***
“Ugh.”
The man kept fanning himself in a half-open dress shirt.
“What kind of weather is this from early summer? It’s insanely hot.”
He looked resentfully at the built-in air conditioner.
“No, of all times, this damned company with nothing to its name has its air conditioner break in this weather? Manager Go, take responsibility. Quickly.”
“I told you, I’m not the one who broke it. The department head did, you rude bastard. If you have a problem, fix it yourself.”
The man in his forties called Manager Go bluntly set down a cup ramen, steaming hot, in front of him.
“Eat. Picked it up on the way.”
“Ramen again in this weather?”
“If you don’t want it, I’ll eat two.”
“Thank you for the meal!”
The man snatched the ramen and took off the employee ID hanging around his neck.
Written on it were the words, “Blackcube Entertainment Sales Team 3, Assistant Manager Kim Jun-hyeon.”
“Still nothing uploaded?”
“If there were, I would’ve reported it already.”
“Really? If something gets uploaded, tell me right away. Don’t slack off, you salary thief.”
“It isn’t like you’re the one paying me, Manager.”
“Talking back, are you?”
After saying that much, Manager Go immediately turned toward the coolest conference room.
“Monitor properly. Do your work right away too. Good work!”
Seeing him wink one eyebrow like a shameless fox, Assistant Manager Kim Jun-hyeon shook his head.
‘Sigh, this is why this company won’t run without me.’
Thinking a thought any salaried worker might have, he returned to the monitor.
-Spirit Channel
What was open on his screen was an internet streaming site that had suddenly appeared not long ago.
It differed from existing sites in that it used the strange method of broadcasting real-time edited videos.
‘Why isn’t the next video coming out?’
The videos that had first been uploaded all at once had been shocking in themselves.
‘They’re all gone now.’
The only thing left now was a single video called “Compilation.”
‘I can’t tell what the hell this site is trying to do.’
The people visiting the site seemed just as confused.
-So when’s the next broadcast?
-Just tell us whether they died or lived…….
-What kind of site doesn’t even have notices and looks like this?
-I told you, this is an advertising site, you idiots.
-Advertising? Advertising what?
-I’m guessing a new game.
-Do you think anything would be left if they spent this much on advertising, you moron? lolololol.
-Why would they charge a subscription fee if it’s an ad?
-Give me back my subscription fee, seriously.
‘Bullshit. There’s no way it’s an ad.’
Assistant Manager Kim Jun-hyeon did not think for even one second that this site was an advertising site.
Something like this was just an ad? A game?
It made no sense.
‘That’s just the delusion of people who have never made video media before.’
Having once worked in the film industry before moving over to internet services, he knew well how absurd that was.
The cameras were, at the very least, at the level of 70mm for a major theater.
Judging by how the scenes were divided, they must have filmed at specific locations for at least several months.
He could not even imagine how much money had been burned.
‘If this is an ad, the numbers don’t work.’
His company had judged this to be a newly emerging internet movie theater, a business model like Netflix.
So they were watching its progress, but…….
‘Why aren’t there any videos or notices being uploaded?’
Everything was a mystery.
From the position of someone watching, it was frustrating.
Just as he absentmindedly tried to put a chopstickful of ramen into his mouth.
-New Spirit Channel video!
-Orc Warrior vs Liz, Montmorency, Lapis.
-A match with a 0.31% win rate. What will the result be?
“It’s up!”
Assistant Manager Kim Jun-hyeon hurriedly scrambled while quickly dealing with the ramen he had been slurping.
“It’s up! Manager Go! The video’s here!”
“It’s up?”
“Ah, hurry over! Quickly!”
“Don’t talk casually!”
Manager Go came running out, knocking over a chair with a crash.
“You weren’t done with breaking the air conditioner, so now you’re breaking chairs too.”
“Be quiet, you bastard.”
Manager Go shoved Kim Jun-hyeon aside and took the seat in front of the monitor. His bulbous nose was close enough to touch the screen.
“It’s up. It’s really up. Ten minutes?”
“A little under ten minutes.”
“Okay. Play it and get the link right away. I’ll call the department head for a moment.”
“I’m watching first?”
“What are you doing if not watching? Yes! Department Head! Yes, yes, it’s up! I monitored it. Ah, of course!”
With a trembling heart, Kim Jun-hyeon played the video.
***
-You have defeated the Elite Orc Warrior.
-The Guild praises your martial valor.
-A reward has arrived.
Min-jun lost consciousness the moment he saw that message.
He had won the fight, but his entire body was a wreck.
There was no way he could endure it without fainting.
What woke him after he wandered for a long while in a coma was also the pain rising from his bones.
“Ughhh!”
The sensation of the cold bare floor followed at the same time.
His entire body was wrapped tightly in cloth bandages.
“Ah!”
He felt someone beside him flinch in surprise.
‘Is someone here?’
Min-jun tried to raise his body warily.
“Urgh!”
But he collapsed again under the tingling pain.
“……Are you okay?”
The face reflected in the wavering brazier light far away belonged to a familiar woman.
He remembered.
She was the woman who had rolled around in the arena with him.
If she had not made up her mind at the end, Min-jun would be a corpse by now.
“Lapis. It’s my Hero Name.”
“……Liz.”
“Yes, Mr. Liz.”
Lapis watched his condition with drooping eyes.
She looked like a puppy nervously reading the room after losing confidence.
Min-jun tried somehow to raise his upper body, but Lapis lightly pressed down on his shoulder.
“Ah, don’t move. Please stay still. You’re being treated right now…….”
“Treated?”
“Yes. If it gets interrupted, I have to wait another hour before I can use it again.”
“No, you’re the one treating me?”
Min-jun looked at her anew.
“Yes. I am.”
Her roughly tied long golden hair fell messily over her forehead.
Below it, her intelligent emerald eyes were striking.
“My Class Trait heals people. The effect still isn’t that good, though…….”
Healing?
She spoke as if it were a useless Trait, but Min-jun thought differently.
It was a sufficiently unique ability.
“What Class do you have to be able to do something like that?”
“It’s a little embarrassing.”
Lapis fidgeted with her hands for a moment.
“Holy Maiden Alicepiz…….”
Min-jun nodded.
If it had a name attached to it, then there was no need to ask. It had to be a high-grade avatar.
In fact, his body, which had been in agony, was slowly regaining comfort as time passed.
“I knew it.”
Min-jun understood inwardly.
When Lapis had been in danger, Min-jun’s body had sent him a fierce warning.
Perhaps he had instinctively realized that he had to protect her.
A healing ability would be helpful in the future too.
‘Come to think of it, there was no reaction when the man died.’
When the man who had been with them had died, he had not received any sense of danger.
‘The sound of the avatar called Fanatic Assassin was just a little unpleasant. It might be better than I thought.’
Min-jun felt his body gradually improve and slowly sat up.
“You should still lie down.”
“It’s fine. That treatment can’t be something you can just use recklessly with no cost, can it?”
“Yes, at my current level, I can only use it on one person once per hour. If I break that, or touch a wound that’s too severe, there are side effects.”
“Side effects?”
Lapis merely nodded and did not say anything else.
He was curious what the side effects were, but it would look strange to keep interrogating someone who had tightly shut her mouth.
“What will happen now?”
Lapis muttered with fear in her eyes.
Min-jun glanced down at his own state.
Suddenly, he recalled the contents of the request he had seen right before coming here.
-Black Sun: A country that worships martial might, the Rivelhardt Empire. Their most fervently loved festival, the “Victory Festival,” has already gone 10 years without anyone seeing its end. Hero, head toward that end.
“Isn’t it obvious? It said to see the end of the Victory Festival, so it means we have to fight and keep fighting here until we see the end.”
“F-Fight again?”
“Probably.”
Min-jun answered uncertainly, then corrected himself.
“No, definitely.”
It was a thought close to certainty.
“The reason they locked us up here is probably to keep us confined until the next match. Though we don’t know when that will be.”
“Ugh…….”
Lapis’s expression darkened, and she hugged her knees.
Because of the fight against the Orc Warrior, her confidence had already hit rock bottom.
‘Are they not feeding us?’
Thinking that, Min-jun looked around once.
There were hard stone walls in every direction, and far away, there was only a small iron-barred opening like a side door.
Beyond the iron bars, only a dark corridor could be seen, and the brazier fire hanging somewhere beyond it was the only source of light.
“Where is this?”
Min-jun asked Lapis.
“It was dark while we were being brought here, so I couldn’t really see either…… but maybe a prison under the arena…… No, I’m not sure either.”
Lapis answered with difficulty, sniffling from time to time.
‘An underground prison.’
She was not confident in her answer, but Min-jun thought it was probably an underground prison.
The ceiling was so low that his head would touch it if he sat up, and it was covered in water stains.
A low, damp place. Whether it was groundwater or something else, he thought water must be nearby.
“How long has it been since we came here?”
“I’m not sure. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t cry.”
Min-jun wrapped his hands around hers.
Her eyes, filled with moisture, glittered in the faint light crossing over from beyond the bars.
“Roughly. Even a feeling of how long it seems to have been is fine, so think about it.”
Min-jun pushed with an attitude that was almost a little stiff.
He felt that he could not calm her down otherwise.
“One day…… no. Two days…… I think it’s almost been two days.”
It was not two days.
If it felt to her like two days had passed in a space like this, then not even a day had passed outside yet.
Because Lapis was gripped by unprecedented fear and anxiety, time here must have felt much longer than usual.
‘But they don’t give us food or water? Even so, water at least…….’
Min-jun looked at Lapis.
“Who brought us here?”
“Just…… I only know they were people in armor. They looked like soldiers, or knights…….”
“Did they say anything else?”
“……That there would be something to eat inside.”
Min-jun looked around again.
Water did sometimes drip down from the ceiling one drop at a time.
But there was no food anywhere. At most, there was moss stuck to the stones.
‘Strange.’
Remembering the request details, Min-jun intuited that something about this situation was strange.
‘A country that worships martial might treats gladiators like this? This is worse than how untouchables would be treated.’
Besides, it had said this was a festival no one had seen the end of for ten years.
‘It’s obviously a tournament-style match, but no one has seen the end? What does that mean?’
The arena audience had shouted for him to kill.
Yes. It meant the participants died, so it never ended.
After thinking for a moment, Min-jun soon reached a conclusion.
There was only one answer that could gather all this information into one.
‘This match is just a massacre show.’
Min-jun was almost ninety percent certain.
‘There are beasts and monster-like things in each round. We have to overcome those things and keep going until the end appears.’
From the arena audience’s perspective, they probably only wanted to watch slave gladiators like moths to a flame die.
Since a total of 100 Heroes had participated, how many would make it past the first round?
He wanted at least half of them to remain, if nothing else.
“What do we do now?”
Lapis sniffled through her reddened nose.
“……There’s no way except to fight until they tell us to stop fighting.”
It was probably not the answer she wanted to hear.
‘If I knew how many fights we have to win before this ends, I could reach some kind of conclusion…….’
It was frustrating.
Having to imagine information about this test through nothing but guesses was definitely a problem.
Because in order to win a game, knowing the rules came first.
‘Is there no one who can tell me?’
Just as Min-jun irritably swept his bangs back.
Clang. Clang.
He heard something touching the iron bars. Lapis gasped and leaned against him in surprise.
Outside the bars, there was someone in armor.
‘Armor…… soldiers?’
Just as he wondered if they were already telling them to start the next match.
“Are you there? Phone. Computer. Are you there?”
What came from the soldier’s mouth was something unexpected.
‘Huh?’