SWNOVELXO Chapter 34
**Episode 34: The Disappeared Tracker**
That’s right.
This book often portrays themes related to revenge, stimulating my imagination.
Did the person who wrote this book want revenge like I do?
Revenge burns bright before it is realized, but once it happens, it only leaves a bitter aftertaste.
And to a third party, it always looks different depending on that person’s emotions.
The intensity of revenge burns fiercely. You won’t know unless you directly experience their position.
Even with indirect knowledge, there are limits.
I, too, feel emotions while reading this text.
Revenge stories often resonate according to the reader’s own feelings.
If that person is having a good day, they’ll speak ill of the one seeking revenge.
But if that person isn’t feeling well, they can’t help but support the one avenging themselves, no matter what they do.
That’s human nature. It’s the instinct of the species known as humans.
Also, what this apocalypse wants to convey is that there is no other species that knows the most effective way to kill one another as well as humans do.
Simply put, it means we are adept at killing our own kind.
The most intelligent, most fragile, and most brutal species can be described as humans.
Isn’t that what this ‘Chronicle of Betrayers’ is hinting at?
In this book, ‘Ring Guard’ is also mentioned.
There’s definitely something there. This world inside the Black Gate doesn’t seem like an ordinary dungeon.
Of course, this story takes place after receiving the system’s blessing.
I didn’t fully understand the rapid developments, but it felt like all the content was coming into my head at once.
‘Is this also the system’s influence?..’
“Hey… what are you staring at so blankly?… Give it here.”
Chaewon snatched the book from me and stared at it intently.
The cover of the book, made of red, seemed a bit heavy for her, as I could see her hand trembling slightly.
‘Or maybe Chaewon just has weak strength…’
“I’m not weak!… But what is this? It’s not Latin, is it?”
“Not Latin?”
I looked at Chaewon in surprise.
“Yeah, this isn’t Latin… It’s more like some ancient script? I’ve never seen these characters before.”
Saying that, Chaewon returned the book to me with both hands.
Was it really heavy? Honestly, this book is something an average schoolgirl could lift with one hand.
It’s lighter than a math textbook.
Anyway, I looked at the book again.
“Then is this something like hieroglyphics?”
“Well, even if you ask me… I wouldn’t know if this book is from Egypt or not.”
‘Usually, hieroglyphs are made to resemble the physical shapes of objects that are commonly found in Egypt…’
I thought of what that guy in black armor had said.
– ‘O savior, may there be divine salvation in this desolate land.’
Desolate land.
It clearly doesn’t refer to the outside world.
Could there be another world inside the Black Gate?
Well, they do say that there are parallel worlds, parallel universes.
However, before acquiring the system, the Black Gate was simply one of the instance dungeons, shortened to indun.
‘Indeed, there’s something about the system… it can’t just be a simple blessing—’
“Haah… Then if I can’t read this, all my trouble comes to nothing, doesn’t it? What was all that effort for…”
My wandering thoughts were interrupted by Chaewon’s loud voice.
“Hey… what did you do? I was in the middle of some important thoughts…”
I said while putting the book into my inventory.
“Oh, what’s that? Right, you need to tell me about the system now, don’t you?”
She seemed to have figured it out to some extent.
“I’ll tell you when we get home.”
I couldn’t delay it any longer.
“You promised, right?”
I nodded.
But there was one more book placed on the wooden round table.
“What’s that? Wasn’t that red book the only one?”
I picked the book up.
It looked like someone’s old diary.
Flipping through it quickly, I again found it full of characters I couldn’t read.
It didn’t seem very important, so I put it in my inventory.
Turning around, I noticed that the guy in black armor had vanished long ago.
He had become the gate, leading us outside.
The gate still seemed to shimmer, giving off an unpleasant sensation.
I raised my sword and put it into my inventory.
‘It’s better to keep it here from now on.’
“Wait a minute, where did you sell that one ring?”
“A ring? Oh… this one?”
I looked at the Covenant Ring fixed on my left ring finger.
“I don’t know; I tried to take it off, but it wouldn’t budge. It must be a bound item.”
“No… that’s not it, you had two rings on one finger. Where’s the other one?”
“Oh… I put it away properly. In the… inventory.”
“If you don’t tell me before bed, I’ll curse you.”
“No need to threaten me with curses; I think it’s time for me to slowly tell you.”
“Really? Then that’s fine. Let’s hurry and get out of this uncomfortable place.”
We gathered everything and threw ourselves toward the spot, which gave off that unpleasant sensation, to exit through the gate.
There was no way I would ever get used to this sensation before dying.
– Ding!
[You have cleared the world of Betrayers.]
We finally escaped that eerie graveyard.
In perfect condition.
‘Lucky me.’
**********
– Whoosh!
“Huh? What? This is near my house, isn’t it?”
We stood in a dark alley close to the one-room apartment where I stayed.
“What? You didn’t know?… Well, you were too busy staring at the keys to pay attention to your surroundings.”
It had been bright when I went in, and it was still bright when I came out.
It seems time inside the Black Gate flows slowly.
“Isn’t it fascinating?”
“What is?”
“That time flows slowly inside the Black Gate. Could there be a reason for it?”
“How would I know?”
Of course not.
– Tok tok!
The only person who would send me a message is Eunbyul.
It’s the weekend, so I thought about going to visit her while looking at my smartphone.
Three missed calls and ten unread messages.
Neither here nor there, just a typical number.
If someone was contacting me this much, I must have been absent for a really long time.
However, at the same time, I recalled that time flows slowly inside the Black Gate.
Eunbyul knows my location.
She definitely said she had a tracker planted in me.
So, it seemed like she contacted me right after my figure vanished, didn’t it?
I checked the messages from her.
There was something odd about those messages.
Thinking back to last week and now.
Why does she think I’m still at the association and sending messages?
I occasionally exchange messages with Eunbyul.
It seemed like she was checking up on how I was doing.
But if she had installed CCTV in my room, she’d never say those things.
These are the conversations we had last Tuesday.
Then came some light chit-chat.
The conversation from the last Thursday.
More casual talk followed.
And today. Right now.
Can the tracker planted in my body come out?
The answer to that would be No.
When I initially entered the Golden Rule… when I was unconscious.
That’s when Eunbyul said she planted a tiny tracker in me.
– ‘… Naturally, I planted it deep inside you while you were here unconscious… Huh~’
That time, when Eunbyul blew air deep into my ear, pleasant chills ran through my entire body.
‘No, the important thing isn’t that…’
The important fact is that there’s a tracker in my body.
Removing it would require advanced technology.
Who on earth could have snuck out the tracker inside my body?
It must’ve been an extraction operation that could only occur when I was incapacitated.
I’m certain of it.
There was a moment when I lost consciousness.
There’s no way they could sneak in and take out the tracker without me noticing; I would feel the pain and be aware of what’s happening.
‘When was it?… No way… was it then?’
According to Eunbyul, the tracker that was inside me seems to be at the association now.
A ghostly thought arose.
The experience from that day… I can’t say I’ve forgotten it.
Memories flooded back to fill my head.
Strange. Unfamiliar.
Even the sensation of that ‘drug.’
A feeling I can’t forget even if I want to.
If I recall that here, I might not ever escape.
However.
My mind had already fallen into reminiscence.
That person affiliated with the association.
– ‘Enjoy this moment…’
The person who knocked me unconscious while I was at the association.
– ‘How does it feel to fall into a dream?’
That person who must always be with the association.
– ‘Have sweet dreams…’
She, more white than the snow falling in winter.
– ‘Let’s collapse together…’
**Her name.**
The one who took the tracker that signifies my affiliation with the Golden Rule.
Must be.
No, inevitably.
There are no anomalies.
**You.**
**Baek Harin**, she must be the one who siphoned off my tracker.