A little while later, Jhin was trailing behind Caleb, moving toward the main auditorium.
The closer they got, the more signs of battle piled up around them.
Skeletons. Human corpses, scattered everywhere.
You could tell at a glance just how brutal the fighting had been.
And by then, Jhin was slowly starting to accept reality.
"…The Sharpshooter is a woman…?"
"I was really shocked too, at first! I mean, Millie is the 'Sharpshooter'! It's crazy, right?"
"Huh?"
"Think about it. An idol singer, secretly an Exodia player… and not just any player, but one of the old legends they call 'Heaven Above Heavens'! It doesn't even sound real."
Clark, ranked 12th.
A master of firearms, known as the "Sharpshooter," whose skill with a gun was so perfect that even Kyle couldn't hope to compare.
Jhin still couldn't quite believe it.
He swallowed the lingering bitterness in his mouth.
'I always thought he was a man, wearing a fedora in the game.'
Well, changing your character's gender in Exodia1 was as easy as breathing.
It didn't affect gameplay.
Customizing your character however you wanted was one of the basics of RPGs.
What did they call it again?
"Look enthusiasts," right?
In Exodia1, it became a whole trend whenever dungeon progression stalled and there wasn't much else to do.
People made it a competition — to customize their characters to be the most stylish, the coolest, or the most beautiful.
And among them, the "Sharpshooter" Clark was famous for his classic fedora look.
It fit the image of a cold-blooded sniper perfectly.
'But an idol…?'
Nation's little sister.
Nation's first love.
Girls on Top.
The most beautiful woman alive...
Millie wore every title imaginable.
She was, without question, the most famous celebrity in Corelands.
Especially back when Jhin was serving in the military — she was the star everyone loved.
There was no way he wouldn't know her.
Which made it even harder to believe.
'Clark the Sharpshooter and Millie have completely opposite images.'
If Millie was like a bright, zesty lemon, Clark smelled like fermented skate fish.
Sure, they both had a kind of "sharpness" about them.
But Clark had no sweetness whatsoever.
Only a cold, biting edge.
The gap between them was just too wide.
'Well… I'll see for myself soon enough.'
Still, he couldn't help but worry.
When he thought about Clark, there was no concern at all.
But when he thought about an idol...
That image layered over made the whole situation feel a little weaker, a little less serious.
Maybe it was inevitable.
After all, this wasn't just a game world inside a monitor anymore.
No matter how good she was, acting like her in-game self here would be a different matter altogether.
The man running ahead, Caleb, spoke up.
"Still, it worked, huh? We made it all the way here, and not a single skeleton reacted. It's a creepy plan, but it's working, thank goodness."
Slung across Caleb's broad back was the corpse of the escaped convict Ji Mason.
Jhin was carrying Sam's body, who at least seemed lighter.
The reason was simple.
They couldn't loot the inventory directly.
So they decided to use the corpses instead.
Since these guys seemed immune to skeleton attacks, maybe some passive skill or equipped item was still active.
'Buffs and inventory effects stay active for 24 hours after death.'
That was one of the in-game rules.
When a character died, their body didn't just disappear.
It stayed locked near the spot of death, along with their inventory.
If you had a skill or an item to unlock it, you could forcibly take their stuff too.
The 24-hour post-death guarantee system.
It existed precisely for situations like this.
'Wait a second… if that system is really active here too…'
Another hypothesis surfaced in Jhin's mind.
It wasn't just a random thought.
The more he thought about it, the more certain he became.
"This is the auditorium."
Caleb's voice snapped Jhin out of his thoughts.
"…Brutal."
The entire area was covered in heaps of bones and rotting bodies.
The door leading into the main auditorium was firmly shut.
And from beyond it, a chilling sensation seeped out.
Jhin furrowed his brow and checked the system message.
[Time until Dungeon Break: 3 hours.]
'Only three hours left? At this point, it's obvious. Someone's deliberately accelerating the Dungeon Break.'
By killing Sam, they had obtained an item called "Dungeon Grass."
Normally, you could only sell it at a shop for pocket change.
But it had another use.
'You can mix Dungeon Grass with Dungeon Water to create Dungeon Flowers — which speed up a Dungeon Break.'
The method was simple enough.
But there was something strange.
Dungeon Water wasn't found in F-rank or E-rank dungeons.
It was buried deep inside at least B-rank dungeons — hidden in wells at the bottom of dark caves.
In other words—
'The enemy has someone who managed to secure Dungeon Water from the server shutdown rewards.'
Jhin's frown deepened even more.
From here on, he couldn't afford a single mistake.
They knew the attackers were escaped convicts.
But he never imagined they'd have Dungeon Water.
It's not like you could fill out server shutdown surveys from inside a prison cell.
In the end, it all boiled down to one thing.
'An unknown third party is interfering with this entire situation.'
Caleb spoke up again.
"Don't worry too much."
"Huh?"
"As far as I know, Miss Millie is the strongest player out there. She won't go down so easily."
When Jhin quietly stared at the door, Caleb seemed to assume he was worried about her.
Jhin didn't deny it.
But he wasn't as anxious as Caleb probably thought either.
'If she's really the Sharpshooter…'
There was no need to worry.
Not even a little.
The main auditorium, built for lectures and performances.
Millie sprinted across the stage.
Fwwip!
An arrow shot past her, embedding itself in the floor.
And that wasn't the end of it.
'Above!'
She rolled sharply, dodging a massive sword swinging down from above.
Pushing off the ground, she widened the distance again, panting for breath, glaring at her attacker.
A skeleton, its jaw clacking in disappointment as it missed its mark.
'Death Knight.'
An upgraded version of a Skeleton — a knight's skeleton who knew actual swordsmanship.
Unlike normal skeletons that swung their swords mindlessly, this one had form.
His movements were structured.
His attacks flowed like a real swordsman's.
Still, the Death Knight itself wasn't a huge threat.
'For an E-rank boss monster, he's relatively easy prey.'
The sheer brute force of the undead couldn't be ignored.
But their defense was paper-thin.
And long-range attacks were Millie's specialty.
As long as she didn't get hit — and hit them more — she would win.
The Death Knight was practically tailor-made to be her prey.
'The real problem is… he's not alone.'