Beyond the Eternity

Once I swept my gaze throughout the station and confirmed the coast was more or less clear, I issued another order to the party.

"Don't forget to collect their cores. We will spilt them into five ways."

"Alright."

Everyone began opening up the monsters scattered throughout the subway and pulled out their cores. It was a disgusting sight, really.

[A few constellations are pleased with your performance.]

[200 coins has been sponsored to all actors.]

Even the constellations were satisfied with the performance.

I spotted Jung Yunhee walking towards me with an unreadable expression. For some reason, I knew what she wanted to say.

"When did you know?"

"Hmm? What are you talking about?"

"Don't act dumb. You knew the spiders were above us this entire time, didn't you? You said we should turn off the lights back then."

"Not really. It was just a gut feeling."

"Oh really, then that gut feeling of yours must be pretty on point, huh?"

She bought her face closer to mine and stared intensely. It was difficult keeping a straight face when faced with such an intense stare. This girl was simply difficult to deal with.

Sometimes, she acted as if she wasn't interested in anything but she has been quietly observing everyone. Maybe she must have even noticed my actions were suspicious.

She then has double personality disorder which makes everyone of her actions hard to predict. Then again, the system did mention something about her two personality being in disorder.

Was it the birth of a third personality?

It was then.

"Guys, come and take a look at this."

Lee Jong-ho stood beside a dead black spider and gestured for everyone to get closer.

What a save. Using this opportunity as an excuse, I walked away from Yunhee's suspecting gaze and got closer as well.

"Mm? What happened?"

"Look at the body of this spider. There are strange marks on it."

I narrowed my eyes and looked at the spider very carefully. But no matter how I looked, there was nothing out of the ordinary.

That's until...

"What's this?"

I tilted my head towards one of the legs and saw large bite marks.

"Did something take a large bite out of it?"

"It looks like it, doesn't it?"

"You guys also think so. This isn't the only one. The spiders over there, there and there also had the same marks. There was even one that had two of its legs missing. Did these guys have a fight with something else before we arrived."

I knitted my brows. This only confirmed the suspicions I had before. This also explains the sudden disappearance of monsters outside.

'I should probably do something about that as well.'

Plus, there was a gaze fixed on me this whole time. It belonged to Gyeong. As soon as I turned my head and met her gaze, she hurriedly shifted her gaze away.

She might not know it but her true intentions were already known from the start.

It was a shame that only Kang Manshik was caught. I was planning on using this dungeon to get rid of both of them. But considering the current situation, she will prove to be more useful than I imagined.

Well, that's only if everything played out the way I imagined.

A perfect picture was formed inside the mind and a subtle smile appeared.

"Since we killed everything here, why don't we go a little deeper? We might be able to get enough cores at this pace if we continue."

I deliberately raised my voice so everyone could hear. I didn't just do that for sake of the original members, but for also the person lagging behind.

After a while, Angelica gathered all her cores and approached me with a bright smile.

Was she an angel? Well, considering her name literally means 'Angel'. Anyways, I thought an angel would look like her.

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"Jakga, look! I gathered around six cores."

"You killed that many on your own?"

"Yeah, isn't that amazing? I really kicked a*s back there."

She swung her new weapon around as if it was a toy. Seeing this, I finally asked what I was thinking for a while.

"Angelica, where did you get that thing from anyways?"

"You mean this? Well, it was made using the bone of a dead monster. It was before you arrived in the safe zone."

"I see."

"I made it myself."

"Huh? Could you say that again? I did not hear you."

"Geez, don't pretend like you did not hear me. I said this bone spear was crafted by me."

I was visibly shocked. That was something I wasn't expecting Angelica to say. If It was a former soldier like Lee Jong-ho, it was understandable.

But Angelica crafting a weapon out of a monster bone?

Wasn't she very useless? I mean, she looked like someone who wouldn't be able to kill a cockroach on her own. Maybe I underestimated her too much.

"Hmm? What's with that look? You're thinking about something rude, aren't ya?"

"Wh-What... Um, no... I'm surprised, that's all."

"You're lying, aren't you?"

How did she know?

"You don't sound very convincing when you stutter like that."

Her stare deepened into a slight glare and I smiled wryly.

She didn't say anything. She just continued to stare at my face for a while.

Was she angry? Even if she was, what should I even say? I have no experience with women so I was very clueless.

Thankfully, I didn't need to say anything. The situation I was waiting for finally arrived.

"Aaaaagh! Somebody help!!"

[The constellation 'Chaos Architect'' smiles at your choice.]

"Shit, there are more."

Jongho shouted at the sight of Gyeong bring dragged deeper into the tunnel by a black spider. Perhaps they were attracted by the fight, more spiders appeared and chaos erupted.

Jongho tried fighting against the spiders but got caught instead. I ran forward and stretched my hand forward.

"Jongho, grab on."

I started pulling Jongho but the spider's webs were much tougher than I thought. The spider effortlessly pulled Jongho out of my grip.

"Shit—"

"Jakga, Angelica is..."

"Aaaaagh!"

Faster than anyone could react, Angelica screamed as she was webbed and dragged away by the spiders into the tunnel.

Lee Gyeong, Lee Jongho and even Angelica was caught. As a result, only me and Yunhee were the only remaining party members.

"Well, this just sucks."

The situation suddenly developed into something unpredictable in the end.

"Jakga-ssi..."

"Hmm?"

"We should chase after them."

I stared into the dark tunnel where the others had vanished. The darkness was wriggling around in an eerie manner and gave off a gloomy vibe. It felt like I was staring into the jaws of a beast.

Should I enter or not? A heavy sigh escaped my lips.

"What choice do we have?"

We were left with no choice then to enter the jaws of the beast.

*

We entered the dark tunnel at the same time and continued walking in a straight line. The tunnel was so dark that it wasn't possible to see anything even with the flashlight.

I was feeling anxious. It wasn't because of the darkness or the eerie silence of the tunnel that made anxious. There was a dangerous person walking behind me, that was why.

Jung Yunhee.

She was walking behind without uttering a word. Even then, I could still practically feel her gaze on my back this entire time. Thus, such an awkward situation made the atmosphere of the tunnel was even more tense.

Maybe it was because of the conservation we had before or the fact I couldn't even feel her presence despite moving behind me, I couldn't help but feel uncomfortable.

What was she thinking right now? Was she thinking about what we talked about? Or did she feel indifferent about the whole thing?

My mind raced with such thoughts. Having the ability to read minds would have been really useful in situations like this. Was I being paranoid for no reason?

It was funny. Many would kill to just have a single conversation with a character from their favourite story yet here I was, casually doing just that and complaining about it.

To be fair, not every character in fiction were good (alignment). In fact, there were a handful of characters I know I would rather avoid then meet in person.

"Hey, Kim Jakga."

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Jung Yunhee began to open her mouth.

In the next moment though, I was shocked by the words that casually flew out from said mouth.

"Don't you know your neck is wide open?"

"Wh-Wha..."

Yunhee grabbed me from behind and pressed me against the wall. It happened so fast that I didn't have time to react properly.

"Um, Yunhee?"

"Yes."

"Do you mind letting me go? This position is rather awkward, you know?"

I smiled wryly.

We were currently in a position you can only find in a romance movie. In this case, it was the woman that was pinning the guy against the wall.

For some reason, I enjoyed this position I was currently in. Damn, if she doesn't let go, I'm afraid that this will awaken something in me that's unpleasant.

Was this how those girls in romance movies felt in this position?

[A few constellations are excited upon seeing the scene unfold.]

[A few constellations are opening their eyes in excitement.]

[A few constellations asks whether you two will kiss now.]

Yunhee did not respond. She continued to stare at my face for a while.

A sly smirk formed on her lips.

"If you are really uncomfortable with this position, you could have easily broken free by now."

"My hands are restricted so how could I probably break free?"

"Please, I know you are stronger than me."

"And how would you know that? Don't I look skinny?"

"Who knows? Just a gut feeling."

Did she really hit me with my own words? I know I shouldn't be complaining but I was still hurt.

I opened my mouth and asked.

"If you know I'm stronger then what's the point of all this?"

"As I said before if you felt uncomfortable, then you can easily break out yet you are here. I didn't think you're pervent that likes to be pinned by a younger woman."

Her smile only grew wider each time she spoke.

"So what do you want?"

"Nothing special. I just want to know if you did it on purpose."

"Do what?"

"Don't play dumb. You knew the spiders would attack us from above and you knew the others will be taken away. Why did you say anything?"

She didn't hold any back and asked those sensitive questions without filter. I'm sure those guys must be hearing everything.

[A few constellations frown at your cruelty.]

[A few constellations look at you in a new perspective.]

I stared into her emotionless eyes and answered.

"Kang Manshik and Lee Gyeong are assassins sent by the Mainframe group. I just used the spiders in this place to get rid of them."

"You might have noticed but they tried to put poison in our food on several occasions."

"Tck! I knew those guys were suspicious from the beginning. But why didn't you just kill them if you knew they were trouble?"

"I needed them as bait. For that, they had to stay alive. At least, one of them."

"Why?"

"It's because of the spiders. They have an habit of giving all their catches to their queen, the Mother Spider. Sometimes, their catches might have something rare like an item or even cores."

Yunhee remained silent and listened to everything I was saying.

"I was expecting them to take either Gyeong or Manshik but I didn't expect them to take Jongho and Angelica as well."

"Are you saying you're only after the items?"

"Yes. Although I hope Jongho and Angelica are okay, the items are more important. Are you perhaps disappointed?"

"Nope. Not at all. I think you are more interesting now."

She smiled and released me from the wall. Finally, I was free from the embarrassing position.

"Oh right, one last question."

"What is it?"

"Do you know anything about this world? Your previous actions only points to this direction?"

What an interesting question. This time I couldn't answer honestly so I thought of an appropriate answer before opening my mouth again.

"I wouldn't say I know about our current situation exactly. I'm only familiar with this situation before I read countless novels, that's all."

This was an answer with the the truth hidden among the lines.

"Really? That's it?"

"Yeah."

"I thought you were the reincarnation of a god or something. How boring."

"Me? A god? What a joke. I'm not some extraordinary deity, hero or protagonist. I'm just an ordinary writer, nothing more."

Yunhee paused for a minute before she asked again.

"One more question."

"I thought that was the final question."

"This is the last one. I mean it this time?"

"Okay. Let's hear it."

"At the end of all this, once we clear the Nightmare, is there... something at the end?"

She said while scratching her cheek. Was she perhaps embarrassed.

"Something at the end? You mean something like a wish?"

"Yeah. Something like that."

"I didn't think you were so innocent."

"Sh-shut up. Who are you calling innocent?"

I studied Yunhee's expression very carefully. Although it was not noticeable at first, her poker face trembled slightly.

Everyone adapted to this world in different ways. However, they all had one thing in common. They all suffered in one way or another.

Despite pretending to be tough, she was a rather cute girl underneath the surface.

"In this kind of stories, isn't there always something at the end?"

"I see. I just wanted to know."

After receiving an answer, Yunhee simply walked past me and continued going deeper into the tunnel.

"Hey, are you coming or what?"

"Ah, right."

I hurriedly moved my feet and continued walking as well. I don't know if she noticed my lie or not, but she did not speak to me after that.