Chapter 36: Chapter 36: Turtle Nest (2)
"I'll start off by telling you in advance that you are the only ones who can see me."
Turning around, they saw the Streamer Senia who had an exclusive contract with Hyukjin. She was as expressionless as ever, and it was impossible to tell what she was thinking.
'Once the proficiency of Eye of Perception gets higher, I'll probably be able to read Senia's state.'
It was still a long way in the future, but Hyukjin was sure it was possible.
In any case, it wasn't hard to guess why Senia made a personal appearance right now.
'She must be curious as to why we came to Japan, and why we've specifically been going around like this in Dotonbori for the past few days.'
A Streamer had the role of transmitting and relaying coverage of Playing to the Guardians.
'She'll want to explain to the Guardians.'
Explanations like 'he's doing this and this kind of Playing here for this and that reason'.
"Why are you in Japan?"
"Vacation."
"The composition of your group is too unordinary to see this as a simple vacation."
Hyukjin also acknowledged the truth behind her words, but that didn't matter.
"Do I have to reveal my personal matters to you? Business is business, and personal life is personal life. Even Players certainly have something called a private life. I'd bet the Guardians also respect that?"
The channel was likely already open. He waited for a Guardian to back up his words. For example, someone like the Lady of the Scales.
[The 'Lady of the Scales' sympathizes with your words.]
Sure enough, the Lady of the Scales backed Hyukjin up.
[The 'Whispering Devil' detests your words.]
Hyukjin very nearly scowled. Every time he said something undeniably right, this guy just had to show his hate.
'Maybe he's just a hater. For someone who's only sponsored me once, he's sure got a lot of nerve.'
Hyukjin crossed his arms. "Why? Is there something related to Playing here?"
"…"
Yep, caught red-handed.
"…In accordance with the Commandments, an Intermediate Administrator is forbidden from personally interfering in Playing or acting in a way that leaks information."
"But you can give information in the form of a quest."
"…"
Senia closed her mouth. That alone was a big clue for Hyukjin.
'So it's correct that a gate will form here.'
If he had to find the gate anyway, it would be better to get a 'quest' and look for it rather than going in blind. That would help in finding it, too. He could also get a quest reward just for finding the gate, so it'd be like killing two birds with one stone.
'Though that wasn't in my plan.'
But that was fine. The greatest efficiency in the least amount of time—that was the fundamental principle of Playing, wasn't it?
Hyukjin knew.
'If I say something like this… then the small fry will make a fuss.'
He knew the insignificant Guardians who hadn't revealed their names—simply put, the peanut gallery—would be making a big fuss in Senia's channel.
Hyukjin was right on the mark.
[That's right. Let's give out a quest.]
[The Japan Tutorial is also over, so let's give out a quest to mix things up.]
[Quest! Quest! Intermediate, give him a quest!]
[Is there any billionaire here who would do the kindness of issuing a quest to that Player?]
Senia stared at Kim Hyukjin. Actually, she had been observing Hyukjin for several hours with the channel closed. After several hours of watching, she concluded that there was no way Hyukjin was here for a vacation. From his Playing, he was definitely searching for something. And then, he suddenly riled up the Guardians by mentioning a quest, which the Guardians fell for—hook, line, and sinker.
'Could it be… that this was what he intended?'
Surely not. It was unlikely that his actions were so calculated. All things considered, he was still a Player in the beginner period, and he didn't seem to have had a 'True Name Awakening'. How could a new Player possibly manipulate the Guardians like that?
'It couldn't have been intentional…'
There was no way. No matter how shabby the Guardian, as long as they wanted to, it was no difficult feat to squash one measly Player, though it did take a lot of Coins. How could a Player dare to play tricks on such powerful beings?
A Player who didn't know that fact wouldn't be able to do such a thing, and a Player who did know wouldn't dare to do such a thing.
'There's no way, but I think it was intentional.'
The possibility was very high. Logically, it shouldn't be the case, but Senia's eyes and intuition were telling her that this Player, Kim Hyukjin, intentionally created this situation.
The Player she was doubting, Hyukjin, was just as aware. He knew it was absolutely a dangerous thing to scheme with the Guardians as his opponents, to manipulate them. You could say it was like treading a tightrope.
'But it'll take more than this to kill me.'
And one day, the roles would be reversed. Because the Guardians were many, but he was just one person. There were many Guardians who could replace another Guardian's spot, but there was no Player who could replace him. He would make it so that he was irreplaceable.
Senia calmly opened her mouth, forming silent words that Players couldn't hear in a 'Guardian–Intermediate Administrator' conversation.
"I have the authority to issue a quest, but I lack the Coins for one."
She was perfectly calm about it and only spoke the truth without expecting much. A stream of administrator messages instantly flooded her.
[The 'Whispering Devil' wishes to issue a quest.]
[The 'Lady of the Scales' wishes to issue a quest.]
[The 'Courageous Lion King' wishes to issue a quest.]
[The 'True Master of the Heavenly Demonic Mountain' wishes to issue a quest.]
A whopping four Guardians requested a quest. Senia was rendered speechless for a while. It took a lot for Guardians to open their purses, but they were clamoring over something as minor as a 'quest bestowal'. And they weren't even small fries, but four—four!—Guardians who had 'True Names'.
That just meant they were watching Kim Hyukjin's Playing that seriously.
But just then, another message popped up.
[The 'Nameless Observer' has sent you a 3,000 Coin sponsorship.]
[The 'Nameless Observer' wishes to issue a quest.]
With that, the Nameless Observer became the quest giver. The other Guardians fell quiet.
[The 'Nameless Observer' does not wish to reveal their name.]
As such, the quest was given in Senia's name.
Senia issued our party a quest.
[The quest 'Turtle Nest' has been triggered.]
[Clear the 'Turtle Nest'.]
I found it a little odd.
'Senia herself issued the quest?'
By the standards of the future, she was a Streamer who wouldn't be able to survive. In other words, she lacked the funds. She had even sacrificed 3,000 Coins to me, so she shouldn't have any leeway to issue a quest.
'An Intermediate Administrator's quest…'
Was she overflowing with Coins?
'I thought one of the Guardians would issue it.'
I couldn't read anything from Senia's expression. It did look like she had a chat with the Guardians opened and was talking to them, but it was hard to discern everything from just that.
Yeonseo murmured as if amazed, "It's a quest."
[Quest – Turtle Nest]
Traces of a suspicious gate have been discovered somewhere in Dotonbori.
Find and destroy the Turtle Nest.
"Looks like there really is a gate somewhere around here."
"Then did you think there wouldn't be one?"
I could feel that Senia was concentrating on our conversation. She had to be extremely curious. Why I formed a party and came to Japan, and Dotonbori in Osaka of all places, how I knew, she had to be curious about it all.
"But you know, it's really amazing. You seem like a genius, or maybe like you have some kind of special ability."
I just chuckled. I could only laugh when faced with this Sword Empress in her pure days who was sincerely amazed. I never knew that one of the 8 Heroes who would lead the future, the Sword Empress who confronted the Demon King, was ever this pure and innocent.
"Why're you laughing?"
"Just 'cause."
"Be honest, you thought I was cute, right?"
"You crazy? Do you not know what cute is?"
"But really, how did you know to come here? I'm like seriously curious."
Even though I was talking to Yeonseo, I was still keenly cognizant of Senia. My brain was whirling, thinking about how best I should answer.
"I had a dream."
"A dream?"
Senia's wingtips fluttered. Yes, a dream. This was a good answer. I decided to elaborate a little.
"Something like a precognitive dream."
"P-Precognitive dream? That kind of stuff really exists?"
"There are Players, there are monsters, and there are dungeons, so do you think precognitive dreams are out of bounds?"
"T-That's true, I guess."
Of course, I hadn't had one. Seeing as Senia was talking to the Guardians again, it looked like she had begun to fall for it. After all, there really were Players who awakened an innate ability called 'Precognitive Dream'. It was also a somewhat more common ability than one might expect.
After walking for a bit, Sunhwa tugged my sleeve. "Oppa, I'm hungry."
"That so?"
It was indeed about time to eat. We'd all become Players, but after walking all day long, it was natural that Sunhwa would become hungry and tired.
I decided to stop for a meal.
"Is there anything you want to eat?"
"Can I really say what I want to eat?"
It wasn't a big deal or anything, but Sunhwa only answered after squirming for a while, like she wasn't used to such kindness.
"I want to eat gyukatsu."
* * *
Hm. How to explain this.
"Kyaaaaaaa!"
People were screaming as they scrambled out. I could see a Japanese sign in front of me, and even though I couldn't read it because it was in Japanese, the picture was definitely 'gyukatsu'. We came here to eat gyukatsu because Sunhwa said that's what she wanted, but it turned out that people were screaming as they fled from that very gyukatsu restaurant.
"D-Do you think it's okay to go inside, hyungnim?"
Yoohyun appeared a little frightened, which didn't match his enormous bulk in the least. It almost looked like his big, sturdy muscles were shriveling a tiny bit.
"Let's go."
I walked into the gyukatsu restaurant. Everyone had left, leaving the restaurant completely deserted. Inside, I saw something that looked like a black hole. It was possible to click it.
[Gate – Turtle Nest]
"We found… it?" said Yeonseo, rather bitterly.
My feelings mirrored her own. We came because Sunhwa said she wanted to eat gyukatsu, and it just so happened that a gate opened here, as if to mock our efforts for the past three days.
'It must be a coincidence, right?'
It was probably just a coincidence, but why… did I get the feeling it wasn't? Still, it was more appropriate and simple to pass it off as a coincidence for now.
"Are we going in, hyungnim?"
"Yeah. Sunhwa, you take the lead."
Yoohyun and Yeonseo were clearly not yet used to pushing a young girl to the front, but they didn't contradict me. We had to get used to this. Even that strong-looking body of Yoohyun's wasn't as sturdy as Sunhwa's. We couldn't let ourselves be misled by outer appearances.
Sunhwa was also used to my methods by now. To be more precise, she was faithful to her role.
"Got it."
Once a gate was cleared, it would normally disappear. Before I regressed, the 'Turtle Nest' was originally a gate that had broken, and because of that, there was no strategy for it. In other words, we would have to clear this gate without a strategy guide.
[You have entered the Turtle Nest.]
Even so, I had plenty of confidence. Japan had just barely cleared their Tutorial. At most, the gate wouldn't exceed 'beginner' grade. And we were a party of four people who could be called top rankers in the beginner grade.
'It's dark.'
The whole place was dark. Although the day and night cycle didn't apply to gates, to put it in terms of the time of day, it wasn't nighttime, but sometime around evening, the point at which it starts getting dark.
'A swamp?'
It was humid. The field was a large swamp, with mud at our feet and reeds and other unknown grasses growing here and there. There were also pools scattered about, with lotus flowers blooming on the surface.
It was the first gate I was challenging without the strategy.
'Let's start by figuring out the geographic features.'
That was gate clearing 101. Ascertain the geographic features. Figure out the traps, the Safe Zone, and the monsters. Getting information was the first step.
'Huh?'
But someone had beaten us to it and was already inside. That someone approached us and asked,
"Just what the hell are you guys?"
That someone… had completely slipped past Eye of Perception's radar.
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