Chapter 10
Chapter 10: The Etiquette Enforcer Erik (2)
“Let me say this upfront: I’m not particularly fond of lies.”
Rustle, rustle!
A heavy baritone voice settled between the sounds of paper and pen.
It was the sound of Erik scattering golden light from his eyes as he threatened the possessors trapped in the underground dungeon.
‘What are you trying to prove?’
Park Chang-ho, a veteran of the possessor detention camp, inwardly snorted at Erik’s words.
“Hmm… Black Mage class.”
“Hiik!”
[Park Chang-ho, 25 years old, Lv.29]
[Class: Warrior (Main weapon: Dual Rapiers)]
[Skills: Continental Common Language, Riemann Kingdom Standard Swordsmanship, Thrust Lv.9, Backstep Lv.3, Air Step Lv.10, Sword Aura Lv.7, Pain Resistance Lv.9]
[Assets: Beginner Rapier×2, Intermediate Potion 6 bottles…..]
Park Chang-ho’s hand stopped writing the documents.
It was because Erik was looking down at the prisoner in the next cell with a cold tone.
‘They said the Black Mage bloodline was dried up…’
He recalled ‘Riferoze Astia,’ whose very name veteran possessors told him never to mention.
The woman who once drove an entire class—Black Mage—to near extinction was Riferoze.
And the giant man right before his eyes was that monster NPC’s disciple.
[……3,400 Gold]
Park Chang-ho tried to finish writing the documents while glancing sideways at the next cell.
But then.
“You lied about your assets too. Do you find my words amusing?”
Something strange was being said.
Even possessed players couldn’t know each other’s inventory contents, so what was he so confident about having been lied about…
Having experienced all sorts of hardships to reach level 29, Park Chang-ho thought this too was just bluffing.
“Hmm, a Black Mage exclusive Ritual Skull Staff. I remember the unlock condition at the shop was 66 kills, and you reduced the elixir count to 1 as well.”
“H-how do you know that……”
Park Chang-ho was also flustered by the conversation he was hearing.
‘What is this?’
The man locked in the next cell was a Chinese user named Sun Wang.
‘Is there a traitor?’
There wasn’t much to do in the detention camp except receive cheap meals passed through the bars.
So those locked in the possessor detention camp talked to each other a lot.
Sun Wang had definitely bragged about having a ‘Ritual Skull Staff’ among his items back then.
‘How does he know the inventory contents?’
As Park Chang-ho was surprised, pale yellow light seeped through the bars.
‘Ah, damn.’
He felt stinging pain that pierced through his Pain Resistance skill.
‘Just from light seeping through, I feel pain?’
As Park Chang-ho was rubbing the back of his hand where the light touched.
“Father’s power reveals all that is hidden.”
A rather fearful voice came from the next cell.
“And holy fire burns away impure things.”
“W-w-wait!”
“The items you hid will serve as traveling money for the afterlife.”
Whoosh.
Along with the sound of flames rising, hazy golden smoke seeped into Park Chang-ho’s cell.
“Kyaaaaargh!!!”
Along with a terrible scream.
‘He’s insane.’
Park Chang-ho got goosebumps.
Even those agents from the Empire’s intelligence department made possessors take out their inventory items as much as possible before killing them.
But this Erik doesn’t do any of that.
[……342,000 Gold, 8 Elixirs, 76 Intermediate Defense Scrolls.]
Park Chang-ho immediately wrote down his inventory items honestly.
The sweet scent of divinity tickling his nose felt quite unpleasant.
[Unique Trait: Sixth Sense (第六感)]
His senses told him he should write down everything in detail—skills, class, and all.
When Park Chang-ho finished his corrections, Erik stood in front of his cell.
“Hmm. Dual rapiers—are you planning to advance to Dual Swordsman for your second job?”
Erik’s shadow covered Park Chang-ho as he looked at the documents.
Park Chang-ho carefully raised his head to look at Erik.
The two eyes shining golden and the divine radiance scattered behind his back were incredibly brilliant, but.
Only his lips seemed twisted, making him feel exactly like the grim reaper.
“I-if you wish, I can change classes too! I bought a ‘Class Change Ticket’ with cash items, no, before possessing… it’s in my inventory……”
To Park Chang-ho desperately talking to survive, Erik said.
“Take out all your items and follow that bulky guy behind me, Jang Du-sik.”
It felt exactly like a thug extorting money.
“B-boss, is this guy the first one?”
The buzz-cut man who followed behind scratched his head as he spoke, making it seem even more so.
It really felt like a gangster from a crime movie had been transported to medieval times.
***
Erik was once Park Ji-hun.
He was someone who leveled most efficiently and became the server’s first to obtain a Paladin character.
After he possessed the character, there were no additional updates to the game.
Possessors were just brought in sequentially.
“Du-sik, do you remember when we first met?”
Having finished confiscating the possessors’ items and reducing their numbers, Erik began organizing items with Jang Du-sik.
“Why are you saying such creepy things?”
While sorting the possessors’ items, Erik recalled old memories.
“You know, that Black Mage bastard who destroyed your hometown.”
“Phew, I thought you were talking about when we met in the back alley. What about that Black Mage bastard?”
“That bastard is also a possessor. No, was a possessor.”
“……I had a feeling that would be the case. The way he burned to death was eerie……”
When Erik was training under his master, he witnessed firsthand the danger of ‘real possessors.’
“660,000 people died then.”
“Huh…… Even combining the entire Empire’s territories, the population isn’t ten million, is it?”
“Crazy numbers. But the guy who just burned to death had killed 66 people.”
Erik’s eyes were fierce.
He leaned more toward hating possessors.
“I don’t know about others, but all Black Mages should die.”
“What will you do with the other guys?”
“I’ll use them and select only those who show potential to reach level 50.”
Erik has his own thoughts.
The reason the Emperor gave him authority was naturally for the Empire’s benefit.
What Erik needed to prove was precisely Labyrinth conquest.
“We need to select the toughest ones to be able to conquer the Labyrinth too.”
“If you put it that way, aren’t Black Mage bastards also useful?”
Smack!
“Ugh.”
“Du-sik, use your brain a little.”
When the divine-powered flick landed, Jang Du-sik rubbed his head vigorously.
Looking at Jang Du-sik, Erik added.
“When I say tough, I don’t mean looking for crazy bastards who kill people left and right, do I? I mean guys who can level up without doing things like murder.”
“I misunderstood.”
“Right, good that you understand.”
Erik had done a great deal of thinking during his 15 years living in this world.
‘Great Cataclysm Patch.’
It was just the name of the main story in the game, but.
In this reality, it becomes the beginning of a terrible disaster.
First, demon realms increase throughout the continent and monsters spawn like crazy.
After that, time limits are placed on Labyrinth floor conquest, and whenever these are violated, random disasters unfold somewhere on the continent.
‘I don’t know the timing, but it will definitely happen.’
Things like magnitude 20 earthquakes occurring.
Ancient dragons awakening from hibernation to destroy cities.
Monster waves sometimes struck the capitals of nations where Labyrinth entrances existed.
‘Why did I think that was fun content?’
Erik shook his head, recalling his days as Park Ji-hun enjoying the game on Earth.
Anyway, Park Ji-hun’s memories weren’t all bad.
He had no interest whatsoever in major NPCs or Easter eggs within the game.
But regarding Labyrinth experience—that is, conquest—he had his own insights.
As a player, he was confident having reached the pinnacle.
“So boss, what kind of place is the Labyrinth exactly?”
Jang Du-sik, having finished organizing items, asked Erik.
Erik had actually experienced the Labyrinth.
He had been there twice following his master, and after that, Erik completely abandoned the thought of entering the Labyrinth.
“Why would I be crazy enough to go somewhere with confirmed danger on my own feet?”
Erik once had such conservative thinking.
At 5 years old, small and thin young Erik found the giant monsters truly terrifying.
At 6 years old, small but capable of handling divine power quite well, monsters were still horrifying and powerful creatures to Erik.
“It’s easy prey.”
But 15-year-old Erik didn’t think that way at all.
“You mean that Labyrinth that even those possessors avoid?”
“Right.”
“Can I trust that?”
“Would I take you there to die?”
“Huh…… That’s also true.”
Jang Du-sik knows Erik well.
Though Erik was twice younger than him, he completely served Erik as his boss.
After learning he was a possessor, he became even more respectful.
‘Boss was a monster-like kid.’
Erik was the boss he was forced to serve after being defeated.
While living together, loyalty bloomed and he treated him as boss, but Jang Du-sik had been inwardly bothered by the age difference.
But Erik revealed that he was a possessor.
‘I didn’t know he was really an older brother.’
When he learned Erik was also older in actual age, Jang Du-sik was very happy.
In the past, he had sometimes been dissatisfied with calling a 7-year-old kid ‘boss’ and following him around…
To Jang Du-sik lost in thought, Erik asked.
“Du-sik. We’re only going to the lower floors—would you alone be enough for ranged DPS?”
“How would I know that? I’ve never been to the Labyrinth……”
“There’s one guy for melee DPS, but not a single volunteer for ranged DPS.”
After confiscating belongings, Erik recruited people to volunteer for the Labyrinth.
Excluding Park Chang-ho, who was a [Warrior], there were no other volunteers.
“Geez, those possessor bastards…… They’re all cowards.”
***
“The Labyrinth’s lower floors have a maximum limit of 5 people, and middle floors consist of parties with a maximum of 10 people.”
Erik gathered the possessors and held a modest deployment ceremony.
The possessors who came out of their barely 3-square-foot cells had to listen to Erik’s speech in front of a menacing guillotine.
‘Barbaric NPC bastard, saying obvious things…… droning on for a whole hour.’
Some selected possessors felt resentful about the situation.
“Since this will be everyone’s first time in the Labyrinth in reality, pay attention and listen.”
Erik formed a 5-person party.
Excluding Jang Du-sik and volunteer Park Chang-ho, the remaining two people were selected by combining the status window information written in documents with specs Erik personally confirmed.
“I-I’m level 1, am I really going into the Labyrinth?”
A woman with short hair and a slender build asked with reddened eyes, as if pleading.
Tears welled up in her cute, round eyes.
“You absolutely must enter.”
[Kang Pung-ho/34 years old, Lv.1]
[Class: Archer]
[Unique Trait: Rapid Growth]
“I-I really haven’t committed any crimes!”
“What you did wrong isn’t important. You were selected because you’re suitable.”
Erik looked at the Archer class Kang Pung-ho and coldly spat out his words.
“Treating a weak woman like this……”
From Erik’s perspective.
‘Her unique trait is extremely rare and…… her mental state is strange……’
Kang Pung-ho was a woman who wouldn’t be inadequately called an irregular.
And the short-haired woman with a slender figure, Kang Pung-ho, was originally a man.
“Kang Pung-ho, you wrote the name Kang Ji-na on your documents.”
“What-! Crazy, how do you know that?”
“Didn’t I tell you? There’s nothing I can’t see with divine power.”
The atmosphere became tense with Erik’s single statement.
The [Rapid Growth] trait was also quite a special case.
But more than that, a case of a man possessing a woman felt even rarer.
‘Even master only saw it twice……’
Erik’s master, Riferoze Astia, was the one who caught the most possessors worldwide.
The game had at least over a million concurrent users, so Erik’s master must have encountered an untold number of possessors.
“I-I chose a female character……”
“Hmm, are you lying again?”
Selecting male or female characters is impossible in the game.
‘It’s a game where you play with predetermined characters, what nonsense.’
When Erik lit holy fire on his index finger tip.
“S-sorry……”
Kang Pung-ho hung her head down.
Even if she was a harmless level 1 possessor, Erik had no intention of letting his guard down.
“Geez, possessor bastards even mess with gender as they please.”
After the brief gender issue ended.
Erik quickly finished the deployment ceremony.
“Weapons will be distributed inside the Labyrinth.”
He assigned positions matching each person’s class and provided healing potions for possessors who couldn’t receive divine power healing.
All potions provided by the Empire were high-grade, but.
“L-low-grade potions…… only heal minor scratches!”
What Erik distributed was only 10 low-grade potions total.
“There are healing miracles.”
As he spoke while emanating divinity, the possessors could only shut their mouths like mutes who ate honey.
‘Not even real gangsters……’
They just felt sorry for themselves, being forcibly drafted to conquer the Labyrinth.
Erik took the party members lined up on the guillotine platform toward the Labyrinth entrance.
“Cheap, it’s cheap!”
“Selling Magic Tower clearance potions!”
A seven-day market opened in the huge plaza.
Crowds seeing off families departing for the Labyrinth.
District 3’s Labyrinth Plaza was truly packed with people.
“Erik!”
Unlike other possessors, Erik had family to see him off.
“Erik brother!”
“You have to bring presents when you come back!!”
“Kids! Thwack!”
It was Ruelle and the orphanage children.
Erik walked past the children toward Ruelle.
“Priest Ruelle.”
Erik bowed his head looking at Ruelle, whose eyes were dripping with pride.
“Hehe, should I call you Pilgrim Erik?”
“The work I’m currently assigned is as Director of the Possessor Detention Camp Management Bureau.”
“Really? Then Director Erik?”
“Don’t do that, it’s embarrassing.”
Erik felt awkward.
Wouldn’t this be the look in a mother’s eyes watching her grown child?
‘I never experienced this on Earth, but I’m feeling it all here……’
It was really touching.
Receiving gifts made it even more so.
“One is a lunchbox to eat there, and this is something Lady Riferoze told me to give you.”
Ruelle carefully took out two subspace pouches from the luxury bag on her shoulder.
Ruelle’s special lunchbox and something the master had entrusted, but the timing of the latter didn’t make sense.
“What did master entrust? She’s been gone for over 5 years.”
“She entrusted it 5 years ago, telling me to give it to you when you enter the Labyrinth.”
Erik tilted his head at Ruelle’s words.
The moment Erik tried to take out the item from the subspace pouch.
“Huh? That”
One possessor looked at Ruelle with wide eyes and.
“Ho.”
Seemed about to say something.
Review at
NovelUpdate
Please make a review, it is at an all time low.