Oh Chan-seok’s House.
The living room was stuffed with black trash bags.
His “collections” were kneeling down.
—
“What is this?!?”
At Oh Chan-seok’s roar, Alpha and the others in his collection flinched.
He had attempted to do something heinous to Alpha before realizing Alpha was, in fact, male, sending him into a state of panic.
—
“How can someone with this face be a man?! No, why are you even wearing women’s clothing?!”
“Lord said I must wear this.”
“Shut up, you cross-dressing freak.”
In a flurry, Oh Chan-seok hastily unfolded Alpha’s setting sheet, which he hadn’t fully examined outside.
—
Setting Data Loaded Successfully
Name: Alpha
Gender: Male
Rank: C
Description: Alpha is a genetically modified “Designer Baby” created at a research institute in Busan. He underwent KC3 ability-enhancing surgery. He is good friends with ‘Omega,’ another individual who shares his circumstances. He was saved by ‘Dark Knight’ during his time as an experimental subject and lives with him now. He currently holds the title of ‘Guardian’ under Dragon Lord ‘Laurakis.’
Special Note: By Laurakis’s order, Alpha wears women’s clothes, though he is unaware of this fact himself.
—
Oh Chan-seok trembled as he read the document. He had grabbed a ticking time bomb—a literal minefield.
This could have been a grenade with the pin already pulled.
“Dark Knight? Dragon Lord?”
Oh Chan-seok’s life suddenly felt like it was on a timer.
The fact that Alpha was male no longer mattered. All that occupied his mind was ‘Dark Knight.’
“Huh, Haha. What kind of ridiculous situation is this? An average kid randomly picked from a country of 50 million is living together with the Dark Knight? That’s insane! That can’t be real!”
Oh Chan-seok laughed in disbelief.
Of course, as a citizen of Korea, he naturally knew who ‘Dark Knight’ was.
An S-rank Dark Hero who executes criminals instead of arresting them, unlike other heroes who leave their victims alive—but with their lives on hold.
“Did Dark Knight notice something? Will things go okay if I just return him? Or should I turn myself in?”
Oh Chan-seok sat on the couch, deep in thought.
He imagined his future: being burned to ashes by the Dark Knight, with a sticky note reading “Murder, Rape, Extortion” pinned on top of the heap.
Dark Knight’s signature was infamous.
“Returning him will still cause problems.”
His skill wasn’t bulletproof. Though he could place a gag order to stop anyone from mentioning specifics about him, awakened ones like Alpha needed regular reapplications. If neglected, the effect faded over time.
“That means the day the skill wears off will be my execution day. I need to consolidate my assets and flee overseas.”
Thus, Oh Chan-seok made his decision.
Surrender wasn’t an option. Considering his crimes thus far, he’d face nothing less than a life sentence at best—and the death penalty at worst.
“Even if I wanted to fight, I’m no match for Dark Knight.”
Though he had reached A-rank, S-class heroes like Dark Knight were in a league of their own—especially compared to no-combat-experience A-rankers like himself.
“Alpha. As of this moment, you’re forbidden to speak about me.”
“Understood, sir.”
“Good. Then you’re dismissed… back home.”
Oh Chan-seok intended to send Alpha back before Dark Knight noticed his disappearance. Unfortunately, it was already too late.
—
Crash!
The glass of his balcony shattered completely.
A flickering system message appeared before his eyes.
—
——<Dungeon Entrance>——
[You have entered the world of the ‘Dark Lord’.]
——<Dungeon Entrance>——
Oh Chan-seok realized something was wrong.
He’d never seen such a system message before.
“What? A DUNGEON?!”
Trembling, he looked at the now-ruined balcony.
—
“AHHHHHH!”
He fell backward in terror.
Through the wreckage of his balcony, he could see golden vertical pupils that looked like they belonged to a dinosaur.
—
Grrrrrr——
Oh Chan-seok lost control of his bladder at the sight of the towering figure before him—far removed from his usual demeanor as a tyrant dictating terms to his “collections.”
What came next was even stranger.
The balcony was flooded with crimson light, as if viewed through red-tinted glasses. In this distorted reality, everything outside—from cars to swings—was frozen in place.
Would the crimson spread and freeze him too?
“Dragon… Lord?”
He recalled Alpha’s settings, his voice shaking.
“Currently holds the title of Guardian under Dragon Lord ‘Laurakis.'”
The ‘Dragon’ in Alpha’s description wasn’t some alias for a superhero or villain.
“An actual… Dragon?”
The golden eyes outside focused on Oh Chan-seok. The dragon was still forming, its body taking shape from swirling blue particles starting from the eyes, mouth, horns, and body.
Before Oh Chan-seok could fully process the scene, the dragon completed its transformation.
—
——<Apocalypse>——
[The figure of ‘False Terror’ has appeared.]
The dragon had forced its way inside the apartment.
Oh Chan-seok, clad in hastily donned armor, pointed his sword tremblingly at the creature.
“W-What the hell?! I didn’t enter any dungeon! Okay, okay, fine—just take Alpha and go! I didn’t do anything! Shit!”
Terrified, he rambled incoherently.
Laurakis’s mood darkened. She had rushed to create the dungeon under the assumption the culprit was a great threat who’d abducted Alpha. Instead, she found a pitiful coward unworthy of her attention.
This was a waste of effort.
—
Roaaaarrrr——
Laurakis let out a ferocious roar. It had been a while since she’d taken on her draconic form, and controlling her destructive instincts proved difficult. Her ‘Dragonfear’ aura spread, striking fear into every mortal within its radius.
“H-H-Heeeeelp! This is impossible… I can’t fight this… it’s insane!”
Oh Chan-seok’s limbs shook uncontrollably. Panic overtook him, leaving him incapable of rational thought.
—
Clang! Smash!
Laurakis swiped with her forelimb. Oh Chan-seok narrowly dodged, but the furniture around him was crushed into the corner of the room.
—
”This space is too confined.”
The red haze continued to spread, gradually engulfing the apartment.
This was Laurakis’s hastily constructed dungeon, and she couldn’t exist outside its boundaries. She was trying to expand it as much as possible, but the process was slow.
Moreover, creating and maintaining a dungeon without proper system support drained her mana significantly. The gemstones she brought from Shinoda’s loot could barely sustain her efforts. Whether she could hold out for three more minutes was questionable.
—
“Hnnngh… No… Nooo!”
Oh Chan-seok, his pants wet, stumbled out like a frightened child, sobbing as he reached for the door.
His hands, trembling like leaves, pressed the elevator button repeatedly.
“Thank God!”
Somehow, the elevator was only two floors above him, quickly descending.
—
Ding.
“The doors are opening.”
By now, the red zone had seeped into the elevator hallway, marking it as part of Laurakis’s domain.
Oh Chan-seok attempted to press the ‘close’ button but missed due to his trembling hands.
“Ahhh, Shit! Shit!”
In a panic, he slammed the button repeatedly.
—
“The doors are closing.”
—
The moment the elevator doors shut, a fiery breath erupted from the dragon.
Though the flame swept across the floor, Oh Chan-seok escaped unscathed—protected by the remaining boundaries of the dungeon’s influence yet to expand fully to the elevator.
—
Kroooarrrr——
Oh Chan-seck could hear the dragon’s roar of frustration, infuriated by missing its prey by such a narrow margin.
—
”Fire Burst!”
Laurakis cast magic without incantations, directly unleashing bursts of fire.
Boom!
An explosion erupted within the confines of the apartment.
And that was just the beginning.
—
”Fire Burst!”
”Fire Burst!”
”Fire Burst!”
”Fire Burst!”
With each casting of the spell, a chain of explosions surged through the elevator shaft, shaking the building’s concrete structure.
The reinforced steel beams creaked and groaned, bending under the immense pressure.
“Unbelievable! This is madness!”
Oh Chan-seok spat a string of curses. Cold sweat trickled down his back.
The elevator moved downward at a fixed speed, while the explosions chasing him grew faster and came closer with each passing second.
“Hurry, hurry! Shit, please, faster!”
The elevator’s interior was glowing red, and if the explosions caught up, it would become his coffin.
—
With every passing second, the tension grew unbearable.
Time seemed to slow down as the fire grew nearer…
