Golden hair that seemed to be spun from gold and pointed ears symbolizing the race of beauty.
The princess who possessed these ironically had nothing.
A dark room where even electricity didn’t work properly.
In that space, there was only a creaky bed and a table filled with guns and their parts.
That was all.
“…”
Silently, she loaded the magazine and checked the gun.
*Click! Click! Click!*
The massive sniper rifle, which had only been terrifying when she first held it, was now her only friend and support.
‘I’m tired.’
After finishing her task, the girl took off the goggles she was wearing and sat on the bed.
She didn’t lie down.
Sitting, she buried her face in her hands and quietly steadied her breathing.
Lately, when she was alone, she found herself pausing like this more often.
To the point where she wished she could stay like this forever.
‘Mom… Dad…’
For the princess, life in Tigroba felt like a memory that didn’t exist.
Her last memory of Tigroba was reading a fairy tale in a spacious room.
It was her childhood, waiting for her parents to return in that luxurious room.
She was too young to learn anything and too immature to form a solid sense of self.
At that time, she was suddenly taken by the elders, who told her they had to flee, and her life outside began.
Amidst the chaos of running away without understanding the situation, all she heard was that her parents had been killed by Lord Seolho, who had become the new ruler of Tigroba.
The story ended with the elders saying they had to flee because Lord Seolho was trying to wipe out the elven royal family.
It was too harsh a story for the young princess to accept.
With her spirit shattered, she was raised as a bullet to reclaim Tigroba from the borderlands, without even a moment to gather her thoughts.
*”Princess, humans and beastfolk have filthy blood, no different from Satan.”*
*”Do not mingle with races other than elves. They are despicable creatures who spew lies at every opportunity.”*
*”You are the only remaining royal. You must take responsibility and lead us.”*
*”To have such doubts, have you lost your desire for vengeance against the late king?”*
*”No matter what, we will uphold you, Princess. Our existence is your proof.”*
‘My head hurts.’
From her childhood until now, these were the words she had heard repeated for too long.
In quiet places, they now echoed like auditory hallucinations. They even appeared in her dreams.
“…”
But the girl’s resolve was firmer than anyone’s.
Though she had tasted psychological collapse over a long time, her spirit still held its shape.
The elders didn’t know that the doubts the princess had harbored since the past had never fully disappeared.
‘I have to find a way to get back to the city.’
The elders vehemently opposed any external contact, claiming that royal blood should not mix with the lowly.
The first time she was caught, she was scolded so severely by the elders that it left her traumatized, but she hadn’t given up yet.
She needed evidence to justify her actions.
The ruler of Tigroba…
She wanted to know the changed day perfectly.
The princess tried to find out the details of that day, avoiding the eyes of the elders, but the information publicly available had clear limitations.
No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t find any definitive stories about her parents.
Everywhere she looked, the only thing she found was that the ruler of Tigroba had changed from an elf to a white tiger beastman.
‘There must be information somewhere…’
Knock knock knock.
The sound of knocking on the door snapped her out of her thoughts and ended her rest.
Her face, buried in her hands, faced reality once again.
“─ Princess. Are you inside?”
It was the elder’s voice.
The girl suppressed the suffocating sensation and replied.
“What is it?”
“─ Important guests will be arriving soon. Please go out to greet them.”
“…”
Unlike usual, no words came out.
Her mind was too tired to move, even if her body wasn’t. But the princess couldn’t say this to the elder.
After a brief silence.
The elder continued with a familiar remark.
“─ Important guests require appropriate treatment. Since the late king is no longer with us, it is only right for the princess to go.”
“…Understood.”
She barely managed to suppress the sigh that was about to escape.
The princess rose from her bed and began to lightly arm herself.
*****
Rohan, who had stepped out into the night, first fiddled with his smartphone.
He made sure that even if a call or message notification came, there would be no sound or vibration.
While setting this up.
He noticed that Ichinose’s profile picture had changed to a cat.
‘Cute.’
Somehow, it felt like a sign that things would go well.
His steps felt lighter.
‘Shall we go?’
After checking the route in the bustling streets, he boarded a bus that was about to depart.
Since it was past rush hour, there was plenty of room to sit.
He inserted a token and took a seat.
There were no office workers commuting inside the bus, but the heavy smell of alcohol suggested that some merry drinkers had been there.
“…”
Creak! He slightly opened the window for ventilation.
Rohan breathed in the cold, fresh air and began organizing the information.
‘The main story starts with the Broken Crown, Act 1.’
He listed out internet news and quests again, meticulously checking if he had missed anything.
In the rattling bus, Rohan’s eyes focused intently as he read the text.
[30-year-old male creator who was exploring and filming in the forbidden zone ruins goes missing]
“─ According to the last call traced with an acquaintance, it is presumed that he was attacked by someone while filming. According to the data released by the Elysium Security Bureau, only a severed leg remained at the scene…”
‘This is a mistake of going to the forbidden zone where those guys were, just to make a sensational video.’
That’s all there is to the incident. Nothing more, nothing less.
Gamers of Abyss City don’t know the channel run by this 30-year-old male creator, nor do they know what he looks like.
The perception is that it’s the starting point of the main quest.
‘Key point.’
The important takeaway is that the culprits who caused the incident have already fled far away.
And the fact that they committed the crime for fun, unrelated to any request.
It’s a crime they habitually committed on their way to meet the old elf clients.
Rohan’s gaze shifts to the quest window.
Then he closes the window and looks up at the bus ceiling.
‘Those trash.’
The old elves, who want to use the princess as a weapon to regain glory, know they only have one chance and understand what failure means.
That’s why they act extremely passive and sneaky.
“…”
The group Rohan has to deal with to confiscate those old men’s dentures is similar to the last one but different.
While there’s the goal of checking Noah Frozenheart’s movement range and usual routes, they weren’t hired just for that.
They’re also a group meant to confirm the existence of any bodyguards Lord Seolho might have planted to protect his daughter.
‘It’s not about putting Noah in danger through force.’
Still, they’re much more expensive and professional than the Yard-Pound brothers, with skills and techniques perfectly suited for dirty deeds like theft and surveillance.
Thanks to that, Rohan is mulling over the day Abyss City opened.
He tries to recall the tantalizing main story he experienced that day in as much detail as possible.
‘Originally, to uncover the mastermind from the start…’
The first step of the quest is to gather information from the murmuring citizens amidst the ominous news and pinpoint the missing location.
Next, while wandering around the suspected accident zones, you find security officers controlling access, which is the second step.
The third step is to infiltrate inside, avoiding the sight of Elysium Security Bureau officers, and collect evidence.
After completing this process, a rough location is marked in a corner of the map.
Then you spend another chunk of time searching.
‘If I do it exactly like the game, I’ll be slower than a real security officer. No, actually, avoiding their sight like in the game is impossible.’
The Elysium Security Bureau isn’t an incompetent authority.
They have many skilled individuals protecting the academy city, and it’s mentioned several times how difficult it is to become a security officer.
That setting, which wasn’t fully felt in Abyss City, will shine now that it’s become reality.
So, Rohan will skip the intermediate steps and head straight for the result this time too.
He doesn’t know what changes this abbreviated approach will create in reality, but for the current Rohan, there’s no clearer answer than this.
─ This stop is ···.
Beep!
Rohan pressed the bus stop button to get off.
··
··
There’s a place in the academy city that’s ‘still’ hard to call an academy city.
Rohan, recalling his memory, entered under a bridge with no light.
He arrived at an industrial complex where construction had been halted long-term due to a company’s bankruptcy.
He walked, trying to minimize his footsteps.
He insisted on moving only in the dark, avoiding the flickering streetlights with half-dead light.
‘There.’
As I dug inside, I saw three cars with their engines running. One dump truck loaded with containers and two sedans.
Two of them had their engines running with empty driver’s seats, and only one sedan in front had someone inside.
In that one driver’s seat, there was a guy chuckling while looking at his smartphone.
Thanks to that, light was spilling inside.
His body, except for his face, was covered in tattoos symbolizing his affiliation.
‘Did the others go to look around?’
From any angle, he was alone. No one lying around either.
Even though there was no passenger, I could see a gun placed right next to him.
“···.”
Rohan closed his eyes and listened carefully to be sure.
Apart from the heavy engine noise, I could hear metallic sounds and snickering laughter from afar.
‘Good. Let’s do it now.’
The distance is quite far, so if we’re going to do it, now’s the time.
Rohan moved to find the ideal spot.
‘As fast as possible.’
This isn’t the place where they were supposed to meet the elves.
But you know how thieves are, like sparrows who can’t just pass by a mill.
They came here to check out the abandoned industrial complex for anything valuable and to dump some piled-up bodies.
*Rustle. Rustle.*
Rohan lowered his stance as quietly as possible and plucked a handful of weeds from the ground.
He lightly dipped them in the stagnant muddy water.
The fierce night wind was just perfect.
*Chop!*
A part of the weed Rohan let go of stuck to the car’s side mirror like hair.
It wouldn’t interfere with driving, but it fluttered annoyingly.
Did he notice that?
*Zzzzzzzz——* The driver’s window rolled down.
“Damn it… filthy.”
With a curse, the driver reached out to remove the weed stuck to the side mirror.
Rohan, holding a knife in one hand, lunged forward and roughly pressed the driver’s arm down.
*Crunch!*
The arm bent in a direction it shouldn’t have.
I could see his eyes widen in shock. His mouth and stomach twitched, ready to scream.
“Shh.”
Rohan stuffed a sock into the guy’s gaping mouth and stabbed his neck like lightning.
“Ugh, ugh——!!!”
He twisted the blade roughly.
