Yeongju Fortress

The village regained peace.

As the morning sun rose, the undead were gone.

The skeletons had disappeared somewhere before daybreak, and the zombies had turned into ordinary corpses.

Priests went back and forth, purifying the corpses lying on the streets.

“They were cut down by holy power.”

“Then what happens?”

“There’s a possibility of resurrection.”

“Oh my!”

I overheard conversations nearby.

It seems resurrection magic doesn’t work on those who become undead.

Apparently, the sooner you kill them with holy magic, the more likely they can be resurrected like normal corpses.

‘What happens if a player becomes undead?’

Unable to contain my curiosity, I searched for posts on [Community].

It says you get cursed.

The death penalty becomes more severe.

I thought dying once wouldn’t be so bad if the damage was doubled, but unfortunately it wasn’t that kind of thing.

‘Anyway.’

Americano looked up at the lord’s castle.

While the village was in chaos from the undead, the lord’s castle had almost no damage.

The inner wall protected the castle, standing firm until morning came before it could be breached.

‘Lucky too.’

“But what is this chaos?”

“A sudden undead attack, of all things.”

A priest speaks.

“Undead are sensitive to death. I can only say that a mass death must have occurred somewhere.”

“M-mass death.”

“Isn’t that dangerous?”

The villagers trembled.

The mass slaughter mentioned in that conversation.

‘Could it be me?’

It must be.

It’s a strange feeling to have one’s existence pass through others’ lips.

And they don’t recognize Americano.

“Yawn~”

I’m sleepy.

In the end, I didn’t get a wink of sleep last night.

I’m worried about Cappuccino, but she should be fine given her level, right?

Still, I approached the lord’s castle until I was within telepathy range.

The distance from the inner wall to the main castle wasn’t as far as I thought, so I could enter that range from outside the inner wall.

Recognizing Americano’s approach, Cappuccino shouted.

‘(Save me!)’

“What are you doing.”

Her words don’t get through.

Still, I understood Cappuccino’s meaning from her plea for help.

The telepathy function attached to the [Ring of Contract] allows even a dog’s bark to be understood with deep comprehension.

Cappuccino was originally a monster.

Called a [Dream Frog].

It seems she was spotted by the hero while wandering around the village.

To the hero’s eyes, the info window shows [Dream Frog], so it’s a monster with black text at level 29, following the undead.

It was enough to raise suspicion.

‘But why are you in the castle?’

Though asking wouldn’t get an answer, Cappuccino also had a high understanding of Americano.

‘(You’re wondering why I’m in the castle, right?)’

She immediately hit the mark on her question.

To explain, it went like this:

The hero checked Cappuccino’s info window.
Surprised, he started attacking.
Recognized the species name.
Same as the monster tamed by Anonymous.
Tried to run away, but frog body is inadequate.
Got caught.
Currently in the lord’s castle.
Trapped in a box made of mirrors, unable to escape.

‘(I think I’m going to go crazy.)’

Searching [Community], a mirror box was the standard method for capturing [Dream Frogs].

Bake arrived at Devilwood Village.

He immediately entered the lord’s castle.

Because he heard from a clan member that they found something good.

<Me>

[What is it?]

<Volk>

[You’ll see when you get here.]

Messages were exchanged, but Volk didn’t give an answer.

Bake had put a tracker on a woman named Americano to obtain the bronze golem.

He found out about the village she was heading towards and got information on the bronze golem’s location from a dwarf merchant.

If that woman had also heard about Devilwood Village, there was a very high chance she would stop by.

He must get his hands on the bronze golem no matter what.

Volk was Bake’s real-life friend.

He was also a fellow guild member.

Volk greeted Bake as he arrived at the lord’s castle.

“Did you find that woman?!”

“No, I couldn’t find her.”

“Then what am I supposed to expect?”

“Didn’t you hear anything on your way here?”

Heard anything?

Bake racked his brain.

If it’s something he saw, there was that.

But that couldn’t be it.

Due to experiencing earthquakes rumbling in the middle of the night and forests being blown away, he had to hide while taking down undead in the dead of night.

“No way. You, if you came at this hour, you must have come at night, right? Then you should know?”

“…”

“You saw it? You did, right? That was probably Anonymous.”

“…”

There was no reaction like “What?” or “That’s impossible.”

Rather, he seemed to accept it.

“That’s?”

“Don’t you have any recordings?”

“…I’ll ask the others.”

When he asked, there was someone who had recorded it.

He immediately called them over to watch the recorded video.

In the dark night.
Dust and dirt shoot up.
At that moment, pausing the video and zooming in revealed the shape of a person flying through the air.

“How is this related to Anonymous? It could be someone else.”

It’s true that Anonymous is strong for her level.

But among high-level players, there are some who are just as strong as Anonymous.

“I have evidence.”

“Evidence?”

“Just follow me.”

Bake went to Volk’s room.

Volk’s room.
There was nothing particularly eye-catching in the room except for a box placed on the desk.

“Is that it?”

“What do you think it is?”

“…”

Volk asks him to guess the contents.

How would I know.

“A Dream Frog.”

“…”

The one Anonymous supposedly tamed?

“Besides that, there’s a hero who swept through the village taking down undead using a phantom sword. Isn’t this a dead giveaway now?”

“Chasing after the bronze golem, we caught something strange instead. So what are you going to do if Anonymous comes?”

“If she comes? Well…”

“Even if Anonymous is in her 30s now, our clan can’t handle her.”

Highest cleared floor: 79th.
They belonged to the top ranks.

But Anonymous was already incredibly strong compared to her low level, and she still had room to grow even stronger.

“Are you going to say you protected her and sell that favor?”

“Would that make any sense?”

Bake’s gaze turned to the box.

“Can I open it?”

“Just for a moment. It’s a box lined with mirrors inside, used to capture Dream Frogs. They say you can take it out briefly while it’s dizzy.”

Bake carefully opened the box.
So as not to startle the Dream Frog awake.

He opened it slightly and then closed it again.
There was a frog inside.

“It’s definitely a frog.”

Moreover, he saw the info window.
Green text.
A monster that fits in this small box is the same level as him. Realizing this, Bake quickly closed the box.

Bake asked.

“What does a Dream Frog do again?”

“It puts the opponent to sleep, invades their dreams, and makes them experience trauma. It fights using trauma, and if the Dream Frog wins, it takes over the body.”

He spoke in an explanatory tone.

“That’s what it says on the community.”

“What are you going to do with this? Getting involved with Anonymous won’t do us any good.”

“Hey, a person’s gotta try at least once, right? Who knows? Maybe Anonymous will like us and join our clan?”

“You’re talking nonsense.”

It’s ridiculous, but he insisted that the possibility wasn’t zero.

It’s not zero, I guess.
It’s probably infinitely close to zero.

‘But still, it’s Anonymous.’

There are rumors circulating about a high-ranking Awakened who hasn’t revealed their name in reality.

Bake was also an Awakened and belonged to a guild, but since he wasn’t a Hunter, he unconsciously formed a sense of camaraderie with Anonymous, thinking their situations might be similar.

After being able to use his Awakened ability, he became much stronger compared to his level.

It was around that time that Anonymous suddenly came into prominence.

The Awakened ability must be the reason why Anonymous could be so strong for her level.

Everyone is speculating that her Awakened ability is a cryo-ability, but nothing has been confirmed.

Since there’s an uncomfortable feeling that it’s not clean enough to be a cryo-ability, if we consider the possibility of magic, it might be something like an enhancement ability.

It’s not noticeable to the eye, but it can definitely use the ability.

Recently, posts about Awakened abilities have been increasing rapidly.

Anonymous was at the forefront of this, and as she suddenly came into prominence, opinions emerged that the secret to her strength might lie in Awakened abilities while analyzing her abilities, and they were uncovered one by one.

One of the secrets revealed there was that Awakened abilities do not go through the magic stat.

Of course, the Awakened ability is limited by the amount of magical power,

But regardless of the magic stat, the output could be infinitely increased.

It would discharge immediately, but it was undeniably surprising news.

“Don’t you think there’s a real possibility she’ll join our clan, which is made up of Awakened?”

There aren’t many Hunter-type Summoned Heroes.

So even if the clan leader is a Hunter-type Summoned Hero, most cases have few members or are mixed with non-Hunter types and Native Heroes.

Clans composed purely of Hunter-type Summoned Heroes were famous, like FirstHome and their own clan.

“If it’s Anonymous, she’ll know. If she knows the secrets of Awakened abilities, she’ll want to join our clan. We’ve broken through to the 79th floor even without Awakened abilities, and now we have them? This is no different than telling us to fight for world number one.”

Volk’s confidence came from the Awakened ability.

“Would the clan leader allow it?”

“Talk sense. You think he wouldn’t allow it?”

“…I guess he would.”

Because it’s none other than Anonymous.

Although she’s said to have used an Awakened ability, Anonymous’s momentum was tremendous.

Volk wore a confident expression.

“Besides, she’s a woman.”

Hunter-type.
In other words, in reality, the gender ratio leaned towards more women.

This was because most men died when they couldn’t properly respond to monster appearances.

“Take off your avatar and try to seduce her a bit. What’s with those muscles? You’re not a gorilla. Women these days like slim guys like your original appearance.”

“You’re talking crap.”

“Yeah, I’m talking crap.”

A woman’s voice.

Bake and Volk.

They both shut their mouths. Reflexively, their eyes followed where the voice came from.

A woman looks at them with eyes as if looking at trash.

Bake recognized her immediately.

The woman who took the bronze golem.

Just as he was surprised by that fact.

“Th-that!”

Volk shouted.

Pretending to be strong.

“It’s sealed! If you take it away carelessly, the monster inside will die!”

“Hey, you.”

Volk gave him a look.

Don’t say anything.

Volk, you bastard. You didn’t install anything like that…! If there was such a thing, you would have warned me when I opened it earlier!

He was putting on airs to prevent the woman, presumed to be Anonymous, from taking the box.

Volk, caught off guard by the sudden situation, blurted out anything to convince the woman.

“Fight us! If you win, we’ll let it go!”

“…”

The woman tilted her head in disbelief, as if unable to close her mouth.

“A fight?”

The woman drew the sword at her waist.

She pointed the sword at Volk.

The ominous killing intent emanating from the blade.

Just being pointed at makes the skin tingle.

Volk, directly targeted by the sword, startled and reached out his hand. Volk’s Awakened ability was stopping. It stops all sorts of things.

But,

“…”

“…”

The woman tilting her head.

She moved.

Wasn’t it supposed to stop her?

“…Volk?”

Rustle rustle.

Glancing back.

What was Volk was crumbling into polygon fragments.

The woman’s sword turns towards Bake.

“Where do you get off telling such blatant lies.”

“No…”

The one who turned into polygons,

So did Bake.

‘When was I cut?’

Only the soul remains.