Rank 1

The moment we stepped into the portal, our vision flickered, and a new area unfolded before us once again.

“This place is…”

“What is it? It’s quiet…”

The clan members tilted their heads in confusion. Instead of the monster horde they had expected, we were met with a surprisingly calm area.

Well, it was understandable.

Compared to the Skull Island Catacomb, which had been filled with bones, and the previous field where the entire island had erupted and burned with lava, this place felt like the complete opposite. It was a little dark, but strangely quiet, with no visible threats anywhere in sight.

The tension that came from stepping into an unknown place lasted only a moment. Raven looked around, and her scholarly curiosity quickly became plain for everyone to see.

“It’s a strange place. It almost looks like a research facility.”

No matter how often she spoke of avenging her master and all that, people didn’t change that easily.

Not that it was a bad thing. If I was being honest, I wanted her to give up on revenge and simply live her life doing what she loved.

Though it wasn’t as if I was doing that myself.

We continued forward, it was a space covered entirely in steel plates. The walls were covered with metal pipes, hatch handles, and magical circuits that looked like thick wires.

It felt like we had entered a massive submarine, or maybe a bunker.

“Oh! This thing kind of makes me want to turn it.”

“No! Ms. Pheneline! Don’t touch anything!”

“I-I didn’t touch it! I only thought about it!”

Putting aside Aynar’s false accusation, I hurried on. Time was still ticking away, after all.

‘It’s about time they start speaking…’

As I slowly walked towards the centre, thinking about that, a voice suddenly echoed out.

[Who are you? Are you pilgrims?]

The voice was filled with static, as if coming through a speaker.

The moment most of them heard that voice, they raised their fighting spirit and looked around in every direction. Well, it made sense.

After all, there were only two people here who could understand those words.

Raven, who could at least speak a little Ancient Language through her long academic training, and…

[Nice to meet you, Arta.]

Me, who had never studied Ancient Language but could speak it at a native level.

[You have not yet answered my question. Who are you? Are you pilgrims?]

Hearing that question, I chuckled. Even in the game, Arta Island had been an interesting chapter to play through, since its namesake was the only NPC who could be found inside the labyrinth. Though, once you learned Arta’s backstory, whether they could really be called an “NPC” became somewhat debatable.

In any case, it’s a unique situation in which a communicative entity appears and gives you a quest.

On top of that, the method of progressing through their quest was unique, to say the least.

“Bjorn! Is it an enemy? Just say the word! I’ll smash it!”

“Stay still, Aynar. It’s useless anyway.”

“Useless…? I-Is it a ghost?! Don’t worry! I-I can beat up ghosts now too!”

“Oh yeah? Then try hitting that door over there with your weapon.”

“Huh?”

Aynar seemed confused by my instruction, but she obediently followed it.

However…

“Huh…?”

She froze with her spear raised in the air, as though some unseen force was preventing her from carrying out the action.

“W-what is this? My body won’t move…! S-save me!”

“Don’t worry. Once you let go of your hostility, you’ll be fine.”

Strictly speaking, in the game, it was not hostility. The attack button itself simply stopped working.

But with a reality patch applied, it probably worked something like this.

And sure enough, the moment Aynar listened to me, she returned to normal.

“Ugh…! What was that?”

If I had to explain it, it was a field effect.

This was a very unusual place, even among hidden pieces.

「The character has entered a special area.」

「Field Effect: Arta’s Secret Base has been applied.」

「All hostile actions are forbidden within the field.」

No combat of any kind could take place here.

Therefore, to clear this place, what we needed was not force, but something else.

[What are you discussing with them? Answer my question at once. Otherwise, I will expel you immediately.]

The strategy was conversation.

Even in the game, options would appear when talking to them, and only by choosing the correct ones could you finally receive the quest.

Of course, that was only under the condition that you could speak the ancient language.

‘I must have tried over a hundred times just to get the quest…’

In other words, because I had already gone through countless failures, obtaining the quest now was a piece of cake.

[We are not pilgrims.]

First of all, saying we are pilgrims is the wrong answer. Choosing that option triggers a few trials of proof, which a player can never complete.

But, the problem was..

[…By the way, how do you know my name?]

Ah, the name…

[That’s…]

I wondered how I should make an excuse. Tsk, I only brought up their name because I was happy to see them. Was that a mistake?

In the original game, they only said their pre-set lines and I only chose pre-set options, so I hadn’t thought that far ahead.

But so what?

Unfortunately for Arta, I was not so useless that this level of variable would make my mind go blank.

[We are survivors of the fallen empire.]

It was a line I could say precisely because I knew the later story.

Although the order of events was slightly different, when Arta asked who I was, that was the only answer that led to success.

[We came here to stop the apocalypse, and naturally, we know of your existence.]

[I see… so you are survivors of the fallen empire… I suppose you wouldn’t want this world to be destroyed either.]

[Of course. Is there perhaps anything we can help with?]

[Well… I doubt there is anything you can help with. I respect your desire to save the world, but if you truly wish for it, leave this place. I am currently trying various methods to solve it somehow.]

Uh… what?

Why were they telling us to just leave?

Perhaps it was because the beginning had already deviated from the original storyline. Then again, this wasn’t the first time that reality had failed to match the game.

“I guess I’ll just have to improvise from here on out.”

Making up my mind, I continued speaking.

[Arta, we know how to stop the apocalypse.]

Story-wise, it was the one phrase he absolutely couldn’t ignore.

[…Haha, you do?]

Yet for some reason, they only laughed it off.

Perhaps it was because the beginning had already deviated from the original storyline. Then again, this wasn’t the first time that reality had failed to match the game.

This bastard wasn’t this arrogant in the game. Once they verified who we were, they were meant to judge our skills and, if they found us capable enough, assign us a quest.

Seriously… I just had to screw up from the very beginning.

Still, since I knew the whole story, it shouldn’t be a problem though.

[We know how to kill the ‘Beast’.]

[……The Beast is not an entity that can be killed. Sealing it is the best even I can do.]

Their voice exuded a strong nuance of ‘How could the likes of you?’.

[I have no intention of persuading you with long words. I will catch and kill that snake.]

[You even know about that situation?]

[Is that important? What should matter to you is whether or not we can solve your problem.]

[You’re not wrong, but…]

[I know that the snake is a Level 1 monster, and that we have to kill it and activate the divine artifact below, so don’t worry.]

Arta no longer asked how I knew. Instead, once they realized I was aware of all those hidden secrets, their attitude changed and their tone turned far more serious.

[…Very well. I will trust you once. Survivors of the fallen empire.]

With a hiss of escaping gas, a hidden hatch opened in the floor.

Well, I had somehow ended up skipping a bit of the storyline, but reaching our destination was what really mattered, right?

***

We climbed down the ladder for what felt like an eternity, as though it led all the way to purgatory.

“What kind of conversation did you have? From what I heard, it sounded like you were talking about an empire, trials, and things like that.”

“We didn’t talk about anything special.”

“Wait, how did you know about this island in the first place?”

I simply flashed a grin in answer to Raven’s question. After all, she knew that I was a player. Of course, that didn’t mean that those who didn’t know that fact didn’t have any questions.

“He’s a viscount, after all. Someone like our captain could easily know information that ordinary explorers don’t! Isn’t that right, Mr. Parav?”

“Haha, y-yes. That is right.”

“But if that’s true, it means the royal family already knew the secret of Arta Island…”

Listening quietly to the muttering of the members who did not know I was a player, I smiled awkwardly.

“Don’t think too deeply about it. It’s not something to talk about carelessly.”

“I know that better than anyone, so do not worry. I was simply wondering why the royal family left Arta Island as a mystery.”

Was it because he was from the royal family?

Kaislan always had a tendency to suspect the royal family and think of them as the masterminds behind every conspiracy.

Well, to be honest, he was not exactly wrong.

“Everyone, focus. I already told you about the monster back in the city, right?”

“Ah… Could this be that place? The place where the Snake of the End, Snictura, appears?”

“That’s right.”

“I’m starting to get a little nervous… That Kashan was already enough of a monster.”

Kaislan’s voice shook as he recalled the Kashan we had hunted on the first underground floor. It was not hard to understand.

Back then, even after bringing hundreds of elites, we had suffered heavy casualties.

There were not that many explorers who had even encountered a Level 1 monster, so few truly understood how dangerous they were.

But those who had met one never forgot the experience.

A Level 1 monster was a disaster.

It was not a monster or a human. It felt like an entirely different kind of existence.

“Don’t worry too much. As I said in the city, the monster we’re hunting this time is clearly different from Kashan. Taking all the conditions into account, the actual combat difficulty should be around the upper level of Level 2.”

“Um… Isn’t a Level 2 a total monster too?”

Hmm… she was right about that.

In fact, there were occasional rumors of famous clans being completely wiped out by a single Level 2 monster.

But when seen from the perspective of a brain-rotted Korean gamer, the story became completely different.

A Level 1 monster that could be hunted at Level 2 difficulty?

Anyone who passed that up would be a sucker.

For real.

As I descended the ladder while thinking various thoughts, my feet soon touched the ground.

And at the same time…

「The character has entered a special area.」

「Field Effect: Destroyed Core Testing Site has been applied. The Origin of Earth devours all authorities. All resources in your possession have been reduced to 0.]

My MP was completely drained, and I could no longer use any skills.

“So… we’re supposed to fight a rank-one monster like this?” Raven grumbled, now reduced to even less than an ordinary civilian after losing all her mana.

I simply shrugged. “Don’t worry. It affects our enemy too.”

The premise of this battle was a bare-handed brawl, with no abilities involved.

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