World of Masks

Chapter 11

Translator: Seven

Editor: Ana_Banana

Jin-suk, who had accepted the quest, began to move hurriedly. This was his first real quest in the World of Masks so he was determined to do his best.

He had already formed a plan to complete the quest to some extent.

All he needed to make the plan work was a prey.

“Kweeek!”

The wild boar rushing towards him had come just as he was intending to go look for something. He evaded its charge and stabbed it in the back with his short sword.

Puk.

“Kweeek!”

Ignoring the wild boar’s pain, he pulled the short sword out. If he didn’t pull it out, then with the momentum of the wild boar which hadn’t died yet, he would lose the short sword.

When Jin-suk had first started hunting he had many similar mistakes and it gave him a lot of trouble.

Jin-suk calmly watched as the wild boar kept running for a bit while thrashing wildly due to the pain.

He waited.

If he approached it during that commotion then there was a high chance that he would get hurt by it.

Of course, the wild boars on this mountain weren’t particularly large since it was only a beginner village. They were only about half the size of a regular wild boar.

But even then, a wild boar was not an animal that could simply be hunted by fighting it with a knife or sword. This was a fact even if the wild boar was small.

Though he’d raised his level a bit and gotten stronger, Jin-suk wasn’t careless when hunting his prey.

The wild boar, which had been running for a long time, finally stopped before looking toward Jin-suk.

Its small form which was frothing at the mouth and glaring with red eyes was quite a fearsome sight.

Nevertheless, Jin-suk, who had been waiting for the moment the boar stopped moving and instead looked for the one who hurt it, rushed toward the wild boar.

Before it could react, Jin-suk leapt forward and thrusted his sword towards its head.

Crack.

He enjoyed the feeling of piercing a skull once again.

‘I think I’ll really become addicted.’

Looking at the dead boar, Jin-suk smiled in satisfaction and wiped the bit of sweat that accumulated on his forehead.

He struggled a bit because the short sword was not very reliable, but he was able to make due because of his increased attributes.

Jin-suk put the wild boar’s carcass into the bracelet before moving on in search of another prey.

“Brother! Why must you be like this!”

Jin-suk, who had stopped by the general store to ask something, was accosted by the store owner.

Due to the sudden shout of the store owner, Jin-suk tilted his head slightly in confusion because he didn’t understand what was going on.

“Is there a problem?”

“Problem?!”

The owner of the general store shouted with so much force that it seemed like his teeth would fly out of his mouth and smacked the counter.

“Brother, you keep giving away your wild game to the villagers for free. It’s hindering my business.”

‘So it’s because of that.’

Jin-suk looked a bit troubled. No matter what, the store owner would be angry.

Jin-suk, who didn’t know that he had implemented such a change, felt that this game was no different from reality.

But to be surprised was just to be surprised and now he just needed to appease the shopkeeper in front of him.

“Calm down. Calm down. I didn’t mean to mess with Mr. Langster.”

Because they had a connection, he was still willing to listen to him, however, Langster glared at Jin-suk with eyes that said ‘if you tell me nonsense, I will deal with you’.

“It’s been such a long time since I came to this village but I’m only close to Mr. Langster and the blacksmith Mr. Hans. Right?”

“What about it?”

“I am just a traveller and will soon leave the village, but I still feel off when the villagers are on guard. That’s why I thought about making some friends by sharing some of the boars I caught. I didn’t mean to interfere with Mr. Langster’s business.”

In order to complete the quest, Jin-suk first thought of a way to create friendships with the NPCs in the village and himself.

Once he had built familiarity with the NPCs, he would implement his plan.

So Jin-suk handed out his catches to the villagers. Of course, the effect was amazing.

“Now I have some acquaintances so I’ll stop doing that. In fact, I’ll even increase Mr. Langster’s sales.”

“Sales?”

As expected, the moment he heard the word sales, Langsters ears perked up like he had heard a tune from heaven.

“Yes. Didn’t Mr. Langster say before that there was alcohol in this store?”

“Of course. This town is small, so my store handles almost everything.”

“How much?”

“There is only beer. Five oak barrels. Why, you want to buy?”

“Yes, please give it to me.”

“…all?”

Five oak barrels of beer was an enormous amount. Even if he sold one, it would be large enough for a party, not to mention all of them. Langster’s mouth was understandably wide with shock.

“Ahahaha. You should have said so early. Then why would I have a reason to be angry?”

It seemed that he felt it wasn’t enough as he opened the door on the counter, walked out and patted Jin-suk on the back a few times.

As expected, the best way to gain the favor of the store owner was to boost his sales.

Fortunately, it seemed that Langster’s negative feelings had been completely resolved which caused Jin-suk to sigh in relief as it seemed that he would be able to ask his questions now.

“Come to think of it. I heard that travellers came from another world, is that right?”

“Huh? Brother, you didn’t even know that? Then why are you here?”

Jin-suk shrugged at those words.

“Well, it’s a trip.”

“Hmm. Really? Well, there was a prophecy before the travellers appeared. The travellers were coming to our world to subjugate the monsters and accept our requests. Well, to request a favor would require a certain amount of wealth first.”

When he heard Langster’s words, Jin-suk nodded. It seemed that that was the story that convinced the NPCs of the legitimacy of the players’ existence.

“But why are you buying so much alcohol? To drink it yourself?”

“No. I’m preparing to leave in a few days so I’d like to host a small feast in the village. Mr. Langster can you please tell the other villagers?”

“A feast?”

Langster’s eyes widened in surprise.

However, his mouth soon followed as he understood Jin-suk’s meaning.

“You will share all of the alcohol there?”

“Yes. I’ve already got some meat stocked up. I will like to host it tomorrow, so Mr. Langster, please tell the other villagers.”

“Leave it to me! We’ll take care of the preparations!”

This was a feast after all.

In small villages like this one, there would only be small feasts after the harvest.

While thinking that he could eat and drink to his heart’s content, Langster’s mood turned 180 degrees from the previous day, it kept soaring unaware of how high the sky was.

A bonfire rose and the smell of meat spread from it.

The town was small, so even though there were only about 40 people, the atmosphere was quite lively.

It was quite a long time since they could eat meat and drink alcohol so freely which caused the villagers to laugh freely.

“Ahahaha. I didn’t expect you to prepare such an event.”

It was Hans who was smiling brightly as he slapped Jin-suk on the shoulder. In his hand was a large wooden mug that was filled to the brim.

Hans, whose face was already laughing with a red face as if he was drunk, plopped down to sit beside Jin-suk.

“I’m new to this world, so I thought that this was a good way to treat everyone.”

“I heard that other travellers who went to other villages were very dangerous people, but the traveller who came to our village was kind instead. Hey! Don’t you all think so?!”

The people who were dancing around the bonfire all cheered loudly in unison.

In this world which was similar to the Middle Ages from reality, there was not much time for the poorer people to have fun.

Therefore, the villagers were filled with praise for Jin-suk who had given them this great opportunity.

“I knew that he was this sort of person from the start.”

Langster, who was holding a large mug of beer in one hand and a large piece of boar meat in the other, sat on the other side of Jin-suk and spoke loudly.

“Tch. At first, this guy had come to me and spat about a strange guy who’d shown up…”

“Uhh. Brother. Is this right?”

These two men pointed at each other and shouted before bursting into laughter.

Between the two of them, Jin-suk leaned forward and raised his beer. The stench of the beer was coming from their mouths.

Maybe it was because this world was like the Middle Ages, or because this was a rural village, but it was not good alcohol.

However, Jin-suk was never a person who cared about the taste of alcohol.

He didn’t care if it was a drink that went smoothly down the throat. It was the people who were dancing around the bonfire, and the stars in the sky that seemed to embroider the scene, that he noticed.

‘This world is really beautiful.’

While listening to the song that villagers sang with all their hearts, Jin-suk drank his alcohol.

The next morning.

Jin-suk slowly opened his eyes as a soft breeze stroked his hair.

As soon as he got up, Jin-suk grimaced as he was assaulted by an intense headache. He raised his arms and stretched his body that had been laying on the ground for an entire night.

“Ugh!”

There seemed to be no problems with his body.

Jin-suk got to his feet and dusted himself off. It was his first time sleeping in the game because he usually had to go to the store every day for a living.

Fortunately, he had the day off or he would have definitely been late.

This was also the first time that he had slept outdoors while drunk. Jin-suk laughed as he recalled how fervently he laughed when people had told him of it before.

Jin-suk then picked the grime at the side of his eyes and looked around.

All around him were villagers who had gotten drunk and fallen asleep.

Jin-suk, with half closed eyes, moved forwards to sit in front of the bonfire beside Hans who looked like he was about to fall over at any moment.

“Ahhh. Drinking too much is not good. Oh my head.”

He didn’t expect that even the hangover would be reproduced by the game. No matter what he expected, what he experienced was much worse.

‘How much beer would someone have to drink to end up like this?’

Jin-suk looked toward Hans who seemed to be looking at the oak barrels with tired eyes.

With his head down and no movement, it looked like he was actually sleeping.

“Did you have fun yesterday?”

He didn’t receive an answer.

Did he drink too much yesterday?

As if he was asleep, Hans made no response to Jin-suk’s question.

Jin-suk let out a laugh.

“But you can’t answer.”

Jin-suk pushed Hans beside him.

Thump.

Hans fell over to the side easily, as if he was a pile of wood.

The shock would have been enough to wake him, but he didn’t move. In fact, it didn’t even seem like he was breathing, like a corpse.

Jin-suk looked at the pools of blood around him and moved forward to retrieve the short sword that had been stuck in the ground beside the bonfire.

The short sword was covered in blood, as if it had been used to mutilate something.

Having blood on the short sword was nothing new. Whenever Jin-suk finished hunting, this was how the short sword would.

However, the only difference now was that the blood on the short sword was that of a person instead of an animal.

Jin-suk got up from his seat. Twirling the short sword in his hands, he looked around again.

Blood had pooled around the fallen bodies of the villagers.

Blood! Blood! Blood!

The blood came from bodies that had various injuries, some had been stabbed in their throats, some had holes in their skulls, there were bodies that had been completely mutilated, even some that had been decapitated.

The blood pooled to form a lake.

Jin-suk took a deep breath.

The air was clear of any pollutants and so he was able to easily smell the scent of blood that tickled his nose.

Jin-suk took another deep breath and looked up to the sky with satisfaction before turning his gaze back to the village.

Suddenly a thirst arose from within him and so he licked the blood on the short sword which belonged to someone he didn’t even know.

“As expected, it’s really a beautiful world.”

Jin-suk smiled brightly as he looked at the corpses that had already become stiff and the pool of blood that glimmered in the sunlight.