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He didn’t know how long he had walked leaving the Crita’s body behind him, but the steep slope gave way to stone steps leading down.
The further he descended, the darker it became, unlike the faint glow from the white walls of the cave earlier. Lee Juwon had to switch on his phone’s flashlight again.
No matter how far he descended, the stairs never ended and the darkness grew deeper. The light from the flashlight was drowned out by the darkness, barely illuminating the tip of Lee Juwon’s feet.
The stone steps were irregular in height and width with a bumpy surface. In the darkness, it was difficult to distinguish the border of the stairs, and he stumbled several times in midair.
“Oof…”
Every time his foot lowered to step on the next stair and made a misstep in the air, his toes shrunk back and goosebumps rose on the back of his neck. The stairs were steep, like if he lost his balance and slipped, he would die instantly.
He tried to concentrate as much as possible, but it wasn’t easy. He didn’t have enough time left to descend carefully and slowly.
As he descended, the temperature around him plummeted rapidly. Lee Juwon’s inhales and exhales turned to frost in the darkness and bloomed coldly. His jaw and lips trembled, and his muscles contracted as if frozen.
“Damn it…”
Nervously checking his wristwatch, Lee Juwon stopped walking for a moment and slumped down on the stairs.
After a few seconds, he felt dizzy enough for his eyes to spin. He felt light-headed like he was spinning around in a place without lefts and rights. If he had been standing, his legs would have given out and he would have rolled down the stairs.
“Haa, ha…”
At some point, 8 hours had passed since he ate the white snake. His entire body was sapped of energy, and hunger and fatigue suddenly overwhelmed him. As the status window warned him, he felt like he was about to die, as if he had borrowed and spent his stamina and gone bankrupt in an instant.
The problem wasn’t just that he couldn’t lift a finger. Aside from the scrapes and cuts he got from the stone floor, his ankle, which the Crita’s tail had wrapped around, ached as if it were nearly broken. A pained groan escaped him, and he gritted his teeth. “This is why I hate private loans…”
Time was running out, but he had no more energy to move. But he couldn’t just sit there either. Calming his heavy breathing, Lee Juwon slowly raised his body before feeling something awkward and looking down at his feet.
Shining a flashlight on the tip of his feet, he cursed and fell back down. The sole of his shoe had fallen off, and the tip of it was open like a crocodile’s mouth. The sight of it seemed to snap his continuously tense nerves.
“Ha… I’m going crazy, really…”
Riiiip, Lee Juwon tore off the sole of his shoe, which had become tattered.
He was planning on buying a new pair of shoes. He was going to wear a new pair of shoes. Would he have felt better now if he had a good, comfortable pair of shoes? It was a question that no one could answer in this situation.
Tearing off the sole of his cheap shoe made him feel refreshed on the inside, but on the other hand, it also took his breath away. There was nothing to be done but to throw the worn-out sole downwards with all his might.
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
The sole of his shoe bounced off the stone steps and plummeted downward. Lee Juwon clenched his trembling hands. The sound faded but never ended.
Thud…
Thud…
Thud…
……
……
Only after a while did the silence return. He couldn’t tell if the sole had stopped falling or if the vibrations in the air were too far away to reach his eardrums.
His mind kept replaying the worst-case scenario. Stairs with no end in sight, shoes with fallen soles, a badly twisted ankle, hunger and thirst, depleted stamina, and not enough time… There was absolutely no element to be optimistic about.
Lee Juwon rubbed his face with both hands. There was only one way down, but he didn’t know where to go, as if he had lost his sense of direction completely. A dry gasp escaped from his parched mouth.
Squeezing his hot eyes shut, Lee Juwon lowered his head. Was it really possible to rewrite the ending? He wondered if his attempt to escape the dungeon was futile in the first place. The end had been decided the moment he met the Gareum, wasn’t he just doing something pointless…?
As he sat there, time passed by. He felt a squeeze against his ribs as he watched the second-hand move, time helplessly trickling. At the same time, he felt an intense desire for time to pass by quicker.
If only it would end here, without the torture of hope, he wouldn’t have to struggle for nothing. If only it would end like that… everyone would be happy.
After living his entire life being cursed out, he thought he’d do something nice for them one last time. Even if he somehow managed to survive this, who would be happy?
“Haha…” Lee Juwon laughed. His laughter echoed hollowly through the dungeon. He wanted to give up, tired of the pain and overwhelmed with doubt. Still, he knew.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Someone who would welcome him back alive. Someone who would mourn his death. That there was only one person who would grieve so much that they would lose themselves.
Slap!
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“Ofa’r ub…”
He tried to go down with his stiff body, but unknowingly, he froze as if his ankle had been grabbed. He squeezed his eyes shut and dragged his heavy feet, barely making it to the next step. His legs shook and wobbled. Every time he put pressure on his swollen left ankle, sweat broke out on his scalp, regardless of the sub-zero temperature.
“Pant…”
Just going down one step was enough to make Lee Juwon nearly collapse again. At this rate, it would take him minutes to get down one stair.
He reached for the next step. But in the dim light of the flashlight, he stumbled, wondering if the stairs were much higher than he thought, or if his vision was blurred. The different heel heights of his shoes also contributed to his misstep. He stepped on thin air, and a chill ran down his spine.
“Haa…”
His toes barely touched the uneven surface of the stairs. Lee Juwon breathed a sigh of relief, but regaining his balance was another matter.
The moment his left ankle, which he had unknowingly put under force, twisted, a sensation hit him hard in the spine; I’m fucked. The pressure inside his ears was so tense it made his head feel like it was going to explode. The moment his body floated in the air was actually short, but to Lee Juwon it felt like an eternity.
For a moment, he felt like he was swimming against gravity, and then he tumbled down the stairs.
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
Thud
Thud
Thud…
……
……
Ah… why am I so cold…? Why does it… hurt so much? His body felt like it had been frozen solid and then shattered into pieces.
“Ugh…”
When Lee Juwon barely managed to open his eyes, something sparkled in front of him. He thought it was the comic book effect of seeing stars when you hit your head, but… He was in too much pain and rather lost his sense of reality, so Lee Juwon felt like he was out of his mind while blankly watching the thing shining in his vision.
The repetition of dungeons and dreams without any alert left him momentarily confused about where he was, but he soon realized. He was still in the dungeon.
“Pant… pant…”
His whole body ached like it was going to break as if to let him know he wasn’t dreaming. It was the aftermath of a long fall down the stairs.
“Ugh, haa…”
Lee Juwon found it more urgent to check what time it was than his physical condition. He tried to check his watch to see how much time he had left.
“Ugh…”
He didn’t have the strength to lift his arm. The slightest movement caused his ears to ring and a groan escaped from his mouth. A sharp pain pierced his lungs with every breath he took as if his ribs had been shattered. It felt like it was tearing through his body.
“Co, cough…”
Still, he couldn’t just lie there idly. He lifted himself up like he was trying to fit his broken bones together. A lump rose in his throat. The smell of blood in his mouth rose to the tip of his nose.
When he was barely able to lift his head, Lee Juwon realized what was important at the moment wasn’t how much time there was left. In front of him, his ankle was bent in an unbendable direction.
“Hah…”
He couldn’t tell if he had broken a bone or not, and the slightest movement of his toes felt like a sharp blade cutting from his toenails to the top of his head. All the while, his vision was still sparkling. Between the unreal pain and the unreal sight in front of him, Lee Juwon’s judgement of the situation was impaired.
No matter how hard he looked, it was a bit too strange for his sight to sparkle because of the shock. It seemed like sparkling, golden powder was being sprinkled…?
Lee Juwon’s gaze was once again drawn back to the strange sight he had never seen before in the pitch-black dungeon. A cheerful voice sounded in his ear.
[Congratulations!]
“……?”
[You’ve found <The Drink of the Past>!]
A squirrel as small as the palm of his hand scurried nimbly by his side.
[This is my favourite acorn-soaked drink!]
“Huu…”
[It’s bitter and light!]
“Even a squirrel can talk… Pfft, what a great world…”
Wherever the squirrel passed, the golden powder from its tail glistened, and each time the pain, as well as the thirst, hunger, and cold, grew stronger.
[The Drink of the Past brings comfort and eternal rest!]
The scattered golden powder lumped together in the air and soon turned into a small and smooth liquor bottle. It was a mysterious sight, but Lee Juwon’s feelings were extremely mixed.
He was thinking of completing the quests no matter what, but a comfortable and eternal rest? Anyone could see that it was a death flag. In the end, the final quest was to drink a sweet poison and die in peace?
He’d rather be torn apart by monsters like in a normal dungeon. To think that they killed him, brought him back to life, made him go back and forth in space and time and played with him however they liked… His anger welled up.
“Why… why are you doing this to me? Because I lived like shit…?”
He didn’t wish for an answer, but a soft voice spoke in his ear,
[I don’t know who you are!]
The squirrel continued cheerfully as if to comfort Lee Juwon who was contorted in pain and despair,
[Just in the memory you desire the most!]
The squirrel stretched its tiny forelegs toward the golden bottle, and the bottle became transparent. The liquid sloshed around inside the glass bottle. He had been thirsty for some time, to the point where swallowing was a pain, but the sight of the sloshing liquid intensified his thirst.
[Guaranteed rest without regret!]
Lee Juwon forgot about the pain and reached out as if in a trance. The liquor bottle was warm in his hand. It smelled faintly of sweetness.
Even if it was questionable, he couldn’t afford not to drink it now. He couldn’t afford to let time pass in a situation where his ankle was broken and he couldn’t do anything.
There was no point in nitpicking why such a thing was happening to him. In Lee Juwon’s experience, misfortune didn’t come with a reason or purpose.
He could no longer block this situation storming in like a disaster. A comfortable rest was better than dying in agony. It was time to finally accept death.
Holding the liquor bottle, Lee Juwon hesitated for a moment, then he swallowed the liquid inside the bottle. The drink was bitter, yet somehow sweet and warm. The warmth spread from his throat to his stomach.
“Ah…”
In an instant, the cold, thirst, and hunger vanished as if washed away. The pain in his ankle that felt like it was going to kill him disappeared along with the pain in his entire body. It was the Senzu bean-like fruit that Lee Juwon had wanted so badly, but at the same time, he couldn’t resist the sleep that poured in.
It seemed like if he closed his eyes like this, he’d really sleep forever… Unbeknownst to himself, Lee Juwon tried to open his heavily closed eyes, but things didn’t go the way he wanted.
As he wandered through the dungeon, his mind flashed back to the days he had lived. He thought he had lived life to the fullest, but now that he looked back on it, it was dull and monotonous. It was an exhausting life like the worn-out sole of his shoe.
It was futile; there were no memorable moments. Because he only ever did one thing.
He lived a faithful life of one desire. He was told not to put all his eggs in one basket, but he put his entire life in one basket without following the old investment rule. He thought it was safe because it was a value that’d never break… but it shattered.
What would it have been like to live in pieces, to break it into several pieces, to give it away… Would he still feel as empty as he did now? Only when he was on the verge of death did Lee Juwon regret it.
Even though the pain, thirst, and hunger that had been weighing on his body had disappeared, he felt suffocated by the overflow of regrets and lingering feelings.
‘Do you think he was able to close his eyes properly even though it’s a waste he couldn’t use that money?’
They were right. It was hard to close his eyes properly. He regretted the money he couldn’t spend to his heart’s content, the life he couldn’t properly live, and finally, the words that he couldn’t say, lingering in his mouth.
He wanted to leave behind a will. So, even if he didn’t know about his death, he wanted to change what happened afterward.
He wanted to talk about everyday things. Even if it was trivial and unimportant. They could have a meal together.
And if there was still time, he wanted to ask. If what the spring showed him was not an illusion, if it was really the future, if it was not a dream concocted by the manifestation of his unconscious…
You, the protagonist of this world
Me, the villain who will meet his end like this
Why
Since when
Until that extent…
The corners of his eyes were hot. His eyelashes, matted with blood and dirt, turned wet.
But his regret couldn’t even run down his cheeks. It was too late for his regrets, and there wasn’t enough time for it to continue. The thoughts in his head became sparse. He couldn’t fight off the sleep that was overtaking him.
As his mind went blank, he felt a remote sense of peace. It was too late to change anything now. He wanted to forget his thoughts, forget his pain, and just let himself be carried away by sleep.
“……”
Lee Juwon gave up trying to hold on and closed his eyes. All that was really left now was death.
“…won.”
His fading consciousness heard a far and distant sound, a voice calling out to someone nonstop.
“…Juwon…”
My name?
“…won-ah…”
Who is calling my name?
“…Wake up… Hurry…”
It wasn’t the squirrel’s voice. Even in his dazed state, Lee Juwon soon realized who the voice belonged to. It had been too long since he had heard it, but it was not a voice he could forget.
“…Open your eyes… Lee Juwon…!”
It was his father’s voice. And he had died long ago.
To think he’d hear the voice of his long-dead father when he gave up on everything and closed his eyes. It was too classic.
When Lee Juwon scoffed at the direction the squirrel was taking even in his sleep—slap! The sound rang too clearly in his ears. At the same time, his shoulder blades ached.
“What are you dreaming about for you to snicker like that? Aren’t you going to get up? You’re going to be late again!”
Grabbing his shoulder, Lee Juwon suddenly opened his eyes.
“Huh…?”
Unlike the darkness of the underground dungeon, his surroundings were too bright. And gold wasn’t shining unrealistically in front of his eyes.
The sudden fluorescent light blinded him and he squinted. Through his blurry vision, he could make out the faded yellow wallpaper and burnt-out black fluorescent lights at the end of the room, and Lee Juwon was nonplussed, feeling it was way too unfamiliar to be suddenly faced with an everyday low ceiling.
“Quickly wash up and eat.”
The voice that had sounded so distant was now clear. Surely, just a moment ago, he had been stormed with unbearable sleepiness, but now his mind was clear.
“Now what is this…”
Lee Juwon jumped to sit up. He wasn’t in the dungeon he was in earlier. He was lying on a mattress in a room that was very familiar to his eyes.
orcinus comments:
juwon’s shoe on the cover has a sole falling off lol
I’m full of anticipation!!!
Thanks for the chapter! 🌺
The past!!! I wonder what we’ll see… thank you for translating!
que emoción !!!!!! 😍
Gracias
Juwon… died, alive again, died, and now resurrected alive again but in the past. 🤔
It sort of reminds me of scrooge December theme.
its basically a christmas carol bl edition lol
Lol, exactly what I was thinking. 😊
Thank u
OWO that cover really included a lot of stuffs. Even his broken shoe aaa~ (✪▽✪)
Mc so battered in the dungeon 😭 ml would prolly need to ambulance him to emergency immediately when he gets out. At least he got more realizations after a glimpse of how he lived his monotonous life.
Yessss, juwon live a memorable life now sob* sob*
I saw the pizza, the sole falling off the shoe and the acorns on the Christmas tree (I think the last one was linked to the squirrel proclaiming the acorn)