Chapter 09
[Boss Creature Jack has been defeated.]
Finally, we defeated the overpowered killer Jack.
Wow, is this the moment we break away from the bad ending route of the original?
Now that Jack is dead, can I finally feel safe?
…Probably not.
Still, I felt a wave of relief, as if I had managed to erase at least one horrible ending from my life.
The group stood in stunned silence, catching their breath.
Despite being a creature, Jack had been so human-like that even as his head and body lay separated, the kids—who had gone through so much—took it in with little reaction.
“Did we kill him?”
“Really?”
I nodded firmly at their uncertain questions.
“Yes.”
“Ahhh! We’re alive! We actually survived!”
Anna screamed in joy and threw herself into my arms. Selena followed suit, hugging me tightly and jumping up and down, while Bella quietly leaned in for a hug.
Once Selena came back to her senses, she quickly stepped away, scratching her cheek awkwardly.
“Well…. I’ll admit we’re safe thanks to you. T-thank you…. not that I’m actually grateful or anything!”
…A tsundere, huh.
Liam, who had been watching us awkwardly, noticed something next to Jack’s corpse and approached it.
“What’s this?”
It was a shining golden box.
“That looks like a reward chest.”
I walked over and opened the box while saying that.
The moment the box opened, a bright light poured out, causing the kids to scream again, thinking something else was about to happen.
[Murderer Jack’s Dart Pins (D-grade)]
[-Exclusive to Necromancer]
[Durability: 200/200]
A series of items matching different character traits spilled out onto the ground. There were main-specialty items and sub-specialty items.
Everyone grabbed their loot, and it automatically equipped to their inventories.
The dart pins I had been using were F-grade, but these were D-grade. At first, I thought the difference wouldn’t be that big, but the boss reward options were much better, so I swapped them out immediately.
But Alex was just standing there, not claiming his reward.
“Wait, there should be something useful for me too.”
A voice came from the woods, and someone stepped out.
It was that bastard, Stanley.
Judging by his smug demeanor, he must’ve been hiding on the bus the entire time, only coming out now after seeing the system message.
How can someone be so annoying?
I wasn’t the only one who thought so–the cheerleading girls looked him up and down with disdain.
“Looks like there are still items no one’s picked up?”
“Those belong to Alex.”
“If they’re Alex-exclusive, I should be able to take them since I’m a tank too.”
But when Stanley tried to touch the items, he was pushed back by a physical force.
[This is an exclusive item, so it cannot be obtained.]
[This is an exclusive item, so it cannot be obtained.]
…..
“*****! Why won’t it let me pick it up?”
Look at this guy’s obsession.
They said you can’t, just give up already.
Unable to watch anymore, I pushed Stanley aside and picked up the items.
What? Why does it work for me?
[Jack’s Leather Dog Collar (S-grade)]
[-Exclusive to Necromancer Summons]
Ah, I guess I can pick it up on Alex’s behalf because of our contract.
The cube-shaped item transforms as soon as I pick it up.
…It’s definitely a leather dog collar, true to its name.
When I hesitantly held it out to Alex, he frowned.
“Hey, it’s S-grade. Just wear it. Your life is more important than your pride.”
“Don’t want to……”
“Why not? Honestly, it might look good on you.”
It was mostly a lie to get him to equip it to boost his power, but about 10% of what I said was true. It did seem like it would suit him in a slightly dangerous, edgy way.
“….Give it to me.”
My sincerity must have gotten through as Alex roughly took the collar from my hand.
He seems to have put it in his inventory and equipped it, as a black leather collar immediately appeared, fitting snugly around Alex’s neck.
Just as I expected, the collar completed his dangerous charm.
After being possessed by the summon, Alex already had his original physical appeal plus something like… the aura of a sigma male who’d been roughing it through hell.
But now, with the suspicious leather collar, he exuded a vibe that sparked a dominating curiosity—almost like he was daring someone to try and tame him.
About sigma males—it’s similar to alpha males.
While alpha males are leaders who command the pack, sigma males are like lone black wolves who act independently.
The description fits Alex perfectly.
For a moment, Alex looked at me intently, as if asking how he looked, as if seeking approval. Or maybe I was imagining it. Why did his eyes look so lazy yet smoldering at the same time?
A strange tremor fluttered in my chest, and I quickly averted my gaze.
When I didn’t react much, Alex’s eyes widened slightly, as though disappointed.
“Pfft, Alex, are you some kind of fighting dog? Whatever. I don’t want that thing anyway, so just keep it.”
Stanley, ever oblivious, sneered from the sidelines.
But when he saw all the women in the place focusing on Alex with strange expressions, his face darkened.
He seemed upset that if he had worn it, he would’ve been ridiculed, but Alex was getting a different reaction.
He’s pathetic in so many ways.
[The dungeon time limit is up. The gate will be deactivated shortly.]
After the system message, the dungeon dissolved.
The campsite returned to its normal, peaceful appearance.
Then we were greeted by military personnel, police, and swarms of reporters who had been waiting nearby.
Click! Click!
“Can you tell us what happened inside the gate?”
“Just a word, please!”
Dazzling camera flashes exploded toward us like crazy.
With my good reflexes, I had already covered my face with my hair and bent down long before being photographed. I don’t want my face sold out for something like this.
Then suddenly, Alex stepped in front of me. What? Is he protecting me?
“Step aside, please! We’re with the Awakener Management Center. Refrain from any unauthorized interviews, and those without clearance, leave immediately.”
Agents in black suits, apparently from the U.S. Awakener Management Center, stepped in to extract us from the chaos.
In a small town near Green Lake Campground in our state of South Carolina.
The government temporarily rented a building there to create a local Awakened Center.
All awakened students from Saint Louis High School had to give statements after intense one-on-one interrogations with their respective handlers.
My handler was a fairly young-looking man who introduced himself only as ‘Tom’.
“…Your primary trait is Necromancer?”
“Yes.”
Tom’s expression became serious.
After possessing Christine with her bad reputation was bad enough, and now saddled with the title of “Necromancer”?
It was definitely right to hide my face from reporters. It might delay my personal information getting leaked, even if just a little.
I’m already at risk of being cursed at for a thousand years by professional complainers digging up every bit of my past.
“So, um…. this isn’t exactly a good ability, right?”
“Well, not quite. Christine, you’re currently the only awakened in the world with the Necromancer trait.”
“…Excuse me?”
“Ah. According to what we’ve received so far, that is.”
Even as he spoke, I had a feeling. The Necromancer trait wouldn’t appear again.
A weird, ominous ability paired with an infamous, eerie personality?
This was a guaranteed recipe for lifelong global ostracization. A worldwide catastrophe, even.
After registering as an awakened individual at the center, I was driven back home in a center agent’s car. My house was in a quiet residential area in the small rural town of Whitewood.
Over the next few days, while resting at home, I learned through the news on AllTube what had happened globally.
It turned out that the phenomenon we experienced at the campground occurred simultaneously all over the world.
Moreover, while we thought we had only been in the dungeon for about three hours, in reality, six months had passed outside.
That’s ridiculous! To exaggerate a bit, I blinked a few times and half a year vanished completely. Suddenly, teleporting from summer vacation to winter vacation.
During the six months we were trapped, many awakened people outside cleared their dungeons. After investigating these people, they discovered that time flows differently inside dungeons compared to reality and varies between dungeons.
The events were officially named the “Horror Dungeon Gate Crisis.”
The reason it’s called a horror dungeon is because the creature mobs that appeared had appearances and abilities similar to those in horror movies. Like the giant bat, zombie horde, and murderer Jack we fought.
Theories about the incident’s origin ranged from divine intervention to demonic activity to alien conspiracies. However, no definitive cause had been identified.
Meanwhile, the photos people posted online were quite a sight.
The dungeonized locations were enclosed in a dome-like barrier glowing from the sky, visible enough to photograph from afar.
This barricade couldn’t be destroyed even by missiles from outside, so entry attempts from the exterior were obviously impossible.
Like we did, the gate could only be disabled by defeating the boss creature from inside the dungeon.
Meanwhile, various dungeon interior CCTV footage spread through AllTube’s algorithm was horrific even just from the previews.
One particular dungeon where a party was massacred by its creatures was dubbed the “Abandoned Dungeon.” The dome around it remained intact, as no one had yet cleared it.
Some psychological statisticians suggested that these ‘Abandoned Dungeons’ might need to be cleared by other awakened ones. However, despite these expert statistics, the government decided to designate these areas as restricted zones until more definitive information could be gathered.
The world became chaotic when horror dungeon footage leaked online and spread around, which is still ongoing.
Conscience-less snuff film collectors and horror maniacs were thrilled.
While victims’ families pleaded not to spread the footage, causing quite an uproar for a while.
Fortunately or unfortunately, our only footage was from the bus’s black box.
Because the campground facilities were so outdated, our raid against Jack wasn’t recorded anywhere.
Through all this, Stanley rose to fame as a student hero who protected the powerless, non-awakened.
Thank you for reading! ♡
