Duo Leveling LITRPG | Post Apocalyptic | SYSTEM-Chapter 189 - 241+242 - A Loop of Mercy and Madness

Who knew how many times they'd done it now?

"P-Please… stop…!"

"Lutz, if you would."

"AAGGHHHH!"

Saun's tormented scream rang out again as his health bar refilled.

Lutz's special potion treatment was frighteningly effective.

"You… devils…! Just kill me already!"

"No can do. I told you—it's not time yet."

"Stay away!!"

Saun thrashed, but there was no avoiding Jhin's attacks.

Not when the routine had become second nature.

Even Saun's attack patterns had become familiar.

Again, the Meteorblade drained his blood like a cursed chalice, and Saun—lips pale and trembling—looked up at Lutz as he approached again.

Eyes wide.

Like he was staring at the Grim Reaper.

"P-Please… no… AAAAGHH!!"

Seventeen more rounds of this.

By then, Saun's arrogant will had completely shattered.

He now spoke to them with the reverence of a monk addressing gods.

"O-oh great humans…"

At last, Jhin dusted off his hands.

Judging by the hollow look in Saun's clouded eyes, his resistance had finally broken.

Still, Jhin pointed the Meteorblade at his throat.

"Go ahead. Try anything. See what happens."

"N-No, no! Please! Just kill me!"

Even the soul has durability.

And by now, Saun's must've been sanded down into dust.

He'd been killed and revived, over and over again.

Even a C-rank boss monster couldn't endure endless pain with no escape in sight.

Jhin tied up the vampire and dropped him in a corner.

Then summoned Raikan and Atlas to guard him.

"Don't worry. Watching this guy's easier than twisting a lizardman's tail."

"Indeed, my king! You may rest easy!"

With that, Jhin put it out of his mind.

They were connected to his soul. If anything happened, he'd know instantly.

He turned back to the group.

"There's only one issue left now."

"Hm?"

"And it's something I haven't told you yet. Come here, everyone."

There had always been a problem with the rollback strategy.

A critical, unavoidable flaw.

Jhin calmly laid it out.

Lutz chuckled bitterly.

"So, one of us has to stay behind?"

"Yes. Someone has to remain in the dungeon… to kill the boss at the precise moment of the Dungeon Break."

That was the keystone of the rollback plan:

Kill the dungeon boss exactly when the break is about to happen.

Just like when they killed the Pierrot in Bey World.

And for that to happen…

Someone had to be left behind, trapped in the collapsing dungeon.

There's no escaping that.

As soon as he explained, Millie's expression hardened.

He could already see what she was thinking.

He wasn't surprised. He'd expected this from her.

He rested a hand on her shoulder.

"No one needs to make that sacrifice."

"Huh?"

"I'll be the one to stay."

Her brow furrowed.

"No. Earth needs you. We can't lose you to some dungeon."

"I know. And the same goes for you, too, doesn't it?"

Millie wasn't just a Player.

She was idol Millie.

A singer who'd brought comfort and hope to countless people—even before the system arrived.

There were still many out there clinging to her songs for strength.

Her sacrifice was not something anyone wanted.

Not even me, Jhin thought.

Even if it was selfish, that was his honest feeling.

She looked like she had more to say, but before she could speak, he squeezed her shoulder again and added:

"At least let me finish. I never said I was sacrificing myself."

He reached out his hand.

[Activating exclusive skill of equipment 'Goblin King's Ring': 'Goblin's Summon.']

Blue fire flared to life.

And from the flame emerged one soul stored in his crown—materialized before their eyes.

Lizardman Centurion.

Revived through Jhin's skill, the creature bowed its head low.

"I exist to serve, my liege."

"What remains is simply using my skill."

Now Millie understood.

Souls summoned by Goblin's Summon were single-use.

Once their task was complete, they vanished.

Even if one were trapped in a collapsing dungeon, there was no loss.

Lutz turned pale.

"So… it's over, then?"

Jhin gave a wry smile and nodded.

"Yeah. We cleared it."

Time flew past like an arrow let loose from a bow.

Jhin checked the dungeon status.

[Time until Dungeon Break: 30 minutes.]

Meanwhile, the group had gathered in Camriel's mansion, where they were now facing a crowd of dwarves.

Master Cobb stood at the front, his face full of worry.

"Then… is he alive?"

"Of course. A bit hurt, but safe."

"Thank goodness."

It had been quite a scene.

Cobb had flat-out refused to leave until he could see his pupil's face.

What did he say?

That Krum was the only true apprentice he'd ever had.

That he'd never met a blacksmith with such perseverance.

That the boy had to carry on his legacy.

Jhin couldn't help but smile bitterly as he looked at the old dwarf's wrinkled face.

And to think you called me a reject once… Still, I'm just glad your mind wasn't broken when it mattered. You're a little intense, y'know that?

Cobb had lost all memory of what happened inside the royal capital.

A side effect of the magi that Saun had injected into him during his possession. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

"I'm sorry, but he's in absolute rest. You'll have to come back another time. We'll notify you once he wakes."

"Can't I at least wait here…?"

"Leave."

Camriel's command. (Or rather, Millie's.)

Cobb was dragged out of the mansion by his fellow scrapper dwarves.

They hadn't been together long—but their bond ran deep.

Then Lutz asked:

"So… what happens to them when the dungeon rolls back?"

"What?"

"Well… this isn't just a game, right?"

What about Master Cobb?

The scrapper dwarves.

And all the other NPCs who lived in this dungeon—

They were alive.

That was Lutz's concern.

If the rollback happened, wouldn't all of this—everyone—be wiped away?

Like pressing Backspace, Shift, and Cut all at once?

Jhin took one last look at the dwarves' backs as they walked away and said quietly:

"They'll be fine."

A rollback didn't mean deletion.

Not like with Bey World—this wasn't about undoing the entire dungeonification.

This was just a return to a past state.

A C-rank dungeon. That's all.

What would be erased was simply the scenario progress tied to their party.

The NPCs' memories of Jhin as "Dwarf Krum" or anything else they'd played during this sequence—those would be forgotten.

Still… what about the real Dwarf Krum? Was he ever real at all? Just a scripted identity?

He didn't know.

That was the system's domain—not something a player could understand.

Jhin stood and brushed the cookie crumbs from his hands.

That's when Aurora, cheeks puffed with snacks, spoke up.

"W-Wait! You're starting now? There's still 24 minutes left!"

"That's the Dungeon Break countdown."

They had to get out early to reboard the spacecraft.

The rollback radius would be large—they had to clear its boundary in time.

"But I didn't finish my snacks…"

"I'll buy you something better later."

"Liar."

She pouted but followed him without further protest.

And it wasn't long before Count Camriel reverted to Millie.

She exhaled deeply.

"Jhin, you're really not coming with us?"

"No. I'm staying to the very end."

"You could leave it to the monster."

"It's a matter of probability. The longer I stay, the higher our odds of success."

"…Still…"

Jhin's voice turned firm.

"We already talked about this. Don't worry, Millie. You know who I am."

"…Kyle."

"That's right. I'm not going to fail."

She finally nodded, reluctantly.

Jhin looked to Lutz and Tempah, locking eyes with each of them.

"See you on Earth."

"…Understood."

The three of them retrieved spacesuits from their inventories.

As they stepped outside, noise erupted around them.

The suits clashed jarringly with the dungeon's fantasy aesthetic.

[Player 'Lutz's identity has been discovered. You are expelled from the dungeon.]

[Player 'Tempah's identity has been discovered. You are expelled from the dungeon.]

[Player 'Millie's identity has been discovered. You are expelled from the dungeon.]

One by one, they began to fade into light.

As the last to leave, Millie turned her head to look at Jhin.

"..."

Then she vanished, and Jhin stood alone.

He didn't say a word.

Then—

tch.

A tongue click from nearby.

"So dramatic."

"…What's with that look? Don't tell me you knew."

"Did you really think I didn't? Have you forgotten who I am?"

Of course.

Aurora. With the skill Truth or Lie, she could see through any deception.

Lying to her was pointless.

She stared straight at him.

"Chosen One. Are you really okay with this?"

"With what?"

"If the plan you explained was a lie… then you're trapped too."

Jhin nodded slowly.

Truth was—he'd never intended to escape.

The idea of using the Lizardman Centurion summoned by Goblin's Call as a stand-in?

It wouldn't work.

As soon as Jhin left the dungeon, his soul's connection to the summoned spirit would break—and the skill would cancel itself.

No one else knew how Goblin's Call really worked, so it had been easy to deceive them.

Aurora asked cautiously.

"Do you have a backup plan?"

"Maybe. Guess I'll start looking now."

"…So no."

She sighed, visibly disheartened.

Looking at her expression, Jhin felt a stab of guilt.

"If someone else had awakened you, you wouldn't be trapped here. I'm sorry."

"No need to apologize."

"I mean it. If I'd known you were a living being, I never would've bound you to me."

She looked at him quietly.

Then… a soft, almost self-mocking smile touched her lips.

Was that just his imagination?

Aurora said:

"No one else could've woken me up anyway."

"…Because of my destruction skill?"

She shook her head.

"You think something like that would've been enough to wake me?"

"But… you told me how to break the seal."

"That's not what I meant."

She clicked her tongue and added,

"If you hadn't been the Chosen One, I never would've awakened.

I respond to only one person."

"…What?"

"You still don't get it? Chosen One.

If you weren't the Goblin King, I'd have stayed a simple 'item' forever."

Jhin stared at her in stunned silence.

There had been no system message to hint at this.

So the Relic of Truth… is tied to the Goblins?

[You have acquired information on NPC 'Aurora, Relic of Truth.']

Aurora shrugged.

"Well, not that it matters now. Looks like I'll be stuck again in this cold, lifeless vampire-infested kingdom."

Now that she mentioned it… she was strange.

Not because she was an NPC.

Not because she was also an item.

She knew about blind dates.

She looked Corelandsn.

And her name—Aurora—was unmistakably Corelandsn.

She stretched.

"Well, what can you do? That's just my fate."

Jhin chose not to dig deeper.

Now wasn't the time for answers.

He had a job to finish.

"Let's head down."

They returned to the underground lair.

Raikan and Atlas were still waiting.

Their souls were linked to his—they knew everything that had happened.

Raikan spoke with quiet resolve.

"This is your will, my king. There is nothing to be sorry for."

"I'm not apologizing to you. I feel bad for Atlas."

"…Ahem."

Jhin chuckled and ruffled Raikan's head.

When they first met, the lizardman had been an intimidating beast of brute strength.

Now he was… kind of cute.

"At least I'm not alone."

He checked the timer.

The Dungeon Break countdown was now in seconds.

He scattered the Lizardman Centurion's soul into the air.

"Saun. Looks like it's a good day to die, huh?"

And like that—

Jhin was left behind in the dungeon.