Kwan Minhwoo’s abrupt remark alerted the other two chit-chatters.

  “Sound? What sound?”

  All the stair guards quieted down and seriously listened for anything abnormal.

  Not hearing anything except silence, Baldie Tae grunted. “Che. You tryin’ to scare us, four-eyes? I hear nothing.”

  “Me neither.” Park Insu snickered. “Hurhur, Mr. Kwan, you’re too jumpy for your own good.”

  Kwan Minhwoo’s eyes vigilantly searched the darker parts of the pyramid but was unable to find anything out of the normal.

  He relaxed a bit and muttered, “Guess it was just my imagination. Must’ve been the wind.”

  That line awakened some nostalgia in Park Insu and he can’t help but chuckle. “Hurhur, you sound like an NPC. Watch out or the Dragonborn will sneak up behind ya.”

  “Bah! There better be no bullshit Dragonborn here! I don’t want a world ender dragon Alduin on my ass! Thank you very much!”

  “Hurhur. What’s so scary about that? Just gimme a Dragonbane sword and I’ll banish him even without the Elder Scrolls!”

  “Che. Go touch grass! Or maybe if ya shout loud enough, they’ll find you one downstairs.”

  “Madaraka! Baldie, are you taking me for a fool? I’ll be happy if they can even get me an iron sword!”

  “Che. According to my bozo, that isn’t even in the loot table.”

  Here, the four-eyes inserted himself. “You never know. Game’s different from reality. Those chests out in the desert are proof.”

  “Oh. Then I’m really looking forward to what we will get this time. But honestly, even a wooden sword will make me happy. What bout you, four-eyes?”

  “I personally hoped there’s a fishing rod or something along the lines of a rope… You, Mr. Park?”

  “Hurhur, I’m fine with anything as long as it’s not silver.”

  “Idiot. There’s gold but ain’t no bullshit silver in the game.”

  “Madaraka! Think I don’t know? But this isn’t a game—”

  “Hush!” Suddenly, Kwan Minhwoo tensed up and took a step back. “Did you two hear that?”

  The other two similarly tensed up and vigilantly looked around at the pillars shrouded in darkness, but…

  Silence.

  Feeling like he got fooled again, Baldie Tae glared at the man making a mountain out of a molehill. “Che! There you go again, four-eyes! You tryin’ to be the boy crying wolf?”

  Kwan Minhwoo frowned. This time, it really wasn’t his imagination!

  It was faint, but he was sure there was a…

  Clack-clack. This time, that eerie sound didn’t escape their ears.

  Everybody tensed up. Park Insu’s size started growing and he growled, “Is that—?”

  Thuuum! His words never finished because an arrow from the dark nailed right into his chest!

  White-hot pain instantly awakened the ferocity in the man-beast! He snapped off the arrow and howled, “Awooooo!!!”

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  The man-beast then lunged forward and galloped into the darkness!

  But the other two didn’t have time to care about him because after the first arrow, more flew over from various directions!

  “Enemy contact! Take cover behind the pillars!”

  Kwan Minhwoo dove behind a pillar and his hand instinctively reached towards the holster on his waist, but felt nothing there.

  “Tch.” Forgot none of that transmigrated over.

  His fists clenched. Taekwondo. That’s all he could rely on!

  Stabilizing his breathing rhythm, the four-eyes took off his glasses.

  Once those conveniently went into his inventory, his sharp eyes warily peeked out from the pillar and immediately saw skeletons strutting out from the darker parts of the pyramid!

  Many were carrying strange sandy-stone scimitars while a few were nocking arrows formed from sand onto their bows.

  “Five bogeys incoming! 2 o’clock!”

  “Deal with it yourself! There’s even more coming from my side!” Baldie Tae bounced to loosen his legs and held up his fists like a boxer. “Come at me, suckers!”

  Kwan Minhwoo knew he wasn’t getting any help, but he wasn’t some pushover!

  His legs got ready and as soon as a skelee neared his position, a swift hook tripped the flimsy mob monster and a knee struck the skull like a hammer!

  Wham! The skelee got sent flying back from whence it came!

  Kwan Minhwoo quickly ducked back behind the pillar to evade an arrow, then smoothly turned back to the other side to take care of the second scimmy-swinging skelee!

  Pat! Bam! Wha-pow!

  Baldie Tae smashed a skelee to the ground, boxed its skull off, and tried to steal its weapon, only for the scimitar to turn into fine grains of sand that spilled away.

  Gaining nothing, he cursed and kicked the bones away!

  But at a glance, he already saw another skelee he knocked down earlier inserting its skull back in place and getting back up with a new sand weapon in hand.

  “Shit! These skelee are unkillable! Even the bullshit sunlight doesn’t do jack shit! At this rate, we won’t last! Any fucking ideas, four-eyes?!”

  “Shut up and let me think!”

  “Then you better think fast! Or I’m booking my ass outta here!”

  “That’s a last resort! We have to defend our position till they bring up the loot! Otherwise, they’ll be trapped for death and we’ll get nothing!”

  “Then they better hurry their sorry asses up or I’m leaving em’ behind!”

  Kwan Minhwoo had no good answer. A sweep kick sent a skelee smashing into another, knocking a few down like dominoes.

  But those seemingly brittle monsters simply clacked their jaws and got back up, exemplifying the true horror of the undead.

  Feeling the soreness in his legs, Kwan Minhwoo clenched his teeth.

  What to do? Abandon the control point?

  While chaos happened in this battlefield, back in the other ruin, a pair of explorers were… happily counting the loot.

  “Emeralds, iron ingots, leather, gunpowder, strings, bread, and even a golden apple… sheesh, we’re quite lucky, ain’t that right, little missy?”

  “Umu! Umu!” Xiao Shuling happily rubbed the golden apple against her cheeks and almost drooled all over it.

  Jack rolled his eyes and transferred the last of the junk into the chest grid interface in his vision.

  “That’s it. We’ll leave these eyeballs, bones, and rotten flesh here for now. After I collect these three empty chests, we can go.”

  Xiao Shuling blinked and curiously watched Jack chop away at the cubic chest. “Eih! Uncle, why don’t we just leave the stuff on the floor and take all four chests?”

  Jack shrugged. “We don’t know if there’s an item despawn timer. Best to keep items stored, just in case there’s a use for them in the future.”

  “Oh.” Xiao Shuling’s clever little eyes rolled around then she skipped over to the sole torch that has been burning for who knows how long on the chamber walls.

  “Uncle, uncle, can little Ling’er take this?”

  Jack glanced over. That torch… if it goes by game logic, should probably be the most valuable item for a treasure-hunting life like this!

  But since they were in the same party, Jack didn’t bother being nitpicky on who’s going to be the torch bearer.

  “Aight. Go ahead. Just be careful and don’t accidentally put it out… if that’s even possible.”

  “Aye, aye, capitan! Ehehehe~”

  The little goblin took the torch from the wall then waved it back and forth like a wand. The flames drew a trail through the air but never went out no matter how hard she waved it.

  Xiao Shuling kininarimasu.jpg!

  But before the little goblin could do anything to satisfy her curiosity, Jack quickly called out. “Aight, little missy, time to go. There’s still a long way back. We don’t want to be out after sundown.”

  “Hai~”

  With a torch lighting the way, the way up was much smoother and quicker.

  But just when they arrived near the top of the stairs, Jack heard some faint, eerie marching sounds… like something was on patrol.

  He stopped the little missy and whispered, “Stay here. I’ll head up to check.”

  Jack didn’t wait for an answer and cautiously made his way up alone.

  With every step, the familiar click-clacks grew louder and clearer…

  “Damn. Is it what I’m thinking…?”

  Just when his head poked out from the underground stairway to take a peek—THRUM!!!

  The strings of fate got plucked…

  Time slowed down to watch the arrowhead growing larger and larger in Jack’s vision...