Under Seokchon Lake.

The end of the frozen labyrinth.

The trademark of Biryung Na in the game, a fishnet cloak with butterfly wing embroidery, could be seen faintly.

The hem of the dress under the cloak, which looked like it was made of shadows, was fluttering.

[Hehe, come on in. There are humans but no injuries. Why didnt any of you suffer from the psychic poison?]

Perhaps she was preventing voice analysis, or, analysis of the voice fingerprint.

Biryung Nas voice was altered electronically.

Thats the butterfly that locked me up between the borders of dream and reality.

At Jae-in Kwons words, the members of the EverLake team made nasty faces.

The hologram of Biryung gazed at Jae-in.

[Long time no see, Jae-in Kwon.]

Biryung Na greeted her wholeheartedly, as seeing an old friend.

Jae-in Kwon was expressionless, but her voice was hardened and didnt seem happy at all to see her.

There are a lot of things I want to say, but theres one thing I always wanted to ask when I find you.

[Ill answer the best I can, depending on the question.]

Jae-ins usually laid-back blue eyes now reflected intense emotions.

That day, why did you split up our team by going through the trouble of locking me up? If you had only told me the coordinates, the EverLake team would have been in Manchester for the Great Other-world attack. No, if you had told us about the raid of the Original clan against the British Association in the first place, such a tragedy wouldnt have.

[That, of course,]

Biryung Na began to answer before Jae-in Kwon finished speaking.

[was to minimize the risk of my intentions being revealed to The one, and to increase you, Jae-in, your chances of survival.]

I wasnt able to see Biryungs face clearly due to all the black Noise, but it felt like she was smiling.

Jae-in Kwon asked again.

My chances of survival?

[Yeah. Think about it. Do you think you couldve been here, in one piece, without the sacrifice of your family and teammates?]

It became clear why Biryung Na did that during the Manchesters Great Other-world attack.

Jae-in became pale-faced, aware of the intentions of Biryung Na.

[You mightve survived, but not enough to play the violin again. A player of your class, a violinist, doesnt come easy. Those who died then were excellent too, but there are enough personnel to replace them.]

The hell with replace!

[Theres still no violinists beyond you, but the EverLake team is going well without problems with your new teammates, right?]

Jae-in Kwon was nearly screaming at this point.

My mother, my brother, my friend There is no one who can replace them, there will never be!

[It might be, for you. But for me, or this world, it doesnt work that way.]

Blue psychic waves flowed out of Jae-ins body.

At this rate, Jae-in Kwons gonna explode!

It was right after Jared Lee went with the Regulations Enforcement Department and found out someone she knew was related to the Dream Auction scandal.

On top of that, now she heard her family and friends were sacrificed because of her own safety. It was more than enough to drive her mad.

Jae-in, calm down! Thats not the real person.

Jared isnt even here now!

Jae-in did not seem to hear the voices of her team members.

In fact, she didnt even seem to be able to oppress her powers.

Guess it cant be helped.

Thirties-version Golden Tiger raised one finger and pressed it against Jae-ins forehead.

Zing-!

Rays of blue light stretched out from his finger and started to tie down her psychic waves.

The boss area became submerged in blue light, then Jae-in Kwon fainted.

Ah

Jae-in!

Golden Tiger withdrew his finger after he made sure Jae-ins teammates supported her body.

I suppressed her strength and knocked her unconscious. Dont let her use psychic power for 24 hours.

The finger Golden Tiger used turned into a bluish shade.

He glanced at his discolored finger and glared at Biryung Na.

Biryung spoke cheerfully even after she received Golden Tigers glare and saw Jae-in faint.

[Head of the Tiger Clan, do you know how much trouble I have gone through because of your laziness? Hehe, although you appear to have gotten over that laziness now. I kinda want you to suffer a bit.]

The fuck. Youre practically asking me to kill you. Butterfly.

Biryung stretched out both arms to the offended Golden Tiger and said,

[You say a butterflys wings can call a storm, right?]

So youre going to call a storm?

[No, the opposite.]

The voice of Biryung was full of laughter.

[I wonder if my wings, which are nothing but humble beings, can stop the storm of the one. I want to stop it.]

So her questionable behavior in the game was because of that thought.

According to those words, shes on the good side, but somethings a bit off.

There were some suspicious things that didnt quite make her a simple, helpful NPC.

While I was recalling the deeds of Biryung and figuring out the truth, Golden Tiger continued talking.

Stop the storm The one is going to make? Then tell me what his identity is and what the storm is going to be.

[Dont want to. I cant tell you guys. Even if I give you more information than you need, it wont help you stop the storm. It will only interfere and jeopardize my position.]

Youre kidding me.

[Its not a joke. You guys have a lot of things to lose, right? Think when those precious things and the best way to stop the storm is given as a pick-one-only option. Youre not going to choose the best way. That attitude will hinder stopping the storm.]

It was at that moment when I realized.

Her goal and mine might be the same, but there is no way she and I will walk the same path.

I could infer what incident she was referring to about the ones storm.

If Biryung Na acted in concurrence with what she just said, only to stop the storm, all her behaviors were understandable.

She didnt care whether the innocent died or not.

Its like theres nothing precious for you.

At Golden Tigers words, the laughter of Biryung began to grow louder.

[Yeah, no. And anyway, after the storm, the point of protecting my precious things will be lost, wont it?]

So, youre not handing over any important information. I could announce your betrayal to the Bear clan.

[Oh really? If you do that, Ill die, and youll lose one important source of information.]

Even under threat of Golden Tiger, she did not waver.

Golden Tiger shut his mouth and Biryung continued talking.

[Q & A time will end here. Can we get to the point now? The place where you are now is called the Frozen Other-world.]

Biryung began to tell them one by one the information I knew through the game.

A deal made between the president of the Korean branch of the Players Association and some Original Clan.

The skill of Other-world freezing.

Coldness and psychic poison a Frozen Other-world has.

The story of the Seokchon Lake incident a few years ago.

[This is all I want to tell you guys. If theres any more info that wont be a problem to tell you, Ill send another message.]

No more info? Fuck off.

Biryung laughed at Golden Tigers words.

She looked around as if to check on our party before saying goodbye.

Irritated Golden Tiger.

Unconscious Jae-in leaning on her teammates.

Two members of the EverLake team who looked at her, eyes full of fury.

And me, who kept quiet.

Biryungs gaze stopped.

[Oh?]

Whoosh-!

Butterfly scales poured down in front of me.

Right now, Biryung was incapable of physical interference.

Golden Tiger, who was reflexively trying to spread the shield, left her alone while scowling severely.

When the downpour stopped, the hazy figure of Biryung Na was in front of my eyes.

[ Huh? Youre human, right?]

What else did I look like?

[Youre interesting enough for me to keep you close. Does the Head of the Tiger clan keep you near him? Why dont you come to me instead? Ill treat you much better than that lazy chief.]

Fuck off.

Golden Tiger did not hide his annoyance.

The attitude towards Biryung seems to be similar to that of his attitude towards To-yeon Ok.

The information she has is tempting

But regardless of Golden Tiger being good to me or not, I had no intention of holding hands with Biryung Na.

I dont agree with your ideology much. So no.

Biryung tilted her head slightly and asked back.

[Thats weird. Is there anything precious to you?]

What kind of person does she think I am, asking that question?

Still, I was able to answer this question without much trouble.

A lot.

At my answer, she began to laugh.

[Pfft, hahaha!]

Whats so funny?

Due to her electronically altered voice, the sound of a machine laughing rang across the area.

The eerie laughter made me feel worse than I already was.

Should I tell her to fuck off, like Golden Tiger did?

[That was refreshing, so Ill give you a hint.]

The silhouette of Biryung became increasingly blurry.

She was going to disappear right after giving us the hint, I think.

[The one is the being who loathe the god of heavens the most.]

After that, she disappeared without leaving a single shard of butterfly wings.

* * *

Jae-in Kwon was unable to battle, but the rest of the crew was able to clear the Other-world without much trouble.

Enemies emerged at the defensive line, too, but they were easily defeated.

To-yeon Ok angered the Tiger clan members by completely slacking off, though.

Well be heading off, then. Well contact you as soon as Jae-in gets stabilized.

Yeah, sure. Bye.

At Golden Tigers wave, the EverLake Team bowed their heads.

Jae-in was unable to open her eyes even after returning to the ground and was carried on the back of her teammates back.

Looks like the Players Association did their job. Its not on the record.

Said Golden Tiger, checking the associations website.

I decided to part ways with Golden Tiger, who had a Tiger clan meeting to go to and head back to school.

Before To-yeon left, I didnt forget to take her device code.

Lets wrap this up.

Golden Tiger snapped his fingers, which were blue from absorbing Jae-ins psychic waves.

Then the lake water began to move.

Swoosh-!

Golden Tiger moved the lake water with one hand and controlled the earth with the other hand.

Rumble rumble-!

In an instant, Seokchon Lake regained its appearance.

That was how we ended the clearing of the underwater Other-world in Lake Seokchon.

Ui-shin Cho, I would like to talk about what Biryung Na was saying to you well, well have plenty of time this weekend.

Golden Tiger whispered secretly, out of earshot of the other Tiger clan members.

I really dont have anything to say, though.

I had no idea why Biryung Na responded to me and said that.

Anyway, its over, and it ended better than I thought.

The existence of the frozen Other-world and the skill of freezing that was naturally known to the Tiger clan and the Player Association.

Some ominous foreshadows have changed to positive ones.

And this will directly affect the future of the protagonist, Suhyuk Joo.

The Other-world attack here wasnt recorded. That means Suhyuk wont be in the eyes of the Demons anymore.

Suhyuk suffered because he became the top contributor to clearing this Frozen Other-world.

Unless Suhyuk is caught up in an incident that I dont know, he wont suffer because of demons.

I dont know exactly how this event will affect the future, but now its time to think about something else first.

Friday was Teachers day, so I had to prepare for that with my classmates. Also, I had to spend the weekend at Myung-ho Hwangs mansion.

What gifts should I give to the kids?

Struggling with a few candidates, I hid my figure and headed to school.

* * *

Someone cleared my Other-world.

Which one?

Seokchon Lake. I felt the power of the Tiger clan.

In the dark.

The demons, who were observing the human world with the third eye of time, opened their eyes.

Player SAT-K has no attack record.

Tiger clan is on good terms with the association. If they were involved, there would be information manipulation.

Why, though?

Hwangmyeongs group seemed interested in an amusement park next to Seokchon Lake. They might have come across it while they were looking around.

They might be thinking of giving it to Silver Tigers Descendants.

What are you going to do? Are you going to report this to the one?

The former Demon master of the Frozen Other-world shook its head.

No. Dont report it to him. We dont pay allegiance to him anyway, so is there any reason to report this?

No.

Nope.

When one of the Demons clapped his hands, a dim screen flashed through the darkness.

It was a screen that showed three people walking in the labyrinth.

However, it was hard to see because of the bad Noise.

Is this the only screen you can project?

The Noise is severe. Lets see who it is. One is the team master of EverLake. One is Golden Tiger. And the other whos this?

Its a raven mask.

The raven mask reminds me of that awful Demon King.

The Other-world labyrinth of Seokchon Lakes Dongho.

The former master of that Other-world began to talk excitedly.

Im curious about that raven mask.