The Core's Breath
The path he chose felt wrong the moment Yeon-woo stepped onto it.
The air here was thicker, pressing against his skin like the weight of deep water.The walls, once jagged bone and muscle, had become smooth, almost metallic.Each step he took echoed into endlessness, swallowed by the oppressive silence.
His hand stayed close to the dagger strapped at his hip.
Bloom pulsed faintly, keeping his senses honed.
Time ticked in the corner of his vision.
4:10:17.
4:10:16.
The corridor forked again.
Three choices.No signs.No hints.
Yeon-woo paused, pulling up his Profile out of habit.
[Name: Yeon-woo][Level: 41][Unique Skills: Greed (Lv.2), Bloom (2nd Cycle)][Traits: Resist Death (Low Grade), Bone Reinforcement (Passive)][Skills: Dagger Mastery (Advanced), Evasion (Advanced), Swift Footwork (Advanced), Danger Sense (Intermediate), Command Dead (Intermediate)][Stats:]Strength: 91Agility: 104Endurance: 87Intelligence: 63Perception: 98
Slow progress.But steady.
Regression was a weapon, but only if he tempered himself each step forward.
Yeon-woo closed the Profile and looked ahead.
There were no footsteps in the dust.
No claw marks.No blood.
Just emptiness.
He chose the center path again.
Not from certainty.
But from experience — too much in his past life had been lost to hesitation.
The path wound downward, tighter and tighter, until Yeon-woo realized he was inside a spiraling tunnel.
A staircase without stairs.
Just slope and suffocating air.
The deeper he went, the louder the heartbeat became.
Not just a sound.
It was... pressure.A force that clawed at his mind, making it harder to think clearly.
Psychological attack.
He recognized the signs.
He activated Bloom again, focusing its energy into his mind this time, reinforcing his willpower.
It helped — barely.
The tunnel ended suddenly.
Yeon-woo stepped out into a vast chamber.
It was a cathedral of bones.
Massive ribs arched high above, crisscrossing into impossible patterns.At the center floated a mass of flesh and light, throbbing with every beat of the Core's distorted heart.
Guarding it were dozens of creatures.
Not like the previous beasts.
These were fully formed — armored carapaces, serrated limbs, eyeless faces.
Silent.
Waiting.
A notification flickered.
[You have entered the Heart's Core.][Final Challenge Initiated: "Defeat the Core's Guardians."][Time Remaining: 3:57:42.]
Yeon-woo's grip on his dagger tightened.
No retreat.
He moved.
Swift Footwork activated, his body blurring as he darted toward the edge of the chamber, staying low.
The first Guardian reacted immediately, lashing out with a limb like a spear.
Yeon-woo rolled beneath it, slashing upward, carving a shallow line across its armored body.
The second Guardian charged from his blind spot.
He sensed it — Danger Sense screaming in his mind — and pivoted mid-step, letting the creature's strike gouge the stone where he'd just been.
No chance for drawn-out fighting.
He had to be quick.
Precise.
He triggered Greed.
It flared through him, a hollow hunger, seeking weakness.
For an instant, Yeon-woo saw the vulnerabilities: hairline cracks in carapaces, swollen tendons, unstable balance points.
He moved.
A quick lunge into the first Guardian's exposed joint.A burst of force, Bloom enhancing his strike.
The creature collapsed with a shriek, twitching.
One down.
Dozens more.
Yeon-woo didn't waste time.
He kept moving, weaving between the Guardians like a ghost.
Not every strike killed — but every strike counted.Wearing them down.Bleeding them.
Minutes passed.
Wounds accumulated.
Not just on them — but on him.
A deep gash along his thigh.
Bruised ribs.
A numbing blow that left his left arm sluggish.
Not sustainable.
But he pressed on.
Regression gave him the knowledge.
But survival demanded blood.
Another Guardian fell, its body splitting under a vicious upward thrust.
Another.
Another.
Greed pulsed with each kill, stealing slivers of strength, restoring tiny fragments of his stamina.
Still not enough.
He retreated to the edge of the chamber, breathing hard, blood dripping from multiple cuts.
The Guardians regrouped, surrounding the Core tighter.
Time.
Need to end this before exhaustion finishes me.
He eyed the Core itself.
A massive, slow-beating heart wrapped in tendrils of light.
Unprotected, if he could slip past the last line.
He shifted his stance.
Dagger reversed in his hand.
Swift Footwork again, pushing his limits.
Bloom surged, burning through his mana reserves.
He sprinted forward.
Three Guardians lunged.
He ducked beneath the first, spun past the second, used the third's own momentum to vault over it.
The Core loomed ahead.
Too close to stop now.
A wall of tendrils rose up in front of him — instinctive defense.
He lashed out.
The dagger sliced through the tendrils, but they reformed almost instantly, grabbing at him, pulling.
Bloom again.
A last burst.
Yeon-woo drove the dagger forward, piercing into the Core's pulsing mass.
For an instant, everything went still.
Then — a detonation.
A blast of force hurled him backward.
Darkness swallowed everything.
When Yeon-woo opened his eyes, he was lying on cool stone.
Above him — a night sky.
Clear.
Stars glittering.
The oppressive air of the Core was gone.
He sat up slowly, wincing.
Notifications flooded in.
[Heart of the Forgotten One Cleared!][You have leveled up!][Level: 41 → 44][Skill Proficiency Increased: Danger Sense → Advanced.][Trait Upgrade Available: Resist Death (Mid Grade).]
Another.
[New Gate Opening: "Veins of the Sleeping Titan."][Difficulty: Extreme.][Recommended Level: 50+]
Yeon-woo exhaled slowly.
Victory.
Barely.
He checked his Profile again, out of habit.
[Name: Yeon-woo][Level: 44][Strength: 95][Agility: 110][Endurance: 90][Intelligence: 66][Perception: 101]
The slow climb continued.
This world won't wait for me to catch up.
He knew what was coming.
The Gates were evolving faster now.
Each cleared dungeon would spawn harder ones.
The world outside — Earth — would descend further into madness.
He needed to get stronger.Faster.
No time for comfort.
He rose to his feet, stretching out sore muscles.
A faint ripple stirred in the air nearby.
A new Gate.
It pulsed softly — a massive stone arch wrapped in chains of golden light.
Yeon-woo stared at it for a long moment.
The future he remembered was unraveling.
Piece by piece.
Even regression could only tell him so much.
He tightened his grip on the dagger.
One step forward.
Always.
He walked toward the Gate.
The chains shattered one by one as he approached, crumbling into dust.
A new journey.A deeper nightmare.
And Yeon-woo smiled grimly.
Better me than someone weaker.
As the Gate swallowed him whole, the stars blinked out one by one.
Only darkness remained.
And the heartbeat of something far, far worse.