The Negotiation Table

Consciousness was a haze, as if his mind alone had been drawn out of him and set adrift on the water. In that faint, half-real world, Bihyung opened his eyes.

"Hup!"

The first thought to surface was that the pain was gone. As if the whole ordeal had been nothing but a dream of a single instant, nothing hindered him when he moved his body. The thought that followed, however, stood in for every question he had.

"...Where am I?"

A pitch-dark space, as though he had been shut away in a sealed room. The last thing he remembered was clear enough—Yu Gyeongsu's domain, coming down around him.

As if in answer to that doubt, a system window rose before his eyes.

...What?

"And what the hell kind of joke is this supposed to be?"

Bihyung stared at the system and threw the question back, too incredulous to do otherwise, and a new message printed itself at once.

...The Negotiation Table?

'Don't tell me they want me to haggle over the reward?'

Was there really such a thing? This was compensation for a record he had clawed together through every kind of misery there was.

'More to the point—negotiate with who. Negotiate... huh?'

In that instant both his eyes flew open. The being that bestowed rewards. The one, in other words, who stood above the system. If they were telling him to negotiate his reward with that being, then before anything else, weren't they telling him to meet them?

'Well, I'll be damned. I'm meeting them already?'

Ha. He was so thrown that a hollow laugh slipped out of him on its own. He hadn't prepared a single thing with which to cave in the back of their skull, and already they were face to face.

'...Still. This works. I'll get a good look at that face while I'm here.'

He was hardening his resolve, glancing about, when—

KUNG!

With that sudden shudder, the space where Bihyung sat began to churn and fold into itself. Colors that had been dark as a sealed chamber thinned little by little, and over them bled a luminous violet. Stars were drawn across it, and above the stars a brilliantly shining wave of presence.

"......"

For a moment Bihyung froze before that radiant majesty. How could he not? A man who had been living in the modern world had, without any warning, laid both eyes on beings pouring out a dignity like that of gods.

'...Right. It would take people of this caliber to make a world like this one.'

Looking now, the existence that had called him into this world was not a single person. Twenty, at the least. Perhaps more than that. The waves of presence pouring forth in elegant streams sometimes blended as if they were one, and at other times crashed together like natural opposites, snarling, brawling—and their number came to several dozen.

'...I'm going to lose my mind. How am I supposed to crack heads like those?'

While he was turning that over, a message rose before his eyes.

The contents of those messages were decidedly strange.

'...What is this?'

Why call a man in and then fight among yourselves?

'And their mouths are foul.'

He had pictured something more taciturn. Something with more dignity. This felt like he had been dropped into a marketplace brawl.

'Even so, the power I'm feeling is real.'

Even in the middle of their snarling, a murderous pressure came crashing over him. And yet they mixed not a shred of power into the act itself. It was the dignity their existence gave off, and that alone. Which was to say they possessed a force capable of laying a hand on the world by simply being.

Around the time Bihyung was watching them in silence, their gazes turned toward him as well.

The moment that voice reached him, the dokkaebi steeped into Bihyung's blood ran wild.

HOOOOO—!!

It was not the bleak, ominous presence he usually gave off. If anything, it seemed somewhere sorrowful, pressed down. Even so, Bihyung's presence pushed back—only a little—against the presences of those who ringed him on every side.

The beings above the heavens, looking down on him, rendered their judgment so.

Arrive at what?

'You lot?'

Or did they have some purpose of their own? While Bihyung was turning that over, another voice threw cold water on the one bright with excitement.

"And what would it hurt to just tell him?"

Leaving that grumbling voice behind, a heavy voice called to Bihyung.

With those words, a single table and two chairs took shape before him.

"......"

Bihyung stared hard at the place the voice had sounded from, then sat.

Midway through, the heavy voice could not hold back a roar, and a single shadow fell across the space before Bihyung.

"Hey there! Good to meet you. First time, right?"

"...Ah. Yes. We aren't acquainted."

"Suppose that's so?"

Keuheuheu! The shadow laughed, slapped an arm onto the table with a thump, and propped his chin upon it. The corners of the shadow's eyes twitched, tracing a smiling arc.

"Let's start the negotiation. Tell me what you want, first."

Bihyung thought for a moment at those words.

'What I want... what would be good.'

The countless items inside Dokja Jeon-gi, the list of bloodlines, the names of skills—all of it rose in his mind. But having come this far, he could hardly ask for something like that.

'Dokja Jeon-gi is a frame they made, in the end. Whatever I choose, I'd only be dancing on their palm.'

And so Bihyung made his decision.

"Not from Dokja Jeon-gi. Something you can give from among the things you yourselves hold."

He would simply toss the choices back at them.

"Bring the choices of everyone here up before my eyes, and let me pick."

There seemed to be a reason they had called him into this world. And they did not look to be on particularly good terms with one another. Which meant?

'They want the same thing, but in the end they stand against each other.'

That, ultimately, could be reduced ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to a single line.

'All right. From here on, fight each other.'

'Whoever wins, I'll make a special exception and take them on the team.'

For a long while the hall held nothing but silence. What manner of man was this? That question gathered, palpable, in their eyes. Amid it, the shadow seated across the table shook at the shoulders, and at last broke into roaring laughter.

"Hahahaha!! Hey... this one's a real specimen, isn't he? To show that kind of nerve in a seat like this?"

"I didn't get to receive what I was owed, so I ought to walk away with something better."

"Even if we are the ones who called you—you, who were living perfectly well—into this world?"

"I'll think about the future later."

"Hah. You sly little thing. I can see exactly what you're thinking, and you're going to play dumb the whole way through?"

Not bad at all, taken on its own!

"Hey! You heard that, didn't you? This pint-sized junior of ours says he wants a contest of our pride!"

Those words were the finishing blow.

HOOOOOOO—!!

A vast, faint tide of presence, beyond any comparison with his own, surged in over him. And all at once, countless choices unfolded before his eyes.

The shadow, watching the pride-fight break out among them, burst into laughter once more and turned a grin on Bihyung.

"Plenty of strange names, aren't there? Understand. Your presence still falls short, so they're trying to show you they exist, even in a shape like that. Force yourself to look properly, and your head might split and kill you. That's the sort of thing they are."

"You understand well enough by now, don't you?"

Bihyung nodded. The shadow before his eyes was pretending otherwise, and tossing him a hint all the same. The ones that stated their names outright were of a lower order.

"Then I only need to look at yours."

"Hm?"

"You haven't brought yours out yet, have you?"

Bihyung did not take his eyes off the being in front of him. That was how he ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠knew. The figure before him had offered not a single movement, and not a single choice. The corner of the shadow's mouth twitched.

"Oh? Look at this one. An impudent junior, I see."

"Please take it as the flailing of a man trying not to take a loss."

"Hahaha! Good. Then I ought to show a little sincerity of my own, shouldn't I?"

Speaking so, the shadow pointed a finger toward the ones above and lifted the corner of his mouth once more.

"I can't very well lose to that lot."

The choice he offered with those words was a peculiar one.

The name was revealed entire. He simply could not tell what it designated. Even so, Bihyung was able to end his deliberation.

The beings above were staring at the choice the shadow had set down, recoiling in shock.

"I'll take this."

"A fine choice, junior."

"I've made my choice. Do I go back now?"

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"That's right. Why? Reluctant to leave?"

"There's something I want to ask before I go."

"Speak."

"If I see the end... will I be able to return home?"

"Home, is it... Possible. If you still want that, even then."

The shadow smiled and nodded.

Good. If he had heard that, it was enough. Bihyung nodded in return and was just about to rise from the chair when the shadow's voice drifted to his ear, soft as a small wind.

"...Yes?"

What was that supposed to... The words rose as far as his throat, but he could not ask them. Just as when he had first come to this place, his mind was beginning to thin.

'Ah, damn it...'

Not a single thing went the way he wanted. And so Bihyung's consciousness slipped, smooth and quiet, out of that space.

With it, the beings who had been above came hurrying down to the shadow's side. Their flustered voices rang through the space.

"Have you truly gone mad? Bestowing a portion of a Transmission?"

"Are you saying you mean to take that child as your successor?"

Hearing them, the shadow looked at the place Bihyung had left.

"Your eyes are still knotholes. Does that one look like the sort to become a successor? A Grandmaster, maybe. That, I could see."

"...You are far too unrestrained. You even break the rules and meddle in the lower realm."

"If it burns you, go pull some tricks of your own."

Having shut their mouths flat with those words, the shadow grinned.

'Melting down my Transmission will be no easy thing.'

But.

'If he only manages to melt it down, climbing to where we stand will be nothing at all.'

Why was that? The day did not feel so very far away.