Chapter 66

Promise (9)

“…It’s trying to grab the people below.”

At the same time, the Lunamoon ring on my finger began to heat up.

It felt as though it were urging me to hurry up and save the Commander.

‘Wait.’

It wasn’t as though I intended to leave the Commander to die.

I just needed a little time to think.

As I silently tried to calm the ring, Lucas shouted in horror.

“Don’t tell me His Excellency is down there?!”

Fortunately, the Snow Giant’s arms seemed too short. The moment I confirmed that the hand sweeping around below the cliff had come up empty, I spoke to the other two.

“Get off.”

“What?”

“I said get off.”

Like the trained soldiers they were, the newly commissioned officers hurriedly dismounted from the bike at my command, though their faces remained filled with confusion.

“What are you planning to do?”

“I’ll lure it away. Once that thing is gone, use this to pull up the people below.”

As I handed them a coil of rope, Bones and Lucas stared at me as though they could not believe their eyes.

“Where the hell do you keep pulling these things from?”

Ignoring Bones’s question, I started the bike.

Lucas hurriedly asked,

“Wait, lure it away? What exactly are you planning? Don’t tell me—”

“I’m going.”

Before they could stop me, I revved the engine and shot forward.

I headed toward the edge of another crevasse, some distance away from the Snow Giant that was desperately trying to scoop up the Commander’s group.

Once I had put enough distance between myself and the cliff where the Commander was trapped, while still remaining visible to the creature, I jumped from the bike again.

Unable to overcome its momentum, the bike rolled forward and plunged over the edge.

‘That’ll probably be me in a little while.’

I pushed myself up from the snow and looked toward the Snow Giant.

Seen from the side, I could make out the Commander and Plato clinging tightly to the wall below the cliff, crouching low to avoid being grabbed by the Snow Giant’s hand.

Team Two’s leader lay bound and face down on the ground.

‘The Commander looks terrible.’

With the Commander’s physical abilities, he could easily have escaped before falling.

But at the last moment, he had pushed me to safety and failed to get away himself.

Even though he had known he would fall, he had still saved me.

That was probably because he believed I was Lunamoon’s child.

“Haa…”

This really was insane.

But leaving the Commander to die was not an option.

Just as he had tried to save me in that desperate moment, I too, as his “son,” had to risk my life to save him.

That was my promise to Lunamoon.

It was also the qualification I needed to continue living here as Haydam Goodman.

Right on cue, the wind began blowing in the direction I wanted.

From where I stood toward the Snow Giant.

“Perfect weather for a fall.”

I drew the dagger at my waist, raised my left arm, and sliced it from top to bottom.

My skin split open and blood began to flow.

In the distance, the Snow Giant froze.

It did not take long before the creature sniffed the air and turned its gaze toward me.

Off to one side, I saw Lucas and Bones running toward me while shouting at the tops of their lungs.

But there was a limit to how quickly humans could run through deep snow.

Abandoning the humans who had been irritating it, the Snow Giant began charging toward me.

It was obvious the creature would reach me before the newly commissioned officers did.

‘Good.’

Instead of running away, I stood precariously at the edge of the crevasse and poured a handful of star-shaped candies into my mouth.

The instant they touched my lips, the candies dissolved into blue particles and seeped into my body.

The long wound on my arm began healing rapidly.

After confirming that the injury was closing, I detonated a smoke grenade at my feet, then fired white flares and signal rounds at the creature’s face one after another.

It was not meant to damage it.

I was simply drawing its aggro.

Thoroughly enraged, the Snow Giant increased its speed and charged toward me.

After using up all the ammunition I had, I began firing at the ground beneath its feet.

The distance between us continued to shrink.

‘Is this still not enough?’

The ammunition had been designed for use against monsters.

Against a glacier rather than a living monster, it did not seem capable of inflicting much damage. The ground beneath the Snow Giant refused to collapse.

But making the glacier give way at precisely the right moment and causing only the creature to fall would have required a miracle anyway.

My real plan began now.

“Can’t be helped.”

I hurled the gun in my hands toward the Snow Giant.

As though finding the gesture laughable, the creature casually swatted the firearm aside with one hand.

The moment the Snow Giant, now almost right in front of me, reached out to seize me, I gripped my knife tightly and leaped over the cloud of smoke.

The Snow Giant changed direction to grab me.

“Uaaagh!”

Its foot sank straight through the smoke cloud.

I had deliberately concealed the ground with the smoke grenade.

Unable to see that the place I had jumped toward was empty air, the creature had chased me and stepped into the void.

Of course, I had also jumped off the cliff in order to deceive it.

The instant I plunged into the smoke cloud, I drove my knife into the glacier.

Kagagagak!

The knife failed to bite into the ice immediately, and I slid down the sheer cliff face.

The Snow Giant stretched out its arms and tried to cling to the glacier.

However, its thick, furry hands could not generate enough friction to slow its fall the way my knife could.

The creature plummeted helplessly into the depths.

‘It probably won’t die even from a fall like that.’

Watching the Snow Giant disappear below, I pulled out another knife and drove it into a crack in the glacier.

Kak!

This time, it caught properly.

Instead of continuing to slide, I was jerked to a stop and left dangling in midair.

It felt as though I had fallen for quite a while, but when I looked up, I had not descended all that far.

“Lord Haydam!”

“You lunatic!”

Lucas and Bones finally reached the edge and spotted me below.

They both started shouting, but because they were talking over each other, I could not understand a word they were saying.

“Phew…”

Now I only had to hold on until they pulled me up.

That was what I thought as I looked above me.

But the clouds were behaving strangely.

Amid the blizzard that still raged across the sky, thunderclouds were beginning to gather.

“Don’t tell me…”

I frowned at the ominous sight.

As I had explained before, the Snow Giant could control the weather.

Even the violent blizzard that had been raging since earlier had been summoned by the creature to conceal its enormous body.

‘Then those thunderclouds must have been summoned by the Snow Giant too…’

A deep rumble rolled across the sky.

Golden light flashed between the clouds.

The very next moment, a bolt of lightning came crashing down toward the knife in my hand.

“Damn it!”

Rather than be fried alive by the lightning, I chose to fall.

Just before the bolt struck, I released the knife.

Kwagagang!

The spot struck by lightning flashed brightly before exploding like a kernel of popcorn.

The sight rapidly receded above me as I fell.

Avoiding the lightning was all well and good, but now I was nothing more than an airplane without wings.

I desperately searched my memory for anything in my inventory that might help in this situation.

But I had nothing meant for surviving a fall.

All I could do was hope for a miracle.

Or pray that this body was sturdy enough to survive the impact and let me bring a star candy to my mouth afterward.

But the thing that stopped my fall in the next instant was neither a miracle nor anything of the sort.

It was the Snow Giant.

“What…?!”

A huge, fur-covered hand shot out from the side and snatched me out of the air.

Suppressing the scream that threatened to burst from my throat as its grip crushed down with enough force to shatter every bone in my body, I looked to the side.

The Snow Giant had discovered a cave in the wall of the crevasse and had been clinging to it before reaching out and grabbing me.

Without hesitation, it brought me toward its mouth.

The closer I came to its face, the more clearly I could see the golden jewel embedded in its forehead.

‘Better to land at least one blow than get eaten.’

I barely managed to pull one arm free from its grasp, took a grenade from my inventory, hooked the pin with my index finger, and threw it into the creature’s gaping mouth.

Its forehead was too far away for me to reach.

The grenade rolled smoothly down into its throat and exploded moments later.

The Snow Giant roared in pain and hurled me into the cave.

“Ghk!”

I could no longer suppress a groan as I went tumbling across the cave floor.

Only after slamming into the wall did I finally come to a stop.

I fumbled at my waist, brought a star candy to my mouth, and ate it.

As my injuries began to heal, the pain that made it feel as though every bone in my body had been crushed slowly subsided.

I let out the breath I had been holding and braced myself against the cave floor.

“Haa… haa…”

I had survived because the creature had thrown me deeper into the cave rather than down the cliff.

But the situation was still bad.

Star candies could heal injuries, but the more severe the damage, the longer the recovery took.

At least this body was durable enough to endure that impact without losing consciousness.

Still, I could not simply wait until I had fully recovered.

The Snow Giant that had thrown me inside was charging after me with a furious roar.

‘This is insane.’

What were the chances that I could let it swallow me and then shoot through its mouth to pierce the jewel in its forehead?

Even while entertaining that hopeless idea, I fled deeper into the cave.

Thick stalactites and stalagmites made of glacial ice filled the interior.

The Snow Giant was already slow to begin with, and the obstacles soon caused it to fall behind.

But the sharply pointed formations were dangerous to me as well.

As I ran frantically, I felt something trickling down my cheek. When I wiped it away, I found blood on my hand.

I must have been cut by an icicle hanging from the ceiling without realizing it.

At that moment, an idea flashed through my mind.

‘Wait. Could this…?’

I ran while staring up at the ceiling like a madman.

The deeper the cave went, the higher the ceiling became, and the larger the icicles hanging overhead grew.

It was all or nothing.

If my current firepower was not enough to kill that thing anyway…

“Hey! You stupid giant bastard!”

I stopped at a suitable spot, pulled a gun from my inventory, and opened fire wildly at the ceiling to draw the creature in.

The Snow Giant had apparently lost track of me and had been wandering around, but the moment it heard the gunfire, it began charging toward me.

The whole cave shook with heavy thuds, as though it might collapse.

That was actually better.

The more violently it moved, the more cracks would spread through the icicles above.

I held my breath and waited for it to charge.

To shoot down the icicle at precisely the right moment, I could not move too far away either.

It would be useless if the icicle fell before the creature arrived.

And equally useless if it fell after the creature had already passed beneath it.

“Graaaah!”

The moment I saw it smashing through the stalactites and forcing its way deeper inside, I began firing at a massive, razor-sharp icicle on the ceiling.

The creature drew closer and closer, but I did not lower the gun.

Then, just as it roared and raised its arm high—

Crack.

The sound of splitting ice echoed through the cave.

The enormous icicle that had hung from the ceiling for countless years broke free and plunged toward the Snow Giant’s head.

The instant I saw its sharp tip drive into the top of the creature’s skull, one of its arms lashed out like a whip and struck me with tremendous force.

“Ghk…!”

The blow sent me flying into the cave wall.

But the sound of my body striking the wall was drowned out by an even greater noise.

Kugung…

At the same moment I slammed into the thick wall, the icicle that had pierced through the creature’s head crashed into the cave floor.

“Haa… haa…”

The Snow Giant stopped moving.

But I could not move either.

‘My spine must have been damaged when I hit the wall just now…’

No matter how hard I tried, I could not so much as twitch a finger.

Agonizing pain enveloped my entire body.

Even so, I had to lift my head and check the creature’s condition.

A monster was not the kind of being that died merely because an icicle had impaled it.

“Please…”

I prayed that the blow had shattered the jewel in its forehead.

But when I finally managed to turn my head toward it, the golden jewel remained embedded there, still shining brilliantly.

The icicle skewering the Snow Giant like a spit had missed it by the narrowest margin.

A hollow laugh escaped me.

‘Ha. Fuck… I’m screwed.’

It probably would not recover and attack me immediately.

But the same was true for me.

All I had to do was bring the combat rations in my pocket to my lips, yet I could not even move a single finger.

If that last attack had killed it, I might somehow have survived…

‘Even if the people from the sector come to rescue me, that thing will recover before the rescue team arrives.’

I sighed and closed my eyes.

I could sense death approaching.

‘What the hell am I doing, risking my life to save an NPC?’

But I had the pride of a veteran player.

I could not accept help from an NPC and then pretend nothing had happened.

Still, dying was neither as frightening nor as unfair as I had expected.

And it was not only because part of me wondered whether death might simply log me out of this game-possessed world.

I had always imagined death would feel cold and terrifying.

Instead, it felt warmer and more peaceful than I had thought.

Rather than cold, it was almost like holding a warm stone in my hand…

“Hm?”

My eyes snapped open at the strange sensation.

I looked down at my finger.

The Lunamoon ring was shining brightly, wrapping my body in a gentle warmth.

“What… is this?”

‘No way…’

There was only one possibility that came to mind.

The unknown ego dwelling within Lunamoon’s ring.

I had realized long ago that some other presence inhabited it.

But since it had shown no intention of helping me even when I was on the verge of being killed by the Snow Giant, I had already given up on it.

Apparently, now that I was truly about to die, it had finally decided to lend me a hand.

‘So you’ve finally decided to show yourself.’

Let’s see.

‘Who exactly is hiding inside this ring?’

The instant that thought crossed my mind, the brilliant light pouring from the ring was sucked back into the gemstone.

Then something pure white popped out.