Chapter 41
It was hard to tell whether they were simply gone… or sewn shut.
Either way, they were missing.
Only traces remained.
—
“Please save me, help me.”
“I didn’t know!”
“But His Majesty…!”
“Ah, please. Please spare me!”
—
The mouth kept moving as if speaking…
It felt unsettling, but for now, I handed over the traitor.
—
Oh, you’ve found a mystery?
Please, enjoy it!
—
The citizen of “6” who received the traitor clapped while looking at the box in my hand.
Only then did the existence of the box in my hand become vivid to me.
While Lee Hoin watched the traitor being dragged away by guards with a slightly disturbed expression, the door to the “House of the Traitor” closed. The citizen of “6” also left the front.
Check marks appeared on all three of my bracelets.
That meant it was truly complete.
‘…Something feels off.’
Still uneasy, I opened the box first.
My hand and the box were covered in some kind of green slime. A fishy, musty smell.
Without a word, I opened it.
Inside was a ‘still-beating heart’.
Covered in green ooze.
—
[Beating Heart of a Traitor]
A traitor summoned before the king wept.
“Why do you cry?” the king asked.
“I merely worshipped with utmost devotion,” he replied.
The king answered:
“Then why have you betrayed ‘6’? You must remain within ‘6’.”
“Not ‘1’, not ‘2’, ‘3’ is absolutely forbidden, ‘4’ is not allowed, and ‘5’ is deceit.”
※ ‘Appraisal’ is required.
—
A beating heart of a traitor.
The first item that required appraisal.
I pushed the heart into my palm storage. Appraisal wasn’t possible right now.
‘This event gives a lot of materials.’
Item materials, enhancement materials, trait materials…
Various kinds of materials appeared frequently here.
That wasn’t a bad thing.
In this world, you needed “stories” to strengthen anything.
And acquiring proper “stories” wasn’t easy.
So getting high-quality materials basically meant getting high-quality “stories.”
‘Whether it’s actually high quality… I’ll know after appraisal.’
The rule Sa Jaeheon discovered in this event:
‘The more grotesque it is, the higher the quality.’
For example, instead of a “complete hand bone,” a “freshly severed finger, still bleeding with torn flesh” would be higher quality.
Disgusting, but…
‘That’s only how it looks inside this event.’
Once you leave, everything returns to normal.
A finger becomes a small wooden stick.
An eyeball becomes a bead.
The Clown of Revelry excelled at this kind of reality manipulation.
Even if you paid a high price in “stories,” if a “Third Party” lacked ability, the result would be crude.
But the Clown didn’t have that limitation.
The narrator?
He didn’t bother interfering.
Because this was an event.
And the Clown was one of the best “Third Parties” at producing the kind of extreme stories he enjoyed.
While thinking that, I checked the box again just in case.
Then Lee Hoin approached.
“Hey, Nam Muyeong.”
“Yeah?”
“That ‘traitor’ guy…”
He hesitated briefly, then said:
“He said he received a blessing.”
A blessing?
I frowned.
“Inside the house… I couldn’t hear him, so I tried reading his lips.”
Lee Hoin mimicked the mouth movements, then said with certainty:
“He said he only received a blessing.
That he didn’t know it was a sin.
He begged to be saved.”
“…Just received a blessing?”
“Yeah.”
“What kind of blessing?”
He shook his head.
He didn’t know.
Is a blessing a sin?
“….”
There’s a story in this event.
A hidden story.
If we could uncover it, the rewards here would likely improve.
“…Let’s find the next attraction.”
I paused, then added:
“And… that ‘blessing’ and ‘sin’ thing. We should dig into that.”
Lee Hoin nodded.
***
—
Oh! Adventurers!
Countless mysteries lie here!
Ride down and greet the demons!
It’ll be a very entertaining sight!
—
The next attraction was a water ride.
This time, beyond the door, it was bright.
There were tubes like a real amusement ride.
A citizen of “6” gestured for us to get on.
—
Right here!
—
Lee Hoin tapped the tube, then got on first.
I followed.
He scanned the surroundings, tense.
Looking for clues.
—
“Hey… it smells like water.”
—
I nodded.
But it wasn’t just water.
There was something musty.
Rotten.
A truly unpleasant stench.
—
Then… Let’s go!
—
The tube moved.
The sound wasn’t just splashing water.
It was thicker. Viscous.
Already disgusting.
The tube suddenly dropped.
Fast. Almost free fall.
Lee Hoin immediately pressed me down hard.
There were no seatbelts, only a handle.
“…Thanks.”
I needed to stay sharp.
We kept moving through a cave-like tunnel.
Then…
In the darkness, something pale appeared.
A shape.
Something.
Whoosh
“Nam Muyeong!”
Something flew at me.
A blade? A tail?
It barely grazed my head.
Before I could react…
Another strike.
A chainsaw-like noise tore through my ears.
“Hey, what the hell–!”
We couldn’t see.
The tube was accelerating.
Attacks came from everywhere.
Laughter echoed.
“Hahaha!”
“Kiiiik!”
“Haha! Hahaha!”
All I could do was cling to the tube.
Things kept flying past us.
Rocks… or worse.
In one word:
‘We’re screwed.’
—
[You really are good at summarizing situations.]
—
After a long descent, the tube slowed.
The cave brightened.
That wasn’t good news.
“…Shit.”
Lee Hoin muttered.
Now visible…
Skinny, hairless rat-like creatures.
With three pairs of bat wings.
Floating in the air.
Surrounding us.
Demons.
They had to be.
“Calling that ‘aesthetic’… whoever did that is insane.”
Lee Hoin drew his greatsword.
But hesitated.
Can we kill them?
He remembered the rules.
Before he decided…
The demons attacked.
Their tails shot out like spears.
“Don’t touch them.”
“Why?”
“At this rate, we’ll be skewered first.”
“Hey, Nam Muyeong–!”
I pulled out a dagger.
And threw it.
It pierced a demon’s head cleanly.
It died instantly.
—
[You ended up killing it after all!]
[Ah… the King is angered. You have gained no spoils.]
[Rage: 2%]
—
2%.
I threw another dagger.
Another clean hit.
Screeeech!
—
[Rage: 4%]
—
It increases by 2% each time.
“…This wasn’t in the original.”
A system like this.
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‘3 is absolutely forbiden’, I have a very bad feeling about this…