Chapter 114
Chapter 114
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 114
Chapter Title: Cousin?
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Wisdom uttered a strange word he hadn't spoken aloud in a long time.
"Cousin?"
"Yeah. My father's brother's son."
"I wasn't asking because I didn't know that. Just..."
"I know."
Player Jangwan, Choi Seo-yoon, said.
"It's too much of a coincidence."
Wisdom nodded.
"There might be something to it."
"Something?"
"At first, I thought they just randomly summoned all the players. But seeing both Nebula and Hegemonia here made me suspicious. Sure, they're ranked 1st and 2nd, but that doesn't make it more likely they'd be picked out of all the players. Apparently, Nebula thought the opposite until she got to know us."
"Opposite how?"
Wisdom twirled his finger counterclockwise.
"She figured they cut off the summons at rank 27 from 1st place."
Jangwan said curtly.
"Knew it. She only thinks about herself."
"You agree with that?"
"...Nah, forget it."
Wisdom's head began spinning in circles.
"Anyway, if it's not completely random and not following some specific rule, then there's a higher chance we're here for another reason. And thanks to you just revealing that fact, it seems even more likely."
"Another reason?"
Wisdom said.
"Someone 'selected' the people to play the game."
At those words, Jangwan's face took on a thoughtful expression.
Wisdom continued.
"It's not that surprising now. We already know that when the game started, this mysterious entity called Aldin made us choose whether to play or not, right?"
"You think there was some scheme behind it?"
"Maybe, but I see it a bit differently."
"How so?"
Wisdom's head stopped spinning.
"I think there might be some other scheme. But more than that, I suspect there's another reason. Back then, thirty-two players actually gathered, and five of them didn't participate. According to Aldin, they went back. Do you think they made the wrong choice?"
"...No."
"Right. They actually made the normal choice. Who would choose to stay in the game? The moment we chose to stay, we weren't normal anymore. And out of those thirty-two, twenty-seven of us are pretty damn abnormal."
Jangwan understood Wisdom's point and nodded.
"So you're saying they targeted people who would join this game from the start?"
"I don't think that's the only condition, but at least it was one of them. I was like that, and probably..."
Wisdom pointed his index finger at Jangwan.
"You too."
Jangwan turned his head as if to say that wasn't the case.
Over the corpses of countless kobold priests on the rocky desert, eagles soared.
The bolder eagles had already begun feeding.
"You're right. If I was selected, that guy must have been too—of course. And he'd definitely do well, so I figured he'd win unless someone sabotaged him. That's why I joined."
"Hm."
Wisdom, having heard the story, said.
"It'd be rude to pry for more details, right?"
"Privacy. ...For now."
Jangwan turned away.
Suddenly, a strong wind blew, carrying the fresh, fishy smell of blood that hadn't yet dried, tousling Jangwan's hair eastward.
Jangwan brushed back his bangs with his hand.
His sharp eyes turned toward Wisdom.
"More than that, I'd like to hear about the next part."
"Next part?"
"Can't we strategically use the fact that he's Nebula's cousin?"
Wisdom crossed his arms as if it were an unexpected question, then rested his hand on his head.
"Why not?"
Ledin Bial Oser initially thought he'd fallen into a trap.
In Mangul, they had first invited King Dermaldin.
It was the day of the massive festival that came every decade or so to Mangul, and by custom, the Mangul king summoned the kings of various nations.
But custom was just custom—there was no reason for the kings to participate.
Mangul was near the edge of the continent.
For nations like Geuman or Danyeom that bordered it, maybe, but for Seokmyeon, which would require crossing an entire vast country, it felt like an outright rude demand to ask the king to make such a journey.
Of course, Dermaldin knew it wasn't so much the Mangul king's intention as it was the priests leading the event.
The sanctity of the priests' rituals was acknowledged by any continental king.
So, a minimum show of goodwill was necessary.
Thus, for Mangul's 'Empty Sky' Festival, each king sent royalty to offer congratulations.
Unlike Heukrin's annual spring festival, this one occurred at irregular intervals of about a decade, so if you wanted diplomatic ties with Mangul, you couldn't completely ignore it.
Ledin headed to Mangul because he happened to be in Geuman at the time.
Had he simply stayed in Seokmyeon, the distance would have been too great, and Dermaldin wouldn't have sent his loyal son.
But Ledin was in the midst of handling another of Dermaldin's shady dealings without letting the nobles or populace find out.
One Geuman noble had dug into one of Dermaldin's many scandals, and Dermaldin ordered Ledin—whom he trusted more than anyone—to quietly take care of it before it became a diplomatic issue.
Having finished the job, Ledin accepted the order to attend the diplomatic event with a mix of apathy and pleasure.
Ledin usually preached to his subordinates that the harder and tougher the work, the more rest was needed.
Unfortunately, Ledin had little interest in other nations' history or culture, and he didn't know that Mangul's Empty Sky Festival was a rather different kind from what he might have hoped for.
The kobolds who worshipped the Cave God, Cheongryu, had a unique prayer method.
Gods like Heukrin had long since shifted from offering rotten meat—which the god would accept to prove faith—to holding scripture meetings.
But Cheongryu still followed the ancient traditions.
By digging tunnels.
Initially, it was thought to be for securing drinking water in water-scarce Mangul, but now the original meaning mattered little.
Mangul's kobolds simply dug tunnels to prove their faith in the god.
And among those digging kobolds, some dared even greater trials.
Cheongryu's priests.
Kobolds faithful to Cheongryu had to undergo a special ritual every ten years to become official priests.
Starting with just dozens, the number of candidates had grown to hundreds in recent cycles. Blindfolded, they followed the directions of other priests to some remote spot in Mangul.
There, they removed their blindfolds deep underground, where other priests had already dug.
Aside from drinking water and simple food, they were given two things.
A pickaxe for digging earth, and mangrocho herb.
Mangrocho was one of Mangul's rare medicinal herbs, with a peculiar effect.
It caused loss of direction sense.
Even kobolds, with bodies suited for underground life, lost all sense of left-right, forward-back, even up-down.
Those who hadn't tried it might ask how you could confuse up and down while standing on the ground, but in the total darkness underground where every surface could be floor, consuming mangrocho and feeling your body constantly spinning stripped away not just direction, but even time and sense of self.
Thus, the priest candidates' task, pickaxe in hand after eating mangrocho, was to 'dig toward the sky.'
Simple in theory, but with no clue which way was up or how far to dig, and even if certain of direction, no way to tell if you were going straight in pitch blackness.
Whoever succeeded in digging to empty sky—i.e., the surface—ended the event.
That day was the Empty Sky Festival.
Even under strict supervision by senior Cheongryu priests, dropouts and deaths abounded, and once started, the massive event could last years.
Spending years in dark earthen tunnels, digging without hope, was madness even for kobolds.
But the thrill of crumbling firm earth and reaching into empty air kept Cheongryu's priests hooked, ensuring the ritual's continuation.
Of course, Cheongryu—Player Jangwan himself—also saw it as an efficient way to gather faith resources.
It was a prayer method hard for other races or subdomains to imitate.
Anyway, Mangul's kobolds truly believed in their prayer method and, like such zealots often do, would push others with 'You don't know because you haven't tried it.'
So Ledin should have predicted they'd make the visiting dignitaries experience tunnel digging at the Empty Sky Festival.
Deep in the cold tunnel, Ledin realized something was wrong.
"This is ridiculous. What a joke."
Ledin thought back to how he'd ended up in the tunnel.
At the time, everything had seemed fine.
The kobolds had explained the procedure multiple times, and Ledin had refused each time.
But when the kobold priest called it their final request, he had no choice but to accept.
"It's just a symbolic event."
"I'm a prince. What if the tunnel collapses and I die?"
"The priests have all checked it. It won't collapse."
"Hm."
"We wouldn't make esteemed guests like you dig like trainee priests, would we? It'll be over in two or three hours. If you really hate it, you can just escape. Follow the path you came in on."
"Then why bother in the first...?"
"Would you prefer to do it for 'real'?"
Ledin flatly refused.
The kobold priest chuckled.
"If digging's too much trouble, just sit there. When the event ends, our priests will come fetch you."
"Hm."
"But Prince Ledin is a troll, so stronger than us—you could climb out in no time. Maybe even the fastest among the guests."
"Doesn't that herb make you lose sense of up and down?"
The priest replied.
"Only for those lacking wisdom."
Ledin didn't know why those words sounded so loaded, but before he could ask, the priest pushed his back.
"Follow those trainee priests now. When you reach the surface, you'll think everything went perfectly. Go on."
And so, blindfolded in imitation of the Cheongryu trainee ritual, Ledin entered the tunnel.
He received a pickaxe and a bundle of mangrocho.
The herb came bundled because, while it disoriented, it also invigorated the body and provided ample nutrition, serving as a meal replacement.
Ledin planned to cooperate just enough, take a nap, and wake up later.
'They got permission anyway, right? Sleep a bit, and the event should be over when I wake. Shake off the dirt, then soak in those famous cave hot springs this evening.'
With that thought, Ledin awoke to an oddity.
Underground but not too deep, he'd been hearing the festival noise above.
But upon waking, Ledin realized he heard nothing from above.
'Did the festival end?'
Thinking the priests had forgotten him after all, Ledin stood.
'Time to get out.'
He took a torch and headed toward the pit behind him.
But he couldn't move further.
Among the seven branching tunnels, he had no idea which led to the exit.