I’m a Young God, Won’t You Raise Me?

My body plummeted at tremendous speed.

I didn’t even have time to flail my arms and legs more than a couple of times.

The fall ended before I could understand what was happening.

Splat!

A disgusting sensation enveloped my entire body.

“Haah!”

I inhaled deeply.

The stench of decay flooded my lungs, yet I could barely perceive it.

The sky before my eyes vanished rapidly.

The enormous mouth that had opened wide to devour me was beginning to close.

I planted my feet against the slippery cavity and reached out.

But there was nothing I could grab onto.

My fingers slipped.

The viscous membranes surrounding my body rippled.

And then.

Glup.

I was swallowed.

My body plunged down a slippery passage that had to be the esophagus.

As I fell through that absolute darkness, system windows appeared as though they had gone mad.

Do you wish to execute ‘Je Hyuno’?

Do you wish to execute ‘Je Hyuno’?

Do you wish to execute ‘Je Hyuno’?

Do you wish to execute ‘Je Hyuno’?

Do you wish to execute ‘Je Hyuno’?

It seemed the system had become angry because Je Hyuno had done this to me.

But at this point, I couldn’t execute him over something like this.

After all, he had already proven far too much.

For example.

Killing one million zombies.

I knew he was strong.

But seeing it with my own eyes had been simply overwhelming.

After seeing just how useful he was.

There was no way I could execute Je Hyuno.

Instead, my goal became getting out of here alive and.

Well, grabbing him by the collar was asking too much.

So I’d settle for complaining to him a little.

Besides, I was convinced the system didn’t truly want me to execute Je Hyuno either.

It said it.

But it didn’t mean it.

After all.

The system itself was the one that most desperately wanted me to register Je Hyuno.

As I continued sliding endlessly through that viscous substance, a new quest appeared.

◆ Main Quest!: Escape from Nothing.

There was a long explanatory text.

But it was impossible to read it while I was falling out of control.

How long had I been descending?

Finally.

My body stopped falling.

“Ugh…”

I landed in a space roughly the size of a small room and let out a faint groan.

Fortunately, the impact had been minimal.

I had slid through the passage as though I were going down a slide.

And the ground I landed on was completely soft as well.

Unlike the esophagus, which had been shrouded in absolute darkness.

There was dim lighting here that allowed me to make out my surroundings.

Surprisingly.

It didn’t smell bad.

As strange as it sounded, I had the impression I’d fallen into the cleanest part of that thing.

That said.

The texture was horrifying.

“Ugh…”

I watched the wall sink into the exact shape of my hand when I pressed against it.

As I continued touching it, my palm began to itch.

I pulled my hand away.

And froze.

An eye had appeared on the damp wall.

The same eyes that covered Nothing’s outer surface also grew inside it.

The bloodshot eye stared fixedly at me.

As we held each other’s gaze.

The wall began to ripple.

And more eyes appeared one after another.

Within seconds, I was surrounded by hundreds of them.

A chill ran down my spine from sheer instinctive revulsion.

But at the same time.

My heart was pounding for an entirely different reason.

I carefully observed those eyes embedded in the wall.

‘Are these the same eyes from the outside that moved inward? Or have new ones formed?’

I’d never had the chance to end up inside the final boss’s stomach in Dead Zone Deal.

So I couldn’t help being curious.

Before I realized it.

I’d already grown accustomed to the disgust.

Slowly, I reached out and touched one of the eyes.

If the captains could see me.

They’d probably clutch their heads in disbelief.

But I was completely alone here.

There was no one who could scold me.

The eye was damp and slippery.

It didn’t blink.

I didn’t know whether that was because it couldn’t feel pain.

Or because it simply had no eyelids.

The only thing it did was follow the movement of my hand with its pupil.

I withdrew my hand and remembered something I’d nearly forgotten.

‘I have to get out of here.’

As for the equipment I still had.

All I had left was the ammunition belt around my waist and a military knife strapped to my thigh for emergencies.

No matter how much I swung that knife.

It would be useless against a zombie incapable of feeling pain.

‘And I can’t expect the captains to come rescue me either.’

Je Hyuno had personally caught me.

Then he’d thrown me into the final boss.

There was no way he’d allow Mo Haein and Kwak Hanmuk to come save me.

But it didn’t seem like he wanted to kill me either.

“Goyo. Don’t die.”

Those were the last words he’d said before dropping me.

Most likely.

Je Hyuno wanted to confirm something about me.

Although I had no idea what it was.

‘He could’ve at least thrown me a gun too.’

For a moment, I felt that if I managed to get out of here, I’d even be able to grab Je Hyuno by the collar.

First, I reopened the system window I hadn’t been able to read earlier and started going through it.

◆ Main Quest!: Escape from Nothing.

You have fallen into a critical situation because of the malicious ■■.

Kill him! Execute him! Kill him! Execute him!

The proper thing to do would be to execute him immediately, but compassion is not a bad quality for someone who aspires to become a ■■ ■.

Instead of punishing him, you decide to overcome this crisis through your own strength.

You believe you can escape from Nothing.

However.

Nothing wishes to remain with you forever.

It will not let you leave so easily.

“…?”

I read the entire thing, but I didn’t understand what it was trying to say.

That it wanted to stay with me?

Smiley, from Hespec, tried to draw the player in because he was lonely.

But Nothing was a boss created from dead zombies and the remains of the city.

It had no will of its own.

Its sole purpose was to kill the player.

Although I thought it was just more nonsense from the system, a strange uneasiness settled in my chest.

Perhaps it was because of all those eyes watching me.

For some reason.

They seemed to be waiting for something with eager anticipation.

But what could they possibly be waiting for?

Just like in the game, the only thing a boss and an Adept could do inside a Trial was fight each other.

Defeat one another.

The only thing I could do now was carve my way out by ripping apart or bursting through its insides.

Unless a special quest appeared.

There was no peaceful way to resolve this.

Neither Je Hyuno nor the final boss.

I had no idea what they were expecting from me.

At that moment, I felt a stinging sensation on my back.

When I touched it, I found a shallow cut beneath the torn fabric of my military jacket.

Je Hyuno had probably scratched me with his metallic hand when he caught me.

The bleeding had almost stopped.

But my palm was still stained with blood.

I frowned as I looked at that vivid red blood.

Then I felt a gaze.

“…”

I slowly raised my head.

Every eye was staring at exactly the same thing.

The blood on my hand.

Suddenly, Lee Gaon’s voice echoed in my memory.

“Mr. Gunbam’s blood was the cure for the Pandora virus!”

Maybe.

I could try something.

***

From the moment the boss opened its mouth.

Until Goyo fell inside and was swallowed.

Not even a minute had passed.

Mo Haein stood frozen for a moment.

Then she broke into a run.

Completely forgetting the minimum protocol she was supposed to observe toward a superior, she shouted at the top of her lungs.

“Je Hyuno!!”

The taste of blood filled her throat.

From the very first time she met Han Goyo.

Je Hyuno had always displayed excessive hostility toward him.

She had found that strange.

But at least she could understand it.

Except toward the Trial Response Agency, Je Hyuno had always been hostile to both Trials and Adepts.

However.

He now clearly recognized Han Goyo as part of the team.

And yet.

He had thrown him at the final boss as though he were nothing more than a toy.

It hadn’t been an impulsive attack.

It violated the Trial Response Agency’s regulations.

It was an offense for which he should be arrested.

As she ran toward Je Hyuno, a rosary shot through the air from the distance.

The boxwood beads, linked together by a long cord, wrapped around Je Hyuno’s body.

“Lieutenant Colonel, damn it!”

Gripping the rosary tightly, Kwak Hanmuk roared.

“I told you not to kill him!”

But Je Hyuno, the one responsible for all of it, remained completely calm.

He simply floated in the air, restrained by the rosary.

“I didn’t kill him.”

“Then what the hell are you doing?!”

He answered in a voice so calm it almost sounded sleepy.

“I wanted to see the color of his eyes at least once too.”

Mo Haein felt her blood boil with rage.

As she drew closer, she understood the absurdity of the situation even more clearly.

The gigantic final boss, even larger than the laboratory building itself, remained motionless like a shapeless mass of flesh and debris.

The hundreds of eyes that had covered its surface had disappeared.

Ever since it had swallowed Han Goyo.

It hadn’t attacked again.

It simply remained there, completely still.

Mo Haein fired several bursts as a test.

But the bullets only sank into the soft flesh and were absorbed.

‘If only I could use the Black Moon Blade…!’

The feeling of helplessness made even her vision turn red.

Without the Black Moon Blade.

The only person capable of splitting that gigantic monster in half with a single strike was Je Hyuno.

Of course, they could look for another method.

But in the meantime.

Who knew what might be happening to Han Goyo inside that thing?

Mo Haein aimed directly at the dark protective goggles.

“Get him out! Right now!”

A metallic screech rang out.

It was the sound of Kwak Hanmuk’s rosary tightening even further around Je Hyuno.

“Lieutenant Colonel.”

“Get Goyo out.”

The beads emitted a brief blue glow.

Je Hyuno cast a brief glance at the rosary.

Then he slowly addressed them both by rank.

“Captain Mo. Captain Kwak.”

And said something completely out of place.

“Couldn’t you postpone the mutiny for just a moment? I think something interesting is about to happen.”

What nonsense was he talking about now?

There was no reasoning with him.

Just as Mo Haein was about to pull the trigger.

“…!”

She flinched and instinctively lowered her weapon.

Splat!

Something soft fell from the final boss’s body.

It was the corpse of one of the zombies it had absorbed.

And that was only the beginning.

Splat!

Splat!

Splat!

The boss’s flesh began collapsing continuously.

It was indiscriminately expelling everything it had absorbed.

Zombie corpses.

The remains of collapsed buildings.

The city’s garbage.

As it lost the materials that made up its body, the gigantic mass began to shrink.

Mo Haein and Kwak Hanmuk stared in stunned silence as the final boss disintegrated while it was still alive.

Once it had lost more than half of its body.

An intense golden light illuminated the darkness surrounding them.

The one walking out from inside the final boss.

Was Han Goyo.

The color of his eyes had changed once again.

Completely captivated by that golden radiance, Mo Haein’s eyes widened.

Only then did she notice something the light had concealed until that moment.

Han Goyo’s entire body was covered in blood.

Beneath his pale face were several enormous wounds, as though he had been stabbed over and over again.

Blood poured from them without end.

The blood that fell was absorbed by the final boss before it could even reach the ground.

And wherever that blood came into contact with the monster.

Its body began to disintegrate as though it were melting.

As Mo Haein and Kwak Hanmuk stood frozen, unable to react.

Je Hyuno’s laughter echoed through the air.

At some point, he had removed his protective goggles.

Smiling, he exclaimed.

“It really is exactly the same shade of gold…!”

Ding.

A cheerful sound announced the appearance of a system window.

You have defeated Nothing.

It was the message confirming that Han Goyo had defeated the final boss of Dead Zone Deal.