Chapter 8
Wondering what kind of Ending this could possibly be, I narrowed my eyes and peered at the System Window.
That did not produce the miracle of suddenly turning the ■ symbols into letters.
The other System Window that appeared immediately afterward was no easier to understand.
‘Han Goyo’ announces his name to Akasha!
Current Recognition: 0.02%
Recognition?
I had no idea whose awareness of my name had increased my Recognition—or why it had risen by such a pathetic 0.01%.
I was still examining the System Window from every angle.
Suddenly, Smiley began dissolving into a soft puddle of rainbow-colored liquid before my eyes.
I didn’t even have time to try anything.
The instant Smiley melted away, several beams of light shot from the collapsed factory.
The beams flew in like a meteor shower and merged with the rainbow liquid.
And then Smiley disappeared.
Leaving behind only a strange piece of candy.
I slowly bent my knees and picked it up.
Happy Smile Candy: Eating it fills you with happiness and laughter.
The rainbow-colored candy was shaped like Smiley’s face.
As I stood blankly with the candy in my hand, another System Window appeared.
You believe you absolutely must consume this.
When the System Window had forced me to accept earlier, I had privately hoped for something.
I wondered whether Smiley and the toys might become items I could take outside with me….
But I had never imagined events would unfold like this.
I stared at the candy for a moment, then carefully placed it inside my Inventory.
The Trial has ended.
The Trial will permanently close in 80 seconds.
“Th-This is the True Ending, right?”
I turned toward Mo Haein. After reading the System Window, she stared at me with trembling eyes and asked,
“It is the True Ending, isn’t it…? I’m not seeing things…. Permanently closed….”
A Trial’s True Ending held special significance.
It meant the permanent closure of the Trial and the return of its survivors.
A Trial cleared with the True Ending never formed again. It also expelled the people trapped inside it.
Every last person who had been trapped there, with their mutated bodies restored to perfect condition.
In HSF’s case, the employees who had been working inside the factory would be rescued.
The True Ending was the only way to save survivors trapped inside a Trial, but its difficulty bordered on impossible, and there had been extremely few successes.
When I first started playing the Archive games, an NPC told me there had been exactly nine successful cases in the entire world.
“Yes. It’s the True Ending.”
I smiled faintly and congratulated Mo Haein.
“You worked hard, Captain.”
“…….”
Mo Haein stared at me blankly. After a moment, her expression crumpled, and she roughly turned her head away.
I could see the back of her neck, flushed red with emotion.
Ordinarily, Mo Haein wasn’t someone who showed her feelings this openly.
I looked elsewhere until she had calmed down a little.
Fortunately, Mo Haein soon returned to her usual self.
Having regained her composure, she murmured slowly,
“…Thank you.”
I had no idea how I would explain myself once we left this place, but at least it seemed unlikely I would be treated as a smuggler.
Right on cue, a System Window appeared.
You are the greatest Contributor to .
You may take ‘1’ item with you.
When a True Ending or certain other Endings were cleared, the person with the highest Contribution could take an item from the Trial.
In HSF, only the greatest Contributor was permitted to acquire an item.
Without hesitation, I chose the Happy Smile Candy.
Mo Haein appeared curious about what I had selected, but she didn’t ask.
She probably saw no need when she would have plenty of time to interrogate me later.
Once the eighty seconds elapsed, the scenery before my eyes crumpled and became stained with all kinds of fluorescent colors as the System Window announced the Trial’s closure.
I emerged from the Trial.
HSF had hatched on the grounds of an abandoned factory.
All kinds of people lay unconscious throughout the derelict site, which was broadly encircled with police tape.
The wind was chilly. Dressed in nothing but a white short-sleeved T-shirt and gray sweatpants, I started to rub my upper arms, only to suppress a groan.
Small wounds covered my body, including the injury to my thigh.
‘If this were the game, I would have cleared it without taking a hit.’
There was definitely an enormous difference between clicking a keyboard and mouse and moving my actual body.
I exercised diligently every day without fail, but I could still feel my physical shortcomings keenly.
It was impossible to achieve a no-hit Clear with only the basic physical capabilities granted by the game.
‘If the Trial Response Agency drags me away, they’ll at least treat my injuries, won’t they…?’
Now that it had come to this, I planned to let the Trial Response Agency determine my current situation in greater detail while briefly relying on them for food, clothing, and shelter.
Looking around, I saw Mo Haein regaining consciousness some distance away.
Her Trial Response Agency uniform made her stand out considerably among the civilians.
I was limping toward her when a voice spoke.
“Don’t move.”
Something cold touched my throat. Rolling my eyes to the side, I saw a military fixed-blade knife.
‘Ah, Park Seonggyeon.’
I had forgotten about this bastard.
Unable to stop myself, I gave a short, hollow laugh.
“You’re laughing? F*ck, Goyo. Does this seem funny to you?”
“Would you rather I cried?”
“…What?”
My suddenly informal retort caught Park Seonggyeon off guard.
I looked down at him. Apparently, he still thought I was an obedient, mild-mannered college student.
“Park Seonggyeon!”
By then, Mo Haein had fully regained her senses. She aimed her gun and issued a warning.
“I’ll give you one last chance. Step away from him.”
But the muzzle of her gun was trembling faintly.
Mo Haein had borne the brunt of the attacks during the boss battle in HSF.
She was in a condition that warranted immediate transport by ambulance.
Park Seonggyeon, by contrast, was brimming with energy.
That was only natural. While Mo Haein and I had run until we could taste blood, he had remained hidden and merely waited for us to achieve the Clear.
“Captain Mo Haein!”
Knowing that perfectly well, Park Seonggyeon openly sneered at her.
“I’ll give you a chance too. Hand over the Black Moon Blade.”
“Aren’t you afraid of the Trial Response Agency?”
“Nooo, not at all.”
“How much did they promise you? If it’s money, I’ll pay you, so….”
“Oh, Mo Haein, Mo Haein.”
“…….”
“Are you too stupid to understand me? I said hand over the Black Moon Blade!”
Sssht. The knife drew across my neck, leaving a thin red line.
And while Mo Haein and Park Seonggyeon argued, I was…
You know that ‘Park Seonggyeon (Sample)’ will not leave his hostage alive.
His insolent behavior enrages you.
You consider a way to discipline a dog that dares bite because it fails to recognize its master.
A suitable method comes to mind!
You want to examine ‘Execution.’
I was reading the System Windows that appeared one after another without pause.
I had no idea what Execution did that made the System so insistent I try it.
‘Judging from the name, it doesn’t sound pleasant.’
But at this rate, the Black Moon Blade would be stolen, and I would bleed to death as well.
Blood continued flowing from my thigh.
‘Execute Park Seonggyeon.’
You will execute ‘Park Seonggyeon (Sample).’ This decision cannot be reversed and will cause a permanent change to Akasha.
Would you like to execute ‘Park Seonggyeon (Sample)’?
A set of choices appeared.
- Yeah.
- Execute him.
- Dooo it!
Even with my vision fading, the ridiculous System Window made me laugh.
“Park Seonggyeon.”
Park Seonggyeon flinched away from his confrontation with Mo Haein and looked at me.
I spoke with a feeble smile.
“I’ll give you one last chance. Let me go.”
“Has this bastard lost his mind…?”
For some reason, Park Seonggyeon’s voice trembled faintly.
As though he had become afraid.
Read only on MUGEX
I selected ‘Dooo it!’
Executing ‘Park Seonggyeon (Sample)’!
A fanfare rang out, so bright and cheerful that it felt as though confetti should have filled the air.
Then came the sound of a firework exploding.
No, not a firework…….
It was the sound of Park Seonggyeon’s head bursting.
His ruptured head turned into golden light. It glittered brilliantly as though stars had scattered in every direction.
His headless body followed, crumbling into golden light as well.
I could see Mo Haein through the sparkling haze.
She stood frozen with her gun trained on me.
She remained that way, staring straight at me until every last mote of light had vanished.
The barrel of her gun never wavered from me.
‘This is bad.’
I had thought Park Seonggyeon might die, but I hadn’t expected his disposal to be this spectacular.
And for such a bizarre phenomenon to occur outside a Trial rather than within one…
‘This makes me look far too suspicious.’
Cold sweat beaded along my back at the predicament, but the untroubled System merely displayed another rectangle.
You currently have ‘0’ registered Characters.
You want to register ‘Mo Haein’ as a new Character.
Ignoring the System Window fluttering before my eyes, I opened my mouth.
“Um, Captain…?”
I had just called out to her cautiously when a voice interrupted.
“Captain Mo Haein, what the Mo were you doing? Did you get your ass f*cking kicked inside the Trial?”
I looked over my shoulder.
The air split apart, and a man in a Trial Response Agency uniform sprang through.
He was tall, with a lean, muscular build.
His dyed red hair fluttered untidily in the wind.
Planting his combat boots on the ground, the man stood with his weight cocked onto one leg and flashed a playful grin.
“What was our Captain Mo-ing around at to crawl out only now?”
The grin vanished from the man’s face.
His gaze hardened as he surveyed the abandoned factory.
Hundreds of people lay unconscious, scattered throughout the grounds. He immediately understood what that meant.
In a low, subdued voice, the man asked,
“Haein. Was it the True Ending?”
I was looking at the man and didn’t see her, but Mo Haein seemed to answer by nodding behind me.
He stood speechless for a moment.
I knew who he was.
Captain Kwak Hanmuk, Team Leader of the Trial Response Agency’s Field Response Team 3.
Alongside Mo Haein, he was one of the Trial Response Agency’s most capable operatives.
‘Captain Kwak really is tall.’
I wasn’t particularly short myself, yet his eye level towered above mine.
While I observed Kwak Hanmuk in fascination, he belatedly noticed me too.
The moment he saw my injuries, Kwak Hanmuk appeared to realize that I had contributed to the Clear.
Just as his gaze sharpened, Mo Haein muttered quietly,
“I never thought I’d live to see the day I was glad to see you, Hanmuk.”
I started to turn around at her words, then stopped short.
Grab.
Mo Haein had wrapped her arms around my waist from behind.
It felt a little excessive to be an emotional back hug celebrating our escape from HSF….
“Hanmuk.”
Ah.
“Bind him.”
The moment Mo Haein issued the short command, a long string of rosary beads shot toward me with a rattle.
In the blink of an eye, Kwak Hanmuk’s rosary wrapped around me again and again.
It cleverly avoided Mo Haein and bound only me. As though that weren’t enough, another pair of handcuffs snapped around my hands.
Now resembling the most heinous of criminals, I stared at Mo Haein in dismay.
“Mr. Han Goyo, you are under emergency arrest on suspicion of being a national calamity.”
She continued rapidly.
“You do not have the right to remain silent, you do not have the right to retain an attorney, and anything you say or do from this moment forward may be used against you in court.”
It was the Trial Response Agency’s version of a Miranda warning.
After delivering words I had never imagined hearing directed at me, she ended coldly.
“Knock him out.”
Light flashed from the rosary beads.
I lost consciousness.