Chapter 41
The miniature camera is still observing the intruder today.
-Max. We're truly in the same boat now.
-…….
-You're not dumb enough not to know that the side with the higher odds is the one worth cooperating with.
Things were getting interesting.
Jack, that fellow who seemed to be a rogue class.
Jack had gone and cleanly backstabbed the Supporter by taking his escape scroll.
In the Stigmatized Elf expedition, everyone was trying to save their own skins.
They were killing each other left and right, demanding the escape scroll.
But in Jack's case, he just burned the whole thing, escape or no escape.
That's what they call a no-retreat tactic, right?
The kind of tactic that cuts off the retreat and forces soldiers to fight like their lives depend on it.
Honestly, it wasn't a rational decision.
We still didn't even know how to escape Zone 2.
Whatever the reason, he'd just stabbed Max in the back.
Honestly, if I were Jack, I'd have torn him apart right away, same boat or not.
Well, it worked out for me.
Newbie : Why didn't he run away??
ㄴCunning Dog : 100% mental illness
ㄴGolem King : A live menhera psychosis diagnosis, daaamn...
ㄴDIP : This one has some credibility, yeah...
ㄴCunning Dog : Shut up
ㄴCunning Dog : Intruders who come into dungeons usually aren't normal people, right?
ㄴCunning Dog : Unless it's some forced situation like the lord ordered it, the leader ordered it, or whatever... most of the people who walk in of their own free will are the ones lacking something in life.
ㄴCunning Dog : Maybe he has PTSD about a situation where someone, himself included, escapes alone... something like that?
ㄴCunning Dog : Well! I'm not a psychologist, I'm a newbie psychologist, so just take it as a joke for now... ㅠㅠ
ㄴNewbie : Love is smart!
ㄴCunning Dog : I'm happy now...
Is this kind of like how people feel when they watch conspiracy theories unfold?
Figuring out the intruder's behavioral logic is pretty fun too.
Anyway.
I'm observing the Supporter right now.
Honestly, I thought the Supporter would beat Jack to death.
But surprisingly, he was calm.
He'd brought Denrid's journal and was continuing to write in it.
He's really writing diligently.
I took a screenshot and posted it to the gallery.
No Minions for Me : Are there only two minions left now??
ㄴMagic Hero : If it's a minion that hasn't shown up yet, then I g-g-guess so...
ㄴCow Head : Thanks to that thief bastard, we get to keep watching this insanely fun live playthrough... thanks...
ShoutShoutYeah : Terrifying fact...
ㄴShoutShoutYeah : If that bastard Max had brought several escape scrolls and handed them out to the party, none of this would've happened, yeah.
ㄴShoutShoutYeah : They could've just deducted the price of the escape scrolls when dividing the mana stones later, lol. That's his karma.
***
Max stops writing.
He turns his head and looks at the gloomy, dark clock.
23:00
After the escape scroll was burned.
He's spending some time alone, away from the others.
He has no thoughts right now.
He's just lethargic and sleepy.
It felt like lying in bed at home.
It was true that he had felt murderous intent toward Jack.
After the paralysis wore off, he had wondered thousands of times whether to beat him to death.
But.
In the end, he couldn't do it.
He was scared.
As someone who had once been a member of Sinclair's party.
To think that I, who had devoted myself to dungeon clearing, was cowering like this.
If someone saw me now, they would surely burst out laughing and mock me.
I know I look like a coward.
I know that all too well, but...
Clearing Dreamland alone is impossible.
I desperately needed Jack and Luca's help.
"Fuck..."
His survival instinct suppressed his emotions.
Only then was Max able to control his anger.
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23:30
Max eventually rejoined the group.
The others were sitting in the hallway.
There was a book in the center.
It must be the journal Luca mentioned earlier.
"Max."
"……."
"Burning your escape scroll was for everyone's sake. I hope you can understand that."
"I'm in the mood to rip your throat out right now, so shut up."
Anger surged up.
Still, he only spat a bit of abuse and didn't get any rougher than that.
Jack also nodded.
"So what were you doing?"
"I'm looking at the journal. The one with information about this dungeon."
Max sat down.
Then he leaned in to check it.
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【Strange School Exploration Journal】
【Author : Newbie】
A strange school.
This isn't the school I go to.
Somewhere scary, unpleasant, and gloomy.
How did I end up here?
There are lots of classrooms.
Many grades, too.
There are three students.
One janitor.
And one teacher.
The bathrooms are on every 10th floor.
The cafeteria is on every 20th floor.
You can eat even when it's not lunchtime, but...
They don't give you water in the cafeteria.
So I filled the sink and drank that water.
Where's the teachers' office?
Classes are 8 periods.
The commute is 30 minutes.
Lunch lasts 50 minutes.
Breaks last 10 minutes.
You have to keep to the schedule here.
If you don't, you'll be expelled immediately.
Sometimes the teacher comes in during class.
The teacher always seems to be in a bad mood...
Class is so boring...
The reason there are no students at this school...
Could it be because the teacher's lessons are boring?
But if you don't focus, they get angry.
An angry teacher is scary, so you have to focus.
Still, the teacher likes eager kids.
Even if you're wrong, they always gently pat you.
Don't run in the halls.
Don't talk to anyone.
The hall monitors and the hall monitor captain might be watching.
It's fine if they're not watching, though.
If you get caught, run at full speed.
I don't want to get scolded.
Be careful when the lights go out.
The janitor hates light.
He's in the maintenance room doing an inspection.
Let's not disturb someone who's concentrating.
I'm somewhere.
I don't want to be expelled.
I want to go home.
And I know how to get back.
But I'm scared to go alone.
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"This is..."
"It doesn't seem like it was written by someone who came to the dungeon like us."
What kind of crazy explorer would keep a journal like this?
At the very least, they'd write it like the diary entries Denrid and Max used.
This was closer to a kind of code.
"Seems like everyone has more or less figured it out..."
"Yeah. The things written in this journal are very similar to what we've experienced."
And...
There were clearly parts that looked like answers.
The dead Denrid said,
that even wrong answers were answers, and that when they met the teacher next time, they should speak confidently even if they were wrong.
Jack reasoned,
that the reason only Denrid died in the darkness was because he used light.
Those things are written in this journal.
Max blinked.
Maybe this was a strategy guide.
But.
"Who wrote this? Who's Newbie? Can we trust it?"
"I don't really know either."
Luca, who had been silent for a while, spoke up.
"This journal says there are three students. There's mention of the hall monitors and the hall monitor captain, but no mention of any other students, so maybe the owner of this journal is a student. A student named Newbie."
"Then that would mean they're a minion..."
Why would a minion directly tell us the school's weak points?
No matter how I look at it, it's suspicious. Ah,
Max muttered as if something had just occurred to him.
"There are minion types that give weaknesses and maximize strengths. Anyway, this is a dungeon too. Maybe this minion called Newbie is one of those types?"
Max has top-tier stats even among the Supporters.
The reason he felt like he couldn't win against the teacher back then...
"No, that's a bit..."
"I don't think that's it either. Everyone said it back then in front of the machine. This dungeon feels different from a normal dungeon."
Max awkwardly scratched his head.
"Still, it might not be completely wrong. Distributing this journal could be his 'rule,' after all. It says he knows how to get back, so if we meet him, maybe we'll be able to get to the machine."
The group stared at the journal.
It's a headache because there's nothing we can confirm for sure.
Can we really trust this journal...?
"I don't think we should trust this journal."
"Then what are we supposed to trust and what aren't we supposed to trust...? The things we thought were answers are already written there."
They had to choose.
And the dilemma didn't last long.
"Let's trust it."
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8:30
After midnight passed, the clock pointed to 8:30 again.
Time itself wasn't skipped or rewound.
It's more like the school's clocks simply don't show anything between 12:01 and 8:29.
The group divided each floor into A, B, and C sections, investigated each one,
and agreed to meet in the classroom marked '50' on the next floor.
With Denrid dead, this was the best method.
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9:00
Max enters the classroom.
He sits in a chair and blankly looks up at the ceiling.
Even that white light has become familiar now.
There had been plenty of trouble and plenty of accidents.
He had suffered severe thirst.
His arm had broken.
He'd been injected with paralyzing poison.
And the escape scroll had burned, too.
The situation was truly hopeless, but...
Still, he felt like going on.
What kind of place is Zone 1?
What kind of guy is the Dungeon Master?
Can I make it back with the mana stones?
Countless questions weighed on his mind, but...
He still wanted to keep going.
That was enough.
That was enough.
Drurr-
The classroom door opens.
A familiar face comes in.
It wasn't human.
"Hi, everyone! Good morning! The teacher's here... you should be looking over here!"
At first, he was flustered and afraid, but...
The second encounter wasn't nearly as intense.
Maybe because he knew how to counter it.
He even felt a little at ease.
Class begins.
The teacher spouts incomprehensible sounds.
Max becomes a student diligently listening to the bizarre lesson.
"About the problem the teacher just solved—Max, why don't you stand up and tell us the answer?"
Max stands up from his seat.
"It's 315."
Max shouted confidently.
Then.
Crack!
Max's leg bent at a grotesque angle.
"Wrong, you fucking piece of trash! What the hell are you doing during class? Were you seriously sleeping with your eyes open, youuuuu!?"
Max blinked.
What he felt most intensely through the pain was confusion.
So shouting the wrong answer wasn't the rule?
Denrid, Jack, Luca, and even the journal all said that was the correct answer.
They definitely said that...
Warning 1.
"About the problem the teacher just solved—Max, why don't you stand up and tell us the answer?"
"I-I don't know..."
"You fucking bastard, if you just say you don't know, does everything get solved, you dog-shit piece of trash, aaaaaaargh!!"
Warning 2.
"About the problem the teacher just solved—Max, why don't you stand up and tell us the answer?"
"T-the body, I mean, next..."
"Someone like you should never go out into society—you should just rot here. I'm fucking teaching you properly, so please, for the love of God, next time shout the answer, you idiot bastard!?"
Warning 3.
"About the problem the teacher just solved—Max, why don't you stand up and tell us the answer?"
"……."
"Die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die"
Warning 4.
Max's neck snapped.
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9:30
"Ughhh..."
Max clutched his own neck the moment he got up.
His broken body had regenerated. Proof that he was alive.
When he looked at the clock, it was 9:30.
Even though class time wasn't over, the teacher disappeared.
Warnings go up to a maximum of four.
And saying the wrong answer is itself a wrong answer.
The journal was fake.
Then what happened to the others?
Max finished exploring the 9th floor and headed to the 10th.
And he waited for the others in classroom 10-50, but...
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17:00
In the end, no one came.
"Ha ha."
He was alone in the classroom.
The silence remained unbroken.
Max suddenly looked down the hallway.
He saw familiar faces he missed.
Of course, they weren't people.
Without eyes, a nose, or a mouth, and wearing yellow armbands,
the blood-soaked student patrol members were roaming around here.
"Hahahahahahahaha!"
Max just laughed.
He clutched his stomach as if he couldn't possibly hold back his laughter.
He laughed madly, like someone watching a clown's performance.
He looked extremely delighted.
So happy, in fact, that it seemed like the happiest expression he'd worn so far.
He was even in tears.
"Pffft, kekeke, huu..."
Max wiped the corners of his eyes.
Then he rummaged through his backpack, looking relieved.
And then.
He hung a rope from the ceiling, the kind you'd use to cross rough terrain.
And then.
He climbed onto the chair.
Thud.
Then.
There was no one there.
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Creak, creak.
A human-shaped shadow is cast across the classroom floor.
It sways without stopping.
The rope and the wood keep groaning again and again.
Creak, creak.
It seems this rhythm won't be broken for a while.
***
Sealed Philosopher : Again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again... Newbie's trolling!!!
ㄴSealed Conqueror : There really isn't anyone on Dungeon Gallery who uses slimes as usefully as Newbie, fuck lol
ㄴSquinty-Eyes Character : At this point, please give Malangie double rations, yeah
TV Head : If you ask me, putting that bastard in a mafia game would make it totally busted.
ㄴNight Raven : hahahahahahahahahahahahaha, for real
ㄴMagic Hero : "MaMa Mafia game," my ass, hahahahahahahaha
ㄴCow Head : This bastard really knows desperate people’s hearts way too well...
No Minions for Me : That was insane...
ㄴCunning Dog : Newbie, I'm scaaared ㅠ
ㄴBone Skeleton : Isn't making the Supporter kill himself a Dungeon Gallery first??
ㄴKing Slayer : One and only, fuck hahahahahahaha
Psych Ward Top Patient : Hmm... how will Sinclair react?? They probably know the Supporter is dead by now.
ㄴShoutShoutYeah : They wouldn't know where or how he died anyway, right??
ㄴPsych Ward Top Patient : Still, I feel like they'd figure it out if they traced the clues.
ㄴKongKong : Anyway, there's not much time left until the next position shift, so maybe we can run before then??
Anonymous Butcher : (standing ovation while crying)
ㄴGolem King : Aren't you usually not that kind of character...?
ㄴAnonymous Butcher : No, I just thought everyone would like it if I did this... so I figured I'd try it too...
ㄴGolem King : I wasn't trying to be mean about it... sorry.
DIP : You saw him burn the escape scroll and immediately threw out fake information—good call, yeah
DIP : But this Newbie bastard is so creepy and sinister, hearing the whole conversation and then immediately jamming the answer they came up with straight into the journal is terrifying as hell lol
ㄴOrange★ : That scares me too, lol...
ㄴThe World Is Cold : I'd better not mouth off to Newbie...
Ant Queen : Normally I'd try not to overreact either...........
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"Wow."
The rewards for this wave are insane.