Chapter 4 - Rotation of the Night 4
Rotation of the Night 4
Chapter 4
Baek Yi-hyun stared at me expressionlessly. I repeated,
"I don't. Even if I told you, you wouldn't remember."
"We lived in the same house, but there's no way to prove it?"
"Yeah. There isn't. You don't remember me, so how am I supposed to prove our relationship?"
"Then I'll ask a question you can answer. How did you save the people?"
This topic had come up multiple times. By now, I was more curious than afraid.
"I forcibly held the exit open and told people to come here."
"Then the Initial Orb generation would stop."
"Of course, but..."
"Of course, but?"
"But I couldn't just let people die..."
"No."
Baek Yi-hyun cut me off dryly.
"I'm talking about something else. You claim you've never played a game or been a developer, so how do you know about the Initial Orb?"
"Well, the Status Window..."
"Status Window?"
Baek Yi-hyun's face subtly hardened. He asked sharply,
"What does it say now?"
I panicked and looked around. The Status Window, which had been persistently following me, had disappeared without me noticing. I had been too distracted to realize.
"It's not there now."
"Summon it."
"What?"
"The Status Window. Summon it."
Putting aside how I was supposed to summon a Status Window that appeared and disappeared as it pleased, I felt a sense of unease.
Wasn't it visible to everyone?
A chill ran down my spine. I had naturally assumed that everyone had a Status Window that only they could see, like me.
But it didn't seem that way.
Come to think of it, I had never had a conversation about the Status Window with anyone else. I glanced back at the people huddled behind me. I met the eyes of a few of them. They all looked flustered.
Some of them subtly shook their heads at me.
The soldiers around us were the same. Unlike the expressionless Baek Yi-hyun, they clearly looked tense.
It wasn't just the military discipline that came with Baek Yi-hyun's presence.
Only I can see it.
I looked back at Baek Yi-hyun. The attitude I needed to take was clear.
"Secure my safety first."
Baek Yi-hyun didn't answer. He just stared at me with an observing gaze. That unfamiliar look kept making my throat tighten.
I firmly planted my feet on the ground. I had to withstand my emotions. I swallowed the urge to hug him and said precisely,
"Until then, I won't do as you say."
* * *
"Ugh, I'm going to die."
Jang Seokju took off his silver-rimmed glasses and threw them onto the steel table, groaning. He looked troubled.
He sat across from Baek Yi-hyun and repeatedly picked up and put down one of the many mugs piled on the dirty table.
Baek Yi-hyun silently pushed the lukewarm teacup in front of him. Jang Seokju picked it up, drank it in one gulp, and exhaled deeply.
He asked in a hoarse voice,
"Where did you bring such a strange thing from?"
Baek Yi-hyun didn't answer. It was all in the report.
Outer perimeter of Sector 2-B. Gate 13. Opened after 2 years, 4 months, and 5 days. Excavated item: 1 Initial Orb (1.2g). Survivors: thirty-two Outlanders. One of the Outlanders claims to have seen a Status Window. Considering the collective relevance of the statement, Baek Yi-hyun, Commander of the 207th Special Mission Battalion, has put the execution of all Outlanders on hold and ordered their transfer.
Jang Seokju probably wasn't asking because he didn't know. It was that unusual. Even Baek Yi-hyun, who had become indifferent to everything to the point where even life-threatening battles had become boring, couldn't believe this situation.
Moreover, the other party claimed to be a close friend. The woman's tears seemed too real to dismiss as a lie...
No.
Baek Yi-hyun unconsciously tightened his lips.
She's a woman who has nothing to do with me.
It was a well-known fact that Baek Yi-hyun had no memories from before he was found by the military, and there were many who approached him claiming to be acquaintances.
Some would write plausible stories in messages but couldn't even make eye contact when they met, and there were even organizations that were somewhat organized.
He was used to this kind of approach.
Now that Baek Yi-hyun was fully established, those small fries didn't dare to approach him, so it hadn't happened in a while.
So this time, it was probably sent by a rival with a powerful background.
Putting aside the fact that they were using such a shallow tactic, they had chosen the right person.
The woman's appearance was perfectly to his taste.
To be precise, he had never been interested in the opposite sex, so he didn't even know his own tastes until he saw the woman.
Of course, they probably selected a woman with a glamorous appearance that would be universally appealing in order to seduce him, but it was still a bit surprising.
Moreover, they had made her altruistic. No Outlander had ever brought other people out of a Gate where it was difficult to survive alone, and the woman hadn't even taken a single piece of the Initial Orb, even though she knew about it.
There weren't many people like that.
She is refreshing.
The reason she saved people was also unusual. She said she did it because that's what her friend would have done.
Whoever sent the woman must have been seriously mistaken. Or maybe the woman had misremembered the script they had given her.
Otherwise, it didn't make sense. He would have abandoned all those people.
The Initial Orb came first. That was the normal way of thinking.
And above all...
Baek Yi-hyun looked up. Jang Seokju was wearing his glasses on the tip of his nose again and staring intently at the tablet.
His furrowed brow looked serious. It was a rare expression for a researcher who had been through the thick and thin on the front lines.
"Can Outlanders see the Status Window?"
Jang Seokju shrugged, his eyes still glued to the tablet.
"How would I know that?"
"I have to report this to the Council of Great Families in an hour. Can I tell them that as is?"
"Geez, you're so rigid. Well, for now..."
Jang Seokju turned the tablet to face him. The CCTV screen showed the woman.
She was unconscious, sprawled haphazardly on a steel examination table. The measuring wires attached to her limbs swayed slowly with her shallow breaths.
Baek Yi-hyun frowned. The red marks and abrasions on her slender wrists and ankles were vivid.
She must have resisted quite a bit. Those wounds weren't there when she was coaxed into the lab under the guise of a simple background check.
"Isn't she pretty?"
For a moment, Baek Yi-hyun thought he had misheard. Jang Seokju pointed to the woman on the tablet screen.
"Isn't she pretty?"
"Is that what's important right now?"
"Isn't it an important clue?"
Jang Seokju retorted. Only then did Baek Yi-hyun realize that he had reacted too defensively.
Jang Seokju was thinking the same thing as Baek Yi-hyun. The hypothesis that the woman was lying and was actually a spy sent by a rival.
"To seduce the Commander who sees women as stones, they would naturally have to send a perfect woman, right? Pretty, kind, and brave, an Outlander who brings people out instead of an Initial Orb, how could there be such a person in the world? She has all the elements to pique interest. But..."
Jang Seokju lowered his voice.
"Let's say someone really told this woman to pretend to be the Commander's friend. Lying is easy. I was your friend, I've never played a game or been a developer, but I can see the Status Window. Well, pretending to be an Outlander is refreshing, but it's no different from the usual con artists' patterns. But if they tampered with dimensions, that's a different story."
Jang Seokju tapped the tablet to bring up a chart.
"This woman, you see, didn't die and come here."
If anyone other than Jang Seokju had said this, Baek Yi-hyun wouldn't have believed it.
A person who had logged into a game even once in that world died and crossed over to this world through the Gate.
They were called Outlanders. He had never heard of any other cases.
"The woman testified that she logged in with someone else's ID, and then there was a flash of light and she lost consciousness, and when she woke up, she was inside the Gate. Usually, they don't answer like that. Don't you think?"