Kaelen had barely gotten the last word out when the shattered dark-green sphere started changing again. It went through almost the same motions as the previous white one, except for one big difference—this time, it didn’t morph into a lump of flesh that spat out a monster.When the ghoul nest finally blew apart and the rush of green light faded away, someone—no, something—was standing there.A Golden Ghoul.But not the kind he’d killed before. Its eyes weren’t empty or crazed, and there was no wild hunger burning in them.They were clear. Focused. Actually… alive.Kaelen froze for a heartbeat. He’d never seen a Golden Ghoul with intelligence.And this thing was huge—easily double the size of a regular one, thick-limbed and towering like it’d been carved from oak and hate.The moment the sphere vanished, he shot forward. Not a single breath wasted. As soon as that Golden Ghoul appeared, he was already mid-charge.But the stun didn’t land.This wasn’t some ghoul with a slightly upgraded

Kaelen hated blackouts. Absolutely hated them. Right at the most critical moment—momentum surging, adrenaline high—the screen went pitch black, and a thousand words of progress vanished into nothing. Ugh. His mood tanked instantly. But there were still three more updates for today. Counting this one, that made four. Far from over. And, yeah… happy Mother’s Day, he reminded himself bitterly.The Deathly Ghost-Face Shield was raised firmly in front of him, a bulwark against the rushing monsters. One by one, he cut through them, stepping over corpses like they were stepping stones. Yet, a flash of disappointment crossed his face. No monster nest here. Not a single one.They had already swept through countless underground passages, clearing nearly all the outer tunnels. Their most dangerous fight had been with a lone level-19 monster. That thing had slammed level suppression down on Kaelen’s hero team, cutting their attack and defense in half. The battle had been brutal.The monster itsel

Kaelen stepped into the swirling purple light without slowing, without so much as a second thought. Angela, Antonio, and Jeka rushed after him, their figures swallowed one by one. Shia hesitated only a beat, shaking her head in helpless frustration before following them in.A burst of violet swallowed everything.Then—blankness.They were gone.Cold. Damp.Those two sensations hit Kaelen the moment his awareness snapped back.The world blurred around him, the scenery sliding in reverse like someone rewinding a memory. A tower flickered into view—a watchtower he recognized instantly. Even though Purple Thorn Prison had shown up far earlier than it ever should’ve, this was still the same dungeon he remembered from his last life.That thought alone let him breathe again. The tension in his chest finally loosened.He was sitting in a prison wagon. Iron chains bit into his wrists. He wore a scratchy linen shirt, short trousers, and a pair of straw sandals that looked like they belonged on

The air inside the prison cell felt sharp enough to cut. One wrong move and the whole place would have gone up in flames—swords drawn, bows bent, all of that. And in the middle of that boiling tension, Kaelen just stood there grinning like he’d walked into the exact fight he’d been hoping for.Jack and Harry faced him like a pair of starving wolves, shoulders tight, eyes hollow with rage. Off to the side, the hulking brute who had started trouble earlier lay crumpled on the floor, unconscious or maybe half-dead—it was honestly hard to tell.Kaelen gave the collapsed man one lazy glance and nodded to himself. Jack and Harry… now they were the kind of allies he wanted. That idiot from before? Nothing but dead weight the whole time.“Your sister Lisa is doing pretty well these days,” Kaelen said casually, as if chatting by a fireplace instead of inside a death box. “You know Baron Harvey—our famous ‘gentleman,’ the guy who practically collects beautiful women. She’s already been taken to

A low, bone-shaking rumble ripped through the ground, knocking dust off the walls and making everyone jump. If they hadn’t heard the thin kid’s warning earlier, they probably would’ve assumed the guards were rolling out some giant siege engine.But after what he’d said… the truth clicked instantly.That roar wasn’t metal.It was water—an enormous wave tearing through the depths of Purple Thorn Prison.“Damn that bastard! I— I’ll kill Baron Harvey myself!” the old man shrieked, panic twisting every line of his face. “He actually opened the floodgates! Once the water gets in, we’re finished—every last one of us!”“Cruel doesn’t even cover it,” Kaelen muttered, throwing him a sideways glance. “But the real demon is whoever designed Purple Thorn Prison in the first place. With a setup like this, they just open a gate during a riot and drown every prisoner without lifting a finger.”He snorted.“Sending guards costs money and lives. Flooding the place? Completely free.”The old man and the