World of Masks

World of Masks – Chapter 17

Translator: Seven

Editor: Ana_Banana

Jin-suk cleared his thoughts for a moment. 

Luckily he’d managed to find a way to obtain even a little information about this unfriendly game as soon as he entered the true game world. 

Jin-suk organised the questions he wanted to ask in his head before turning to the bandit on the left, who was trembling.

“First of all, why did you attack me?”

The bandit hesitated a bit before finally opening his mouth.

“Yo-, you look like a novice traveler… So we didn’t think you would have been a threat and decided to rob you.”

Jin-suk then turned to the bandit on the right, who had proposed the deal. Perhaps it was because it was a matter of life and death, the bandit on the right tried to as sincerely as possible.

“U-, usually, people who walk down this road wearing white short sleeves and black pants are novice travelers.”

Jin-suk looked down at the clothes he was wearing.

Although blood, mud, and grime stained his clothes, one could still see that it was the same clothes usually worn by beginners.

“Then, the person on the left again. Why do you attack novice travelers?”

“I, I don’t know about anything else, but the magic bracelets and Life Beads that novice travelers have on them are worth a fair bit…”

It was clear in the description that he’d been given at the start that players’ bracelets could be stolen, and Life Beads were quite expensive in the game.

“So you guys specialise in robbing novice travelers?”

When the two bandits nodded, Jin-suk couldn’t help but chuckle. No matter how realistic the game was, he never would have thought that there would be NPCs who specialised in robbing players.

Even if they were players, most of them were people who could not even kill a chicken in reality. Even if they gained some experience by entering the World of Masks and hunting rabbits or boars in the beginner village, it would be impossible for them to kill humanoid NPCs without hesitation. After all, the NPCs in this game were just like real humans.

And after thinking that much, the reason for their actions was quite obvious. A novice traveler with only a few levels and little to no experience in this world would be the best prey for them.

“Come to think of it, you said that you wished I was a woman before. And that it didn’t matter if she was wearing a mask since you could still take off her clothes and press her down. Have you even raped travelers?”

The two bandits avoided Jin-suk’s eyes. 

This kind of reaction made the answer obvious even if they didn’t say it outloud.

‘This game is more dangerous than I thought.’

Not only did they attack players, but they also raped them. And since the game allowed you to feel the same sensations as in reality, the raped players must have been traumatised. It was possible that they might even have needed to receive psychiatric treatment.

No. they wouldn’t have spared the woman even after raping her, so those players probably died of shock.

After that, Jin-suk continued to ask his questions. However, because they spent their days as bandits, they didn’t have access to any high level information.

The name of the city that he could see in the distance was the Blau Holy Neutral City. It was a city-state that guaranteed neutrality. It is said that novice travelers usually appeared near Holy Neutral Cities like this one. 

The bandits only knew that there were a few other cities, but they didn’t know just how many there were.

These Holy Neutral Cities seemed to be the first city that the beginners in this world would reach. And he guessed that beginner players would fall randomly in the vicinity of a Holy Neutral City.

Blau Holy Neutral city was sandwiched between the borders of two kingdoms which seemed to be named Prail and Raden.

But that was all the bandits knew. They had no knowledge of the world beyond that. No, it could have been said that they weren’t interested in it.

In a way, it should have been obvious that these bandits, who lived in this medieval world, would have little knowledge and interest in the rest of the world.

‘These guys were surprisingly useless.’

They had given him some useful information, such as the price to enter the neutral city and information about the shops, but they didn’t really give him any information that was really helpful.

Perhaps it was because he read Jin-suk’s expression, but the smarter bandit who had offered a deal suddenly spoke up urgently.

“S-, skilled travelers don’t wear masks!”

Hoh?

What was he talking about?

Jin-suk’s eyes became filled with interest.

When he saw Jin-suk react to his words, the bandit hurried to say the rest of his words.

“I don’t know why, but skilled travelers would sometimes attack each other! And even high end criminals in the world would sometimes target skilled travelers, so they sometimes target masks! I heard that skilled travelers preferred to wear hoods or disguise themselves! Only the really powerful travelers or novice travelers who don’t know anything wear masks!”

He couldn’t believe that masks were targeted. The World of Masks was an illegal game, so nothing good would come of revealing your face. That was why the masks were essential in a way. 

However, if the masks became targets of the enemy, then it would become an entirely different story. 

Plus, players attacked each other? Was it just simple PK or were their purposeful attacks?

He felt like he should find out about this too.

“Hmm. I see. That information was pretty useful. Anything else?”

The bandit’s face brightened when he heard Jin-suk’s praise, and the other bandit’s expression became darker.

“Th-, there’s something else! It’s better to wear the mask when you enter the city! Novice travelers can’t enter because they don’t have any forms of identification. You have to talk to the gatekeeper and have them guide you to the church! Once you receive a way to prove your identity from the church, you won’t have to wear the mask anymore!”

“I see. That is also helpful. Anything else?”

“I know how to kill a traveler completely! Completely in the travelers’ world!”

Jin-suk couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows when the bandit shouted out. 

It seemed that he would have to listen to this method.

“Travelers can’t leave this world while they’re in combat! So by using a lot of supplies, you can keep them in a constant state of combat! The important thing is to make sure the traveler doesn’t die. If the traveler seems to be undernourished, catch them for a while and force feed them food and water. Then let them go again and make them enter a combative state once again. Even when the traveler sleeps or falls unconscious, guard their bodies while forcibly maintaining the combative state. All you have to do is keep repeating that process. If you stop the traveler from leaving this world, then after about 20 days, they will die on their own! Even in the travelers’ world!”

About 20 days. The time difference between the game and reality was about 3:1, so in reality, that was about 7 days. 

Humans couldn’t survive for a week without water. So from what the bandit said, the players would not be able to drink even a mouthful of water because they would still be ‘connected’ to the game. Then, they would die of dehydration.

‘In the first place, the game is illegal so we probably can’t expect anything like a manual or forced disconnection from the access tool.’

The more he listened, the more dangerous the World of Masks appeared. The question was, how did this method spread to the NPCs in the game?

Of course, it was possible that the NPCs were the ones that came up with the method. Just by looking at these bandits who were desperately fighting for their own survival showed just how real this game was. But the method he’d just heard could have only been created after fully understanding the conditions that the players played the game under.

A large amount of supplies, and constant forced combat. Capture them alive, force feed them food and water. Guard their bodies and don’t let them out of the forced combative state even when they were asleep.

The prerequisites were too complex for the NPCs to have happened upon this method by luck.

‘There is a high chance that it was designed by a player.’

He didn’t know who that guy was, but they were really good at using their head.

“I’ve heard that there are a few other things which prevent travelers from leaving this world, but I don’t know the rest.”

“I see. Your information was very useful. You are definitely in the lead.”

Feeling that he’d succeeded after hearing Jin-suk’s words, the bandit who told him the information raised his arms to the air.

Jin-suk then turned to the other bandit who was trembling pitifully.

“What about you?”

The difference in information was too large. The bandit who was losing desperately rolled his eyes and bit his lips as he tried to think of something.

Then he looked at Jin-suk as if he’d thought of something.

“A-, as long as the information is useful to you, right?”

“Yes. As long as it’s useful information.”

“Th-, then I’ll tell you the location of our hideout! Our emergency money is there!”

“Hey! You bastard!”

The other bandit was about to cover the mouth of his teammate who was about to sell out their hideout when a longsword was aimed at his throat once again. Therefore, he could only grit his teeth and glare at the other bandit but he was unable to do anything else.

“We already sold almost everything we stole, so there isn’t much, but there is still some left.”

He then taught Jin-suk how to find their hideout. Surprisingly it was in the middle of an ordinary residential area.

“A place with money is definitely useful. But that’s still not enough.”

The information he’d heard from the bandit was not enough, but he might catch up if he knew something else. The other bandit knew this so he was trying to think of anything he could use.

“Damn it! Hey! Hey! Travelers need a place to rest and sleep don’t they? You can just take that hideout! It’s in a residential area, but it’s in a remote spot, so there wouldn’t be any problems if you live there! I’ll even show you the spot where the captain hid the property documents. You put a hole in his neck, so I am the only other person who knows.”

This was a surprisingly large amount of extra income. Jin-suk thought this as he looked at the bandit who had regretfully sold out their hideout after realising the situation couldn’t be reversed.

After hearing the location of the documents, Jin-suk turned to look at the bandit who was far behind once again.

He was so anxious that his entire body was covered with sweat.

“T-, treasure. I know where treasure is. So…”

Just as the bandit was about to finish his words, a light shot from the Contract Jewel that Jin-suk was holding.

“Ahhh!”

The bandit suddenly screamed crazily before rolling around on the ground as if he was in serious pain. He only calmed down about 10 seconds after.

“…what was that?”

“…if you try to break an agreement made on a Contract Jewel, you will suffer like that. And if you ignore the pain and continue to break the agreement, you will die.”

“In other words, that guy?”

“In this case, he was about to tell a lie.”

The bandit looked down at his companion who was crying pitifully on the ground. However, his expression soon changed.

“I think the results are clear now.”

Jin-suk nodded.

“I suppose so. Yes. I’ll admit it. You provided the most useful information.”

The moment he heard those words, the bandit stretched his hands up and cheered joyfully. It was a sharp contrast to the bandit who was crying bitterly beside him.