Chapter 115
All they had in the ventilation shaft was the faint light slipping through the iron bars spaced along the way.
Their vision was limited, and nothing but darkness lay before their eyes.
And from beyond that darkness, something emerged.
Tap, tap, tap, tap.
It was the sound of light footsteps.
Or was it menacing?
Taewoo flinched but didn't freeze up or scream.
Seojun waited calmly.
The thing that drew near revealed itself just a little.
"Looks like that hero we saw in 2D, everyone."
"Ah, got scared for nothing."
The figure that slipped out of the darkness and caught the light was enough to guess its identity.
[What the?]
[The protagonist?]
The moment their eyes met, the protagonist turned his back.
And then he ran off again.
Thinking that the footsteps really had been light after all, Seojun followed the protagonist.
[Wait! Stop right there!]
[Why is he so fast!]
Unlike the urgent voices of the characters, Seojun strolled leisurely.
Meanwhile, Taewoo couldn't go ahead of Seojun because he had no idea what might jump out from the darkness right in front of him.
Of course, he was pretending he wasn't scared, pretending he just preferred walking too, but Seojun felt it all.
-Cognitive dissonance lolololololol
-The characters are all like "Over there!" while the streamer's just out for a stroll with his hands behind his back lolololololol
-The game devs are telling you to run. Just run a little.
[I don't know what that is, but we have to catch it now!]
As they walked leisurely like that, the passage suddenly brightened, and they could see the protagonist's back far off.
[Catch him!]
Then the protagonist abruptly vanished downward.
When they got closer, they spotted a hole where an iron grate was missing.
That was the reason for the sudden brightness.
"They designed it so you can't go across."
It meant you have no choice but to fall.
Thud.
Seojun landed on the floor and looked around. They had finally entered an indoor space.
But even this indoor space they'd finally reached was a bit strange.
"I can't see the floor."
Seojun agreed with Taewoo, who had followed behind him.
The interior was quite large and the ceiling very high. Below, too, it was so deep that the floor was indiscernible.
How did they know how deep it was?
Because the place they were standing was no different from a single bridge suspended in the air.
A bridge made of wire mesh, the kind you'd temporarily set up in a cave or a construction site.
With a floor woven in a grid pattern, riddled with holes, how could they not see through it?
"Seojun, if I fall from here, I'll die and then respawn next to you, right?"
"Go ahead and try."
So the space they could move in was limited.
Most of the space was empty, and in that dark indoor atmosphere, when they looked up, they could discover several conveyor belts attached to the walls high above, out of their reach.
[There! The door's closing!]
When they turned their gaze, they saw a door leading to the next room ahead on their path, and the protagonist was entering it.
Seojun felt like he had very briefly caught the protagonist smirking.
The door closed, and the light above it turned from green to red.
At the same time, the path from right in front of the door to a certain distance lowered downward.
The bridge was severed.
-Locked ㄷㄷ
-The path lowered too ㄷㄷ
-Where is this place
-It's scary, feels like something's going to jump out from below...
How could they open that door?
Just then.
Clank.
A sound rang out, and at the same time, a slight weight was felt at the waist.
[What's this?]
[It suddenly appeared in your hand!]
New objects were delivered to Seojun's hand and Taewoo's waist.
"Hmm, nails and a gun...?"
Seojun examined the gun that appeared in his right hand and the small storage pouch that appeared on his left.
And on Taewoo's back, a gun with a thin nozzle and something like an oxygen tank connected to it had appeared.
-They both got guns?
-Now, kill each other!
-Taewoo's obviously got an air gun, and the streamer's got a nail gun. If they fight, the streamer'll probably win!
I see.
"Looks like we're supposed to do something with these."
Seojun approached the end of the severed path and spotted an electronic access control device next to the door, the kind you'd need to swipe a card at.
A control panel?
For some reason, he felt like he needed to shoot it right away.
He took out a nail and loaded it directly into the nail gun.
Then he aimed ahead and pulled the trigger.
Fwip!
Thwack!
When the nail lodged into the control panel, it burst with a crackle, and the path that had lowered earlier rose up, the door opening.
"Aha, so that's how it works."
He understood.
Meanwhile, Taewoo grumbled from behind.
"What, then I'm useless. This is why I said I wouldn't be a support."
As he turned on the air gun and swung it through the air.
Seojun looked at Taewoo with a pleased expression, as if thinking, 'How enviable you are, trembling in fear yet consistently blurting things out without a thought.'
"Think a little. You think you're useless?"
They moved to the next room.
As expected.
"It appears right away."
The path instantly collapsed right in front of his nose.
"I think the door is on the left. Now let's find another way."
Right now, they couldn't accurately grasp the layout of this room.
Whether it was an L-shape or a lowercase n-shape, they couldn't see because a protruding wall on the left was blocking their view.
Where could the door be this time?
It might have been a D-shape, but they couldn't confirm it from their angle.
"Go over there."
Seojun pointed ahead.
Diagonally to the left in front, a small section of the floor remained without lowering.
"No."
"Scared?"
"Yeah, scared."
That didn't work anymore. Trouble.
-lolololololololololol
-How great is it that he's honest? He won't get taken advantage of by his friend lololol
-So how do you get across?
It was obvious a double jump wouldn't do it.
That was why Taewoo refused.
"Ah!"
Taewoo clapped his hands.
"Did you think of something?"
"No, but anyway, the output on this thing is crazy strong."
Taewoo went *psshhh* with the air gun, spraying it.
An air current formed in front of the gun, and Taewoo was pushed back slightly.
"How's that? And just so you know, this thing can also absorb, but anyway, what I want to show you is."
From a short distance, Taewoo took a running start and jumped.
A distance that even a double jump couldn't cover.
*Pssshhhh!*
But from there, when Taewoo aimed the air gun downward and sprayed, his body lifted up once more.
-Triple jump! Whooa
-Yeah, if a double jump is possible, there's no reason that wouldn't work lololol
-Ohh
So he really hasn't been playing this game carelessly, huh.
Of course, Taewoo, who showed quite excellent deduction skills, fell down due to his not-so-excellent landing ability(?).
-lolololololol
-Hilarious lolol
-He almost looked cool, but Taewoo is Taewoo! lololololol
When Taewoo attempted again, he seemed to get the hang of it and landed properly in one try.
"Phew. A bit tricky."
"What do you see?"
"Yeah. The shape is roughly an n, but... Hmm, how should I explain this? The door isn't at the end of the n; it's just on your left, directly."
Aha.
So there's a door directly to the left from where they entered, but a wall jutting out in the middle blocks it.
The problem is that wall, which prevents him from shooting a nail.
"You can't do anything with the triple jump?"
"Nope."
"Then, hmm. Hey, shoot the wind straight ahead."
"Got it."
An air current formed in front of Taewoo.
The wind blasting from the tip of the nozzle Taewoo held created a vortex.
-Aha
-Are they trying to change the trajectory?
-It looks possible. They probably designed it that way from the start.
Fwip!
When Seojun shot the nail diagonally toward Taewoo, it flew straight ahead until it met the spraying wind and changed trajectory.
Thwack.
The sound of the nail embedding itself echoed through the space.
"Oh? That was a bit off."
Since there was probably auto-aim as well, with a little fine-tuning they'd get it right quickly.
"Hey, I'll keep shooting nails from the same spot, so you move. I can't figure out exactly where the control panel is."
"Okay."
Fwip!
Thwack!
Fwip!
Thwack!
Fwip!
Thwack!
After adjusting the trajectory many times like that.
Finally, as if the nail had hit the control panel and not the wall, the path rose up with a rumble and connected Seojun's location, the center where Taewoo stood, and another exit on the opposite side.
"So this is how it's done."
"Let's go to the next room."
When they entered the next door, the bridge lowered in the same way.
And.
"Oh, there's a fork this time?"
A fork appeared on both sides.
The doors at the ends of the fork weren't locked, and after checking inside each room one by one, Seojun and Taewoo came to a conclusion.
"The left is yours, the right is mine."
The puzzle in the left room had to be solved by Seojun with the nail gun, and the right room was for Taewoo.
"Where's the door?"
"It's just that the right is different, everything else is the same. Whether it's the control panel or whatever."
Taewoo told him after sacrificing himself by doing a triple jump.
This time, the difference was that the door was on the right, and there was no remaining path in the middle.
The protruding wall in the middle still blocked the door, and the control panel was the same.
"Let's solve the puzzle quickly and come back."
Saying that, Taewoo entered the right room.
Taewoo went into the room behind that protruding wall that blocked the view.
Hmm.
But Seojun, left alone, suddenly became curious.
"Everyone, does this really have to be done by two people?"
-?
-It's a co-op game, so what would you do if not two?
-I told you this game requires the highest-spec friend...
-The streamer's about to spout nonsense again lololololol
-It's about time it activated. The Heavenly Demon's craziness!
-That lunatic is righteous faction. I know it.
"No, if you think about it, all you need is to hit the nail. It's not like I don't know the control panel's location."
He had already figured out the structure in the previous room.
Seojun said, wedging a nail between his fingers.
"Aaaah!"
A scream came from the next room.
Seemed like there was something startling in there.
That wasn't Seojun's concern right now.
"Let's give it a try."
-What on earth are you going to do?
-What are you going to do in a co-op adventure like this lololol
-Heavenly Demon, you have returned!
Seojun swung his arm and flung the nail wedged between his fingers.
The nail stuck into the wall, no different from when he used the nail gun.
He wedges it again and flings it.
He checks the speed.
He familiarizes himself with the sensation.
Then.
He loads the nail gun, wedges a nail in his right hand, and clenches his fist.
The door on the right, and the wall blocking it.
-???
-What on earth are you trying to do!
-It's hard for normal people to understand.
-If you do it while jumping, an iron bar comes out and blocks it, you know.
That's right.
If Seojun jumped and shot the nail when the control panel was visible, an iron plate would pop up right next to the panel and block it.
It's understandable that the game devs set it up that way.
'There are plenty of games that prevent exploitative play like this; can't you understand at least that much?' Taewoo had said, and Seojun agreed.
But.
Would the iron plate really come out and block it even if he didn't jump and just threw the nail?
Seojun took a deep breath and swung his arm.
The nail leaving his fingertips flew to the right, a bit weakly.
At the same time, Seojun quickly moved his left hand and shot the pre-loaded nail gun.
Fwip!
The speed of the nail flying from the nail gun is much faster than the speed he throws.
Shwooook!
Therefore, the nail from the nail gun quickly caught up to the nail Seojun had thrown first and hit its tail end.
The nail that had been flying ahead lost its force upon impact and spun around.
Still, its trajectory was deflected to the right.
-??
-What are you doing?
-Why can I see the future?
Thwack!
The sound of the nail breaking the control panel echoed in the space.
Even Seojun himself admired it and looked down at his hand.
"Wow... So that works."
The path rose from below.
It seemed.
He seemed to have discovered a new hidden technique.
-lololol It's so absurd I can only laugh lololololol
-Wait, you're doing this even in a co-op game? lolololololol
-Look at him playing the game however he wants again lololololol
-Such insane skill
-As expected, the GOAT of the assassination squad!
-That bastard is cheating again, damn
-Caught the righteous faction guy above lololololol
-Koitz www PTSD triggered wwww
-lolololololololol