Chapter 129
The first thing that came to mind was a single word.
Why?
CEO Cha was willful, but fundamentally, he was cold and rational.
If he had decided to clear the game with a normal ending rather than the true ending, he was the type of person to act exactly according to that goal.
He might kill off one or two annoying NPCs in the process, but he wasn’t the type to commit something as inefficient as a total massacre.
For a moment, I was stunned, feeling as if this wasn’t the CEO Cha I knew.
Questions filled my head, but now was not the time to dwell on them.
I had to find him.
His actions were insane, but his execution was calm.
In fact, CEO Cha was moving stealthily.
If Kwak Han-mook hadn’t diligently leveled up his guard abilities, or if the system window hadn’t informed me of the situation...
I would have woken up to find the ending triggered without even knowing why.
’Since a creature massacre ending is one of the Warden’s possible endings.’
I tried to guess CEO Cha’s train of thought.
If he had decided to kill all the NPCs, how would he move?
There was no reason to kill the guards first.
His role was the Warden, and he held absolute authority within the prison.
If he wished, he could gather the guards at any time and dispose of them in one go.
Despite that, if he had gone out of his way to kill them, he must have targeted the guards protecting the cell blocks.
His first target would likely be the creatures of Sector X.
He would want to deal with the most troublesome ones first.
The moment I realized this, a sense of foreboding washed over me.
Orca was currently recovering from today’s gunshot wounds and couldn’t respond properly, and the other creatures were in a weakened state, so they weren’t any different.
No, even if they were in peak condition, they wouldn’t be able to handle CEO Cha.
Recalling the sight of the Great Sun Buddha slicing through creatures, I spoke urgently.
"CEO Cha is trying to kill all the NPCs right now. We have to go to the cell blocks."
I brought it up without any preamble, but Je Hyeon-oh and Kwak Han-mook didn’t ask for clarification.
Clink.
A metallic sound echoed.
It was the sound of Je Hyeon-oh unfolding the wings he had stored.
The moment the cramped medical officer’s quarters were filled with six wings...
Crack!
The stone floor beneath Je Hyeon-oh’s feet crumbled.
Boom!
A black silhouette burst through the wall of the quarters.
A massive hole was left in the wall.
As the black silhouette shot forward with metallic wings spread, Kwak Han-mook grabbed me.
Wrapping me in his prayer beads, he leaped through the hole in the wall.
It was a three-story drop, but that was no problem.
He extended the beads like a rope, hooking them onto surrounding structures to dampen the impact of the fall.
As soon as we hit the ground, Kwak Han-mook and I sprinted toward the cell blocks.
While running frantically, I suddenly felt a chill.
Dominic had been far too quiet.
Despite the fact that I was committing acts he would hate, almost like a buffet.
Dominic, in particular, disliked it when his subordinates were rude.
By his standards, Je Hyeon-oh and Kwak Han-mook were committing an act of insubordination against me.
He should have said something, yet he remained silent.
I glanced at my shoulder.
Despite the violent movement, the pudding slime remained stuck firmly, not falling off.
I considered calling him using the strange voice, a function I had recently learned but Dominic noticed first and spoke.
"Subordinates can hear their master’s voice."
I immediately shut my mouth.
With Kwak Han-mook right beside me, I had almost made a mistake.
So those I registered could hear that voice.
It seemed that becoming a subordinate moved one slightly outside of Dominic’s criteria for "insignificant creatures."
"Of course, I don’t hear every voice, but you should still be careful, Roasted Chestnut."
He meant that because I was still young, I didn’t know how to distinguish my voices.
It hadn’t been long since I became able to use that voice.
Since I had no way of knowing how to differentiate them, I kept my mouth shut.
Then, in my mind, I asked why he had been so quiet.
I believed that if he was a quick-witted slime, he would surely answer.
Since I kept glancing at him, the pudding slime spoke.
"I am always watching, so you needn’t worry."
The words saying he was always by my side were sweet.
However, that wasn’t the answer I wanted.
I wanted to know why he hadn’t said anything, and what he was thinking while watching me in silence.
But the pudding slime did not speak again.
A strange sense of anxiety slowly crept over me.
However, given the situation, I had no choice but to overlook the pudding slime’s silence.
The cell blocks weren’t far, so we arrived quickly.
By the time I had treated Orca, finished my remaining medical duties, and returned to the quarters, it was already evening.
It was well past 6 PM, nearing nighttime, so there was no sign of anyone in front of the cell blocks.
Aside from the occasional sweep of a distant searchlight, there was only pitch-black darkness and silence.
In that eerily quiet place, two men stood facing each other.
The first thing that caught my eye was the man holding a sword that glowed white even in the dark.
At CEO Cha’s feet lay a guard, bleeding a neon-green liquid.
The corpse was still twitching slightly, suggesting he had been killed only moments ago.
It seemed CEO Cha had killed the guard in front of the cell blocks and was attempting to enter when he ran into Je Hyeon-oh.
He probably hadn’t expected to be discovered this quickly.
’I have to stop him here.’
There might still be a chance to persuade him.
I called out to him.
"CEO Cha."
The white mask, which had been staring at Je Hyeon-oh, slowly shifted its gaze toward me.
I had spent so much time with CEO Cha in the game.
I thought I knew him well, but right now, I felt as if I were facing a stranger.
Perhaps it was because he was acting so far outside my expectations.
’Surely he isn’t doing this because of me?’
"I told you I didn’t want to regret trembling just because a single NPC might die."
In the last conversation I had with CEO Cha, he had expressed clear displeasure at how I was swayed by NPCs.
If he had decided to kill all the NPCs because of that aversion, the logic roughly fit.
But for that to be the case, the premise itself didn’t hold.
For that to happen, I would have to be a being of significance to him, beyond just being useful.
I knew.
The reason I was able to move past CEO Cha’s distrust of humans and enter his inner circle in the game was because of that special space that repeated a thousand times.
The CEO Cha from the game, the one who had been with me a thousand times did not exist here.
The person before me was the CEO Cha from before I had earned his trust.
A being I had seen for only a few hours in total.
In reality, it would be impossible to gain that level of trust or understand each other to that extent.
Yet, because CEO Cha kept acting strangely, I found myself distracted by these thoughts.
’What if he has the memories from the game?’
That was impossible. If he had memories, he wouldn’t have left me alone.
And a real-world person shouldn’t have memories of being a game NPC...
A new thought seized me.
’Then what is the CEO Cha in front of me?’
I looked at CEO Cha with a sense of unfamiliarity.
What did he feel from my gaze?
I felt as if CEO Cha, behind the mask, wavered for a moment.
It was as I slowly closed and opened my eyes.
Before I could say anything, Kwak Han-mook couldn’t hold back and cursed.
"Fuck, CEO Cha. What the hell are you doing right now?"
He seemed genuinely pissed off; the veins were popping on his forehead.
"If we entered because of Recruit Han, you should’ve just stayed back and supported us. We’re working our asses off to get the True Ending."
But CEO Cha didn’t even spare Kwak Han-mook a glance.
He kept looking at me. It was a wait, as if he were watching to see what I would say.
And I sensed it.
At this moment, no matter what proposal I threw at CEO Cha, it would be useless.
No matter how unconventional or brilliant the offer, he would not be persuaded.
I slowly opened my mouth.
"I am going to clear this with the True Ending."
"Do as you wish"
CEO Cha replied in a voice that felt freezing.
"Because I’ll be doing as I wish, too."
It was then.
Blink.
The light on Je Hyeon-oh’s goggles flickered on.
CEO Cha and Kwak Han-mook both looked at Je Hyeon-oh with equally appalled expressions.
Je Hyeon-oh spoke, calling out to CEO Cha.
"CEO Cha."
The metallic wings fluttered once, slowly.
The moment the smooth metallic sound ceased...
A rough, low voice spoke quietly.
"Too much talking."
Boom!
A powerful impact sound exploded immediately.
Screech, screech. A threatening sound echoed from the white sword blocking Je Hyeon-oh’s metallic hand.
The white and black figures pushed apart violently, then clashed again.
In just a few seconds, an uncountable number of fierce exchanges took place.
The trajectory of the pure white light moved elegantly, blocking the encroaching darkness.
While white lines were drawn so frantically they were hard to follow with the eye, black lines also tore through the air violently in all directions.
The black figure, having leaped into the air, descended rapidly and collided with the white, shaking the surroundings with a thunderous roar.
Simultaneously, the metallic wings disassembled into blades, casting a shadow over the sky.
The dense black blades were barely visible in the darkness, but they flashed menacingly whenever they caught the white light.
The blades poured down, making a ripping sound as they tore through the air.
The white sword deflected the black blades with ease.
However, he couldn’t completely avoid the metallic hand hidden among the blades.
Screech! A sound like metal scraping metal erupted.
Beast-like claw marks were left on CEO Cha’s cognitive-reduction mask.
CEO Cha leaped back, brushed his mask with his hand, and let out a short, dry laugh.
Je Hyeon-oh’s metallic hand clicked.
I didn’t even need to open the status window to know his current state.
Je Hyeon-oh looked extremely pleased.
I swallowed hard as I saw him becoming increasingly intoxicated by the thrill of battle.
"Captain Kwak. I think we need to evacuate the creatures."
I didn’t think Je Hyeon-oh would lose.
But CEO Cha wouldn’t just stand there, and if both of them started fighting without restraint, the surroundings would be turned into a wasteland.
There was a possibility that the creatures would die from the aftermath of the battle.
"Ha, fuck... Let’s go."
Kwak Han-mook cursed and opened the entrance to the cell blocks.
I entered the cell blocks with Kwak Han-mook.
The interior was absolute chaos.
Human prisoners clung to the bars, shouting insults and screams.
"Open the doors right now!"
"’You bastards, open the doors!"
With the ominous sounds from outside shaking the very building, they were on the verge of starting a riot.
Even so, they had no way to open the prison doors.
The guards would swarm in soon and deal with the prisoners themselves.
As I ran down the long corridor, I thought.
Even if I save the creatures, is a True Ending possible? This time, I truly lacked confidence.
With a complicated heart, I entered Sector X.
There, Kwak Han-mook and I encountered an unexpected person.
The Security Chief was standing motionless inside Sector X.
He didn’t have precognition, so there was no reason for him to come to Sector X first when a sudden commotion broke out.
The air in Sector X was chilly. The damp, gloomy energy clinging to everything was unpleasant.
The creatures were all awake, but they remained breathless, not making a single sound.
Something was wrong.
While the Security Chief was a feared existence to the creatures, it wasn’t to this extent.
Right now, the creatures were acting as if... they were facing an absolute apex predator.
As I tried to approach the Security Chief, someone grabbed my shoulder.
It was Kwak Han-mook.
But he wasn’t looking at me.
His gray eyes were frozen with tension, staring intently at the Security Chief.
The hand gripping my shoulder was trembling slightly.
Kwak Han-mook was not a man who got nervous easily. Yet, for him to react this way...
It was a tension laced with fear, as if he had encountered an old nightmare.
I felt strangely isolated in my confusion.
Suddenly, a low laugh echoed in my ear.
Dominic was laughing.
Following that, the Security Chief, who had been standing still like a statue, slowly turned around.
He looked at me.
Dazed by the sequence of incomprehensible events, I wondered how to react to the Security Chief.
I was weighing whether to attack immediately or first greet him and gauge the situation, when the grip on my shoulder tightened further.
’Captain Kwak..?’
Just as I began to worry, seeing him in a state clearly different from usual...
The Security Chief removed his metal mask.
The hidden eyes were revealed, but there were no ’eyes’ there.
Without distinction between iris and pupil, there was only something composed entirely of neon-green color.
The corners of the Security Chief’s mouth slowly curled up.
With a deep smile, he spoke.
"Roast... ed Chestnut."
When I didn’t answer, he tilted his head to the side and called another name.
"Little... Lamb?"
A joy that felt like it would make my head explode washed over me.
Feeling my heart beat violently, I shouted.
"Octopus Leg-nim!"