The Boss Wants to Die - Chapter 70

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The boss wants to die.
Episode 70
“Ugh…….”
The Inn’s warmth vanished as rain fell like lightning, stinging my cheeks raw.
I hunched my shoulders and shuddered.
“What—what is this?”
Does it only rain at the Water Ruins?
Startled, I trembled until Aktr shielded my head with both hands.
His hands were so large that the gesture actually helped.
“Is there nowhere to shelter?”
I shaded my eyebrows with my hand and squinted into the downpour.
The slate-blue sky was swallowed by storm clouds, casting a darkness so thick and oppressive it smothered the entire landscape.
‘It’s like a completely different region here.’
The furious wind pushed against my body, making it hard to stand upright.
I looked up at the crumbling stone structures, barely visible in the gloom.
The buildings, swallowed by tidal surges countless times, dripped as though freshly pulled from the sea.
I pushed through the torrential rain and moved forward.
Aerial lay sprawled at the entrance to the Water Ruins.
“Aerial—!”
I called his name, but the thunder swallowed my voice, and he didn’t turn around.
He crawled across the slick, waterlogged ground like a worm, his belly dragging.
I noticed now that his fingernails were stained with red splotches.
‘Are those the marks of fever?’
His foolishness turned my stomach.
I walked forward, my heels striking the ground with such force I nearly drove them through.
My mini dress clung to my thighs, soaked through, making every step awkward.
I gripped my skirt with both hands as though tying it up and crouched beside Aerial.
Crack-boom—!
Thunder split the black sky, and a jagged white bolt, pale and eerie as a skull, flashed across it.
The roar of the storm was so loud I nearly had to scream to make Aerial hear me.
“That’s why I said we should come tomorrow! Why come now and suffer like this?”
I grabbed his forearm and hauled him to his feet in one motion, and he staggered as his arm twisted in my grip.
“Leave me alone!”
“Don’t throw a tantrum.”
Whether my words touched a nerve or not, he clenched his teeth and shoved me.
I was pushed back only slightly, but Aerial toppled face-first into the muddy mixture of seawater and rain.
“Why are you like this? You used to know how to act smart!”
“What do you know about me?”
Aerial, burning with fever, irritably wiped the white steam rising from his body.
“Don’t worry about it. Just leave me be!”
His rain-soaked hair clung to his skin, making him look like a drowned ghost.
The rain fell so hard his cheeks glistened with wet.
It looked exactly like tears streaming down his face.
‘How can I not worry?’
Did he think I’d become heartless just because I’m trapped in the Demon God’s body?
I huffed with frustration.
Did he even realize what he looked like?
Gone was his haughty bearing; in its place stood a beggar’s wretch of a form.
It was pathetic and ugly.
Knowing how refined he once was only deepened my pity.
“There’s no shelter anywhere! The rain is pouring down like this—where exactly do you plan to lie down?”
Aerial ignored my words and passed through the entrance, disappearing into the Water Ruins.
I clenched my fist and pursued him.
I couldn’t hold back any longer.
I’d catch up and beat him senseless if I had to.
Aktr followed me into the Water Ruins.
And at that same moment, a system window appeared, as though it had been waiting.
A cheerful notification sound rang out, indifferent to time or place.
Ding!
Through the relentless rain, I forced my eyelids open, my vision wavering.
A hologram glowed with an eerie luminescence, flickering violently through the downpour.
[Party Quest ‘Trial of Water’ is about to activate!
Those who do not wish to participate should leave this field immediately!
※ Once the Party Quest begins, you cannot move to another field until it is cleared!]
[Trial of Water will activate in 10 seconds!]
9 seconds!
“Aerial!”
I grabbed his ankle in panic.
‘This is the Wrath of Water Deity that everyone was talking about!’
Once a quest began, there was no turning back.
We had to escape, and fast.
“We need to get out of here! Now!”
“I don’t want to!”
8 seconds!
“For gods’ sake, what’s wrong with you? Do you have a death wish?”
“It doesn’t matter if I die. I’m staying right here!”
6 seconds!
“This is a quest! We might not be able to leave until we clear it! Are you in that much pain you can’t think straight?”
4 seconds!
“That’s exactly what I wanted! This is perfect!”
“What did you just say?”
2 seconds!
“I can’t escape this nightmare anyway! This is a stage fit for me, so please, just get away from——!”
[Waiting time has expired!]
[Party Quest ‘Trial of Water’ has been activated!
You cannot move to another field until this quest is cleared!]
[The Water Ruins field is now sealed!]
A massive barrier like a soap bubble rose up from the ground, encircling the Water Ruins.
The moment I saw it, I knew this was no ordinary, run-of-the-mill quest.
It wasn’t just the Water Ruins—it was as if the entire world was being wrapped in a membrane of water itself.
‘This is serious……!’
I positioned myself to shield both Aktr and Aerial.
Undine Island, a renowned resort, was recommended for players level 100 and above.
There was no way a low-level quest would appear in the Water Ruins, the most dangerous area on the island.
‘Aktr is barely level 60, and Aerial can’t even use his skills because he’s hurt.’
Only I could protect them.
I bit down on my lip.
‘No choice, then.’
[Demon God Helrod has activated Light-Rending Claws! Unarmed attack power increases by 10% for 10 minutes!]
[Demon God Helrod has adopted a Resolute Heart! All attack power becomes significantly higher than before!]
‘Kill them all. Clear this quest as fast as possible.’
The moment I resolved myself, the world fell dead silent.
I tensed my body lightly and fixed my gaze on the hologram.
[The Water Ruins field has been completely sealed!]
[Searching for players participating in Party Quest ‘Trial of Water’…….]
Ding!
[Party Group 1, consisting of party leader Aktr Hevgenia, party member Aerial Atlantis, and Demon God Helrod, has been successfully registered!
Here is your Party Quest briefing!]
I pulled Aerial close, supporting his trembling frame.
Guiding him to lean against a collapsed ruin, I scanned the quest details with my eyes darting between him and the hologram.
Ding!
[The Recurring Nightmare of That Day.]
A nightmare?
I pulled up the quest window that Aktr had received.
A memory was nagging at me.
[The Endless Nightmare of a Worshipper.
― Objective: Convert the Demon God worshipper Aerial Atlantis to righteousness.]
Yes, this quest.
There was definitely something about it that troubled me.
‘Found it!’
[Help a worshipper break free from an endless nightmare and awaken.]
Break the nightmare.
I examined the newly posted Party Quest.
[The nightmare of that recurring day.]
‘There has to be a connection.’
If I clear this Quest, will I be able to reform Aerial?
I read through the Party Quest details carefully.
[The Water Ruins on Undine Island were once an ancient Sanctuary dedicated to the Water Deity.
Now that significance has faded, and it has become merely a place where the Water Tribe dwells.]
“Cough, cough!”
Aerial coughed sharply.
I brushed his damp, matted hair back, then narrowed my eyes, my gaze sharpening.
‘What’s wrong with his forehead?’
Red blotches spread across the edge of his forehead where it met his hairline.
The illness seemed to be progressing, spreading visibly.
‘I need to clear this Quest faster.’
[Though they lost the name “Sanctuary,” the Water Tribe continued to offer periodic prayers to the Water Deity.
It was a ritual of gratitude for protecting the creatures of the sea.]
‘Then was Aerial’s ancestor a priest? One who served the Water Deity?’
I focused and read on.
[But was that peculiar behavior the problem?
One day, the Water Tribe was slaughtered to a man by pirates who invaded this place.
They had exposed the “singularity” that the Water Tribe possessed.]
I furrowed my brow and expanded the text.
I examined the sentences from every angle, but what the “singularity” the Water Tribe possessed actually was remained unwritten.
[The Water Deity, unable to leave the sea, fell into profound sorrow.
The pirates had all fled to the Dry Land, and she could not punish them.
The Water Tribe, too, had met death on land and could not be properly mourned.
Because of the Water Deity’s anguish—vivid memory of the massacre—the Water Ruins became cursed to replay that day’s nightmare.
A phantom of pirate invasion and the Water Tribe’s death unfolds periodically.
Will there ever come a day when light reaches this place?
Perhaps you could help break the Water Deity’s nightmare and allow this place to be steeped in proper grief.
─ Objective: Eliminate all the pirates who invaded the Water Ruins.
─ Reward: The next Quest will be unlocked.
※ Warning! If you accidentally eliminate the Water Tribe, the Water Deity’s anguish will deepen and you must restart the Quest from the beginning!]
I read through the full sequence of events, then suddenly inhaled a plume of black smoke and coughed violently.
‘What is that smell!’
Something burned with a terrible reek.
I closed the Quest window belatedly and looked around.
The pouring rain had not merely stopped—it had vanished completely.
Active volcanoes of flame erupted in all directions.
It was a signal that the proper Quest was beginning.
‘If the past massacre is repeating, then this is a phantom created by the Water Deity.’
Yet the fire before my eyes hardly seemed illusory.
It was genuinely hot.
Because the pain the god of the sea felt was real, not false.
A phantom shaped from suffering seized me with vivid, ruthless force.
I pulled Aerial and Aktr close against me and hunched my shoulders.
“Ugh……!”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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