Chapter 41: Reset

"Mother! Father!"

"H-Hazel?! My dear, you’ve come!"

"Oh, thank the gods you’re safe..."

With the information they’d squeezed out of Bryan, the two had no trouble finding her parents. Raive, however, didn’t follow her into the reunion.

Instead, he went back to overwrite the save just in case, then headed toward where the "loot" was gathered.

Apparently, stats stopped increasing after 100 candies, so Bryan had been keeping half of them for himself while handing the rest to his henchmen.

Even so, Raive counted roughly eighty pieces sitting there.

"Alright, then, as usual...!"

Without hesitation, he devoured every candy he could until he hit the limit. Based on what they knew, he should’ve had about fifty left to eat afterward, but...

"Hmm?"

Raive ended up eating the 101st candy—and still gained a stat point.

Confused, he kept going anyway, eating through all eighty of them. To his surprise, not a single one failed to raise his stats.

"What’s this...?" He muttered.

The limit was supposed to be 100 candies—an overall cap of +100 to all stats. But he was already sitting at +131. Well past the supposed limit.

He was baffled, but not entirely without a theory.

’Could it be that, because I loaded after eating those candies, none of what I’ve already consumed counts toward the limit?’

If that was true, he could end up seriously overpowered heading into the coming trials.

After that, he checked through the rest of the loot, but nothing else was of any use—no level 4 scrolls, no skill books, nothing. Only the stat-up candies mattered.

"Guess that’s that."

Once he confirmed there was nothing left worth doing there, he drank the Rotten Rose Poison he always kept on hand, sending him back to the start along with the searing pain that came with it.

[User’s Heart had Stopped Beating.]

[Please select which save slot to load.]

[Confirmed selection: First Slot.]

[Auto-Load activating...]

[Success.]

"Ugh..." Raive groaned as he found himself back at the dungeon’s entrance.

Even though this was only his second time using the poison, the pain of dying wasn’t something he could ever get used to. It still felt like his organs were melting inside him.

"Hmm?"

Checking himself, he reached back and pressed a hand to his back, then held his palm up under the dungeon entrance’s green light. Just as he’d expected, blood streaked his fingers.

He couldn’t see it directly, but under his clothes, the number 20 should now be carved into his back. He’d predicted it would happen, but living through it was another matter entirely.

Strangely, the wound didn’t sting at all.

Blood just kept dripping steadily, soaking his back.

"We should really get back to Hershey’s place as soon as possible." Raive muttered.

Thankfully, there was no one left to slow them down. Once Hazel found her parents, they could head home without delay.

"..."

No, Raive hadn’t forgotten about the dungeon farmer, either.

The one whose ability let him keep dungeons open, ripe for farming again and again.

Because according to what Bryan had said...

"Raive! We’re here!"

Hearing Hazel’s voice, Raive turned toward the corpse-littered hallway and smiled. It wasn’t just relief that she’d found her parents, either.

It was pure elation over the fact that her father held exactly the ability he needed.

"Hello. You must be the friend my daughter’s been talking about." The man stepped forward, offering a thin smile and his hand.

"I’m Reinhardt. I’ll be relying on you from here on out."

"No, the pleasure’s mine."

Raive smiled back, shaking his hand firmly.

After all, this man carried the overpowered ability called "Reset"—one that would let them farm dungeons over and over. With him on the team, their path to the top was practically guaranteed.

"Shall we get going, then?"

It was already well past midnight. But the earlier commotion had woken up plenty of the apartment’s "residents"—or more accurately, Bryan’s former slaves.

Raive wasn’t blind to the curious faces peeking out from behind their doors, watching them. He simply chose to ignore them.

If they wanted to leave, that was their choice to make.

Still, hands-off as he tried to be...

"What? Can you say that again...?"

He couldn’t help but falter.

"I’m truly sorry. I know it’s shameless of me to ask, but... could we bring everyone in the complex with us?" Reinhardt repeated.

The building stood fourteen floors tall, with roughly twelve rooms of varying sizes per floor. Even with only about ten percent of the original population left, that still meant close to a hundred people, if not more.

Raive glanced at Hazel and frowned—a look that said everything.

Hazel understood exactly what he meant and shook her head.

’So he didn’t run this by her first.’ Raive sighed.

There were several problems with Reinhardt’s request, but two stood out above the rest. The first was space.

Hershey’s house wasn’t nearly big enough to house hundreds of people, and there wasn’t anywhere nearby they could stay instead.

The second...

"Out of everyone here, how many would you actually trust with your life?" Raive asked bluntly.

In a world where everyone was technically racing to be the last one standing, trustworthy allies mattered more than numbers. Taking in a large crowd with no established trust would only backfire.

"That’s..."

Reinhardt visibly struggled with the question.

Watching him hesitate, Raive quickly understood why he’d even bothered to ask.

"If you’re feeling guilty about them, don’t." He said. "We’ve already wiped out the Sine Gang, every last one, so they should be safe enough staying here on their own."

"Y-You..."

Reinhardt’s face went blank with confusion.

Hazel, as it turned out, hadn’t told him that part yet—she hadn’t even known Raive had killed the rest of them on his way down to save her.

So this was news to her too.

"Hmph..."

Raive snorted, turned, and started walking back toward the entrance.

"Anyway, decide for yourself whether you really want to take them all, now that the threat’s already gone."

His reasoning held up.

But there was one truth he was conveniently glossing over.

The Sine Gang had, in its own twisted way, been "protecting" everyone in the complex the whole time.

And now, there was no one left to do that in their place.

That was exactly what Raive’s question to Reinhardt was really asking.

Was he willing to leave them all here, their fates left entirely to chance? Or would he stay behind and try to protect them, weak as his abilities were?

Raive walked off, leaving the man to think it over.

Deep down, though, he already knew there was only one answer Reinhardt could give.