“Cell phone, telephone, Apple, Samsung…… What else is there?”
“Isn’t that enough?”
“Maybe? I guess it is.”
There were two of them.
They tapped the iron bars around them one by one while muttering the names of twenty-first-century company brands familiar to Min-jun.
Just before they turned away, Min-jun’s frozen thoughts finally snapped back into motion.
“Don’t tell me, are you people from Hero Channel?”
When Min-jun asked quietly, the two soldiers flinched and stopped.
“Shh.”
They brought a hand to their mouths and lifted their helmets to show their eyes.
‘……They’re participants!’
The two took out a jangling bunch of keys.
Without hesitation, the two soldiers unlocked the padlock on the bars that had been keeping him imprisoned.
“Come out quietly.”
Min-jun looked back at Lapis and nodded.
She quickly followed with tearful eyes.
“You’ve been through a lot, haven’t you?”
“Let’s go this way.”
Even Min-jun could not adapt to this situation.
“What exactly is going on……?”
“Shh. Let’s talk once we arrive first.”
The two pointed toward one side of the passage.
Only belatedly did the scenery of this place enter his eyes.
There was no doubt.
This place was an underground prison.
“This way.”
Min-jun simply moved toward the far end of the passage as the two led him.
How long had they walked through the dark prison passage?
A door blocked their path.
Knock, knock.
“Who is it?”
“Rocket.”
What a weird password.
Seeing one of the soldiers give him a thumbs-up, Min-jun had no choice but to nod back despite himself.
The door opened, and a broadly built man poked his anxious face out.
“Loyalty! We brought two gladiators!”
“Forget loyalty or whatever, get in quickly! Hurry!”
“Yes, sir. I think these are the last ones.”
Min-jun and Lapis hurried inside with that momentum too.
A fairly large space, apparently a rest facility for soldiers, was revealed.
And what was there was.
“You’re here?”
Torches hanging on the wall and a single candle on the table.
Dozens of people gathered around them.
‘Hero Candidates……!’
Every single one of them had dark expressions. There was not a single person smiling.
A serious atmosphere hung over the room.
A woman seated in the center handed Min-jun a ceramic cup.
“Please share it between the two of you. Given the situation, we don’t have much.”
Min-jun accepted the cup and immediately handed it to Lapis.
She hunched her shoulders and said, “Thank you.”
Min-jun’s eyes moved quickly. He checked how many people were here in total.
“Thirty-four, excluding the three soldiers. Is this everyone? Exactly how many are missing?”
The atmosphere grew heavy, and there was no answer.
A bearded man leaning against the wall slowly raised his head.
“Can’t you even do arithmetic? Try subtracting the people here from 100 and thinking about it by yourself.”
“I was asking how many people had been assigned to other positions, like these soldiers here. You three started with guard identities from the beginning, correct?”
The three soldiers looked at one another and nodded all at once.
“When I opened my eyes, they asked why I hadn’t gone to relieve the shift, and I got five lashes.”
“It was nothing compared to what happened to everyone else, though. Haha, I was just surprised. Ahem.”
The soldier who was a former Hero Candidate changed his expression as he continued.
“And Mr. King misspoke a little. To be precise, there is one more person.”
“There is?”
“Yes. However, that person started as a guard lieutenant and has gone off duty now. Should we say that person had the best luck among us?”
Min-jun nodded.
‘Of course there would be.’
He also knew who it was.
There was one person whose absence here would not make sense.
“For it to be that woman, of all people…….”
Yu A-yeong.
The woman who participated in the Hero Network chat under the nickname “Canaria,” and who possessed a cheat-level Class.
“Oh, do you know Ms. Canaria?”
“Of course I know. Was there anyone else from the last game who had met that young lady before?”
The man with the bushy beard, the one called “King,” sneered as he looked at Min-jun.
“You. You’re the bastard who took 1st place in the last game, aren’t you? I remember your face.”
“1st place?”
“Him?”
“Ah, that person!”
“He really is. I think that’s right.”
A slight stir spread out.
It was understandable.
At this point, among the Heroes, there was no one more famous than Min-jun.
“Hmph, look at you acting proud over 1st place you earned like a sneaky bastard.”
That bearded man called King.
Min-jun had thought he looked familiar.
-I’ll see you later.
He was the very man who had left that cold warning behind.
The very “mustached man” who had snatched the supply box and later been eliminated by Min-jun’s hand.
It seemed he still had feelings left over from Min-jun taking revenge.
“For someone who uses a name like King, you seem to have a rather narrow heart.”
“……Are you done talking?”
Min-jun chuckled.
“Isn’t the most embarrassing thing in a game complaining after you lose? Please act your size.”
“Watch your mouth, kid. There’ve been more than a few guys who ran their mouths in front of me and got their jaws twisted.”
Just as their gazes clashed between Min-jun and King.
“King.”
The woman sitting in the middle of the people sharply raised her eyes.
“Now is not the time to talk about that. The last game ended with the last game.”
She was dressed shabbily, but a stubborn yet gentle charisma flowed from her face.
“What matters now is the plan from here on, and our activity guidelines. Please do not blur the essence of the matter.”
After saying that, the woman looked at Min-jun.
“You are?”
“Liz.”
“Yes, Liz. And the woman beside you?”
“I’m Lapis.”
“Lapis. First of all, thank you very much for remaining without being eliminated. I’m Brillante.”
Brillante.
‘That person.’
She was an interesting woman.
In such a short time, she had clearly settled into the role of leader at the center of the Heroes.
It was almost strange that she had not stood out in the previous test.
“You understand the general situation, correct? If we fail to complete this request, we are finished. This is not a joke. This is real combat with 100 lives at stake. That is the ground we are standing on right now.”
Min-jun nodded.
“I’m not stupid enough not to know that.”
“Unfortunately, there are people who have not even fully understood that much, so I am continuing to remind everyone.”
At her words, a few people visibly flinched for no reason.
What a bunch of idiots.
“Now, since new people have arrived, I will explain the overall contents again, both to relay what has been organized so far and to make sure everyone understands.”
Brillante took out a ragged piece of cloth from inside her clothes. It was a cloth with faint drawings on it.
“This match is based on the ‘biography’ of the current Emperor of Rivelhardt, who is said to have survived a total of ten trials and built the empire.”
A strange light entered Min-jun’s eyes. Something flashed through his mind at the words “ten trials.”
“Ten?”
“Yes, ten.”
Some people still did not catch on, but Min-jun clearly understood.
Because the number ten had meaning.
“Then, just like the ten trials the emperor supposedly experienced, a total of ten matches have been prepared for us too.”
“You have good instincts. That is exactly it.”
Brillante looked all around.
“Ten. In order for us to complete this Stage 2 Test with our lives at stake. A total of ten.”
She repeatedly emphasized the part about ten.
“In other words, we still need to overcome nine more matches.”
At her words, everyone around them let out sighs at once.
“Hah.”
“Ten?”
“We barely caught one. How are we supposed to…….”
“Doesn’t that mean things worse than those wolf bastards will come out?”
At those words, one of the guards shook his head.
“There were already quite a few cases in the first match where things worse than wolves appeared. Of course, most of those people were eliminated…….”
“Damn it…….”
“Fuck me.”
Sixty-two people had fallen in just one round.
And they were supposed to win ten fights like this?
To put it bluntly, even if this level of difficulty continued steadily, it would be hard to say whether they could manage it.
‘I can understand why no one has seen the end in ten years.’
Even Min-jun shook his head.
Brillante tapped the table with her finger and gathered everyone’s attention.
“Still, there is no need to despair too much. Even within this, there are two pieces of fortunate information that should give us some comfort. First…….”
“If even one person remains and succeeds, it counts as completed for all of us.”
The voice came from King, who was leaning against the wall.
“Yes, it is as King says. There is no need for many people to succeed at once. This request only needs one person to succeed.”
That was something Min-jun knew as well.
Inwardly, he had thought that perhaps that “Demon Hunter Canaria” might somehow handle it.
‘But our strongest fighting force just happened to enter as a guard lieutenant?’
Min-jun bit his nail in anxiety.
What terrible luck. The situation was so strangely unfortunate that it almost felt intentional.
“Look at you all making dying faces.”
King clicked his tongue.
“I’ll go all the way to the end, so stop worrying. Honestly, Stage 1 was manageable for me too.”
There did seem to be a few people who truly took comfort from those words.
‘Hard to say.’
It did not look easy.
“The second is something that applies once you pass the third match.”
Brillante spoke carefully.
“Those who pass the third trial can leave this place.”
“Leave?”
“From here?”
Murmurs spread.
“Yes. From then on, you will receive the status of free gladiators, be given a small amount of money, and be permitted to live outside.”
There was no one who would not welcome that news. Everyone must have hated this narrow, damp prison.
“Then the matches……?”
“You participate as if coming to work at the designated time.”
“What happens if we don’t participate?”
“Well. Either you become fugitives and get caught, or you flee far away entirely. Wouldn’t it be one of those two? According to the guards’ information, over the past ten years, even the cases of people passing Stage 3 can be counted on one hand.”
What followed was despairing, but in any case, it was good news.
If they had been told to rot here until the end, they might have gone mad from frustration.
“Three times…….”
Lapis could be seen trembling quietly beside him.
‘Can Lapis really endure two more rounds from here?’
Honestly, it was not hopeful. She was not suited to combat.
It was already impressive that she had survived this time.
‘Lapis’s Trait is too precious to gamble twice.’
After thinking for a moment, Min-jun opened his mouth toward Brillante.
“Would it be difficult to get at least a few people here outside? We have guards, so I think it should be possible.”
“……Why?”
Not only Brillante, but everyone else looked puzzled.
“I think it would be better for those with severe injuries, or those whose abilities are clearly not suited to combat, to stay out of the fighting altogether.”
Min-jun glanced at Lapis.
She faced him with trembling eyes, her hands gathered over her chest.
“We need every person fighting together to have any chance of winning. Some people stay out, some people fight? Does that even make sense?”
King reacted immediately.
“I think that’s too simple a way to look at it. I believe the real match begins after Round 3.”
“What are you talking…….”
“Think about it. Imagine the situation after some of us pass Round 3 and go outside.”
Eyes filled with curiosity flew toward him.
“Once we go outside then, what can we do? We have no information about this place’s civilization, way of life, geography, nothing.”
“So what? If we can live even in a filthy sewer like this, how different could the outside be? Fight and win. Isn’t that the only thing that matters in this test?”
“Supplying weapons, treating wounds. How well can we handle those small but necessary tasks if we only start scrambling to prepare them later? Isn’t logistics just as important as combat?”
At Min-jun’s words, a few people began to be swayed.
“So let’s pull out at least the people who won’t help in a fight or those who are badly injured ahead of time. If they’re people who are likely to be eliminated anyway, it’s a win-win. Isn’t it?”
“And if they get caught by the guards? You want to send valuable manpower off to become dew on the execution ground? Say something that makes sense, kid.”
“We’ll have to hope they don’t get caught.”
“What nonsense…….”
“Why would it be impossible? I think that’s far more plausible than asking people who can hardly be considered combat power to fight and win.”
“How frustrating. That is what this request is! It’s a request where you fight and win, you brat!”
Brillante raised her hand.
“I think it is a reasonable opinion, Liz.”
“What?”
King wore a dumbfounded expression.
“I think what he said has merit. Coincidentally, at this hour, the security is loose, so it is also the best time to smuggle people out.”
“I agree too.”
“If they’re people who’ll drop anyway, well.”
“So who’s going out?”
“Wouldn’t it be best to take volunteers?”
As everyone moved into an atmosphere of agreement, King muttered, “What a pathetic bunch,” and wiped his face.
“Those who believe they are outside our fighting force, raise your hands. Let’s first confirm how many there are.”
When Brillante said that, two or three people quickly raised their hands. All of them were injured.
“Raise it quickly.”
Min-jun whispered into Lapis’s ear. She hesitated as her hand trembled.
‘I said raise it already!’
He had set the board for her, and she was worrying about appearances.
She was clearly thinking it would be shameless to slip out alone from this place.
“One person, two people, three people, four people. Is there no one else?”
Min-jun’s blood ran dry.
“Then, a total of four people…….”
This was driving him crazy.
‘Damn it.’
In the end, Min-jun chose an extreme method. He reached his hand behind her and smacked her arm upward with a tap.
It was an utterly simple and crude method.
“Ah……!”
Lapis raised her hand for an instant, then looked around with bewildered eyes.
Fortunately, it seemed no one had noticed Min-jun’s trick.
“With Lapis included, a total of five people. Understood. Applications are now closed.”
The five people selected that way left under the guidance of the oldest uncle among the guards.
“Mr. Liz…….”
“Hurry and go.”
“I’ll be waiting.”
Lapis left those words behind and disappeared.
Until the very end, her emerald eyes shimmered with tears.
“Hoo…….”
The remaining people only looked at that sight with inward envy.
They had not remained because they liked it either.
Because someone had to end this game, they had merely forced down the arms that wanted to rise.
“Then, everyone.”
The one who broke the silence was Brillante.
The torch flickered, and the eyes on the half of her face covered in shadow trembled coldly.
“Our first goal is to safely pass the third trial…… with as many people as possible. Please keep that in mind.”
People nodded heavily.
“I apologize for calling you together so suddenly. The guards’ shift change will be soon, so we will disperse here.”
Until the third trial.
It was the moment a goal settled into people’s eyes.
“No matter how difficult the situation is, please do not give up.”
Brillante clenched her fist tightly and forced out each word with difficulty.
“I wish you all good fortune.”
The next day, the second trial began.