PLSE 25

Chapter 25

“What do you mean by strange…?”

Sir Ned asked carefully. I shrugged.

“The way they were looking at us wasn’t normal.”

They were basically glaring at us.

When I crossed my arms, Sir Ned’s expression turned awkward.

It seemed my explanation wasn’t enough, so I added casually,

“I mean, they were looking at us with hostility. If they were just normal NPCs, they would’ve just glanced at us as we passed by. But it felt like they were hiding something.”

If this were the PC version, a small exclamation mark would probably have appeared above their heads.

At my words, Sir Ned tilted his head with interest.

“Ah…”

“So I tried getting a little closer. It didn’t seem like they were hiding research materials. It felt more like they were suspicious of outsiders.”

I stroked my chin, recalling the moment when the researcher had guided us.

“Besides, he didn’t show us the entire tower. Of course, there are secret areas, but it didn’t feel like he was kindly guiding us. It felt more like he only wanted us to see the areas he chose to show.”

Sir Ned nodded. It seemed he had felt the same thing.

More importantly, I turned to him and said,

“The number of NPCs here has dropped a lot.”

“?”

This was something only someone who had done a lot of nonsense in Yunerian—no, someone who had played for a long time—would know.

“There are usually over 30 NPCs here. But today, there were only 17.”

I crossed my arms.

“Then the remaining dozen…?”

Sir Ned asked with a serious expression.

“They’re somewhere else.”

The problem was where they were.

Just as I said that, the quest window popped up again in front of me. And I noticed that one more line had been added.

[Suspicious Mud]

• Investigate the suspicious mud. (Complete)

• Assess the atmosphere inside the research lab (NEW!)

After looking at the same quest window, Sir Ned suddenly asked,

“Are you perhaps thinking there might be a hidden laboratory?”

“Yes.”

I nodded immediately.

Exactly!

He really was quick to adapt to the game.

“So if we search each floor carefully for anything suspicious, we’ll probably find it.”

I stretched my body as I spoke. When it came to things like this, you just had to hit everything and see what reacted, right?

While I was loosening up, Sir Ned, who had been stroking his chin, suddenly spoke.

“Then there is somewhere I would like to check first.”

“?”

Is there somewhere bothering you?

He led me to a wall on the third floor.

In other words, just a perfectly normal wall.

A solid wall.

“I believe there may be something beyond this.”

Sir Ned said calmly. I looked over the wall.

“Hmm.”

Usually, if you were allowed to break something, it would be made of different-colored bricks or look roughly built.

But the wall in front of us looked completely normal.

“If we break this wrong, it’s the Alaraban Underground Prison ending.”

We really need to choose carefully.

Of course, when I played the game, I used to hit anything that felt suspicious.

Breaking a few boxes or tables on the roadside didn’t lower your trust rating.

But breaking a wall? That might be a problem.

As I turned to Sir Ned, feeling the underground prison ending creeping closer—

“This is a structural issue.”

He suddenly took out paper and a pen.

“?”

Then he quickly drew a few lines and created a rough blueprint of the tower.

My mouth fell open.

Centering on the third floor where we stood, he drew the second and fourth floors as well, then pointed to our current location.

“Based on the structure of the floors above and below, there should be a room here. It is too wide to be filled with only pillars.”

“Oh…”

I looked at him with admiration.

How on earth is someone like this bad with directions?

Ten-year Yunerian veteran meets a newbie trying to solve a broken game logically.

How can someone like this be directionally challenged?

In response to my question, Sir Ned smiled gently.

‘Inside buildings, I can guess the structure. But outside… that is not possible.’

It made sense, but he was still a strange person.

“Do you work in architecture or something?”

Then the coffee addiction would make sense.

But Sir Ned shook his head.

“No.”

Then what?

He didn’t seem willing to reveal more about himself. There were many users who didn’t talk about their real lives, so I didn’t push further.

Still, I was curious.

What kind of person pours an absurd amount of money into a game the moment he starts and wins the Red Orb event?

And on top of that, he draws beautifully and understands building structures?

I became more and more curious about his identity, but staring at his face wouldn’t solve anything.

“There’s probably space behind this wall, but we shouldn’t break it, right?”

While I was zoning out, Sir Ned carefully touched the bricks.

A blue attack power buff shimmered at his fingertips.

I panicked and grabbed his arm.

“Are you serious?”

At my restraint, he fell into thought and canceled the buff.

This guy is the quiet type who causes accidents!

I decided I needed to watch him more carefully.

Usually, when newbies cause trouble in games, it’s because they go somewhere they shouldn’t and die, or they get lost. But this one was different.

Getting lost was secondary. I had to worry about whether he’d break everything in sight.

Is this the legendary new-type newbie?

“Hmm.”

Anyway, we started rummaging around the third floor.

If we kept searching the area, we were bound to find something.

And after a few minutes—

—Srrrk.

We suddenly saw the back of a researcher disappear into a wall as if melting into it.

“Oh.”

Sir Ned’s eyes widened.

“The structure of that wall seems slightly different from the others.”

The wall he pointed at—the one the researcher had passed through—looked identical to the rest.

Blue attack power buff was already swirling at his fingertips again.

If Yunerian were a well-made game, Sir Ned’s guess would be right. Unfortunately, Yunerian was poorly made.

I waved my hand.

“You have to use the Insight skill first to see its true form before breaking it.”

If we broke it like that, it was Alaraban Underground Prison ending for sure.

Insight. A skill only those level 450 or higher could learn.

The setting was that if you wandered around Yunerian too much, you’d understand the principles of the world and be able to see the true form of objects.

Wait.

Are they seriously making us clear a level 30 quest using a level 450 skill?

“Truly a game that clearly has no proper test server…”

I sighed in admiration.

Yunerian did technically have a test server.

Normally, large patches were tested there first, bugs were fixed, and then they were brought to the main server.

But what kind of game was Yunerian?

Patch straight to the main server!

Critical bug found within one hour!

Emergency maintenance!

Extended maintenance!

Surprise maintenance!

Drawing the Four Great Swords of maintenance so players can’t properly play for a whole day after a patch!

“Anyway.”

I turned to Sir Ned.

Since the skill window UI in this game was so unfriendly it deserved a truckload of insults, I had to explain where the skill was first.

“If you go to the Support tab in your skill window—”

[Party member ‘Ned’ has used the Insight skill.]

—Ziiing!

But Sir Ned had already activated the skill.

“?”

What? You found it that fast?

“I have looked through the skill window once before.”

He answered immediately, as if he knew why I was surprised.

But even so, you figured it out after just looking once? Even I sometimes get lost trying to find skills.

That was not newbie-level reflexes.

If only half the villains in raid parties were like this, we wouldn’t all wipe just because one person dies.

I had felt this back in the Northern Archipelago too—he was a truly desirable newbie.

Would you perhaps consider joining my raid party?

I remembered the raid member I had argued with before being transported into this game.

Right. After solo clearing for so long, I finally joined a raid—and of course, I ran into a troll.

Just as I was getting sentimental—

—Whooosh…

With the familiar wind-like sound effect of Yunerian’s Insight skill, the appearance of the wall before us slowly began to change.

“…!”

Sir Ned’s eyes widened slightly.

The wall transformed into the shape of a door, revealing the shocked faces of the researchers beyond it.

Well, it was understandable. In a level 30 quest area, someone just used a level 450+ skill to see through a hidden wall.

I waved at them.

“Hello?”

First, greet them naturally!

No matter how you looked at it, they were clearly hiding here. If we didn’t want to harm them, the priority was to enter through the door properly.

“May we come in for a moment?”

Sir Ned asked in a very low voice, placing his index finger against his lips.

As if to show he had no intention of making noise.

The researchers nodded as if enchanted.

—Click.

As soon as we entered the laboratory, the researchers locked the door tightly again.

Then they asked us,

“Who are you?”

“How did you discover the entrance?”

They were obviously flustered.

And clearly wary of us.

But they were the people we were looking for.

As proof, their white lab coats were covered in mud. And the thing they were researching was clearly mud as well.

“We have come to investigate the mud.”

Sir Ned said gently to them.