Ch.170170 – Prisoner’s Cave 1

# 170 – The Prisoner’s Cave # 1

Outside the underwater cave was a ground cave.

When we lit the torch, shadows appeared everywhere.

The shadows, as if noticing our presence, gathered around us, murmuring.

At first I was bewildered, but when I looked closely at the shadows, I was startled.

“Dahui, look. This shadow. Doesn’t it look just like Kwon Sua?”

“Why do you think that?”

Crease-

Dahui, who rarely furrowed her brow, created a wrinkle between her eyebrows.

I could tell because the shadow was extremely voluptuous, and among Koreans, only Kwon Sua had such a size.

Of course, if I told the truth, Dahui might leave me here alone and go back underwater, so I just mumbled something vague.

“Just… it gives me a Kwon Sua vibe. But why would Kwon Sua’s shadow be here? Looking closely, these shadows seem familiar. Could they be shadows of people we know?”

“Hmm, I’m not sure.”

Dahui was a survival expert who could light torches by striking flint, but she apparently didn’t have the talent for recognizing shadows.

The shadows maintained a distance from us—neither approaching rashly nor moving away. It felt like they were observing us.

Dahui observed them.

I observed Dahui.

Drip-

Drip-

The water dripping from Dahui’s wet clothes looked very cold.

The thin fabric clung to her body, seemingly revealing her pale skin. Come to think of it, I kissed Dahui underwater.

I was too desperate at the time to think much about it, but suddenly remembering it made me extremely embarrassed.

Am I the only one feeling embarrassed?

Dahui seemed completely unfazed.

Is this just artificial respiration to her?

Dahui spoke.

“If there are shadows, it means there must be actual forms somewhere. Where are these shadows being cast from? If this is really Kwon Sua’s shadow, does that mean she’s nearby?”

“I don’t know either. For now, this seems to be Floor 3.5. Let’s go where the compass is pointing. We need to find Juhui and get out of here quickly.”

The needle of the compass I received from Yang Dohui was pointing to a certain place. Dahui and I followed the compass needle, but the cave was so winding and complex that it made me dizzy.

Also, the numerous and diverse shadows cast by the torch completely captivated me. This cave was like a world of shadows.

“Look at that, doesn’t it look like they’re attending class?”

As Dahui said, there were shadows that looked like they were sitting at desks and chairs, attending class. There were also shadows driving cars, digging with shovels, or hammering.

A world where shadows formed their own society and lived their lives.

That’s what Floor 3.5 was like.

Tick-tock-

At that moment, I heard a clock sound in my head.

I decided to use the advice function just in case.

“Advice. What time is it now?”

“《The Broken Clock》’s advice: The current time is 4:30 AM.”

4:30 AM.

If it wasn’t just my feeling, time seemed to be flowing in this world of shadows. This meant that as time passed here, it also passed in reality.

…What if we spend too much time in this place?

We might end up in a comatose state like Yang Juhui, being taken to the hospital in an ambulance.

To prevent that, we should leave this place as quickly as possible.

“Yang Juhui!”

I called out for Yang Juhui so loudly that the cave echoed.

A world where only shadows exist.

It felt like nothing would harm us even if we made loud noises. But that seemed to be the problem.

…Grrrr-

From somewhere came the growling sound of a hungry beast.

When I turned my head, a four-legged beast-like shadow was approaching us. Judging by its car-sized bulk, it seemed like the shadow of a predator like a tiger or lion.

Whoosh!

Before I could react, the shadow leaped at me.

It pounced from the wall across the floor, and when it raised its front paw to slash at me, shockingly and horrifyingly, my skin burst open and blood spurted out the moment my arm touched its shadow paw.

“Aaaah!”

“Yeongwon!”

“These bastards aren’t ordinary shadows!”

I had let my guard down because they were shadows.

I never expected a shadow to attack me.

The problem was that this tiger bastard didn’t know when to give up.

A second and third attack would come.

What should I do?

While I was extremely tense, Dahui dipped the torch into the water flowing gently on the cave floor. Hissss-

The cave was plunged back into darkness, and the shadows completely disappeared.

The tiger’s roar was no longer heard.

“The shadows appeared when we lit the torch. I thought maybe if we extinguished it, the shadows would disappear, and I was right. How’s your injury?”

“Just a scratch.”

Actually, it wasn’t just a scratch.

My arm was bleeding profusely as if cut by a sharp knife.

It hurt.

But I felt fortunate just to be alive.

“Dahui, thanks to you, I survived. Status Window.”

Since we couldn’t light the torch anymore, the only light we could rely on was the faint glow of the Status Window.

“《The Broken Clock》’s advice: The current time is 4:31 AM.”

Time was indeed passing.

And in my opinion, time here didn’t flow at the same rate as in reality. Time here was much faster.

I felt like about 30 minutes had passed since I last checked the time, but according to the Status Window, only 1 minute had passed.

This was surprising, considering that with my 《Clock》 trait, I could usually tell time with incredible accuracy.

Time was almost 30 times slower.

1 minute in reality was 30 minutes here.

1 year in reality was 30 years here.

Wait, that means one day in reality is… a month here?

That would mean Yang Juhui had been here for a month.

# # #

Without a torch, relying only on the faint light of the Status Window, exploring the cave was very eerie.

After walking for several minutes following the compass needle…

Uuuugh-

I heard someone groaning. Thinking it might be Yang Juhui, I hurriedly moved toward the sound and found someone wearing what looked like rags, crouched on the floor.

It was a balding old man, but honestly, it was difficult to determine his age, gender, or identity. His appearance was slick like soap and hideous.

“It’s not a shadow…?”

Dahui whispered to me.

But that was the problem.

“Aaaaargh!”

The old man who had been crouching on the floor lunged at us.

Startled by the sudden attack, I stumbled backward and fell, and the old man climbed on top of me and bit my shoulder hard with his nearly toothless mouth.

Crunch-

“Aaaah! That fucking hurts!”

Clawed by a shadow tiger and bitten by a crazy old man.

Today was truly my day of suffering.

As my vision blurred, Dahui struck the old man’s head with Cheon Aesu the pastor’s nameplate she was holding.

“Die!”

Thwack-thwackthwackthwackthwack-

It was a merciless beating.

Thanks to that, I was able to survive.

“Yeongwon, are you okay?”

“No.”

A chunk of flesh had been torn from my shoulder.

The old man was completely insane.

“That crazy bastard tried to eat me.”

Since he was no longer moving, I could see that he was an extremely emaciated old man. His clothes were complete rags, and upon closer inspection, he was holding something in his hand.

It was gold.

A golden disc. I thought it might be a gold coin, but it had strange patterns all over it. There was also an almost completely decayed scroll in his possession.

“I can’t understand any of what’s written here.”

It was an unfamiliar language.

However, I could recognize numbers like “1522” or “1523, 10, 2.” These numbers seemed to indicate time.

Could this document be from the year 1523?

If so, how old was this old man? What era was he from?

Whatever the case, suddenly biting and tearing at my shoulder…

The problem was that the compass was also shattered in the recent fight.

This was really bad.

But there was an even bigger problem.

Thud, thud-

Heavy footsteps could be heard from somewhere.

Because of what had just happened, I knew that any human existing in this world would not be friendly to me, so I thought it would be best to hide somewhere.

Rustle-

Fortunately, there was a crevice nearby where Dahui and I could hide.

As we squeezed our bodies into it, two men wearing greenish clothes with unkempt beards and carrying what looked like military swords appeared.

They saw the old man’s corpse lying in front of us and laughed, “Haha-“

“━━──.”

“━─━.”

They spoke in an unfamiliar language.

Listening carefully, it sounded like Japanese.

They carried away the dead old man’s body, and I had no way of knowing what they intended to do with the corpse or who they were.

However, they seemed to have discovered the bloodstains on the floor with the flashlights they were holding. It was blood that had flowed from my body after being bitten on the shoulder and clawed on the arm.

Their flashlights gradually tracked the bloodstains until they finally discovered us hiding in the rock crevice. Shing-

The Japanese group drew their military swords from their waists without hesitation.

As their eyes gleamed with vile killing intent, I shouted as if screaming:

“Wait! Chotto matte!”

Wait a moment!

Whether my earnestness reached them or not, the Japanese soldiers stopped.

They looked at each other and then asked me:

“Are you outsiders?”

It was broken Korean.

But it was understandable enough.

However, I didn’t know what “outsiders” meant. Did they mean people from the outside world?

“Yes, we’re outsiders!”

“Then what year is it in the outside world?”

I decided to stall for time as much as possible.

It seemed best to go along with the conversation for now.

“The outside world has passed the year 2000.”

“The war? Who won?”

War? What war?

Countless wars flashed through my mind. I wish I had paid more attention in world history class.

However, judging by their language and attire, they were clearly Japanese soldiers from the Pacific War era.

Japan lost the war, didn’t they? If I told them the truth, would their swords fly at us? I racked my brain for a plausible answer.

“Well, um, the world has moved past the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union, and now there’s an ongoing power struggle between the US and China. Oil prices are soaring, the economy is struggling. The world is caught in the trap of low birth rates, fighting a war against declining populations…”

“Is the emblem on your uniform the crest of the Tensho-in?”

The emblem on our school uniform?

Did he mean the star-shaped school logo?

“I see now, you must be people of the Tensho-in Count family.”

The Japanese men’s attitude softened considerably.

The Cheon family’s treasonous and pro-Japanese attitude had just saved our lives.