Chapter 69 – Deep Web

Lee Seoyeon.

As the operator of Apocalypse Inside, she had a quite bright personality as a child… but now, she was afraid of people.

She had been naturally introverted, but…

The biggest influence was the bullying she suffered during her school years.

Ironically, the ringleader was a girl who had been her best friend, someone she used to draw with all the time.

The reason for it was wretchedly childish.

Her best friend had always been secretly jealous that Seoyeon drew far better than she did.

When a boy the friend had a crush on started talking to Seoyeon because of her drawing skills, the grudge that had been rotting inside her finally exploded.

That was when the bizarre rumors about Seoyeon began to spread.

It started with claims that her quiet and introverted nature was all a fake act, and evolved into strange rumors that she had several older boyfriends behind the scenes, and had even tried alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs.

By the time Seoyeon realized the source of those rumors was her best friend, it was already too late; the strange rumors had spawned even stranger ones, growing uncontrollably.

People began whispering not only at school but also in the neighborhood, and even the teachers began to avoid her.

For Seoyeon, who was only a middle school student, it was a horrific situation. Eventually, she refused to go to school.

When her mother, who had always looked upon her with pity and supported her, passed away, Seoyeon used her small inheritance to rent a studio apartment in Chuncheon—a place where no one would recognize her—and moved there for that very reason.

Since then, she had barely eked out a living by working as a freelance illustrator using her drawing skills and finding solace in managing a few small communities.

Then…

As the Monsters began their invasion, she awakened her Apocalypse Inside ability and found herself facing a chaotic situation.

“What… is all this?”

Apocalypse Inside was supposed to have opened for the first time in this life, yet the boards were packed with information!

“This… this is next year’s date?”

It was as if the world had already gone through this once. It looked as though countless people had broadcasted the changing situation in real-time.

But that wasn’t all.

“Th-there’s a messenger function too?”

When she checked her messenger with trembling hands, names she had never seen before appeared.

[Ha Seongjae: Looks like I’m going to leave first with four anime left unwatched. Make sure to put them in my grave. The titles are…]

[Gwak Sangyong: I finally found the culprit. That guy really was a Villain. Do some digging and make sure to tell Siwoo.]

[Choi Yongjin: I’m sorry. I guess this is as far as I go.]

[…]

“Th-this is…?”

They were all messages like farewells right before death.

Seoyeon fell into a panic.

“Could it be… they all died?”

It was ridiculous. Colleagues she hadn’t even met yet had left her messages of death. Only then did she try sorting Apoin by date.

When the Apoin posts were sorted from the most popular to the chronological order… they revealed a desperate future.

The posts that appeared occasionally grew fewer and fewer.

And eventually, they stopped altogether at a certain point.

“Then… is there… no one left alive?”

Just as she was shaking her head and desperately checking various details…

Among the messenger texts sorted by date…

The most recent message caught her eye.

[Seong Siwoo: Seoyeon, by any chance… are you skipping breakfast again today?]

It seemed someone… had survived until the end.

* * *

Before promoting Apoin as a public channel, Seoyeon set all the previous posts to private.

‘So there were things called Villains…’

It was because of beings who abandoned their humanity to side with the Monsters.

On the other hand, she feared that people would panic if they found out how the future unfolded.

‘I should release the information little by little later…’

Meanwhile, she thoroughly read all the important content from the future posts of the past. This included the conversations with Seong Siwoo, who had survived until the end.

And as she read the conversations with other colleagues, she sometimes laughed and sometimes cried.

Though it was only through text, she felt as if she were experiencing that life firsthand with colleagues she had never actually met.

In doing so… she gradually began to change.

‘When are you all coming to pick me up?’

And from some point on, she began to wait for that day.

* * *

Meanwhile.

I stared at Seoyeon with a stunned expression for a moment.

‘Wh-wh-what? Siwoo-oppa?’

The story of her starting to call me Siwoo-oppa was something that happened much later. No, in the first place, she shouldn’t even know my name right now.

This was too strange.

‘Did she turn into a Villain?’

I immediately became guarded.

“Have we met before? I believe this is our first time meeting today.”

As I kept my distance, Seoyeon tilted her head with a confused expression and asked.

“Huh? Oppa, didn’t you… already know me? Looking at the Precog’s post, it’s obvious—”

“Whoa!”

It was then that Seongjae pointed and shouted loudly.

“That look! Could you be Magical Girl Yujina? I’ve never seen such a high-quality cosplay—urk!”

I immediately closed the door and began talking with Seoyeon alone.

* * *

“Past posts are still there?”

I looked at her with an absurd expression.

“All of them? Every single one?”

Seoyeon nodded.

She even showed me her phone to confirm.

‘My god…’

That place was a complete treasure trove.

No matter how hard I tried to remember, I couldn’t accurately grasp everything that happened in the past, and there were limits to my memory.

But the private Apoin she showed me was a whole new world.

‘Th-this… this makes it possible.’

For example, the broken Tenos’s Spear was one such case.

In the private message section of the Hunters who had explored the dungeon at that time, there was a pile of information confirming that Tenos’s Spear had originally been intact.

‘So only they knew…’

It seemed they kept it a secret to avoid being found out that they had failed. But the information I found wasn’t all.

‘There was an Artifact like this too?’

There were Artifacts I didn’t even know existed.

‘This guy really was a Villain, wasn’t he?’

I could also confirm that a suspect I had been doubting was indeed a Villain. In a sense, it was a kind of collective intelligence [Strategy Guide]. This was the moment when Lee Seoyeon’s already high value skyrocketed.

Meanwhile, Seoyeon was stuttering.

Avoiding my eyes, she asked.

“Um… that… I just felt so close to you without realizing… is it… is it still burdensome for me to call you oppa…?”

At her question…

I couldn’t help but give her a wide grin.

“No, just call me that comfortably. You don’t mind if I’m comfortable with you too, right?”

“Yep!”

Unlike when we first met in the past, she was smiling brightly.

* * *

At some point…

Something peculiar began to happen. Any content regarding Seong Siwoo and Gwak Sangyong began to be deleted as soon as it was posted.

It looked as if someone had control and was managing it.

[What? There was an Apoin operator?]

[Another post got deleted? Why is this suddenly happening?]

[Wow lol, they’ve basically been bystanders until now…]

That wasn’t the end.

[Regarding Organized Public Opinion Manipulation.]

An announcement was even posted.

The content of the announcement detailed exactly who was using what pattern to drive a wedge between Gwak Sangyong and Seong Siwoo.

The reaction was explosive.

[My god…]

[Wow, the Gangbuk Looters really crossed the line this time lol]

[It’s great to see a clean Apoin haha]

[It’s obvious they wanted to divide the normal factions so they could take everything for themselves, right? Truly terrifying ㅋㅋㅋ]

[Typical Looters, look at that personality ㅋㅋㅋㅋ]

The majority of the comments were cursing the Looters.

Meanwhile, that wasn’t all.

An internal exposure war broke out among the Looters.

[Regarding the fact that I thought we were close, but it turns out everyone was plotting behind my back.]

[Alliance my ass. They aren’t even survivors to begin with, does it make sense to split a pie that’s already shrinking?]

[At this rate, should I just stab them in the back and kill them all?]

For some reason, the messages where they cursed and checked each other behind the scenes were all revealed.

Kim Eunchae of the Marauder Alliance, who had led the effort to alienate Seong Siwoo and Gwak Sangyong, was trembling with a horrific expression.

“How did this happen?”

“I-I’m sorry…”

“Who the hell is whose spy?!”

“I don’t really…”

“Find them! Find them now!”

Kim Eunchae screamed at the top of her lungs. However, the man who had thought he was beneath her now had a different expression than usual.

“I’ve put up with a lot, but this is really…”

“Wh-what?”

“Do you think we’re a joke?”

It was the moment her control wavered.

* * *

Meanwhile.

Without the need for an immediate all-out war, I had bought some time and was searching for new growth drivers while looking through the private Apoin.

This was because Lee Seoyeon had voluntarily given me the authority to view the private Apoin without any need for persuasion.

‘I think it’s better to do it this way. I should have done it sooner, but I hesitated just in case.’

It seemed she hadn’t been certain until she met me. The fact that we were able to share our feelings played a large part in this.

Since she was someone who feared people, it was very awkward at first, but that was quickly resolved. A large part of it was her own conviction that we wouldn’t dislike her.

After that, she and I spent a lot of time together; she was curious about the things that happened in the past, and I also had things I had been frustrated about not being able to say.

When I told her about how she used to be anxious and avoid people shortly after we met, she felt quite embarrassed.

‘Did I really do that?’

‘I’m telling you, you did. Can you please not do that again this time?’

‘U-uh, okay! That must have been hard. I’m sorry…’

Funny enough, Seoyeon even apologized for a mistake she hadn’t personally made.

And naturally, the information obtained from the private Apoin was a huge help. Among those, the most surprising fact was…

‘So all these Artifacts came from here…’

The fact that as many as six Artifacts had come from a single dungeon I didn’t even know about!

Considering that I had only secured two Artifacts after opening three dungeons and one Instance Dungeon, the number six was truly an enormous amount.

Of course, not all of them were useful.

But an Artifact is an Artifact.

Any effect depends on how it’s used. Moreover, since it was a comprehensive gift set of about six items, it seemed best to acquire them quickly before it was too late.

‘With this… I’ll grow even more.’

I licked my lips…

‘Aerial Mothership. Move to designated coordinates.’

I ordered the Aerial Mothership to collect the Nest Mana Stones.