**Chapter 102**
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**The Sharer Ⅲ**
**Shin Noah**
**5**
"Let's prepare here."
The me from long ago spoke. A fire axe was gripped in my hand.
The party members buzzed in the corridor facing the final staircase.
"Here? Why? The fairy said if we go down just a bit more, it's the final stage."
"…..."
"Jae-heessi, don't be suspicious. The Cult Leader is a savior who will guide us."
Lee Jae-hee, Uehara Shino, Jeong So-hee.
Their classes were Swordsman, Alchemist, and Zealot, respectively.
Just looking at the classes, you'd think this was a doomed party. But these were founding members I'd been connected with since the 3rd iteration, or perhaps even earlier.
They looked at me with disheveled appearances, not having properly washed for days.
A mess. But these people were the best the 'Busan Station Tutorial Dungeon' had to offer.
"…..."
I met eyes with each of them in turn. The me in my memories was much more gaunt than now.
"Since three days ago, there's been a scout secretly watching us."
"A scout……?"
"Lee Baek must have sent him. We're probably not the only group of survivors to have made it this far—just those bastards."
The party members flinched.
"They deliberately made us take the lead to clear out the monsters blocking the path. But the final boss has to be killed personally to count as an achievement. So they're planning to wait until we're exhausted from fighting the final boss, then stab us in the back."
"What a completely bad guy."
"It's a strategy that becomes meaningless if we kill the boss first. He knows that too, so he's probably rushing here at top speed right now. Everyone, crouch down below the stairs and hide. We strike when that group shows any sign of exhaustion."
"…..."
"I'll……."
**6**
"I'll take the lead."
The déjà vu vanished in an instant. Like a newborn wave briefly wetting a beach of sand that had crumbled into white granules from age, then departing.
Something stirred beside me.
"…..."
It was Oh Dok-seo.
A kid who, even standing on tiptoes, would barely reach my collarbone, had a baseball bat resting on her shoulder. The baseball bat was caked with goblin blood.
"What are you doing, Dok-seo. I told you to step back."
"Don't wanna."
Oh Dok-seo chewed her gum loudly.
"This body caught 14 monsters today. Uncle? 8. Wasn't a hunter supposed to be meritocratic? I don't take orders from someone weaker than me."
"…..."
When someone is so absurd, laughter just comes out. Before the laughter could even subside, footsteps came rumbling from the other end of the corridor.
A group of over a hundred people. Not particularly surprisingly, Lee Baek was walking at the forefront of that crowd.
"Hey, you fuckers. Missed me?"
The slightly surprising fact was that Lee Baek was making sounds. How? His vocal cords had been shredded into 8 pieces like a pizza.
"Mmm, mmmmm……."
The answer lay with Sim A-ryeon, who was hunched over and drooping beside Lee Baek.
Despite being a Healer, Sim A-ryeon had bandages (made from cloth clothes) wrapped all over her body. Bruises marked her cheeks and shoulders.
It wasn't hard to deduce the situation.
'She must have refused treatment, got beaten by Lee Baek, and fell to the status of a slave who has to ask permission even to heal herself.'
Deeply pitiful. A-ryeon, A-ryeon... to think a potential S-class ability user was going around getting beaten by an E-class... what kind of nonsense was that……
The followers of Lee Baek, who should also have been suffering from vocal cord pizza syndrome, were also chatting away perfectly fine.
"It's that guy, that guy! That tall bastard beat us half to death the moment he saw us!"
"They took all the supplies from the concourse too!"
"Fuck, look how clean those bastards are. Just 3 people hogging all the supplies, living it up……. Those son of a bitches, not even human. While we're having it so hard. Sharing food and everything……."
"The fairy! The fairy is over there!"
While shills stirred up the atmosphere, someone screamed while pointing at the fairy.
Lee Baek seized on that. With what seemed like a triumphant smile, he stepped forward five paces.
"Those bastards are in cahoots with the fairy!"
Ate- with- the- the-.
Lee Baek's voice echoed throughout the entire corridor. Loud enough for the group of over a hundred to hear clearly.
That was that man's awakening ability.
[Lion's Roar]. Or [Megaphone].
"Those bastards aren't on our side! They sided with the fairies and betrayed people! Look! They're with the fairy! Traitors! Traitors!"
It was merely an ability that amplified voice volume, but in a tutorial where everyone was at similar levels, it was quite useful.
The proverb 'the loud one wins' held especially true in emergencies.
While other survivors mumbled and murmured, he alone bellowed through his built-in megaphone, so naturally he seized control regardless of logic or reason.
It was a quite decent ability not just for politics but also in combat. In marketplace brawls where dozens of civilians were mixed together, even simple instructions like 'Attack!' 'Retreat!' were hard to hear, but Lee Baek's [Lion's Roar] at least made commands immediately传达.
A skill useful only in the tutorial, truly.
"Traitors……?"
The tutorial refugees buzzed.
"It's true, the fairy is over there."
"Then Lee Baek-ssi was right. Those bastards took all the supplies and are with the fairies……."
"Bad bastards. When we should all be working together, they want to live well by themselves……."
I understood them.
People just dropped into an apocalypse——starving, cut off from contact with the outside world, going crazy with worry about their families, forced to form groups with strangers and feeling stressed, fighting for their lives against monsters, witnessing humans dying before their eyes——from the perspective of such people, they couldn't help but be swayed however Lee Baek's [Megaphone] blew them.
Well. If Seo Gyu had been here, he might have stood up to them with 'What kind of bullshit is that, you fucking bastard!'
'You fucking bastard!'
'What! You fuuucking bastard!'
Imagining the scene of Lee Baek and Seo Gyu cursing at each other and raising the average decibel of the tutorial dungeon sky-high, laughter suddenly flowed out. Incredible. I should test that later.
"Hwek. Th, this is big. If it's discovered that I favored specific players, it's purge, purge time! Tactical retreat……!"
Bbeerorong. Fairy #264 panicked and disappeared into the air. It wasn't teleportation. She had simply hidden her form with invisibility.
But to the people, it looked the same as having vanished. To survivors traumatized by fairies, that alone was a kind of signal.
Lee Baek shouted sharply.
"The fairy is gone too! Everyone! Now's our chance! Let's attack that bastard! Let's take the supplies, regroup, and get out of this godforsaken dungeon with our own power! Let's go meet our families!"
"Uwaaah——."
Just as people were shouting to pump up their courage, I took one step forward.
From my footsteps, ink-black aura spread like a tidal wave. The wave instantly swept past the opposing group of 117 people.
"———!"
"……? ……!"
Muted.
The people who had been about to charge toward us panicked and looked at each other. No matter how they opened their mouths and screamed, no sound came out.
The underground corridor fell silent in an instant.
When aura manipulation reached its peak, such feats became possible.
"Wow, protagonist cheat……."
Oh Dok-seo muttered quietly beside me. I ignored the brat's words and spoke.
"You there, Sim A-ryeon-ssi."
"……!"
"Don't hide. Come here. We're stronger. We'll save you, and we won't beat you for not using heal. Three meals a day and a comfortable bed guaranteed. Switch sides."
"……."
"3 seconds."
Sim A-ryeon's amazing quality was that in moments like this, she had absolutely no hesitation. Before Lee Baek could even turn to look at her, she came scampering to my side!
Of course Lee Baek and the survivor group all had their faces twisted.
"Use heal on yourself."
"Y, yes. Ah. My voice comes out……."
People pointed fingers at the traitor and shouted various things, but only soundless cries echoed in the hallway.
Excellent anger. For Sim A-ryeon, the 'bird that sips aggro,' it must have been delicious leveling experience.
I smiled warmly and took another step forward.
"Lee Baek. I'm sorry."
"……."
"My consideration was insufficient. I suppose I knocked you out too quickly, so I failed to properly convey the difference in skill between us. So I'll give you a chance."
"……?"
"Here, see the red-haired kid?"
Chin. I placed my hand on Oh Dok-seo's shoulder.
"If you beat her one-on-one, I'll give you all the supplies we have, and we'll yield so you can enter the boss battle first."
"……!"
"Don't worry. No tricks. I won't stab you in the back either. But if you refuse the one-on-one match, this time I'll permanently take your voice away. Or perhaps... are you scared to fight not even me but a kid, so you're going to run?"
"……."
Voice was a strange thing. Regardless of right or wrong, the words of 'the person who spoke last' felt justified.
Lee Baek, who must have enjoyed the magic of that voice countless times until now, couldn't offer any rebuttal. The survivors who had been taken in by my words were looking at Lee Baek.
Wordlessly, the pressure of 116 pairs of eyes.
"……."
Lee Baek scrutinized Oh Dok-seo's appearance thoroughly. Perhaps he thought it was worth a try. Holding a bent steel pipe, he walked forward.
"Heung."
Oh Dok-seo glanced up at me.
"Fine. I've thought about landing a hit on that bastard's face over a hundred times while reading the novel."
She might have asked why I was making her do this, but Oh Dok-seo rather seemed to find it amusing as she twirled her baseball bat and stepped forward.
One-on-one duel situation. Countless people watched the confrontation between the two from afar.
I nodded.
"Whatever the outcome, accept it. Anyone who makes excuses later will have their ankles cut by me personally. Begin."
The moment my words ended, Oh Dok-seo charged.
Flinch. Lee Baek's expression turned vicious, apparently not expecting a child so much smaller than him to attack so fearlessly.
You little shit- his soundless mouth was pronouncing that.
Lee Baek swung the steel pipe down, using his far superior reach. The nail embedded in the pipe aimed precisely at Oh Dok-seo's head.
Kkaang-!
It only aimed. Lee Baek's steel pipe bounced off an invisible barrier that human eyes couldn't see.
"……?"
Absolute Defense.
Wearing a barrier that rejected not just human attacks but even the erosion of grotesqueries, Oh Dok-seo swung her baseball bat.
A faint red aura coiled around the metal bat.
Over the past few days, Oh Dok-seo had received intensive tutoring from me on aura manipulation. At this point in time, it was a special lecture that couldn't be learned anywhere else in the world.
I snapped my fingers, withdrawing the aura around Lee Baek. Mute released. So my disciple could fully savor the joy of victory.
"Die, you sweet potato bastard!"
"Puhk……?"
Unfortunately, Lee Baek couldn't even let out a satisfying scream. Because the baseball bat shattered the steel pipe and then precisely sent his jaw flying.
It was a home run.
"Urk, uwoook? Uhoook……!"
Lee Baek fell clutching his jaw. Several pieces of white corn fell around him.
Oh Dok-seo let out a long burp as if ten years of indigestion had cleared.
"Wow. Really, when Lee Jae-hee died because of this guy in the 3rd iteration, I threw the novel. Son of a bitch. Little shit. Fucking bastard."
"Uuheuk……."
"Watch your mouth, kid."
Oh Dok-seo kicked Lee Baek, who was swimming freestyle on the ground. Lee Baek passed out and flopped limply.
Six of Lee Baek's followers, having lost their leader, belatedly rushed in.
"Uwaat!"
"Hey hey, ganging up on a little kid isn't allowed."
But this was a rule violation. I without hesitation drew aura and slashed the ankles of all six one by one.
"———!"
"……! ……!"
All six fell forward regardless of their will. Muted screams erupted.
Fear mixed into the gaze of the survivor group looking this way. Some people in the back were already running away.
Sim A-ryeon looked at the 7 defeated ones wriggling on the corridor floor with a very strange look. Like a magpie that discovered an earthworm, perhaps.
"…A-ryeon-ssi. Don't threaten them into healing you just to stroke your pride and then play with them."
"Ah, yeeees……. Hik? W, wait a minute. H-how did you know my inner thoughts? D-don't tell me, mind reading?"
There was a mind reading skill, but I rarely used it. Fun at first, but interest dropped rapidly later.
However, thanks to using mind reading, I had made new connections too.
I quietly watched the red-haired kid approach, the one I had taken as my disciple starting from the 555th iteration.
"See? Uncle. Don't worry."
The child who was both the reader of my biography and my disciple said fearlessly.
"I'll definitely get you to a happy ending."
"……."
"Uncle's the original protagonist and I'm in the position of a possessor who entered the novel. Two protagonists. If two people cooperate, anything is possible. Well, it's a bit different from the image in the novel——but Uncle is still my favorite character!"
I chuckled.
"Alright. I'll trust only you."
"Yeah!"
Hurry and catch up, Dok-seo.
I am always waiting here.
**7**
Afterword.
"Heeeek? U, Uncle! Save me! Please! Really save me! I used the skill on Lee Baek earlier so now I don't have a barrier! Hwoooook? It just grazed me! It really grazed me! I'm dying, I'm gonna die from the tutorial final boss! Uncle! Uncleeee! Save the protagoniiiiist!"
"S, Sir Jang. Surely we should help Dok-seo-chan?"
"……."
A sigh flowed out.
It seemed like I'd need a lot more time before I could entrust my back to this chuunibyou otaku kid. End.
- The Sharer. Fin.
An infinite regressor tells his story.