A Village Appeared on My Desktop

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Chapter

38화-변방의 기적(8)

“Is this the place?”

The location I arrived at after flying through the air was the entrance to the nest discovered by the reconnaissance team. Balun felt foreboding at first sight and muttered in a trembling voice.

Since moving here, they had received a lot of mysterious help, but along with it came completely unexpected threats, making it a natural reaction.

“It doesn’t seem like a simple cave. Even shining a light, I can’t see anything.”

“Uh, do we really have to go in first?”

The others were just as tense. They shone torches into the crack, poked with spears or stones, trying to figure things out in their own way.

However, no one confidently declared that they would enter the ominous crack, akin to a hellish abyss.

“Get yourself together, Shun. The reason the Lord raised you up to reveal the existence of this place and soon will pull us all down here is one thing alone.”

Balun shook his head at the reconnaissance team member who spoke with a quivering voice. He had already informed them of the existence of this place first.

The meaning was clear. It meant there were surely enemies inside. Therefore, fighting those enemies was their duty.

“I’ll go in first and see what’s inside.”

In that situation, Riena stepped forward. Surprisingly, her expression was composed.

Having faced the bizarre army of the Demon Lord, she had dealt with wraith soldiers, ghouls, and even the horrific manifestation of the Demon Lord, making her somewhat more trained compared to the others.

“…It can’t be helped.”

Balun clicked his tongue and accepted her proposal. He couldn’t be comfortable sending his only daughter into an unknown place, but he couldn’t deny that her role in this tribe was significant.

Eventually, Riena, equipped with her gear, stood before the crack as others watched anxiously.

“I’m curious too. I can go inside, but since it’s not yet a explored area, I can’t pass through.”

The one looking at Riena with worried eyes, outside of the monitor, wasn’t much different. After finding out about the Bug Nest with the mouse, he attempted several times to switch the screen there but failed.

The reason for the failure was that it was not yet an explored area. If it wasn’t an area explored by residents directly, it was impossible to switch the screen as it was in other places.

“Ugh.”

Soon, Riena took a step forward and thrust her body into the crack. Feeling an instant chill, she bit her lip and squinted her eyes.

“What in the world?”

A space changed in an instant. Standing in the forest, she found herself in a completely different space.

“Where am I?”

Feeling an instinctive fear, Riena raised her drawn sword and looked around. Although she had fought in a village filled with dense and gloomy clouds due to the power of the Demon Lord, this place felt even darker and creepier.

The only faint light came from unnamed luminescent stones irregularly embedded in the ceiling, floor, and walls. In a pinch, she ignited a flame made of blue mana from her body to illuminate her surroundings. Based on this, Riena realized this place was similar to a gigantic cave.

“Those guys!”

And just as if they had been waiting for this moment, there were rapidly approaching presences. Startled, Riena clenched her teeth and aimed her sword at them.

“Th-there are so many.”

However, right after that, she was taken aback. The sheer number of Glitches crawling towards her was beyond anything she had seen before. Although it was impossible to count accurately, it seemed to be at least over ten.

As the worm-like creatures crawled toward her, launching their tentacles, her sword shone as she sliced through them. The move, named a downward slash, was simple in name but activated with the power used as the knight’s primary skill in the game, producing a powerful strike.

The Glitches could not withstand that strike surpassing human limits and burst open instantaneously, but she was unable to showcase the destructive prowess she had shown when facing monsters in Chapter 1’s hunting mode.

[Bug lv 2]

“The Black Monster…!”

The Glitches were not at the center of the nest. From the end of the passage, a massive creature gradually revealed itself. A huge spider, comparable in size to the gigantic beetle she had faced in the past, approached her, revealing its massive fangs.

“?!”

Riena swung her sword to slice through the tentacles flying towards her as it hit her from behind. But at that moment, a thick poison spewed from the spider’s mouth and enveloped her.

“Ugh, cough…”

The poison spread across her body in an instant, and with wide-open eyes, Riena gasped for breath, collapsing to the ground. The mana within her body, which she had trained consistently, fought against the poison, but it was impossible to continue fighting with that alone.

‘If we had all come in together…’

As the spider approached, she felt relieved she had entered alone. If the soldiers who hadn’t awakened their mana had come with her, they would have fallen dead in one blow from the poison unbearable for even her, the one with the strongest resistance.

“Ugh, aaah…”

Just when the spider’s tentacles were about to cover her again, Riena felt a powerful force grabbing her and pulling her quickly towards the entrance, causing her to scream weakly.

*

“—?!”

Balun, waiting with a tense face, was shocked and flustered upon seeing Riena, who had popped out of the nest, caught by my mouse.

Still under the influence of the poison, she lay on the ground, gasping for breath. After taking the potion I provided, she quickly showed signs of recovery.

‘Is she unable to come out?’

[Bug Nest Floor 1]

Right after judging Riena was safe, I clicked on the crack to switch the screen again, and this time I could turn it around. The dark place where Riena had explored alone.

The bugs that appeared there rubbed against the entrance where Riena had disappeared before turning back. It seemed more that they couldn’t come out ‘yet’ rather than deliberately abandoning the chase.

“Still weak.”

I turned the screen again, watching the residents surrounding Riena with worried expressions, biting my lips.

Even Riena, the strongest among the residents, seemed to struggle against the level 2 bugs. Moreover, the environment inside the nest was entirely different from that of the grassland.

The residents, who had maximized their combat power while riding horses, had to engage in a form of battle entirely different from before. Naturally, their combat ability would be diminished in that regard.

No, I wasn’t even sure if ordinary soldiers could fight against the bugs. No matter how well-equipped with excellent armor and wielding sharp swords, if they got hit by poison like just now, it would be utterly futile.

‘There’s no choice but to keep playing the game.’

In the end, all these complicated thoughts converged into one. Like how I’ve managed so far, I would make the best use of the Master Program to train the residents.

By progressing through the chapter with Riena and gradually placing others into the hunting mode that becomes increasingly difficult based on the results.

Moreover, if I activated a new game, I could perhaps obtain something from there too.

“—.”

“—, —.”

While I was pondering like that, Balun was saying something with a serious expression, looking around. It seemed he was hesitating after hearing from Riena about what was inside.

Suddenly, looking at his face as he gazed at the sky, it seemed he took it as my intention that brought him here to make him fight.

‘Not now.’

To avoid any misunderstandings, I dragged them back to the village.

Even if the residents rushed into the nest to fight, it would simply be a futile death.

“Well, suggest something else. It seems it’s still not the right time?”

As they arrived in the village and scattered back to start their work, my mouse absentmindedly fiddled with the icon of an FPS game that’s recently in vogue. I wondered if activating this game would allow me to provide the residents with guns.

However, I wasn’t entirely sure what role any recommended program would play, so since I had insufficient points at the moment, I couldn’t recklessly activate anything.

[Chapter 2]

In the end, I hastily chose to tackle Chapter 2 of Dark Blood that I had started earlier.

From examining it with a capture app, fortunately, the poison had all disappeared, but the face of Riena, whom I met in the game, was still pale.

“—…”

Her expression upon seeing me seemed somewhat awkward. Although she tried not to show it, her recent experiences were undeniably hard to hide.

‘Sorry, but it can’t be helped.’

I approached her and used the emotion expression function to gently place my hand on her shoulder as a form of encouragement. Not long ago, I might have thought of suggesting taking a day off, but now that the Bug Nest had been discovered, I felt a bit rushed.

‘Chapter 2 shouldn’t be much different from Chapter 1.’

Of course, it would change to some extent, but already familiar with the攻略videos, I knew how Chapter 2 would unfold. Ultimately, we were going to eliminate another Demon Lord who intended to descend, fight, and grow stronger.

Currently, we were at the entrance of the village occupied by Deus. The sunlight streaming through the gloomy clouds was proof that we had cleared Chapter 1.

“—!”

Riena pointed somewhere. As I already knew, a cart was passing in front of the village. It was the cart that players needed to board to proceed to the next chapter.

“Darkness which was filled only with endless despair has disappeared, and I see there truly are saviors.”

‘Supporting character, Regnor.’

The coachman in the cart spoke to us upon seeing us. An NPC named Regnor, who appears as a supporter of players in the game.

Though he must have become a tangible existence, the first line still matched what I had seen in the攻略video. Knowing his identity as the archangel who descended in disguise, a strange emotion rose within me.

“Will you board? I can give you a ride.”

“–, —.”

He naturally invited us to get into the cart. This too would be part of predetermined progression; upon boarding the cart, the space would change, and we would move to the location for the next chapter.

The problem was that Riena was unaware of such facts. When he suddenly asked whether she would board, Riena, looking at him suspiciously, turned to me and said something.

“There’s no need to doubt, foreign girl. He already knows everything.”

Then he turned to me and faintly smiled, spouting ‘unscripted’ lines.