’I am hungry.’

Rohan rubbed his stomach, a massive sense of irritation hitting him.

Beside him, Priscilla was leaning against the stone pillar, looking completely exhausted. The silence in the cave was thick, giving Rohan just enough time to look at his hands. His head throbbed with a sharp, blinding ache.

Before he could process the dizziness, Eric suddenly groaned.

"Argh, I’m hungry!"

Rohan frowned, an immediate sense of wrongness locking his joints in place.

"Stay calm, Eric."

"No, you don’t understand," Eric gasped, his breathing turning heavy and ragged as he gripped his stomach. "It’s not just regular hunger. It burns!"

Without another word, Eric rushed toward the stones and started punching the solid granite with animalistic anger, his Strength Rune flaring wildly.

Rohan took a step forward to grab him, the words slipping out of his mouth automatically.

"Calm down. We’re Hunters after all."

He stopped dead in his tracks.

’Wait, what?’

Why did he say that? He hadn’t planned on saying it. It felt like his mouth was moving on its own, following an invisible script.

To his absolute shock, Priscilla didn’t try to stop the chaos. Instead, she rushed forward and joined Eric in the exact same madness, her bare hands slamming frantically into the rocks as her eyes burned with a terrifying lust for food.

Rohan stared at them, his expression turning incredibly dark. The sudden onset of their frenzy, the weird restrictions on his own thoughts, the mechanical way everyone was reacting... it didn’t make any logical sense.

For some reason, it all felt... completely haphazard.

The heavy stones finally shattered under their combined assault, sending a loud, chaotic echo bouncing through the cavern walls. But when the dust cleared, there was no exit.

Just a blank, empty void.

Eric moved forward in a frenzy and was immediately sent flying backward. Priscilla did the same thing, completely out of her right mind, only to be blasted back onto the gravel beside him.

...

Priscilla frowned, casting a grim glance at Eric before turning back to Rohan.

"I think so too. How do we stop him from thrashing around?"

Rohan shook his head.

"I have no idea."

"Alright then," Priscilla said, her tone growing decisive. "To get out, we have to get rid of the source."

Priscilla’s determination was strong, but her physical state was rapidly deteriorating. Her breath was short, and though she was keeping the ravenous hunger from entirely driving her mad like Eric, the effort was draining the last of her remaining essence.

"To get out, we have to get rid of the source," she repeated, her fingers tightening around the hilt of her sword.

Rohan kept his face carefully blank, masking the cold calculation running through his mind.

’Go ahead and try,’ he thought bitterly. ’The source isn’t something you can just slice through.’

"Well, considering what is happening to Eric, I don’t think this thing is something we can just slice through," Rohan said politely.

"You have a point, but we have to try, don’t we?" she asked, a forced smirk appearing on her face.

Rohan shrugged.

"Yes..."

’Now you smirk. You conniving—’

"Uhm, Rohan," Priscilla called out, her expression softening into something somber. "I’m sorry for being hard on you. I just wanted to try and establish a good team. But it led to the deaths of two Hunters... and I’m to blame."

Rohan forced himself not to roll his eyes and offered a small smile.

"Don’t blame yourself, Priscilla. We all knew the risks when we stepped into the Frontier."

...

They had been walking for quite a while now.

"Is this cave endless or something?" Eric groaned. "I can’t feel my legs."

Rohan sighed, while Priscilla simply frowned.

"Let’s keep going."

With grunted efforts, they continued their journey.

...

Rohan tried to slide under the creature’s scales but was immediately slammed aside.

In that agonizing split second, he saw Eric pinned to the wall, dead, and Priscilla’s head rolling off her body as she knelt lifelessly before the monster.

He slammed hard into the cavern wall, the impact knocking a heavy chandelier loose and causing a loud rumble. He coughed up mouthfuls of blood.

When he opened his eyes, the last thing he saw rushing toward him was a pair of massive, gleaming fangs.

Rohan died.

---

The light of the First Jianghu was instantly extinguished.

"Is everyone... alive?" Eric groaned.

Priscilla stood near the collapsed entrance, her sword still drawn.

...

’I am hungry.’

Why was he thinking this again?

...

"Argh, I’m hungry!" Eric suddenly screamed.

Rohan frowned, but before he could speak, Eric was already rushing the stones, his Strength Rune flashing violently. He broke the rocks apart in a blind panic.

But there was no exit.

Eric flew backward.

Priscilla flew backward.

"What’s happening?" Priscilla coughed, her face pale. "Why do I feel so hungry?"

Rohan tried to explain, tried to tell them to calm down, but the words felt dry in his throat.

They walked down the endless path.

The darkness swallowed them.

Then came the scales, the heavy chandelier, and the terrifying fangs.

Rohan died.

---

"Down!" Priscilla barked.

The blast threw them into the mouth of the dark cave. The rockslide sealed the entrance.

Darkness.

"Is everyone... alive?"

...

"Argh, I’m hungry!"

’I am hungry... wait, what?’

"Stop panicking, Eric," Rohan said, his head throbbing with a sudden, vicious ache.

They broke the wall.

No exit.

They walked the path.

The monster appeared.

Rohan died.

---

The entrance collapsed.

"I’m hungry!"

No exit.

Rohan died.

Rohan died.

Rohan died.

Rohan died.

Rohan died.

---

The light of the First Jianghu was instantly extinguished.

’I am hungry.’

No exit.

Rohan died.

---

Rohan suddenly jolted awake to an ongoing argument between Priscilla and Eric.

"My skills are my own business, registered under standard guild privacy protocols. They kept you from being flattened into paste by a million tons of falling granite. If you want to question my methods, do it when we are back at the pavilion. Until then, my word is absolute."

She turned her back on Eric, effectively ending the argument, and faced the absolute darkness of the tunnel stretching deeper into the mountain. The faint blue light of her sword could only pierce a few meters into the heavy gloom before being swallowed completely by the shadows.

"We have seven minutes left of our rest," Priscilla stated coldly, her voice echoing down the empty stone path. "Eric, use your time to cycle whatever residual energy you have left. Rohan, stop shaking and check your gear. If your instincts flare up again, you speak immediately. Am I clear?"

Rohan let out a weak, submissive nod, pulling his boots closer to his chest.

"C-clear..." he muttered, lowering his head back onto his knees.

’What the hell?’

Eric walked up to him, frowning, and whispered,

"I don’t know why you’re hiding your actual Class, but I won’t say anything."

Rohan frowned.

’What the fuck is happening?’

...

They had been walking for quite a while now.

"Is this cave endless or something?" Eric groaned. "I can’t feel my legs."

Rohan sighed, while Priscilla simply frowned.

"Let’s keep going."

With grunted efforts, they continued their journey.

...

Rohan tried to slide under the creature’s scales but was immediately slammed aside.

In that agonizing split second, he saw Eric pinned to the wall, dead, and Priscilla’s head rolling off her body as she knelt lifelessly before the monster.

He slammed hard into the cavern wall, the impact knocking a heavy chandelier loose and causing a loud rumble. He coughed up mouthfuls of blood.

When he opened his eyes, the last thing he saw rushing toward him was a pair of massive, gleaming fangs.

Rohan died.

---

"Down!" Priscilla barked.

The localized blast threw them forward, launching them through the air and directly into the mouth of the dark cave. A split second later, the massive rockslide reached the base of the peak, completely burying the entrance under a mountain of impenetrable granite.

The light of the First Jianghu was instantly extinguished.

Silence settled over the dark interior, broken only by the sound of ragged breathing and the distant, muffled thuds of the ongoing rockslide outside.

"Is everyone... alive?" Eric groaned, his voice shaking as he pushed himself up from the cold, damp floor of the cavern.

Rohan did not move immediately. He remained flat on the ground, his eyes wide in the pitch-black darkness. His heart was hammering against his ribs, not from simulated terror, but from a cold, creeping realization that chilled him to the bone.

....

He reached down, slowly rubbing his stomach.

’I am hungry,’ Rohan groaned inwardly. ’Why do I suddenly feel hungry?’

He froze.

The words. The thoughts.

’Have I not lived this before?Why is my memories so scattered?’

It felt like a song he had heard a hundred times before.

A heavy, suffocating weight pressed down on his chest as his memories fractured and tried to realign.

"What is happening?" Rohan muttered under his breath, his expression turning incredibly dark.

"Is this déjà vu?"