While Amon was rolling through the “Howling Darkness” dungeon.
It had been exactly a month since he had a run-in with the janitors.
At a corporate plaza in California.
The place, where skyscrapers of numerous major corporations and conglomerates formed a forest, was peaceful again today.
Although countless people were dying in alleyways where no light reached, and horrific, unimaginable acts were taking place inside buildings, at least the plaza, where lights shone, remained peaceful.
Even though the corporate elites, often referred to as predators, could easily meet their end in this wild place, today, just like any other day, all the businessmen lived on, unable to die.
And, as usual.
Taaang!
A middle-aged man with a nameplate that read “Manager Grayson” met a futile death as a hole opened in his forehead.
“Dispose of the body.”
At the young man’s command, two huge figures with six eyes each carried the manager’s body out of the office.
The man clenched the nameplate on his desk as though trying to crush it.
The nameplate that read “Vice President – Shaunlai Daito” crumbled in his grip.
The man pressed his temples with the button of a pen, stifling his rage.
Only after some time had passed did he pick up the phone.
[Yes, this is Kaiku from the Beta Team in the security office.]
“Congratulations. You’re a manager now.”
The newly promoted manager, Kaiku, could barely manage a smile.
If he didn’t produce the results Vice President Daito wanted within the next month, he would be “honorably retired.”
The previous two managers had already retired, and now it was his turn.
The sweat or cold water that soaked the chrome material of the manager’s nameplate was a testament to the discomfort Kaiku was feeling.
Whether Daito understood the manager’s feelings was unclear, but he coldly muttered into the phone.
“Your predecessor… his cleaners disappeared a day before he made the report. By the time the investigation started, there was no evidence left.”
“He must have been tired from overtime. So, we let him retire as a kind gesture. He was an optimist, that one.”
“The next manager was actually quite competent. He was the one who figured out, right from the start, that the ‘Dungeon’ and the Daegeup Corporation were behind it all. But after that, there’s been no progress. How do you feel about that?”
[It was due to neglecting duties, I believe.]
“Neglecting duties… indeed. Neglecting duties isn’t something we tolerate in our company, is it?”
[That’s right.]
“I hope you’re diligent.”
[Understood.]
The vice president hung up the phone.
Now a manager, Kaiku ran his hand over his face, his thoughts in turmoil.
‘Where was he supposed to even start? What was he supposed to do?’
There were no CCTV cameras inside the dungeon, and even at the upper levels, the signals were weak.
In the first place, this was a place where people and bullets exchanged, leaving no traces behind.
Hospital records? If the cleaners hadn’t hurt them, they probably wouldn’t have even gone to the hospital.
This was America, after all.
People here didn’t go to the hospital for something as serious as a severed limb; they just used folk remedies.
‘As for the testimonies of explorers who had gone through the dungeon?’
‘How many explorers had been hurt and died there? How could you possibly filter out useful testimony from that?’
That was why the company preferred to use the dungeon to dispose of people.
The former manager had at least made a plausible assumption that the company might be behind it all, given the lack of evidence, but it hadn’t led to any concrete results.
***
As a result, a month later, the former manager retired, and Kaiku was promoted.
Kaiku, now a manager, tugged at his hair in frustration.
He had one month left to live.
He needed to come up with something, anything, to get results.
‘Daito, that damn bastard!’
Kaiku half-sobbed, flipping through meaningless manual lists.
His predecessors had done the same thing, but there was nothing else to do.
However, one thing none of the previous managers had considered was that although the company was behind this incident, it wasn’t that the company had gone out of its way to erase the evidence.
It was just that Amon had been injured in the dungeon but received treatment through the Vatican with the funds of the Three Dollar Group, which caused a discrepancy.
Because the hospital records only showed that an unidentified Vatican Templar had treated him, they couldn’t even dream of cross-referencing those records with Amon’s.
And since neither the Vatican nor the Three Dollar Group had actively erased Amon’s traces, no artificial evidence had been destroyed.
As a result, Amon got away with it, while unfortunately for the Shaunlai Group, they never even realized the presence of Amon’s party.
Still, Kaiku was narrowing down his suspects.
‘The party is hiding their tracks too well. Like trained soldiers. There’s a high chance they’re sponsored by a corporation.’
Of course, it was a wild guess.
The bigger issue, though, was that there were about ten parties like that.
But ten wasn’t impossible.
‘Damn it. Should I just kidnap and torture them?’
Kaiku was out of options.
With only a month left to live, he had no time to be picky.
Sure, he could end up getting killed by the party during a counterattack, but at this point, there wasn’t much of a difference between dying here or dying later.
Finally, Kaiku, despite his lack of intelligence, chose the most straightforward method.
***
It had been one month and three weeks since the cleaners disappeared.
In that time, Kaiku had kidnapped and tortured any party he suspected, including ex-soldiers, in the hope of finding some clues.
After many rounds of torture, he finally discovered the party that had once encountered the cleaners.
“Sha… sha… I swear…”
A young man, his teeth gone, begged with his face smeared with tears and snot.
He was an explorer, a tanned, blonde man.
Kaiku checked the young man’s rank.
Gold Rank.
Rank wasn’t a measure of skill, but it was a measure of trust, and a high rank generally meant the person had some skill.
Kaiku checked his brainwaves.
“Did you encounter the cleaners?”
“Yes…”
“Did you kill them?”
“Yes… but I really didn’t know anything!”
“Quiet. That’s not important.”
The truth came through the brainwaves.
After verifying all the alibis, Kaiku found that this tanned mercenary had indeed encountered the cleaners and had even fought them.
What information he had gotten from the cleaners didn’t matter.
The fact was, he had almost reached the Shaunlai Group’s Achilles’ heel, and for that, he would die.
“Dispose of him.”
“Shall we begin?”
The manager wiped the blood off his hands and reported his results.
The vice president, after reading the report, expressed his satisfaction.
“Well done, Manager Kaiku.”
Upon hearing the vice president’s praise, Kaiku let out a sigh of relief.
It felt as though the bomb collar around his neck had fallen off.
Only then could Kaiku fully appreciate the joy of his promotion.
Kaiku was young.
Perhaps this incident was not misfortune, but an opportunity.
No, it definitely was.
‘I grabbed that opportunity.’
There was no mourning for the previous managers who died in vain, nor for the subordinates sent to the scene to find the culprit, nor for the explorers who died during their tortures.
To Kaiku, they were just stepping stones for his promotion.
‘At this rate, becoming a department head, no, even an assistant manager is not a far-off dream.’
He had plenty of time left.
He was confident in his abilities.
With his anti-aging treatments, by the time he reached middle age, aiming for assistant manager was no unrealistic dream.
Kaiku leaned back in his chair with satisfaction.
***
One week later, on the second month since the janitors went missing.
[Intruder detected in the Dungeon Bunker!]
With this report, Kaiku’s vision flipped upside down.
Dragged out by the six-eyed bodyguards, Kaiku was coldly watched by the vice president, who broke his nameplate in half.
While his hands trembled violently, his voice remained ice cold.
“Send the security team. All of them.”
The two hulking bodyguards, without saying a word, nodded and left the room.
Left alone in the room, the vice president screamed.
“Ahhh!”
Crash!
He slammed his desk in half.
Then, with tear-filled eyes, he took out a red pill from his pocket.
The red pill, marked with a warning: <Handle with Care>.
A pill that would lead to his honorable retirement if swallowed.
The vice president stared at the pill with trembling hands and muttered.
“It’s not time yet… How did I get this far…”
In the debris on the floor, he found the portfolio that had brought him to this point.
The file titled <Top Secret – Dungeon Phone Project> was clutched to his chest as he muttered almost desperately.
“No… it’s really not time yet… Master… please give me just one more chance…”
For someone who ruled the city with fear, his behavior seemed far too human, and the security chief, who had been observing him, clicked his tongue and turned off the screen.
As the security team rushed toward the dungeon, Amon’s party was spending a peaceful time in the Lich’s chamber.
“Arrrgh!”
“I told you. One body, one finger.”
“Um, Amon, the Lich’s fingers are already gone.”
“Then just cauterize the stump.”
“AAARGH!”
Despite the protests of the dual-class mage, Amon diligently cauterized the stump of the Lich’s severed hand.
He continued with his work, using the Lich’s screams as a melody.
The mute sniper, watching, sent a telepathic message to Amon.
[We’ve already gathered all the information. Don’t you think it’s enough? The Shun lai Group’s security team will be here soon. We should leave.]
“It’s too late to run now. They’ve already figured out we’re here. It’s better to take them down before they realize our full capabilities.”
Leaving the dungeon would naturally update the information on Amon’s party, and the enemies would gain at least some information about them.
But if Amon’s party remained inside, the security team would regard them as an ‘unknown explorer party’ and approach them accordingly.
“Plus, we have the advantage of terrain and defenders.”
The security team didn’t know the dungeon.
They might have 3D maps, but there’s a huge difference between studying the maps and actually moving through the terrain.
And the ones waiting could set traps in advance.
“Look over there. Vox is already setting up landmines nearby.”
Of course, the security team wasn’t stupid, and most of the traps would be neutralized, but the mere presence of traps would eat away at their morale.
Amon stopped torturing the Lich and began preparing for the upcoming security team’s arrival.
Direct confrontation was a bad idea.
They were outmatched in firepower and tanking.
Therefore, Amon and Cassie decided to move around the dungeon to confront the security team, while the rest of the party stayed in the bunker to hold off.
“Do you think we’ll make it out alive?”
While wandering the dungeon, Cassie murmured.
Amon silently took her hand.
Despite the cold sensation from her gloves, it gave her an unexpected sense of relief.
Soon, footsteps were heard.
The security team from Shun lai Group appeared, their rifles drawn, scanning the dungeon as they descended to the lowest floor.
They passed by Amon and Cassie, not realizing they were hiding among the undead corpses.
The two remained silent until the last security team passed.
After the third team passed, they didn’t pursue.
Time seemed to stretch on forever.
Boom!
A vibration shook the lower floors.
Eventually, two more teams joined the first three.
Only then did Amon and Cassie emerge from the pile of corpses.
They moved downward.
To use makeshift hammers.
As soon as the security team reached the bunker’s entrance, they tensed as they saw the torn door and entered the room.
However, inside, there was only the Lich, who had lost all its limbs.
“Ugh…! Ugh!”
The Lich, gagged, tried to speak.
The Alpha team leader instructed one of his subordinates to check the Lich and then ordered a full search of the room.
Without thinking, the subordinate removed the gag.
The first words the Lich said, once freed, were:
“It’s a trap!”
At that moment, Alpha team’s focus shifted entirely to the Lich.
That split-second distraction proved to be fatal.
Boom!
A claymore, aimed at the center of the bunker, exploded.
In an instant, the Alpha team was wiped out.
Then, from behind a shield with optical camouflage, Amon’s party emerged.
[Only six?]
“All the tripwires in the corridor have been disarmed.”
“Tch.”
There was no time for complaints.
The beastman tank set up a barricade at the bunker entrance, while the heavy gunners and mages fired bullets and bombs down the corridor.
The straight corridor was the ideal structure for a siege.
Occasionally, any enemies who ignored the bullets and charged forward were stopped by the mute sniper’s powerful shot.
Thanks to this, the four members left in the bunker were able to hold their ground.
However, that wouldn’t last long.
While the explorers were indeed quite skilled, they were no match for the well-equipped security team backed by a major corporation.
***
As time passed, it became clear that Amon’s party was losing ground.
“Damn it. Where’s the hammer team?”
The dual-class mage cursed, having long since lost his formal tone.
“It had already been 30 minutes.”
“If the hammer team had attacked the rear, the security team’s assault wouldn’t be this fierce.”
“Have they been wiped out?”
The buffalo tanker grew pessimistic.
[Maybe they abandoned us and ran.]
The sniper sneered as she loaded her next round.
The ogre, who had been emphasizing loyalty, remained silent.
In truth, his silence agreed with the sniper’s comment.
The remaining four in the bunker couldn’t deny it.
It would have been ideal if the hammer team attacked from behind, but if they didn’t, there was no reason for them to not abandon the rest.
If the hammer team was wiped out, Shunlai Group would chalk this up as a solved case, and Amon and Cassie would simply clean their records and live a carefree life.
Once the pessimistic thoughts spread, they quickly grew within the group.
And then—
[I should have just joined the hammer team and escaped.]
The sniper’s thoughts, which had overwhelmed her, spread to her teammates via telepathy.
The loss of mental composure quickly led to physical breakdowns.
The sniper, losing her calm, failed to take cover properly and was shot in the shoulder.
“Ugh!”
The buffalo tanker now had more weight to carry, and a gap appeared in their barricade, which allowed an enemy sniper to hit the mage, blinding him.
“I can’t see! Someone give me orders!”
The strongest of the group, the buffalo tank, continued to block the entrance, while the ogre, blinded, fired randomly into the hallway, holding the line.
However, it was only a matter of time before they ran out of ammo.
At the moment when the hammer team seemed ready to be wiped out, the buffalo tank called out.
“Cease fire!”
The ogre, unable to see, and the mage and sniper, now wounded, couldn’t understand why the buffalo tank had shouted.
But they soon realized the reason.
The moment the buffalo tank spoke, the enemy’s assault suddenly stopped.
Instead, from the end of the corridor, the sound of screams, shouting, gunfire, and an occasional—
“Amon!!!”
The familiar battle cry rang out.
Soon, all the noise ceased, and the hammer team peeked their heads out from the bunker.
At the end of the corridor, familiar faces appeared.
The buffalo tank smiled widely, showing his gums, and shouted:
“You’re late!”
Next to the wounded Cassie, Amon, his left shoulder drooping, weakly responded.
“It’s not that easy to do an assassination without being noticed.”
In the end, they were discovered, but—
With that mutter, Amon collapsed into Cassie’s arms.
The party members, who had been watching, rushed to help him, dragging their injured bodies.
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