Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Episode 196

Master Key (1)

As soon as I entered the community, I switched on my computer and checked the chat room.

Then, I froze.

[Long Live Korean Independence] – 2 people are currently online.

…Why two people?

Could it be that another Korean joined this term?

No, it’s unlikely that a newbie would find and enter the chat room so quickly, right?

Click, click.

Despite my confusion, I double-clicked the room title with my mouse.

Then, unusually, a message appeared.

[This room has a temporary access restriction.]

[Remaining restriction time: 9 minutes 51 seconds.]

What’s this now?

At first I was confused, but I soon understood the situation. Setting an access restriction is one of the unique privileges of the chat room creator.

In other words, it means…

‘As soon as the community opened, someone came looking for Lee Baek-ho, and Lee Baek-ho locked the community to have a conversation.’

That seems a reasonable assumption.

Probably, that someone is an acquaintance of Lee Baek-ho.

If they were strangers, he would have kicked them out instead of locking the community.

‘Lee Baek-ho’s acquaintance…’

Now, I’m curious.

Lee Baek-ho is an old user who could only use the community for an hour after taking an early version of the pill.

He has been in this community for well over ten years, and he surely knows many people here.

‘But surely, the other person must be someone like Lee Baek-ho who has been around here for a long time.’

After all, it was Lee Baek-ho who gave me the invite code to enter ‘The Watchers of the Round Table.’

“Tsk.”

It would have been nice to see the nickname of the person who was logged into the chat room.

Feeling a bit disappointed while watching the time decrease, I noticed that the number of people had decreased to one.

[Long Live Korean Independence] – 1 person is currently online.

The access restriction had also been lifted.

Has the visitor already left?

That’s what I was thinking as I entered the chat room.

“Are you the hometown friend of Mr. Baek-ho?”

Shit, what is this?

Startled by the unfamiliar voice, I turned around hurriedly to find a white man standing there whom I hadn’t seen before

Or had I?

[Elfnunalove]

Seeing the nickname floating above the man’s head, I was momentarily dumbfounded.

Surprisingly, it was someone I had a connection with.

When I was digging around for information about a mage named ‘Shernal Fergus‘ after hearing rumors about ‘Dimensional Collapse’, this user had sold me the information.

[Thinking about it, never mind that. It seems you might be a fan of that person.]

Watching him decline the 20,000 GP I had promised as a reward, I realized I was still a newbie here.

I had resolved to climb up quickly.

But, who would have thought this person knew Lee Baek-ho.

‘But, where did Lee Baek-ho go?’

I quickly regained my senses.

Sure enough, the other party also gave me a peculiar look upon seeing my nickname.

“Ah, so you’re the person I saw before?”

Right, he recognized me too.

Given the unsettling nickname ‘Elfnunalove’, it seems my own nickname ‘Elfnunna’ had left an impression.

“Yes, nice to see you here again.”

Feeling somewhat uneasy, I held back on speaking.

Although I had many questions, sometimes asking them can also leak my own information.

For now, I decided to wait for the other side to start the conversation.

After waiting for a bit, Elfnunalove, or Ellove for short, awkwardly scratched his head.

“I feel somewhat sorry about this.”

“What are you talking about?”

“It feels like I’ve taken away a hometown friend you just met.”

“…Are you talking about Baek-ho?”

Ellove nodded in response to my question.

“Yes, as you know, there aren’t many Koreans here. I understand how important someone from the same region can be.”

“No, that’s not what I don’t understand. What do you mean you’ve taken him away?”

This time, it wasn’t an act of playing dumb as a newbie; I genuinely didn’t understand.

What was he talking about?

Could it be that Lee Baek-ho left the chat room because of him?

No, but how?

Lee Baek-ho was supposed to be the chat room’s owner, right?

As various doubts swirled in my mind, he continued.

“Literally what I said. From now on, you won’t meet Mr. Baek-ho here anymore. I had left him alone until now thinking he might serve as a key…”

The White man continued.

“Unfortunately, he has committed a grave mistake.”

“…?”

“I was just going to leave, but I thought I’d waste your time by making you wait unnecessarily. Have a good time then.

Before I could say anything more, Elfnunalove left the chat room.

I stared blankly at the empty space he left behind.

‘Fuck.’

What’s happening here?

***

Suddenly alone in the empty room.

‘Committed a mistake? Can’t come here?’

My mind was a mess.

But the more complicated it got, the more I needed to calmly sort out my thoughts.

What exactly is Elfnunalove up to?

As I reviewed the conversation, a conclusion quickly formed.

It’s still just a hypothesis…

‘He must definitely be an administrator of Ghostbusters.’

Administrator.

Like the ‘SoulQueens’ I met when I first arrived here, tasked with guiding newbies and keeping the community from becoming chaotic.

Otherwise, this situation is inexplicable.

[He has committed a very serious mistake.]

Elfnunalove isn’t the room owner, yet he managed to kick Lee Baek-ho out. Or rather, it wasn’t Lee Baek-ho who placed the access restriction; it was him.

Certainly, as an administrator, he would have considerable authority. Only administrators can permanently ban someone from the community.

And he’s not just any administrator…

‘…Wait.’

Following that train of thought, I hurried back to my room. Then I quickly started the computer to open my message inbox.

[Elfnunna’s transaction history exceeds 50 times. EXP +50]

[Member grade adjustment.]

[Orc -> Troll]

[Sender: Ghost master.]

Ghost Master.

The supreme administrator of Ghost Busters, whom the community members call GM or operator, and whose identity no one has managed to reveal.

Suddenly, a conversation I had with Baek-ho came to mind.

[Do you know who the operator here is?]

[Ah, I don’t know either. Actually, the pill came from looting the headquarters of the secret security headquarters in its early days.]

[Then they probably don’t know who you are either?]

[Still, they might have a guess? I have some idea of who it might be…]

[Who?]

[Three people, should I tell you all of them?]

Lee Baek-ho had named three suspects at the time. They were all mages, each well-known in the city.

Lee Baek-ho’s guess wasn’t without credibility.

‘The GM is a wizard.’

It’s not certain, but with that premise, I recalled my first encounter with Elfnunalove.

[Is it okay to just tell me all this?]

[Why not? I’m not a master of that school.]

As he spilled the secrets of the Tarutein school, which spread the dimensional collapse rumors, I thought.

This person, he speaks like a mage.

Having reached a conclusion, I swallowed hard.

It might just be a leap on my part…

But if my conclusion is true.

“Damn.”

I might have just met the GM.

***

A momentary thrill ran through my body.

I soon returned to my usual state.

Even if Elfnunalove is the GM, it’s not a serious problem for me.

Hmm, though the nickname is a bit annoying…

I’m not in a hostile relationship or anything.

It’s unlikely he’ll come to cut my throat just because his identity is revealed.

…Probably.

‘Alright, let’s start by erasing that.’

I went into the forum and deleted the comment I had left on a post by a Canadian friend, now blurred out.

Just deleting that wouldn’t make it possible to identify me, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.

While I was at it, I deleted all the traces I had left since coming here, except for a few comments on humorous posts.

Then when the dimensional collapse rumor spread once.

After the battle with the Dragon Slayer, I had placed a purchase order on the exchange to gather information about Orcules.

‘So I can’t meet Baek-ho anymore…’

After erasing my tracks, I also thought about Lee Baek-ho.

It was somewhat disappointing.

Apart from no longer being able to access high-level information through him, honestly, hanging out with him had been quite fun.

‘But what did he do to get the administrator to ban him directly?’

There was no way of knowing the whole situation now, but it wasn’t hard to speculate that it was something closely related to the Noarhark raid.

If there had been a major recent event, that was it.

Tadadadat—.

Afterwards, I spent time browsing through the forums.

Mostly just surfing the web.

I checked if there were any posts left by Elfnunalove, but there wasn’t even a single comment to be found.

By the way, the same was true for Baek-ho.

‘…Maybe I should just lurk from now on.’

Originally, the real veterans tend to keep their distance from the community and quietly do their own thing.

Taking this incident as a lesson, I have added a new rule to my list of community usage principles.

And how much time had passed?

[03: 03]

It’s time to join the Round Table.

This time, I didn’t wait until the last minute to enter; I just went in.

Given what had happened, I thought I might be able to glean some information from the casual chatter before the meeting.

‘…Will everyone be there this time?’

Starting in the customisation room as usual, I hurriedly donned my usual navy suit, and put on the lion mask.

Creeeeak.

The door opened as if it had been waiting for me, and I followed the carpet to a huge round table.

The first to greet me was the Clown.

“You’re early this time, Physit.”

It was the distinctive laugh I hadn’t heard in two months, having skipped a month.

I approached my seat while surveying the figures around me.

‘Crescent moon, Deer Horn Mask, fox.’

Including the Clown and me, there were five of us at the meeting. The Fox, who caught my gaze, turned away and spoke to everyone.

“By the way, Mr. Goblin is late today, isn’t he?”

“Physit, isn’t he dead? I heard the Paladin corps suffered severe damage this time.”

“…Let’s hope not.”

As expected, the main topic of conversation before the meeting even began was the recent raid.

“I’m just surprised I made it back alive. If there’s hell, that was it. I regret going there so thoughtlessly.”

“I sympathize. Who would have thought that Noahark had such hidden forces? When the raid team was first formed, I thought we had enough power to storm the royal palace.

“Pishit, but everyone got nicely beaten, didn’t they?”

“Clown, you talk as if it’s someone else’s story.”

“Well, if it’s not about other people, then what is it? It doesn’t matter to me how many people die, does it, Mr. Lion?”

“Well, I’m not interested.”

I leaned my chin on the armrest and just listened to the conversation, feigning boredom.

The dark sorcerer of Noahark.

The priest of Karui.

The severe damages reported by the major clans  and stories of other races were flowing out under the guise of casual chat.

‘I did well to come in early.’

Trying hard to hide a satisfied smile, I was listening to their latest political opinions when it happened.

“Oh, Mr. Goblin!”

Beyond the open door, the Goblin mask appeared.

“You’re alive.”

“Ah, yes. It really was dangerous. Truly, it must have been divine intervention.”

The Goblin, not of this world, naturally discussed gods.

The Clown laughed mockingly.

“What gods? You’ve probably been hiding behind the scenes like a goblin, haven’t you? Physit.”

“Why do you always do this to me?”

“Because you’re easy?”

“……”

Despite the outright dismissive words, the Goblin just chuckled hollowly and took his seat.

‘Scared’

Initially, I couldn’t understand why the Goblin was so submissive, but on second thought, it made sense.

Isn’t he the Goblin whose identity as a Paladin was exposed?

It’s obvious he wouldn’t dare openly clash with the powerful-looking Clown.

Thump!

Soon after the Goblin took his seat, the door firmly closed.

It was time to start the meeting.

“Lion, is the promise still valid?”

Before deciding the order of speakers, Crescent Moon threw a question at me.

The subject was missing, but it wasn’t hard to understand.

He was referring to the promise that if I brought interesting news, he would give me information about the ‘Resurrection Stone.’

I nodded briefly, and Crescent Moon looked determined.

“Physit, from your expression, it seems you’re really confident this time?”

“I’m just desperate. It’s something I need more than anything.” Crescent Moon replied 

The answer was clear: he was determined to find out about the Stone of Resurrection at all costs.

“So, who will start first?”

And just like that, a game of guessing began to determine who would go first.

Creeeeak.

The tightly shut door opened with a noise.

It had never happened before.

What? Another member? No, wasn’t it that no one could enter once the meeting had started?

Surely, that was the rule?

“……?”

Seeing everyone’s puzzled looks, it seemed I wasn’t the only one who found this occurrence strange.

Thud.

Soon, the thick wooden door was fully opened, and a figure appeared beyond it.

It was a man wearing a plain white mask.

The only visible skin, his hands, was wrinkled and rough.

“Ha ha, nothing’s changed here, then or now?” came an old man’s voice from behind the mask.

A moment of silence weighed heavily in the room.

The first to regain composure and speak was someone wearing a fox mask.

“Master…?”

Through this murmuring, I realized.

Master.

The one who created the ‘Watchers of the Round Table.’

“But there’s a mask I haven’t seen before. Who are you?”

Asked the master, and the fox mask, which had been fooled by me a few times, raised its head.

“…Weren’t you invited by the Master? I’m sure you said something like that….”

Strictly speaking, that wasn’t what I said.

I had just skilfully avoided giving a clear answer.

But, such excuses would hardly be acceptable.

‘Dammit.’

What to do?

It looked like I was about to be exposed for pretending.