GBAS 27

Hyunwoo lifted his head toward the source of the cold air. His gaze landed on a hole in the not-so-high ceiling above him. A cold wind was flowing in from the large hole, which looked to be about one meter in diameter.

Did I come down through there?

The mere thought of having passed through that narrow opening made his body feel stiff. The moment he tried to stretch, a sigh escaped him automatically. Is this really a game? The sensation of his joints aching every time he moved was vivid.

Suddenly, Hyunwoo looked down at the bottom of his screen.

“……Wow.”

Hyunwoo’s jaw dropped.

I knew something was off. The health bar, which should have been filled with red, was completely stained black. His remaining HP was a mere 1, like a thin crack. It was a miracle he had woken up alive.

Come to think of it, it was also strange that he woke up with the petrification gone.

The official way to break free from petrification was to sprinkle a softening potion obtained by hunting Gorgons. A cruder method was to break the outer shell by striking it with a mining pickaxe for about ten minutes. In this case, it was impossible that a potion had been used, so it seemed correct to assume that the outer shell had been broken by the damage received on the way down.

“Just how far did I fall?”

Although the process was strange, it seemed he had discovered a shortcut. Now, all he needed to do was find out what floor this was…….

Hyunwoo brought the mini-map, which had been displayed in the corner of his screen, to the center, enlarged the window, and repeatedly pressed the magnifying glass icon. Just as he was scrolling up and down the long vertical screen to gauge their location, he heard a rustling sound from behind him.

“…….”

Hyunwoo’s movements came to a halt.

Woof, woof. The wary barks of a canine-like animal echoed between the walls. Was it just his imagination? The faint sound seemed to be getting closer.

Should I have scouted the area first? I should have checked my health before that. While he was regretting his actions, the presence approached quickly. A large shadow emerging from behind him flickered at his feet.

Gulp.

Swallowing dryly, Hyunwoo made a decision and turned around. He was in a situation where even a breeze could kill him, but he figured that if he was going to die, he should at least see what kind of monster appeared here.

Just then, something shot out from behind a sharp bend in the path and grabbed onto the uneven wall. As the silhouette of the figure rounding the corner slowly came into view, Hyunwoo’s eyes widened.

“You’re awake?”

“……Huh?”

The person who appeared before Hyunwoo was none other than Baek Jooin.

“Hyung, how are you here, why……”

“Ah.”

Jooin calmly explained what had happened while Hyunwoo was unconscious.

He said that after being hit by the Cave Troll’s attack, they were lucky to have survived, but the ground had collapsed significantly, and they had fallen down into the pit together without a chance to escape. When asked how he was still alive, Jooin replied that the petrified body had served as a good shield, so he wasn’t hurt at all.

“And this is the 46th floor.”

“What?”

“I went up for a bit and there was a respawn spot above. This is the 46th floor, and if you go down that way, it’s the 47th.”

Skipping ten floors was truly an enormous discovery.

“I’ve already told the others that we’re alive.”

It seemed the guild members were currently struggling to make their way down here.

He said they had made several attempts to break through the pit with their bare bodies, channeling their adventurous spirit, but the path was so treacherous that they became incapacitated before even reaching this place. The people, having concluded that petrification was the only answer, had apparently left one Gorgon alive on purpose and were dragging it around, continuing their experiments.

Just then, a blue message appeared next to Hyunwoo’s screen.

[Party] Aqua : Hyung

[Party] Aqua : Is Noja awake? ㅇ,ㅇ

It was a message asking about his well-being. Hyunwoo replied directly.

[Party] Jeonguk-noye-jarang : yeah just woke up

Then, a flood of tearful messages poured in.

[Party] Aqua : ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

[Party] Aqua : How on earth did you guys get there

[Party] Aqua : I turned off the live stream and have been headbutting it for 30 minutes but there’s no progressㅠ0ㅠ

As if the difficulty was the same for everyone, a torrent of messages from the guild members poured in below Aqua’s chat.

[Party] JuJuGeneralAssembly : Can we even do this today?

[Party] JuJuGeneralAssembly : This is pissing me off

[Party] Jinyoung-kun : Luring the skill is too damn hardㅠ!!!

[Party] JuJuGeneralAssembly : Hey Noja-nim

[Party] JuJuGeneralAssembly : I’m borrowing your puppy you left behind for a bit?

[Party] JuJuGeneralAssembly : IfTheOneWhoUsesStrengthTheBestAtThisPointTakesItThereIsOnlyDeath

[Party] poSquadLeaderwer : fr

[Party] poSquadLeaderwer : This rock thing is so heavy it won’t even roll

[Party] poSquadLeaderwer : Do we really have to get hit while sliding or something?

[Party] Napjakmandu : Captain, no matter how you put it

[Party] Napjakmandu : calling a person a rockㅠㅠ

[Party] poSquadLeaderwer : No, I’m serious, it won’t budge at all?

[Party] poSquadLeaderwer : Let’s give up and restart lessgooo

[Party] Napjakmandu : Sobㅠㅠㅠㅠ

The more Hyunwoo heard from his guild members, the more he realized how lucky he had been.

[Party] Camellia : I’m sorry, you twoㅠㅠ

[Party] Camellia : We’ll try to get down there as fast as we can~

If the diameter of the pit had been larger, I could have had them come down on Frost.

Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do to help from here. Hyunwoo, who had been looking up at the hole in the ceiling, finally straightened his head.

…Will they take about an hour to get here?

It had already been four hours since they entered the dungeon. Seeing as no one was talking about going to sleep despite whining about how hard it was, it seemed they intended to push through to the end if possible.

Taking a couple of steps back, his back touched the wall. Leaning against the wall and relaxing the strength in his legs, Hyunwoo slid down into a sitting position and opened his inventory. As he used bandages and healing items, the black, empty health bar gradually began to fill with red. Once he had replenished his depleted stamina as well, he could finally breathe easy.

After taking a moment to catch his breath, Hyunwoo lifted his head and froze like a statue. Jooin, who had been standing there observing the hole in the ceiling, had perfectly timed his gaze to meet Hyunwoo’s.

“…….”

“…….”

Jooin, who had been staring intently at Hyunwoo for a long while, suddenly asked.

“……You changed it?”

“Yes?”

I didn’t know what he was going to ask.

He was so startled that the end of his voice cracked strangely. Ah, how embarrassing. As Hyunwoo contorted his face and covered his mouth with his hand, Jooin raised an eyebrow as if puzzled.

After thinking for a moment, Jooin approached Hyunwoo and asked again.

“Your hair, I mean.”

With those words, Jooin’s raised index finger pointed towards Hyunwoo’s forehead. Over his fully revealed eyes, a new hair item recently released in a kit was equipped.

“Ah. Ah, this.”

Hyunwoo, his eyes following the tip of Jooin’s finger, answered haltingly, and Jooin nodded.

The hair covering Hyunwoo’s forehead was, unlike usual, a golden color. The name of the item he was wearing was ‘Bully Dirty Blonde’. It was a trendy new hairstyle that vividly recreated the dry texture of hair that had been bleached multiple times in real life, and the natural black hair gradation starting from the crown added a strange aura.

“Yes, I changed it?”

After finishing his reply, Hyunwoo’s lips suddenly jutted out in a pout.

…Does it look bad?

There was no big reason why Hyunwoo, who had stuck to neat black hair ever since starting the game, had suddenly put on such a delinquent-like hairstyle. It was just that he suddenly thought his appearance looked a bit plain. Though he didn’t know why he had come to think that.

For some reason, the now dispirited Hyunwoo pinched the end of his hair with his thumb and forefinger. Just as he was feeling the texture of the hair, which rustled as if it would break at his fingertips, Jooin’s words continued.

“It suits you well.”

“…….”

“It’s pretty.”

What?

Hyunwoo, who had just been hit squarely with a one-two jab, looked up at Jooin with a dazed expression.

Is he trying to tease me?

Hyunwoo’s expression, as he scrutinized Jooin with suspicious eyes, took on an even more serious light. It was because he couldn’t read any signal of falsehood anywhere on Jooin’s face.

So he’s being sincere?

Hyunwoo, mulling over Jooin’s words several times, opened his mouth as if possessed.

“Hyung, by any chance.”

At the quiet call, Jooin nodded as if to say, “go on,” and Hyunwoo asked with a blank look on his face.

“Are your eyes crooked?”

“…….”

“Or, do you not have a mirror at home?”

“……What?”

Regardless of whether Jooin’s face crumpled or not, Hyunwoo’s eyes were busy scrutinizing the face standing opposite him.

The sharp yet rounded shape of his eyes, the high and straight yet soft-looking bridge of his nose, the long and full lips, and even his skin, which was whiter and clearer than anyone around him who emptied their bank accounts at the dermatologist. It was Baek Jooin, rather, who suited the word ‘pretty’.

In the end, Hyunwoo had no choice but to say the words out loud.