Level 1 – Lv.2 Hunter (1)
When my life in this labyrinth was over 100 times, I realized.
Whatever it was, I had to play a game where there was some left over even if I died.
Every time you die and come back to life, it returns to its original state.
Even Soul Like consistently leaves something behind, leading to eventually clearing it.
Roguelikes have no mercy.
Neither the NPCs I’ve been friends with nor the character ‘I’ that I worked hard to nurture will all happen.
I don’t want to do anything because I feel like I’ve been hanging out for a week.
It feels like a chimney to soothe my sense of loss.
Still, I couldn’t relax.
[Remaining time: 1216 days 12 hours 12 minutes]
The screen that always floats in the upper right corner constantly drives me.
3 years and a little more? Well, it won’t decrease for a while from now.
This is a grace period given to me because I haven’t started the next game yet.
The time limit in the game days before it became a reality was just one of the background settings.
This is a small setting to increase the immersion of the player.
not anymore
All those who have been dragged into this labyrinth from all kinds of worlds go through countless deaths and move towards the clear.
That heroic goal has a time limit.
100 years.
What happens after that time by setting is simple.
The game cannot be restarted.
can’t come back from death
From that point on, I am not the main character in that world.
Instead, there is a setting for what will happen if it succeeds.
complete liberation.
Everything in the labyrinth is freed.
Everyone who is exiled from all over the world will return to where they came from.
I wanted to go home.
In a small way, I missed soda, and in a big way, I was fed up with this world.
Most fantasies are terrifying when they become reality.
Especially in the world of rogue-like games.
someone’s malice,
Death that will never come,
A misery that is hard to see with my eyes open.
Those things always cast a shadow on my life.
Even after realizing that fact, there are few people who can turn their eyes to it and be happy alone.
The game was good.
In the days of gaming, everything was on the screen.
The characters made of dots are alive, breathing, thinking and talking autonomously.
There are only brief settings about their lives, but never detailed descriptions.
In the first place, it was a turn-based game, not even real-time.
When it became a reality, many things changed.
They were just NPCs who had the ‘setting’ of being kidnapped in a labyrinth like the player.
Now they all have memories of the episode they went through.
That’s how everyone lives with themselves as the main character.
Real humans, not dry chunks of code, live here.
Why do I have to watch the flickering of countless lives here?
want to go home.
I really really want to go home.
I miss the peace and peace of modern society and can’t stand it.
So press the start game button again.
The start button floating under the remaining time flashes and disappears.
[2975 episode start! good luck!]
Time begins to flow again.
[Remaining time: 1216 days 12 hours 11 minutes]
* * *
[TIP: The name exile is a title created with the hope that one day they will be able to return to the home they were brought to.
Considering how many times in actual history, it is highly unlikely.]
The tedious phrase on the loading gauge has disappeared.
“Huh? Are you awake, sir?”
When you open your eyes, the first thing you need to check is your surroundings.
There was no raid.
The first floor of the dungeon, boasting a puck or symbolic beauty and majesty, was the same as it had been tiredly seen.
“Hey, didn’t it happen?”
It is not a place with good memories.
Even though I’m tired of it now, the first strong memory eats my heart.
The first floor is used to despair the inexperienced exiles who have reached this labyrinth.
“Your eyes are open. What? Why are you not responding?”
A labyrinth of gray stones that is open without a ceiling.
Decorative walls like majestic ruins.
Even though it is a night sky, an abyss that is unusually dark and gloomy takes its place in the sky.
Thinking that far, I saw the girl who had been waving in front of me finally about to slap her on the cheek.
“You’re awake, so calm down.”
“Why do I calm down? It’s because I pretend not to see people even when I see them.”
The girl gets the word softly.
Then he asked again, changing his expression to a look of anticipation.
“Mister, do you know where this place is?”
There is no lie in that innocent face. Usually, in this case, it is the first newbie who was first brought into the labyrinth.
Considering how many people are mesmerized by the overwhelming sight and atmosphere, this is a great attitude.
I answered almost habitually.
“No, I don’t know.”
A girl’s attitude that subsides in an instant.
He is a very colorful boy with a change in expression.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes?”
Whether or not the puzzled girl followed, I moved on.
* * *
The first floor is always this ancient temple-style theme.
The form floating on the abyss like outer space is very mysterious.
There is no escape room except for the stairs leading to the next floor.
Usually, the first death is experienced here.
Countless traps scattered everywhere or senior exiles hunting humans provide the cause of death.
An atmosphere that seems out of this world, and repeated death.
It is a strong hint that it is a completely different world from the world we have lived in so far.
These placenta who first set foot will die without knowing anything.
And after repeating dozens of deaths, you will finally know how to act.
In such an environment, if a multi-year exile happened to be nearby, and if the exile was kind, then you are lucky.
I didn’t have to explain my luck to the girl who followed me around.
There was really no time to explain.
I was mentally exhausted to the point that I was contemplating suicide.
“So, why do I have to help you with your relationship?”
“Child, I beg you, can you please be quiet?”
The girl tilted her head as if she didn’t really know why.
“I’m not a kid.”
“Why are you questioning the front and not the back, kid?”
“A high school student is not a kid.”
What do you mean by little?
“Okay then, lady, why don’t you be quiet?”
The girl answered brightly.
“Hey, in an unfamiliar place like this, keeping your mouth shut makes the mood go down.”
I just gave up on persuasion.
Obviously, being a high school girl is a creature she has never experienced before.
From the beginning until now, the girl teased without a moment’s rest.
It is said that three girls can break plates, but I think this child can do it alone.
Thanks to that, I learned quite a lot.
Most of it was useless information, such as a love story of a high school classmate or a complaint about a sensual brother.
Not all information was.
“Wait, stop there.”
“why?”
He picks up stones and throws them without saying a word. Arrows are fired from the wall with a ping sound.
The sound of the arrow hitting the wall and breaking was much louder than that.
If you get it right, you die.
“Wow, it’s like being at home.”
Of course, the average high school girl does not have such an arrow trap installed at home.
I don’t even call my brother brother.
All randomly generated NPCs have background settings for probabilities.
In the gaming days, if you right-click the mouse, an all-around status window pops up and informs you.
For now, we have no choice but to make inferences through conversations one by one.
“Do you live in Korea?”
As they narrowly jumped over the trap where the floor would turn off when stepped on, the girl slowly followed and landed.
I’m out of breath, but the girl doesn’t seem to have a hard time and doesn’t lose her smile.
“Of course. You’re still speaking Korean, aren’t you?”
not. In the labyrinth, all languages are united into one. It must have been like this before the Tower of Babel collapsed.
“Is your last name Jeong?”
No matter how early I am, I struggle with the low-quality stamina characteristic of a housewife, but this child also has superior physical ability that is hard to be considered a high school girl.
Long experience discovers what that fact suggests.
NPCs are, after all, just random combinations of the various settings that exist.
The number of simple cases is as many as the grains of sand in the sea, but if you know some of the characteristics, you can make an inference.
As long as they appear, there are NPCs that are constants, not variables.
The Jeong family in Korea, which is always set as a superintendent’s lineage, is one of the dogs.
“How did you know?”
bewildered expression.
Then yes.
In this world, the Jeong family seems to have a daughter.
I laughed bitterly.
The girl who saw it paid attention.
“Oh, man, be careful there.”
“know.”
The girl was already tilting her head before speaking. Poison stings fired from the wall pass by.
This girl is already trained enough to easily recognize the level of traps on the first floor. What level of setting is it in terms of talent?
“Have you ever heard of a genius in the house?”
“Wow, do you know me?”
This time with a genuinely surprised expression. In the meantime, there is also a little bit of happiness mixed in.
The biggest increase in the 1997 years here is the ability to read the thoughts of others through facial expressions and gestures.
Real Roguelike is difficult because it requires psychological warfare against NPCs.
And in my experience, the confidence at first glance was mostly a positive clue.
I don’t know anything else, but this guy must come down alive.
It is a matter to think about what class to raise.
The start isn’t bad.
It was a reset marathon angle that was getting closer mentally to the constant chatter.
Now I feel a little farther away.
* * *
I don’t know if the girl knew, but I was moving steadily in the form of searching the surroundings.
Mazes are generated randomly, but if you play for a long time, you will realize the rules to some extent.
And if you wait a little longer, you can guess where other people spawn and in which direction they’re likely to move.
As I turned the corner, I saw four people wandering around as I expected.
How many of them do not go through the labyrinth for the first time?
One is limping as if he has already fallen into a trap.
A wounded man with a face distorted in pain, one person supporting him, and the other two who can’t figure it out while revealing their anxiety.
Taken from n̲o̲b̲l̲e̲m̲t̲l̲.̲c̲o̲m̲
Just by looking at the atmosphere, it feels like everyone is the first.I shouted and followed him, then neutralized the trap and moved forward.
It seems that people who did not know how to be fashionable and who followed him in a hurry also came to believe in him.
Pointing to the stairs, he goes down to the second floor without saying a word.
However, the first girl didn’t seem to want to go down with them.
“Didn’t you say you didn’t know where this place was? It’s a complete lie.”
I answered casually.
“You’re lying. It’s like a habit.”
“Why?”
“It’s a town where there’s little profit to be made by pretending to know.”
It is true in any society that an angular stone is correct, but in such an extreme environment, the severity becomes worse.
If you are going to do it, you have to be a leader who leads everyone.
Or not at all.
The captain is not in the plan this time because he made me tired of the last round.
I am satisfied if I can only guess three or more members of my own small party.
It wasn’t that all the people I saw when I was walking around were just dumbfounded.
Even if you have no experience in the labyrinth, you will soon find out that dangerous traps are everywhere.
Somebody’s sacrifice is only accompanied by the process.
Then, in order to survive, there are those who try to dismantle the trap by pushing the weak around them.
If you have a thin conscience and a little wit, it’s a possible idea.
It is even a reasonable decision as the arrow once fired will not be refilled again.
It’s good if you have good adaptability, but it’s not a pretty sight to see.
There was a time when I also frowned at every episode.
Now I don’t think about anything.
But the act of reducing people like that was hard to think of as a good thing.
The fewer survivors, the less likely it is.
it’s been a long time Those who might become future party members have learned to keep them alive.
It’s quite common to be a threat that cannot be overcome alone.
Therefore, I ran and slapped the back of the bare, bald head.
“Please! Don’t kill anyone on the first floor!”
I’d rather get experience points if I kill them with my own hands. I don’t see people pushing people into traps.
Looking back, swearing, it was a muscular Hispanic with tattoos wriggling on his arm. It seems to be a South American drug cartel.
He raised his fierce eyes and immediately clenched his fist.
Sadly, on the contrary, there are many cases where such garbage can be used for physical activity in the labyrinth.
So, I had to live.
fists fly Skillfully strike, grab, and pull out the joint.
you don’t have to look As long as your legs are intact, you can walk.
When I quickly disabled both arms, the opponent became frightened and began to swear at them.
The others around him looked terrified enough.
I was surprised by a certain gangster, but now I appear and pull the gangster’s shoulder.
It’s more of a normal reaction than the girl following.
However, it had the effect of being more docile and obeying what he was told to do because he was afraid.
When I told them to walk with their feet, the South American cartel also finished understanding the situation.
On the one hand, there is something easy about dealing with gangsters who are friends with violence.
It is like being humble in front of that friend.
Such a group of people first finds the stairs to the second floor and pushes them in.
The more cases, i.e. survivors, the better.
However, the girl didn’t seem to want to leave me this time as well.
Instead, I just asked in a curious voice.
“Are you a hero or something?”
It’s obvious that you’re saving people, so it’s worth thinking about it.
I didn’t shake my head this time.
Instead, he said it as a joke.
“Of course. I am the hero of this labyrinth.”
It’s not a lie, as it will become true if we clear it and release everyone.
“Ahaha, man, I think I’m crazy.”
The girl smiles in surprise.
I laughed too.
There were countless NPCs who considered me a hero, a hero, or a god.
Beyond episode 2975, no one can see it again.
He just smiled at the smiling girl.
—– Author’s remarks —–
The main character has died on average once every 12 days so far.
Since there are too many people who find it difficult to understand the NPC’s setting, I’ll put a temporary explanation in the author’s words first.
Once the text is organized, the author’s commentary will be deleted.
Let’s start with the explanation of the original rogue-like game before Possession.
From the beginning, it was a game in which NPCs with the same ‘exile’ setting as playable characters were randomly created and placed.
The player in the setting is just one ‘exile’.
All ‘Exiles’, including players, are given a 100-year deadline, after which they will die and lose the ability to reawaken in another world.
A death from that point on is a normal death from which there is no return.
Among the exiles in such a situation, they call themselves ‘inhabitants of the labyrinth’.
Apart from that, there are also ‘NPCs’, who are not ‘exiles’, but the natives of the labyrinth.
They don’t look down on exiles. They are considered unpleasant races that often appear and disappear in their homeland.
The protagonist has been thinking about NPCs for a long time.
The possibilities are many. In the worst case, you may also be a randomly generated NPC. The setting of being possessed by the game may also be a memory given to him as part of random generation.
An NPC created with 2975 rounds of experience.
So, in the end, the protagonist decided to think what he was comfortable with.
All NPCs except me.
Because that is the most convenient and reliable answer.
+Added April 22nd.
You are not trash. It’s salty…
It’s just that roguelike is a game that you’re basically risking your life for…
+April 25 added
Removed some misleading comments about NPCs.