The Player Who Stands Above All

Chapter 94

A room that was only white, no matter where one looked.

In it, a plain square table and two chairs were placed facing each other.

Next to it, a window was blocked by glass, and the outside was not visible.

"This is classic."

The man with glasses muttered in a voice mixed with a sigh and glanced at his hands and feet.

Clank- Clank-

His arms and legs were bound with what appeared to be handcuffs and chains, preventing him from moving more than a certain distance from the chair.

And they weren't ordinary handcuffs.

The man with the messy hair felt the circle surrounding his heart was completely empty.

These handcuffs and chains were draining the man's mana.

"This is difficult. How much longer do I have to be in this state?"

The man muttered in a trembling voice as if he were scared.

"..."

"I brought him alive as promised."

Yeonhwa and Joker, who were outside, calmly watched the scene and had a conversation.

"Then I'll be outside, so call me if anything happens."

Yeonhwa left those words, opened the door, and went outside.

It was Yeonhwa's own consideration for Joker.

"Haaa..."

As Yeonhwa left, Joker looked at the man inside the interrogation room with complicated eyes.

Messy hair that looked like it had never seen a hair salon, to the point of frustrating the viewer.

The glasses were strangely foggy as if steamed up, so his eyes were not clearly visible.

The man's appearance, turning his head here and there and tapping his fingers, was the typical appearance of a person feeling anxious.

'Haaa...'

But Joker knew.

That every single one of those things was an act.

Joker let out another sigh filled with complicated emotions.

'I didn't expect to meet that person here.'

Joker dusted off the moldy-smelling memories and entered the interrogation room.

"Hiiik!"

As the door opened, the frail-looking man covered his face with both arms and cowered, spitting out words like a machine gun.

"I'm sorry! I don't want to die! I'm sorry! I'll tell you everything I know, so please don't torture me! I won't even ask you to spare my life, so at least if you're going to kill me, please kill me cleanly without any pain!!!"

"...You haven't changed at all from when I saw you before."

"...Hmm?"

At the completely unexpected reaction, the man with glasses lowered the arms that were covering his face and calmly looked at Joker's appearance.

In Joker's voice towards the man, there was no sense of hostility at all.

There was a sense of pity for the man, a familiarity as if he had seen him before, and a small sense of gladness.

'What's going on? I had a feeling that something was strange from the moment that person who was incredibly good with a sword told me not to run away with a telepathic message.'

The man stopped his fuss and calmly looked at Joker's face.

'...Who is he really?'

But no one came to mind.

Joker, who read the man's thoughts, chuckled.

"It's certainly been almost 10 years, so it's understandable that it's hard to recognize me. I've changed in many ways from when I was a kid."

"10 years? A kid? Ah!"

The man, who heard Joker's words, let out a cry of surprise at a memory that suddenly came to mind.

Looking at the man's surprised face, Joker chuckled.

That smile contained a sense of gladness towards the man.

"It's been a long time, teacher."

***

About 10 years ago, when Joker was still a kid.

As an orphan without parents, he entered the Joker class of [Dawn] as a trainee and was educated as a hacker.

And of course, there was a teacher who taught them, the Joker class, the basic skills of hacking.

He didn't know when he was a kid, but that man was different from the other agents.

Unlike the other agents who just injected rigid knowledge, the man was a teacher who gave them a real education.

He would always act in an exaggerated way to make them laugh, and sometimes he would tell them ridiculous stories.

Joker's current appearance was heavily influenced by that teacher.

Because to the young Joker, the man was a teacher and a parent.

However, if that was all, Joker would not have taken any action the moment he found this man's name on the list.

He wouldn't have said anything to Yeonhwa, and like the other guys, he would have simply extracted the necessary information and then, after a little hesitation, killed him.

That's how deep and strong their desire for [Dawn] was.

But Joker couldn't bring himself to do that.

"Hmm, this is strange. Number 10, Number 24, Number 17. I was the one who hid you three on the ship and sent you to Korea, but... to think you've survived until now and have grown so strong..."

The man in front of Joker's eyes was the benefactor who had created an opportunity for the trainees to escape from the hellish training facility of Dawn.

"You say that so confidently."

"Well... I told you when I first sent you guys off. The chances of you surviving are low to none, so live well in hiding."

"Haaa, that's enough."

Joker ended the conversation like that and made a complicated expression, as if he didn't know whether to laugh or cry that the teacher was the same as before.

"More importantly, you can call me Joker now instead of a number."

"Joker? Joker..."

The man said, and moved his mouth slightly a few times.

"Then does that mean Number 24 is using the name Alpha and Number 17 is using the name Beta?"

"Yes."

"...It seems you've chosen a thorny path for yourselves."

The teacher, who had grasped the general thoughts and feelings of the three just by hearing their names, let out a soft sigh.

"To engrave the dead in your hearts and seek revenge... It's touching if it's touching, but it's a foolish act."

"It certainly was a foolish act."

Joker said, and smiled with the corners of his mouth raised, just as he had taught him in the past.

But that smile was so faint that it seemed like it would disappear at any moment.

The teacher, who was watching that smile, clicked his tongue lightly and corrected his posture.

His hunched back straightened, he adjusted the glasses that were perched on the tip of his nose, and looked at Joker with calm eyes.

With just that, the man who had been cowering until a moment ago disappeared in an instant.

"So what do you want from me?"

"You're being direct."

"Because I hate troublesome things."

The teacher said with an exaggerated grin.

At the same smile he had seen when he was young, Joker smiled lightly and opened his mouth.

"As you've already expected, our demand is one. Betray [Dawn], join our side, and then tell us everything you know."

"Alright, I'll cooperate."

"...Aren't you answering too easily?"

At the affirmative answer that came out as naturally as breathing, Joker looked at the teacher with a dumbfounded expression.

But the teacher didn't even blink at Joker's gaze.

"Well, I also hated those guys to the point where I wanted to quit right away. And I always said, right? I hate troublesome things."

The teacher said, and lightly shook his arms here and there.

Clank-

The handcuffs made of an artifact hit the desk and made a sound.

"Anyway, I was also working for [Dawn] because of something that was almost like a threat, so if I can use this as an opportunity to get away from [Dawn], I'd be grateful."

"A threat?"

"Huh? Ah, I'm an illegitimate child. To put it simply, I'm a child born from my biological father's affair."

Listening to the teacher's calm words, Joker looked at him with a slightly surprised face.

Because it was a truth that he couldn't have imagined from his usual appearance.

"It's a bit much for me to say this, but I was a genius. Even though I was a dirty child, my head was good, so let's use him for now... That's what the man who was my father thought when he looked at me."

He said calmly, and then looked at Joker with a strange expression.

"By the way, didn't you know too? That I hate that organization?"

"I noticed that you didn't have any loyalty to [Dawn]. But I wasn't sure."

Joker answered, and took out his laptop.

"Then please tell me all the information you know."

"An interrogation without a glass of water. You lack the basics."

He grumbled like that, but he readily opened his mouth.

"First, let's start with a simple self-introduction. I'm a member of [Dawn]'s research lab. My name is..."

The teacher looked at Joker and said playfully.

"Just call me Dr. Irie. I don't really like my last name."

***

Beep- Beep- Beep-

Next to the man with dark circles so deep they reached his cheeks, a pager rang loudly, showing off its presence.

A grating noise like dozens of mice complaining in unison.

But the man next to it was just staring at the monitor with the eyes of a fish that had been dead for about 30 days, working mechanically as if he couldn't hear anything.

If someone saw this scene now, they might think that he was avoiding that signal for some reason.

But his colleague, who was maintaining the eyes of a fish that had been dead for 10 days thanks to eating a lump of caffeine, could tell.

That he wasn't not hearing it, but that he couldn't hear it.

Tap-tap-

"Hey... you can hear the sound... check it..."

So the man went to his colleague's side and tapped his shoulder.

At that small impact, the man came to his senses with a small cry of surprise, as if he had woken up from a hypnosis.

His hand automatically gripped the cup on the table, but even the cold coffee that had been in it had already entered his stomach.

"Was your trip to dreamland enjoyable?"

"...How many hours can I rest?"

"One hour, including the time to go and come back. After that, you have to return immediately."

To the colleague's usual question, the man gave the usual answer.

At that, the man who had regained his senses that he had lost in his dream said in a voice weary with fatigue.

"Haa, I've suggested sending more people several times."

"It's always the same excuse. The budget is insufficient. It's hard to find talent to maintain security. Try a little harder."

They were three sentences that made him feel sick just by hearing them.

"Does the top think we're some kind of supermen who can rival Superman? Why is there no support?"

"Even if not Superman, I think we could somehow subdue Batman."

At the colleague's dry black joke, the man sighed and checked the monitor.

'It was already a model of a black company, but after awakening as a player, it feels like they're really going for the end. To think they would reduce the already existing break time even more.'

"Haa..."

But what could he do?

The moment he tried to resign, he would turn into a beehive for the reason of maintaining security, so he had no choice but to just drink coffee and endure it.

The man who had swallowed his sigh looked at the pager that had been ringing continuously next to him and checked the message that had come for him.

While imagining what kind of incident had occurred this time.

'Hmm? A message from Lord Susanoo? I thought he was dispatched to Korea right now.'

But what was written in the email that had come to him was of a kind that transcended all the possibilities he had thought of.

On the monitor were a few words.

But their impact was enough to shake his mind, which had been dried up by fatigue.

-China

-Black Dragon Society

-Attack

"...Hey, get ready to contact the other executives."

The moment he saw those three words, the man's instinct screamed fiercely.

That if he delayed reporting this even a little, he might be transferred to heaven right away.

(End of Chapter)