Chapter 36
Chapter 36
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 36
Chapter Title: ACT.7 How to Eliminate Variables (2)
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Im Gyeong-jun and Cheon Man-gi had a type of bomb fastened around their necks.
It was a necklace created using the Lord of Darkness trait; the moment I gave the signal, spikes would shoot out and pierce their necks from all directions.
Even without a signal, the same would happen the moment they harbored any foolish thoughts.
In effect, these two had no choice but to obey me.
“As promised, I got you inside. Now, take this off… Keuk!”
“I can't do that.”
A groan escaped him as the spikes dug slightly into his neck, the sting sharp.
I had no intention of removing the collars until the job was done.
Especially not for guys like this.
As long as the collars were on, they wouldn't try anything funny.
Their own lives were paramount. Would they really throw them away just to reveal my identity?
There was no reason for them to accept such a loss.
“You son of a bitch.”
“Make the right choice. Side with me now and you live. Don't, and you die.”
A chill must have run down his spine at my cold voice, as even Im Gyeong-jun, who had been cursing, fell silent.
Anyway, I got in more easily than I expected.
I thought Yang Gyu-hyeok might inspect me, but Im Gyeong-jun's smooth talking seemed to have gotten me through without a hitch.
“What about this secret passage?”
“…Follow me. I'll lead the way.”
“Good. Im Gyeong-jun, you go and act as you normally would. If you do anything suspicious….”
I raised my hand and clenched it into a fist.
Im Gyeong-jun's face went pale, as if he could feel the collar on his neck reacting violently, and he shook his head frantically in denial.
That should be warning enough.
“Lead the way.”
“…Understood.”
I already knew about Cheon Man-gi.
In the original game, Jeon Do-jin was the Ruler, and he had physically reformed the gang Cheon Man-gi belonged to, entrusting them with security outside the town.
But the current Ruler wasn't Jeon Do-jin, but Yang Gyu-hyeok, who seemed to be from the same gang.
It was obvious. These guys were likely extorting as much as they could from the survivors here under the pretext of maintaining the town's security.
They had tried to do the same in the original game.
“The basement of this building connects to the outside.”
“Connects to the outside? Then monsters could get in through here.”
“No need to worry about that. The exit point is covered perfectly by a manhole cover. We can also lower a shutter on the path from the basement to the first floor.”
“Hmm….”
Well, I knew all this already.
I didn't necessarily have to bring Cheon Man-gi, but he was quite useful.
“What kind of person was Yang Gyu-hyeok?”
“…What's with the sudden question? But I don't know much either. He was just a neighborhood thug who awakened, got strong fast, and took that position. That's it.”
“So he didn't have any prior connection to you guys?”
“Of course not.”
Cheon Man-gi narrowed his eyes.
“We were the Yangcheol Gang, the ones who ran this area. But when the world went crazy, we were getting ready to fight the monsters ourselves when Yang Gyu-hyeok showed up, killed our boss, and took his place.”
“You're being quite talkative.”
“I've decided that telling you this won't change anything. And to be honest.”
He paused for a moment.
Then, he openly showed his displeasure.
“…I don't like Yang Gyu-hyeok's methods.”
I let out a small laugh at Cheon Man-gi's answer.
That was his personality.
He doesn't mess with ordinary people and doesn't resort to cowardly tactics.
Not that I'm defending him being a gangster.
But at least he knew where to draw the line.
That's why I brought him.
“Hey. Kim Se-hyeon, was it?”
“Probably.”
“…Whatever. Anyway, let me ask one thing. Are you planning a coup d'état?”
At the words 'coup d'état,' I stopped walking and stared at Cheon Man-gi.
Cheon Man-gi waited tensely for my answer.
In the original game, 'coup d'état' had another meaning.
If he was referring to that…
‘No.’
He was a character from the game.
There was no way Cheon Man-gi would have meant it that way.
I relaxed my slightly stiff expression and gave a vague reply.
“Who knows.”
*Splash.*
We passed through a dark passage with puddles of water everywhere.
A faint light from a bulb—somehow still powered—made it possible to move without much trouble.
‘This place didn't have any particular rewards, so there was no real reason to come here.’
It was a secret passage, but there were no hidden rewards or dungeons.
If anything, this place was the cause of a major incident.
But there was no particular reason to stop it.
“You call this a secret passage, but you don't maintain it?”
“What do you mean?”
“There's so much water leaking it's hard to find a dry spot on the floor, but I don't see any signs of it being cleaned up.”
“…I don't know about that either. Until yesterday, there were only a few puddles. It's suddenly gotten a lot worse.”
He frowned, seemingly genuinely clueless.
If what he said was true, then the water level had risen this much in just one day.
The amount of water was much greater than I remembered, which felt unsettling.
Especially since the water level kept rising the further we went.
“…Damn.”
Just as I feared.
My anxiety became reality.
“It's completely flooded.”
A wide pool of water had collected in a sunken area.
The other side was barely visible.
Jumping across was impossible.
It was too dark to tell how deep it was.
“It's fine. This area was always a bit sunken, and even with this much water, it'll only come up to our knees.”
Cheon Man-gi casually stepped into the water as if to prove his point.
“See? Just like I said….”
The smirk on Cheon Man-gi's face froze.
Something was moving in the water.
Not just one or two, but so many that the water looked black.
“Th-there's something in the water…?”
That idiot.
If he'd just gotten out of the water instead of talking!
*Chwaak!*
Dozens of fish shot up from the water.
These weren't ordinary fish; each one had teeth more menacing than a piranha's.
Each individual was a weak E-rank, but because they moved in large schools, they were effectively treated as C-rank monsters.
“Aaargh!!!”
“Get out now!!”
I rushed forward and slashed at the fish.
If he died now, it would be a huge pain.
I was the last person seen with Cheon Man-gi. If he suddenly died?
It would be the perfect way to make Yang Gyu-hyeok suspicious.
I couldn't let things go wrong before I even started.
“Rise!”
Some of them even launched themselves out of the water to attack me, a suicidal move.
While relentlessly swinging my sword to cut them down, I used my ability to block them when the situation got tough.
As a result, they fortunately gave up and retreated.
“Hah, heok, heok….”
Cheon Man-gi, having barely survived, gasped for breath.
He'd been bitten a few times while escaping, but the wounds didn't seem deep, just bleeding a little.
That was a close call.
If I had faced this situation before getting my trait, I might have been a goner too.
“…Thanks. You saved my life.”
“Forget it.”
The crisis was averted, but the problem wasn't solved.
How were we supposed to cross this water?
The scent of blood from his wounds was also a problem.
Those things weren't attacking, but they were still circling in the water, waiting for an opportunity.
“To get to the end of the secret passage, we have to go through here, right?”
“Any other way is….”
Cheon Man-gi started to say something, then stopped and quietly shook his head.
“There isn't one. Practically.”
“…I see.”
I wondered why he'd stopped talking; it was because there was a sewer.
If this place was this bad, it was obvious what state the sewer would be in.
*Kkadeudeuk.*
I controlled the darkness to tear off a piece of the wall and fashioned a bridge out of it.
Cheon Man-gi's eyes widened in amazement.
It was safe to say no one in Dongdaemun had a proper ability like this.
Even if they did, E or D-rank abilities were too weak to produce any significant power.
“What are you doing? Go first.”
“…You're much stronger, shouldn't you be in front?”
“Like I'd trust you with my back. No more talk, just go.”
“What if they smell the blood and attack again while we're crossing the bridge?”
“I won't help you this time, so be careful.”
“…”
Cheon Man-gi tensed up and began to cross the bridge as carefully as if he were carrying a child.
So slow.
I sighed and tore off more pieces of the wall to reinforce the sides of the bridge.
Only then did Cheon Man-gi start to cross more quickly.
***
At the end of the passage, there was a ladder.
At the top of the ladder, just as Cheon Man-gi had said, a manhole cover was fitted perfectly over the opening.
Since I couldn't see the sky through the holes in the cover, this place also seemed well-hidden.
“Go on up.”
“What about you?”
“I'll wait here. You go get them. There's no need for two of us to go, and if I went, who knows if you'd betray me, even at the cost of your own life.”
Cheon Man-gi frowned, then nodded and climbed the ladder.
The Death Worm was dead, and even the goblins had been annihilated.
This area would soon be teeming with monsters again, but not to the point where Cheon Man-gi couldn't move around on his own.
Besides, they wouldn't be that active yet.
What was more concerning were the fish-like monsters in the flooded area from before.
‘…Has *that thing* come this close?’
I recalled a hidden achievement located near Dongdaemun.
These fish-like monsters were a type of minion controlled by that thing.
I had planned to go hunt it alone after dealing with the Dongdaemun situation.
I stealthily shifted my gaze behind me.
The damp darkness, not fully illuminated by the faint lamplight.
If I listened closely, I thought I could hear a splashing sound.
“I'm back.”
Cheon Man-gi's voice broke my train of thought.
I must have been lost in thought for quite a while, as he had already returned with the others.
“What were you thinking so hard about?”
“I have no reason to tell an enemy every little thing I'm thinking.”
“Fair enough.”
Cheon Man-gi chuckled and dropped the subject.
“Se-hyeon-nim. You really did it.”
“It was easier than I thought. Im Gyeong-jun is a good actor.”
“…From what I saw, it wasn't acting. He was being sincere because his life was on the line.”
Cheon Man-gi muttered something.
Useless chatter.
“To be honest, I was skeptical when that man came to get us. I was worried he might have already captured you, Oppa, and was trying to trap us too….”
Jo Min-ah sighed in relief, brushing her chest.
“You worry too much. Who do you think I am?”
“Right?”
Jo Min-ah smiled brightly.
When I ruffled her hair, she let out a short yelp but didn't seem to mind.
‘This group should be enough.’
Lee Seon-yul, Go Yeong-jun, and Jeong Su-ji had followed Nam Sang-jin toward Cheongnyangni Station.
One of the important tasks right now was gathering information over there.
It was a job suited for Lee Seon-yul, who excelled at information gathering, analysis, and memorization.
Jeong Su-ji had said she wanted to go because she had relatives there, and then Go Yeong-jun tagged along too.
I was planning to separate those two from the party anyway, so it worked out well.
The twins were a little disappointed, but it wasn't a big deal.
“By the way, Hyung, how did you do it? Those guys didn't seem like they'd listen to you so easily.”
“I made a deal.”
“Whoa. Just like when you negotiated with that ugly ahjussi, you're a really good negotiator, Hyung.”
No need to mention I threatened them with their lives.
Kim Ji-hyeon seemed to have a rough idea of what I'd done, but she just shrugged it off indifferently.
Her attention was on something else.
“By the way, I've been holding this back for a while now.”
It wasn't me.
Kim Ji-hyeon's gaze was fixed on Cheon Man-gi.
“You, what is that on your head?”