The 31st Piece Turns the Tables

Chapter 21

Seol cleared the 1st Gate using his memory, not the translated copy.

His viewers were in shock from his unpredictable actions.

[‘They’reComing!’ has donated 200 Madness!]

[There are pursuers after you! Huh? You passed through?]

- He’s speeding through this like a highway.

- He should pay the toll fee then.

- But why did he leave the translated copy behind?

- He said he doesn’t need it.

After he passed through the gate, he walked through a one-way passage.

Not too long after, the 2nd Gate appeared.

‘The walls are filled with holes… it’s as I remember.’

He could perfectly recall everything.

Seol then concentrated to look at a passage written from afar.

There was a sentence written on the wall in an ancient language.

Soon after, he saw his options.

[[In front, arrow traps lay on either side, and some text, written in an unknown ancient language. What do you do?]

1. Spend some time trying to reason out what could be written in the ancient language.

2. Attempt to find the trap trigger by throwing an object.

3. Clear the room by rushing through it.

4. [Required: Disarm Trap or Rogue] Disarm the arrow traps

5. [Required: Mechanical Engineering] Check how the mechanisms operate.

6. [Required: Archaeology or Shaman] Decipher the ancient language.

……]

“......”

Option 1 had a high chance of failure and option 2 was pointless because throwing a rock would just trigger the trap.

The same went for option 3.

‘Arrows are fast after all.’

There were way too many arrows to ask Jamad to catch and it was also considerably fast.

‘And if I even get poisoned a little bit, it’s going to be dangerous.’

Since Seol wasn’t a rogue, option 4 was impossible too.

Option 5 required him to destroy the core of the mechanism but Seol had no idea where that was.

Therefore, the only option left to him was option 6.

The option that Seol chose before was also option 6.

‘Back then, the phrase was something like…’

- Be humble and exercise self-control. Thank Yzmokan for their generosity as vast as the ocean.

Seol remembered that line clearly.

Seol only found this out later but ‘The Hall of Self-Control’ was a place used to worship an unknown native god.

The fact that they were capable of building something this massive made Seol curious about how strong their believers were but that wasn’t important right now. What was important was that this ruin was no different from a temple.

‘So I either have to pray or get down on my knees to bow.’

One of Seol’s former party members died here.

It was because they misunderstood what the ruin wanted from them.

Seol grabbed a small rock from the floor and rolled it in front of him.

Roll…

There was no response.

‘It’s safe.’

Step…

Seol flattened himself and stayed low to the ground like a frog.

It might look funny from a third person’s perspective if they saw him crawl on the ground like that but it was in actuality a very tense situation.

‘These traps don’t activate when you’re close to the ground.’

Seol’s former party member died because they weren’t low enough. A poisoned arrow grazed their back and they were the first to die because of it.

His party members, after seeing that, all stayed low to the ground regardless of how they looked.

[You have cleared the 2nd Gate of ‘The Hall of Self-Control’.]

Seol then quickly cleared through the other gates.

This was all thanks to the memories he had of his 2nd character.

[You have cleared the 3rd Gate of ‘The Hall of Self-Control’.]

[You have cleared the 4th Gate of ‘The Hall of Self-Control’.]

……

And his pursuers, now… finally reached the ruins.

[Borgo, the Ruins Hunter, has entered ‘The Hall of Self-Control’ with his party.]

[They are aiming for you and the treasure.]

“So they’re here.”

Seol was currently in the hallway before the 5th Gate.

Seol could just simply enter the 5th Gate by passing through this hallway but he decided to wait a moment.

In this dark tunnel, there were three levers. 2, 3, and 4 were written on the levers in an ancient language.

Because they were pictographs, it was easy to recognize them.

Seol then saw some options.

[[These levers clearly seem related to the mechanisms in the previous gates. You may be able to slip away from your pursuers with this. What do you do?]

1. Pull the left lever.

2. Pull the center lever.

3. Pull the right lever.

……]

Creaaaak!

Click!

Seol pulled on all three levers.

* * *

Translator - goguma

Proofreader - Karane

* * *

Borgo arrived at ‘The Hall of Self-Control’.

It smelled like mildew but there was also the smell of fresh blood.

“He’s here.”

The thirty-ish members of Borgo’s group crowded the ruin.

Even if Seol was on the stronger side, it would be difficult for him to face everyone on his own.

“Kirzhin, take the lead.”

“Y-Yes…”

“You know what will happen to you if you’re wrong, right?”

“Th-that won’t happen! The translated copy that Kujo stole was an incomplete one! Why else would I have notified you the moment it went missing?”

“And it wasn’t some sort of deal with Kujo breaking down, was it?”

“...Please have faith in me. I, Kirzhin, shall prove my own innocence.”

“Hmph.”

Kirzhin, who was trying his best to appease Borgo, was the person who handed Kujo the translated copy.

He wasn’t the best archaeologist but he was skilled in bossing other archaeologists around.

And because of that, he was able to successfully decipher the ruin’s traps. He had a properly translated copy, not the one that Kujo took.

“Here! I think it’s his traces!” said Kirzhin after looking at the ripped-up translated copy.

“It seems he knows that the translated copy was wrong.”

“How?”

“...Huh?”

“I asked you, how does he know that?”

“I… don’t know.”

“Does he have a talent in archaeology as well?”

Kirzhin was shocked when he saw traces of his target successfully passing the 1st Gate. He expected him to get stuck there.

‘I’m only going to end up at Borgo’s mercy at this rate… that fucking bastard.’

In the worst-case scenario, Borgo would even kill Kirzhin.

He was a man who was more than capable of doing that.

“It was written on the previous translated copy that you needed five sacrifices, but… that was incorrectly translated.”

“......”

Slice.

Kirzhin made a small cut on his finger and let blood drip out. He let it drip onto the ground in front of the gate.

Rumble Rumble Rumble!

The door opened while shaking the ground.

“See? I told you you could trust me!”

“It seems so. Take the lead.”

Borgo held back his doubts a little bit.

Kirzhin could also sense that Borgo trusted him a bit more.

Kirzhin got excited and quickly walked to the 2nd Gate.

“Hahaha! Here! Here, we… huh? Where is he…”

“It looks like he passed through the gate.”

“How… How did he pass through it?”

“How would we know when you don’t know, Kirzhin?”

Borgo’s close aides were pressing him.

“Kirzhin, we have to clear the ruin faster than him. If we’re too slow, he’s going to take all of the treasures. You know that, right? What Borgo hates the most is having someone take what’s his.”

“I-I know.”

“I think it’s pretty clear what’s going to happen if we’re later than him.”

“We’ll clear through the ruins as fast as possible!”

Kirzhin quickly explained how to clear the Gate with short explanations.

“We go to the other side while crawling on the ground.”

“...You want us to crawl?”

“There are arrow traps, but it will take some time to disarm them. If we do that, then he’ll—”

“I understand, Borgo…”

“I heard him.”

“What should we do? Should we send some people first?” said one of his aides.

Borgo rubbed his chin and made a decision.

“No, we’ll clear it right away.”

“Will it be alright? It could be dangerous.”

“Even now, he’s in front of us. And I despise having someone in front of me.”

“...I understand.”

“I’ll trust Kirzhin one more time.”

Kirzhin, after hearing those words, shouted in confidence, “Thank you!”

Like that, 30 people were crawling on the ground.

They positioned themselves so that the people on the outside held shields for the worst case scenario. They also placed Borgo in the center in the safest position. Kirzhin could see the people in the front start to reach the exit.

“As you can see, I, Kirzhin, finely dismantled these ruins and revealed everything. There’s only two things that we have to be careful of in the next Gates…” said Kirzhin confidently.

Kirzhin was answering questions that weren’t asked while crawling on the floor.

Borgo wanted to tell Kirzhin to shut up but stopped when he heard ‘things we have to be careful of’.

“Things we have to be careful of?”

“Yes! One is… huh? Uh… wait, we'll be fine, right? We can’t let that happen.”

“What are you saying? Explain it so I can understand.”

“Well… around the midway point of the ruins, there’s a place that lets you control the gates you cleared before…”

“And what if he reached it? Then what?”

“Well…”

It was then.

Click!

It sounded like something in the walls had armed itself.

All 30 people could feel their hearts sink and shake.

“Raise your shields!”

“Run! Get up and run!”

That was when hell started.

Ffft Ffft Ffft Ffft!

“Krgh…”

“Ahh!”

“Aaargh!”

Ffft Fft!

It was raining arrows.

Well, ‘raining’ might have been a bad comparison since rain doesn’t fall sideways.

But thankfully, since Borgo was at the center, he was protected by his subordinates and wasn’t hit by even a single arrow. He safely reached the end of the gate.

“Fuu... Fuuu… How many did we lose?”

“We were able to appropriately in ti—”

“How many did we lose?”

“Seven people. But…”

“But?”

“Kirzhin is dead. We obviously already received most of the information about the ruin from him, but…”

Borgo looked back and saw Kirzhin’s corpse punctured in arrows. It was a horrifying sight but Borgo didn’t even wince.

“Hahaha…”

“Borgo.”

“Hahahahahahahahahaha! How fun! You really are quite fun, Snowman! Don’t you think so too?”

No one laughed along with him.

Right now, Borgo was furious.

He was a laughing demon.

When he finished laughing, he had a fire in his eyes.

“From this point on, we’re prioritizing killing him over the ruin’s treasures.”

“Yes!”

“Yes!”

“How dare he mess with me, the Great Borgo… He better be careful.”

* * *

[‘Borgo’ has donated 200 Madness!]

[I, Ruinman, took care of him so don’t worry!]

- Thanks Ruinman!

- I just got chills lol. Did anyone else see how fast his experience went up?

- Borgo and Borgo again~

- I really want to see him just speed through it like it’s nothing.

- Gates 3 and 4 were way too easy though :(

Even though his viewers were cheering for his actions thus far, Seol was looking at the 5th Gate nervously.

‘There’s no door. So it’s this room…’

The 5th Gate had no openings except for the hallway that you took. It was a completely closed-off room.

[Insight activates.]

[There are traps here.]

After Insight activated, Seol received some options.

[[You do not see a door. What do you do?]

1. Feel the wall to look for any suspicious points.

2. Shout.

3. Turn back and look for another path.

4. [Required: Disarm Trap or Rogue] Search for traps.

5. [Required: Archaeology or Shaman] Decipher the ancient language.

……]

As expected, something was written in an ancient language on the walls again.

Seol remembered the phrase.

- Step forth with your eyes closed. Take as many steps as your love for Yzmokan.

Walking with your eyes closed in a place with traps was impossible to do unless you were crazy.

Normally, you keep your eyes open in case you activate something and need to dodge.

However, some people were able to do this.

It was possible for those who worshiped Yzmokan as the writings said or the person who created the ruin.

And it was also possible for another group of people.

It was possible for those that knew how to clear the Gate, like Seol.

‘Alright, here I go.’

Step.

Step.

Seol slowly walked with his eyes closed.

He was counting his steps.

He could feel warmth… he could also feel a breeze…

‘It’s weird, it’s just like…’

He thought someone was walking by his side.

Seol stopped after taking 8 steps.

Based on his interpretation, there were eight beings who have taken the name of ‘Yzmokan’. And since there were eight of them, you should obviously be able to see the door once you take eight steps.

If you were wrong though, you would get caught in a trap.

Seol still hadn’t opened his eyes yet. He thought of his character who cleared this Gate.

‘Eight isn’t right. I need to take nine steps now.’

There was something different between him and his second character.

Build.

‘Ziliac was over 2 meters tall. I need to take another step to reach the same distance.’

This gate wasn’t as simple as the number of steps you had to take.

Seol’s former party member was a dwarf and had to take over twenty steps to reach the same distance.

‘The worshippers of this temple were on the tall side, so…’

This was information he only found out later but the believers of Yzmokan were all over 2 meters tall. Their stride was obviously different from ours.

So 8 steps for them.

Step.

‘Is 9 steps for me.’

Seol opened his eyes.

He could see the door.

Click!

[You have cleared the 5th Gate of The Hall of Self-Control.]

Gradually, he was getting closer.

Closer to his 2nd character that he lost in this ruin, Ziliac, the Ruins Hunter.

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