Chapter 127
Chapter 127
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 127
Chapter Title: Mysterious Gladiator
-----------------------------------------------------------------
A cold stone floor saturated with the stench of sweat, blood, and iron.
That was the defining feature of the place where I was currently imprisoned.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [ Uwaaaaaah!! ] From outside came the cheers of countless people and the faint clanging of metal.
And the final sound always heard was...
Splurt—!
“Grahhh!”
The sound of human flesh bursting open, followed by a scream.
‘...What do I do?’
The place I was in was the underground prison beneath Perion Arena, where brutal life-or-death battles raged above.
In this spot that could generously be called a fighters’ waiting room...
I watched the bloody duels exploding across the vast arena through a window like one in a dingy basement apartment.
‘How the hell did I end up here? Why?’
My head was a whirlwind of confusion.
I was just an ordinary young guy from South Korea.
Yet suddenly, I’d woken up possessed in the body of some unfamiliar young man and found myself locked up here.
“Next, number 2744.”
At that moment, a bored voice from beyond the iron bars echoed down the dark corridor.
A rusty screech of metal accompanied by heavy footsteps rang out.
Thud. Thud.
No, was that really a person?
It was far too weighty a sound for any human.
Like an adult man hefting three others on his back and stomping forward with vigor. The noise reverberated through the corridor, and I couldn’t help but gulp.
I soon learned the reason for such ponderous steps when the next match began.
‘Is that even human?’
A towering height of at least two meters and change.
And a build to match—massive.
Not just fat, but like his entire body was clad in armor of pure muscle.
Yeah, straight out of a movie Viking.
Double the actor’s bulk, and you’d get that.
‘I have to fight that...? No way...’
The hulking man was the one just called as number 2744.
He’d been locked in the same cell—no, waiting room—as me until his turn came, and now he stood out there.
He gripped a massive axe perfectly suited to his frame.
Had I been standing before him, that axe would’ve cleaved my skull in half before I could blink.
Imagining such a gruesome end, I silently wished rest for his opponent.
But then, an astonishing reversal unfolded.
Slash—!!
“Grraaaahh!!”
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [ Uwaaaaaaaaah—!! ] It wasn’t the opponent whose head was split by the axe.
The colossus no one thought could be beaten had been bisected by a shockingly ordinary-looking man far shorter than him.
With a sharp glint in his eyes, the victor casually shook the blood from his blade and strolled off.
An unbelievable turn of events in the blink of an eye.
‘This place really is...’
Seeing that, I could finally believe it for sure.
The existence of such a giant human was game-like enough on its own.
But for an average guy around 180 cm to cleave him in two with a single stroke?
A physical impossibility.
—I’d definitely been possessed into a game world.
‘Shit, that makes it even worse.’
The problem was I hadn’t become some harmless village NPC—no, for some reason, I was a gladiator in an arena where losers died.
A place totally unrelated to the game I’d played.
One that only got a passing text mention as “something like that exists in this country,” and now I was forced to fight there.
“How the hell am I supposed to beat something like that...”
Neither the two-meter titan nor the freak who’d halved him in one swing...
I couldn’t imagine beating either.
Unless I got “Lucky Man” levels of fortune where my opponent tripped and stabbed himself by accident.
“I have to escape...”
That was the only way.
Somehow seize an opportunity, break out of here, and find a way back to my original world.
With that thought, I dropped from the window I’d been peering through and scanned the room.
An empty cell with just a single rickety chair—nothing useful in sight.
That was when it happened.
“Escape? But you’d be better off staying here than trying that.”
My immediate neighbor cell.
It had to be structured the same as mine, like a prison.
Another gladiator next door?
But it was a woman’s voice.
One utterly unsuited to this blood-soaked carnage—delicately beautiful.
Yeah, the kind of sultry, succubus-like charm that would dominate as a VTuber and toy with her fans’ hearts.
“Better off there... what do you mean?”
“If you escape, the guards will hunt you down way harsher than any gladiator. They’ll kill you on sight.”
“Hah, but... once I’m out, it’d be hard for them to track me.”
I shot back immediately at her attempt to scare me, whoever she was.
From what I remembered, stepping outside Perion led straight to Rendil’s massive marketplace.
It was daytime now, so the market would be teeming with people.
If I slipped into the crowd, even the guards wouldn’t spot me.
But the woman next door giggled as if mocking me.
“Hahaha! With that many people outside, you think you can dodge every pair of eyes?”
“...What are you talking about?”
“Duh... You’re a wanted criminal.”
“......What?”
“Wanted posters of you are plastered everywhere. Hehe, people’ll spot you and report you like ‘jackpot!’ thinking of the bounty on your head.”
Her words plunged me into confusion.
I’m... a wanted man?
So the guy I’d possessed was a criminal?
‘Well, that explains why they locked him up.’
These deadly gladiator matches usually featured slave fighters.
Or criminals.
Looks like I was the latter.
‘Judging by his face, maybe a con artist?’
No, it didn’t matter what this guy had done.
What mattered was that going outside meant drawing eyes to his wanted bounty.
Best case, recaptured. Worst, murdered by some opportunist.
“Hey, want me to help?”
A hopeful offer came from the now-silent neighboring cell.
“Help me? Uh, how?”
“Simple. Your face is the problem. Just cover it, right?”
True—if they didn’t know my face, at least random passersby wouldn’t grab me.
“But there’s... nothing here to cover with.”
“Don’t worry. I said I’d help.”
The moment her prim voice trailed off, something incredible happened.
Shwoosh!
“Whoa!”
Something materialized out of thin air, and I caught it on reflex.
“This is...”
“That should cover your face plenty, yeah?”
A helmet had appeared from nowhere.
A full-face iron helm that concealed everything.
The medieval kind with tiny slits for vision.
“Thank you. But how did you...”
“Get it to you? Easy. It’s my specialty—space magic.”
“Whoa...”
Magic.
If this was the world of Epiris Academy, magic wasn’t anything special.
This was a world of swords and sorcery, after all.
I immediately donned the helmet she’d sent over.
‘Good, no one’ll recognize my face now.’
All that was left was to escape this place...
Hold on.
“Hey, if you can use space magic... W-would you escape with me?”
If she could teleport a helmet through the air like that...
Maybe she could move a human body somewhere too.
And if so, I could get out safe without lifting a finger.
“H-hey? If you get out, I’ll reward you somehow...! Hey...!”
“......”
“H-hey! Hey!”
But something was off.
After handing over the helmet, her voice from next door vanished.
What? Suddenly ignoring me?
I pounded desperately on the stone wall, begging for a response—
“Next! 3702! Get out here.”
Just like before, the guard outside called my number and thudded over.
And...
He stopped right in front of my cell’s bars.
‘......I’m so fucked.’
I stared blankly at the guard as he indifferently unlocked the door.
In the end, I hadn’t even attempted an escape—just hid my face behind some weird helmet and got dragged away.
“Hey, move it!”
Led out of the cell by the guard, I paused briefly to peer into the next cell.
To check on the woman who’d helped but then gone silent.
But strangely...
It was empty.
Cold, vacant iron bars.
Just... like someone had been there.
A pile of black ash mounded on the floor.
Like a leaf crushed after expending every last nutrient.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ ⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [ Uwaaaaaaaaah—!! ] [ Introducing the next gladiator! ] In the end, I was dragged out here and left standing in despair.
This place might as well have been a slaughterhouse to me.
‘If I die, will I wake up back in my original world?’
A vast clearing of cold dirt.
Towering walls encircled it like barriers, packed spectator stands above crammed with countless people.
They howled in excitement at the blood and sweat of battle, cheering on someone about to die.
And across from me stood my opponent.
“Kihit, kiheheh.”
From a distance, he leered at me with a grotesque smile that sounded like laughter.
In his hands, oddly shaped crescent blades.
Scimitars, no doubt.
The man wielded them two-handed in a dual-wield stance.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [ From the east, the infamous killer who once terrorized Rendil! The Flesh Eater Azrol! ] Wow, my opponent was a murderer.
More like, the content of that nickname bugged me.
Flesh Eater?
Didn’t that make him a cannibal before anything else...?
For some reason, he stared at me with eerie eyes while licking his scimitars.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [ Azrol is the infamous slayer who filled Rendil’s nights with fear. He wields his pair of unique swords with masterful freedom—twenty soldiers had to rush him at once just to capture him! Without his habit of slicing off and eating a bit of his victims’ flesh, even identifying him would’ve been impossible. A cunning criminal through and through! ] In other words, my foe was a monster it took twenty trained soldiers to subdue.
The crowd roared in acclaim at his fearsome record, cheering the criminal as a hero for this moment.
In this blood-drenched hell, their heroes were solely those who slew with brutality.
And the sacrifice was...
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [ And now, the west side fighter! ...Uh, name and identity unknown. Ah! But word is the face under that helmet is strikingly handsome! If he falls to Azrol, we can look forward to the reveal on the corpse! ] With apparently nothing to say, the announcer wrapped up my intro with some truly gracious well-wishes.
I didn’t need to hear what’d happen after I died, thanks.
“......Fuck.”
Sensing my impending death, I gripped the sweat-slick hilt of my sword tight.
Could I survive?
Surely not every match ended in death.
I wanted to believe that.
Just that every fighter so far hadn’t escaped it.
That was my only sliver of hope.
‘Somehow... even if I lose an arm, just let me keep my life...’
My heart pounded like it’d burst as cold sweat poured down.
The helmet grew stifling with my ragged, hot breaths; my hands and legs began to shake.
And then.
Bwaaaaaah—!
The trumpet blared across the arena, signaling the fight’s start.
The monster before me’s eyes gleamed as a chilling grin split his face, and he lunged.
“Kyahaaaa!!”
Had he sensed my terror even through the helmet?
He charged straight at me without a hint of caution.
Like a leopard pouncing on a helpless rabbit.
An apt simile.
I really was that rabbit—utterly powerless.
“Uwaaaaaah!!”
If I begged for a painless end, would he grant it?
That idiot thought flashed through my screaming mind.
One step. Two steps.
His rapid footfalls multiplied with each stride.
His razor-sharp twin blades drew nearer.
Which meant my death was closing in.
And so...
“Dieee!! Kyahaaaa!!”
The demon-faced man, grinning gleefully at someone’s doom, barreled right up to me.
When he was close enough for his blades to graze...
He swung both scimitars horizontally in unison.
Was it my death-heightened senses?
I realized their path was aimed precisely at my neck.
With that, I prayed for a peaceful end.
And closed my eyes.
‘...Ken, don’t close your eyes.’ For a moment, I thought I heard a man’s voice—familiar yet unheard before.
And my eyes snapped open of their own accord.
Then...
Whoosh!
The twin blades I’d thought would sever my head in an instant...
I dodged with a swift duck of the waist, shockingly agile even to me.
And that voice echoed in my ears once more.
‘Dodged it? Then don’t just stand there like an idiot. Swing your sword.’ For some reason, hearing that voice cleared my mind astonishingly.
My racing heart settled to a steady beat.
Strength flowed into my trembling hands and arms.
‘Good.’ And with that, I thrust the sword in my hand forward.
Sharp and precise.
As if I’d swung it ten thousand times before.