MEMORIZE EP.20 Momentary Separation. (2/3)

Thanks! My throat was parched and you bought me a beer, thanks a lot. Your name is…. what? Kim Su-Hyun? From that small town of Myul? Of course I heard about it! That incident of the Wailing Cave is rather famous…. he he. Wow, meeting a celebrity and even being treated to beer, how could I ever repay you? Oh Right. How about I tell you a story. Would you like to listen to it?

What? You don’t want to? Wait, just give me a moment and listen to my story. You will definitely be interested. It’s about that widely spread rumor that the fierce Soul Commander heard about during the Rite of Passage. Yeah, that Soul Commander. Everyone in Hall Plain had to go through the Rite of Passage. Sit down. The place Angel’s pulled a lot of crap at, that Rite of Passage.

There is so many back stories about that place. Think about it. Everyone is so busy just trying to survive, who would even want to piss around a monster infested area for seven days? There was this one crazy son of a bitch, though. He traveled through the entire area for seven days like it was his playground. The possibility of coming face to face with a Boss Monster just is much higher. Hm? What am I talking about? I have never met you before? I thought that you were a fairly sincere guy. What I meant is…. but before that, could you get me another beer please? Heehee… Thank you!

Try to remember. Do you recall those yellow and blue roofs? Yes. Yellow is the Rest Room, and Blue is the Safe Point. The first thing you see when you enter is that warning sign, right? You can’t stay in the Rest Room for more than a day, or two days in Safe Point. Otherwise, the chances of a Boss Monster emerging is 100%. Ah… That thing still makes me shudder. It looked like an Alien, and munched on humans like it was a tasty morsel…

Yup, we have met me before, but whatever. I ran like crazy. The funny thing is, taking the different Starting, Rest, and Safe Points into considerating, there is one other Point. You hearing this for the first time? Well, that’s obvious. Where is it, you ask?

On the outskirts of the map, if you come out from the direction where the forest intersects, a big road comes up. I still remember it. That bumpy road. You can’t go down that road, though. Wraith are gathered down there in droves. Although, if you follow the road, a city will appear. Still, who would ever bother to go there? I didn’t even want to go into the forest in the first place. Even if you head for the city, the number of people who manage to reach there alive is few. We call that city a Trap Point. It’s literally a Trap Point.

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The Trap Point is a modern city with abundant amounts of food. It’s a place that reminds you of the sweetness of Earth. It makes you want to never leave, since it takes advantage of human mentality.

A warning sign? Yeah, there is one, but it’s different to the other signs. Just a simple scribble that you would think nothing of it. Anyway, that city tests you mentally and cleverly twists your mind. It makes you never want to leave. There are many Players that just become complacent once they step inside. The Players just live in comfort, thinking that they can stay there safely for seven days. Once they become complacent, it’s game over.

On the third day in the city…. Do you know what happens? Huhu. Hm? How do I know this? Hahaha…. Well, I’m just going to drink more.

*****

As the evening came, I could see the day slowly turning darker. It was still a bit early to say it was evening. I saw dark clouds, and was worried it might rain as well.

As I was walking on the bumpy road, I felt impatient and anxious, waiting for a village to appear. I decided to slightly increase my walking speed. I increased my speed by sending magic to my legs. Now walking faster, I thought about the image I saw through The Third Eye.

The short, one second scene allowed me to guess what had happened to the party. The scene I saw was like this: An-Hyun had thrown away his shield and was running with An-Sol on his back. I didn’t know why, but he had a look of urgent desperation on his face.

Lee Yu-Jung had a very dark look on her face. Whether it was due to worry or anger, she was following behind An-Hyun with a complicated expression. Only Kim Han-Byeol seemed calm as she followed last, holding the sword and shield An-Hyun had thrown away.

They had some injuries, but I didn’t know if they were from an ambush or maybe something else entirely. It looked like something had certainly happened to An-Sol. For now, I followed the path An-Hyun and the party had taken. As I kept following the man made path, I was sure that the village would come up soon. I felt confident that I would be able to reunite with the party there.

Just what had they been ambushed by? Just what had happened, for them to look so desperate? Concern didn’t want to leave my mind, but no matter how much I thought about it, no answers reached me. I decided to just listen to their story later and continued running.

In the middle of my run, I felt a cold droplet on my cheek. I stopped just for a moment and looked at the sky, that was starting to fill with raindrops.

Plop. Plop. Plop. Plop.

As I was looking at the intermittent raindrops, I reflexively wiped my cheek. I hoped I would reach the city before the rain got any heavier. As if my prayer had been answered, I saw a cluster of buildings with my eyes far off in the distance.

I was certain that the party had entered the village. However, whether due to monsters in some parts of the village I wasn’t sure if they had entered safely. If I knew this before, I should have come here straight away instead of wasting time.

Meanwhile, the number of the falling raindrops slowly increased. I wanted to avoid walking on the rain soaked earth, turned into sludgy mud. As I slowed down and trudged towards village, I spread out my magic detection. I immediately stopped, when I felt something off with the village.

“Wha, what is it?”

I stuttered out unknowingly. I composed myself and increased the precision of my detection magic, but the result was still the same. Surprised I immediately used my magic and arrived at the village in an instant. I gasped when I saw the modern buildings at the entrance.

‘A building from Earth can be found in the Rite of Passage? And not just one, but a town of them?’

This village, no this city, it was difficult to call it a village. As I thought, the party had entered this city. I felt four presences, so it seemed everyone had safely arrived. However, that wasn’t what I was worried about. First, I had no idea what kind of monsters lied waiting inside. Second, what I seeing was a modern city.

The buildings in Hall Plain didn’t reflect modern design, but were built like something out of the Middle Ages. My first life I had spent in Hall Plain, was a chore of getting used to such aspects. Yet now the buildings of Earth were right in front of me.

Because of this unexpected situation complex thoughts whirled around in my mind, but I managed to calm myself and observed the city. When people entered Hall Plain for the first time, they had a challenge of adjusting their lives.

Life in Hall Plain wasn’t comfortable compared to Earth, where science had flourished. In the Rite of Passage, buildings were built in similar way as Hall Plain, so people would have an easier time adjusting. However, I hadn’t ever heard of or even seen something like the scene in front of me.

Unless the Angel host had gone crazy, it was impossible for such buildings to be placed in the Rite of Passage. I rubbed my eyes, but the scene in front of me didn’t change at all. The Angels must be plotting something with this. This made me recall a story I heard from a Swordsman.

‘The Trap Point is a modern city with abundant amounts of food. It’s a place that reminds you of the sweetness of the Earth. It takes advantage of your human mentality, and makes you want to stay forever.’

When I recalled the information about the Trap Point, I began to understand what I was seeing. Before I explained about Trap Point, I first have to explain about Boss Monsters. To put it plainly, it was impossible to slay the Boss Monsters in Hall Plain. Numerous people had seen such creatures, and they all had reach the same conclusion. It’s impossible to kill it. Always flee on sight.

There were some conditions for Boss Monsters to appear. You had to use the Rest Room for more than a day, or use the Safe Point for more than two days. This was no different than an Angel’s warning you to keep moving, rather than being pulled into a sense of security by a safe area.

I felt my my body tighten. I was begining to understand the emptiness and silence of the city. Nobody among the party in my first life, even with their high Attributes, had managed to see Hall Plain except for An-Sol. I linked my speculation to the city in front of me, and came to a conclusion. No matter how astounding their abilities were, they would have never been able to handle a Boss Monster.

After I let out a deep sigh, I entered the city. The nostalgia of seeing such building for the first time in ten years hit me, but I had to find my party first.

As I entered the city, the grey colored buildings greeted me. My heart was disturbed by how this dark city greeted me with its gloomy rays of light.

The feeling that only skillfully honed people could sense, the scent of death. I wondered how many people this city had killed.

TN:

This chapter get’s a bit confusing with how city and village is being interchanged. I think this was done intentionally by the author, and is explained by this line “This village, no this city, it was difficult to call it a village.”

A big thanks to Mali, who was on temporary loan from xant and minions. His editing on series called: The Bears Bear a Bare Kuma, check it out.