Chapter 23

“Gah!!!”

“P-please, spare me...!!!”

Red blood splashing in every direction filled his vision.

SHUNK!! SHUNK!!!

The flying blood brought home once again that he had returned to the other world. This was no game, but reality, thick with the stench of blood. The corpses did not turn to ash. Some had not even closed their eyes properly and seemed to be staring at him.

‘Those ears...’

Woojin’s face stiffened at the sight of the corpses. Pointed ears. Beautiful faces, male and female alike. They were not human.

Elves were fleeing, and humans were hunting them. He did not understand what was happening, but the people repeatedly plunging their swords into a fallen elf’s back certainly did not seem sane.

‘... Can I do this?’

He had reached level 25 while defeating Sig Elric. He also had two titles. Even Woojin had no idea how far his current strength would take him.

“Aaaaargh!!”

Just then, a fleeing elf pitched forward and fell in front of the rubble where Woojin was hiding.

“... H... help...”

Swallowing the blood flooding their mouth, the elf struggled to form the words as they looked at Woojin.

“...”

For an instant, the dying elf’s face overlapped with Ruen’s.

GULP.

Woojin put a potion bottle to the fallen elf’s lips. As the liquid slid down their throat, the elf’s wounds slowly began to close.

“Who’s there?!”

The voice came from behind him. Woojin turned with a slight frown. He had to admit it: his body had moved before his reason could catch up.

‘No point regretting it now.’

SHING.

Rather than waste time agonizing, he leveled his sword.

“I was on my way to the Lion King’s stronghold. I have no particular desire to fight you.”

He decided to test the waters first.

“The Lion King? So there are still morons who believe that ridiculous rumor.”

“What do you mean?”

Unfortunately, it seemed his approach was not working.

“Fucking idiot... What backwater shithole did you crawl out of?”

“Listen! It’s all a made-up lie! There is no such place!”

“Heeheehee!”

Woojin’s expression hardened slightly at the man’s words.

‘Then what about Raoul?’

What about the journey he had undertaken, believing in the Lion King’s stronghold?

“Did you check for yourselves?”

“... What?”

“I’m asking whether you verified for yourselves that it was a lie.”

“Verified? Hahaha...! There’s nothing to verify! Word that demons have occupied the island of the Northern Wall has already spread across the continent!”

“So you haven’t actually seen it.”

“Stop talking shit, hand over everything you have, and get lost. Otherwise, I’ll rip out all your organs and sell them to the demons.”

“And if I refuse?”

“Then you fucking die!”

The man moved. He was fairly fast, but not too fast to follow.

“That’s a relief.”

Woojin murmured under his breath as he lowered his sword and took his stance.

The question he had been asking himself—‘Can I do this?’—changed the moment he saw the man move.

‘I can do this.’

Woojin shot toward him as though launched from a spring.

“... Dodge!”

One of the man’s companions shouted from behind him, but Woojin’s sword was faster.

SHUNK.

It pierced the man’s throat.

“Ghk!”

Woojin shoved his foot into the man’s chest, sending him toppling backward before he could even let out a proper death scream.

“Grrk... grrk...”

Blood spurted from the hole in his throat. Trembling as though in convulsions, he reached toward his companions, seemingly begging for help.

CRUNCH.

But Woojin casually crushed that outstretched hand underfoot and stood before the others.

‘It feels light.’

Swinging his sword felt different from before. Was it the effects of his titles? Or the levels he had gained? Whatever the reason, one thing mattered: he was now tearing through the group at an unbelievable speed.

“Aaaaargh!”

The people who had been hunting the elves struggled desperately to catch Woojin.

WHOOOOSH!

A gust rose beneath his feet, and he raced even faster.

‘I can use Acceleration, too.’

Woojin could now draw naturally on the skills he had learned in the game.

CLICK.

Slowing as he drove an enemy to the ground with a foot against their chest, Woojin twisted at the waist and drew his sword with all his strength.

CRACKLE!

Dragon Heaven activated, and the lightning pouring from his blade swallowed the enemies around him.

“Aaaaaaargh...!”

“Aaaargh...!”

As they shuddered as though electrocuted, Woojin’s sword cut through another person’s neck.

THUD.

The moment the head hit the ground, silence settled over the area.

“Grrk... grrk...”

“Bleurgh!”

Here and there, people knelt on the ground, retching up blood-laced vomit.

“You... son of a bitch! You think you’ll get away with this?! Do you know who we...”

“No.”

SLICE.

Woojin finished off the fallen one by one.

“And I don’t care to know.”

It was strange. He had killed a dozen or more people in an instant, yet, surprisingly, he felt neither shaky nor tense.

‘Surely I’m not a born killer...’

Woojin smiled bitterly.

He would much rather remain a successful businessman, if possible. Not that such a thing was possible in the world he now occupied.

“Whew...”

There was one saving grace. The sensation of cutting through flesh was far from pleasant, and the scattered corpses still made him frown. Apparently, killing was not in his nature after all.

“Th-thank you.”

The surviving elves began gathering around him from all directions.

“If you hadn’t helped us, sir, we would all have died.”

“How can we ever repay you...?”

“I wasn’t really looking for anything in return. You just reminded me of someone I know...”

Woojin answered as he put away his sword.

“Who were those people, anyway?”

“You don’t know?”

“I’m asking because I don’t know, aren’t I?”

“Oh...”

Had his reply reminded the elves of the hunters’ remark about a “backwater shithole”? They nodded awkwardly and explained.

“They’re collectors. They hunt nonhuman races.”

“Elven eyes, gnome fingers, dwarven bones... Demons are fond of nonhuman body parts.”

“Demons...”

The final floor of the Labyrinth Tower had never been cleared, leaving this world overrun with monsters. That was what Raoul had told him about this place...

‘Was that not the end of it?’

Woojin looked up at the sky with a slight frown.

‘I never saw anything about demons appearing on the forums... Probably because players are still only in the early stages of the Labyrinth Tower.’

Demons were monsters too, after all. There was nothing strange about them being here.

RUMBLE...

Some time had passed, but the island still floated overhead, unconquered.

‘There’s still a lot I need to learn.’

“For now... I think we should leave this place. There may still be some of them left.”

The elf spoke to him cautiously.

“Do you have somewhere to hide?”

“Yes. A little farther from here is a cave with a maze inside.”

Looking in the direction the elf indicated, Woojin could guess what lay there.

“... The Bloodstained Cave?”

“Oh... That’s right. You know it.”

Was this good luck? The elves were pointing him toward the very place he needed to go.

“It doesn’t seem like a place that suits elves...”

“Our kingdom has fallen. What does it matter whether a place suits us?”

They smiled bitterly at Woojin’s words.

“It’s spacious inside, with plenty of places to hide, so it makes a good refuge. The rest of our companions are hiding there too.”

‘Well, they’re not wrong. Even in the game, PKers live inside the dungeon instead of going back to town.’

A good place to hide was also a good place to launch an ambush.

‘If I can learn more about the cave...’

That would not be bad at all.

“The cave entrance has collapsed, so the collectors won’t be able to find it. There’s a secret passage only we know about. Don’t worry.”

“A secret passage?”

Woojin’s cheek twitched slightly.

“Yes. It leads close to the boss room on the lowest level. We’re treating the wounded there.”

As the elf spoke, he took out the medicinal herbs he had kept safely tucked inside his clothes even during the attack.

“Let’s hurry.”

“Of course.”

Watching the elves walk ahead of him, Woojin wore a curious smile.

‘A secret passage...’

Perhaps he had just learned something incredible.

* * *

“Here we are.”

The Bloodstained Cave. The route descending from its aboveground entrance split into countless branches, but every path eventually led to the boss room on the lowest floor. That was why most PKers lay in wait near the boss room entrance, targeting players on their way there. It had even earned the Bloodstained Cave’s boss room another name.

‘The Slaughterhouse.’

The boss room entrance was nothing more than a hiding place for people who lurked like beasts waiting for prey.

‘To kill the Bloodstained Cave’s boss, you first have to deal with the scum hiding outside it.’

That was the accepted wisdom on the forums, and as a result, the Bloodstained Cave had become an abandoned dungeon that players simply skipped.

“... That was definitely how it was.”

Woojin let out an incredulous laugh despite himself. After all, he was standing in none other than the Bloodstained Cave’s boss room.

‘To think there was a route that bypassed everything and led straight to the boss room.’

It was absurd.

The elves had initially led him not to the Bloodstained Cave’s entrance, but to a small crack between rocks a considerable distance away. His puzzlement had lasted only a moment. Once they slipped through the gap, an unbranching passage led all the way to the boss room.

“Goun. I have a question.”

The elf standing beside Woojin turned his head.

“Yes. Please, go ahead.”

“That passage we took to get here. How old is it?”

“I’m not sure. At least five hundred years, perhaps? I heard about it from my grandfather.”

“Five hundred years?”

Woojin nodded at his answer.

‘If this secret passage has been around for five hundred years, there’s naturally a good chance it exists in the game too.’

It had taken only about ten minutes to reach the boss room through the secret passage.

‘With this, I could slash the time attack record.’

How would people react? He was already curious, but first he needed to get back.

“This way.”

Goun led Woojin down a side passage at the back of the boss room.

‘There’s even a place like this.’

“The Bloodstained Cave’s boss, the Red Centipede, likes to dig holes and hide in them because of the heat its body gives off.”

Countless holes had been dug inside.

“Apparently, it does so to cool itself with the chill of the earth. Thanks to that, back here...”

Goun dug into a mound of dirt.

RUMBLE...

Unlike the old holes that had hardened with age, the mound crumbled easily, as though it had only just been piled there.

“...there’s another space.”

Just as he said, Woojin could sense people inside. He looked up.

“...?!”

His eyes widened.