Episode 40

When Jaesugang lowered his gaze, the video’s perspective followed him and looked over the corridor with nothing beneath it. From the artificially made, pitch-black cliff where no floor could be seen came a beastlike whoooom that bored into my ears. Thank goodness this was a game. If this had been real, I would have collapsed on the spot and crawled around.

Perhaps curious whether the floor really was open, my character carefully stuck out a foot as if to step into empty air. At that, Jaesugang, who had been kneeling and looking down the cliff, swiftly pulled Kkulppang toward him. He shot Kkulppang a look that scolded him for doing something dangerous, then, as if to demonstrate, reached one hand down below the cliff and waved it around. It was a safe and simple method.

While Kkulppang rather foolishly and Jaesugang wisely inspected the corridor, the spirit that had been sitting on Abrea’s head and merely watching us suddenly flew over. Then it exaggeratedly flapped its wings and pointed beyond the corridor, as if to say we had to fly across this place.

In keeping with the racial traits of butterflies and moths, Dusk also had a flight system. However, Ateliena, the main area for this season’s activities, had no zones where flight was possible, so aside from when I went to farming dungeons, I had hardly ever spread my character’s wings and flown. Because of that, I’d naturally expected we would have to find some other side path or a device that would connect the way, but apparently not.

……The problem, however, was that we could only fly in a “flight-enabled zone.”

Whether flight was possible differed by region and by dungeon. For example, Ateliena was an entire region where flight was impossible, while the current farming dungeon that dropped equipment enhancement materials, “The Fallen Sky Fortress of the Ancient Landlord,” was a dungeon where flight was possible throughout.

If I remembered correctly, this Mirror Maze dungeon was definitely a region where flight was impossible. I had seen the flight gauge disabled after entering the dungeon, so I was certain.

[Party] Kkulppang: can fly here?

[Party] Jaesugang: No

And yet we had to fly across here?

It wasn’t as if we could run along walls with qinggong like in some other game. No……. Actually, there was something similar. There was a trick where, while flying or gliding, if you kicked off a wall, you could launch forward and fly quickly, but during a glide, the difficulty of getting the timing right increased exponentially, so I didn’t think we could cross such a long corridor with that.

As we stood there, looking troubledly at the corridor and the spirit, Adam harassed us from behind by voice, asking what we were doing instead of going. At the same time, he naturally spread the black-and-red wings that had been hanging limply like silk and flew up over the cliff first.

Of course you can just fly, you’re an NPC……. Adam was simply demonstrating flying over the corridor as he’d been programmed to do, but it felt like he was mocking us, asking if we couldn’t even do this, so he annoyed me for no reason. Maybe because it was Adam.

[- Adam: ovnoykii vnwyvmzeyit? kocaut xewivn traazuilidy kivniicciict?]

― “What’s the problem? Did you forget how to fly already?”

Adam couldn’t even hold back that long before sneering at us. Even so, there was nothing we could do.

How to fly? Flying itself was easy. The system just wouldn’t allow it.

Adam stared at us standing there silently with half-lidded eyes. Then he landed on the ground again, folded his wings quickly, and muttered.

[- Adam: qyv……ryccuit kokiicki dautvnwyvmivxki.]

― “Ah…… Is it because of that, perhaps?”

[- Adam: “You, give me your hand.”]

All of a sudden, he demanded my hand—more precisely, my character’s hand—and thrust out his own right hand. Kkulppang obediently held out his hand as if for a handshake, looking puzzled, and once his hand was caught, Adam pulled Kkulppang with a short but forceful tug.

And then he let go.

As the recoil sent Kkulppang leaping toward the cliff, not only Jaesugang but even Abrea, who had been quiet all this time, rushed forward in alarm with his hand outstretched. The one most dumbfounded here was probably Kkulppang, who had ended up in a position where he would fall to his death.

Was this how he stabbed me in the back? Since it was obvious I wouldn’t die and someone would save me before that, I didn’t panic and instead examined Adam’s face, the face of the man who had driven my character into danger. But when he actually saw Kkulppang begin to fall through the air, he made a bizarre expression. It was as if he had never imagined that I truly wouldn’t—or couldn’t—spread my wings.

[- Adam: qiv…….]

― “Uh…….”

While Adam made that dumbfounded sound, Abrea, who had hurried to the cliff, spread his wings, threw himself off, and caught the falling me before pulling me back up. After safely catching Kkulppang, he began to rage like fire. But for some reason, the target of his anger wasn’t Adam, who had tossed me over the cliff, but me, who had nearly fallen to my death.

[- Abrea: “You foolish bastard! This isn’t even a no-fly zone designated by the Great Temple committee, so why didn’t you spread your wings and just kept falling? Is someone monitoring this place or something?”]

I think that was how flight availability was determined in the story, too. But what good did that do, when a being even more transcendent than that had blocked us from flying?

[- Abrea: “No matter how much you people have received the blessing of a god and have bodies that don’t die, you should still know your lives are precious!”]

Shouldn’t he scold that bastard Adam first, the one who treated my life lightly enough to throw me?

Leaving aside whether Adam really had treated my life lightly or not—honestly, considering his reputation, he absolutely had—I couldn’t see any particular reason why I should be the one getting scolded. There were people whose bodies froze up on their own from shock in situations like this, so why was he scolding me?

I lamented that I was going to die of injustice before I died from falling. Abrea, who looked as though he would continue scolding me for a few more words, suddenly made a strange expression.

[- Abrea: “……Or is there some other reason, perhaps? Is that why? Is that why you were so…… truly like a puppet.”]

What he meant was, apparently, Abrea was asking whether, since my character was close enough to a god to receive divine blessing, some separate restriction had been placed on him. If you wanted to be technical, it wasn’t wrong. The nuance was just a liiittle different.

Unlike me, my character didn’t seem to understand Abrea’s words and merely tilted his head. Abrea looked suspiciously at Kkulppang, then sighed and put me back down on the ground. After that, looking as if he still hadn’t calmed his anger, he turned around and crossed the corridor first, and the violet spirit followed close on Abrea’s heels, leaving behind a faint trail.

Once Abrea had grown distant enough to appear small, Kkulppang whipped his head around and looked at Adam. At that, Adam, guilty and startled all by himself, cleared his throat.

[- Adam: “You’re alive, so it’s fine, right? Ah!”]

I thought he might apologize, but there wasn’t even a drop of that. The only thing that relieved me somewhat was that Jaesugang’s character smacked Adam on the back in a pose that seemed to say, “Good grief, you hopeless fool.”

Even after that, Jaesugang kept slapping his back, and unable to endure it any longer, Adam said it felt like his wings would be torn off and craftily leaped off the cliff, putting distance between them so Jaesugang couldn’t come after him. Jaesugang dusted off his hands and glared at him.

[- Adam: owitiyd, ro lbxdlvni uikyctivm deiopui kivnsuiwikycuiqtiidy vnyctivmtiovm kyctuiyit. xewreu gavmlrxioi vnoyvmui wautcy fxwyvbwyvmwui xewciouictikyt.]

― “Anyway, just like he said, this is a place where they couldn’t monitor us even if they wanted to. No-fly or whatever, you can fly well enough.”

[- Adam: kyriivmui irzisii xewiydyryckaut. uqelui vniivmzii kirxmevmiikit.]

― “So figure it out and fly over. We’ll go on ahead.”

With Adam fleeing like that as well, the story video ended. The screen switched back, and all that remained beside us was the trail the spirit had left behind.

He had told us to fly over on our own. But no matter how I rolled my eyes around to check the flight gauge, it didn’t light up and remained still. It was the indicator that flight was impossible. As if confirming that it wasn’t just me, Jaesugang stood silently for a moment before beginning to look around again.

Ah, what a pain. It didn’t suit me to do nothing but rummage around the surroundings without fighting. Especially in a place where there didn’t particularly seem to be any hope of finding something, where my interest and fun were both dying out.

Searching around for something wasn’t something I particularly wanted to do. I’d have no other wish if we really could fly, no-fly or not, just as Adam had said. Grumbling to myself like that, I clicked the flight hotkey with my finger.