Chapter 7
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Translator: Silver Dragon
Chapter: 8
Chapter Title: Missing Persons Search (1)
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Stonebelly Market's mansion entrance.
Jinwoo returned triumphantly, leading the surviving militiamen with dignified flair.
Clack!
As the door swung open, the village chief stood inside, pale-faced and forcing a smile, alongside the militia captain with bandages wrapped around his hand, both greeting him awkwardly.
They bowed their heads like defeated soldiers welcoming a victorious general!
"Th-this can't be... You really did it..."
The marketeer muttered as he gazed at the militiamen trailing behind Jinwoo, their eyes a mix of awe and fear.
That look alone told him everything he needed to know about what had happened.
The mansion's reception room.
The arrogance from yesterday was nowhere to be found.
"H-here's the promised gold and the list of reinforcements! I've doubled it! You're our city's hero!"
The marketeer offered the chest brimming with gold coins with obsequious politeness.
But Jinwoo didn't spare the gold a glance. He sat down before the man with an icy demeanor.
"Old timer, what I'm curious about is something else."
The village chief's shoulders twitched at Jinwoo's low voice.
"Magnus's crew aren't just your run-of-the-mill outlaws. They've got dwarf-forged weapons."
"I-is that so...?"
"Don't play dumb. They're remnants of the grave robbers you hired, but they're Trade Federation mercenaries at the end of the day. You took them on because they were hanging around, right?"
This marketeer was definitely an idiot.
If Magnus's crew had survived, they'd have scurried straight to the Trade Federation and spilled everything.
Then the Federation's army would have swept through Stonebelly for the crime of tampering with Atlas civilization's cursed artifacts.
"And you know something too. What the Federation's scheming around here. Laying down railroad tracks or something?"
All color drained from the marketeer's face at Jinwoo's words, which seemed to pierce straight through him.
He realized it then.
This man wasn't some dime-a-dozen gunslinger like they'd imagined.
He was a terrifying existence who saw through every scheme.
"You... what exactly... are you...?"
As the marketeer asked in a trembling voice, Jinwoo cut him off.
"My identity doesn't matter. What does is that your life hangs by a thread in my hands."
Jinwoo stood up.
Gazing out the reception room window at Stonebelly's landscape, he continued as if talking to himself.
"The Federation laying tracks means they're swallowing up everything in this region. Existing villages are just obstacles. So they'll need to be cleared out."
His gaze shifted back to the marketeer. It was cold as ice.
"Where do they plan to start? The closest place, but remote enough that their administrative reach doesn't extend. A village where no rumors would spread, no matter what happens."
"...!"
The chief's pupils shook in shock.
Jinwoo already knew the answer.
But he waited for it to come straight from the chief's mouth.
Nothing was as reliable as a confession from someone gripped by fear.
And judging by the patterns so far, this world's system windows only unlocked the next quest after you progressed by uncovering clues yourself, just like in the original game.
'Good. Hurry up and give me the quest.'
Finally, the marketeer collapsed as if abandoning all resistance.
"...It's Brightwood Settlement."
"The Federation's planning a new magitech train line, and Brightwood Settlement's on the route."
"They're... they're starting the 'cleanup' before demolishing the village."
"Cleanup?"
"...Forced relocation disguised as disappearances. Or... elimination."
Every puzzle piece fell into place.
And right then, a familiar translucent system window appeared in his vision.
Trade Federation's Dark Plot
📍 Objective: Head to Brightwood Settlement, uncover the truth behind the resident disappearances, and thwart the Trade Federation's conspiracy.
'As expected. My hunch was right.'
He'd probably have to keep hassling NPCs like this and digging up clues to progress from here on out.
What a pain.
'But if it's the way home, I'll endure it.'
As he checked the system window, Jinwoo delivered his final ultimatum to the marketeer.
"Fine. For the price of that info, today's events never happened. Don't forget the promised rewards and reinforcements. If you try to play dumb even a little..."
Jinwoo pulled a sealed letter from his pocket.
"...!"
"I'll hold onto this for a bit. I want to trust you, you know? Oh, and throw in some water, food, and a few pieces of gear while you're at it."
"Understood..."
And so, Jinwoo swept up top-grade supplies for his journey to Brightwood, all for free.
A short while later, Jinwoo left Stonebelly behind.
His destination was clear.
Brightwood Settlement—the land where the Trade Federation's grand conspiracy was about to begin.
This was the true start of the main scenario.
When Jinwoo arrived at Brightwood Settlement, an ominous silence greeted him.
The village was deserted, with beast bones scattered starkly here and there.
A nose-stinging stench lingered unnaturally around the area.
Jinwoo spotted an elderly survivor collapsed amid the ashes.
"G-goblins..."
The old man gasped.
"Did goblins kidnap the villagers?"
"No... that's not it... the goblins... vanished..."
The old man passed out after leaving that contradictory testimony.
'Goblins attacked, but then the goblins vanished?'
Jinwoo furrowed his brow.
This was the exact red herring that had baffled players back in Rising West.
He headed straight for the village assembly hall.
There, he found a dust-covered scroll.
It was a record from Norok, the goblin shaman who had first settled this land decades ago.
[...One day, Norok vanished without a trace, and the goblins who followed him all disappeared overnight without leaving a single clue.]
[...History repeats itself.]
"The first victims."
Jinwoo pocketed the scroll.
He didn't head straight outside.
Providencia Softworks had a knack for unnecessarily twisting games.
'They made bugs way too realistic and women ugly as sin, but damn if they didn't put effort into the quests.'
His mind raced.
Back in Rising West, this scroll wasn't just backstory.
It was a map to the next stage.
'Right, Norok's final record. A hint to his tribe's hidden sanctuary is in here.'
He unrolled the scroll again.
The border patterns that would look like mere decorations to an ordinary eye.
But to Jinwoo, they revealed themselves as contour lines mimicking Brightwood Forest's terrain—a code marking specific trees and rocks.
'I remember. Follow this pattern upstream through the forest and...'
After safely moving the unconscious old man to a secure spot, he plunged into the forest depths without hesitation.
His steps were unerring, as if he'd traversed the path dozens of times.
About 30 minutes later.
He stood before a small cave whose entrance was concealed by massive moss-covered boulders.
Beast-bone totems, grotesque and ominous, stood at the entrance.
This was Norok's tribe sanctuary!
The cave reeked of death amid its damp, chilly air.
Jinwoo lit his lantern.
The light revealed a gruesome scene too horrific to behold.
Dozens, hundreds of goblin skulls and mummified corpses filled the cave floor.
No signs of battle.
Most had died in agony mid-sleep or while eating, frozen in those poses.
A massacre.
"...Becomes even more gruesome when the game turns real."
Jinwoo knelt by one corpse for a closer look.
The goblin's nails and lips were discolored an eerie dark blue.
A snippet of Rising West's high-level alchemy drug info flashed through his mind.
'This is the mark of "Silent Death."'
A colorless, odorless nerve toxin.
It paralyzed the respiratory system on inhalation, delivering soundless death—a terrifying drug!
This was the vicious alchemical poison used by the Trade Federation's assassins.
Something ordinary goblins or outlaws wouldn't even know existed.
"Whenever something weird happens on the Eldorado Continent, the Trade Federation's behind it."
They had massacred Norok's tribe decades ago—and now vanished Brightwood's residents.
Jinwoo headed to the cave's deepest point.
A small space arranged like a makeshift altar.
And atop the altar.
A small box buried in dust.
Jinwoo opened it.
Inside was a small totem adorned with beast eyeballs and crow feathers, emanating an ominous aura.
Tracking Eye
Norok's shamanic totem. Reveals the movement paths of hidden enemies as faint lights.
"Bingo."
Jinwoo pocketed the totem and exited the cave.
Though single-use, it would make tracking the Federation's traces much easier.
The moment he stepped one foot outside.
"That's far enough."
Four mounted soldiers emerged silently from the forest, surrounding him.
Dust-covered leather jackets.
On their chests, the faint emblem of the Trade Federation.
Cleanup crew come to check the sanctuary.
"You the greenhorn from Stonebelly?"
The leader smirked.
"Word is you've been poking around. No need for chit-chat. Your life's done here."
No sooner had he spoken than a long whip lashed out like a snake.
Jinwoo dodged lightly and drew his pistol.
Red Eye
Whoosh!
A blue flash pierced the whip-wielder's hand.
"Argh!"
"Shut up. Pulling stunts with a whip in front of a gunslinger? You Indiana Jones or something?"
Jinwoo sneered disdainfully and unleashed a barrage.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The three follow-up shots nailed the remaining mercenaries right between the eyes.
It was over in under a minute.
"Pathetic."
Jinwoo rifled through the fallen mercenaries' bodies. A few gold coins, a map,
and a small notebook.
[Magitech Train Railroad Construction Plan]
The notebook's contents matched what the chief had said.
Brightwood Settlement: scheduled for demolition. Everything was clear now.
"All that's left is finding the missing residents."
Jinwoo followed the clues in the notebook and the faint wagon tracks left in the village, heading deeper into the forest.