Chapter 302
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 302
Chapter Title: Dilemma
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Layer 8.
A place that was practically endgame content in the game.
"Layers 1 through 3 fall within human limits, while 4 through 6 enter superhuman territory."
And Layer 7 was the realm of peak mastery.
The stage where one had to break through walls on their own, without relying on the collective strength—one of humanity's greatest advantages.
"Then Layer 8 is where groups start forming again. The reason's simple enough."
Jun pointed toward the thousands of people spread out below the airborne carriage.
"Unknown territory. That's why humans band together once more."
Exploring the unknown couldn't be done by just one or two people moving on their own. It required collective knowledge, which was why so many had gathered here.
"......"
Giant's Forest, Layer 7.
Inside the airborne carriage flying overhead.
His companions listened to Jun's explanation while gazing at the scene below.
Thousands of powerhouses were traversing the Giant's Forest.
Impressive figures had appeared in Merdaine not long ago, but nothing like this.
Every tenth person radiated a Level 7 aura.
Among them, extremely rare Level 8 auras could be felt here and there. It was truly a parade of stars.
All of them had been hired by various mage towers, just like the White Whale Mercenary Corps.
Feeling each of those auras, Aiden wore an expression of overwhelming emotion.
"We're really heading to Layer 8."
Aiden had always been fascinated by adventure tales.
Among the books he'd read, there were plenty of heroic epics from Layer 8.
"Finally......"
The dream shared by everyone who came to Blackout with ambition.
Entering Layer 8.
The goal they'd reached after four years in Blackout seemed just within grasp.
What reactions would those people below have if they descended? Goodwill? Rivalry? Or scrutinizing gazes?
Aiden's eyes sparkled like a puppy arriving at a new park as he stepped off the carriage first.
"......?!"
The moment Aiden, who had exited the carriage first, a barrage of hostility flew his way.
His eyes drooped under the weight of malice piercing his entire body, and he turned to Jun with a hollow expression.
He looked just like a puppy gazing resentfully at the rainy sky on walk day.
Seeing Aiden like that, Jun shrugged as if to say he'd expected as much.
"We have no allies here."
After casting a sound-blocking spell, Jun spoke up at the campsite in front of the layer gate.
"It's easiest to think of mages as another noble society."
Magic research naturally required astronomical costs, which only nobles or the ultra-wealthy could afford.
And mages distrusted merchants.
They saw them as vermin scheming only to steal their techniques.
Thus, most who walked the path of a mage were nobles.
"And mage society has long been known as a noble stronghold."
Therefore, the White Whale Mercenary Corps—hailed as the emperor's blade—could only be viewed with hostility by most mage towers.
From the perspective of the mercenaries they hired, the White Whale was no different from enemies of their employers.
'Normally, fellow mercenaries would just brush it off with mild disdain.'
But the recent events in Merdaine had pushed noble animosity to its limit.
Sharp mercenaries would have shared the news and drawn their conclusions.
"Even if we're wielding unprecedented influence in the lower layers, it's still just the lower layers. To those stuck in the mid-to-upper layers, we're freaks—mutants."
"Ah......"
"Connections, experience, scale—we're outmatched across the board. We have to accept that and move forward."
"Haha! The upper-layer folks have always been arrogant. Nothing new there."
Bern, who knew this from experience, clapped as if to reassure the group.
"The captain's right. They've got weapons we lack and will come at us like street thugs."
"Annoying. How're they planning to show their faces to the emperor later?"
"They won't harm us outright. And they must have something to rely on—the nobles."
"Ugh......"
"But it's too early to be disappointed. The captain's relaxed because he knows that. Right?"
"Yeah, spot on."
Jun readily agreed with Bern.
What they lacked, but they had.
"Strength."
It was a place where Level 7s appeared one in ten, but were all Level 7s equal?
"We crush them with raw strength."
Just as they always had—show their power, and even those guys would come crawling first.
Late at night. Jun stood watch, waiting for the next shift.
Soon, someone emerged from the tent, rubbing their eyes, and Jun waited until she approached.
"My turn now."
Maya, who had seemed lost in thought lately.
Jun looked up, meeting her gaze steadily.
"Why the heavy stare?"
"Just felt like chatting."
"......Chatting, huh."
Maya, aware of her recent demeanor, scratched the back of her head awkwardly and sat beside him.
In the awkward silence, Jun spoke first.
"God of the Dead, Lanerius. When I was eroded by his aura, what I saw was the grand temple of Deidas from ages past."
A place once discovered by the Altas adventurer team, the altar of Deidas—the King of Death.
"They said the lich that appeared in Merdaine was named Deidas."
"......"
The Deidas he encountered there had grandly preached the glory of death before offering himself as sacrifice to the altar.
"And he showed me the deaths of others."
"Deaths of others......?"
"Yeah, others. And those others were the most precious people to me."
Not to Jun, but to 'Lee Jung-jun'—the deaths he'd endured.
At least in the Korea where Lee Jung-jun lived, others' deaths weren't as commonplace as in this world.
Which made them all the more intense, colossal, like natural disasters crashing down.
"The deaths of precious people. But ridiculously, that place felt like a warm cradle to me."
A place filled with irreplaceably dear ones. Even though it was engulfed in flames, scorching his body.
It was also the only place where Lee Jung-jun could feel love.
"Reliving their deaths over and over, I wanted to talk to them, even a little."
At first, despair. Then realization it wasn't real.
So he poured out everything held inside.
His life story, moments of regret, consequences of choices......
"A miracle of meeting the unreachable. Lanerius probably aimed to intoxicate me with death alongside them."
But Jun was here now.
The reason he'd poured out his life story to his parents amid the inferno was to awaken from that illusion.
Even if mere phantoms, to tell them everything, leaving not a speck of regret.
"That's how I came back."
"......"
Hearing that, Maya bowed her head deeply.
What Jun had just shared was part of the secret he'd kept hidden all this time.
A piece of him he'd never once told the group.
And to Maya, it sounded like this:
I've told you what I saw—so tell me what you saw.
In a trembling voice, Maya said,
"I want to see it too."
"......"
"Chieftain...... I want to see my father."
Countless ancestral spirits lingered around her, yet the one soul she yearned for most was out of reach.
Normally, under Lanerius's aura, Maya would have seen nothing, straying from his intent.
But one soul deeply slumbering within Lanerius had approached her on its own.
"Lanerius... he had my father's soul."
It was but an instant, yet Maya had clearly seen it.
The chieftain's soul, freed from Lanerius's bonds, drawing near to her for that fleeting moment.
"He's definitely...... alive. My father is somewhere in this place......"
She wanted to set out searching right then. She, who had left her tribe craving vengeance, now turned her gaze elsewhere.
"I want to find him....... My father......"
"......Yeah."
Maya was saying it outright.
She couldn't drag the entire mercenary corps along to search for her father.
So......
"Would it be okay if I left the corps?"
She would leave this place.
The words she'd agonized over since Merdaine finally spilled out.
Crackle.
The firewood burned, spreading warmth around.
Jun surrendered to the heat, pondering Maya.
'In the game, the Jokyung Tribe's chieftain definitely met his end.'
Pommel, who had pacted with Lanerius.
He'd used the souls of the raided Jokyung Tribe to devise a way to manifest Lanerius on the surface.
And with Lanerius's descent, he planned to unleash the Erosion Legion upon the world.
In that process, Maya's father—the Jokyung chieftain—had his soul absorbed, died, and his body puppeteered into battling Maya.
That was the story of Maya, the playable character in the game.
'But the chieftain's alive......'
How should he take this?
Was it really possible, as Maya claimed?
First thought in Jun's mind: he wanted to confirm it.
Jun... no, 'Lee Jung-jun' had a flaw.
Orphaned by a childhood fire, tormented lifelong by guilt that it was his fault.
A child knew only one recourse.
Escape.
But without resolve to die, he drifted aimlessly, his gaze retreating into games.
And in that game world, his first companion was Maya.
Maya the playable character longed for lost family, her story one of self-preservation amid vengeful fury.
Lee Jung-jun projected himself onto her.
Please let this child reclaim happiness at the end.
And as he wished, Maya's arc ended happily.
No— that was Maya's happiness.
By slaying the chieftain's corpse puppeted by Lanerius, freeing his soul.
Thus unshackled from lifelong grief, she stepped into society, truly free.
But that wasn't Lee Jung-jun's happiness.
He'd wanted reunion with family.
Projecting his desperate yearning onto the game character, for Maya to meet her living chieftain.
Thus Jun felt profound loss, and afterward avoided named NPCs with stories.
No more such emptiness. He wouldn't let even his escape—gaming—abandon him.
That was why.
'I......'
What he'd so desperately wished for back then... now, perhaps he could make it real.
Greed stirred.
He wanted Maya to meet her living chieftain, for her to be happy.
But realistically, impossible.
"......"
His gaze turned to the tents where his companions slept.
All had followed him into an uncertain future.
He couldn't betray their expectations, fixate solely on Maya's matter.
This wasn't a game.
Choosing one path didn't leave other quests idly waiting.
So he had to choose.
Grant Maya the dream he'd so longed for himself?
Or trust the faith of those who'd followed him thus far and press on?
Forcing a binary choice upon him.
Just like the game's scripted options.
The situation was cornering Jun.