We had managed to set a rapid schedule and depart for the pyramid, which was fine. It was also fine that we had entered the pyramid without any stragglers and even managed to alleviate the tension with a somewhat cheerful atmosphere given it was a reconnaissance mission.
However, the problem arose afterward.
Not long after we entered, a crossroad appeared, and after some deliberation, we decided to split into a Korean team and an American team for the investigation. It was unclear whether the path Kang Sihyun entered was a maze by coincidence or if the pyramid was entirely designed like a maze, but we found ourselves plagued by various traps, crossroads, and Irregulars, eventually splitting our group of four into pairs.
Communication via walkie-talkies was impossible within the pyramid, and the devices, rendered decorative, were not properly secured and were destroyed after falling into a trap.
I was concerned about Haewoon and Jihye being separated, but it was not a situation to calmly worry about others. Even in pairs, the pyramid's traps were unforgiving. Arrows coated with lethal poison that seemed to cause instant death upon mere contact and incredibly sharp iron bars continuously flew our way, and the floor traps remained a constant threat. To make matters worse, the appearance of Irregulars, all of which seemed to be of warning level or higher, meant that after evading traps, we found ourselves searching for a way out, only to engage in combat with an Irregular again.
We hadn’t yet discovered what the pyramid was or what lay within it, yet we were already caught in an unnecessary battle of attrition.
“We might end up getting lost and disappearing here.”
When Kang Sihyun was about to step on a trap for the eighth time after surviving the sixth battle, he finally voiced a negative thought. If Haru, with his Assassin class capable of discerning weaknesses and detecting traps, had been with us, we would have been perfectly equipped to handle this situation. Unfortunately, the person beside me was of the Swordsman class, naturally lacking any skill for detecting traps, a deficiency shared by Sihyun as well.
Of course, I could have copied Haru’s skill if I had wanted to, but given our situation in the maze and not knowing what we might encounter, using such a precious copy seemed imprudent.
Even if copied, the skill would only last for 10 minutes. It seemed too risky to use up a copy just to avoid traps for such a brief period.
Uiheon agreed with Sihyun’s assessment, and ultimately, Sihyun had to rely solely on his instincts without depending on skills or copies. If Uiheon hadn't been near S-Class with an intuition sharper than that of his peers among the awakened, we might have already said goodbye to the world.
It was an extremely perilous situation, possibly even more challenging than our battle with the Titan.
What kind of life was this?
Kang Sihyun swallowed his curses as he responded to an Irregular that suddenly emerged in the pitch-darkness, which was ominous due to the absence of even a single torch.
Just when it seemed we had overcome one wall, there was another, and then another. Wandering the maze for what felt like an eternity, the exit we finally managed to find felt like the entrance to yet another maze.
How had I ended up leading such a difficult life?
Playing a notoriously difficult game seemed easier than this. After all, even games provided inns or bases for rest, but we hadn’t been able to properly rest at all.
Moving forward while cautiously holding onto Uiheon’s clothes, I contemplated using a skill due to the extremely poor visibility but postponed it, thinking it unwise to waste even a pinch of mana unnecessarily. However, when Sihyun and Uiheon experienced a near-death situation due to traps for the second time, Sihyun ultimately used a Holy Light skill.
Risking our lives just to save a small amount of mana seemed foolish.
The situation had been chaotic from the start, and we had been separated from our group, but when we started our official attempt to escape the maze with the help of a small light, it felt like we had somewhat escaped the danger.
It seemed we might be able to avoid the traps that littered our path and hopefully find the children a bit more easily.
That was until a sudden "thump" was heard, and the solid ground beneath our feet gave way.
“Kang Sihyun!”
Somehow, only the ground where I stood collapsed, just enough space for one person to fall through. It appeared that some mechanism had been triggered.
Without warning, as Sihyun disappeared below, Uiheon jumped after him, but a flying-type Irregular swiftly captured him in mid-air and sped off somewhere. Without any time to grasp the sudden turn of events, Sihyun found himself separated from Uiheon, who had been with him until then.
Unlike Uiheon, who was caught by an Irregular, Sihyun had no such intervention and continued to plummet with a baffled expression. It felt as if he was falling through a passageway, passing circular holes in the ceiling, endlessly dropping, possibly reaching the lowest point of the pyramid before his back slammed into the damp earth.
Kang Sihyun groaned. Simultaneously, the circular hole closed as if nothing had happened, and the ceiling began to collapse as if intent on crushing him.
And so, this was the situation now.
Without any time to understand or think about what was happening, the only priority was to keep running for survival.
The side of his body that had taken the impact during the fall ached continuously, and he could taste blood in his mouth, but he couldn't stop running.
There was no leisure to determine where traps or Irregulars might be. It was the same whether he died from stepping on a trap or being crushed by the collapsing ceiling. Without the luxury of thinking about escaping the maze, he entered any path that appeared before him. Whether it was luck or because it was the lowest level, where no traps were set, he managed to avoid becoming impaled on iron spikes during his run.
Misfortune encompassed every aspect of his current situation, except for the fortunate absence of traps and dead ends he had managed to avoid. However, the ceiling continued to collapse, and his physical strength was dwindling.
Sweat dripped down his forehead, tracing his jawline before falling to the ground. A bitter laugh escaped him. Laughing like someone who had lost his mind, Kang Sihyun bit his lip hard, trying to hold onto his sanity.
He had managed to defeat Titans and Carises and had even clung to clues about finding traces of Adam and Eve. How had he come this far, endured so much hardship, only to die to traps and a collapsing ceiling?
His life was too peculiar to end in such a place.
If he was to suffer more, it would be more than this; he felt as if the gods wouldn't allow him to die just yet, and with teeth clenched, he kept running, his desperate thoughts turning into prayers. Miraculously, the sound of the ceiling collapsing abruptly ceased as Sihyun entered a slightly damper corridor, perfectly timed with his entry.
"Ha, hah..."
Even though the loud noises had stopped, he continued to run for a few more minutes out of caution. Only after confirming several times that the ceiling was no longer collapsing did he stop and catch his breath. The rapid beating of his heart was distressing. He wasn’t in a state to rest quietly, so he continued walking slowly to regulate his breathing, feeling a sharp pain in his shoulder.
"Ah..."
Upon inspection with his hand, he found that blood was oozing out, indicating that during his frantic escape, some debris from the collapsing ceiling had grazed and fallen on his shoulder. Judging by the amount of blood, it seemed a sharp object had cut him. He quickly healed the wound with a simple Heal spell and surveyed the area where he had fallen.
It was impossible to guess where he was. Not knowing the structure of the pyramid made it seem like a natural outcome.
The particularly muddy soil made him assume he was at the lowest level, but the reality could be different. There might be more spaces below, or he might not even be inside the pyramid but rather underground.
As he pondered various hypotheses and looked at his wrist, the device capable of detecting the vital signs of his teammates was damaged among the chaos, the screen cracked. Though harder to read, it didn’t seem broken. Kang Sihyun sighed in relief upon seeing that seven vital signs were safely detected.
At least everyone seemed to be alive.
The walkie-talkie didn’t work, but this device did, making him wonder if only simple communications were being jammed.
"...It's a huge relief we didn’t all come together."
Kang Sihyun thought about the Class A students who would be waiting for his return in Korea, who couldn’t join this trip to Egypt. If everyone had come as initially suggested, just thinking about what could have happened was terrifying.
If they had been unlucky, two or three might have died by now.
"Should I thank Haehyuk somehow?"
Though he didn’t want to admit it, after facing such dangers, he couldn’t help but feel grateful to Haehyuk, who had remained calm and rational even when facing the children. If Haehyuk hadn’t properly intervened, Sihyun might have pushed the children into danger with his own hands.
Maybe he wanted to rely on someone’s plea to share the burden.
Overwhelmed by the situation and swayed by the mood, Sihyun briefly reflected on his uncharacteristic behavior before taking a deep breath and then coughing due to inhaling dust.
His body felt drained, and his legs were wobbly. Walking a few more steps, he chose to lean against a wall, fearing he might collapse if he continued. Taking a short rest, Kang Sihyun assessed his physical condition. He healed what seemed like a cracked rib and treated his badly scraped knees from several falls. After cleaning the dust off his body and washing his face with dry hands, he felt somewhat refreshed.
This much trouble was enough for him alone.
While sorrow might be halved when shared, pain simply doubled. If someone had to face danger and make sacrifices, he preferred it to be himself, having been born under a hard star. Resolving not to entertain foolish thoughts, Kang Sihyun murmured softly and exhaled a tired breath, then checked the life signal device again.
He had just checked the signals a moment ago, so this time he glanced at it lightly, intending to take a break.
“……?”
However, upon seeing the signals displayed on the cracked screen, Sihyun couldn’t help but discard his light-hearted attitude and embrace doubt. His blue eyes, closely inspecting his wrist, trembled. His eyelashes fluttered rapidly.
The seven green lights he had seen just moments ago had turned into six.
This meant that one person’s life signal had disappeared.
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