Ch.223The Final Choice

# 223. The Final Choice

“Choose whether your body dies or your mind dies?”

“Ding ding ding ding! You catch on quickly! Well, it was a straightforward question anyway.”

Futri responded to my desperate question, reverting to his irritating tone from before, chattering excitedly.

“If your body dies, you really die! Forever! No resurrection! Ah! Of course, I’ll truly save everyone else. And I’ll show them your dead body! How will they react? Haha! I can guess, but it’ll be entertaining. One hundred percent!”

“You devil.”

“Thank you for the compliment! And if your memory dies? I’ll save that body of yours! Technically speaking, everyone survives! But you won’t recognize any of the comrades who shared life and death with you! Not only that, but all your knowledge about this tower will be completely! Entirely! Totally! Forgotten.”

“…”

“Your teammates will see you—broken but somehow alive—and come running, crying and wailing. Waaaaaah~ Uuuuuugh~ Huuuung~”

Watching him mimic a crying woman made me nauseous, but that wasn’t the important part.

Body or memory.

As the saying goes, even rolling in a field of dung is better than the afterlife—the scales were already tipping toward survival, no matter what.

But imagining myself not recognizing my team members, and them being shocked by my condition… despite rational judgment, I couldn’t answer easily.

Instead of being ordinary company employee A, stuck between a terrible boss and junior staff, my entire life as the brilliant Veritas raid leader with people I’ve come to love would be erased?

This might be self-important thinking, but if I died that way… Veritas might fall apart. I hated that thought too.

Even back on Earth, Veritas was never just a raid team to me.

“Oh my? I thought you’d decide quickly, but you’re taking quite a while? Should I have set a time limit?”

“No. I’ve decided.”

“Wow! So, what’s your answer?”

I forced down the negative thoughts. I wanted my final memories to be good ones.

“Memory.”

The die was cast.

“Oh.”

“Just one thing. Before you erase it, could I see my team members? Even for a second each, just once.”

I didn’t really expect him to agree. I just wanted to stall for time and recall the memories I shared with them.

“Of course! Showing faces is no big deal!”

“I knew you wouldn’t—wait, what?”

“Here! Look!”

Contrary to my concerns, Futri readily granted my request. He moved away from me and snapped his fingers, revealing my team members in the empty space.

‘They all look terrible, but they’re alive.’

Tears welled up—tears that hadn’t come even when I was in excruciating pain. I held them back, not wanting to cry in front of Futri, though I couldn’t hide my reddening eyes.

‘Seha. Yuri. Subin. Soyu noona. Yehyun noona. And Arang.’

First came Seha. She had every right to resent and hate me, but from the beginning, she silently became our protector—good and steadfast Seha.

Second came Yuri. Though her words could be rough, she was the team’s mood-maker—fun and warmer-hearted than anyone. A girl who, along with Seha, got hurt more than anyone on the front lines.

Third came Subin. Cool and chic in both game and reality, which made her all the more impressive. Without her brain, the party couldn’t have functioned properly.

Fourth came Soyu noona. True to her healer role, she always cared for and considered everyone, both in-game and out. How many times had she saved my life?

Fifth came Yehyun noona. Kind, affectionate, and pure. She played the big sister role for the team members perfectly, and I relied on her mentally without even realizing it.

And finally came Yerang. Cuter than anyone, smaller in stature than anyone, but with courage second to none—the team’s sharpest dagger. How grateful I was when she thanked me for summoning her.

Actually seeing my team members probably took only seconds, but in my mind, memories from our first meeting until now flashed by like a panorama.

Snap—

“Originally, as you requested, I was going to show each person for just one second—seven seconds total! But seeing your reddening eyes was so moving! I couldn’t help but count those seconds very slowly!”

“…Thanks. I really appreciate it.”

“Haha! Now the time has come.”

I truly felt grateful. After making my final choice and organizing my thoughts, I felt somewhat liberated.

“Now, I’ll take your memories.”

Futri crouched in front of me again and placed his index finger on my forehead. He muttered something and… suddenly my team members appeared again.

“Oh! It would be too unfair to them if only you got to see them one last time, wouldn’t it?”

“What?”

“So, I’m showing them your image too! Look! See them rage and wail!”

“You…”

“Ah, if you move carelessly, my finger might plunge into somewhere unexpected.”

I take back what I said about feeling grateful and liberated.

The devil was truly a devil.

As he said, my team members were each raging or wailing as they stared into empty space.

“Soon-to-lose-your-memories you will have your teammates’ wailing as your final sight, and your teammates’ final memory will be you helplessly collapsing before me. Isn’t that delightful?”

“…”

“Well. It’s been fun, in its way.”

The moment I felt slight pressure from his fingertip on my forehead, I collapsed backward helplessly.

**

Clap clap clap clap clap!!!!!!

“Congratulations! You are the first tower entrants who will be able to leave the tower!”

“You bastard! Where’s our oppa! Where-is-he?!”

“Oh, I’m not a dog, though!”

“Aaaaargh!”

“Yuri! No! Control yourself!”

“Calm down!”

The situation among the raid members, who had been watching their leader’s situation in real-time from the beginning thanks to Futri’s “fun,” was absolute chaos.

Unlike Suhyuk, who had only briefly glimpsed fragments of his team members, they had heard everything too, multiplying the mental damage several times over.

“Aack! Aaaaaaack! Give him back! Give him back!!”

“Hic, huu, hiccup…”

“…”

“Ah…”

While Yuri was screaming and looking ready to destroy everything around her, the others were quietly sobbing, standing in shock, or shaking their heads continuously in denial.

Meanwhile, Subin alone, though tearful, gritted her teeth and glared at Futri.

“Haha! You seem to have something to say! Go ahead!”

“If one person had to be sacrificed, it didn’t have to be him—it could have been one of us. He kept saying so himself.”

“That’s right! But he was your leader, wasn’t he? A leader takes responsibility! If someone must bear responsibility for your mistakes, shouldn’t it be the leader?”

Subin couldn’t argue against such a reasonable rebuttal. Yuri’s reckless protests were being completely ignored by Futri from the start, so they were beside the point.

“Of course, I also thought this would be more entertaining! And it is quite fun, isn’t it?”

“…Yeah. So fun I’m grinding my teeth.”

“Haha! I hear human teeth don’t regenerate, so be careful!”

Subin’s fists trembled, but there was nothing more she could do. They had already tried everything possible.

“So? Didn’t you say you’d send us out of the tower now? With Suhyuk.”

“Unni! What are you saying? We’re just leaving like this?”

“Yes. We need to leave… and live.”

“H-how can you? How can you say that?!”

“You know there’s nothing more we can do, so stop it!”

Yuri grabbed Subin’s collar and shook her. Subin, who had been patient at first, finally exploded.

“And this is… Suhyuk’s final decision and order. If we fail too, we’d be disobeying his order!”

“But still!”

“Right now, we shouldn’t be throwing tantrums asking for his memory back! We should focus our energy on getting out of the tower safely! Understand?”

“…”

“Do you understand, Ah Yuri?”

“I understand, damn it!”

Yuri sat down, breathing heavily. Subin’s chest was heaving too, but she took deep breaths to regain her composure as quickly as possible.

“So. Back to what we were discussing.”

“Of course! Devils are famous for faithfully fulfilling contracts and paying debts, aren’t they? Well! It’s not a formal contract, but a verbal agreement is still an agreement!”

Futri snapped his fingers. A circular portal appeared, and through it, spiral stairs were faintly visible.

“Actually, I could just whoosh! Send you all outside the tower, but shouldn’t it be fun until the very end?”

“I wish we could feel the same fun you’re experiencing.”

“Haha! Let me guess your true thoughts.”

“Huh?”

“You’re thinking it’s fortunate that I’m a devil who’s obsessed with ‘this kind’ of fun? ‘He’ll really send us safely, right? Please! Send us safely!'”

Subin’s expression didn’t change. But her lips twisted slightly at the unpleasant feeling of having her innermost thoughts exposed word for word, which made Futri laugh loudly.

“This is undoubtedly a tower! And the very top of the tower at that. So to go outside the tower, you must go down!”

“Right. So we go down those stairs?”

“Ding ding dong dong dang dang! But!”

Futri snapped his fingers again, and suddenly Suhyuk appeared from thin air. Seha, who had been tightly hugging Yuri, instinctively ran forward and caught him as he fell. Immediately, all team members rushed to Seha, and they sighed in relief when they realized that Suhyuk, though unconscious in her arms, was still breathing.

“Haha! He lived quite a happy life! Though he won’t remember it!”

“Get to the point.”

“Now go down. However, you must also leave behind everything you gained in the tower.”

“Like that matters… You bastard, it was awful meeting you and let’s never see each other again! Take it! Take it all! Unni! What are you doing? Let’s go quickly!”

Yuri spoke dismissively as if everything was over and walked toward the portal, but Subin, still watching Futri’s unchanging smile, sensed that it wasn’t over yet.