Chapter 4: 4

There were more than just vicious monsters in the underground world. If there were predators, there would be prey.

The monster the crew had just faced was prey. Its blood had splattered everywhere after the battle. Predators were bound to notice its smell.

“Never step in the blood on the floor. Let’s back off,” Kim Jin-Woo calmly said to the crew members, who were stamping their feet anxiously with pale faces. He continued, “Don’t run. They’re still far away.”

“B-But we can hear it so loudly,” someone said.

“Every sound echoes underground. Judging from this noise, it should take them at least 20 minutes to arrive,” Kim Jin-Woo replied.

In other words, the approaching monsters were heavy and vicious enough that their footsteps could be heard 20 minutes away. However, Kim Jin-Woo didn’t share this information with the rest of the crew. There was no need to make them even more anxious.

“Let’s move,” Kim Jin-Woo ordered. Even the bodyguards who had given him defiant looks earlier seemed to be overwhelmed by his echoing voice. They followed his instructions without a word. The crew briskly walked behind them. The cameraman, however, kept glancing at his shoes.

“What are you doing? Aren’t you going?” Jang Yoon-Joo asked. The cameraman rubbed his shoes against the floor and soon began to follow the crowd.

Kim Jin-Woo initially moved at a walking pace, but his speed gradually increased until he was close to sprinting. He didn’t appear to be putting in any effort, but the rest were dying to keep up with him.

“S-Slow down a little!” someone cried.

“If you want to see the source of the sound for yourself, then go ahead,” Kim Jin-Woo remarked.

The crew’s stubborn attitude was the root cause of this problem. Kim Jin-Woo naturally wouldn’t be so nice to them anymore. As he ran, he explained that the under-beasts were easily attracted to the scent of the monster’s blood after it had been torn apart by the bodyguards. Under his sharp glare, the bodyguards wore more solemn expressions than earlier.

Everyone sweated profusely under the thick clothes that were meant to protect them from the chill of the underground world. Still, none of them had the luxury to complain, because the rumbling echoes behind their backs refused to disappear even after they ran for a long time.

Of course, Kim Jin-Woo noticed something first. He stopped in his tracks as his nostrils puffed open. He looked back at the others, and he saw them sprawled on the floor in the midst of catching their breaths. They obviously had no clue what had gone wrong.

“Damn it!” he swore. He stomped toward the cameraman after observing the group members.

The cameraman bent down as he coughed. He was startled by Kim Jin-Woo’s sudden arrival, and couldn’t help but stumble backward.

“Didn’t I warn you to not step in the blood earlier?” Kim Jin-Woo asked.

The cameraman, intimidated by Kim Jin-Woo’s ferocious glare, unconsciously withdrew his foot and feigned ignorance. Kim Jin-Woo simply bent down and took the cameraman’s shoe off his foot. An ugly expression suffused his face when he discovered the crimson-red stains on the sole of the shoe.

“I accidentally stepped on it while filming…” the cameraman began.

What an excuse. He had warned them so many times before. Why was the cameraman playing with their lives? How could he benefit from it?

Kim Jin-Woo retained his composure as he coldly explained their current situation to everyone. “We would’ve already lost them by now, but it’s too late. It would be more troublesome to handle them now. We have no choice but to continue to run.”

The crew members were already struggling to breathe. Their faces turned black upon hearing his words.

“I-I can’t go any further.” Jang Yoon-Joo collapsed onto the cold floor with a ‘whatever happens, happens’ attitude.

Kim Jin-Woo looked at her, briefly speechless. After a moment, he explained, “Under-beasts have never been merciful to their prey. They like fresh meat. They dig out the soft intestines and tear the tender flesh off their prey’s limbs. The heart is then saved for last.”

Jang Yoon-Joo quickly stood up, her face pale. There was nothing special about Kim Jin-Woo’s words, but she still felt a shiver down her spine as she thought of herself in that situation. 

“We can’t run much longer anyway. We would rather fight back than be caught...” The bodyguards finally stepped forward after keeping their mouths shut out of guilt. They were quite confident after seeing the power of their modified hunting rifles earlier.

“It’s useless. You’re making a huge mistake if you think what we’re about to face is like that monster that died earlier. That can hardly be called an under-beast. It lies at the bottom of the food chain.”

Humans often tended to have blind faith in their beliefs. That was the reason for the stalemate.

Everyone was tired. Their legs kept shaking, and their breathing could hardly be controlled. Therefore, the crew members decided to disregard the truth.

It just happened that they had bodyguards to fight on their behalf. In addition, these bodyguards had demonstrated their abilities and managed to take down a huge monster in a blink of an eye. It was to be expected for them to put their faith in the armed bodyguards, rather than deciding to run to the point of vomiting.

“What do we do?” one of the armed bodyguards asked confidently, thinking that they had the upper hand in this situation.

Kim Jin-Woo opened and closed his mouth several times. But in the end, he realized they wouldn’t be convinced no matter how many times he explained the reality of their situation.

‘Jin-Woo...’

He suddenly recalled his mother grabbing his hands tightly, tears welling up in her eyes. He could vividly picture her wrinkled face, pleading with him not to engage in any dangerous activities.

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Then, her image was pushed aside by that of Kim Hyun-Ji, who couldn’t even express her delight and instead wept in remorse when she received the 15 million won from him.

Kim Jin-Woo remembered the remaining 13 million won that he had yet to receive and chewed his lips. Even at this very moment, the footsteps of the unknown monsters continued to come closer and closer to them. 

He hadn’t had a choice from the very beginning. 

If he had the power to choose his own destiny, he would choose to have not been born as a dungeon baby. Furthermore, he wouldn’t have had to step into the underground world again, which he wished to escape from no matter the consequences.

13 million won was only spare change to those who traveled back and forth from the fifth floor and beyond. However, it was a considerable sum of money to Kim Jin-Woo’s family, which was on the verge of bankruptcy.

“Follow my orders,” he barked. He  knew how meaningless those words were, but he still snatched a machete from one of the crew members.

***

The monsters were smart. They knew how powerless humans were in the dark.

The sound that echoed in the underground tunnel seemed to fade when the light bulbs on the ceiling began to break one by one. The darkness gradually crept up on the group, and the rash bodyguards pulled their triggers once again.

Soon, they had to pay for their actions...

After they exhausted the few bullets in their magazines, the bodyguards were dragged away by furred hands that suddenly emerged from the dark. The monsters’ forearms were horribly long and crude. Razor-sharp claws pierced into the collarbones of the armed bodyguards like hooks and pulled them away. 

And thus, the nightmare of the crew members began.

Kim Jin-Woo couldn’t prevent their deaths, as too many hands had emerged from the dark. The monsters were far too overwhelming in numbers and viciousness. He couldn’t save every crew member that sat absent-mindedly or ran away on their own in a panic. Therefore, he chose to save Jang Yoon-Joo alone.

“Sob… Sob!” Jang Yoon-Joo wailed as Kim Jin-Woo carried her on his back. She coughed in agony whenever he moved forward, but he didn’t care.

Their plans had been ruined the moment the bodyguards were killed. Kim Jin-Woo wasn’t sure whether he could still get the promised pay, but even that slight possibility would vanish if Jang Yoon-Joo died.

He put her down after running for a long time. He hadn’t planned on putting her down at first, but Jang Yoon-Joo’s legs gave way as she stumbled onto the floor. Her confident face from before was nowhere to be seen. Instead, she was a complete mess, her face smudged with tears and snot.

Kim Jin-Woo gave her a perplexed look as she stared vacantly ahead instead of getting up as fast as she could. Soon afterward, he observed the passageway they had just passed through with a stern look.

They had to run toward the exit on the right. There was no point in going to the second floor of the labyrinth when Jang Yoon-Joo was the only survivor from the film crew.

However, he knew that he had taken the wrong way. But that didn’t mean he was lost. Rather, they had been chased into a corner. The ferocious and violent monsters had intelligently cut off their path of retreat, and they had been surrounded.

It was shocking—but it wasn’t unexpected if one thought about it. Anything could happen in the labyrinth.

The situation seemed bleak. Not only did Kim Jin-Woo have a burden to take care of, but their paths had also been obstructed.

To be honest, the monsters on the first floor were nothing to him. But Kim Jin-Woo wore a stiff expression nonetheless, because the furry forearms that he saw definitely didn’t belong to the typical first-floor monsters he knew of.

He took the camera from Jang Yoon-Joo, who had somehow managed to bring it along, to confirm that he wasn’t mistaken.

Bang!

Arghhh!

The hook-like claws and black forearms, almost two meters long, reached out from the dark. The armed bodyguard who had acted condescendingly to Kim Jin-Woo was dragged away, his collarbone pierced through with a claw like a butcher’s hook. 

Help me!

The armed bodyguard shouted for help with a look of agony and fear. But Kim Jin-Woo focused on what was behind him. Dozens of red pupils glowed in the dark.

Kim Jin-Woo stared intently at the screen. He could see the monsters’ appearance hidden behind their glowing eyes. The monsters resembled orangutans at first glance, but they were much more hideous and abhorrent.

Kim Jin-Woo realized his speculation was spot on when he saw the monsters climbing the ceiling, embedding their claws into the walls. He only knew of one species of monster that looked like an orangutan with a red comb of hair spread across the center of their foreheads. But those monsters were never supposed to appear on the first floor.

Had the food chain changed ever since he had stopped visiting the labyrinth? Those vicious monsters, that could previously only be found rarely on the fifth floor, were now lurking barely a day’s travel from the entrance to the surface.

“Damn it!” Kim Jin-Woo cursed as he roughly lifted the weeping Jang Yoon-Joo off the floor. He carried her on his shoulder like a knapsack as began to move once more.

Those monsters would never give up. They were tenacious predators that would never let their prey go once they had their eyes on them.

Kim Jin-Woo’s eyes, however, were glistening even in such a difficult situation. After all, he was a dungeon baby who had been born and raised below the tenth floor, and he had emerged alive from the whole ordeal...

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