Surviving the Game As a Barbarian [EN]: Chapter 195

As soon as I entered the community, I turned on my computer and checked the chat room first. Then, I froze, startled.

[Long Live Korean Independence] – 2 members are online.

…Why two?

Could it be that another Korean joined this round? No, even so, there’s no way a newbie could find their way into the chat room this quickly, right?

Click, click.

Even while feeling doubtful, I manipulated the mouse and double-clicked the room title. Then, unlike usual, a message was displayed.

[This room is temporarily restricted from participation.]

[Remaining restriction time: 9 minutes 51 seconds.]

What is this now?

At first, I was confused, but soon I roughly grasped the situation. Restricting participation is one of the unique rights of the room’s creator. In other words, that means…….

‘As soon as the community opened, someone came to find Baekho, and Baekho locked the door to have a conversation.’

It’s probably more reasonable to see it this way. That someone is probably an acquaintance of Baekho. If they were strangers, he wouldn’t have locked the door; he would have kicked them out.

‘An acquaintance of Baekho, huh…….’

I’m getting curious for no reason. Baekho is an old user who can only use the community for one hour because he took the pill in the early days. It’s been well over ten years since he entered this community, so he must know a lot of people.

‘But surely the other person is also someone who’s been around here for a long time, like Baekho.’

In the first place, it was Baekho who gave me the invitation code to enter the ‘Round Table Watchers’.

“Tsk.”

It would have been nice if I could have at least checked the nickname of the person who joined the chat room. Feeling a bit disappointed, I watched the time decrease, and soon the number of people decreased to one.

[Long Live Korean Independence] – 1 member is online.

Upon checking, the participation restriction was also lifted. Did the person who came already leave? I was thinking that when I entered the chat room.

“The hometown person that Baekho was talking about?”

Shit, what is this?

Startled by the unfamiliar voice, I quickly turned my head and saw a white man I had never seen before standing there. No, is it not the first time?

[Elfnunalove]

After checking the nickname floating above the man’s head, my mind went blank for a moment. Surprisingly, it was someone I had a connection with. The user who sold me information when I was digging around about the magician ‘Shernal Pergang’ after hearing the ‘Dimensional Collapse’ rumor.

[Thinking about it, it’s okay. I think you might be a fan of that person.]

Seeing him decline the 20,000 GP I had promised as a reward, I realized that I was a newbie here. I also vowed to climb up quickly. But, to think that this person would be someone who knows Baekho.

‘No, but where did Baekho go?’

I quickly regained my senses. Even the other side was giving me a strange look after seeing my nickname.

“Hmm, you’re the person I saw back then?”

Yeah, you recognized me too. As someone who uses the unpleasant nickname ‘Elfnunalove’, my nickname ‘Elfnunna’ must have stuck in his memory.

“Yes, we meet again here.”

I felt a bit uneasy, so I held back my words for now. There are many things I want to ask, but sometimes just asking questions can leak information from my side. For now, I’ll wait for the other side to speak first.

Actually, after waiting for a while, Elfnunalove, or Eluv for short, scratched his head with an embarrassed expression.

“I’m sorry about this somehow.”

“What do you mean?”

“It feels like I stole your hometown friend whom you finally got to meet.”

“…Are you talking about Baekho?”

Eluv nodded at my question.

“Yes, as you know, there aren’t many Koreans here. I know how important a fellow countryman is.”

“No, it’s not that, I don’t understand. Stole away……?”

This time, I wasn’t acting like a newbie; I was being sincere. I have no idea what he’s talking about. Could it be that Baekho left the chat room because of him? No, but how? Surely, the creator of this chat room was Baekho?

All sorts of questions were swirling in my head.

“It’s exactly as I said. You won’t be able to meet Baekho here anymore. I left him alone until now because I thought he might play a key role…….”

The white man continued.

“Unfortunately, he committed a big mistake.”

“……?”

“I was originally just going to leave, but I’m telling you this so you don’t waste your time waiting. Well then, have a good time.”

Before I could say anything else, Elfnunalove left the chat room. I stared blankly at the empty space.

‘Damn it.’

What the hell is going on?

***

An empty room where I was left alone.

‘Committed a mistake? He can’t come here?’

My head is a mess. But the more it is, the more I need to calmly organize my thoughts. What the hell is Elfnunalove? As I calmly reviewed the conversation from just now, I quickly came to a conclusion. It’s just a hypothesis for now, but…….

‘First of all, it’s certain that he’s a manager of the Ghost Busters.’

Manager. Like the ‘Soul Queens’ I met when I first came here, an entity that guides newbies and manages this place so that the community doesn’t become a mess. Otherwise, this situation cannot be explained.

[He committed a very big mistake this time.]

Elfnunalove is not the room creator, but he kicked Baekho out of the room. No, it must have been him, not Baekho, who restricted participation in the room. At least within the bulletin board, a manager has considerable authority. In the first place, only a manager can permanently ban someone from the community.

And not just any manager, but definitely…….

‘…Wait a minute.’

My thoughts went that far, and I quickly returned to my room. And I quickly manipulated the computer to open my message box.

[Elfnunna’s transaction history is over 50 times. EXP +50]

[Member grade is adjusted.]

[Orc -> Troll]

[Sender: Ghost master.]

Ghost Master. The highest manager of the Ghost Busters, whom the users of the community call GM or operator, and whose identity no one has been able to reveal. Suddenly, the conversation I had with Baekho came to mind.

[Do you happen to know who the operator here is?]

[Ah, I don’t know either. Actually, I got the pill after raiding the secret security department’s headquarters in the early days.]

[Then they probably don’t know who you are either?]

[They probably have an idea though? I have a hunch about someone too…….]

[Who is it?]

[There are three, should I tell you all of them?]

At that time, Baekho mentioned a total of three suspects in response to my question. They were all magicians, and each one was so famous that no one in the city didn’t know their name. Since it’s Baekho’s guess, it’s not entirely unreliable.

‘GM is a magician.’

It’s not certain, but I started with that premise and recalled the first time I met Elfnunalove.

[…Is it okay to just tell me these things?]

[What does it matter? I’m not even the master of that school.]

Seeing him spill the beans about the inner workings of the Tarutein school, which spread the dimensional collapse rumor, I thought this. This person, the way he talks is kind of like a magician. Soon, I reached one conclusion, and I swallowed hard. It might just be my own leap of faith, but…….

If the conclusion I came to is true.

“Crazy.”

I might have just met the GM.

***

The unknown thrill that ran through my body was brief. I quickly returned to my usual state. Even if Elfnunalove is the GM, it’s not a serious problem for me. Well, that nickname is a bit annoying, but…….

For now, it’s not like we’re in an antagonistic relationship. There won’t be a misfortune where they come to cut my throat just because my identity is revealed. …Probably.

‘Okay, let’s erase that first.’

I went to the bulletin board and deleted the comment I left on my Canadian friend’s post, which is now blurred. It’s almost impossible to identify me just from this, but I decided to do it just in case. While I was at it, I deleted all the traces I left since I came here. Except for a few comments I left on humor posts, there weren’t many.

Once when the dimensional collapse rumor spread. And all the times I posted purchase requests on the trading post to gather information about Orculys after the battle with the Dragonslayer.

‘So, I can’t meet Baekho anymore…….’

After finishing erasing the traces, I also thought about Baekho. I felt a bit sad. Putting aside the fact that I can no longer get high-level information through him, honestly, it was kind of fun hanging out with him.

‘But what the hell did he do for the manager to come and ban him directly?’

There’s no way to know the truth right now, but it wasn’t hard to assume that it was closely related to the Noark subjugation battle. That’s the only big incident that happened recently.

Tap tap tap-.

After that, I spent time wandering around the bulletin board. Most of it was close to simple web surfing. I also checked to see if Elfnunalove had left any posts, but there wasn’t even a single comment. Oh, and by the way, this was the same for Baekho.

‘…I should just stick to lurking from now on as much as possible.’

Originally, true high-level players stay away from the community and silently do their own thing. I took this incident as a lesson and added a new rule to my community usage policy. And how much time had passed?

[03:03]

The time to enter the Round Table had arrived. However, this time I didn’t bother waiting until right before closing, and just entered. Given what happened, I judged that I could also get information through the small talk before the meeting.

‘…Everyone will be there this time, right?’

I started in the customization room as usual, quickly put on the navy suit I had been wearing, and put on the lion mask on my face. Squeak. As soon as I finished dressing up, the door opened as if it had been waiting, and following the carpet, a large round table appeared. The first to greet me was the clown.

“You’re early this time, hee hee.”

The unique laughter I hadn’t heard for two months, after skipping a month. I approached my seat and examined the figures.

‘Crescent Moon, Deer Antler, Fox.’

Including the clown and me, there were a total of five people participating in this meeting. The fox, who met my gaze, turned away and spoke to everyone.

“By the way, Goblin is late today?”

“Hee hee, isn’t he dead? I heard the Paladin Order suffered heavy losses this time.”

“…We should hope not.”

As expected, the main topic of discussion before the meeting was the last subjugation battle.

“I’m surprised that I even came back alive. It felt like hell. I regret participating without thinking too much.”

“…I agree. I never thought Noark had such power hidden. When the subjugation team was first formed, I thought that with this power, we could even attack the royal palace.”

“Hee hee, but they all got beaten up nicely, right?”

“Clown, you’re talking as if it’s someone else’s problem.”

“Then what is it if it’s not someone else’s problem? It’s not like it has anything to do with me how many people die. Isn’t that right, Lion?”

“Well, I don’t care.”

I rested my chin on the armrest as if I was bored and just listened to the conversation with my ears perked up. Noark’s black magician. Karui’s priest. The inside stories of large clans that suffered severe damage, and the stories of other races, etc. Information with insufficient rarity to be brought up at the meeting was constantly flowing out under the name of small talk.

‘It was good that I came in early.’

I was hiding my satisfied smile and listening to their views on the recent situation when it happened.

“Oh, Goblin!”

The Goblin mask appeared beyond the open door.

“You’re alive.”

“Ah, yes. It was really dangerous. Truly, God helped me.”

Even though he’s not from this world, Goblin naturally talks about God. The clown laughed mockingly.

“God my ass. You were probably hiding in the back like a goblin, weren’t you? Hee hee.”

“No, why are you only like that to me, Clown?”

“Because you’re easy to pick on?”

“…….”

Even after hearing the blatant disregard, Goblin just let out a hollow laugh as if he couldn’t believe it and sat down in his seat.

‘He’s scared.’

At first, I didn’t understand why Goblin was taking such a low posture, but when I thought about it, it might be natural. Isn’t Goblin’s identity as a paladin exposed? There’s no way he can openly pick a fight with the clown, who looks strong.

Thump!

Soon after Goblin sat down, the door closed tightly. It meant that it was time to start the meeting.

“Lion, is the promise we made back then still valid?”

Before we even decided on the order, Crescent Moon threw a question at me. The subject was omitted, but there was no problem understanding it. He must be talking about the promise that he would give me information about the ‘Stone of Rebirth’ if I brought an interesting story. When I nodded briefly, Crescent Moon’s eyes flashed with determination.

“Hee hee, judging by your expression, you seem really confident this time?”

“I’m just desperate. It’s an item I need more than anything else.”

A reply filled with the will to find out about the ‘Stone of Rebirth’ at any cost.

“Then who will start first?”

Just as we were starting a game of wits to decide who would start first. Squeak. The tightly closed door opened with a sound. A phenomenon that had never happened before. What is it? Another member? No, once a meeting starts, no one can enter in the middle, right? Surely that was the rule?

“……?”

Everyone is looking with questioning eyes, so it seems like I’m not the only one who finds this phenomenon strange…….

Thud.

The thick wooden door opened wide, and a figure appeared beyond it. A man wearing a white mask with no distinguishing features. The only skin that was exposed, his hands, were wrinkled.

“Heh heh, this place hasn’t changed since back then?”

The voice of an old man flowed from behind the mask. Silence pressed down on the hall for a moment. The first to regain his senses and open his mouth was the fox mask.

“Master……?”

Through that murmur, I was able to realize. Master. It meant the person who created the ‘Round Table Watchers’.

“But there’s a mask I’ve never seen before? Who are you?”

At the Master’s question, the fox mask, who had been tricked by me a few times, tilted his head.

“…Weren’t you the one who invited him, Master? I’m sure he said that too…….”

Strictly speaking, I didn’t say that. I just cleverly avoided answering so that they would misunderstand. But, that kind of excuse won’t work.

‘Damn it.’

What should I do? It looks like my act is about to be exposed.