Chapter 40
Chapter 40
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 40
Chapter Title: Liar (1)
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A space where all light had been extinguished.
I couldn't even see my own body, so for a moment I groped around blindly.
I had my smartphone, so I could use the flash. But pulling something like that out here would be no different from suicide.
I huddled in a corner and cranked my phone's brightness to maximum.
Relying on the faint glow, I rummaged through my pouch and pulled out two potions.
A blue one and a transparent one.
The blue was Cold Thirst. A potion that boosted mana regeneration for about an hour. Side effects didn't matter right now.
The transparent one was Night Vision Potion. Something I'd whipped up on the side from leftover ingredients while making various resistance potions.
The moment I downed them, I felt the effects kick in. The mana depleted from tackling the labyrinth started refilling rapidly, and my vision—which hadn't been able to see an inch ahead—began to clear up hazily.
It wasn't bright by any means, but this should be enough to secure some visibility.
With my sight restored, I scanned my surroundings. Countless types of corpses littered the ground.
The Endless Abyss didn't turn bodies into mana stones.
Which meant I had to endure the putrid stench of death.
I kept Perception Impairment at maximum as I walked. There was no need to worry about combat possibilities. In the Endless Abyss, fighting was synonymous with death.
A place where monsters drifted in from every dimension waged brutal turf wars.
Surviving here meant you'd clawed your way through that chaos.
Kkiiiii...
My body froze at the wail echoing from every direction. A grotesque shriek that couldn't possibly come from any living creature.
I finally exhaled.
It was just the sound. That meant I was still safe. Still...
Squelch.
I stepped forward, crushing corpses underfoot.
How long had it been since Jin Seohyun fell into the Endless Abyss?
It had to be well over twenty hours by now.
All I could do was hope I wasn't too late.
The silver lining amid the misfortune was that Jin Seohyun and I had drifted into the same dimension.
So our drop points shouldn't be too far apart.
I just hoped she hadn't wandered too far.
It was a truly embarrassing story.
There was a time when I didn't see people as people.
Back then, reality was just a game to me.
An ideal game that guaranteed infinite freedom.
No restrictions from predetermined coding. No limits on actions.
I could act however I wanted and see the results immediately.
Therefore,
in this world, I was the only real person.
Everyone else was just game characters or NPCs.
That sense of being chosen bled into my everyday life too.
Even in moments of chatting, joking, laughing, and hanging out, I couldn't show my true self.
Every interaction with others came with a whisper in the corner of my mind.
...They're just game characters anyway.
I couldn't get close. I couldn't open up.
They were targets to exploit and conquer, not friends.
Days of arrogance where I refused to accept people as people.
Maybe that's why I went berserk at Red Potion.
I wasn't angry at the deaths of countless people. My rage was more fundamental.
I was furious at the alchemists—at those eyes that could perpetrate such acts.
Eyes that didn't see people as people.
The old Han Yujin was there.
The me from a path not taken.
If my arrogance had dug just a little deeper, I might not have been so different from them.
I wanted to deny those eyes claiming, "We're fundamentally different from you."
So it wasn't righteous anger.
It was self-loathing.
I had no clever plan.
Wandering endlessly in the hopes of stumbling upon Jin Seohyun was my only option.
Like searching for a needle in a desert.
I kept one hand on my notepad as I walked, noting my current position while scanning around.
Finding her wouldn't help if I got lost myself.
The Endless Abyss was a jumbled mess of structures and landscapes with no rhyme or reason.
Climb over what looked like a white temple ruin, and suddenly a vast forest sprawled out.
A dreamlike scene that defied all logic.
The forest trees were barren. Roots rotted away, trunks shriveled and stunted.
Beyond the pathetic woods, I spotted flames.
A small flicker dancing in midair, drawing closer this way.
Should I run?
No, moving might just draw more attention.
No guarantee my ability would keep me hidden.
I carefully crouched and flattened myself to the ground. Then I reached out, dragging a nearby corpse toward me.
The stench didn't faze me. My sense of smell had gone numb ages ago.
Thud. Thud.
The ground trembled. The footsteps grew louder alongside the flames.
Soon, I identified it.
A colossal frame that shook the earth, two horns jutting from its forehead, a burning trident gripped in its hand.
A Hell Guard lumbered past me.
My breath caught. Even at maximum Perception Impairment, I couldn't relax.
This was a monster from S-rank gates.
Please, just keep going. I clamped down on my quivering body.
Thud. Thud.
Fortunately, it didn't spare me a glance. The footsteps faded into the distance.
Only after the flames vanished could I move again.
I calmed my pounding heart and hauled myself up. If it'd spotted me, I wouldn't have resisted—just crushed like a bug.
I resumed my shaky steps.
I kept walking even after exiting the forest.
How much farther had I gone?
My body, pushed nonstop since the labyrinth, screamed in protest, and the unrelenting tension gnawed at my mind.
Dragging my exhausted frame, I came to a stop.
A hunched back, crouched in a squat. Human-sized, exactly.
The body twitched intermittently—definitely alive.
My heart raced. I approached slowly from behind.
"Jin Seohyun?"
The body froze. It rose and turned around.
My expression hardened.
— Kuruk?
Where a human face should have been sat a crow's head. Blood dripped from the beak that had just been pecking at corpses.
The crow-human, a Plague Crow, gaped its beak at me.
'Death!'
I reflexively activated my ability. It thrashed in agony, but it didn't look like it would collapse, so I bolted without looking back.
— Kya aaaak!
A furious screech of rage.
I ran until the stench of blood filled my mouth. Until my lungs burned and I couldn't go farther.
Huu, heok, heuk.
As I gasped for breath, something welled up in my throat.
"Kuhuk!"
A handful of blood sprayed from my cough. Abnormal hemoptysis.
No way. I hiked up my clothes and checked my skin.
Part of my lower abdomen was blackened and rotting away.
The darkness spread visibly fast.
Plague Crow's Corruption.
I thought I'd reacted instantly, but was it too late?
With trembling hands, I opened my pouch, pulled out a glass vial, and poured it over the wound.
The advancing black halted momentarily. But that was it.
The Corruption lingered, spreading slowly.
It was just a neutralizer using a similar antidote—not a true cure.
Who could've predicted I'd take a hit from Corruption? This was the best I had for now.
I forced my staggering body onward.
When had I been able to wipe away that bitter sneer?
When had I started seeing people as people?
The image that surfaced was a girl with sparkling amber eyes, grinning playfully.
When someone who'd been a game character to me came looking for me.
Back then, there was only one reason I saved her.
I didn't want my potential party member dying so soon.
It wasn't sadness or worry. It was regret.
A purely gamer mindset: this character shouldn't waste away so pointlessly.
Even knowing they were alive and moving, to me they were all the same.
Ultimately, just game characters.
So after rescuing her, I didn't seek her out. I wasn't after any reward.
That's why I never expected her to come find me. Not a matter of personality or inevitability—a fundamental issue.
Game characters couldn't do that.
A game character seeking out the player and expressing thanks? Impossible.
But Jin Seohyun did.
She found me. Bowed her head in gratitude. Repaid the favor.
That's when I realized.
She wasn't a character made of 0s and 1s. She was a living person.
It wasn't a game.
It was reality.
"Kuhk!"
Blood stained my palm dark red from the cough. I could feel my body dying bit by bit.
Yet I kept walking forward.
Stumbling like I might collapse any second, but I pressed on to find her.
'Because she's my friend.'
That answer I'd given Nam Soyul was the purest truth.
It wasn't about losing my top supporter,
or saving a potential party member,
or any rational, logical reason.
It was foolish, emotional,
and the one honest wish I'd ever had.
I wanted to see Jin Seohyun one more time.