“If you’re ready, let’s go in.”
I didn’t realize entering a dungeon would be this exhausting.
At this rate, the sun would set before we even entered, so I finally took the lead.
“Seo Inho.”
“Hyung!”
Leaving the three behind, I stepped into the gate without hesitation, and an familiar sensation of nausea was accompanied by my vision turning white.
Soon after, damp humidity settled on my skin, and before I could realize it, both my arms were seized and pulled.
The grip was quite rough and urgent, as if they were afraid I might move carelessly.
But I couldn’t take my eyes off the scene unfolding before me.
I had seen this scene in the movie, but experiencing it firsthand felt completely different.
‘Is this what the Amazon feels like?’
Dense greenery surrounded everything, and sticky humidity clung to my whole body.
Because of the giant, densely packed trees, the lush jungle forest was dark even in the middle of the day.
The snakes wrapped around the trees had a bizarre appearance I had never seen before.
They didn’t seem to be monsters but indigenous creatures unique to this place.
The most noticeable thing was the tall building located in the middle of the jungle.
In a wide clearing with no trees, a structure resembling the Leaning Tower of Pisa stood tall.
That area alone was lit, creating a completely different atmosphere.
The height was truly immense, difficult to take in with a single glance.
No matter how advanced the construction technology, the height and structure were something that could never be attempted in the real world.
However, that ancient tower, barely maintaining its shape, was essentially just an illusion.
To use an analogy, it was like an empty wrapping paper.
“A tower? I can’t see the top.”
I tried to hide my expression and lifted my head.
Only then, perhaps having judged it safe, did Cha Rui and Woo Jaehyun, who were clinging to my sides, release their grip.
They looked like they knew it wouldn’t be easy from the start.
We had just entered the dungeon, but I had already broken two of the three conditions.
Shing.
At that moment, Do Soohyuk stepped forward and quietly drew his weapon.
Then, with clean, precise movements, he began clearing the surroundings.
With just a few hand gestures, the place where the grass was wildly tangled instantly became a path.
“No monster activity has been confirmed in the area. We tried to explore the forest, but it’s blocked on all sides by a barrier.”
“A barrier?”
That meant they had already explored the entrance of the dungeon to some extent during a preliminary survey.
This was a fact I hadn’t known at all because the movie went straight to the tower.
Blocked by a barrier.
It seemed a transparent membrane surrounded the area, much like in the previous EX Dungeon.
Looking at it, it seemed like the jungle stretched endlessly, but it was just the background.
“Then the only place to go is over there.”
When I pointed to the towering building, the gazes of the three men turned to it sequentially.
It was the location for the final episode and the finale of the movie.
Rustle.
We cautiously pushed through the forest, following Do Soohyuk, who took the lead.
He volunteered to cut down the bothersome obstacles, while Woo Jaehyun and Cha Rui stuck close to me, acting as escorts both in front and behind.
After walking only a few steps, the majestic tower came into view.
The sight was so overwhelming that its figure, piercing through the clouds, felt unreal.
Moss and other traces of time were plainly visible, as if it had been neglected for thousands of years.
“It looks like something out of a game.”
The stone tower, something you might see in the Middle Ages, had its door tightly shut.
However, it was only roughly blocked by half-rotten wooden boards, and no proper locking mechanism could be found.
For a dangerous place, the security was quite lax.
‘Hmm.’
I glanced at Woo Jaehyun, who was standing idly beside me.
If my memory was correct, the guy who couldn’t contain his curiosity should be impulsively stepping forward now.
Sure enough, as if he had been waiting, Woo Jaehyun immediately tore off the board and boldly pushed the door open.
With that half-hearted gesture, the wooden door yielded without resistance with a screech.
Cha Rui and Do Soohyuk immediately frowned at the sight, but the guy paid them no mind.
He walked inside with an indifferent expression and then let out a hollow laugh in disbelief.
“There’s nothing here.”
As he said, the interior of the tower, where not a single ray of light entered, was empty.
No matter where you looked, only broken debris was scattered around; no stairs or entrances to climb the tower were visible.
This was why I had said that all of this was merely an illusion.
The SS-rank Dungeon we were going to conquer was structured to clear this ancient tower floor by floor.
It sounded simple, but there were a staggering 71 floors.
Naturally, this would take time, and even in the movie, they barely managed to clear it after nearly three weeks.
To put it simply, floors 1 through 10 were F-rank difficulty, floors 11 through 20 were E-rank difficulty, and so on.
The grade would increase every 10 floors.
It was a simple structure, like a typical dungeon: when you defeat the normal monsters, a boss monster appears, and the moment you kill it, you move to the next floor.
Therefore, reaching the A-rank 60th floor was actually not difficult.
For us, the real game began from the 61st floor, but because of the large number of floors, the consumption of stamina was significant.
The size of the dungeon on each floor was considerable, so they had to manage their stamina well to endure the final 71st floor.
There was no need to say more when even the S-rank members were exhausted at the end.
So, this area was not the tower’s actual structure, but rather a waiting room.
In a word, it was like a concept of the 0th floor.
To enter the 1st floor, some kind of operation was required, which took a surprisingly long time.
The operation itself was not difficult, but the problem was simply finding the method.
In the original work, the S-rank trio wasted over an hour finding this mechanism.
When you look at them like this, they had a surprisingly clumsy side.
“Right, there really is nothing.”
I pretended to look around and glanced up at the ceiling.
To be precise, I looked at an area slightly to the right of the center.
Among the numerous protruding bricks, one brick with a uniquely straight shape caught my eye.
At a glance, it was no different from an ordinary brick, but it maintained a perfect form compared to the others, which were cracked and damaged.
This was the hidden key that would open the entrance to the 1st floor.
“…”
I wanted to reach out right away, but that was one of the things I absolutely shouldn’t do.
That’s why Chirpy and I had practiced several times.
Instead, what I chose to do was stick right next to Cha Rui.
I tapped the wall meaninglessly and pressed close to his arm, causing Cha Rui to look down at me in an awkward posture.
He seemed quite flustered by my sudden action.
There was a specific reason for me to focus on him like this.
If left alone, Cha Rui, unable to find a solution, would eventually reach the point of smashing the tower.
I could still clearly picture him tearing apart the walls indiscriminately, wondering if something was hidden inside.
The already precarious tower couldn’t withstand the force and ended up collapsing completely.
And then, it would reset.
The three people would instantly be moved outside the tower, and the collapsed tower would stand perfectly intact again, as if nothing had happened.
It seemed that something in Cha Rui snapped at this part.
As a result, half of the hour spent was filled with the rampage of the guy whose patience had run out.
To prevent that from happening, I needed to calm him down by staying next to him.
“You told me to stick close to someone.”
“…”
Fortunately, since his intense demeanor had subsided, it seemed my strategy had worked.
I could feel a sharp gaze fixed on the back of my head, but I deliberately ignored it and subtly held onto Cha Rui’s forearm.
My intention was merely to stop his rampage, but it somehow turned into me clinging to him.
Perhaps because I was so closely attached to him—to the point of being a burden—his ears grew progressively redder.
‘This is a bit embarrassing…’
It was during this unintentionally awkward atmosphere that Chirpy darted out of my sleeve, making me turn my head.
The little bird, having understood the signal, had finally started moving.
“Chirpy, don’t go far.”
I spoke to Chirpy as he flew up, my voice as casual as possible.
My tone was one of gently warning him, as if he was merely trying to sightsee.
“Oh, Chirpy, what are you touching?”
And so, our act began.
I rebuked Chirpy for touching various things and intentionally raised my eyebrows, pretending to scold him.
But commendably, Chirpy didn’t even pretend to listen, busy checking various spots on the ceiling.
As I had instructed him many times, he was inspecting the bricks one by one, looking for a perfectly straight and undamaged shape.
It could have been confusing, but he seemed to have his own criteria: if he thought it was wrong, he moved on to the next one without hesitation.
And finally, Chirpy, who found the hidden mechanism, pushed the brick with all his might.
Ku-gu-gu-wooong—!
The ground vibrated, and the giant pillar in the center rotated, starting to reveal a staircase.
The sight of it rising up from the bottom felt like watching a dragon ascending to the heavens.
