Chapter 102 - The Sharer III

5

["We'll prepare here."]

The me of long ago spoke. A fire axe was gripped in my hand.

In the passage before the final staircase, my party members murmured.

["Here? Why? The fairy said the final stage was just a little farther down."]

["..."]

["Jaehui, don't doubt him. Our leader is the savior who will guide us."]

Lee Jaehui, Uehara Shino, Jeong Sohui.

Their classes were swordsman, alchemist, and fanatic, respectively.

The classes alone probably make this sound like a doomed party. Despite appearances, they were founding members I'd known since run three—or perhaps an even earlier run.

They looked toward me, grubby from days without a proper wash.

A complete mess. But they were the best the Busan Station Tutorial Dungeon had to offer.

["..."]

I met their eyes one by one. The me in my memory was far thinner and more skeletal than I was now.

["A scout has been secretly watching us for the past three days."]

["A scout...?"]

["Lee Baek must have sent them. His should be the only other group of survivors to have made it this far down."]

My party members flinched.

["He deliberately let us go ahead to clear the monsters blocking the route. But the final boss only counts as an achievement if you kill it yourself. So he plans to attack us from behind when we're exhausted from fighting it."]

["What an absolute bastard."]

["The plan becomes pointless if we kill the boss first. He knows that, too, so he should be running here at top speed by now. Everyone, crouch down and hide beneath the stairs. We'll strike when they're at least a little tired."]

["..."]

["I'll..."]

6

"I'll take the lead."

The déjà vu vanished in an instant. Like a newborn wave briefly wetting a beach of sand worn by age into white grains, then retreating.

Something stirred beside me then.

"..."

It was Oh Dokseo.

The little brat, who probably wouldn't reach my collarbone even on tiptoe, had her baseball bat resting on her shoulder. Goblin blood was caked all over it.

"What are you doing, Dokseo? I told you to step back."

"Nope."

She chewed her gum vigorously.

"Yours truly killed fourteen monsters today. You, Mister? Eight. Aren't hunters supposed to be a meritocracy? I don't take orders from anyone weaker than me."

"..."

Sometimes something was so ridiculous you could only laugh. Before my laughter had even died down, a torrent of footsteps came from the far end of the passage.

A group numbering over a hundred. Unsurprisingly, Lee Baek was walking at its head.

"You fucking bastards. Miss me?"

What was slightly surprising was that Lee Baek had a voice. How? I'd chopped his vocal cords into eight slices like a pizza.

"Ugh, uhhh..."

The answer lay in Sim Aryeon, hunched and drooping beside him.

Despite being a healer, she had bandages made from cloth clothing wrapped around various parts of her body. There were bruises on her cheek and shoulder, too.

It wasn't hard to deduce what had happened.

'She refused to heal him, got beaten up by Lee Baek, and became a slave who even needs permission every time she heals herself.'

It was deeply pitiful. Aryeon, Aryeon, Aryeon. What was a potential S-rank doing getting beaten up by an E-rank...?

Lee Baek's followers, who should also have been suffering from vocal-cord pizza syndrome, were talking perfectly well.

"That's him! That guy! That lanky fuck beat us half to death the second he saw us!"

"They're the bastards who cleaned out all the supplies in the waiting hall, too!"

"Fuck, look how clean they are. Just three people hogging all the supplies, living it up... Bastards. They're not even human. We're suffering so much. We have to split every scrap of food..."

"A fairy! There's a fairy over there!"

As the agitators whipped up the crowd, someone pointed at the fairy and screamed.

Lee Baek seized on it. With a fleeting smile of triumph, he stepped five paces forward.

"Those bastards are in bed with the fairy!"

FAIRY—AIRY—AIRY—

His voice rang throughout the passage, loud enough for the entire crowd of over a hundred to hear clearly.

That was his awakened ability.

[Lion's Roar]. Or [Megaphone].

"Those bastards aren't on our side! They sided with the fairies and betrayed humanity! Look! They're with a fairy! Traitors! Traitors!"

It was merely an ability to amplify the volume of his voice, but it was quite useful in the tutorial, where everyone was more or less on the same level.

The saying that the loudest voice wins held especially true in an emergency.

While the other survivors mumbled, he alone boomed through a megaphone. Logic be damned; he inevitably seized control.

It was a fairly decent ability in combat as well as politicking. In the chaotic melee of dozens of civilians, even simple instructions like "Attack!" and "Retreat!" were hard to hear. Lee Baek's [Lion's Roar] at least allowed orders to be communicated immediately.

A skill that really was useful only in the tutorial.

"Traitors...?"

The tutorial's refugees murmured.

"It's true. There's a fairy over there."

"Then Lee Baek was right. Those guys stole all the supplies and joined the fairies..."

"Bastards. We need everyone working together just to get through this, and all they care about is living well themselves..."

I understood them.

These people had only just been dropped into the apocalypse—starving, cut off from the outside world and nearly mad with worry for their families, stressed by having to form groups with strangers, fighting monsters for their lives, and witnessing people die before their eyes. From their perspective, they couldn't help swaying whichever way the wind from Lee Baek's [Megaphone] blew.

Well. If Seo Gyu had been here, would he have stood up to him with a "What the fuck is that bullshit, you fucking bastard!"?

'You fucking bastard!'

'What! You fuuuucking bastaaard!'

Imagining Lee Baek and Seo Gyu hurling curses at each other and sending the tutorial dungeon's average decibel level through the roof, I suddenly laughed. Incredible. I'd have to try that sometime.

"Eeek! Th-this is bad! If they find out I favored particular players, it's a purge! A purge! Tactical retreat...!"

TWINKLE!

Fairy No. 264 panicked and vanished in midair. It wasn't teleportation. It had merely turned invisible.

To the people watching, however, that was the same as disappearing. For survivors traumatized by the fairies, that alone served as a signal of sorts.

Lee Baek roared.

"The fairy's gone, too! Everyone! This is our chance! Let's get him! We'll seize the supplies, regroup, and get out of this fucking dungeon with our own strength! Let's go see our families!"

"Raaaah—"

As the people shouted to bolster their courage, I took one step forward.

Ink-black aura spread from my footprint like a tidal wave. In an instant, it swept through the opposing group of 117.

"—!"

"...? ...!"

Muted.

The people who had been about to charge us looked at one another in confusion. However wide they opened their mouths and screamed, not a sound escaped.

The underground passage fell silent all at once.

With aura control taken to its utmost limit, tricks like this became possible.

"Oh, protagonist hacks..."

Oh Dokseo muttered beside me. Ignoring her, I spoke.

"You there, Ms. Sim Aryeon."

"...!"

"Don't hide. Come over here. We're stronger. I'll keep you alive, and I won't beat you for not using your healing ability. I guarantee three meals a day and a comfortable bed. Switch sides."

"..."

"You have three seconds."

The remarkable thing about Sim Aryeon was that she never hesitated at times like these. Before Lee Baek could even turn toward her, she scurried over to me.

Not just Lee Baek, but the entire group of survivors grimaced.

"Heal yourself."

"Y-yes. Oh. My voice works..."

The people pointed at the traitor and shouted various things, but only a soundless uproar filled the corridor.

Splendid anger. For Sim Aryeon, the Bird That Drinks Aggro, it would have made delicious experience points.

With a warm smile, I took another step forward.

"Lee Baek. I'm sorry."

"..."

"I wasn't considerate enough. I knocked you out so quickly that I apparently failed to make you understand the difference in our strength. So I'll give you a chance."

"...?"

"See this redheaded brat?"

I set my hand on Oh Dokseo's shoulder.

"Beat her one-on-one, and we'll give you all our supplies and let you enter the boss fight first."

"...!"

"Don't worry. There's no trap. I won't stab you in the back. But if you refuse the duel, this time I'll take your voice away forever. Or perhaps... are you going to run away because you're afraid to fight a little kid, not even me?"

"..."

Voices were strange things. Right or wrong, the words of the last person to speak felt justified.

Lee Baek, who must have enjoyed that vocal magic countless times before, could offer no rebuttal. The survivors, tempted by my offer, were looking at him.

The silent pressure of 116 pairs of eyes.

"..."

Lee Baek scrutinized Oh Dokseo from head to toe. Had he decided he had a chance? He stepped forward, gripping a length of wood studded with nails.

"Hmm."

Oh Dokseo glanced up at me.

"Fine. Reading the novel made me want to punch that guy in the face more than a hundred times."

She might reasonably have asked why I was making her do this, but instead she advanced, swinging her bat as though she found it entertaining.

A one-on-one duel. Numerous people watched the two face off from a distance.

I nodded.

"Accept the outcome, whatever it is. Anyone who changes their tune afterward will have their ankles cut off by me personally. Begin."

The moment I finished speaking, Oh Dokseo charged.

Lee Baek flinched, his expression turning vicious. He apparently hadn't expected a kid so much smaller than himself to attack without fear.

You little fuck—his silent mouth formed the words.

Using his vastly superior reach, he brought the wooden club down. The large nail embedded in it aimed straight for Oh Dokseo's head.

CLANG!

Aimed, and nothing more. His club bounced off a transparent barrier invisible to the human eye.

"...?"

Absolute Defense.

Wrapped in a barrier that rejected not only human attacks but even the encroachment of anomalies, Oh Dokseo swung her baseball bat.

A faint red aura swirled around the metal bat.

Over the past several days, I had given her intensive private lessons in aura control. At this point in time, that was instruction unavailable anywhere else in the world.

I snapped my fingers and withdrew the aura around Lee Baek. Unmuted. So my prized pupil could savor the joy of victory.

"Die, you frustrating fuck!"

"Pffk...?"

Unfortunately, Lee Baek couldn't even let out a satisfying scream. After snapping his wooden club, the baseball bat went on to knock his jaw clean away.

A home run.

"Urk, uuurk? Uuugh...!"

Lee Baek collapsed, clutching his jaw. A few kernels of white corn lay scattered around him.

Oh Dokseo let out a long, belching "Hyaaaah," as though she'd finally relieved ten years of indigestion.

"Wow. Seriously, when Lee Jaehui died because of him in run three, I threw the novel across the room. Son of a bitch. Fucking bastard. Piece of shit."

"Urrgh..."

"Shut your fucking mouth."

She kicked Lee Baek as he swam freestyle on the floor. He passed out and went limp.

Belatedly, Lee Baek's six followers charged in after losing their leader.

"Aaagh!"

"Now, now. You shouldn't gang up on a little kid like that."

But this was a violation of the rules. Without hesitation, I drew in my aura and sliced through each of their ankles.

"—!"

"...! ...!"

All six toppled against their will. Muted screams erupted.

Fear crept into the survivors' gazes. Some of those in the rear were already fleeing.

Sim Aryeon watched the seven losers writhing on the passage floor with a very peculiar look. Like a brown-eared bulbul that had discovered an earthworm, perhaps.

"... Aryeon. Don't toy with them by threatening to withhold healing just to stroke your ego."

"Oh, yeees... Eek? W-wait. H-how did you know what I was thinking? D-don't tell me, Mind Reading?"

I did have the Mind Reading skill, but I rarely used it. It was fun at first, then rapidly became uninteresting.

Still, using it had led me to discover new connections.

I quietly watched the redheaded brat I'd taken as my prized pupil in run 555 approach.

"See, Mister? Don't worry."

The child who was both a reader of my life story and my pupil said this fearlessly.

"I'll make sure you reach a happy ending."

"..."

"You're the original protagonist, and I'm in the role of someone transmigrated into the novel. That means there are two protagonists. If we work together, anything's possible. Sure, you're a little different from how the novel portrayed you—but you're still my favorite character!"

I chuckled.

"All right. I'm counting on you."

"Yeah!"

Catch up soon, Dokseo.

I'm always waiting here.

7

Epilogue.

"Aaaagh! M-Mister! Save me! Please! Seriously, save me! I used my skill on Lee Baek earlier, so I don't have a barrier anymore! Uuugh! That just grazed me! It really grazed me! I'm gonna die! The tutorial's final boss is gonna kill me! Mister! Misteeeer! Save the protagoniiiist!"

"J-Jang-san. Surely we ought to help little Dokseo?"

"..."

I sighed.

It seemed I would need considerably more time before I could entrust my back to this little otaku with her adolescent delusions of grandeur. The end.

- The Sharer. End.