Green Dungeon (2)
The moment Yanne cried out, the flames roaring on all sides began to stretch and lengthen, riding the wind I had stirred.
“Master! The flames are growing!”
As if catching the perfect updraft rushing toward the first floor, the fire swelled rapidly in both size and reach, feeding on the current’s momentum. The heat from those expanding flames generated even more updrafts, and as the currents tangled together the blaze began to twist like a braided rope.
[GROOOOOO—]
The spiraling flames became a fire tornado straight out of a movie, devouring the surrounding air as though it meant to suck the entire space into a vacuum. Everyone crouched low, bracing themselves against the violent pull, while subtly shifting the wind currents with mana so the tornado would follow the direction I created. It swept across the melting flowers, swallowing them whole.
The blossoms carried sacs brimming with acidic liquid, but the tornado’s heat was so overwhelming their poison became meaningless. Instead, the flower stalks turned into perfect kindling, feeding the blaze and making it rage even hotter.
As the tornado grew monstrous, we pressed ourselves against one wall to endure it. Even I hadn’t expected anything on this scale. After watching Sezanne’s Fire Wind Cutter, I had realized that combining fire and air produced far greater power. The memory of the updraft that had blown upward from below when we first descended had given me the idea to try it.
One attempt had delivered the best possible result. I was more than satisfied.
I stopped feeding it mana, yet the scorching heat continued to generate fresh updrafts, causing the tornado to roar with even greater fury. Long after nothing remained to burn, the vortex finally lost strength. It shrank gradually, then vanished as if it had never existed.
“Flame Tornado is one of the highest-tier spells even among advanced magic. How in the world did you…”
“As you just witnessed, Sezanne, all I did was manifest an attribute with mana. There was fuel to burn and a natural wind current surging up from the passage. That’s the only reason a Flame Tornado could form.”
Even though she had seen it with her own eyes, Sezanne still couldn’t comprehend how a simple attribute manifestation had escalated into such a colossal spell.
“Let’s get clear of these ashes first.”
James Lee settled into his seat on the flight back to Japan. Once the plane took off and he could loosen his belt, an odd emptiness settled over him. The trip hadn’t been entirely fruitless—he had learned that the pain setting and the inability to resurrect after death in the game might be linked to the sudden deaths. Still, the nagging feeling that he had overlooked something made him replay his conversation with Park Jinwoo.
The short forty-minute flight from Korea to Japan gave him time to chew over every detail. That was when he realized what he had missed.
Why did Park Jinwoo insist on interviewing the bereaved families?
There was something there. When he remembered asking about the testers’ mental breakdowns, the pieces clicked. That was the part he had overlooked.
The moment he landed in Japan he reopened the interview files Susan had given him. He reviewed every transcript from the twenty-three families, but nothing stood out as unusual.
No. There has to be something. I just can’t see it because I’m not a game tester.
The next morning, while he was reading through the files again, two men in military uniforms entered the office. Uniformed soldiers were common inside the embassy, so he didn’t think much of it.
“What’s going on?”
“We need you to accompany us.”
He glanced at the other staff outside, hoping for clues, but they only shrugged helplessly.
“Where exactly are we going?”
“The Pentagon.”
“You met Aoyama from Japan and Park Jinwoo from Korea. You’re scheduled to meet Orchan in Australia next week. Team Leader James Lee, your superiors clearly ordered you to cease this investigation.”
James Lee knew exactly who sat across from him. Major General Michael, commander of the Cyber National Mission Force—the man responsible for preparing the U.S. government and Department of Defense for every form of cyber warfare. The fact that someone of his stature had called for a private meeting spoke volumes. The realization that such a man was personally handling the matter only deepened James Lee’s curiosity about what secrets Cliché World truly held. Whatever it was, it had to be enormous.
“All right, Team Leader Lee. How much do you know?”
“I have a duty to protect my secrets and the right to remain silent. I decline to answer.”
“Then shall I summon your direct superior, the FBI Director? And don’t assume this visit is purely negative. It could resolve in a very positive direction.”
“Is there any positive direction here?”
“Of course. You’ve been poking around so aggressively that we’re considering bringing you into our team to keep you from stirring up more trouble. Interested in transferring?”
“...”
James Lee was stunned. The FBI moving to the Department of Defense? The fact that they would go this far to protect a secret only made him more desperate to know what it was.
“Are you asking whether I’d like to join our ‘New World Pioneering Team’?”
“New World Pioneering Team?”
The name alone told him nothing about its purpose.
“Can’t I hear what the team does before making a decision?”
“That’s not possible. You must become a member first. Aren’t you curious? What kind of team it is, what kind of work we do. I imagine you’re dying to know.”
“...”
“I was the same as you at first. Suspicious. But once I experienced it, I understood. This really is a new world. You are a very special case, Team Leader Lee. This will be my final offer. Choose.”
James Lee clenched his jaw. He understood that once he stepped into that team there would be no turning back. His reason screamed that the risks were too high. Yet his heart burned with a different fire. He was unbearably curious what kind of game could make the Department of Defense move like this. Curiosity killed the cat, but he wanted to satisfy it even if it cost him everything. He had once mocked gamers who logged in despite knowing they might die, yet here he was, no different from them. In the end he was only human.
“Tell me. What exactly is the game called Cliché World?”
Major General Michael smiled as though he had expected nothing less and clapped James Lee on the shoulder.
“You’re about to have an entirely new experience. You can look forward to it.”
Sezanne could not comprehend how Jinwoo had produced a Flame Tornado—one of the highest-grade spells—with nothing more than simple mana attribute manifestation. The tornado he created had been larger and more terrifying than the one she had witnessed at the Tulcherus School. The question burned inside her until she finally approached him.
“It’s the movement of the wind. In other words, it’s possible if you understand air currents.”
“What exactly are air currents?”
“Huh?”
Only then did he realize why she found the feat so astounding. While the four major elements included Air—Ventus—Sezanne seemed completely unaware of the natural scientific principles behind how wind flowed and formed. Even on Earth, most people had been ignorant of the fact that heating air caused it to expand, grow lighter, and rise until the Montgolfier brothers invented the hot-air balloon. The principle of whirlwinds created when winds of differing directions collided and spiraled upward was likely unknown to her as well.
Teaching her this might be worthwhile.
Wait. This could become the seed of an enormous revolution.
If the fire-specialized Tulcherus School learned the principles of wind, it would be like giving a tiger wings.
“This principle is knowledge left behind by the Montgolfier brothers, so it qualifies as a secret art. Hmm. If you teach me the array formula for Fire Arrow, I’ll teach you this principle. A fair exchange of knowledge. How about it?”
Sezanne had no choice but to hesitate. What she had learned at the Tulcherus School was never meant to be taught to outsiders. Yet if their magic systems were fundamentally different and Jinwoo’s knowledge could benefit her school, the trade might be worthwhile.
“All right. Let’s exchange knowledge.”
They sat before a campfire and he began explaining the flow of air currents. It wasn’t an especially grand lecture. All he had to do was manifest mana as wind and demonstrate how it actually moved. But to Sezanne, who absorbed the lesson, the implications were revolutionary. She realized she could incorporate the concept of “diffusion” into fire magic by applying wind principles.
It was a transaction that left both sides deeply satisfied.
Fire Arrow
The saw-beak bird struck by the flaming arrow plummeted from the sky. I was faster than Pyurie of the mountain race firing her bow.
“Another one’s coming!”
Because the ceiling on the second floor of the Green Dungeon was so high, flying monsters called saw-beak birds attacked alongside the Ents. I was glad I had learned Fire Arrow; I spammed the spell so relentlessly that, had this been a game, I probably would have earned titles like Spam Master or Bird Hunter. Yet when evening came and we ate Ottogi three-minute soup bubbling over the campfire, enriched with the meat of the birds we had killed that day, a fundamental question rose in my mind.
Is this really a game?
Distinguishing between game and reality had become genuinely confusing. If this was an actual existing world, then Yanne, Sezanne, Meni, and the mountain-race siblings were all real people with real lives. The thought that their futures were being altered because of me made it impossible to act with the casual indifference of a player in a game.
I couldn’t tell whether I had truly crossed into another world or if I was being toyed with by an extremely sophisticated virtual AI. The only ones who could answer that question were likely Elon Busker of the Changing Group and a handful of their core personnel.
“This is the path to the third floor!”
When my head grew too cluttered, the best remedy was to stop thinking and move. The third floor had far more trees than the previous two, presenting an almost jungle-like forest.
“I think I hear something.”
“Sounds like it’s coming from over there.”
The two Rangers claimed they could hear voices and pressed forward.
“Hold on. Look at this.”
I urgently stopped everyone. Several footprints marked the still-damp, mud-like ground.
“Those are bear tracks.”
“These look like roe deer prints.”
“Master, that one looks like a human footprint.”
There were prints from someone wearing leather shoes and others from bare feet, both heading in the same direction.
“We didn’t see a single person on the second floor, and the Rangers are guarding the entrance. Does that mean there’s another way in besides the path we took?”
“It appears so. I keep hearing voices. Let’s head that way quickly.”
Ranger Tom took the lead, followed closely by Danny, with Pyutel of the mountain race sticking right behind them.
I specifically told them to let Meni take point when moving or changing floors because of her defense…
Watching them leave the slow-moving Meni behind gave me a strange feeling. I started to shout for them to stop—until something caught my eye. All the footprints on the ground converged in one direction, and the Rangers and Pyutel were walking toward it as though possessed.