The final ink painting.
The dokkaebi faced countless rakshasa.
And slowly began to be swallowed.
Into a massive mountain whose weight and size could not be measured.
---
[A certain human's memory has ended!]
[You have cleared Floor 17 of the Myth Tower!]
[Floor 18 of the Myth Tower entry condition: Death of the Rakshasa Queen]
---
The ink that had slashed across every direction vanished.
Floor 17 returned to a blank white canvas.
Heavy silence flowed.
The early and middle parts of the painting had been bright, warm, and happy.
But the mood shifted from the middle onward.
It clearly felt like an absurdly tragic bad ending.
Jinhyeok and Kanmo duo — sweating cold, eyeing each other.
Even the stoic Dark and Seira were silent for once.
The only one perfectly fine, as if nothing was wrong, was Renya.
"Hm?"
Had he finally noticed the strange silence?
Renya stared at Jinhyeok and opened his mouth.
"What is it?"
"I was wondering when I should speak."
"Why?"
"Because I feel like I peeked into a sad memory without permission."
"Why is it a sad memory? Because I was sealed at the end?"
"Well... when the kids weren't in the cave."
It felt like it might have been the trigger that lit the fuse on an already bitter grudge.
That was why Renya had charged in recklessly.
"What are you imagining? They just went back to the village. They lived out their natural lives and died."
"Eh?"
"Ah?"
Gasps burst out from all around for a moment.
"This painter!! Drawing pictures that confuse people!"
"You're a yodel?"
"You want your pointy ears torn off!"
"Sorry."
Jinhyeok let out a sigh of relief.
"Renya. Then why did you go after the rakshasa?"
Renya back then was far stronger than he was now.
With such a clear power gap, losing and getting sealed made no sense.
After thinking for a moment, Renya opened his mouth.
"I made a dokkaebi pact. They were dokkaebi before becoming rakshasa too. The pact was that as long as I stayed inside the mountain, they wouldn't touch that area."
"Hwoop!!"
Kancho and Jinhyeok covered their mouths.
To willingly get sealed to protect the children.
What a romantic dokkaebi.
"Romance pass! So cool!"
"For real."
"Totally!"
Jinhyeok and Kancho clapped like seals.
Momo, who didn't understand but clapped along anyway.
Then a question suddenly crossed his mind.
"Then why didn't you come out even after hundreds of years? The kids were humans, so that was enough time for them to live out their lives."
Renya crossed his arms and stared straight ahead.
Why was it?
It felt like cold sweat was trickling down Renya's side.
Jinhyeok snapped his fingers.
"You lost your horn, didn't you?"
It must have hit a nerve, because Renya squeezed his eyes shut.
"I hid my horn to reassure those rakshasa bastards. I planned to retrieve it when the time came and break the seal."
But the mountain of the seal had been ripped away along with Kalik's castle and entered the Myth Tower.
Not just distance — the dimensions themselves had been split apart.
For Renya, it was a bolt from the blue.
'So it wasn't that he didn't come out — he couldn't.'
Jinhyeok nodded slowly and kept his mouth shut.
Let's stop tormenting Renya.
"Kihk!"
Of course, Dark didn't seem to have any intention of doing that.
"Are you laughing at me?"
Just as the familiar pattern was about to unfold again —
[You are leaving Floor 17 of the Myth Tower!]
—
He quickly exited the tower.
Either way, the kids lived well and Renya was freed — happy ending.
"Kuuuuh."
Stretching, he looked around.
The beautiful night view of Seoul visible far below.
No matter when you came here, it was a good place.
'Ranjet's wooden horse is running hard.'
He checked the Yodel Compass.
Seemed like it had mounted a vehicle.
The speed was faster than before.
Crack, crack.
He loosened his neck a couple of times and looked back.
"Let's go home."
His body felt worn out from all the running around.
Time to get some sleep.
"We're running again?!"
"No. Let's take a taxi. Elia. When can you make another frog? I want one at home too. And if there's room in the budget, I'd like one there too."
"This friend has a lot of functions, so it takes time, you know? More than anything, material supply is the problem. But!"
Elia spun around once and smiled.
"I'm a great alchemist who has lived over 3,000 years, I'll have you know. I've thought of a better method."
"Oh?"
"To execute it — "
Elia dropped to her knees in front of Momo.
"I need black dragon organs! Great Momo-sensei!"
Elia shot a look as if telling him to help too.
Jinhyeok knelt beside her and bowed his head.
"Momo-sensei!"
Was it because Jinhyeok had joined in too?
"Uuuuuh. Can't be helped. Momo is a great sensei, after all."
Momo pulled out three or four ice boxes from the Infinite Storage.
The eyes, lungs, and liver of the black dragon Drakkan.
"Yahoo!"
Elia, overjoyed, grabbed the boxes and entered the Star Workshop.
Right before closing the workshop door, Elia poked her head out.
"With such amazing eyeballs, I'll be able to synthesize something with much better performance! You can look forward to it."
The door closed with a thud, and Elia disappeared.
It was a first.
Elia had said to look forward to it.
Seemed like a good piece was going to come out.
"Let's really go."
He pressed the elevator button.
Let's go down normally.
Take a taxi normally and go back.
---
* * *
---
The next morning.
"Wadadadadadadada!!"
An enormous sound rang out.
Three people stared blankly at the source of the noise.
"Whoa, that's incredible."
"R-right?"
Cold sweat ran down the backs of Jin Seohee and Yoo Suyeon.
The moment they taught her how to do it, Momo started sprinting.
She was finishing the work of over a dozen people all by herself.
Jinhyeok wore an immensely proud expression.
As expected of the Momo Emperor.
"It'll be done by this afternoon, won't it?"
"Right. We were thinking tomorrow night or the day after. Wow? Jinhyeok-ssi is pretty good too."
"I'm slow, but I'm working hard!"
The two had to go to work at the Association by noon.
They couldn't just leave everything and play.
They had to get as much done as possible before coming back after work.
"Seohee-ssi, Suyeon-ssi. Stop and eat. You need to get ready for work."
"Eat?"
Jinhyeok led the two to the kitchen and opened the pot lid.
"I made a hearty pork kimchi jjigae."
"Wow! Did Jinhyeok-ssi make this?"
"Of course. I'm confident in soy sauce egg rice, kimchi fried rice, and kimchi jjigae."
The three essential skills of a single person living alone.
He wouldn't lose to Momo-sensei in these.
"The red looks really appetizing."
"Food is first eaten with the eyes, after all. Well, eat comfortably. Momo and I will eat a bit later."
"I'll eat well!"
"I'll eat well too."
After giving a thumbs up, he went back to the living room.
"Wudawudawudadadadada!"
He swallowed dryly.
Truly the Momo Emperor's super booster mode.
Not even five minutes had passed since he went into the kitchen and came out.
But a lot had changed.
'It's almost done.'
He looked around the house with a happy smile.
Compared to when the wild boars had infiltrated, it had become much cozier and more stylish.
'As expected, remodeling is all about sense.'
As he nodded.
Momo, who had reached right next to him, looked up.
"We need to finish quickly and eat!"
"S-sorry."
Under the Great Momo-sensei's guidance and instruction, they continued working for a while.
Poke, poke, poke, poke, poke.
He felt a touch at his waist.
"Kancho? Why aren't you playing in the pool?"
"I followed the delicious smell like I was bewitched, and here I was."
A loud growl rang out.
Even in stealth mode, this couldn't be stopped.
"As expected, my kimchi jjigae is dangerous. Wait a bit. I made a huge amount."
"Can I eat the whole pot?"
"I'll put it in that yodel pot you brought last time."
"Very good. I'll lie down on the sofa for a bit. I'm tired from swimming."
Leaving water footprints, Kancho leaped onto the sofa.
It made sense he was tired.
He'd been swimming nonstop since dawn.
She'd feed him until his shrunken belly was full again.
As he picked up speed again to follow Momo —
Ding!
A message box appeared.
It was different from usual.
A red color that seemed to indicate some kind of dangerous warning.
Letters began filling it.
---
[The rakshasa race, who have long held their breath and crouched in hiding, reveal themselves!]
[After 72 hours, a new hidden floor — 'Rakshasa's Stronghold' — will be unveiled!]
[Rakshasa's Stronghold is an impregnable fortress that has never once fallen!]
[Entry condition: Clear Floor 80 of the Despair Tower / Obtain the Key to the Stronghold]
---
Ding!
[The floor's grade is set to Legendary! The entry conditions are merely minimum qualifications. Those who are not prepared will face certain death!]
[Only one player can enter the hidden floor at a time! An entry queue will be created after 72 hours!]
[Clear condition: Defeat the First Movement, Baikan, somewhere in the stronghold!]
---
He narrowed his eyes.
First Movement Baikan? Not the Queen?
Yoo Suyeon and Jin Seohee came running out holding rice bowls.
It seemed to have been broadcast to all players.
"Jinhyeok-ssi, did you see that just now?!"
"Yes. That's a brutal message window."
"Well, Suyeon and I can't go right now because of the floor restriction, but this is going to cause a huge mess."
"Right. The whole world is going to get noisy. Excuse me for a moment."
He went upstairs and took out Ranjet's frozen arm from his bag.
He couldn't take it out in front of people who were eating.
The distance was steadily increasing, just like yesterday.
That meant it was still in this world.
Two possibilities.
Either 72 hours hadn't passed yet, so it wasn't part of the tower yet.
Or Ranjet was never someone who would enter the tower in the first place.
The latter was a possibility that came to mind from the fact that the clear condition wasn't the Queen.
"Renya. What do you think? I think this 'Queen' character — "
The corner of his mouth lifted.
" — seems to have quietly slipped out."
Maredo had collected souls in the Despair Tower.
In the end, he was cleared and failed, but if the plan had worked, those souls would have been sent somewhere.
If that destination was the Queen in the real world, then today's clear condition also made sense.
She was just trying to take it all in comfortably.
Without taking any risks.
"She was always a cunning bitch. She never showed herself. Fitting."
"Which means — "
He shifted his gaze to the Yodel Compass.
Ranjet, still moving busily toward somewhere.
Meaning it was still valid.
Compared to the Trojan Horse, it was a bit shabby, but their Ranjet Wooden Horse's role was —
"Where will it strike first?"
"Where it can go first."
Either Ranjet would arrive somewhere and stop moving.
Or the conditions to enter Rakshasa's Stronghold would be met.
He planned to go depending on the situation.
"It's just a matter of order. I'll smash both of them."
"I like that."
He took out the Soul Reaper.
He intended to take full advantage of this opportunity and feed it well.
All the souls the rakshasa possessed.
----------
T/N:
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