Chapter 120 - CHAPTER 119

< Episode 23. The Abandoned World (5) >

There were exactly five grooves carved into the crystal.

Both Yoo Joonghyuk and I knew perfectly well what needed to be inserted there.

As I stood beside him, Yoo Joonghyuk spoke.

"You're here."

"Yeah. Unfortunately."

"You can sit this one out."

At his unexpected words, I turned to look at him.

He continued speaking without looking at me.

"Seems like you have a woman you love."

"...What?"

"It'll get difficult."

For a moment, I felt like something that hadn't quite made sense was finally clicking into place.

Don't tell me—was he deliberately excluding me, not to push me away, but out of consideration?

No way. Yoo Joonghyuk, of all people?

"This might be the last time."

I shook my head.

Thinking about it, though, it wasn't completely impossible.

In his second regression, Yoo Joonghyuk had lost Lee Seolhwa right in front of his eyes.

When it came to losing someone you love, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say Yoo Joonghyuk was the world's leading authority.

"It's not like that. Does my face look like it could pull off love?"

I hadn't meant it that way, but once I said it out loud, it sounded oddly self-deprecating.

Still, since I'd said it first, he should at least say I had a decent face out of courtesy.

Yoo Joonghyuk stared silently at my face before speaking.

"Then you can die without regrets."

Damn it.

"Watch your mouth, asshole. That hurts, you know."

"Don't forget you've still got one hit left."

"...Ah, right. I was almost forgetting. Thanks so damn much for reminding me."

Sometimes I really couldn't tell whether this bastard wanted me to live or die.

I immediately relayed my words to the party through group chat.

—From now on, I'll explain the points you need to be careful about.

Using group chat meant keeping things discreet.

The others pretended to be distracted while focusing intently on what I was saying.

—The warp crystal only allows entry in pairs. As mentioned earlier, we'll move in teams of two.

—I'll be with Yooseung for Team 1. Heewon and Hyunsung will be Team 2. Sangah and Granny No. 406 will be Team 3. Gilyoung doesn't have a partner, so Joonghyuk's group's Jihye will accompany him. And Yoo Joonghyuk himself… well, that guy will figure it out on his own.

—When you move through the crystal, you might feel dizzy for a moment, so don't panic. The scenario will probably appear immediately upon arrival. What you must remember is—when the scenario text appears…

Just as I was firing off instructions at machine-gun speed, a goblin suddenly appeared above the warp crystal, interrupting me.

[Wait a moment. I'm very sorry, but there's an urgent announcement.]

An urgent announcement?

[I completely forgot to mention this, but the initial participant quota for the Seoul Dome is not ten people—it's eight.]

"What are you talking about all of a sudden?"

Everyone was already decided—now they were saying this?

Looking more closely, it was the same goblin who had asked me about scenario updates in the Underworld before.

Goblin Yeonggi, was it?

[Well… during the progression of the fifth scenario, part of the dimension became distorted, and some participants were transferred directly into the sixth scenario.]

"...You're saying someone's already inside?"

[Yes. In the Seoul Dome, two participants have already entered the scenario.]

Now that I thought about it, Gong Pildu and Han Sooyoung had already entered.

I'd seen it on the screen in the Underworld, but it had slipped my mind.

Still, for the dimension to warp that badly…

That mid-level goblin must have interfered with the scenario pretty aggressively to try to kill me.

[Although those participants entered due to a scenario error, for the sake of fairness, two people will be excluded from the original allocation.]

"What the hell! You can't do that! Then who's supposed to drop out?!"

Ironically, the people who weren't even going were the ones making the biggest fuss.

The party looked at me with troubled expressions.

Even Yoo Joonghyuk was looking at me now.

His expression clearly said, You decide.

Damn it…

Unexpectedly, Yoo Sangah was the first to raise her hand.

"I'll step out."

I appreciated her consideration—she'd clearly noticed my dilemma.

But even if Sangah stayed behind, the granny still needed to go.

Then Jung Heewon raised her hand.

"I'll step out too. There's a second allocation coming up anyway, right?"

"Are you sure?"

"I'm a bit worried since you look kind of out of it today, Dokja… but you'll manage somehow. And this time, it looks like that scary guy's on our side."

Indeed, leaving Jung Heewon and Yoo Sangah behind felt reassuring.

Even if competition broke out again during the second allocation, those two would definitely push through.

In the end, the two of them withdrew, and Lee Hyunsung agreed to take the granny along.

The granny looked strangely pleased.

Just before leaving, I whispered to Yoo Sangah.

"I forgot to mention this earlier, but please tell the King of Wanderers to watch out for Jeon Ildo. He probably already knows, but still."

Yoo Sangah nodded, hesitated for a moment, then whispered back,

"Don't die."

I nodded.

Jung Heewon clicked her tongue.

"...Are we leaving or what? I'm going to die of frustration before the constellations do."

Yoo Sangah blushed and stepped back, and the rest of us approached the warp crystal. I took out the talismans I'd obtained from defeating the disasters.

[Talisman of the Immuntar Species][Talisman of the Parasite Species][Talisman of the Xenovel Species]

Yoo Joonghyuk and Granny No. 406 each took out one as well.

They were talismans obtained from defeating the [Disaster of Ice] and the [Disaster of Water].

[Please insert the five talismans.]

As the message flowed from the warp crystal, we fitted each talisman into its groove.

Five talismans.

They were proof that this world had been protected from "disasters."

Only those who had overcome disasters were qualified to travel to "another world."

[Qualification verification complete.][Warp crystal activated.]

The crystal split into four pieces, and from the divided spaces, blue dimensional gates—resembling spinning fire—formed. We entered two at a time.

Shin Yooseung and I clung tightly to each other as we leapt into the gate.

[The main scenario has been updated.]

When I opened my eyes again, Shin Yooseung and I were sprawled out in a forest tinged with green. As I staggered and pressed my hand against the ground, the rough texture of dirt was vividly transmitted.

My surroundings spun, and I felt like I was about to throw up.

It was ironic—I was the one who'd told everyone not to panic if they felt dizzy, yet here I was, completely disoriented.

Beside me, Shin Yooseung was already dry-heaving.

"Are you okay?"

"Ughhh..."

I patted her back and surveyed our surroundings. My head was a mess, but I couldn't afford to stay confused.

Ahead, to the sides, behind—nothing but forest.

It seemed we'd landed right in the middle of a wooded area.

For scenery of another world, it looked far too similar to Earth.

[Main Scenario — 'The Abandoned World' has begun.]

The scenario message appeared immediately.

But I didn't have the luxury of checking the details.

From the nearby bushes, presences were already being felt.

"Yooseung."

Shin Yooseung lifted her head, having regained some composure.

Rustling sounds came from all around the brush.

This was one of the warp locations for new scenario entrants.

In the worst-case scenario, the figures hiding in the bushes would be incarnations from other countries who had arrived earlier.

I tensed and prepared to activate [Bookmark].

Anyone who had warped into this world would be elite among elites.

If we didn't give it everything from the start, we could lose our heads in the blink of an eye.

But what emerged from the bushes was something completely different from what we'd expected.

[Grade 7 Monster Species, 'Steel Wolf,' has appeared!]

At the words "Grade 7 Monster," identical expressions crossed both Shin Yooseung's and my faces.

It was ridiculous.

We were probably the only ones who would feel relieved by that message.

"They look kind of small, mister."

Considering that higher-grade monsters were usually as big as houses, these Steel Wolves were only about the size of ordinary wolves.

There were roughly fifteen of them.

Not an especially difficult number to deal with.

[Character 'Shin Yooseung' activates 'Advanced Multispecies Communication Lv. 3'!]

Using [Advanced Multispecies Communication], Shin Yooseung began taming the monsters one by one.

I personally dealt with the ones she couldn't tame by activating 'Blade of Faith.'

For Grade 7 monsters, they were unbelievably weak.

It seemed their reduced size came with reduced strength as well.

"...Huh? They're not giving any coins?"

"Because that event's already over."

"They're not even dropping items. No hacks, either."

"It's because the gap in our stats is too big."

"Are these guys really Grade 7? No matter how I look at them, they seem more like Grade 9..."

After being wound tight with tension, the first monsters we encountered turned out to be so weak that Shin Yooseung looked slightly deflated.

Come to think of it, something about the forest felt off.

Trees large enough to form a forest like this should have towered far overhead, yet here, even the tallest ones were only a little higher than my own height.

The scenario details were still unchanged.

Aside from the title "The Abandoned World," most of the fields were still filled with question marks.

[You have not met the conditions to activate the scenario.]

I hopped lightly and surveyed the surroundings.

Fortunately, because the trees were short, even a small jump was enough to take in the entire area.

"It's not all forest. Let's head that way."

In truth, I already knew what was waiting once we left this zone.

We ran along a narrow forest path. Before long, the forest ended and an open plain spread out before us.

And on that plain—

"...Mister?"

We came face to face with a mass of soldiers.

"They've appeared! Just like the scenario said!"

Someone shouted toward us.

It should have been an alien language, yet it sounded almost like Korean.

Startled, Shin Yooseung staggered back toward me.

At least several hundred troops filled part of the vast plain.

Dozens of cavalry.

Hundreds of archers.

And hundreds more infantry.

Enough manpower to wage a full-scale war—gathered there, waiting for us to emerge.

"Everyone, prepare your skills!"

"Prepare to advance!"

Countless figures radiated killing intent as they leveled spears and lances at us.

We hadn't done anything wrong, yet somehow we had already become the enemy.

"Charge—!"

Normally, it would have been a completely overwhelming sight.

If not for their size.

"Waaahhh!"

The troops charging across the plain toward us were, without exception, little people no taller than my fist.

"They're so tiny!"

"They must be the natives of this world."

"Don't tell me we have to fight those people. We don't, right?"

Shin Yooseung said as she cautiously backed away from the oncoming little folk.

"...They're so small, I almost feel bad."

[You have encountered beings from another world. Please check the scenario details.]

That was when screams erupted from elsewhere.

"T-There's a disaster over there too!"

"Aaaagh!"

"Everyone, run! Full retreat!"

The little people who had been charging us suddenly broke formation and fled.

From afar, we could see incarnations trampling them to death indiscriminately.

"Hahahaha!"

"What is this? This scenario's ridiculously easy!"

The words weren't clear, but they were likely translated foreign languages.

Two samurai swung their long blades.

They were Japanese.

As if playing a game, they drove their swords into the ground, cutting down the little people like insects.

Watching the scene of merciless slaughter, Shin Yooseung spoke in a shaken voice.

"...Mister? What kind of scenario is this? What are we supposed to do?"

I understood why Yoo Joonghyuk had tried not to bring Shin Yooseung here.

Thinking about it, he might be more human than I was.

"Earth isn't the only world where scenarios are played in the ."

I said, pointing at the little people fleeing across the plain.

"And this scenario… is one we share with them."

[Many constellations hunger for blood and violence.]

[Many constellations urge you toward a bold decision.]

[The main scenario has been activated.]