Chapter 36: One Hundred Bastards

Five minutes.

That was the total time it took Raive to wrap up Hazel’s wound. It was also how long it took Hazel to explain the situation to him.

"So your parents are being held captive on the first floor?" Raive confirmed.

"Yes." She nodded firmly. "I tried to sneak them out, but I was caught by the leader of these bastards, getting shot through the shoulder in the process."

In short, she’d been shot before she could even lay eyes on the enemy, let alone use her ability!

And with the wound stinging badly, she couldn’t focus enough to keep her ability from fizzling out whenever she tried. She had no choice but to run for safety.

The people Raive met along the way turned out to be the ones sent to sweep every floor searching for her. He’d gotten lucky—they’d just finished checking the fifth floor when he arrived, basically in the nick of time.

After hearing this, Raive quickly stood up and dusted himself off.

"Then let’s go fuck them all up and save your parents!" He said.

However.

"No, wait!" Hazel tugged at his sleeve, stopping him in his tracks. "We can’t head straight there. The enemy’s far too strong for us to face!"

"Too strong...?"

Raive couldn’t believe her words.

Hazel was strong enough to be called the top fighter in their group, and here she was, calling the enemy "strong." There was no way Raive would let that slide.

"Yes, they’re strong." Hazel nodded. "Apparently, they found a way to clear a green dungeon repeatedly, farming its loot fast."

"...!"

A way to farm dungeons. In other words, they had a method to keep it open, or reset it after clearing instead of letting it fade away!

Hearing that, Raive figured whoever was behind it needed to be captured too.

Of course, compared to this group, who hoarded the loot for their own elite few, Raive didn’t plan anything like that. He would just collect everything, consume everything himself, and load to let the loot redistribute to others.

Technically, he wouldn’t be touching any loot at all!

"Then all the more reason to fuck them up now!" The information, rather than making him wary, only made him more determined. "Don’t worry, just stay with your parents and give me cover fire with this."

"T-This is..."

The item Hazel received was one she knew well.

A sniper rifle.

And at the maximum distance inside a building, as long as the user wasn’t inexperienced with guns, it was basically impossible to miss a shot. Hazel cocked the lever, chambering a new bullet while pushing out the previous one, then caught it mid-air.

She stared at the 7.62 in her hand, then smiled.

"Alright. I can use this!"

"Great."

It was Raive’s first time seeing her smile, though he didn’t bother mentioning it. Instead, they slipped out of the room and headed downstairs.

From the information Hazel gave, they knew the rough location of the enemy. As such, they could also move to a separate staircase furthest from them, avoiding sporadic skirmishes on the way.

Even if a few members of the "Sine Gang," per Hazel’s info, crossed their path, Raive silenced them without alerting anyone else.

It was basically a stealth mission from then on.

About ten minutes passed before they finally reached the first floor.

Raive used a small hand mirror to check the hallway’s corners before stepping out. Nobody was there.

"Everyone must’ve been sent upstairs to block my escape," Hazel whispered with conviction. "They only have around a hundred members, after all. They can’t cover the whole apartment with so few."

"A hundred..."

Raive paused, thinking.

On the way to the sixth floor, he’d killed roughly seventy of them. From the sixth floor to the ground floor, they’d taken down another twenty or so. In other words, if Hazel’s numbers were accurate...

"So only ten remain."

"What?"

"Nothing."

Raive hadn’t told her exactly how many he’d cut down along the way—he didn’t see the need to. Either way, with only ten left, even if they matched a boss monster’s strength, the two of them should manage.

But first...

"So this is the dungeon they’re farming?"

Their first destination wasn’t the enemy, but the dungeon entrance itself.

It sat in the middle of the first floor, easy enough to reach. And better still, nobody was guarding it. Maybe they figured guarding it was unnecessary since they were already farming it—or maybe they simply didn’t have the manpower to spare.

Either way, it was a gift for Raive.

Stealthily, he placed a hand over the dungeon and quickly overwrote his oldest save on the first slot. With this, he could ensure that even if he died, they wouldn’t lose much of the progress they’d made.

"Good..."

With a nod, he signaled Hazel to lead on.

Down a hallway, into the other wing of the complex.

The moment they stepped in, Raive felt something off—as if someone were watching him with pure killing intent. He’d barely taken a step into that wing’s corridor when—

BANG!

—a hole punched clean through his forehead.

It felt strange—no real force behind it, almost as if the hole had simply been "drawn" onto his skull instead. Confused, in the last milliseconds his brain still had left, Raive saw it.

At the far end of the hall stood a lone figure, wearing a wicked grin, spinning a revolver idly around one finger.

"Ahh~? Dead so fast?"

That grating tone, that smug grin. Raive wouldn’t forget either.

’I’ll definitely make you pay, you bastard...!’

And then his consciousness went black.

[User’s Heart had Stopped Beating.]

[Please select which save slot to load.]

[Confirmed selection: First Slot.]

[Auto-Load activating...]

[Success.]

The next moment, he opened his eyes—still half-kneeling, one hand resting on the green dungeon beside him. Not a single frame of what he’d just seen had slipped his memory. He took a deep, steadying breath and straightened up.

"Hazel. Does the leader wear something like cowboy attire, and carry a long, modified revolver?" He asked.

"Y-Yes... How did you—oh, precognition!"

Hearing her reply, Raive’s lips curled into a sinister smile.