In the Name of God - Chapter 8.2
<Remaining lifespan: 13 days 18:35:26>
As soon as the dungeon conquest quest was marked complete, my lifespan increased. Even if it was only for a week.
Thanks to that, my body, which had been aching as if about to collapse, felt slightly less painful.
“Does the physical limit change depending on the remaining lifespan?”
-Yes!
Echo, having heard me mutter, nodded.
-If a healthy body suddenly dies, it would be strange, right?
That made sense.
If a healthy twenty-seven-year-old man were to die without warning, anyone would find it strange. His name was not even listed on a death registry.
Come to think of it, it had been similar when I was playing the game and reducing my lifespan. When my lifespan was almost gone, I do not even know how many times I had coughed up blood.
‘This is troublesome.’
The less lifespan remained, the weaker the body became, slowly dying.
Thinking back to how sore and achy my entire body felt with only a week of life left, I imagined that with three days remaining, I might not even be able to move properly.
I turned from my path to leave the Association and sat down in the lobby’s waiting area.
“Lifespan increases when clearing quests from the Association, right?”
-Not entirely. Not all quests increase lifespan. Sometimes the system gives solo quests that risk lifespan as well.
Listening to Echo, I accessed the Awakened-only website on my phone.
The quest board accessible to my 9th rank account only displayed sections tagged as ‘Difficulty F’.
I began carefully scanning the dozens of pages of quest listings.
***
In front of the Seoul branch of the Awakened Association.
The three men standing while looking at the massive skyscraper appeared very tense.
“It will… be okay, right?”
“What is there not to be okay about?”
One of the men muttered, and the bald man, who seemed to be their leader, snorted sharply.
“A boss monster far stronger than the Association’s measurement appeared, and it killed our party members. We barely survived.”
“Mm. Yeah, that sounds right.”
The two companions of the bald man nodded in agreement. In reality, they had not personally spilled any party member’s blood.
Who would have expected the boss of an F-rated maze-type dungeon to jump out of its room and interfere?
Moreover, the boss displayed a strength far beyond anything F-rated.
This was a situation where the Association should not have suspected them, and if they complained, it still would not be enough.
The bald man glanced gravely at his two companions one by one.
“Do not forget to stick to the story we agreed on.”
When the bald man said this with a solemn expression, the two companions nodded with similar expressions.
The three men were at the Association to cancel the F-rated dungeon conquest quest they had taken on.
To cancel a quest that had already been accepted, the consent of all registered party members was required.
However, of the eight original party members, only three were alive.
Since they needed to complete the investigation of circumstances before abandoning the quest and taking on other work, they had to agree on a story in advance.
The bald man exhaled sharply once more and strode into the Association lobby. The two companions followed behind with solemn expressions.
“Excuse me? What do you mean by that?”
However, they were each forced into dumbfounded expressions at the words of the front desk staff.
“The F-185532 quest you mentioned has already been marked as completed.”
“That cannot be…”
As soon as they muttered, all three of their phones vibrated. They checked the notifications with puzzled expressions and simultaneously stared at one another in shock.
The bald man urgently leaned toward the front desk staff.
“Wait, we were the only ones who entered that dungeon. Who reported the conquest?”
To submit a completion report, the ‘Core’—essentially the heart of the boss monster—was required. This was commonly used as proof of completion.
Even the three surviving men had fled without fighting the boss. Who could have brought the Core?
Just as they thought there must have been a mistake, the staff pointed at a youth sitting on a waiting bench. The staff clearly remembered him because of his corpse-like appearance.
“That party member over there submitted the report.”
The messy-haired youth, staring intently at his phone in ragged clothing, was clearly the young man who should have died inside the dungeon.
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