The D-Rank Guild Master of the No. 1 Guild

“How…?”

“Where are we?”

Kanel and Unahar’s voices pulled me out of my dizziness.

With my eyes closed, the swirling gravity finally found its place in the pitch-black void. Slowly, sensation returned to the extremities of my body.

I felt the ground beneath my feet and the touch of Lilith and Kanel’s hands in mine.

I opened my eyes wide.

“The air is so stuffy.”

Lilith, the most physically frail among us, coughed lightly.

“Did someone use a unique ability related to dust or sandstorm?”

“Unique abilities should be disabled inside the fortress—.”

Finally, the world around us started to come into focus as if a switch had been flipped.

“…!”

A clear sky stretched infinitely above.

Before us lay a terrain covered in trees and grass, and behind us was a massive wall too high to see over.

Inside the wall, towering buildings seemed to pierce the sky, so tall that we had to crane our necks to look up.

There were no longer any invisible barriers blocking our view.

Beneath our feet were paving stones, below which lay countless insects and microorganisms, then dirt, and deeper still, the mantle of the Earth.

Though not immediately near us, the world was filled with the noise of countless people.

This world is round. If we keep walking, we’ll eventually circle the globe.

Earth.

That’s right. We are now in the real world.

Thud, thud, thud-.

Suddenly, a loud noise came from the sky. The three of them, except for me, looked up in shock.

“There’s something passing in the sky. Is it a person?”

“Is there a unique ability like that?”

As my companions murmured, I looked up at the helicopter passing overhead, my expression growing stranger.

Finally, Lilith, Kanel, and Unahar looked at me.

“Rudel… Where are we?”

I couldn’t answer immediately.

“Rudel, are you okay?”

My breath was coming too fast, so I lowered my head, trying to calm myself.

The corners of my mouth twitched oddly. It wasn’t a smile, nor a frown.

This is impossible. Truly impossible.

I did it.

By applying and inputting the code shown by that little white bird, I had succeeded in bringing us into the real world, looking just as we did in the game.

What is the principle behind this? How is this even possible?

Of course, when I read Akata’s memories of staying in reality, I had hoped this might happen, but…

Even so, it’s hard to believe this actually worked, even though I did it myself.

“I broke through the game and came out into the world…”

“Rudel, what did you just mumble?”

My strange reaction made my companions worry, and they grabbed my hands or put their arms around my shoulders.

I had to swallow my emotions to keep from jumping up and down with joy.

As I calmed down, my mind slowly filled with thoughts.

It felt like I had finally returned home after wandering in a foreign land for ten years, a breathless excitement mixed with…

The pressure of having no acquaintances or money, being utterly destitute!

And we were right behind a huge building with glass walls.

Imagine four game characters suddenly appearing behind some prominent office building.

Fortunately, it was work hours, so no one was around, but any moment an employee could appear from around the corner.

It was a crisis.

We crouched down in the bushes.

“Don’t panic and listen carefully.”

I was probably the most panicked.

I tried to suppress my trembling hands and the smile threatening to break out, summoning calmness from my toes.

“We were actually characters in a game. The comments from the sky were from real people playing our game. We were just virtual characters to them. But now we’ve jumped out of the game. We’re in the real world.”

The three of them stared at me in shock, almost as if doubting my sanity.

“Yeah, I know it’s hard to believe. It’s only natural. But try to understand it slowly. You trust me, right? You know I’m being sincere?”

I had thought that when they came into reality, they might automatically realize the artificial nature of their previous world due to the clash of concepts.

But from their expressions, that didn’t seem to be the case.

Honestly, they looked like they might faint any second. Which made sense—they had just been confronted with the complete negation of everything they had believed in.

Even if they grabbed me by the collar or acted irrationally out of disbelief, I was prepared to understand and accept it.

Yet, my words seemed to hold absolute value to them.

I could see their faces contorting as they tried to come to terms with what I was saying.

I waited with some anxiety for a long moment.

Kanel was the first to gather himself and ask a question.

“The last thing I remember before coming here was… right, we were about to be eliminated. But now we are here, not dead. Did you do this, Rudel?”

“Yes. I figured out the language the programmers used to create our characters. I used it to get us out of the game just before we died.”

“How?”

“That’s a long story. I’ll explain later.”

“So, Rudel, you planned and executed all of this.”

Kanel stared into my eyes, speaking each word slowly.

“Why didn’t you tell us earlier?”

“I wanted to, but I couldn’t. The administrators were watching us everywhere in the game.”

Seeing Kanel ask questions, Lilith and Unahar joined in.

“How did you know all of this?”

“Were you from here originally?”

They each threw their questions at me in turn.

“I promise I’ll explain everything from the past later. For now, can you give me some time to figure out what to do next?”

I felt terrible for postponing the explanation, but I was desperate to determine our exact location and confirm if we were really in South Korea.

So, selfishly, I asked for their patience.

Lilith lowered her gaze, her green eyes flickering with unease.

“I trust you… but honestly, my mind is in turmoil. You never hinted at something this big. I understand you were being watched, but still…”

I understood. As friends, as family, they must feel hurt. I had no excuse and owed them a sincere apology.

“Lilith, I get it. You might feel betrayed. I might seem like a completely different person to you now…”

As I spoke, a pang of irony hit me. What if Lilith really saw me as a different person now? I was still Rudel, after all.

What if Kanel and Unahar also started to distance themselves from me because of this?

“No. On the contrary, I feel like I’m finally understanding you.”

At that moment, Kanel, as if reading my troubled mind, spoke with conviction, drawing our attention.

“The secret about the outside world. This must have been the biggest secret Rudel was hiding. I used to think you were just hiding a dark shadow, but now… I feel like I finally understand you, Rudel, even if this situation is hard to accept.”

“…I had a dark shadow?”

Lilith, who had been listening quietly, gave a faint smile.

“I was just worried that you might have been carrying a heavy burden alone, Rudel. That’s why I said I felt hurt, okay?”

Seeing Lilith’s smile, my anxiety melted away.

Unahar, who had been silent, finally spoke.

“If we failed the Champion Challenge, we would all be eliminated due to lack of members.”

His jaw tightened as he recalled the recent events. But then, he relaxed, smiling reassuringly at me.

“But we’re not dead. I said I’d follow you to hell, but this place looks too lively and colorful to be hell. So, where exactly are we?”

Finally, the conversation circled back to our current location.

Instead of answering, I listened carefully.

I could hear car noises, indicating we were near a highway.

In the distance, I saw a faint outline of apartment complexes. It wasn’t a densely populated area.

‘This is definitely Korea. Those apartment complexes are unique to Korea. And the sidewalks and landscaping look familiar.’

But what is this company building in front of us?

Why does it have an iron fence and security guards?

Kanel subtly stood up from the bushes, stretching his neck to look around.

“There are so many tall buildings, like trees. Do all those places have people living in them?”

“Yes, people live in all of them. The problem is, we can’t enter any of those buildings.”

But can Kanel see that far?

“Kanel, what else can you see?”

I decided to rely on Kanel’s eyesight instead of my own limited view.

Now that I think about it, Kanel, being a sniper, had particularly sharp eyesight. Almost like a Mongolian hunter.

“There are large cars moving along the road. There are also people on both sides.”

“A road? Can you read the signs from there?”

“I can’t see that clearly. Ah, I can make out the largest letters.”

“What do they say?”

“Pangyo.”

Pangyo? My face lit up as if I had met an old friend.

Kanel, startled by my reaction, asked what Pangyo was.

“Nothing. It’s just the name of a district. A region. So, we are in South Korea, after all. And if it’s Pangyo…”

Pangyo is known for its game companies.

My face grew tense.

I looked up at the building surrounded by an iron fence with suspicion.

‘…Could this building be the game company that created us?’

A shiver ran down my spine. Good heavens, we were right next to enemy territory.

‘Thankfully, that fence saved us. We haven’t been caught by any employees yet.’

But what kind of game company uses a fence with barbed wire? Is it a military facility or something?

Then again, a company that creates beings like us wouldn’t be an ordinary one.

They must have tight security to protect their trade secrets or to keep out crazed fans.

“We should move away from this building.”

“Are you suggesting we relocate?”

“Yes.”

Our first goal is to find a safe hiding place.

How to find one would be the next step to figure out.