We hadn't even taken more than a few steps from the previous entrance when we were already confronted by the fourth entity — staring at us with its blank white eyes.
The creature had a vaguely humanoid shape, but it was clearly not human. It stood around three meters tall, with pale yellow skin stretched tightly over its strange form. Its hands were large, long, and looked strong enough to tear a person apart with ease.
A few seconds passed as we locked eyes — then the creature let out a high-pitched, terrifying shriek before lunging toward us at a speed that defied reason. Whether it was due to its long legs or unnatural reflexes, it crossed the distance between us in the blink of an eye.
"HYUNSUK, SHOOT!!" I yelled.
That shout was all Hyunsuk needed. Without hesitation, he raised the shotgun in his hands and pulled the trigger.
BOOM!!
A thunderous blast echoed through the room, shattering the eerie silence. The entity was thrown backward, tumbling to the ground.
"Hyung… did we kill it?" Hyunsuk asked, his voice trembling slightly.
I stared ahead. The creature lay about ten meters from us. Given the spread of the shotgun's pellets, there should have been multiple hits.
Without answering, I gently set Olivia down from my arms and drew my axe and katana.
"Watch over Olivia. I'm going to check," I said as I stepped forward.
"I'll come with you, hyung."
"No. Stay here. There could be more of them. Protect her."
I walked slowly toward the fallen entity. My sword and axe felt heavy — still coated with the dried blood of our previous battle.
As I got closer, the creature's details became clearer. Strange, sucker-like protrusions lined its entire body. Several visible bullet wounds were oozing a thick, clear fluid — like water, but… wrong.
To be sure, I raised my weapons and struck the creature, slicing it open.
Fortunately, its blood was transparent. Otherwise, I'd be covered in its disgusting splatter again.
After making sure it was truly dead, I returned to the others.
They looked at me with expressions hard to read — a mixture of relief and fear.
"So… that monster is really dead, huh, hyung?" Hyunsuk asked hesitantly.
"Yes. Just to be sure, I finished it off."
We continued on, though the tension lingered in the air. The start of this floor was already far worse than the last. On the third floor, we had only encountered an entity after walking quite a distance. But now… one had attacked us right near the entrance.
I didn't realize that my arm around Olivia had tightened. The girl shifted awkwardly when she noticed my expression, her face slightly flushed, but she said nothing.
I kept walking straight ahead, my focus set entirely on the steps ahead.
---
Meanwhile…
Elsewhere on the fourth floor, two figures — a man and a teenage boy — staggered through the threshold of a red door. Their bodies were covered in blood, claw marks, and bite wounds. One of them held a large machete soaked in fresh blood.
The man's name was Robert, and the boy beside him was Joshua, his son.
Their gazes were vacant, their bodies exhausted, their hope nearly extinguished. They had just survived a brutal fight against a dog-like monster on the previous floor, and now… they were faced with yet another vast, oppressive basement.
After everything they had endured, only to find themselves in a place like this — dark, silent, uncertain — despair was impossible to avoid.
Robert recalled how it had all started: how they had returned home, only to find their living room transformed into a black void that swallowed everything. When they came to, the world they had known was gone — replaced by this horrific place.
With Joshua bleeding and barely standing, Robert made the call to stop for a moment. They needed time to breathe, to summon what courage they had left.
Because if they kept moving forward in this condition and ran into another monster...
Then they most likely wouldn't survive.
And yet, in Robert's heart, a small flame still burned. A quiet resolve.
"If I'm going to die… then I'll die fighting. Because that's the price of being a man — and a father."