The Little Merfolk (2)
Upon arriving at the third floor of the Tower, we were assigned lodging by the Helper. The theme of this floor was competition against other coordinates. Since each coordinate’s victory was tied to the players’ condition, the Helpers seemed focused on making us as comfortable as possible.
It wasn’t that I had no suspicions about the Helper. Still, watching the Helpers glare at one another with open hostility suggested it wasn’t a complete lie, so I quietly followed their guidance.
“On the third floor, you’ll be competing with players from other coordinates! Well… to put it simply, think of it like the sports festivals we used to have back on Earth!”
After receiving our rooms, we followed the instructions and gathered at what appeared to be a training hall. The Rabbit stood at the front chattering away, and sitting there listening made me feel like an elementary-school kid fresh out of class, huddled at the taekwondo dojo waiting for the instructor’s orders.
“Anyway, it’s been so long since I’ve seen all of you! How was the second floor?”
“……”
“……”
Most people answered the Rabbit’s question with silence. Everyone already held plenty of resentment about the world ending and being dragged into the Tower; no one here felt like chatting with the very creature who might have been one of the masterminds behind it.
“Sigh, I know I’m not exactly popular. But let’s communicate a little! We’re on the same team on this floor, okay? Me! You! Us! Got it?”
The Rabbit thumped its chest in frustration. Even if its true intentions weren’t clear, staying hostile toward it wouldn’t benefit us. In that deadly game where lives hung in the balance, this Rabbit had been the guide who helped us under the title of Helper.
“It really has been a while.”
“Ooh! You’re finally talking! I was dying from the awkwardness!”
The Rabbit clapped its hands in delight at my reply. It truly had been a long time—though not just because of the Rabbit.
“It’s been a month for everyone, right? It doesn’t feel that long, but I almost didn’t recognize some of you.”
At my greeting, Park Jocheol grinned beside me, and Han Gamin’s face brightened as if she’d been waiting for the chance.
“Looks like Siin changed the most out of all of us.”
“Totally! Ahjussi, what’s with those clothes? The fabric looked insane when I saw it earlier.”
Han Gamin nodded vigorously in agreement with Park Jocheol before subtly reaching out to touch my sleeve. Having gone through a medieval-fantasy background on the second floor, she wore an outfit resembling riding gear, with a small rapier hanging at her side. It seemed she had received proper combat training.
“It was a gift. Did you learn swordsmanship on the second floor, Gamin?”
“Whoa! How did you know?”
“Just a feeling. Your hands felt pretty rough when you grabbed my clothes earlier.”
“Wow, Ahjussi is actually making jokes now. You just saw my calluses and guessed, didn’t you?”
I simply smiled at her words. Come to think of it, I wasn’t entirely sure how I knew either. The calluses—I had simply felt them.
“How was the second floor for you, Siin?”
“I’m curious too. Those martial arts manuals you’ve been carrying around reek of the Murim.”
Following Park Jocheol and Han Gamin, Seo Seyeong and Namgung Cheonho joined in, and the conversation quickly grew lively. As the noise level rose, the Rabbit waved its hands to settle everyone down.
“Um… I get that you’re all happy to see each other after so long, but could you focus on me for a second? This is seriously important, okay?”
The Rabbit’s request drew everyone’s attention. It was a similar atmosphere to the first tutorial. But we had changed since then, and any fear we once felt toward the Rabbit had long since vanished.
“The truth is, while I said the theme of the third floor is competition, our coordinate’s situation is a little different.”
“What do you mean?”
“How strong do you all think you are right now?”
At the Rabbit’s question, puzzled looks spread across the group. Strength was relative. The comparison could be to total strangers, to the friend beside you, or to your past self. And if it was asking about the gap between past me and present me…
“I think we’ve all gotten pretty strong, haven’t we?”
A woman whose name I didn’t know answered cautiously. Everyone had spent their time on the second floor training and polishing their skills. Some learned swordsmanship, others studied trap installation, and a few had even picked up basic magic. It was fair to say they had grown.
Modern people who had only known combat through screens were now swinging swords with superhuman bodies and launching fireballs with their bare hands. Comparing them to their old selves was meaningless.
But the comparison we needed to make now wasn’t against our past selves.
“That’s true—you have gotten stronger. By Earth’s standards, you’re basically superhumans now.”
The Rabbit nodded with its arms crossed, as if agreeing with the woman. Yet its following words were too ambiguous to call a true affirmation.
“But did you know? Among all the coordinates gathered here, ‘Earth’ is the weakest? Of course you’ve become stronger than before. At this point, some of you could probably rip those tutorial dummies apart with your bare hands.”
The Rabbit gave me a quick sidelong glance. Then it delivered the finishing blow to the group, whose expressions were steadily hardening.
“Even so, you’re still weak. Compared to players from other coordinates, it’s honestly pathetic.”
According to the Rabbit’s explanation, the third-floor competition was closer to a brutal law-of-the-jungle struggle. Fair play did not exist. Tearing flesh and taking lives to secure victory was the baseline. Players killed players to win. Although the Rabbit had described it like a sports festival, it clearly understood that the fights here were not to be taken lightly.
Still, where there was bad news, there was sometimes good news as well.
“However… this might actually work in our favor.”
“What are you talking about?”
“To be honest, we’re an extremely, extremely weak party. If we were only moderately weak, other coordinates might target us right away. But because we’re so ridiculously weak, there’s a good chance they’ll ignore us completely.”
In other words, we were such obvious pushovers that no one even considered us competition.
“Has anyone ever seen a wolf eat a butterfly? If you have, raise your hand. I’m curious.”
The absurd assessment left everyone stunned. We had already guessed we would be weak after seeing all the monster-like beings in the lobby, but a butterfly… that felt far too harmless.
“Are we really that weak?”
“We’re not exactly butterfly level. That’s just how the others see us. If I had to compare us to something… I’d say we’re more like bees. Wolves don’t eat bees either, after all…”
“Damn it, are we supposed to feel good about that?”
People muttered in cognitive dissonance at the Rabbit’s half-hearted explanation. They wouldn’t touch us because we were weak… so it might actually mean we were safe. It wasn’t entirely bad.
But I interpreted the Rabbit’s words in a slightly different light.
The fact that they wouldn’t bother us because we were weak. The fact that they hadn’t yet grasped our true strength.
Once my thoughts organized, I understood the real meaning behind what the Rabbit had told us.
“So if we play our cards right, we can still land a poisoned stinger in their vital spot?”
This was a battle where lives were on the line. After experiencing the Murim on the second floor, I had hammered not only their martial arts but also their mentality into my head. In a real sword fight, letting your guard down meant an express ticket to the afterlife. If you failed to read your opponent’s full power, your skull would inevitably get cracked.
“Hehe… As expected of Player Kim Siin. You’ve grasped the speaker’s true intention perfectly.”
Figuring out how to send a careless opponent straight to the afterlife and smash their head open was now my job.
“Now then, let’s talk about our actual fighting power! Who wants to brag first about what they did on the second floor?”
The Rabbit looked around with sparkling eyes. I raised my hand first and began speaking about the Murim.
The next day.
Welcome to the 3rd Floor.
A new mission has arrived.
3rd Floor - Competition
Theme: Competition
Difficulty: ?
The 3rd floor is an excellent stage for you to showcase your power. Follow the Helper’s guidance and participate in various events including individual matches, team matches, and coordinate battles. Utilize your abilities to the fullest and achieve good results. All scores are calculated individually and by team. Rewards will be settled once the competition concludes.
Mission: Participate in at least one competition.
Restriction: Cannot participate in more than five competitions.
Reward: ???
Failure Penalty: Death
After a simple meal in the third-floor cafeteria, we stared at the mission that had finally appeared after a full day and frowned.
“Looking at the description, it really does sound like a sports festival,” Seo Seyeong said, clearly flustered.
When I first heard the Rabbit’s analogy I thought it was nonsense, but seeing the shameless notification pop up, the image of a company sports day really did come to mind.
“It does. If you ignore the chilling word ‘Death,’ it really does feel that way. Still, the lack of information is frustrating… Individual events, team events—it all sounds grand, but we have no details.”
Namgung Cheonho picked up where she left off. He usually didn’t talk much, but it seemed he had a habit of speaking more whenever he was nervous.
I nodded in agreement. There was nothing we could do about it. The Helper Rabbit had said that revealing details about the competition would result in a penalty from the Constellations, so there was no way to gather information.
Even so…
“There’s no need to worry too much. The other participants are in the same boat, just as clueless as we are.”
The conditions were identical. Of course our opponents were superhumans from other worlds who had started with a head start, but I believed no one could surpass Koreans when it came to information warfare or battles of pride.
That was when it happened.
A low commotion began drifting from not far away.
…not…!
…You bastards started it…!
It was too orderly to call a riot, yet too large to dismiss as a simple quarrel. The other four heard it too; we all turned our heads at nearly the same moment.
“Let’s go take a look.”
I led the four of them toward the source of the noise. The sounds grew clearer, accompanied by a faint fishy smell and the metallic tang of blood. When we rounded the corner and reached the lobby, a fairly large crowd had already formed a circular arena.
Grrrr…!
Graaa…!
Merfolk with pale white skin and long gills behind their ears. Opposite them stood knights in gleaming armor, watching the merfolk with tense expressions.
“What’s going on?” Han Gamin asked.
I circulated my inner force to my ears and focused on the conversations around us. It was clearly about to turn into a fight, but I needed to understand why they were facing off.
…said they did it?
…Crazy. They actually hit him.
The more I concentrated, the clearer the spectators’ voices became.
“Attacking someone just because they bumped into you a little…”
“That little merfolk is supposed to be their king. I can understand why they’d react that way.”
“Even so, killing someone over it?”
Looking closer, I spotted a small merfolk child trembling with terror among the pale-skinned merfolk. A young merfolk wearing a golden band resembling a crown. The child looked completely out of place in an atmosphere thick with murderous intent.