Chapter 338. Misunderstandings and Prejudice (1)

Chapter 338. Misunderstandings and Prejudice (1)

“You will be using this apartment, Jun-Ho-nim. There are three-panel windows installed, so it provides soundproofing, and because it’s facing south, a lot of sunlight comes in…”

Cha Si-Eun was in charge of escorting him, and she explained each feature like a real estate agent. The apartment was on the 15th floor.

Seo Jun-Ho scanned the rooms and nodded. “It’s perfect for living alone.”

“Yes, it is. It is in a good area, as well. There is a convenience store, gym, and a swimming pool five minutes away from here…” She talked about some of the things in the area. “And… the other Heroes also live close by.”

“Really? How close?”

The moment he asked the question, there was a banging sound from the wall, and he heard Rahmadat yell in a muffled voice, “Can you hear me?!”

The apartment really did have good soundproofing.

“...They are your neighbors.”

“Looks like Skaya set up a magic barrier. I like it,” he said.

Seo Jun-Ho stepped onto the terrace and looked down at the city. Players were walking around in twos and threes. They were talking and eating amongst each other, and it was a peaceful sight.

“How are things these days?” he asked.

“To be frank, they’re not very good.” Cha Si-Eun’s face darkened. Recently, the cockroaches’ attacks had been especially fierce and intense. “The number of special entities has been increasing exponentially, so the number of casualties has also been on an upward trend. There have also been more deserters, so to speak, those who returned to Earth.”

“Hm.”

This definitely wasn’t good. The number of cockroaches was increasing to no end, but the number of Players on the 4th Floor was fairly limited. He thought for a moment before he asked, “Are there any documents that show the statistics and such for the battles and casualties?”

“I prepared them ahead of time.” Cha Si-Eun reached into her Inventory and retrieved a thick file folder.

Seo Jun-Ho let out a forced laugh when he saw, dumbfounded. “You’re the same as always. You’re still the Korean Player Association’s ace secretary.”

“I-I wouldn’t go that far. Please stop it.”

“Are we in the Joseon Era?[1]”

Cha Si-Eun bowed her head, a little shy. “I’m staying in the room at the end of the hallway, so please message me at any time if you need anything.”

“Oh, about that.”

Cha Si-Eun turned her head at the sound of his voice. “Yes, what is it?”

“Actually, never mind. It’s nothing.”

After tilting her head in confusion, Cha Si-Eun eventually left.

The Frost Queen turned to Seo Jun-Ho and asked, “What were you about to say?”

“Oh, you know. I was gonna tell her that she’s my comrade now, not my secretary, so she doesn’t always need to be on standby like that.”

“Why did you not say that?”

“...” Seo Jun-Ho’s eyes furrowed a bit.

‘Because it’s impossible to clear the fourth and fifth Quest in one go…’ 

His first priority in this regression was to watch how the situation would unfold. So, he thought that it would be convenient to use Cha Si-Eun as his secretary this time.

‘Use?’

Was it normal to say that about people?

Something was bothering him, but he wasn’t sure what it was.

In the end, he never figured out what it was.

Seo Jun-Ho shook his head. “Forget about it. It’s nothing.”

***

Seo Jun-Ho didn’t step into the battlefield in the next few days. Actually, he didn’t even leave his house. Instead, he carefully went over the entire thick pile of documents.

‘It has everything that has happened since even before I even entered the 4th Floor.’ 

He memorized everything inside it. At the same time, he was frustrated.

‘The war is going worse than I thought…’ 

It was especially because the number of special entities had increased tremendously from just over a month ago, which made him consider something.

‘If I could just start from the beginning, I would have just died.’ 

However, since the Save Point was created, he likely wouldn’t be able to do that. Of course, he wasn’t completely sure of it.

In the end, he had to win amidst the grim situation.

‘The problem is… the numbers just don’t add up no matter how many times I run it in a calculator.’ 

He wanted to save as many Players as possible. He wanted to clear the Floors without sacrificing anyone. However, because the Save Point was already set, he wouldn’t be able to save the Players who had already died.

‘I’d like to go up to the next Floor with the entire current fighting force intact…’ 

But as always, the cockroaches were an obstacle to achieving that. How could they go to the next city and kill Erebo if they couldn’t even cut down the cockroach army?

‘It’s impossible.’ 

He knew that it would be impossible to succeed using normal methods. Even if he attempted it a hundred times, he would lose every single time.

He thought for a long time…

All of a sudden, a message appeared in his Community window.

[Cha Si-Eun: There will be a strategy meeting in two hours. Will you be joining?]

A strategy meeting. The Players would gather periodically and discuss their plans. Because all the Players currently on the 4th Floor were from all different groups, a strategy meeting was very important to unify their thoughts.

‘According to the records, there are usually political clashes during these meetings.’ 

They said that men were blind to their own causes. Everyone wanted to arrange things in a way that their subordinates and the Players they cared about would be safe.

‘It wouldn’t be a bad idea to watch once.’ 

He gave her a brief reply.

[Sonny: Yes.]

***

The meeting place didn’t look like much on the outside. A large tent had been set up in an empty area in the park, and that was all. Inside, all they had were things like water, desks, and chairs.

‘I think the capacity would be around… a hundred Players.’ 

One wouldn’t even be able to participate unless they were a leader in a major Guild or party. Seo Jun-Ho was starting to understand why there were increasingly more deserters.

“Yawn. You’re here?” Rahmadat yawned and waved a big hand in greeting. When Seo Jun-Ho sat down next to his friends, he felt all eyes falling on him.

“Looks like Specter’s joining us.”

“Hey, you should still add the ‘nim’[2] at the end. Be respectful.”

“Respect him, my ass. Why would I respect some guy who holed up in his house to play the past few days?”

“Had he fought, Clara would have lived.”

Humans were intelligent, so they thought a lot. With their boundless imagination, many of them also got caught in the what-ifs. In short, humans were especially good at blaming others.

“Those bastards…” Rahmadat’s eyes narrowed, but Seo Jun-Ho chided him.

“Leave them be. It’s not like this is the first time I’ve heard something like that.” It had been a while since he was looked at with such disgust, and he almost welcomed it. Plus, not everyone was blaming him.

“Since he’s at the meeting today, that means he’s going to start fighting, right?”

“Looks like we’ll have some time to catch our breaths for now.”

“But do you think he’s actually as strong as the rumors say?”

“If Seo Jun-Ho and Specter are one, that means he can use two elements. He should be strong.”

“And he even killed Erebo’s clone in the first city.”

They were excited. There was a dim feeling of anticipation in their thoughts. They thought that if Specter—if the legendary hero stepped in—he could do something about all this.

Back then, Seo Jun-Ho was scared of the fact that he would have to carry all this on his back every time, but now, he had long gotten used to it.

‘There are a lot of familiar faces, too.’ 

There was the Goblin Guild of course, but Wei Chun-Hak and Kim-Woo-Joong were also here. So was Milphage, along with the majority of the Heavens and members of the Big 6. Looking at them reignited the feeling that they were truly humanity’s finest.

‘And…’ 

Seo Jun-Ho’s eyes settled on one man. Coincidentally, he was also looking at Seo Jun-Ho.

‘Tenmei Ryo.’ 

He was Mio’s second oldest brother, as well as the second son of the Tenmei family. Seo Jun-Ho had heard that he was leading the Sky Soul Guild on the 4th Floor.

‘And he also fucked me over before.’ 

Seo Jun-Ho could still remember as clear as day how Tenmei Ryo didn’t send support troops until the very end. When he smirked and nodded at him, Tenmei Ryo scowled and whipped his head away.

“Let us begin the strategy meeting,” Shin Sung-Hyun said in his signature calm voice.

Thus, the meeting began.

Unsurprisingly, the first order of business was the arrangement of the troops.

“Our Guild has been in charge of the eastern wall for a week, so switch us out to the rearguard.”

“Ahem, well, since you guys have already fought there, wouldn’t it be better to keep doing so? You have experience now, no?”

“What? Look here, you son of a bitch! We lose more than ten people every day!”

It had only been five minutes since the meeting started, but the Players were already cursing at each other. Of course, they were moody and sensitive, considering how everybody’s lives were on the line.

“Are all meetings like this?” Seo Jun-Ho asked in a low voice.

“Eh? No. Actually, it’s going smoother than usual today. Maybe it’s because you’re here,” Skaya replied. She gave an amused smile and blew a bubble with her gum.

The meeting continued for a long time before they finally made a decision.

“We shall arrange the troops as originally planned by taking turns. Because the Polaris Guild defended the eastern wall for a week, they should go to the northern wall, and since the Proto Guild was at the southern wall, which is relatively easier—”

“Huh?”

Just then, someone spoke, sounding dumbfounded, “I don’t see Proto’s Guild Master.”

“Are they not in the meeting?”

As the Players started to murmur, Shin Sung-Hyun realized that something was off and scanned the tent.

“Is the Guild Master not here? Or any other members of Proto?” he asked.

“...”

Silence fell over them, and the Players’ faces contorted. The quick-witted ones left the tent and came back a moment later, red-faced.

“Goddammit! Those fuckers made a break for it!”

“...Looks like they gathered EXP in the easiest front and ran away because they knew they would be assigned to the most difficult area.”

“Those dirty fucking roaches!”

Shin Sung-Hyun and the rest of the Guild Masters let out a long sigh. They weren’t idiots, after all.

‘...I don’t think we can go on like this.’ 

It was because they were at their limits.

The Players were all part of different nationalities, races, and groups. It would naturally be difficult for them to become one, but they managed to do so. Of course, the trust and connections they had with each other were weak.

‘The only thing holding us together was trust… And now it has been broken.’ 

Their sense of kinship as Players existed because they all had the same goal, and they wanted to stand together at the very end to succeed. But now that one of them had betrayed them, it was hard to trust anyone else.

Shin Sung-Hyun closed his eyes.

‘It’s over.’ 

Before night fell tonight, the Players would all pack up and go back to Earth. After all, all of them had reached the Save Point by now. And from now on, no Player would attempt to clear the 4th Floor again for at least a few years.

“I see no need to stay here any longer.” The first one to leave was Sky Soul’s Tenmei Ryo. He left the tent, leading his people. After that, the other Players also started to leave one by one without any hesitation.

Everyone knew—they knew that they had failed.

“Tch. So this is how it ends.” Rahmadat clicked his tongue.

“What should we do?” he asked.

“What do you think? We should leave as well,” Gilberto said, sounding grim.

Only one person remained. It was Seo Jun-Ho, and he was lost in thought.

‘I see. If I come to the second city without doing anything, I suppose this is what happens.’ 

This was the bad ending. They failed to clear the Floor, and everyone left.

However, something came to his mind.

‘But there were times when I actually succeeded when I thought I had failed.’ 

Just like the way that resting with the Frost Queen had unexpectedly been the right answer, this may be the only way to clear the 4th Floor without any sacrifices.

“Aren’t you coming?” Skaya interrupted.

Seo Jun-Ho shook his head.

“You guys go ahead. I have something I need to check, so I’m gonna stay here.”

“What bullshit is that, you crazy boy. You have to leave before the sun sets, you know.”

“Sigh. Fine. Everyone sit down.” Seo Jun-Ho explained the situation with the diary to his friends. “So, this time I want to stay behind by myself and try it out. Like guerilla warfare, in a sense.”

He finished with a dim smile, but no one else was smiling.

“Hey, Jun-Ho. Do you actually think you can succeed if you do this?” Skaya asked.

“Oh, it’s basically impossible of course. But you never know, right?”

“So what you’re saying is that you’re going to do this expecting to die?”

Seo Jun-Ho slowly nodded. “I told you before, didn’t I? I’ll be fine even if I die. I’ll go back to the past anyway, and that’s all.”

“...”

“...”

Everyone silently held back their groans.

Mio was the only one who let out a heavy sigh. “Jun-Ho, how many times have you regressed so far?”

“105 times.”

Mio bit her lower lip hard as she asked, “Have you told us about the regressions before?”

“Plenty of times.”

“Didn’t I say anything then?”

Seo Jun-Ho dug through his memories. Yes, he was sure that she had warned him about something.

- If this keeps repeating, you won’t be able to hold out for long, Jun-Ho.

“You told me that I wouldn’t be able to hold out for long, but you were worried for nothing. I’m still perfectly fine, you see.”

“No...” Mio shook her head. “Jun-Ho, you’re not fine at all right now.”

“...”

Seo Jun-Ho forgot what he was about to say, and he suddenly looked around.

Skaya, Gilberto, Rahmadat, Mio, and even Cha Si-Eun were looking at him with sad eyes as if he was crazy.

‘I’m the weird one?’

He trembled ever so slightly. He trusted his friends. If this was what they were saying, they could be right.

But just what was wrong with him, and how?

The embarrassment started to melt into fear.

[Hero’s Mind (S) has sensed that the Player is experiencing extreme fear.]

[Hero’s Mind (S) has forcibly stabilized the Player’s mind.]

“Phew.” Seo Jun-Ho let out a small sigh and grinned. “Really, it’s not like that. I’m telling you, I’m fine.”

Despite their frozen faces, he felt perfectly comfortable.