“I’ll ask one last time,”
You damn bastard.
The Master frowned beneath his mask.
His mouth was completely dry. If he didn’t consciously breathe, it felt like he might suffocate.
— Fifty-three! That bastard! He’s a player too! His mask hides his face, but I’m sure of it! So please…!
A man who died with his neck cut by the reaper.
Afterward, when he was revealed to be a player and subsequently incinerated, that bastard pointed to him as another player.
Was this what it felt like to stand barefoot on a field of thorns?
Everyone in the banquet hall was whispering while staring at him.
Even Black Jade, that woman, had vanished from sight entirely.
I shouldn’t have approached him.
The auction that would proceed for half a month. Approaching him to build “connections” and make an “ally” had been a fatal mistake.
The few pieces of information he shared, thinking the other man was also a player, had come back as poison.
Had he known this would happen, he would never have approached him at all.
A bitter taste spread in his mouth.
All warps have been suspended. There’s no place to run, no place to hide.
A despairing situation.
Warp had been temporarily frozen.
It meant no one could leave or enter.
Hide?
The entire territory of Darkan was already sealed.
So thoroughly that not even an ant could escape.
And what made it even more absurd—
There are no citizens. This entire auction was bait to catch players.
There wasn’t a single civilian visible in the city.
Before they froze warp, while everyone was focused on the auction, the civilians had already been evacuated.
Of course, for a response taken after discovering that the man who died today was a player, it was far too fast.
They had already known there were more players inside Darkan.
Perhaps the “special-grade auction” itself had been a trap to lure players in.
A pitiful beast caught in a snare.
A fish trapped inside a tank.
His situation was no different.
Informants? Are they figuring it out through the reapers? Or do they have some method that proves I’m a player?
First, he needed to break the suffocating pressure of all these eyes on him.
But how?
Should he point to someone else as a player?
He didn’t know the methods of the reaper church, so he couldn’t find a way to escape.
But if he stayed still, he would die.
He had to do something.
Step.
At that moment, someone moved across the banquet hall.
The owner of the Skull Crusher.
The guard of Number 2 who crushed the transcendence user.
He slowly approached Number 1.
Then he quietly held something out, checked it, and Number 1 nodded deeply.
“This man is not a sinner.”
Not a sinner.
The moment he spoke, it became determined.
The attitudes of the nobles flipped 180 degrees.
“I smell no vile stench of a sinner from him.”
“Mm. If he wields the Skull Crusher, then he must be of the giant race. There is no case of a giant being a sinner.”
And yet, something else was confusing.
…Just who was Number 1?
The nobles acted as if Number 1’s man didn’t exist.
As if they must not look directly at him nor pretend to hear what he said.
Yet his every word and action influenced everyone in the room.
Was he some kind of Voldemort whose name must not be spoken?
What did he show him?
The Master stared so hard at the man that his eyes nearly burned.
He felt like he was going insane wondering what had been shown to prove he wasn’t a sinner.
Ding.
Ding.
Ding-ding.
Suddenly bells rang.
The large doors of the banquet hall opened, and the reaper church’s enforcers appeared, each wearing a black hood.
Among them, the one wearing a silver fox mask—the same man who had incinerated someone at the end of the auction—stepped forward and said:
“We will perform ‘purification’ one by one. Approach me in numerical order.”
Numerical order?
Something was off.
One noble stepped forward to protest.
“Wait. You mean even we imperial nobles are included?”
“Of course.”
“…You dare treat us as sinners?”
Instantly, the imperial nobles grimaced and began protesting furiously.
“Is this absurdity real?”
“You dare suspect us?”
“How outrageous…!!”
“Lord Darkan! Was this your intention from the start?”
They had assumed only the external guests would be suspects.
But forcing imperial nobles into purification? That was beyond excessive.
Yet the silver fox mask didn’t budge.
And Lord Darkan only stood with his arms crossed, watching silently.
It meant this had been the plan from the beginning.
That white powder…
What drew the Master’s attention was the powder the reaper enforcers carried.
He recognized it.
That powder had swapped Earth and Pangaenia clearly.
If this unknown powder could act across dimensions, it was dangerous.
“If you refuse, you will be branded a sinner. Number 2.”
Number 2.
Though his guard had been confirmed innocent, Number 2 had not.
Number 2 stepped forward.
“…”
A heavy silence hung between them.
But the Master could see slight changes in Number 2’s expression.
They were clearly communicating, silently—sharing thoughts directly.
What are they saying?
The Master’s mouth dried again. He felt like going mad with curiosity.
“Stand to my right. Next, Number 3.”
After a moment, Number 2 stood on the right side of the silver fox mask.
They didn’t announce the results.
If the guard had been cleared, then Number 2 might also have received a “normal” verdict.
But he couldn’t be sure.
Interrogation meant he remained a suspect.
“Stand to my left. Next, Number 4.”
Purification continued.
He didn’t know the criteria, but as numbers passed 20, people were evenly split to left and right.
Damn it.
Half and half.
That meant players made up half of the participants.
The special-grade auction really had been bait from the very beginning.
Plenty of players were living in Pangaenia disguised as locals, so even infiltrating the Empire wouldn’t have been strange.
His own choice to willingly step into the trap filled him with resentment.
But it was too late.
The Master looked again at Number 1.
Those two. Why are they always together?
Number 1 was a being of unique status.
Yet he remained constantly beside Number 2’s guard.
It meant more than a simple confirmation of innocence.
Even the imperial nobles and the lord of Darkan couldn’t stand near Number 1, yet that guard remained with him constantly—
Those two are the real judges!
The fox-masked enforcers were just props.
Those two were the ones actually determining sinners and players.
“Next, Fifty-three.”
The Master clenched his fist tightly.
His turn.
…Damn it all!
There was no time.
No escape route.
Still—maybe, just maybe—
Those two might disagree…
With two judges, a sliver of hope remained.
***
— So the executor engraved the successor’s mark. The one who handed you that imperial badge.
A hidden mark carved into the imperial badge.
It was proof that the executor had found a successor.
— Then where is the successor?
He must have meant Hel.
I tried to act calm.
— Should I show him now?
— No. The Orthodox should not reveal themselves carelessly. You and I will confirm together at the main church. But why are you wearing the black goat mask?
The main church.
The central temple of the reaper church!
To speak of it openly meant Number 1 was affiliated with the reaper church—no, he held a high rank within it.
Showing the imperial badge had been a calculated gamble.
If he were connected to the imperial family, he would react to the emperor’s seal.
If he were connected to the reaper church, he would recognize the badge in another way.
A black goat mask…
The silver fox-mask swordsman who had given him the badge in the Abyss Labyrinth had told him:
“When entering the Empire, wear the golden goat mask.”
— I didn’t have a golden mask.
— …I see. That could have been disastrous. In any case, if you are truly the “guardian of the Orthodox successor”… then you cannot be a player.
He shrugged.
As if apologizing for probing him earlier.
So his claim of being Mintchocoisdelicious was simply bait?
Testing whether he was a player?
— You and I share the same authority. The executor who gave you the badge was certain of it. I will trust his certainty.
The certainty of one of the Imperial Three Swords—the silver fox mask—had saved him.
For now, it seemed he had passed.
Number 1’s eyes on him also shifted subtly.
— A new guardian is rare. And wearing the goat mask representing Baal’s symbol… I am truly curious whose successor you serve. Very well, golden guardian of the Orthodox. From now on, you and I will conduct purification together.
Different guardians had different symbols?
He regarded the goat mask with fascination.
Soon the reaper church members arrived.
Watching them, he continued:
— We will judge each numbered candidate together. Guardians have a high probability of identifying players. If our judgments match, that person will be designated a strong sinner candidate.
— And if they don’t match?
— They will be temporarily cleared of suspicion.
Temporarily.
Meaning they were not eliminated from suspicion forever.
Could he really trust that Number 1 had removed his suspicion entirely?
This is a test.
Number 1 surely had individuals he already suspected of being players.
And he said guardians could distinguish players.
This was a test of my discernment—to see if I was truly a guardian of the Orthodox.
But the problem was Hudson.
Number 2—Hudson—was called immediately.
I knew he was a player. But what about Number 1?
— He is a player.
Soon Number 1 confirmed it.
…Perhaps he suspected Hudson from the start.
What should I do?
If this was a trap to verify my reaction—
— He is not a player.
— Ho…
He let out a faint, amused chuckle.
After a moment, Hudson moved to the right.
Disagreement.
The right side seemed to be the place for “those who avoided suspicion.”
Next was Number 3.
— Lady Dersian. You often clashed with her. So you answer first. Does she appear to be a sinner?
A woman from the House of Dersian, sharing the same name as Isabella, stepped forward with a proud expression.
Was he giving me the authority over her life and death?
What a strange situation.
— No.
— I agree.
Our opinions aligned.
Lady Dersian moved left.
…Wasn’t right supposed to be for those who avoided suspicion?
Purification continued.
Left and right were almost evenly split.
It seemed left was actually the place for “avoiding suspicion.”
And Hudson still stood on the right.
“Next, Number 53.”
Number 53.
The Master.
The one singled out at the auction, the one everyone believed was a player.
— Player.
— …He is a player.
There was no room to deny it.
The Master.
He moved to the right—just like Hudson.
When purification ended, 48 people stood on the left and 48 on the right.
A perfect 5:5 split.
Then he asked me again.
— I’ll ask one last time. Do you still think Hudson is not a player?
Revealed Truth
Korea, Hero Alliance.
After corruption levels rose and monsters began appearing more frequently through warp, the Hero Alliance had risen as Korea’s representative force.
— Hero Alliance! The light of Korea!
— Hero Alliance prevents the Great Disaster of Busan.
— Hero Alliance’s Leader Park Tae-woo delivers a message of hope!
With each passing day, the number of articles increased.
More and more people saw them as Korea’s hope, and heroes recognized worldwide.
At the center of this praise stood Park Tae-woo, leader of the Hero Alliance.
Thud!
Park Tae-woo slammed the newspaper he’d been reading onto his desk, frowning.
“…Ha, damn it.”
“What’s wrong, sir?”
A nearby alliance member glanced at the newspaper, puzzled.
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