HACKED 129

Once we realized that the space was repeating, further progress was meaningless. We gathered together in one spot.

“So what do we do? For now, should we just destroy everything in sight? We might get lucky and hit something as we break things.”

At Hwarang’s words, Gumiho frowned and covered his mouth with his sleeve.

“Good heavens, what a boorish thing to say. This place is now a part of the Pantheon.”

To be honest, even from my perspective, he was being obnoxious.

“So what.”

Hwarang glared intensely at Gumiho. His eyes were long and slit without double eyelids, and his pupils were a pitch black devoid of any light, so just looking at him carried a significant sense of intimidation.

But Gumiho, whose entire pupils were blood-red, was not to be outdone in terms of a murderous gaze. Moreover, the fact that his long, snow-white hair was flowing loosely added to the gloominess.

“If you destroy the fixtures, it will cause damage to the power system, and my husband will take a hit. Surely you do not wish to see my husband getting hurt?”

“What?”

“Then, in order to protect my husband, I have no choice but to eliminate you. It pains my heart to kill someone my husband cherished, but what can I do.”

“This fox brat is a rare kind of crazy.”

“Look in a mirror. Is it rare?”

“…”

Stunned into silence, Hwarang shut his mouth tight and only sent a turbulent gaze Gumiho’s way. The atmosphere turned chilly in an instant.

An unexpected person stepped forward here.

“You say it deals a blow to the Compiler?”

It was Valkyrie, who had followed along silently without a single word until now. It was the first time I had heard Valkyrie’s voice since the time he asked me to send his former master back to the sky.

“Harming the master is evil. Evil is punished. Immediately.”

Valkyrie summoned a scythe without warning. A scythe larger than the height of an average adult appeared in the air with a single gesture.

Hwarang frowned in absurdity.

“Valkyrie or whatever your name is, do you really want your helmet split open?”

“Do you also wish to be eliminated by me?”

Gumiho also took on a bloodthirsty expression. However, Valkyrie responded composedly.

“Harming a comrade is also evil. Slay evil immediately.”

Watching those antics made the back of my neck ache with stiffness.

‘So this is what it feels like to have a splitting headache.’

I have lived with low blood pressure all my life. But it felt like that low blood pressure would be completely cured thanks to my grateful Incarnations. Though it seemed I was about to gain high blood pressure instead.

At this rate, a real bloody situation might occur. Either Hwarang would explode, unable to contain his temper, or Gumiho’s status abnormality would flare up, or Valkyrie would put the immediate slaying of evil into practice. I was forced to step in as a mediator.

“Stop it, all of you, and let’s think of a solution. This isn’t the time for us to be fighting among ourselves. Right?”

Agent was already moving around exploring various places before my instructions even fell. He raised one hand and gave a brief report.

“I tried the method of going back the way we came, walking backward, and so on, but none of them worked. The door is still as immovable as ever. It seems the entirety of this space has become a closed circle.”

“Understood for now.”

I took a deep breath and looked around. The landscape of the Research Wing district, which I had been seeing until I was sick of it, came into view.

‘The world of <No Lifer>—a is ultimately the same as the game <No Lifer> at its core. So, let’s think with a gamer’s brain.’

The same map repeating endlessly. Whether it is from RPG Maker games to AAA-class video games, from interactive games with complex branches to indie games where you simply pass through Exit 8 of a subway station, it is a surprisingly common gimmick regardless of the genre.

How do you solve this kind of gimmick?

Simply put, you find the ‘trigger.’ You look for the one part that is different or strange within the repeating map. That trigger might be very prominent and easy to recognize, or it might be as petty as a single character being different among dozens of lines of text.

In this case… since I hadn’t found anything strange even after repeating it dozens of times, it probably wasn’t the former.

‘If so, it means I have to look carefully for something hidden.’

First, the broken research equipment visible beyond the transparent partitions caught my eye. They were half-corroded with toxic fluid smeared over walls that looked like space battleships or hangars. The lighting attached to the ceiling was also half-broken, and the other half was flickering and flashing dangerously.

Just in case, I avoided the poisoned areas and approached the research equipment.

The setting of <No Lifer> is a near-future dystopia. Fitting for the temporal background, there were naturally no paper materials or the like. I expected that I might be able to obtain document items like ‘a note left by someone’ or a ‘research log,’ which are characteristic of story games.

‘As expected, it won’t be solved that easily.’

Still, there was something worth looking into.

The research facility turned into a shambles. Among it all, there was a place that was at least relatively intact. The monitors clustered on the wall were in good condition, except for a few with broken liquid crystals. And nearby, devices looking like computer mainframes were tangled with each other and toppled over like dominoes.

‘Can I… turn this on?’

Seeing the lights coming on, it didn’t seem like the electricity in this space was completely out. If so, I might be able to turn on a computer.

“Heave-ho.”

I bent my body. I intended to look for the power button even if it meant crawling through the wires and into the mountain of piled-up machines.

“Stop right there.”

At that moment, an arm stretched out horizontally appeared abruptly in front of me. I got caught on that arm and ended up in an awkward posture, neither standing nor sitting.

“What do you think you’re doing, crawling in there like that without knowing what might be inside?”

San Gun moved the arm that had blocked me and wrapped it around my waist. Then he lifted me up just as I was. Not with two arms, but with one, as lightly as lifting a young animal.

In an instant, my feet were lifted right off the floor. Before I could even argue about how this situation came to be, I instinctively became scared. I grabbed onto San Gun’s arm. He clicked his tongue lowly.

“Honestly, you’re so much trouble, so much trouble.”

“Agh!”

“Look at you being embarrassed. No need to decline.”

“Decline, my foot….”

Before I could finish speaking, the grip of my hand holding his arm began to tremble. Damn lack of grip strength. San Gun glanced at me with pitying eyes and then adjusted his hold on me firmly again.

‘I am definitely going to do weight training. Definitely.’

As a descendant of combat Taekwondo with a black belt, it was beyond shameful. I swallowed my tears inwardly.

“What are you so curious about? This? This?”

While holding me with one arm, San Gun rummaged through the electronic devices as they came into his hand. Afraid he might touch something wrong, I shouted hastily.

“No, no. Wait a second! Don’t just press any button.”

“Just say the word. I’ll do it all for you.”

“Really?”

“First, explain in detail. Exactly what you’re curious about is where, and what the button looks like.”

“Okay.”

“And then after that.”

“Yes.”

“You press that button.”

“Then aren’t I just doing everything myself?”

“…Ahahaha!”

San Gun let out a loud laugh. I’ve been played again. I shuddered at the sense of betrayal.

Regardless, we began to search through the numerous computers one by one for one that would power on.

Most were dead. They looked fine on the outside, but it seemed the internals were broken. Or perhaps they had corroded from being left for too long.

Failure followed failure. The hope I had initially held began to fade little by little.

‘Did I guess wrong? Is the trigger not this?’

No, maybe….

‘A trigger might not even exist at all.’

Yes, that might be so. Games always have walkthroughs and answers, but reality isn’t like that.

‘Surely I won’t have to stay trapped here until I die….’

Beep.

At that moment, one of the numerous buttons responded.

“Huh?”

At first, I thought I had misheard. But following that, the unique booting sound of a computer was heard. A light came on in one of the numerous monitors lined up on the wall.

‘It’s… on.’

I whipped my head around. My eyes met San Gun’s, who was holding me. A beat late, a thrilling sense of achievement welled up from the bottom of my heart.

But before I could even express that achievement, I felt pain in an unexpected area.

Slap!

“That’s it!”

Only then did I grasp the situation. I had suddenly been struck on the buttocks by him again.

“How did you find this? As expected, even if our Myeong is a bit scatterbrained, his head works well.”

San Gun set me down and clapped his hands loudly as if he were incredibly proud.

I stared at him blankly. I couldn’t even think to rub my stinging buttocks. The joy of finding a clue had vanished before I knew it.

‘And what’s with that clapping sound? Is he an elderly person doing health-claps?’

Everything was just absurd….