Now, Kill Each Other
“Haa… fuck… I did it.”
“Hoo… hoo…”
Jang Jo-jun and Mei Ling, now back in the modern era where the exit awaited, caught their ragged breaths. Jo-jun steadied his breathing and briefly questioned whether his judgment had been correct.
‘Maybe the mansion lord would have given us something after getting his daughter back… but no. No matter how I think about it, that lunatic wouldn’t have handed over anything worthwhile.’
Jo-jun didn’t trust himself much. More precisely, he didn’t trust his abnormally twisted fate. If he had assumed everything would turn out well, he would have died long ago. Thanks to his solid self-awareness, he had survived countless crises until now.
‘If I’d waited around hoping for some reward, I might have lost the Soul Extractor and ended up as one of his test subjects. Things would definitely have gone badly one way or another… especially since he already marked me as the thief who stole from him and ruined my first impression.’
He casually dismissed the mansion lord as a complete psychopath—the same lord who had ripped off Jack’s arm and blown his head apart just because someone else had taken on his daughter’s appearance. Expecting anything from that kind of madman was the mistake of the one doing the expecting.
Considering his own filthy twisted fate and the mansion lord’s deranged state, Jo-jun was certain that demanding compensation would have led to something terrible.
His reasoning was close to the truth. If he had stayed instead of fleeing and tried to squeeze out a reward, he might have been treated as a thief who stole research materials and suffered a gruesome fate.
The lord of Jeonyul Mansion preferred plunder over gratitude.
‘You don’t hang around lunatics for long…’
Lunatics knew other lunatics best. Jo-jun’s instinctive sense of danger had led to the right decision. Then Mei Ling muttered in a gloomy voice.
“Jack…”
“Jack was already dead when I found him. Nothing we could do, so just accept it.”
“Ah… so he was already dead…”
Mei Ling hadn’t seen Jack’s corpse, so she thought they had abandoned him. She hadn’t reacted much when Liam died after barely speaking with him, but hearing that Jack was gone made tears well up in her eyes.
They had spent the entire time inside the mansion together, so some emotional bond had formed. Jack’s death was a shocking event for her. Of course, Jo-jun, who had witnessed countless deaths, felt almost nothing.
If anything, he felt pleased that he had gotten rid of dead weight early instead of leaving it behind when they escaped. If Jack had survived, the now-gentler Mei Ling would probably have started spouting nonsense about finding a way to save him.
“Get up. We’re heading straight to the entrance now.”
“Okay… got it…”
Jo-jun took out his compass. He needed to meet up with Nick and leave this place. Of course, there was something he had to do first.
‘How am I going to mess with Nick… Is there a natural way to make him drink the Memory Eraser Wine?’
Mei Ling had drunk it thanks to a convenient crisis, but no such crisis would arise for Nick. The mansion raid was already nearly complete. In the end, he had to deceive Nick into willingly drinking it himself.
‘A natural way to get Nick to drink… hmm…’
Once he drank it, reading the Book of Manti would be easy. Jo-jun racked his brain.
‘Come to think of it, I lied to him and said I was an apothecary… Maybe I should just call it an elixir? Yeah, tell him it’s a reward for waiting and slip it to him casually…’
Jo-jun thought it through. To deceive Nick, he felt ready to do anything.
‘Since it’s already portioned out, the item window won’t show up so he won’t know what it is… As long as Nick doesn’t suspect me of being a Cultist or something similar… there’s a good chance. Right, I’ll pin the Cultist label on memory-wiped Mei Ling and use that to fool him.’
While lost in these thoughts, Jo-jun found himself near the entrance. Nick stood there with arms crossed, waiting as if nothing had happened.
Then Mei Ling, standing beside him, whispered, “Hey… who’s that person?”
“That guy’s Nick. He was our comrade.”
“Ah…”
“I’ll explain your situation. Just stay quiet and don’t say anything.”
“Why…?”
“Nick’s a comrade we met after coming here. He might stab us in the back. And remember, you introduced yourself to him as Bai Yu, not Mei Ling. We’re never meeting him again after this, so just go along with it. I’ll protect you, so trust only me, Mei Ling.”
“Okay… I understand. I trust you…”
After warning the naive Mei Ling not to say anything unnecessary, Jo-jun approached Nick. Having been saved by Jo-jun multiple times over the past two days, Mei Ling trusted him completely. Right now, she had no one else to rely on.
‘That bastard… is he spacing out? Damn Yankee… living the good life…’
Jo-jun felt his blood boil as he watched Nick humming to himself while staring blankly into the air.
While Jo-jun and Mei Ling had fought desperately for their lives, Nick had done nothing but guard the entrance. Of course, Nick hadn’t slept in case someone showed up… but Jo-jun and Mei Ling hadn’t slept much either.
So if Nick made it out safely, he would have essentially ridden Jo-jun’s bus all the way.
“Oh! You’re all here!”
When Jo-jun and Mei Ling drew close, Nick waved his hand enthusiastically. He had been dying of boredom, so seeing them appear at the perfect moment made him smile at the thought of finally escaping the mansion.
Jo-jun forced a smile in return and waved back, even though he didn’t feel like smiling. He needed to stay on friendly terms to slip Nick the Memory Eraser Wine smoothly.
“Nick! We kept you waiting!! We found it!! We got the ring!!”
“Ooooh!! Jun!! Bai Yu!! You did it!!!”
Nick’s face lit up with genuine joy when he saw Jo-jun holding up the Seal Ring. He had done nothing but wait, yet his teammates had brought back the ring anyway. It felt like an unexpected windfall.
“Hahaha. It’s been almost two days since we last met. Nothing happened while we were gone?”
“Well… a lot happened.”
“What?”
Jo-jun lowered his voice so only Nick could hear.
“It’s the kind of story Bai Yu shouldn’t overhear.”
“Ah…”
Jo-jun decided to send Mei Ling away for a bit.
“Wait a second, Mei Ling. I need to talk to Nick alone. Could you step aside for a moment?”
“Huh?”
“It’s about the reward we’ll get after leaving. Nick wants to discuss it with just the two of us.”
“B-but… I want to stay too…”
“No, Mei Ling… please… just trust me and move aside for a bit. I’ll negotiate the best terms possible for us.”
“Uh… o-okay…”
Mei Ling, still not fully grasping the situation, was forced by Jo-jun’s insistence to move to another room. She had no choice but to believe what her supposed comrade was saying.
Only after Mei Ling left could Jo-jun properly spin his lies to Nick.
“Bai Yu thinks he’s Mei Ling?”
“Haa… right now that bastard Bai Yu believes he’s a woman named Mei Ling. He’s even getting a little clingy with me. It’s driving me insane.”
“What…?”
“After getting hit with some kind of psychic attack from those alien bastards in the future… his memories got all mixed up and now he thinks he’s a woman. I think he sees himself as his own little sister or something… I don’t know the details, but having a guy clinging to me is killing me. I’m homophobic, so it’s really disgusting. You get what I mean?”
“Then… yeah, I get it. Man, you went through hell, Jun…”
Jo-jun’s lies flowed out effortlessly.
Nick looked sympathetic but couldn’t quite hide his amusement, his shoulders shaking.
Nick, who already suspected Bai Yu was a Cultist, felt like cheering and jumping for joy at the news that Bai Yu had gone half-mad.
Things had gone far better than expected, sending a chill down his spine.
‘As expected… 777 luck… I’m the real deal.’
Nick had no doubt that his luck had once again worked wonders.
The Seal Ring retrieval quest, which he thought would be difficult, had gone smoothly thanks to meeting Jo-jun, a walking treasure goblin with all kinds of tools. And his rival, the supposed Cultist, had self-destructed on his own. For Nick, it was the best possible outcome.
‘This guy… why does he look so happy hearing that Bai Yu’s screwed…? Don’t tell me…’
Jo-jun maintained a poker face while closely observing Nick’s expression. Then he reached a conclusion.
‘This idiot… thinks Mei Ling is the Cultist… huh…’
This was an opportunity. The perfect chance to deceive Nick, who already believed Mei Ling was a Cultist. There was no need to force the situation. Nick was already suspicious of Bai Yu on his own.
Jo-jun smiled inwardly. Then Nick spoke to him in a low voice.
“Hey, Jun.”
“Yeah?”
“There’s something I need to tell you.”
“What is it…”
Nick wore an extremely serious expression. He spoke as if revealing a tremendous secret.
“Actually… Mei Ling… is a disaster to this world who possesses the Cultist class.”
“What…?”
“That guy… is surprisingly an apostle of evil, following the orders of evil gods to bring down the world.”
“W-what the hell are you…”
“You’re part of the Man-Gwi Alliance too. If you have a god supporting you, you should know. The relationship between evil gods and good gods.”
“Uh… I heard they don’t get along at all… I don’t know the details though…”
“That’s right. Evil gods and good gods have completely different views on the end of the world. That’s why they try to kill each other. In my opinion, Bai Yu is an apostle of the evil gods.”
Jo-jun’s eyes sparkled at the high-level information Nick was sharing.
‘Different views on the end of the world…? What does that mean?’
Jo-jun had never heard anything like that from the evil gods, so he wondered if they were deliberately withholding information. But the end of the world wasn’t important right now, so he quickly pushed the thought aside.
‘What matters is that Nick completely believes Bai Yu is a Cultist… but why is he so sure…’
Suddenly, Jo-jun grew curious why Nick was so convinced that Mei Ling was a Cultist.
“Wait… but Nick. Can you tell me why you think that? Bai Yu clearly used skills from the good-god side.”
“That’s exactly why I suspected Bai Yu was a servant of the evil gods.”
“What…?”
“That guy… was mixing in skills from good-god classes. That means he used some method to disguise himself as part of the good-god faction and deceive us…”
“No way…!”
Jo-jun put on a shocked expression while inwardly mocking Nick.