Chapter 51: Unexpected Penalty

The moment Raive grasped the truth of the beast outside, he tried to move. But his bones had been crushed in the impact, leaving him completely unable to.

He could still feel the giant monster’s presence outside, as if it were waiting for him to crawl out on his own. But before that happened—

"Raive! What are you doing here?!"

A familiar figure burst in from the side, rushing toward him. Shymine.

In truth, she’d already been holding her ice magic for over half a day, since midnight the night before. The monster had fixed its attention on her the whole time, waiting for her defenses to crack before finishing her off.

Like a sadist, savoring the wait.

But thanks to Raive’s unintentional bait, Shymine had bought a few precious seconds. She’d rushed those behind her to safety before racing toward whoever had given them that chance.

To her shock, it was Raive.

She felt both touched and furious at his recklessness.

"What were you thinking? A little less luck and you’d be dead already!" She snapped, hauling him upright, supporting him by the shoulders.

Raive, though, could already feel his time running out.

That attack would’ve killed someone as strong as Shymine ten times over, and he’d taken it nearly head-on. His organs were wrecked, his body limp as jelly, every bone either broken or cracked.

He couldn’t fight. He couldn’t even run. He was simply a man on borrowed time.

So he prioritized what mattered most.

"Shymine..." He groaned, wheezing through each word. "Tell me... what happened. From the start."

"..."

Shymine wasn’t slow to catch on.

She knew his condition was dire. Without a healer, he’d be dead within minutes. And the fact that he was asking something with no bearing on survival meant it had to be tied to his foresight.

"I got here about an hour before midnight."

She began her account, dragging his body across the floor toward the exit opposite the monster.

She’d reached her parents’ apartment complex within minutes of arriving. And the moment she got there, she found both of them already dead.

There was no mistaking it—their bodies had been torn apart.

They’d failed the first trial.

Hearing that, Raive felt a pang of grief. All her effort, wasted for nothing.

Just as she’d turned to head back, she’d come across a group of kids and adults fleeing in a panic. That was when she’d run into the monster.

"That thing was playing with us. Like our lives were toys to it."

She said, jaw clenched, scanning the area around them.

"It cornered us, boxed the kids in with nowhere left to run, so I had no choice but to throw up an ice barrier to protect everyone."

It could’ve broken through, easily, but hadn’t. Like a cat toying with something it had already caught. Shymine had known the barrier was their only shot at survival, so she’d never once considered dropping it.

That was how they’d made it this far.

"I... see..."

Raive wheezed. Even breathing had become a struggle.

His vision was blurring, pain screaming through every inch of him.

The familiar cold was already creeping up from his toes toward his head. He knew, without doubt, that death had arrived.

Still—

"Let me... down... Here..." He asked her. "I’ll... hold the big one off... You get everyone... out."

"Raive..."

Something in Shymine’s chest tightened.

Once again, he was risking himself to save her. This time with his life on the line, no exaggeration.

She wanted to refuse, to drag him along to safety no matter what, but the resolve in his eyes made her hesitate.

"...Fine." She whispered. "Then I’m staying with you."

"No..."

"I won’t take no for an answer. You can barely move like this! If I leave, you’ll be nothing but a stain on the ground!"

"..."

Raive had wanted to save at least her before the end.

But she was every bit as stubborn as he was, and wouldn’t budge.

Before either of them could settle it, the choice was made for them.

"GRAAAAAGH!"

The monster slammed into the building, tearing the whole structure apart. Like a wrecking ball, unstoppable in its charge!

"Shit...!"

Raive swung the sword, still locked tight in his frozen grip, and triggered Sword Flash.

The monster’s fist bore down, colliding straight into it.

BOOM!

CRACK!

But it did nothing against the thing.

The blow still landed at full force, like a truck at top speed with no brakes.

And just like that—

[User’s Heart had Stopped Beating.]

[Please select which save slot to load.]

He died.

This time, though, he didn’t reach for the "latest" save. He chose the older one instead—the checkpoint from right before clearing the "Red Dungeon."

[Confirmed selection: Second Slot.]

[Auto-Load activating...]

[Success.]

When Raive opened his eyes, he was somewhere familiar again.

He stood up and looked around.

Khamish stood nearby, grinning at his back; Therese held onto Hershey; and Shymine and Hazel were whispering something to each other off to the side.

Turning, he saw the dungeon ahead of him was the red one.

Then his frown deepened as new information flooded into his mind.

[Warning! Auto-Load used on a non-recent save! Penalty applied.]

[50% of user’s stats will be consumed by the skill.]

That detail hit him hard.

Loading an older save meant cutting his own strength down. And permanently, at that!

With +531 stats before, his current total dropped to +266.

Still high, but a steep drop all the same.

’What a waste...’ Raive sighed.

Still, he was back a full day earlier now.

And armed with everything he already knew—

’I can make this run so much more efficient.’

First things first: to avoid triggering the non-recent load penalty again, he overwrote slot 1 as well, erasing the save that sat in his "future" relative to now. That way, he could auto-load again with no risk attached.

"Everyone, listen up."

With that handled, he turned to address the group.

"Before we clear the red dungeon, there’s something I need to tell you." He said, meeting everyone’s eyes in turn. "My precognition triggered, and I saw the future... but it’s not all good news."

He took a deep breath. "First—" He turned to Shymine, patting her shoulder as he shook his head. "Shymine, your parents. They didn’t survive the first trial."

Shymine said nothing, seeming to absorb the words. He pressed on regardless.

"Next, Hazel. Your parents are being held hostage right now by a group called the Sine Gang, at the Sunrise Apartments. Your father’s ability is critical to our growth, so getting them out comes first."

That settled it.

This time, nothing was going to stop him.