Chapter 159: The Boss Direct Road

Episode 159

As the notification window appeared before him,

the ‘Void Space’ that had formed around the ‘Void Eye’ began to disappear at an incredible speed.

A few seconds later, the purple space, along with the Void Worms inside, vanished completely from sight.

Kim Jinsung finally let out a sigh of relief.

‘That was close.’

Honestly, if he had been a few seconds late in defeating the Void Eye, he would have been attacked by the Void Worms.

That would have disrupted his concentration on injecting Mana, and he wouldn’t have been able to eliminate the Void Eye.

[…As expected, my prediction was correct.]

Dantalian’s voice, filled with an unknown meaning, reached his ears.

‘What prediction?’

[About you… No, it’s better to talk about this later.]

“…?”

[I need some time to organize my thoughts.]

Dantalian continued to speak in riddles that Kim Jinsung couldn’t understand.

But he didn’t say anything more, and Kim Jinsung had no choice but to start walking towards the boss’s location.

He focused on reading the notification window that had appeared before him again.

‘It says I can use all attacks and traits in a Void state? That means I can attack with the power of nothingness?’

Come to think of it, this was an incredibly powerful trait.

If he could attack with the same power of nothingness as the Void Worms, those who were weaker than him wouldn’t even be able to defend themselves.

‘And if I can attack other Void beings…’

Kim Jinsung’s eyes sparkled.

‘This is…’

He started to think that he might be able to clear this demon world dungeon very easily.

* * *

The moment Kim Jinsung eliminated the Void Eye, different reactions erupted from various locations.

[Whoa…?! It disappeared! Alopsky defeated the ‘Void Eye’!]

[Huh… What’s this? Was he really a hidden master like I said earlier?]

The commentators were surprised.

They seemed to be the most excited they had been since the start of the broadcast, perhaps because it was an unexpected turn of events that they hadn’t anticipated.

And the ones who were most delighted were the members of Hunter Team 6, gathered in the lounge.

“Waaaaaaa!”

“He defeated it!”

“That’s it! Well done, newbie!”

They had been watching the broadcast with a slightly pessimistic feeling, so their joy was even greater.

Ricardo, the team leader, was the most excited of them all.

“See? See what kind of guy I picked?! Huh?!”

He shouted, high-fiving his team members.

He then let out a sigh of relief and looked at Kim Jinsung on the TV screen.

‘My gut feeling was right. Alopsky, that guy, was strong enough to defeat the Void!’

His intuition that he hadn’t seen Alopsky’s limits yet had been spot on.

As all of Team 6 was rejoicing, there were others who were showing the opposite reaction.

Francisco, the leader of Hunter Team 1, was one of them.

‘…This is an unexpected variable.’

Francisco’s expression, as he watched Alopsky walking leisurely on his TV at home, was grave.

‘The fact that he can defeat the Void means he’s on a similar level as Juan from our Team 1 and Luca from Team 2.’

No, it would be fortunate if their levels were just similar. He might even be stronger.

This was because they had already fully grasped Juan and Luca’s abilities, but they hadn’t yet figured out Alopsky’s true potential.

‘It’s unlikely, but if Alopsky is much stronger than Juan…’

Then Team 6 would most likely win the ‘Newbie Showdown’.

In other words, Team 6 would have the right to choose their subcontracted clan first.

‘If Ricardo takes ‘Amber Moon’, which is mine…’

And if Luca came in second, and Team 2 chose to keep their existing subcontracted clan, the ‘Yoruba Clan’?

Then Team 1 would be in trouble.

The difference in income between Amber Moon and the Yoruba Clan, and the other clans, was vast.

This meant that Team 1’s equipment supply would be disrupted, which would ultimately lead to a decline in their combat power.

‘That can’t happen. Team 1 must always remain the strongest team in the Triunfo Clan.’

The moment their team’s power declined, his own authority would also decline.

That was unacceptable.

‘I can’t lose to Ramiro, that bastard, no matter what!’

Francisco’s eyes turned cold as he thought of Ramiro, the leader of Hunter Team 2, his biggest rival in Triunfo.

‘I need to come up with a plan. I can’t do anything about this first round…’

Unfortunately, he couldn’t directly influence the first round now that they were inside the dungeon.

He had no choice but to prepare for the second round and pray that Juan wouldn’t lose to Alopsky and end up below second place.

* * *

At the outdoor monitoring room set up near the dungeon entrance,

“The newest members of Hunter Teams 1, 2, 6, and 10 have encountered ‘Void Eyes’.”

The PD reported through the microphone connected to his earpiece. His report would be relayed to the commentators through the staff at Triunfo’s official monitoring room.

“Hunter Teams 1, 2, and 6 have successfully defeated the ‘Void Eyes’. Hunter Team 10’s member, however, failed to defeat it and fled.”

“That idiot…!”

Sergio’s angry voice was heard in the middle of the report.

He, also the leader of Hunter Team 10, was staring at the last monitor, which was showing Chano, the newest member of his team.

Chano was desperately running away, trying to escape the ever-expanding ‘Void Space’.

“He should have either eliminated it or run away immediately. Why did he hesitate?”

What he had seen on the monitor a while ago was Chano, encountering a Void Rift while moving, hesitating and panicking for about five seconds.

Those five seconds had led to this unsightly scene of Chano running for his life.

“You’re dead when you get back.”

Sergio muttered, glaring at the monitor with fiery eyes, then shouted into the microphone connected to his earpiece,

“Haven’t you arrived yet?!”

[We’re here! We’ll start eliminating the Void Eye immediately.]

“Hurry up! The entire dungeon might be engulfed by the Void Space!”

If they left the Void Space alone, it would eventually expand to cover the entire dungeon. It had no limits.

That’s why one of the evaluation team members had been urgently dispatched to eliminate it.

“Keep switching between the footage of Hunter Team 10’s member and the footage of Hunter Teams 1, 2, and 6. You know what I mean?”

“……”

Sergio suppressed the urge to glare at the PD, who spoke in a low voice.

The PD was just doing his job professionally. Glaring at him would only make him look petty.

‘Sigh… Right. It’s not just Chano who’s weak. Those three who can defeat the Void are the abnormal ones.’

He took a deep breath and calmed himself down.

The PD, oblivious to his superhuman effort to control his emotions, continued,

“After the cross-cutting, show the map with the current locations of all the participants. And at the same time…”

He looked at the map on the large screen and continued,

“…Don’t forget to mention that Hunter Teams 1 and 6 are currently heading towards the boss.”

* * *

**Hummm-!**

A faint humming sound was heard. It was the sound of Mana being released.

At the same time, the purple dimensional rift, which had been growing larger, began to shrink rapidly.

The ‘Void Rift’, trapped within Mana, shrank and eventually disappeared from sight. It had been eliminated.

“Phew…!”

Juan retracted his Mana with a small sigh.

“Good. Everything’s going smoothly so far.”

He muttered to himself, looked around, and started walking in one direction.

‘He said I should follow the path where the plants are getting smaller, right?’

He thought to himself, looking at the purple grass and trees ahead, which were noticeably smaller than the others.

The plants in the distance were even smaller.

The tree right in front of him was about his height, but the trees in the distance were only as tall as his chest.

‘He said if I keep following the path where the plants are getting smaller, I’ll encounter the boss, ‘Patavina’.’

As he continued his thoughts, he recalled what Francisco had told him secretly last night.

– …If you keep going in that direction, you’ll encounter Patavina. Patavina consumes all the ‘Void’ in the soil, which is the nutrients for the surrounding plants, so the plants around it are naturally smaller. Do you understand?

– Yes, Team Leader.

– I’ve told you this much in secret, so you know what to do tomorrow, right?

Juan knew exactly how to answer Francisco’s last question.

‘I must repay him by coming in first place.’

Juan. He was considered the most promising prospect of Team 1, the strongest team in Triunfo.

For him to lose to someone like Luca from Team 2 and finish this round in second place was a disgrace that not only Francisco and the other Team 1 members, but also Juan himself, couldn’t accept.

‘To do that, I need to find Patavina as quickly as possible and defeat it before Luca… Huh?’

His eyes widened in surprise.

The sky at the horizon, far ahead in the plain, was suddenly turning purple.

He realized what it was the moment he saw it.

‘It’s Patavina!’

He started running towards the purple sky with all his might.

‘I remember the sky around Patavina being completely purple when I encountered it before!’

He recalled his experience from a previous raid and increased his speed. He soon saw a familiar sight.

A vast space, completely dyed purple.

In the center, a giant octahedron-shaped cube was floating and rotating in the air.

This was the appearance of ‘Patavina’ that he knew.

But… there was someone else there, someone he hadn’t expected.

‘……!’

His eyes widened as he saw someone standing near Patavina.

‘That guy is…!’

He didn’t remember his name, but he definitely remembered his face.

There was only one Russian among the newest members of Team 10, and he was from Team 6.