Chapter 87: Hidden Route (1)

【SilverHair noona discovered a hidden route in Scrap Planet ㄷㄷㄷㄷ】

【Why is she the only one making a laser sword while everyone else runs around with pickaxes?ㅋㅋㅋ】

【Yoo Seo-yeon tentacle hunting mad movie.GIF】

“……?”

Thinking I must have misread, I rubbed my eyes.

Hidden route? Yoo Seo-yeon?

What kind of nonsense was that?

I knew it was a high-budget horror game, but

I thought the entire point was just to survive as long as possible.

But was there something more to it?

Thinking it might be a clickbait post, I clicked on one of the trending articles.

【SilverHair noona discovered a hidden route in Scrap Planet ㄷㄷㄷㄷ】

[Wow, holy sh*t. I was watching Yoo Seo-yeon’s stream, and it was nuts.

When the four mantis monsters appeared in Zone B-3, everyone else ran away,

but she stayed behind, ambushed them one by one, and cracked their heads open.

Then suddenly, a door that wasn’t there before opened up, revealing a hidden passage.

Inside, she found some kind of sci-fi weapon blueprint.

And it looks like there might be a way to disarm the necklace too?]

It didn’t seem like clickbait.

There was a GIF of Yoo Seo-yeon ambushing and killing the mantis monsters one by one,

followed by a screenshot of the bunker-like room where she found the unfamiliar weapon blueprint.

It was well-organized enough to have made it to the trending list.

“Th-There was a place like that?”

Kang Arin swallowed nervously.

Special weapons? Disarming the necklace?

But more importantly…

She killed three out of four mantis monsters all by herself?

Those crazy things? With just a pickaxe?

‘Wasn’t running away the best option?’

I thought fleeing was the only choice.

Sure, if you looked closely at the GIF,

you’d see that Raidel drew aggro spectacularly while Yoo Seo-yeon stayed hidden and assassinated them one by one.

‘She actually made a perfect judgment of the situation.’

Instead of just brute-forcing it with physical skill,

she used one person as bait and took down the monsters without taking a single hit herself.

‘How did she make that decision in such a short time?’

Sure, it would be a simple strategy if given enough time to think,

but this was a horror game.

Planning a calm, tactical attack right after a monster suddenly appeared was a completely different challenge.

It was strategic gameplay, no doubt.

Of course, in reality, it wasn’t a pre-planned strategy—

Raidel had just been panicking and screaming while Yoo Seo-yeon made quick decisions on the spot.

But none of that context was mentioned in the post.

As a result, Kang Arin was sweating over a strategy that didn’t actually exist.

She scrolled down to read the comments.

– 「Wow, Seo-yeon’s physical skills are insane; it’s like she’s playing a different game」

– 「I watched the video, and I have no words… Is she even human?」

– 「Killing four mantises on her own? That’s crazy;」

– 「I saw them and immediately ran away」

– 「If she disarms the necklace, wouldn’t that mean she’s going for a completely different ending?」

‘If that’s the case, there’s no way I can imitate it.’

Kang Arin felt her confidence drop.

Honestly, when she saw the phrase “hidden route,” she had considered it.

If Yoo Seo-yeon just got lucky and found something special, she thought she could take advantage of that information.

As long as she figured out how it was discovered, she could just quietly copy it.

With her own physical skills, she was confident she could pull it off.

But this was different.

Even if someone told her how to do it,

killing four mantis monsters with just a pickaxe was in the realm of the impossible.

Even if you knew where the weak point was,

actually hitting it on a fast-moving monster was like trying to hit a flying fly with a toothpick.

Even if she went back to try again, the chances of success were slim.

‘Besides, there’s no way I can just say, “Let’s go back and fight those monsters we ran from.”’

It would be too obvious that she was copying the strategy from Yoo Seo-yeon’s trending post.

And even if they managed to pull it off, the risk of failure and the ensuing embarrassment was too high…

“Ah, it’s not over yet.”

Kang Arin turned off her phone.

Argon was undoubtedly an ace, and even Kreetzone was doing decently enough.

They failed this time, but if they found another route,

there might still be a chance.

Though, honestly, it didn’t seem very promising.

She forced herself to splash cold water on her face before returning to the room.

---

“Huff…”

Yoo Seo-yeon lowered her pickaxe and exhaled deeply.

The remains of the recent battle were scattered messily around.

“Are… are they all dead?”

Siren asked, catching her breath.

Her white spacesuit was marked with signs of the fight.

“Y-Yes. I think we got them all…”

Raidel still looked tense.

“S-Sorry. I’m just not used to this yet.”

Raidel apologized awkwardly.

This wasn’t supposed to be a monster-hunting game.

Originally, they planned to quietly farm AI cores.

But every time a monster appeared, Raidel’s screams would ruin any stealth attempts,

forcing them to repeatedly smash monster heads with their pickaxes.

“It’s fine. It was pretty fun, actually.”

Siren said with a bright smile.

Her helmet, smeared with monster blood, made the contrast almost eerie.

But she genuinely seemed to be enjoying herself, eating health items in between fights.

“I’m okay too.”

Even Yoo Seo-yeon couldn’t help but be a little impressed by Siren’s adaptability.

“Anyway, let’s check the cores. We don’t have much time left.”

They checked the AI cores they had collected—glowing blue chunks of scrap metal.

They decided to give everything to Siren to calculate the total.

[Quota: 500 Gold]

[Current Amount: 1,775 Gold]

“Oh! We’ve exceeded 500 gold!”

Siren exclaimed with excitement.

Siren shouted excitedly.

The first quota of 500 gold was more than sufficiently met.

“The time.”

The remaining time displayed on the wrist interface was 6 hours and 12 minutes.

“Thank goodness… Now we just have to take this to the return point, right?”

All they had to do was hand over the AI cores to the manager.

Doing so would extend their time.

The three of them packed the bag containing the cores and cautiously headed to the return point.

‘If only I could remove the explosive necklace.’

Yoo Seo-yeon thought to herself.

The deeper they went underground, the game’s difficulty increased dramatically.

Stronger monsters appeared, and the environment itself became more hazardous.

However, the chances of finding more valuable parts or rare “AI cores” also increased.

Ultimately, this game’s difficulty kept escalating without end.

Since the quota also kept rising, players would inevitably hit a limit and face game over.

As these thoughts circled in her mind,

they finally reached their destination.

A device embedded in the wall,

resembling a giant waste disposal chute.

Next to it was an old call bell.

“Looks like this is the place.”

Raidel glanced around cautiously.

Siren poured the collected AI cores into the chute.

The cores, which looked like graphic cards, made a clattering noise as they fell into the darkness.

[Submitted AI Core Value: 1,775 Gold]

[Required Quota: 500 Gold]

[Quota exceeded. Awaiting manager confirmation…]

The system message on the wrist interface updated.

“Now I just have to press that bell, right?”

Siren pointed at the call bell.

“Yes, we need to call the manager to complete the process.”

Raidel replied.

Ding-

Siren pressed the bell.

The faint sound of an old mechanical chime echoed, but nothing happened.

“…?”

“Huh? Why isn’t it coming out?”

Siren tilted her head, puzzled.

Ding- Ding-!

She pressed the bell again, a bit harder this time.

“Ugh, we don’t have much time left.”

Did the bell break or something?

Frustrated, Siren started repeatedly pressing the call bell.

Ding- Ding- Ding-!

She kept hitting it as if to rush the response.

– 「ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Impatient Korean」

– 「It’s like ding-dong ditchingㅋㅋㅋㅋ」

– 「ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ」

– 「But if you keep hitting it like that…」

And then—

Smack!

From inside the dark chute,

something black shot out at terrifying speed.

It looked like a tentacle, but also seemed to be made of sharp metal.

Siren’s eyes widened.

She couldn’t even grasp what it was—

there was no time to dodge, no time to react.

Something whipped out like a lash, aiming straight at Siren.

Ah, I’m dead.

Siren thought.

What was the penalty for dying again?

She couldn’t quite remember,

but she was pretty sure that a large amount of gold would be deducted.

Still, they had gathered over 1,700 gold.

Even if she died, would it be enough to meet the quota?

I was in such a rush, I made a mess.

I should have taken it slow.

Seo-yeon even found the hidden route.

What a shame.

And—

Just as her thoughts reached that point—

Clang—!

A sharp metallic sound rang out.

“Huh?”

Siren opened her eyes wide.

Right in front of her.

Yoo Seo-yeon had swung her pickaxe, knocking away the incoming tentacle.

Screeeech!

The tentacle, deflected by Yoo Seo-yeon’s pickaxe, made a disgusting noise before retreating back into the darkness.