After that, Song Cheonhye and Hong Yeonhwa kept sniping at each other and continued climbing to the third floor, trading the lead back and forth.

The overall layout was similar to before.

A carrot machine at each end.

A cord of light connecting the two.

And just like before, they had to be destroyed at the same time.

The difference was that the number of rabbits had dropped sharply.

Instead, all kinds of magic engineering devices filled the space, as if they had been prepared while the fighting below was going on.

The moment the two of them appeared, a rabbit that seemed to be some kind of foreman shouted,

“Start!”

— WHOOOOOM—!

At once, magic engineering devices all around the area activated, mana gathered everywhere, and walls, pillars, and traps were formed.

The carrot machines too were wrapped in layers of mana walls.

It was essentially a fortress and a maze rolled into one.

In a normal case, anyone would have been at least a little overwhelmed by the sight in front of them, or fallen into thought over how to break through it.

But Song Cheonhye and Hong Yeonhwa only exchanged a quick glance and immediately stepped into the magic engineering maze.

Right now, there was only one thing that mattered to them.

I have to get there first.

I’m beating them again this time.

Of course, they hadn’t gone in blindly.

Through the walkthrough, they had already identified the locations of every trap and even mapped out their routes.

— BZZZZZZZT—

Pulling electric current into both hands, Song Cheonhye kicked off the ground.

She sprinted fast down the passage, snapping sharply through turn after turn.

— SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH!

She must have triggered a trap, because mana arrows came shooting in from the side, but she blocked them easily with a barrier she had already deployed.

Then she checked the path ahead and found a magic engineering device there, along with a thick mana wall it had created.

Rather than changing direction, Song Cheonhye chose to go straight through.

— KRA-KRA-RUMBLE!

She smashed through the mana wall with her entire body.

Keeping her speed up, Song Cheonhye tore through the maze.

At the same time, she checked Hong Yeonhwa’s side out of the corner of her eye.

...I’m faster!

And by quite a bit too.

Well, naturally she had the advantage in anything that demanded physical ability.

Her opponent had switched over long ago to more of an artillery-type mage path, while she herself had stuck to being an all-rounder mage.

“......”

Hong Yeonhwa seemed to have noticed too that they were falling slightly behind.

Apparently they had been secretly peeking over here just as often.

Even so, they didn’t look flustered at all.

The reason became clear a moment later.

They suddenly stopped in place and focused—

— WHOOSH,

Then moved near the carrot machine in a single jump.

Song Cheonhye’s eyes widened dramatically.

★Blink★!

Before winter break, Hong Yeonhwa had only been able to move about one step with it, but now their proficiency had improved tremendously.

Song Cheonhye started to use ★Blink★ too, then stopped herself.

...I have to hold back right now.

She had improved steadily through practice as well, but looking at it objectively, she was still nowhere near Hong Yeonhwa’s level.

Her casting time was much longer, while her movement distance was less than half.

If I use it, I’ll get compared for sure.

And it would all be preserved exactly in the replay.

The reason they were challenging this dungeon with such a small group, under time-attack conditions, was to prove they were superior to the other top-ranked students.

But if the two of them used ★Blink★ one after the other, there was a high risk the focus would shift to that instead.

Naturally, Hong Yeonhwa would end up taking all the spotlight.

For Song Cheonhye, that meant going through hell only to come out at a huge loss.

More than anything, she hated that there would be recorded evidence left behind.

Absolutely not!

She made up her mind.

She would seal away ★Blink★ for this entire dungeon clear.

Instead, she would just carve through the magic engineering maze even more desperately.

Lightning crashed without pause and blasted open the path ahead.

— KRA-KRA-RUMBLE, CRACK-CRACK-CRACK—!

Meanwhile, Hong Yeonhwa looked so relaxed they were almost bored.

With fire lit at the tip of their staff, they brought it up to the carrot machine, then pulled it away again.

And while muttering to the empty air, they said,

“Kim Ho’s doing fine, right? There’s too much time left, so I keep getting distracted~”

“......!”

Song Cheonhye’s body trembled with rage.

And with movements that turned even more vicious, she smashed through the magic engineering devices and traps.

— KRA-KRA-RUMBLE!

Not long after that, Song Cheonhye also reached her carrot machine, and after the two exchanged a glance as a signal, they attacked at the same time.

— CRACK-CRACK-CRACK—!

And the moment they confirmed that both machines had been destroyed, they ran for the stairs.

The fourth floor is the last one.

The moment the carrot machines there were destroyed too, every function of the [Rabbit Center] would be paralyzed.

Even the Combined Tosik Robot, which had been all but invincible, would become killable.

He’s probably on his way up by now too.

Probably pretending to run while baiting the Combined Tosik Robot after him.

If they wanted to shorten the clear time, it was more efficient to go straight from the fourth floor into the boss fight than to go back down from the fourth floor to the first.

So for Song Cheonhye and Hong Yeonhwa, they needed to destroy the carrot machines and clean out any other interfering elements before the final battle began.

Not only that, the fourth floor was also the last deciding battleground.

The two of them exchanged competitive looks yet again.

I have to make up for it this time.

I’m winning again this time!

*****

— BZZT, BZZT,

The lights throughout the building flickered unstably.

Because in the end, even the carrot machines on the fourth floor had been destroyed.

For reference, this time Song Cheonhye had pulled slightly ahead.

Kim Ho and the Combined Tosik Robot showed up just as the fourth floor was being cleared, and what followed was a boss fight that didn’t feel like a boss fight at all.

The Rabbit Center’s support had been cut off, so it ended before there was even time to drink a glass of water.

The rabbits, meanwhile, had been reduced to prisoners of war.

After lining them all up in a row, Kim Ho spoke in the tone of a kindergarten teacher.

“All right, repeat after me.”

“......”

“We are all friends.”

“......”

The rabbits kept their mouths tightly shut, their expressions like they had bitten into bugs.

At that, Kim Ho sent a sidelong glance.

Hong Yeonhwa immediately raised a threatening blaze.

— FWOOOOSH, 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

In the end, the rabbits gave up their pride in the face of violence and, with voices that shrank into themselves, muttered,

“...We are all... friends.”

“Friends also call each other by nicknames.”

“Friends... also... use nicknames.”

“From today on, we are all Tosik.”

“......”

Apparently that was the one line they absolutely couldn’t bring themselves to say, because the rabbits only moved their lips soundlessly.

Then Hong Yeonhwa, without even being asked, created several fireballs and started juggling them.

— FWOOOOSH, FWOOOSH,

Then, whether by accident or on purpose, they dropped one.

The rabbit in the lab coat was engulfed in flames.

— BOOM!

“SKREEEEEE—!”

It flailed and rolled across the floor and the fire went out quickly enough, but as an example, it was more than effective.

The rabbits fell into terror and each blurted something out.

“I-I’ll sign!”

“I, we are all Tosik from today on!”

“Damn human bastard, call us whatever you want!”

Kim Ho looked deeply satisfied.

He praised Hong Yeonhwa with his eyes, then turned and spoke kindly to the rabbits too.

“Good. Tosik, if we meet again, do me a favor and take good care of us.”

“.......”

Leaving behind what was probably some kind of curse, the rabbits turned their backs.

— RUMBLE-RUMBLE......

Soon, a vibration that had begun somewhere grew larger and larger, and a teleportation portal appeared.

Since they had succeeded in destroying the Rabbit Center and subduing the Tosik brothers, the exit had opened.

In front of it were several small boxes.

[Rabbit Center Random Box(D+)]*4

The dungeon itself had only been D-rank, but it looked like there was some kind of bonus because it was for six people and they had cleared it with the highest completion rate.

Kim Ho picked them up and looked back and forth between Song Cheonhye and Hong Yeonhwa.

“You both worked hard. Want to split them up and open them later? Or should we all crack the boxes together?”

“......!”

“......!”

Both of them practically had exclamation marks over their heads at that.

They exchanged competitive glances once more, then answered at the same time.

“Let’s open them together.”

“I’m doing the box opening here.”

The match still wasn’t over.

*****

After Kim Ho’s party returned to the surface level, they headed for the campus shop.

Then they each bought a cup of coffee and took seats on the second-floor terrace.

Some small talk went back and forth for a while.

Then Kim Ho set the random boxes down in the middle of the table.

“Who wants to open one first?”

“......”

“......”

The two only watched each other in silence.

Then Hong Yeonhwa took a small breath and reached out.

“I’ll go first.”

Since it was a contest based entirely on luck, order was meaningless.

If that was the case, then no matter what result came out, the best option was probably to get it over with fast.

Hong Yeonhwa soon picked up one random box and brought it in front of them.

Then as they lifted the lid, they made two wishes.

Please let it be good! Or if not, then please let theirs be worse!

— WHOOOM—!

The moment the light burst out, Hong Yeonhwa’s face brightened too.

With an effect this big, at least it probably wasn’t a dud.

Soon the light faded, and what was left where the random box had been was—

[Carrot Cake(D)]

▷Increases recovery speed for stamina and mana.

▷Provides a slight bonus to skill/trait correction.

▷The fresher it is, the better it tastes.

“......”

Hong Yeonhwa’s expression drooped again.

Because the item they had pulled was slightly lower rank than the random box itself.

On top of that, consumable items generally had less value than equipment or materials.

In contrast, Song Cheonhye’s expression had relaxed noticeably.

All I need is to pull a D+. Or even just a D if it’s equipment.

Her luck usually wasn’t that bad, so at the very least, breaking even should be possible.

Soon Song Cheonhye pulled a random box in front of herself just like Hong Yeonhwa had.

She tried to look confident, but the instant she opened the box, she squeezed her eyes shut.

— WHOOOM—!

[Carrot Cake(D)]

“......”

“......”

Everyone was left speechless.

No one had expected them to pull the exact same item.

Kim Ho looked over the item description again, then said,

“Should we just eat them first?”

Between the recovery effect and even a slight boost for rank grinding, it wasn’t a bad deal.

And it also seemed like the description was subtly emphasizing that it should be eaten while fresh.

Soon the three of them began dismantling the carrot cakes with forks they had borrowed from the shop.

Song Cheonhye took a bite and thought,

...It does taste good.

But now what were they supposed to do?

Take turns opening one more each?

When she glanced sideways, Hong Yeonhwa seemed to be wrestling with the exact same question.

But is it really right to open another one?

What if they each pulled another carrot cake again?

At that point, it would make sense to yield the remaining random boxes, ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) but then the match would fizzle out awkwardly, which felt unsatisfying too.

Just as the two of them were getting nowhere with the dilemma—

Kim Ho suddenly looked out beyond the terrace, waved his hand, and called out,

“Lucky Charm, over here!”

And sure enough, Seo Ye-in was walking toward them at her usual slow pace.

Apparently he had sent her a message right after the clear.

“......!”

“......!”

Alarm rose on Song Cheonhye’s and Hong Yeonhwa’s faces.

At the very end, an unexpected powerhouse had entered the field.