Chapter 1

The ground suddenly gave out.

And by the time he regained his senses he was already in trouble.

“… Urgh.”

[Oopsie, careful now! While there are treasures hidden deep within the ruins, deadly traps lie in waiting as well. It’s the rule of the dungeon]

A flippant voice could be heard from afar. That darned Helper, the owner of the voice, would only ever belatedly explain the rules.

Daun Jung was lying at the bottom of an unfathomably deep pit, his belly impaled by the iron skewers planted in the ground like the quills of a hedgehog. He was dying.

“Kugh.”

He mustered the last of his strength to draw out the skewer sticking through him, and crawled over to sit in a corner. Strenuously looking towards the ceiling, he could see a circular light at the end of the stretching darkness — the very hole of the trap that he fell through.

‘To think I lost my senses over treasure after coming this far…’

He was struck with intense regret. It was none other than his own mistake that had lead to him facing death. He could not blame anyone else.

‘So this is how I’m going out in the end.’

His vision grew increasingly faint — he must have lost too much blood — and his body became colder and colder as time passed by. The inside of his head was simply blank, white noise ringing in his ears. As his senses gradually grew numb, he found this present situation all too unrealistic. He had fought for dear life, yet this was how he ended up at death’s doorstep.

‘No, it was unreal from the start. All the way from when I was summoned to this horrible world.’

Yes. That was the moment when Daun Jung’s reality as he knew it was smashed to pieces.

From the moment when, one month ago, he was summoned against his will to this unknown world called ‘Dungeon’ together with complete strangers.

That moment when that blasted rabbit appeared before them in the midst of their confusion, and began to run its mouth off with a grin on its face!

***

[Ta-da! Welcome to the Dungeon! You’ve all been invited to the game! Hnn? What game you ask?]

The rabbit, wearing a tuxedo with a bow tie and talking like a person, introduced itself as a ‘Helper’.

In front of the rabbit were 101 people of various gender, age and occupation, looking about their surroundings in bewilderment.

The Helper leisurely appreciated their expressions for a while, before floating into the air and shouting with its short arms spread out.

[The game you are all about to participate in is none other than a survival game with your life on the line! Wow! Sounds fun, doesn’t it?]

‘Fun my ass. Damned crazy rabbit.’

So this must be what you call a flashback, thought Daun Jung. In the face of imminent death, he was recalling the events of the most brutal and awful month of his life.

He was inching ever closer to his death with every passing second, yet he could not help but gnash his teeth the more he thought about it. Anyone would be dumbstruck if they suddenly found themselves standing in a strange place like this with unfamiliar people. Just how many people would be capable of instantly realizing the situation the situation they are in and immediately take the proper responses, like the protagonist of a novel?

From amidst the other people, who were noisily speculating about this being the set of a movie or a prank video, one girl who appeared to be a student cautiously lifted a hand to ask, “A game? What are the rules?”

She looked like a smart one, albeit timid.

[Meep? Rules you ask?]

The tuxedo-wearing rabbit tilted its head at the girl’s question, acting cute.

Instead of giving an answer, despite introducing itself as a helper, it smiled in a refreshing manner before suddenly breaking out into song, dancing with its shoulders.

[Ta-da, yippie yay! The Dungeon Game! The Dungeon Game where you learn as you die!]

“What the hell are you on about?! Damned crazy rabbit! Where is this place?!”

Flaring up at the rabbit’s answer, a mean-looking odd man out jumped out, swearing at the rabbit.

The man wore a black suit, appearing to be a gangster or thug, and was the kind of person that had his mouth and tongue automatically loaded with all the profanities in the world.

But as the man menacingly rushed over to grab hold of the rabbit, it responded with a cute wink and a bob of its paw.

[Then I’ll start off by introducing an important rule. Rule number one: always be nice to the Helper.]

Flash!

“…!”

In that moment, there was a sharp flash of light as something was swung… following which the head of the man — who was running like a bull — was separated from his neck, and dropped with a thud, rolling on the ground.

And…

Splurt!

Crimson blood sprayed out.

So shocking was the series of events that the images were still vivid in the heads of everyone present.

“… Huh?”

The rabbit looked at the expressions of the people who instantly froze and cackled, holding its belly.

[Taha! He died, he died! See? This is how you learn things one by one! Easy peasy, right?]

The faces of the people turned pale in but a moment.

“He r-really died?!”

“Aahhh!”

They all snapped right to their senses.

The stench of blood wafting through the air, and the sight of the talking rabbit smiling radiantly in front of the headless corpse was so alien and unreal that they felt as if they were watching a B-horror movie.

But it was definitely not a dream, and nor was it a prank video.

It did not take long for them to realize the vicious reality before their eyes.

[Heh. Looks like that makes it exactly 100 people now? Well then! How about we… get started for real?]

The rabbit thus announced to the people stricken with fear.

[Then try surviving as you will! The Dungeon Game! Begins!]

And so the Dungeon Game, no… ‘hell’ began.

Monsters attacking out of the darkness from moment to moment.

Deadly traps threatening their lives.

The people continued to die as time passed. Carelessness lead to death, and the same went for mistakes made. At times there were even situations where they had to kill one another to live.

And the people who made it through all those dangers were the ones to finally arrive here, this very day.

Arrive at the end of the dungeon.

The final area of the ruins where the Boss was waiting.

***

B-boom!

The final monster fell at the end of a fierce battle.

“It, it’s over!”

[Good job! Truly you did well!]

The Helper appeared before the survivors as the battle ended.

The Helper Rabbit always showed up in a slightly different outfit whenever it showed up, and today it seemed to have dressed up in a suit with special effort for the occasion.

[Truly amazing! Who’d have expected such former weaklings to defeat this dreadful final boss in the end!]

The rabbit was more excited than any other time before, flitting about the sky.

[Taha. Humans really are interesting! Where else in the world would you find a race that grows this fast? Curious! How curious!]

Timewise a month had passed. A mere four weeks.

But much about them had definitely changed compared to their first day during that short period of time. They had battled countless monsters, and won… no, survived the cut-throat fights that involved killing one another.

The number of people who had survived this far out of the many initial game participants was no more than a mere seven.

The final seven.

Their bodies were exhausted and wounded in many places, but their eyes were shining with a strong light.

It was then that one man from among them stepped before the chattering rabbit.

“Helper. Are we able to go back now? To our original world?”

[Whew. Nice voice! You’re always so handsome whenever I see you, Mr. Seungwoo Ryu! Even though you only have one arm.]

The Helper gazed shyly at the man.

The one-armed man was Seungwoo Ryu. He had shown a notably exceptional performance throughout the game from among the 100 participants. Formerly a Taekwondo teacher, he was physically well-trained from the start when he came to this place, and he also possessed leadership skills to encourage and lead the people in confusion… though he did end up losing one arm along the way.

“Enough with the drivel! It’s all over now so send us home!”

The survivors by Seungwoo Ryu’s side could not stop themselves from speaking up as well.

But the rabbit suddenly tilted its head and stared at them strangely.

[Eeh? What are you folks going on about? Going home, all of a sudden? You’ve got to keep this momentum going and move on to the ‘next round’!]

Stillness fell.

“… What?”

The expressions of the survivors instantly turned stiff, while Seungwoo Ryu pressed the rabbit for an explanation in bewilderment.

“What are you saying?! Last time you definitely said the Dungeon would be cleared if we finished the Boss Mission!”

[Yes. So you see, you’re only done with Stage-1 now? So you should set off for the next Dungeon now, yes?]

“…!”

The final seven survivors were dumbstruck by the rabbit’s words.

“What?! The next Dungeon?!”

“Everything up till now was just Stage-1?!”

The rabbit covered its mouth to hide a snicker.

[Oh my? Did you think this the end? Ahah, I didn’t tell you? Sorry. Must’ve slipped my mind.]

‘We were played for fools!’

Anyone would clearly be able to tell that it had intentionally avoided mentioning this fact for the sake of this moment, and the seven participants realized it — their insides boiled with violent emotions. First came bewilderment, next came fury, and in the end they despaired. Their sole hope to finally escape from this hell had been snuffed out.

[The Dungeon Game starts for real from here on.]

Their hell was still continuing.

***

Meanwhile, there was one person who had fallen behind so much he was not even part of that hell.

“Haa-… Kaugh!”

Daun Jung could not hide the despondence showing on his face even as he was dying.

[The Dungeon Game starts for real from here on.]

Distance-wise it was far away, yet curiously the Helper’s voice could be heard from anywhere in the Dungeon, for that was the Helper’s ability.

Having heard everything the Helper said to the final seven, Daun Jung decided to let everything go and accept death.

[Heheh. Come on now, why’re you all like this? Like amateurs who’ve never played a game before? It’s no fun if there’s only one round to a game I tell you.]

They had thought themselves up against the final boss, yet it turned out they had only defeated the boss of the first stage.

‘Could be that I’m fortunate to die now instead…’

It was only moments before that he was feeling hollow at the unfairness of it all, to have fallen into a trap to die when the end was right before his nose.

But what a joke. The suffering was only starting now, apparently.

[Now-now! No time to rest! No time to rest! The Dungeon Game! The Dungeon Game where you learn as you die! Open sesame! Open Dungeon Gate!]

‘Ugh. That crazy rabbit bastard.’

The rabbit truly seemed untiring. Hearing its incessant prattling was grating on the nerves to listen to even as he inched closer to death.

[You lazy bums! Can’t you see the Dungeon Gate is open? Stop dragging your feet and get your butts over there!]

Since he was going to die anyway, Daun Jung wished he could punch that rabbit in the gut just once before dying. Just once.

[Ah, really. It’s because you’re tired? It’s fine, it’s fine! It’s for these moments that the Stage Clear Reward is given out! Hiyah! Hiyah!]

‘Oh, would it shut its trap for the love of… Huh?’

At the moment, sparkling silver particles of light fell before Daun Jung’s eyes.

‘Whaa?’

A truly beautiful sight it was, but beauty was not all there was to it.

The moment those silver particles seeped into his body, something surprising suddenly occurred.

[Survivor Full Recovery!]

‘My wounds… are healing?’

His eyes grew round as plates. He was right on the edge of death, but now all his injuries were healing at a rapid speed. And it did not end at his injuries; even his worn and ripped clothes soaked in blood were being restored to a clean state.

‘How unbelievable!’

This was a miracle.

New strength surged from inside.

His life was saved. He had escaped death by a hair’s breadth!

It was then that he heard the rabbit’s voice.

[Now-now. It’s done now, right? Wows, Mr. Seungwoo Ryu! You look way more handsome with two arms! But anyway, chop chop! Let’s move on out to the next stage!]

Startled by the sound of the rabbit’s urging, Daun Jung jolted to his feet and yelled towards the outside of the pit.

“Ha-, hang on! Me…! Take me too! I’m alive here!”

Here! Here-!

Daun Jung’s voice loudly reverberated inside the pit, having returned to his best condition.

But unfortunately, his voice did not reach anybody as he was too far away.

***

[Onwards to Stage-2!]

Was he hearing things? Seungwoo Ryu who had been moving towards the Gate at the rabbit’s urging suddenly stopped to look back.

Now that he was about to leave, he recalled a companion dear to him who had regretfully lost his life to a trap after almost making it to the end.

‘I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you to the end, Daun Jung…’

He looked in the direction of where the trap was with regret in his face before turning around again.

And… the Gate was shut.

C-crunch!

…

***

Desolate silence fell upon the ruins in the blink of an eye.

“Wait! I’m over here I say!”

Daun Jung cried out in perplexion.

“Is there no one there?!”

There? There? There?

There was no one inside the Dungeon to respond to the vain echoes of his voice underground, and thus Daun Jung was not able to follow after the others, left behind all by himself in the corner of a trap.

But moments later he heard something strange.

[The Dungeon is resetting.]

“… What?”

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