Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 523

◈ 523. The First Failure

Woo Sungwoo looked back and forth between the two notes, then said aloud, deliberately, “You think I’d believe this?”

It was embarrassing to talk so loudly by himself, but he was sure someone was watching him.

That ‘someone’ was probably a demon. The demon in charge of the District 1 pillar.

But no answer came.

‘Not watching?’

Feeling awkward, Woo Sungwoo lowered his outstretched hand.

At that moment, the mirror in front of him changed like a TV screen, and a scene appeared.

It was a peaceful scene.

No matter how much time passed, the sky was fine, and people walked around without fear of anything falling from the sky.

Children in school uniforms were going to school without guardians, and office workers were talking about sports, celebrities, and movies.

Except for the occasional people with very unique hair colors, it was no different from the world Woo Sungwoo used to live in.

“Is this perhaps inside the maze?”

Woo Sungwoo muttered.

He remembered some YouTubers promoting the inside of the maze as a great place to live.

At first glance, the inside of the maze looked similar to the world before the cataclysm [a sudden, violent upheaval or disaster].

As if to answer, the screen changed again. This time, it was on a stage.

Indoors. Wooyeonwoo was sitting at a piano in a suit.

“Yeonwoo?”

As he frowned at the sudden appearance of his brother, a familiar voice came from inside the mirror, but at a slight distance from Yeonwoo, who was being shown on the screen.

—Very creative piano skills.

‘Rembrary?’

Almost at the same time as Woo Sungwoo thought it, Yeonwoo in the mirror also got annoyed.

—Rembrary? Why are you picking a fight again?

—I was complimenting you. You must have a twisted mindset.

—…Really?

—Of course. I would have purely admired it if I wasn’t singing to your piano accompaniment.

—You’re picking a fight!

As the screen in the mirror slowly moved to the side as if the camera was moving, Rembrary, standing in the middle of the stage, was visible.

Rembrary was wearing a unique black outfit.

The two were on the same stage… it seemed like they were rehearsing. The stage was big, but there were no audience members.

Then, the mirror returned to being a normal mirror.

No, it wasn’t a normal mirror.

While functioning as a mirror, it reflected a strange person in the center instead of Woo Sungwoo.

It was an unusual curly-haired man with beautiful pink hair. The color of his eyes was also light pink.

But unlike his soft hair color, his features were distinct and rough.

He even casually held a cocktail glass in one hand.

‘The pink hair I saw before the Nakru team members went missing in District 1. Is that the author [referring to the demon who designs the dungeons]?’

He’s probably a demon. Most likely the author.

As Woo Sungwoo looked at him suspiciously, the pink-haired demon smiled and raised the glass in his hand.

“Did you see it well? Your future.”

Woo Sungwoo hesitated whether to ask who he was or about what the demon had just said, and chose the latter.

“My future? I didn’t even appear in that mirror.”

The demon laughed as if he had heard a joke.

“You saw it properly.”

“What…?”

“You don’t appear, human. Because you’re dead and not in that place. Your position will be the same in the future as it is now. A ghost.”

“!”

Woo Sungwoo reflexively flinched, then frowned in belated indignation.

“That’s the future? Nonsense.”

“Or do you want to believe it’s nonsense?”

“No.”

“It wouldn’t be a bad future, except for the fact that you’re dead. Ah. Is that the most important thing?”

Woo Sungwoo snorted. Did they think he would believe it if they just showed him a peaceful video and said it was the future?

“You’re going to die, human. Because you’re not sticking with us and resisting. Your brother will be sad too. But eventually, he’ll adapt to the world without you. Isn’t that how it always is?”

“!”

“Redrin will return to her dimension, and we won’t win or lose, and we’ll settle here. The rift will close. In the end, it’s a happy ending.”

The demon added mockingly.

“You just won’t be there because you’ll be dead.”

Woo Sungwoo frowned.

Redrin going back and that demon king settling here, isn’t that a compromise the demon king proposed to Redrin?

“Are you trying to drive a wedge between us?”

Woo Sungwoo was dumbfounded by the sight of them showing him a proposal that Redrin had already rejected as the future, and the demon shrugged.

“I’m showing you that your death and will don’t bring any change.”

“!”

“Don’t you want to be alive and involved? Your death has no value in the changing world. Dying in the midst of it, isn’t that too bad?”

Woo Sungwoo recalled Rembrary saying, ‘Demons are really good at talking.

Especially at persuading someone.’

It was true. He was stimulating him quite plausibly.

But Woo Sungwoo had the biggest reason not to believe the demon’s words even after watching the video.

“I can’t believe that the Saint [a person acknowledged as holy or virtuous and is regarded as being in exceptionally close communion with God], Rembrary, would leave the god he followed so much and stay here. You’re showing me that and calling it the future?”

This part.

Rembrary was extremely devoted when it came to the god he served. Although that standard of devotion seemed a bit different from that of Earth’s clergy.

But Rembrary would stay in the future where Redrin returned? That alone was proof that the video was a lie.

But the pink-haired demon smiled neatly without wavering.

The next moment. The demon’s voice was heard right next to his ear.

“Earth human. Think about it. Was it the Demon King who started this situation?”

“!”

“Who came to Earth first? Us? No. You know it too.”

“That’s—”

“Even before we came, there was a Redrin priest here. Isn’t that strange?”

Woo Sungwoo’s eyes wavered.

* * *

“How long has it been since he went in? Why isn’t he out yet?”

Wooyeonwoo muttered anxiously, looking back and forth between the video being broadcast from the camera installed in front of the 1-1 district entrance and his cell phone.

Depending on the dungeon, it could take a long time. He knew that. He had gone through that hardship.

But Woo Sungwoo, as well as Rembrary and the others, had not contacted him at all, so he couldn’t help but worry.

“Isn’t he caught up in some weirdo’s place?”

“Weirdo?”

“Someone who has to get a perfect score on the college entrance exam…”

“The school dungeon shock was huge.”

Team Leader Gu Seji, who was sitting next to Wooyeonwoo, clicked his tongue.

At first, he was worried with him, but Wooyeonwoo had been like that next to him for days, so he was very annoyed.

“But can’t you worry at home? I get anxious too? How many people are there to worry about, why are you worrying about your brother?”

Wooyeonwoo knew that Team Leader Gu Seji was right.

Besides, everyone who went with him were monsters, so his brother would come out safely.

He’ll come out… but why does he feel so anxious and uneasy?

“Huh?”

Then Wooyeonwoo stopped biting his nails and shouted as he looked at the camera.

“He’s coming out!”

Really, the door was opening and someone was coming out.

“Car keys, car keys!”

Wooyeonwoo shouted, grabbed the car keys, and quickly ran outside.

Team Leader Gu Seji, who had been pretending to be more okay in front of Wooyeonwoo, finally sighed in relief.

“Ah, really. He makes people worry.”

But soon her expression quickly hardened.

“Huh? Why… isn’t he there?”

* * *

Rembrary, who came out of the door, was exhausted and sat leaning against the wall for a while.

Then Shin Jo-un and Sa Gamjae sat on either side of Rembrary.

The three were silent for a while.

There were unfamiliar people around them, chattering among themselves, but they didn’t have the luxury to be happy that they had successfully completed the mission.

“This is not a success.”

After a long time, Rembrary muttered.

Sa Gamjae also nodded.

Shin Jo-un also frowned, grabbed the dry sand next to him, and threw it away as if he didn’t mean to.

After the note came out from the dead person with Youngsoo’s name on it, that is, pointing to Rembrary.

The opinions of the dungeon participants were divided in half.

Some said that since Youngsoo’s name came out, Youngsoo was not the culprit, and some said that since his name came out, he must be related in some way.

They fought among themselves, and then, ‘just in case,’ they gathered their opinions to try to execute Youngsoo, assuming he was the culprit.

The opposing members continued to oppose, but half of them gathered their opinions like that.

Of course, Rembrary did not respond to the absurd request to ‘die once to check whether he was the culprit or not.’

What if Rembrary couldn’t get out of here if he responded to that request?

Then, people were angry at first, saying that he was selfish, and later they fought among themselves again, and then they pointed to other people and framed them as the culprit, and Rembrary defended that person according to his role.

The arrows came to Rembrary again, but when Rembrary didn’t budge, people started fighting among themselves again.

Time passed like that, and the culprit harmed two more people.

The two dead bodies were like the first body, cleanly killed instantly.

In that way, five people were officially eliminated, and two people died fighting among themselves.

After seven out of 20 people were gone, 13 people succeeded in escaping.

But when they opened the door, there were only 11 people.

The two who had been sticking around Rembrary’s group pretending to be Shin Jo-un and Sa Gamjae had disappeared without a trace.

“Gamjae.”

“Why are you calling me?”

“Were you Insoo or Kyungsoo?”

“I was Kyungsoo. Seriously. Woo Sungwoo and Shin Jo-un recognized each other right away. Why is everyone only confusing me?”

When Woo Sungwoo’s name came up, Shin Jo-un stopped grabbing and releasing the sand and asked.

“Then Woo Sungwoo is going to stay in that area?”

“I think so unless we break the pillar.”

Rembrary sighed heavily.

The reason why Rembrary, Shin Jo-un, and Sa Gamjae thought that ‘it was not a success’ even though they cleared this dungeon was because of Woo Sungwoo.

Woo Sungwoo wanted to save the Nakru team members, so he asked the group to enter District 1-1.

In the end, even Woo Sungwoo disappeared there. The person who was like the central axis of Nakru.

“It seems we underestimated the dungeon too much.”

Rembrary nodded silently at Sa Gamjae’s muttering.

As they managed to pass through each dungeon, it was certain that the tension had dropped even though it was a dungeon made by demons.

Like Noir’s mockery, it’s a good thing that death here is a fake death, otherwise….

It was then. He wondered where the car sound was coming from, but the car stopped not far away, and Wooyeonwoo jumped out of the driver’s seat.

Since it was the first person from outside the dungeon to appear while everyone was resting, everyone’s eyes were focused on Wooyeonwoo at the same time.

But Wooyeonwoo didn’t pay attention to them and went straight to Rembrary and asked.

“Where’s hyung [older brother]?”

At that excited voice, Rembrary, Sa Gamjae, and Shin Jo-un exchanged glances.

“Rembrary. I’m asking where hyung is?”

Wooyeonwoo asked again. He didn’t even imagine that Woo Sungwoo wouldn’t be able to come out.

As if he thought Woo Sungwoo would be mixed among the people, Wooyeonwoo looked around at the people, then frowned and muttered, “Huh?”

“Why can’t I see him?”

Even when he looked at Rembrary again, Wooyeonwoo didn’t seem to think that Woo Sungwoo wouldn’t be able to come out.

Since he couldn’t see his brother no matter how much he looked around, Wooyeonwoo looked at Shin Jo-un, who seemed to be able to answer the fastest.

Shin Jo-un stood expressionlessly, and when Wooyeonwoo looked at him as if asking for an answer, he told him honestly.

“Woo Sungwoo failed to escape the dungeon.”

“What? What… what are you talking about? Is he dead? Hyung?”