Chapter 98 – Carbuncle – [Three]

“Then did you continue playing alone on your side?”

Arnold answered Seo Yun’s question.

“Actually, I wanted to quit too. What’s the point of continuing when I’m the only Party Member left? But when I tried to quit… since it seemed like the Session would end like that, the GM was really upset.

Seems like he was the only one with tremendous passion. He grumbled at me for a full hour about how many weeks it took just to prepare the Session, and it seemed like he wanted to keep GMing even if I was the only Player left? I had no choice but to continue…”

Seo Yun swallowed back the words ‘Why did you even bother reading the mood instead of just going to roll or something?’ down her throat.

“The GM is the Game Master… so the role of preparing the Scenario, narrating, and all that, right? So you kept playing 1:1 with the GM until level 19, raising your Barbarian Warrior character.”

“Yeah.”

“What about the possibility that GM made a wish?”

Arnold answered Seo Yun’s question.

“Certainly… I’ve also suspected he might have made a wish. The GM showed tremendous attachment to the Scenario he prepared and the dungeon settings and such… If any Player made an innovative choice and tried to deviate even slightly from the Scenario he prepared, he’d openly show his displeasure, probably.”

“Seems neither the GM nor you were very sociable personalities.”

“That’s right. So even though we hung out online for nearly a year, we never saw each other’s real faces. Actually, I came to Korea to find that GM too…”

“You tried to find the GM in Korea?”

“The GM said he was Korean, according to him. But I gave up on finding him a long time ago now.”

“Why?”

“Once I actually came, I realized there was no way to find him, and thinking about it properly, no matter how attached he was to the Scenario, there’s no way he would have made such a wish… Unlike me, the GM didn’t even have a GMPC that was like his alter ego? I had the motivation to become a handsome and powerful Barbarian Warrior, but he…”

Arnold was speaking with emotion, as if the speculation that the GM wasn’t the culprit who made the world like this was some sorrowful matter.

As Arnold sighed once more, Seo Yun thought.

‘He just wanted to find another culprit and escape from his own responsibility. He wanted to find proof that he wasn’t the mastermind who made this world like this.’

Anyway, what a pathetic bastard. Feeling an impulse to punch him, Seo Yun asked.

“So if you’ve given up on finding the GM, what will you do now?”

“I’m going to level up.”

“Why level up? Surely you’re not thinking of becoming an overpowered character to enjoy wealth and glory.”

“If I reach level 20, I can undergo Ascension. So I can become a god…”

Seo Yun recalled that the troll had brought this Barbarian Warrior before her.

“Are you trying to become the Sun God, by any chance?”

“How did you know?”

“I received a similar proposal too. Anyway, I guess you’re prepared to take responsibility for making the world like this?”

Arnold nodded his head, then asked in a weak voice.

“Come to think of it, didn’t you say last time that you’d beat up whoever made the world change?”

“Probably, yeah.”

“Then… do you want to hit me now?”

Seo Yun thought for a moment, then clicked her tongue.

“Forget it.”

“Why?”

“Actually, personally, I don’t have anything worth holding a grudge over… In my case, it’s not like my family or friends died.”

It’s just that I died and became some girl.

Seo Yun extended her right hand. Unlike the large hand of her former firefighter self, it was a small, soft hand without a single callus.

As Arnold just stared blankly at that hand, Seo Yun spoke.

“What are you doing? Let’s shake hands, fellow god aspirants.”

“Unlike you, I…”

“You don’t need to read my mood. Even if you might have wronged everyone in the world, you haven’t wronged me.”

Arnold hesitated for a long time, then said.

“But I tried to kill you too?”

“To keep the secret, you probably had to kill me, but you didn’t in the end, so let’s consider that you saved my life, okay? Then we saved each other’s lives, so we’re even.”

Seo Yun deliberately smiled playfully while looking at Arnold’s face.

The pathetic Barbarian Warrior before her wore a dazed expression. Seeing that dumbfounded expression, that ‘how can you say such things?’ expression, Seo Yun thought. Seems I’m definitely being generous.

Seo Yun kept her right hand extended forward and tapped Arnold’s shoulder with her left hand. Arnold flinched, then finally shook hands.

“Have you eaten?”

“Not yet…”

“Then let’s go eat. Follow me.”

As they stepped out of the guest tent, people passing by stopped walking. They looked back and forth between Arnold and her, then asked.

“Who is that person?”

“Ah, he’s a guest who decided to stay in the village now, and I volunteered to host him. We actually knew each other before too.”

“Even so, doing such chores personally…”

“What, am I going to skip out on chores?”

Seo Yun roughly dealt with them and was on her way to the restaurant. Arnold, following behind, muttered.

“I don’t know Korean well, so I don’t know what was just said, but the villagers seem to be acting very politely. Even though you’re young. Is your status high in the village?”

“Race privilege, I guess. If I weren’t a Lesser Angel but a different Race, I might have become the greatest person of all time by now, making everyone kneel, but I wouldn’t have had this kind of popularity…”

“What’s your Level?”

“7.”

Arnold groaned.

“That’s extremely high. Even in TRPG, level 7 is a level you can only reach after progressing quite a bit in Sessions.”

“So what, is there a problem?”

“No, just… I wanted to say it’s admirable. At that age, without any proper reason to have to struggle like that, how you managed…”

Come to think of it, when we first met, he was surprised asking if all teenagers these days fight so well? Thinking about it now, it seems he said that with modern sensibilities back then.

Seo Yun shrugged her shoulders.

“So are you earning Experience Points well on your side?”

“Not really…”

“Haven’t you hunted many Monsters since then?”

“Not a single one…”

That answer seemed pathetic even to Arnold himself.Arnold began to ramble on about how he needed to face monsters with a Challenge Rating of at least 17 to gain Experience Points by defeating them, and how that wasn’t something he could do since he was just a high-level game character with little real combat experience, and so on.

Listening to all those pathetic excuses, Seo Yun nearly snapped back:

‘Are you seriously an idiot?’

While talking with Arnold, Seo Yun realized something. That Barbarian Warrior was definitely pathetic, and by the standards of the world from over three years ago, he was pathetic too.

Honestly, it was utterly incomprehensible that this Barbarian Warrior was still in such a state. Among the Players, there were even those who had adapted so thoroughly to the changed world that their way of thinking had become like that of a real medieval knight.

Like that, everyone had changed and changed again. And though it was unimaginable in the old world, now even teenagers had to risk their lives to survive.

Considering all that, it was hard to accept that Arnold was still acting like a basement-dwelling gamer even years after the world had changed. He, who had made the world this way, had a responsibility to live more fiercely than anyone else in this world now, yet he was like this?

She didn’t let that contempt show on the outside.

“It seems the period you were Petrified by the Basilisk was too long. Right?”

“Huh? Uh… yeah.”

“If lack of experience is the problem, you’ll need to train harder from now on. You’ve memorized the Rulebook thoroughly, right? Then the issue is practical experience, and judging by your attitude, you seem to have plenty of motivation…”

Seo Yun offered various pieces of advice and even a few words of encouragement before serving Arnold a meal.

Arnold seemed to have checked his surroundings and, realizing only the girl before him was there, decided to act without reserve. He greedily devoured the boiled chicken placed before him, then spoke in an emotional voice.

“I’m really grateful for today…”

“I’m not sure what you’re thanking me for, but rest for now.”

As she said that, Seo Yun struggled to hold back the urge to snap, ‘Rest? Rest what? Get out of the village right now and level up.’

But that wasn’t the only thing Seo Yun held back. Throughout the conversation, she suppressed the resentment boiling inside her. She restrained the urge to unleash a torrent of curses at this pathetic fool who, after making the world like this, rambled on about how he wasn’t the mastermind behind it all and how he was still going to become a god.

Anyway, according to his own words, that Barbarian Warrior hadn’t intended any of these results and bore no malice.

And besides, wasn’t he already trying to take responsibility for all this in his own way? Even if he had that mindset, pushing him angrily wouldn’t lead to a good outcome. Not for that pathetic fool, nor for the world he had to take responsibility for.

In Seo Yun’s judgment, snapping at him would just be venting her own anger. So she didn’t get angry, but because of that, her chest felt tight.

Makgeolli, I need to drink makgeolli…

Seo Yun was about to enter her own tent.

“Can we talk for a moment?”

The Troll’s voice came from an empty spot.

By now, it wasn’t surprising anymore. Seo Yun activated her Soul Sight and asked the Troll.

“Of course we can talk. But let me ask you something first: why did you send that Barbarian Warrior to this village?”

“Our village has almost no Players. If he wants to level up by battling monsters, I judged this place, which has the most Players, would be ideal.”

Seo Yun thought: Bullshit. There aren’t any Players around Arnold’s Level here either, so that can’t be the real reason.

Seo Yun could guess the real reason the Mage Troll had sent the Barbarian Warrior here.

‘And judging with an intellect so cold and sharp it defies evaluation by game Ability Scores, this Troll before me is probably…’

Without showing any of these thoughts, Seo Yun asked.

“So, what did you want to say?”

“I remember we made a kind of deal last time. In exchange for gaining the right to call on you for help, I agreed to cooperate with Kim Rayeon in cloning you.”

“That’s right. How can I help you?”

The Troll seemed somewhat bothered by the fact that, despite making that deal, he had also taken the Meteor Fragments from the village. He spoke more quickly and haltingly than usual.

“There’s a way to raise Levels multiple times at once.”

“Levels?”

“Yes. You could go from Level 2 to Level 3 all at once. It would be good for you and the younger Players in this village. The method is…”