Chwaaak! 

It sounded like sharp claws were tearing through space, and deep claw marks actually appeared on the walls.

‘It’s good at running away.’ Shin Sung-Hyun chased his enemy, his face expressionless. He was starting to close in on the mutant.

-Kiii!

It was moving so fast he could see sixteen afterimages.

But Shin Sung-Hyun wasn’t fooled by its flashy movements.

‘Whether it's ten of them or a hundred, I just need to kill them all.’ 

The space started to close in on the sixteen figures. But the mutant instinctively moved back and avoided injuries.

‘It’s strong. It’s really strong.’ 

It had been a long time since Shin Sung-Hyun had appraised an enemy like this. The mutant had excellent speed, endurance, strength, and even battle instinct. But even though it was born as a perfect monster, it had one definitive weakness.

‘I wonder how long it has been since it was born.’ 

It lacked experience. In other words, it had superior hardware, but the software was lacking. So, Shin Sung-Hyun was able to treat it like a child.

‘It’s immature. And honest.’ 

Its attacks were the same and consistent; it didn’t even use any feints. It made sense, considering that all its attacks were purely instinctive.

- Kieee!

The mutant looked extremely distraught. It knew that it was much faster and that its attacks were much stronger than Shin Sung-Hyun’s, but it couldn’t figure out how Shin Sung-Hyun was dodging every attack. It couldn’t even graze him.

“You don’t need to know.” Shin Sung-Hyun easily sidestepped its attack and waved his baton. At his command, the space oscillated, and the monster’s left arm disappeared without a trace.

“All you need to do is disappear; you don’t have to know anything.”

Crackle! 

Its physique was so impressive it was horrifying. It regenerated its arm in an instant, and its antenna stretched out like a whip.

“You won’t be able to reach me.” Shin Sung-Hyun hadn’t taken a single step since the battle started, as he had interrupted every single attack from reaching him. This time was no different.

There was a loud sound as its antenna was cut off. What came next were its arms and legs.

- Kieeeee!

It fell to the ground, writhing as its wings fluttered. Again, its limbs regenerated.

“Let’s see how long you can keep doing that.” All he had to do was cut them off faster than they could regenerate.

After continuously regenerating its limbs, the mutant eventually started to crawl away. This was the second most terrifying thing it had ever encountered.

‘It’s getting slower.’ 

The monster’s regeneration rate had slowed down. In the beginning, it would heal in the time it took to blink, but now, it was taking three to four seconds.

-K-Kiiiieee!

It cried out as if asking for help, and it tried to fly out of the tower.

Bang! 

-...?

However, its head collided against a transparent wall. As long as the master of space was in control, it wouldn’t be able to leave.

‘It’s a good thing that I came to the tower…’ 

Shin Sung-Hyun thought with great relief. Even though it was a mere insect in his eyes, it would be a disaster for the other Players. Not even Milphage and Gong Ju-Ha would be able to able to take it out, even if they worked together. As he fought against this monster, he became even more certain of his opinion.

- Kieeeeee! 

The antenna started to vibrate as it despaired. Its mouth split wide as it let out a high-frequency scream. And at that moment, Shin Sung-Hyun felt something change.

‘Why is it dark?’ 

Obviously, the Magic Tower had always been dark on the inside, with the occasional sunlight being its only source of light.

‘...But all the sunlight has been blocked off.’ 

The reason for this was simple.

‘The window!’ 

Crack! 

The windows on the first floor shattered, and wasps started to pour in. They pushed in like a flood, dying as they rammed their heads into Shin Sung-Hyun’s barrier.

Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! 

Their corpses started to pile up like a mountain. However, they were still going.

“Ugh!” He scowled. No matter how powerful he was, he couldn’t stop hundreds of bees from engaging in kamikaze attacks.

‘At this rate… The wall is gonna break!’ 

The mutant slowly pulled itself up as Shin Sung-Hyun watched helplessly. Even though it had the head of a bee, he distinctively felt it smiling.

“You little pest!” Infuriated, he waved his baton, attempting to consume its entire body.

Clang! 

However, his barrier broke, and the wasps swarmed in, creating their own wall to protect the mutant.

“Dammit!” He started to tear through the dozens of bees with spatial claws. But his attacks couldn’t reach the mutant. In fact, the bees pouring in outnumbered the ones he was killing.

‘I can’t see it! Did it leave the tower? I might be in danger.’ 

He had used too many large-scale skills. Even though he was a Heaven, his magic was limited. Not only that, but a skill that could control space inevitably consumed a huge amount of magic. He wasn’t sure if he could kill hundreds or maybe thousands of bees on his own. As such, a rare frown appeared on his face.

“Hahaha! Now that’s what I’m talking about!”

Someone fell from the sky, tearing through dozens of wasps. The man stood and brushed off the green sap. “Wow, I’m seeing a lot of different sides of you today. Looks like you’re happy to see me,” Milphage said.

“...Of course not.” Shin Sung-Hyun grinned. “You’re a nuisance. Scram.”

“No can do. I can’t let you take all the credit.”

Bam! 

Milphage punched his fists together as veins started to pop on his forehead.

“Plus, I’m pretty angry right now.” 

He hadn’t been able to do anything since entering the tower. Sure, he had killed a few wasps, but that wasn’t enough for him to be called the Mercenary King. 

“The Mercenary King is here!” Milphage’s face was flushed red as his muscles swelled in size.

“Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve seen him go Berserk.”

“Yeah....”

“So that’s how he is when he’s angry… He’s strong.”

Players continued to fall from the hole in hordes. Both Hallem’s mercenaries and Goblin’s Players were falling through the hole.

“Master! Are you alright?!” Jang Kyung-Hoon cried out. Shin Sung-Hyun held up his hand.

“Ah... What happened upstairs?”

“There’s nothing. All we found on the tenth floor was the queen bee’s corpse.”

“...Hm.”

“I think we should clean up here first.”

Hundreds of wasps had already swarmed the first floor. If they kept coming, there wouldn’t be much space for them to fight.

“...Right.” Shin Sung-Hyun watched the chaos ensue. He seemed to have remembered something, and his face darkened. As such, he gave an order.

“Kill them as fast as possible, and we’ll look for that damned insect.”

***

“We’re going down too, right?” Gong Ju-Ha tugged on Seo Jun-Ho’s sleeve. Most of the Players had already jumped down to the first floor. There weren’t many of them left on the tenth floor. There was a simple reason for this.

‘Why isn’t he moving?’

‘Hm, Seo hyung had a good instinct back in Forever Land.’ 

They were all people familiar with Seo Jun-Ho. They knew how good his instincts were, so they would only move at his command. Though, of course, there was also Gong Ju-Ha, who simply wanted to protect him, as she was worried.

“Something’s off…” Seo Jun-Ho couldn’t get rid of the nagging feeling, mainly because of Keen Intuition.

‘It won’t stop going off.’ 

He kept on sensing danger. Unfortunately, the skill was still A-grade, so it wasn’t making it clear what exactly the threat was. All it did was keep on telling him that he was in danger.

‘But there’s nothing here.’ 

He had inspected the queen bee to make sure that she was really dead, and she was dead. In fact, as soon as he reached for her head, he even activated Confession of the Dead.

‘So, what’s the problem?’ 

Seo Jun-Ho stroked his chin, trying to figure it out.

“I-I’ll be heading to the first floor now.” Even though he had once been a beekeeper, Seo Jae-Gil was still a Player. He started toward the first floor to join the fight. Though, of course, he took the stairs instead of stupidly jumping through the hole in the ground.

“Wait,” Seo Jun-Ho called. “Let me just ask you something. What are the bees’ personalities like?”

“...Their personalities?” His interest seemed to have been piqued. Seo Jae-Gil stopped.

“Yes. If this queen was killed, why did they leave her corpse here for weeks instead of taking it away?” When humans overthrew a ruler, they would typically erase all traces of the previous monarch before taking their place. It was their right as the victor.

“Hm. Now that you mention it, it’s strange…” Seo Jae-Gil tilted his head. He thought for a second before speaking, “Bees are much smarter than people think. Their colonies, along with ant colonies, resemble human societies the most out of all animal species. If the ruler makes a mistake, they overthrow them. There are even those who kill the queen to make their own offspring the next ruler. They have a very strict hierarchy.”

“Hierarchy…”

“If some new force killed the queen…Perhaps it left her here to display its superiority to the other bees?”

“Superiority, you say.” Seo Jun-Ho considered this. “This tower has 10 floors, right?”

“Yes. We are on the highest floor. We can’t go up any further.”

“...”

Seo Jae-Gil seemed sure of this. But for some reason, Seo Jun-Ho strongly disagreed.

‘But why? Why don’t I believe it?’ 

The feeling was so strong that even he was surprised.

It didn’t take him long to figure out the reason.

“...No, that’s not it.” He slowly looked up at the ceiling. There was someplace higher up than the tenth floor. Somewhere they hadn’t been able to see from the base camp.

The roof…

“Really?” Seo Jae-Gil caught wind of this and went silent. He realized that Seo Jun-Ho might be correct. Outside the tower, they had sensed an ominous, dangerous presence. But as soon as they entered, it had disappeared without a trace.

“I-I’ll bring Shin Sung-Hyun-nim up here right away!” As Seo Jae-Gil dashed down the stairs, Seo Jun-Ho stuck his head out the window.

‘...!’ 

He quickly pulled away. The simple act of looking out made him nauseous. The vicious energy was making him dizzy.

There was definitely something on the tower’s roof.

Gong Ju-Ha stuck her head outside, but she felt the same thing. 

“Mr. Jun-Ho.” She gripped his sleeve, her face pale. “I’m telling you right now. You can’t do this.”

It was too dangerous. She knew that Seo Jun-Ho was a much stronger Player than she had initially thought, but whatever was up there was strong enough to make her think of the Nine Heavens.

“...It’s getting stronger by the second,” Seo Jun-Ho croaked as his voice trembled. He could feel it. Whatever was up there was still feasting. As time passed, its aura had started to snowball, becoming even stronger. Even as he spoke, he could feel it growing stronger.

“Even if I can’t fight it, I can at least stop it…” From growing…

As Seo Jun-Ho started out the window again, Gong Ju-Ha grabbed the hem of his shirt.

“M-Mr. Jun-Ho, you don’t have to do this!” she cried out.

“...”

When he looked back, she really looked like she was about to cry. “Just… Please don’t go. I have a really, really bad feeling about this…”

“...”

He couldn’t stay here. What if it grew even stronger? Would Shin Sung-Hyun, Kim Woo-Joong, or Wei Chun-Hak be able to stop it?

‘But what if it refuses to fight and just runs away?’ 

What if it left the rift? What if it killed hundreds, thousands of Players and innocent people?

“...”

Seo Jun-Ho knew that he was being too cynical. After all, that was the worst-case scenario.

However…

‘I have already seen that before.’ 

He had seen unimaginable horrors occur with his own eyes several times over. He had seen thousands, tens of thousands of people running away, sobbing as they were being ripped apart right in front of his eyes.

Thump. Thump. 

The mere thought of that made his heart race.

Seo Jun-Ho didn’t think he could let it happen.

‘I don’t think I’ll be able to forgive myself if that happens because I stood down today.’ 

He couldn’t…

Seo Jun-Ho slowly pulled away from Gong Ju-Ha’s grasp.

“Thank you for worrying about me.”

He leaped out, leaving no time for anyone to even tell him to stop.

Crackle! 

The vapor in the air condensed into ice, creating a staircase leading to the roof. Even on his way up, the air grew thicker, and he became increasingly dizzier.

Crackle! 

The Frost Queen froze a few nearby wasps, and they fell.

They hadn’t noticed this because thousands of bees were circling the roof.

‘They weren’t just flying around randomly.’ 

It might look like that from afar, but now that he was up close, he was sure that the wasps were flying around with the roof at their center.

“...”

“Ugh…”

The moment they stepped onto the roof, the Frost Queen let out a low groan. Even though she had never tried to stop him, she had to speak now.

“Contractor. I think the fox was correct. This is… This is too dangerous.”

“...”

Across the expansive roof, something was sitting with its legs crossed and back toward him.

Crunch. Crunch. 

It was eating a human being. The leg belonged to a Player. As the wasps flew by, they gently placed down the corpses of Players they had hunted. The monster would pick up the parts and feast on the blood, flesh, and bone, leaving nothing to waste.

‘...A person?’

From the back, it resembled a human. Though it had the head of a bee, its body didn’t look very different from a human’s body. The only difference was that it had fur similar to a bee. Even its arms and legs looked human, and it had six fingers on each hand.

However, these trivial details were inconsequential.

“That’s… Impossible.”

Seo Jun-Ho slowly shook his head. The creature gradually turned and met his eyes.

He felt as if he had discovered something he shouldn't have on the 2nd floor. Seo Jun-Ho couldn’t believe what he was looking at.

[You have discovered the boss monster of the Frontier area, Janabi.]

[Once defeated, safe zones will appear in Frontier.]

An unthinkable message had appeared before him.