Race Against Time
I let out a scream. "Aaaargh! What the hell are you doing?!"
What the hell? I'm smashing the back of your skull, that's what. Even a rotten fish is still a fish, I guess—maybe because he used to be a wandering knight, his neck didn't snap right away. If I hit him just one more time, it would break cleanly and finish him off. If only I could've brought a proper weapon.
They always did a full body search before letting anyone into the warden's office, so I had no choice. I jumped off the warden's body in advance, ready for the moment he got up.
Crash!
Just as I expected, the warden clutched his limp neck with both hands and staggered to his feet. A faint glow shimmered around his neck and hands—he clearly knew how to handle mana. That explained how he could brag about being a wandering knight in his younger days. The title of knight wasn't something just anyone could throw around.
Is he channeling mana into his hands and neck to heal it bit by bit?
The warden rose in a posture like a frilled lizard, barely able to speak. But I couldn't let my guard down. One kick from those mana-infused legs and it would all be over. Even with my boosted physical abilities, my body wasn't made of steel. I had to stay sharp.
"Uuuuugh..."
Even with his ruined throat, the warden expressed his rage as he stomped toward me.
[13...12...11...]
United Will had about ten seconds left. I needed to kill the warden as fast as possible and hide all traces of what I'd done.
"Hup!"
I leaped toward the desk and snatched up the fountain pen. That took one second. Then two more to fly back toward the warden. Since his hands were sealed, jumping only at his upper body wouldn't be too dangerous.
"Just die quietly."
This was exactly why I'd aimed for his neck instead of his waist. Even if his lower body stopped working, he could still make noise and call for help. It was worth the risk of getting kicked if it meant preventing any backup from arriving.
"Ubbubub!"
No matter how famous he'd been as a wandering knight in his youth, he was now just a retired old man with a gut. There was no way someone like that could handle a child with the strength of an adult. If he'd been in peak condition, maybe. But with his neck dangling like that, the outcome was already decided.
Thud!
Without hesitation, I drove the fountain pen straight through the warden's heart. Bone or no bone, it smashed through everything and successfully cut off his breath completely.
Right after, I sliced off his thumb.
The thumb is essential... How many seconds left?
[6...5...]
About five seconds remained. One second more than I'd expected—pretty much ideal.
I quickly hoisted the corpse and hurled it onto the bed. Then I smashed the desk into the wall where the safe was hidden, shattering the surface.
United Will has ended. All granted power has vanished.
"Whew... Nice."
I'd finished everything I needed to do in those fifteen seconds. The warden was dead, and I'd smashed open the wall hiding the safe. A huge success.
At least I didn't have to worry about noise thanks to his pedophilia.
The only reason the warden had ordered all the guards—including Manis—out of the area was so he could have his so-called "sacred first experience" with me. That meant no one was around the warden's office, so I could go wild without worrying about backup.
If they see the warden lying in bed, they won't have any reason to wake him. They probably won't realize he's dead for a while.
That bought me even more time. And when we all escaped, one of the guards would naturally go report to the warden. That would temporarily reduce their numbers by one—killing two birds with one stone.
Or he might die on the way to the office.
Once I got that item, it wouldn't be an impossible story.
"First, let's clean up."
In case any blood had leaked out and a guard noticed from outside, I erased the traces. I wiped the blood off the floor and covered the warden's bleeding body on the bed with a blanket. All I needed was for him to look like he was sleeping with his eyes closed.
Good.
I immediately went to the broken wall and checked the safe. It was covered in steel with triple security measures locking it tight. Beginners might not have even known it existed, but I did.
The password was... his birthday, right?
First lock: password. Second: puzzle. Third: fingerprint recognition. The password and puzzle were done in seconds. For the fingerprint, I pulled out the thumb I'd cut off earlier.
Creeeeak.
Seeing the warden's safe in real life after only seeing it in dots gave me a strange feeling. A tiny subspace pouch that could hold about ten kilograms, some gold bars, and one explosion magic scroll. And then I checked the most important thing.
The core of the escape plan.
At first glance it looked like an ordinary iron glove, but anyone who knew the truth would be shocked.
Unique
The iron glove imbued with the breath of Arachne, the progenitor of all spiders.
Can shoot infinite spider webs from the fingertips. Their cutting power is enough to easily slice through iron.
Control proficiency is determined by the user's willpower.
Webs last up to 3 days after installation.
This is it.
United Will was ultimately an active skill that couldn't be used again for a while after one use. That meant I needed a means to keep fighting continuously. I stuffed all the gold bars into the subspace pouch and briefly tested Arachne's Breath.
This is what turned the warden into a criminal in the first place.
For someone full of greed, it was definitely a weapon worth killing all his comrades to steal. I unwrapped the bandages and equipped Arachne's Breath. The size immediately adjusted to fit me perfectly. It transformed to fit whoever wore it, had high durability, and possessed cutting power strong enough to slice iron. In the early game, it was an overwhelmingly powerful item with literally no downsides.
Perfect.
I'd taken everything I needed from the warden's office. Now it was time to escape for real.
Right before leaving, I locked the door and used Arachne's Breath near the passageway leading to the office.
Oh...
Maybe because I'd eaten the willpower stat as a reward a few times, the webs came out more easily than I'd thought. They moved exactly as I pictured in my head and stuck perfectly where I wanted them.
At about chest height for a full-grown adult. If someone came running, there was a good chance they'd get sliced apart without even realizing it and die.
One here too.
Even if it didn't kill them immediately, I set up a few webs a little ahead at ankle height to buy time. I would've liked to set them up more densely, but there wasn't time. No matter how much the warden had ordered no one to enter, someone would have to come for work reports. Once that happened, they'd realize he was dead and immediately come for me.
It's a race against time.
After sorting out the situation and checking the clock, it was exactly right before dinner time started. I wrapped bandages back over Arachne's Breath and moved my feet quickly. Every minute, every second counted. The real countdown had begun.
+++++++++++++++++
Just as expected, all the kids had gathered in the dormitory to eat dinner.
The guards already gave them their food and left.
No guards around, and all the kids gathered in one place. There couldn't be a more perfect opportunity than this. I immediately told the kids about the escape plan, and the expected reactions came back.
"What? Leave? What are you talking about?"
"No time to explain. If we're escaping, the chance is now. We have to go immediately."
"Are you crazy? Did you forget what happened to the kid who got caught last time? He got beaten all day and died..."
Thud.
Instead of a long explanation, I tossed the warden's severed thumb into the middle of the kids. If the guards came rushing in now, escaping together would basically be guaranteed to fail. I couldn't waste time on unnecessary persuasion.
Yeah, of course they wouldn't believe me if I suddenly told them to leave.
No matter how much food I gave them or how much trust I built, there was still a line. In times like this, one action was far more effective than a hundred words.
"I killed the warden. See the finger? The guards will find out he's dead soon and come running."
And if I get caught alone, I'll say you were all accomplices. That we killed him together.
Kids aged seven to ten, no matter how smart they were, couldn't be that smart. They were brats who'd been ruled by fear, unable to talk back, doing nothing but labor. Treating kids like this with consideration and goodwill? That was extremely inefficient.
Fear is met with fear.
The leap in logic that I'd killed the warden and that they were all accomplices. But to kids who'd never received proper education and had only suffered from violence, it worked incredibly well.
The question was how quickly the effect would show.
There's no time.
It would be nice if even one of them jumped up and spoke for me. I waited anxiously, counting the seconds, hoping the kids would stand up quickly.
"Let's go! How long are we going to live like this?! Let's just get out of here!"
The first kid stepped forward.
Kim Hyuk-jun?
It didn't matter who he was. The important thing was that one person's decision could change everyone. When the kids were too scared to make proper judgments, if someone like this stepped up—
"Y-yeah, that's right! Let's go! It's already happened anyway! I wanted to get out of here!"
After that, it was only a matter of time before excitement spread like wildfire. The warden's thumb lying on the floor had become a spark of courage rather than a symbol of fear.
"Good. I have a map, so just listen to me carefully."
"Wait, are you guys really going? What if we get caught? You think the guards will let you off? Just ignore this guy's nonsense and stay here..."
Bam!
I didn't hesitate for a second and punched the kid spouting nonsense right in the face. Sure, maybe he'd gotten used to life in the Ant Cave and didn't want to leave. But if that was the case, he should've just stayed quiet. He shouldn't pour cold water on the hope that had finally bloomed.
"If you're going to say crap like that, just stay here and wait for the guards to come rat us out."
We'll already be gone by then.
With those words, I immediately turned my back.
"Follow me."
I'll take you to see the sunlight.