Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel 2025 - Chapter 579
Chapter 579: Return (5)
Ghost Busters.
After popping into existence more than twenty years ago, this space became a safe haven for many users who were homesick. Its final moments were just as abrupt.
[Urgent Notice: The server will soon shut down.]
a problem could occur if you are forcibly disconnected, so if any users are still logged in, please log out quickly.
The notice appeared about five minutes after I read Hyeonbyeol’s message.
When I refreshed the page, the community board was already littered with people preparing for the end of days. Posts about why the community was being shut down when there was still time left, to people looking for certain others, to troll posts that I didn’t usually see due to the good moderation system.
[Really Urgent. Please answer.]
[Really Urgent. Please answer.]
[Really Urgent. Please answer.]
[Really Urgent. Please answer.]
[Really Urgent. Please answer.]
[Really Urgent. Please answer.]
I clicked on the post, curious what the question would be, but it was nothing interesting.
[Really Urgent. Please answer.]
What happens if you don’t log out and stay here?
I sighed. I knew this would happen. Still, I was a little intrigued myself, so I went to check the comments.
these99: What do you think will happen? You’ll probably get logged out.
└Author: really? Then I’m going to wait here until I’m automatically logged out.
└fliccolo: didn’t you see that something could happen to you? Just press the log-out button yourself. If something does go wrong, you live the rest of your life as a vegetable.
It was quite a frightening prospect. Not logging out at the proper time and losing your mind because of it. Wondering whether or not that could even happen was fair enough, but considering the peculiarities of this space, it wasn’t absolutely impossible at least.
I’m worried about the wording of “problem that could occur” that GM had kindly informed us about as well.
Even without all this, there was no point in staying here until the end, so after reading the rest of the posts, I pressed the log-out button.
[Do you wish to log out?]
The same selection window with yes and no greeted me, just as it had when I first entered this world.
Click, click.
When I pressed yes, the world faded to black, and I could feel myself being transported somewhere.
It was time to return. Not to the mysterious powerhouse Lion, or the ordinary worker Hansu Lee.
“…You’re here six seconds earlier than usual. Did something happen there?”
But to Bjorn Yandel.
Come to think of it, when had it started? At some point, whenever I came back from the community, Amelia was there waiting for me. I’d told her multiple times that there was no need to do that, but soon after gave up on it once I realized she would always be there when I opened my eyes no matter what I said.
And, to be honest, I couldn’t truthfully say that I wasn’t grateful for it.
“Didn’t you say you were going to go sleep? Are you lying to me now?” I probed.
“I did want to do that.”
“But?”
“I couldn’t sleep.”
Couldn’t sleep, my ass. Even as I sent her a smirk, Amelia continued to make excuses for herself. “…And we don’t know what might happen inside the labyrinth.”
Well, she wasn’t wrong.
Amelia handed me a cup of water as I sat up. “So, did something happen?” she asked.
“The meeting place has closed as of today.”
“Closed…?”
After gulping down the cold water, I gave her a more detailed outline of what happened. I told her about how I saw the notice as soon as I entered the community and even the information I got from the Round Table related to the shutting down.
“Hmm, Auril Gavis is related to the closing…”
“The public reason is to stop the evil spirits from getting complacent, but there is no way that is the whole truth. How about it? Do you have any guesses?”
“Not really… I’ll tell you if I think of something.”
Hmm, so she couldn’t get anything either.
I mean, I supposed it was to be expected since she hadn’t properly met Auril Gavis before.
“So, Yandel,” Amelia said, interrupting my thoughts. This time, her voice had taken on a particular tone. “What else happened there?”
“…Huh?”
“You wouldn’t be wearing that expression if it were just that.”
“My expression…?” I tilted my head.
Carefully, Amelia said, “I might’ve misinterpreted…”
“You don’t have to say it in a roundabout way. Just tell me straight.”
“You looked like you were going through it like you were suffering a lot.”
Ah…
“Did something else happen in there?” she finished.
I let out a sigh. I really couldn’t hide anything from her.
What should I do? Do I tell her or not?
I took a moment to think it over, but in the end, I told her everything that had happened. It wasn’t something I needed to hide anyway…and it was difficult for me to lie to her when she was looking at me with those round eyes.
“Oh…so that’s what it was.”
It didn’t take long for the story to end. I did my best to eliminate my personal biases and only give her the objective order of events as they happened, yet despite that, Amelia immediately realized what hurt me from that barebones description. No, I’d even wager that she knew me better than myself when I heard the next thing she said.
“Right now, you’re conflicted over whether you have the right to be angry at Missha Karlstein or not.”
Amelia had summarized in one sentence the state of my heart, something that even I couldn’t fully wrap my head around. It felt as if I had just been exposed from the inside out. Perhaps that was why I immediately responded without thinking.
“It’s not as simple as that. It’s not even about just Missha in the first place. It’s a complicated situation when you take into account everyone—”
“But Missha Karlstein is the core of that problem.” When I went quiet, she continued, “Am I wrong?”
I had nothing I could say. That was why I stayed silent, and Amelia calmly asked me a question as I did.
“Could I hear what happened on that day?”
I didn’t need to ask what day she was talking about. She meant the day I told her nothing had happened. The day when Missha stopped talking to everyone and started to stay by herself in a corner.
…Where do I begin?
After thinking through my options, I began to explain from the beginning.
“Do you know about the Stone of Revival?”
To explain my business with Missha, I needed to explain that first. I hadn’t told anyone about the details yet.
“Somewhat,” she answered plainly.
“Before Missha Karlstein returned to our clan, she received a Stone of Revival from Baekho Lee, and when I learned that had happened, I asked her about it.”
“And then?”
“I asked her if she knew that the person the Stone of Revival is used on loses their memories, and she answered that no, she didn’t. I then told her I understood and asked her to leave.”
“So…what happened after that?”
I let out a sigh. “Missha didn’t leave. She asked me to say something, that even getting angry at her would be enough for her. So I told her the honest truth.” I paused, and when Amelia didn’t respond, I finally admitted, “That I couldn’t…trust her anymore. That the first question on my mind after our conversation was if she was hiding anything else.”
A moment of silence fell between us.
“…And then?”
“That’s it.”
Missha Karlstein had left the room without saying a word, and we hadn’t spoken since. That was the end of the story.
“I see.” Now having been told it all, Amelia stayed silent, seemingly collecting her thoughts, before asking a question I never expected. “Why did you hide the story about Missha Karlstein from us?”
Well…I didn’t know. Why did I? Why wasn’t I able to tell Amelia about the story around the Stone of Revival?
I wanted to just say I didn’t know and move on, but I already knew the answer to that question.
“…Because I knew she would be isolated.”
Missha’s position in our clan was already shaky. Erwen looked at her with displeasure, and Versyl had already pinned her as a traitor candidate and was wary of her. After having left for two years, she wasn’t able to stay close to Ainar and, in the end, was practically treated as an outsider. It was obvious what would happen to her if the fact that Baekho Lee ordered her to do this was also revealed on top of all that.
She would be isolated even more.
That could lead to her leaving on her own volition. However, that was also why I couldn’t help but laugh at myself.
Just what do I want to do?
Somehow, the thought made me even more confused about my own state of mind.
It was then that Amelia slowly nodded in apparent understanding. “I see. So that’s why you weren’t able to use ‘Misplaced Trust’ on Missha… Because you suspected that she was hiding something more.”
She had hit the mark.
Maybe it was paradoxical, but I wasn’t able to use the item on Missha because I couldn’t trust her. It was like Schrodinger’s Cat. The moment the box was opened, the outcome would be decided and I wouldn’t be able to go back. That was why I left the box as it was for now.
Noticing my pitiful state, Amelia said, “That’s so like you.”
It could be taken as an insult, but Amelia’s eyes were filled with gentleness.
“Bjorn Yandel. When the day breaks, take ‘Misplaced Trust’ and go to Misshal Karlstein to see if she’s hiding anything else. And if she says she’s not, treat her as an ally, just as you did in the past.”
“And if she is hiding something more?”
“Well, we’ll need to think about that if that time comes.”
“Isn’t that…a little irresponsible?”
“But you know as well as I do that we can’t keep delaying this forever.”
Well, that was true. I let out a frustrated sigh.
“Even if you don’t want to, do what you need to do,” Amelia comforted me. “Just like you always do, Bjorn Yandel.”
Just like I always do…
When she saw Bjorn Yandel in her mind, what did she see?
It made me wonder how I too looked at her.
“…Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You just seem more mature than usual.”
It was my unfiltered truth.
“Eh…?” For some reason, Amelia flinched like she’d been struck on the head. She then let out a sigh and gave me a look. “I’ll take it as a compliment.”
Uh…was there another way to take that sentence?
***
I went back to sleep, and when I awoke the next morning, I immediately went to the village chief to receive the Misplaced Trust I would use on Missha. Even as I did, I fell into deep thought.
Is this the right thing to do…?
I wasn’t worried about whether or not Missha was hiding something but instead felt resistant to using this item on an ally. If I used it now and moved on, then what about the next time? Maybe after this, I would become dependent on using Misplaced Trust on my allies whenever I became suspicious of them.
Would such a relationship even be classified as one between two allies?
That was the core question. However…
This will be the last time.
Although I didn’t know what might happen in the future, deciding in my heart that this would be the last brought me some comfort.
I raised my hand and knocked on the door I had been standing in front of for a while. There was no reaction but it didn’t seem like she was still asleep.
I knocked once more. “It’s me, Missha. Let’s talk.”
The sound of shuffling came from inside the room. “Eh? Huh? B-Bjorn? W-wait just a second…”
It was five minutes later when the door opened.
“What…is it…? It’s early in the morning…”
Despite saying she lived like an outcast, she looked very clean. It seemed that she had been washing herself, as her hair was still not dried yet.
“May I come in?”
“Uh…it’s a little messy…”
“It’s fine.” I walked through the door, then immediately took out Misplaced Trust.
“That’s…” An array of emotions flitted across Missha’s expression as she recognized the item. She seemed both relieved and happy to see it. She also seemed disappointed in something, and maybe afraid as well.
I couldn’t say for sure that was why, but I found it difficult to say anything. Even so, I forced my voice to speak.
“I want to talk after turning this on first. May I?”
Her answer came after a short pause, though it came in the form of another question. “And if I answer everything after you turn it on…then can we return to how we were? Like before?”
A question popped into my mind.
What did she mean by “before?” Perhaps when it felt like our hearts aligned, or maybe when we were simply allies.
Well, it was probably the latter. It was Missha who had drawn that line and pushed me away.
“Maybe.” I gave a vague positive reply.
There was one condition, if Missha really had nothing more to hide from me, then we might be able to return to how we had been—before I had to suffer from how complicated this relationship had become.
“Then…you may.”
As Missha clenched her fist and nodded, I began my proper questioning.
[You have used Misplaced Trust.]
I sensed it every time, but this was named perfectly.
A familiar voice spoke from within the room.