– Krrroooaaaarrr…”
A huge green monster let out its final death cry and collapsed.
Its face resembled that of a pig, but its body structure was more like that of a human. It was a bipedal creature. It looked exactly like the embodiment of the term “muscle pig”.
An orc.
Looking down at it, Han-cheol had felt a strange unease.
What the hell… No matter how I look at it, that’s the Orc Chieftain…
In modern-day Earth, where gates had begun to appear and strange monsters emerged, orcs themselves weren’t exactly rare monsters.
However, while the orcs that had appeared through gates so far had always looked like primitive beings devoid of intellect, no more than common savages, this one had been adorned as though it belonged to some kind of tribal civilization.
Of course, it was still more or less savage in appearance, just slightly more elaborate, but the important thing was that this appearance had felt strangely familiar to Lee Han-cheol.
The Orc Chieftain. An early-stage boss monster that appeared on the tenth floor of the Labyrinth in the game he played, Labyrinth Game.
And now, that very monster he had only seen as a graphic on a screen had manifested in real life, standing right in front of him.
Am I imagining things…? No matter how you spin it, there’s no way a game monster would show up in reality…
Of course, even in this Earth where the concept of the mystical had become reality, the idea that a game monster had leaped into the real world was just too absurd. So Han-cheol had convinced himself that there was no way that could be true.
“Squad Leader! Is something wrong?”
“…Ah.”
Even so, the strange sense of déjà vu he’d felt ever since stepping into this place hadn’t gone away. He wore a troubled expression and simply stared blankly at the magic stone left behind by the fallen Orc Chieftain.
When one of the squad members asked with concern, Han-cheol finally snapped out of it, shook his head, and said,
“It’s nothing! This one was clearly the boss, so with that, the gate-clearing operation is officially complete!”
“Yes, sir! Then, great work, everyone!”
“Good job!”
Only then did the team members, visibly relaxing a bit, begin preparing to leave the gate. Han-cheol too had picked up the magic stone left behind by the Orc Chieftain and was just about to head out when—
Woooooooom——!!
“….…!”
When he bent down to pick up the magic stone, it suddenly began to turn black.
No….more precisely, a black hole-like void began forming at the center of the magic stone.
Kwooooooooom——!!
It continued to grow in size until, before long, it swallowed Han-cheol’s arm, which had been holding the stone.
“Wh-What the hell?!?!”
Startled, Han-cheol tried to pull his arm back and step away, but it was no use. No matter how hard he pulled, as if his arm were about to be ripped off, it only felt like he was being sucked in even more. In fact, he was literally being pulled in, little by little.
“Th-This is crazy!”
At first, overwhelmed by the sudden turn of events, he was simply confused. But it was only then that he realized something was seriously wrong, and a curse escaped his lips. The other team members, finally sensing that something was amiss, turned to look in Han-cheol’s direction.
“L-Leader?”
“W-What is that?!”
“Squad Leader!”
Some were visibly confused by the sudden situation, while others tried to rush toward Han-cheol.
He shouted urgently,
“Don’t come!”
“Wh-What?!”
“I said don’t come! No matter how hard I try, I can’t get out of this! Even if you come, there’s nothing you can do!”
By now, the black hole had grown so large that it was about the size of his entire torso. With his upper body already halfway sucked in, he shouted,
“It’s still getting bigger. Get as far away as you can! Now!”
“B-But…”
“That’s an order, damn it! Get out of here, all of you!”
He was an A-rank Awakened who had passed through countless gates. He was even a squad leader who led other Awakened from the front.
He’d never really been called the sharpest tool in the shed, but at the very least, when it came to reading a situation, he was quicker and more clear-headed than anyone. Otherwise, it would’ve been impossible for him to serve as a leader.
And in that moment, he judged that it was already too late for him. No matter how much he struggled, even as an A-rank Awakened, he couldn’t break free, and half his body had already been swallowed. It would’ve been unforgivable to drag others down with him like a drowning man, just for the slim chance of survival.
Since there was no way of knowing how far this thing would grow, he decided that getting the rest of the team to safety had to come first. When he shouted, the others could only hesitate.
Han-cheol found it frustrating. Seriously, couldn’t they tell just by looking that this was no ordinary situation? Why weren’t they running?
Even as he thought, “Guess I didn’t live my life completely wrong,” he couldn’t understand why they were still hesitating after seeing him like this. Then, the answer came to him almost immediately.
Ah… right. If they go back without me, my brother might take it out on them.
Han-cheol’s older brother was the guild master. And those people were guild members.
What would his brother think if the guild members came back out of the gate without his younger brother? Even Han-cheol himself didn’t think those guys had a bright future ahead of them.
At best, they’d be kicked out of the guild. At worst, word would spread that they abandoned their squad leader, and it might become hard for them to continue as Awakened. Maybe even worse than that. His brother had no shortage of influence.
As he felt more and more of his body being pulled in, urgency surged within him. Still, he left behind what might be his final words.
“Screw it. Hey! Tell my brother this! Tell him his little brother was doing his job as an Awakened and that days like this can come! I don’t have a will, but he can take care of my stuff! The password to my account is 4813, so make sure you tell him properly! If any of you try to take it, I swear I’ll haunt you!”
“S-Squad Leader!”
“Just make sure he knows it’s my last message! If you do, he won’t make your lives hell in this world, so don’t screw this up! Got—”
Just as he was about to yell “—that?!” he was completely swallowed by the black hole.
Schlurp…
And then, as if it had finished its task, the black hole that had devoured him slowly faded away and began to vanish.
The team members who remained could only stand there, blankly staring at the spot where he had disappeared.
***
And now.
Han-cheol scratched his head as he finished telling Yujin the whole story.
“So yeah… that’s how it happened. I got sucked in, and before I knew it, I’d ended up on the tenth floor of the labyrinth.”
“That’s exactly what I’d expect from you, Squad Leader. But I’m sorry to throw cold water on your noble gesture of thinking about your squad members… Normally, do people include their bank account password in a final message? If the account holder dies, it just gets passed on to their spouse or next of kin.”
All he managed to do was put himself at risk of losing his assets by blurting out his bank account password to the entire squad.
Of course, just knowing the password doesn’t mean anyone can immediately withdraw money from the account. They’d still need to go through identity verification and such. Still, it was undeniably a risky move.
When Yujin pointed that out, Han-cheol grumbled.
“Then what was I supposed to do? There’s no clear way to prove it’s my last will and testament to my brother.”
“And that’s why you went with your account password?”
“I was panicking at the time and wasn’t thinking straight. When you say ‘will’, you naturally think of inheritance, so the account password just came out. I wouldn’t have done it like that if it were now. Besides, I don’t think it’ll be that big of a problem.”
Han-cheol wasn’t exactly a thoughtless guy.
The squad members he led were an elite group, and they were people who’d already had a taste of money in this line of work.
Rather than risk being completely kicked out of the industry for hiding the fact that he’d shared his account password as part of his final words to his brother, it made more sense for them to be honest and continue making a living.
After all, to keep that a secret, more than ten people would have to come together and agree to split the money. And would they all really agree to give up their jobs as Awakened just to divide Han-cheol’s assets? In his view, no way.
Whatever thoughts they might be harboring on the inside, he was confident that his final message would reach his brother, the guild master, intact. And once it did, his brother would take care of everything from there. He was meticulous enough to run a guild without a hitch after all.
“If it’s my brother, something like a leaked account password is nothing he can’t handle.”
“Yeah, if he’s the guild master, that much is probably no big deal.”
Han-cheol brushed it off casually, and Yujin nodded in agreement.
Then, he went on to ask him a question.
“But Squad Leader… is that really all?”
“Huh?”
“You got sucked into that hole and suddenly ended up on the tenth floor of the labyrinth—…s that seriously all there is to it? Nothing else happened?”
“……..”
At those words, Han-cheol frowned again and fell into thought. He asked,
“So, judging by that question, it seems like you went through something a little different… am I right?”
“Yes. Of course, since the circumstances that led to us getting separated were a bit different, I wouldn’t blame you if that’s all it was, but…”
“What happened?”
Han-cheol asked. Yujin shrugged and continued speaking.
“I kept walking through the darkness, on and on, when suddenly a light in the distance began to shine through me. Then, without warning, the ground gave way and I fell. When I came to, I was in this world.”
“…Ah.”
At that, Han-cheol also seemed to recall something.
“Come to think of it, mine was kind of similar. I was actually falling downward the whole time from the start, and then something like a meteor came crashing down toward me, hit me in the head, and passed by. I blacked out, and when I woke up, I was on the tenth floor of the labyrinth.”
“Hmm…”
It was likely that whatever pierced through Yujin was something similar. But even with that, they still lacked enough information.
Tia, what do you think?
[…Hmm. For now, it doesn’t seem like there’s anything wrong with either of you, as far as I can tell…]
Tiamat tilted her head for a moment in thought, then offered her speculation.
[It might just be that some sort of information was simply imprinted onto your souls. Think about it. Despite coming to another world, neither of you had any trouble communicating with the people here, right? If it was just information like a language system being imprinted, then it wouldn’t be strange that neither you nor I noticed it. It wouldn’t have a major effect on the soul.]
Hmm…
That did make a lot of sense. Come to think of it, since arriving here, the only time Yujin had used Korean was while speaking with the squad leader just now.
The language, which should have originally sounded like an alien tongue from some faraway place, now flowed from him as naturally as his native language. So perhaps, just as Tiamat had said, that really was the case.
[Of course, I can’t be certain. I do think it’s most likely that only the language system was imprinted onto the soul, but there could be other effects I haven’t fully identified yet.]
I’ll keep that in mind.
Yujin understood her words and nodded inwardly. Meanwhile, Han-cheol spoke up.
“By the way… is it okay if I ask you a few questions now?”
It seemed he had been organizing his thoughts while listening to Yujin’s story. Yujin nodded.
“Go ahead.”
“Whew, alright… first off…”
Han-cheol took a deep breath, then asked Yujin,
“Hey, did you get plastic surgery?”
“……?”
And with that, he threw out a question so unexpected that Yujin was completely caught off guard.
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