Are You Crazy? Why Would I Talk It Out?

Are you crazy? Why would I bother talking it out? Twenty minutes had passed since we left the ant dormitory to make our escape. The children had finally stopped walking, exhausted groans spilling from their lips as their footsteps halted.

“When are we going to get out of here?”

“Just a little further.”

“That’s already the fifth time you’ve said that.”

“This is the best I can do.”

If I had escaped alone, I would have been long gone with plenty of time to spare. But moving as a group changed the entire story.

Taking more than twenty kids with me is a real pain in the ass.

I unfolded the map once again and double-checked our route. There were six executives excluding the warden. Assuming one had already died while searching for the warden, that left five. Passing through the narrow confines of the Ant Cave made avoiding their watchful eyes exhausting enough as it was.

Even without the warden, they’ve probably noticed we’re missing by now.

The odds were high that they would have heard the complete silence in the ant dormitory despite it being mealtime. With everyone gone instead of just one or two, they would definitely suspect a mass escape. It was only a matter of time before the executives lit up with fury and came hunting for us.

The one bright spot is that none of the guards have main skills.

Main skills in Final Destiny were a privilege granted only to major characters. In most cases, the default setting was that they either didn’t know how to use them properly yet or didn’t even realize they had them. That said, it didn’t mean we could underestimate the guards.

Twenty children eating livestock feed versus five robust adult men who ate meat every day. The outcome of that fight was obvious without even looking.

“We really don’t have much further, so walk with everything you’ve got. If you give up, you’ll get caught by the guards, beaten half to death, and then killed.”

What the children needed right now wasn’t warm encouragement. The terror of possibly being beaten to death by the guards and the despair of returning to that bleak life were, in the short term, the most effective motivators.

“Move.”

“Ugh… yeah…”

Only then did the children swallow their fatigue and start moving their legs again, faces drenched in fear. Of course, I had already calculated for a situation like this.

This is exactly why I obtained the map and spent a whole month memorizing the executives’ patrol routes.

If I had simply calculated a path for twenty people to exit the Ant Cave, the route would have been ready in a day, not a month. But creating an escape path for twenty people that didn’t overlap with the five guards’ movements? That was only possible because I was a veteran who had sunk a month into it.

The guards in Lee Seokhyun’s prologue were randomized every new game, so I couldn’t memorize them. The saving grace was that the number of randomly appearing guards was fixed.

I scraped together every memory I had, whether clear or faint, and barely managed to piece this together.

That was why the route we were walking now, while slow, was optimized to avoid detection by the guards. For example—

“There are traces of the children here! I’ll head on ahead! Everyone follow quickly!”

If the guards pursued us by following footprints like that, I had prepared contingencies.

“Listen to me carefully from now on. We’re going to run straight to the guard quarters. Run like your lives depend on it.”

“B-but won’t running get us caught?”

“Then keep walking and get caught and killed by the guards instead.”

“I-I got it! I’ll run!”

I had considered every possible scenario and prepared detour routes to create paths ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of escape.

Thank goodness Kim Hyuk-jun is being cooperative.

I had expected him to act high and mighty because of his age, but he was quietly staying at the very back, encouraging the children with lower stamina. Being able to move as one without anyone falling behind was an incredible blessing.

The Ant Cave has a ton of exits, but there’s only one we need to reach.

Getting there would be no different from flipping our lives one hundred and eighty degrees. Of course it ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠would require insane luck, but that wasn’t what mattered right now.

Hiding the footprints of twenty people is impossible.

In that case, we just had to move primarily through areas that already had lots of footprints. The guard cafeteria, the guard lounge, the magic stone storage, and so on. They were all located close to the exits, so we could hide our tracks by visiting them in sequence.

They’ll assume the children ran straight for the exit.

But there were multiple exits. If they blocked the entrances, their forces would have to split up. In the end, it would come down to one adult male against twenty malnourished orphans. And at that point, we would have more than enough chance of winning. While the children bought time, I would use Arachne’s Breath to cut their throats and end it.

“We’ll rest here for thirty seconds then move immediately. Rest a bit, but don’t sit down. Lean against something and catch your breath.”

The reason we weren’t moving right away was to force the guards to disperse. If they moved as one group at first but still couldn’t find us after time passed, they would eventually split up. The further apart the guards traveled, the higher our chances of escape became.

“Thirty seconds are up. Follow me.”

We had to walk a little faster from here on. With those words, I began moving again in silence.

“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”

As we left the guard cafeteria and headed for the exit, a guard’s scream echoed. One down.

It seemed his ankle had been severed by the spider web I had installed in front of the warden’s office. From the way he was screaming, it looked like he hadn’t been caught by the upper-body web that would have cut him in half. What a shame.

If only I had set it at neck level when his arm reached out.

I stopped dwelling on what was already done and focused on the present again. With one guard incapacitated, it was safe to assume we had one less to deal with.

Good. Since he screamed instead of dying, another guard probably headed that way.

That would mean only four guards were actually roaming the Ant Cave. If one was searching the ant dormitory, then three. Three was a number that gave us some breathing room.

“We really don’t have much further now, so pick up the pace. Can you feel the light coming in from outside? It’s a little brighter than usual, right?”

“Y-yeah… it is!”

“It’s true! It really is!”

“Yeah, it really is.”

As everyone spoke up, each clutching a fragment of hope, that hope was trampled like a piece of garbage. A man blocked our path with a savage grin.

“How…?”

One of the children was so shocked he spoke as if he couldn’t believe it. The man clapped as if even that reaction delighted him and burst into a rough laugh. And I—

Shrrrrk.

“Puhahaha! Yeah, how? How, you ask? Obviously because you little brats moving around is always—urk…?”

The moment I saw the man, I used Arachne’s Breath to fire a web. The launched thread wrapped around his neck without a sound and tightened, severing his head cleanly.

“Haa… haa…”

My second murder. My hands and feet were shaking and my mind felt like it would collapse, but I ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠didn’t even have time for that. The guilt of killing and the collapse of my moral compass could ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wait until after we escaped.

These bastards are trash that deserve to die anyway. I only did what was natural. So focus. Focus.

Right now, the only thing that mattered was concentrating solely on escape. That was my duty to the twenty children who trusted me and followed.

“Let’s go, quickly!”

Only two guards left now. No, three. I couldn’t completely rule out the possibility that the one who searched the ant dormitory would come chasing after us. The one with the severed ankle would need emergency treatment, so the one who heard the scream wouldn’t be able to follow.

“Just one more corner!”

Since I was already using Arachne’s Breath, I manipulated the webs as I moved quickly. Only one corner remained until the exit. I could already see the warm sunlight illuminating the inside of the Ant Cave.

“We’re here!”

The moment a child’s hopeful voice ended and we faced the exit with our own eyes—

“No, you’re not.”

A second wave of despair blocked our path. The exit right behind us was filled with sunlight and meadows, but the despair cast a shadow that swallowed the light and plunged us back into darkness.

“Lee Seokhyun, you son of a bitch. I knew you’d pull off something big one day.”

I didn’t expect it to be this though. With those words, he strode toward us.

“Belbart.”

“Oh? Not using honorifics anymore? Stripped of your rank, huh? And you’re just an orphan brat.”

I decided not to think about how Belbart had managed to block the exit. The only thing I needed to think about now was how to break through him and escape.

Chain mail on his neck, wrists, and ankles. He knows I have Arachne’s Breath.

I had wondered why this cunning bear-like bastard hadn’t shown up. It was because he had prepared thoroughly.

“I realized it when I heard the scream. Ah… so this bastard killed the warden? And he stole Arachne’s Breath too. You really are smart. Truly exceptional.”

But that ends here. Belbart spread his arms wide in a stance that said no one would get past him. I immediately pulled out the explosion magic scroll I had grabbed earlier from my pocket.

“Belbart, do you know what this is?”

“An Explosion Scroll? Huh, you had one of those too? That warden bastard was really sneaky.”

He still seemed to not fully grasp the situation and strode toward me. I tore the scroll just a little.

Ruuuuumble!

I had only torn it slightly, yet a sound like a massive explosion was about to erupt filled the entire Ant Cave.

“See? I’m serious. Either way, getting caught and killed by you or getting buried in the Ant Cave is the same thing.”

“…So what exactly do you want to do?”

Now we could finally communicate. Belbart slowly raised both hands up high without being told. On the surface it looked like surrender, but in reality he was buying time.

When the guards who heard the roar arrive, he plans to pincer us from front and back.

Who did he think he was dealing with? I knew Lee Seokhyun’s prologue like the back of my hand, so his intentions were crystal clear.

“Kids, you go out first. Kim Hyuk-jun, once you’re out, just walk in the direction I told you about. That’s all you need to do.”

“Who said I’d let you go?”

“If you don’t like it, then let’s all just die together?”

“…”

“If not, then shut up and stay still.”

Belbart was a man with an unusually strong obsession with life. He wanted to live in luxury, to rule over others, and was the trash who kidnapped children for that purpose. There was no way he would throw his life away just to catch a few kids.

He’s probably thinking he’ll deal with me now and recapture the children later.

That was never going to happen. While staring at Belbart, I sent the children out first. They hesitated at the beginning, but following Kim Hyuk-jun’s instructions, they soon began passing by Belbart one by one.

“There. Now put down that scroll and let’s talk this out, yeah?”

The moment the children were out, Belbart lowered his hands and slowly approached. The instant I confirmed Kim Hyuk-jun had also exited—