The Enemy of Society
"Things are getting interesting."
A few words from Gabriel Darius, and suddenly Ryu Hwi had become a dangerous element threatening the world.
"Back when you dismissed me as some worthless Unknown, that was fine, but now I'm a 'threat to the world'?"
[Wouldn't it be dangerous to leave things as they are?]
At YggON's words, he let out a low groan.
"Can't let my guard down after all. They've shuffled the timeline a bit — now Linpel's been recast as a dangerous criminal who went rogue, ran wild on his own, and caused an accident."
Ryu Hwi was in much the same position.
Gabriel Darius had defined him with a simple, digestible label: enemy of society.
The unprecedented act of data deletion served as the evidence.
From this moment on, countless people would perceive Ryu Hwi as a threat to society.
A technique that could erase a game labyrinth's data at will would look menacing enough even to ordinary citizens.
But he wasn't particularly worried.
He had released the Delete footage with everything laid bare, consequences included.
"Linzea Guild will obviously throw every trick in the book at cutting me out. A bit more dramatic of a scale than I expected, though."
There was no need to deliberate.
If they wanted to come at him swinging that hot, then all he had to do was swing back just as hot.
"Alright. Decided."
He immediately sent a message to Wolya.
Her reply came a short while later.
Just how many full-body prostheses did this woman own?
Plenty of mysteries still surrounded Wolya.
A disguise was necessary at this point, certainly — but he had no intention of changing his body.
The plan he'd been shaping was to conquer World of Phantasm and steadily shrink Linzea Guild's foothold.
Even now, branded an 'enemy of the world,' he was confident he could smash Linzea as his first move.
The power of UR YggON was more than sufficient for that.
Had Wolya not proposed a new plan, he would have proceeded straight down the 'World of Phantasm Conquest' route.
But the situation had changed.
A threat to the world?
An enemy of the world?
A dangerous element threatening World of Phantasm?
"I'm not following your thinking. Our goals just happen to align."
[Let's incinerate the trash!]
He decided to join Wolya on her proposed route: the Collapse of World of Phantasm.
Unlike Wolya, he had no grand vision about the 'advancement of game labyrinths' or whatever else.
There was exactly one goal: destroy Linzea.
And he would use every tool available to do it.
That was why he took the hand Wolya offered.
"Looks like the Deep Sea Escape series is on hiatus for a while."
The Deep Sea Escape series: shelved for the time being.
[What we'll be starting fresh from now on is......
"Let's kick off the expedition series."
Seasonal change always seemed to arrive slowly, only to ambush you out of nowhere.
Barely a week ago you'd still be wearing short sleeves, and then one sudden chill would hit and you'd finally realize the seasons had turned.
But that was ancient history now.
Thanks to the blessings of Yggdrasil, the cities where modern humanity dwelled maintained a comfortable environment all year round.
The climate itself was regulated — temperature, weather, all of it, manipulated freely at will.
Each city and district was assigned its own 'theme': some places lay buried in snow twelve months a year, while other cities saw rain 365 days straight.
And so the people of the modern age never truly felt the passing of the seasons.
The closest they came was noticing a district's theme had changed, and with it inferring that summer had ended and autumn arrived.
One month had passed since Gabriel Darius's press conference.
The city had dressed itself in its 'autumn theme.'
Linzea Guild had placed a bounty on Ryu7017, and there were those who scoured the underground asking after his whereabouts in hopes of collecting it.
Posts from people digging through the backwater districts hunting for the Unknown Ryu Hwi cropped up on community boards from time to time.
But Ryu7017 had kept his silence for an entire month, and public interest naturally faded along with him.
A commotion could flare up in an instant — and fizzle out just as fast.
A month on, 'Ryu7017' was rarely the topic of the day anymore.
Every so often a post would surface wondering whether the 'data deletion' had actually been real. That was about it.
People wanted new gossip.
Game labyrinths — the great obsession of the modern age — had grown positively tedious of late.
Linzea, on the other hand, was pursuing Ryu7017 at full strength under Gabriel Darius's direct orders.
Ragna, one of Linzea's analysts, sighed as he compiled his report on Ryu7017 for Gabriel.
"Haah...... what on earth is even happening anymore......"
The account deletion of Linpel Darius, Linzea Guild's single greatest asset.
As if things weren't bad enough — two years ago, an incident had already cost the guild one account thanks to Linpel Darius's public disgrace.
And this time, the man had ignored orders from 'the top,' run wild on his own initiative, and blown up his own account in the process.
The losses Linzea Guild had suffered along the way were immense.
In one moment of recklessness, they had lost their greatest asset along with the vast trove of high-grade items stored in his account.
Recovery, of course, was impossible.
Ragna genuinely wondered whether Gabriel might kill Linpel.
"I hear Linpel Darius's demotion has been finalized?"
Just then, the office workers' hushed chatter drifted over.
Pretending to organize his report, Ragna leaned in on their conversation.
"I don't know the details yet, but demotion down to Silver at the very least seems certain."
"And here I thought being a Gold would protect him. Unbelievable."
"There's footage of him drawing a blade, remember? The other Golds are apparently furious. 'A disgrace that someone like that wears Gold.' Apparently he's spent this whole month committing every disgrace imaginable, one after another."
"Ah, right. The news of him causing some new incident practically every day."
"He tried hiring lawyers to block the demotion, but Gabriel shut it down, I heard."
"Why? He's still his own brother......"
"No idea. Word is he said one thing: 'Is forcibly keeping someone unworthy of Gold truly an honor to you?'"
"When it's Gabriel Darius himself doing the intimidation, nobody's going to talk back, is it."
"Linpel is truly finished. Who'd have thought the great Linpel would end up so pitiful overnight?"
Listening to them, Ragna clicked his tongue.
They wouldn't kill him physically, it seemed — but they intended to kill him socially.
Not a drop of blood or tears spared, even for his own flesh and blood.
'And the man who created this whole situation — where is he, and what is he doing right now?'
Frankly, Ragna couldn't have cared less what became of Linzea Guild.
He'd worked as an analyst for about two years, but he'd never felt any sense of belonging to the guild.
He simply told himself that someday, vaguely, he too might become a 'Gamer' — and faithfully carried out whatever tasks he was given.
Like everyone else, Ragna had planned to live an ordinary life......
Until Ryu7017 defeated Linzel, Linzea Guild's ace, and unveiled the cheat known as 'Delete.'
Delete hadn't just erased Linpel's account. It had erased Ragna's rigid assumptions along with it.
He had heard something that day.
The sound of something long sealed shut finally breaking apart.
And he had felt a premonition.
That from this point on, Ryu7017 would be the one driving change.
Just as he was buzzing with excitement, however, Ryu7017 had vanished without a trace.
Where on earth had he gone? Even with the full might of Linzea Guild's intelligence network, they couldn't so much as catch a glimpse of his tail.
"Oh, Ragna. What are you doing here?"
A woman approached Ragna in the middle of his work.
She barely cleared 150 centimeters, yet she was older than he was.
"Oh, Ms. Bisque. Good work out there. Where's your partner......?"
"Noir? She said she had things to do and left already. This cursed guild works people to the bone, I swear."
The woman grumbled as she dropped into a chair near Ragna.
"All of this, every last bit of it, is because that idiot Linpel pulled something stupid. Why should we suffer for his mess? If he wanted to die, he could at least have died quietly."
She was a Gamer herself.
And not just any Gamer — within Linzea Guild, she was skilled enough to be called the 'next ace.'
"So what are you working on? Let's see...... a report on Ryu7017. Hm?"
At the name Ryu7017, she showed no particular interest.
"He's the Gamer who took down Linpel. Doesn't that concern you?"
"Not really? Just another weird Gamer, far as I can tell. I always figured that moron Linpel would blow himself up eventually, so him getting destroyed isn't exactly shocking."
An ace of Linzea in name only, and this was the treatment he got.
"I wouldn't have batted an eye if you told me he got careless and got stomped to death by some passing monster. But...... the whole guild has to mobilize over this? Feels like overkill to me."
"You have no idea what you're saying! Ryu7017 is on a completely different level! A different level! Setting aside the data deletion or whatever, his very existence is shattering every accepted rule of the game!"
"Why are you suddenly getting so worked up?"
"Since you clearly don't understand, allow me to use this opportunity to teach you just how incredible Ryu7017 is! First, his debut video......!!"
As Ragna shouted with mounting fervor, the woman made a face like she'd just stepped in something unpleasant.
Ragna had excellent qualities as an analyst — the problem was his tendency to get far too absorbed.
"Hm."
"What is with that reaction?! Gabriel didn't react that way for nothing, you know. From Linzea Guild's perspective, Ryu7017 is——!"
When she still showed no response, Ragna only grew more agitated, raising his voice further.
Because Ragna believed.
Believed that Ryu7017 would not simply disappear like this.
'He wouldn't run away now, saying he got scared. And when he comes back......'
Ragna waited, and waited, for the day Ryu7017 would show himself again.
Just as Ragna hoped, Ryu7017 revealed himself before long.
And his reappearance delivered a staggering shock.
Naturally so......
It was enough to make even Ragna — the man who had yearned more desperately than anyone for his return — scream out loud.