Chapter 102

Chapter 102

Flip~

I turn the first page.

<Report of the 4th Floor Survivors>

The beginning of the report is structured in a Q&A format. Someone asks, and a survivor from the 4th floor answers.

Q: How was your experience on the 4th floor?

A1: It was horrible. I don’t want to recall it.

Q: Can you elaborate on what was horrible?

A1: A deranged player assaulted a female NPC, and the NPC faction immediately retaliated. However, since that deranged player was the strongest on the 4th floor, it turned into a bloody massacre. It was the first time I had seen so many corpses in my life.

Q: What happened next? Aren’t there monsters on the 4th floor?

A1: On the third day at dawn, monsters swarmed us. We were all asleep and didn’t even realize the monsters had invaded. The weaker players couldn’t respond and were killed, only the very strong survived. Even after barely surviving, the stench of blood in the castle made it hard to sleep.

“...Hmm.”

As I mentioned before, we prepared meticulously.

We blocked all the gates of the castle and spent our spare time searching every corner of the castle for hidden elements. We practically scraped the bottom of the barrel.

But if we had spent two days in a daze without any preparation like these people... we would have suffered tremendous losses.

Q: What happened after that?

A1: Almost all the players died on the first day. The remaining ten of us holed up in a room in the castle and managed to endure the remaining two days without major issues.

Q: What about the NPCs? Do you know what happened to them?

A1: I don’t know. I never left the room, so I don’t know. My memory is fuzzy.

“Hm...”

The entire group of people summoned to the floor was massacred because they didn’t prepare at all.

It’s certainly a possible scenario, but it’s too extreme. There’s no useful information either. Personally, I hoped it would prove the hypothesis presented by Glasses Guy, that ‘the attacks stop when the number of otherworldly beings equals the number of players.’

Leaving the disappointing Q&A behind, I turn the pages again. About an hour later, I finally find the Q&A I was looking for.

A8: We decided to cooperate with the NPCs, thinking they wouldn’t be given to us for nothing. I had a hunch it was tied to the rewards.

Q: I’d like to hear more in detail.

A8: Didn’t the tutorial emphasize ‘moral values’? I judged that the main value of the 4th floor would be cooperation.

“This is good.”

A8. This guy was quite sharp. He didn’t think of blocking the castle walls entirely, but he made some preparations by dispatching some players to scout around the castle and set up traps.

As I was reading the report with interest.

A8: But my judgment was a mistake. The value of the 4th floor is definitely not ‘cooperation.’

Suddenly, A8’s tone turns aggressive.

Q: A mistake? I’d like to hear more.

A8: The difficulty of the 4th floor is too high. It’s not feasible to survive while protecting the NPCs. The first wave on the third day was manageable, but the wave on the fourth day was beyond our ability to withstand.

Q: Please continue.

A8: On the fifth day, we boldly abandoned the NPCs. The difficulty then felt drastically easier. We only had to protect ourselves, so it wasn’t hard at all.

“...”

A8. This person abandoned the NPCs the moment the difficulty increased. Since the reason for protecting people was for rewards, there was no reason to risk their lives to protect them.

​

A61: We abandoned Count Julius and his people. But he lied to us first. From the moment we were first summoned, he consistently bragged. He claimed all his subjects were trained soldiers, that he was a great mage, that his knights could split mountains...

Q: Was that not true?

A61: Absolutely not. His subjects were all farmers. There weren’t even twenty trained soldiers.

“...What is this nonsense?”

From the moment we were first summoned”? His soldiers? His knights?

A dreadful suspicion crept in, and I quickly flipped through the report, looking for keywords like baron, count, and other titles.

“...My God.”

The results were astonishing.

Count Julius. Marquess Jacob. Viscount Gorbachev. Baron Irving.

The otherworldly noblemen mentioned in the report all had different names. Their described appearances were different. Their personalities were unique.

“...Baron Jorge...”

I whispered as I flipped through the pages, my mind racing with this newfound revelation. Each noble mentioned seemed to be a piece of a larger puzzle, each one bringing me closer to understanding the true nature of this twisted game we were caught in.

​

It had never been mentioned before. There was only one meaning behind this.

The goblin shaman in the tutorial revives even after death. He lives and dies as many times as the tutorial repeats.

Efforts to save the goblin shaman are meaningless. Even if he survives once, he will die again anyway, and even if he dies once, he will revive again. He is entirely bound to the tower.

But... Baron Jorge is different. The nobles summoned to the 4th floor are not summoned again. They are not repetitive entities but singular beings.

This means that the otherworlders are not merely natural elements prepared for the 4th floor. It means they are also living beings struggling to survive. They are not NPCs that can be easily discarded.

“...”

Realizing this made my chest feel heavy. I had one more reason to save Baron Jorge and his people. The responsibility on my shoulders had become even more burdensome.

“Get a grip.”

No, nothing changes. I wanted to save everyone, anyway. Instead of wasting time here, I should be gathering more information.

Determined, I tried to read the report again, focusing my eyes.

Triiing, triiing.

“...Hm?”

A sound broke my immersion. My phone vibrated with the ringing tone.

I thought about turning it off to continue reading the report, but...

“...”

​

[Choi Ji-won]

...Seeing the name on the screen, I couldn’t bring myself to ignore it.

Click.

As if possessed, I pressed the call button and heard a familiar voice.

“Jun-ho, c-can we meet?”

Choi Ji-won’s familiar voice was trembling.

– – – End of Chapter – – -

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