Chapter 15
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Dreamland Guidebook.
We sincerely welcome all invaders who have come to Dreamland brimming with dreams and hope.
To all of you precious visitors preparing to reclaim the mana stones, we have a few notices to announce.
The creator accepts no responsibility for anything invaders experience…….
(omitted)
Under these terms, we hereby state that you may not claim any damages even if you lose your life.
Dreamland is currently under construction.
Guests may enter only Zone 1 and the Core Room.
Due to the creator's circumstances, the remaining zones are still unfinished, and unfortunately the only completed place is Zone 1, so please keep this in mind.
Next are the instructions and precautions for Zone 1.
1. Zone 1 is labyrinthine. Keep a hand on the wall and move carefully. If you do, someday you'll find the passage to the next zone. Never let go. Without special maze-exploration skills, you could get trapped forever and die there.
2. In accordance with fire safety laws, each passage is equipped with fire suppression devices, namely sprinklers. Sometimes water may fall even when there is no fire. This means the sprinklers are functioning normally.
3. Dreamland's Zone 1 was made with the creator's taste for bare-bones minimalism.
4. Zone 1 is hungry. It may beg you to play with it or crave your affection, but this is a natural phenomenon, so never be alarmed.
5. Sometimes you may find someone in Zone 1 who looks exactly like you, but that person is also just like you. Please show them kindness and love.
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If you stick this guidebook at the entrance.
Then the next invader can reach the Newbie Dungeon Core Room. Anyone want to bet on 'no'—10-day temp-ban, or hire 10 Shibgan minions?
*Comments
ShibganLoverDog : Go go go go go go go, let's do it!!
ㄴOnlyIHaveNoMinions : Really? I'm betting on them not reaching the Core Room.
ㄴShibganLoverDog : Huh? I'm betting on that too...
ㄴWhaleWhaleYeah : Hahahahahahaha, you've already given away that many hints...
ㄴAnonymousButcher : Guidebooks like this are only fun when they have a decent amount of lies in them.
ㄴHead Patient of the Asylum : Are there really invaders who would believe a guidebook pasted onto a dungeon is actually true?
ㄴAnt Queen : My little ones could probably clear it...
ㄴNarrow-Eyed Character : Were your little ones really that smart?
ㄴAnt Queen : No, they’re so cute that the Dungeon Master can’t bring himself to kill them ㅠㅠ
ㄴNarrow-Eyed Character : Shut up.
ㄴMagicHero : B-b-b-but if there’s a Zone 1, are you making a Zone 2 too?
ㄴSkeleton Bones : Probably? Dungeons like this get less appealing the longer and wider they are, after all.
ㄴSealed Conqueror : Agreed.
ㄴDIP : That neck-snapping yandere ㅠㅠ
ㄴGolem King : For real... honestly, I'm pretty excited for the yandere...
ㄴNewbie : What about my opinion, for fuck's sake.
ㄴOrange★ : Don't make temp-ban bets ㅡㅡ
ㄴOnlyIHaveNoMinions : Hey guys, I wasn't watching the live feed for a bit—what's going on with the manticore?
ㄴNewbie : (shudder)
ㄴSealed Philosopher : Watching it made me feel like I was going to go insane...
ㄴOx Head : Watching Newbie's live feed these days is the only joy in my life.
ㄴ3M Hamster : LOL, same.
ㄴTV Head : The way you all tear into each other and blame each other is truly pathetic.
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Looks like it's time for the highlight.
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***
The manticore looked at the fallen doppelgänger.
No, maybe.
The doppelgänger that had won the fight might have been looking at the manticore.
It struggled to steady its blood-soaked body, as if a fierce battle had taken place.
Its breathing trembled.
How horrible.
How grotesque.
It never wanted to face it again.
It felt like it couldn't stay sane unless it completely erased that thing from this world.
With no mana, no stock, and one leg missing.
Then how could it completely annihilate that thing?
The answer was simple.
The manticore began moving its mangled mouth.
Crunch, crunch, crunch....
The manticore was no longer rational.
Up until now, it had been the one to take the initiative and lead the dungeon exploration.
The way it was laboriously devouring the corpse made it look like a completely different creature from before.
Seeing that, the black mages who had been trembling began exchanging opinions among themselves.
"We can't be sure that's really the manticore."
"Exactly... but could we really beat the manticore? You saw that fight just now; it was on a completely different level."
Whether it knew the black mages were plotting or not, it focused only on its own task.
"But if we don't strike now, while it's injured, the timing to beat it may never come. If that's fake by some chance, it'll ambush us while we're defenseless and kill us all...."
"We have to handle it now somehow. If we want to live, that is."
There was no affection between them.
They were the sort who would not hesitate to kill for their goals, so this was only natural.
The manticore is strong.
But now, it was nothing more than an injured beast.
The black mages faced one another and nodded.
Everyone was thinking the same thing.
And then.
"Die! You monster bastard!"
"Disappear!"
The battle began once more.
The black mages charged in boldly.
Only the elderly Zeko was just making a show of charging from behind.
As the stock made from human lives ran out, hellfire poured down.
The manticore, which had been tearing into its own corpse, burned darkly.
Thud.
The manticore fell.
Who could have imagined that the ruler of the Lowjinrat Great Mountain Range would die like this?
"Got it!"
"I don't sense any life response. It's a complete death."
"I never liked that bastard from the start—acting like some monster was the boss, damn it."
The ruthless black mages let out a sigh of relief.
It wasn't completely over yet.
Because they still hadn't found an exit.
Even so, because the urgent situation had at least been settled, relief showed on their faces.
Just as the black mages were breathing a sigh of relief.
The dead manticore's eyes snapped open.
Corpse Explosion.
The dead creature's body exploded like a bomb.
Most of the black mages were caught in the explosion.
It was so fast they didn't even have time to scream.
The power of the corpse explosion was tremendous.
That was only natural, since the manticore was two tiers above the black mages currently in the dungeon.
Only Zeko, who had been at the very back, barely managed to survive.
"Hah, hah, hah...."
Zeko barely got to his feet.
He bit his lip while leaning against the wall.
"No way... they're all dead...?"
He stared at the corpses, his fists trembling.
His head was already full of thoughts of escape.
Had he ever been this afraid in his life?
Finite yet infinite passages.
Water rising higher and higher.
And a doppelgänger exactly like a person.
A bizarre phenomenon.
A dungeon filled with unknown things.
This place where nightmares become reality is called Dreamland.
Zeko bitterly regretted his choice.
He held the escape scroll tightly against his chest.
The only means of escaping this place.
It had never felt so precious.
This dungeon is hell.
A hell that lures us with mana stones and makes us pay the price.
Repenting for his actions, as if he had been bewitched by a demon, he tore the escape scroll.
Riiip──
Riiip──
At the same time, another sound rang out.
"Ah."
Zeko stared straight ahead, his face deathly pale with fear.
There I was.
There I was.
Old, shabby, and wounded, there I was.
Old, shabby, and wounded, there I was.
The thing that looked like me tore the escape scroll.
The thing that looked like me tore the escape scroll.
That sight.
Struck Zeko as an indescribable terror, squeezing his heart.
As if it were saying that even if he fled hell, the place he fled to would also be hell.
It shattered his hope to pieces.
"Ah."
Get lost right now, Get lost right now, Get lost right now, Get lost right now, Get lost right now, Get lost right now, Get lost right now, Get lost right now, Get lost right now, Get lost right now, Get lost right now, Get lost right now, Get lost right now, Get lost right now.
The moment he was about to shout at the fake lookalike.
Light enveloped the two of them.
***
Zeko had trouble falling asleep after that day.
Though he'd never once heard the bizarre rumor that a minion staying in the dungeon would come out of it.
He saw it clearly with his own eyes.
I mean, the monster tearing the escape scroll apart.
Sadly, and fortunately, the escape scroll's location is random.
He had never encountered the monster again after that.
Because he was afraid he might run into it outside.
Zeko didn't even return to his lab, let alone home.
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Zeko became a complete wreck.
He told the people around him about it, but nobody believed him.
People said he'd gone completely mad, and they hurried to keep their distance.
Then one day.
Zeko could no longer bear it.
As soon as he fell asleep, he had nightmares of that thing coming to kill him almost every day.
"I have to kill it before it kills me. I have to kill it before it kills me. I have to kill it before it kills me. Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, have to kill……."
I want to have happy dreams.
I don't have many days left to live, so now I just want to sleep in peace.
Hoping desperately for that, Zeko grabbed a knife and returned home.
The house he'd been away from for a long time was covered in dust.
He wandered the hallway, muttering incomprehensible things to himself.
Then, just as expected!
Zeko found it.
The doppelgänger that had come to kill me, knife in its right hand!
"Hahahahahahaha!"
He had gone insane.
Laughing like a madman, he swung the knife at the doppelgänger.
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.
On the blood-soaked floor, beneath the shattered window.
Only then could Zeko fall asleep with a peaceful expression.
For the first time in a very long while, his expression looked serene.
There was only one corpse.
***
What happened to the invader afterward? There's no way to know now, so it leaves some regret.
ㄴNewbie : You're not going around spreading my dungeon info, are you...
ㄴShibganLoverDog : In my opinion, he lived like a madman and then killed himself?
ㄴOnlyIHaveNoMinions : I think so too ㅇㅅㅇ
Aw, surely not.
The black mages' end was horrific, but was Dreamland really bad enough to cause PTSD?
Well, I have to live too, don't I?
I didn't really mean to judge them, but if it's karma, it's karma.
They're criminals who make a living killing people, so I didn't feel sorry for them.
Anyway.
That aside.
【Wave defense successful.】
【Rewards will be calculated according to difficulty.】
【Difficulty is measured by acquired points, the level gap with the highest-level invader, and the number of entities.】
【Calculation complete.】
【This wave's difficulty is classified as Nightmare.】
【Level increased.】
【Level increased.】
【Level increased.】
【Level increased.】
【Points have been awarded.】
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LV. 30
Class - Dungeon Master
Dungeon Theme – Anomaly
Population – 2/50
Device count - 1/50
Point - 100000
STR - 33
DEX - 33
CON - 33
MP – 33
UN – Newbie
UC - dm_6_666666666
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It was about time to seriously expand the dungeon.