Chapter 192
Chapter 192
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 192
Chapter Title: ACT.35 Playing Tag (3)
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“In a way, you could say it's your fault the world ended up like this.”
“My fault?”
“Circumstantially, you cleared the game, and the timing is just too perfect.”
Hwang Chan-jin shot back as if it were obvious.
It wasn't an entirely baseless interpretation.
But when I reached the 00th ending, no one was watching my stream.
So in the end, nobody knew whether I had cleared EOA or not.
Just as I was about to argue that point, Hwang Chan-jin added.
“…But that's just pointless venting. What's done is done. We need to solve it, not waste time blaming people. I would have said the same thing even if the Strategy King was someone else.”
I glanced back and forth between Hwang Chan-jin and Jun Bo-ra.
I had planned to tell them eventually.
I just hadn't decided exactly when.
But now, it seemed like the perfect time to come clean.
“Then let's make one thing clear.”
[1000 Coins have been paid.]
A scroll fluttered down from the air and landed in my hand.
I pulled up a chair, sat down, and unrolled the scroll.
“From this point forward, we will cooperate in earnest and do whatever it takes to prevent every form of destruction.”
My words were engraved in glowing gold letters on the previously blank scroll.
A written oath.
An item different from a contract, one that simply recorded a promise.
There was no major penalty for breaking it.
At most, the angels' favorability would drop significantly.
It was a meaningless item for someone like Hwang Chan-jin, who couldn't care less about the angels' opinions, but this was purely for symbolic purposes.
“I'm not sure we need to do this… but okay. I guess it feels different when you make it official.”
Jun Bo-ra scratched her cheek and signed first.
Hwang Chan-jin took the oath, stared at it for a moment, then signed it as well and passed it to me.
The oath then automatically duplicated, and copies appeared in Jun Bo-ra's and Hwang Chan-jin's hands.
Hwang Chan-jin tucked the oath away and immediately asked a question.
“So, what happened? Did you clear the game?”
“…Halfway.”
An answer that was basically an admission that I was the Strategy King.
Jun Bo-ra flinched noticeably at that, but Hwang Chan-jin focused on something else.
“Halfway?”
“Do you know how many endings ‘End of Apocalypse’ has?”
“Not in detail.”
“From the 1st ending to the 99th. They're all bad endings. That day, I definitely didn't get the 99th ending; I went past it. So, which ending do you think I saw?”
“You're asking the obvious. It would be the 100th…”
“It was the 00th.”
Hwang Chan-jin frowned slightly.
“That doesn't add up.”
“Exactly. Even though it was the 00th ending, a message appeared saying the game was cleared. I saw that and went to sleep. When I was about to wake up, two messages appeared before me.”
“Was that before or after the world changed?”
“Before. The first thing I noticed was a message saying I had to reach the true ending in a single attempt.”
“The true ending…”
“Does that mean reaching the 100th ending?”
“That's probably the most likely case.”
Though it was never mentioned that it would be a happy ending.
The words rose to the tip of my tongue, but I managed to swallow them back down.
“A single attempt… that means if you fail, it's over.”
“This is reality, after all.”
If there was a way to obtain a ‘Regression’ trait like in the original story, it might be possible to start over once.
But I had no intention of letting that happen.
I've seen the fate of regressors more times than I can count.
I refuse to become that withered.
I will end this in one go, no matter what.
‘Besides.’
The fact that it specifically said ‘a single attempt’ bothered me.
It felt like it was hammering home the point that regression was impossible.
After a long silence, Hwang Chan-jin spoke.
“Then what was the second message?”
“It said, ‘The set deadline has been reached.’ That's the message I saw.”
“The set deadline…? What does that mean?”
“I don't know either. I haven't had the time to think about it deeply. And you know what? It hasn't even been a month since the world changed like this.”
“…”
Hwang Chan-jin fell silent, lost in thought.
I recalled the achievement I'd gotten after visiting the Korean branch of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
Someone's Memo.
The shocking content that suggested the game was a kind of simulator created by looking into the future.
Suddenly, a part of that content flashed through my mind like lightning.
‘All we could do was delay that time.’
Could it be related to that?
Delaying the time.
Reaching the set deadline.
‘Don't tell me…’
“Wait, hold on. So neither of you believed I was the Strategy King from the start?”
Jun Bo-ra exclaimed, her face a mask of renewed astonishment.
Was this really so surprising?
Hwang Chan-jin and I glanced at each other for a moment before answering as if it were obvious.
“Of course not.”
“I didn't believe it.”
“Hwang Chan-jin kept saying it after the first time, so I can understand that! But you, that's a real shock! You're the real one, but you kept pretending you weren't!”
She looked as if she'd been betrayed.
Jun Bo-ra, apparently feeling quite wronged, started to interrogate me.
“Why didn't you reveal you were the Strategy King? That's what I'm most curious about. What's the reason?”
“Because I knew not everyone would be friendly about me being the Strategy King.”
You could see it just by looking at the ‘Progressors.’
They tried to eliminate the publicly known Strategy King first.
It meant that if I had gone around acting as the Strategy King from the beginning, I might be the one lying in this bed right now, not Jun Bo-ra.
“Then why did *you* go around publicly claiming to be the Strategy King?”
When I turned the question on her, Jun Bo-ra scratched her cheek.
“Me… well, I wanted to gather forces easily. And of course, I was thinking about that viewer who was watching until the very end. I thought if I revealed myself as the Strategy King, they would easily help me.”
There was something strange about Jun Bo-ra's words.
I had already revealed that I was the Strategy King here.
At a time when we were being honest about our identities, Jun Bo-ra had just said she wasn't ‘jun0501’.
“I suspected Hwang Chan-jin was the Strategy King, and in the meantime, you acted like you knew the game really well, so I figured you must be that viewer.”
At that time, there was no one on the stream except for me, the streamer, and jun0501, who had watched for a bit and then left.
Unless it was me or jun0501 themselves, no one else could know that jun0501 had watched my stream that day.
Then who exactly was Jun Bo-ra?
I mumbled for a while before I managed to continue the conversation.
“The ID is jun0501. It has no connection to my name, though.”
“That's true, but…”
There's no rule that says an ID has to be related to your real name.
But just as many people choose unrelated names, many also choose names related to their own.
“Actually, I thought *you* were jun0501. Your last name is ‘Jun,’ right?”
“I guess you could misunderstand it that way.”
Jun Bo-ra let out a small “Ah,” as if she hadn't considered that.
Hwang Chan-jin, who had been listening quietly, muttered awkwardly.
“…That was me.”
“Huh?”
“Eh?”
We both turned our gazes to Hwang Chan-jin at the same time.
As if even he felt weird saying it, Hwang Chan-jin tapped his fingers with a strange expression I'd never seen before.
If it wasn't Jun Bo-ra, then Hwang Chan-jin was the most likely candidate.
I had known that, but…
I voiced the question that still didn't make sense.
“Why jun0501?”
“A typo.”
“…What?”
“I meant to type ‘jin’, but I hit ‘u’ next to ‘i’ by mistake, so it became ‘jun’.”
“So you created the ID without even realizing you'd mistyped. How did you log in?”
“I tried several times, but it said the ID didn't exist. So I used the ‘Find ID’ function, and it came up as ‘jun’. That's when I realized.”
The image of Hwang Chan-jin, his face slightly stiff as he desperately tried to find his ID, made me burst out laughing.
Jun Bo-ra must have imagined the same thing, because she turned away, trying to stifle her laughter.
Hwang Chan-jin wore an openly displeased expression, but he didn't seem like he was going to do anything about it.
‘So Hwang Chan-jin was that jun0501.’
It was shocking for many reasons, but the most shocking thing was the difference in impression.
jun0501 always used polite, formal language and frequently used emoticons.
I naturally assumed he'd be a cheerful, pleasant person.
I stared blankly at Hwang Chan-jin.
How are these two the same person?
“If you have a problem, say it with your sword. I'll take you on anytime.”
Hwang Chan-jin's face hardened fiercely.
It was so obvious that he was just trying to hide his embarrassment that Jun Bo-ra and I burst out laughing again.
“A-anyway. Hwang Chan-jin, why did you say I wasn't the Strategy King right off the bat?”
Jun Bo-ra, who had been laughing hysterically, wiped tears from her eyes and changed the subject.
The corners of her mouth kept twitching; it seemed she was desperate to stop laughing, even if it meant forcing a change in topic.
Funnily enough, Hwang Chan-jin, who also seemed eager to move on, immediately took the bait.
“Isn't it obvious? Kim Se-hyeon's style was different from the original Strategy King's, but yours wasn't even remotely similar. That's why I concluded you were an imposter.”
“That's exactly why I thought *you* were the Strategy King.”
Jun Bo-ra grumbled.
I see. He'd barely known her and had already declared, ‘You're an imposter.’ From Jun Bo-ra's perspective, it was reasonable to suspect Hwang Chan-jin was the real one.
Besides, his solo-focused, monopolizing playstyle was the same one I had showcased back when I was actively uploading videos to my channel.
“So what are we going to do now? Should I stop the impersonation?”
“No. You keep acting as you are. And both of you, don't think of me as the Strategy King.”
“What? Why?”
Jun Bo-ra, who had asked with wide eyes, suddenly scowled.
“Wait a minute. You're not…”
“That's exactly what I am.”
“Shit.”
A curse escaped her like a reflex.
It was an understandable reaction, so I let out a small chuckle.
“Hey! You're waaaaay stronger! Why am I the shield?!”
“Well, who told you to go around impersonating me?”
“Is that what you say to someone who almost died…?”
Jun Bo-ra's face soured.
Right, teasing her after she almost died wasn't very nice.
I took out a green glass vial and handed it to Jun Bo-ra.
“What's this?”
“A B-grade elixir that raises agility.”
“You think this makes up for it!?”
Jun Bo-ra yelled, but she immediately pocketed the vial.
In reality, that was the gift I'd promised her when I got back from the other world.
But since she seemed to have forgotten, I decided to keep my mouth shut.
“Seeing as you can move around while being that angry, you seem to have recovered enough.”
Hwang Chan-jin sighed and unfolded his arms.
Jun Bo-ra twisted her body this way and that, then gave a light nod.
“I guess so. The pain is mostly gone.”
“Then there's no reason to stay here. First, we need the details of what happened. Jun Bo-ra, are you okay with explaining what happened in the east in front of the others?”
“…I should. It all happened so fast, so I don't know much, though.”
“We know some of what you don't. If we combine our information, we should get a clearer picture.”
“Huh? How?”
“A lot has happened on our end too.”
Through Dwayne and Ada, I knew the general story of why the east fell, but I didn't know the specific details.
The size of the rebel forces. How they were operating.
It was better to hear that directly from Jun Bo-ra.
“My sister probably told them you're awake, so people should already be gathered in the lobby. I'll go on ahead. You just change and come out.”
Hwang Chan-jin left the room first, and I stood up to follow.
Because it was a square building with a hollow center, the voices of people talking in the lobby carried up clearly.
The moment I heard the twins' voices, I briefly thought of Go Yeong-jun and Jeong Su-ji, who were stationed in the east.
‘Lee Seon-yul is probably protecting them.’
I gazed at a single message still displayed faintly in the corner of my vision.
Chapter 17.
Min Ji-ah and Min Dan-ah had left this place without being consumed by madness, but the chapter was still in progress, with no clear conditions revealed.
It meant that the matter of ‘Madness’ was not yet resolved.