The Faceless One
The man standing far above the pig. So far above, in fact, that the difference was like comparing the sky to the dirt. The man with ashen curly hair introduced himself exactly that way.
His bronze skin carried a faint tan from the sun. In this filthy underground sewer choked with filth and mold, he wore a pristine white suit without a single stain or wrinkle.
“Oh, and just so you know, the friend lying over there is a colleague of mine too. Well, past tense now, I suppose.”
The man pointed at the corpse sprawled across the floor. It was the remains of a test subject—face mutilated, internal organs spilling out in a grotesque mess. Solomon frowned and asked,
“Did that corpse take the same request I did?”
“That’s right. Actually, there was one more besides him, but he ended up in the creature’s stomach and got digested early.”
“...Two others besides me got taken out?”
The sheer absurdity left Solomon unable to even curse. The man nodded and snapped his fingers.
Crunch!
Right after, a sewer rat that had been trying to scurry between them exploded on the spot. It was the same rat that had burst from the corpse’s jawbone just as Solomon was about to launch his ambush.
“That rat was...”
“A familiar. The eyes and ears of the underground mages.”
The man shrugged.
“Even now, they’re listening in on us like the little rats they are.”
Starting with that rat, the swarms lurking throughout the sewer burst apart one after another. At the very least, it was clear the man in front of him had nothing to do with the Sewer Magic Tower.
Moreover, his skill was obviously on another level.
“Why did you show up in front of me?”
“No matter how cheap a fixer’s life is in this business, I can’t just sit back and watch three of us get used as lab rats. That’s the bare minimum of professional courtesy—”
“You don’t exactly look like you’re here to save me.”
“Well, when you get down to it, whether two die or three die doesn’t make much difference. I’m just saying the words.”
So in the end, he really was calling their lives cheap as flies.
“The truth is, you’re here for the reputation of the ‘organization’ we belong to, not our actual lives.”
“Oh, sharp eye. Not bad. Want to try saying a few more things to score some points?”
The bronze-skinned man grinned with easy charm. Solomon asked incredulously,
“Why the hell would I?”
“Getting on your superior’s good side is the basics of surviving in society, isn’t it?”
“...The Sewer Magic Tower claimed the experiment failed and the subject escaped.”
“Correct.”
“It probably wasn’t a failure at all. More accurately, this whole thing was part of the experiment.”
Solomon wasn’t trying to impress the man. He was simply piecing together his own deductions to make sense of the situation.
“The real test was probably evaluating the performance of a living weapon. They must have had a supply contract with one of the Downtown guilds. And they tricked us with the request details so they could use us as the ‘lab rats.’”
In other words, they had been the test subjects from the very beginning.
INSIGHT GREAT SUCCESS! The mysterious man in the suit reveals his clear satisfaction with your razor-sharp deduction!
The man smiled, visibly pleased.
“In this line of work, trust is everything. Once you lose it, it’s all over.”
After laughing, he continued.
“The kind of trust that says if you stab me in the back, I’ll definitely smash your skull open.”
“And proving that ‘trust’ is your job, I take it.”
“That was the plan, but...”
The man shrugged, then gave Solomon a meaningful look.
“Well, this is surprising! The very person who should have had his skull caved in is still alive and kicking! My, my, how remarkable!”
“......”
The man shrugged theatrically and laughed. Just as he said, the one who had been stabbed in the back by the Sewer Magic Tower was Solomon himself.
He had genuinely felt the threat of death. He really could have died. Just like the man said, Solomon understood the importance of trust on a bone-deep level.
“So, interested?”
“...In what?”
“In reclaiming that trust with your own two hands.”
This world wasn’t the one Solomon knew. Then again, even the world he knew wasn’t all that different. Those who let themselves be treated like fools without fighting back always became prey, no matter where you went.
That was why he needed to make it clear.
—If you stab me in the back, you’re definitely going to regret it.
The question is whether I have the ability to follow through right now.
Still, what ultimately decided everything was power and the logic of the strong.
“Well, what you do after getting slapped on the right cheek is up to you.”
Watching him, the man added,
“But if getting slapped makes you want to split the bastard’s skull open with an axe, then come find me at Hotel Snark.”
“Hotel Snark—”
“The one in Ghosttown. You can’t possibly be hearing about it for the first time, right?”
“Of course not.”
It wasn’t the first time he’d heard of it. He had read the setting in the rulebook. Even so, Solomon lightly furrowed his brow.
It was precisely because of that ‘setting.’
“If you don’t show up within three days, I’ll assume you’re offering the other cheek as well.”
“One more question.”
“Ah, ask away. Anything you like.”
“What should I call you?”
“Ooh, now that’s a difficult question. Quite philosophical, too. Even I’m not entirely sure who I am.”
The man gave a sly laugh at Solomon’s words.
“I have so many names, you see. Most people just call me ‘the Faceless One.’”
INFORMATION ACQUIRED! The man before you has identified himself as the Faceless One.
“Whether you believe it or not is entirely up to you.”
A heavyweight among heavyweights in this city. A contractor that everyone knows of… and yet no one truly knows.
A heavyweight among heavyweights.
“......”
“Oh, right. Do whatever you want with the pig—starve him, kill him, it’s your choice. He was the one who brought in the request in the first place.”
“That son of a bitch...”
Before Solomon could even spit out a proper curse, the man had already vanished without a trace.
He couldn’t even begin to guess what kind of magic or ability he had used. The gap between the man and Solomon was simply absurd.
Besides, when the voice in his head spoke that highly of him, there was no reason to doubt the man’s identity.
Above all else—
He’s testing me.
It wasn’t hard to guess that the man had taken an interest in Solomon. There was no other choice. Offering the other cheek and showing weakness in this business essentially meant death.
Solomon silently stared at the test subjects rolling across the floor.
He had taken out two Level 3 creatures.
Doesn’t look like that was enough to level up.
Even so, today’s fight had been quite the harvest for Solomon. At the very least, he had gained a vague understanding of this world’s rules.
Even if this world wasn’t played on a tabletop, the power build he had prepared was still effective.
By the time he finished the Sewer Magic Tower request and returned, it was already dawn.
Instead of heading straight to his cramped room at Grimmlow Court 2-ga 17, Solomon stopped by the Dawn Lark Tavern. As expected, Roche the pig was there.
The moment Roche saw him, he spat out the meat stuffed in his mouth and made the face of a dead man who had just crawled out of his grave.
“S-Solomon! How are you still— I mean, I believed in you! Goddammit!”
“How am I still alive? I came back from the dead, you fucking pig bastard.”
Solomon’s anger was understandable. Even though the Sewer Magic Tower had stabbed him in the back, the one who had happily brought that trap of a request to him was the pig standing right in front of him.
Part of him wanted to hang the pig on a meat hook right then and there, but Roche moved faster and cured Solomon’s rage with a single sentence.
“W-Wait! Take this first and then talk! It’s three times the original payment!”
“Exactly how much?”
“F-Four thousand five hundred!”
It was financial healing.
Of course, Solomon’s condition was quite severe, so it wasn’t cured that easily.
“I already emptied my own pockets!”
“Th-Threats won’t work! I’m desperate too!”
INTIMIDATION FAILED!
It seemed the other party was desperate as well. Even so, Solomon didn’t care.
“Fine! I get it! I’ll talk to the higher-ups again! No, I’ll figure something out myself! S-Six thousand! How about six thousand!”
INTIMIDATION GREAT SUCCESS! The pig has offered up even his gallbladder.
It wasn’t even intimidation, though?
Why did the voice in his head keep registering it as intimidation? How ridiculous. Solomon thought.
Unlike his usual self, Roche desperately bowed his head and begged. Only then did Solomon, whose financial healing had restored some of his reason, stop.
Roche trembled as he carefully asked,
“By the way, you said a high-ranking person showed up at that place...?”
“Yeah.”
“W-Who?”
“The Faceless One.”
“...Oh. Ah. Fuck.”
The moment he heard the name, Roche suddenly spat out a curse.
“I’m screwed.”
Solomon didn’t bother answering. After a short silence, Roche asked again in a shaking voice.
“D-Did that monster really show up...? N-No way, right? You’re sure it was really him?”
“He said to believe it or not, it was up to me.”
The pig’s five-layered belly fat trembled so violently it began to squeal. It sounded like a pig having its throat slit.
“I-I just found out too! I didn’t know two others had already been used and killed! After I realized, I thought you were definitely done for too, and since I caused that mess, I...”
“And in the middle of all that, steak still went down your throat?”
“Well, since I was going to die anyway, I thought it might as well be my last meal...”
As soon as he finished speaking, he picked up the tomahawk steak on the table again.
“The Faceless One asked if I wanted to take on a job.”
“!”
The moment he heard that, Roche choked again. Fortunately, it seemed he had managed to force the meat in his throat down his esophagus.
“W-What kind of job...?”
“Since I got slapped on the right cheek, he wants me to split the bastard’s skull open with an axe.”
“Don’t tell me he personally asked you to—”
“He did.”
Solomon answered.
“If I’m interested, he said to come to Hotel Snark within three days.”
“Damn it, Hotel Snark? You’ve made it!”
“Only if I can get there alive.”
Hotel Snark in Ghosttown. It is not a place just anyone can enter. It is where Guild City’s true heavyweights gather—both symbolically and physically.
Roche’s expression suggested he had lost even more of his will to live.
“Hey, for old times’ sake, can I ask you one favor...?”
“Go ahead.”
“I-If you see him, could you... put in a good word for me... give me a chance...?”
“For free?”
Solomon asked back.
“I’ll do anything I can! Do you need a hole?! It’s a bit loose from overuse, but the grip is still decent...”
“Shut the hell up with that disgusting crap and answer every single question I ask from now on. No complaints.”
“Yes! I’ll answer! I’ll answer everything!”
The situation had returned to Solomon’s control.
“How much do you know about the Faceless One?”
“What?!”
“Looks like you know things I don’t.”
“N-No matter what, that’s...!”
“Do you remember what I just said?”
INTIMIDATION SUCCESS!
He hadn’t intended it, but the voice in his head rang out on its own again. Seriously, it wasn’t intimidation.
“T-That person, the Faceless One... is one of the ‘Seven Rogue Masters’ of the organization we belong to! That’s really all I know!”
CLUE ACQUIRED!The Organization and the Seven Rogue Masters.
Solomon already knew a certain amount about the organization the man belonged to.
It had no special name. It was simply called the Organization.
A massive criminal guild formed by a loose network of fixers, problem-solvers, and various brokers that handled all the illegal and illegitimate work in the city.
As for the seven leaders who ran the organization—the Seven Rogue Masters—their identities weren’t even described in the rulebook’s setting guide.
“T-To be honest, I don’t know much about the Organization either. Orders or requests from the Organization itself are rare. Most of what I get is from running around and digging up work myself...”
“Was the request you brought from the Sewer Magic Tower one of those?”
“Y-Yeah.”
“Should I add another five hundred?”
“Fine, take it all, you robber...”
Roche continued speaking with the attitude of someone who had given up on everything.
“And brokers like me periodically submit ‘reports’ about the partners we work with regularly. Sometimes the higher-ups read those reports and scout people directly. In your case... they seemed somewhat interested. From above.”
“The Organization, you mean.”
“Yeah.”
Roche answered in a resigned voice.
“B-By the way, this is just out of concern, but...”
While Solomon was organizing the information, Roche asked carefully.
“You know how to enter Ghosttown, right?”
“About as much as anyone else.”
“U-Um, think of it as paying off a debt. I know a skilled medium.”
Ghosttown and the Hotel Snark located there were not places just anyone could go. It wasn’t a figurative statement like the narrator had said—it was physically true as well.
“S-So about that extra five hundred...”
“I’ll think about it.”
Officially, Guild City only had two districts: Uptown and Downtown.
The place called ‘Ghosttown’ did not exist.
Yet—it did exist. It simply wasn’t in this world.
The boundary between life and death. A non-material realm where lost spirits wandered. The shadow world.
The domain of the dead that could not be reached by ordinary means was called Ghosttown.
Hotel Snark existed precisely in that Ghosttown.
And people called the hotel on the boundary between life and death the Hotel of Assassins.
The Faceless One’s first test for Solomon had already begun.
Within three days, Solomon had to safely reach Hotel Snark while escaping the threats of the dead who hungered for life.