Solo Max-Level Newbie – Pure Blood

Chapter 8: D-Rank Dungeon ‘Withered Garden’ (2)

“J-ju, he’s… dead.”

Yoo Youngho swallowed dryly.

A man in his late twenties called Kim Yunyeol had been murdered.

The man who had been vigorously swinging a golf club in a place that was not a golf course was gone.

Only a corpse lay there, cold and lifeless, its heart missing.

But.

The biggest problem was not that someone had died, but who had killed him.

“Alarm Clock” had not gone off.

There was no sign that undead monsters had entered the church.

That meant.

The killer was among them.

Everyone who realized that fact glared at one another.

Of course the atmosphere chilled immediately.

Thin cooperation and camaraderie evaporated like bubbles at that moment.

“Who was it? Who’s the culprit? Huh? Damn it. You really went for it. You stole his heart — planning to use it as emergency rations later?”

“There must have been someone moving at night. Is anyone here who was awake?”

Most of them had been criminals to begin with, or gamblers who had come for a big score.

They were the sort of people you wouldn’t be surprised if someone stabbed you in the back at any time.

“She was the first to find Kim Yunyeol! Do you realize? Could she have killed him and then pretended to be shocked?”

“W-what, are you serious right now? Are you saying I killed someone?”

Cho Yongbae’s accusing finger pointed while Park Yeri’s eyes seemed about to fill with tears.

“Stop. There’s no evidence anywhere that Yeri did it.”

“Ha. No wonder she wouldn’t accept an item when I offered. So that was it. This was the great Yoo Youngho’s piece?”

When Cho Yongbae twitched his pinky, Yoo Youngho’s face twisted angrily.

“This bastard…”

“Why, you gonna release that bug? If you recklessly use something you can’t handle, we’ll all just die here together.”

“Sigh. Enough. Let’s calm down a bit first. The culprit would want nothing more than for us to fight each other.”

Yoo Youngho’s words slightly quelled the mood that was about to draw weapons.

Then Yoo Youngho looked at Yohan.

“What were you… doing?”

What could he have been doing.

“Like you all, I kept quiet. I’d been up in a tree all day and didn’t even have the strength to twitch a finger.”

He had been waiting to see if the thief-types would pull some stunt at night.

They hadn’t done the thieving they were supposed to do and instead had suddenly committed murder, so he was just as surprised as anyone.

By the way.

‘The skill was considerable.’

No matter how tired, someone would have woken at most sounds. It had to be the work of someone skilled.

The place where the heart had been taken was also disturbingly clean.

“Since it could be the work of a hidden passage here or a monster we don’t know about, let’s move our positions first.”

Yoo Youngho spoke.

He wanted, if possible, to go his own way rather than continue a dangerous accompaniment, but moving alone would drastically increase the danger.

From the culprit’s point of view, prey wandering one by one would be much easier to deal with.

They settled in a plain where all directions were clearly visible.

Because they could no longer trust one another, they chose at least a place where surveillance would be easier.

Just then.

Cho Yongbae spat and stood up.

“Damn it. I didn’t want to use it because of bad luck, but if we have to live like this for the next few days I’ll die of suffocation.”

“You’re serious? You’re going to use that?”

“Yeah. People should know.”

“That checks out. At least the person pointed at won’t be the culprit. It’ll raise the odds a bit.”

Yoo Youngho nodded in agreement.

[Cho Yongbae used ‘A Certain Count’s Portrait’!]

A sharp light flashed.

The count’s eyes slowly moved.

This was a type of item even Yohan did not know.

[A Certain Count began ‘Observation’.]

It was a consumable item that could be used only when certain conditions were met.

The effect was.

[It looked at who would die next.]

It sought the next victim.

Its gaze turned to Park Yeri.

“Uh…?”

Park Yeri froze where she stood.

Hoping it wasn’t her, she took slow steps backward and slipped among the others.

But the portrait continued to follow wherever Park Yeri moved.

As if saying an unavoidable death was coming.

“N-no. Why me? Why of all people me? No. No. Nooo!”

Park Yeri shrieked in despair.

“Yeri! It’s okay, calm down! I… I’ll protect you.”

Yoo Youngho drew his sword and glared at everyone.

He looked like he’d cut anyone who touched Park Yeri on the spot.

A veritable prince on a white horse.

In a world where Solo Heaven Couple Hell had become the trend, there was not an ounce of desire to cheer them on.

One thing was certain: the situation was turning out to be rather entertaining.

‘Glad I stayed behind, after all.’

Unless it was a boss fight, this place was certainly the most interesting.

Naturally, the chance of being noticed by ‘them’ would increase even more.

“Hide behind me as much as you can.”

“Mm.”

Sadly, Yoo Youngho’s effort would be meaningless.

Unlike the church, this place was an open plain without any cover.

It was not advantageous for defense.

In fact, a few hours later.

KWA-ANG!

KA-KA-KANG!

“Kieee!”

“Grr! Grr! Grr!”

Undead forces, including skeleton warriors and corpse wolves, surged in. There were fewer in number than the previous day, but the high proportion of corpse wolves made them several times trickier.

“Hold them!”

“Damn it. Where is everyone?”

“Eek! H-help!”

Screams and shouts mingled as a fight raged that made it hard to see a hand in front of them.

One hour, two hours. Five hours.

Time passed until their mouths tasted metallic.

When dawn finally broke….

Park Yeri was dead.

Impaled on a spear in the middle of a tree.

Her heart had likewise been taken; the spot where it had been was empty.

Everyone had been fighting crazily for survival, so no one could determine when Park Yeri had been targeted.

Even Yohan, who had been closely watching the movements of Yoo Youngho, Cho Yongbae, and Jeon Mincheol, had missed who had made the move.

“Y-Yeri. N-no. This can’t be. Hahaha. This is a joke, right? Tell me it’s a joke!”

Yoo Youngho wailed; he had left his position to lure the corpse wolves away from Park Yeri.

“Aaaagh! What’s the point of this alarm? Useless. I picked completely trashy stuff!”

KWAANG! KRACK! BAM!

Jeon Mincheol, wielding a golf club for screens, smashed his alarm clock.

The item was not to blame; the person who handled it was at fault.

In any case, inability to control one’s anger was always a big problem.

Now there were four survivors.

Their bodies were exhausted from lack of sleep, and they had scarcely eaten or drunk.

Naturally, they had no energy left to move anywhere.

They could only make this place slightly more suitable for defense.

“I can’t go. I absolutely… can’t go.”

Yoo Youngho’s inability to accept reality was the biggest reason he could not leave Park Yeri’s corpse.

There was no night watch.

After all, who could one trust enough to fall asleep?

However, as everyone reached their physical and mental limits, there were moments when they let their guard down for brief instants.

And the next day—

Cho Yongbae was dead.

It seemed he had tried to slip away alone under the cover of darkness. His body was found quite a distance away.

Once again, his heart was missing.

There were clear signs of violent struggle—and at the same time, evidence that his life had been ended in an instant, as if mocking any resistance.

By this point, a question naturally began to rise.

Why was the killer targeting hearts?

‘Black magic… or perhaps some trait related to werewolves.’

The mark of a murderer driven by a fanatical obsession.

There had to be a reason why the killer left behind such a distinctive signature—whether it was to eat the hearts or as part of some personal ritual.

Yohan examined Cho Yongbae’s corpse.

At that very moment—

“Damn it. Was it you? Or you? Speak! There are only three of us left now—so just spit it out already! You do nothing in the daytime but go mad every night, why the hell is that!”

Jeon Mincheol, having lost all sanity, swung his broken golf club and stumbled backward.

At this point, people had become more terrifying than the monsters.

“W… wait. If we split up, it’ll be even more dangerous…”

Yoo Youngho, dark circles hanging deep under his eyes, tried to calm him.

“Screw that. I’ll go find the guild guys instead. If you want to stay, then you can rot here for all I care.”

Despite Yoo Youngho’s attempt to stop him, Jeon Mincheol disappeared.

＊

Jeon Mincheol, who had left the group, was found near the very tree where Park Yeri had died.

This time, not even a full day had passed.

Ssshhh—

Freshly dug earth smoked faintly where the heart had been removed.

Only two remained.

Yohan and Yoo Youngho.

At this point, the culprit was certain.

Yoo Youngho.

Acting like a leader, and yet… this Prophet’s Kindergarten Fabre guy was the real killer….

“So it really was… you.”

Yoo Youngho pulled out his collection box.

Bloodshot eyes burned with nothing but vengeance and hatred.

…Huh?

“No, I’m not the killer—”

“I should never have taken you in from the start. If I hadn’t, everyone would still be alive.”

That tone.

That atmosphere.

It was not an act.

Yoo Youngho genuinely believed he was the culprit.

“Wait—”

“Shut up!”

Ignoring Yohan’s words, Yoo Youngho opened the collection box.

[‘Man-eating Beetle’ has been released!]

Having nothing left to lose, he unleashed the most dangerous creature he had.

“Kieeeee!”

White carapace and crimson eyes.

Claws and jaws so vicious they looked capable of crushing stone.

Once freed, the eternally hungry man-eating beetle would devour everything in sight—

Even its own master if necessary.

KWA-ANG!

The beetle’s jaws struck the spot where Yohan had been standing moments before.

Yohan barely dodged and widened the distance between them.

…Where had it gone wrong?

‘I missed something.’

A strange sense of wrongness clung to his mind.

Only by identifying it could he find the true culprit behind these murders.

Yohan retraced the moment he had first met this group.

Each individual’s name. Their traits. And then—

‘The item they chose.’

No way.

As he reached that conclusion, the sense of wrongness solidified into certainty.

Everyone had brought their own items—but there had been one exception.

One person who had not chosen any item.

[Selected Item: None.]

He had thought “none” simply meant they had no chosen item.

However—

What if they simply no longer had it because it had already been used?

And what if that consumable item had the ability to fake or disguise death?

The clues connected, forming one single conclusion.

…Thump!

His rapidly beating heart was proof that his deduction was correct.

‘So that’s it.’

Yohan confirmed the true culprit.

[Bloodline Spell ‘Crimson Dagger’ is being formed!]

Wuuung—

Droplets of blood gathered at his fingertips.

A throwing knife forged from blood shot through the air.

Aimed precisely at one corpse.

And at that moment—

KAAANG!

The dagger was deflected.

Just before it could strike the target’s forehead.

“Caught on, have you?”

Heh—

The mouth of the woman who had been impaled on the spear opened.

A blood-red smile bloomed.

It was the beginning of a new nightmare.

[A 5-Star ‘Corrupted Wraith Tree’ awakens.]

The entire tree to which Park Yeri had been bound trembled violently.

Leaves rained down, and black smoke seeped from the ground.

“Kikikik!”

“Kyahahaha!”

Countless faces appeared on the tree, each one screaming grotesquely.

Crrrack—

The spear lodged in Park Yeri’s chest slowly pulled free.

Vines sprouted, forming a staircase so that Park Yeri could descend to the ground.

“It was getting a bit cramped anyway. This works out better. There are only two of you left now—so it’s practically over already.”

She stepped down gracefully.

From both her eyes flowed streams of bright red blood.