Chapter 132

At the moment Roy walked into the trap himself, the rest of Team 1 were entering the Blood Fiend Cave fairly smoothly.

Everything was going according to plan—except for one missing person.

Whenever Seo Hyun-woo sent out his shadow to scout ahead, the team would assess the situation and then follow cautiously.

Their strategy was to avoid unnecessary fights as much as possible.

So far, they had been moving safely without encountering a single fiend.

“Roy should be okay, right?”

Yo-il asked quietly.

He seemed worried since the lowest-ranked member had been chosen.

The others, however, reacted differently.

“He’s stronger than we thought. I don’t think you need to worry.”

“Yeah. Roy will be fine.”

“Right~ Hyun-woo got hit too. His hair almost got burned off.”

“......”

At Anna’s words, Seo Hyun-woo brushed back the ends of his unusually short hair as if hiding something.

They were the scars left from the day of the second mission, when someone had melted the ice trapping him with fire.

“Hyun-woo’s pretty agile. If his hair almost got burned off, that guy must be something else.”

“......”

At that time, Seo Hyun-woo had been unconscious—so it felt a bit unfair.

Only the tips of his hair had been singed, as Anna said.

But Seo Hyun-woo merely moved his lips behind his mask and didn’t bother to explain.

It was true that Roy was strong.

“Is that so...? Why do I still feel uneasy, then?”

Yo-il, who had been eyeing the standout candidates—Seo Hyun-woo, Anna, Tae-eon—from the level test onward, added, “Among those trying to become the next Star Hero, Roy is the only exception.”

At first, he’d thought Roy’s impact came from first impressions—smashing a fiend with a rock during the level test was shocking.

But in the first survival, the second survival, even during daily missions, Roy had never just gotten by quietly.

Based on all the big-data results so far,

“That guy’s going to cause trouble......”

“Ham, enough worrying. If fiends show up, get ready to hide behind me.”

“No way. I’m not hiding behind you. I’ll hide behind Tae-eon hyung.”

Yo-il moved boldly behind Tae-eon.

“What are you even talking about? Ham’s the tank—why would the damage dealer hide behind him?”

“That’s my choice.”

“Wow~ You’re stubborn.”

Yeon-woo shook her head, as if unable to understand a word.

While they bickered, Tae-eon approached Seo Hyun-woo.

“How are you holding up?”

“I’m fine.”

They’d been inside the Blood Fiend Cave for over twenty minutes, but it was suspiciously peaceful.

If fiends were going to appear, they should have by now.

At that moment, Anna, who had been examining the walls, stopped with a grim expression.

“Hold on. Don’t you feel like we’ve been going around in circles?”

She pointed to the X-shaped groove carved into the wall.

“I carved this a little while ago. And now it’s here again.”

Only then did the team sense something was off and began looking around.

If the space was repeating, a hidden passage to the outside must exist somewhere.

Just then—

쿠구궁-

The ground trembled slightly, and one wall crumbled with a rumble, revealing a path.

“......!”

Tae-eon, startled, looked back at the team.

He hadn’t expected the wall to collapse so easily from a light tap.

“Of course~ our ace.”

Anna gently tapped Tae-eon’s back in praise.

The others gave thumbs-up, grateful that Tae-eon had resolved the situation so quickly.

But the cheerful mood didn’t last long.

From the moment they left the starting point, they had truly entered the Blood Fiend Cave’s domain—the air changed the instant they stepped forward.

“They’re coming.”

Seo Hyun-woo warned in a low voice.

Sensing something rushing toward them, the team calmly readied for battle.

쿠구궁!

Tae-eon at the front slammed his shield down, forming the first line of defense.

Yeon-woo, bow in hand, drew her string, ready to shoot at any moment.

Seo Hyun-woo’s shadow returned to protect him, hanging heavily at his back.

Watching silently, Anna stepped forward.

뚜득, 두뜨득-

As she clenched her fist, each joint crackled with a chilling sound.

Only Yo-il, the team’s sole non-combat awakener, quietly moved to the rear.

A suffocating tension hung in the air for a moment—

키엑!

키에에엑!

—then the Blood Fiend horde burst through the heavy silence.

The fiend at the front charged into Yeon-woo’s range.

쉬이익!

A brilliant golden arrow sliced through the air, striking the fiend’s forehead.

The spent arrow shattered in a blaze of light.

The luminous shards, swirling like dust, assaulted the retinas of the nearby fiends, dealing them a critical blow.

키에에에에엑!

Blinded by the flash, the fiends shrieked and thrashed.

Seo Hyun-woo seized the moment.

His shadow separated and instantly ballooned in size.

A deathly silhouette loomed over the fiend.

쩌억-

With jaws wide, the shadow revealed razor-sharp fangs and savagely tore into the fiend’s head.

“Ugh.”

Yeon-woo grimaced at the gruesome sight and stepped back.

She had assumed Anna’s only skill was infiltration since she always dodged training. But an A-rank was truly an A-rank.

As she prepared to craft her second arrow—determined not to be outdone—

꿀꺽-

the shadow’s gullet rumbled loudly.

At the same time, at Seo Hyun-woo’s back on the ground—where Yeon-woo’s shadow should have been—something rolled out.

떼구르르-

A round object the size of a soccer ball rolled gently to Yeon-woo’s feet and stopped with a tap.

“Huh?”

Yeon-woo looked down without thinking.

Her heart dropped when she saw the lifeless face staring up at her.

It was a fiend’s head.

“?!”

The saying that being too shocked leaves you speechless was true.

Clutching her chest, Yeon-woo staggered and sank to her knees. Seo Hyun-woo’s gaze fell on her.

Noticing the fiend’s head, his eyes flickered in alarm.

“......!”

He, too, was taken aback.

Summoning his shadow, Seo Hyun-woo retrieved the wayward fiend’s head.

This ability must never be revealed outside.

Thankfully, the battle raged ahead, and the cave’s darkness kept the floor out of view.

Yeon-woo’s personal cam was focused on their torsos anyway.

Relieved, Seo Hyun-woo shot Yeon-woo a glance. She blinked in bewilderment.

“Damn, what is this? Am I dreaming? That was definitely a fiend’s head.”

Seeing Yeon-woo’s disbelief, Seo Hyun-woo shook his head and feigned ignorance.

He then extended a quiet hand, as if urging her to stop talking and stand up.

“No way. Ham really didn’t see it?”

Yeon-woo was about to press him again when Anna’s shout rang out from ahead.

“Hey, you idiots! If you dawdle any longer, I’ll tear your heads off too!”

Charging to the front, Anna was already fighting the second wave of fiends.

She stood atop the dirt mound where Tae-eon had unearthed and reburied the fiends’ heads.

키에에엑!

키엑!

With every fiend’s struggle, the soil cracked and the ground weakened.

Tae-eon tightened his grip, binding them with brute force.

Then Anna plucked each fiend’s head out like radishes from a field.

촤악!

As necks and heads separated, dark red blood spurted like a fountain.

“Ugh.”

At the gruesome sight, Yo-il retched and fled to a corner.

Yeon-woo and Seo Hyun-woo froze in place, their faces as pale as his.

“Honestly, that sister is scarier than the fiends themselves.”

Seo Hyun-woo nodded silently.

✧

Meanwhile, outside the cave, the production crew hastily cut the feed from Team 1’s B-cam.

“Cut B-cam for Team 1!”

At Jun-seo’s shout, the B-cam screen went dark.

The scene was too brutal to broadcast uncensored.

They knew Awakeners’ ethics twisted when it came to fiends, and that fiends can’t truly die unless beheaded.

Still, as human beings, they had to distinguish what was fit for air.

Luckily, a slight delay between the monitors and the live screen meant the audience saw only up to Anna seizing a fiend’s head.

“Hey? One side’s gone dark.”

“Was there an accident?”

Unaware of what had happened, the audience murmured in concern.

But one person remained fixed on the A-cam feed—Hojin’s gaze never wavered from Team 1.

“Oh no......”

He couldn’t see anything else. His precious little brother was facing a horde of fiends without a single teammate.

What terrified him more was that he’d been the one to send Roy there.

Earlier, when asked whom he most wanted to pick, he’d naturally chosen Roy.

Had he known he’d be sending his own brother into such danger, he never would have voted.

As Hojin’s hand trembled and tears welled, a staff member approached him in the audience.

“Are you okay?”

Hojin shook his head, choking back sobs.

“I—I can’t breathe.”

It wasn’t the first time he’d watched Roy in peril. He’d replayed 《Star Hero》 episodes countless times and gotten soaked in sweat.

But he’d never felt this anxious before—because he’d always known Roy came back safely.

Now, he didn’t.

So engrossed, he’d even forgotten it was a virtual space.

Suddenly, a long-buried memory struck him.

The day he awakened.

His mentor turned fiend.

The fallen taxi driver.

The red-eyed attacker.

“Huh—agh.”

Overwhelmed by trauma, Hojin fell into panic.