Soon, we arrived at our original destination: the arcade.
As we stepped into the student-only section, we saw arcade machines lined up in pairs or groups of four.
On the screens, adventurers were shown navigating maze-like dungeons.
<Labyrinth of Choice>
Dang Gyu-young and Jegal So-so looked visibly nostalgic.
“This is the one we played back in first year.”
“We got competitive and kept playing nonstop.”
“We spent a ton of tokens, didn’t we?”
“Pretty sure we scored over ten thousand points.”
In contrast, Seo Ye-in was seeing the game for the first time. With curiosity filling her eyes, she stared at the screen and asked,
“What kind of game is it?”
“It’s your classic dungeon-crawling game.”
A four-player party works its way through a maze, overcoming various obstacles along the way.
The ultimate goal is to defeat the boss monster lurking in the deepest part of the dungeon and claim the treasure.
“Just like the title says, you get choices too.”
Whenever an event occurs, the party members have to discuss and decide how to respond.
For instance, if a treasure chest is sitting alone in the middle of a hallway, the following choices might appear:
1. Open the chest.
2. Smash the chest.
3. Ignore the chest.
4. Go back the way you came.
Depending on the choice, players might earn a big reward or suffer a major loss.
Sometimes, even the “right” choice can lead to a bad outcome due to chance.
Seo Ye-in gave a small nod, indicating she understood.
Next, we turned to the prize display.
At the very top sat a book marked with a question mark.
[Mystery Book]
“Looks like no one’s claimed it yet.”
This was both good news and bad news.
It meant the conditions to obtain it were that much more difficult.
▷Acquisition Condition 1: Watch the ending credits of <Labyrinth of Choice>
▷Acquisition Condition 2: Use 15 or fewer party tokens
Dang Gyu-young furrowed her brow slightly.
“Fifteen’s not gonna be easy.”
The cost itself wasn’t much of an issue.
At 300 points per token, the total comes to just about 4,500.
That’s nothing for club presidents or vice presidents and even for us, it’s manageable.
The real problem was the token limit.
You spend four just to start, which means you can only “continue” a maximum of 11 times.
All kinds of stuff happen mid-game. Can we really reach the ending with just that?
Of course, the answer to that question had already been decided.
In an unbearably smug tone, I asked Seo Ye-in:
“Tell me. Who am I?”
“A player.”
“Not that one.”
“Blink Pillow.”
“You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?”
“……The Mini-Game Demon King.”
“Exactly.”
Hearing our exchange, Dang Gyu-young’s eyes lit up.
“Is our legendary senior pulling out the cheat codes again~?”
“Let’s call it ‘experience and know-how’, please.”
“So basically, all we have to do is follow your lead?”
“Then we should have a good shot at it.”
We had a solid party setup.
The two noonas, although they had burned through a ton of tokens before, had cleared the game.
Seo Ye-in might be new, but she picks things up insanely fast.
And the controls in “Labyrinth of Choice” were similar to the ones in our last mini-game, “Weapon Master”, so her learning curve would be even faster.
Still, I couldn’t claim a 100% success rate because randomness plays a role in certain parts of the game.
My luck isn’t exactly great, and Seo Ye-in was still in her “unlucky sloth” mode.
Worst case, we could rely on tokens. But that too had its limits.
So I casually put in a request.
“Please go easy on us. I really want that prize.”
“I’ll try my best.”
Soon, we settled into our seats at the four-player machine.
As each of us inserted a token into our respective arcade consoles, the character selection screen appeared.
[Please select a class.]
▷Warrior – Barbarian / Knight
▷Rogue – Dagger / Crossbow
▷Priest – Holy / Support
My usual class Mage was completely missing from the list.
Likewise, Dang Gyu-young’s Rogue and Jegal So-so’s Warrior must’ve been excluded as well.
Classic arcade manipulation.
They deliberately exclude your main class so that you’re forced to play something unfamiliar, making it more likely you’ll die and, in turn, burn through more tokens.
At least it’s not randomized. That’s the bare minimum of decency.
If they’d assigned classes randomly like in Weapon Master, we could’ve ended up with something ridiculous. Like three priests in a four-player party.
That would basically mean a guaranteed 1,200 points down the drain.
Could future-hero candidates really tolerate such an underhanded gimmick?
So this part, at least, allowed for some coordination among teammates.
While the others took a moment to consider their options, Seo Ye-in immediately selected the Elemental Mage.
It caught me a bit off guard, so I casually asked,
“That’s unexpected. Didn’t you say Barbarian was fun before?”
“Today, I’m a Mage.”
“May I ask why?”
“…Just feels magey.”
As always, she seemed to be going with her gut.
Honestly, it didn’t matter what she chose. None of us were using our main classes anyway, so trusting instinct was probably best.
Dang Gyu-young must’ve had a similar thought.
“I’ll go Warrior.”
A Knight clad in heavy armor and wielding a shield appeared on her screen.
Her nickname: [TanQyu].
“Then I’ll be the Priest?”
Jegal So-so smiled softly as she chose Priest – Support.
Her nickname: [HolySho].
Seeing that, I commented,
“Even your nicknames are kind of matching.”
“Well, we are best friends.”
“At this point, I have no choice but to go with the flow.”
Soon, a slender male character wielding a crossbow appeared on my screen.
My nickname: [CrossHo].
The two noonas stifled a chuckle.
Meanwhile, I peeked at what nickname Seo Ye-in had given her character.
[Blink]
“……”
“……”
If it were a normal day, we would’ve scolded her with something like, “You should’ve gone with MagicSloth for times like this!”
But for now, Dang Gyu-young and I could only give her a sympathetic look.
She must’ve really wanted to use it, even if just in a mini-game.
Maybe I’ll tease her a little less from now on.
Not that I’m planning to stop teasing altogether.
Anyway, since it looked like we were all set, I glanced around at the party to confirm.
“Shall we get started?”
“Let’s go.”
Seo Ye-in’s eyes sparkled with anticipation.
Soon, all our screens faded to black, and the sound of drums began to echo.
Doo-doong!
Then, a soft prelude began to play, accompanied by narration.
[Once again, four fools who know no fear for their lives step into the labyrinth.]
[Will they succeed in claiming the treasure this time?]
[Or will they meet the same fate as the other fools before them?]
The black screen gradually brightened to reveal a corridor resembling an old medieval castle.
At the bottom of the screen, each party member’s stats appeared.
[CrossHo HP 5/5 MP 5/5]
[TanQyu HP 6/6 MP 4/4]
[HolySho HP 4/4 MP 6/6]
[Blink HP 3/3 MP 7/7]
HP decreases when you take damage, whether from enemy attacks or from hostile environments.
Naturally, if it hits zero, you die.
MP is used for skills or any special actions.
For example, my character CrossHo can spend 1 MP to use [Triple Shot] or [Power Strike].
There are also other detailed stats, but they aren’t directly shown.
One of the less user-friendly aspects of the mini-game, I guess.
In any case, we’d gotten a good grasp of the basics, so we began to slowly make our way down the corridor.
Step… Step…
Eerie background music played as the footsteps of four adventurers echoed.
Old stone walls brushed past on either side.
Then, staring into the darkness, Dang Gyu-young spoke.
“Feels like something should show up by now.”
“Yeah, doesn’t it?”
Sure enough, just as we turned a corner a bit farther down the path, a sharp screech rang out ahead.
– Kiiieeek—!
“……!”
Like seasoned players, the party immediately fell into battle formation.
Dang Gyu-young took the front, positioning herself to shield us.
Jegal So-so seemed ready to cast a spell, but she was holding back for now, probably saving her MP for when things got bad.
Meanwhile, Seo Ye-in raised her staff and began chanting a spell.
[Blink HP 3/3 MP 6/7]
Fwoooosh…
A fireball formed, growing steadily in size.
“Burn.”
I also loaded a bolt into my crossbow and took aim into the darkness.
Among the rapidly approaching figures, I targeted the one that stood out with its large build and fired.
Fwoosh—!
“Keek!”
A single dying scream rang out, and from the other side came a real sense of confusion.
Just as I’d hoped. The leader-type had gone down.
For us, it was the perfect opening.
Right then, Seo Ye-in must have finished casting her spell.
A fireball, now as big as a person, arced through the air.
Boom—!
The explosion lit up the surroundings, revealing the monsters in full view.
Goblins. The usual guests in the early stages.
As the panicked creatures flailed in the flames, Dang Gyu-young charged in, swinging her sword nonstop.
For someone playing an unfamiliar class, her control was impressive. Each slash cleanly severed a goblin’s head.
Slash! Slash!
“Knight isn’t bad. There’s a nice rhythm to it.”
Guess she likes it because it feels kind of like wielding a bat.
The battle wrapped up quickly, and a message appeared on screen.
[You gained a small amount of EXP.]
Everyone shrugged it off and continued walking without much reaction.
As we moved on, Dang Gyu-young narrowed her eyes.
“Just a hunch, but I feel like we’re about to get a choice next.”
“I’m getting that vibe too.”
“You’re making the call, right?”
“Only for the ones with clear right answers. If it’s ambiguous or chance-based, we vote.”
“Sounds good.”
The rest of the party nodded in agreement without objection.
As if it had been waiting for us, we barely took a few more steps before a large box appeared.
Made of wood, it looked more like a cargo crate than a treasure chest.
Dang Gyu-young widened her eyes and looked at me.
“Called it again? I must be on a roll today.”
“LuckyQyuQyu, huh.”
Then the choices popped up on the screen:
1. Open the box.
2. Break the box.
3. (Elemental Mage) Burn the box.
4. Ignore and walk past it.
Dang Gyu-young asked,
“Is there a right answer for this one?”
“Nope, the contents are random. Like I said, we’ll go with majority vote for these.”
Seo Ye-in immediately raised her hand.
“Burn it.”
Je-gal Soso and Dang Gyu-young seemed to prefer a more moderate approach.
But with Ye-in being so eager, they didn’t see much reason to object and chimed in with brief comments.
“We’ve got plenty of MP right now, so it should be fine.”
“Better to at least try something than just walk past it.”
I gave a small nod.
“Alright. Let’s burn it.”
Fwoosh.
[Blink HP 3/3 MP 5/7]
Seo Ye-in quietly began chanting her fire spell.
A large fireball landed squarely on the wooden box.
Boom!
[The herbs inside were burned to ashes.]
“……”
Seo Ye-in subtly looked away.
It had been a majority vote, sure, but since it was her idea, she probably felt a little guilty.
I glared at her and said,
“Give the herbs back.”
“…Sorry.”
“Do we just burn things randomly, yes or no?”
“No.”
“Shouldn’t we take time to discuss with the party first?”
“Communication is key.”
Nodding solemnly as if she’d learned her lesson, Seo Ye-in agreed.
The noonas watched us with amused expressions, like we were cute.
Leave a Reply