EFME 120
by twenty“…Guild Master, may I come in for a moment?”
“Do as you please.”
Muyoung’s voice was quite cold. Sunyul flinched, but soon gathered his courage and followed him inside.
Sunyul knelt down and sat. Before Muyoung could even tell him that there was no need to sit like a criminal, Sunyul bowed his head.
“I—I was wrong.”
“….”
“Please don’t be angry….”
Looking at Sunyul pleading with him, Muyoung let out a sigh.
“Do you even know what you did wrong?”
Sunyul’s body flinched.
“Stepping forward recklessly, even though I might die….”
“Do you think it’s over if you sacrifice yourself?”
“….”
“Will it really be over? Can you guarantee that the exact same thing won’t happen again?”
“That’s….”
“We survived by sacrificing one person, but if we can solve problems by sacrificing another person later on, do you think we won’t make the same choice?”
“….”
“Didn’t you think about the possibility of someone being driven to sacrifice themselves under a plausible pretext? What about the possibility of the majority of society being sacrificed in that manner?”
“I-I didn’t think that far! I didn’t even have the intention to sacrifice myself. It’s just, I thought I could do it, and we can’t do anything as we are now….”
“I know. You probably tried to do what you could do right away.”
“…Yes.”
“I’m saying that, as a result, it could turn out that way.”
“….”
Muyoung stared at Sunyul. Sunyul seemed lost in thought as he chewed over Muyoung’s words.
Muyoung also knew that Sunyul hadn’t acted with that much thought. He probably didn’t have that intention either.
However, he thought that talking about others would be much more effective than begging Sunyul to ‘not do it’. And it seemed to be the case in reality.
He also wanted to get angry, asking why you don’t cherish yourself. But Muyoung decided to postpone that until later for now.
Because it was true that he had vented his anger excessively.
“Lim Sunyul.”
“…Yes.”
“If you had vanished there, if Yoon Saebyeok hadn’t been there, our raid would have been blocked at the next mirror anyway.”
“…Yes.”
Sunyul nodded with a dejected look.
“Don’t think that a path that might sacrifice you is the best choice.”
“I under, stand.”
“That is the worst choice. For me.”
“….”
“If you think of me even a little bit, don’t make such a choice.”
Did it sound like a threat from a petty guy throwing an excessive tantrum? But he was sincere. Muyoung closed his eyes.
‘I’m scared, though. I think I can go if I think of you, Guild Master.’
The voice he heard five years ago vividly came to mind. Rather than making him have that kind of thought again, it was better to become a petty guy.
“Come here.”
When he opened his eyes, he saw Sunyul, who was no different from that day. Therefore, all the more, Muyoung felt anxious that the current Sunyul might make the same choice as the Sunyul back then.
Sunyul hesitantly approached Muyoung. Muyoung held Sunyul tightly and hugged him. Only then did Sunyul seem relieved and clung to Muyoung.
“Guild Master, may I sleep here?”
“Sure.”
Sunyul burrowed straight into Muyoung’s arms. Muyoung also hugged Sunyul firmly.
As he held him tightly, he heard a small sobbing sound along with a slight trembling of his body, as if he felt sorrowful about being scolded. Muyoung patted Sunyul’s back.
⊹₊｡ꕤ˚₊⊹
The next day, Muyoung woke up late with Sunyul, who had overslept, and they walked out of the tent together.
Fortunately, the group felt relieved upon seeing the two of them with a relaxed atmosphere. Though in the case of Bada or Yoonjae, they also displayed irritation.
They finished their meal leisurely, but there was still quite a lot of time left before twenty-four hours passed.
“The underpass seems to be around here, shall we go take a look in advance?”
Following Jihyun’s suggestion, they decided to go to the underpass.
After walking for about 10 minutes, there were stairs leading to the underpass. Descending the quite long stairs, a large cavern appeared.
Arched structures supporting the wide and long underpass were arranged at regular intervals.
Due to the broken lights here and there, the underpass was generally dark. Graffiti that seemed to be left by someone was drawn on the walls, and damaged posters were also put up in various places.
“Can you check the scale of the underpass?”
“Yep. Just a moment.”
Jihyun concentrated her mind.
“I think the underpass is roughly 3km. Monsters aren’t visible much right now, as if they are hiding.”
It was quite positive news.
“If it’s 3km, we’ll get there in no time.”
“Shall we at least try going for now?”
“Alright. Let’s go up to the 3km point for now. While breaking the lights.”
They advanced forward while breaking the intermittently continuing lights. Fortunately, the number of monsters that appeared was rare. The number even gradually decreased. However….
“Hold on.”
Muyoung stopped in his tracks.
“I feel like we’re circling the same place.”
“Uh, just a moment….”
Jihyun checked in fluster.
“Y-You’re right. We walked quite a bit… but the exit is still about 3km away. And there are… no stairs?”
“We have no choice but to go while looking around the surroundings for now.”
They had broken all the lights inside the underpass, but a hunter bound to have at least one light-emitting item.
Sunyul also possessed a light item that followed him around. When his part-time job ended, Jin Seoyeon of the maintenance team had given it to him as a gift, a top-grade light item.
Sunyul, who was scanning the surroundings, stopped walking. Jihyun turned to look this way.
“What’s wrong, Sunyul?”
“No, this poster. The content is a bit strange.”
“Let me see.”
Jihyun stood side by side with Sunyul and read the contents of the poster.
[ Underpass Guide Rules
- Do not break the lights of the underpass recklessly. If all the lights in the underpass are broken, a scary monster will come out and eat everyone.
- Do not erase the graffiti drawn in the underpass. The graffiti in this underpass has its own meaning. Please protect it so that its meaning does not fade.
- The length of the underpass is about 5km. Anyone who says the length of the underpass is 3km is telling a lie. If you perceive false information as truth, you will wander the underpass forever. Beware of people who lie.
- The relevant guide rules go up to item number 7. If there is an 8th item, please ignore that item.
- Watch out for the broken floor of the underpass. Especially if water is pooled there, there is a high probability that something will pop out.
- There are times when a strange fishy smell is mixed in the wind blowing from the other side of the underpass. In such cases, it is recommended to run in the opposite direction immediately. It might already be too late, so it would also be good to leave your last words.
- There are times when election posters are put up in the underpass. Do not tear off these election posters. Tearing off posters during election season is a violation of the election law. When tearing off a poster, you will be sentenced to up to prison time.
- All of these underpass guide rules are written in reverse except for number 1. Please interpret them in the opposite way of what they instruct. ]
“….”
Sunyul swallowed a dry breath. Everything else bothered him, but especially one thing.
- The length of the underpass is about 5km. Anyone who says the length of the underpass is 3km is telling a lie. If you perceive false information as truth, you will wander the underpass forever. Beware of people who lie.
This part.
Sunyul turned to look at Jihyun unconsciously. Jihyun was still reading the poster.
Normally, looking at this item would make one very confused. Because you have to suspect your comrade. Moreover, in the case of number 8, it was also written to interpret the guide rules in reverse.
But Sunyul had no reason to be confused. Because he had a skill that allowed him to see through things.
[ Using skill ‘Researching Magic Scholar: Insight’. ]
This target cannot be verified with the relevant skill.
If it were a human, the skill would naturally work, but since it didn’t… it meant it wasn’t a human, right?
[ Using skill ‘Magic Bullet Shooter’. ]
“Argh!”
He immediately landed three shots of [Magic Bullet Shooter], but whether the fake in front of his eyes was sturdier than expected, it didn’t fall.
“Jihyun!”
“Sunyul, what’s wrong?!”
He tried to say that that wasn’t Jihyun, but suddenly his voice didn’t come out. Sunyul quickly used the skill again.
[ Using skill ‘Magic Bullet Shooter’. ]
The magic bullets that were fired flew toward Jihyun, then suddenly vanished all at once. Sunyul turned to look toward where Muyoung was unconsciously. That thing vanishing without a single trace was unmistakably the [Erasure] skill.
“Sunyul seems to have fallen victim to a hallucination. For now, please subdue him….”
The fake Jihyun spoke with difficulty while looking this way. Sunyul wanted to tell them to look at the contents of that poster at the very least, but now he couldn’t even budge his lips.
Sunyul felt extremely wronged and stepped backward.
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