Surviving the Game As a Barbarian [EN]: Chapter 693

His usual playful tone was there, but his eyes looking down were as cold as ice. Well, it wasn’t something I couldn’t understand.

For this guy, a comrade’s ‘betrayal’ was a trigger.

“Layton Bryatt.”

What’s more, this guy was the second oldest member of Lee Baekho’s team, after the Old Man of Destruction.

“Damn it, didn’t I treat you well?”

Lee Baekho muttered, then let out a deep sigh.

“Well, that’s beside the point… Tell me. Why are you alive when you were supposed to be dead, what’s with that mask you’re wearing, and what the hell are you plotting behind the scenes?”

“……”

“Just so you know, every time your explanation stops, I’m going to pull something out of your body.”

“……”

“Begin.”

Lee Baekho announced the start with an overbearing voice. It was obvious, but the guy who had been keeping his mouth shut wasn’t going to suddenly spill the beans.

“……”

Bryatt glared up at Lee Baekho with hostile eyes. Lee Baekho didn’t show any particular reaction. Only when the silence continued for about three more seconds.

Slowly, he reached his hand forward.

“Aaaah! Aaaah, aaaaah—!!”

He plunged his finger deep into his left eye and pulled out what was inside. Snap, snap, snap… The sound of something breaking was clearly audible.

Very slowly.

“Aaaah! Aaaah!!”

Watching Bryatt writhe on the floor in agony, Lee Baekho said just one word, expressionless.

“Begin.”

Nothing more was added to that. No threats, no coaxing, no separate interrogation. He just said ‘begin,’ waited a few seconds, and if the story didn’t start, he would just repeat the process.

“Aaaah—!!”

He pulled out an eye, tore off an ear, and yanked at organs. Then, when the condition became serious, he would heal him with a potion. Ssssh-!

Lee Baekho continued this act without any change in expression, but Bryatt was also amazing. It didn’t seem like he couldn’t feel the pain or anything…

‘Besides screaming, he’s not saying a single word.’

Was it because he knew it was pointless anyway? He didn’t make excuses, nor did he say anything like ‘kill me.’

It was truly an amazing mental fortitude, but at this rate, no matter how much torture continued, there would be no gain.

‘I think it’s time to change the method…’

I thought about stopping him for now, but after seeing Lee Baekho’s expression, I decided against it.

It wouldn’t be too late to change the method after he calmed down a bit. It’s not like I’m the one in pain anyway.

“Aaaaaaah!!”

As I was watching Bryatt being healed(?) with a potion, the rest of the group arrived.

“Ah, you’re here. Why are you so late?”

“…We got a little lost. There wasn’t anyone who could find the way.”

“So, what’s the situation here?”

“Wait a minute! Bryatt? Isn’t that Bryatt over there?”

“Calm down, I’ll explain everything.”

Instead of Lee Baekho, who didn’t seem interested, I gave a rough explanation of the situation to the group that arrived late.

“So… there was a suspicious person wearing a wolf mask, and when Lee Baekho-ssi caught him and took off the mask, it turned out to be Bryatt…”

“Ruinjenes-gong! How could this be? You said you saw Bryatt die!”

“It was certain when I saw it. But seeing him alive like this… it seems he has an ability to fake death, or he used a special tool.”

“That’s probably it. He pretended to be dead as soon as he was caught earlier.”

“Hmm… there are a few abilities that come to mind.”

Well, whether it’s an ability or an item, it doesn’t matter. The point is that Bryatt faked his death in front of the Old Man of Destruction and then secretly hid inside this ruin.

“This makes it even more suspicious. What on earth was Bryatt doing all that for…”

“We’ll have to hear it from him now.”

Just as the conversation reached that point, Lee Baekho shouted at us.

“Old Man! What are you doing? If you’ve arrived, come here quickly and put that thing on him, that thing!”

At Lee Baekho’s request, the Old Man of Destruction approached Bryatt and cast some kind of magic.

“Do you know what kind of magic that is?”

When I asked the GM, I got an answer right away.

“Judging by the mana molecular structure, it’s a type that stimulates and awakens the nervous system—.”

“In short, it helps with torture, right?”

“Yes… It seems that in that state, the pain will be felt several times more intensely and clearly.”

I unexpectedly gained some good knowledge. I should ask a mage later if I ever need to do an interrogation.

“……!!”

Anyway, the effect of the magic was immediate. The screams became several times louder, and tears and snot were flowing. Also, soon his throat was completely torn, and instead of screams, a metallic sound began to come out…

“……”

Watching Bryatt, who had been silent until the end and then fainted, Lee Baekho finally couldn’t hold back a word.

“Wow, this guy is really tough.”

Actually, I thought Lee Baekho, who was pouring potions while saying that, looked tougher, but anyway. Ssssh-! It seemed like his anger had subsided to some extent, and Lee Baekho stopped the interrogation for a moment and approached us.

Seeing his usual gentle smile on his face, it seemed like it was okay to have a conversation now. Therefore…

“What happened?”

“No, how am I supposed to understand if you say it like that?”

“Isn’t it a bit strange? How did you find this guy, who we couldn’t find even when we searched together?”

I wondered if Lee Baekho had a way to find him but had been hiding it until now.

However…

“Ah, that?”

The truth that Lee Baekho revealed while shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly was even more shocking than that.

“I deliberately drew a lot of aggro [aggravation]. Pretending to be crazy all of a sudden.”

“That was… all acting?”

“Yes. I thought that if I acted strangely, someone would be watching me around, so after I separated myself, I mumbled to myself, banged my head against the wall, and drew more aggro, and when I thought it was the right time… Boom!”

Lee Baekho spread his hand as if expressing something exploding and continued.

“I just randomly used area-of-effect skills nearby. But it turned out that someone actually got hit? After that, it’s as you saw, Baron.”

“Oh… I see…?”

“How was it? My plan? Wasn’t it genius?”

Well, I don’t know about genius. The only thing that’s clear is that this guy’s mental state isn’t normal.

‘He’s really crazy…’

As I was speechless, not knowing what to say, Lee Baekho chuckled and turned his back.

“Anyway, my anger has subsided a bit now… I should start looking at the center.”

Then, Lee Baekho walked towards the unconscious Bryatt and began rummaging through his belongings.

“Damn it, he put all the important stuff in a subordinate subspace [a pocket dimension].”

“I don’t see the bow either. Wasn’t it a Numbers item? And a pretty high number at that.”

“Ha, so if this bastard doesn’t cooperate, we can’t even loot properly… Hey, Old Man! Is there any way?”

“Let me take a look.”

After that, the Old Man of Destruction approached and bent his hunched back to examine him, then shook his head.

“The spell is quite complex, so it seems impossible to fully open the subspace or transfer the imprint.”

“Then there’s no way?”

“If we destroy the spell itself, it’s possible to forcibly open the subspace, but there will be losses.”

“What exactly do you mean by losses?”

“It means that about 30% of the items inside the subspace will disappear within the multi-dimension.”

“Ah, so in simple terms, there’s a 30% chance that this bastard’s bow could disappear?”

“What will you do?”

“Do it. It doesn’t seem like this bastard will open it willingly anyway.”

“Then we need to move to a wider place.”

Following the Old Man of Destruction’s advice, we took Bryatt to the main hall and laid him down neatly. And…

“I will begin.”

He immediately began the subspace dismantling technique. Whoooosh-! At first, only the imprint on the back of his hand turned red, but at some point, a pure white light began to flow out.

How much more time passed after that? Flash-! A pure white flash burst out, and a small portal opened on the back of his hand.

And… Bang-! With an explosion, items that were presumed to be inside the subspace scattered wildly in all directions.

“Wow…”

He’s like some kind of treasure goblin.

How big was Bryatt’s subspace?

“Is this the amount after 30% was lost…?”

The amount of items that had come out of the subspace was so enormous that everyone was stunned by the sight before them.

It seemed that more than half of the main hall was covered with dropped items…

“Be, be careful!”

As they came out randomly, the hall quickly turned into a mess. Clang-! Broken potions, pottery… Bang-!

There were also some that exploded as soon as they came out, and whoosh-! A cloud of poison dust scattered, and we all broke out in a sweat trying to get antidote spells. Well, the reward was certain, though.

“Yes, I believed in youuuu!!!”

Surviving the 30% chance, No. 696 Raindris’s Imperial Palace was dropped intact. In addition, high-priced equipment could be seen everywhere.

As he had been active as a ‘plunderer’ in the top ranks for a long time, he had a lot of equipment…

‘It seems he had a lot that he couldn’t dispose of since he had been living outside the walls for a long time.’

Moreover, keeping high-priced equipment was also a habit of the Noark plunderers. Bartering was frequent in Noark.

It was more profitable to exchange for items of equal value than to sell them to merchants at a low price.

“Everyone, don’t pocket anything and gather everything in one place! I’ll make sure to distribute it fairly.”

After that, we all worked together to gather and sort the items, and there were many suspicious-looking items.

“What the heck is this wolf mask?”

“Why did Bryatt-ssi carry so many of the same masks?”

“They’re not the same masks. This one and this one. You can tell the sizes are different just by looking at them, can’t you?”

There were an absurd number of wolf masks. Also, there was a strange medal as a sister product.

“There’s a wolf engraved on this medal too.”

“It’s quite a coincidence that he has these, considering they’re supposed to be items he picked up while plundering.”

“Can I see that for a moment?”

The Old Man of Destruction took the medal as if snatching it and looked at it this way and that, then made a strange expression.

“Do you know what this is?”

“I remember hearing about this medal a long time ago.”

“What kind of item is it? It doesn’t seem like a magical tool with any special function.”

“This isn’t a magical tool, but a symbol that signifies membership in a group.”

“A group…? I’ve never heard of a group that uses this kind of symbol.”

“That’s probably because it’s an ancient group that existed around the time when Lapdonia was founded.”

“An ancient group? What’s its name?” At the GM’s question, whose eyes had begun to sparkle with curiosity, the Old Man of Destruction looked down at the medal and answered.

“Hirkmutha.”

“In ancient language, it means white wolf.”

“I know that it was named that because of the alias of the person they followed.”

“An alias, you say…”

“The White Mage.”

The GM’s eyes widened at the Old Man of Destruction’s words. It was inevitable. There was only one person in Lapdonia’s history who was called the ‘White Mage.’

“If it’s the White Mage…”

“The last great sage, Diplun Groundel Gavrilius. Hirkmutha is a group formed by those who followed him.”

Hirkmutha. An ‘ancient’ group formed by those who followed Diplun Groundel Gavrilius, who was called the White Mage and the last great sage.

“But isn’t it a bit strange? The masks are all supposed to be white wolves, but why are the masks all black?”

“Well… I don’t know either. It doesn’t seem like Bryatt will tell us. What do you think?”

At the Old Man of Destruction’s question, Lee Baekho also muttered in an ambiguous voice.

“Hmm… I even enhanced his pain, but if he’s like this, I think we should just give up on making him talk? There’s no other way.”

Looking at Lee Baekho, who was shaking his head, saying he didn’t know he was such a tough guy, the Old Man of Destruction said as if throwing it out.

“…Perhaps he has a ‘prohibition’ on him, and he can’t speak even if he wants to.”

“A prohibition? Old Man, what do you mean?”

“I remember reading about it as a side note when I was researching the Hirkmutha group. All members are said to make an oath to maintain secrecy.”

“An oath and a prohibition have slightly different nuances, don’t they?”

“That’s why it’s a guess. But there was also an ancient magic that had the power to enforce ‘oaths,’ so it’s not entirely impossible.”

“Hmm… is that so?”

It was when the conversation reached that point. Suddenly, Jaina urgently called out to us.

“Hey! Everyone, come here! Bryatt-ssi is dead!”

“…Huh? Ah, that? Don’t worry, he’s just pretending to be dead again—.”

“No, I think he’s really dead!”

“……”