Chapter 159: Blackdog
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 159: Blackdog
Blackdog’s appearance was a little different from what I had imagined.
“Welcome. I am Blackdog.”
The leader of the organization, who emerged from deep within the underground hideout, was a scrawny human. And he was sick.
Cough! Cough!
A mouthful of blood poured from the man's mouth as he coughed.
Its color was pitch-black.
The moment the glob of blood hit the floor, it squirmed as if alive. Like a slime. The blood glob looked around, and then…
Splat!
Krom stomped it to death.
“How are you feeling?”
“Same as always.”
Blackdog caught his breath and pointed to a chair, motioning for me with his eyes.
“Sit. Let’s talk.”
I was trying to figure out what that glob of blood Blackdog had just spat out was.
“Undead Blood Curse?”
It’s a disease where your blood literally turns undead. Similar to AIDS, your white blood cells die off, but then the dead cells become undead and attack your organs, much like leukemia.
“You know of this magic?”
“More or less.”
“Even the professors don't know about it.”
Blackdog chuckled before bursting into another coughing fit.
“I've been wanting to meet you, Caleb.”
He asked.
“Are you really not a Possessor?”
“I'm not.”
It didn't seem like they'd harm me if I were honest, but I decided to keep my secret for the time being.
“Incredible. Then does all your vast knowledge come from Hyedam, that fox? To think someone else knows about the Undead Blood Curse. I only found it after reaching the 'Indomitable Spirit' difficulty myself.”
Indomitable Spirit is one of the difficulty levels in the game Labyrinth of the Abyss.
So he played Labyrinth of the Abyss too.
“How far did you get?”
“Did Hyedam also tell you about the difficulty concept?”
“Yes.”
“How far did Hyedam get?”
“Transcendence of Humanity.”
I just threw out a random one that comes after the Indomitable Spirit difficulty.
“Never heard of it. Seems she got much further than me. I only made it to 'Nirvana'.”
I see.
So Blackdog was a pretty hardcore player himself.
“I never should have played this fucking game.”
But I was abducted into the game after reaching the developer difficulty. Why were the others taken?
It seems they were dragged in from difficulties far below the developer level.
“How did you become a Possessor?”
“Didn't Hyedam tell you about that?”
“No.”
“For once, I have the upper hand in this information war. I know the principles behind becoming a Possessor. If I tell you, what can you offer in return?”
“…”
“I won't give it for free. That's not how I do business…”
“I'll teach you how to cure the Undead Blood Curse.”
For a moment, Blackdog looked as if he'd just been flicked hard on the forehead.
“This…”
A flustered Blackdog stammered.
“You can cure this?”
“Yes.”
“Really? But… even Rococo said it couldn't be cured.”
“Even a Tier 8 curse has a way to be broken.”
I've been hit with it in-game before and cured it myself.
“Though the process of getting the medicinal ingredients from the Deep Layer is a bit tricky.”
“…”
Blackdog's hands trembled.
“Fine. I've got nothing to lose.”
He said.
“I'll tell you everything I know. About becoming a Possessor, and… about the Assembly. That's what you came for, isn't it?”
*
Fernando Perez.
He was a low-ranking cartel member working near the 5-star hotels on the streets of Cancun, Mexico.
His job, surprisingly, was 'maintaining public order'.
It sounds ridiculous, but they, the main enemies of the police, were the ones who cleaned up the neighborhood's petty criminals—pickpockets, muggers, scammers, and molesters.
This was because if such criminals ran rampant, tourism would decline. A decline in tourism meant a drop in revenue for the large businesses the cartel owned, which in turn dealt a direct blow to the cartel's profits.
So Fernando patrolled the streets, keeping a hawk's eye out for petty criminals preying on tourists.
If a pickpocket was spotted or reported, he would personally respond and catch the culprit.
What happened after that?
“Call the police! Call the police!”
The criminal would appeal to the rule of law and mercy.
If the stolen goods could be recovered and the culprit was young, Fernando would just give them a beating and let them go. But if the nature of the crime (?) was deemed severe, he handed them over to the organization.
For example, shooting a gun during a robbery and seriously injuring the victim, or breaking into an Airbnb to rob a guest and committing sexual assault, or selling unauthorized drugs.
Guys like that were usually dragged away by the organization and executed.
In ways so brutal an ordinary person couldn't even imagine.
‘Let's go to America.’
He lived alone with his mother, and his mother decided to leave Mexico for Fernando's future.
‘Even if you do well here, what more can you become than a gang leader?’
The words were perfectly reasonable, but Fernando took offense. He liked his job. In the grand scheme, his actions served the organization's larger criminal enterprise, but in the moment, it felt like he was dispensing justice.
‘Fernando. It's a birthday present.’
One day, his mother, who worked as a housekeeper, saved up bits and pieces of her earnings and bought a computer.
Perhaps after seeing the children at her employer's house taking online classes, she'd thought, 'This is it.' She set up the computer at home, looking incredibly proud.
But all Fernando did with that computer was play games.
Labyrinth of the Abyss.
The reason he chose that fucking game of all things was because one of his seniors in the gang recommended it.
They said even the cartel boss enjoyed it sometimes.
Fernando wanted to become an executive.
He wanted to climb higher in the cartel.
[Blackdog]
The organization that appeared in-game was just like Fernando's cartel.
*
That day, Fernando had a huge fight with his mother. The cause of the fight was Fernando's promotion within the cartel.
Sicario.
Unlike his previous job of just patrolling the streets near the hotels, the rank of Sicario involved being armed and engaging in combat.
When necessary, they assassinated or kidnapped key figures from rival gangs, crossed the border illegally, and transported drugs and collected money.
They received a salary equivalent to the middle class even by US standards, and the incentives for carrying out dangerous missions were substantial.
When he placed the money he brought home with his promotion on the dinner table, Fernando's mother flew into a rage.
She threw the computer monitor and burst into tears.
Fernando yelled back at his mother.
‘This is the only way I can live! How are we supposed to go to America! Did you think buying one computer would make me a lawyer or something?!’
That evening, he reconnected the computer and deleted Labyrinth of the Abyss.
This was after he had progressed to the 'Nirvana' difficulty.
And that night, as he lay down to sleep, Fernando suddenly realized the texture of his mattress felt different.
The place he woke up was on the street, in front of Blackdog's bank.
Covered in old newspapers like any other homeless person in a back alley, he had been possessed into Labyrinth of the Abyss.
*
For a Halcones, the lowest rank in the cartel, to be promoted to Sicario is incredibly difficult.
The organization's Sicarios primarily handle secret, important missions, so there are very few positions available. They rarely recruit new members unless one dies.
And since military experts with backgrounds as soldiers or police officers are specially recruited into the Sicario rank when they join the cartel, it's extremely difficult to get promoted from Halcones.
What does that mean?
Fernando, having gone through that process once, was a man highly skilled in intrigue, deception, intimidation, and criminal tactics.
He had a natural talent for sensing danger with animal-like instincts and either fighting or escaping the scene.
Eight years.
That's how long it took for Fernando to rise to the position of Blackdog.
Of course, he didn't do it alone.
In the back alleys, he sought out other Possessors in the same situation as himself and managed to find a few.
Elaine, the wizard from the university, was one of them.
‘I made it to the 'Endless Challenge' difficulty, but my computer was so slow while I was trying to get tickets for an idol concert that I deleted the game in a fit of anger…!’
She, who said she worked as a civil servant in Korea, was like a sheltered greenhouse flower who had lived a much more peaceful life than Fernando.
‘I went to sleep and woke up in this body!’
The first principle of Possessors.
Among those who played at high difficulties, the ones who deleted the game become Possessors.
Of course, the standard for 'high difficulty' is vague, and countless people must have deleted the game, so there must be more conditions hidden here.
‘I know more wizards. Should I gather them?’
Possessors gathered in Blackdog.
Back then, many people were wary of Possessors, but the atmosphere wasn't one of open persecution.
‘There's a professor at the university named Dalstream. He's an authority on ancient texts.’
The Possessors united for a single purpose.
‘They say if we kill the Labyrinth Master, everyone's possession will be broken.’
And then, two years later.
A new Possessor appeared in Blackdog.
‘Please help me.’
The scrawny man looked to be in his mid-to-late twenties, but Fernando could tell just by looking at his eyes.
They were the eyes of a teenager who, after scrounging for food in the garbage heaps of a slum, would hang around the cartel looking for a day's wage.
Thirteen to fifteen years old, at most.
‘I'm fourteen.’
He was right.
His name was Thomas.
His possessed name was…
‘Henry.’
*
“Wait a minute.”
I found an interesting point.
“You said you woke up in a back alley when you were possessed?”
“That's right.”
That kind of start doesn't exist in the game.
In my case, I started as a 'University Slave Wizard,' the same as the wizard's starting scenario, right?
Do other people have different starting methods?
Is it because they weren't possessed while starting on developer difficulty like me, but after deleting the game?
Wait.
Come to think of it, Hyedam was already an Eight-Tailed Fox Spirit when she was possessed.
There's obviously no way to start the game as an Eight-Tailed Deep Layer Adventurer.
“In Elaine's case, she was already a professor at the magic university when she was possessed.”
The possession of Possessors is almost like a random event. They just end up in any character.
“That's why the stats are a mess, too. If it were a character I created, I would have min-maxed it perfectly. But this body isn't like that. I've tested it in various ways.”
His tests referred to indirect methods of figuring out stats, like 'lifting an oak barrel.'
He did it that way because he had no way of seeing his own stats.
“Like in the game…”
This part was also different from my experience.
“You don't level up in your sleep.”
What on earth is so different between me and them?
I could even assign stats for party members like Yernil.
“You were curious about the possession process, right? I'll tell you one more thing I've figured out.”
Blackdog said.
“Do you happen to know the term 'Possessed Adventurer'?”
It was a familiar term to me.
When I played the game, that term was commonly used on the Korean server.
A 'Possessed Adventurer' is an 'Adventurer Seized by Madness.'
Adventurers who became Exit Bosses were called Possessed Adventurers.
That's why when I first faced Back Attack in front of the exit room, the term 'Possessed Adventurer' was the first thing that came to my mind.
And the person who first used that term was…
“There was someone who was the first to clear the classic difficulty on the Korean server.”
That was me.
“The term 'Possessed Adventurer' appeared in that person's guide video, and everyone started using it after that. Coincidentally, that term is accurate.”
Blackdog said.
“It's not the gods beyond the Ethereal Galaxy who create Possessors. It's the opposite. The culprit is the Labyrinth Master.”
The second principle of Possessors.
“Only those who have been entranced by the Labyrinth become Possessors.”