Chapter 356:
I kept walking through the forest with Hyun Dowoon clinging to my back. I cut away or knocked aside the brush blocking my view with my sword as I asked,
“But what the hell did you do to end up getting chased?”
“Huh? Ah, that.”
Hyun Dowoon, scratching his forehead with a complicated expression, said,
“......I stole something.”
“What?”
“Ah, I was hungry, so I stole something kind of like a dumpling! What was I supposed to do?”
“Wow. Real proud of that, huh?”
When I let out a disbelieving snort, Hyun Dowoon flared up and said,
“No, you think I’d do that in real life? This is inside a rift! Inside a dungeon! It’s all probably a fake made to look real anyway, so what’s the big deal about stealing one dumpling? The bigger problem is me, a real living person, starving!”
“How do you know whether it’s ‘made to look real’ or not?”
I propped the back of my sword on my shoulder and looked at Hyun Dowoon like he was pathetic.
“So you stole one dumpling and ran all the way into this forest? If I hadn’t found you, you looked like you were about to get beaten to death.”
“That part’s kind of weird to me too.”
Hyun Dowoon crossed his arms, thought for a moment, then opened his mouth.
“Actually, I didn’t even get to take a bite. I gave it back.”
“You gave it back and they still chased you like that? All the way into the mountains in the middle of the night?”
“Well... I mean, while I was giving it back, I threw it down and it hit the ground, so it kinda became too gross to eat.......”
That awkward little add-on left me speechless.
‘Do I hit this bastard one more time?’
Maybe he sensed the killing intent in my very serious stare, because Hyun Dowoon hurriedly continued.
“No, anyway! Like you said, it was way too much for them to chase me over one palm-sized dumpling, right? It’s not like I grabbed the whole pot and ran. It was just one.”
I stopped walking and turned fully toward Hyun Dowoon.
Hyun Dowoon met my eyes, hesitated with an uneasy expression for a moment, then said,
“I think there has to be a reason. If this really is a world made to look real, and the guys chasing me were made too.......”
I didn’t need to hear the rest. In a hardened voice, I asked,
“You mean it’s a space designed to kill you?”
“It’s possible. If those cult bastards created the rift to recover the USB I ran off with.”
“Haa.......”
I let out a deep sigh and lifted my head.
Beyond the trees swaying in the wind, I could see a full moon hanging bright in the sky. Staring at it with a complicated feeling, I said,
“We have to find the others before dawn.”
Right now, I was fine because I’d turned into an S-rank, but once the sun came up, I’d have no choice but to go back to being a Supporter.
If Hyun Dowoon’s guess was right, the two of us moving around together was way too dangerous. No matter how much Cha Sahyeon’s shadow helped, it wasn’t exactly a safe solution.
‘Still, it’s a good thing I ran into him before something really happened to him.’
Even so, it was still bleak.
Just in case, I looked back at Hyun Dowoon.
“Hey. You can use any skills in here... or what?”
Hyun Dowoon stared at me blankly, then shrugged.
“Hey. Just looking at it, there’s no internet or anything. What the hell do you think I can do?”
“Real proud of that, huh.”
Yeah, figures.
A guy with zero abilities and a buffer. What kind of buff am I supposed to give with my skills?
We had to find the other team members as fast as possible before the sun came up.
Kiiik.
The shadow bird perched on my shoulder, watching our conversation, looked like it was giving me a scornful stare for some reason.
***
The laptop Hyun Dowoon pulled out of his inventory with a faint shred of hope was, of course, dead.
In the end, we had no choice but to trudge through the mountains, wandering around and searching for an S-rank dealer who could be anywhere.
‘Please. Kwon Taehyuk, Sunghyun hyung, Guildmaster. No—hell, even Kwon Seoyul, I don’t care, just show up......!’
It was right when I’d given Hyun Dowoon—who was whining that his legs hurt—a break and was doing nothing but letting out heavy sighs.
Kiiik!
The shadow bird I’d sent out to scout came back, crying as it flew in. I raised an arm to give it a place to land and asked,
“Did you find something?”
Kik, kiiik.
The shadow bird nodded its small head, then spread one wing like it was using a hand and pointed to the right.
It was a gesture that looked like it was saying, ‘That way. Go that way.’
Unbelievable. It was that smart. More useful than ten Hyun Dowoons.
“Why the hell are you looking at me like that?”
Dragging Hyun Dowoon along—since he was annoyingly sharp about useless things—I headed where the shadow bird guided us.
Deep in the predawn hours, the mountain was still dark. Beyond the thick, overgrown brush, I could see a faint light.
When we closed the distance, the crackle of a campfire and multiple voices overlapped as they carried over.
Rough, cackling laughter rang loudly, along with the dull clink of cups hitting each other, and there was also the faint sound of something sharp and well-honed sliding against something.
‘They’ve got weapons.’
I wanted to hide Hyun Dowoon somewhere else, but if this space was targeting him, separating him from my side felt even more dangerous.
Grabbing the back of his neck, I closed in further. I hid my body behind the tall brush and looked toward where the light was leaking through.
Sitting around the campfire were men with sturdy builds.
Unlike the burly men who’d been chasing Hyun Dowoon earlier, these guys had a more raw, feral vibe. Most of them wore dark clothes, and instead of clubs, each of them had a sharply honed weapon strapped on.
The most important part was their behavior and the way they spoke. There was a vulgar, dangerous atmosphere about them.
“To run into a merchant caravan isolated out here. Guess today’s our lucky day.”
“Just look at ’em—you can tell they grew up eating expensive meat. Let’s strip ’em clean!”
“Heh heh, acting all high and mighty because they hired some orthodox guys as escorts.”
As I crouched down and eavesdropped, my thoughts stopped for a moment.
“...?”
Hyun Dowoon and I locked eyes instinctively.
If I had to guess, they’d found a merchant caravan crossing the mountain and attacked it.
With how they looked and what they were doing, bandits weren’t exactly surprising. Considering this was a weird place with no internet or anything, it was even less surprising.
But still...
“Orthodox?”
For a second, I thought maybe I’d finally gone crazy and misheard. But judging by Hyun Dowoon’s equally baffled face, I’d heard it right.
“Orthodox... like the ‘orthodox faction’ from wuxia novels?”
Hyun Dowoon muttered under his breath like it was absurd. That made me even more dumbfounded.
“No, I get why I wouldn’t know—I woke up and I’ve been stuck roaming around the mountains the whole time. But you don’t know either, when you even went out to steal dumplings?”
“Do you think commoners selling dumplings sit there arguing about orthodox and unorthodox factions? Ah—don’t tell me that’s why our clothes and hair are this messed up too...!”
Kik, kik.
The shadow bird pecked my knee as I started panicking. Then it spread its wing like a hand again and pointed somewhere.
It was a corner I hadn’t noticed because I’d been distracted by the bandits.
A spot slightly away from the campfire where the light didn’t reach. I could see people sitting with their backs against a big rock.
Every one of them was injured and exhausted, slumped over with their bodies tied up. They looked like survivors from the merchant caravan the bandits had attacked.
‘If we play this right, we can get information.’
If we deal with the bandits and save them, wouldn’t they cooperate? While they’re out cold, if I heal them with my skill on the side, maybe they’ll treat me like a benefactor.
Just as I was running the math in my head fast and cold—
Among the cluster of people, an unusually distinctive color grabbed my attention.
A washed-out, pale pinkish flesh-colored hair.
A face that was freakishly fair from being well-fed and well-raised, and a needlessly huge build.
Hyun Dowoon’s expression twisted as he noticed the same thing.
“That... no way. Is that Kwon Seoyul?”
“......”
I didn’t even feel like answering, so I pressed my lips shut.
Just a moment ago, I’d been desperately wishing I’d run into even Kwon Seoyul if it meant meeting an S-rank dealer, but the second I actually found him, I didn’t want to acknowledge him.
People really are that fickle.
‘Of all the team members, why him...?’
I won’t even ask for Cha Sahyeon, who I have no idea where he is or what he’s doing.
Kwon Taehyuk is here, Ryu Sunghyun is here, Song Jiwoon is here, and Chronos is here too—though I have no idea why he came along so obediently. So why did it have to be Kwon Seoyul?
“Ugh, that bastard’s hair is a total wreck too.”
Of course, Kwon Seoyul’s hair was different from normal too—long enough to fall past his chest.
Unlike Hyun Dowoon, who had his hair tied up high into one bundle, Kwon Seoyul had his tied low, his hair draped over one shoulder, and he was sleeping like he was the most comfortable person in the world.
If the other victims were unconscious from injuries, that bastard was just asleep. Once again, I had the urge to pretend I hadn’t seen him and just pass by.
Seriously. If we’d had even one other S-rank dealer, I would’ve ditched him without hesitation. Gritting my teeth, I asked the shadow bird,
“...Go put out the campfire.”
Kiiik!
The bird cried brightly and shot up into the air.
A moment later, the campfire whooshed out with a gust of strong wind. In the sudden darkness, I swung my scabbard and beat the bandits senseless.
“Kraaaagh!”
“An ambush—kghk!”
“Haa.”
Amid the sound of breaking bones and screams, I let out a sigh.
If Kwon Seoyul woke up, just how much would I have to coax him and babysit him while dragging him around?
It already felt hopeless.