Ch.151Shadow Duel Is Dangerous (1)

Having grown suspicious, I immediately summoned Gordon from the necklace and snapped at him.

“What’s going on?”

Did he just spout whatever nonsense he could to save his life? If so, he truly deserved an award for universal deception.

However, Gordon, receiving my suspicious glare, shook his head as if genuinely wronged and exclaimed.

“How could I possibly lie to you, Master! I clearly saw it!”

“…It doesn’t seem like you’re lying.”

But it also doesn’t make sense that someone who hid their presence even from Serejia would reveal themselves to someone like Gordon.

So the truth must be one of two things.

Either Gordon is simply confused due to memory distortion, or there’s some underlying reason.

“I’m sure it was just your imagination.”

Even after trying several times to recall the memory, there’s been no success.

So the most likely possibility is that it was never a real memory to begin with.

At my response, Gordon showed signs of hesitation before speaking again.

“…I don’t think that’s it.”

“Why not?”

“Actually, when I attempted memory recovery the second time, a scene flashed in my mind.”

By “last time,” he means when we encountered that martial artist with strange techniques in the S2-rank dungeon and read his memories.

He doesn’t appear to be lying. Nevertheless, I felt irritation rising and struck Gordon’s head.

Thwack!

“Do you want to die? I told you to tell me immediately if you remembered anything.”

“Well, the thing is, the scene itself is clear, but the content is a bit strange.”

Gordon, still seeming confused, crossed his arms as he recalled the memory.

“The content of the conversation was as I told you before.”

The statement made by the high deity suspected to be behind this incident, who sent Gordon to another world as a dungeon boss.

The statement that all of this was a process, and merely the beginning.

Thinking about it now, it actually did penetrate to the core of the situation to some extent.

‘So he really did meet that person?’

Meeting my gaze full of interest, Gordon shared what had been troubling him.

“The vague scene from back then is now clear in my mind.”

“…Tell me more.”

“But the problem is my appearance as I conversed with that being.”

That was somewhat unexpected.

“It was different from what I knew. The one talking with that being was me, but at the same time, not me.”

“What does that mean?”

To summarize, Gordon clearly remembers having that conversation with the mastermind, but he feels a sense of dissonance with his own appearance in that memory.

“I am a lich who chose immortality to further study death. But my appearance in that memory was different.”

That’s why he wasn’t confident enough to speak up until now. It was somewhat understandable.

‘I’m getting a hunch about this.’

Come to think of it, there was another strange thing I hadn’t noticed at the time, but now that I think about it.

“Isn’t it odd?”

“What is, Master?”

“You, with such unclear memories, still managed to hide in a double dungeon.”

“Yes, I did.”

That point bothers me. No, it’s definitely strange.

“I’ve never seen anyone else capable of doing that in Earth’s dungeons besides you. Don’t you have anything to say about that?”

“Hmm?”

Moreover, Gordon went further by taking hunters who entered the dungeon as hostages, trying to find a way to survive in the outside world.

He ultimately failed when he met me, but it was a strategy that certainly confused the raid party.

“Are the others just too stupid to stay put? They’re stuck in boss rooms because they can’t do what you did.”

From what I’ve experienced so far, most of them seemed to lack the authority to exercise such abilities.

But Gordon was able to do it. At the very least, it wasn’t a common occurrence.

“…Now that you mention it, it is strange. I was just instinctively looking for a way to survive in that chaotic situation.”

For cross-verification, I asked Serejia, who had been quietly listening to our conversation.

“Were there similar incidents in Thebe?”

“Um, honestly, I don’t even understand the context of this conversation…”

“Ah, I guess I need to explain from the beginning.”

Suppressing my annoyance, I briefly explained about Gordon and the double dungeon incident.

Serejia then nodded as if she finally understood.

“As far as I know, there were no entities capable of the same thing in Thebe. If what you’re saying is true, it’s definitely strange.”

As everyone’s opinions aligned, Gordon frowned with an increasingly confused expression.

“…I don’t understand it myself. Do you have any guesses?”

“I do.”

Actually, it’s simple if you think about it a little.

Just combine what Gordon just told us with our current questions.

“You were never the lich Gordon to begin with. Your soul was swapped and false memories were implanted.”

Of course, there was still a possibility that the later memories were false, but considering the context, this explanation seemed much more plausible.

“That’s impossible. I clearly have my past as a lich…”

“How accurate is that? Do you remember everything from the moment you were born, became a lich, until you were captured in the dungeon?”

“Not exactly.”

As if realizing how shallow the illusion of his memories was due to my words, Gordon wore an expression of shock.

“Then, what am I?”

“I wouldn’t know.”

If anyone knows the truth, it would be Gordon himself and the person who made him this way.

Since this was a problem that couldn’t be resolved right now, after roughly summarizing the situation, we immediately brought up the next agenda.

“So the important thing is, what do we do from now on.”

Currently, countries around the world are in great chaos due to the reappearance of massive gates.

Countries with sufficient power were somehow managing to clear the dungeons, but there were plenty of countries that couldn’t do so.

“So I have some questions about that too.”

The mysterious coordinates discovered from Saya before, and the conspicuous appearance of the massive gates.

With these, I could prove a fact that had previously been only a suspicion.

“There’s a puppet on Earth. It might not be the case, but it’s almost certain.”

“…Yes. We think the same.”

Henesia and Astride nodded in succession, and Serejia added her certainty.

“I’ve experienced the same situation, so I know. They’ve probably made some of this planet’s inhabitants their subordinates.”

If that’s the case, our immediate goal was clear. We need to find and eliminate that puppet before more troublesome events occur.

“They called the massive portal a Second Gate.”

“Second Gate?”

“Yes. It’s a higher-dimensional gate that can transport even entities that have achieved proper form.”

Having an experienced person is truly reassuring. However, I simultaneously felt uneasy and looked at Serejia with suspicious eyes.

“I can’t believe they would throw such an information repository here without any safety measures…”

“If there was anything, I would have noticed it first. I’m a demigod, after all.”

It was truly hard to trust, but I didn’t sense anything unusual either.

Serejia then continued with a somewhat embarrassed face, clearing her throat.

“And, well, since Thebe fell at the Second Gate stage, I don’t actually know anything beyond that.”

In other words, despite her confident talk, she didn’t possess information that needed to be controlled.

“Wait, you fell to just this? Were you that weak?”

“I couldn’t help it! No matter how much effort I put in, I only had one body, and Thebe didn’t have the solid inter-country cooperation that Earth has.”

In the end, she was overwhelmed by sheer numbers and couldn’t do anything to prevent the fall.

Pushing aside the somewhat depressed Serejia, I concluded the conversation.

“Then let’s first find the collaborator. It probably won’t take long.”

As I turned my gaze while chewing on some jerky, I saw Henesia tilting her head in confusion.

“Why are you looking at me like that? It’s your specialty.”

“Huh? Even if you suddenly say that…”

“There’s no one better suited than you. I’ll be waiting, so let me know when you find them.”

“It’s a bit difficult alone. Could you help me, teacher?”

At Henesia’s urgent request, sensing the difficulty ahead, I pushed Serejia forward.

“She has experience, so she’ll do well.”

Both of their expressions twisted, but it couldn’t be helped. I had something else to do.

After sending everyone away, I picked up my phone and called someone.

Click.

[What is it?]

“Let’s meet for a bit.”

The person was none other than Shin Doyun, a returnee who had previously worked with me to eliminate Lee Jichul.