meet the devil (1)
There was a mountain of things I wanted to ask, but unfortunately I didn’t know when the pursuers would catch up.
Chris mounted Louis on his horse and resumed his run.
However, while holding the reins and urging the horse, the curiosity does not disappear.
“… Louis, what exactly did you see on the status bar?”
“That’s it, ugh!”
Unfortunately, Louis was the only one hanging from behind Chris’ waist.
It wouldn’t be strange if he said it like this, even if he chewed his tongue.
Chris was patient and headed to the border area of Pochinki Kingdom.
Originally, he adjusted his pace in fear of putting too much strain on Lewis’ body, but now that he has recovered the status window, he is riding two horses at full speed.
The guy was given the game system’s life force correction.
No matter how much I ran, I never lost my stamina and never fell off the horse or burned out.
Of course, that didn’t make the unfamiliar ride a little more comfortable.
Chris taught me the tricks of riding on a galloping horse.
“Give your thighs more strength, and try to match your breath with the horse.”
“cow… Can’t you slow down a bit?”
“I’d rather leave you and go.”
Louis struggled to speak up, but Chris completely ignored the guy’s request.
But on the other hand, I decided to take care of him.
Lewis is a case in which Chris was summoned from the kingdom, experiencing the same symptoms as Chris and then recovering the status window.
If you investigate him, you might be able to catch a clue about the disappearance of the status window.
Not only that, Lewis is a priest who can use the status window.
It makes no sense to pass such talent into the hands of other players.
Louis, unaware of Chris’s intentions, was so frightened by his words that he kept his mouth shut.
The reaction was so obedient that it even seemed slightly weak, but Louis had no choice but to obey because he had seen Chris cut down people.
Staying up all night, they ran and arrived at the inn only in the evening of the next day.
Covered in mud from the long journey, they put the horses on the verge of exhaustion into the stable. And I entered the room where the warm air drifted.
By the warm fireside, wealthy travelers were relaxing by playing magical card games.
Louis, who was sprawled out in a corner seat following Chris, couldn’t say anything, as if his legs were numb.
Chris handed him a glass of water and asked.
“What did you see on the status window earlier?”
It is a function that Chris has never experienced, but the original status window also serves to analyze various phenomena.
It was probably thanks to that that Lewis immediately noticed the change in himself.
Louis was just picking up the bread the maid had brought him.
What he had in his hand was coarse multigrain bread, but he was so hungry that he didn’t seem in the mood to cover his food.
Chris put off eating for a while to satisfy curiosity rather than hunger.
“But is it safe here?”
“For some reason, I ran through the night… This is outside the borders of Pochinki Kingdom. No matter how much the kingdom army comes this far, you can’t use your hands recklessly.”
“Then I’m glad.”
“Yeah, I’m glad.”
Chris glared at Louis as if protesting that his words had been ignored.
Lewis, intimidated by his gaze, quickly continues.
“What kind of curse was lifted and the right to use returned? I definitely saw it that way.”
“Curse me… Are you sure?”
“yes. The tone is slightly different, but the content is exactly the same.”
“hmm.”
Chris recalled the keyword the pursuer threw at him earlier.
The black flag, the curse, and the status bar.
Louis also tilted his head as if he had come to the same idea around that time.
“Could it have something to do with what he said?”
“okay.”
The gnome used the player’s abilities on the subject as a native, and when he died, Lewis’ status screen returned.
In this context, it is certain that the keyword curse means.
“At the time of your summoning, he put some kind of curse on it and stole the status window. Do you understand this roughly?”
“yes.”
Lewis didn’t know much about this world yet, but he still tried to understand his story.
However, Chris didn’t pay much attention to it because he was trying to organize his thoughts and tell him a story.
“The curse is over at that point, so what is the black flag?”
“… well. Does it matter?”
“This is the most important thing. He must have placed the keywords in order of importance.”
Originally, I thought about the possibility of mixing fake keywords to try Chris, but now that the identity of the second keyword has been revealed, that possibility has also become slim.
Lewis expressed doubts about his words.
“Why do you say important keywords first?”
“That way, you can see how far I have grasped the whole story. Let’s assume that the keyword status window, not the black flag, came out first. Status window is the least important keyword among the three.”
Of course, ‘status window’ is not a very common keyword either.
Usually the natives of this world don’t use the term status window.
They have never directly seen the status window, and therefore cannot associate it.
The word commonly used in this world is not ‘status window’, but ‘player’s power’ or ‘authority’.
Calling a status window a status window is either the player himself or the natives who have deeply explored them.
However, Chris was aware of the status window, and if the word status window came up, there is a high probability that he was agitated from the beginning.
“Then no matter what word comes out after that, I can’t help but show a similar reaction. But he put the keywords in place, and he got a good idea of how much I knew.”
“Ah, that’s what I heard and saw.”
“So, black flag is probably the most important keyword.”
The problem is, right now, we don’t have the slightest clue about the black flag.
Chris decided to jot down those words in his head.
His body was stretched out from the arduous journey, but his head was very excited.
Could it be that the status window was stolen because of the curse?
If so, you might be able to get your status window back, albeit belatedly.
With such hope, Chris had already decided on his next destination in his head.
During the meal, Louis looked at Chris and asked questions.
Chris, who has become more lenient than usual, is happy to answer his questions.
As a newcomer to this world, the guy who had been accumulating basic knowledge seemed to have finished grasping the situation to some extent.
Perhaps it was because he thought he had gotten quite close with Chris, Louis brought up a question he had been putting off to himself.
“Now players can’t use the status bar? But why did he write well last time? Same with me now… … .”
“Yeah, I don’t know. You don’t even know why people’s status windows disappeared in the first place.”
“Could other players be cursed like me? Isn’t that why the status window was taken away?”
“Perhaps.”
He can’t be sure because he still lacks clues, but Chris guesses they’re responsible for this incident.
Even if it was the work of another guy, it was clear that they were deeply involved.
It’s kind of funny that a group powerful enough to steal all the abilities of players around the world missed out on Chris and Lewis… … .
From the point of view of Chris, the person involved, I am just grateful.
Louis, whose head was heavy with complicated thoughts, sighed lightly.
I fell into this world out of nowhere and got caught up in a complicated incident before I had time to get used to it.
No matter how much you get a reliable ally like Chris, it’s a strange situation to be energized.
As if searching for his last hope, he asked the question he had been saving all this time.
“But hyung, how do people like us go back to the original world… … .”
“Stop sleeping.”
Chris hung up as if he had been waiting for his question.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t answer it, but it sounded like there was nothing good to hear.
Louis, fed up with his momentum, nodded quietly and went up to the bedroom.
Louis followed him into the bedroom and felt an unfamiliar gaze follow him from behind.
Chris climbed the stairs to his bedroom.
Opening the wooden door, he entered the room and waited for people to come outside the door.
Soon, when I feel the presence of people, I open the door and look outside… … .
There was a woman wearing a hood.
Slightly short, she was holding a child who was soundly asleep.
Although she looked haggard from fatigue and worry, originally, it seemed that she was quite beautiful.
Embarrassed by the unexpected sight, Chris soon felt disappointed and tried to close the door.
“There is no money to spend on enemy ships.”
“It’s not like that! excuse me… Are you from this world? I want to ask you a simple favor… … .”
“… … !”
The story is a little different if you came to find the player instead of begging.
After making sure no one was around, Chris let the woman into the room.
The woman bows her head at his invitation and expresses her gratitude.
A dagger was pointed at his throat, but he still entered the room.
Shivering, she took out a small piece of leather from her bosom and held it up.
“This is a note left by the father of this child. He was a player just like you… Could you please interpret this?”
“You mean his father?”
Chris glancing at the child in her arms.
The child who was deeply asleep just looked innocent.
Although he had Korean blood mixed in, he looked more like his mother than his father.
Seeing his gaze, the woman smiled brightly and nodded her head.
“yes that’s right. If they had a child, they told me to find the name and place written on this note. Then he said he would take care of me and the child… … .”
“… … .”
It was a common story of one night playing with fire.
Players with enormous power, wealth, and exotic appearance sometimes win the love of immature village girls.
This would be one of those cases.
The single mother of the player’s child spoke in front of Chris with a voice full of expectations.
The volume was loud enough to be a bit noisy, but Chris couldn’t stop her.
“I didn’t know how to read, so I asked the village chief, but the village chief said he didn’t know how to read either. I don’t think I’m in a hurry, so I think I wrote it with the text you use. It seemed like he had something urgent to do. He left in a hurry before sunrise.”
To believe in the greetings of the other person overnight.
What a naive and stupid woman this is.
But Chris was in no mood to blame the woman.
No matter how frustrating it is, you should blame the scammer rather than the person who was scammed.
He decided to straighten the crumpled note.
On the piece of leather she treasured, it was written in crooked Korean.
[Chulsoo Kim, Hanamura]
worse than expected
Wasn’t this clearly written to make fun of her?
Of course, the name is clearly made up, and the place attached to it is also a mess.
Louis, who saw the note behind him, quietly whispered in his ear.
“Could it be that his real name is Kim Chul-soo, and he lives in Japan?”
“Can that be? Arios Online doesn’t even have a global server. Why would you play a sh*t game in a foreign country that doesn’t work well in Korea?”
Likewise, Chris, who had reprimanded her secretly, smiled at the woman with unwholesome ambition.
Unlike when he told Louis, the face he showed her was just bright.
“Ah, just a friend I know. I’ll send you my regards if I meet you on my travels, so please go back to your hometown for now. This neighborhood is hideous and not suitable for ladies and children.”
“I, really? Are you giving me news? thank you! thank you so much!”
The woman bowed her head several times in gratitude and left the room.
As soon as she was gone, Chris changed his expression heavily and gnashed his teeth.