Chekhov's Arena (3)
5 AM. As soon as the iron bars slid open, I stepped out and turned to Shin Yu-hee, who had followed me into this endless prison-like corridor.
"Anything you left behind?"
"Pardon?"
"I mean, nothing you forgot in there?"
"Why would I have left anything..."
"Good. Better not plan on going back."
"...Pardon?"
Shin Yu-hee tilted her head at my question, furrowing her brow in confusion before coming to a full stop.
"What do you mean?"
"Hmm, where to even start..."
"Is there poison gas or something coming out in there? Like in a horror movie?"
"Nothing like that."
Shin Yu-hee seemed to be piecing together her own guesses, but Chekhov's Arena wasn't that kind of place.
"You don't need to read every detail in the survival logs, but the guards here don't want us dropping dead carelessly."
I pointed to a passage I'd skimmed earlier in the survival log.
"If we die, they'll recycle our corpses as beast bait."
"Like in those games where they cut out organs for the black market?"
"...Yeah."
Shin Yu-hee. I'd heard rumors she was shocked by blondes, but explaining with game or webtoon analogies was probably a lost cause.
"The folks here will turn our corpses into resources if we die. Sure, the angel up there might salvage our souls afterward, but that doesn't change the fact that we'd have two deaths in the tutorial stage."
"......."
"From here on out, it's paid advice."
Before fully exiting the corridor, I held out my hand to Shin Yu-hee.
"This is the kind of tip you get for forming a party."
"What, like the first lesson's free?"
"Obviously. It's lesson one out of 9,999."
"Who has 10,000 lessons? Fine, I'll pay."
More coolly than expected, Shin Yu-hee handed me an exchange voucher.
"Keep talking."
"...You trust me that much?"
"I told you. It's not emotional trust in you, sunbae. It's my judgment on who to latch onto to survive this game."
Shin Yu-hee pointed back the way we'd come.
"If it weren't for you, I'd be stuck with that mob. And that stare from Park Chang-su... ugh, he's been eyeing me since the saeter drinking party."
"......."
Saying it was her fault for showing up at the saeter in just a white off-shoulder shirt and hot pants after ditching her cardigan—even at the end of February—would be like blaming a rape victim for dressing slutty. I kept my mouth shut.
At least my current ally was Shin Yu-hee, not Park Chang-su.
"I noticed you too."
"But you looked away, sunbae."
"Did I?"
"Yeah. Even when I stepped out because my stomach was acting up, you gave me this worried look... hmm."
Shin Yu-hee paused, scanning me up and down.
"This is your real self, right?"
"What?"
"No, at the saeter, everyone was calling you this super innocent guy."
"That's how I was then."
Ten years ago, before my isekai reincarnation, Yoo Si-woo had been like that. But no matter how much I'd changed over those ten years, to them, it must've looked like a 180-degree personality flip in less than five days.
"It's called society."
No need to reveal I was a regressor to ease those suspicions—unless they were like Estiel, someone who gained from knowing.
Especially admitting it in the tutorial? More people sucking up for info as a "regressor," or more tying you down and torturing you until you spill? The answer was both. If you had power, the former; if not, the latter.
"...I see. So this is your real personality?"
"Yep."
Better to call it "good guy cosplay" than that.
"Hmm... good thing."
"Good?"
"Yeah. Not sure if you heard, but the other freshmen girls, senior girls... other women still underestimate you."
"Figures."
I'd gone to college with some who'd finished their military service before me. Not close, but one degree of separation. They knew pre-isekai me, so acting surprised wasn't weird.
Even I'd have used someone like that—perfect easy mark to exploit and discard.
"What about you?"
"Me? First time seeing you was at the saeter. First impressions change. Like now."
"Fair enough. Alright, then—time for Lesson 1: Surviving Chekhov's Arena."
"...Wasn't the lesson already started?"
"Like orientation classes—"
Hmm. Correction.
"You were a high school senior until last year, right?"
"Yes."
College analogies wouldn't land.
"Think of it like a 15-minute teaser for entrance exam lectures. The real ones are 60- or 120-minute videos."
"Ah."
"You can't judge from a 15-minute clip. Not the content—does the lecturer's style fit? Voice okay? Note-taking style match? Hot teacher?"
"Not always, but..."
Shin Yu-hee tapped her wrist like she was checking a watch.
"Sorry, teacher, but can we skip the chit-chat for later? You might have your reasons to trust, but my life and chastity are on the line."
"Scared?"
"...Why wouldn't I be? Even with two deaths under your belt, suddenly dropped here—mess up, and it's death again."
Shin Yu-hee, who clearly hadn't slept a wink, squeezed her eyes shut then open. They were bloodshot red. Physically okay, but mentally wrecked.
"Couldn't sleep worrying someone'd steal my vouchers, then ambushed at dawn, raped and killed? I'd die unjustly and stay awake forever."
"Menhera incoming."
"What's that?"
"Mental breakdown. Ahem. Fine. I'll ease your mind."
I pointed left and right down the long corridor.
"No one charging at us from front or back means no ambushes."
"Back..."
Shin Yu-hee glanced back with a complicated expression. She looked deep in thought, but instead of addressing her "back" concern, I pointed left and right again.
"Look at the corridor. Any other cells?"
"No. None."
"We didn't walk that far, but no hands grabbing us from the sides, right?"
"...Could happen eventually?"
"Obviously. I don't know everything."
I knew everything.
"The survival log mentioned next-door cells, but we've walked this far and it's just endless corridor. Weird, right?"
"......!"
"One possibility."
I ran my hand along the wall.
"This place has bizarre phenomena like magic. Not Earth."
"Not Earth..."
"Any unrealistic mystery can be chalked up to 'magic.' Getting summoned as souls after death? Angels snapping fingers to lock us in underground prisons? All that."
"True. So this endless passage... how long does the magic last? Looks like a dead end ahead."
"That dead end."
I pointed forward.
"Be careful the second we pass it. Not just our lives—plenty gunning for chastity too."
"...How to act normally?"
"Act normal for now. Because..."
I mimicked her wrist-tapping.
"Everyone out at 5 AM knows newbies yield no profit untouched. They're the real deal."
Crunch.
As I reached forward, the "dead end" corridor warped instantly, revealing a new scene beyond the bars.
"This is..."
Beyond the bars. An underground facility outside the magic-warped space. Like the heart of a sewer labyrinth in some medieval fantasy magic game.
"Ugh...!"
The sight there would test any woman—no, anyone.
"Th-that...!"
Naked men and women rolling around. Five guys, two girls. Uneven numbers made it look like a gang rape, but the collapsed women's hair was stuffed with cum-soaked exchange vouchers—dozens.
"Hm?"
One guy thrusting into an unconscious woman turned to us.
"What, you two new to this?"
"Not me."
I covered Shin Yu-hee's eyes, thumbed back.
"She's from a backwater that knows nothing of this. Don't scare her if you run into her."
"What? Haha, must be from some peaceful village. Wanna sell the girl?"
"Not mine to sell."
"Doesn't matter. Women listen. Or are you two together?"
"Nope."
Shin Yu-hee trembled slightly, but I pressed harder on her eyes and shook my head.
"Conscripted from another village, fought goblins on the battlefield, suddenly here."
"Oh."
"Hit by spirit confusion magic. Woke up here."
"Poor thing. Hey, Rose! More like you showed up!"
"...Yeah?"
The woman under him, silent till now, counted vouchers in her hair and waved at Shin Yu-hee.
"Miss over there. Better adapt quick. If you can't survive the arena on strength... sell your body. That's how it works here."
"......."
"New girls fetch high prices? Nah. Hey, bro, wanna buy me? Two vouchers for a creampie special right now."
"Sorry, not starving enough to pick pussy over bread."
I waved at the sprawled men and women, tugged Shin Yu-hee's shoulder.
"...What was that?"
"What."
"That..."
"Those who couldn't escape the arena on their own."
I flicked a voucher from my pocket, pointed between our wall and others.
"Same essence. They'll do anything to survive—but the bar for 'anything' is way lower here."
"Ugh...!"
Ahead, a man's corpse lay stabbed and abandoned.
A place where theft and murder were fair game for profit. Where spreading legs for vouchers was routine.
That was the world we'd reincarnated into.