunk!
A loud noise startled me, and my shoulders jumped.
I turned around to see Soohyuk squeezing through the narrow door, having just returned from stepping out.
Both his hands were full, so he’d kicked the stubborn door open.
He was holding two heavy cans of gasoline—exactly what I asked for.
What, was his inventory pouch just for show?
“Did a monster spot you?”
“I shook it off.”
Soohyuk replied calmly as he set the gas cans on the floor.
He looked completely unbothered, as if he’d just gone for a stroll around the block—not like someone who’d just escaped a Yeti.
Considering he had no powers, I couldn’t believe he’d managed to shake off a Yeti… but then again, we hadn’t actually run into one the whole way to Jungnangcheon.
There had been a few close calls, but Soohyuk always came up with clever ways to avoid danger.
Thanks to his uncanny ‘senses,’ we’d managed to steer clear of Yetis entirely.
So the fact that he hadn’t even had time to stash the gas cans into his inventory meant the situation must’ve been dire.
He insisted on going alone, and I had reluctantly agreed… but now I felt like I’d pushed him into danger.
Especially since he didn’t even ask why I needed the gas—he just went.
Now I felt guilty…
“So, what exactly are we doing with this?”
Apparently now curious, Soohyuk crouched beside me.
Watching me dump perfectly good beer down the trash probably did look weird.
But what I needed wasn’t the beer—it was the empty bottles.
After enduring the pain of frozen hands, I finally finished preparing the thirtieth bottle.
Still, it didn’t feel like enough for what I had in mind.
“We’re going to play with fire.”
I was planning to go all out with something I’d never even done as a kid.
The city had long since become a wasteland—and the only living things left were monsters.
“If that monster’s really that sensitive to heat, shouldn’t we live up to its expectations?”
I picked up a beer bottle and handed it over to Do Soohyuk.
“We need to make as many as we can before sunset. So, give me a hand, would you?”
We wrapped up about an hour later.
Only after the sky turned a deep shade of orange were we able to barely meet our target number.
Nearly fifty beer bottles were neatly lined up on the floor, each one stuffed with a white rag poking out at odd angles.
What we’d been making—meticulously, even dividing up the work—were Molotov cocktails.
“Shall we?”
I split the batch evenly and shoved them into my item pouch, then stepped out of the convenience store first.
We had to move quickly, before it got completely dark.
“How much are you planning to burn?”
“Well… everything in sight?”
It wouldn’t be called a crazy plan if it wasn’t actually insane.
Even if it meant using up all the Molotovs, we had to get the monster’s aggro—more than even the plane crash yesterday did.
I said it was insane, but truthfully, this was the only way we were going to survive.
Fsshh—
I scanned the area before stepping onto the main road.
Then, I lit the wick of a Molotov and tossed it at a nearby car as a test.
Crash!
When I doused it with leftover gasoline, the fire quickly spread to the four or five cars parked together.
Maybe because they were so tightly packed, the flames jumped faster than I expected.
“This is… pretty effective, actually.”
Do Soohyuk, who had been quietly observing the whole scene from the side, suddenly walked off the road toward a nearby building.
I wondered what he was doing—until smoke started billowing from the building shortly after.
‘He’s even more unhinged than I am…’
Given how dry the air was, it was probably only a matter of time before the whole building was swallowed by flames.
For some reason, seeing that made me feel strangely competitive.
That dormant sense of rivalry stirred inside me again.
That was the moment I took off running down the road, targeting buses and trucks—whatever was biggest.
I didn’t forget to splash gasoline on the vehicles next to them to help the fire spread.
Not long after, I felt the telltale signs of monsters beginning to swarm behind me.
But I ignored them and kept running.
As long as the fire blazed bright, their focus wouldn’t be on me.
‘Why didn’t I think of this sooner?’
It was a bit extreme, but stupidly simple—almost annoyingly so, considering everything we’d been through.
And it was the kind of batshit thing you could only do in a virtual world.
“Whew…”
“You sound like you’re enjoying this a little too much.”
While I was catching my breath behind a truck, Do Soohyuk suddenly appeared beside me.
I turned to look at him, wondering if he was already done—and sure enough, the entire building he’d set fire to was roaring with flames.
It was so intense, I could feel the heat from here despite the distance.
* * *
