Chapter 71

I look at the scene unfolding before my eyes.

A city street at night with Christmas carols playing.

Two men in casual clothes are walking together.

‘I’ open my mouth, letting out a puff of white breath.

The one walking beside me with his hands shoved into his pockets speaks.

Then he nudges ‘me’ with his elbow.

“Hyung, wanna get some Roasted Chestnut?”

“Aren’t you sick of them already?”

Even while saying that, ‘I’ am already walking toward the roasted chestnut truck.

“Haha.”

A hearty laugh rings out. He grins and shoots a question right back.

At the remark asking how it could be hard when I win all the time, ‘I’ can’t help laughing too.

“Me too. I wish we had a match tomorrow.”

The two of them chat about nothing in particular as they stop in front of the roasted chestnut truck.

I watch the smiling ‘me.’

Continuing to stare.

Unable to look away.

“Roasted Chestnut.”

“……”

“Roasted Chestnut.”

“……”

“Roasted Chestnut.”

“…Yes.”

“When was this?”

“Before I debuted as a pro player… back when I was still training.”

“I see. Could you tell me more about your past, Roasted Chestnut?”

“……”

“Roasted Chestnut.”

“…Ah, sorry. Just for a moment.”

“Why are you shaking like this?”

“……”

“Shall we leave now? Learning about Roasted Chestnut is enjoyable, but it seems to be painful for you.”

“…I want to leave. Please….”

“Of course, Roasted Chestnut. Let’s go outside together. Close your eyes. Slowly breathe in and out.”

“……”

“You’re doing well. We’ll be outside soon, so just keep your eyes closed and wait a little longer. Just a little. You can do that, can’t you, Roasted Chestnut?”

“Yes….”

“Excellent. Then.”

I slowly opened my eyes.

My face was soaked in cold sweat. I tried to wipe away the beads running down my face, but my hands were shaking too much.

Forcing strength into them, I rubbed my face roughly.

Only then did I finally regain my senses.

“Roasted Chestnut. Are you all right?”

Something soft pressed against my cheek. I thanked the slime clinging to the side of my face.

“Dominic-ssi…. Thank you for getting me out….”

‘That was close.’

Gorgos, the hidden boss on the 88th floor of the daytime dungeon, was a troublesome enemy who specialized in illusion magic.

He wasn’t friendly toward humans, making him especially cruel.

Normally, you were supposed to challenge him after eating monster cuisine to gain a mental resistance buff, but he had suddenly appeared on the 45th floor, leaving me no chance to prepare.

In the game, being caught in Gorgos’s illusion meant staring at a black screen for sixty seconds while gentle, soothing music played.

When the sixty seconds ended, a system window would appear.

At that moment, flowers would begin falling across the screen, and you had to figure out the pattern and press the correct directional keys.

If you failed, the duration of the illusion doubled each time, and remaining trapped for over thirty minutes resulted in death.

The game gave players a key-pressing mechanic.

Reality gave me nothing.

I had to break free on my own.

If Dominic hadn’t helped me, I didn’t think I could have escaped.

Why had Gorgos appeared on the 45th floor?

Suddenly, something that had happened in DeZonDeal came to mind.

It felt strangely similar to when the emergency generator had suddenly broken down.

But that wasn’t my priority right now.

I filed the uncertain connection away for later and turned my attention to Je Hyun-oh.

He was still standing there like a statue.

‘I have to defeat Gorgos.’

Unless I defeated the hidden boss, there was probably no way to free Je Hyun-oh from the illusion.

While playing the Archive game, I’d explored both the game’s version of Korea and the Agency of Extraordinary Affairs, uncovering plenty of information about the characters.

But compared to everyone else, there was surprisingly little information about Je Hyun-oh.

Just what kind of illusion had trapped him so completely?

One thing was certain.

I had to get him out before thirty minutes passed.

I looked at the goat-headed creature before me.

‘Can I beat it by myself?’

The answer came immediately.

Impossible.

I knew Gorgos’s skills and every strategy to beat him by heart, but the limitations of my class were simply too great.

A chef was a support class.

Maybe if I’d come fully prepared…

But in a situation like this, I needed a damage dealer.

‘Wait.’

I called to the slime that had climbed back down from my cheek to my shoulder.

“Dominic-ssi.”

“Yes, Roasted Chestnut.”

“Could you fight that goat-headed thing together with me?”

“Of course. I’ll defeat it immediately, Roasted Chestnut.”

I hurriedly stopped him.

“No. You can only use magic. Not magic you create yourself—the skills this place gives you.”

“Hm. Understood.”

The hidden boss from the 88th floor had appeared on the 45th.

If Dominic used his own power during this boss fight, it might create an even worse error than the current one.

And he couldn’t contribute too much, either.

If he ended up with the highest contribution, explaining things later would become impossible.

“What level are you?”

“Fifty-one.”

Thanks to today’s daytime dungeon run, everyone’s levels had skyrocketed.

Even so, we were still far below what was recommended for the hidden boss on the 88th floor.

Still…

I felt like we might somehow manage.

I pulled out the rock salt I’d obtained from the hidden boss on the 33rd floor.

During Gorgos’s first phase, he used illusion magic to create dozens of clones identical to himself.

Anyone holding the rock salt would always be targeted by the real body.

Back in the game, every time Gorgos filled the arena with illusions, the party would inevitably be wiped out.

I’d challenged him around seventy times trying to find a countermeasure before finally discovering this trick.

Apparently, despite having a goat’s head, Gorgos still retained some beastly instincts, making him react to the scent of the rock salt.

“Dominic-ssi. Learn the Blazing Beam skill, and level it to the maximum.”

A strange light flickered within the goat’s crimson eyes.

Like the conductor of a choir, Gorgos swept his thorn-covered staff through the air.

The skulls inside the net bag let out horrifying screams as the boss battle music began.

The shrill cries of the skulls and the orchestra clashed together into a dreadful harmony.

The moment the screaming reached its peak, black hazard zones spread across the floor.

I knew exactly when and where they would appear.

Dodging them was easy, even with a chef’s stats.

Je Hyun-oh, trapped in the illusion, continued losing health, but that alone wasn’t enough to kill someone like him.

Once I avoided every hazard zone, Gorgos’s eyes flashed crimson.

Dozens of illusions filled the cramped room.

Being surrounded by countless goat heads wasn’t exactly pleasant.

Every Gorgos charged at me simultaneously.

Gripping the rock salt tightly, I ran and shouted,

“Dominic-ssi! Fire the beam at the one that’s actually swinging its staff!”

“This spell is… rather old-fashioned. But if that’s what Roasted Chestnut wants.”

A small magic circle appeared before the slime.

A deep hum echoed as magical energy condensed.

Then came a sharp screech like glass being scraped.

A beam of blue mana struck the goat-headed monster trying to bind me with thorny vines.

All the illusions vanished at once as Gorgos crashed onto the floor.

Blood-like tears streamed from his eyes as he ripped open the net bag.

The trapped skulls burst free, screaming.

The tails of his black-flame tuxedo stretched outward, covering the entire floor.

Black flames engulfed the entire 45th floor, continuously draining my health.

I stared at Gorgos in shock.

‘That’s the phase three mechanic.’

A single Blazing Beam had dealt enough damage to skip phase two entirely.

That wasn’t supposed to happen.

Just as the thought crossed my mind—

The skulls shrieked, launching black fireballs from every direction.

Quickly dodging them, I looked back toward Gorgos.

Like a mad conductor, he swung his staff.

It was a spell that captivated the victim’s mind, forcing them to approach him.

My body stiffened.

My limbs moved on their own.

A smile spread across my face against my will.

As I walked toward Gorgos against my own intentions, I silently counted the seconds.

The moment I got close under the effects of Charm would be my opportunity.

“Dominic-ssi. After Charm ends, there will be a 1.7-second window where the staff glows just before the goat head casts illusion magic again. Hit its glass horn with the beam then.”

The glass horns normally had complete invulnerability.

But during the instant before Gorgos cast a spell, an attack delivered from extremely close range could damage them.

Destroying the glass horns caused the black smoke sealed inside them to surge backward.

The skulls’ funeral dirge would stop.

Gorgos would become temporarily incapacitated.

That was the opening.

If we focused our attacks then, even my current level and class could defeat him.

The timing required incredible precision.

But if it was Dominic, he could do it.

“Understood, Roasted Chestnut. But what is Charm? Is that why you’re walking toward the goat head?”

I wanted to explain.

But the closer I got to Gorgos, the stronger Charm’s influence became.

I could barely speak.

“Dominic-ssi…. Please….”

The moment I reached Gorgos, thorny vines burst from his staff and wrapped around me.

The thorns dug painfully into my skin.

Blood seeped from every puncture wound, staining my clothes red.

Then—

Gorgos suddenly trembled.

He violently shook his head before staring straight at me with those crimson eyes glowing strangely.

I had no idea what was wrong with him.

I just wished he’d hurry up and cast the illusion spell.

Maybe it was my imagination, but the thorny vines seemed to multiply, wrapping even tighter around my body.

Suppressing a groan, I waited.

Then—

A high-pitched whine.

The sound of mana gathering.

Gorgos’s staff hadn’t begun glowing yet.

But Charm left me unable to say anything.

The sound this time was different from before.

It was threatening.

Something that awakened instinctive fear deep inside me.

My body froze.

Then came a piercing sound.

A beam fired.

But it wasn’t Blazing Beam.

A beautiful ribbon of light streaked through the air.

Nebulas shimmered within it like the Milky Way itself.

The birth and death of stars flowed together inside that beam.

It struck the goat-headed monster.

Gorgos began to crumple.

As though an invisible giant hand had seized him, his entire body compressed inward.

Bones folded and snapped.

Crunch.

Crack.

The sound of his skeleton collapsing echoed horribly.

Just as Gorgos’s body reached its limit—

A blinding blue explosion erupted.

“…!”

I squeezed my eyes shut.

When I opened them again—

Gorgos was gone.

Only cold stardust drifted through the air before slowly settling.

At the very center of where he had stood, a pitch-black hole remained.

Countless eyes stared out from within it.

The distortion, like a miniature black hole, swallowed every last speck of stardust before quietly disappearing.

A corrupted system window appeared.

A hidden boss that was supposed to flee…

Had died.

As I stood there in stunned silence, Dominic apologized politely.

“I’m sorry. Roasted Chestnut was injured, so I panicked and made a mistake.”

His quiet apology—that he hadn’t been able to use the designated spell—drifted into my ears.

If he made another mistake like that…

I had a feeling the dungeon itself would disappear.

Before I could calm my racing heart—

“By the way, Roasted Chestnut.”

Dominic floated close to my face.

His little ears brushed against my cheek.

“That berserker seems a little strange. Shouldn’t we restrain him?”

Je Hyun-oh, finally freed from the illusion, was staring directly at me.