179
“How is there a path here too?”
“No kidding, someone did a fine job tunneling through.”
Hanbit’s party moved along the passageway, cut through like a tunnel.
There had been a passage in the corner of the space where the unnamed devotee had been.
“When does that one wake up?”
Kim Jaeha asked, glancing behind him.
Whoosh—
The assassin being carried along on Sylph’s wind.
The bound figure was still unconscious.
“It’ll take a while. I hit harder than I intended.”
Hanbit, who had grown too powerful too quickly, was still calibrating his strength.
In all the countless runs, there had never been growth this rapid.
With targets that needed to be killed, it was one thing — but ambiguous situations required their own kind of effort.
“Th — there won’t be anything else jumping out, will there?”
The unnamed devotee with the veil wrapped her arms around herself and looked around warily.
The trauma from the ambush seemed to run quite deep.
“Stay close. Since the assassin hasn’t returned, they’ll figure something out over there.”
“Ugh…”
The girl, huddled up tight, latched onto the back of Hanbit’s clothes.
That careful movement continued for about twenty minutes.
The consistent terrain changed.
“It’s different from here?”
Numerous side paths branched off throughout the now-widened corridor.
Magical devices emitting light were embedded in the walls.
“This way.”
The path from here on was familiar to Hanbit.
He walked ahead and turned down a nearby branch path.
Slide—
The light grew gradually dimmer as they advanced.
Alongside the rapidly dropping temperature, thin white frost began to appear on the floor and walls.
“Why did this happen all of a sudden?”
“My body’s getting heavier.”
Those following behind reacted immediately to the change.
Hanbit pressed a little further in and stopped.
“Ashid.”
A name spoken quietly.
The voice spread coldly through the silence.
And after a short moment, an answer came back.
“…Black Dragon?”
Thud—
A man revealed himself as ice fell from the ceiling.
It was Ashid Kaldif, the Guild Master of Temoshá.
-Huh?
-What are you doing there.
-He really wasn’t dead.
-How did he hide. lol
-This is the guild master.
“As I thought — he was alive.”
Bolt, having confirmed his comrade’s safety, let out a breath.
Ashid, meeting his gaze, went wide-eyed.
“Bolt? Why are you here?”
“Said I’d come along with Black Dragon. Any objection?”
“Not an objection, it’s just…”
His gaze drifted to Bolt’s left arm, wrapped in the large iron chain.
From the outside it wasn’t visible, but the arm had been lost in a battle long ago.
“I’m an adventurer until I drop dead. Should be useful at least as a shield.”
Bolt made a show of rattling the chain.
Ashid knew those words were sincere.
“As if I’d let you die. But those two over there…”
Kwa-boom—!
Just then, a loud crash rang out from a distance.
“Tch. Already time, is it.”
Ashid furrowed his brow and looked back and forth at the passageways on either side.
Then he extended his hand and said:
“People are going to come flooding in. Come up, one at a time.”
* * *
“Haa…”
A village in the far northwest of the continent.
Kenji, who had just logged into RP, sat down and pressed a hand to his still-racing heart.
In Black Dragon’s stream he had opened in a separate window, Momo had nearly lost her life.
If Black Dragon’s action had been even a moment slower, the Holy Nation assassin’s blade would have reached his daughter.
“Her life… I wonder.”
It was only speculation, but Momo’s state appeared to be in an ambiguous place — neither NPC nor player.
In that case, what death would bring was what mattered.
Would she respawn like a player, reappearing in a respawn zone?
Would she be permanently erased like an NPC?
Or would she exist as a presence in each player’s perspective, rendering death meaningless?
None of it could be answered with certainty — it was all just guesswork.
“I’m putting my trust in you.”
The reason he wasn’t making contact with Black Dragon was to avoid being a distraction.
If his concentration was broken and the situation went wrong, the risk to his daughter would increase.
With ambushes from assassins and the like, even a single second of hesitation could result in fatal harm.
He wanted to reach out and plead with him right away, but his daughter’s safety was more important than that urgency.
Slide—
Kenji drew a Warp Crystal from his inventory.
An item kept by the company.
He immediately selected Temoshá from the registered list and transferred to his destination.
Fwoosh—
The surrounding scenery shifted with a peculiar sensation.
He had arrived in the dense forest northeast of Temoshá.
Flicker—
He checked the Warp Crystal resting in his hand.
An item that vanished upon consuming its last use.
The hundred-million-plus price tag didn’t feel like a waste in the slightest.
He immediately surveyed his surroundings.
“Still fine for now.”
Black Dragon’s stream running in a separate window.
Progressing through a sub-quest, he was likely playing in a separated field.
Intervention by a player who wasn’t in the party was impossible.
In that case, the only option was to meet Black Dragon and his daughter somewhere recognized as ‘external.’
Slide—
Kenji set off, using Black Dragon’s stream as a reference.
By tracing the direction traveled from where they had entered underground, a rough location could be estimated.
『Stay close. Since the assassin hasn’t returned, they’ll figure something out over there.』
Black Dragon seemed to be doing his utmost to protect his daughter.
Kenji gave his silent gratitude and continued gauging the path as he walked.
『This way.』
About twenty minutes later, Black Dragon’s party turned toward a branch path.
Kenji followed carefully, tracking the position.
When Black Dragon’s party encountered Temoshá’s Guild Master Ashid, he also came to a stop.
Something had caught his attention moving ahead.
“Idiot. Didn’t know about the imprisonment penalty reduction item, did you?”
A man with golden hair, muttering curses from within the dense brush.
At the sight of that revolting voice and face, Kenji’s fist clenched on its own.
[Adventurer A]
The scum who had exploited his missing daughter to extort money.
Grinding him up and drinking him down wouldn’t be satisfaction enough.
‘So he’s broken out of the PK penalty.’
A single red line beside his name tag.
Having become a repeat PK offender somewhere along the way, he would end up in prison and enter a criminal state each time he died.
Given that he had picked a fight with Black Dragon’s party and lost, a stay of at least one day should have been standard.
Yet there was apparently an item that could shorten that imprisonment time.
One small comfort was that attacking a criminal-state Adventurer A first carried no penalty.
‘His being here means he’s planning to interfere with Black Dragon again.’
The fact that Adventurer A and Black Dragon were at odds was already known.
Accurately, it was only one side picking an unprovoked fight — but still.
“You picked the wrong person to mess with. I’ll strip everything you’ve got left before I leave, so enjoy getting screwed over. Next time I come for you, I’ll make sure you can’t take a single step….”
Muttering to himself in a stream, Adventurer A drew items from his inventory.
Pheromones to attract powerful monsters, bombs, vials of poison — various items capable of causing harm to a target.
It seemed he was planning to scatter traps throughout the forest and leave.
Probably aiming for the moment Black Dragon stepped out of the quest field.
Crack—
His fist had clenched on its own.
The cold touch of the knuckles — his primary weapon — tempered the surging emotion just slightly.
If that man was allowed to interfere with Black Dragon, the risk to Momo would grow as well.
Again, he was trying to obstruct his search for his daughter.
This time, he absolutely could not look away.
“Adventurer A.”
“…?”
A voice of extraordinary weight came from Kenji’s mouth as he stepped close.
Adventurer A flinched and looked back.
“You are… the Nio Group chairman?”
He remembered the faces of wealthy people well — he recognized the man immediately.
Adventurer A stood up and smiled with an air of having recalled something.
“I was actually about to get in touch with you.”
He produced something like a map and approached in an intimate, sickening tone.
Then he said what he should never have said.
“Your daughter. This time I think I can actually find her? So if you could just give me two billion more——”
Crack—!
A fist that drove into his philtrum before the sentence could finish.
The knuckle fitted over his fingers carried tremendous impact.
Rank, combat ability, equipment — the power of a mid-tier vanguard who outstripped Adventurer A in every respect.
“What the hell! What are you doing! Don’t you want your daughter found? I’m seriously——”
Crack—!
This time the fist drove into Adventurer A’s forehead.
Kenji looked down at the man who had been knocked into the ground, grinding his teeth.
“I’ll kill you here.”
* * *
‘Is someone talking about me.’
Hanbit, having climbed up above the tunnel ceiling, rubbed his ear.
He shrugged and looked down at his feet.
Through the semi-transparent floor, the underground passage he had been standing in just moments ago was visible.
“Over here!”
“Close in!”
The crowd surging below numbered in the dozens.
The sight of them running with weapons in hand radiated an indescribable hunger.
“What are they doing?”
“Claiming territory. There are still a lot of monsters in this underground cave. Criminals and fugitives are expanding their safe zone on a timed rotation.”
-Claiming territory?
-Quite diligent
-Kill a monster and your living space gets bigger?
-That’s actually a good deal
Ashid added that it looked like it had been going on for quite some time.
The man who used to doze off reeking of liquor at the guild, but his current form was much closer to who he really was.
Hanbit lifted his gaze from the floor and asked him:
“How did you find this underground space?”
“Half by accident. Losing track of Ravok actually turned out to be lucky.”
A week ago, Ashid had found Ravok the fugitive murderer’s trail and tailed him underground.
The structure resembled a bunker built to withstand disaster, and traces of people living there were visible throughout.
“At first I thought it was simply a criminal gang’s hideout. There were countless wanted fugitives’ faces staring back at me.”
Ashid, keeping himself hidden while carefully scouting the place.
The criminals here made Ravok look tame in comparison — the kinds who had royal warrants issued for them from the capital.
The answer to that mystery had revealed itself when he found this hidden space.
“From this space above the passage, you can look down at the underground floor. It’s a place designed for the managers.”
“Managers? You mean the leaders?”
Bolt, following along with the explanation, asked.
But Ashid shook his head.
“It’s a bit different from that. New figures arrived five days ago.”
Ashid had been recording every person he saw here from a week prior.
And then, in a place packed with criminals and fugitives, a unit of soldiers appeared.
Most of them wore traditional armor seen in Raven’s northern regions.
The problem was three people at the center, dressed in white robes.
Holy Nation devotees.
“When I saw the senior devotees, I knew something had gone wrong. It reminded me of what happened in Edelen and Ifrit.”
He shifted his gaze toward the unnamed devotee standing behind Hanbit.
The girl flinched and tucked herself further away, prompting Ashid to narrow his eyes slightly.
“So — what is that? And what about that assassin drifting at the back?”
“This devotee was ambushed by a Holy Nation assassin.”
“…Ambushed?”
The strange account drew a baffled reaction from Ashid.
He deliberated for a moment, then fixed his gaze on the girl and posed a question.
“You, devotee — what did you come here for?”
“I just… they said I needed to put up a barrier later…”
The unnamed devotee answered in a small voice, hidden in Hanbit’s clothes.
Given the treatment she had received, she would have been told none of the actual plans.
“The questions need to go to that one.”
Hanbit looked at the assassin, resting on Sylph’s wind.
Still bound, the figure remained with eyes closed.
Grrrowl—
Just then, Cheonho perched on his shoulder let out a small growl.
The reason was something he had already noticed.
Step—
Hanbit slowly walked over to the unconscious assassin.
And the moment he stopped near the figure’s face—
Phwit—!
Something sharp shot out from inside the mask.
Ting—!
Hanbit, who had sensed the attack coming, knocked it aside with his wrist guard.
It was a needle with poison coating the tip.
“Ugh…”
The assassin, attack having failed, let out a resentful sound.
Hanbit reached over and pulled off the figure’s mask.
Tsssss—
“Kyaaagh!”
A pattern being seared onto the face of the ordinary-looking man beneath.
It had become blazing heat and was beginning to burn the skin.
A shackle the figure had voluntarily taken on to comply with the will of the deity and the Holy Nation.
Thwack—
When the mask was replaced, the heat vanished as though it had never been.
After a short interval, Hanbit removed the mask again.
Tsssss—
“Gngh….!”
This time the assassin suppressed the scream.
Hanbit waited a moment, then replaced the mask.
Then, after another short pause, removed it again.
Tsssss—
-The art of interrogation
-If you attack someone, you take what comes.
-How long can they hold out?
-Info) Not a single question has been asked yet.
Even as the viewers’ chat continued, the removing and replacing of the mask went on.
When it had been done dozens of times, Hanbit stopped.
“Grngh….”
The assassin’s voice, mind growing hazy, cracked weakly.
Hanbit looked down at the figure and said quietly:
“Shall we have a conversation now?”
