Ch.8[Chapter 8] Bu■ Re■■■■ ■■ge ■■■■■ ■■ ■■■■■ E■■

‘If Death Metal appears in Konga Phase 3, do the opposite. You must embrace death instead.’

Sir Dominic kept repeating the coder’s words.

The Goblin King’s drumstick was wrapped in dark, ominous smoke that made it look like a scythe, and each time he swung it, one of the pixelated hearts that had appeared above his head disappeared.

“Embrace death…”

Sir Dominic now had only one heart left.

The coder had definitely said something after that, but he couldn’t remember.

Sir Dominic’s mind wasn’t working properly due to the excessive adrenaline rushing through him during battle.

“Death is like music! No matter how much you refuse, you will eventually accept it!”

“I’m sure he said something…”

Konga the Goblin King swung his scythe widely during each rest beat while saying something, but Sir Dominic couldn’t hear it.

He was still tormented by the strategy that seemed just out of reach.

Wait, scythe?

‘The Goblin King’s scythe doesn’t deal damage. It’s a common cliché, but it’s a trick that’s enough to fool people seeing this gimmick for the first time.’

He remembered.

Sir Dominic recalled the coder’s words and stepped into the range of Konga’s black scythe.

The instruction to embrace death.

The scythe was a symbol of the grim reaper, of death itself.

“Eek! Why can’t I cut you?”

Konga the Goblin King spat out his scripted line while wildly swinging his scythe.

But the scythe kept missing, as if it couldn’t recognize Sir Dominic’s existence.

“Why! The tempo and time of this jungle, and even death itself are in my hands!”

The Goblin King’s struggle was desperate.

There was no kingly dignity to be seen; rather, he looked even more unsightly than a common goblin minion.

“Hmph.”

Sir Dominic smiled faintly.

He felt happy just thinking about what would have happened if he had fought without knowing this gimmick.

Sir Dominic raised his shield and carefully approached the Tyrannosaurus to prevent any unexpected variables.

This Tyrannosaurus, the Goblin King’s pet, was bobbing its head up and down to the rhythm and wasn’t paying attention to Sir Dominic.

The tip of his sword poked the Tyrannosaurus’s leg with a light tap.

“Uwah! I’m falling!”

The Tyrannosaurus, violently shaking its head and dizzy, suddenly felt pain and collapsed on the spot.

Konga the Goblin King fell off the collapsing Tyrannosaurus but quickly climbed back on.

However, the metal mask that had given him power was already gone, disappeared far away.

“How dare you! How dare you interrupt the king’s song! Boys! What are you doing!”

The Goblin King called for his raptors and goblins again.

‘So there are 3 patterns like this. When they end, Phase 1 repeats.’

The coder was right.

Sir Dominic raised his shield again.

He needed to prepare to block the raptors’ attacks.

But the raptors never attacked.

The goblins and raptors that had appeared as duplicates due to the bug were disappearing one by one, turning into data.

“We did it!”

The guard shouted in joy from the back of the stage.

“It took 42 minutes, but we did it!”

“Don’t celebrate too much. The deletion is still in progress.”

Despite saying that, the coder was also sighing in relief.

“There wasn’t enough time to restore it…”

The coder covered his face with his hands in despair.

The boss room’s code was incredibly complex.

This was unavoidable. For security purposes, every employee had created one security measure for this room.

If tired employees working overtime hadn’t occasionally rushed through security tasks for the coder and remembered the passwords, they would have been trapped here hunting dinosaurs until they died.

That’s how the coder comforted himself and escaped reality.

“By the way, is it really okay to just delete everything like this?”

The guard cautiously asked the coder.

Having worked at System Industries for quite some time, he knew how important such work was.

“We have no choice. We can only hope there’s a backup. Backup access is the team leader’s authority.”

The coder said with a complicated expression.

If there was no backup, he might have to work overtime twice as much as now.

“No! This can’t be! Fortissimo!”

Konga the Goblin King approached the fallen Tyrannosaurus and embraced it.

No, he wanted to approach and embrace it.

Seeing the Tyrannosaurus suddenly collapse and disappear into data, Konga forgot they were in the middle of battle.

The Tyrannosaurus was Konga’s favorite animal.

‘The Tyrannosaurus Rex, king of the jungle, bears both the names of tyrant and king.’

His mother had told him.

He wanted to become the king of the jungle.

That day, Konga dreamed of becoming a Tyrannosaurus.

On Christmas Day, Konga’s mother gave him a Tyrannosaurus egg as a gift.

He was overjoyed.

Konga cared for the egg with affection, and soon a small dinosaur was born.

The dinosaur grew rapidly and quickly surpassed Konga’s height, but it was still a cute pet to him.

A lifelong friend.

And now that friend was disappearing before his eyes.

“Fortissimo… Tempost…”

With a thud, the king of the jungle collapsed.

It wasn’t from shock that his legs gave out.

It was because Konga’s legs were beginning to turn into data and float away.

Konga squeezed his eyes shut.

He knew. That he was a being made of data.

And that all his current memories and emotions were created as well.

But to him, this jungle was home, and the Tyrannosaurus before him was like family.

Though he had no legs, he began crawling with his hands on the ground.

The Tyrannosaurus, with only its head remaining, looked at Konga with sad eyes.

Konga reached out to comfort the Tyrannosaurus.

But his hand never reached it.

Konga, being smaller than the Tyrannosaurus, was deleted before his pet.

The Tyrannosaurus shed tears watching Konga’s final moments.

Soon even those tears disappeared.

“…This feels unsettling.”

Sir Dominic felt gloomy with an uncomfortable feeling.

The memories of Konga, king of the jungle, were vivid.

‘Just in case we succeed, don’t be shocked. You need to take fiction as fiction.’

The coder’s words echoed in his ears.

But Sir Dominic, still unfamiliar with this world, couldn’t ignore the brilliantly lived life of the Goblin King.

He sheathed his sword and held his shield in his right hand.

Then he placed his left hand on his chest and bowed his head.

Sir Dominic didn’t know the customs of Gacharland, but he mourned Konga’s death according to Feralant’s rituals.

As a courtesy to an enemy who had given him a good battle.

[Congratulations! You have defeated Konga the Goblin King!]

[As a reward, you receive 3■]

[■■■■■]

Sir Dominic raised his head.

A status window appeared before his eyes, but it didn’t look normal.

The coder and guard must have done something.

Through the translucent status window, he could see the world gradually disappearing.

Beyond it was a white space like graph paper.

And then suddenly the world changed.

“Oh my. Seems like it’s resolved.”

“Oh dear, I wonder if the equipment is okay…”

Sir Dominic’s view showed a messy office.

Half-destroyed desks and scattered documents everywhere. And garbage all over the office.

Ah, not saying the people were garbage, but actual trash like cans and bottles.

And among them, people who looked like beggars began to emerge one by one.

“We’re back.”

“Mm.”

Familiar voices came from behind.

It was the coder and the guard.

Sir Dominic still didn’t understand the situation.

“Junior, are you okay… You don’t look okay.”

“Was he too immersed?”

As Sir Dominic was blankly organizing his thoughts, a status window appeared.

It was sudden.

[Congratulations! You have acquired the hidden class Neck Romancer!]

Hidden class? Suddenly?

Sir Dominic looked at the guard with a confused expression.

Since this wasn’t in his injected knowledge, he needed an explanation.

“This is a joke, right? Making fun of a newbie who doesn’t know anything.”

“Huh? That’s strange. Other employees usually laugh at this.”

The status window disappeared as the coder manipulated something.

“What is all this about?”

Sir Dominic asked with an even more confused voice.

“You seemed too immersed, so I played a little joke as an immersion breaker.”

The coder grinned broadly.

“There’s nothing better than a fake system window to break immersion.”

“That only works for science types like you.”

The guard looked at the coder with disdain.

“So, you were teasing the newbie. Junior.”

The guard had to explain this small prank for 10 minutes, but he was able to fully explain the situation to Sir Dominic.

“There’s no such thing as a class system here anyway. It’s not like someone decides what you do for life.”

The guard, finishing his explanation, stared at Sir Dominic’s one eye as if asking if he understood.

Sir Dominic finally understood the situation.

He was a bit angry about the immersion breaker, but he also thought that his state must have been quite concerning for them to do that.

As Sir Dominic nodded and fell into his own thoughts, the guard, feeling that this wouldn’t do, spoke to him again.

“Well. Let’s think later. Now that the emergency is over, we need to return to our daily lives. Hey! We’re going!”

“Hey! Rookie! Help us carry this!”

“Yes! Team leader! Ah! Yes! Be careful carrying that!”

The coder was busy helping his teammates and answered hastily.

Yes. Now it’s time to go back.

Just like on the battlefield.

Sir Dominic smiled happily.

Because that’s what would make him happy.