Chapter 149
Chapter 149
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 149
Chapter Title: Secret Chapter
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“Alright, I accept.”
As Kretus accepted his proposal, Lee Si-woo feigned surprise.
“Are you serious?”
“Now that all my comrades are in this state, it's true there's nothing to gain from fighting you.”
Kretus snapped the necks of the white corpses rushing toward him.
They were so weak that dozens of them posed no real threat.
However, because of their absurd trait of airborne infection, they were a dangerous existence capable of collapsing the trial's ecosystem without a vaccine.
‘I'm sorry.’
Kretus looked down at their final moments with a heavy heart, having broken the necks of those who were once his companions, his comrades, with his own hands.
‘But don't you worry. I'll repay this debt with that bastard's death.’
Kretus had accepted Lee Si-woo's offer for now, but he wasn't sincere.
How could he be?
Regardless of the process, these were people who wouldn't have had to die so wretchedly if not for Lee Si-woo.
‘I will kill you.’
As Kretus, concealing his murderous intent, walked toward the vaccine scattered on the ground, Lee Si-woo spoke up.
“Wait. I wouldn't pick that up if I were you.”
“…What?”
“It's a fake.”
When Kretus turned around, the man’s smirking face came into view.
Black eyebrows and black eyes.
His cunning face, reminiscent of a black fox, made a fire of rage boil up from the depths of Kretus’s soul.
“You… Don't tell me there was never a vaccine in the first place?”
“No, the vaccine exists. How else would Plenitas and I be fine? But that's not it. I'm not an idiot. Why would I waste a perfectly good vaccine by spraying it around like that?”
In truth, that vaccine was real, but it didn't matter.
Sometimes, in this world, a single word could turn a fake into the real thing, and the real thing into a fake.
“So, hand over that suit. Then… I'll give you this real vaccine.”
Lee Si-woo pulled another syringe from his pocket.
A syringe filled with a sloshing, viscous liquid the color of blood.
While Kretus was busy fighting the white corpses, Lee Si-woo had used an empty syringe to draw his own blood. At a glance, it looked more plausible than the vaccine, which contained a clear, water-like fluid.
“Hand over the suit? How can I trust you?”
“If you don't trust me, you don't get the vaccine, do you?”
Kretus spoke in a chilling voice.
“I could just kill you and take the vaccine.”
“My, what a cliché line. How about this, then? While you're trying to kill me… do you think I can destroy this vaccine, or not?”
At Lee Si-woo's threat, Kretus gritted his teeth.
“You son of a bitch, you're really pushing it…”
As Kretus showed signs of losing his temper, Lee Si-woo spoke in a gentle, soothing tone.
“Hey, Kretus. Let's not make things too complicated. I need an informant to understand the situation anyway. It would be inconvenient for me if you died. I mean, right? If you die too, who am I going to ask about the clubs and whatnot, and how will I get to a safe area? See my point?”
Seemingly unable to keep his wits about him against Lee Si-woo's rhetoric, which swung between threats and persuasion, Kretus trembled with clenched fists.
All sorts of bad scenarios swirled in his mind.
What would happen if he gave up the suit here. The possibility of Lee Si-woo betraying him.
Or what would happen if that vaccine was a fake.
At the end of all these grim predictions, just as he was about to decide that a life-or-death battle with Lee Si-woo would be more comforting…
Lee Si-woo did something unexpected.
“But, you know, I wouldn't take this deal either if I were you. How could you trust someone you just met today and make a deal? Right?”
Lee Si-woo tossed the syringe sloshing with red blood to Kretus.
Catching the spinning syringe in mid-air without thinking, Kretus asked in a bewildered tone.
“…Are you really giving it to me?”
“In any case, it's pretty much my fault that your entire party turned into white corpses. Honestly, it wasn't intentional, but I'm only human, so I do feel sorry.”
“……”
“But in return, don't come at me trying to kill me after you take the vaccine. You said it yourself, right? I have my uses. Of course, you're probably not feeling great about this. But… I hope you understand that I was just trying to survive, too.”
A serious and gentle voice, as if filled with sincerity.
Plenitas, who had been watching all of this from behind, used all her strength to maintain a neutral expression.
Knowing what the real vaccine looked like and having seen Lee Si-woo secretly draw his own blood with a syringe, she understood what was happening.
Plenitas swallowed hard and thought.
‘But… what happens if he injects that?’
Although they had taken the vaccine, Lee Si-woo and Plenitas were carriers of the virus.
Even though the mutation had stopped, there was a high probability that the virus had seeped into their blood.
So, if he were to transfuse that blood without any precautions…
“Gah!”
With a violent gasp, Kretus fell to his knees.
Having injected the syringe containing Lee Si-woo's blood into his own veins, the mutation began to progress rapidly.
“You, you… tricked me…”
Lee Si-woo said with a bright smile.
“Sorry.”
Lee Si-woo walked steadily toward Kretus.
As he approached the man, who was now trembling and collapsed on the ground, he said.
“I'm a liar.”
As if he had already become a white corpse, a bizarre groan, not words, escaped Kretus's throat.
Even though he was wearing the suit, a white corpse lacking Kretus's intellect, skills, and experience was no match for Lee Si-woo.
After a brief scuffle, Lee Si-woo easily dealt with the white corpse that was once Kretus.
*Crack.*
With the sound of breaking bones, Kretus's body went limp.
Lee Si-woo checked the dead Kretus's belongings.
First, he took a gray watch that seemed to have the suit's functions integrated into it and smiled with satisfaction.
‘Is this that Ret suit or whatever he called it?’
When Lee Si-woo held up the scanner, the suit's options appeared on the screen.
Suit: Ret
Rank: 3
Description: A suit dropped in Chapter 3. When equipped, it increases physical abilities by 1.3 times and grants the user the ‘Swiftness’ Talent.
‘So… it seems the items that drop are different depending on the chapter? Ah, so that's why users called themselves Rank 2 this or that. The greater your ability to clear higher chapters, the higher your own specs become.’
This must be why clubs coveted prospects with higher star ratings.
A high star rating meant a higher probability of clearing higher chapters, which in turn meant the ability to loot better items and improve one's specs.
‘Well, well. It really is no different from a game. I see why people call themselves users. Anyway…’
Lee Si-woo found a few more items among Kretus's belongings.
A few high-calorie energy bars and a communicator.
And a map.
‘I knew it. A map.’
Unlike Lee Si-woo's map, which was limited to the tutorial area, Kretus's map had several areas unlocked. And the first thing that caught his eye among them was the ‘Base City.’
‘A base city… this must be the trial’s safe zone, I suppose?’
The existence of groups like clubs meant there had to be a safe area where a certain number of people could gather.
And within the trial, the base city seemed to fill that role.
Lee Si-woo also rummaged through the belongings of the others and picked up a few useful things.
Unfortunately, all he got was a little portable food and two pistols.
‘Pistols… they probably would have used them if they weren't planning to capture me alive. I was lucky in many ways.’
Having finished his business, Lee Si-woo put the suit watch on his wrist and said.
“Plenitas. Let's go. The fact that they found us right after Roken died means they can detect the death of a club member and track their location. We need to move quickly.”
“Go? Where to?”
To Plenitas's question, Lee Si-woo answered in a calm voice.
“The base city.”
* * *
The Master of 'Labyrinth,' one of the big clubs in the base city.
Maria spoke with a grave expression.
“You can't log out?”
Her right-hand man and a 6-star prospect, Poliver, nodded.
“Yes. The logout items have stopped working.”
“Why all of a sudden?”
“When we tried to use the logout item, a system message appeared saying, ‘A Secret Chapter has been opened. Logging out is prohibited until it is cleared.’ It seems the chapter someone opened is the problem.”
Maria looked as if she’d been struck by lightning out of a clear blue sky and asked again.
“What the hell, we can't log out until it's cleared? Are you crazy? And a Secret Chapter? What the hell is that? I've been in and out of this trial for over ten years, and I've never heard of such a thing!”
“…I don't know.”
“This is driving me crazy. What about Black Night? What are they saying?”
When Maria asked about Black Night, which, along with Labyrinth and Dawn, formed the three major powers among the trial's clubs, Poliver sighed.
“They said they don't know anything either… and they also told us that logins from the outside have been cut off.”
“No logins either? So you can't get in or out?”
“Yes. The trial is completely sealed off.”
“…Is it a good thing that a large number of newbies came in this time?”
“No. It's the worst. We can no longer bring in food from the outside, but the city's population has exploded.”
A dark shadow fell over Maria's face.
“Food… I didn't think of that. Poliver. Right now, we only have one way to secure food, right?”
“Yes. Only by clearing chapters.”
“Hmm, I guess the only saving grace is that we can clear chapters repeatedly?”
“Even so, the amount of food we can get is limited, and the surplus population is a big problem.”
Surplus population.
It referred to those who lacked the ability to obtain logout items and the will to risk their lives clearing chapters.
To survive, they had been doing odd jobs for various clubs or managing the hygiene and cleanliness of the base city, but this incident made even that difficult.
Food, which had once been easy to obtain, had become scarce since the Secret Chapter opened.
“Don't worry about them. We don't have the manpower or budget to spare for trash who can't even take care of themselves. More importantly… it looks like we'll have to devote all our efforts to clearing the ending, which has been dragging on.”
“Yes. I suppose we'll have to.”
“Alright, you focus on scouting prospects of 5-stars or higher, and at the same time, look into the person who opened the Secret Chapter.”
“The Secret Chapter… Hmph, I'll have to check out the newbies who came in this time. Nothing happened until now, but for something like this to occur right after a large influx of newbies, it seems there's someone with a special disposition among them.”
“Right. That must be it. And this is just my gut feeling, but I think the club that gets their hands on that person will be the one to see the ending. I mean, a Secret Chapter that no one could find? The one who opened it can't be ordinary, right? You know?”
Watching Maria, who was practically radiating a ‘I want that person’ vibe, Poliver sighed.
“Yes, yes. I understand. Don't worry. I'll find them and bring them in somehow.”
“Oh, right. There's a subcontracting club of ours called Sprinter, you know?”
“Sprinter… I remember them. They're nothing special, just a group we took in to quickly procure firearms and food.”
“Yeah, my mole over there sent me a message. It seems they've found an 8-star newbie.”
Poliver was startled and asked again.
“What? An 8-star newbie? Is that true?”
“Would I be lying? So, start digging there first. An 8-star newbie is capable enough to open a Secret Chapter, right? If we're lucky, he might be the one.”
“Hmph, well… I don't think things will be that easy, but since we don't have any other leads, I'll start there. And what if he's not? He's an 8-star, after all.”
“Okay. Then don't dawdle, go and stake our claim before Black Night and Dawn make a move.”
At Maria's urging, Poliver scratched the back of his head and left the club office.
“Yeah, yeah~ I got it.”
* * *
The first thing that greeted Lee Si-woo upon his arrival at the base city was the endless line of people in front of the city entrance.
‘Damn, there are a lot of people. Are these the ones who came in after the head of the Graves family revealed the tomb's coordinates?’
Just then, someone from the crowd recognized Lee Si-woo and came running.
Blue hair that rippled like the waves of the sea.
Slender eyebrows and cute eyes and mouth.
A girl who looked to be about 10 years old clung tightly to Lee Si-woo's leg and whined.
“Why did you take so long! Do you know how much I've been looking for you?!”
Lee Si-woo asked with a look that said, ‘What is this nuisance?’
“…Who?”
“Who do you think! It's me!”
“Right, who are you? I've never seen you before.”
“It's me, you wretched fool! Did you already forget after bringing me to this awful place? Because of you, I've been trapped in this young! Small! And even different gender! And different species human body! Do you know how much I've suffered!”
A kid who knew human Lee Si-woo's face.
And mentioned being young, small, of a different gender, and a different species.
Finally guessing who this kid was, Lee Si-woo said with a reluctant expression.
“Don't tell me… Elder?”