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The Players gathered and observed their first sunrise at base camp.
Seo Jun-Ho had attended the morning meeting just now.
He looked around and asked, “I don’t see Mr. Shoot anywhere.”
Seo Jun-Ho could still remember how Mr. Shoot had helped him on the 5th Floor, but he still had no idea why Mr. Shoot had decided to help him.
‘Deok-Gu seemed to know something, but…’
Shim Deok-Gu had already told him that he didn’t know much, so Seo Jun-Ho found it difficult to probe for more details. Shim Deok-Gu was also refusing to tell him more.
Son Chae-Won next to Seo Jun-Ho smiled and answered, “I heard that he got a bad stomachache. The Vice Master of Labyrinth decided to attend the meeting in his stead.”
“That’s quite unexpected.”
Mr. Shoot had always been a strict man.
‘Just what did he eat in this forest that it gave him a stomachache bad enough for him to be absent at the meeting?’
“Come to think of it, which direction will your team go, Specter-nim?”
“We’re going east.”
“Oh, that’s disappointing. We’re going in the exact opposite direction; we’re going west.”
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Seo Jun-Ho nodded. It was only natural for her team to go in the opposite direction. The Silent Moon’s team was known to be quite powerful as well, so it was only right to maintain the balance of power on both sides.
“All right. Join the communication channel and call for reinforcements if anything goes wrong.”
“Oh, by the way. Please don’t forget to activate your action cams, everyone.”
When the meeting finally ended, Seo Jun-Ho went straight back to his team. The team members were done with their preparations, and they were waiting outside the building.
“Shall we get going right away?”
Seo Jun-Ho nodded in response.
At that, Skaya reached out with her hand.
When Seo Jun-Ho’s hand touched Skaya’s hand, the scenery around them changed in the blink of an eye.
“I only moved us about thirty kilometers away since we’re just getting started.”
“I’ll check the surroundings” Gilberto climbed up a tree and scanned the surroundings with his Hawk Eye. Then, he descended the tree and shook his head. “It seems that this forest is much larger than we had expected. The trees are way too dense, and they’re covering the horizon.”
“Hmm… what should we do, Jun-Ho?”
“Let’s move a bit further.”
At the very least, the team needed a clue about what kind of world they were in. Skaya used Teleport once again, but the scenery remained roughly the same.
“Gilbe, how does it look?”
“It’s the exact same view.”
“...That’s strange. I moved fifty kilometers this time, which means that we have moved eighty kilometers in total. How could the scenery remain exactly the same?”
“I guess that’s just how big this forest is!” Rahmadat exclaimed and looked back at Seo Jun-Ho. “Hey, Jun-Ho. Isn’t that worth trying? I mean, we’re already eighty kilometers away.”
“That? What is that?” asked Cha Si-Eun with wide eyes.
Mio answered, “It refers to the act of Rahmadat screaming as loud as he can while we hide nearby.”
“Oh, I see.”
Any other team wouldn’t allow drawing attention to themselves, but this team had Rahmadat, so it should be fine.
“That idiot won’t die.” Skaya shrugged.
“He can be reliable at times like this,” Mio said.
“Hey, I’m always reliable, you know?” Rahmadat grumbled. He waved his hand at the others before saying, “Make sure you guys hide properly. Ready or not, here I go… Hehe.”
“Everyone, let’s go up that tree.” Seo Jun-Ho stood on a thick branch of a tree along with the rest of the team.
“Night Walking.”
The darkness on Seo Jun-Ho’s feet wrapped around the team.
From now on, no one would notice their presence unless Seo Jun-Ho allowed it.
“Rahmadat. You can start now.”
“Hehehe. Everyone better plug your ears.”
“Plug our ears?”
“Here. Put this on.”
Cha Si-Eun obediently wore the earplugs that Seo Jun-Ho had handed over to her. She looked at the rest of the 5 Heroes and saw that in addition to the earplugs, they were also covering their ears with both hands.
‘Isn’t that a little too much?’
Cha Si-Eun decided to ask after everything was over, but before she could even compose herself to prepare for Rahmadat’s shout, Rahmadat’s shout penetrated her earplugs and rendered her dizzy.
“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!”
Mio quickly grabbed and stabilized Cha Si-Eun, who almost fell off the tree.
Skaya shouted at Cha Si-Eun, “Hang in there! Just a little bit! If I use soundproofing magic! It might leak! Through Night Walking!”
In other words, they had no other choice but to cover both of their ears and hold out.
After a minute, Rahmadat finally stopped shouting to catch his breath.
“Hmm. Has my lung capacity decreased?”
‘I used to be able to scream for a minute and a quarter before...’
Rahmadat clicked his tongue and lay down to look up at the sky between the leaves.
“We’ve sprinkled the bait. Now, we can just relax and wait.”
Time flew by, and an hour passed in the blink of an eye.
Rahmadat raised his upper body.
“Hmm…”
There was no sign or presence of any living creatures.
Rahmadat quietly stared up at the tree.
Seo Jun-Ho jumped down first.
“Well, that was a waste of time.”
“I don’t know if there’s no one else here or if they’re just wary of us.”
“None of us can see any signs of people here, so I think there simply aren’t any people around here.”
Skaya appeared next to Seo Jun-Ho and asked, “What should we do? Should we set up a few magic traps and move on for now?”
“Perhaps we should do that...”
It would be bad if they encountered nothing on their first day of scouting.
The advance party would eventually have to move the base camp if there wasn’t anything in the area.
‘We will get further away from the Gate.’
In other words, it would be incredibly hard for them to go back to the Gate if they had to return to Earth as a last resort in an emergency.
“All right, the traps are set.”
“Let’s move on, then”
The team repeated the same routine every time they teleported away.
Eventually, the forest started to get dark.
“It is getting late, but I think we should be able to teleport once more before we call it a day.”
“Let’s do it, then. Can we go a bit further this time?”
“Sure. I’ll move us a hundred kilometers away.”
The scenery abruptly changed as Skaya cast her Teleport.
The moment they arrived at their destination, they quickly hid their presence and grabbed their weapons.
Seo Jun-Ho gestured at the rest of the team.
‘A few unidentified creatures up ahead. Scatter...’
Seo Jun-Ho activated Night Walking before climbing up a tree and looking up ahead.
However, the pitch-black forest was silent.
‘They know how to hide their presence as well.’
And it seemed that they were experts at it because they immediately hid their presence upon detecting the team’s arrival.
Seo Jun-Ho took a stance with White Dragon before charging forward.
However, thorns soared from the ground and bound Rahmadat.
Fwoosh!
“That idiot…!” Skaya bit her lips and cast multiple balls of fire.
Mio hid behind one of the fireballs and charged at the target.
“I’ve found the enemy. I will get rid of them.”
Clang!
The other party flew toward Mio and swung their sword, breaking Mio’s posture. The other party then took advantage of that opening to thrust their sword toward Mio’s chest.
However, a red dot flashed and settled on their forehead.
“That’s it.” Gilberto was ready to put a bullet in the other party’s head.
“Stand by!” Seo Jun-Ho exclaimed. He deactivated Night Walking and descended from one of the trees. He approached Skaya with an ugly look before asking, “Skaya. Give us some lights.”
Flash!
Skaya’s spell instantly illuminated the entire forest, and her light immediately revealed the identities of the enemies.
“...Jun-Ho?”
The swordsman who clashed swords with Mio was perplexed to see Seo Jun-Ho.
“What the heck are you guys doing here?” Seo Jun-Ho asked.
“They’re fake!” Son Chae-Won exclaimed and emerged behind a tree. “They went north, so there’s no way they’re here!”
“What do you mean, north, Son Chae-Won? We’re not falling for that. You told me earlier that Silent Moon will be heading west.”
“...!”
Son Chae-Won’s eyes widened at Seo Jun-Ho’s words.
She bit her lips and asked. “Then, why are you here?”
“We want to know the answer to that as well.”
Silent Moon moved west, while Seo Jun-Ho’s team moved east. However, the fact that the two teams stumbled upon each other here meant that one side was lying.
‘No. But if we’re both speaking the truth, then…’
Seo Jun-Ho and Son Chae-Won’s gazes momentarily met in mid-air, and they both spoke at the same time.
“Mobius band…”
***
The two teams stored their weapons away and checked each other’s action cams. Upon confirming that neither of them was lying, they decided to exchange information.
“So you’ve been using Teleport to move east?”
“Exactly. Skaya, how far have we traveled today?”
“We covered about four hundred and sixty-five kilometers...”
“We were already on our way back, and this place is about thirty kilometers away from the base camp. In other words, the total is roughly five hundred kilometers.”
In other words, this endless land was five hundred kilometers long.
Son Chae-Won spoke, “We better hurry back to the base camp.”
“Yes. I’m sure the teams that went north and south are experiencing the same issues. Skaya?”
“Ugh, there are too many people, but it should be doable,” Skaya grumbled.
A magic circle appeared beneath everyone’s feet. The magic circle’s light intensified to the extent that everyone had to close their eyes, and when they could finally open their eyes, they found themselves in the base camp.
“...?”
There was an unusual atmosphere surrounding the base camp, confounding everyone.
The Players looked like they were sad, anxious, and regretful at the same time.
Seo Jun-Ho called out to one of the Players. “What’s going on?”
“A few Players were attacked by the enemies. I think about seven Players were attacked.”
“Enemies? Are you talking about monsters?”
“Obviously—wait, did you not run into enemies, Specter-nim?”
“No, we didn’t run into anything. Can you let us see your action cam?”
The downcast and exhausted Player nodded listlessly.
After delivering the video that Seo Jun-Ho had requested, he immediately left.
Seo Jun-Ho’s team and Silent Moon's team gathered to watch the footage within the action cam.
‘Horizon Guild… I remember that they headed south.’
There wasn’t anything noteworthy until the Horizon Guild’s team traveled thirty kilometers away. Of course, they didn’t let their guard down on the way.
[Never let your guard down. You’ll never know what’s going to pop out from somewhere.]
[Yes, sir. But I can’t sense anything…]
The player who answered was Shawn McHill, a British Player with Sensory Extension (A). It was a great ability that allowed him to identify all living creatures within a diameter of five kilometers.
[Shawn. Once you’ve sensed the presence of unknown creatures; don’t hesitate. I want you to report immediately.]
[Yes, sir. I—]
Crack!
A monster appeared out of the blue, and the monster immediately tore Shawn’s head from his shoulders.
[ഢഈഭ……!]
[ഋഷಋ୪]
There were only two monsters. The monster that killed Shawn was about four meters tall, while the remaining monster standing behind the four-meter-tall monster was about eight meters tall.
The monster was smiling brightly while holding Shawn’s severed head and headless corpse. However, the most uncanny and disturbing fact was that the monster looked very much like a human being.
[Shawn…!]
The furious Players attacked the monsters with all their might. The monsters weren’t as tough as the Players expected, and they died quite easily. The footage in the action cam ended when the Horizon Guild’s team decided to retreat to base camp.
“Were those really monsters? They look like human beings.”
“Were they talking to each other? If that’s the case, then they’re intelligent to some extent.”
The members of Silent Moon exchanged opinions with each other.
Seo Jun-Ho glanced at Skaya.
“Skaya? Skaya!” Seo Jun-Ho shook Skaya’s shoulders and exclaimed.
Skaya’s face had gone beyond pallid.
‘I’ve never seen that look on her face before. Why does she look so pale?’
“I wasn’t hallucinating…” Skaya murmured.
“What are you talking about?”
“When the gatekeeper died, he muttered something. Have you already forgotten what the gatekeeper said?” asked Skaya.
Seo Jun-Ho paused to think about it.
[…ಉಌಧ೩.]
‘He did say something...’
However, the gatekeeper had spoken in a language that he couldn’t understand, even though Yeon had already upgraded his Vita.
“Yeah, he said something, but I couldn’t understand it.”
“I understood what he said, but I thought I was just hallucinating.”
“What?”
Everyone turned to Skaya.
Seo Jun-Ho’s expression turned serious as he asked, “What was that language, and where is it being used?”
“No one uses it anymore, but it was a ubiquitous language in the distant past.”
Skaya pulled a book out of her Inventory.
The book was from the Magic Tower, and it contained the records of Chaos Magic.
It was also written by the very first mage.
To everyone’s surprise, the book was written in the language at the time.
“The Splendid History of Frontier, the Age of Glory.”