Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel 2025 - Chapter 578
Chapter 578: Return (4)
A soft drink was made even more refreshing by the ice that floated around in it.
I swirled the cup a little to cool it down before drinking it all in one go. I mean, the taste would be diluted if I waited for the ice to melt, right?
“Kah…!”
Yeah, this was it. I’d missed this taste so much. This world was manageable, but it didn’t have any soft drinks. I could find the bubbling sensation in beer, but that was quite different from the modern taste I wanted.
…Should I go back?
The taste was enough to reignite my will to return, which had all but faded away.
Baekho needed to know this. In the time he tried to scheme with the Stone of Revival or whatever, if he’d just made me drink a few cups of soda, I would’ve seriously considered returning to the real world.
“Sir, please pour me another one.”
After downing one cup, I even ordered a refill. However, I didn’t chug it this time, instead savoring the taste.
“You…look really happy for some reason.”
Wow, way to sour the mood. I was the type of person to immediately feel worse even when I was happy when I heard someone say that to me.
“Alright, then do tell me,” Auril Gavis said eventually. “How did you meet her?”
“Ah, the witch?”
“Yes. I truly can’t understand. No matter how I thought about it, a situation where you meet with her should not have arisen…”
Hmm. “Why are you so sure about that, sir?” I said, narrowing my eyes.
He went quiet again, his own eyes darting a little as he looked for an excuse.
To be honest, it was pretty frightening. Was he really observing my every move?
The entire time? Just how?
The old man opted to vaguely gloss over it. “Time-wise, I’m sure that you didn’t meet her on Basement Floor 1. And from what I remember, you were very busy during that time—the work within the clan and the magic tower and whatnot. Didn’t you also defeat two Lords of the Floor during that period?”
Well, it was true that I was busy back then. On top of all the things I needed to do, I also had to deal with Count Alminus’s accusations. But that didn’t mean I accepted his weak defense.
“You’ve already drank it all. Give it here. I’ll pour you another one.” He quickly took my cup back to refill it again. Although it felt wrong to say, in a sense, this old man was pretty consistent. Depending on the situation, he knew when he had the upper or lower hand and adjusted quickly.
“Sir, even if you do that, I can’t tell you this for free. I should get something as well.”
As I drew the line on the ground, fury lit his expression, plain to see since he’d gotten rid of his mask as soon as it was just the two of us. “Free?! What do you mean? Am I not giving you your drinks?!”
“Yes, and I’m thankful for that.”
“When someone is truly thankful—”
Hey, don’t cross the line.
“If everything could be solved with a soft drink, why do we have money and mana stones?” I responded sarcastically. “Wouldn’t giving a drink solve everything?”
His expression hardened. “Every time we meet is a new reminder that you have a talent for pissing people off.”
The air in the room froze as the man who went around smiling like a neighborhood grandpa changed his expression on a dime. But so what? This wasn’t my first time being in a situation like this, and I understood this old man quite well, at this point.
“Don’t act like you’re angry. It won’t work even if you do,” I said, brushing it off like it was nothing.
His expression smoothed, returning to normal as if it had never changed to begin with. “Haha, you’re not easy to deal with. So… what do you want from me?”
Since the stick wouldn’t work, he could only use the carrot.
“You must want something as well,” he hedged. “Isn’t that why you’re doing all this?”
To be honest, I didn’t want anything in particular. I had so many things I wanted to ask him that I was having a hard time narrowing down which one. I needed to put them into a ranking of priority first.
Asking what he’s scheming is too general.
In the end, I decided on a more focused question.
“Why are you trying to close down Ghost Busters?” I asked, trying to get at the old man’s intentions for his most recent action.
“Hmm, do I just answer you here? There’s no gem here to discern the truth anymore.”
He spoke as if he would immediately create the gem again if I asked him to, but I declined. “It’s fine, so just answer me. And it’s not like I can trust you 100 percent, even if the gem is here.”
“So you’ll decide if it’s the truth or not.”
“Yes, so please give me a proper answer. If you lie here and get caught, it’ll be your loss.”
“My loss?”
“Because I won’t believe a thing you say in the future.”
It might sound childish, but this would be a decent threat. If this old man wanted to control me like a puppet, he needed to maintain a friendly relationship with me.
“Hmm…”
But why was this old man not answering and instead looking at me like a pervert?
“What is it?” I prompted. “Is there something else you want to say?”
“No.”
“If not, then why haven’t you said anything?”
As I looked at him as if to ask if he wasn’t serious this whole time, Auril Gavis finally spoke. “It’s just this was quite impressive. Your outlook toward trust, that is.”
What the hell was he talking about?
The old man continued, ignoring my expression of disbelief, “If someone betrayed you, you would punish them yourself. That is trust to you.”
Wasn’t that the same as everyone else? Were there some people who just laughed it off after they got betrayed?
Despite the questions in my heart, I opted to stay quiet and listen for now.
“Just like how crimes are less likely to be committed when the law is more strict, your trust or lack thereof also acts as a deterrent which—”
Ah, I couldn’t just sit here and listen to this guy talk. From what he was saying, he was making it seem like I was someone who couldn’t trust anyone unless I had the upper hand in all situations.
“Sir,” I asked him directly, “do you perhaps have a problem with your head? How did you come to that conclusion from the question I asked?”
“Hmm…”
“Think about what you did to me first. What can I trust about you?”
“Then are your allies different?”
Obviously.
…was the answer I tried to give, but for some reason, I couldn’t. I recalled what this old man said just then.
“If someone betrayed you, you would punish them yourself.”
Punishment. Maybe that was what I was doing to Missha. Regardless, I left the topic there.
“Let’s move on. Just answer the question I asked you. Why are you trying to close down the community?”
“If I answer you, will you answer me as well?”
My response came without hesitation. “I’ll think about it if the information you gave me is worth it.”
To put it simply, I was ready to run at any moment. More likely than not, Auril Gavis read between the lines and realized it was a vague answer with no guarantees.
“Sure. Then decide after hearing it.”
Despite that, he accepted it without adding anything.
“Wow, sir. Looks like you’re easygoing today,” I remarked.
“…Could you stop changing your attitude so quickly? It’s like you’re treating me like a child.”
“Don’t mind it, don’t mind it.” With a gentle smile on my face, I asked, “So, what’s the answer?”
He let out a sigh. “The reason I’m shutting Ghost Busters down is simple. This place isn’t having a positive effect on the players. It is going against my intentions.”
“A positive effect?”
“This place is no different to a safe haven for the players. They talk about their homes and can share their loneliness with others who are in the same position as them.”
“And that is bad, how?”
“It’s a problem. Humans who are satisfied with the present are bound to settle for it.”
“Ah…” I had an idea as to what he was trying to say. Honestly, just a glance at the free-posting board was enough to tell. They talked about their rent, getting married, or even having a child here.
“Our friends from earlier are the same. Just a few years ago, they wouldn’t have given up an opportunity like this.”
So the old man was still sour about how badly his quiz went. Well, fair enough.
“So you’re getting rid of it? Because if the boards are up, they won’t think about returning home?”
“Something like that.”
Saying that meant he was obviously holding back a lot more information.
“There, how about it? Is that enough?” he asked.
“No. I would’ve answered your question if this was some grand secret, but I’ve concluded that the quality of information is too low for me to exchange the information about the witch.”
Basically, I was going to dine-and-dash. However, the thing I wasn’t expecting was Auril Gavis’s expression to be so calm. It was as if he didn’t have anything to lose, even if the conversation ended there. Was he acting calm so he could maintain his air of authority?
In the end, I was the first to break. This was still a rare meeting, so I couldn’t stop here without getting anything. “So…can’t you just leave the community be? I’ll give you information about the witch if you do.”
In truth, I didn’t say that to protect the community. I was just curious what his reaction would be after receiving—
“That’ll be impossible.”
Yeah, so he refused. It meant that closing the community was of a higher priority to him than learning the information about the witch. Then why was he doing this? No matter how I thought about it, the players easing into their lives shouldn’t be the only reason.
He chose to wrap up the conversation. “Then it seems our talk today will end here.”
“I imagine so. It’s not like you’re going to give me more information even if I asked, right?”
“Haha, you need to trust other people more.”
“I do. But just the ones that deserve it.”
With those empty words, the conversation slowly came to an end.
“Then I’ll be going now. I have something else I need to do before the community closes, but I will be seeing you later.”
“Right. I don’t know when that’ll be, but please tell me everything going on inside your head at that time,” I threw out.
“That’s an odd way to put it. I could tell you everything right now if you are prepared to trust my words.”
His words were soaked in lies.
Auril Gavis laughed when I smirked at his nonsense, seeming to have expected that reaction. “I don’t know if you’ll believe me, but I’ll give you one last piece of advice.”
“Advice? I’ll hear it first, so tell me.”
“Baekho Lee.”
“Him…?”
“Don’t get too close with that friend of yours.” The advice genuinely blindsided me, but I had no opportunity to say anything back before he concluded, “That is all. I’ll be seeing you in the future.”
With that, Auril Gavis left the Round Table.
I stared vacantly at the space where he’d been standing, then quickly shook myself out of it. A sudden possibility had crossed my mind.
Baekho Lee…
Maybe…
I wasn’t sure of it, but maybe…
Was he the reason that Auril Gavis chose to close down the community? Just like burning down a house to kill a spider, if the community disappeared, then the way for Baekho Lee and I to communicate would also disappear.
Well, that was only my guess.
“You old crook. You didn’t tell me a single thing straight,” I grumbled, then let out a sigh that echoed inside the empty interior.
A sudden silence.
Empty seats surrounded the Round Table, now deprived of its gem.
It does feel like everything’s over.
Even knowing that I needed to leave and get back to what I needed to do, I couldn’t quite bring myself to move. Somehow, despite myself, I still found myself in disbelief.
Deer and Crescent left in the first round, and with Auril Gavis’s appearance, everyone else left one by one.
Tap.
I took the Lion mask I had taken off to drink and put it on my face again. This was probably the last time I would wear this mask as well.
I had grown fond of it.
“This is really the end…”
The words didn’t come easily, yet even once they were out, they couldn’t quite fill the space for some reason. I wasn’t expecting a joyful and friendly departure like a high school graduation or anything, but I never thought it would end like this.
Maybe that was why?
“However, I cannot seem to thank you.”
“Do you really think this is fun? Do you?”
For some reason, the words of those two echoed in my mind.
I quickly shook my head to regain my focus.
Don’t think about that. It’s not like we came here to get friendly with each other.
I smirked and left the mask on the Round Table before looking around at the empty room.
“…Not fun at all.”
And with that, the final meeting came to a close.
***
After taking in the view of the empty Round Table, I returned to Hansu Lee’s room. I lay on the bed and rolled around for a bit before steeling my heart again and checking the mail on my computer.
I do have a message…
Despite my expectations, though, it wasn’t from GM.
[From: HS123]
HS123.
A message from Hyeonbyeol.
I guess we weren’t able to say a proper goodbye because of Baekho.
What was in the message? As I opened up the message with a click, the text opened up.
[Before when I asked about revealing our identities to each other, I know that you were the one who drew that line, but I’m going to do as I please now as well. The admins could look through our notes, so I can’t say who I am through this message, but…] What she wanted to say was written in the last line.
[I’ll see you on the outside.]
Outside…
I needed to get out of the labyrinth first.