One More Golden Goblin...

Another Golden Goblin? No. That couldn't be. Finding the Golden Goblin and killing it was supposed to end the event. Was the rule that whoever caught one first became the winner?

If not, then one of the two might have been an illusion. Yujun knew there were no other celestials nearby, which meant the others weren't even ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠chasing the same Golden Goblin.

It was absurd enough to make a ghost weep, and yet, thought through, it wasn't so shocking after all. Nowhere had the system message said there was only one Golden Goblin. Two, three — a hundred, even — and there would have been nothing to say against it.

A hundred's pushing it... but five, at the outside, wouldn't be strange.

Yujun realized he didn't have time to spare. Even if he caught a Golden Goblin and sealed it inside a sealing orb, problems ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠remained. A full inventory was the lesser of them. The moment the count passed two, simply holding one stopped meaning anything — if someone caught a Golden Goblin somewhere else, the event would end all the same.

There goes my entire plan.

This was no time to sit in disappointment. Yujun pushed his speed as high as it would go and predicted the Golden Goblin's path.

The Golden Goblin fought to shake him with erratic feints, but it could not break free of a man spending everything he had. If anything, the distance only narrowed.

"Ah — no!"

The Golden Goblin whipped its head around, found Yujun already at its back, and its eyes flew wide. For an instant it was exactly like watching a grazing animal run down by a predator. Yujun seized it by the scruff and slammed its body into the ground.

KWAANG!

The impact landed like a bomb going off. His Strength had long since blown past a hundred thousand, and a heartbeat later Yujun winced. He hadn't meant to kill it. Yet the Golden Goblin was still pushing out a faint breath. Its body was wrecked past the point where survival made any sense — but it was alive, and alive would do.

He asked Do Jiyun at once how things stood.

"Human! Let go of me!"

The Golden Goblin convulsed as if in a fit. Foam gathered at its mouth, but Yujun didn't spare it a glance.

Yujun turned his head toward the Golden Goblin, which was still screaming itself hoarse.

"Human! Can't you hear me?! Human! Human!"

"I know perfectly well I'm human, so stop emphasizing it."

"Are you deaf? I said let me go!"

"Why would I? Why would I let go of a tasty-looking thing like you?"

"...What? What? You're going to eat me?"

"As if."

Yujun paused, weighing what to do with it. If there wasn't only one Golden Goblin, he had no reason to leave this one alive. The single problem was that killing it here would mean no more golden flowers.

Even if it isn't the one on Do Jiyun's side, a Golden Goblin somewhere else might get caught first.

He judged he could drag this out no longer. Without hesitation, Yujun drove his sword into the Golden Goblin's head.

Thuk!

The creature, mid-rant, went still. Its breath cut off. Then he waited for the hologram message that ought to have followed.

"..."

A minute passed.

"Hm?"

No message appeared — not one announcing a rise in level, nor one declaring ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the event over. Just in case, he examined the corpse with care, but the thing was unquestionably dead. Nor had it been an illusion. An illusion woven of mana would have lost its body the instant its breath stopped. Time kept passing, and nothing changed. The Contribution displayed at the top of his vision did not rise by so much as a single percent.

"What?"

Too dumbfounded to help it, Yujun let out a hollow laugh, then sent Do Jiyun a message at once.

"Haa..."

He felt as though the system had taken him in completely. But nothing would change if all he did was sit there disappointed. Yujun called Paranet.

"You called, Master?"

"Space Movement, please."

"To where your companions are?"

"Yeah."

"Understood."

By means of Paranet's Space Movement, Yujun arrived among the party and made for Dokgo Minsu, who was running out ahead. He drew up just behind the man and spoke as if in a whisper.

"Reban — the one who said he had the Synchronization Marble. What happened to him?"

"Oh, when did you arrive? Reban ought to be here, in the Golden Garden."

"He's still alive, yes?"

"He is."

"That's a relief."

It was an event; even if someone died, it hardly mattered. But Yujun had to obtain the Synchronization Marble one way or another, and he could not rest easy unless Reban was safe.

"That marble must be a matter of great importance to you."

"I explained back then. It's tied to my Trait."

"Should I come by that marble, I shall be sure to tell you."

"Thank you."

"Thanks are unnecessary. Is helping one another not what companions are for?"

"That's heartening."

"Hearty, you mean? Like a bowl of gukbap?"

"...Excuse me? What kind of terrible joke is that?"

"I was suddenly seized by the wish for a hearty bowl of gukbap — rice sunk in hot broth, the kind from home. Five years since I last had one... I miss it."

"I had some six months ago. Went down to Busan."

"...Are you provoking me?"

"I'm just saying."

"Reckoned properly, has it not been more than five years for you as well? Then we may be considered the same."

"No. I'm a first-year player."

"That much is true. Yet the time that has actually passed since you entered the Tower of Infinity is five years, is it not?"

"What matters more is that I still remember exactly how gukbap tastes."

"...That, I will honestly admit, I envy."

"You miss Korean food a lot, don't you?"

"You ask what needs no asking. I have sought out every dish in this place that people call delicious, and to me they were all merely passable."

"I've eaten plenty of good food lately, so I can't say I'm terribly dissatisfied. But honestly, I do miss it."

"Not even a full year has passed for you. You cannot yet feel that longing as it truly is. Haa..."

"A minute ago you were telling me to add five years."

"You were the one who denied it."

"True. Better to live young."

"That false youth of yours stirs no great envy in me."

"False youth? Add five years to my age and it still doesn't come close to yours."

"Must you persist in striking at my age?"

"You said you weren't envious."

"Permit a falsehood of that size to pass. I am a man with a dignity to keep."

"I wasn't reading the room. But..."

"Hm?"

"What's Archangel Four doing over there?"

"Chasing the Golden Goblin, is he not? They have drawn too far for my eyes to follow."

"To me, it looks like he's deliberately not catching it."

"Hmm?"

Dokgo Minsu tilted his head.

"There would be no particular reason for him to do so, would there?"

"There is. He'd be getting something out of it."

"Getting? What would he be getting?"

"Archangel Four must already know that nothing happens even if you catch the Golden Goblin."

"...A moment. Nothing happens? What manner of talk is this?"

"Whether that was even the Golden Goblin is doubtful... In any case, I killed a gold-colored goblin."

"And yet the event did not end?"

"It didn't."

"Then what was the problem?"

"What I killed probably wasn't the Golden Goblin."

"...So you mean to say Archangel Four is putting on an act."

"Precisely."

"And what does Archangel Four gain by deceiving us?"

"I don't know either. But he wouldn't be wasting his effort for no gain at all."

"True enough."

Yujun narrowed his eyes and watched Archangel Four's back. Over and over, the scene of him just barely losing the Golden Goblin was staged before them. At a glance it might have passed for the Golden Goblin making a fool of Archangel Four, but Yujun knew at once that it was nothing of the sort.

In truth, a handful of players suspected Archangel Four just as he did.

"Doesn't Archangel Four seem a little off to you?"

"Off how?"

"He's usually much faster than that. I don't get why he can't catch the Golden Goblin."

"He must have a reason."

"That's the problem — it doesn't look like there is one."

"The Golden Goblin isn't slow, you know. It's fast enough that we could chase it our whole lives and never catch it. Archangel Four isn't a god. You think he's going to make the impossible happen?"

"..."

But they were a minority in the most literal sense, and their opinions carried no real weight.

"With things roughly like this, a head-on breakthrough is the only option."

At Yujun's words, Dokgo Minsu's eyes went wide.

"Surely you do not mean to attack Archangel Four?"

"No... What do you people take me for? It's not that."

"Then?"

"I have to catch the Golden Goblin."

"Oh. If we assume Archangel Four is plotting something while letting the Golden Goblin slip away, then the instant you seize it, you will have spoiled his scheme most thoroughly. Ah — did I sound too much like a man explaining the obvious?"

"No. Thank you for understanding what I meant."

"Then I am glad."

Yujun turned thought into action.

A blinding burst—!

He kicked off the ground and tore forward like a loosed arrow, and not a single person in the group could follow him with their eyes. In an instant he blew past Archangel Four and thrust his sword at the back of the Golden Goblin's head. The creature flung its body sideways and slipped the strike coming in from behind.

A keen light entered Yujun's eyes.

Faster than the one I killed earlier, isn't it?

Maybe the one before him really was the Golden Goblin.

"Hrgh—!"

The Golden Goblin rolled hard, scrambling to get clear of him, but it was a step too late. Yujun caught the back of its head and slammed it into the ground.

KWAANG!

Once again, that monstrous Strength dropped the Golden Goblin unconscious in a single blow.

That was when it happened. Archangel Four, who had closed in behind him before anyone noticed, spoke with a face gone hard.