Chapter 55

-Wow...!! That lady over there must not feel the cold.

“Just look straight ahead.”

Woojin covered Setsuna’s eyes with his hand as she sat inside his pocket.

The deeper they walked into the alley, the more scantily clad people they passed, men and women alike.

-Oh my, oh my!

-Whaaat?!

As Setsuna reacted differently to each person they passed, Woojin stole a glance at Ruen.

“Wow...”

But she, too, was flushed and flustered, unsure where to look. Woojin cleared his throat and turned away.

“Virtual reality or not, did they really have to make all this pointless stuff...?”

Just then, a woman leaning against a building’s window called out to him, having apparently heard his remark.

“Pointless? You don’t know what you’re talking about. This is precisely what makes virtual reality so appealing.”

“Want to give it a try?”

Lighting her long pipe, she asked in a seductive voice.

Ruen gripped his sleeve tightly from behind and gave it a quiet tug, as though asking him not to go.

“I’ll pass. I get enough of that in real life.”

“Oh...? It’s all right. Ninety percent of the people who come here say something like that. I suppose none of them want to look like first-timers. We even have rooms for couples, if you’d like.”

“... Huh?!”

Flustered by her words, Ruen cried out and hastily released his sleeve.

“What a cute companion. A player? Or a mercenary?”

The woman chuckled as Ruen took a wary step behind Woojin.

Her reddish-brown hair was long enough to cover one eye, and her eyes, a shade deeper than ruby, held a seductive allure.

“Then are you a player?”

She nodded at Woojin as she packed tobacco into her long pipe.

“You’ve been here a long time, then?”

“Long enough, I suppose? Most people on this street have been playing Evil Tale for at least two years.”

Drifters’ Street.

A gathering place for those who had tried their luck on the central continent, given up, and returned to the Dark Forest.

It was also the biggest reason Hundred Flowers Valley was called the village of failures.

“I’m looking for someone. Can you help?”

“What’s in it for me?”

“What do you want? Money?”

“Oh? You sound awfully confident. You must have plenty.”

“I’m not short on it.”

Woojin took some gold from his inventory and set it before her.

“Ten gold. I’d say that’s pretty good pay for a little errand.”

She checked the money inside the pouch and gave him an odd look.

“Aren’t you a little too naive? Offering this much right off the bat. Don’t you know you always end up paying more than your opening offer?”

“That’s why I only took out this much.”

“... What?”

“Do a good job, and I’ll double it. Find me more information I need beyond that, and I’ll triple it.”

“Interesting. Now I’m curious what could warrant such a grand offer.”

“I’m looking for someone. I heard there’s a drunk in this alley.”

“A drunk? Ah... You mean Grosh?”

For some reason, she tossed the pouch back to Woojin, looking disappointed.

“If you’re looking for him, you don’t need to go through me. See that blue roof? He’ll be passed out in front of that shop today, as usual.”

Just as she said, a man lay beneath a covering of rags in front of a shop farther down the alley.

“Do you know anything about him?”

“Well, he’s just another NPC you see on the street... Is he really worth taking an interest in?”

“I see.”

Woojin gave a brief reply and offered her the pouch again.

“Take it. You did help me find him.”

“Forget it. I may be a failure, but I’m not a beggar. Ten gold for something like this? I don’t want your pity.”

Apparently displeased by his gesture, she turned away with an irritated response.

'She’s got some backbone.'

Woojin watched her stride away.

“But she’s still a failure.”

At first glance, her attitude looked rather admirable, but to be blunt, she was merely indulging in pointless pride.

Ten gold.

About 1.2 million Korean won.

It might be different on the central continent, but that was by no means an easy sum to earn in the Dark Forest.

'Well, it wouldn’t be that hard if you spent real money on it...'

In truth, the people here had little desire for gold.

The main reason to need gold in a game was to get better equipment, but those who had spent years lingering in the Dark Forest had no need for that.

“... What did you just say?”

Had she heard him muttering to himself?

She stopped and turned back to him.

“That was rude of me. I wasn’t trying to provoke you.”

“Really? You don’t seem to have even considered that it counts as provocation.”

“I was just curious.”

“... Curious?”

“Why you’re still playing Evil Tale.”

Her expression twisted at his answer.

“I read on the community boards that you have to go to the central continent to experience the real Evil Tale.”

He took a step toward her.

“I’ve never been there myself, so I don’t know how impressive it is... But if that’s true, the Dark Forest must feel terribly dull to those of you who’ve been there.”

She gave an incredulous laugh as she looked at him.

“Think whatever you like. I’m sure we look like losers to the great hero who cleared the Ice Cave.”

The unexpected response made Woojin regard her with curiosity.

“You knew?”

“Of course. The raid dungeon had only been open a few days when you went and cleared it. This street was finally about to come back to life, and you sent it crashing down again.”

Only then did Woojin realize she hadn’t spoken to him for no reason.

“Master. People are watching us from all over.”

Ruen whispered behind him.

He could feel gazes hidden within the buildings.

'Right... Come to think of it, most people here must be in their late forties in level.'

Perhaps the Ice Cave had been created for failures like them.

“Am I supposed to apologize? You shouldn’t blame other people for your own lack of ability.”

“You’d better be careful. People here won’t be very friendly toward you.”

She tapped the ash from her pipe and turned away.

“What’s your name?”

“Why do you ask?”

She tilted her head at Woojin’s question, pausing briefly before asking her own.

“Because I get the feeling you’re the friendliest person toward me on this street.”

“... You’re crazy.”

She chuckled at him and turned away, leaving him with her name.

“Vanetsha.”

“Will we be all right? There are still a lot of people watching us. It seems clearing the Ice Cave has really put us on their bad side.”

“Let them do whatever they want. I don’t run from a fight someone brings to me. We just need to take care of our own business.”

Ruen nodded and followed him.

* * *

“... Veterans, all right. I didn’t expect them to harass us like this.”

Woojin smiled wryly at the group before him.

“P-please spare me!!!”

“... Shut up!!”

A sharp sword rested against the neck of a filthy man kneeling on the ground, close to tears.

“E-eek...!!!”

The screaming man was none other than Grosh, the drunken NPC Woojin had been looking for.

“I heard your whole conversation earlier. I don’t know what quest you’re doing, but you need this bastard, don’t you?”

The man holding his sword to Grosh’s neck shouted at Woojin.

“Using an NPC to threaten me... That’s a fresh approach, at least. All right, what do you want?”

“Hand over the loot you got from the Ice Cave. Or I’ll kill him.”

Woojin smiled wryly.

“I don’t have any.”

“... What?”

“Loot. I don’t have any.”

“You bastard...! Are you fucking kidding me? You cleared a raid dungeon and didn’t get anything? How does that make sense?!”

SHING.

Woojin drew his sword.

“I gave all the useful loot to the party members who went with me. Though judging by the look of you, you wouldn’t believe me even if I told you it was true.”

He addressed the group in a low voice.

“Go ahead. See what happens.”

“Y-you bastard...!!!”

THUD!!

It happened just then.

The man holding the sword was lifted clean off his feet and hurled backward.

“Gah...!”

He crashed to the ground with an arrow embedded in his chest.

“... Oh. I thought you meant I could go ahead.”

Holding her bow, Ruen gave Woojin a sheepish look.

“Your acting’s improved a lot.”

“Hehe.”

'W-what... Miller, in one shot?'

'What is that mercenary? Is she over level fifty?'

'That’s impossible...'

Looking at their fallen companion, the others exchanged bewildered glances, unsure what to do.

“Want to keep going?”

“D-damn it...!”

They fled in haste, abandoning their fallen companion.

“Hey.”

Woojin picked up the fallen man’s sword and stabbed him in the thigh.

“Aaargh!!!”

“Why don’t you get up now? If Ruen had meant to kill you, that arrow would’ve gone straight through instead of sticking in you.”

CREAK.

Ruen spoke as she drew her bowstring taut.

“Shall I give it a try?”

“P-please spare me!!”

The man awkwardly scrambled upright with the sword still lodged in his thigh and cried out to them.

“Did you seriously think you could take the Ice Cave’s items from me by pulling something like this?” Woojin asked in disbelief.

“No! Absolutely not!!”

“They said this was a place for old hands... Have you stagnated so long you’ve rotted? Making pathetic threats like that.”

He yanked out the sword and tossed it to the ground.

“Aaargh!!!”

The man screamed, then clamped a hand over his mouth under Woojin’s icy gaze.

“Go.”

The man struggled to his feet and limped laboriously away from Woojin.

“With skills like that... I can see why they couldn’t hold their own on the central continent and got driven out. Tsk, tsk.”

Scoffing at the scattered group, Woojin turned away.

“M-Master...”

Ruen, who had been checking on the bound Grosh, called to him urgently.

“What’s wrong?”

Sensing something amiss from her flustered manner, Woojin approached.

“This man... He’s dead.”

“... What?”

How could a man who had been frantically begging for his life just moments ago suddenly be dead?

Woojin hastily examined Grosh’s body.

There were no external injuries.

RIP!

He roughly tore away the ragged outer garment, revealing skin around Grosh’s neck that had turned a dark, bloody red.

'That’s where the man’s sword was touching him.'

“... Could it be poison?”

Woojin picked up the sword from the ground.

The man who had threatened him hadn’t seemed to have the nerve to kill Grosh.

Perhaps he had been used without even knowing his own sword was poisoned.

'Who would do this...?'

Had someone else overheard that he was going to meet Grosh?

No.

There was someone who hadn’t needed to eavesdrop, someone who had heard it openly.

“Vanetsha.”

Woojin recalled the woman he had met earlier.