WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

The Legendary Newbie of the Ghost Story Labyrinth

[Translator – Aren]

Chapter 69 - Sallim-dong, Euljiro (6)

-Squelch, squelch.

The only sound filling the alley was the squelch of tactical boots stepping through pools of oily water.

It was an unsettling world that seemed like the real world but was twisted into something subtly wrong. An ordinary person would have frozen the moment they stepped inside, too intimidated to even think straight. Zeta-9, however, was different.

Every member was a seasoned professional. Without the slightest hint of panic, they methodically swept through the Backrooms-corrupted hardware district of Sallim-dong.

“Alpha, Sector 1 clear. No hostile contacts. Anomalous readings stable.”

“Bravo, Sector 2 clear. Reporting unusual findings. Large amounts of blood……destroyed tools and multiple dismembered bodies.”

Even over the radio, the Bravo squad leader’s voice carried a trace of tension.

For a moment, though, there was no immediate danger, and the search proceeded smoothly. The alleys were littered with the aftermath of a horrific massacre, yet the predator responsible

“Captain, it looks like someone swept through here before us.”

“……Continue tracking. Bravo, regroup with us.”

The Zeta-9 commander had just finished issuing the orders when…

-Vroooooom!

A deafening engine roar ripped through the alley from the darkness ahead.

The Zeta-9 operatives instinctively swung their rifles toward the sound, their laser sights converging into a single point. Then a massive silhouette emerged from the shadowy alley where the red dots had gathered.

“Prepare to fire.”

The captain’s voice remained calm, but behind their gas masks, several operators’ eyes widened. They had spent years traversing every corner of the Backrooms, facing countless entities, yet even they couldn’t suppress a shudder at what now stood before them.

"......Ugh."

"......Holy shit."

It stood at 2.5 meters. Jet-black skin peeled away in places, exposing bulging muscles beneath. Thick cables writhed throughout its body, and clutched in its hands was an enormous chainsaw.

One look was enough to tell that this wasn’t an ordinary entity. It was an apex predator. A creature sitting at the very top of the food chain.

Perhaps it was the boss of this entire floor.

Its glowing yellow eyes slowly swept across the members of Zeta-9, filled with unmistakable delight.

“Kehehehe. Hehehe…!”

The sound that emerged from Gu Bonjae’s mouth was no longer human.

“Wonderful! Just wonderful!”

The cable-like tendrils growing where his tongue should have been writhed excitedly.

“Strong new parts for my Taeson have walked right in…!”

At that instant, the commander of Zeta-9 gave the order.

“Open fire! Commence neutralization procedures!”

-Ratatatatatatata!

Every weapon focused its fire on the spot marked by the converging laser sights.

* * *

Behind them, the thunderous sound of gunfire erupted.

-Ratatatatata! Bang!

-Ratatata!

At the sound, Park Minho and Seol Suyeon exchanged a glance. Everything was unfolding exactly as they expected. Still, they climbed onto the roof of a nearby building to confirm it for themselves.

“Just like I thought, the deep crimson aura is coming from the direction of the gunfire.”

"So Gu Bonjae really did run into the NCE. Let’s move.”

They couldn’t afford to waste this opportunity. Park Minho and Seol Suyeon hurried forward.

"Oppa, are you okay?”

“I’ll live.”

The aftereffect of using the King’s Noose still lingered, but he was recovering little by little. The two of them jogged through the maze of alleyways. More than once, they nearly ran into entities, but every single time, Seol Suyeon caught them first.

“One ahead. We need to go around.”

“Wow, without your eyes, we’d have walked right into that.”

Now wasn’t the time to fight entities. Besides, for some reason, every entity on this floor was absurdly powerful. The floor itself was simply beyond what Park Minho could comfortably handle right now.

-Ratata! Bang!

-Booooom!

The sounds of battle behind them grew fiercer. The gunfire had begun to thin out, replaced by the constant roar of explosives detonating one after another.

The NCE seemed to be throwing everything they had into the fight.

But Park Minho didn’t think they had much of a chance.

'They picked the worst possible opponent.'

Someone like Gu Bonjae wasn't an enemy Zeta-9 could hope to defeat. To stand a chance, they would’ve needed an actual Awakened strike force.

Even Park Minho, who possessed the King’s Noose, had made it his objective to not fight him.

“Let’s hurry.”

“The workshop should be just ahead.”

After passing through a few more alleys, Gu Bonjae’s workshop finally came into view, but there was a problem.

"Oppa!”

"Damn it…!”

Seol Suyeon didn't even need to point it out. Standing guard in front of the wide-open workshop shutter was an entity.

The vicious one with the grinder for a face. It slowly turned its head from side to side as though standing watch. Beyond it, inside the workshop, they could see the bound Jung Manchun and several grotesque masses of stitched flesh.

“This is bad.”

They were out of time, and a powerful enemy stood directly in their way.

One look was enough to tell them that they couldn’t win in a straightforward fight.

'Do I have to use Reality Manipulation again?'

He’d already used it once today. His body was under enough strain as it was. And unlike before, he wouldn’t be dropping the entity into a hole. He’d have to erase it outright.

'The backlash would be enormous.'

His heart would almost certainly stop again. Last time, Seol Suyeon’s quick thinking had saved him through sheer luck. He couldn’t gamble on surviving twice.

'What do I do?'

He couldn’t win a direct fight, his trump card, the King’s Noose, was practically useless, and they were out of time. It was a hopeless situation.

-Bang—!

Then a single gunshot echoed in the distance. After that, complete silence spread. The sounds of battle vanished completely. Apparently, the NCE had been wiped out, which meant it was only a matter of time before Gu Bonjae returned.

"Ugh……”

Grinding his teeth as he desperately searched for an answer, an idea suddenly flashed through his mind.

“Wait. Could that thing be the same entity we encountered?”

Without hesitation, Park Minho activated his shadow’s ability to steal anomalous powers.

The information that flooded into his mind confirmed his suspicion.

[Friction Heat]

[Steel Skin]

The entity no longer possessed its grinder Cutting ability. Which meant this grinder entity was the very same one he’d encountered earlier.

'I still have Cutting, so it doesn’t. Then maybe this is actually winnable.'

The grinder entity’s greatest weapon had been its cutting ability, and Park Minho’s shadow had already stolen it.

'Good. Let’s do this.'

There wasn’t any time left to hesitate. If they were going to make it through, he had to fight. Of course, before that, he might as well steal the rest of its abilities.

Park Minho tossed another 10 gold coins into his shadow. A new ability materialized in return.

[Steel Skin/ Intermediate Rank/ 10 Coins]

[Temporarily hardens the user's skin to the durability of steel.]

[Can also be utilized offensively if necessary.]

Defense had always been his biggest weakness. Now he finally had an answer for it. With that, all three of his shadow’s ability slots were full.

“Suyeon, if I go down, run.”

She immediately shook her head the moment she heard Park Minho say that as he stepped forward.

“What are you talking about? If you fall, I’m shooting until the very end.”

“You’re stubborn."

Park Minho let out a long sigh as he advanced. The grinder entity, which had been standing guard, reacted instantly.

“Graak!”

Leading with its enormous grinder-shaped head, it charged straight at him, as if intending to grind him into pieces on impact.

“Graaaaaaah!”

Park Minho responded without hesitation. He activated Cutting, the very ability he’d stolen from it through his shadow.

-Whiiiiiiiiiiir!

His shadow surged upward, forming a massive spinning grinder blade that rotated with terrifying force. The grinder entity, seeing that, immediately lowered its head to meet it.

It looked like it intended to overpower him by pitting its own grinder against his.

Except, it no longer possessed that ability.

"Keh?”

The grinder blade that should have been roaring to life didn’t spin at all. And now it would pay the price.

-Skraaaaaaaaaaash!

The shadow grinder tore straight through its head.

“GraaaaAAAaAAAH!?”

Before it could even comprehend why its own grinder wasn’t working, its face split apart. The shadow grinder didn’t stop there. It carved straight down through its chest before finally coming to a halt.

Having lost Steel Skin as well, its defense had plummeted.

Otherwise, there was no way Park Minho could have cut through it so cleanly.

-Thud!

The grinder entity collapsed to the ground with a heavy crash.

“Wow, it went down that easily?”

After losing its two core abilities. The monster had become almost helpless. Meanwhile, Park Minho’s own combat strength had skyrocketed to a level that couldn’t even be compared to before. He was now strong enough that even most Awakened wouldn’t have much on him.

'Those abilities cost a fortune, but they’re definitely worth every coin.'

Park Minho and Seol Suyeon rushed into the workshop. Still bound in chains, Jung Manchun stared at them in shock.

“Damn! You two got caught up in this too?!”

“We have to get out immediately. Gu Bonjae will be back any minute.”

Without wasting another second, Park Minho activated Cutting against the chains.

-Whiiiiiiiiiir!

Sparks flew as the links were severed. Jung Manchun was finally free. As they hurried away, Park Minho explained the situation.

“Even if we avoid Gu Bonjae, the NCE is waiting outside the Backrooms. We need to escape through there.”

Jung Manchun looked toward the black vortex swirling at the end of the corridor beyond the workshop and swallowed nervously.

“To a Backrooms floor we know nothing about?”

“It has to be better than staying here.”

“Boss, we don’t have time to debate it. If you come with us, we’ll help you get settled in the Backrooms.”

Since Jung Manchun had no idea Park Minho was the Master of Floor 8, he assumed Park Minho meant helping him settle in the TBU fortress city. At this point, returning to the Backrooms didn’t seem like such a terrible option. Truthfully, he’d always suspected a day like this might come.

Among veteran explorers, there was an old saying. Once the Backrooms have claimed you, they always find a way to claim you again.

“Alright. To the Backrooms then.”

“Good. What exactly is that thing, by the way?”

He pointed toward the grotesque four-legged mass of stitched flesh with the entity corpse fixed to its back.

Jung Manchun frowned.

“…A cursed creation born from the Molting Church.”

“The Molting Church?”

Just then Seol Suyeon, who had been searching the room, called out in surprise.

"Oppa! Look at this!”

“What is it?”

When he walked over, he found a thick tome covered in bizarre, incomprehensible symbols. It looked like something straight out of a fantasy novel.

On the cover was the image of a cicada shedding its shell. That clearly was the emblem of the Molting Church.

"What’s this?”

Jung Manchun answered.

"Gu Bonjae was reading from it while chanting the ritual that brought his son back to life. It must be important.”

Park Minho decided to take it. Anything connected to the Molting Church might contain valuable information.

However, he hesitated a bit, since stealing it would almost certainly send Gu Bonjae into a murderous rage.

‘No. I have to take this.’

If he wanted to prepare for whatever came next, this time could prove invaluable. Besides, there was no repairing his relationship with the Molting Church anymore. And Park Minho had never been the type to shy away from risk if it meant gaining critical information.

“We should move. We can talk once we’re out of here.”

“Right. Let’s go!"

With the tome tucked under his arm, Park Minho led Seol Suyeon and Jung Manchun through the corridor until they stood before the swirling black vortex.

Then a monstrous roar echoed from behind them.

“You insolent wretches—!”

Startled, they spun around. Standing there was a gigantic black humanoid entity.

In one hand it held a chainsaw, in the other it dragged the corpses of NCE special operatives strung together like fish on a line.

Park Minho recognized him instantly. That was Gu Bonjae.

"How dare you!”

He was absolutely furious. He had gone out to collect fresh materials only to return and find some filthy rat had ransacked his workshop.

He’d left the grinder entity on guard, having full confidence in it. It was a powerful being. Whoever showed up should have been easy prey. Yet somehow, its corpse had been lying crumpled on the floor, its head split open.

Gu Bonjae immediately checked on his son. The child remained exactly as before, seemingly asleep. Relief washed over him. At least the little rat hadn’t laid a hand on his precious son.

Then his eyes landed on the thick book in Park Minho’s hands, which was when something inside him snapped.

“You dare steal from me!”

That book was essential to reviving Gu Taeson. He treasured it so much that he hadn’t even taken it with him to avoid damaging it during the firefight with the NCE. If it disappeared, the resurrection ritual would be fatally compromised.

Without another thought, Gu Bonjae lunged forward.

“I’ll rip you to pieces! Graaaaaaah!”

There was no longer any time to hesitate. Park Minho had no idea where the black vortex actually led, but that uncertainty no longer mattered. He shoved Seol Suyeon and Jung Manchun into it and leapt after them.

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