Doom Breaker – The Egoist

Whizz.

“Hey, fatty, what’s your name?”

“J-Jung Hyuncheol. But people usually call me Big Bo.”

“Big Bo?”

“Yeah, combining ‘Big’ from ‘big’ and ‘Bo’ from ‘Mukbo(eater)’ makes it Big Bo.”

“Haha, fits the look. Nice nickname. My name is Shin Jagun. Just call me boss. From now on, you’re my minion.”

Big Bo was bemused. Jagun’s demeanor was unlike the usual raiders.

‘A guy wearing just jeans and a t-shirt in a dungeon alone? That’s strange from the start.’

Big Bo couldn’t bring himself to ask. Within 10 minutes of meeting Jagun, he knew his temperament. The type to throw punches if something didn’t please him.

‘But Shin, Jagun?’

The name seemed familiar.

Shin Jagun – it was a name he’d heard a lot of at one point.

Big Bo followed behind in his shabby underwear, waddling.

He didn’t know who Jagun was.

‘But if I don’t follow him, I’m surely dead.’

*

Big Bo Jung Hyuncheol had never accomplished anything in his life.

He never felt a sense of achievement.

He just lived life following what others did.

He was taught that living quietly and obediently to what his parents and teachers said would lead to a good life.

He graduated college and stepped into society.

The society was harsher than he had thought. People called him a softie to praise him, but in a bad light, he was seen as a pushover. Jung Hyuncheol tasted the bitterness of the world. He couldn’t withstand company life.

After quitting, he joined a multi-level marketing company following his senior from college, but all he was left with a year later was a massive debt. He couldn’t bring himself to tell his parents, who worked their fingers to the bone to send him to college, about the debt.

While agonizing, big Bo randomly followed a friend to a test for awakeners and surprisingly passed. There was only one way to pay off his debt.

That’s how Big Bo became a raider.

‘But here too, I’m nothing more than a porter…’

Two years into being a raider.

Level 20.

He worked as a porter without even a proper class. No one considered Hyuncheol, who lacked combat sense and was sluggish, to be a proper raider.

Without combat experience, his level stopped rising at some point. He had no confidence in tackling dungeons alone.

‘Now I’m in a dungeon in my underwear… and putting my life in the hands of someone I don’t even know.’

Big Bo covered his mouth and sighed. Earlier, he had been hit by Jagun for sighing too loudly. Jagun and Big Bo walked down a dungeon corridor for quite some time.

“Big Bo, got any cigarettes?”

“N-No, I don’t.”

“You’re really useless.”

Big Bo looked at Jagun dumbfounded.

‘He’s the one who took all my gear…’

Jagun felt Big Bo’s gaze and narrowed his eyes. Murderous intent flickered in the pupils.

“What? Got any complaints, punk?”

Big Bo didn’t know that Jagun wasn’t even level 10. He couldn’t even imagine. Jagun’s aura made him seem at least level 30 or 40.

“Boss, why are you in the dungeon alone?”

Big Bo asked cautiously. It was something he had been wondering since they first met.

“In the dungeon alone? Tsk. That cursed god….”

Zap.

Jagun trembled from an electric shock that coursed through his body. It was because of the Isaac’s Mirror he was carrying. Whenever Jagun spoke irreverently, it shocked him.

He couldn’t discard it due to its cursed nature.

“B-Boss?”

Big Bo was bewildered. He thought an enemy had appeared.

“Everything’s just royally screwed up. Royally….”

Jagun stood up, exhaling smoke. His facial veins bulged tightly. His eyes exuded a frosty chill.

Flinch.

Big Bo stepped back. The murderous intent in Jagun’s eyes made his knees weak.

‘I’ll kill them all. The ones who betrayed me, and anyone who stands in my way.’

Jagun was an awakened level 4 with nothing to his name. The Seven Dragons of Ragnarf were all guild master-level strongmen. The disparity between them was immense.

‘Ragnarf is mine. The Seven Dragons? Did they really stab me in the back, after everything I did for them? My possessions? Hahaha.’

His anger and hatred remained undiluted. Jagun ground his teeth.

Tremble.

Big Bo was too scared of Jagun to move forward. Jagun’s expression was more twisted than grotesque. It was like witnessing a monster.

‘What is this? Did I ask the wrong question?’

Jagun reined in his expression. As Jagun adjusted his demeanor, big Bo couldn’t muster the courage to speak. Jagun was a ticking time bomb.

They navigated through a complex series of passageways. Several times, they encountered forks in the path.

Finally, they arrived at a room.

Without hesitation, Jagun opened the door to whatever lay inside.

“A treasure chest!”

Big Bo exclaimed. Occasionally, treasure chests appear in specific rooms. Sometimes, these chests offer pure rewards without any danger, but other times, they contain high-level traps or monsters.

“Big Bo, open it.”

Jagun gestured to Big Bo with a nod.

“What? Boss, I’m not even wearing any armor, if something goes wrong…”

Sching.

Jagun drew his sword and pressed it to Big Bo’s neck. Jagun chuckled as he spoke to Big Bo, “You wanna die now? Or just open the chest?”

With a terrified look, big Bo nodded. Wearing nothing but underwear, big Bo awkwardly walked towards the treasure chest.

Thump-thump.

Big Bo’s heart pounded heavily. Life and death felt intensely real.

Squeeze.

Big Bo reached for the treasure chest. As he lifted the lid—

“Kikikikikikiki.”

Laughter burst from the treasure chest. The lid jiggled and sharp teeth appeared. A mimic disguised as a treasure chest.

“M-Mimic.”

Big Bo gazed at the mimic with a look of despair. His legs stiffened, making it hard to move. As a porter, he’d never faced a monster in direct combat.

Crunch!

The mimic tore into Big Bo’s right leg. Its sharp teeth sliced through the bone in an instant.

“A-Aaaaaargh-!!”

Big Bo screamed, writhing on the ground. He scratched at the floor, tears and snot streaming down.

‘Mom, dad. Please, it hurts. Save me.’

The mimic devoured Big Bo’s right leg and its body shuddered. Centipede-like legs emerged from beneath the chest.

‘I’m going to die.’

The mimic magnified in Big Bo’s vision. Facing death, he tightly shut his eyes. He sensed the imminent end of his life.

“Don’t worry! Big Bo!”

Jagun shouted, stepping between Big Bo and the mimic.

“B-Boss?”

Big Bo’s eyes widened in surprise. He had expected Jagun to flee. Jagun’s arrival enlarged Big Bo’s pupils.

“Losing a leg won’t kill you! Idiot. Hold tight and stop the bleeding.”

Jagun’s words drilled into Big Bo’s head. Big Bo clutched the severed area with all his might.

“Phewww.”

Jagun took a deep breath, gazing at the mimic. A monster disguised as a treasure chest—a mimic. Its outer hide was tough as iron, and a blade couldn’t penetrate it. The sword had to wedge into the seams of the chest.

‘Even if it’s a hard-to-hit weak point, having a clear target is better for me right now.’

Jagun readied his stance. Even if his stats were abysmal, his swordsmanship skill and experience didn’t just vanish. The mightiest raider who had conquered numerous dungeons and bosses, the Storm Dragon Shin Jagun.

He relied on no one. He only believed in his own strength and fought. There were no comrades or friends for him. Anyone who wasn’t a subordinate was an enemy to be surpassed.

“…… For me, nothing is impossible.”

The mimic lunged. Jagun’s eyes sharpened as he swung his sword.

Thwack, thwack.

Blood droplets streamed down.

“Boss…”

Big Bo’s lips quivered as he spoke.

“Shut up.”

Jagun’s face was pale. The blood dripping was from none other than Jagun’s side. Fighting the mimic had severed the web bandage. The bleeding from his side wasn’t something that could be stopped easily.

Big Bo had tied off his right leg with a strip to stop the bleeding. At least he wouldn’t die from massive blood loss.

‘To take down a mimic alone with that body…’

Big Bo witnessed Jagun’s desperate battle with his own eyes. Jagun narrowly avoided the mimic’s attacks and struck at its weak points. Surviving near-deaths several times, he finally managed to stab the internals of the mimic.

With a scream, the mimic spat out items. The intense movements during the fight had exacerbated Jagun’s bleeding.

“You just hold onto that. If you lose it, you’re dead, seriously. Huh.”

Jagun was a man full of greed. Once something was in his hands, he rarely let go.

Be it an object or a person…

Jagun hadn’t abandoned Big Bo out of any sense of justice. He acted because he believed he could defeat the mimic.

『Mimic’s Tooth Shield』

A shield adorned with the mimic’s teeth. It inflicts damage on the enemy when it blocks a melee attack. Big Bo gazed at the shield. It was a good shield. Its options were highly efficient for shield warriors.

It was sure to fetch a high price at auction.

‘I must protect it.’

Big Bo firmly grasped the shield he was sitting on.