HACKED 7

I felt a sense of dissonance that I couldn’t quite put into words.

From the moment my account was hacked until now, I had been in a long state of logout. That was why this Chirpy fellow welcomed me as if he’d found an oasis in the middle of a desert when he first saw me.

But was it really okay for him to tell me that logging out was so easy? Especially the guy who was just sobbing and begging for my help?

Even if lying and saying it was impossible was… a bit difficult, shouldn’t he at least stall by saying he didn’t know, or beg me not to do it? What would he do if I left and never came back again?

However, my thoughts didn’t last long. This was because something resembling a light, along with a small sound, shone from the other side of the dark and narrow passage.

It wasn’t a thumping sound like before. It was more like something light and thin brushing against the floor… To describe it, it was a sound like “swish, rustle, swish-swish.”

“Gasp.”

Chirpy froze. He had a face that looked like he might faint at any moment.

“Myeong. Let’s move. Hu, hurry.”

“What’s that now?”

“There’s no time to talk!”

It was different from before. Earlier, he had explained that we just needed to stay quiet until the sound echoing through the ceiling disappeared.

Chirpy grabbed the edge of my clothes and pulled with all his might. Even so, it was a force weaker than that of a small dog or cat, but for now, I let myself be dragged along. Between that small, flickering, faint light and the strange sound… even someone like me who knows nothing could tell that one wrong move meant death.

˙✧˖°🎮 ⋆｡˚

I ran for a long time along the passage, following Chirpy’s lead. I say I ran… but because I had to move quickly while also suppressing my presence, it became an ambiguous pace that was neither walking nor sprinting.

Since the underground secret chamber was in complete darkness without a single thread of light, I would have smashed my head somewhere and collapsed long ago if it weren’t for the light emitted by that Chirpy fellow. Or I would have suffered a mental breakdown.

For a passage that was supposedly unused, it was incredibly long; there was no end no matter how much I ran. It felt like we had been going for about 30 minutes. Moreover, the walls and floors were made of stone and dirt, so they were uneven. Upclines and downclines appeared every now and then.

If I had even average physical strength, I would have considered this just a hike. If I were above average, it would have been a light stroll, needless to say.

But… but I am a keyboard warrior. I am a human who spends about 23 hours out of 24 indoors.

That remaining 1 hour is the time spent commuting. Therefore, now that I’m not going to a company, I can be called a perfect, ultimate hikikomori. Running for 30 minutes without rest? To me, it is no different from extreme training in hell.

“Huff, puff…”

My lungs felt like they would burst every time I inhaled and exhaled ragged breaths. My head felt dizzy. Even though this is a world inside a game, why is it so realistic even in such useless details?

Chirpy, who was leading the way, was also clearly exhausted. The strength in his wingbeats faded, and the light flickered like a flashlight with a nearly dead battery.

“How, huff, how much, farther do we have to go?”

“I don’t know, it’s strange. If we’ve come this far, the stairs to the upper floor should have appeared long ago…”

“…….”

I started to scold him but shut my mouth. This was because that “rustle-rustle” light brushing sound, the sound that had been following us for a while, was heard again.

Compared to the first presence that disappeared after making a few loud “Thump!” sounds, this one was persistent. Did we lose it? Just as I thought that, it was heard, and just as I thought “Did we really lose it this time?”, it was heard again.

What kind of hardship is this… No. For now, let’s shut up and run. If I die here, there’s no meaningless death quite like it. As they say, words become seeds; just as I said earlier, I would become “Extra NPC 1.”

I spent a few more minutes running and walking after Chirpy. I was sure my appearance looked like a zombie right now.

However, while staring only at the floor, at some point I realized something and stopped walking.

“Hey.”

“Aaaah, eeeeek!”

I reached out and grabbed Chirpy. The terrified Chirpy let out a desperate scream like prey caught in the mouth of a wild beast.

For such a tiny thing, why is his voice so loud? I muffled his mouth with my index and middle fingers. Just as he had done to me earlier.

“Shh.”

“Mmph.”

I tilted Chirpy’s head to make him look down and pointed at the ground with my other hand.

“What does this look like to you?”

“Mmph, mmph!”

Ah, right. I have to let go of his mouth so he can answer. I loosened my grip.

“The ground looks a bit wet. These are… water droplet marks?”

“It’s the tears you shed. You were sobbing earlier.”

“Whaaat? No way!”

“Look, my footprints are next to them too.”

“You’re right. These are definitely Myeong’s…”

“We’ve been running our asses off from far back there for a long time, and yet this is in front of us. What do you think?”

“…….”

“This path looks like a straight line, but is it actually a curve or something? Does it bend at an angle so subtle that a pedestrian can’t notice it, forming a large circle?”

“No! I’ve been hiding here for so many years. I know the structure here clearly. This passage is definitely a perfect straight line. A straight line with no forks or side paths.”

“Then it’s one of two things. We’re repeating ‘go straight then U-turn, go straight then U-turn,’ or… we’re going around in circles in the same place.”

“…….”

Only then did Chirpy understand my words and shut his mouth. Even though I had let go of him long ago, he was trembling as if caught by an invisible hand.

“We’ve been marked. It’s over.”

“Mar, marked?”

“I don’t know what that presence is, but we’ve been dancing in that bastard’s palm for a while now. Both you and me. It’s probably a hallucination, a cognitive interference, or something like that.”

I slid down and sat with my back against the wall. As the muscles that had been tensed to the limit relaxed, I became unable to move even a fingertip. I didn’t feel like trying to do anything more.

Do you know the feeling of an office worker who hurried, skipping lunch to handle bank business, only to see “Current estimated waiting time: approx. 60 minutes” appear on the screen as soon as they pulled a number tag?

That’s my feeling right now. Oh, for the record, that is a 100% true story based on my experience from when I was at the company.

What becomes of me now? Will I be dragged away by a killer and neatly skewered on a hook? Like products hanging on a supermarket shelf? Well, since it’s <No Lifer>, that probably won’t happen.

What is the best possible conclusion in this situation?

No matter how much I think about it… it’s having an Avatar who went crazy after hitting 100 Contamination, but still has a final shred of conscience, kill me cleanly in a single hit since I was once their master.

Please, let it be an instant death so I can’t even feel the pain. It’s “instant death,” not “Memento Mori.” Don’t get them confused. That’s a different game, but the Memento Mori in that neighborhood wasn’t “instant” at all.

“It was a short meeting, but it was fun. Palmiers.”

“You won’t call me by my proper name until the very end… You could be honest for at least the final moment…”

“Actually, it wasn’t fun at all.”

“You don’t need to be that honest…”

We huddled together and trembled.

I’ll correct that. Chirpy unilaterally dug into my embrace and trembled. It feels like I’m holding an alarm clock with a vibration function.

The sound that had been bothering my ears grew closer. I think I know now.

Rustle, rustle.

This is the sound of fabric brushing. The sound of long hemlines brushing against the floor. The fact that there’s the sound of clothes but no sound of footsteps at all is terrifying.

A faint light flickered from the other end of the long, straight passage. Something was approaching us.

The light drew closer little by little, but surely. It wasn’t the yellowish light emitted by Chirpy. It was a blue color that is hard to see in nature.

Blue flame, long hemlines.

Blue flame and long hemlines… I feel like I might remember something.

As soon as I thought that, a strange sound was heard from far away. At first listen, it was like the sound of a bleakly blowing wind, a sound you could only identify if you listened intently.

A low humming. In other words, it was a hummed song. Because the distance was far, the exact notes weren’t clear.

“Mye-mye-mye-Myeong…”

My name is not Mye-mye-mye-Myeong.

Even so, it didn’t seem like he would hear me even if I spoke to the fellow who was burying his face in my chest. Instead of stopping, the trembling of his small body became even more severe. It seems this guy has completely fallen into a panic.

The humming grew louder. The melody, repeating monotonously and gloomily, was gradually closing the distance.

Even without doing anything else, this in itself is an excellent mental attack. I’m pretending to be fine, but I’m also scared as hell. Enough to want to cover my ears right now, curl up, and beg for my life.

But I gritted my teeth and endured. Because I want to live longer. Because I want to find a way somehow.

After all, it’s unfair enough that I suffered the bizarre phenomenon of a hacked account suddenly returning and then being possessed by that game, but to die stuck in a dark, cave-like basement like this… it’s such a waste.

“Ah.”

Thanks to that, a sudden realization flashed through my mind. I think I know now. That song, it’s a song I know.

And would it be just me? Most people who spent their childhood in South Korea would know it.

I straightened my upper body. I took a deep breath, filling my lungs with even the cold and damp air of the underground passage, and shouted in the loudest and clearest voice I could manage.

“Fox, oh fox. What are you doing?”