Surviving the Game As a Barbarian [EN]: Chapter 409

One, two, three, four.

The more I tried to connect with the main force, the more uneasy I became.

But there was nothing else I could do.

“One more time.”

“Yes…”

We kept trying.

However, even after several more attempts, we couldn’t connect with the main force.

‘……What the hell is going on?’

Our expedition’s original plan was this:

1. Surprise attack and infiltration of the base.

2. Contact the main force in the Dragon Mountains using the Eye of the Sky [a communication device].

3. Destroy the target, escape, and join the main force that would meet us.

The core of this plan was for the main force to gather strength, break through one front, and then meet us at the rendezvous point to extract us.

But…

“It’s a failure.”

We can’t contact the most important main force.

‘Could it be… have they abandoned us?’

The worst possibility suddenly occurred to me, but I quickly shook my head.

To use and discard this much force?

There’s no reason for the royal family to do such a thing.

It’s more likely that something went wrong on the main force’s side. No, even in the worst-case scenario, there’s only one thing I need to do.

Just like from the first day I opened my eyes in this body.

Kwaaaang-!

Survive.

“Captain! How long do we have to hold out?!”

Before making a decision, I organized my thoughts one last time.

“Priest Campbell says he’s reached his limit!”

We don’t have much time.

We have to choose the best option with our limited resources.

What will help us survive the most?

It didn’t take long to make a decision.

Even though I don’t know if this is the best choice.

Tuk, tuk.

Okay, let’s go with this for now.

It’s not like I can think of a better way.

“Akuraba.”

“Yes, sir?”

“Completely disable the communication coordinate designation.”

Until now, we’ve only been trying to contact them by dialing a specific ‘phone number’.

But…

“What? Then what we say will be broadcast without restriction to the entire area…?”

“That’s what I want.”

There’s no point in leaving missed calls for someone who isn’t answering, right?

“…I understand.”

Akuraba seemed to understand my meaning and hesitated for a moment, but eventually agreed without objection.

And…

“It’s done. I’ve also set the bandwidth to maximum.”

Akuraba handed me the message stone with the settings completed.

Click.

I carefully pressed the button.

I was a little nervous.

The current setting is similar to radio broadcast mode.

Whether they are enemies or allies, if they have a message stone turned on, the communication will be transmitted throughout the continent.

But…

“Everyone, listen up.”

So what?

[Everyone, listen up.]

The broadcast echoed as the activated message stones around us all output the sound at once.

It’s all the main force’s fault for not answering.

I don’t know what they’re so busy with, but what can a barbarian do when the main force has their ears closed?

“The Eye of the Sky has been destroyed.”

[The Eye of the Sky has been destroyed.]

I have no choice but to hammer the message into their ears.

***

A desolate field of drab colors.

And…

“……”

The ‘Eye of the Sky’ was shattered to pieces.

Swoosh.

A man took off his robe, revealing the face hidden beneath.

A hideous skin as if acid had been poured on it.

“……How did this happen?”

The man with the gruesome appearance glanced around, and those who met his eyes quickly lowered their gaze.

“You.”

The man reached out and grabbed the nearest explorer by the neck.

“Keuh, cough! P-please, save me! L-Lord Regal Bagos!”

“If you want to live, tell me quickly. What happened here?”

“I-I’ll tell you…! Everything without hiding!”

The explorer, his neck being strangled, desperately shouted, and Regal Bagos released his grip.

Even if he was going to punish them, he had to hear their side of the story.

[I’ll say it again. The Eye of the Sky has been destroyed.]

[We are now heading to the rendezvous point.]

Since the message stone went dead after that communication, he, who had hastily returned with his troops, didn’t know exactly what had happened here.

That’s why…

“To summarize. You’re saying that they openly invaded, destroyed the Eye of the Sky, and you just watched until they escaped with multiple teleportation magic?”

The more he heard the situation, the more anger surged like a tidal wave.

“T-that’s… Lord Regal Bagos, when you went on the expedition, the troops were empty–”

“Are you saying it’s my fault?”

“C-cough! N-no! It’s just that they cowardly brought monsters…! W-we were not enough to handle it!”

“……You trash.”

As Regal Bagos put strength into his hand, the terrified explorer spat out a name.

“T-Titana Akuraba!”

“Titana Akuraba…?”

The man also knew the name.

When he joined Orculeus [a military organization], she was one of the most famous explorers of that era.

“That old hag was there…?”

“N-not only her! Golden Hawk James Kala! White Sword Kaislan! There were too many famous explorers! Please have mercy…!”

The explorer, sensing death, pleaded in a trembling voice, and then a man slowly walked over from afar.

“Bagos, stop it. They couldn’t have helped it.”

Kyle Elvard Geneger.

He was the strategist for the group he led.

When he heard the news that the royal expedition had infiltrated through Ice Rock, he was the one who said not to act rashly and to protect this place.

So, was that why?

While he thought he should have listened to this guy, he also felt a sense of rebellion.

“Kyle, don’t interfere. I’m just trying to give a fair punishment.”

“Then, why that man? The responsibility for not protecting this place lies with everyone. It’s not fair.”

“Then I’ll just punish everyone here.”

At those words, the explorers who were just watching flinched, and the man who had been giving advice sighed and pulled out his last card.

“……If you do that, the leader won’t stand still.”

The head of Orculeus.

The traitor, Ricardo Ruehenfraha.

“This bastard…!

Regal Bagos also flared up at the name and grabbed the strategist by the collar, but that was all.

No matter how much he was, he couldn’t ignore that name.

“Since something like this has happened, the leader who was on the front lines will soon return to assess the situation. Let’s not act rashly and wait.”

“……Tch.”

In the end, Regal Bagos cooled his anger inside.

He didn’t want to create more problems when he didn’t know what the leader would say just for going outside against the strategist’s advice.

But…

“The man of the Blood Spirit Marquis? Rihan Schuetz?”

“Y-yes! It’s certain. That guy was the leader of the expedition. I definitely heard them call him Schuetz! And above all, he used [Giantification] [a magic skill]!”

Regal Bagos’s body twitched as he calmed his excitement and investigated ‘that guy’ who had mocked him.

The moment he heard [Giantification], an unknown sense of déjà vu filled him.

“Kyle!”

“What is it?”

“Bring the message stone.”

The strategist took out the message stone without even questioning his order, and Regal Bagos snatched it away.

And…

Click.

He operated the button to play the recorded voice.

[Me? Your front yard.]

[So what if you know? Gonna come find me?]

[Yeah, try hard.]

The voice of ‘that guy’ made his fist clench just by listening to it.

At the same time, it was a voice that he felt like he had heard somewhere.

Click, click, click.

Regal Bagos repeatedly played the recorded voice several times, then released his hand and let out a hollow laugh.

“……I wondered why the voice sounded so familiar.”

So that was it.

Regal Bagos finally realized the identity of the voice’s owner.

[I’ll say it again. The Eye of the Sky has been destroyed.]

[We are now heading to the rendezvous point.]

The enemy he hadn’t been able to remember for over three years while recovering his body and memories due to Amelia Rainwales’s betrayal.

The thief who stole the precious sword he had obtained at a great cost.

He had thought he was dead until now.

“So he was alive.”

The royal family probably knows his identity.

No, maybe the royal family was the one who faked his death in the first place.

Otherwise, there’s no way they would have made a guy who was called ‘the man of the Blood Spirit Marquis’ the leader of an expedition that included a big shot like Akuraba.

“Bjorn Yandel.”

Regal Bagos, quietly reciting the name as if recalling the anger of that day, got up.

“Kyle! Gather all the troops! We’re going to track down the guys who escaped!”

“But the leader hasn’t arrived yet–”

“Enough. I’ll take all the responsibility.”

It was time to meet again.

***

Deadwood.

A field located in the western part of the Dragon Mountains, an area of Noark [a region] that the royal army had never been allowed to invade during the war, and…

It was also the rendezvous point that had been agreed upon with the royal family in advance.

“……”

We were waiting there, holding our breath.

We believed that they couldn’t have missed the message we sent, and that if we waited, they would come to rescue us.

“……”

We were huddled on the huge branches of lifeless trees, spending anxious time.

It had been three days.

“If they had moved the main force immediately after receiving the message, they would have arrived yesterday.”

“Why… aren’t they coming?!”

“Sir Kaislan, lower your voice. We don’t have the energy to use voice control magic anymore.”

Until yesterday, everyone was encouraging each other, saying that the main force would arrive soon, but the atmosphere was gradually becoming tense.

That was only natural.

Because the first death occurred this morning.

‘Philip Eintropi.’

He was an explorer who belonged to Melend Kaislan’s team.

His class was navigator.

He had mainly learned skills that were helpful for navigation, such as [Current Control], [Lightweight], and [Oversupply], and he died in the battle this morning.

He had plenty of mana, but the mages’ stamina was depleted, so the stealth magic was temporarily lifted.

The Noark guys who were searching below found us, and while we were fighting recklessly, his head was crushed and he died instantly.

And now, several hours later.

“Schuetz, this place isn’t safe either.”

The anxiety of the members had reached its peak.

That’s because the Noark side would have noticed the absence of the guys who died this morning.

The search here would be intensified as time passed.

The number of times the Noark guys passed below us had already increased significantly.

“We have to make a decision.”

“Wait a minute, a decision? What do you mean?”

“We can’t stay here forever. If the rescue team doesn’t come, it’s better to abandon this place.”

“……W-what are you saying! Are you saying the royal family has abandoned us?”

“I didn’t say that. It’s just… we haven’t been able to contact them… If there’s a problem on their side, it’s right for us to act proactively.”

“That makes sense, but I disagree. How far can we go in this exhausted state? If we are discovered on the way, we will be annihilated.”

“So, we should just wait? Until when? The mages’ mana will be depleted in two days. Isn’t that annihilation then?”

As always in an emergency, opinions were divided.

‘Haa……’

I sighed deeply inside.

Even if Akuraba hadn’t said it, I already knew.

That we had to make a choice in some way now.

‘This is driving me crazy.’

There are three options in total.

The first is to wait quietly here.

If the best outcome occurs, we will all be rescued safely.

On the other hand, if the worst outcome occurs…

‘We’ll die like dogs here.’

The second is to move without waiting and break through directly to the royal family’s territory.

Deadwood is much less important than the Dragon Mountains, so the front lines are thin and the troops are small.

That’s why we chose it as the rendezvous point.

It’s not a completely absurd delusion.

But…

‘It’s still difficult with less than thirty people.’

It would be a miracle if even 10% of us arrived alive.

In the worst case, it would be the same as the first option.

‘Then, is there no other choice but to go somewhere else?’

The third is a kind of ‘hold out’ strategy.

Just like the base was empty because it was far from the front lines, if we went there and hid, we might be able to hold out until the labyrinth closes.

‘Since we destroyed the Eye of the Sky, information about us won’t be shared far and wide.’

However, since we would be exposed to danger for the longest period of time among the above options, it’s obvious that we would be exposed to numerous variables.

Even if we only make the best moves, many sacrifices will follow.

‘No matter which option I choose, we’ll all die if the worst outcome occurs.’

When my thoughts reached that point, I somehow laughed.

I suddenly had a thought.

If it’s a total annihilation ending in the worst case anyway.

Isn’t the first option, where everyone can live when the best outcome occurs, the most reasonable?

It’s the royal family’s fault, so we can shift the responsibility too.

“……Bullshit.”

“If we leave and the main force arrives! Then! Then we can take responsibility… Huh? What did you just say?”

I ignored Kaislan’s question and opened my mouth.

Even if I’m not sure about the choice.

Tuk, tuk.

Someone has to make a decision.

“Everyone, get ready, we’re leaving this place now.”

“A-are you saying you won’t wait for the main force?”

“Yeah, we’ve already been exposed to the wind enough. Oh, and don’t worry too much.”

I smirked at Kaislan.

“I’ll take all the responsibility.”