I PICKED UP A CHILD IN A DUMPSTER-Chapter 88: Something mysterious ahead.

He dismissed the chat with a tired wave of his hand and started walking.

Minutes passed.

Or maybe longer.

In a place like this, time felt strange.

Si Hon just kept moving forward through the endless tunnels, the weak torchlight casting long shadows across the uneven cave walls. The stream windows floated above him like annoying ghosts, chatting endlessly among themselves, but he ignored them completely.

Right now his focus was simple.

Walk.

Don’t make noise.

Stay alive.

After a while he rubbed his eyes tiredly.

"I just realized something..." he muttered under his breath. "I haven’t slept."

He paused briefly to think.

"For how long exactly?"

No answer came.

Even the chat didn’t bother responding this time.

Eventually the tunnel ahead curved again, forming another corner deeper into the cave system.

Si Hon stupid ass spotted it immediately.

A corner meant a new path.

A new path might mean an exit.

Without thinking too much about it, he quickened his pace and started jogging toward it.

The torchlight bounced wildly as he moved faster.

Closer.

Closer.

Just a few more steps.

And then—

A massive black shape casually stepped out from around the corner at the exact same moment.

Neither of them had time to react.

THUMP.

Si Hon slammed straight into it.

The impact sent him crashing backward onto the rocky ground, the torch nearly flew out of his hand as he hit the floor hard.

For a brief second everything went quiet.

The creature looked down.

Si Hon looked up.

The Munch stared at him with dull, glowing eyes.

Si Hon stared back.

There was a long, awkward pause.

Then Si Hon spoke.

"...Fuck."

For one horrible second, neither of them moved.

Then the stream chat exploded.

「BRO RUN」

「WHY ARE YOU STILL THERE BROOOOCHACHO!!!!」

「ITS WINDING UP」

「ITS ABOUT TO SWING」

And of course... he was still sitting on the cave floor. Then the Munches leaned closer.

Up close, the creature looked even worse than before— its dark, stretched skin clinging tightly to its long limbs, its glowing eyes staring down at him with dull curiosity.

(Wait... this isn’t the guy at the entrance.) Si Hon thought.

After that... they just stared at each other.

Si Hon blinked.

The Munches blinked back.

Then the stream chat above him erupted once again.

「BRO MOVE!!!」

「FUCKASS!!!! MOVE!!!!」

「ITS ABOUT TO ATTACK I SWEAR!」

「SI HON GET UP」

His survival instincts finally kicked in.

"NOPE."

Si Hon pushed himself up from the ground in a hurry, scrambling to his feet while clutching the femur bone tightly in his hand. The moment he stood upright, he didn’t even think— he just swung.

TWACK!

The femur bone smacked directly against the Munches forehead with a loud, hollow sound.

The impact echoed slightly through the tunnel.

Both of them froze.

The Munches head tilted a little to the side.

Si Hon slowly lowered the bone.

The Munches blinked.

And of course... Si Hon blinked.

"Did that do anything?"

The chat immediately exploded.

「YOU JUST BONKED IT」

「BRO HIT HIM WITH HIS CELLMATE SKELETON FEMUR BONE, KEWK!」

「CRITICAL DAMAGE: 0」

「THAT WAS EMOTIONAL DAMAGE ONLY」

For a brief moment, the Munches simply stood there like its brain was trying to process what had just happened.

Then its mouth slowly opened.

Si Hon’s eyes widened.

"Oh no."

The creature screamed.

The sound exploded through the cave like a siren.

The chat windows multiplied instantly.

「YOU AGGROED IT」

「YOU AGGROED THE WHOLE FAMILY」

「WHY WOULD YOU BONK A MONSTER」

"IT WAS INSTINCT!" Si Hon yelled as he turned and bolted down the tunnel.

Behind him, the Munch screamed again— louder this time.

The torchlight bounced wildly as he sprinted down the tunnel, his footsteps slapping against the damp stone floor.

And behind him... More screams answered.

One.

Two.

Then many.

The sound of claws scraping across stone began flooding the cave again.

The chat windows multiplied above him.

「KEWK, PLEASE DONT DIE Si Hon. Lolol」

「Hmm... this is getting interisting....」

「the guy above me is bad at spelling.」

A rainbow window appeared in front of Si Hon face.

「Acardthatwasmaxxedoutwithcash has sent a Super Chat:

Woah!!! I finally got money once again~ and... woah Si Hon... that’s... a lot.」

Si Hon didn’t even look up.

"FUCK!!!! GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY FACE!!!!!"

He shouted at the floating messages while sprinting through the cave like his life depended on it— because of course! it absolutely did again.

The torch in his left hand bounced wildly with every step, throwing chaotic shadows across the jagged stone walls as he ran.

He rounded a corner at full speed, nearly slipping when the tunnel suddenly sloped downward.

His boots scraped across the damp rock.

His lungs burned.

His legs screamed.

And somewhere behind him—

The Munches were getting louder.

Their footsteps echoed through the tunnels like a growing storm, claws scraping against stone as their distorted voices hissed and howled.

The chat above him continued exploding with messages.

Then one window suddenly flashed with sparkling glitters... then it turned red...

「WAIT」

Another appeared.

「WAIT WAIT」

Then several more stacked on top of each other.

「STOP RUNNING FOR A SECOND」

Si Hon didn’t even slow down, or more like he didn’t even thing about slowing down.

"NOT HAPPENING."

Another message popped up.

「THERES SOMETHING AHEAD」

That finally made him slowed down a bit.

"...What?"

As Si Hon slowed his pace, the flickering torchlight stretched farther down the tunnel ahead.

At first it looked like nothing more than another uneven cave wall, but then the shadows shifted— and something about the surface felt... wrong.

The rock there wasn’t natural.

It was carved.

A doorway slowly revealed itself in the wavering light.

Not a rough cave opening, but an actual entrance built into the stone. Its frame was rectangular, cut cleanly into the rock as if someone had deliberately constructed it long ago.

The edges were chipped and worn with age, thin cracks spreading across the surface like spiderwebs. And most unsettling of all—

The door itself stood slightly open.