Chapter 21

“Did you find it?”

“Couldn’t find it.”

“Why?”

“It rained, and the traces…”

“I know that too. But why?”

“That woman is vicious. Over twenty disciples without heads have gone down.”

“I saw it too. But why?”

“It’s a problem when corpses show up in areas without signals. They detect the hiding before I even get a chance to play my flute…”

“I think I can figure that much. Why couldn’t you find anything?”

“…….”

Heuksal glared at the stubborn stones on the ground.

The prepped Heavens’ Kill, to be precise, slapped Heuksal on the cheek.

“Hey. Get it together. That’s five hundred gold pieces.”

“……”

“If I fail this task worth five hundred, how can I face our Lord? What am I supposed to say? ‘Oh, Lord, I spread the net, but the target suddenly vanished. So, I failed’? Is that what you want?”

Heavens’ Kill kept slapping Heuksal’s cheek.

“No. When I go to tell him, I’ll say, ‘Lord, these little brats are completely useless, not worth a dog poop. They can’t even signal or hide. The Heuksal Clan never used to be like this, but since the Lord switched, it’s turned into total trash. We’ve lost five hundred gold just from not being able to catch one girl, and disciples are dying like flies.'”

Lord, how did you raise your son?

Heuksal swallowed his frustration.

If the son you barely got in your fifties is so precious, you should have made him a person first.

Yet, the image of Heavens’ Kill, who had earnestly clasped hands and begged, appeared in his mind.

‘Even if the kid is like that, he has a good heart. Right now, he’s just lost his mother for a moment. Please, if we succeed this time, the talk about his succession will lessen. I’m really begging you.’

Heuksal held back his anger for the sake of his beloved benefactor.

If this damned brat is set as the heir, that’s when he’s completely leaving the industry.

“……I’ll give it my all.”

“Good. Heuksal, you go directly. Stop horsing around here and start moving on your own. What’s the point of moping around just because you’ve hit fifty?”

—-

Traps. Ambushes. Signals.

The more you move, the more losses you face.

So, shouldn’t not moving be the way to go?

A-Qing dug a hole about head height in the ground.

Her hands, wrapped in a cloth, ripped the earthen wall apart like a clay mold.

Suddenly, a memory resurfaced.

Wow. If I had martial arts back when working on the temporary shelter, I might have been the nation’s best ace.

Or maybe not? What’s one person’s hand compared to an excavator?

Still, if I had a shovel, I could have just cleared a path through dirt, stone, and roots without a care.

With that, she dug a small tunnel.

She pushed the soil with her feet and piled it roughly at the entrance.

Thinking she should leave a breathing hole, she didn’t completely block it off.

The problem was Jin Jangmyung’s condition.

She was shivering, her already cold body trembling even more.

In the pitch-black tunnel, devoid of light, A-Qing could vividly imagine her lips turning blue.

A-Qing pulled Jin Jangmyung close.

In fact, A-Qing was cold too.

Her stamina was running low, and with a wet, shivering child in her arms, it felt like she could freeze to death.

But if I feel cold, maybe the kid feels warm?

Fortunately, Jin Jangmyung’s shivering gradually stopped.

Unable to fight her fatigue, Jin Jangmyung fell asleep.

A soft, rasping breath echoed.

Does the kid have a pneumothorax?

A-Qing’s mind became hazy.

As if her tension had relaxed, every ache rushed in.

But it felt like a good thing in a way.

Whether she was awake or not, it was too dark to tell either way.

In brief moments of wakefulness, it was like wondering if she had dozed off.

Then suddenly, a small whisper crept in.

“……Why go this far?”

“What do you mean?”

“You could have just abandoned me.”

“I didn’t think it would turn out like this.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I just thought you’d come after me if I just grabbed and ran. Did you think I’d set up all these traps and play dirty? Damn those guys, I won’t let them off the hook. Once I’m out, I’ll—”

“If you had known?”

“Huh?”

“If you had known it would turn out like this?”

“If I had known, I would’ve just left you behind? So, don’t feel bad, kid. I’m the idiot who ended up like this.”

“…….”

The voice didn’t have any more words.

Then it asked again.

“Isn’t it possible to hand me over even now?”

“Now? After all this?”

A-Qing scoffed.

“I may have killed a few of your guys, but it was all for survival. If I can get by with a little kindness, I’m sure they’d also be grateful.”

“But—”

“Now you’re a hostage. If things go wrong, I’ll put a knife to your throat. Ah, my Moonlight Sword. I spent a fortune on that. Anyway, there’s a river around here, right? I’ll trade you for a boat and make my escape.”

“……”

After a while, the kid spoke again.

“Yangtze.”

“Huh?”

“The Yangtze. It’s said to be the longest river in the world.”

Then came the reminder from the mother, Jin Jangmyung chiming in.

“That’s funny. The longest river is the Nile.”

“The Nile?”

“But is the Nile real? Is it here too? I wish I could see the salt lake before I die…”

“……What are you going on about?”

The kid spoke again.

“……Why go this far?”

“Didn’t you just ask that?”

“Not scared of dying?”

A-Qing changed the subject.

“Listen, kid. You wake up one day and find you’ve turned into a totally hot guy.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Just roll with it. Let’s call it a dream. But you never wake up. If you feel hungry it’s real, eat and you get sleepy, get hit and it hurts. So, is this dream or not?”

“……Then it isn’t a dream.”

“But there’s this status screen, or… yeah, like a ghost that keeps following around. Telling me that I’m dreaming. This is a dream world.”

“So, is it a dream then?”

“I just don’t know. That’s the problem.”

A-Qing bit her lip.

Every time she went to bed, she imagined waking up in her cozy studio apartment.

The production worker collapsed on the desk, only to wake up and chuckle at the character she’d just created appearing on the monitor.

With a nagging feeling, she could either delete the game or just enjoy it without a care.

If she was suddenly taken here, she might just as suddenly be sent back, so what?

So A-Qing lived on a whim.

She lived and spoke her mind.

Because in a world where leaving at any moment wouldn’t be strange, why should she hold back?

So A-Qing didn’t tolerate things.

There was no reason to save up.

What good does it do to scrape and save for a house and pile gold? Once she goes back, it would all be gone anyway.

Of course, this world was undeniably real.

A-Qing didn’t see the world as a dream.

If only that damned status screen didn’t exist.

The status screen always said A-Qing was an outsider.

That she was a being who didn’t belong in this world.

Don’t forget you are a game character.

What happens if I die?

Do I just die?

Do I get a game over and retry?

Or do I go back to my monitor?

In a world that pulled me in for no reason, it wouldn’t be strange to be thrown out for no reason either.

If there was a reason I was brought here?

If some transcendent being shoved me in here for a purpose?

Then, whether they succeed or fail, if that purpose became invalid.

Then what about me?

“……Are you okay?”

A-Qing forced herself to grip onto her fragile sanity.

Now was not the time to be panicking.

“Of course. Naturally. I’m fine.”

“You’re really okay, right?”

“Kid, why are you worrying about someone else?”

A-Qing forced a smile even though it was pointless in the dark.

In the end, the problem was with people.

Is living a life that only eats, sleeps, and poops really living?

In the end, a person is still a person.

Because they are too lonely.

Because loneliness can’t be borne, they end up making friends, but ultimately they leave with a sigh of being an outsider.

Not wanting to be hated, they accumulate good deeds and play the role of the good guy.

And thus spread their wings further.

“Hey.”

“What?”

“But why did you bring me here?”

“It’s my choice. Why?”

“Isn’t there a reason?”

“Well, if you have to pick one, you were the only innocent person left.”

So, that was it.

If I had to pick one, I’d pick the innocent one.

Scammers and child molesters are all the same in the end.

“Is it some kind of curse, or what? My kid didn’t ask to be born into this, like, ‘I’ll be a cursed child, and get the hell out of here, with a special punch!’ It just happened, so what’s the big deal?”

It was a word she said to herself too.

Is playing a game a crime? Is making a female character wrong?

It just happened, what could I do?

“But. My mom. And dad…”

“I’m sorry to say this, but your mom is a scammer. Honestly, anyone who can scam a thousand gold pieces is a pretty big scammer, to be fair.”

“But mom and dad did it for me.”

“Were you the one who asked them? ‘Mom, please scam for me. Otherwise, your daughter will die!?’ That’s not how it went, right? But what crime did you commit? None. Not guilty. Ding ding ding. No rebuttals allowed.”

“But. Those people…”

“Even if they had a story, they’re still committing child molestation and abduction. They’re downright scum. Let them eat dirt.”

A-Qing said firmly.

Jin Jangmyung fidgeted in A-Qing’s embrace.

“Can it really be like that?”

“Yeah.”

“Really?”

“Yup.”

“Really really?”

“Yeah.”

“Really really really?”

Suddenly, A-Qing frowned at a thought.

“Thinking about it, you’re sixteen, aren’t you? What’s that about? Being all cute? You seem to enjoy being a kid, don’t you?”

“……What are you saying? Ugly.”

“I never said anything, did I?”

A-Qing chuckled as she said that.

“Truth be told, you’re not half bad yourself.”

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