Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Episode 813

Hidden Story 5

NPC or a Non-Player Character.

As far as the game was concerned, Arta was clearly an NPC.

Then again, calling him an NPC might not be entirely accurate. He was closer to a hidden piece. Or, in the terms of this world, perhaps an ‘Achievement of Gabrielius’?

In any case, that wasn’t what mattered right now.

“Could this place where I am… possibly be the Labyrinth?”

I was genuinely shocked by Arta’s question. Whether Arta was a hidden piece, an achievement, or an NPC didn’t matter. Anyone who belonged to the labyrinth was bound by its laws.

Monsters couldn’t use portals to move between floors, not even the ones that could talk, and not even NPCs. They couldn’t travel from one floor to another, and they even believed that the world inside the labyrinth was the real world.

[You are the first living beings I’ve seen in a long time. Where did you all come from?]

The vampire of the Blood Tinted Castle had been like that.

[Dogs of the empire. I shall punish you today.]

The Knight of the End from the White Temple had also been like that.

[This is the labyrinth. And I’m an explorer traveling through it.]

[What is… the labyrinth?]

Even when I met that vampire again on the first underground floor, the duke, whom I suspected to be the original Cambormere, hadn’t been much different from the first vampire. That was why I had deliberately avoided mentioning the labyrinth when talking about the history of the current era.

[As I said before, my name is Arta. I am the chief researcher of the Empire’s 1st Magic Engineering Research Institute. Haha, not to brag, but only the deputy director and the director outrank me.]

He too definitely seemed to believe that the world inside the labyrinth was real.

So if all that was true…

What exactly was this?

“Inside the labyrinth?” I repeated cautiously. “What do you mean?”

“Exactly what I said. Please answer me. Am I standing inside the labyrinth right now?”

Well, I still needed to determine whether the Labyrinth he knew and the one I knew were actually the same thing.

I paused, letting the silence stretch before asking, “…What is a Labyrinth?”

“Should I take that to mean that you know absolutely nothing about the Labyrinth?”

Hmm, well…

If I simply said yes, I had a feeling the conversation would end there, so I chose a more ambiguous response.

“Well, that depends on how you answer.”

I had no intention of showing my cards first anymore.

Arta stared at me for a moment, then quickly began explaining.

“The labyrinth is an artificial dimension created using the Power of Origin. It is a place where the laws of the world can be designed as we see fit. Anything can be newly created within it, and one may freely travel anywhere they wish. Portals are a method of transportation within the labyrinth, devised by the former empire.”

His explanation was difficult to understand, but despite that, there was something terrifying about it that made my heart sink.

“…The Empire created the Labyrinth?”

“That is correct. His Majesty wished to obtain infinite life, absolute authority, and a perfect world under his control. A heaven on earth, so to speak. After all, gods are far too flawed.”

This was confusing.

It was confusing.

Honestly, listening to him, I couldn’t make sense of it. Was what he said the truth? Or was it merely information programmed into him?

Still, one question came to mind. It might have been unrelated. It might not have mattered at all.

“But why call it a labyrinth?”

Arta hesitated. “I don’t understand your question.”

“I mean, if they were trying to create paradise, why name it the labyrinth?”

“I’m not sure why that caught your attention, but I’ll answer.”

Without hesitating, he continued, “The end of the labyrinth always provides an answer.”

I stared at him in confusion, and he explained further.

“It is an old saying, ancient even by the standards of my time. His majesty spent his entire life searching for an answer that could save the world. Under his will, this grand project to create an artificial dimension, a paradise, was named the ‘labyrinth.’ He once said that when all the blood, sweat, and knowledge poured into it finally led us to the end of the labyrinth, we would enter an eternal paradise. That was part of the speech he gave when he visited our research institute. Does that answer your question?”

“…More than enough.”

“Then now, please answer mine.”

Arta looked at me and asked once more.

“Is this place inside the Labyrinth?”

Honestly, I still didn’t know.

No, if anything, I was even more confused than before.

But that didn’t change the facts.

“Yeah. We’re inside the labyrinth.”

***

After I confirmed his suspicion, a long silence followed.

Arta remained quiet, seemingly absorbed in his thoughts. I didn’t interrupt and simply let him be.

The silence wasn’t broken by either Arta or me. Nor was it broken by the dense Aynar or the ever-curious Raven.

Beep, beep, beep!

An alarm rang out in a steady rhythm. The sound was coming from Arta’s pocket. Naturally, my gaze shifted toward it, Arta snapped back to reality and said, “That means it’s almost time for me to return.”

“I see.”

Though I answered casually, I was wrestling with an internal conflict. Should I keep talking until he left, or should I carry out the plan I’d considered earlier and force him to stay?

Of course, I had only planned to resort to the latter option if bringing him along failed to trigger any special event or reward.

We were already in that kind of situation anyway.

But what had changed since then was myself.

Back then, I had only focused on rewards and events, but now it was different. The story he carried seemed far more important than any reward. It might even help me uncover the secrets of this world.

If I need to knock him out…

Just as I was about to make up my mind, Arta suddenly stopped me.

“Stop.”

It was almost as if he had read my thoughts.

For a moment, I wondered if he had some magic tool that allowed telepathy, but thankfully, that wasn’t the case.

“Anyone who has observed the future for as long as I have knows that look in your eyes.”

“I wasn’t thinking about anything.”

“Haha, then that is fortunate. But I have plenty of experience with situations like this, so I prepared several safeguards just in case.”

There was no way to know whether he was telling the truth. Still, the fact that he said it so openly and confidently was effective. It made me hesitate even more.

What should I do?

The internal conflict I thought I had resolved rose up again. If this were just a game run, I wouldn’t have thought this hard. No matter what happened here, I could simply try again later—

“How about letting go of that greed and using the time we have left as efficiently as possible? For both our sakes.”

Arta interrupted my thoughts again. In response, I decided to be honest as well.

Honesty suited barbarians better anyway, right?

“I don’t know about you, but what do we get out of it?” I asked.

“Because I know why today is the Final Day.”

“What?”

“I didn’t know before. But now that I know this place is inside the labyrinth, the answer came to me quite easily. I understand why all of this happened.”

Hesitation tried to seize me again, but I shook it off.

“Alright. Let’s talk.”

I decided to take the peaceful route.

His speech and expression had completely changed, as though the attitude he showed before had all been an act…

There were simply too many suspicious things for me to recklessly attack him right away.

Finally, I had a feeling he wasn’t bluffing when he said he had prepared something. As long as I didn’t know whether I could break through his preparations, or what hidden card he had up his sleeve, I couldn’t predict the risk of fighting him.

“Since we don’t have much time, let’s take turns asking one question each. That should be fair,” Arta suggested.

“Sure.”

Even the format of the conversation was decided.

Fortunately, it was one I was very familiar with.

After all, starting from Auril Gavis to Lee Baekho and the Round Table…

For some reason, I had encountered situations like this many times in the past.

People in this world all wanted many things, yet none of them wished to suffer even the slightest loss.

…Though I wasn’t much different myself.

It’s a shame I don’t have Misaligned Trust anymore…

After using the final charge on the last one, I had planned to get another just in case. But the item wasn’t always available on the market, so I hadn’t managed to obtain one.

‘Besides, there’s no guarantee it would work on this guy anyway.’

With that, I brushed the regret aside.

Then I—”

“No, I’ll go first.”

Arta paused, registering that I had cut him off.

“Quickly, then.”

And with that, my turn began.

I had already decided on my first question. However, since I had no idea what kind of shocking answer I might receive…

[Continue what you were about to say earlier. Why exactly is today the ‘Final Day’?]

For the sake of keeping the conversation secure, I chose to speak in the ancient language. Thankfully, Arta seemed to understand my intention and turned off the translation device before answering.

Though, of course, it wasn’t the answer I wanted.

[Ask a different question.]

[What?]

[Do not worry. I am not refusing to answer. I merely wish to delay the order slightly.]

[And why should that matter?]

[Because there’s a good chance you won’t understand my answer until the proper time comes.]

I felt a little annoyed, suspecting that he might be scheming something. But it didn’t seem like he would give me the answer just because I pressed him, so I decided to let it go.

[Fine. Then answer this instead. What was the name of that “His Majesty” you mentioned earlier?]

I asked just in case the name of the Immortal or the King of the New World came up, but unfortunately…

[That’s a name I’ve never heard before…]

The name Arta gave for ‘His Majesty’ was completely unfamiliar to me.

‘Even the dynasty’s name is different. So it has nothing to do with the Raphdonia Kingdom after all?’

In any case, that concluded my first question.

[Then it is my turn.]

Now it was his turn to ask a question.

As always, I listened with the utmost concentration.

Because in conversations like these, even the question itself was information.

What was this guy most curious about?

Soon, his lips parted, and the answer revealed itself.

[Bjorn Jandel. Have you ever seen a being from another dimension, or heard of such an existence?]

My mind went blank.

[Please answer me. This is a very important question.]

I had no idea why that, of all things, mattered so much to him.

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