“Mr. Kim... Yi-hyeon?”
“You can call me Yi-hyeon or Hyeon, whichever is easier.”
“I’m sorry. It’s a little hard to pronounce.”
“That happens.”
Leila let out a relieved sigh. The conversation was flowing smoothly.
“I’m Leila. I belong to a research institute called Selvlogics Lab. Explaining the lab in detail would probably become a boring story, though, so it’s a little awkward to go into all that.”
“The friend next to you too? This is my first time seeing a researcher point a gun at the face of someone he’s just met.”
“......That was rude of me. I apologize.”
Pavl obediently admitted his fault. For now, he could communicate with the other party. No weapons were visible either, so it had been an excessive response.
That did not mean he had let down his guard. Kim Yi-hyeon understood that fact well too.
‘A member of the lab, huh. Well, that’s not wrong.’
But there were no researchers here. According to the setting, all three of them, including Ghost, were combatants.
In truth, they had not nailed themselves down as researchers. However, it was clear they had consciously hidden it.
It seemed they certainly had a sense of danger. Even if this was Leila, who was called a pushover.
‘This feels pretty fresh.’
Words spoken not from a fixed script, but by characters living and moving on their own. As a user, it was an enjoyable sensation.
“So, Mr. Hyeon? Would it be right to see you as... a survivor of Tulavia?”
A cautious question. Kim Yi-hyeon snorted. He immersed himself in his own setting and answered.
“A survivor? Are you people outsiders? Tulavia may have gone to shit, but not everyone left. Same goes for me.”
“Why? You must know this place is dangerous. It would be better to go to a city......”
“You can tell by looking at my face. It’s hard enough living where I’d already settled down. Relocating is a dream. The people of this country absolutely loathe immigrants.”
“There was a region nearby called Ulanz. We only passed through briefly, but at a glance, immigrants like you did not seem uncommon there.”
“Ulanz? Ha, that place is just a camp. Rather than being raised like livestock in a place like that, wouldn’t it be better to live like a wild animal?”
Even in abandoned regions, sewer rats lived.
Kim Yi-hyeon’s appearance added persuasiveness. In terms of looks, he was the only Asian. After fighting and even rolling across the ground, his hair was a complete bird’s nest.
It seemed the story he had made up worked well.
“......I see.”
Leila answered as if talking to herself, then closed her mouth. Her face revealed complicated feelings. He had more of the setting prepared, but it seemed he did not need to say it right away.
A short while later, Ghost returned.
He approached Leila with somewhat hurried steps. He began whispering something into her ear.
Even without hearing it, Kim Yi-hyeon could guess. Sure enough.
“R-really!?”
It was almost a scream.
Soon, she became conscious of Kim Yi-hyeon’s presence and covered her mouth with her hand in a gasp. Even while doing so, the emotion welling up inside her was vividly expressed on her face.
“I’m sorry. Please excuse me for a moment!”
Leila bowed her head as if embarrassed, then ran into the cavern. Kim Yi-hyeon watched her with warm eyes, without the slightest displeasure.
‘Ah, that’s Leila.’
Every one of her actions was big, so she was fun to watch. It would be an exaggeration to call her one of his favorites, but Kim Yi-hyeon rather liked Leila’s characterization.
‘Though there aren’t many characters I dislike in the first place.’
His tension gradually relaxed. Was it because the fact that his game knowledge worked well had been proven? He was becoming calm enough to surprise even himself.
“Can I follow too?”
His tongue loosened along with it.
Ghost and Pavl did not say anything in particular. They only looked at each other briefly. Taking that as permission, he followed Leila.
Inside the cavern.
The vines that had covered the glass tube like a thicket had already been cleanly cleared away. Perhaps Ghost had cut them so they would not get in the way, because they were lying messily at his feet.
“She really was here......”
Leila murmured as she stroked the surface of the glass tube with her hand.
Hair gone white as snow. Yet a face without wrinkles. Even her eyelashes, faintly lowered in sleep.
A person who had sometimes been like a mother.
A person who had sometimes been like an older sister.
Just as she had been in Leila’s final memory, the Professor was asleep. Leila pressed both hands tightly against her chest. Her expression was not well controlled.
“How is the Professor’s condition?”
Pavl asked. He did not even approach the glass tube, deliberately guarding the entrance instead.
The outside was one thing, but Kim Yi-hyeon was also a target of caution.
The Speeder corpses rolling around nearby. There was one thing all three of them had in common.
‘Piercing wounds?’
Impossible with bare hands. Then naturally, he must have used a weapon, but no tool of note had been found nearby.
In that case, an ability. Pavl guessed he was someone who possessed a “Spell.”
“There are no visible external injuries. Life support is also... yes. It seems to be working properly.”
“Then get her out quickly. We have been delayed. I understand how you feel, but if we are delayed any longer, it will be troublesome.”
“I know.”
Leila touched the panel below the glass tube. Sparks flew from her fingertips.
Spell.
In the world of Polaris, it was a technique corresponding to magic. Rather than the general concept of magic, it was closer to an ability unique to each individual with powers.
Kim Yi-hyeon considered his own skill to be in a similar context. He did not know what the truth was.
Hissssss!
With a sound like steam being released, the glass tube slowly opened. The solution poured out, and the sleeping Professor’s body collapsed as if pushed by a wave.
Leila did not care that her clothes were being dirtied. She carefully caught the Professor, lest even the smallest scratch appear on her.
How many seconds passed after that?
“Ah......!”
Leila let out an exclamation full of joy. The Professor’s lips twitched. It was proof of life. As if it had spread, even the corners of her eyes trembled, and her tightly shut eyelids opened up and down.
“It’s been a long time, Professor.”
“......You... are...?”
“...As I thought, you’ve forgotten everything. You must be confused right now. Who I am before your eyes, and even who you are. But.”
Leila held the Professor’s hand tightly. Warmth gradually began to return to the hand that had been cold.
“You don’t need to worry. I remember you, Professor.”
Kim Yi-hyeon could see her profile, filled with deep emotion. It was quite a heart-stirring scene.
‘Honestly, in the game, it was hard to get immersed, though.’
In a situation where you knew nothing, they just scattered a mountain of foreshadowing. At first, he had complained inwardly, wondering what kind of prologue was this damn unfriendly from the start.
Still, well.
‘It’s nice to watch. Like a movie.’
With two beauties doing that, it made for a picture.
***
Leila’s group left the cavern and walked along the tracks. The Professor was being carried on Pavl’s back. Because she had been asleep for so long, she was not in any condition to move on her own.
“...Where is this...?”
“This is beneath Tulavia.”
“Tulavia? I am...”
“You don’t need to try to remember too much all at once. For now, slowly, first your body....”
Lines he remembered reached his ears. As he followed behind the group, Kim Yi-hyeon stroked his chest in relief.
‘Somehow, I made it past the hurdle.’
They had talked about this and that.
Starting with introductions, he had told them his long-winded circumstances. He had come into the station to look for food and miscellaneous goods, somehow discovered the glass tube, then suddenly Speeders appeared, so he fought them, and as he was resting, this time they showed up......
The ratio of truth to lies was about three to seven. It was a decent enough explanation in its own way. After all, there were plenty of vagrants wandering around looking for useful things.
He might look too clean for a vagrant, but... well, that could not be helped. They were strangers, so each side should have a secret or two.
In any case, it was not an unnatural flow for him to act with them for the moment. They could not be called numerous, but their fighting strength itself was not bad.
Leila had 6-star potential. She was a special character with a foundation for future growth prepared for her.
In other words, the hope of free-to-play users.
‘Though right now, she’s 4-star, same as Pavl.’
If applied to reality, 4-star was not a low grade. Kim Yi-hyeon himself was only a measly 1-star, was he not? By simple calculation, there was a fourfold difference.
And on top of that.
“Hyeon. What do you plan to do from here?”
Ghost. As said earlier, he was not an official playable character. He was a special character usable in only five stages.
However, he was a strong person several moves above Leila and Pavl. At the current point in time, he was Selvlogics Lab’s most elite operative.
“How much would a vagrant think about the future? This place doesn’t seem to have anything in particular, so assuming I leave, after that, well.”
He had not thought properly about what came after joining them. First, he had been too busy trying to secure his life.
......No. Was it still too early to feel relieved?
“I saw the Speeder corpses. The wounds were sharp at the end and long... as if they had been stabbed with something like a spear. Two of them were each finished in a single blow.”
“Huh? What?”
“Was any part of that wrong?”
“N-no. I’m surprised because it’s too accurate.”
It was a sincere reaction.
Could someone tell that just by looking? He had not looked straight at the corpses, so he could not clearly remember what state they were in either.
“It also looked as though you used a Spell.”
“Do I have to say that too?”
“With that answer, you have said it.”
Ghost chuckled in a way that did not feel hateful.
“But, hmm.”
Ghost even stopped walking and hesitated. Based on his impression so far, and also the way he had appeared in the game, it was unlike him.
“What I say might sound unpleasant. Still, I do not intend to look down on you, so do not misunderstand.”
“What is it?”
With him dragging it out this much, Kim Yi-hyeon became needlessly curious. Soon after, Ghost spoke with a serious gaze.
“To be honest, you are very inexperienced.”
Kim Yi-hyeon’s steps stopped. Ghost continued speaking.
“There were stone fragments scattered inside the cavern. From the way they had been stepped on, I could estimate what kind of battle it was. You did not seem to have much experience.”
Blink, blink.
Kim Yi-hyeon silently stared at Ghost, only opening and closing his eyes. Perhaps Ghost thought he would burst into anger after seeing his reaction, because he let out a deep breath.
“......I misspoke. I apologize.”
He ended by asking him to forget it. After remaining silent for quite a while, Kim Yi-hyeon finally let out a small laugh.
“Why apologize? Who cares? You can backseat a little.”
He had wondered what Ghost was going to say.
It was just something obvious. Experience? Did the fights he had gotten into with friends in middle and high school count?
If not, then he had never done anything like fighting. Besides, his opponent had been monsters, had it not? There was no reason to get irritated over a single word saying he was inexperienced.
After all, it was one hundred percent true.
“But why? It’s not like you brought this up just to pick on me, bluntly speaking. Are you going to teach me or something?”
Half of it was a joke. The other half was simply the hope that he would.
At the very least, he had not expected it to turn out like this.
“If you want.”
“......Really?”
“If you have nowhere to go, come to Selvlogics Lab. The treatment will not be bad. Since the Professor has also returned, vitality will naturally return to the place. It is a good time to accept new personnel.”
An offer to outright join the player’s faction. It was not bad. As a user, he could satisfy his personal desires, and a degree of safety would be guaranteed.
If he made use of his game knowledge, he was confident he could rise in status too. It was not as if he had no desire to watch, from nearby, what kind of person the player called Professor was.
But if there was one problem.
‘Why the hell did it have to be you saying that......’
Ghost. Selvlogics Lab’s elite operative.
In terms of the story, he was the first character to drop out.
Rescuing the Professor and escaping the subway station made up 0-1 and 0-2. Then, after passing through two more stages on the surface.
He died exactly in 0-5 Stage.