Chapter 77
Chapter 77
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 77
Chapter Title: The Black Room
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077
Tremble.
Gu Seunghun's eyes shook.
He seemed unable to properly grasp the current situation.
"Even without making a deal with demons."
Gu Seunghun collapsed.
"There are humans just like them."
Thud!
Gu Seunghun fell.
Boom!
Ratna's resonance array shattered completely.
The linked sealing barriers broke simultaneously.
It all happened in an instant.
"Go Yohan...!"
As expected of the elite unit, the Association's White Agents rushed toward Go Yohan.
Clang!
But Go Minji's twin blades, which had pushed forward, repelled the Association agents.
"Yohan!"
Shin Sookyeong, Go Jaehan, Go Woojin—they were the same.
The Sanctuary Alliance was charging from the opposite side.
"......!"
The Association members' faces turned pale.
The resonance array was broken, and Gu Seunghun was dead.
By Go Yohan's single strike.
In that situation, facing off against both Divinity and the Sanctuary Alliance was nothing short of suicide, no matter how one looked at it.
Grip.
But they were Association members.
They had to uphold order and discipline in the players' world.
"Everyone... charge in with the intent to die."
In the standoff, the apparent leader of the White Agents said.
"We can't back down here."
"......Understood."
Judging right from wrong could come later.
For now, they just had to punish the one who committed an irredeemable crime before their eyes.
Rumble!
It was then.
"Don't forget that feeling."
"Yohan?"
"Right now...."
Go Yohan pushed Go Minji aside and stepped forward.
"What?"
"Judging right from wrong can come later."
It was as if he had read their minds.
"That resolve to punish those who commit unforgivable acts."
Was he actually reading their thoughts?
"Your eyes tell me so."
No, it was the resolute gaze of the Association members.
It was the same gaze Go Yohan had seen countless times before—and the one he himself had once had.
"Yohan."
"I'm fine."
Go Yohan said to Shin Sookyeong.
"Please step back."
He said the same to the Sanctuary Alliance.
Unlike Divinity, who didn't easily sheathe their swords.
Shing.
The Sanctuary Alliance sheathed their weapons at Go Yohan's command and retreated immediately.
"Hey!"
"...Sis, please."
"Think it through."
Go Minji said to Go Yohan's back.
"No matter how confident you are, the opponents are the Association... It won't end easily."
Worry dripped from her sharp tone.
"It's okay. I have no intention of putting more people in a difficult spot here."
Go Yohan approached the White Agents.
Flinch.
They trembled but didn't retreat.
"Mom, it'll be fine."
"......Yohan."
"Thank you all for worrying."
He truly hadn't expected them to go this far.
"And I'm sorry."
If he had known this was what family meant, things might have been a little different.
Reach.
Go Yohan extended his hand.
"I saw this in movies."
Go Yohan said to the White Agents.
At that sight, the White Agents couldn't help but let out hollow laughs.
The great villain who had just torn Kim Doha apart and pierced Gu Seunghun's heart wore the face and eyes of a twenty-year-old youth.
"......Fuck, is he really possessed by a demon or something?"
"We surrender."
"......Thank you."
But the White Agents had no choice but to accept.
"There are a lot of eyes watching, so we won't cuff you right away. Anyway...."
Snicker.
If Go Yohan used his power, the prepared restraints probably couldn't hold him anyway.
"Then... Player Go Yohan."
The White Agents surrounded Go Yohan and said.
"You are under arrest for... Bieren Guild Master Kim Doha and Bieren Guild members...."
The list of charges was read.
"...and the murder of Association President Gu Seunghun."
Rustle!
Everyone could see that scene.
*
*
*
Deep within the Korea Player Association headquarters was a place called the Black Room, not open to the public.
Dozens of layered barriers, an independent space shrouded entirely in black.
It was akin to creating a gate of sorts.
After the Emperor incident—one of the top rankers in the past—this space had been established in Associations worldwide.
The man called the Emperor, the world No. 1 ranker, one day went mad and committed a massacre.
To capture him, nearly a thousand ranker-level players from around the world were deployed, and they finally succeeded in taking him alive.
But there was no way to restrain such an Emperor.
"This is...."
The Black Room.
The exile ground for the dethroned Emperor was right here.
Constructed in each Association, it was a space to confine the worst criminals emerging within the Association's sphere of influence.
"Black Room...."
Even among Association members, very few knew the true nature of the Black Room, and even fewer had set foot inside.
In Korea, it had never even been opened until now.
"I've only heard rumors; this is my first time seeing it for real."
A great villain had been imprisoned here just a few days ago.
"......"
Kim Dayeon, the head of the Association's Investigation Department, was speechless at the sight of the actual Black Room.
It was as if a single small room floated in an isolated space.
And inside it, a man was bound head to toe in bizarre restraints, his eyes even covered.
"We meet again?"
Hwang Cheolha, the Association's Enforcement Chief and one of the White Agents, said to her—a senior colleague of Kim Dayeon.
Nod.
Kim Dayeon nodded silently.
She didn't have the courage to lie in front of Hwang Cheolha, nor was it something she could hide.
"Why do you think you're here?"
Hwang Cheolha asked.
"No need to be scared. Just because you know Go Yohan doesn't mean we're going after you too."
Hwang Cheolha scratched his head.
"In fact, we couldn't even if we wanted to. Divinity's pressure is intense right now."
"......"
What Hwang Cheolha said was true.
Divinity kept demanding that they release Go Yohan or at least provide a way to confirm his safety.
Korea No. 1, and though the Association was above them, Divinity's power was considerable.
"Congressmen and politicians are in an uproar too. Makes sense—they nearly died that day."
If Go Yohan's hand hadn't been limited to Geona, Bieren, and the Association President.
Gulp.
It could have led to a massacre that shook a huge part of Korea.
"The funny thing is, even so, some congressmen are siding with Divinity. The Prime Minister too."
Divinity.
"That's why."
Hwang Cheolha said.
"You're Go Yohan's handler and investigator. It's a demand from Divinity, and we've judged we should comply to that extent."
"Ah."
Only then did Kim Dayeon understand.
Go Minji, who knew her well, had recommended her as a trustworthy person from the Association's side.
At the same time, she became the one responsible for interrogating Go Yohan and ensuring his safety.
"Lucky or unlucky, huh."
Hwang Cheolha scratched the back of his neck.
The scale of this incident was far too massive.
The media was in a frenzy even now, and not just Korea—the whole world was watching.
And to Kim Dayeon, the situation felt even larger.
Go Yohan's power, hidden from the public eye.
'If those move....'
Wouldn't a lot of things get overturned?
"Anyway, what you need to know is those things, and this button."
"A button?"
"It's connected to the Black Room. If you press this."
Hwang Cheolha's eyes sharpened.
"The Black Room moves to somewhere truly isolated from the world."
"......What does that mean?"
"I don't know the details either. It's something the World Association created. Anyway, think of it as erasing Go Yohan's existence from this world."
Gulp.
"Nervous?"
"......Saying no would be a lie."
"Be nervous."
Hwang Cheolha looked at Kim Dayeon with cold eyes.
"A lot is riding on your hands. If you were close to the President—no, former President—you'd know. Go Yohan has more hidden than what's revealed."
As if finishing the handover, Hwang Cheolha headed for the door.
"One more thing: Russia has loaded nuclear weapons, and a huge number of world-class rankers are trying to enter Korea."
Wait.
"That's just what we can grasp... I dare say. Can't comprehend it?"
Hwang Cheolha grinned.
"This is the eye of the storm, and that button... it will truly decide a lot."
That was the end.
And.
"Huff, huff...."
Overwhelmed by surging tension and fear, Kim Dayeon barely leaned against the panel to keep from collapsing.
'Tumult.'
Yes, the world was in tumult right now.
News trickled in between: some guild wiped out overnight.
The owner of some company found hanged.
And.
"......Go Yohan."
The suspicion that Go Yohan was connected to all of it.
"Just... what are you?"
Terrified, Kim Dayeon stared at the screen showing the Black Room.
*
*
*
"Ivan!"
Russia's Defense Minister Mikhail shouted.
Beside him was Nikolai, the puppet president.
"This is madness!"
Mikhail cried out in anguish.
On Ivan's orders, twenty Russian nuclear submarines had armed nuclear weapons.
"The Association contacted us—they're expelling you, Ivan!"
It was true that Ivan, from Russia's Intelligence Bureau, had long held real power.
His secretly entrenched faction dominated Russia's landscape, and even Nikolai standing beside him was Ivan's man.
"You too! Him too! You're all insane!"
Mikhail shouted.
"Didn't you see the video? He did that in front of the whole world! Even we Russians wouldn't do such a thing!"
It was then.
"Nikolai."
Ivan called the current president's name.
"Is your thinking the same?"
"......"
And.
Bang!
A gunshot rang out.
Mikhail's body crumpled to the floor.
"A shame. He was useful... but."
Ivan's eyes were bloodshot.
"Being a non-player limits what he can see, regrettably."
Holding Temple's leash, visited by Temple's powerbroker.
Sloth and Greed had shown Ivan.
"The path to Russia's glory."
Those like the former president spouting insane ideas of breaking through hardship by warring with neighbors.
"Nikolai. You haven't answered yet. What do you think?"
Were the evils to be purged for Russia's glory.