Surviving the Game As a Barbarian [EN]: Chapter 679

A space where the entire world was covered in darkness.

Flash-!

Like the dawn breaking, light began to flood the world from beyond the horizon, instantly coloring everything.

Whoosh-!

A wind so strong it felt like being sucked in.

Beeeeeeeeeeep-.

Along with a headache-inducing ringing in my ears, new knowledge began to imprint in my mind.

Ah, or is it not new knowledge?

“Hah, I’m alive now.”

In the dream, when the psychiatrist asked me to speak in Lafdonian, I was so embarrassed because I could only open and close my mouth without saying anything.

Well, it doesn’t matter now that I’m back.

Swish.

I looked down at my hand.

Unlike Lee Han-soo’s small hand, this was a barbarian’s hand—rough, rugged, with thick veins.

Clench.

After clenching and unclenching my fist a few times to check my physical condition, I heard the familiar sound of shoes from afar.

Tap, tap.

Turning my head toward the sound, I saw her, as expected.

Tap-.

The girl I had briefly seen when I was pulled into the dream world appeared like a ghost and approached me.

“Alice Groundia.”

As I muttered her name, the Earth Witch stopped walking and stared at me.

“I clearly told you not to come back.”

“……”

“Why did you come back?”

A voice that somehow carried a hint of sadness.

I chuckled and replied.

“Because this is where I belong.”

However, perhaps this answer wasn’t sufficient.

After hearing my answer, the girl looked up at me with a resentful expression and continued to speak as if she was arguing.

“It was a world where your dream came true.”

“But it was fake.”

“You know it wasn’t fake, don’t you?”

Well, I don’t know……

Certainly, as the time I spent there increased, I could sense that it wasn’t just a simple dream world.

But, as I said before.

“It doesn’t matter. That’s not where I belong.”

As I once again firmly expressed my will, the girl remained silent for a while.

Whoosh-!

The wind kept blowing.

And as time passed, more than half of the world was filled with white light.

Crackling-.

With the sound of something breaking, a boundary line between darkness and light was drawn between me and the Earth Witch.

“I think I’ve made my intentions clear, so can you send me back now?”

After ending the silence that felt both short and long, I asked, and the Earth Witch clenched her fists tightly like a child.

“You will experience more difficult and sad things there.”

Oh, so you’re going to come at me like this?

“Do you still want to go back?”

It was a childish question that suited the girl’s appearance, but I listened seriously and answered.

“Yeah. I’m still going back.”

There’s no denying it’s a dog-eat-dog world where I always have to be wary of being backstabbed and worry about the survival of myself and my comrades.

“You will lose something precious again. You will be greatly disappointed, so much that the pain you have experienced so far will be nothing.”

Just hearing those words makes me feel breathless.

“So what do you want me to do?”

Isn’t that what life is like?

It’s hard and painful, so you always want to run away.

And Lee Han-soo always ran away from reality, so he lived his whole life without knowing.

That running away is not the answer.

The life of a warrior taught me that.

Yes, so……

“No matter how much it hurts, I will move forward.”

“No matter what kind of shitty thing happens, I will struggle to survive until the very end.”

“Because I’m a barbarian.”

As I took a step beyond the boundary of darkness where the girl was standing, she took a step back.

Whoosh-!

For some reason, the darkness decreased as much as I moved forward.

Oh, this is kind of fun?

Thump.

I took an even bigger step.

The girl didn’t step back.

She just stood still in her place and spoke to me.

“You are……”

Thump.

“You have chosen the life of Bjorn Yandel.”

Thump.

The witch, who was looking at me, put a smile of inexplicable emptiness on her lips.

“You too, in the end… you were no different from us.”

…Huh?

“Us? What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

I stopped walking and asked, a question suddenly arising, but no answer came back.

“Pretending not to run away, but in the end, even running away.”

“No, I mean, what the hell are you talking about—”

That was the moment I took an even bigger step.

“Yes, we were right after all.”

The girl turned her back and walked into the darkness.

Tap, tap.

The sound of shoes gradually fading away.

And as the darkness decreased, the whole world was covered in light.

“Yan… Nam…! Baron Yandel…!”

A man’s voice echoed like thunder throughout the space.

The voice, which had been interrupted like static, became clear and distinct at a certain point.

“Ah! Baron Yandel, you bastard!”

“Haa……”

The end was a bit unsettling, but……

“Oh, come on! Wake up already, pleaseeeeeee!!!”

“I’m awake, stop shaking me.”

“…Huh?”

I finally returned.

To the place where I belong.

***

Actually, I was a little worried.

Where would I go after clearing [Dungeon & Stone] once again?

Would I perhaps be inhabiting a completely different barbarian’s body and have to start from the coming-of-age ceremony again?

Or would I wake up in a world from decades ago, or… decades in the future?

My comrades and I would have disappeared into the annals of history.

And only a few who survived into the future would greet me as old men.

Well, to put it simply, it ended up being just a delusion.

“Stop shaking me, I’m awake.”

The place where I opened my eyes was on the deck of the ship.

I was sprawled out, completely soaked, and Lee Baek-ho was grabbing my shoulders and shaking me hard……

“…Huh? H-hyu… no, Baron? Oh! You’re awake! Are you okay?”

Lee Baek-ho, who was rather flustered and stepped back when I opened my eyes.

I quickly and briefly checked the most important thing first.

“What’s the situation now? Is it an emergency?”

“Ah, no. Everything dangerous is over.”

Oh, that’s a relief.

My last memory was being chased by Dryzen and falling into the water, and since they were waking me up so desperately, I thought it was an urgent situation.

“How long was I asleep?”

“Not long.”

“Exactly in time.”

“Uh… about 30 minutes?”

30 minutes, huh……

I felt relieved, but also somewhat empty.

I had stayed there for at least half a year.

“What about the others?”

“The mages are exhausted and went into meditation, and the rest are fine, as you can see.”

Okay, it seems that there were no major incidents while I was asleep.

So, I also took some time to listen to the situation.

“Tell me what happened after I fell off the ship. Don’t leave anything out.”

Lee Baek-ho started talking right away, thinking that sharing information was a priority.

To summarize, it was a simple story.

“As soon as I saw you fall into the water, I jumped down after you.”

Lee Baek-ho jumped into the water to save me.

By the way, in the process, the awakened monsters ganged up on him, and he almost died……

‘Just ignore the unnecessarily detailed heroic tales.’

Lee Baek-ho, who showed various wits and resourcefulness, finally succeeded in rescuing me, who was sinking in the water.

It was a stroke of luck that the barbarian’s skeleton itself was heavy and that I was wearing armor.

Otherwise, I would have been swept away by the current and fallen down the waterfall, and if that had happened, he would never have been able to save me, according to Lee Baek-ho.

“After that, we barely managed to get back on the ship and ran away quickly.”

“That easily……?”

I couldn’t quite understand just from the story.

Even if the mages had burned all their mana to activate the defensive magic circle on the ship, it was strange that they had held out until they rescued me against Dryzen, a 1st-class ‘special boss’……

And after that, it just ended with ‘we just ran away well’?

“Honestly, I understand that it’s hard to understand. But that’s really all there is to it. We just ran away like crazy, and they just let us run away? Even when we were holding out on the ship, it just ended with them just poking at us.”

According to Lee Baek-ho’s explanation, there were a lot of questions about Dryzen’s behavior.

Because it’s not a monster that’s usually so docile.

But, since he says so, let’s just move on for now……

“But then why did you wake me up so urgently? It doesn’t seem like there was anything particularly dangerous?”

Lee Baek-ho’s expression changed very strangely at my next question.

“You’re asking that because you don’t know? No… ah, I guess you wouldn’t know.”

“What are you trying to do?”

When I sent him a dumbfounded look, Lee Baek-ho coughed repeatedly and continued his answer as if nothing had happened.

“Ahem! Of course, it was urgent! Your heart stopped beating back then!”

“…What?”

“I was so surprised, I thought you were really going to die!”

Only then did I realize that Lee Baek-ho was a mess.

It seemed that the words that he almost died in the water were not an exaggeration.

He was completely soaked, and his equipment was broken here and there, and there were unhealed wounds all over the place.

‘He was crying like that because my heart stopped in that state?’

I was almost ashamed that I had seriously considered pushing Lee Baek-ho overboard while taking advantage of the confusion.

But……

‘But he saved me because he had a purpose. It’s not like he was thinking of me sincerely, right?’

When you think about it, Lee Baek-ho also saved me with all his might for his own benefit.

So, let’s not be too grateful.

Yes, isn’t this the way of thinking that suits the ruthless Lafdonia?

“Lee Baek-ho, I have one question.”

“What is it?”

“No, never mind. It’s nothing.”

“What is it? Hyung, do you want to see me go crazy?”

I flinched at the sudden use of the term ‘hyung’ [Korean for older brother or respected male figure], but fortunately, the rest of the members didn’t seem to pay much attention.

Well, Lee Baek-ho himself is the type of person who throws out random words to anyone.

“What is it! What is it! What is it! Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!”

“I said it’s nothing.”

“Agh!! That’s why I feel like I’m going even more crazy!!”

Looking at Lee Baek-ho, who was several times louder than usual, I wondered if I should just tell him and make him quiet, but I stopped myself after thinking about it calmly.

Because……

‘Why didn’t he just let me die?’

That was the question I originally wanted to ask.

Because this guy was the one who once planned to kill me and revive me with the ‘Stone of Rebirth’.

Today, I could have died, and he could have used the ‘Stone of Rebirth’ I had to revive me. Then, he could have manipulated me as he pleased by brainwashing me after erasing my memories.

But……

‘He probably didn’t know.’

When I think about it, from his point of view, he can’t be sure if I have the ‘Stone of Rebirth’ right now.

Misha might still have it, or I might have entrusted it to someone I trust.

Well, he’s a smart guy, so he probably judged that the probability of me having the ‘Stone of Rebirth’ was the highest.

‘My subspace can’t be opened before I die. It must have been a gamble for him.’

Therefore, I stopped the question in the middle.

Because the moment I mention it, he will be given the information that I am keeping the Stone of Rebirth.

It could act as a variable later……

‘It really feels like I’m back.’

As I was chuckling at that thought, Lee Baek-ho asked me with a face that seemed to have remembered something.

“Ah, right! It’s okay now about what question you were going to ask, but can I ask you one more thing?”

“Go ahead.”

“While you were unconscious, you were smiling from time to time……”

“And?”

“What kind of dream did you have?”

At Lee Baek-ho’s words, I pondered for a moment.

‘What kind of dream did I have……’

If I were to tell the truth about what I experienced there, I would definitely look like a strange person.

Just like I looked to people in that world.

If I were to talk about the Earth Witch, parallel worlds, and so on, they would think I was hallucinating because I fell asleep due to the field effect.

‘Thinking about it like that, it’s kind of funny.’

But what’s even funnier is that I don’t really know either.

Whether the things I experienced were real dreams, or whether I actually went to a real world.

Whether the witch I met in the process was real or an illusion.

Thump-.

I’m still a little confused.

Actually, for some reason, the memories from there are gradually fading since I woke up.

Like how you only remember a few impressive scenes when you wake up from a dream.

“No, why can’t you say it? Did you have a dirty dream or something? Like, you were trapped in a hallucination made of a hedonistic paradise and couldn’t get out……”

“It’s not like that, so don’t talk nonsense.”

“Then what is it? Can’t you tell me this much? Between us.”

What is ‘between us’ anyway?

I wanted to retort, but I knew it would only make the conversation longer, so I just shortened it.

I don’t need much.

Something you might experience once in your life.

“It was just a dog dream.”

Therefore, there’s no reason to be disappointed.