◈ Episode 465. Hide and Seek

Dalcak.

Put down the teacup.

I look around.

Maybe it’s because dueling is forbidden.

Everyone seems to be well-behaved.

For once, I hadn’t made a bad decision in entering a social hall.

‘My gaze was divided.’

The bounty on my head has attracted a lot of attention.

Even the dignitaries were leering at each other, but it didn’t seem like they were getting along.

Rather.

“I don’t like it.”

No matter how much I disliked the social hall, at times like this.

Shouldn’t you be grateful for your existence, Grandfell?

Anyway, stubbornness…….

I stuck my tongue out and looked at the eager stares.

Messages popping into my head.

By the way.

[Current Bounty: 3 karma]

[Current Bounty: 1 karma]

[Current Bounty: 1 Karma]…….

What are these cute little numbers?

‘No, I thought I knew.’

They said it was an unprecedented bounty.

Thanks, I guessed.

I figured there must be a pretty big disparity between the bounties on other Shadow Corridor guests and me, but……. Even so, the difference of 1,000 times is too much, isn’t it?!

‘At the last minute.’

Even if all of the bounties of the guests here were combined, wouldn’t they still be lower than mine? Despite the absurdity, my eyes rolled nonchalantly, and yes, I could see Kichi.

‘The only one whose identity I know.’

The leader of the Shadow Mercenaries, a criminal organization of the worst kind.

If I could see the bounty on her head.

How much karma was it worth to me.

I think I can guess.

A message appears next to Kichi.

[Current Bounty: 1 Karma]

……Really?

Only 1 karma for a big guy like Kitsch?

I belatedly admitted it.

I didn’t get attacked for no reason, right?

‘You did a good job of being unreasonable in that situation, Hoyeol.’

This is why they say people die when they do things they shouldn’t.

The [First World Tree Blessing] had already healed the wound.

Considering the bounty on my head…….

If Grandfell’s talent had not blossomed.

I might have crossed the Netherworld as it was, with the unstoppable pincer attack.

I swallowed a sigh of relief.

Seug.

The employee approached me and spoke.

“This is a gift from the honored guest.”

A small box, barely big enough to hold in one hand, lay on the tray.

I look in the direction the employee’s hand is pointing.

There was a man at the table, staring at me.

‘He’s got a bloody eye.’

No, it was more than bloody, it was devastated.

As if he’d just been through something.

Of course, it’s not the impression that matters.

Needless to say, I replied like a sword.

“No thanks.”

It’s the first time since the Seven Deadly Sins of Greed that I’ve been grateful for an innocent man’s innocence, and backstabbing is still allowed. Who knows if this is a box with a real gift or a monster mimic disguised as a box?

“Can you pass it on to me?”

I spoke up.

“If you want something, go get it yourself.”

A social hall where duels are forbidden.

Thankfully, I had the nerve to mock him.

At my words, the employee bowed politely.

“I’ll be sure to pass that on.”

And then.

It was now.

I turned to face the man.

‘So the shadow wasn’t just a puppet, was it?’

He was conscious enough to talk to me face-to-face like this?

Well, he was conscious in the first place.

I’m sure he’s after my bounty…….

Dalkak.

Anyway, I sipped my tea to myself. Don’t ask me how I could not offer a cup of tea to the person sitting across from me if I lived and died by formality.

‘I don’t know if it’s a different tea.’

Not the green tea Grandfell kept in the pocket of his jacket, for it was a treasure he would have to give up with great difficulty to Marcelo and Harkon.

‘By the way.’

I kept my nerves on edge.

I would have said that fighting was still allowed…….

There must be some way to cut off my breathing without making a fuss.

‘So what’s your plan?’

I’m curious, but I keep my mouth shut. This is where iron skin comes in handy. A no-holds-barred attitude gives me the upper hand in conversations.

But me, Lee Hoyeol.

I’m a terrible conversationalist.

I’m stunned as soon as a man opens his mouth.

“You must be Akshan.”

……Yes!

The word, Akshan, popped out of the man’s mouth.

Suddenly, I understood why his face looked like that.

‘One hundred percent.’

You said it was because of the damn physical training?

I’m only able to be in one piece purely because of the effects of the [Blessing of the First World Tree]. All of the Akshan seniors were making that expression on their faces as if they had been sucked in energy……!

I immediately changed my words.

“I’ll take it.”

“For what?”

“Your favor.”

A favor is a gift, a box, handed to me by a man.

……Khhhh.

I like how he changes his words like the flip of a palm.

Is that why, the man asked.

“Haven’t you heard from your employer, that no one’s word can be trusted in the Shadow Corridors? Moreover, the bounty on your head is unprecedented. How can you not regret your choice?”

Can I not regret it?

Well, I don’t know about regret, but I do know that you are an Akshan demon hunter. The snarkiness in your tone is just like the Akshan NPCs back in the day.

Thud.

As he spoke, he held the box in front of me again.

If he trusts me, he wants me to open it.

Needless to say, my hand moved without hesitation.

I opened the box.

And then my eyes flashed.

[Class Quest: Nevertheless, for Akshan]

As expected, my instincts were not wrong.

The class quest flashed in front of me, which meant that the man in front of me was indeed an Akshan Demon Hunter. But as I began to read the quest, I stopped dead in my tracks.

“……!

The man’s name on the class quest was familiar.

It had been years and years since Arcana was just a game. As if a decade wasn’t enough to change things, a cataclysm had occurred and the world had been turned upside down.

In those long years, other players may have forgotten, but I, Lee Hoyeol, could not.

That’s right.

The days when Arcana was just a game.

Akshan’s Heavenly Dragon was treated as insignificant.

The one and only Named NPC of Akshan was right in front of me.

I called his name.

“I know you, Gabriel.”

……Isn’t that your way of speaking no exception?

*

Shadow Corridor.

The eyes of the employed members of the social hall were fixed on one man only, Grandfell Claudi Arpheus Romeo. I think of the karma he holds, his bounty.

A thousand karmas. The employee who cleaned the glasses, the employee who cleared the table, and the employee who took out the deadly poison from his bosom could not help but swallow their saliva.

How on earth.

I don’t know why human subjects possess such karma. But it made sense. The Master of the Corridor must have opened the doors of the Corridor specifically for him.

“…….”

The more I watched, the more it made sense.

‘He overcame the attack of an honored guest with ease.

Guests.

They are strong.

That’s why employees don’t go after their bounties.

Unlike Grandfell Claudi Arpheus Romeo.

All of the Honored Guests are contractors of the Shadow God.

Each and every one of them is among the most powerful men on the Arcana continent.

There was another reason to be wary of them.

‘They are beings left with only instinct.’

Shadows, not substance.

They had no control.

They were driven only by instinct.

They were the ones who could not die even if they wanted to.

‘It is the same now.’

The honored guests were acting on their innate evil instincts to take the life of Grandfell Claudi Arpheus Romeo. They hadn’t signed a contract with the Shadow God for nothing.

The employees took note.

‘There’s no need to offend the honored guest.’

Only Grandfell Claudi Arpheus Romeo would suffice. He was the only one in this despicable Shadow Corridor who hadn’t thrown away his dignity and class.

Hadn’t we seen that a moment ago?

He graciously forgave the employee who had taken a shot at him and took his seat in the social hall. He was familiar enough with the dangers of poisoning to use his own glass, but he had only one word for the employee who tried to poison him.

-“You are not good enough to entertain me.”

That was the end of it.

As he polished his glass, he thought to himself.

‘……Isn’t this an attitude that goes beyond nobility and is like the master of a corridor?’

However, I immediately shook off the profane thoughts.

As I said.

The Shadow Corridor was a heartless place where nothing but contracts and fulfillment remained.

‘Such pride will eventually catch up with you.’

If you ask for a polite conversation, I will accept.

Indeed, he is putting his words into practice.

The employee was sure.

‘The moment you finish the conversation and get up from your seat.’

Grandfell Claudi Arpheus Romeo.

The honored guest seated across from him is quiet and stealthy.

That he would make a move to take his life.

No, it was a mistake to open the box he’d handed him in the first place, without suspicion. A contractor of the Shadow God, the master of scheming and maneuvering, of all poison and despicability.

Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of things came to mind as I glanced over my shoulder as his employee.

And the story unfolded as expected.

Ugh.

Not even the sound of a chair being dragged across the floor.

Grandfell.

He got up from his seat with a bow.

seuseuseu.

Takes a moment to let the teacup in his hand scatter into thin air.

Goooooo.

“……?!”

His body began to erupt with raw magic power.

To the point where I can’t even remember my life before.

Employees who have been subordinated to the Shadow Corridor for a long time.

Therefore, it is natural that there is no such thing as magical insight.

But the employee could feel it.

Grandfell, that his magic flow was off.

I opened my mouth urgently.

“Grandfell Claudi Arpheus Romeo, have you forgotten the rules?”

No, maybe he hadn’t forgotten.

‘Could it be that this happened already?’

He was a faithful observant of the rules.

Have you ever opened a box handed to you by a guest of honor and suddenly broken the rules?

I could have sworn it.

The box.

Inside it.

Contained something that would send Grandfell into a rage.

……gulp.

My mouth went dry.

Was I surprised by the uncharacteristic behavior of the honored guest who had just been talking to him? No. I was used to it. I knew the honored guest was like that because I’d seen it before.

Everyone in the social hall stood still for another reason.

Suddenly, the gazes of the employees turned to the air.

Someone stuttered.

“My, he’s coming down.”

An entity that expels rule-breakers from the corridors.

No, a being that deletes.

Because any moment now, ‘he’ would appear in this social hall.

Fear creeps into the face hidden beneath the black veil.

It should be.

It was not of this world.

Its appearance is indescribable in the language of this world.

From the dark ceiling of the corridor.

Hwareuk.

Hwareuk.

Hwareuk.

One by one, the chandeliers in the ceiling lit up ominously.

The guests rose from their seats.

They seemed disappointed in the bounty, but they didn’t want to get involved.

It was then.

cheuleung.

It descended upon them.

Grandfell Claudi Arpheus Romeo.

He raised his sword.

Then he spoke words unintelligible.

“Shatter the illusion.”

Words the employees could ponder for a lifetime and still not understand.

“Illusion Breaker.”

.

.

.

It was always a mystery.

Beings who have entered the Realm of the Anomaly include Dragons from the Arcana Continent and the high-ranking Demon Kings of the Demon World. Then there’s the cause of the cataclysm, the developer of the Arcana Continent’s electricity, who must have entered the realm of the anomaly.

Where is Raymon Sean now?

‘I never thought I’d find the answer to that question.’

I declared, staring at the flashing message.

“Hide and seek is over.”

[Prototype, “The God-Eater Bad Omen” appears].

“As of this time, we will begin the exorcism ritual.”

.

.

.

[Demon Hunter, ‘Gabriel’ is keeping an eye on you].