[The sub scenario – Food Acquisition has begun!]
At that moment, ground rats crawled out from the ground.
Grrr…
"There is no plan. We are beginners. It might sound cruel but honestly, I don't expect you to survive."
Kim Dokja's voice resounded in the underground tunnel.
"Still, all of you survive. Please."
Gehrman glanced around.
Everyone else was nervous but looked determined.
"Okay, let's try it. Everybody, please live!"
Kim Dokja's eyes looked calculating, as if he was testing them.
"Then let's go."
Gehrman continued staring at Kim Dokja, thoughtful.
Then, they took a step forward and the ground rats attacked them.
Kim Dokja observed everyone fight.
In the corner of his eye, he saw how Gehrman unnaturally twisted his body to avoid the ground rats. Mimicking a gun with his fingers, a hole appeared in the monsters' heads as if they had been shot by a bullet. Was this Gehrman's skills?
Superior flexibility, good combat sense, lethal attacks, fearless in the face of monsters… Did Gehrman have a Fourth Wall like him? Since Lee Hyunsung was a soldier and Jung Heewon had taken kendo lessons, their abilities weren't surprising, but was it really normal for a 'historian' to be so proficient in combat?
After everyone compared how many ground rats they had killed—Lee Gilyoung was upset that he got one less than Shin Yoosoung, and the adults were shocked that they had killed less than the kids—Jung Heewon asked a similar question.
"Gehrman, how are you so skilled in fighting? Do historians have to fight these days?"
Klein considered how to answer her.
"The bodyguard company I worked for was short on staff, so I also had to replace my colleagues when I wasn't studying ancient artifacts."
A historian working for a bodyguard company?
"I took some combat lessons there."
Jung Heewon nodded.
"Bodyguard companies still exist these days?"
Then, the topic changed.
"Let's gather up the ground rats. We need to prepare today's food."
"Ummm… by the way, how will we cook it? We can't eat it like this."
"We can't eat it now but there will be a way," Kim Dokja claimed.
Everyone was silent for a moment. Lee Hyunsung was the first one to open his mouth.
"Excuse me, I would like to ask you one thing."
"Yes?"
"Dokja-ssi, perhaps… do you know something about this situation?"
"That…"
At that moment, Gehrman's spiritual intuition warned him.
A few seconds later, Yoo Sangah had been taken away by a ground rat. Although they tried to help her, they failed.
Gehrman saw how Kim Dokja had let the colleague he had known the longest be taken away.
"…I'm sorry. I was too late."
Lee Hyunsung spoke in a sad voice. Kim Dokja tapped his shoulder to show it was okay.
"No one could've done anything."
Gehrman's gaze darkened.
Clinging to Gehrman, Shin Yoosoung looked up at him then at the one he was staring at, her gaze alternating between the two.
The group decided to separate.
Making a divination to check if everything would be okay, Gehrman decided to stay behind with Shin Yoosoung and Jung Heewon while Lee Hyunsung, Lee Gilyoung and Kim Dokja went on ahead.
Jung Heewon was still injured and someone needed to keep an eye on her—and, although he knew the child was very strong, Klein didn't want Shin Yoosoung to be in danger or stay near that potentially dangerous Kim Dokja—so, to the surprise of everyone, he decided to stay back.
Moreover, although he would have preferred to keep an eye on Kim Dokja and observe him to gather information, his divination had told him that he shouldn't follow them this time.
After they came back and cooked some ground meat, a survival fee was collected.
Not long after, Kim Dokja decided, "There is nothing left to do here, let's go on to the next station."
For unknown reasons (Gehrman made a divination that told him he should follow Kim Dokja's group), Gehrman followed them.
They received a main scenario to meet the survivors of Chungmuro station and fought the ground rats once more, having more experience now.
"Yaksu Station. By the way… there is nobody? No, that's not it."
Yaksu Station was filled with dead bodies and ground rat corpses. Based on the injuries, some of the people were killed by a 'person', not the ground rats.
"Keep going. There are two stops left."
They continued to advance. Anyway, the distance from Yaksu to Dongdae was less than 1km in a straight line.
They took a break, and Kim Dokja went somewhere alone, coming back with items.
"They seem like good items. Because they are souvenirs of a great person."
"Great person?"
"Do you know Samyeongdang?"
Klein, supposedly a historian—but more knowledgeable about the history of another world—kept his mouth shut so that others wouldn't know that he had no idea who Samyeongdang is. As a keyboard warrior, despite knowing a little about South Korea, he was originally Chinese and only knew the big facts on other countries.
Come to think of it, should he have pretended to be a police officer instead? However, 'police officer' wasn't in Gehrman's established identity settings.
"Ah! I know!"
Thankfully, Yoo Sangah answered in his stead.
"I remember seeing it when I was studying Korean history! Isn't he a monk from the Joseon Dynasty?"
"Yes, that's right."
"When the Korean military was struggling to defend against the Japanese invasion… he fought in the Nowongpyeong battle and Wukwandong battle!"
[A constellation wearing a straw mat is touched by character 'Yoo Sangah'.]
Then, she turned toward the historian, as if asking Gehrman if she had remembered correctly.
Pretending he knew, Gehrman trusted Yoo Sangah and the message in the sky and nodded.
"But how did Dokja-ssi know to get this?"
"Just, I put my hands together in front of the Samyeongdang statue and… they fell from the sky."
"Huh? No way…"
Kim Dokja put on a mock solemn expression.
"I think… it was sent by Samyeongdang for South Korea."
Judging from the colors of his aura when he opened his spiritual vision, Gehrman noticed that Kim Dokja was lying.
This man was acting, and his words were probably complete nonsense.
"…In this strange world, it isn't weird if something like this happens. Maybe Samyeongdang is one of the 'constellations'. Isn't that right?"
After distributing the items, they moved forward in the dark tunnel.
[A new sub scenario has arrived!]
"Everybody step back."
+
[Sub Scenario – Welcome Prison]
Category: Sub
Difficulty: D~F
Clear Conditions: Escape from Welcome Prison within the time limit.
Time Limit: 1 hour
Compensation: 300 coins
Failure: ???
+
[Sub scenario – Welcome Prison has begun!]
Yoo Sangah asked, "Welcome Prison? What is this?"
A haze overcame the party members, Kim Dokja's last words barely reaching them.
"It is coming. Everyone, please keep your mind straight."
Then, the fog that instantly occupied the tunnel blocked their field of view. The party members in the immediate vicinity couldn't be seen. When he looked around, he could only see a distorted scenery, as if he was on drugs.
And a familiar voice reached Klein's ears.
「We saved Tingen.」
He didn't know if it was because of the voice or the hand piercing his body in the memory, but his heart hurt.
Soon after, the fog retreated and Welcome Prison disappeared.
Kim Dokja glanced at Gehrman. Although he had been the most worried about Gehrman going on a rampage due to the man's combat experience and lethal skills, Gehrman was standing there, frozen as he looked into empty air.
Kim Dokja quickly looked away.
"O-Our resolve! We are the South Korean army, loyal to the nation and the people!"
"Uh… Uh… Mother."
Lee Hyunsung was bowing with his head on the ground, while Lee Gilyoung had his head on his knees and was shaking. Shin Yoosoung was also in a similar state.
Yoo Sangah came forward first.
"Lee Hyunsung-ssi? Gilyoung! Yoosoung! Please wake up!"
At this moment, a blade flew from the rear. Fortunately, the blade wasn't fast and it wasn't difficult to avoid.
"…I will kill all of you."
Apparently, he should have been more worried about Jung Heewon than Gehrman.
Kim Dokja stunned Jung Heewon by strongly hitting her in the back of the neck and handed her to Yoo Sangah.
Then, stiffly, he approached Gehrman Sparrow.
"…Gehrman-ssi?"
Keeping a smile on, Kim Dokja called him again. His heart was beating loudly in his chest as a message about the Fourth Wall offsetting his mental shock appeared.
Finally, Gehrman reacted and his gaze met Kim Dokja's.
"Are you okay?"
Gehrman nodded.
Pretending that nothing was wrong, Kim Dokja walked back to Yoo Sangah.
"It isn't over yet."
[You have met the conditions to clear the sub scenario!]
[You have earned 300 coins.]
But as he held his sword, what he had just seen came to mind.
…Worms had clearly been crawling on Gehrman's face.
The sight was even more grotesque than the bodies torn on the ground.
He was sure it wasn't a hallucination. Although it was back to normal now, half of his face had clearly been…
A reason for such a strong person to appear despite not being present in Ways of Survival appeared in his mind.
Keeping a straight face, Kim Dokja focused on hunting the monster.
…Was Gehrman even 'human'?
[Specter's Stone.]
Once he killed the specters, Kim Dokja put the fallen stones into his pocket.
The thought that a monster was among his party members since the beginning nagged at his mind.
"A-Are you okay?"
However, it wasn't time for this. For now, they needed to leave this underground passage.
The one who recovered the fastest was Lee Hyunsung. Lee Hyunsung heard the story and bowed his head with surprise.
"…Thank you. I almost got into big trouble. I also want to thank Dokja-ssi."
"It is nothing."
Out of the corner of his eye, Gehrman put his hand on Shin Yoosoung's head.
Then, slow footsteps along with a metallic sound were heard in the distance.
A faint smell of herbs lingered in the air.
Then, they saw a man in a black coat, smoking a cigarette while walking with the help of a silver cane.
[Main Scenario #2 – Meeting has ended.]
[The compensation will be settled.]
Beside Kim Dokja, Jung Heewon's voice resounded, recognizing the newcomer, "Van?"