Chapter 49: To the Rescue

Raive kept challenging the Orange Dungeon, farming it without end. Of course, nobody dared ask him about the missing candies.

After all, as the one to clear the trial, he had all rights to whatever he get from there.

As his stats climbed, so did his speed with every run.

By his 10th attempt, roughly three hours in, he could clear the maze in under 20 minutes! By then, his base stats had already reached +531.

There was no way he’d lose to anyone on stats alone!

But high stats didn’t automatically make him strong. He still needed skills, real combat ability, and above all, the control to actually use his heightened body the way it demanded.

The effect of stats didn’t seem to scale linearly, either. Even at +500, he was barely twice as strong as he’d been at +100—closer to an inverse curve than a flat rate of increase.

Right now, all he could really do was swing his sword, with next to no technique or real swordplay behind it.

Against a truly powerful enemy, the odds would still tip against him.

After Reinhardt reset the dungeon and pulled him out, the first thing Raive noticed was a few new presences.

"Hazel, you’re back." He greeted.

Right.

Hazel, Hershey, and Khamish had finally finished their orange dungeon run.

They looked exhausted and battered, Hershey already out cold, resting peacefully against Therese’s lap.

"Yeah. Though it took us a while to figure out the dungeon’s gimmick." She said, a note of complaint in her voice.

Raive smiled. "Yeah? Tell me about it?"

"Sure." Hazel nodded. "After we got in, we..."

And with that, she walked him through their run inside the orange dungeon.

The monsters hadn’t been much trouble once her stats went up. Their real problem was finding the right path.

The whole dungeon was shaped like a giant hedge maze, set under a moonlit night.

Visibility wasn’t the issue—the gimmick was that the hedges shifted shape every 30 minutes, effectively reshuffling the maze, and that left them stuck.

Until they worked out which path led to the exit, or found some marker to guide them, they were left wandering for hours on end.

"I see. So the stars were basically the map guiding you out."

"Yeah. Once we figured that out, you can’t imagine the relief we felt."

Without that, they could’ve been trapped in there indefinitely.

After hearing her out and confirming everyone was safe, Raive turned to one last concern. He pulled out his phone and called Shymine.

Not a text or a chat but a direct call.

The phone rang, so she definitely had signal. But no answer came, even after a full minute. That made him frown.

Only two explanations fit.

Either Shymine had dropped her phone somewhere, or someone had gotten to her, leaving her unable to pick up her phone.

’If I’m resetting anyway...’

Raive decided to go check on her himself. That meant leaving the others to manage on their own for a while.

He turned to Hazel, his tone serious.

"Hazel, I need to head out for a bit." He said. "Shymine’s not answering. I’m worried something’s happened to her."

Hazel raised a brow, frowning. "Are you sure going alone is fine?"

"Should be. Honestly, alone is easier for me anyway."

With his current stats, pushed to the limit, he could even outrun a racecar. Bringing anyone along would only slow him down.

Raive didn’t waste another second.

He geared up—helmet, Kevlar—and set off.

His destination was C City, 200 kilometers from where he stood.

He had the city marked, but no idea where Shymine or her parents actually were. For now, the plan was simple: get there, ask around, and search until he found them.

"Phew..."

Raive took a deep breath, dropping into a runner’s stance at the starting line.

Then, focus sharpened to its peak, he kicked off and shot into the distance. He moved so fast that Hazel and the others only caught his afterimage, stunned by the sudden display of speed.

"Raive..."

Hazel murmured, worry threading through her voice, hands clasped in prayer at her chest.

"Please come back safe."

...

With daytime, the roads weren’t nearly as empty.

People scattered here and there—some arguing, some picking through wreckage, others simply sobbing where they sat. Chaos, plain and simple.

WHOOSH!

Raive didn’t spare it a glance, just tore straight through without a second thought.

Even passing someone slitting another person’s throat, he kept moving.

Even when a boy lay sprawled by the roadside, beaten black and blue, reaching out for help, he looked away and pushed faster.

The world was cruel, and he was just one man.

The moment people gained power, it was almost inevitable they’d turn it on anyone weaker. And heroes didn’t just sprout up like weeds on every street corner.

He couldn’t save everyone, no matter how much he wanted to. So he kept his focus narrow and pushed on toward C City.

He had no choice but to look past the violence lining his path.

"..."

Even thinking that, his feet slowed, and he came to a stop.

He stood in the middle of the road, listening to the screams and laughter that wouldn’t let up. Voices begging for mercy, ugly cackling, and the thick stench of blood hanging in the air.

"No way." Raive sighed. "There’s no way I can just walk past this."

Only one survivor would remain by the end of all the trials—the one who’d become a god and have their wish granted. Which meant, logically, people killing each other was simply the correct move.

Still, the thought disgusted him.

"Is this normal now? Since when did I start thinking like that?"

He was a man who valued efficiency. And by that logic, instead of letting the strong prey on the weak...

"Wouldn’t it be better to cut down the strong myself?"

If he took out everyone convinced of their own strength, the gap between him and the next contender would only widen. That wouldn’t just win him favor with the weak—it would push his own odds of surviving to the end even higher.

Decision made, he turned around, wooden sword already gripped tight in his hand.

"Then, let’s start the cleanup."