Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel 2026 - Chapter 545
Chapter 545: Ghost (3)
As soon as I shared that information, I observed everyone’s shocked reactions.
Alright, from their reactions, I can tell that ordinary adventurers will lose their minds at this information.
“In just two months…”
“Single-digit numbered items…”
“…Two of them?”
Well, one of them was from Garphas’ Necklace, and the other was a lucky break from killing the guardian.
But I hadn’t lied.
Also, they were items that would’ve been impossible to obtain if not for the mana stones in Basement Floor 1 and the guardian monster that appeared.
Shine!
As the green light shone brightly, a moment of silence fell over the round table.
The reactions from this point differed from person to person. Just a moment earlier, everyone had been shocked at the information itself.
“How did you…? Even in a place like that…?”
“From what I know, there are fewer than 120 people in Basement Floor 1 right now…”
“Heh… Really… In there?”
But now some of them became curious as to who I truly was.
“Pshehe. How foolish. There is no place in the world that Lion’s eyes cannot reach. Didn’t you hear it just before? He even knew what happened in the eighth-floor rift. That… That was a secret that not even fifty people knew about.”
“That’s true… Besides, the first piece of information to come out of there was from a member of the Hektz Clan. We can’t ignore the possibility that one of the people there is his informant.”
Others accepted it without surprise.
“If that is the case, this informant should be someone close to Bjorn Yandel,” the resident palace-career-haver Deer said with a glint in his eyes, looking confident that he finally found a clue.
I mean, what are you going to do about it?
I turned my gaze and checked Fox’s—Versyl’s—reaction as well. Because she was wearing the mask, it was difficult for me to read her expressions, but I couldn’t sense any suspicion in her eyes. If anything, the emotions that were clear in her eyes were entirely different.
Confusion and panic. She thinks that a member of the clan is my rat.
Well, I would learn more about what she thought by the way she acted after the community boards closed today. She had told me immediately about the traitor situation with Missha as well. In any case, I didn’t need to look more at Versyl.
I then turned once more to check on Goblin.
Tsk, this one is the one I’m most worried about.
Goblin didn’t get swept up in the mood and had stayed silent in thought the whole time.
Yeah, that’s all he’s doing…but I’m getting a bad feeling from him.
I had revealed many facts to the Round Table that suggested Lion couldn’t be Bjorn Yandel, but there existed people in the world who possessed unbelievable gut feelings.
For some reason, Goblin seemed to be one of those people.
“Deer,” I called upon the person who had started the meeting today. “How long are you going to stay silent?”
I got a confused look in return.
“It’s your turn again.”
Alright, let’s go another round. I have many more things to tell you.
***
One round.
“All sorts of monsters and guardians of the rift can appear in Basement Floor 1, Records Archives.”
Two rounds.
“The Records Archives of the first underground floor produces new entities, and there are variant monsters as well.”
“Um…by variant monsters…?”
The question that I wouldn’t have even acknowledged before, I answered graciously. “An entity that possesses skills of multiple different types of monsters.
To give an example, they have the passive of an Ogre while having the active skills of a Troll.”
“That is unbelievable…!”
“B-but— Doesn’t that mean new combinations of essences can be created?”
A few members shouted that it was nonsense, but I didn’t need to provide evidence to convince them. In the end, the truth was determined by that gem.
Shine.
As the gem shone with green light once more, the outbursts of the members became louder.
Glare!
Yet beyond its green shine, eyes that shone even more greedily than the gem lit around the table. It was to be expected. What sort of player would stay still when an excellent hunting ground was made known to them?
“Pshehe… This is getting interesting.”
“Not particularly. I don’t think the Noark side should be interested in this. They won’t be able to do much with it anyway.”
It was the psychological battle between the Clown of Noark and the Deer of the Palace. Of course, I didn’t feel anything from seeing the two of them fight.
Well, it’s still the most entertaining when these two fight.
And it seemed everyone felt the same, as no one stepped in to stop them, instead only observing with interest.
“Hah! Do you mean just like the adventurers of Rafdonia who can’t overcome the eighth and ninth floors for over a year at this point? Pshe.”
“Didn’t you hear what Lion said? If it’s as he says, there won’t be a reason to go to the eighth or ninth floors.”
“Ah, then I guess that could be the case. But so what about it?”
““…Do you really not know? If this news spreads outside, the palace will immediately revoke its order and even actively support adventurers traveling there. At this rate, it’s only a matter of time until Noark’s demise.”
“Hoh, is that so? Yes. I feel tears coming from how scared I am,” Clown drawled sardonically.
It only pushed Deer to mock him more. “Well, you, Clown, might not have any thoughts in there. You were the one who pridefully told your enemies about how you failed your expedition. Things like them might only be jokes to you—”
“Oh, really? Even when the reason I said it was interesting was because of a completely different thing?” Clown cut off Deer as he gave his characteristic laugh.
“And also, why do you keep thinking that this event will be favorable for the palace?”
“What…do you mean?”
“Do you really not know?” Clown exaggerated his shrug as he gestured in a direction to my seat. After meeting eyes with me, he sent me eyes that showed friendliness before turning back to look at Deer. “Why do you think Mr. Lion spoke about information regarding Basement Floor 1 here at the Round Table? You have a brain somewhere in there, don’t you? Please think about using it today.”
Deer chose to remain silent after hearing that. Someone else responded in his stead.
“To disrupt the palace.”
It was Queen, who had remained silent throughout this discussion.
“That is the only reason I can think of.”
The other members seemed to accept her conclusion.
“So I wasn’t the only one thinking that.”
“…There’s no way Mr. Lion doesn’t know what will happen if this news spreads.”
“He has never acted so openly like this before either.”
It was information that spread after the palace sent out an order to stop anyone from entering the floor. It was also information that was juicy enough to tempt people from going in even under the threat of punishment. In this situation, it seemed all the other members here realized my intentions.
Well, it didn’t matter if they realized it or not.
“Pshe, you were the one acting so high and mighty without even knowing that.
Don’t you also think that you are laughable?”
“…You’ve interpreted it too favorably for yourself. He could’ve said it to help the palace as well. The palace didn’t know that Basement Floor 1 was such a precious place.”
“Hmm…really? Let’s see which side was the one interpreting the information too favorably.”
All the members of the Round Table turned to look at me. Although they didn’t say much, I could tell what they were thinking by the looks in their eyes. They were looking at me expectantly, for me to answer which one of the two was right.
However, someone let their impatience at my silence show.
“So…” In the end, the person to break the silence first was none other than Black.
“What’s the truth?”
It was a bit unexpected.
I did expect someone to be the representative voice, but I never expected it to be her. She was the one who always remained quiet except for her turns.
“Lion. Are you on the side of the palace, or on the side of Noark?” Black boldly asked while adorned with a pure black and plain mask.
I quietly growled in response. “Impudent.”
I didn’t imbue any killing intent into my words, but Black lowered her eyes to avoid making eye contact. Well, it seemed she belatedly realized what she had done as she raised her head again and forced her eyes to meet mine.
Looks like she has a bit of grit.
I filed that piece of information about the person I didn’t know well, and in a show of reward for her strength of will, I declared, “But I will answer you.”
I kept my eyes on Black as I raised my hand onto the gem.
Someone gulped. Everyone was looking at me.
Clown seemed to hope that I was on Noark’s side, and Deer was of the opposite opinion. The others were curious about what the truth was, no matter my side.
“The Palace and Noark.”
I declared it clearly to all present.
“I am on no one’s side.”
They weren’t just empty words.
Noark was my enemy. The person who first killed one of my allies was the Dragon Slayer of Orcules, and I had to suffer quite a bit on the first floor because of them.
In that process, Erwen’s older sister, Daria, died.
I don’t even have to talk about the palace.
The cold rage that had washed over me that day was still present in my heart. I needed to pay them back for it someday.
Shine!
The gem of the Round Table glowed with the light of truth. It seemed a little brighter than usual for some reason.
Looking at this, someone asked as if they were possessed, “Then why…”
I turned in the direction of the voice to find the one who had spoken was Deer.
“Lion,” he pleaded. “Why did you tell us this?”
As someone from the palace, as someone who had needed to fight intellectually with his political opponents, this was a natural question for Deer.
I was a powerful and unknown person who wore the mask of the lion, someone who wasn’t on anyone’s side. Why did I do something that could be seen as disrupting the palace?
To that question, Lion’s answer was simple.
As always.
Tap, tap.
I tapped my armrest twice before talking.
“Because doing that…”
As always…
“…seemed like it would be fun.”
This should be enough.
***
After that, the Round Table ended the meeting without further incident, but I wasn’t disappointed.
I had succeeded in relaying just how great of a hunting ground Basement Floor 1 was, and it seemed the others were also bottoming out on information they could share.
Being the one to finish the meeting wasn’t so bad either.
And so, I coolly left it behind.
Yeah, if I try and get another round going, it’ll just get annoying.
Once back in Hansu Lee’s room, I laid down on the bed and rolled around a bit before getting back on the computer to read through more community posts. It might be a touch ironic, but reading through the community on the scream was my sole window to the outside world.
“Hehehe… Pfft, this guy, really…”
Oof, this was hurting my pride a little.
Why was I laughing so hard?
As I snickered while looking through the boards, a post broke through the rankings on the pinned section and revealed itself.
[Complete e collection of all the information about Basement Floor 1, Records Archives.]
After clicking it and entering the post, I immediately realized what the content was.
Starting with the method of entering the Records Archives, the types of monsters there, the fact that guardians of the rift appeared, and the fact that variant entities existed. Most importantly, it had information about how Bjorn Yandel had obtained two single-digit numbered items.
The post had a concise summary of everything I had said at the Round Table.
And the author of this post was someone I had never seen before—BFKILLER.
It’s definitely a member of the Round Table…
Who was it? Since there were ten members including me, it was impossible to correctly discern who it may be.
I shared these pieces of information so that they can spread in the first place, so it’s not bad for me…
But I didn’t expect it to become publicized like this.
It was completely different from what I expected, that those with good information networks would hear about it first and the rest of the people would learn about it in the month after.
Well, I guess even with everyone there together, the individual’s goals and the goals of their groups will be different.
It wouldn’t be odd that one of the ten people wanted this information to spread. In any case, that wasn’t the important part.
I quickly scrolled down to check the comments. Since the post hadn’t gone viral yet, most of the early comments were about the veracity of the post.
YPPL: Wow. Just become an author at this rate.
goooooooooodd2: I can see how desperate you are to go viral.
q1q2q3: So where is the proof? Who will believe you if you don’t put up? This is untrustworthy information.
The users deemed it as bait and just insulted the poster.
However, those reactions began to slowly disappear.
Amer91: During the next outing, I’ll need to go through the Sculpture Temple. I can tell the ones who get fooled by this will be having a get-together there.
└AI_DIDIGO: Info1. It is already known by many great forces and the palace that the Unnamed Fragments are the key to Basement Floor 1.
└ScottBANE: Wow, is that true, sir DIDIGO?
└Adi: Wait, if the entry method is true, then isn’t there a possibility that everything else this guy said is also true?
└Amer91: No, that’s a bit… I think he’s just trying to farm engagement by sharing one real piece of information and covering for the rest.
└Adi: No, think about it. If they wanted to go viral, why would they reveal so many pieces of information no one else knew about? They could’ve just revealed the entrance method and that would’ve been enough to go viral.
└ScottBANE: also, the more I think about this, the more plausible the post becomes. There should be a player among the people on Basement Floor 1, and it’s possible to exchange information through the community board.
The users who already knew about the entrance method began to appear and comment, and the perception was slowly starting to shift from it being a simple bait post to a somewhat reliable one.
Alright, at this rate, the information should reach the city… Hmm?
As I continued to scroll while feeling satisfied with myself, I paused at a certain section.
Pnec: You idiots. Someone is trying to spoon-feed you information and you can’t even take it.
└bigD: what do you mean?
└Bling0_0: This guy’s always trolling. Ignore him.
└Pnec: Yeah, I was waiting for you to appear. You don’t know anything.
These guys were fighting here again. At this point, these were familiar nicknames to me, so I continued to scroll through their conversation.
└Bling0_0: Hm? You might think I don’t know, but I know that you are 3cm and 3KB in both heads.
└Pnec: Someone like you is bound to know nothing. Tsk Tsk. No matter if you trust this post or not, it is the truth.
└Bling0_0: …and how are you so sure of it?
└Pnec: because this is information I heard from someone credible not long ago.
And if you dare insult that person as well, I’ll come find you and kill you.
What was that?
Not long ago?
Is this guy a member of the Round Table as well?
As that theory crossed my mind, something strange happened.
└bigD: what do you mean?
└(Deleted Message.)
└Pnec: Yeah, I was waiting for you to appear. You don’t know anything.
└(Deleted Message.)
└Pnec: Someone like you is bound to know nothing. Tsk Tsk. No matter if you trust this post or not, it is the truth.
└(Deleted Message.)
└Pnec: Because this is information I heard from someone credible not long ago.
And if you dare insult that person as well, I’ll come find you and kill you.
For some reason, the user by the name of Bling0_0 deleted all their messages and disappeared.
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