Ch.2525. Beast

“What the hell is this…”

“Die!”

I charged at the guy who had fallen and was in a state of confusion.

In terms of raw combat power, I was much weaker, but he was a speed type.

With my pure tank build, I could manage by pinning him down with my shield.

“Urgh!”

In truth, exposing him as the culprit didn’t change the situation much.

There was no clear evidence yet, and if I couldn’t find any, the situation might actually worsen.

However,

“What’s going on over there!”

Not long after I caused the commotion, guild members gathered around.

With everyone already on edge because of the murder case, they couldn’t ignore a fight breaking out.

“I found the murderer! Baron Hail is the culprit behind this murder case!”

A clear explanation later would be more convincing.

As a witness to the crime, I had identified him as the culprit, and everyone knew that Lady Ainer was backing me.

Even if the accused was a baron, it would be difficult for the guild members to treat me like an ordinary barbarian.

“I’m not a murderer! We were just having a normal conversation when—”

“—Baron Hail is the murderer!”

“This barbarian just got upset and—”

“The murderer is telling blatant lies! Please don’t fall for this liar’s deception!”

“Fuck! This bastard is suddenly framing me as a murderer! It’s not true! It’s not!”

Hail kept shouting, but unfortunately, no one stepped forward to stop me.

Explorers aren’t the brightest bunch, so they don’t understand when someone talks too much in confusing situations.

“Adel! Please calm down! Baron Hail shows no signs of resistance!”

“Restrain him now! He’ll escape like he did yesterday! If we lose him in broad daylight, it would be humiliating! I’ll take full responsibility!”

He must have a glass vial on him somewhere.

Glass vials can’t be stored in dimensional storage, so they must always be carried on the body.

“Wait a moment! You can arrest me, but give me a chance to explain!”

“No! Restrain him and search his body immediately!”

It would be troublesome if he escaped with the glass vial.

‘If he runs to summon the boss, we won’t be able to catch him.’

Only two people could enter the boss area.

If he managed to escape, he could defeat the boss and hold out in there.

Once the soul disappeared, there would be no evidence left, making any later capture meaningless.

“At least surround him! Otherwise, he will definitely escape!”

They followed my instructions.

Even if the baron wasn’t the culprit, they were just following a witness’s testimony. If they didn’t comply and he turned out to be the real murderer, they could be punished.

The Labyrinth is a place where lives are at stake. The boundary between nobles and commoners is blurrier here than outside.

“I’m letting go! Be careful not to let him escape!”

As everyone tensed up, I moved away from the baron.

“…Hah.”

The baron exhaled deeply, as if tired.

“No, Adel. Why are you doing this to me? Perhaps you think I’m showing interest in Shiro? I’m sorry, but I—”

“—Shut your mouth and wait quietly.”

I maintained my aggressive attitude, but,

“Just a moment, let me pack my things myself. If you continue to treat me with such disrespect, you won’t be able to handle the consequences.”

The guild members allowed him to pack his own belongings at those words.

I insisted on being careful until the end, but I couldn’t find a reason to prevent him from packing.

‘Well, escape is impossible anyway.’

The moment he took out the glass vial from his backpack, the priests would detect the soul inside and seize it.

“…”

As he unpacked his things one by one, his movements suddenly stopped.

He seemed to be holding something with both hands.

At the same time, a hint of a smile appeared on his face.

‘…No way?’

A thought flashed through my mind.

The hidden escape scroll obtainable from the second floor hidden dungeon.

I had ruled it out as an item not used in standard builds—

—Riiip.

The sound of something tearing.

“Restrain the baron now!”

There was no time to think.

I immediately tried to swing my shield at the baron’s head, but his body had already completely disappeared from sight.

‘Damn it.’

I had ruled it out as an item that players wouldn’t need to obtain.

“W-what? Where did the baron go…”

“He’s escaped! Run to the center of the Land of the Dead! He said he’s heading for the altar there!”

I shouted to the confused guild members.

It was a lie that he had told me directly, but throw a few breadcrumbs and people will reconstruct the story themselves.

‘The situation is set up now.’

From now on, I’m an innocent citizen who received a cooperation proposal from the baron, and all the information I know was told to me by him.

“Hurry! I’ll follow as quickly as I can!”

The guild members were likely to misunderstand me in this way.

As a result, the credibility of my words was sky-high,

And I was able to manipulate the guild members.

“The suspect is presumed to be fleeing to the central part of the Land of the Dead! Pursuit team, move out!”

A pursuit team urgently formed due to the murder case. Considering the suspect’s speed, they organized a speed-focused unit.

‘I like this very much.’

Dozens of mid-level explorers following my words and moving accordingly!

This was something I couldn’t have imagined just three months ago.

‘Anyway, I should hurry too.’

There was no time to just stand and watch.

He was a game user like me. The fact that he had a hidden escape scroll was concerning from the start.

I moved quickly while continuing my thoughts.

‘He deliberately collected trash items from the hidden dungeon.’

The scroll he used was an item given in a dungeon that required a human life as an entrance fee.

It might seem like a good choice since it gives you an extra life, but in reality, it wasn’t at all.

The critical drawback of that scroll:

‘Source synthesis becomes impossible.’

Source synthesis was essential for smoothly advancing to the upper floors and clearing the 10th floor area where the real game begins.

Without rewards from other hidden dungeons, growth speed would be noticeably slower, so there was no need to obtain that scroll.

Moreover, that dungeon required sacrificing another human as an entrance fee.

Therefore, it was a build only occasionally used during my 4,000-hour newbie phase.

‘Does he not know that?’

With this major question in mind, I traversed the gloomy land.

The Land of the Dead had a floor completely stained with tar, making it difficult to even walk.

I also had to avoid the “Cursed Hands” that periodically emerged from the ground. They moved slowly, but getting caught would cost 10% of maximum health.

The only fortunate thing was that the guild members had cleared all the monsters.

—Clang!

After traveling for a long time, I finally arrived at the altar.

A large pit was dug in the middle of the ground.

‘Already in combat?’

I hurriedly examined the interior.

An altar placed in the middle of the large pit, and a glass vial placed on top of it.

A warrior with crushed legs, a priest without a head, an archer who lost both arms.

There were many people, and,

“Hah. This is fun?”

“Ah, ahhh! Save—”

—Crunch!

The baron, bleeding, guarding the altar.

He was pouring potions on a fallen archer, then smashing their limbs with a hammer, repeating the process.

It was a disgusting and horrific scene, but I had no time to worry about that.

‘Damn it.’

He took out all these people by himself?

No matter how good he was at psychological warfare or technical aspects, this was problematic.

While fighting monsters might make him just mid-level, his core strength was PVP—fighting against people.

From the beginning, he must have set up his sources assuming human combat. It’s fine to set up the first 1-2 sources differently.

“Crazy bastard.”

Hearing my muttering, his tired gaze turned toward me.

“Oh, it’s you?”

As soon as he saw me, he smashed the archer’s head without a moment’s hesitation.

He had reduced so many people to that state, yet showed no guilt—instead, he smiled.

“Being a baron and all, they let their guard down when I started talking, you know? But I’m pretty good at fighting, so I killed them all in the meantime. They couldn’t even form proper formations, and they didn’t seem used to fighting people? They were pretty weak.”

“…”

He approached me slowly, holding his hammer.

The sources I had consumed were just a baby basilisk and a slime.

But the man before me had set himself up specifically to kill people.

“Look, there are already five souls in here. Just two more and we’ll be pulled into the boss room.”

When you place a glass vial on the altar, it absorbs one soul every 15 seconds, up to seven souls.

Less than 30 seconds remained now.

I suppressed the anger rising within me as much as possible.

I couldn’t lose my temper here. I had to stay rational.

Only the pursuit team had fallen to him. The main combat personnel would arrive within 30 seconds.

If I didn’t act now, those souls would wander this land forever.

However,

‘I need to stall.’

I couldn’t defeat him, and for some reason, he didn’t seem intent on killing me.

The best decision for survival was to simply stay put.

“But honestly, it’s a bit disappointing? If I had killed the lady, the boss reward would have been better.”

At that moment, he spoke.

“…Do you even know what you’re doing right now?”

“Hm? Of course I do.”

He answered with a bright smile, as if wondering why I would ask such a thing.

“Growth! Farming! That’s the goal of this game, right? You’d do the same if you’re a game user too, wouldn’t you?”

“You killed people for that?”

“People? They’re all NPCs. ‘People’ refers to possessors like us who were dragged here from reality.”

Ah, so that’s what it was.

“If you join me now, I’ll give you all the rewards except the sources. What do you say? Let’s team up as real ‘humans.’ You can’t reach the 12th floor alone anyway.”

“…Right, they’re not human.”

“Oh! You’re accepting?”

The baron smiled and climbed up from the pit.

He moved his left arm behind his back and extended his other hand for a handshake, which I appeared ready to accept.

Or more precisely—

“—Did you really think I’d join you?”

Those words weren’t mine.

The baron swung his hammer first, trying to strike me.

‘He’s probably trying to subdue me and enter the boss room.’

To avoid the combat personnel and torture me like that archer.

But I had anticipated this from the start.

Game users typically don’t trust others.

‘You’re not even human, bastard.’

I ducked under the hammer and charged at him.

In a normal situation, he would easily dodge, but right now he was off guard.

—Crunch!

I bit into his thigh.

“Aaaaargh!”

He tried to swing his hammer, but it was useless. With his long reach, he couldn’t hit me at such close range.

Realizing this, he grabbed my head with both hands and pushed.

“Please, get… off!”

He tried to remove me while screaming hideously.

The more he struggled, the deeper I bit into his thigh, tearing through flesh.

This is the weakness of speed types. If they make one mistake and take a hit, they can’t recover and end up taking follow-up attacks.

—Crunch!

“I said get off!”

As the flesh of his thigh was completely torn away and I was about to be pushed off,

I swung the shield in my hand and struck his head.

—Clang!

With that crisp sound, he tumbled down into the pit.

I had succeeded in temporarily stopping him, but,

‘It’s already too late.’

All the souls on the altar had been absorbed.

***

When I opened my eyes, a pure white cubic space came into view.

This was the waiting area before entering the boss room. Everyone in this space must agree to enter before being transported to the boss room.

However, what mattered to me now wasn’t that.

‘I couldn’t save them.’

Seven souls.

The thought that they would continue to wander the Land of the Dead made my hands tremble.

“Hah…”

I looked at him while catching my breath.

“What are you doing?”

“…!”

I approached him as I spoke. He still seemed disoriented from the blow to his head.

He was in that state because he had fled in a hurry without wearing his helmet.

With overwhelming specs, he probably never expected to get hit in the head.

‘I got lucky.’

Though it seemed futile, it had been an impossible battle.

I won the psychological warfare against him, and the combination of circumstances and compatibility led to a miraculous victory.

That’s how battles in the Labyrinth work.

It’s not strange for anyone to kill anyone, and deaths are accepted as natural.

“G-get away! If you c-come closer, I’ll k-kill you!”

As he stuttered, he tried to move on trembling legs but fell backward.

He must still be dizzy from the head blow. It’s impressive he didn’t pass out from a concussion.

“You were planning to knock me out and bring me here, right?”

I approached him slowly.

Those summoned to this space are the individuals closest to the summoner.

He probably thought he would lose against the guild’s real combat personnel, and since I had been bothering him for a while, he wanted to bring me in while I was incapacitated and torment me like that archer.

“G-get away! You fucking bastard!”

I smiled and extended my hand to him.

But the peculiar thing was that the hand was a fist.

—Boom!

“Aaaaargh! Ahhh!”

Someone who had lost their humanity had no right to be treated as human.

“The automatic entry waiting time was 20 minutes, right? Try to keep track of time.”

“…!”

Understanding what I meant, he displayed despair openly on his face.

“Explain everything you’ve done so far, one by one.”

I began the interrogation.