One or the Other (1)

"Shame. You're going to have to go back in."

"M-Ma Cheol...!!"

Gwak Sang-gu folded where he stood. The blood drained from his face in an instant, and all that hope went with it.

I didn't move. No — I couldn't.

Ma Cheol drew a long pull on his rolled tobacco, held it, and let it out. Then he looked me dead in the eye.

"That's the face of a man with too many questions."

"How did you know I'd come out this way?"

"There's only one hole you can slip this camp through without passing under our eyes. This one."

"..."

Ma Cheol was a veteran among veterans, twenty years on this ground. Of course he'd known about the gap long before I had.

"Your eyes were the problem from the start."

"...My eyes?"

"Too clear, for a junkie who was supposed to drop dead any day."

So that was it. He hadn't been fooled. He'd seen through me and let me walk anyway. A rat in a jar — that was all I was.

Do I have to fight?

I swallowed hard and lifted my gaze above Ma Cheol's head, calling up his status.

A clear chime rang.

Peak of Dual Combination...!!

A realm where a man wielded two characters as freely as his own limbs. I had only just broken through a single character. Die and wake a hundred times, and I still couldn't beat him.

The moment I lunge, I get torn apart.

Fight, and I die. Run, and I die. So what was I supposed to choose?

Thump. Thump. My heart slammed, wild and fast, and I felt every nerve stand on end as I forced my mind to turn.

...Wait.

Something was off. Small, but unmistakable.

I looked back at the window. What snagged my eye were the keywords extracted from Ma Cheol.

Conflict. Expectation...?

What was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠there for a warden to wrestle with, or to expect, standing in front of a prisoner? The moment I caught that thread, the scattered pieces began sliding into place. Click. Click. Each one that locked made the picture in my head a little sharper, and when the last piece seated itself—

...Ah.

I arrived at a single conclusion.

"Head Warden."

"Hm?"

"You didn't come here to catch me."

"..."

Ma Cheol's mouth shut. He held the silence a good long while before he asked.

"Interesting. What makes you think that?"

"That watchtower light. You put it out, didn't you?"

I flicked a glance overhead. The searchlights bearing the character for Bright were meant to sweep the outer wall at regular intervals. The other towers were turning just fine. Only this one was dark.

"And tonight's watch — a camp that size, and only two men on it. Neither of them even holds a character."

"..."

"Who but you, the Head Warden, has the authority to touch both the duty roster and the watchtowers?"

"Fine. We'll say that's so."

Ma Cheol dragged hard on the tobacco, breathed out a long stream of smoke, and fixed me with a cold stare.

"Never occurred to you I might be here to kill you and shut your mouth?"

"If that were the plan, you'd have killed me already. Staged it as a suicide, or slipped poison into the boiled meat."

"..."

He had no answer for that. Ma Cheol dropped the tobacco and ground it out under his foot.

"...Tsk. Too quick on the uptake. Can't even toy with you."

A faint smile touched his mouth.

"Pity. Now that you've got a character of your own, I was hoping you'd just come charging."

"I'd have to be insane to rush you."

Ma Cheol laughed, a rough bark, then drew something from his waist and tossed it my way as if it were nothing.

"Here. Catch."

"?"

Whump. A coin pouch, heavy with what it held. I opened the mouth of it, and my eyes went wide.

"A single-use transit pass, and a little money to live on. Getting yourself set up out there won't be a problem."

"Oh...!"

A transit pass, and silver on top of it. I hadn't thought he'd see to even this.

"They say my girl's fully healed. Honestly, it still doesn't feel real."

"Congratulations. I'm truly glad."

So he had a smile like that in him. Where his daughter was concerned, he was the warmest man alive.

"The kindness of letting me see my daughter's smile again — this settles it. And now—"

His hand slid to his waist.

"...it's time I did my duty as Head Warden."

"What do you mean."

A chill climbed my spine. The moment I understood, I turned and shouted.

"Sang-gu! Run, right now—!!"

"Gyaaaaaaaah!!"

Gwak Sang-gu was driven into the ground before he could so much as react, the ferocious pressure pinning him there and wrenching the scream out of his chest.

I forced my face still and spoke.

"Your hands are as vicious ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠as ever, Head Warden."

"You're the one who crossed the line."

"If I was coming out, I should have come alone. That it?"

"You're the one who ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠saved my daughter. Where, exactly, is the reason I should shut my eyes for this trash as well?"

"..."

Not a hair of give in that fierce gaze. If I had crawled out ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠alone, Ma Cheol would have flung me the pass and the travel money and walked off like it was nothing.

But he had a line, as Head Warden.

He could turn a blind eye to the escape of the benefactor who had saved his daughter's life. He could not let some unrelated wretch walk out with him. That was the absolute principle holding the man called Ma Cheol upright.

Step. Step.

Ma Cheol started toward Gwak Sang-gu. He stopped, slid a glance my way, and asked.

"Someone you knew on the outside?"

"...No. First time I saw him was during the transfer."

"Then there's no bond worth staking your life on."

Boom. The expandable steel baton stamped the ground. He hadn't even used an art, and still a sharp vibration ran the length of my body.

"Last warning. Leave this place. Now."

"And if I refuse?"

"Then I stop treating you like a benefactor. I'll handle you as a death-row convict, thorough as before."

As if to prove it was no empty threat, a baleful killing intent pricked my skin.

I barely held down the instinct screaming at me to flee, and turned my eyes to Gwak Sang-gu.

"Khk... ghhk..."

Pinned to the floor, he hauled in ragged breaths. A bleak smile crossed his face, and he shook his head with effort.

"I-I'm all right... khk. Please, just go."

"..."

"My sister... a letter. Just one. I beg you."

I'm finished. So you, at least, survive.

Déjà vu hit me all at once.

The sickening cliché of the original Murim Thousand Character Classic. Every time a supporting character recognized their limit and hit the floor, they spat out the same revolting lines of resignation.

One per volume. And without a single exception, the ones who left those words died.

I'd watched it hundreds of times from the far side of the page, and thousands more in simulation.

And that still wasn't enough. Now it meant to play the thing out again, right in front of my eyes.

...The choice I have to make here is simple.

Drop Gwak Sang-gu on the spot. No reason to stake a life I'd only just clawed back on one man who wasn't important, wasn't anything.

No pipeline of funds? I could go down to Hangzhou later and find Gwak Sang-ah. That would be enough. Play the tearful sworn brother come to deliver her dead brother's last words, and I'd have my line in easily enough.

Discard what ought to be discarded. Minimize the risk, maximize the return. That was my own equation for success — one I had never once, in all my life, stepped outside of.

And yet a strange doubt flickered past.

If I do this, what actually changes?

Hundreds of simulation runs. Every time, I had played the most plausible move — set the vital pieces where they could win, and spent the low-value cards as sacrifices.

Those discarded cards stacked up one by one, until at the end no one was left.

Perhaps that was how the zero percent had been made.

Dodging the loss in front of you by abandoning salvation and running. Wasn't that exactly what the orthodox bastards of the original had repeated across all nineteen volumes?

Hah. What a pathetic sight I am.

A hollow laugh slipped out of me. The very arithmetic I had sneered at — I'd been running it myself before I even noticed.

One step. I took it forward.

"...?!"

Ma Cheol's brow twitched. I heard Gwak Sang-gu suck in a sharp, startled breath.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Ma Cheol's voice had sunk deep. A killing intent sharper still sheared across my skin.

I knew. I knew perfectly well this was madness. I didn't even have a decent plan yet. Even so, I was certain.

The reason Gaia had sent me into this world was not so I could repeat what the original had already done. It was so I would become a variable that had never existed.

Gladly. I'll be that variable.

I looked Ma Cheol straight in the eye and opened the mouth I had kept shut.

"Ma Cheol. Let's talk."

"...That's enough bullshit."

Shrrk. The expandable steel baton came free at his waist and dropped like lightning toward the ground.

Whsshk—! I had to stop it now. I thrust my right hand toward the baton and slammed my energy in by force.

"...What!?"

A four-stroke character flared in the empty air. Two character-arts slammed together.