Surviving the Game as a Barbarian

It had been a long time since I'd last seen Hans.

So long, in fact, that it almost felt like a surprise to meet him again...

It was Hans.

'Last time was K...'

Hans Kaiser.

Back when I was active as Rihen Shuitsu, I happened to encounter him on the Dark Continent.

And...

'Less than two hours before, the Noark ambush started.'

In the end, we got through it without major losses, but it could have been disastrous.

If Raven hadn't changed her mind midway, my journey that day might have ended trapped in the "Cage of Silence."

Anyway, that's not what matters...

'Hans L.'

That's the code name of the Hans we just met.

Well, I'm a bit skeptical whether a monster-turned-dead guy is really classified as 'Hans.'

Still, better to be cautious.

Thump—!

Following the wildly pounding rhythm of my heart, I shouted with all my might.

"Prepare to move!!!"

Of course, no one understood my reaction.

"...Huh? Suddenly?"

"We don't detect any monster presence at all..."

Ibaekho and the archer gave puzzled looks.

But seeing the urgency on my face, they straightened their posture and readied themselves.

"This is an emergency. We must get as far away from here as possible."

"No, but why—"

In emergencies, action beats words.

Ignoring all questions, I took off running first, and everyone followed me without understanding why.

Not just because of crowd mentality, but because they trusted that I had a reason for this behavior.

"...Let's move out! Baron Yandel wouldn't act like this without a reason!"

Thus began our unexpected escape.

But even as they followed me, they kept asking questions.

"Baron! So what is it? Tell us! At least what we're running from!"

Fair questions, but I had no answers.

Because I didn't know.

What exactly we were running from.

"...You'll find out soon enough."

That was all I could say, so I dodged the questions.

"This Baron is really frustrating!"

Ibaekho sounded exasperated but didn't stop or slow down.

Some time passed.

"...A person?"

At the edge of our vision appeared the silhouette of a person.

"Not a person, it's a Bayon."

A monster with dark skin and a black spider clinging to its face.

Surprisingly, it wasn't just one.

"...There are quite a few."

Starting from one at the front, five more Bayons appeared from the shadows.

"Hey, Baron! What now!"

"Take them out as fast as possible and keep moving."

"Okay, everyone heard that?"

As soon as I gave the order, the party switched to battle mode and engaged the Bayons.

The fight itself wasn't difficult.

Since there were many enemies, Ibaekho didn't recklessly rush in as before, and though fast, carefully assessed each Bayon.

"What the hell! Why are they using all their skills?"

"...It's the Essence of the Guardian!"

"What? This weakling has the Essence of Pianil?"

These Bayons had much higher essence levels than expected, so the fight took some time.

'Fifteen minutes...'

Though killing six grade 3 monsters in that time was fast, my unease about Hans L. made it feel long.

'Anyway, no one got hurt, so that's good...'

I wanted to move on immediately after the battle, but my control didn't stretch that far.

"Hey, are we leaving all this behind? Wait a moment. Let's finish looting."

Ignoring my rush to move, Ibaekho started looting.

When I protested there wasn't time, he just said to tell him why it was urgent if it mattered.

"Sigh..."

I was frustrated too.

Honestly, even if I wanted to say something, I couldn't.

If I said it was because of the name 'Hans,' they'd just laugh.

Unless they saw, heard, and felt it themselves, no matter the example, they'd dismiss it as superstition.

And after that, they wouldn't humor my stubbornness.

So I had no choice but to watch them loot.

"Six Bayons... that's unusual."

"Yeah. Maybe in the Land of Immortality, but not common here."

Two mages exchanged opinions.

As they said, so many Bayons was abnormal.

But...

'This can't be all.'

It was hard to believe the 'Hans effect' ended there.

After all, what we'd suffered was no small matter.

"Okay, loot's done!"

Anyway, Ibaekho finished quickly, and we were ready to move again.

But someone else held me back.

"Wait! Wait, everyone hold on!"

The tank of Ibaekho's team, Lek Aures, shouted as if he'd found something.

I tried to ignore him thinking it would be nonsense again, but—

"These guys! Their faces look familiar!"

That couldn't be ignored.

"Briot! Come check this out! Aren't these guys explorers on our side?"

"...What do you mean?"

At Aures' request, the archer approached and checked the Bayon corpses with the spiders removed from their faces.

And...

"That's right. Not all, but [N O V E L I G H T] some faces are familiar."

Agreeing with Aures, Briot nodded.

Hearing this, the GM cautiously proposed a theory.

"Could these be the companions of the man called Hans Deilan?"

"...Huh?"

"You know, I heard they were once over a hundred people wandering the outside world together... I wondered if these might be them..."

"Eh? But weren't they said to have scattered?"

Aures expressed doubt, but I thought it was quite possible.

The best place to hide a lie is beside the truth.

'Hundreds remaining outside the city walls is truth.'

But their scattering is false; perhaps they got caught up in some incident.

There's actual evidence for that.

"...I think they've been monsters for at least several months."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know much about Bayon, but look at this one's neck wound. Surely this injury led to death and then 'monstrosity.'"

"...But?"

"But the blood stains on the upper chest are at least several months old."

A rational deduction worthy of a mage used to experiments.

Even the old man of ruin nodded in agreement.

"Hmm... then maybe that Hans Deilan guy actually died months ago and turned monster—"

I interrupted mid-sentence.

"Deilan."

"...?"

"Don't say 'Hans.' Just call him Deilan."

Because whenever I heard 'Hans,' my body twitched reflexively.

"You worry about the strangest things."

He cut me off and teased, then the old man continued.

"Anyway, if Deilan died months ago and turned monster, things get complicated."

"Yes. That means the 'Deilan' we met wasn't really Deilan."

"Huh? What are you both talking about? I don't get it at all!"

"Aures... Simply put, someone pretended to be 'Deilan' and led us here."

"...What! Have we walked into a trap?!"

Jaina explained, and Aures screamed in shock.

It was now familiar, so the two mages just kept chatting as if ignoring him.

"If our theory is right, this isn't the end for the Bayons."

"Yes... We don't know the truth, but if over a hundred people had an accident here..."

"Then many Bayons might still be wandering nearby."

The two concluded with a banter.

"Monster approach detected!"

The scout archer Briot shouted loudly.

"Five... no, six... seven, ten, fifteen...? The number keeps increasing!"

Briot reported the number detected in real time.

From five initially, the number quickly grew past thirty.

"Monster flood! This can rightly be called a monster flood!"

A monster flood is an explorer term for monsters suddenly swarming...

"Wow, a monster wave?"

Players also call it a monster wave.

"Briot, where did the flood start?"

"Everywhere. They're swarming from all directions. Like we're the target!"

A clear abnormality.

Bayons, which were rare and scattered, suddenly gathered in dozens.

'...Did killing one trigger something?'

The details are unknown, but it was time to act rather than hesitate.

"Even with this team, dozens might be too much."

"If other monsters show up or a meteor falls mid-fight, it'll be a big problem."

"The northeast direction has fewer numbers."

"Lead the way. We'll avoid combat as much as possible."

"Yes."

We assigned the archer with the widest detection range to lead, and followed behind.

Being a top-class scout, he skillfully avoided most Bayons.

"This way!"

Using keen intuition, he expertly led us through without bumping into them.

"How's our archer's guidance? Not bad, huh?"

Ibaekho boasted, and the archer smiled awkwardly.

"Baekho, it was only possible because there was a gap. ...If we'd stayed at the original spot and realized late, battle would've been inevitable."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"At first I was unsure, but now I'm certain. If we'd been there when we first killed a Bayon, we'd have already been completely surrounded when we detected their presence."

Briot's humble words made Aures excited.

"Oh, really?! Amazing, Baron! You said we needed to run!"

"...I'm curious too. How did the Baron know?"

The archer agreed, and Ibaekho's eyes gleamed slyly.

"Heh... Maybe our Baron has a skill like that? Let's see, what detection skills does a tank have..."

Believing I had such a detection skill, Ibaekho started shadow boxing sincerely.

"Hmm, [Irritable Muscle] doesn't have that effect, [Needle of Regret] definitely doesn't, and 'Fate Tracker' didn't react either... What could it be?"

Ibaekho threw guesses one by one, but I said nothing.

Because how could I say it was not a skill but 'Hans'?

Even if I explained, no one would believe me, and it's better for me if they think I have another skill.

So I kept silent and focused on breaking through the Bayons' encirclement and escaping.

Time passed again.

「Character entered a special zone.」

We left the Old Rock Grassland and entered a new field.

「Field effect — Deadly Poison Lava Field is applied.」

「Character's poison resistance is fixed at 0.」

「Soul recovery speed decreased by 99%.」

「Warning: Beware of explosions!」

Boiling green lava.

Thick poisonous gas like smoke.

"...Looks like they're no longer following."

The scout said the situation was over upon entering the new field.

"We survived."

"Thankfully, the pursuit isn't unconditional."

We escaped the Bayon monster wave.

But my warrior's pounding heart still said otherwise.

Thump—!

This can't be the end.