Chapter 16 - Trauma Penalty (1)

1

Black Dragon.

The guild that had reigned supreme ever since the day the Tower opened in this world.

「We didn't fail to conquer the tenth floor because we lacked skill.」

The Black Witch, the second-ranked hunter who commanded Black Dragon, had challenged the tenth floor dozens of times. Every attempt ended in failure. Yet even in defeat, the second-ranked hunter brought every member of the raid back alive.

In one interview, the Black Witch said:

「We were just a little unlucky.」

The Flame Emperor, on the other hand, broke through the tenth floor alone and declared:

「Luck is a skill too, you losers.」

That interview later became known as the Loser Manifesto.

Suddenly branded a pack of losers, Black Dragon began treating the Flame Emperor as an enemy... Well, none of that mattered anymore. Yoo Suha had died by my hand. That interview could no longer happen.

The real question was this.

'Why did all the other hunters fail, while only the Flame Emperor could conquer the tenth floor?'

'Was it because he was overwhelmingly powerful?'

Or...

'Was there another reason?'

The answer was unfolding right before my eyes.

2

[Commencing the boss stage.]

The moment the voice rang out, the mansion transformed.

WHOOSH!

Candles toppled all around me. Flames shot up wherever they fell. Had the place been coated in oil beforehand? The ravenous fire swallowed the Western-style mansion in an instant.

"Heeheehee!"

Only the dolls remained unharmed amid the blazing flames.

"You're it, mister! We're going to run away!"

"Run away, run away! Let's run away from here!"

Hundreds—no, thousands upon thousands of lady dolls. That many were scattered through the first-floor lobby alone. Across the entire mansion, there were probably tens of thousands hiding.

'One of these.'

I swallowed hard.

'There's exactly one [real doll] hiding somewhere in this mansion.'

Odds of one in tens of thousands!

That was why every raid had failed so far.

'Everyone burns to death while they're looking for the real doll. If they want to escape before dying, they have ten minutes at most to search.'

The flames consuming the mansion were no ordinary fire. A ravenous blaze. Karmic flames. What people called hellfire was [aura] manifested in the form of fire.

In other words...

'This entire enormous mansion is burning with aura.'

A boss monster that could wield aura!

Until now, every raid had met one of two ends: burning to death in this aura-fueled inferno, or escaping before they died. Some hunters had staked their lives on those one-in-tens-of-thousands odds, but it was futile. They merely burned to death, screaming horribly.

An impregnable inferno.

And here... lay the reason only the Flame Emperor had cleared the tenth floor.

"Bastard who lives off dumb luck," I muttered.

That's right. The Flame Emperor's aura took exactly the same form as the boss monster's.

To other hunters, this mansion was an inferno. To the Flame Emperor, it was as comfortable as his own bedroom. The tenth-floor boss monster's karmic flames were also the element of Yoo Suha, the Flame Emperor.

"Tch."

In short, it was a favorable matchup.

'He must have strolled around at his leisure until he found the real doll.'

And then he'd had the nerve to brag that luck was a skill.

God, I really couldn't stand that guy.

"You're the hunter who lives off dumb luck, Zombie."

"How am I living off dumb luck?"

I furrowed my brows at the attendant spirit's needling.

"I'm struggling to hold out with aura even now."

Sweat streamed down between my eyebrows. The scorching heat! The flames were incomparably hotter than any sauna, and my whole body was drenched. Without aura wrapped around my body, I would have burned to death long ago.

"Yep. And even so, you've got another minute at most, right?"

Infuriatingly, the attendant spirit had pinpointed my condition.

"For the record, old Markus could last thirty minutes without any trouble. Want to know why he hasn't challenged this place yet? He's honing his skills until he can turn those thirty minutes into an hour."

"... Oh, yeees. Thank you for confirming the gap between me and the Sword Star."

"Hehehe."

The attendant spirit flew freely through the burning lobby. Dolls giggling below, a ghost snickering above. This really was a haunted mansion.

"So? You've only got two credits. What are you going to do now?"

"What else? First, I'll die."

"Well, aren't you something. Think dying here is suddenly going to give you a huge boost in aura?"

The attendant spirit sneered.

"There are only two ways to clear this place! Either get lucky and find the real doll, or be so damn good with aura that you can withstand the flames until you find it. But you stupidly limited yourself to two credits for the bet, didn't you? Probably not going to work."

"Heh heh."

Even as I sweated, I kept smiling.

"You know one thing, but not the next. Or should I say you know two things, but not the third?"

"What?"

"Let's see who wins after I die once."

Twenty seconds until my aura ran dry.

I approached the nearest doll. There was... no particular reason. I suppose standing still and dying would have been boring. Maybe I'd actually get lucky and the doll before me would be the [real one].

"Are you going to play with us?"

CREEEAK.

The doll's head turned. Only its head. It could have been cast in a horror movie on the spot. It wore a frilled dress, and despite the flames burning everything around it, not a single thread of its skirt caught fire.

As though it were immune to the flames.

"Caught you," I said, placing my hand on the doll's head.

"Heehee."

Laughter spilled from its expressionless mouth.

"Wrong! It's not me!"

Laughter wasn't the only thing spilling from its mouth. Lips, skin, eyes. The doll's body ran like candle wax. Flames swallowed it in an instant, and even as they did, it kept muttering like a broken record player.

"It's not me! It's not me! It's not me!"

"Not me! It's, not me. It's... it's... not me... it's..."

"It's... not me..."

It burned and melted away completely.

"Wow..."

I was speechless. Despite the heat engulfing my body, a faint chill ran down my lower back. That had been more horrifying than I'd imagined.

"That's creepy. Why did they have to make the boss stage so disturbing?"

"Who can fathom the Tower's holy will, Zombie? Giving ridiculously broken skills to a slacker like you is its will too. If the Tower has anything like a personality, it's probably a perverted psychopath."

"Honestly, do you always have to put it like..."

I couldn't complain any further.

"Urgh?"

My aura had run out.

As though they had been waiting for this moment, the flames lunged at me. A blast of heat! First, the soles of my shoes melted. Then my sleeves. Then the fire caught my hair.

"Ah."

From head to toe.

"Aaagh! Aaaaaagh!"

My whole body burst into flame. My flesh melted. The fire didn't stop even as my skin ran off. Instead, it clung more tenaciously, as though tastier prey lay hidden beneath my flesh. Nerves, bones, throat, organs.

"Uh, fuck...! Urk, aaaaagh!"

"And you're an even bigger pervert than the Tower. Damn, I know you want to be the greatest hunter in the world, but accepting being burned alive like it's nothing? I'll give you that, Kim Zombie! You're a real pervert!"

I wanted to die.

Hurry. I wanted to die even one second sooner!

"Ugh...!"

My voice wouldn't come out. Sound grew muffled. My eyes and ears had burned away.

Just as my overheated head felt ready to burst, the voice I'd been desperately waiting for finally sounded in my consciousness.

[You have died.]

Damn it.

Couldn't you have killed me a little faster?

* * *

'Phaaah!'

I gasped like someone who had only just surfaced after diving into deep water. Of course, I wasn't actually breathing. I merely felt as though I'd exhaled.

This was the Underworld, a pitch-black place where my bare body drifted like a ghost.

[Death has fulfilled the skill's condition.]

[Randomly copying a skill from the monster Hellfire Maiden.]

And for me, it was also a place of opportunity.

[Generating skill cards.]

Cards appeared in the dark void. Was this a surprise? Despite it being a boss monster, there was only one gold card. All the others gleamed silver or shit-brown.

'Now then. You haven't forgotten your promise, have you?'

"I know, you punk. Do I look like someone who'd go back on a promise made in a bet? Don't worry."

The attendant spirit chuckled.

"Let's seeee. What skills does this young lady have?"

The attendant spirit floated up and headed to the other side of the cards.

He was going to tell me what the skills did, just as we'd agreed.

"Ohhh! Hey, this one's amazing!"

He read the gold card first.

+

[Infernal Barrier]

Rank: S-

Effect: Resentment. Outcry. Reproach. Your unresolved grief, your voice that could not reach anyone, your wishes that could not come true. Burn them all. 'It's hot.' Is it hot? Turn the world into a pyre. 'I feel like I'm going to die.' Kill. If you only wish it, an inferno of aura will descend upon an area with a radius of 2 km.

No one can leave this hell without your permission.

No one at all.

※However, you must also remain within the barrier.

+

It was a terrifying skill.

"It's a no-brainer. Zombie, shut up and pick this skill. No question."

'...'

"Huh? Hey, Kim Zombie. Why aren't you answering?"

'No, it's just...'

I furrowed my brows.

'I don't know why, but something about it bothers me.'

What was it?

It was an incredible skill, all right. But something troubled me. I felt a tightness inside, like indigestion. Like knowing a water pipe was broken, but not exactly where.

'... Anyway, read the next skills too.'

"Huh? I doubt there's anything better than this. Can't you just pick it?"

'There's another skill I'm after. Come on, hurry!'

"Tsk."

The attendant spirit pouted, but followed my request and recited the cards.

"Fine, listen up. [Labyrinth Design], A- rank; [Puppetry], B rank; [Remote Control], B- rank; [Trap Installation], C rank..."

He faltered.

"..."

The attendant spirit had been reading briskly, but stopped dead. The final skill. His eyes wavered before the card whose back gleamed silver.

"The fuck?"

I grinned.

'Just as I thought.'

"No, hey... Wait a second..."

'That's enough. I get it. You don't even need to read it.'

I was certain.

That was the card I wanted.

[Please select a skill card.]

The cards began flying through the air. They were fast. But it was hard to confuse me when I'd been watching only one card from the start.

"Hey! Gongja! Hey! Let's not do this."

Perhaps the attendant spirit knew that too, because he shouted desperately.

"Look at this. Wow, a gold card! Wow, an S-rank skill! Awesome! If you get this, an Infernal Barrier will spring right up whenever you want. How cool is that?"

'I'm not sure.'

"How can you not be sure! I'd fall for you! If I were a woman, Kim Gongja, I'd fall head over heels for your infernal charm! Let's go! Kim Gongja's superstar life starts today! Let's goooo!"

I chuckled.

'You should have realized something was strange from the start.'

There had been a clue.

'Only one of those tens of thousands of dolls is [real]. The real doll is the one using the skill, so naturally it doesn't take damage from the flames.'

I reached out.

'But why are even the fake dolls unharmed in the fire?'

And I snatched the silver card.

"Aaaaaagh! No! No! Fuck, no!"

'There's only one answer, isn't there, Mr. Sword Emperor?'

I turned the silver card over.

+

[Fire Safety, Day and Night]

Rank: A

Effect: Ouch, that's hot! Leave something this hot lying around, and our whole house will burn down, won't it? But you can rest easy now. Living creatures and objects you designate become immune to flames and will no longer burn. Enjoy a safe life, free from the terror of fire!

※However, damage from water and ice elements increases by 300%.

+

That's right.

The tenth-floor stage. Hide-and-Seek in the Infernal Mansion.

Its boss didn't merely possess [the ability to burn things].

'Yes!'

It also possessed the exact opposite: [the ability to keep things from burning].

I clenched my fist, swept up in the thrill of victory.

'I came! I saw! I caught it!'

"No... No, boohoo. This isn't right... This really isn't right..."

The attendant spirit had a complete breakdown.

'What do you mean, it isn't right? Now I just use this skill to make myself immune to flames, and that's it. All I have to do is take my time finding the real doll. Game over. Starting today, you have to call me Lord Gongja!'

"Damn it... Fuck... Goddammit... This is cheating. This game's trash..."

'Mwahahaha! Come on, call me Lord Gongja!'

My laughter spread through the darkness.

Another voice quietly rang out as well.

[Selection complete. Copying the skill.]

[Regressing to twenty-four hours ago.]

A celebratory salute announcing my victory in our bet.

Now I just had to return to the previous day and challenge the tenth-floor boss again.

Clearing it was practically within reach.

[Your current hunter rank is E.]

But today, that wasn't the end.

[A skill penalty will be applied.]

"Huh?"

'Oh. Right.'

An announcement I'd never heard before, having remained a bottom-of-the-barrel F-rank all this time.

But now that I'd grown into an E-rank hunter, the first penalty of my life had arrived.

What would the penalty be?

[Recreating the trauma of the enemy who killed you.]

[Penalty depth: Mild. Realm of Hell.]

'Huh? Trauma?'

I tilted my head at the unexpected word.

'Recreating the enemy's trauma? What does that mean—'

Light flared!

Before I could finish speaking, the space before my eyes turned white.