The red emergency lights blinked wildly, bathing the airlock chamber in the color of blood. The deafening siren suddenly died, replaced by the sound of static from the loudspeakers in the corners of the steel ceiling.A crisp, incredibly familiar laugh echoed. The laugh of a father watching his child walk right into a mousetrap."Welcome to the end of the world, my crippled son."Guild Master Suryo's voice flowed softly, piercing the cold air of the Leviathan facility.Luna froze, her body trembling inside her tactical wetsuit. "That old bastard. He knew we were coming. Krom, that rat Krom sold us out!""No," Jihan cut in quietly. His wrinkled, pale face showed absolutely no panic. "Suryo intentionally leaked this info to Krom, just so it would reach our ears.""Exactly, Jihan," Suryo replied through the speaker, his tone sounding incredibly satisfied. "You are always so reliable. I needed someone with 'access rights' from the Death Bank to enter the Abyss. Opening the door from the i

The iron floor beneath Jihan's feet shook wildly. The vibrations traveled up from his wet boots, rattling his shins and making his teeth chatter."Critical warning. Forty-five seconds to reactor core meltdown. Destruction radius of three miles." The AI's flat voice cut through the panic exploding inside the Leviathan facility.Small explosions began popping off along the walls of the giant room. Steel cooling pipes snapped. Sparks ignited puddles of hydraulic fluid leaking from the Golem's carcass. And most terrifyingly, the giant cosmic glass holding back millions of tons of seawater above their heads started making sharp cracking sounds. High-pressure seawater sprayed in through the microscopic cracks, wetting Jihan's wrinkled face like a rain of ice needles.Jihan turned his head toward the center of the room.A vortex of pitch-black energy swirled slowly without a sound. The Abyss Gate. The darkness inside the vortex was so dense that the light from the neon ceiling lamps seemed t

The skeletal dragon opened its massive jaws. An absolute cold froze the air around them in a matter of seconds.It wasn't fire that spewed from the demon's throat, but a thick gray fog that smelled like thousands of rotting corpses. The fog swept across the rocky ground at a terrifying speed. Wherever the fog touched, the grayish-red rocks at the bottom of the valley instantly weathered, crumbled, and turned into a pile of fine ash blown away by the wind."Han, watch out!" Luna screamed hysterically.She grabbed the back of Jihan's collar with her left hand, throwing both of them behind a giant bone pillar right before the fog of death slammed into their position.A loud hissing sound came from the outer side of the bone pillar. The fog eroded its surface, sending a chill that made Jihan's wrinkled skin feel like it was being sliced by thousands of razor blades."Ughk," Jihan coughed hard. His lungs, which had aged to match a fifty-year-old man, screamed in protest.Jihan leaned behin

The air inside the giant skull cave was freezing. Jihan and Luna's breaths puffed into thick white vapor.Right in front of Jihan's eyes, the neon blue screen of the Death Bank System blinked, emitting a blinding light in the midst of the darkness.[Offering Emergency Package: Hellish Firewood.] [Collateral Price: Only 5 Years of Your Lifespan!] [Accept Contract? Y/N]"Bastard system!" Jihan cursed harshly, his voice hoarse and trembling violently from the cold.He swatted the screen away with the back of his left hand until it shattered to pieces into pixel dust. A price of five years for a pile of firewood was the most ridiculous robbery he had ever heard of. His mortal body was currently as old as a fifty-year-old man thanks to the previous penalty. If he sold another five years, his bones might instantly crumble to dust before he even got to feel the warmth of a fire."Han, you, you didn't take the package, right?" Luna's teeth chattered. The woman hugged her own knees with her le

Gravity vanished, replaced by the stomach-churning sensation of an endless freefall. The pitch-black void swallowed them whole. The wind roared in Jihan's ears as he plummeted into the dark chasm. He didn't panic. Panic was a luxury he couldn't afford.With his right arm still clutching Luna tightly against his chest, Jihan gritted his teeth and thrust his left hand forward. The broken steel sword in his grip sparked violently as it scraped against the jagged rocky wall of the abyss."Hold on tight, Luna!" Jihan roared over the rushing wind.He jammed the broken blade deep into a thick fissure in the cliffside. The abrupt halt nearly ripped his left shoulder out of its socket. The muscles in his aged arm screamed in pure agony, but his grip remained absolute. Using their downward momentum, Jihan swung their bodies like a pendulum, crashing them heavily into a narrow, hidden crevice carved into the side of the cliff.They tumbled onto the hard stone floor. Far above them, the teleporta