Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 516

◈ 516. The New Maze

Shin Jo-woon, Sa Gam-jae, Woo Sung-woo, and Rembrary stood before a large wall.

Rembrary, grabbing the doorknob, asked Woo Sung-woo,

“Are you sure this is the right thing to do?”

* * *

“I’m serious this time. I’m going to take down that High Priest for good.” Waryon scoffed, meticulously grooming himself in the mirror to blend into the 3-4 district he had perfectly set up.

How long had he been primping?

Suddenly, his phone vibrated, displaying ‘Noir’ on the screen. It was a text from Noir.

What’s this? Why is he texting me before I even leave? I have a bad feeling about this.

Waryon stared intently at the screen before deciding to check it. He had to see what it said.

Tapping the screen, Noir’s message filled it with white text. The message read:

[The High Priest is here.]

“What?!”

For a moment, the thought ‘Great!’ flashed through his mind, and he grinned, but Waryon still sent a text pretending to be concerned.

[Too bad. I was going to take care of him properly this time. Good luck.]

Once they experience it, they’ll realize that the High Priest’s group isn’t just ordinary sightseers and be more cautious.

Serve them right. Waryon smiled smugly.

But then, Noir sent a strange reply.

[Too bad? lol You were smiling as soon as I said the High Priest wasn’t coming, weren’t you?]

Waryon frowned. What’s with him? Is he crazy?

[I wasn’t smiling?]

He had smiled, but he tried to deny it out of fear, and immediately another text came.

[Don’t deny it. lololol I saw you smiling]

[I really wasn’t smiling? Did you see it in a dream?]

[I saw it in front of me. I’m in front of you]

Waryon blinked in confusion. What is he talking about?

[Where? I don’t see you?]

[I’m here. The mirror. It’s me.]

“!”

Startled, Waryon looked ahead, and in the mirror, Noir raised a glass of wine, offering a toast.

“Ah!”

Waryon was so surprised that he kicked and shattered the mirror.

* * *

“Thank you. I’m sure you were taken aback by the sudden change of plans.”

“It’s fine. The Nakru Team went to find the Emperor because of us, didn’t they?”

The group’s change of direction from 3-4 to 1-1 was due to Woo Sung-woo’s request.

Woo Sung-woo had asked them to enter that area together to find the team that had gone missing and was still out of contact.

“Rembrary, you’ve been through there once. Can you enter again?”

Sa Gam-jae asked, puzzled, and Woo Sung-woo immediately explained.

“Rembrary went through the Vanilla Ice Cream area, but I heard that our team entered a different area. I didn’t get much detail, but I’m sure I heard that early on.”

‘Even if it’s the same entrance, 1-1, it doesn’t always lead to the same dungeon, and you can’t re-enter a dungeon you’ve already cleared’ was the information known so far.

So, if the Nakru Team disappeared in an area other than the Vanilla Ice Cream area, Rembrary could enter where they were.

They usually didn’t re-enter an entrance once they had cleared it because they needed to seal the pillars quickly.

“Don’t you know exactly where they went in?”

Sa Gam-jae asked again, and Woo Sung-woo shook his head weakly.

“I was supposed to look into it further and get back to me…”

Rembrary patted Woo Sung-woo’s back, comforting him.

“Let’s just go in. We’ll find some answers once we’re inside.”

Woo Sung-woo nodded.

“I’ll open the door. If you guys open it, the Vanilla area might appear.”

That way, even if the others are taken to the Vanilla area, Rembrary might be bounced to another area alone.

Since they didn’t know what kind of dungeon would appear, it was better to stick together.

“Then I’ll really open it now.”

Rembrary grabbed the doorknob and turned it with force.

* * *

“Huh?”

Opening the door revealed a mansion. Rembrary turned around.

The door they had just entered slammed shut on its own.

The door looked like the front door of a huge mansion, not a maze entrance in the wall.

Rembrary looked ahead again. And the interior was also… like the inside of a huge mansion.

A wide space in front of the entrance, a splendid hallway and stairs ahead, and well-kept gardens visible through the windows.

‘What are we doing here?’

As he wondered, someone approached Rembrary.

“Welcome, guest. Thank you so much for visiting our mansion. The master will be very pleased.”

It seemed to be a butler. Somehow.

No matter how it goes, they will know the rules.

Rembrary nodded appropriately to the flow and handed the butler his luggage.

“Okay. I’ll enjoy my stay. Where’s my room?”

“?”

Was that strange? For a moment, the butler held the bag and looked flustered. Even though he was an NPC [Non-Player Character; a character controlled by the game’s AI].

He entrusted his luggage because he came as a ‘guest.’ Was that not it? As Rembrary wondered and stared, the butler returned to his expressionless face and walked ahead.

“Yes, this way, please. I will guide you, guest.”

The butler took Rembrary to one of the two rooms facing the third-floor staircase.

The butler opened the right-hand door.

Following him inside, he saw a guest room decorated quite plausibly.

Neat and nice. Rembrary gave a generous evaluation and tapped the bed as he received his bag from the butler.

“The mattress isn’t great.”

The butler once again made that non-NPC-like expression.

Was he not an NPC? While Rembrary was doubting.

The butler handed Rembrary a file that seemed to appear out of nowhere, saying.

“These are the precautions you must follow while staying at the mansion. The start is from 6 AM tomorrow, so please relax until then.”

After speaking, the butler closed the door and left.

‘Precautions. Is this the rule?’

This time, the rules came out as precautions. Rembrary examined the first of the two papers.

―The people in this mansion are all ‘living’ people.

“Huh?”

Rembrary recalled the unusual reaction of the butler, whom he had thought was an illusion.

Ah. They are living people. So that’s why the reaction was like that.

Rembrary continued to read the instructions.

―Everyone has a given role.

―The guests’ stay is for one week.

―Guests must also perform their given roles.

―If you survive the week safely, come to the living room. Let’s escape.

―There is a ‘criminal’ among the roles. Be careful.

“A criminal……?”

―The criminal kills or injures other people.

―Don’t worry. You don’t actually die here even if you die. But if you die, you can’t leave.

―If the criminal fails to perform the criminal role, the criminal cannot escape.

―Even if you survive, you cannot leave if you do not reach the living room.

―If you find the criminal and kill them first, you can return without completing the week.

―The moment you kill the criminal, ‘everyone’ can return. Except for the criminal.

―There are three chances to kill the criminal.

“There are…… a lot of rules.”

Rembrary frowned.

Anyway, to summarize, there were two escape conditions in total.

One was to follow the roles and survive, then wait in the living room after a week.

The other was to kill the person playing the criminal role.

Rembrary turned to the next page.

There was an explanation of the role Rembrary would play. And the role Rembrary would take on was…….

“Fallen into dangerous love?”

Not getting a sense of it, Rembrary looked at the detailed explanation below.

―You don’t necessarily have to be in love. But you have some kind of liking for the criminal.

―Before the week is over. When the criminal is about to be discovered and killed by the guests, you must save the criminal at least once.

“I don’t have to save them twice?”

―If the criminal that people are trying to kill seems fake to you, you don’t have to step in.

―If people fail to catch the criminal, you don’t have to step in.

―You must not arrest the criminal.

―The criminal must not kill you. If the criminal harms you, you will automatically escape, and the criminal will automatically be eliminated.

“Am I like a trap for the criminal role?”

Rembrary closed the guide. Anyway, Rembrary’s role didn’t seem too difficult.

Whoever the criminal is, he just needs to stop them once if people try to catch and kill them, right?

And never step in to help people catch the criminal.

Rembrary put the two pieces of paper in the file and placed it on the bed.

Even though it’s not real killing, this is a much more eerie and violent dungeon than the previously cleared classroom dungeon, Cinderella dungeon, or fantasy zone.

Rembrary recalled the story of the missing Nakru Team that Woo Sung-woo had told him.

He said he saw someone who looked exactly like Shin Jo-woon with pink hair. The only pink-haired high-ranking demon Rembrary knew was Noir.

And if the one guarding the pillar in District 1 is Noir…… this place will probably be quite tricky.

“Noir of Pain.”

Rembrary, muttering Noir’s nickname, got up from the bed.

Let’s find the other members first. The butler clearly said that the start is from 6 AM tomorrow.

Then the week will also be applied based on 6 AM tomorrow.

He needs to meet the other members quickly and discuss various things before that.

‘Huh?’

But when he tried to open the door, it wouldn’t open.

Did they lock it from the outside? He thought for a moment, but that wasn’t it.

The door wouldn’t budge at all, so it seemed like the door was locked by another force. Maybe the power of the dungeon.

‘Do I have to stay like this until six in the morning tomorrow?’

Inevitably, Rembrary sat back on the bed and entered the group chat room for this District 1-1, where no one was sending messages. He could talk here.

“Huh?”

But for some reason, no messages were being posted in the chat room at all.

He tried calling just in case, but it was the same.

Rembrary clicked his tongue and put his phone back in his pocket.

‘It might be trickier than I thought.’

* * *

At that time. Sa Gam-jae was also being guided by the butler to his room, then looking at the instructions.

Sa Gam-jae carefully read the first page, connecting and grasping each rule one by one, then examined the second page again.

There, his role for this time was written.

―The role you play is ‘Why is that person acting so suspiciously when they’re not even the criminal?’ role.

Sa Gam-jae’s expression hardened. What is this? Is he supposed to act like a criminal even though he’s not?

‘Then might he be misunderstood as the criminal and killed?’

Sa Gam-jae was a little flustered.

Almost simultaneously, Woo Sung-woo was also flustered after seeing his role.

―You are the ‘I don’t know who the criminal is, but I wish that bastard would die. More annoying than the criminal’ role.

―Obstruct people and cause trouble. Obstruct everything the group does.

Shin Jo-woon was also looking at the same instructions at that time.