Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Episode 123
Episode 122 High-Rank Player (2)
“Misha and I are just colleagues.”
“Is, is that so? Ah… I see…”
What’s with the “I see”?
Ignoring the look that seemed to say they knew it all along, I took a sip of my drink. Then, Dwalki slammed his head on the table.
Thud!
Considering he’s not good at handling his alcohol but still went ahead and took several shots all at once, it’s no wonder he slammed his head on the table.
‘Jeez.’
Anyway, this brought the daylight drinking session to an abrupt end, not even lasting a few hours.
It was still midday when I left the tavern, leaving the passed-out Dwalki in the care of his best friend, the dwarf.
So…
‘I guess I’ll go to the library.’
I scrapped the plan to go home and rest, changing my destination.
I still have a lot to learn about this world.
‘It’s almost the same but subtly different.’
Take the troll I met this time, for instance.
I poked its eyes out, making him blind, but it sensed Dwalki’s magic and charged at him.
There was no such setting in the game.
But, who knows? Maybe it’s mentioned in the books of this world.
I shouldn’t be satisfied with just the knowledge from the game; I need to study continuously.
‘Auril Gavis. I need to keep looking into that name anyway.’
Somehow, I seem to read a lot more here than I did in the civilized society.
“You’re safe.”
Later, when I arrived at the library, Ragna greeted me with her sleepy eyes.
It’s been a few months since we introduced ourselves, right?
We’ve gotten much closer since then.
So much so that she’s even nosy enough to meddle in my affairs.
“You just got back two days ago, so even if you had a day off, why didn’t you come yesterday?”
“I had some other business.”
“I understand that being an explorer is busy, but you shouldn’t neglect your studies.”
She really is an odd one.
Telling a barbarian not to neglect his studies.
“Got it. I’ll leave it to you then.”
“…Vierdo Parsitiev.”
After a brief exchange of greetings, I received the [Special Book Detection] magic and entered the library.
This time I focused on monster-related content. Although I hadn’t paid much attention to this area before because of my in-game knowledge, circumstances have changed.
“I’m getting hungry, so I’m going to go. Have a good day.”
“Hey…….”
“Yes?”
“I still haven’t… Never mind. Don’t worry about it.”
When I left the library, it was getting dark.
What’s this now?
“Good afternoon, Mr Jandel.”
Thinking I had a rewarding day, I returned to my lodging only to find someone pacing in front of my room.
A woman dressed in black from head to toe as if she was going to a funeral, and her appearance oozed class.
So, her name is…
“You’re… Urbans?”
“…Julian, actually. Julian Urbans.”
“Right, that was the name.”
“…I heard it from Peta, but I didn’t expect you to actually forget.”
She let out a sigh of disappointment and twirled her curly brown hair with her finger.
It could be a simple habit, but perhaps it’s an unconscious manifestation of her anxiety.
‘She doesn’t seem nervous, but is she?’
With that thought, I asked plainly.
“So, who’s Peta?”
Julian Urbans’ eyes twitched as if she’d heard something unbelievable.
“…You don’t know the name of Manager Peta?”
“Ah.”
That mustache guy’s name.
But how was I supposed to know that?
We’ve never formally introduced ourselves.
Though I felt a bit embarrassed, I didn’t show it and got straight to the point.
“So, what brings you here? And alone at that?”
“You wouldn’t meet with me, so I had no choice but to come find you.”
“I thought I clearly refused that offer.”
“Can’t you consider it, I’m desperate?”
Desperate…
The daughter of a district Head talking like this surely means there’s a significant reason behind it. Probably something difficult to discuss with others.
Or she wouldn’t have come alone to a kidnapper, of all people.
But, I’m a barbarian who doesn’t meddle in others’ affairs.
“Enough, go back. I’m not interested in troublesome matters.”
I went into my room, cutting off any curiosity.
But just as I was about to close the door.
Click!
Miss Urbans quickly jammed her umbrella into the door gap.
Of course, it was futile.
Bang!
With a bit of force, the umbrella was destroyed, and the door firmly closed.
“Huh?”
Seemingly not expecting the situation to unfold this way, Miss Urbans urgently knocked on the door.
“Wait a moment, please! Just listen! It won’t take long—”
“Just go back.”
“No, really! Aren’t you curious why I’m doing this?”
“I’m not curious.”
“Ugh!”
Did my stubborn attitude finally get through?
Frustrated by her broken umbrella, Miss Urbans kicked the door and then clicked away, her footsteps receding.
Only then did I breathe a sigh of relief.
‘Phew, luckily I managed to get through—’
Click, click.
Just then, the fading sound of her footsteps began to approach again.
Could it be that she still hasn’t given up?
Knock, knock, knock.
As soon as I heard the knocking, I started snoring loudly.
Rrrrrrrr!
Without further ado, I figured this would make her give up completely.
“Ah, why am I even…”
A sigh of exasperation came through the door.
Maybe she decided to change her strategy?
“I know you’re not sleeping, just listen.”
Miss Urbans whispered through the door as if speaking softly.
“Be careful of Braun Rotmiller. I don’t know the details, but he met with my father today… Eek! How can you just suddenly open the door!”
…It was worth listening to.
***
A man and a woman in a room late at night.
Only an awkward air flowed between them.
Naturally.
After all, despite opening the door for her, there was no substance to her story.
“So, that’s all?”
“Yes…”
The information Miss Urbans provided was that Rotmiller had been called to the district Manager’s office and left after just 5 minutes.
Had I known, I wouldn’t have opened the door.
“So, what’s your purpose?”
Might as well satisfy my curiosity now that it’s come to this.
Especially since I’m even more curious now.
Why would this girl go as far as to defy her father and tell me such a fact?
Miss Urbans solemnly recited her goal.
“My goal is my father’s downfall.”
“…What?”
“I have no choice. If things continue as they are, I’ll end up living like my father’s puppet. Anyway, for this, I need Mr. Jandel’s cooperation—”
“Get out.”
“What? No, you must have misunderstood something. If you help me, it will be greatly beneficial to you as well—”
Beneficial, my foot.
What good could possibly come from making an enemy of a District Manager?
“Ah!”
Knowing how persistent this woman could be, even in such a short time, I simply picked her up and threw her out.
Perhaps my consistent attitude was finally taking effect?
“If… you change your mind, please come find me. Oh, and be careful. My father must have schemed something with that Rotmiller.”
With those words, she left without causing further commotion, allowing me to wash up and go to bed.
‘Rotmiller, huh… I’ll have to keep an eye on him.’
After that, life went on as usual.
Every morning I ate meat that Misha roasted, and at lunchtime I spent time in the library.
When Erwin came by once a week, we would have meals together and deepened our friendship.
Ah, there was also a regular meeting to plan the next exploration.
[Although a troll appeared on the 4th floor last time, it seems we were just unlucky. There doesn’t seem to be any issue with the floor itself, so we can proceed as planned. What do you think?]
I kept an eye on Rotmiller during the meeting, but couldn’t find anything particularly strange.
If anything, he was quieter than usual.
This only made my head more complicated.
Especially since I had hoped he would mention something about his meeting with the District Manager during the meeting.
‘…Should I just ask him directly what they talked about?’
I had the option of a direct approach but decided to hold off for now.
There’s still time before the labyrinth opens, so it seemed better to approach the situation more cautiously.
Anyway, time passed, and three days ago,
[Now, with this, my debt is fully repaid. Give it back to me]
[…Can’t you just give this to me?]
I had received the 5 million stones from Mr. Bear.
I tried poking to see if I could just keep the bracelet, but Mr. Bear firmly shook his head.
Well, it’s not like it was meant for a damage dealer anyway.
This item is most efficient when worn by characters with high regeneration.
It helps refill health during immunity periods.
‘I’ll have to sweet-talk a future companion into giving it to me for a good price.’
With those thoughts, I opened my eyes to check the time.
[23:59]
Just 10 seconds left until midnight on the 15th.
I closed my eyes again.
[The soul of the character resonates and is drawn to a specific world]
It was time to head to a slightly special daily life.
In the room of Lee Han-soo, not Bjorn Jandel.
Even though it wasn’t the first time, I laid down on the bed, marveling at the novelty.
‘The softness really is different.’
The gap in civilization was palpable.
And that wasn’t even an expensive mattress.
Well, I suppose even in this world, the highest quality would be a bit different.
Click.
Lying in bed, I turned on the computer tower with my toe, and the monitor lit up instantly without any boot time.
So, I sat up and positioned myself in front of the computer.
Once a month, and even then, only for a limited time.
Click, click.
I first entered the trading platform.
Most things were the same as the last time I checked, but new posts were being generated in real-time.
‘I’ll check back here in a bit…’
Then, I opened the list of chat rooms.
When I first came here, I didn’t have the leisure to use this feature, but this time it was different.
[Wizardry]
[Beast-Humans, Gather]
[Fairies of Night]
Browsing through, I noticed that, unlike the [Newbie Room], which had around 10 people, job or race communities had many more members.
It made sense—such places were likely easier to find useful information, like training methods.
‘But… Why is there no Barbarian room?’
Continuing to scroll, I froze for a moment.
Except for the Dragonkin, whose character selection was blocked, every other category had its own chat room, but Barbarians were the exception.
Not that there wasn’t one…
[Bethel Raaaa!] – 0 members currently online.
It was empty.
On closer inspection, the last login record was from months ago, and the usernames were crossed out in red.
Meaning they were either banned or had died in reality.
Why were Barbarians the only ones like this?
After some thought, I came to a couple of understandable reasons.
- Barbarians were not popular as main characters.
Before I perfected my Shield Barbarian training method, I often chose Beast-Human or Fairies. If not, I’d choose Humans, who are known for their strong potential in the later stages of the game.
2. Barbarians have to enter the labyrinth with a weapon right from the start. Otherwise, they’d starve to death.
A brutal coming-of-age ceremony.
And the hardcore condition of having to enter the labyrinth as soon as they open their eyes.
‘No wonder there were so few people, and even those probably died early on.’
Somehow, my empathy levels rose, and I felt a pang of sorrow for them.
So, I looked into the job communities.
[Noblesse] – 21 members currently online.
[Treasure Hunter] – 34 members currently online.
[Swordmaster] – 17 members currently online.
Healers, Archers, Swordsmen, etc.
All had more than 10 people online.
But…
[Shielder] – 3 members currently online.
There are only three tanks.
Zero in race communities and three in a job community.
“……”
What path was I actually walking on?
Feeling somewhat miserable, I decided to look for a national community instead.
Fortunately, there was a chat room.
[Long Live Korean Independence] – 1 member currently online.
Just one person, but it’s better than none.
Especially considering it was a foreign game without any Korean translation to begin with.
I thought there might not be any at all.
‘A Korean…’
Without hesitation, I double-clicked.
Surprisingly, the moment I opened my eyes, I found myself in a room resembling a noble family’s mansion.
I thought it would be a basic skin like a public square or a field—
“You’re hereeeeeeeeeee!”
Before I could even take a leisurely look around, the player who was online greeted me with an intense shout.
A man in his early twenties, judging by his appearance, with short hair.
[Sergeant Lee]
Frozen in place, I confirmed his nickname.
“Sergeant Lee…”
“Brother… you recognize me. It was the day I was discharged.”
What a ridiculous situation this is!
Something’s gonna happen to one of the team members soon, can’t wait to read it? Try becoming my patreon here, you will get instant access to 25+ chapters +2+1 chapter updates everyday.
This website runs on the funds I recieve from Patron, so please consider helping if you can. Thank You