MTLNOVEL Chapter 1 - Rabbit Gondu
I must survive no matter what.
Because I am….
In endless darkness.
“Ugh….”
Siwon’s eyes opened to intense pain.
‘…What is this?’
Siwon was certainly collapsed on a battlefield where blood and flesh were flying.
‘…How am I still alive?’
And then he died.
With the buzzing sound of drones, bullets rained down, and more than thirty holes were pierced in Siwon’s body.
“…!”
Siwon’s pupils dilated at the sight he saw as soon as he lowered his head.
Left thigh and side, right leg and arm, and left shoulder.
A total of five areas were pierced by long thorns.
‘…Shit, it hurts like hell.’
He wanted to scream his lungs out right away, but.
“….”
Siwon maintained silence.
On the battlefield, concealment was as important as life itself.
‘More importantly, the blood….’
Siwon’s back was already damp.
The smell of blood vibrated in his nostrils.
If he stays still like this, he’ll die from excessive bleeding.
‘…No, wait. Excessive bleeding?’
-[DEAD END]
-[Your character has died from excessive bleeding.]
A script he had seen whenever he got the chance.
Memories of the past vaguely came to mind.
‘…LAOA?’
A pit as deep as a person’s height.
Thorns sparsely spread at the bottom.
This was a trap that appeared in [Labyrinth Of Argantola], the game to which Siwon had devoted his youth.
Abbreviated as LAOA.
‘No, how could I fall into even the newbie crusher….’
Originally, the official name of this trap is the thorn-type trap, but users who played LAOA named this thorn-type trap the newbie crusher.
Because most of the newbies who set foot in LAOA tasted this trap and deleted the game entirely.
There’s also a reason that it’s such a crude trap that you wouldn’t fall for it if you were just a little careful.
‘…More importantly, how do I deal with this?’
If this were a game, he would have immediately reset.
But in reality, resetting is not possible.
‘…To stop the bleeding, I need a priest or a healing potion.’
A newbie who just cleared the tutorial wouldn’t have such things.
‘…I’m screwed.’
An utterly desperate situation.
Thud, thud.
At that moment, footsteps were heard from far away.
“….”
He clamped his mouth even tighter to prevent a scream from escaping.
“Hah. Nothing to salvage this time either.”
“What do you expect just wandering around the first floor. It’s already good that we won’t die as long as we look at the map carefully.”
The voices of two men pierced Siwon’s ears.
It was as if angels were chirping.
He wanted to shout right now and beg them to save him.
‘…No, no.’
Whether they were enemies who would kill him.
Or allies who would willingly heal him in his half-dead state.
It’s not too late to ask for help after identifying friend or foe.
The method of identification is to continue eavesdropping on their conversation.
“Why is it so hard to make a living, tsk.”
“It’s because there hasn’t been a Stirring for almost 3 years.”
Stirring is a phenomenon where the labyrinth changes.
After a Stirring, the structure of all floors in the labyrinth changes, and the difficulty of exploration increases dramatically.
If they were explorers, they would probably have felt grateful for this anomaly where no Stirring had occurred for several years.
“In the old days, just walking around a few traps would yield bodies galore~”
…That is, if they were explorers.
‘…Maggots.’
They are those who desecrate the deaths in the labyrinth.
If they discover Siwon in his half-dead state….
“….”
Siwon stifled his breathing even more.
Unintentionally, the trap had become a hiding place.
He prayed that those worm bastards would leave quickly.
Thud, thud.
The footsteps grew louder.
Even their breathing reached Siwon’s ears.
“Hey, shall we check over there?”
At that moment.
One of the maggots said so.
He couldn’t know where he was pointing as he said that.
But he had a certain premonition.
The tip of his finger was surely pointing towards the trap where Siwon was hiding.
“…What? You want to check all the way over there?”
“Yeah. I think I felt some presence.”
“…!!!”
Siwon’s eyes widened.
He had been holding his breath continuously, but his heart was beating so fast that it seemed the sound would be audible.
“…From this distance?”
“…Is it just my imagination?”
“Yeah, it must be imagination. It doesn’t seem like anyone’s there.”
Please, just go back.
“…Shall we just go? I don’t hear anything.”
“Would a corpse speak? And even if someone’s alive, they might be deliberately enduring the pain.”
With that one line, it became clear.
If they discover him, they will surely kill him.
“Does that make sense? Enduring the pain after falling into a thorn trap? If someone were that tough, they wouldn’t have fallen for such a trap in the first place.”
“…That’s true.”
“And if there was a corpse, it would smell rotten. But there’s no smell at all?”
“…Indeed, that’s right.”
“Yeah, let’s just go. I want to get out of this damn labyrinth as soon as possible.”
“….”
Fortunately, due to one man’s misjudgment, the worms retreated.
Thud, thud.
The footsteps gradually faded.
‘…Hah, thank goodness.’
Siwon thought so inwardly, and once again pondered on how to escape this trap.
Thud, thud.
At that moment, footsteps were heard again from far away.
“No, didn’t I say there would be nothing? Why do you keep…”
“No, I have a hunch. I’m sure there’s someone in that trap.”
“Hey, it’s not once or twice that I almost died trusting your hunches…”
“It’s just checking one trap, how could you die, die, man.”
Death is approaching.
It’s already too late to run away.
“See, didn’t I say there would be something?”
The faces of the two men came into Siwon’s view.
One was a bald middle-aged man with no hair, sporting a long brown beard.
The other was a middle-aged man with long hair tied back.
Neither looked like they would kill a person.
Siwon had seen many such faces on the battlefield.
“Huh, huh huh… What a tough bastard. Huh, how many holes in his body? One, two….”
The bald man who had asserted there would be no one continued, seeming embarrassed.
“….”
Siwon exhaled the breath he had been holding.
At the same time, a handful of blood poured from his mouth.
“Hey, you, are you alive?”
“….”
Siwon did not answer.
Because it was obvious they would kill him if he begged for his life.
Stab.
“Ugh….”
“He’s alive, the bastard. Why don’t you answer?”
It was a misjudgment.
When Siwon didn’t answer, the long-haired man stabbed Siwon’s right thigh with a knife.
The already scarce blood flowed out even more.
“You, do you have anything?”
“…Nothing, at all.”
In reality, Siwon was currently only wearing the leather tunic and pants given after the tutorial.
“Oh, yeah. Everyone says that.”
The long-haired man said so while slightly twisting the knife stuck in Siwon’s right thigh.
Intense pain consumed Siwon’s mind.
“Kkeuk….”
“But when we strip them after killing, something always comes out. Even those blood-soaked clothes you’re wearing now would fetch 30 dong if sold.”
A price not even worth a bowl of vegetable soup.
If converted to Korean won, it’s not even 3,000 won.
To them, Siwon’s life was worth even less than that.
‘…Should I beg for my life just once?’
That’s not a good idea.
How could he ask to be spared by those who live off of looting corpses?
He needs to make a proposal to them, not a plea.
“…There’s no need, to kill me, is there?”
“There’s no need to spare you either, is there? You’ve seen our faces.”
“….”
He couldn’t refute that.
“Say something. If you tell us some good information, we’ll consider whether to spare you after hearing it.”
Interpreted, it means they’ll suck out every last drop of useful information before killing him.
“…I don’t really, have any information to share.”
“Then you have to die, bastard.”
The knife twisted again.
“Kkeuk!”
‘…Is this how I die?’
In Siwon’s mind, the memory of his previous life where he died helplessly after being caught in a drone’s detection net flashed.
‘Again, do I have to die without being able to do anything?’
“This won’t do. Your attitude is disrespectful, so we’ll have to send you off as painfully as possible.”
“That’s a good idea indeed.”
“It’s been a while since we’ve been on the same page.”
The tip of the bald man’s knife aimed at Siwon’s solar plexus.
“Found you, you worms.”
At that moment, a smooth female voice brushed Siwon’s ears.
Simultaneously, the heads of the bald man and the long-haired man separated from their bodies and flew into the air.
Pulled by gravity, their flight didn’t last long, and they soon tumbled into the trap where Siwon had fallen.
Thud!
The head of the long-haired man pierced through the ear.
Crack!
The bald man’s head pierced through the mouth and was impaled on the thorns.
Then a necklace fell and settled on top of the bald man’s head.
A human head decorated quite stylishly.
A visual reminiscent of something you’d see in a cannibalistic tribe.
It was the moment when the bald man’s worry about dying finally became reality.
“…?”
Siwon blinked his eyes.
What on earth had just happened?
“Hmm….”
As the woman’s face appeared over the trap, a familiar face was reflected in Siwon’s pupils.
“Rabbit… Gondu?”
Cute appearance, snow-white hair with long rabbit ears protruding on top.
A black bunny girl outfit with a sensual figure.
Along with pink gloves and boots that seemed completely mismatched.
She probably had a different real name, but all users playing LAOA called her Rabbit Gondu.
“?”
Her name was too long and difficult to remember, and she was actually a princess of the Myo clan.
It was because of her bizarre and outrageous outfit, along with her stagnant 5th-class explorer rank.
“Rabbit princess? Are you talking about me?”
‘Ah.’
Siwon’s mind returned to normal.
“Ah, no… I just said rabbit.”
“…Is that so?”
He shouldn’t reveal her identity now.
If he does, she won’t save him, but rather come to kill him.
“More importantly, it’s strange. Most guys who fall in here go completely berserk.”
“….”
If Siwon had come to this world just a year earlier, he too would have acted the same way.
Because the him of that time hadn’t experienced the hell of war.
“Anyway, thanks to you, I caught two worms. Thank you?”
“If, if you’re thankful….”
“You want me to save you?”
Siwon’s head nodded.
“That won’t be possible.”
It’s the expected answer.
A cold personality contrary to her cute appearance.
There are times when she shows clumsiness, but not now.
If she were a stupid explorer who helped others without any compensation, she wouldn’t have survived this long in this crazy labyrinth.
“In the Argantola Labyrinth, many promising individuals are dying even at this moment. Because they don’t have a 10 silver coin healing potion.”
“….”
“You’re asking me to use a healing potion, which is scarce even for saving those guys, on a fool who fell into such a crude trap?”
5%.
That’s the percentage of 1st-class explorers who just started exploring that pass through the 5th underground floor of the Argantola Labyrinth and become 2nd-class.
The rest either die aiming for a place beyond their level, or live their entire lives as 1st-class explorers.
In Rabbit Gondu’s eyes, Siwon too would appear as part of the 95% who would die eventually even if saved now.
“…Still, give me even one reason why I should save you. Then I’ll do it.”
That’s why she was asking for compensation.
Compensation worth saving Siwon for.
“…The first floor of the Argantola Labyrinth.”
Siwon had nothing, but in the labyrinth, information is also good compensation.
In that sense, Siwon had a lot of compensation to offer.
At least, Siwon was someone who knew about the Argantola Labyrinth better than anyone else.
“I know the location of the Hidden Street.”
“…What?”
For a fleeting moment that even she didn’t notice.
Rabbit Gondu’s heterochromatic eyes flickered with expectation for just a brief instant.