The tunnel narrowed ahead, and Do-Hyun sprinted straight into it.

  Red emergency lights pulsed overhead, throwing fractured shadows across the tiled walls. The air was a suffocating cold, so sharp it felt like inhaling powdered.

  Skitter. skitter. skitter.

  The sound of hundreds of hooked legs on concrete amplified through the darkness. Frost-Web Spiders poured from the maintenance shafts above the tracks like a pale, segmented waterfall.

  "Five," Do-Hyun counted in a breath. "Ten. Fifteen."

  They were the size of large dogs, their pale blue bodies coated in a thick layer of frost. Mandibles snapped in the gloom, dripping a liquid nitrogen venom that crystallized before it even hit the floor.

  He didn't break stride.

  The first spider lunged from the tunnel wall, aiming to decapitate him. Do-Hyun ducked under the arc of its body, twisting his torso. The Headsman's Edge flashed. He dragged the blade across the spider's underbelly, ripping it open from thorax to spinneret.

  Black ichor exploded outward, hitting his white dress shirt and instantly turned to dry, freezing dust.

  Two more spiders landed in front of him, cutting off the tracks.

  Shadow Step.

  He dissolved into the darkness of the tunnel, reappearing instantly behind them. A boot slammed into the back joint of one spider, snapping its leg, while the dagger punched straight through the skull of the other.

  But there were too many.

  A spider on the ceiling spat a wad of Cryo-Web.

  Do-Hyun leaped backward, but the edge of the sticky, translucent net grazed the shoulder of his tuxedo jacket.

  Instantly, the fabric froze solid. The cold bit through the Italian wool and shirt and seized the muscle underneath. His left arm went entirely numb for a terrifying second. He had to forcibly shatter the frozen fabric with his right hand, tearing off the sleeve just to keep his arm moving.

  "Annoying," he muttered, shaking the frost from his skin.

  He was surrounded: They were forming a circle, their eight-eyed clusters glowing with malevolent hunger.

  He couldn't fight twenty of them with just a dagger and physical agility. It was time to remember what he used to be. Since he'd regressed, the System slapped him with the title [Shadow Monarch (Sealed)], which was merely a fragmented fraction of his former strength. He was trapped in this starving, weak mortal vessel, unable to withstand his divine essences as he had in his past life. They collapsed into a single, terrifying baseline: the Void.

  With a smooth motion, he sheathed the dagger.

  His right hand rose, index and middle fingers pressed together, pointing at the cluster of five spiders blocking the path ahead.

  He reached into the concept of the space between his hand and the monsters, grabbed the invisible fabric of distance, and simply… pulled.

  [Skill Activated: Dimensional Sever (Prototype)]

  Nothing flashy or noisy happened.

  A jagged, invisible line appeared in the air, causing the five spiders in front of him to suddenly fall apart: Their heads tumbled to the tracks; their legs sheared off; their thoraxes split perfectly down the middle. The cuts were microscopically clean, smoother than any blade could achieve. It looked like they had simply been separated from themselves.

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  Do-Hyun lowered his hand, a cold smile touching his lips. Then, his knees buckled.

  A violent, agonizing shudder ripped through his body. it was the absolute absence of heat. His breath stopped forming plumes in the air; there was no moisture left in his lungs.

  [System Warning: Severe Calorie Deficit!]

  [Skill: 'Dimensional Sever' consumed 4,500 kcal of thermal energy.]

  [Host Internal Temperature: 34.1°C (Hypothermia Imminent).]

  [Did you think playing God was free, Host? You are an empty cup. You just poured out half your heat to kill some bugs. Eat something, or I will start digesting your organs to keep the brain alive.]

  "Shut up," Do-Hyun hissed through chattering teeth.

  The System wasn't lying. His Void attribute wasn't just some random element; it is the concept of emptiness itself. To manifest the Void in the physical world, he had to pay the universe back in energy. And right now, the only energy he had was his own body heat.

  The remaining spiders clicked their mandibles, sensing his sudden weakness. They began to close in.

  Do-Hyun forced himself upright, his muscles aching. He dragged himself to the nearest severed spider. Without hesitation, he plunged his bare hand into the freezing, black mush of its abdomen and ripped out a small, pale-blue crystal. An E-Rank Monster Core.

  It was covered in toxic, freezing blood, but he didn't care.

  He threw his head back and crushed the core between his teeth.

  It tasted like battery acid and liquid nitrogen. The raw mana exploded down his throat, burning his esophagus, but as it hit his stomach, the System immediately converted the raw magic into thermal energy.

  [System Notification: Raw Core Consumed. (+150 kcal)]

  [Internal Temperature Stabilizing: 35.0°C.]

  [Disgusting dining etiquette. But at least you're not dead. Now finish your meal, the main course is waiting.]

  The warmth rushed back into his limbs, bringing a surge of adrenaline with it. The trembling stopped. The violet light in his eyes flared back to life, brighter and more vicious than before.

  He drew the Headsman's Edge again.

  "I need more," Do-Hyun whispered, looking at the remaining spiders.

  If the price hadn't been so costly, he would have one-shot them all. So, he relied purely on Shadow Step and his blade. Moving like a ghost, he appeared and disappeared in the red strobe lights, systematically butchering the swarm. He ripped the core from every single one, swallowing them whole, feeding the bottomless pit inside him.

  By the time the last spider dissolved into gray ash, Do-Hyun's tuxedo was ruined beyond repair: The jacket was missing a sleeve, his white shirt was stained with black ichor and dirt, and his silk bowtie had frozen and snapped off entirely.

  [Vitality: 19.2% (Recovering)]

  [Level Up!]

  [Level: 4]

  [System Analysis: Host's past authorities (Time, Space, Shadow) are forcibly adapting to survive in the current vessel.]

  [Class status 'Shadow Monarch (Sealed)' is mutating.]

  [Hidden Class Evolution Path Unlocked: Void Sovereign (Incomplete).]

  Spitting a mouthful of black blood onto the tracks, he felt some improvement in condition. But the hunger was still there, a dull ache beneath his ribs.

  He walked deeper into the tunnel.

  The air grew even colder, and walls were no longer visible, completely plastered in thick, white Frost-Webs.

  Cocoons hung from the ceiling. Dozens of them.

  Do-Hyun stepped closer to one and wiped the frost from the translucent silk. Inside was a face. A businessman, mouth open in a silent scream, his skin perfectly preserved in a state of eternal freeze.

  The subway passengers, hadn't escaped the "gas leak"?

  The tunnel opened up into a massive, cavernous space where the tracks intersected. The ceiling had been hollowed out, forming a frozen cathedral of webbing.

  At the center of the web sat the Broodmother.

  She was the size of a city bus and looked different compared to the others.

  Do-Hyun's eyes narrowed. The Broodmother had woven the frozen corpses of the subway commuters into her own exoskeleton. Arms, legs, and frozen, screaming faces acted as a grotesque, ablative armor plating over her pale blue thorax.

  She lowered her massive head, her eight eyes locking onto the tiny, ruined figure in the tuxedo.

  HIIISSSSSSSSS!

  The sound was a hurricane of icy wind, rattling the frozen corpses she wore.

  [Boss Encounter: The Frost-Web Broodmother (Rank D+)]

  [Look at all that meat she's wearing, Host. Are you going to let her hoard all the calories? Time to earn your keep.]

  Do-Hyun spun his dagger, breath pluming in the freezing air.

  "Let's see who eats who."