Chapter 201

Pacing the waiting room in restless circles — already an hour of it.

The situation around me wasn't much different from when I'd first been shut in here.

Ice sculptures — whether guarding me or watching me, I couldn't tell — were planted at the four corners, staring holes into me, while the rest of the monsters kept swarming in and out, restless.

And the one who irritated me most, hands down, was the boss herself — the bride statue.

Kreee-eek—.

The door cracked open a slit and the bride statue in her grotesque wedding gown slid her head partway inside.

Then the instant her eyes met mine, she flinched and slammed the door shut on herself.

Like a bashful new bride.

"Ha…"

Playing shy like an actual bride was cute the first time, maybe.

By the time she'd pulled that number a few dozen times, my irritation had boiled over.

Once I'd realized nothing I did would provoke them into attacking first, I unleashed my ability without hesitation, venting the pent-up frustration.

KABOOM—!

An explosion loaded with every bit of mana I had.

But the result was as hollow as could be.

Not so much as a scorch mark on the walls or the door — and the furniture and carpet shredded in the blast were replaced with brand-new versions inside a second, some bizarre trick of the room.

The whole room had to be under some kind of absolute barrier.

Every time I burned off another burst of ability like that and stood there panting, the sculptures at my sides would launch, on cue, into another of their infuriating little choruses.

"The groom's~ so full of vigor~!"

"This groom is nice and strong~ we like this one~♬"

I'm going to lose my mind, honestly.

A dungeon designed to drive a person over the edge.

In the end, I gave up the pointless mana drain and dropped onto the sofa.

Then I started calmly taking stock of the room.

Where I was penned in was a bride's waiting room.

Modeled on a standard wedding-hall layout, apparently — beyond the door out to the lobby, there was one more, leading into the ceremony hall itself.

The monsters mostly bustled in and out through that one, and the bride statue too kept hovering around it.

Try to open it myself, though, and the handle wouldn't so much as budge — clearly monsters-only.

I couldn't get the door open, but I didn't give up — I tracked their movements, doing my best to map out the terrain of the place.

Every time one slipped through and the door cracked wider, I'd crane my neck and peer through at what lay beyond.

And the ceremony hall spread out on the other side was, frankly, a spectacle.

What… am I even looking at.

A Western-style wedding hall twisted into a hellscape.

The lavishly arranged flower buds were dripping a red syrup like tears of blood, and the monsters cleaning the aisle were scrubbing bloodstains on the floor to a glossy shine with brooms made from human bone.

A far cry from ordinary dungeons where the monsters attacked any invading hunter.

The monsters here were entirely, single-mindedly absorbed in setting up a wedding.

The instant I took the scene in, one clear certainty dropped into my head.

These monsters can't hurt me.

At least until the ceremony started, no matter what I did in here, there was no way I was going to die.

A wedding they were pouring this much work into — no way they'd carelessly damage the precious groom the bride had picked out.

Then I need to turn that against them.

Before the ceremony began — a way to reach the kids.

Or at the very least, some means to confirm the kids were all right.

Head spinning through possibilities, an idea flashed across my mind.

If I do this…!

Decision made, I slouched against the sofa at a crooked angle and raised my voice.

"Hey! What's the running order for this wedding of yours?"

At once the ice sculptures brightened as if they'd been waiting for this and struck up a harmony.

"We open with the guests' arrival~♪"

"Then the bride, the bride's beautiful entrance~♬"

"Middle brings the eternal vow and exchange of rings~ the kiss of a promise not even death can part~!"

"And the end shall be filled with the toast raised in crimson essence~♪"

The lyrics gave me a chill down the spine, but on the outside I kept my face iron-plated.

Time to pitch a fit, as planned.

"What's this? Why is the order like that? You're telling me you left out the flower kids?"

Kreee-krik!

In an instant, the sculptures that had been merrily singing snapped their heads to grotesque angles in perfect unison.

Plain, obvious dismay.

"I'm the groom here, and you don't take my preferences into account? I'm not doing this wedding without flower kids!"

The moment I threw myself down like I was about to pitch a floor-thrashing tantrum, the monsters flew into a full-blown crisis.

"F — flower children~ that's not in the ceremony order~♩"

One panicked sculpture scrambled off and hurried the bride statue over. The one beside her slid up close and rubbed itself against her, murmuring the situation into her ear.

The moment the bride statue, having heard the whole story, slowly turned to face me—

BOOM—!

"…Ugh."

The air pressed down on my entire body as if it had gained tenfold weight in one instant.

A suffocating, distant pressure. Unmistakably the wrath of an S-rank monster.

The ice sculptures wailed out grotesquely as if voicing the bride's distorted feelings.

"The groom~ must put the bride first, above all else~!"

"Turning his eyes to another~♬"

Killing intent sharp enough to flay skin — but I clenched my teeth and held on, picturing the kids' faces out there.

"Look! I'm the groom too, aren't I? Why don't you take my preferences into account? At my wedding, adorable flower kids absolutely have to lead the way. There happen to be little ones among the guests — put them in as flower kids!"

At the bull-headed ultimatum, the bride statue and the monsters glanced around at each other, buzzing.

Then the sculptures took a step back and sang slowly.

"We can add them to the order~ but they cannot enter the bride's waiting room~♪"

"Then at the very least — show me with my own eyes what the kids are doing out there right now, whether they're safe! If any of them so much as gets hurt or dies while getting the ceremony ready, I'm not stepping into that hall!"

At the razor-edged threat, the bride statue went still, as if deliberating.

Soon she nodded to one of the sculptures at her side, and on command, the monster scampered off and, straining, hauled out a massive object.

An enormous silver mirror as tall as a person.

Thunk—.

The mirror was set down in front of me.

Its surface rippled grotesquely, as if a drop had struck water, and in place of my reflection, a view of the outside world came sharply into focus.

"…!"

I nearly reached my hand right into the mirror.

There, standing in front of the four massive doors, were the kids — and the familiar faces around them.

"One, two, three!"

At the count, they all shoved the massive doors together.

Ka-thunk!

"…Huh?"

Confused murmurs broke out from every direction.

All four doors had been stopped cold.

The Borrowed door Julia was on didn't so much as crack open.

At the others, only the raid leaders at the front — Han Jewoon, Seo Jihyeok, Lee Sea-ah — managed to cross the threshold, while the raid members following behind were thrown back mercilessly by an invisible barrier.

Their entry itself had been refused outright.

"Wh — what?! Why can't we get in?!"

"There's an invisible wall!"

Reading the situation of the simultaneous strangeness in an instant, Han Jewoon shouted without hesitation.

"Everyone hold! Anyone inside, get back out here for now!"

At his sharp order, the hunters hurried back into the banquet hall.

Han Jewoon narrowed his brow and stared at the doors, firmly shut once more.

"So the shared line from earlier applies to every single person entering, seems like."

["Only those bound by the groom's ties may cross the threshold."]

"Haah… only people connected to Junhyeok can go in…"

But a bigger problem lay elsewhere.

Of the four doors, the Borrowed one hadn't even opened.

"Step aside."

Han Jewoon threw his weight at it, but the door didn't budge; even with Leo, Seo Jihyeok, and Sea-ah joining in, the handle stayed immovable no matter what they tried.

"Maybe this room alone has a different entry condition?"

Seo Jihyeok asked, pushing his glasses up. Julia nodded.

"The line here was… [Offer the dawn of your unlived days to the bride.]"

"The dawn of your unlived days…"

Chewing the phrase over, Han Jewoon's eyes glinted.

"Unlived days ultimately means the future you have left to live. If 'the most' is attached on top of that…"

"It means the person with the greatest number of days left to live."

"Right. Which is the youngest person in the room."

In that instant, every eye in the place turned as one toward a corner of the banquet hall.

At the end of it, Hajun and Hayun were standing hand in hand.

"Wait… you mean them?"

While Leo's brow crumpled up, Sea-ah walked cautiously over to the twins.

"Hayun, Hajun. Could you try opening that door?"

At the sudden request, Hayun rolled her big eyes and asked, careful.

"If we do this… does it help the Direektuh?"

"Yes. To save the Director, we absolutely need it."

At Sea-ah's gentle answer, Hayun nodded firmly and tugged her little brother Hajun by the hand.

The moment the two children stepped up to the Borrowed door and their small hands touched the handle—

Click, thunk—!

The door that hadn't stirred through all the rankers' desperate efforts swung softly open, as if it had never been an issue.

The moment the kids cautiously stepped their feet across the threshold, the number beside the door flicked in an instant to '2/3.'

"I'll go with them!"

Just in case, Suho — next in age — tried to follow them in—

Thunk—!

Only to be thrown back mercilessly by the invisible barrier, like the hunters before him.

"So it really was a straight age cutoff…"

Leo muttered, deflated.

Around them, the hunters' faces settled into a bleak grim.

Awakened age might be meaningless, they said — but sending kids of five, or now six, into an S-rank room sat heavy on everyone there.

"…If Chae Junhyeok saw this, he'd try to kill me."

Muttering it wryly, Han Jewoon dropped to a knee and met the twins at eye level.

"You two really up for this?"

"Yes! We'wl save the Direektuh!"

"We're shtwong too! We're each awakened too!"

The twins nodded gravely, and a faint curve of a smile crossed Han Jewoon's mouth.

"Right. That's our Scissors Squad. But if anything feels dangerous, you run right back out the second you sense it."

He gave their heads a light rub, then rose and turned to the raid members.

"The entry condition turned out different from what we expected, so I'll be redoing the whole raid composition to match."

Running the head counts, Han Jewoon finished the new lineup without hesitation.

Old Door (5/5): Han Jewoon, Park Suho, Cheon Sangmin, Cheon Sangyeon, Cheon Sangcheol.

Blue Door (2/2): Julia, Cha Yul.

Borrowed Door (2/3): Seo Hayun, Seo Hajun.

New Door (5/100): Lee Sea-ah, Seo Jihyeok, Leo, Kim Sihyeok, Kang Taemin.

Every one of them presumed to have some tie to Chae Junhyeok.

"Cheon Sangmin, Cheon Sangyeon, Cheon Sangcheol. Over here, please."

At the sudden summons, the three siblings mixed in among the non-Awakened stepped forward.

"We're non-Awakened — I doubt we'll be much help. And this useless brat of a youngest is Awakened and still no earthly use for anything."

At Cheon Sangyeon's icy reaction, Han Jewoon answered, calm.

"When you open a door and step inside, combat isn't the only possibility. Take the old South American gold-mine Gate — the clear condition was straightforward labor, mining mana stones within a time limit, regardless of combat strength."

At that moment.

"Are you INSANE?! Why the hell would I go into that pit of hell?! I'm not doing it! I can't! Hey, Han Jewoon! You're the raid leader, you should've come up with a workaround — why are you doing this to me when I'm sitting here minding my own business?! I'm Cheon Sangcheol of Cheonun Group! Who the hell do you people think you are, trying to shove me in there?! No, I'm never going in! You lot go in in my place, why don't you! UWAAAAAGH!"

Cheon Sangcheol was rolling around on the floor in an ugly heap, shrieking.

But that peevish tantrum didn't last long.

Smack—!

"Ow!"

"You useless little shit. Snap out of it. Unless you want to die, crawl in there quietly."

Cheon Sangyeon's spiteful palm cracked across the back of Sangcheol's head with a solid slap.

"Nggh…!"

Just as Cheon Sangcheol, eyes bulging with grievance and fury, was about to fire back — his body locked up.

Because on top of Cheon Sangyeon, Cheon Sangmin — who'd been silent all this while — was now leveling a chilly look at him, cold enough to snuff his life out on the spot.

Testimony, laid bare, to exactly how the two elder siblings had treated him at home — Cheon Sangcheol swallowed a strangled "eek" and tucked his tail at the speed of light.

Watching the whole scene, Julia turned to Han Jewoon and asked.

"Why put me and Cha Yul on the Blue door with that lineup on the New door?"

"The New door demands a hundred people, but we can only field five. If the head count's short, we've got to make up for it with brains — send the sharpest ones in."

Han Jewoon turned his eyes to the Blue door.

"On the flip side, the Blue door only allows two, and it warned about a wave. If it's likely a monster wave, the world's Rank One should be the one to go."

"Then wouldn't it be better if you and I paired up? Purely in terms of firepower."

"Raid leaders need to split up. Besides…"

Han Jewoon glanced at Cha Yul, standing a way off, and cracked a grin.

"That kid's incredibly strong too. You'll be surprised."

At the smooth assurance, Julia let out a short breath.

"You really are… fine. I'll trust your judgment on this."

The conversation wrapped, and the other raid leaders in turn took their positions in front of their newly assigned doors.

At the center of the banquet hall, the second hand of the massive clock tower ticked heavily once more.

Tick.

"All right — going in."

Han Jewoon's weighty voice filled the space.

"One, two, three."

At the count, the four door handles turned as one.

This time, no refusal came at all.

With a heavy grinding scrape, four massive worlds opened simultaneously, and every one of them stepped without hesitation across the pitch-black thresholds.