Before entering a new urban legend.
Han Yujin thought as he skimmed through the gallery’s rulebooks.
‘Wouldn’t there be some urban legends among these that I could make use of?’
It was the kind of thought that would have made ordinary survivors jump in alarm, but in truth, Han Yujin had never been ordinary to begin with.
Ten years of trolling in the gallery. Undefeated, at that.
Whether in a good way or a bad way, he was never someone who fell within the category of a normal person in the first place.
Of course, the idea of making use of urban legends wasn’t unique to Han Yujin.
— [LotsPreparedButMakeOnlyALittle] : What the hell are those Yuil Company bastards doing inside urban legends? They’re farming, the crazy lunatics
There were companies that used urban legends to make money.
— [OrthodoxMethod*] : I witnessed survivors performing a religious ritual in the Building B, Room 301 urban legend. Please exercise caution when entering said urban legend.
There were those who worshipped them like cultists.
— [LogicCircuit] : This recent urban legend disappearance was likely done by the Special Disaster Management Division. There were at least 74 survivors inside the urban legend, but no one knows what happened to them. Looks like they even disposed of all the witnesses too.
Or even those who sought to erase evidence of urban legends.
Everyone made use of urban legends for their own purposes or goals.
Of course, using them for survival was another matter entirely.
◆
“Phew. That worked better than I thought.”
[Lost and Found and Missing Children Center]
Han Yujin squatted in a place that looked like a waiting room, listening to the sounds coming from outside.
He could hear screams like, “Don’t,” “Please spare me,” and “I’m sorry, I said I’m sorry!”
But only for a moment.
— Thud!
— Thud!
— Thud!
— Thud!
The ground trembled all the way to where Han Yujin was sitting.
He couldn’t see outside, but he understood well enough what it meant.
After all, he had read and memorized the entry method and rules of this urban legend dozens of times.
“Serves them right.”
They were filthy bastards who preyed on newbies.
How many newbies had lost their lives to those people?
Considering how organized they were, the number might even be higher than in most urban legends.
Filthy bastards gone mad for money.
‘Guys like that should be thrown into an urban legend that slowly destroys their minds and suffer.’
Newbies were, in and of themselves, an extremely precious resource.
A community needed newbies to stay lively.
A community with only the same people all the time was bound to rot.
And the gallery was everything in Han Yujin’s life.
That was why Han Yujin detested beings like newbie hunters to an extreme degree.
Anyway.
Han Yujin fell into deep thought.
“The problem now is getting out.”
This place was still an urban legend.
The kind of urban legend where, if you failed to escape, you would truly be processed as a “missing child.”
An urban legend that turned people into pancakes simply for not matching the criteria of a guardian.
If he failed to escape as a missing person, what kind of death would he meet?
No, perhaps dying would be the happiest option.
Even so, Han Yujin wasn’t nervous.
The reason he had chosen to flee into this urban legend.
It was because this was an urban legend with relatively easy escape conditions.
“All I need is someone to volunteer as my guardian.”
Just like an ordinary missing child protection center, someone who claimed to be the missing child’s guardian only had to enter the urban legend.
If the missing child confirmed that the person was their guardian, they could get out without any risk.
In other words, the horror of this urban legend lay in the fact that when a missing child appeared, randomly summoned guardian candidates would die one after another. The actual missing child and guardian, however, were quite safe.
‘It was hard picking one out.’
Choosing a safe urban legend like this—safe for me, that is—was also a skill.
The problem was that it was difficult to find someone willing to enter an urban legend to save someone.
“But I don’t have to worry about that either.”
Han Yujin had a cheat-like tool called the [Urban Legend Survivor Gallery].
He immediately accessed the gallery and began writing a post.
————
[Title: First come, first served, giving away 10 pizzas]
Author: ㅇㅇ
[Content]
Come to where I am and take me out, and I’ll give you 10 pizzas.
(Urban legend procedure manual link)
————
Pizza!
Ten whole pizzas, at that!
“Who the hell would see this and not come?”
At least a hundred people would line up.
And only one of them would get it. Ten whole pizzas!
Han Yujin chuckled to himself.
In truth, Han Yujin’s prediction was wrong on this point.
There weren’t that many survivors who would enter an urban legend for a mere ten pizzas.
If someone did come, they would probably be someone as insane as Han Yujin.
And perhaps fortunately.
— Click!
The very moment Han Yujin pressed the submit button.
Creak—
The waiting room door opened.
“……?”
Han Yujin couldn’t lower the finger he had frozen in midair.
He had just posted on the gallery. And yet someone had already come?
‘Were they that hungry?’
Han Yujin’s eyes narrowed.
The visitor was a man dressed in a formal suit.
He was easily over 180 centimeters tall, with solid shoulders. But his attire was far from neat. The sleeves of his well-ironed dress shirt and the hems of his trousers were soaked in an unknown dark-red blood, as if he had rolled through a slaughterhouse.
As though he cared nothing for the bloodstains, the man slowly swept his gaze across the room.
A corpse-cold smell, mingled with the stench of blood, pressed down on the air in the waiting room along with his heavy presence.
‘…He’s on a completely different level from those guys earlier.’
The bastards who had been frantic to fleece newbies. If those guys were just thugs you could find anywhere, this one was… what should he say? Special? Hero-like?
“……”
He had an emotionless yet somehow trustworthy aura overflowing from him.
The man stared at Han Yujin for a moment.
It was a persistent gaze, as though thoroughly analyzing him from head to toe.
Han Yujin raised a hand and waved.
“You came after seeing the gallery, right? I’m Ieung-ieung.”
Without giving much of an answer, the man turned his head toward the center director.
What the hell, why is he acting like that?
If he came, he should at least say his username.
This guy has no offline meetup etiquette at all.
Not that Han Yujin could really complain.
[Are you the guardian?]
Besides, the only person who could take him out of here was probably that man.
The man looked back at Han Yujin once more.
Han Yujin smiled brightly at him and waved both hands.
“……”
The man’s brow narrowed ever so slightly, like a robot’s.
Then he turned back toward the abnormality.
“Yes. I am that child’s guardian.”
The rules of an urban legend were absolute.
When Han Yujin, the “missing child,” nodded and made a gesture meaning “Yes, this is the person,” the bizarre energy surrounding the waiting room dispersed like fog.
[Confirmed. Transferring the missing child.]
The man approached Han Yujin.
“Please get up. It’s time to leave.”
“Wow, amazing timing. Did you smell the pizza and come running? I hadn’t even posted it yet.”
“……”
Instead of answering, the man stared down at Han Yujin.
He really doesn’t talk much.
Almost to the point of being frustrating.
“Why are you staring at me like that? How lewd.”
“……Follow me.”
“Shouldn’t you at least introduce yourself? My mom told me not to follow strange men I don’t know.”
“Strange men…”
The man muttered, then took the lead toward the exit. Han Yujin grumbled as he followed behind him.
Not only did he have no other choice, but the man didn’t seem like a bad person.
As they walked up the old, damp underground passage, the man said nothing for a while before finally opening his mouth.
“I’m OrthodoxMethod. I work as a middle manager in the gallery.”
“Ah, a blue mod?”
“……Yes. And you are ‘ㅇㅇ,’ correct?”
“Yes. My name is Han Yujin.”
“Do not reveal your real name unless absolutely necessary.”
“Why not?”
“Among abnormalities, there are some that track or curse their targets through names.”
How terrifying.
“Like you, Mr. OrthodoxMethod?”
At Han Yujin’s question, OrthodoxMethod replied as if dumbfounded.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“No, I’m just wondering how you actually found me. You came right after I posted on the gallery. Are you my stalker or something?”
“……”
He was very much the quiet type.
But Han Yujin knew how to get an answer out of someone like this.
“Answer me. Are you exercising your right to remain silent? If you’re an admin, communicate with the users a little. How is the gallery supposed to function like this?”
At Han Yujin’s sarcasm, a vein throbbed on the other man’s forehead.
“……”
Of course, Han Yujin wasn’t someone who would stop there.
The level of his mockery gradually rose.
“Completely closed off, huh? No communication at all. No wonder trolls keep swarming the gallery.”
OrthodoxMethod, who had been climbing the stairs, came to a sudden stop. He slowly turned around.
For the first time, his inorganic eyes contained not emotion, but intent.
“Mr. Han Yujin.”
“Yes?”
“You are a new user whom the gallery administrators are monitoring very closely.”
“Oh.”
The corners of Han Yujin’s mouth rose.
“That was not a compliment. It means you’re more like someone on a watch list.”
“Hehe. I still like it. It means I’m getting attention, right?”
OrthodoxMethod’s brow cracked ever so slightly as he looked at Han Yujin.
“I am asking you to be a little more careful with your gallery activity.”
“Why? I haven’t broken any rules, though.”
“The gallery has become excessively active, and there is too much work.”
This time, it was Han Yujin who was flustered.
Because this blue mod—
“Are you telling me to write fewer posts because you have too much work to do as a blue mod?”
“Yes.”
Not only was the man rigid, he was shameless too.
As expected of a blue mod, he was no easy opponent.
But Han Yujin’s personality was no pushover either.
Lightly ignoring the blue mod’s opinion, Han Yujin said only what he wanted to say.
“Hmm. I’ll think about it once. Anyway, how did you find me? You’re not an abnormality, are you?”
Then he scurried over to the wall, hid his body behind it, and peeked out with only his face.
“Aah. I’m so scared.”
Unlike his words, there was no tension in him at all, which made the line all the more aggravating.
Another vein bulged on OrthodoxMethod’s forehead.