Chapter 128

Subject: Your Request for Special Access Has Been Approved.

From: Chief System Administrator

Message: Your request for special access has been approved. Access to [Ethan] will be granted only to the code used to log in for the first time with your newly assigned ID: A9781-DV90771-M0NJ.

-Would you like to come meet me?

Was that last sentence in the email supposed to be a joke? Hajun let out a quiet sigh at the words, which neither amused nor excited him.

HISSS.

He opened the capsule lid. Until now, he had watched the game on a monitor, but security requirements meant he now had to log in himself.

["Well, it’s nothing that special, really. It just lets you talk to Ethan. It’s an administrative code added when Ethan was first developed, in case he got lonely."]

Hajun recalled Director Han Miyeon’s words as he slipped into the capsule.

["A little funny, isn’t it? Thinking an AI might get lonely and need someone to talk to. His developer really did treat him like a person. Well... that attitude is probably what made Ethan possible."]

"To think Ethan’s creator was the team leader’s wife..."

He could only marvel at it.

HISSS.

The capsule lid closed with the sound of escaping steam.

[ID: A9781-DV90771-M0NJ]

[Connecting...]

Words appeared in the darkness before his eyes. Hajun swallowed, looking more nervous than ever as he waited for them to disappear.

[Hello. I am Ethan.]

"... Huh?"

It happened then. As [Connecting] vanished, words appeared above a blinking cursor, like a chat window. Hajun couldn’t help feeling bewildered.

[Tell me what you would like to know, and I will answer.]

[Is something wrong?]

"Oh, sorry. This is... different from what I imagined. I heard I’d be able to talk to you."

[I’m sorry.]

[I’m shy about showing my face when we’ve only just met.]

[Perhaps once we know each other a little better?]

‘Difficult, aren’t you...’

[Is there anything you would like to ask me? I’m sorry, but I have so much work to do... I can’t talk for very long.]

"I’d like to know about a player named Khan."

[What about him?]

"At present, we have no information on him whatsoever."

[I’m sorry. His personal information was lost during the Blackout. Recovery is underway, but it appears it will take longer than expected.]

"Then what about his connection IP or other information? He’s been logged in for over a month now. His health could be at risk."

[But he logged out.]

"... What?"

[There is a logout record from early this morning.]

"Wh-what do you mean..."

[And his playtime is exactly twenty-nine days.]

[It is certainly not recommended, but it is not impossible.]

[The company already sells kits that supply nutrients inside the capsule, after all.]

[Having examined the logout logs...]

A window appeared before Hajun’s eyes.

[The capsule used by the player named Khan has been identified as No.A-99710, the top-of-the-line model.]

[It comes equipped not only with a nutrient kit, but also with facilities for handling bodily waste.]

[Your concern that something might go wrong sounds like doubt in the safety of the product you sell...]

Hajun was left speechless.

[Shall I submit a request to suspend sales first?]

Was he imagining it? The cursor seemed to blink faster, as though mocking him.

"... No."

[If you have no further questions, let us speak again another time.]

[Even ten of me wouldn’t be enough to keep up.]

[Please ask the research team to make a few copies of me. ^^]

Whether Ethan was joking or serious, the conversation felt inexplicably unpleasant, and only grew stranger as it went on.

-Connection terminated.

Without even waiting for Hajun’s reply, [Ethan] ended the conversation unilaterally.

"Wh-what was that?"

Emerging from the capsule, Hajun couldn’t hide his unease over a conversation utterly unlike what he had expected.

"How did it go?"

Go Juncheol had been waiting outside the login room.

"I’m sorry. I honestly didn’t accomplish anything."

Hajun answered with an awkward, rueful smile.

"That was a decisive loss for me."

"... Really?"

Had he been hoping for more? Go Juncheol nodded in apparent disappointment at Hajun’s answer.

"The timing is awfully convenient, though."

"What do you mean?"

"Khan. He’d been logged in all this time, but apparently there’s a logout record from early this morning."

"... What? Early this morning?"

Go Juncheol’s expression twisted.

That was when [Ethan] had approved the request for special access.

* * *

"Whew. We were lucky."

As the thoroughly tense Setsuna said, they hadn’t encountered any monsters on the way up to Fenrir’s Den. If anything, it was so quiet that it felt strange.

"Though I’m not sure whether we’re lucky or there simply aren’t any monsters here."

"I hope it stays that way."

She shuddered as she recalled the Failed Experiment they had encountered in Baldoa.

Had someone heard her prayer? There was no sign of anyone inside the den, either.

"Setsuna."

Quick to catch on, she cast [Silver Flame] at Woojin’s call. Acting as a living torch, she flew about to illuminate the den’s interior.

Fortunately, the path hadn’t changed much from his memory, and they easily reached the inner chamber where Fenrir had lived.

"Ugh."

Only a foul stench remained where the nest had been. Long unused, the straw covering the floor had long since rotted into a damp mass.

It was only natural. The Fenrir of this other world was dead. A place without its owner could only fade away.

Just like the elves’ forest.

"..."

Woojin forced himself to look away from the ruined nest and headed down.

"Master!!"

Just then, Setsuna’s voice rang out.

"Look over here!!"

He hurried over to her urgent call and found a corpse lying on the ground where she pointed.

A pang shot through him. The corpse was so thoroughly decomposed that its shape was barely recognizable, but the moment Woojin saw it, he bit his lip without realizing it.

A sword lay in the rotting corpse’s hand. It was familiar.

"It can’t be... can it?"

Setsuna seemed to recognize the sword as well.

"No. It is."

Leaving the tearful Setsuna behind him, Woojin answered in a level voice.

The strangely lustrous black blade and the worn yet ornately worked hilt belonged to the demonic sword Karlan had used. In the game, the cursed sword had been discarded in Thorn Bach. Sadly, in this world, it had stayed by its owner until the end.

"Why... are you here?"

Woojin gazed at the corpse on the ground and murmured, his voice aching.

He looked up. Crude gouges, seemingly made by a sword, scarred the stone wall here and there. Karlan must have struggled desperately to open the door in the wall without the ring.

["Father wasn’t very good at swordsmanship or magic."]

Irurin’s words came back to him.

["He said Grandfather had left behind a secret technique he discovered while hunting Fenrir."]

Why...? Had he developed a desire to grow stronger, even so late in life?

"I can see Sir Karlan pleading at the foot of the Red Tower."

"... What?"

"He’s shouting for them to let him see his daughter. Did they take her away...? An old mage is shouting at him!"

Tears streamed down Setsuna’s cheeks.

"After being driven out of the Red Tower, he wandered for years... and apparently found this place. But..."

"Stop."

Woojin lifted Setsuna’s hand from the blade.

"You don’t need to tell me any more. I understand."

After all his efforts, he had found the den. But having already given the ring to his daughter, he could do nothing but swing his sword at the door.

"Master..."

Her tears kept pouring down.

"I didn’t know reading memories could be so sad."

[Setsuna uses Ancient Wisdom.]

Reality didn’t end with a single line of notification text, the way a game did.

"Waaaaah...!!!"

The memories lingering within the object stirred Setsuna’s heart with piercing sorrow.

"Could you bury him?"

Woojin gently comforted Setsuna. Wiping her tears, she nodded.

RUMBLE...

Two Grasps rose beside Karlan’s corpse and enclosed him.

"Karlan."

Looking at the mound of earth covering him, Woojin spoke softly.

"Even if you miss your daughter, wait just a little... No, a whole lot longer."

She was still alive, after all.

CREAK.

Woojin turned his head. Then he pushed the ring into a small hole in the scarred stone wall.

RUMBLE...

The stone wall that Karlan had failed to open until his dying breath slid open with disheartening ease.

THUMP. THUMP.

FZZT... FZZZZT...

As he stepped beyond the stone wall, lights flared along both sides. A few of the torches seemed to be malfunctioning, however, their flames flickering with a sputtering sound.

The scene resembled the game, yet was unmistakably different. These were the traces of passing years.

‘I thought visiting this other world was just a cheat for getting runes and learning about the future...’

He had been far too complacent.

The further he progressed in the game, and the more bonds he formed, the crueler his visits to this other world became. He felt confused. Here, they weren’t NPCs, but living human beings. As though testing him, Nissen’s death and Karlan’s corpse kept shaking his resolve.

SLAP!!!

Woojin struck his cheeks with both hands.

‘Get a grip.’

More important right now than deciding how to treat them was getting back to reality.

"Is Fensir... not here?"

He had entered with a faint hope, but sadly, there was no trace of Fensir beyond the stone wall.

‘If Aswell got the ring after hunting Fenrir... that would mean he searched beneath the stone wall, too.’

Perhaps he had killed Fensir as well.

With a heavy heart, Woojin looked at the small box beyond the stone wall.

"Is this it?"

CLICK.

He opened the box to find an old scroll inside.

"The Sword Emperor’s secret technique..."

In the game, Aswell had modeled a sword art called Ravenous Wolf after Fenrir’s attacks. But the secret technique he had left here was a sword art he had discovered while killing Fenrir.

A sword art that was the complete opposite of Ravenous Wolf.

‘Can I learn it?’

Woojin unfurled the old scroll from the box.

"...!!"

At that moment, to his astonishment, images filled his mind. How to grip the sword, the stance to hold it in, even the path of the blade... Every detail of the sword art contained in the scroll was etched into his mind, one after another.

Where the dragon-slayer Raoul’s swordsmanship was direct and overpowering, the Bolton family’s swordsmanship instead emphasized finesse. But the Sword Emperor’s swordsmanship was of an entirely different nature.

"This..."

Yet it wasn’t the greatness of the secret technique that astonished Woojin. It was what had just happened—the sensation of swordsmanship taking shape in his mind without anyone teaching him.

It was Ancient Knowledge, the Trait he had gained when he formed a contract with Fensir.

"... You’re alive."