The Moth That Flew Into the Flame
The world's greatest game labyrinth, World of Phantasm.
And the ace of Linzea Guild, the guild that could claim, without exaggeration, to rule over World of Phantasm itself.
Until only recently, Linpel Darius had been enjoying the prime of his life. If things had kept going the way they were, he would have climbed past Gold and reached Platinum.
But then his game account was erased. He was expelled from the guild. Everything vanished like a dream.
Because of Ryu7017.
Ryu7017!!
"Die!"
Ryu Hwi didn't bother parrying Linpel's attacks. He simply kept dodging.
"That's all you've got? You're wielding a Yggdrasil Item and you still can't kill one measly guy. The knockoff really is hopeless."
"You bastard! Are you just going to keep running away?!"
Slash, slash, and slash again. Every time Linpel's sword grazed past, walls and pavement split apart.
Yggdrasil Item — the Demonic Sword Jeolyeong. [Presence Concealment], [Invisibility], and [Razor Severing] — all usable.
An artifact he'd scraped up by surrendering a third of his entire fortune to the 'black-market merchant'.
Crimes involving Yggdrasil Items were harshly regulated, but loopholes were everywhere if you knew where to look. Worst case, he only had to seize control of the Entertainment District.
But before any of that, one thing came first: Ryu7017 had to die.
Linpel had chosen Ryu Hwi as the Demonic Sword's first victim. He thought of nothing else — only killing Ryu Hwi. With Ryu Hwi dead, everything could begin again. Everything would come after the man's death — or so he'd believed.
And yet, somehow, Ryu Hwi had seen straight through the sword's effects and even launched a counterattack.
That couldn't be possible. It just couldn't...
Linpel fell into confusion. Everything he'd planned had been torn off course. Worse, Ryu Hwi had handed the Demonic Sword back to him after stealing it once, like he was being charitable.
Kill him.
Blinded by fury, Linpel swung Jeolyeong wildly, heedless of everything around him.
"How long do you plan on strutting around in front of me!"
"Honestly? The current you doesn't worry me in the slightest."
The two of them had long since left the sparsely populated side street behind, but Linpel didn't even register it. In eyes dyed with hatred, only Ryu Hwi existed.
He cut down whatever stood in his path. Walls fell to that blade, then utility poles, then park benches.
"I doubt your brother ever taught you that. Or are you just naturally half-witted?"
Ryu Hwi never stopped taunting.
"Come on, this is reality. One strike is all it would take to kill me."
"Shut up!"
"You're not my match anymore. If anything, you should call your oh-so-great brother... Oh, wait. He threw you away, didn't he?"
"How dare the likes of you judge me?!"
Linpel's swordwork grew faster. He didn't spare a single thought for whatever damage he wreaked on his surroundings.
"This way. Keep coming."
Perhaps Linpel's obsessive fury had finally paid off?
"Ugh?!"
Dodging Linpel's strike, Ryu Hwi lost his balance and stumbled to the ground.
Now!
Linpel drove his sword toward Ryu Hwi's chest with everything he had.
"...?!"
He had aimed for the opening of a man who had clearly lost his footing and fallen. But the strike — one that should have been impossible to evade — somehow missed. Linpel knew instantly that something was wrong.
And then...
"Aaargh! Help! Linpel Darius of Linzea Guild is trying to kill me!"
"What? What's going on all of a sudden—"
At Ryu Hwi's sudden scream, Linpel finally took stock of his surroundings.
A crowded downtown street, teeming with people. All the while he'd fought, Ryu Hwi had been steering the battle this way, little by little — and making sure a crowd witnessed him being assaulted by Linpel.
Across Linpel's field of vision, countless 'camera' icons flickered into view. The signal that someone had marked him as their recording target.
"Look at that. Isn't that actually Linpel Darius?"
"Huh? It is. He looks exactly like he does on broadcasts and in magazines."
"Did Linpel Darius just attack a civilian with a blade on a public street?"
"Not exactly a civilian — the guy's an Unknown... still, swinging a weapon around out here?"
Cold sweat ran down Linpel's forehead. The reason that rage and hatred had paralyzed came flooding back. Unless you were an idiot, there was no mistaking how catastrophic this situation was.
"No, wait, I—"
As a panicked Linpel fumbled for an excuse, a voice reached his ear.
"Congratulations. From this moment on, you're going to lose everything."
"...!!"
While Linpel stood frozen in shock, Ryu Hwi covered his face to stay out of the cameras and slipped away.
"Wait!"
Linpel immediately tried to give chase — but the crowd that had surged in within moments blocked his path.
Camera icons kept flashing into his vision, one after another. Linpel staggered backward.
Camera, camera, camera... An endless flood of camera icons.
"Stop..."
Linpel had stolen countless people's lives over the years — clearing away anyone who got in his way or annoyed him, or simply out of boredom. He'd taken and taken until the numbers blurred together, until he couldn't even remember who was who.
So why now? Why, of all moments, did a certain man surface in his mind?
A man who had dared to dispute the records Linpel had set, who had shamelessly posted 'strategy guides' again and again. An idiot who didn't know his place. Linpel had crushed that man's life for fun — because he was annoyed, because he was bored, because it amused him.
The face of the man as he despaired, falling into the abyss, rose before Linpel's eyes.
That face...
It was the exact face of the man who had dragged Linpel's life into the abyss.
"Stop it!!"
"Whoa?! Linpel Darius has gone berserk!"
"Run!"
"Linpel's lost his mind!"
All hell broke loose.
Ryu Hwi climbed onto the rooftop of a nearby building and chuckled at the scene below. How delightful. A moth that had flown into the flame, burning alive of its own accord.
[Master, the video has been uploaded. This time I used a different ID instead of Ryu7017.]
[I shot it from angles where your face is hard to make out, and made liberal use of the 'innocent bystander witnessing everything' framing. It is, quite simply, a film. I am frightened by the talent of UR YggON.]
The footage YggON had captured genuinely looked like a heart-pounding scene of a 'victim' being hunted down by an 'assailant'.
<SHOCKING! Linzea Guild's ace Linpel Darius goes on a knife rampage in broad daylight, wielding a Yggdrasil Item!>
Both Linzea Guild and Yggdrasil Items went right into the title. Linzea's fame was so great that the video would spread in no time.
And it wasn't just this video. Dozens of people were filming Linpel's rampage right now.
Gold rank or not, this situation was fatal.
"Acting however he pleases, right to the very end."
He'd lost his gamer account. He'd lost his guild.
Now he was going to lose his rank too.
In the end, everything had gone exactly the way Ryu Hwi wanted — just far faster than planned, thanks to Linpel Darius doing whatever he pleased.
Just how far would Linpel Darius fall? Ryu Hwi found himself genuinely looking forward to watching every moment of it.
[The proverb that revenge is an empty thing clearly does not apply to you, Master. You are smiling with pure delight. Are you quite certain your personality hasn't broken?]
"You're supposed to laugh when you're happy."
Now — how would Linzea Guild respond?
Linzea had made no announcement whatsoever about Linpel Darius yet. But with things having blown up this badly, they were bound to react somehow.
What would happen?
Ryu Hwi decided to wait leisurely and see how Linzea Guild responded.
The video of Linpel Darius rampaging through the streets spread across every community on the internet in the blink of an eye. It even made the morning news the very next day.
Linzea Guild called an emergency press conference.
And Gabriel Darius appeared before it in person.
"Linpel Darius is no longer a member of Linzea Guild. He committed a disgraceful act and has been expelled. This incident has nothing to do with Linzea Guild."
The press conference hall stirred at Gabriel Darius's words.
"That said, it is also true that a former member of Linzea Guild caused this incident. For that, we offer our sincere apologies."
Gabriel Darius — the Gabriel Darius — bowed his head.
The scene spread across the world in real time. Questions from the press immediately came pouring in.
Amid the barrage, a female reporter in a vivid green suit cut straight to the point.
"According to rumors, Linzea Guild ambushed a certain gamer, and in the process something happened to Linpel Darius's account. There are witnesses, and related footage is already circulating. Was Linpel Darius expelled from the guild because of that?"
It was the question on everyone's mind. With speculation and rumors running rampant, people wanted Linzea Guild's official position.
"First — the claim that we ambushed a certain gamer is true."
Gabriel Darius admitted it cleanly. The press hall rippled with murmurs once more, and the reporter pressed him again.
"You're admitting all of it? That Linzea tried to lynch a gamer and failed — all of it?"
"That is correct. However, the guild acted for a reason. We obtained certain intelligence — that a gamer who had bared his fangs at Linzea Guild... that Ryu7017 was a being capable of endangering the game labyrinths themselves."
Gabriel Darius's words flowed without a single hitch.
"Data deletion. The power to interfere with a game labyrinth's data at will. The consequences of deleting a labyrinth's data are beyond anyone's ability to predict. Ryu7017 wields that power arbitrarily, and he is threatening World of Phantasm with it."
In this very moment, 'Data Deletion' became public knowledge.
"It is no exaggeration to say that World of Phantasm's resources currently sustain the world itself. Linzea Guild attempted to subdue Ryu7017 before the situation escalated — and we failed."
The word failed landed with a heavy thud.
"Linpel Darius acted on his own in an attempt to make up for his earlier failure, fell victim to Ryu7017's machinations, and had his account deleted. Strip of his guild position and robbed of his account, the shock presumably drove him to commit his rampage. I apologize once more for my foolish brother's actions."
Gabriel Darius appealed to the assembled reporters — and to everyone watching the broadcast.
"Let me declare it here and now: Linzea Guild will protect World of Phantasm."
That Linzea Guild was justice.
"From the dangerous element threatening World of Phantasm — Ryu7017... the demon Ryu Hwi!"
That Ryu7017 was an enemy menacing society itself.