Chapter 128
Chapter 128
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 128
Chapter Title: Special Authority Request Approved
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Was that last line in the mail some kind of joke?
Ha-jun let out a low sigh as he stared at words that weren't particularly funny or exciting.
Hiss―――.
He opened the capsule's lid.
Unlike watching the game on a monitor until now, he had to connect directly from here on out to maintain security.
"Well, it's not that big a deal anyway. It's just a conversation with Ethan. It's a management code they planted back when they first developed him, in case he got lonely."
Ha-jun recalled what Executive Director Han Mi-yeon had told him as he slid into the capsule.
"Isn't it a bit silly? Thinking an AI might get lonely and wanting to be its chatting buddy. They really treated him like a person. Well... that developer's attitude is probably why Ethan was born."
"The person who made Ethan was Team Leader's wife..."
It was just astonishing.
Hiiiiss――.
With the sound of steam escaping, the capsule's lid closed.
Text appeared in the black void of his vision.
Gulp.
Ha-jun waited for the words to vanish, his face more tense than ever.
"...Huh?"
It was then.
As soon as [Connecting] disappeared, text appeared above a blinking cursor, just like in a chat.
Ha-jun couldn't help but be flustered.
"Ah, sorry. It's just... this is different from what I expected. I heard I could talk to you."
'He's picky...'
"I want to know about a player named Khan."
"We have zero information on him right now."
"What about his connection IP or other data? He's been logged in for over a month straight. There could be issues with the player's condition."
"...Yes?"
"Wh-what does that...?"
[Reviewing the logout logs.]
A window popped up in front of Ha-jun's eyes.
Ha-jun was at a loss for words.
Was it his imagination?
The cursor seemed to blink faster, as if mocking him.
"...No."
Whether joke or serious, the conversation left an increasingly alienating discomfort as it dragged on.
Ethan ended the chat unilaterally, without even waiting for Ha-jun's reply.
"Wh-what the hell."
Ha-jun climbed out of the capsule, unable to hide his unease from the completely unexpected conversation.
"How'd it go?"
Ko Jun-cheol, waiting outside the connection room, asked Ha-jun.
"Sorry. I really couldn't get anything."
Ha-jun gave a wry smile and answered awkwardly.
"Total shutout, huh."
"...Yeah?"
Was he expecting something?
Ko Jun-cheol nodded regretfully at Ha-jun's response.
"The timing's so damn ironic, though."
"What do you mean?"
"Khan. He's been logged in non-stop until now, but there's a logout record from this morning."
"...What? This morning?"
Ko Jun-cheol's face twisted.
It was right when Ethan had approved the special authority request.
-Phew, we got lucky.
As Setsuna said in her tense voice, they encountered no monsters on the way up to Fenrir's nest.
It was so quiet it felt eerie.
"Not sure if it's luck or if there were never any monsters to begin with."
-I hope it stays that way.
She shuddered, recalling the failed experiment they'd met in Baldor.
Was someone listening to her prayer-like words?
There was no sign of life inside the nest either.
"Setsuna."
At Woojin's call, the quick-witted girl cast Silver Flame.
She flew around like a living torch, illuminating the nest's interior.
Fortunately, the path matched Woojin's memory closely, and they easily reached the inner chamber where Fenrir had stayed.
-Ugh.
Only a stench remained where the nest had been.
The straw scattered on the floor had long since rotted into a soggy mess, as if unused for ages.
It was only natural.
The Fenrir of this world was dead.
A space without its owner could only fade away.
Like the elves' forest.
"..."
Woojin deliberately ignored the ruined nest and headed downward.
-Master!!
At that moment, Setsuna's voice rang out.
-Look here!!
Rushing to Setsuna as she urgently called him, he saw a corpse on the floor where she pointed.
Throb――.
The body was so decayed it was hard to make out its shape, but the moment Woojin saw it, he bit his lip without realizing.
A single sword clutched in the rotten hand.
It was familiar.
-No way... it can't be, right?
Setsuna seemed to recognize the sword too.
"No. It is."
Leaving the grimacing Setsuna behind, Woojin answered calmly.
The black, subtly curved blade and the ornate, though worn, hilt.
It was the demon sword Karlan had used.
In the game, it was a cursed blade discarded in Thorn Bach, but sadly, in this world, it had stayed by its master's side to the end.
"Why... are you here."
Woojin muttered in a rasping voice as he gazed at the corpse sprawled on the floor.
He looked up.
Rough gashes like sword slashes scarred the stone walls everywhere.
He'd apparently strained desperately to open the stone door without a ring.
"Father wasn't good at swordsmanship or magic."
Irurin's words came to mind.
"Grandfather said there was a secret technique he awakened while hunting Fenrir."
Why...?
Had a desire to grow stronger awakened too late?
-I can see Karlan pleading under the Red Tower.
"...What?"
-He's screaming to let him see his daughter. Did they take it from him...? An old mage is yelling at Karlan!
Trickle――.
Tears ran down Setsuna's cheeks.
-Chased from the Red Tower, he wandered for years... and found this place. But...
"Enough."
Woojin pulled Setsuna's hand away from the blade.
"I get it without hearing more."
He'd finally found the nest.
But having already given the ring to his daughter, all he could do was swing his sword at the door.
-Master...
Tears streamed down relentlessly.
-I didn't know reading memories could be this heartbreaking.
Reality wasn't wrapped up in a single game notification line.
-Hwahaaaaang...!!!
The memories lingering on the object pierced Setsuna's heart painfully.
"Can you bury him?"
Woojin comforted Setsuna.
She nodded, wiping her tears.
Rumble...
Two hands rose from beside Karlan's corpse, enveloping him.
"Karlan."
Gazing at the covered mound of earth, Woojin spoke softly.
"Even if you miss your daughter, hold on just a bit... no, a lot longer."
She's alive, after all.
Creak――.
Woojin turned his head.
He then pushed the ring into a small hole in the scarred stone wall.
Rumble...
The stone wall that Karlan couldn't open until his death slid open with absurd ease.
Thud―― thud――.
Fizzle... fzzzzzt...
As he stepped inside, lights flickered on along both walls.
But several torches malfunctioned, sparking without igniting properly.
A landscape similar to the game, yet clearly different.
Traces of time's passage.
'I thought coming to this world was just a cheat for grabbing runes and future info...'
It had been far too naive.
The further he progressed in the game, the more bonds formed, the crueler it became to visit this world.
It was disorienting.
Because in this world, they weren't NPCs—they were living people.
As if testing him, Nissen's death and Karlan's corpse kept shaking his resolve.
Slap!!!
Woojin slapped his own cheeks with both hands.
'Get it together.'
More important than how to treat them was returning to reality.
"Pensir... isn't here, huh."
He'd entered with faint hope, but disappointingly, no trace of him remained inside the stone wall.
'If Aswell hunted Fenrir and took the ring... he'd have checked all the way down here.'
Pensir might have even met his end at Aswell's hands.
With mixed feelings, Woojin eyed the small box inside the stone wall.
"This it?"
Click――.
Opening the box revealed a weathered scroll.
"Sword Emperor's secret technique..."
In the game, Aswell had created the sword art Taemrang inspired by Fenrir's attacks.
But the technique left here was one he'd comprehended after slaying Fenrir.
The complete opposite of Taemrang.
'Can I learn it?'
Woojin unrolled the worn scroll from the box.
"...!!"
In that instant, incredibly, images densely filled his mind.
How to grip the sword, how to raise it, even the blade's trajectory...
Every detail of the scroll's swordsmanship etched itself meticulously into his head, from one to ten.
Raoul's dragon-slaying swordsmanship was straight and domineering, while the Bolton family's focused on finesse.
But the Sword Emperor's was different in nature.
"This..."
Yet Woojin's surprise wasn't at the technique's greatness.
It was the phenomenon from moments ago.
The sensation of the swordsmanship drawing itself in his mind without guidance.
It was none other than,
Ancient Knowledge.
The trait he'd gained from contracting with Pensir.
"...He's alive."