Virtual Reality (4)
"Haa..."
I let out a sigh as I sorted through the information I'd gathered.
Whoever built this virtual-reality testing ground — one person or several — had to have nerves of steel. How the hell did they manage to set up a laboratory inside this place, too?
They locked off the underground levels, and yet the lab was still accessible...
Had they never imagined anyone would make it that far? Or did they simply not care if someone did? My thoughts kept spinning. There was no way to tell what the other side was thinking.
And something about this feels familiar.
I sank into memory, recalling a gate I'd once been caught in — the kind that abducted your mind instead of your body. I'd been trapped there for nearly a month, and the ordeal had been hell.
"No way..."
It couldn't be. Right?
People falling unconscious. Mana stones fitted into the headgear. Technology capable of opening a gate. There were far too many pieces that lined up.
"Miss Eunha, will everything really be all right?"
"I don't know either."
If my hunch was correct, things were about to get a lot worse. Mind-interference gates were poorly understood in every respect. Of course, I still couldn't say for certain that the Trial of the Tower was actually a gate — but it never hurt to be careful.
Ding—
"...Huh?"
An alert chimed. Following the blinking light in my field of view, I found a message waiting.
"Oh, come on, not this guy again..."
I thought that as I absently checked the date — today was Saturday. He must have logged in because it was the weekend. Now even an acquaintance was tangled up in this mess. My head started to throb.
After sending the messages to MoneyIsPower, I pulled my hood down low. It was gear meant to keep people's eyes off me.
"Let's go, Miss Soph."
"Yes, Miss Eunha."
In a deserted spot, I punched a hole through the wall and threw myself through it. I could have used the system to jump straight to Floor 60, but then Miss Soph wouldn't have been able to follow — so that was out.
Inside the Trial of the Tower, Miss Soph was a unique existence who carried both NPC and user flags at once. When moving between floors she was treated as a user, so she couldn't freely travel to floors she hadn't cleared. But when she walked the streets, no nickname appeared over her head, so other users registered her as an NPC.
"So then... ah, there he is."
After passing through the corridor and climbing back out of another hole, I spotted that familiar golden armor and couldn't help a small snort of laughter as I walked over. For all his usual swagger, he looked pretty rattled.
Tap-tap—
"Hey."
"Whoa—! You scared me...!"
I tapped him on the back and MoneyIsPower nearly jumped out of his skin. That kind of reaction was rare on a Neutral Floor, of all places — it wasn't like we were mid-trial.
He looked down at me, heaved a sigh, and then squatted right down onto the ground. It was the kind of lounging posture you'd expect from some ancient mural of a swaggering warrior.
"So what's going on? Do you know what's happening, bro?"
"...Hmm."
Tell him, or don't? If the question was whether I could trust him, the answer was yes — but if the question was whether he was reliable...
"You're a hunter, right?"
"Yep. A B-rank hunter, no less. Not exactly a household name, but people treat me like a rising star."
"Is that so..."
B-rank was better than I'd expected. Any lower and people might have doubted his abilities.
"I need you to work with me on something."
"Does it have to do with this whole mess?"
"Yeah. It's extremely related."
I'd made my decision, so there was no more room for second-guessing. I laid out everything I'd investigated and every theory I'd formed — that Miracle Company seemed connected to a secret criminal organization, and that the Trial of the Tower might actually be a gate.
"Hoooh..."
MoneyIsPower's face went blank and stupid as he listened, like he was trying to decide whether he'd really just heard what he thought he'd heard.
"And this is Miss Soph. She's a victim of... well, some very bad experiments at Miracle Company's hands."
"Hello..."
To MoneyIsPower, Miss Soph would look like an NPC. But no NPC behaved the way she did. In the end, he'd have no choice but to believe me.
"Hold on — that's way too much information dumping into my brain at once... just give me a second."
"Sure, I'll wait. But we don't have a lot of time, so I can't wait long."
"Huuu..."
MoneyIsPower sank into thought, then started grumbling under his breath — about how he'd only logged in to game on his day off and somehow gotten dragged into something insane, about whether any of this was even believable. Well, what could you do? This was reality.
"So basically, you want me to explain the situation to people and calm them down?"
"Yeah, that's right."
"Why don't you do it yourself? Seems like it'd go better coming from you. You're famous, bro."
"Huh? I'm famous?"
I tilted my head at that. This was the first I'd heard of it. When I said as much, MoneyIsPower let out a long, heavy sigh.
"Forget it if you don't know. More importantly — putting a B-rank hunter to work doesn't come cheap, you know?"
"If it's money, I can pay as much as you want."
"Pass. I've already got plenty of money."
Then what did he want? I put that question into a look, and MoneyIsPower's eyes slid away from mine.
Don't tell me.
"M-my body is off-limits..."
"As if, seriously. What's going on in that head of yours, you little brat."
"Gyahk...?!"
Sh-she hit me. She actually hit me, this brat! And she even called me a little kid! To her senior!
"I think that was Miss Eunha's fault just now."
"Even you, Miss Soph..."
"...Eunha?"
MoneyIsPower cocked his head at Miss Soph's words. Ah — right, he didn't know my real name. Might as well introduce myself properly while we were at it.
"Yeah. That's my name. Seo Eunha."
"It suits you."
"...And what exactly is that supposed to mean?"
I'd been using this name since back when I was a man — it had history. Saying it "suited" me... did he mean it suited this tiny little body?
I leveled a glare full of that implication at him, and MoneyIsPower flailed his hands in a frantic denial.
"Whoa, why are you so quick to take things the wrong way?"
"Because it might not be the wrong way?"
"What is that even supposed to mean... Anyway."
Ahem. MoneyIsPower cleared his throat, then thumped his own chest plate with a fist as he spoke. Every hit rang out with a metallic clang-clang, which was a little funny.
"My name is Namgung Min. Namgung Min."
"Yeah, nice to meet you, Gungmin."
"...That's a joke, right?"
"It's a joke."
Like I wouldn't recognize Namgung as a surname. Still, hearing the name, I thought he really did look the part — like he belonged in a martial-arts world. Maybe this guy had been born into the wrong genre.
"So what is it you actually want?"
"Honestly, I was gonna call it even just for learning your name..."
"Good grief."
This kid really lived without a thought in his head. Getting mixed up in something this big, and he wasn't even trying to squeeze more out of it? I opened my mouth to give him some advice, then realized I was hardly one to talk and shut it again. Present and accounted for: the person who started doing unpaid monster-hunting grunt work the second the gates opened.
"Then I'll write you a post on the Hunter Gallery."
"What kind of post?"
"A Namgung Min praise post. Something like, 'Hunter Namgung Min saved the people trapped in the Trial of the Tower!' I'll heap on the compliments."
"..."
MoneyIsPower — no, Namgung Min — wore an expression of pure disbelief. Why was he looking at me like that? If I wrote about him, he'd blow up overnight, you know?
"What's your username?"
"Why do you suddenly need that?"
"So that if some weird post shows up, I can go, 'Ah, that's bro,' and move on."
"...Do I look like the kind of person who writes weird posts?"
No faith. Zero faith. I was someone who had never once written a weird post on any community board in my entire life.
...Or had I? Maybe once?
"Also, active hunters are banned from the Hunter Gallery."
"Lurking's fine, though, right?"
"Lurking's banned too. Those are the gallery rules."
"I still wanna see the praise post you write. How were you even planning to write it?"
Was that really the important part? The important part was that I was offering to praise him at all. Every post I'd ever written about an active hunter — with the exception of Uncle Haseong — had been about female hunters. Like I'd waste interest on some guy.
And now that same me was going to write about Namgung Min? It would definitely make waves.
"You said you wanted to know my username, right?"
"Yeah. Ah — you don't have to force yourself to tell me. I was just asking in case—"
"CivilianInformantA."
"—Huh?"
"CivilianInformantA is my username."
Namgung Min's face went through a spectacular sequence of changes. First shock. Then disbelief. Then, in short order, acceptance — and something approaching reverence.
"Bro... you were CivilianInformant-hyung this whole time?"
"Why is that so hard to believe..."
CivilianInformant-hyung? Only one person ever called me that...
"...CivilianInformantFollower? That's you, isn't it?"
"Gasp."
Namgung Min snapped to attention so fast he nearly left a vapor trail. No — he went past that. He dropped to his knees.
W-why is this guy suddenly doing this?!
While I was still reeling, Namgung Min delivered a single line.
"I present myself before the GOAT..."
"What are you even saying right now."
My face burned hot. We weren't alone here, for crying out loud. Miss Soph looked around in confusion at Namgung Min's behavior, and between the two of them I only got more embarrassed.
"L-let's go inside somewhere and talk."
"I shall obey the GOAT's will."
"Hey. Stop that. Seriously."
"I shall obey the GOAT's will..."
"Hey!!"
This guy was weird. He'd always been weird, but now he was weirder!
I dragged the still-babbling Namgung Min into a nearby inn. The future of Korea's hunters was looking bleak — truly bleak. Uncle Haseong's dream of retirement was not going to come true anytime soon.