The City of Dwarves
Looking back, it was strange.
No matter how detached the Cat God might be as a sponsor, she wouldn't have disliked incentives.
Yet she told me to take it easy.
As if telling me not to win.
Her memory wasn't bad.
She wouldn't have forgotten that I'd wanted Soul Engraving in the meantime.
But even so, she handed me the Golem Ring.
And she added that since there was no place to charge the ring in Stage 3, I shouldn't waste my strength for nothing.
She had known.
What was waiting for me beyond this.
I pressed [Combat Start] and the city began to shake.
It was something I'd already anticipated.
Rather, if I remembered that vibration well and tracked it, finding the branches would be easier.
But something felt slightly different from what I knew.
The buildings rose.
Endlessly.
Not branches or the main store, but tall high-rise buildings surged up from the ground, filling every direction.
Rumble— Rumble—
Giant electronic billboards attached to the buildings and bizarre advertisements began to play.
The model was a slender dwarf.
That dwarf was hacking away at a human hanging from a hook with a blunt knife.
Grinding the meat in a blender, mixing it into dough, kneading it.
Tearing, grinding, baking.
The process of meticulously making "delicious food" played out with flashy direction.
And so the finished human hamburger.
Its appearance was indistinguishable from the one we knew.
The billboard emphasized that it used fresh ingredients and was organic, raised on natural pasture.
A stylish dwarf wearing a chef's hat lifted the hamburger and smiled brightly.
I felt a slight queasiness in my stomach.
Until now, I'd seen plenty of community posts that gave the feeling that "a human had died."
But those were just text.
When someone died on the community, it only led to "the absence of posts," and there wasn't much room to directly think about death.
But cooking human flesh through video media was something that made me frown.
"I've never seen anything like this mentioned…"
If such horrific advertisements were playing, they couldn't have gone unmentioned on the community.
A strange sense of foreboding.
It seemed to be a hamburger franchise concept, and I wanted to smash that disgusting process right away.
And then the next advertisement came on.
"What…?"
This time it was an instant noodle ad.
A cartoonish drawing of a human thigh was on the lid, implying it used human thigh meat.
Next was a cosmetics ad.
Then a bed ad.
It wasn't the restaurant concept of Stage 3.
Rumble— Crash—
'Come to think of it… the vibration is still…'
The once-familiar vibration sound suddenly felt eerie.
The city I'd lived in for the past few weeks looked unfamiliar.
'Damn…'
After seeing a perfume ad that ground human lungs into powder, I decided to accept it.
The concept was no longer something as trivial as a franchise.
Something far more massive and horrifying had come to this city looking for me.
"Everyone, get inside!"
I shouted urgently to the zombies.
Once the vibration stopped and the buildings were finished, enemies would be summoned.
I couldn't guess how many would appear.
I needed to hide somewhere before that.
I first evacuated the troops into the wine shop.
There was a wine cellar underground, making it easy to hide a large number of zombies.
The stored zombies had lost their buffs.
So hiding them in the building was the best choice for now.
Not long after, the vibration ceased.
I poked my head out the window and looked at the street.
The world was still quiet.
'Just how many stores appeared? Surely it doesn't mean I have to take on the entire city?'
And as if answering my question, a quest message window appeared.
A window I hadn't seen in a very long time.
Defeat the Mayor.
After reading the message, my thoughts tangled for a moment.
At least it wasn't a mission to kill all the dwarves, so that was fortunate.
But who exactly was the mayor?
Unless they walked around with "Mayor" written on their forehead, distinguishing them was practically impossible.
'I need information…'
At that moment, the bell at the wine shop rang.
Someone had opened the front door and come in.
Jingle— Jingle—
I quickly ducked behind the counter.
Dealing with one dwarf was nothing, but causing a commotion without a plan was suicide.
I lowered my body and listened to the visitor.
The one who entered the store wandered around before approaching the counter.
Clatter—
It seemed they'd placed something on the counter.
And then a very irritable voice was heard.
"Kyaak. How much? No price tag."
That's right. It was a customer.
From an ordinary dwarf's perspective, this place just looked like a neighborhood wine shop.
Cold sweat ran down my back.
Even if they were mistaken, letting them go or catching them was both problematic.
Whatever I did would arouse their suspicion.
'Should I subdue them? But then what?'
While various thoughts crossed my mind, someone answered the customer dwarf.
A very familiar voice.
She spoke to the dwarf in a very plain and simple manner.
"Um, I don't know."
I turned my head sharply toward the sound.
Baengnae was dealing with the dwarf, having come up from the basement at some point.
She was munching on something.
'No… but if the store owner says they don't know the price, what then? Isn't that even more suspicious?'
The customer also seemed dumbfounded and laughed keruk keruk.
"Ka… are you an idiot? Running a store without knowing the prices."
Clink— Clink—
And the dwarf rummaged through their pocket before dropping coins on the counter.
They were paying.
"I bought it for 3 gold before. I'll give you 3 gold."
Baengnae quickly replied.
"Yeah, madda."
"Weird store… You'll go bankrupt doing business like that."
The dwarf left with the purchased wine after saying something that could have been advice or a curse.
From the voice, they seemed quite drunk.
They'd come out in a hurry to buy alcohol, so even if something seemed off, they just ignored it.
Baengnae approached me and showed me the gold the dwarf had given.
"Baengnae earned money."
"Uh… yeah… good job."
I was a bit flustered.
Or maybe this was the right way.
If they didn't know we were intruders, they were just ordinary dwarves living in the city who ate humans.
And boss fights had always started without them knowing about our intrusion.
'Money… wait, gold?'
On a whim, I tried to store the money I'd received from the dwarf, but unfortunately failed.
The dwarf's gold and the "gold" the system referred to seemed to be slightly different things.
Then this money was trash.
Just baggage like worthless rocks.
'Us joining their economic system doesn't make sense in the first place… wait, why wouldn't it?'
Suddenly a good idea came to mind.
Maybe I could find the mayor the quest referred to more easily than expected.
I began preparing for the operation.
The guilds were in an uproar.
After all, endless requests for help were pouring in from the top 200 tournament users who had promised support.
They claimed they were trapped in the city of dwarves.
After pressing [Combat Start], the entire city had transformed into a sea of dwarves.
Their numbers were countless.
One user tried to estimate the total number, exceeded 10,000, and gave up.
Han Yua, the guild leader of Climber, held her head.
Anticipating that the Stage 3 tournament would intensify the competition for promising talents between servers, she had gathered all the guild leaders of the Gray Castle server and reached an agreement.
Which guild the promising talents would join after arriving at the server was a matter for later.
It was an agreement to help and receive help in bringing as many promising talents as possible to Gray Castle.
And that effort bore fruit, securing promises from as many as 76 of the Stage 3 top 200.
But only three days after the tournament.
Of those 76, only 37 were currently alive.
It wasn't simply a loss of contact.
When a message was sent to the target, if the message couldn't be delivered, there were only two possibilities.
Either they had blocked it, or they were dead.
And there was no reason for those who had promised support to Climber to block her.
'What the hell is going on…'
But there was no point in worrying.
For now, she instructed all the promising talents to flee and hide.
And she sent additional messages asking those who could afford it to gather and send information.
'Why did Stage 3 suddenly…'
She felt a deep sense of responsibility.
Because she was the one who had demanded rapid climbing from the tournament winners.
If she'd just left them alone, maybe some of them wouldn't have pressed [Combat Start].
She thought her greed had driven them into danger.
Han Yua needed information.
But where in the dwarf city of Stage 3 could she find someone to gather and relay information?
There was no hope in sight.
Han Yua did what she could for now.
She requested help from her sponsor and compiled and analyzed the information sent by the promising talents.
She desperately needed someone's help.
Jingle—
At the appearance of a new customer, Baengnae offered a welcoming greeting.
"Yeah, Baengnae's store."
The dwarf placed a sausage they'd brought from the food warehouse on the counter.
The dwarf frowned as if annoyed and spoke.
"No price tag."
The grocery store where he'd gotten the sausage.
There was no price tag there, and no clerk to serve him.
Only a sign that read "If you want to buy, come to the wine shop."
And to the dwarf who had acted that way, Baengnae recited the line she'd prepared.
"It's a promotion. If you give info, you get this."
The annoyed dwarf tilted his head at the word "free."
He asked again as if he might have misheard.
"Info? Give info, get meat?"
"Madda. Just arrived in the city."
The dwarf laughed kekeke.
His bad mood from the thought of getting something for free had lifted.
"Good. Good. What do you want to know?"
"Um…"
Baengnae took out the list of "things to ask" and read the top item.
"Who's the mayor?"
"Mayor…? Altos?"
Baengnae scribbled a line through the sentence "Who is the mayor?" on the list.
Another one solved.
"Madda. Eat."
The dwarf grinned and tucked the sausage into his arms.
"Nothing else? I'll tell you what you're curious about. I'll tell you everything."
The bald dwarf stuck out his chest as if to say ask anything.
After thinking for a moment, Baengnae nodded.
"Got it."
With the owner's consent, the dwarf ran to the grocery store.
And soon returned with an armful of items.
Crash—
The greedy bald dwarf poured out a total of 14 items onto the counter.
Mostly processed meats like ham and sausage.
"Keke. I'll tell you everything. Ask anything."
Baengnae lifted the paper to read the next item on the list.
Baengnae's store was booming.
It seemed she would have all the necessary information in hand before half a day had even passed.