Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel - Chapter 737
Chapter 737: Clown (6)
He asked if I had suddenly become interested in him. When I answered with a nod without a shred of hesitation, he was the one who ended up getting flustered.
I wondered what was up with him.
Why would I ask if I wasn’t curious?
Why would I waste time on something that didn’t interest me?
I didn’t understand why he became flustered, but I did understand the expression he gave afterward. When our eyes met, he turned away.
“Are you embarrassed right now?” I asked, openly disgusted without even realizing it.
He also seemed to realize what had happened as he quickly tried to make excuses. “I-it’s only natural! N-no one has asked for my r-real name until now!”
This conversation was going down the same road as someone saying, “Y-you’re my first time!”
I nearly slammed my hammer down on him in disgust but was able to barely hold myself back.
“So,” I asked again, “what’s your real name? Are you not going to answer me?”
“I-it won’t work even if you threaten me! I’ve already made peace with my death!”
Hah, this guy was being annoying again.
When I gave him a look, he slowly turned his gaze away from me again.
“So… I’m saying this not because you threatened me. Okay?”
What the? He was going to tell me anyway.
While I looked at him in bafflement, he finally told me an English name.
“Jester Arlecchino.”
“Are you American?”
“Yes. My father was an immigrant from Italy.”
I didn’t ask him where his father was from, but I supposed that meant he was willing to talk.
“I see,” I said. “And how long has it been since you’ve come here?”
“It’s been nineteen years now.”
“That’s quite some time.”
“Pshe… I don’t need your pity. I do like this world, you know! Even if someone said they’d send me back, I would refuse!”
Uh… I didn’t hold even an ounce of pity for him. And I didn’t have any intention of returning to the modern world either.
Still, since we were on this topic, I asked him something else.
“What do you like so much about this world?”
“I am strong here. And I can do whatever I want to those who are weaker than me. It’s like a dream come true.”
I couldn’t believe the guy even as he said it. Forget unhinged, he was like a middle schooler who was cosplaying as a serial killer.
“Looks like you hated reality,” I remarked.
He didn’t say anything. Seemed I hit it right on the head.
I smirked as I continued, saying, “Ah, I’m not making fun of you. I’m not too different either.”
He looked confused at my honest attempt to form some bond of sympathy with him.
“What? You?”
I smirked again at his disbelief. “Then do you think someone who only played a 2D game for nine years straight liked his reality?”
“Ah…” He let out a small breath of agreement, and then he carefully asked me, “But are you really Elfnuna…? The one who posted many of those strategy guides on Stone Iven?”
“Yeah, that’s me. I only learned it had become that famous after I came here. But why did it get that famous in the first place?”
“I-it’s only natural it did! No one who played Dungeon and Stone didn’t also read your posts!”
“Uh… Really…?”
I had a hard time believing it even as he said that.
I only made those summaries about stat distribution, skill combinations, and drop rates to keep track of them for my own gameplay, and I only shared them because I thought it’d be a waste not to, considering how much time I put into them. I didn’t feel like they were that impressive.
“The view count when I posted them was pretty low, though?”
“The user count for the game itself is quite low.”
“But it looked like everyone who came over here knew about it?”
“The people who were pulled here were just those who took the game seriously.”
Ah, that was true.
Clearing the game even using the cheat version meant that they were veteran players who at least enjoyed the game somewhat. There was a good chance they would’ve stumbled onto my posts when looking for information.
“And the environment also played a factor in making the Elfnuna nickname famous.”
“The environment?”
“Everyone came here after playing using the cheat version… So they all said that if someone came to this world after clearing the original version, they would have to be Elfnuna.”
I didn’t know what to say to that.
“By the way… I guess the rumor was true. You became this strong, and it hasn’t even been a few years yet.”
Huh? He didn’t know a thing.
I cut him off. “Only half of that rumor is true.”
“Pardon?”
“It’s true that I beat the original version and came over here, but I didn’t get any bonuses to make me stronger.”
“How does that make sense?”
“Because I played the original version for nine years?”
It meant that I naturally knew more than the players who came over here after clearing the cheat versions. The knowledge just came with the territory. I wouldn’t say that knowledge was any bonus for my efforts.
“Enough about me. Keep talking about yourself.”
“I don’t think I have any obligation to, though? Pshe.”
Ah, pulling this again. It was obvious he was still just going to talk in the end.
“Was Noark where you started?”
“No, it was District 5. The son of some shopkeep. Pshe… It was quite funny to see the parents call out, ‘Son! Son!’ when they didn’t even realize their son had been taken over by an evil spirit!”
He didn’t need to go into that level of detail.
“Don’t care,” I dismissed. “When did you become an adventurer?”
“Around a month in. I got some basic gear with the help of the parents and entered the labyrinth.”
A month…
No matter how I thought about it, his circumstances were great.
I’d needed to finish a bloody coming-of-age ceremony and go straight into the labyrinth as soon as I woke up.
Well, it’s probably still better than starting in Noark.
In any case, since it seemed he was going to answer my questions, I quickly went to the important questions.
“When did you first kill someone?”
“Hmm… Who knows? When was it…? Ah! It was around the five-month mark!”
“Who was it?”
“It was my first team member I met through the Adventurer’s Guild! Ahhh, what a good friend he was…”
“Then why did you kill him?”
“Because he tried to rape me in the dungeon.”
Huh?
“Uh…?”
I ended up going speechless at the unexpected motivation behind his first kill. A moment of silence passed. Necrapeto seemed amused by it.
“Pshehe, what’s with that face? Pshehe!”
“I’ll ask this again, but your teammate was a man?”
“That’s what I told you. He was much stronger than me as well. That’s why I acted like I was being overpowered before quickly stabbing his neck with my dagger! It was quite easy. If it happened now, I would’ve turned him into an undead and made him wipe my ass for the rest of my life! Well, thanks to killing him, I learned something.”
“What is it?”
“The answer is…! Killing people makes money, pshe!”
Hardship strengthened people. From what I could tell, the truth that I learned through Hans A was what he learned five months into his life as well.
“Well, it became easier after that… I would show off things that a lot of people wanted and would wait until they started letting their greed for it slip. And when they lowered their guard… Bam! Thanks to that, I was able to become stronger faster, and I didn’t need to keep using that troublesome tactic after becoming stronger. I could just kill them!”
I understood now how he came to be this way. If he had been like this from the beginning, he wouldn’t have waited until the fifth month to kill someone, yet his first ally had given him quite a shock and laid out the rules for the world. After that, the many people who fell for his trap and were greedy for his belongings would’ve become “proof” from his perspective.
However, I didn’t feel any sympathy for him. I had a different thought in mind, in fact.
If his first ally wasn’t that guy and was instead someone better like Erwen, the dwarf, or Raven… Then where would he be now?
“Pshehe…”
It was a useless thought experiment.
What was the point in worrying about the past?
Even those infamous serial killers were at one point weak babies who couldn’t even hurt a fly.
“In any case, to summarize,” I began, “you ended up being exposed for being an evil spirit and then received an invitation into Orcules.”
“Pshehe, well! I suppose you could say that!”
He seemed so shy at first, but he seemed to like telling his story to other people. He gave details for questions I didn’t even ask for, and that allowed me to understand him better than before.
“And when did you start talking like an asshole?”
“Hmm…” he hummed, genuinely musing over the answer. “I only used this way of talking at the Round Table originally. It was to hide my identity.”
“But you talk like this outside as well.”
“Ah… It ended up like that at some point. Let’s see, when did I start talking like this in my daily life…?” A moment of thought later, he seemed to remember. “Ah! I think it was after you appeared in the Round Table!”
I was lost for words once more at the unexpected starting time. The appearance of Lion probably excited his childish brain even more.
“Then what’s your goal?” I asked.
“My… Goal…?” He dragged out his words, probably caught off guard by the question.
“You said you didn’t want to go back home… I don’t think you hold any contempt toward the palace as that captain of yours does… And I don’t think you’re satisfied with your current state either.”
Even as I supplied those reasons, he thought for a long time until at least, he gave me an answer.
“I don’t have a goal.”
“You don’t have one?”
“Well, I guess if I need to make one, it’d be to die a cool death?”
Okay, I see…
“Final question.”
“Pshehe… Already the final question? I was fine with it at the start, but now I’m getting a bit disappointed that this has to end.”
“What did you mean by what you said before?”
“Which part?”
“That this is a tough world to live in. You said that.”
He stiffened, but then forced his muscles to relax as he jokingly threw out, “Who knows? I think it’s quite clear what I meant, though. This is a very difficult and chaotic world to live in!”
I didn’t try pressing the issue.
A sort of defense mechanism, perhaps…
In truth, the people who had strong wills, tall egos, and selfish goals were the people who had the weakest mental fortitude.
This guy seemed like one of those people. The clown wore its smiling makeup to hide the sadness held within.
“Hah! Still, this was great! A shame that there wasn’t an audience here… But the person who will kill me is the hero of the city, an evil spirit, Elfunua, and the person who cleared the original difficulty!”
This guy hid behind the clown mask until the end and gave a brave smile.
And I didn’t like that one bit.
Alright, what should I do? It’d be too much of a waste to just let him go like this…
After taking a moment to think it over, I made him an offer.
“You said you wanted to die a cool death? Isn’t it a shame to die like an extra here?”
“What are you trying to say?”
“I will create the best stage that you desire. So follow me.”
“Hahaha, are you trying to recruit me?”
“I’m pretty sure Orcules doesn’t care about loyalties or anything like that.”
“Pshe, that is true.”
A deep V of concentration formed between his brows.
Ah, of course, that action didn’t mean much. His answer was forced from the beginning.
“Well… Sure! I’ve lost a bit of enthusiasm after finding out it’s you, but you’re still Lion!”
“So you accept?”
“I’m also interested to see the faces of the captain and my other team members when they see me return as their enemies after betraying them!”
He spoke like a hedonist, but I could sense the feelings that all humans had in his situation.
Relief.
Hope.
Joy at having survived.
And…
“That will be quite fun—”
The betrayal of that false hope.
Crunch!
“—agh?”
After having half his head blown off by my hammer, he looked at me with disbelief and confusion in his eyes. The expression of weakness that he had been hiding under his mask.
“Hah,” I sighed. “That felt great.”
Yeah, this was it.
“But… Just… Why…”
I answered his question of desperation: “It’s fun.”
Even better for the fact that it wasn’t a cool death at all.
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