Chapter 129. You, Play the Game With Me
On a nice day, inside a café.
I sat across from the manga-looking guy.
Was his name Chang?
Anyway, two grown men sitting face-to-face without saying a word, quietly holding the drinks they'd ordered...
I wondered how we looked from outside.
“Haah….”
I was scared.
I'll admit it honestly.
I was scared.
Was that guy's name Ju or something?
When he first glared at me, I was genuinely startled.
He reminded me way too much of those school bullies who always sat at the far end of the classroom.
That made it even worse.
And judging by the way he acted, he was definitely the type who would stab someone in the back later.
The manga guy might or might not do something like that.
But that other guy?
Absolutely.
He was clearly built around that kind of cliché.
He was even a blond, tanned delinquent.
As expected, people who look like they could actually exist in reality are scarier than fantasy characters.
Personally, I was much more afraid of some tattooed middle-aged guy wearing tight clothes with a pouch tucked under his arm than a knight in armor carrying a greatsword.
I had been so certain that Ju would eventually try to hurt me that I'd bullied him hard enough to make sure the message got through.
I wasn't sure whether it had worked.
My heart still felt like it was pounding.
“Why did you do that?”
“What?”
“To Ju, just now. Why did you do that to him?”
He spoke to me while clearly tense.
Apparently, I'd gone a little too far earlier, because there was a faint trace of hostility in his voice.
Still...
These people called the Chairman evil and claimed they were fighting against him.
So why did they leave someone like Ju alone?
Why hadn't they stopped a guy who acted however he wanted, whose pride was far bigger than his actual strength, and who clearly couldn't see reality for what it was?
Seriously.
I needed to say something to either Jin or Dorfin.
I'd never met Jin in real life before, so I guess I'd have to talk to Dorfin.
“He should've come to his senses after that.”
“…Did you really have to do it that way?! There must've been a more peaceful way!”
“Like what?”
It was only a short question.
But he couldn't answer immediately.
Ju was probably a headache for this guy too.
When I first subdued Ju, nobody there had looked truly hostile toward me.
Their expressions had been more like—
Yeah. We knew something like this would happen eventually.
At first, they'd all agreed with what I was doing.
They only started objecting once things went further than they'd expected.
I understood.
Even if you knew your kid was in the wrong, and even if that kid had always been a troublemaker, you'd still get angry if some complete stranger suddenly punished them far too harshly.
“Be honest. If I'd just let him go right there, what do you think he would've done?”
“….”
“He would've attacked me again, right? You think so too, don't you? And yet you knew that and still left him alone. So why are you saying this now? You didn't do anything for him, but you can't stand seeing him suffer because of his own actions? You don't have the right to say that.”
Tsk.
I'd originally planned to keep things casual.
Let's get along today. Stop stalking me.
Something lighthearted like that.
For example, the guy who'd been following me before had walked with me all the way to their dorm while exchanging little jokes.
I really had intended to handle this quietly.
“I'm sorry. You're right. But! Wrong is still wrong! You went too far!”
Wow.
He really had no problem raising his voice in a café.
Feeling embarrassed, I turned my head toward the window.
I did not want anyone thinking we were together.
“Haah… You were frustrating on the rooftop too.”
“…!”
Apparently, my short comment hit harder than expected.
He slowly sat back down, visibly dejected.
Then he carefully asked me a question.
“Is that girl… doing well?”
Huh?
Wait.
This wasn't just guilt.
There was something else in the way he asked.
Did something happen between him and the Traitor Girl?
That was surprising.
I'd been calling her Traitor Girl because I'd always assumed she'd betray someone eventually.
But I never expected this manga-looking guy to be the reason she decided to do it.
Didn't you two try to kill each other before?
While bleeding everywhere?
Was that supposed to be some little mistake from your younger days?
Seriously?
Maybe they developed some strange bond while fighting each other?
We fought, so now we're friends!
I never understood that logic.
Still, with the way he looked so gloomy and strangely hopeful...
I couldn't exactly avoid talking about the Traitor Girl.
No point making some pointless comment about it either.
Let's just tell him.
“She's dead.”
For a moment, it felt as though time itself had stopped.
This guy had shouted earlier, so everyone in the café had already been looking our way.
Now, every single person suddenly fell silent.
Only the soft background music continued playing.
And then I realized something.
I'd explained that terribly.
“…Huh? What? What did you say?”
“Ah, wait. I didn't explain enough. Let me explain properly.”
So I told him everything.
In the end, the story basically became—
Because of you, the Traitor Girl got killed by the Chairman~
Just imagining how depressed he'd look after hearing that made me feel uncomfortable already.
Wait.
Technically, I was basically the one who finished things too.
Right.
I should make sure not to leave that part out either.
“I… see….”
Fortunately, although his expression looked complicated, he seemed to understand what had happened.
“Maybe… it was for the best. If it hadn't been for you, Kim Ingwang, she'd probably still be trapped beneath that underground laboratory. Unconscious, with nothing but an empty shell left behind… suffering through something worse than death.”
“Yeah.”
There was no point nitpicking his words.
That would only ruin the mood.
The atmosphere had eased up a little anyway.
So it was probably time to get to what I'd originally wanted to talk about.
“Let's see… Chang-ssi, right?”
“Ah, yes. I'm Lee Chang. You can just call me comfortably.”
“Then you can call me comfortably too.”
Something about this style of conversation felt completely unlike me.
It was suffocating.
Was this really how I was supposed to talk to a born extrovert who looked like he could be dropped anywhere and immediately come back with five new friends?
“Then… Hyung?”
“…Yeah. Call me whatever you want.”
Why did that make me feel like I was trying too hard to act cool?
Awkward.
“Anyway, the reason I came today wasn't just to tell your group to stop following me around. I also came to ask you to start traveling with me from now on.”
Somehow, the conversation had taken a long detour.
But this was the actual point.
It wasn't because I particularly liked this guy.
And it wasn't really because being around him would help stabilize Jin mentally either.
The main reason was that I wanted to trace the history from four hundred years ago.
I had Madness.
He had Hope.
That was exactly like Asset and the Great Hero.
If I continued tracing Asset's memories in the future, having this guy with me might trigger more special events.
It was a little disappointing that there was no one filling Pastien's role.
But I figured Aien could probably substitute for that.
“I think the Chairman hid something inside this game. The power I have right now was also something I gained entirely because of this game.”
“I-Is that really true?”
“Yeah. I learned Flow inside the game. Then there's Aien's existence too. Even hearing just that much, doesn't it seem obvious that this game is deeply connected to reality?”
“Yes, definitely….”
For a moment, I felt like I should probably explain everything in much more detail.
Something about four hundred years ago.
How the game had actually been created using a world that once really existed as its foundation.
All that stuff.
Then I got lazy.
If we played together, he'd naturally figure it out eventually.
Besides, if I started seriously explaining all of that here, with everyone already staring at us, there was a very real chance I'd be remembered as a hopeless gaming addict.
“And the biggest stage in the game is the Maze Forest. The two people most deeply connected to the Maze Forest are you and me.”
“…But I only started playing recently.”
“Let's ignore minor details.”
“Okay.”
I'd actually spoken with Asset before.
But honestly, I didn't have much of a connection with the Great Hero.
I'd met him once in that black-and-white world, but we hadn't even talked.
If I stayed with this guy, maybe I'd eventually get a chance to meet that Great Hero of Hope too.
If I turned this guy into a Hero, maybe he'd meet the Great Hero at the Hall.
…No, wait.
That guy spent all that time half-dead inside that pit.
Maybe he isn't even in the Hall?
“Also, since we're going to be working together anyway, I'll tell you everything I know so you can focus more on the game.”
I didn't actually know all that much.
But saying something like that would still make the offer tempting.
Even if he eventually got bored or anxious while continuing to play, he'd probably endure it if he believed there was something important waiting for him.
Just like me.
“For now, you'll be playing together with Jin. Game Jin, obviously. We'll be doing our own thing, so learn everything you can from Jin as quickly as possible. Get strong, then come join us.”
“You're not going to help me?”
“Traveling around with me won't help you much.”
It wasn't because I disliked him.
I genuinely believed that.
Jin was probably going to put even more effort into training this guy than he'd put into Modak.
That would be much better than having him wander around hunting random monsters with me.
“Still, we'll keep things simple for a while too. We'll mostly do basic quests, so work hard and catch up.”
“Okay.”
“But don't cut down on sleep. Eat properly too. And make sure you exercise.”
“Ah, yes!”
“I'd like you to focus more on the game, but don't forget your actual job either. Got it?”
“…Yes!”
If I raised this guy badly, real-world Jin might end up lecturing me.
Or maybe it wouldn't end with just a lecture.
Even inside the game, Jin and Dorfin didn't exactly get along.
So it wasn't like I could expect Jin to have a good impression of Dorfin's disciple—me.
And real-world Jin barely had any connection with me to begin with.
If he didn't like what I was doing, he might actually decide to take action.
Literally.
He might come over and hit me as a warning.
That would hurt a lot, wouldn't it?
After that, we talked about a few other things.
I bought him a meal and eventually sent him back to the dorm.
Before leaving, he said something that stayed in my mind.
“…Hyung, I think it'd be nice if you were always like you are right now.”
That bothered me a little.
I didn't think I'd done anything especially bad to this guy.
Was he still holding a grudge over how hard I'd pushed him inside the game?
“That depends on how you behave.”
If we were going to spend more time together from now on, there was no reason to treat him too harshly.
Anyway, enough of this.
Go inside and play the game already.
We're wasting time.
