The instant he entered the White Dome.

Walfred’s entire field of vision was dyed white.

As if a whiteout had set in. Then all sense of direction vanished, and a space that was pure white in every direction spread out before his eyes.

And then.

"Ugh!"

Soon an immense chill wrapped around his body.

Cold that seeped all the way into his bones.

The skin exposed to the open air in particular, like the backs of his hands and the nape of his neck, hurt as if it might tear apart at any second.

’Wh-what is this? Why is it so cold?’

Walfred was visibly flustered.

The passive skill [Cold Resistance]. And he was wearing thick winter gear on top of that, yet the cold was this bad.

He’d been perfectly fine even in the bitter cold of seventy-six below zero, but the inside of the White Dome was on another level entirely. Just as he was shivering all over from the sudden cold.

His vision abruptly opened up.

"...!"

Soon after, Walfred’s eyes widened.

Because the scenery inside the White Dome, revealed as his vision brightened, was an ice hell itself.

A fiercely raging blizzard.

Ground and countless buildings perfectly buried under solid ice. And rising above it all, ice mountains and ice canyons of grotesque shapes.

’What on earth happened here...’

The inside of the White Dome was no longer the New York scenery he’d known. It called to mind a world of another dimension, the inside of a gate itself.

Just then, his vision flashed red.

It was the precursor to a warning message.

Ding!

[Warning! You have entered a danger zone.]

[Warning! You have entered a danger zone.]

[Region: Nest of the Frost Dragon]

[Rank: SS]

The instant he saw the message that followed.

His eyes widened.

"...A Frost Dragon?"

Walfred muttered blankly.

Entities whose names contained the word "dragon" or its older form were called "Boss Monsters," signifying a rank far higher even than Elite Monsters.

Boss Monsters existed from B-rank up, and dragons were the S-rank Boss Monsters among them. Beasts that stood at the very pinnacle of monsters.

’And the fact that the region rank is SS...’

It was safe to assume there was a Boss Monster somewhere in the White Dome on the level of an SS-rank at most.

If that was the case, this was a level where, even gathering every S-rank hunter the New America Republic had possessed before the ice age, victory couldn’t be guaranteed.

To set foot in a hell like that.

Walfred felt a chill run down his spine.

And in that very moment.

[The Frost Dragon’s wrath threatens you.]

[Your body shrinks before its wrath.]

[You fall into a ’Weakened’ state.]

Wooooong!

Along with a thin pulse felt all at once, a formless pressure bore down on Walfred’s entire body.

’I-I can’t breathe!’

A feeling like his lungs had shriveled up entirely.

It felt as if gravity had grown several times stronger than before. Sure that he’d lose consciousness if he let his guard down, Walfred bit down hard on his lip.

In the meantime, a new message appeared.

-----

[Frost Dragon’s Wrath] effect

[All action speed: -90%]

[All mana recovery: -90%]

[All stamina recovery: -90%]

[All physical defense: -90%]

▶The above effects persist until you leave the [Forbidden Zone: Nest of the Frost Dragon].

-----

"Ha..."

The instant he saw it.

A hollow laugh escaped him before he knew it.

Speed, recovery, and even defense reduced by ninety percent. It was practically telling him not to fight.

Whoooosh! Flap!

Meanwhile, the Bone Drake flew even higher, as if Walfred’s feelings were of no concern whatsoever. The higher the altitude climbed, the lower the temperature dropped.

And as a result.

[Warning! The temperature is plummeting.]

[Current temperature: -152°F]

A bitter cold like nothing he’d ever experienced set in.

It was only thanks to the Cold Resistance skill that he was fine; without it, he’d have frozen to death long ago.

’Even so, this is way too cold!’

Just as he was shivering all over again.

Familiar terrain came into view below his feet.

Silicon Alley Station, its subway exits and the nearby buildings all frozen over.

The Bone Drake was currently heading south from Silicon Alley Station. Which meant the direction the beast was heading now was...

’Tech Row Station.’

Where the White Dome had begun.

Walfred lifted his head and looked toward Tech Row Station. By rights there should have been an ordinary train station there, but the scenery of Tech Row Station now was completely different from what he remembered.

’Wait, what is that?’

In the place where Tech Row Station had been, a massive, jagged ice mountain rose up. A mountain of ice that thrust upward far higher than a skyscraper, as if to pierce the heavens.

It was probably terrain that had formed as the White Dome expanded. It was scenery he hadn’t seen back when the White Dome had been around a half-mile radius.

Whoosh! Whoooosh!

In the meantime, the Bone Drake arrived above the ice mountain before long. And at the mountain’s summit, a massive hole was bored open like a crater.

An abyss with no telling where it ended.

The beast circled lightly above the hole that gaped with its black mouth. At the same time, the grip of the talons clutching Walfred loosened.

"...Huh?"

Hold on. Don’t tell me. No, surely not?

At the ominous premonition that suddenly welled up, Walfred looked at the Bone Drake. In response, the Bone Drake spread its talons wide open, as if mocking him.

"You son of a...!"

Why is it that ominous premonitions are never wrong?

Spitting out a furious curse, Walfred felt his body float up into the air. Then his body began to plummet at a terrifying speed.

Whoosh! Krrrashhh!

He looked down at the hole below.

A depth with no bottom in sight.

If he fell like this without any kind of preparation, he’d be reduced to pulp, so badly that they wouldn’t even find his corpse.

Walfred righted his posture in midair.

And then.

"Frozen Weapon!"

He created ice spears in both hands.

Meanwhile, Walfred’s body entered the interior of the ice mountain’s hole. He desperately drew close to the side of the hole and thrust an ice spear at the ice wall.

Skreeek! Klang!

The ice spear was bounced off in an instant.

The damnably hard ice wall didn’t allow the ice spear’s attack to land. But Walfred didn’t give up and kept thrusting the spear at the ice wall.

’Please, just break through!’

Just as he was straining with all his might, teeth clenched.

[Cold Emission] activated at just the right moment. The ice spear began to give off a blue light, and with the follow-up attack he was finally able to pierce the ice wall.

Bang! Skreeeeek!

The spear blade scraped against the ice wall, and countless ice fragments came showering down. The impact was like his arm being torn off, but Walfred held on desperately.

Eventually, after sliding down well over a hundred feet, his rate of descent finally slowed.

"Hah! Haah!"

He’d finally stopped.

Walfred caught his ragged breath and carefully clung to the ice wall. And when he looked below his feet, it was still so deep that the bottom was impossible to gauge.

This time he looked up.

He saw the Bone Drake leisurely circling above the ice mountain. From the looks of it, the beast had no intention of coming down into the hole.

’What on earth is its goal?’

Did it deliberately keep me alive and bring me here just to drop me into this place?

What in the world was down at the bottom of this hole?

Many questions swirled through his mind.

But only for a moment. Walfred set the questions aside and surveyed his surroundings. He couldn’t keep clinging here forever.