Rainbow Coral Is a Broker's Favorite
Rainbow Coral was a snack that brokers—the Gon—went utterly mad for. Among that race, only those of truly high rank, or those with real money, ever so much as laid eyes on it. In the Abyss, Rainbow Coral was that rare.
"Do this work long enough, and now and then you meet a sharp friend who brings coral back with him."
The broker who had introduced himself as Dorong said it with relish.
"Every time that happens, I'm in a fine mood. One piece of Rainbow Coral, and we can live happy for half a year."
"That's why I brought it."
"Heh. We might just become friends."
"Heh. Not bad."
Dorong led Yujun's party down into the tunnel.
"Whoa. It's huge..."
The words slipped out of Hong Yeji in pure admiration. The burrow was far larger than she had pictured.
"This is my private tunnel."
"I heard Abyss beasts live in tunnels like this. Has that been dealt with?"
"Nope!"
"...So we might run into them on the way."
"Probably."
"And the solution?"
"You handle it!"
"Well. I figured as much."
The tunnel kept dropping. They walked the long slope in silence for a while.
"So a place like this exists. Is the entrance to the First Layer hidden somewhere around here?"
Curiosity had gotten the better of Hong Yeji.
Yujun shook his head.
"There is no separate entrance."
"Then how? If there isn't an entrance, how do we reach the First Layer?"
"You've got it a little wrong. The Third Layer of the Abyss, the Second, and the First are all connected."
"...Really?"
"Yes."
"And that was information you paid for, too?"
"Of course."
"Master."
Paranet chose that moment to speak.
"What."
"If the Third Layer and the First are not, in truth, separate places, would it not suffice to employ spatial movement?"
"If that worked, I'd have asked you ages ago."
"It cannot be done?"
"Impossible. There's a barrier that blocks spatial movement and portals both. It covers the entire First Layer, so even if you know the coordinates, it's useless."
"So that is how it stands."
"Human friend. You know the Abyss well, don't you?"
Dorong said.
"Yeah."
"Prepared a lot, I see. Confident in your skills, too?"
"You just need to guide us properly."
"Reliable. I like it."
The way split into branch after branch. Without the broker Dorong, there would have been no finding the First Layer at all. Whenever a passage had collapsed, he bored straight through it with the digging gift peculiar to his kind.
"Mr. Yujun."
They had been walking without a word when Hong Yeji spoke up from behind.
"Yes."
"Where did six hundred million points come from?"
"Selling items. Hunting monsters brings in points too, so they piled up."
"...Unless you're running a business on a massive scale, money like that is hard to get your hands on, isn't it?"
"It's a secret."
Yujun's answer was flat enough that Hong Yeji let it go. She knew the affairs of the Continent well, and she knew that an ordinary player holding six hundred million points was anything but common. Six hundred million, offered without a blink, just to be shown a road? When he had paid the broker the three-hundred-million-point deposit, she had watched his face closely. A fortune had vanished, and his expression had not so much as flickered. Was he simply wealthy enough to spend that kind of money as if it were nothing? The longer she looked at him, the more astonishing he became.
That was when it happened.
"Human friend! I smell an Abyss beast nearby."
"How many?"
"One!"
Yujun sharpened his senses. With his Agility this high, the trait was finally showing its worth. The presence of an Abyss beast buried in the mound of earth came through sharp and clear.
"Not one. Two."
"Huh? It is?"
Yujun drew his mana up. If he could manage it, he meant to settle this with magic. Thrash around too hard in a tunnel like this, and things could turn into a nuisance. Two great arrows of light formed in the air and locked onto the exact places where the beasts were hiding.
Thuk. Thuuk.
The arrows flew without a sound and punched through both necks. The two quadrupedal monsters died where they hid.
"Good instincts, friend."
Dorong said it with his eyes creased in a smile.
Abyss beasts kept turning up after that. Every time, Yujun stepped forward and put them down, and not once did the situation rise to anything that could be called a crisis. Up, then down, then up again—they hurried along the stooped, winding way. And so Yujun's party arrived at the First Layer.
The heart of the First Layer—a brutal stretch of ground where every manner of power in the Abyss came and went. And yet the place was so beautiful it called to mind a hidden paradise. Flower fields. Insects shedding their own light. The mood sat strangely at odds with the word Abyss, and it was nothing like the Second Layer or the Third.
"Haa..."
"I'm tired. So tired."
These were the High Apostles, the figures the Abyss's own people feared most of all. Weapons in hand, faces grave, they walked.
"They said Sim Sanghoon was in the First Layer. So why haven't we seen so much as his shadow?"
"Someone claims they spotted him, but the bastard's too quick. Gone in a blink, they say."
"So he isn't in the First Layer?"
"Who knows. He might be in the First. He might be in the Tenth."
"Is that even possible? Moving between layers that freely?"
"We can, at least."
"We're Apostles. He isn't. Compare him to something that makes sense."
"He's the one who ran after his trial. He must have some unusual ability."
"Ha. What a pain this has turned into."
The High Apostles had been charged with hunting the player called Sim Sanghoon. Close to half a month had passed, and they had nothing to show for it. Nor were they alone. Most of those attached to the Abyss's upper ranks had been pulled into the search, and still it had come to nothing.
"What did that Sim Sanghoon even run off with, to kick up a mess like this?"
"Huh? I thought we were after him because he fled without paying for his crimes."
"Come on. You really think that's the only reason? No chance. There's definitely something we don't know."
"Then what is it?"
"I just said it's something we don't know. How would I know?"
"Did he kidnap the king's daughter or something?"
One High Apostle tossed it out as a joke. Another went dead serious.
"You. Watch your mouth. You want your post stripped?"
"......"
Realizing the slip, the High Apostle clamped his mouth shut.
"Nothing good comes of wild guesses. We just do as we're told."
That was the moment. Out of the ground, with no warning at all, someone who looked to be of the Gon race burst into the open.
"Uh... huh?"
"A Gon?"
The face of the one who had erupted from the earth—the broker Dorong—went white as a sheet.
"A-an Apostle?"
"You. Gon. What are you doing here?"
"I-I'm sorry. I think I've lost my way..."
Then, from beneath Dorong, Yujun came up, and the skeletal knight with him.
"......"
"......"
The High Apostle and Dorong stared at each other without a word.
"Don't tell me. A broker?"
"A Gon being here makes no sense unless he's a broker."
The High Apostles raised their tridents and came on, unhurried.
"W-wait a moment! We'll go back!"
"Brokers have been nothing but a headache lately. This works out nicely."
"I said I'm leaving! I'll take the exact path I came by!"
"You've already committed the crime. You cannot escape the punishment."
Dorong turned a resentful glare on Yujun.
"What are you looking at me like that for?"
"This is your fault! Do you have no sense at all?"
"I came out on purpose."
"...What?"
Yujun drew his sword and leveled it at the High Apostles.
"Have you lost your mind? What do you think you're doing to the Apostles? Put that weapon down right now!"
Dorong stamped in place, beside himself.
"Human. You commit a crime and show not the slightest will to repent."
"Because there's nothing to repent."
"What did you say?"
The High Apostles looked as if they could not believe their ears. Save for the king himself, no one in the Abyss could stand so brazenly before a High Apostle.
"Does he not know how the world works?"
"If he's made it as far as the First Layer, he ought to know at least that much."
"I-I have nothing to do with that human! I was threatened into guiding him, that's all! Couldn't you please just let me go?"
Dorong shouted it in a panic, grinding his palms together in frantic plea. The sight was pitiful enough to sting.
"We'll decide that after we've dealt with this human. You, Gon—stand exactly where you are."
"Y-yes, sir!"
There were no further warnings. One of the High Apostles thrust his trident at Yujun.
Ttak!
Yujun's body was simply gone.
Rapid Advance
Seok!
The left arm of the High Apostle who had lunged was severed clean off. The other two rushed in at once. Yujun gave ground and hauled his mana up, and dozens of arrows of light bloomed in the air.
Shwaaaek—!
They shot for the High Apostles the instant they formed. A thick curtain of water rose and caught them.
Kwaaang!
In that opening, Yujun moved. The sword, swung in a flash, opened one High Apostle's throat.
A binding spell cinched around the two who remained. Their power was great enough that they tore it apart almost at once; there was only a moment's rigidity. That moment was enough. Seogeok. Seok. Yujun took both their lives.
Dorong, who had been standing there on the verge of tears, let his mouth fall open.
"Wh-what..."
Outrageous things happened in the Abyss all the time. Killing High Apostles in the First Layer was another matter.
"A-amazing! It really is amazing! But have you lost your mind? Do you even know what you just did?"
Dorong cried it out like a wail.
"What's the problem? There are no witnesses."
"Witnesses? Don't you know the entire First Layer sits under the Abyss King's eye? He may already have seen what you did! No—this isn't even a question of odds. A High Apostle is dead. He will look into it. He has to."
"You worry too much."
"Of course I do! Haah. What am I supposed to do? I take one job and this is what I walk into. Waaah... hngh!"
Tears spilled, and Dorong began to sob in earnest.
"Quit blubbering."
"What? Is that something you get to say? Look whose fault this is!"
"You should have come out more carefully. However rushed you are, you check what's outside before you pop up. That's on you."
"Excuse me? If I hadn't just followed you out, none of this would've happened!"
Dorong was not the only one at a loss. Hong Yeji and Ju Donghyeon were every bit as stunned by what had suddenly unfolded. Their mouths worked, but neither of them managed to get a word out.
Dorong heaved a long sigh.
"So what now?"
"What do you mean, what. Thanks for the guide."
Yujun held out three hundred million points.
"......"
"The rest, not counting the deposit."
"That isn't the point right now! We killed High Apostles—we'll be punished until the day we die! You know how monstrous the Abyss's punishments are!"
"Then run to the Third Layer."
"You think the High Apostles are idiots? I'll be wanted right alongside you, and it won't matter where I go. You aren't ignorant of the Abyss, so why did you do this?"
Dorong asked it as if he genuinely could not understand. Unlike the frantic broker, Yujun was smiling, perfectly at ease. He had not killed the High Apostles on a whim. No—killing them had been the goal from the start. Running into them at once could only be called luck.
"There's no way Mr. Yujun did that for nothing. What's the reason?"
Hong Yeji asked.
"......"
"......"
"So that's why you killed them?"
"Yes."
"Couldn't you simply go and find the king?"
"The Abyss King doesn't see just anyone. Even those closest to him rarely glimpse his face. As far as ways to meet him go, you can consider this the only one."
At least, that was how it had worked in the game. Short of going this far, an audience was impossible. He was hardly a psychopath; he would never have provoked High Apostles for the sake of it. There was a reason for everything he had done.
"Dorong. You can go."
"What?"
"A warrant won't come down on you."
"Is that possible?"
"Yeah."
"How can you be sure?"
"Because I'll make it so."
"......"