Chapter 11: Pyramid

The land was overturned by Gigantes.  

Buildings are embedded in the ground like rock crystals, and places that were plains just a few days ago now rise like mountains.  

Looking at the scene of such a cataclysm, enough to add a new mountain range to the map, Isul clicked her tongue.  

“The range is way too wide.”  

After narrowing and narrowing the predicted activity range of Eclipse, limiting it to the areas where Gigantes appeared.  

A full 70% of the forces the Association could dispatch.  

Even though they brought out a significant number for the search of Eclipse.  

The scale of the upheaval caused by Gigantes made Isul gulp.  

“It would’ve been better if a meteor had hit instead.”  

How are they supposed to search this vast area for Eclipse, who might not even be here?  

Even if they found her, whether they could defeat her was another story entirely.  

Eclipse, one of the Seven Great Bosses, was in a league of her own, having obliterated Gigantes, another of the Seven Great Bosses, in a single strike.  

But.  

“We can’t just not look for her.”  

Just yesterday at noon, something happened.  

The sun was blotted out by darkness.  

The world turned pitch black in a bizarre phenomenon.  

And in that moment.  

Isul, without any magic or sci-fi equipment, was exposed to the darkness, but she could distinctly feel one thing.  

As a martial artist ranked 6th in the world and 2nd in swordsmanship, her senses were sharp.  

At that moment, the darkness surrounding her felt like hundreds of swords poised to strike her down.  

If the master of the darkness had given a single command, she would have been mercilessly slaughtered on the spot.  

‘Luckily, nothing happened, but…’  

Just because it happened once doesn’t mean it won’t happen again.  

Isul wasn’t foolish enough to let her guard down just because she got lucky once.  

At any moment, if Eclipse willed it, humanity could face the threat of extinction.  

‘We have to catch her before another eclipse occurs.’  

The search was already underway worldwide.  

Especially in Germany, where the Association had become what it was, they were searching with desperate intensity.  

She couldn’t afford to be careless either.  

Isul gave the order to the hunters she had brought.  

“Everyone, begin the search. Prioritize the surrounding urban areas where she could hide.”  

Fortunately, the mountains created by Gigantes were mostly barren rock mountains. That would be handled by hunters with shuttles or aircraft.  

After giving the order, Isul began her own search.  

And where she passed by.  

There was a faint trace of warmth left behind by a dark-haired girl who had already departed.  

***

“So, you’re saying that because the other kids took all the Association’s hunters, I didn’t have anyone to bring with me? They should’ve at least left me one! They even took the mid-to-lower-ranked hunters! What kind of law is that? Huh? Dictatorship is bad, you know!”  

Pressing down on her witch hat in frustration, Helena pouted.  

Then, glancing at me, she cautiously patted my head.  

“Hehe, but maybe it’s a blessing in disguise? What’s your name, by the way?”  

“Call me Lia,” I replied vaguely, observing Helena closely.  

She was still smiling brightly, seemingly in a good mood for some reason.  

She didn’t seem inclined to remove the cloth covering her mouth, so I left it alone, but her smile didn’t fade.  

As I stared at her blankly, Helena shrugged her shoulders and cheerfully exclaimed,  

“Hehe, let’s go then!”  

Helena waved her hand in a circular motion toward the air.  

At the same time.  

Whoooosh—  

The circle she drew began to grow, emitting a strange sound.  

As it expanded, the inside of the circle became increasingly transparent.  

Inside the wormhole.  

A desert with swirling sandstorms and a massive square pyramid structure.  

The pyramid came into view.  

Stepping through the circular portal,  

“Hehe. Here we are!”  

The terrain changed in an instant, and we arrived in the middle of the desert.  

“How’s that? I may not look like it, but I’m the 5th-ranked mage in the world!”  

Helena shrugged her shoulders proudly. Watching her, I gently touched the shrinking circle.  

[Distortion (EX)]  

A skill that appeared after the eclipse incident.  

‘Definitely.’  

I recalled the days of Another World – the KR server.  

Another World – KR Server  

[Hey, you crazy game company]  

When designing character skills,  

I was excited about adding teleportation,  

(Photo of Eclipse in Phase 2 teleporting behind the character)  

But who the hell thought of giving it to the boss?  

Cancel that pattern and add a blink skill to martial artists too, damn it.  

LOL  

“Anyway, it happened.” 

“Martial artists have Qinggong, you know.”

“Mages use teleport, and spaceships use warp, right?” 

“Yeah, we’re just walkers.”  

“Isn’t Eclipse hugging you from behind actually a reward?”  

“Your character gets crushed and dies, what kind of reward is that?”  

“It means she hugged you that hard~”

(Hug me! Kon)  

As I reminisced about the in-game scenes of Eclipse, I heard Helena muttering.  

“That’s strange, we were supposed to meet here.”  

Beside the massive pyramid in the desert, there were tents clustered together.  

Pointing at them, Helena continued.  

“We were supposed to meet hunters from other countries here. Did they go into the dungeon first?”  

Unlike in the game, in reality, dungeon entrances don’t disappear, so they might have gone in for a brief exploration, Helena explained.  

But there wasn’t a single person left in the tents.  

“Where is everyone…”  

And then.  

At that moment.  

“Visitors.”  

Boom—  

Despite the desert being made entirely of sand, the ground rumbled.  

A windless desert.  

Yet, a sandstorm suddenly arose.  

Helena and I turned around.  

A human head with a lion’s body.  

The width of a football field, the height of about ten stories.  

A massive stone statue made entirely of rock approached and spoke.  

“What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?”  

“Huh, huh?”  

Thud.

Helena stared at the Sphinx, flustered.  

As the Sphinx raised its massive front paw, urging her, Helena quickly shouted an answer.  

“A human!”  

“Wrong. That is incorrect.”  

As the Sphinx brought its paw down, the space twisted.  

Helena hastily cast a spell, but only sparks flew.  

“Huh, huh? Ahhh!”  

Helena’s figure distorted and blurred.  

At the same time, I felt a human form being created in the darkness inside the pyramid.  

Falling from the air to the ground, someone clutching their buttocks.  

‘Were they moved inside the pyramid?’  

I closed my eyes and focused my senses.  

In the darkness of the pyramid, faintly visible figures.  

A figure presumed to be Helena rolled away from a massive sphere, and hunters who seemed to have fallen victim to the Sphinx were fleeing headless creatures in panic.  

I recalled the window from the days of Another World.  

Another World – KR Server  

[Ah, f***]  

(Photo of the Sphinx suddenly appearing on the screen)  

Some lion-faced bastard suddenly asks a weird question,  

(Screenshot of a dark screen)  

The screen goes dark,  

(Photo of a character turned into a hedgehog by arrows)  

So I mashed the arrow keys, and this happened.  

What the hell is this?  

Did my monitor break?  

Did my character get bugged or something?  

LOL  

Don’t worry, you just got hit by a trap inside the pyramid and died.  

Then why did the screen go dark?  

It’s dark inside the pyramid, you know.  

Realism, damn it.  

“Dungeons have themes for each location.”

“The pyramid theme is traps.”  

“You just got kidnapped by a random lion and died.”  

“See? Easy, right?”  

“Easy? My brain is about to disappear, damn it.”  

[So what’s the answer?]  

Isn’t the Sphinx’s answer “human”?  

Four legs in the morning, two at noon, three in the evening.  

It’s human, right?  

(Photo of the Sphinx swatting the character with its paw)  

Why does it keep saying no, you crazy lion-faced bastard?  

“There’s no answer to that.” 

“Really?”

“A crazy lion with no answer asks a question with no answer, damn it.” 

“The Sphinx is the guardian of the pyramid, right? It sends all the grave robbers hanging around outside inside.”  

“? Shouldn’t it send them out? Why send them in?”  

“To make them die from traps, duh.”

“You’re crazy, change your name from guardian to kidnapper.”  

“But you have to get kidnapped there to enter anyway.” 

Boom boom—  

Despite being in the desert, the ground rumbled.  

Approaching me was a human-faced, lion-bodied stone statue, dozens of meters tall.  

It posed the question.  

“Now, visitor, what walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?”  

“….”

…Should I just kill it?  

But if I kill the Sphinx, I can’t enter the pyramid, can I?

A moment of silence.

Then, Helena spat out the correct answer as it was.

“The answer is human.”

“Excellent, that’s correct.”

The Sphinx nodded as if confirming the answer and gestured for them to leave now.

Then, turning around, the Sphinx began to slowly walk away.

“…?”

Didn’t Helena get kidnapped earlier for saying “human”?

I quickly check the spear again.

[So what should I say to the Sphinx to get the correct answer?]

Huh? 

What?

That’s not an answer.

Damn it.

Just tell a dad joke or something.

Look here.

You’ll get kicked by its front paw and fly away.

I looked at the Sphinx again and spoke clearly.

“Human.”

“A splendid answer. Now, you may go.”

I stared blankly at the Sphinx.

“Let me in.”

“Impossible.”

The Sphinx swung its front paw in front of me, scattering sand as if telling me to get lost.

“Greedy darkness. Was the shame of the past not enough? Now you dare to covet the Pharaoh’s treasures, your greed knows no bounds!”

“I didn’t do anything.”

Whoosh

The sand scattered by the Sphinx’s paw hit my face.

“Darkness, this is sacred ground, a place where blasphemous darkness like you has no right to enter. Your entry is forbidden.”

Ssshh

A pile of sand trickled down my clothes and hair.

Huh? 

A silly laugh escaped my lips without me realizing it.

Can I ask a question too? 

If two people want to share a statue with a human face and a lion’s body, how should they do it? 

Hey,

“I don’t know. Now leave, darkness.”

The Sphinx waved its paw up and down, uninterested, and walked back the way it came.

Then, the girl called darkness smiled and uttered the answer.

“Split the Sphinx.”

A shadow rose from below.

The Sphinx’s body was split in two.

A sudden night fell upon the desert where the sun was scorching.

The darkness slowly covered a corner of the pyramid.

[Distortion (EX)]

Crack-

A crack appeared in one of the bricks that built the pyramid.

The space where the rectangular brick was distorted and-

Crash

Circle, spiral, hook, etc.

Transforming into bizarre shapes, it formed a giant crater.

The girl with jet-black hair shone her amber eyes and smiled cutely, then raised her hand and cheerfully shouted.

“Wow, thanks for opening the door! I’ll take a look around!”

And grab some free souvenirs while I’m at it.

The girl with jet-black hair hopped and jumped into the dark abyss of the collapsed pyramid.

A dark, narrow, and long passage.

It looked somewhat like a corridor.

A man walking through the steep, narrow passage was seriously shining a flashlight on a phrase.

[IV. If there is an uphill path, immediately take a fork. If there is no fork, crouch down and protect your head as much as possible.]

“Bullshit.”

The man, an A-class hero dispatched from America to obtain artifacts from the 7 Wonders Dungeon.

Dave spat out a curse and hastily threw himself towards a nearby path.

Rumble-

At the same time, a huge rock rolled down with a loud noise from the path he was just on.

Seeing this, Dave swallowed hard.

He muttered a single word mixed with frustration.

“Damn Sphinx.”

I’m sure we were well-prepared.

Recalling the Sphinx that suddenly appeared and scattered the players gathered to conquer the pyramid, Dave bit his lip tightly.

“If only I were with the other players. Or at least if this damn darkness wasn’t here.”

Not a single torch existed inside the pyramid.

The only thing to rely on was the flashlight in his hand.

Sighing, wishing at least for some visibility, he shone the flashlight around.

[II. The right corridor is a thorny path, so proceed through the left passage.]

[III. Item II is false. The right corridor is normal, and the left passage has arrow traps, so proceed to the right.]

“Bullshit. Really.”

Dave frowned.

Rumble

And the sound started to come from both sides.

As if urging a choice, the approaching walls oppressed his mind.

With that, Dave hurriedly entered a nearby passage and recalled information about the dungeon.

[7 Wonders Dungeon Labyrinth Trap, Pyramid]

Long ago, a tomb built to honor a great king who led the prosperity of an ancient civilization, the pyramid,

After carving, shaping, and stacking stones, people stored numerous treasures inside, wishing for the eternal peace of the great king.

A tomb born with everyone’s blessings.

However, fragrant flowers always attract bugs.

The numerous treasures buried in the pyramid where the Pharaoh was laid to rest.

Countless grave robbers gathered, and the great king’s body was damaged and desecrated in the process.

The king’s soul, blessed by all, could not find peace even in death.

The blessings turned into curses, and the tomb transformed into a den of countless traps for those who disturbed its peace.

An ancient labyrinth of endless traps, the pyramid.

Intruder who strayed into its depths out of greed.

Avoid the hundreds of traps lurking inside. Survive.

<Another World- Pyramid Record>

“Damn it, where are the intruders in this damn dungeon?”

I didn’t even come here willingly; the Sphinx shoved me in from outside.

Grumbling, Dave dodged the raining arrows.

Crash-

At the same time, a loud explosion sound came from somewhere in the pyramid.

‘Another hunter caught up in this? Tsk, tough luck.’

The loud noise that reached him through the thick walls of the pyramid.

If the sound reached him from such a distance, it must have meant death or severe injury.

A look of pity briefly crossed Dave’s face.

But that was short-lived; any further sentiment was a luxury for him now.

Ssshh

For some reason, the darkness grew thicker.

The flashlight in his hand began to flicker. 

And

Crash

Soon after, an even louder explosion shook the pyramid from where the previous noise had come.

‘Sigh, so traps like that exist too.’

Sighing at the horrific sound.

Dave hurriedly ran towards the exit, avoiding the approaching traps.