The Magma Golem didn't just move; it shifted like a tectonic plate. Every step sent ripples through the obsidian floor, and the heat radiating from its core was now so intense that the air itself seemed to be screaming.
"The neck vents, Shin-ah! Now!" Jin-woo yelled, his voice cracking against the roar of the cavern.
Yoo Shin-ah didn't waste a breath. She leaped into the air, her boots glowing with mana-enhanced agility. In mid-air, she notched three arrows of pure light. Twang—twang—twang! The projectiles streaked like tracers, slamming into the Golem's face. It wasn't meant to kill; it was meant to blind.
The Golem roared, raising its massive, molten arms to shield its eyes.
"Joon-ho, stay behind the pillar and don't move unless the floor starts melting!" Jin-woo commanded.
"Way ahead of you, buddy! I'm currently looking into how to buy this dungeon so I can fire everyone in it!" Joon-ho yelled back, huddled behind a jagged rock.
Jin-woo closed his eyes for a split second. The mental strain was already mounting. With three "Threads" available, his mind felt like it was being pulled in three different directions. It was a dizzying sensation of triple-vision.
Focus. Thread One: The Bait. Thread Two: The Saboteur. Main Body: The Executioner.
Two shimmering figures erupted from Jin-woo's side.
Thread 1 (Aggressive): This clone manifested with a feral grin. It didn't wait for orders. It sprinted toward the Golem's legs, drawing the creature's attention by throwing shards of obsidian and shouting insults that would make a sailor blush.
Thread 2 (Stoic): This clone was calm, moving with calculated precision. It carried the mana-stone dagger Jin-woo had "borrowed" from Joon-ho. While the Golem was distracted by Shin-ah's arrows and the yelling of Thread 1, Thread 2 began scaling the Golem's back, using the cooling cracks in its rocky hide as handholds.
"You're actually doing it," Shin-ah whispered from her vantage point on a high ledge. She watched as the "F-Rank" coordinated a multi-pronged assault that should have required a veteran raid team and a telepathic link. "How are you controlling them both so perfectly?"
Jin-woo didn't answer. He couldn't. His teeth were gritted so hard he thought they might shatter.
In his mind, he was feeling the searing heat on Thread 2's fingers as it climbed the Golem. He felt the vibration of the Golem's footsteps through Thread 1's feet. And in his own body, he felt the mounting "pressure" of the Quantum Link.
Now!
Thread 2 reached the nape of the Golem's neck. There, three glowing orange slits hissed with pressurized steam—the "exhaust vents" Jin-woo had identified.
With a mental command, Thread 2 slammed the high-grade mana-stone dagger into the central vent.
[CRITICAL HIT.]
The Golem froze. The orange glow in its body turned a violent, unstable white. A sound like a tea kettle from hell erupted from its back.
"Get back!" Jin-woo screamed.
He snapped his fingers.
[Quantum Link: Recall.]
Thread 2 vanished instantly, the dagger falling into the lava below. Thread 1, however, wasn't so lucky. The Golem, in a fit of pressurized agony, slammed its fist down in a 360-degree sweep.
Thread 1 was caught in the blast. Jin-woo felt the sensation of being hit by a freight train made of sunfire.
"AGH!" Jin-woo collapsed, his main body clutching his chest as the feedback hit him.
[Phantom Image destroyed.]
[Absorbing Mechanic: 'Thermal Pressure'...]
[Success! Passive Buff Acquired: Mana-Pressure Resistance (Rank E).]
"Jin-woo!" Shin-ah dropped from her ledge, skidding to a halt beside him. She grabbed his shoulders, her eyes searching his face. "You're bleeding from your ears. Stop this. I'll finish it!"
"No..." Jin-woo wheezed, pushing her hand away. He looked at the Golem. It was staggering, its internal pressure failing. "It's... it's almost done. Look."
The Golem's chest plate cracked. The core—a pulsing heart of pure, concentrated mana—was exposed.
"Shin-ah... give me one arrow," Jin-woo said.
"What?"
"I can't shoot a bow. But my 'threads' can act as a delivery system. Trust me."
Shin-ah looked at the dying monster, then at the bloodied, grinning F-Rank. She pulled an arrow from her quiver—a real one, tipped with silver—and handed it to him.
Jin-woo summoned his final thread. This clone appeared right in front of the Golem's exposed core. It took the arrow from Jin-woo's hand.
"Swap," Jin-woo whispered.
In a blink, the main Jin-woo was standing where the clone had been—directly in the path of the Golem's final, desperate lunges. He shoved the silver arrow directly into the white-hot core.
[BOSS DEFEATED.]
[Calculating Rewards...]
[Exp gained: 50,000]
[Level Up! Level Up! Level Up!...]
The Golem disintegrated into ash. The red sky of the Gate began to fracture, revealing the blue sky of Seoul through the cracks. They were going home.
But the price was due.
Jin-woo felt it first in his marrow—a cold, heavy leadenness. Then came the memories. Hours of the clones' experiences, the phantom pain of being crushed, the heat of the climb, the sensation of the Golem's hide—all of it slammed into his conscious mind at once.
"The... the kimbap..." Jin-woo managed to mumble.
"What? Jin-woo?" Shin-ah's voice sounded like it was underwater.
His knees buckled. His brain felt like it was being rebooted while the power was surging. This was the Crash.
As he fell into the darkness of unconsciousness, the System window flickered one last time before his eyes, displaying his new, bloated status.