Chapter 38: Chapter 30: Kim Dokja, King in a Kingless World (3)

A/N: Balancing everything in Uni is hard...guh

Much in the manner of how Mrs. Wang departed for a short trip to Bonghwasan station, I decided to do the same.

A trip by myself.

Of course, my companions had protested against the idea of throwing all the work of running the stations on their shoulders, although some of the residents of the station decided to flow towards Lee Sookyung's base, whom they called 'King of Wanderers', which reduced the burden.

I recalled Christina's words on the road and chuckled to myself.

"You're going to go sightseeing and leave poor me behind, swamped with work?! How can you call yourself my friend if you do that?"

A friend. Is that what she sees me as?

That made me feel warm.

"Spy, I recommend you stay behind as a voice of authority as their 'King'."

The next I recalled was Su Peng who was seriously telling me the possible consequences of my actions.

"If you really insist on going, at least set a few commands, like..."

Su Peng had rambled on, and although I understood the importance of his words, he kept going on, and it made me faze out a few times in-between too.

So I had thrown a, "You're a king too, and you can definitely manage everyone better than I can," and then escaped. Even if I felt a little bad, I felt an urgency to get a move on.

After that, I had said a brief goodbye to Jie Kushin and Cho Youngran, and that brought me to my current situation.

[A new sub scenario has arrived!]

Instantly, I felt the surroundings distort and become obscured by fog.

[Sub Scenario - Phantom Prison]

Category: Sub

Difficulty: D~F

Clear conditions: Escape from the Phantom Prison within the time limit.

Time Limit: 1 Hour

Compensation: 300 coins

Failure: ???

+

This really makes me want to hurl. I thought, the swaying surroundings inducing nausea.

"I hate you. You disgust me."

A voice that came out of nowhere slammed down on my being like a hammer.

However, I recovered quickly. I didn't really have a trauma, brought up with a relatively smooth life, just as Mrs. Wang said.

"You are on the borderline of surgery as an option."

Not this again.

[Skill, Mental Fortitude lv. 1 is activated!]

My mood stabilized.

I thought I heard my mother cry, on that day that I discovered something I would never want to discover.

A betrayal of trust, and knowing our family could not go back to being the same.

Still, it wasn't a deep trauma.

It wasn't like someone close to me passed away, or I became blind, lost my sense of hearing or was on a deathbed due to illness. Nor was anyone else ill.

[Skill, Dispel Evil lv. 1, has been activated.]

So, this scenario was easy for me, even if it would take a while.

[ Phantom Prison has retreated.]

Finally, the rewards to the hidden scenario were making known their use.

[You have met the conditions to clear the sub-scenario]

[You have obtained 300 coins as compensation.]

And beyond the sub scenario, hidden behind it, were creatures who shifted shapes, boneless and made up of some liquid substance.

Just as the novel stated, the power of these creatures came from their powerful illusions which created the Phantom Prison of the sub scenario, but were weak without it.

Swiftly dispatching the creatures by extracting their core, I kept the [specter's stone].

It was one of the things I required.

"...Classmate A?" A dumbfounded voice called from the light of Chungmuro Station.

I turned my head at the sudden voice and was stunned as well.

"Lee Jihye?"

"Oh wow, it is you! I didn't recognize you at first because you were dressed differently. Felt like I forgot you for a sec. Hold up, let me call Na Bori." Lee Jihye chattered excitedly.

I couldn't help but feel excited as well at meeting Lee Jihye and Na Bori again. From how it looked, it seems they were doing fine.

More than fine it seemed, since I noticed Lee Jihye got a newer and better weapon than the one we got in the hidden dungeon.

As I waited for Na Bori, I tried to simulate the ways the conversation could unfold between the three of us. What kinds of things could I ask them, and what things could I tell them?

I didn't wait any longer as Na Bori also came bounding over excitedly and gave me a hug.

It threw me off, but I also returned the hug.

"It's been so long! How have you been?" Na Bori asked me even if she could tell by my state.

I didn't know it then, but now I was getting a little teary eyed at hearing the familiar bubbly voice as the reunion caught up with me.

Lee Jihye also came over quickly and we all had a group hug.

Being companions since the beginning had a symbolic meaning.

As we broke apart, I started by answering Na Bori's question.

"To your question, I have been doing fine. How have you two been doing?"

"We're-"

"We have been doing fine as well, actually great even. It's all thanks to our master." Na Bori interrupted her friend, puffing out her chest in pride over some inexplicable reason.

"Master?" I caught onto the important point.

If it's 'master', is it him?

"Yes, Yoo Junghyuk is our master's name." Lee Jihye was also pumping her fist as she interjected, her eyes lighting up at my curiosity.

Then Lee Jihye began a passionate marathon of a speech about her and Na Bori's 'Master'.

"You sound like a cult fanatic..." I couldn't help but interrupt Lee Jihye's sermon that was getting out of hand.

"Wha-I do not." Lee Jihye exclaimed, feeling offended.

"Anyways," I continued, "I wanted to know how you guys ended up in Chungmuro."

I suppose the story is going strong, though.

Na Bori was the one who stepped up to say that this time to explain, "When we were teleported out of the hidden dungeon, we ended up in Chungmuro Station for some reason. Since then, we've just been staying here."

"C'mon, let's give you a tour." Na Bori continued, gesturing with her hand for me to follow.

"Uhh, I am not sure if I-" I stopped myself. Although I wasn't sure if I could enter the station that wouldn't enter the fourth main scenario until a day or two later, there was no hurting it.

Come again, I can't recall if [Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World] had this thing noted down.

Author tl123, if only I could ask you about what you were thinking when you created this world...

Either consciously or subconsciously, I avoided thinking about the entity that may or may not exist. A confusing paradox of the fact that the author was a person living in this world, a person who wrote this novel, but in fact had nothing to prove they existed.

And those words on the screen right before everything began.

I recalled those three words 'Who are you?', that I almost forgot about that appeared on my phone. I hadn't had the luxury nor time to think about it then, but everything about it was suspicious.

Who was asking me? Why? What did they want to find out about me?

"Hello? Why are you spacing out?" Na Bori waved her hand in-front of my impassive face deep-in-thought.

Snapping back to reality I smiled wryly, "Just thinking about something."

"Well, are you coming?" Lee Jihye, a step or two ahead of us, ready to go back into the station, spoke.

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That's right. I shouldn't think about this right now. There's no point.

"Yep."

As I followed after the two, curiously looking around, I stepped over the boundary that separated the subway and the station.

[You have entered Chungmuro station.]

[#GIR-8761 channel is active]

[#BIR-3642 channel is active]

[#YKR-9996 channel is active]

Oh, Youngkik's channel is also here.

[As you have entered a station not in the fourth main scenario, you will not have the privileges pertaining to the flag. You are not to attack any of the residents of this station. You are also unable to leak information about future scenarios. Punishment will be served if you do so. Please heed.]

Well, that is to be expected.

In some twisted way, the scenarios tried to be 'fair', but that was laughable since even things inside the scenario were unfair.

"Oh? Who's the little lady beside you, lil' samurai and demon?" The words of a slurred drunk entered my ears.

I turned to a group of middle-aged men with bottles in their hands as the strong alcoholic scent wafted over.

Samurai? Well, Lee Jihye certainly is using a katana, but um...I couldn't help but feel sorry towards Lee Jihye's sponsor who clearly had beef with the Japanese.

Lee Jihye and Na Bori both scrunched up their faces.

"Go away, ahjussi drunkards." Lee Jihye aggressively stated.

Still, the middle-aged men just laughed boisterously and waved their hands dismissively.

"Ok, ok, lil' samurai. Still so fierce, eh?"

It seemed they were still very brave, although it may have been liquor courage.

"Do I need to say it twice?" Lee Jihye said chillingly, gripping the sword hanging by her side.

Meanwhile, Na Bori also pulled out a staff with a darkened face.

The middle-aged men froze at the sight and nervously glanced at each other.

"E-erm, we heard you."

The group shuffled away like mute chickens.

"What was that?" I asked.

"Oh, it's nothing. Just don't try to get associated with those Ahjussis." Na Bori answered, her lips still drawn down unhappily.

"Drinking everyday. Tsk. We are all trying to do something, but they-" Na Bori seemed to dislike them a lot, but she caught herself falling into her anger, and stopped herself.

"No, ignore me." Na Bori gave me a small smile.

"And also, we're still not going to forgive you for leaving by yourself to deal with the dungeon." There was something dark in the bubbly Na Bori's face when she spoke these words with a grudge.

"Uh..." I blanked out.

To be honest, I wasn't sure if it was because of the two sets of memories, ghosts, star messenger or the sudden teleporting, but the memories felt very messed up.

I struggled to pick out the incident Na Bori was talking about.

"Yeah, what the heck was that? I mean, I got payback and saved your arse, but sheesh." Lee Jihye nagged, closing her eyes and waving her hand in exasperation.

Did that happen?

"So let's stick together now that we've reunited, okay?" Na Bori suggested with a pout.

I could only laugh awkwardly to avoid the pointed question, because I doubted I could keep that promise.

And with that, we then all picked up the pace once again, navigating through the station.

Madness, despair, sadness.

In this place, I found not an ounce of light.

The eerie green of the tiles on the floor highlighted and contrasted the above.

"G-get away! Don't get any closer." A man whose hair was a clump of sticky oily strands.

There was a dirty knife in his hand that was being gripped way too tightly.

Shaking legs and arms.

And a face of fear.

Advancing toward him were a pair of others, each a tool of killing in their hands.

With a pair of eyes that were wistful about the forgotten morals, I watched the humans tearing each other apart for survival.

But I did nothing to stop it.

Even if I stopped this one, there was always going to be another similar situation.

Why couldn't everyone have a happy ending?

"Anyways, would you like to meet master?" Lee Jihye hoisted the sword and tapped in on her shoulder, her other hand in the pocket of a jersey.

I was caught off guard by the sudden offer.

"W-ait, you want me to meet with Yoo Junghyuk?"

No, this is bad.

"Yeah, I'm sure master won't mind. Although you might need to stay around for a while." Lee Jihye gave me a grin.

"Not this time, I'm afraid I can't stay long." I waved my hand in refusal.

I shouldn't have given in to my greed to spend more time with Na Bori and Lee Jihye after not having met for a long time.

In fact, I shouldn't have even set foot in the station.

That sunfish psycho was going to kill me if he knew of my existence of knowing the future, even if that was just written on a phone as a web novel.

Lee Jihye and Na Bori exchanged a quizzical look with one another before turning back to me once again.

"What's wrong?" Na Bori sensed something off about my quick response.

I opened my mouth, but wished to stall enough to pick my brain to discover some sort of logical excuse to refuse the visit.

It seemed I was saved by another presence.

"Why are you following us?" At some point, Lee Jihye had drawn her sword and was pointing it at a foreign intruder, her hackles raised.

"First of all, put away the sword. Let's talk."

It was a man's voice.

"Talk? Mm, you definitely have a motive for following us so sneakily. Spit it out, ahjussi." Lee Jihye narrowed her eyes with suspicion, slowly sheathing her sword.

I turned around to get a good look at the person who came up to talk to us.

["I'm Dokja."]

[I usually introduced myself to people like this, then the following misunderstanding would occur.]

Lines of text popped up in my mind inexplicably as I looked at the man.

My mind blanked, and my memories drifted.

To a time I sat in-front of my desk, with an ipad propped up upon said desk.

A hand of mine scrolled through the text, with sentences and paragraphs I didn't recall ever reading.

In a room I couldn't clearly remember...or was it actually my room?

I felt sick.

"Are you okay?"

Na Bori's voice sounded like it was from a faraway land, but it helped to pull me back from the vivid vision.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Don't worry." I flashed a smile toward Na Bori, even if I was sure my face was white as chalk at the moment.

I looked at the man who I never met before in my life, despite having a feeling of familiarity that I couldn't quite put a finger on.

Who are you?

I looked at him in confusion.

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