Duo Leveling LITRPG | Post Apocalyptic | SYSTEM-Chapter 172 - 207+208 – The Gray Desert

"Thank you for riding with us today. The doors will open on the right."

It was a broadcast he hadn't heard in a very long time.

Jhin looked toward RofWoo-hyun, who skillfully announced the stop.

Even after reverting from kobold to human, RofWoo-hyun had chosen to stay aboard the ghost train.

He'd volunteered, apparently.

"This is your stop, right? Gangnam Station?"

"Yeah. Thanks for bringing me this far."

"Oh, no need to thank me. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't even be alive."

Repaying a debt, or something like that.

He meant it sincerely, and as he fumbled through his inventory, he pulled out a bundle of snacks.

"It's not much, but this is all I can give you. I just… wanted to say thank you."

Jhin gave a bitter smile and accepted the bag.

Refusing someone's genuine kindness wasn't polite.

Besides, it all looked pretty tasty.

Spicy shrimp chips, potato rings, soft chocolate cookies…

Where he'd found them was a mystery — but they were exactly the kinds of snacks Jhin liked.

And in this world, where every factory had shut down, they were practically impossible to find.

"Take care out there."

And so, with a generous gift in hand, Jhin disembarked at Gangnam Station.

What greeted him was a vast, open view.

Gangnam — with not a single building in sight.

Even after seeing it before, the scenery still felt completely unnatural.

Atlas , who had followed behind him, let out a quiet sigh.

"…This is astonishing."

Atlas had originally lived in a jungle environment, something like the Amazon.

He'd never seen a barren desert like this.

…Not that I have either.

Who would've imagined a place like this in the heart of New Capital?

Beyond the boundaries of Gangnam Station, it was an entirely different world.

Lutz, who was accompanying them as a guide for this operation, spoke with a heavy sigh.

"This is awful. Just two months ago, Gangnam Station was still intact…"

Jhin crouched down and scooped up a handful of sand.

The grains fell through his fingers like ash.

Not ordinary sand.

"Corrosion beetles."

"…You recognized them instantly."

Corrosion beetles.

Only level 40, just an E-rank dungeon monster.

But anything they touched would rot away — a bizarre and deadly trait.

Jhin furrowed his brow and looked around.

No buildings. No apartments. No cars. Nothing.

And of course.

The corrosion beetles consumed everything.

Still, to have had this much impact…

A breeze kicked up, and the gray sand scattered across the desolate land.

Unbelievable — but within that sand, there had once been buildings, culture… people.

All corroded. All erased.

Jhin brushed the dust from his hands.

"This could easily be classified as a Level 1 disaster zone."

"Yeah. Officially, this area's off-limits."

Level 1 disaster zone.

There were only three such places in New Capital — areas too dangerous to even enter.

And this… was exactly where Jhin had come.

Lutz looked at him with concern.

"I don't doubt your strength, Mr. Kang, but this is an undiscovered dungeon — we don't even know where the entrance is. This area's a Level 1 disaster zone. Are you sure about this?"

Jhin understood the concern.

Why else would this place have been sealed off?

There wasn't a single safe zone for players here.

It's wide open.

Everything had been corroded, and all that remained was gray sand.

Meanwhile, corrosion beetles moved underground — they could pop up anywhere.

Fighting here meant accepting a serious tactical disadvantage.

What? They're just level 40s — what's the big deal?

That would be an ignorant question.

This place broke open in a dungeon break two months ago.

If E-rank monsters had breached the outside, it was proof the dungeon had evolved to D-rank.

And two months later, who knew what level it had reached?

Still undiscovered to this day.

"The longer we wait, the worse it gets. One day, we'll regret not doing this now."

Dungeons were best cleared early.

Especially once they reached C-rank — the difficulty would spike exponentially.

If possible, stopping it while it was still D-rank was ideal.

"I understand, but still… if you were going to go for it, couldn't you have brought more players? Just the two of us—"

Jhin shrugged.

"Everyone's busy. The moon's going to fall in a month, remember?"

"This place is just as dangerous."

"It's fine, it's fine. You worry too much, Mr. Kim."

"…In any case, if things go south, I'll use teleportation to get you out. That's the only reason I'm here."

"Fair enough. Let's be careful."

Jhin nodded and stepped into the ash-colored dune.

Lutz followed, saying nothing more.

And then Jhin spoke.

"By the way — I think you're misunderstanding something."

"Yes?"

"I'll be clearing this dungeon solo."

The Moon Dungeon was looming just a month away — and its rank was unknown.

If it was falling from orbit like a meteor, it had to be at least near B-rank. Probably a minimum of C.

Which meant Jhin needed to level up — fast.

The Lizardman's Well had gone well, but that had been a rare stroke of luck.

Things wouldn't always work out that way.

If I'd been stronger, it could've gone differently.

If he'd taken down the Lizard King before the sigil quest had even started?

The winner would've been decided then and there.

No matter what the dungeon's scenario was, if your power exceeded it, you could skip everything.

And the Moon Dungeon has less than a month left.

Realistically, once the time to travel to the moon was subtracted, there would be even less time left to clear it.

In short — skipping parts of the Moon Dungeon would be critical.

Bellatris must've understood that too — which was why she had sent Jhin alone into the so-called "undiscovered dungeon" labeled as a Level 1 disaster zone.

"I'm not giving up any of the experience."

"…That's not exactly what I meant."

Jhin grinned mischievously and pushed ahead once more.

Undiscovered dungeon? Maybe.

But that concept didn't exactly apply to him.

['Kimmy' catches the scent of a 'royal feast' to the south and lights up with excitement.]

After all, he had a black dragon capable of picking up scents from hundreds of meters away.

"Let's move. Time is money."

And so, Jhin crossed the gray dunes, where countless lives had turned to ash.

Thwack! BOOM!

Though he'd said he'd clear the dungeon solo, that didn't mean he had to fight alone.

BOOOOM!

"Who do these filthy worms think they are, baring their teeth at me?! Such insolence!"

With a wild yell, the goblin Lykan swung his mighty club, flattening anything in his way.

Next to him, Rocket cleaved through corrosion beetles with his tail.

"So we just kill all of these things?"

And Atlas , smashing through the beetles barehanded, was calm as ever.

He had three Blanc at his side.

They're my strength now too. We'll be fighting together from here on, so we'd better learn to sync up.

After several battles, he discovered something unexpected: the Blanc leveled up independently through combat.

So their growth is separate from mine.

It would've been overpowered if their power scaled just by his level alone.

And besides, that would've probably caused their required experience to skyrocket — not something he wanted.

My level only affects their ceiling.

Aside from the initial stat sync when they first became Blanc, that was the only connection.

No free rides.

I'll have to put in the work, too.

It felt like raising a group of hungry hippos that siphoned off your experience, but Jhin shoved those thoughts aside as he plunged the Calamity Meteor Blade into a beetle bursting from the sand.

SKREEEEE!

A beetle, easily a meter long, spasmed before collapsing, dead.

His entire body was coated in magic, so there was no risk of his gear corroding.

This was the proper method to hunt these monsters — the reason other players struggled was simply because they didn't know how to use magic properly.

[Activating skill: 'Fireball (F)']

The next beetle that emerged got incinerated on the spot.

But the more it burned, the more the air reeked of iron and rust.

…Ugh.

He decided to shelve the fire magic for now.

"Anyway, it should be around here somewhere… where's the entrance?"

['Kimmy' is drooling at the sight of the 'royal feast' up ahead!]

But all he could see were ash-colored dunes and the occasional bursting beetle.

The Blanc, however, were quickly cutting their numbers down.

With this many beetles nearby, the dungeon entrance has to be close.

The "whack-a-mole" hunt didn't last much longer.

Eventually, the Blanc halted.

Atlas , looking slightly bored, brushed the bloody gore from his hands.

"Hardly worth the warm-up. Pathetic."

Fair enough.

He was once a level 200 elite NPC. He probably never imagined he'd be reduced to squashing level 40 bugs.

Jhin gave him a wry smile.

Just then, Lykan's eyes flared with indignation.

"I've said this before — your tone is excessively rude. How dare you speak to the king without honorifics?"

Thunk.

Atlas casually caught Lykan's club mid-swing, and their gazes clashed in the air.

They didn't say a word, but a strange, deep tension flowed between them — a resonance of souls.

Since both were bound to Jhin, their emotions were plain as day.

Atlas turned to Jhin.

"Do you prefer formal speech?"

"…Suit yourself. You became a Blanc by your own will. I'm not going to force you to use honorifics."

Atlas had always spoken informally to him, even before.

There was no reason to feel offended now.

"Hm… But the goblin has a point. You are my master, after all." 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Atlas nodded to himself, apparently reaching a conclusion.

"You must speak informally to me first."

"…What?"

"I can't have my master speaking formally to me forever. That would be improper. Let's begin there."

He said it with all the seriousness in the world.

Jhin nodded — reluctantly.

It wasn't that big of a deal. Whatever made things easier.

"Hmmm… But master, your footing seems unstable."

Jhin looked down.

At some point, the ground beneath him had begun to sink.

A vortex seemed to be forming beneath the gray sand.

From Rocket's back, Lutz shouted in alarm.

"I knew it! It's a pitfall trap — a literal antlion pit! Get out of there!"

The antlion trap — a natural pit dug in the sand to ensnare prey.

The ground around Jhin and the others crumbled, forming a deep hole in the center.

It was probably dangerous.

Lutz teleported beside Jhin and exclaimed,

"See? If I wasn't here, you'd be in trouble!"

He looked oddly proud of himself.

Jhin smirked bitterly and declined the outstretched hand.

Sorry, but he'd already noticed something moving beneath the surface a while ago.

With Soft skills, how could he not?

"More importantly, brace yourself."

"…What?"

"We're heading into the dungeon now."

If you can't find it above ground, then the location is obvious.

Without hesitation, Jhin grabbed Lutz — and dove straight into the center of the antlion pit.