Chapter 34

Chapter 34

Lee Junhyuk, who had been watching, also stretched out his hand.

“I'll help too!”

Fwoosh.

Flames rose from his palm.

My eyes widened in shock.

But before I could tell him to stop...

“Fire Flash!”

Lee Junhyuk shouted.

“No!”

Han Siwoo's warning was swallowed by a massive explosion.

BOOOOOOM!

The flames struck by Fire Flash exploded outward in every direction like a bomb.

The impact was so powerful that my Shield's durability vanished almost instantly before it shattered.

Everything happened in the blink of an eye.

I had been standing far enough away to avoid being caught in the explosion.

But that was the only lucky part.

I stared blankly ahead, unable to understand what had just happened.

I couldn't see anything.

Only flames.

What snapped me out of my daze was the system window sending warning signals.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

[Party Window]

[Kim Jihoon] [Remaining Mana: 55%] [Remaining Health: 8%]

[Han Siwoo] [Remaining Mana: 50%] [Remaining Health: 17%]

[Lee Junhyuk] [Remaining Mana: 44%] [Remaining Health: 21%]

My vision swam.

Things were even worse than before.

The situation was so absurd that a hollow laugh kept escaping me even though there was nothing funny about it.

This wasn't even in the novel!

Why does this keep happening?!

If crying could have solved the problem, I would have cried a hundred times.

Instead, I forced down the tears rising inside me and stared ahead.

If I gave up here...

My teammates would die.

The realization sent a numb chill through my back.

The heat was strong enough to burn my skin.

Every breath felt suffocating.

Yet strangely, my body was trembling with cold.

What am I supposed to do...?

My heart pounded violently.

Using so many skills had drained my strength.

I wasn't simply tired.

My throat felt like it was drying from the inside.

My mouth grew more and more parched.

As time passed, the amount of health my teammates lost became greater than the amount my skills could restore.

In that desperate situation...

I stopped thinking.

Instead, I chose something terribly inefficient, but something that would work immediately.

[Skill 'Area Healing Lv.6' activated.]

[Current Mana: 295/700]

[Party Window]

[Kim Jihoon] [Remaining Mana: 55%] [Remaining Health: 15%]

[Han Siwoo] [Remaining Mana: 50%] [Remaining Health: 50%]

[Lee Junhyuk] [Remaining Mana: 44%] [Remaining Health: 58%]

Area Healing consumed twice as much mana as ordinary Healing.

In exchange, it restored health around twice as quickly.

I knew.

I knew using it wouldn't truly change anything.

I also knew the only thing keeping me going now was stubborn attachment.

[Skill 'Area Healing Lv.6' activated.]

[Current Mana: 235/700]

Again.

And again.

I kept using the skill.

[Party Window]

[Kim Jihoon] [Remaining Mana: 55%] [Remaining Health: 35%]

[Han Siwoo] [Remaining Mana: 40%] [Remaining Health: 70%]

[Lee Junhyuk] [Remaining Mana: 57%] [Remaining Health: 78%]

[Skill 'Area Healing Lv.6' activated.]

[Current Mana: 175/700]

Why am I...

Why was I no different from one year ago?

Thoughts like that were completely useless now.

[Current Mana: 55/700]

[Insufficient mana. 'Area Healing Lv.6' cannot be activated.]

I squeezed out every last bit of strength I had.

[Skill 'Healing Lv.8' activated.]

[Current Mana: 25/700]

[Insufficient mana. 'Healing Lv.8' cannot be activated.]

[All mana has been exhausted. You have entered 'Mana Exhaustion.']

[Until mana is restored, recovery speed will decrease and symptoms of paralysis may occur.]

And finally...

[Party Window]

[Kim Jihoon] [Remaining Mana: 0%] [Remaining Health: 0%]

[Han Siwoo] [Remaining Mana: 0%] [Remaining Health: 0%]

[Lee Junhyuk] [Remaining Mana: 0%] [Remaining Health: 0%]

Those simple numbers floating in front of me told me that everything I had tried so desperately to protect was gone.

All strength left my body.

I collapsed onto the floor.

A crushing sense of loss wrapped around me.

...Just like that?

[Use 'Healing' skill. (180/180)]

[Quest completed. Healing skill level increases.]

[Healing Lv.8 → Healing Lv.9]

[Area Healing Lv.6 → Area Healing Lv.8]

What value did something like this have now?

I didn't even think, Why now?

I simply stared blankly at the system window.

I felt empty.

If I had been smarter...

If I had been stronger...

If I had simply refused to listen to the others...

This wouldn't have happened.

There was no reason to blame my teammates.

I was the one who had failed.

I decided to accept that.

Then...

Kikikikik.

A sound like mocking laughter came from somewhere.

I turned toward it.

The sound had come from above.

[Bat Goblin]

A monster resembling an enormous bat stared down at me with glowing red eyes.

Ah.

Only then did I understand.

Those torches...

They had been a trap.

The creature had been clinging to the cave ceiling all along.

When it spread its enormous wings, each flap created sharp winds that struck against my Shield.

CLANG! CLANG!

It was the same sound I had heard when we first entered the room.

We had been fooled by the trap without even realizing the monster had been right above us.

How ridiculous must we have looked?

Outside my Shield, flames raged like a storm, whipped around by the creature's wings.

Standing in the center of those flames, the monster was clearly laughing.

Kikikikik.

I couldn't even blame it for mocking me.

Even I thought I looked ridiculous.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

[Durability of 'Shield Lv.8': 20% remaining.]

Once the durability reached zero, I would be finished too.

I had struggled so desperately not to die.

Yet all I had done was move my death forward.

Han Siwoo, Oppa, and Lee Junhyuk are all dead.

What happens to the world now?

I didn't know.

And thinking about it wouldn't change anything.

[Durability of 'Shield Lv.8': 1% remaining.]

[Shield Lv.8 has been destroyed.]

The Shield disappeared.

The roaring flames all around me surged forward as if trying to swallow me whole.

My ability to think disappeared with it.

If I die here...

Maybe I won't have to keep trying anymore.

Strangely enough, the only thing I could think about was something stupid.

They say burning to death is one of the most painful ways a human can die.

I clenched my trembling fists and waited for the pain.

Then...

Beep. Beep.

What now?

With my eyelids lowered halfway, I shifted only my eyes toward the side.

[00:00:05]

Come to think of it...

The quest.

Well.

What did it matter?

Nothing mattered anymore.

[00:00:03]

Tick. Tock.

For some reason, I felt like I could hear a clock.

[00:00:02]

The bat above me began flapping even faster, apparently determined to finish me off.

I didn't expect the quest to save me.

Everyone else was already dead.

Even if I alone became stronger like last time, nothing would change.

I didn't want to survive alone on top of the deaths of my teammates.

[00:00:00]

Finally, all the time ran out.

[Quest Failed: Work together with your teammates and clear the dungeon before the 'Dome' phenomenon occurs!]

[A penalty will be applied due to quest failure.]

At the same moment...

My vision flashed.

By the time light returned to my eyes, I was conscious.

Wasn't I dead?

What is this?

Confused by the sudden change, I rapidly blinked.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

Then...

“Kim Jia! Why are you taking so long?!”

My brother's shout pierced my ears.

I answered automatically.

“I wasn't taking...!”

Wait.

Oppa definitely died.

My mind went blank.

Bang!

The door opened.

“Hey, hurry up and get ready! Today's our raid day.”

It was my brother.

Alive.

Completely unharmed.

“...O-Oppa?”

“What?”

He stared at me with an annoyed expression.

“Looking at you, you just woke up, didn't you? Did you forget you were late last time too? What do you think the Center is going to think of our party?”

The conversation felt strangely familiar.

Something was wrong.

Very wrong.

Because...

This was the exact conversation we had this morning.

Am I dreaming?

I asked in a trembling voice.

“W-What day is it today?”

“Are you still half asleep? Stop wasting time and get ready already!”

BANG!

After saying what he wanted, my brother slammed the door shut and left.

I stared blankly at the closed door.

Then my eyes moved sideways.

I read the system window floating there.

And felt as if someone had struck me in the back of the head.

No way.

[Time has been rewound due to quest failure.]

[Remaining Attempts: 2/3]

The section that had previously said [Penalty Upon Failure: (3)] had changed to (2).

Time... went backward?

Was something like that even possible?

My heart pounded.

It was difficult to believe.

But I couldn't ignore the system window clearly floating before me.

And this was definitely my room.

I swallowed nervously and picked up my phone.

[September 13, 10:45 A.M.]

It looked like I had returned to this morning.

While I slowly tried to process everything, my nose suddenly stung.

Emotion surged from deep inside me.

I hurriedly covered my mouth.

They're alive...

I had thought it was over.

I thought I had lost everyone.

But I couldn't continue like this.

Looking back, blindly trusting the novel had been incredibly foolish.

Even if it contained information about the future, I already knew from what happened with Kim Taeyoon that the novel wasn't perfect.

The events written in the novel were only possibilities.

Why did it take me this long to understand something so obvious?

My actions could drastically change the future.

Knowing the future didn't automatically mean I could avoid death.

I simply had to stop doing things that would get me killed.

And for that...

I need to become smarter.

I shouldn't blindly trust the novel.

I shouldn't blindly trust my teammates either.

The only thing I could truly rely on...

Was my own judgment.