That Face Is the Problem - vanish into fiction

“Crazy…! It really has no hearing, so it doesn’t respond! This is insane!”

Ri-na screamed, stomping her feet in frustration.

Jin Jeong-eon also looked flustered. Of course, there were some monsters without hearing. Most monsters, however, had their own communication methods since they needed to interact with each other. As long as a method existed, command skills usually worked.

But the boss monster was… well, it was hard to even call it a living creature since it was essentially a cake. That was why the command skill had no effect.

The boss monster moved its cream-filled limbs and opened its mouth wide. It wasn’t really a mouth, just a section in the middle of the cake, but it looked like a mouth nonetheless.

While staring blankly at the sponge cake generously spread with cream, jam, and strawberry pieces, dozens of appendages shot out and grabbed the airborne Jae-gyeong. With a plop, he was shoved into the cake and the “mouth” closed again. That was the end of the boss’s attack.

“Jae-gyeong!”

“Jeong Jae-gyeong Hunter! Are you okay?”

“What on earth is this?!”

The team shouted in surprise from below, but probably no one was as shocked as Jae-gyeong, trapped inside the cake.

‘What is this really…? Am I dreaming?’

So many surreal things had been happening lately that he almost wondered if this was a dream too. But he soon realized he was completely bound by the soft bread and cream, the sticky jam pressing against his body. Cream and sponge had entered every opening in his face, making it difficult to breathe.

“Ugh! Kuh! Cough!”

His [Shield of God] skill activated automatically as he was sucked into the cake, but with so little remaining mana, the protective barrier was weak.

‘I cannot let my mana reach zero…’

Most hunters either died or fell into a coma if their mana was depleted. Even those in a coma would generally die unless they received high-grade healing quickly.

Skill: [Shield of God]

Warning: Remaining mana below 18%.

Still, being inside the boss’s body was somewhat advantageous. If he could locate the magic stone from within and destroy it, the boss could be disabled.

Jae-gyeong focused the protective barrier on his face and fired his arm gun upward.

Plop! A dull, muffled sound resonated. Bullets barely made an impact inside the layered cream and sponge cake. They only managed to carve a small path upward before halting.

‘Why is this cake so thick? It’s not human fat, just bread and cream.’

Of course, that was to be expected from an S-rank boss monster.

If bullets didn’t work, maybe brute force would. Jae-gyeong stretched his arms along the path he carved and then pushed downward. Using his body seemed more effective than bullets for opening space.

However, the cream quickly filled the gaps he made, as if the cake had a property to restore empty spaces.

‘If the Shield of God disappears, suffocation is inevitable…’

Realizing this was the boss’s main skill, a mix of fear and adrenaline coursed through him. Even though Jae-gyeong was usually calm and timid, as a tank, he was the kind of hunter willing to take the front line. His mental framework differed from that of ordinary non-awakened civilians.

Then, a soft sound of slicing came from outside. He guessed that Hee-ro had created a water blade to cut the cake without harming Jae-gyeong in the middle, focusing on the edges instead.

‘It’ll get cut… sure, it’ll cut. The problem is what happens afterward.’

Jae-gyeong forced his arms through the incoming cream, kicking and swimming as if moving through thick sludge, thinking about his predicament. It felt like a nightmare. In nightmares, you run but barely move, or try to read but the words blur. This was the same—he could not advance despite his efforts.

Glop glop, glub, glub…

Even the neatly sliced edges were quickly being filled with cream again, making soft, squishy sounds.

Jae-gyeong, hearing this, activated [Angel’s Judgment] again. This time, instead of using his arm gun, he fully extended the wings folded on his back.

Movement was nearly useless in this situation. But the more space his body and wings occupied, and the more he struggled to expand, the slower the cake’s regeneration became.

“Ugh…”

In the thick, creamy mass, his massive wings slowly stretched out as if waking. It was heavy and painful, like moving in thick slime. The muscles in his back ached, and he worried the wings might snap. Luckily, they remained intact, and the back pain gradually eased.

Outside, the team seemed to be quickly slicing the cake’s edges, mainly the top and bottom, to give Jae-gyeong breathing space. Moving through the filled cream applied pressure on him, but the areas occupied by his body and wings could not be avoided.