Chapter 109
Chapter 109
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 109
Chapter Title: The Sudden Village
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“What the hell is this?!”
A strange village had suddenly appeared inside the dungeon.
Gesen gaped, rubbing his eyes repeatedly. How could a place like this...?
He regularly patrolled the territory to check its status.
Yet he hadn’t sensed a thing. Building a village like this should take years...
It was as if it had dropped straight out of the sky.
Still frozen in shock as he scanned the adventurer village, Gesen was startled when one of the adventurers—who had been ignoring him all this time—finally spoke up.
“That guy over there seems to be the village’s deputy manager or something, so why don’t you talk to him? He’s the one who told me to fetch those magia fruits.”
The adventurer pointed at someone.
At the tip of his finger stood a man with a striking presence.
Light brown hair and red eyes. Strikingly handsome features.
It was Dun, disguised as Minu.
Gesen approached Minu and looked him up and down.
“Are you the person in charge here?”
“Whoa, you scared me. Not exactly the manager, but somewhere vaguely below the deputy manager... Who are you?”
Minu raised one eyebrow as he looked Gesen up and down in return.
Stung by the dismissive gaze, Gesen swallowed his irritation and spoke.
“I am Gesen, proxy for Count Altoid.”
“Aha.”
That was it—just a short exclamation, followed by nothing else.
You’d expect some surprise or panic from someone who’d laid claim to another’s land when the owner’s proxy showed up. But there wasn’t a hint of it.
Gesen pinched the bridge of his nose.
“You can’t just build a village here without permission! You can’t intercept the magia fruits in the middle like this either! Dismantle this village and get out before I contact the imperial palace.”
“Oh, ohhh. So this is your land? Oh dear, what ever shall we do~~”
The man called Minu let out an exaggerated sigh and clapped twice in front of Gesen’s face.
“But come on, the village is already here—telling us to tear it down out of nowhere is a problem~ Some people have already gotten jobs thanks to it...”
“That’s none of my concern! How dare you!”
“Ah~ If you come at us so unreasonably, it puts us in a tough spot too. What should we do? Oof. The village is up and running, and lots of people are using it... Ah, whatever. It’s just a mess~”
Minu kept babbling on with an expression of deep regret.
“We figured you’d let something this small slide, since you’ve been pushing out neighboring villages and tribes to enslave the villagers and quietly expand your territory~”
“That was officially approved by the imperial side!! You lot are the ones who encroached illegally!!!”
At the word “illegally,” Minu smirked. Just then, an arm casually draped over Minu’s shoulder.
[Adventurer Deletion Manager]
“Hmm, what’s this?”
The adventurer called Deletion Manager smiled as he held out a document in front of Gesen.
Minu gawked dramatically at the paper.
“Whoa, it’s the village approval from up top? Amazing~ Well, then. Looks like demolition’s off the table... We’ll stick around~”
It was an official document stamped with the imperial seal.
“How did you... No, when...”
Gesen rubbed his eyes repeatedly. This couldn’t be happening. Why would Emperor Luisa pull something like this behind the count’s back?
The count supplied magical goods to the palace, so the emperor had no reason to antagonize him.
They hadn’t told the territory’s people, but he and the count knew the magia fruits grew due to the mana influence from the Brianeuk habitat.
That’s why having a village right there in the Brianeuk habitat was a huge problem.
It would let that adventurer village control all the territory’s mana-related products.
If he hadn’t seen the document, he would’ve just brought in troops and bulldozed the place.
But now that he’d seen the imperial seal, he couldn’t. It confirmed the emperor’s involvement in the village’s creation.
“Why... Why would His Imperial Majesty...”
“Who knows? Maybe he just feels like spitting you out? There’s even a rumor that Emperor Luisa herself orchestrated the village.”
“R-Really?”
“Dunno. It’s just a rumor.”
Why? Why had Emperor Luisa made that choice?
Was it to keep the count—who wielded massive influence over the imperial army—in check, to prevent betrayal?
Or had the count not told him? Lately, he hadn’t been as reliable—maybe the count had found a replacement?
No, that couldn’t be. The count still entrusted him with major tasks.
He had to trust him for now.
So it must be the emperor’s scheme...
The emperor, who’d once felt like a solid backer, suddenly seemed infuriating.
‘Ahh, the count will be furious when he hears about this...’
Even if it meant a thorough beating, he had to report the situation quickly.
Gesen ground his teeth, unable to retort further to Minu, and left to inform Count Altoid.
* * *
Watching Gesen depart, Deletion Manager turned to the NPC called “Minu,” whose arm he’d slung over.
Sly-looking, with a vibe subtly similar to Dun’s. Even the speech and mocking tone matched.
Though the gender and age were different.
“Hello. Are you the one Dun sent?”
“You’re Do-yun, right?”
Deletion Manager—Seol Do-yun—widened his eyes in surprise at the blunt response, then smiled.
“What? It’s you, Dun. How’d you know it was me when you logged in with a game account and changed your appearance?”
How? Because he knew the alias “Deletion Manager” that he’d used.
Explaining that he knew the future—and thus the nickname—would require too much backstory, so Dun decided to dodge.
“Han Su-hwan mentioned you.”
“Yeah?”
Seol Do-yun, who’d vaguely guessed it was through Han Su-hwan, brushed it off.
Then he stared at Dun, reached out, and pinched his cheek.
“Want a forced logout?”
“Fascinating. Body precision scan says it’s not a magical appearance change.”
“Nah, not magic.”
“If not magic... Temporary body transformation? You look pretty handsome.”
“Huh? How do you know about body transformation?”
Seol Do-yun, fiddling with Dun’s hair, widened his eyes and grinned.
“I heard you were reading up on Bachinum-related books when I was scraping info to fool you. I looked into Bachinum abilities myself. You were born as a Bachinum here, right?”
“You crazy bastard, how deep did you dig to figure that out?”
Clicking his tongue, Dun suddenly sensed something off.
Seol Do-yun hadn’t been in Ninapinta long, and Bachinum info was mostly in books owned by Prim and him.
He’d caught the body transformation naturally enough earlier, but the specifics of the ability would be hard for even Seol Do-yun to uncover with basic research.
Pondering how Seol Do-yun had figured out the body transformation, Dun spoke up.
Truth be told, Seol Do-yun had seemed a bit suspicious even back in the real world.
His smarts and skills were one thing, but he handled far too much.
“No way you’re a Bachinum too?”
“Hm?”
Seol Do-yun tilted his head, then burst out laughing.
“Haha, Bachinum’s a unique setting for this world, isn’t it? Still, thanks for the compliment, Dun. I did dig pretty hard.”
Was that acting or not?
After getting badly burned by him last time, his acting had improved, making it confusing now.
Seol Do-yun never revealed his true thoughts or personal info, so it was impossible to tell if the reaction was genuine.
Dun eyed the laughing Seol Do-yun with faint irritation.
If not Bachinum, had he pieced it together while investigating Prim’s secrets—figuring out the Noah disguise via body transformation? And gotten caught testing earlier.
Lost in thought for a moment, Seol Do-yun suddenly spoke up.
“More importantly, Dun, I’ve got a question.”
“What?”
“Why’s your name Minu?”
Ah, there it was.
The name Dun was using now was “Minu,” strikingly similar to Seol Do-yun’s alias “Min-woo.”
“I use Min-woo for everything involving Happy NPCs. For consistency.”
He’d realized Noah—one of Seol Do-yun’s aliases he’d unconsciously borrowed—was the moment he decided to play along.
“Noah” was for handling Hunter Market stuff, “Kim Min-woo” for Happy NPC operations.
For growing the Gate “Safe Home” secondary damage prevention reconstruction projects, he’d used “Park Seo-jun.”
The guy was human too—he didn’t micromanage everything himself.
He’d bulked up early, then handed management to suitable people while divvying shares.
The many aliases were to evade the association president’s tracking and prepare for attacks.
That Kim Woo-sung association president had mob ties, making him skilled at backtracking and investigations, hence the complex setup.
The web of fake relations got tangled midway, so he didn’t remember details, but it had been effective.
“You were monitoring my operations?”
“Yeah. Why, not allowed?”
Monitoring was a stretch—it was more like he just knew.
Seol Do-yun blinked innocently at the question.
“What for, monitoring?”
See that slight tension at “monitoring”?
Wanting to probe Seol Do-yun’s depths, Dun tossed out a playful jab.
“To wreck all your plans.”
Seol Do-yun’s smile cracked slightly at the words.
Ever since getting played last time, he’d been wary of Dun.
Of course, from his investigations, he knew Dun wasn’t the type to derail critical life-or-death plans for personal amusement. But hearing someone with that power say it pissed him off.
He’s just poking for a fun reaction, that punk.
To not fall for the casual taunt, first rule: don’t give the desired response.
Seol Do-yun placed a hand on Dun’s head and patted it.
“Cute how cheeky you are, like a brat. Need my affection that bad?”
“Wouldn’t mind if you gave it.”
“...?”
Seol Do-yun’s face twisted as he pulled his hand away.
Even in the real-world base, their upbringings differed, so personalities clashed a bit.
Didn’t expect him to come on so strong out of nowhere.
If you’re gonna push, do it in your usual form. This unfamiliar vibe creeping him out.
“Pfft, hilarious face. Stumped on how to clap back?”
“Not worth it. I’m in a PC bang game pod—gotta go before extra charges hit.”
“Yeah, gotta save. You blew a ton on that Legendary recently.”
“...”
Leaving Dun cackling behind, Seol Do-yun logged out.