Chapter 80

Under Seokchon Lake.

The end of the frozen labyrinth.

The trademark of Biryung Na in the game, a fishnet cloak with butterfly wing embroidery, could be seen faintly.

The hem of the dress under the cloak, which looked like it was made of shadows, was fluttering.

[Hehe, come on in. There are humans but no injuries. Why didn’t any of you suffer from the psychic poison?]

Perhaps she was preventing voice analysis, or, analysis of the ‘voice fingerprint.’

Biryung Na’s voice was altered electronically.

“That’s the butterfly that locked me up between the borders of dream and reality.”

At Jae-in Kwon’s words, the members of the EverLake team made nasty faces.

The hologram of Biryung gazed at Jae-in.

[Long time no see, Jae-in Kwon.]

Biryung Na greeted her wholeheartedly, as seeing an old friend.

Jae-in Kwon was expressionless, but her voice was hardened and didn’t seem happy at all to see her.

“There are a lot of things I want to say, but there’s one thing I always wanted to ask when I find you.”

[I’ll answer the best I can, depending on the question.]

Jae-in’s usually laid-back blue eyes now reflected intense emotions.

“That day, why did you split up our team by going through the trouble of locking me up? If you had only told me the coordinates, the EverLake team would have been in Manchester for the Great Other-world attack. No, if you had told us about the raid of the Original clan against the British Association in the first place, such a tragedy wouldn’t have…….”

[That, of course,]

Biryung Na began to answer before Jae-in Kwon finished speaking.

[was to minimize the risk of my intentions being revealed to ‘The one,’ and to increase you, Jae-in, your chances of survival.]

I wasn’t able to see Biryung’s face clearly due to all the black ‘Noise’, but it felt like she was smiling.

Jae-in Kwon asked again.

“My chances of survival?”

[Yeah. Think about it. Do you think you could’ve been here, in one piece, without the sacrifice of your family and teammates?]

It became clear why Biryung Na did that during the Manchester’s Great Other-world attack.

Jae-in became pale-faced, aware of the intentions of Biryung Na.

[You might’ve survived, but not enough to play the violin again. A player of your class, a violinist, doesn’t come easy. Those who died then were excellent too, but there are enough personnel to replace them.]

“The hell with ‘replace’……!”

[There’s still no violinists beyond you, but the EverLake team is going well without problems with your new teammates, right?]

Jae-in Kwon was nearly screaming at this point.

“My mother, my brother, my friend······ There is no one who can replace them, there will never be!”

[It might be, for you. But for me, or this world, it doesn’t work that way.]

Blue psychic waves flowed out of Jae-in’s body.

‘At this rate, Jae-in Kwon’s gonna explode!’

It was right after Jared Lee went with the Regulations Enforcement Department and found out someone she knew was related to the Dream Auction scandal.

On top of that, now she heard her family and friends were sacrificed because of her own safety. It was more than enough to drive her mad.

“Jae-in, calm down! That’s not the real person.”

“Jared isn’t even here now……!”

Jae-in did not seem to hear the voices of her team members.

In fact, she didn’t even seem to be able to oppress her powers.

“Guess it can’t be helped.”

Thirties-version Golden Tiger raised one finger and pressed it against Jae-in’s forehead.

Zing-!

Rays of blue light stretched out from his finger and started to tie down her psychic waves.

The boss area became submerged in blue light, then Jae-in Kwon fainted.

“Ah……”

“Jae-in!”

Golden Tiger withdrew his finger after he made sure Jae-in’s teammates supported her body.

“I suppressed her strength and knocked her unconscious. Don’t let her use psychic power for 24 hours.”

The finger Golden Tiger used turned into a bluish shade.

He glanced at his discolored finger and glared at Biryung Na.

Biryung spoke cheerfully even after she received Golden Tiger’s glare and saw Jae-in faint.

[Head of the Tiger Clan, do you know how much trouble I have gone through because of your laziness? Hehe, although you appear to have gotten over that laziness now. I kinda want you to suffer a bit.]

“The fuck. You’re practically asking me to kill you. Butterfly.”

Biryung stretched out both arms to the offended Golden Tiger and said,

[You say a butterfly’s wings can call a storm, right?]n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“So you’re going to call a storm?”

[No, the opposite.]

The voice of Biryung was full of laughter.

[I wonder if my wings, which are nothing but humble beings, can stop the storm of ‘the one.’ I want to stop it.]

So her questionable behavior in the game was because of that thought.

‘According to those words, she’s on the good side, but something’s a bit off.’

There were some suspicious things that didn’t quite make her a simple, helpful NPC.

While I was recalling the deeds of Biryung and figuring out the truth, Golden Tiger continued talking.

“Stop the storm ‘The one’ is going to make? Then tell me what his identity is and what the storm is going to be.”

[Don’t want to. I can’t tell you guys. Even if I give you more information than you need, it won’t help you stop the storm. It will only interfere and jeopardize my position.]

“You’re kidding me.”

[It’s not a joke. You guys have a lot of things to lose, right? Think when those precious things and the best way to stop the storm is given as a pick-one-only option. You’re not going to choose the best way. That attitude will hinder stopping the storm.]

It was at that moment when I realized.

‘Her goal and mine might be the same, but there is no way she and I will walk the same path.’

I could infer what incident she was referring to about ‘the one’s “storm.”

If Biryung Na acted in concurrence with what she just said, only to stop the storm, all her behaviors were understandable.

She didn’t care whether the innocent died or not.

“It’s like there’s nothing precious for you.”

At Golden Tiger’s words, the laughter of Biryung began to grow louder.

[Yeah, no. And anyway, after the storm, the point of protecting my precious things will be lost, won’t it?]

“So, you’re not handing over any important information. I could announce your betrayal to the Bear clan.”

[Oh really? If you do that, I’ll die, and you’ll lose one important source of information.]

Even under threat of Golden Tiger, she did not waver.

Golden Tiger shut his mouth and Biryung continued talking.

[Q & A time will end here. Can we get to the point now? The place where you are now is called the “Frozen Other-world.”]

Biryung began to tell them one by one the information I knew through the game.

A deal made between the president of the Korean branch of the Players Association and some Original Clan.

The skill of Other-world freezing.

Coldness and psychic poison a Frozen Other-world has.

The story of the Seokchon Lake incident a few years ago.

[This is all I want to tell you guys. If there’s any more info that won’t be a problem to tell you, I’ll send another message.]

“No more info? Fuck off.”

Biryung laughed at Golden Tiger’s words.

She looked around as if to check on our party before saying goodbye.

Irritated Golden Tiger.

Unconscious Jae-in leaning on her teammates.

Two members of the EverLake team who looked at her, eyes full of fury.

And me, who kept quiet.

Biryung’s gaze stopped.

[Oh?]

Whoosh-!

Butterfly scales poured down in front of me.

Right now, Biryung was incapable of physical interference.

Golden Tiger, who was reflexively trying to spread the shield, left her alone while scowling severely.

When the downpour stopped, the hazy figure of Biryung Na was in front of my eyes.

[…… Huh? You’re human, right?]

What else did I look like?

[You’re interesting enough for me to keep you close. Does the Head of the Tiger clan keep you near him? Why don’t you come to me instead? I’ll treat you much better than that lazy chief.]

“Fuck off.”

Golden Tiger did not hide his annoyance.

The attitude towards Biryung seems to be similar to that of his attitude towards To-yeon Ok.

‘The information she has is tempting……’

But regardless of Golden Tiger being good to me or not, I had no intention of holding hands with Biryung Na.

“I don’t agree with your ideology much. So no.”

Biryung tilted her head slightly and asked back.

[That’s weird. Is there anything precious to you?]

What kind of person does she think I am, asking that question?

Still, I was able to answer this question without much trouble.

“A lot.”

At my answer, she began to laugh.

[Pfft, hahaha!]

What’s so funny?

Due to her electronically altered voice, the sound of a machine laughing rang across the area.

The eerie laughter made me feel worse than I already was.

Should I tell her to fuck off, like Golden Tiger did?

[That was refreshing, so I’ll give you a hint.]

The silhouette of Biryung became increasingly blurry.

She was going to disappear right after giving us the hint, I think.

[‘The one’ is the being who loathe the god of heavens the most.]

After that, she disappeared without leaving a single shard of butterfly wings.

*    *    *

Jae-in Kwon was unable to battle, but the rest of the crew was able to clear the Other-world without much trouble.

Enemies emerged at the defensive line, too, but they were easily defeated.

To-yeon Ok angered the Tiger clan members by completely slacking off, though.

“We’ll be heading off, then. We’ll contact you as soon as Jae-in gets stabilized.”

“Yeah, sure. Bye.”

At Golden Tiger’s wave, the EverLake Team bowed their heads.

Jae-in was unable to open her eyes even after returning to the ground and was carried on the back of her teammate’s back.

“Looks like the Player’s Association did their job. It’s not on the record.”

Said Golden Tiger, checking the association’s website.

I decided to part ways with Golden Tiger, who had a Tiger clan meeting to go to and head back to school.

Before To-yeon left, I didn’t forget to take her device code.

“Let’s wrap this up.”

Golden Tiger snapped his fingers, which were blue from absorbing Jae-in’s psychic waves.

Then the lake water began to move.

Swoosh-!

Golden Tiger moved the lake water with one hand and controlled the earth with the other hand.

Rumble rumble-!

In an instant, Seokchon Lake regained its appearance.

That was how we ended the clearing of the underwater Other-world in Lake Seokchon.

“Ui-shin Cho, I would like to talk about what Biryung Na was saying to you…… well, we’ll have plenty of time this weekend.”

Golden Tiger whispered secretly, out of earshot of the other Tiger clan members.

I really don’t have anything to say, though.

I had no idea why Biryung Na responded to me and said that.

‘Anyway, it’s over, and it ended better than I thought.’

The existence of the frozen Other-world and the skill of freezing that was naturally known to the Tiger clan and the Player Association.

Some ominous foreshadows have changed to positive ones.

And this will directly affect the future of the protagonist, Suhyuk Joo.

‘The Other-world attack here wasn’t recorded. That means Suhyuk won’t be in the eyes of the Demons anymore.’

Suhyuk suffered because he became the top contributor to clearing this Frozen Other-world.

Unless Suhyuk is caught up in an incident that I don’t know, he won’t suffer because of demons.

‘I don’t know exactly how this event will affect the future, but now it’s time to think about something else first.’

Friday was Teacher’s day, so I had to prepare for that with my classmates. Also, I had to spend the weekend at Myung-ho Hwang’s mansion.

‘What gifts should I give to the kids?’

Struggling with a few candidates, I hid my figure and headed to school.

*    *    *

“Someone cleared my Other-world.”

“Which one?”

“Seokchon Lake. I felt the power of the Tiger clan.”

In the dark.

The demons, who were observing the human world with the third eye of time, opened their eyes.

“Player SAT-K has no attack record.”

“Tiger clan is on good terms with the association. If they were involved, there would be information manipulation.”

“Why, though?”

“Hwangmyeong’s group seemed interested in an amusement park next to Seokchon Lake. They might have come across it while they were looking around.”

“They might be thinking of giving it to Silver Tiger’s Descendants.”

“What are you going to do? Are you going to report this to ‘the one’?”

The former Demon master of the Frozen Other-world shook its head.

“No. Don’t report it to him. We don’t pay allegiance to him anyway, so is there any reason to report this?”

“No.”

“Nope.”

When one of the Demons clapped his hands, a dim screen flashed through the darkness.

It was a screen that showed three people walking in the labyrinth.

However, it was hard to see because of the bad Noise.

“Is this the only screen you can project?”

“The Noise is severe. Let’s see who it is. One is the team master of EverLake. One is Golden Tiger. And the other…… who’s this?

“It’s a raven mask.”

“The raven mask reminds me of that awful Demon King.”

The Other-world labyrinth of Seokchon Lake’s Dongho.

The former master of that Other-world began to talk excitedly.

“I’m curious about that raven mask.”