Who Could It Be? (3)
After the storm passed, only silence remained in the stone chamber, lit by a faint, hazy glow. The protagonist, who had been staring at the secret door where the trio vanished, spoke first.
“So, what do you think is waiting at the end of this puzzle?”
“It varies. Could be a reward, could be a boss. Either way, we won’t leave empty-handed.”
“True. Assuming those guys really are the villains you mentioned, Haneul.”
“Come on, the odds they’re villains are 99.9 percent. Want to bet on it?”
“No thanks. I already won a bet today, so I’m good.”
“Ughhh…”
I absolutely had to win a bet against the protagonist and make him delete that humiliating photo. Even if not today, there would be plenty of chances later. This Lee Haneul never misses an opportunity!
With that resolve, I followed the suspicious trio into the next room.
We descended a downward staircase, and soon spotted the three figures far ahead. Hiding behind a pillar to observe, we saw a long corridor this time, lined with platforms covered in strange markings.
“Another puzzle, huh.”
The dolls advanced one by one. When the first stepped on the platform ahead, the floor gave way and it plunged into the abyss below. The next doll stepped on a different platform, solving the puzzle step by step.
“Hmm… looks like it’ll take a while.”
“Then let’s rest for a bit.”
While the suspicious trio worked hard to clear a path, we enjoyed a simple picnic behind the pillar. Unfortunately, the protagonist had been through this kind of thing so often that he pulled the meat out of his sandwich before eating. When I scolded him for being picky, he readily admitted it and handed the leftover meat to me with his fingers.
Nom! The moment I bit into the meat, the protagonist made a face of utter disgust. After our quick snack, the puzzle seemed to have been solved—the door to the next room stood open.
In my previous life I never cared much for games with auto-hunting… but this was actually pretty convenient.
“Now that I think about it, you can fly and teleport. You wouldn’t have needed to solve the puzzle at all, right?”
“Come on, the people ahead worked so hard to clear the way. It’d be rude to say that.”
“Weren’t you the one who called them villains earlier?”
We traded silly jokes as we moved into the next room. This one also sloped downward, but instead of stairs it was a smooth ramp. A deep groove had been carved into the center of that polished surface.
“This groove… looks like something incredibly heavy crushed it.”
“A mark like this on a slope this steep… I bet it was a giant boulder. You see it all the time in movies.”
“Oh, that thing?”
Sure enough, when we looked up the slope, we saw a hole punched through the ceiling and an even deeper indentation below. The ceiling itself was shattered, as if something massive had burst straight through it.
“Looks like they triggered the trap ahead of us. Shall we follow slowly?”
“Ugh… I really hope we don’t see any red stains on the floor while we’re going down…”
The torches mounted on the walls had somehow survived intact, so we made our way down the slope without difficulty. Along the walls we passed triggered arrow traps and shattered spike pits, but there were no bloodstains anywhere. It seemed they had avoided everything.
“From the looks of it, they survived somehow.”
“Yeah. Still, it feels a little disappointing that only they get to enjoy a theme park like this.”
“Don’t apply your personal standards to other people.”
“Come on, if it were you, Si-woo, you’d breeze through traps like these, right?”
“Even so, I’d rather not have to run… Huh?”
Rumble…
The sound of stone grinding against stone echoed. The moment Si-woo quickly lifted his foot, a protruding block sank slowly back into the floor.
“This is…”
“Karma, probably…”
BOOM!
A heavy thud came from the top of the slope we had just descended. At the same time, the entire stone ramp began to tremble.
“You really shouldn’t have said that.”
“Wait, you’re the one who said it, Haneul! Why am I getting dragged into this too?!”
“You’re the one who stepped on the pressure plate, Si-woo…”
“Ah…”
The vibration grew so intense we could feel it in our bones. At the same time, something massive and gray came barreling down the slope straight toward us.
“Run!”
“You don’t have to tell me twice!”
“Phew. That was actually pretty fun.”
“Huff… huff… You were flying the whole time… You could’ve… carried me…”
“I told you I’d only carry you if you delete the photo.”
“Absolutely… not deleting it… hehehe…”
I seemed to be seeing the protagonist sprawled out on the floor quite often lately. With a strange sense of déjà vu, I passed him the tumbler of Divine Ichor. He gulped it down without hesitation. There were two notable differences this time. First, his higher level and resistance meant he no longer felt any pain. Second, he had put his mouth directly on the tumbler.
“Don’t drink straight from it!”
Clang! I closed the lid and gave his head a light tap. Of course an ability user like Si-woo wouldn’t feel any pain from that; he just looked sheepish.
While we were chatting, I sensed something odd.
“Ah! The trio is heading this way.”
“Did they hear the boulder rolling?”
“Doesn’t matter—we need to hide, now!”
I briefly considered climbing back up the ramp, but it was a straight corridor with nowhere to hide, which would only make the stone trap more effective. Not ideal.
“I brought an item just in case.”
I opened my dimensional bag and rummaged through it, but couldn’t find what I was looking for. Invisibility potion… the invisibility potion… I was sure I had put it in…
“I know I packed it… Where did it go?”
With nothing to show for my search, I slung the bag back on. Maybe we should just fight them? As that thought crossed my mind, a hand slipped around my waist.
“Just get over here!”
Si-woo lifted me effortlessly and tossed me into a large jar nearby. We ended up squeezed inside with me sitting face-to-face on top of him. The jar had looked big from the outside, but the interior was so narrow we couldn’t move an inch.
With more than two heads of height difference between us, all I could see was the man’s chest. With no other choice, I called the robot vacuum that had been floating outside and stored it in my dimensional bag.
Footsteps were already approaching. If we went back out now, we’d be spotted for sure.
“Ugh… wouldn’t it be better to just fight at this point?”
“Since we’ve come this far, we might as well see it through. Besides, this is better than facing those instant-death traps head-on.”
“That’s true, but… move over a little! I definitely put it in here…!”
I squirmed in the tight space, trying to pull the bag off my back.
“Stop moving!”
“I have to get it out! This jar looks way too suspicious—we’ll get caught for sure!”
“If you keep thrashing around, we’ll be discovered even faster!”
We whispered fiercely, practically on top of each other. The realization of our height difference made my face burn, and this guy’s body heat was ridiculous. Damn it. If I was going to end up in a situation like this, it should have been with Peony instead…
As I rocked back and forth, up and down, trying to reach the bag, Si-woo pressed his chin firmly on top of my head.
“…If you keep moving like that, something bad is going to happen.”
“What could possibly go wrong? Even if we get caught, we can just beat them all up.”
“No, there’s another problem.”
“Do you think I can’t fight while protecting you, Si-woo?”
“This is my problem, so please—just stay still.”
His problem? What kind of problem could he have?
“Why?”
“You’d never understand.”
I had no clue what he meant. But I did know that desperation could be exploited.
“I’ll stop if you delete the photo.”
“W-what?”
“Or maybe… like this..! Like this!”
I struggled even harder to reach the bag. Just a little more and I’d have it…!
“S-stop! Please! I’m going to… something bad is going to happen…!”
“Then either delete the photo or take this bag out for me!”
“You can do it yourself!”
“My hands are completely pinned and I can’t see behind me, so it’d be easier if you did it, Si-woo, don’t you think?”
I was wedged so tightly in the ready-position that I couldn’t move my arms at all. Meanwhile, Si-woo’s hands were already at my sides—he could reach it easily.
“Then…”
“Hurry! Grab anything that can hide us!”
Si-woo pulled his hand from my waist and reached for the bag behind me. To look inside it, he had to lean forward, which naturally pressed my face firmly into his chest.
“Mmph…”
This… was hard to breathe… The smell… the scent…
“This should do it,” Si-woo said, as if he had found something. But my head was spinning.
“I’m telling you, I definitely heard something.”
“Wasn’t that just a trap activating?”
“There’s no one here to trigger it. There’s no way it would go off by itself.”
The footsteps approached, checking the area before stopping right in front of the jar.
“Hmm…? It’s just full of bones.”
“You’re overreacting. Come on, we have work to do. Let’s get moving.”
The footsteps gradually faded into the distance until they disappeared completely. Even after they were gone, Si-woo waited a while longer before smashing the jar open from the inside.
“Phew. Good thing that bag was full of bones. By the way, what were those bones anyway?”
“Ah… ugh…”
“Haneul! Are you okay? Your face is…”
“Just… let me breathe for a second… I’ll be fine…”
After circulating mana through my body for several minutes and taking deep breaths, I finally managed to purge the lingering essence of Si-woo from my system.