Chapter 39 (2/2)

”… Money?”

”It is required to buy things there.” The boy didn't seem to understand.

“We offer a tribute… The Gasava fruit that is carefully prepared…”

“Tribute?”

“Dear G.o.d, please forgive the incompetence of our ancestors. Please help us leave here and return to the civilization of our ancestors. We pray.”

“There are no stairways here? They would go down.”

”We… We are different from you. We can't cross the boundary. We were exiled here.” In other words, they couldn't get out of this forest, so they stole the tickets from incoming explorers to pray to the statue.

Well, I knew very well that the prayer had no effect. That's why they were still here. There was one thing though.

They knew about the concept of tickets and explorers in advance. Were there explorers before this? Is it not just our world? I looked at the boy to ask another question.

At that time, a few sentences emerged in the air.

”…” I read the message twice. It took some time before I understood the meaning. Indeed. It wasn't entirely useless.

”Ah.” The boy's eyes widened as he looked behind me. There was an expression of relief on his face. I looked back and saw four Tellans.

“Father!” The boy cried out to one of the four men. All of them looked much stronger than the boy. They were big and holding sharp weapons. They determined that I was an enemy just by looking.

Well, my questions were already roughly resolved just from the previous message that I popped up in the air. If one survived, I could kill them to get their talents. Were they treating me like a monster?

The Tellans rushed towards me.

&

I found a village five hours later. I was going to tear the ticket and go to the fifth floor after eight hours. Even if Yang Su-jin and Yoon Ji-hee tore their tickets, they would still be there for 12 hours.

There were Tellan villages all over the forest. That was the information I had squeezed from them. There were several villages that guarded the stairs leading down to different exits. They were stairs that the Tellans couldn't go down.

”Cough.” As I breathed in smoke, I looked around the village that was already in shambles. It was approximately the size of a primary school playground. There had been dozens of Tellans living here. But now, all of them were dead and uninvited guests were resting in the village.

“Who is this? I really ran into you here.” The one in charge was Hip-hop. There were at least 10 people around him. I looked around, but didn't see Gla.s.ses or Macho.

”It looks like you're alone. Were you lost in the forest?” He spoke casually, but his party was already spreading out, like he had given them unspoken directions. I saw one person block the road into the village behind me.

I looked at Hip-hop and said. ”I discovered the path a few minutes ago and followed it. I'm alone.”

Hip-hop laughed with satisfaction at my words. The shoes he was wearing seemed to be unusual.

Lee Sang-yoon said it was a 'B rank' equipment. The place they reached on the 7th floor was a 'factory.' Similar to me, instead of fighting the guards of the factory, they chose a smarter way.

They fixed the facilities of the factory using the Tellan language and received three B rank items as compensation. Right now, I only had C and D rank equipment.

Of course, they were weapons, but I couldn't couldn't ignore the skills of the people handling them. Even if they had the mysterious ability to shoot fire or freeze an opponent, I could get that much destructive power from other weapons.

But they were different. They had overwhelming firepower and talents. Lee Sang-yoon had said this.

“I will give you a chance to change your mind. How about it?” As Hip-hop stepped forward, his shoes started to glow. They were shoes that allowed for incredibly fast movement. Maybe it was the power of the shoes that allowed him to take over this village.

As proof, there was dust on some of the party members, while Hip-hop showed only a little bit of fatigue. He made a triumphant expression. “I'm not an intolerant person. Some of the ones here only joined me on this floor. Do you see this pretty girl here? I saved her directly.”

Hip-hop winked at the girl next to him.

“Oppa is really cool.” The girl laughed like she was shy. I wasn't sure if that face was pretty or not.

“Lee Sang-yoon, that jerk was too self-conscious. He makes me want to beat him up even when he is quiet.”

“I feel the same way.”

“Well, I don't want to hit you. But you did do something to my car. Even if you surrender, I have to pay that back.” Of course, I wasn't fool enough to surrender and Hip-hop also knew that. He was waiting for me to say 'no' so he could strike.

I opened my mouth. “Have you ever read Romance of the Three Kingdoms?”

”… What?” The look on his face said he hadn't read it.

“Before he died, Zhuge Liang handed something in his pocket to Yang.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Zhuge Liang believed that the guy called Wei Yan would betray him. So before he died, Zhuge Liang handed a pouch over to Yang. Yang opened the pouch. There was a piece of paper with writing on it.”

”Who will kill me? If Wei Yan shouts this message three times. I will hand over all military rights to Wei Yan. Yang delivered the message to Wei Yan, who smiled and shouted it three times.”

”Crazy b.a.s.t.a.r.d.” Hip-hop thought I was talking nonsense to buy some time and lowered his upper body.

”You don't know what I mean, but you should at least look behind you.”

”That…!” Someone who read Romance of the Three Kingdoms called out to Hip-hop, but it was too late.

Bam!

The body of Hip-hop, who was about to move, shook for a moment. Hip-hop stared blankly at the broken gla.s.s bottle that hit him and the liquid that soaked his head.

”'I will kill you.' Was that it?” The girl recited the line in the novel and shrugged as she turned towards me. “People should study these days. There are no kids reading Romance of the Three Kingdoms anymore.”

”You?”

“I read it whenever I am bored.” As I looked at Yang Su-jin, blood poured from Hip-hop's body.

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