Chapter 3
Chapter 3
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: The Night King's Legacy
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Sentinel.
The grandest prison on the continent.
With a capacity of ten thousand inmates.
The number of guards managing it easily surpassed a thousand.
Security level at its peak.
Known far and wide as the most stringent and ironclad among all prisons.
Yet, there existed something even more so.
The pinnacle of Sentinel.
This solitary cell at the summit of the tower-like structure.
It didn't even have a proper name.
Did the users even know a solitary cell like this existed in Sentinel?
No, they didn't.
There was no way they could.
No user had ever been sentenced to life imprisonment, and they didn't even know a path led to the tower's summit—how could they know about this cell?
It would be stranger if anyone did.
'In short, I'm the first.'
That was right.
Luke was the first to discover this place.
The first to step inside.
Infamy value of one million.
And that as the Worst Criminal in History, sentenced to life imprisonment.
'Hah.'
What was so great about being first that it warranted such pomp?
Suddenly, he felt pathetic.
'Anyway, I'm the first to find this.'
Not that it changed anything.
Still, the Night King who left this will behind was no ordinary figure.
Why?
Because he was a prisoner who had been sentenced to life before Luke and locked away here.
That was why Luke had opened the will with some curiosity.
-There was an enemy deeper and darker than any other. A time when I ruled the underworld as the lord of shadows. As the king of all thieves, I commanded the darkness...
'Skip, skip.'
A quick skim of a few lines made it obvious.
Ruler of the underworld.
King of thieves.
Basically, I'm the greatest.
So he breezed past the obvious boasts.
And soon pinpointed the key parts.
-Ten Emperors. They trampled the domain of the long night and stole away countless kings' treasures. The continent hails them as heroes and praises them, but I know their ugly true nature. Yes, I—who was lauded as king in the shadows—must have been a thorn in their side. With treasures from around the world gathered in one place, they must have coveted them. So...
They branded me evil and dragged the entire continent into it.
That was the gist.
The origin of the incident.
The reason for being locked at Sentinel's summit.
It all seemed to stem from these Ten Emperors.
'Roughly thousands of years ago, the Ten Emperors framed him as a dog, the whole continent dogpiled him, and he ended up locked here? That's the summary.'
That was it in a couple lines.
'Sigh, getting utterly wrecked and bragging about it so verbosely.'
Luke clicked his tongue and turned the page.
The next was the final page.
-So I shall repay them in kind.
But.
'What? That's the end?'
Just one line.
The last page held only that short phrase.
'Did I miss something?'
Luke reread from the beginning, wondering if he'd overlooked anything.
But no matter how many times, nothing was missed.
He flipped the will over, turned it around.
Even craned his neck to look around.
Still no change.
'Hah.'
He'd thought the main point was coming next.
Instead, it just spilled his backstory and ended emptily.
'Will my ass—just venting grievances and calling it a will. I wasted time digging around thinking there was something big hidden.'
Felt like a waste of time.
'As expected of me.'
He'd always been distant from luck.
Hidden pieces.
Jackpot items.
Never found or picked any himself.
Of course, he wasn't resentful.
Why?
If he wanted something, he'd just kill and take it.
So he wasn't all that disappointed this time either.
'I'm used to this sort of thing.'
Luke sighed in thought.
'That said, the Ten Emperors.'
The Night King, ruler of the underworld.
The Ten Emperors who trampled his domain and took everything.
To move the continent itself, they had to be as formidable as the Night King.
Though it was a tale thousands of years old.
'Not helpful to me anyway.'
What mattered right now was his own life sentence.
'Hmm.'
But for some reason.
His gaze lingered on the Night King's will.
But only briefly.
"Ah, piss off. Don't need it anyway."
He tossed the will in his hand and moved to log out.
'Head outside and cool off...'
That instant.
Something caught his eye on the wall.
'This...'
He could see it.
Something not visible moments ago.
A faint light seeping from a crack in the wall.
Luke, as if possessed, blankly touched the wall.
Then flakes crumbled off the wall.
At the same time, the hidden something slowly revealed itself.
-Someday, my successor will appear.
One by one.
-And trample your world.
Thick red letters.
-Annihilate that existence.
From within the peeled wall.
-And take everything you possess, without missing a single one.
Emitting a perilously ominous glow, conveying its meaning.
Confirming it, Luke swallowed hard for a moment.
Blood.
Letters written in human blood.
The only means to write in this solitary cell.
Pretty chilling staging for a game.
But Luke wasn't startled by the staging.
What shocked him was the message before his eyes.
All special conditions fulfilled!
Special conditions.
'Special conditions?!'
Luke's eyes went wide.
Special conditions—aka hidden pieces.
Hidden jobs.
Hidden items, and so on.
The ones only users with insanely good luck ever found!
'And I got one?'
Unbelievable.
He'd only ever thought himself utterly unlucky.
But the system message didn't end there.
Fulfill special conditions, get commensurate rewards.
As expected.
The reward for special conditions was a hidden job.
"Wh-what?! Hidden job...!"
He couldn't hide his excitement and yelled—but only for a moment.
"Ah."
His face rapidly hardened.
His brightly shining eyes clouded with disappointment.
He'd forgotten.
That he was a life-sentence prisoner.
Meaning even switching to a hidden job wouldn't let him escape this place.
"Ah..."
Realizing that, strength drained from his body.
"Aah..."
Luke sprawled out on the floor like a starfish.
And stared blankly at the ceiling with a dazed expression.
"Life's fucked."
'None at all.'
In the capsule room lounge, Seokwoo was staring at his phone screen.
Remus.
The info app joinable only by dark gamers above a certain level.
But no info here on Night King or Ten Emperors either.
'Looks like info not yet public in Agas...'
And he'd found the hidden job closest to that info.
That was the conclusion.
But.
'Fuck, got a hidden job but can't even use it!'
What good was that?
Couldn't leave the prison.
Seokwoo gripped his phone like Kim Cheomji and vented his frustration.
That was when.
"What, you just finish a game too?"
"...Ah, Hopil hyung."
A familiar man entered the lounge.
A man in his forties who made gaming his profession to support a family.
Dark gamer Park Hopil.
Chik, chiik!
"Something up? Why the death glare?"
Hopil lit a cigarette and asked.
"Kinda."
"I see."
He'd introduced himself to others as a plain mid-tier user.
"Whew, my head's splitting."
"What happened to you, hyung?"
"Fuck. Raid coming up, and the party leader doesn't log in. Spent ages contacting everyone, all sorts of bullshit, but he never showed—so I just disbanded and bailed. No more last-minute raids for me!"
"Classic last-minute raider. Ah, but you're skilled and geared enough, hyung. Why not join a regular party while you're at it? Way easier."
"Too much hassle, never considered it. But like you said, maybe time to think seriously. Else won't even cover milk money. Damn."
Milk money, my ass.
Guy pulls at least hundreds monthly.
Seokwoo hid his thoughts and took a cigarette following Hopil's lead.
"Ah, you hear about that?"
"What?"
"That psycho fucker. Uh... Ah, right. Luke! Word is the devil's gone quiet lately. Quit? Got caught by top rankers and went into hiding, etc. All sorts of rumors flying."
Flinch!
It was about him.
'Well, haven't shown up for days. Rumors make sense.'
Truth was, couldn't show up, not wouldn't.
"Yeah? My take—he's still out there killing people somewhere. Not the type to end like this, y'know?!"
"Hahaha..."
"Seokwoo, you think so too? Right?"
"Yeah, probably."
"Exactly."
Bullshit.
Locked in prison, can't get out.
Forcing a smile in front of Hopil, but it wasn't genuine.
"Ah, time already? Anyway, I'm out. You head in too."
"Yeah, see ya."
Seokwoo sighed watching Hopil dash out.
'Really gotta reroll?'
Character: life sentence.
Items: confiscated.
Even levels, stats, skills—all gone.
Had stumbled on a hidden job in prison by chance, but it was pie in the sky.
Only option left: delete character and start over.
'Kuhhh, a hidden job of all things!'
Give that up?
Too cruel an end.
'First hidden job ever since starting, why drop it at this timing, you damn game.'
Seokwoo clutched his face like tearing it, then dropped his head.
'Hah, if you put a hidden piece in prison, should've included an escape method. Life sentence—how the hell...'
Silence flowed in the lounge.
But only briefly.
'Wait.'
Soon, he slowly lifted his lowered head.
'Character gets reset?'
His eyes flashed.