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

‘If I fall like this, where will I go next?’

The first champion young Akata ever faced.

The sensation of darkness gripping his limbs and creeping into his breath was similar to when he had tried to take his own life by drinking a sleeping draught.

Despite his sudden physical growth and enhanced athletic abilities during the Champion Challenge, he could not overcome Taggiros’ dark realm.

Akata closed his eyes.

‘Rudel… I miss you.’

Afraid that his overwhelming feelings might somehow hinder Rudel from afar, he kept his unspoken words secretly in his heart.

What will happen to me now?

I don’t blame Rudel, but honestly, I am scared.

“……”

He couldn’t tell how much time had passed, but Akata suddenly realized he was staring at the ceiling with his eyes open.

“Ugh.”

As he tried to sit up, he groaned softly as his longer hair, still unfamiliar, brushed against his body.

Then he realized he was still in his adult form.

He slowly looked around.

A room as white as a sterilization room in a laboratory. The only furniture was the bed Akata lay on, and another…

“……! Gio!”

Startled, he immediately jumped off the bed.

Gio was asleep on a bed identical to his own, but he was sealed inside a transparent tube like a glass coffin.

Akata rushed over to it.

No matter how loudly he called or how hard he pounded on the glass, Gio didn’t respond.

There was no visible mechanism to open the glass tube. He pounded his fists until they bled, but the glass didn’t crack.

When all methods failed, Akata pressed his palms and forehead against the glass, desperately examining him.

Although Gio was right next to him, it felt impossible to reach him.

Seeing him preserved so still, without a thread of clothing, like a doll or a test subject.

‘If you fail the Champion Challenge, do you end up here? Then, is that the penalty of confinement for failure?’

As Akata gradually calmed down, he felt a sense of doubt.

‘I failed too, so why am I not being preserved unconsciously like Gio?’

The eerie feeling he experienced silently approached with the shadow that appeared behind him.

Akata turned around and gasped. His body trembled.

He pressed his back against the glass, trying to protect Gio.

A figure in a pitch-black robe, masked and wrapped tightly as if to reveal nothing about themselves.

Every part of the body covered in black cloth. The master of the dark world.

The ruthless champion who had dragged him and Gio into the depths of defeat stood there.

“Are you okay?”

For a moment, Akata doubted his ears.

From behind the mask, an unexpectedly calm voice emerged. It was a heavy, low voice, like being underwater.

He still hadn’t shaken off the habits from his boyhood.

Even though Taggiros had seized both his hands, Akata could only tremble, unable to break free immediately.

The masked champion closely examined Akata’s injured hand. Then, carefully, he placed it back on Akata’s knee.

“I’ll see if there’s anything useful. A potion, or an ointment…”

Turning his back without hesitation, Akata watched him with a confused expression.

Five minutes later, Akata, now with a bandage on his hand, desperately tried to ignore the champion sitting nearby.

…He had never considered the possibility that the champion could be a player like them.

He had never seen the face behind the mask, heard the voice, or even been curious. The champion was the demon who had destroyed his guild.

But unlike the last match, now he seemed like any other person, save for still hiding his face behind a mask.

“…Why did you release me from confinement?”

Without being able to see the face behind the mask to discern any deceit, Akata saw no reason to look at him.

He lay on the bed, murmuring under the blanket as if to shield himself.

“I…”

The champion hesitated, fiddling with his robes for a long time.

When silent, he seemed the most dignified person one could meet, but as soon as he spoke, that elegance appeared to diminish.

“Forgive me. This is my first time introducing myself. I… can’t tell you much, but you can refer to me as ‘The First Player.’ If it seems I have any privileges, they all come from here.”

Even during the first-round selection matches, Taggiros had received special treatment, never participating in the regular rounds.

It was as if he was created solely to become a champion.

Could his awkwardness with others stem from having no prior interactions?

“I asked why you brought me here.”

“I didn’t bring you here.”

At those calm words, Akata’s fingers pressed into the bed with tension.

‘So that’s it. This place is under the game manager’s control as well. He’s just a prisoner like me.’

But then, the champion seemed to read Akata’s fearful expression and added,

“Don’t worry. Nothing you fear will happen here. …Aren’t you a player who’s had their memories erased?”

Akata couldn’t tear his eyes away from the mask.

Erased memories? …Me?

But Akata remembered exactly who he was. He remembered everything that had happened.

Could it be that this man was indirectly warning him?

To pretend as if he was one of the ‘players who lost their memories’ as he suggested…

It was certainly a possibility.

The system would likely want to prevent a recurrence of what he did in the PK arena not long ago.

‘But they failed to erase my memory. Why?’

Finishing his thoughts, Akata looked back at Taggiros.

‘…Could it be that he protected me?’

As if answering his unspoken question, Taggiros continued.

“It’s alright, this is a space entrusted to me by the administrators. You can be at ease.”

Thus began an unusual cohabitation, shrouded in mystery.

There was only one door, but only Taggiros could pass through it.

Akata tried everything to get out, only to find an invisible barrier blocking his way.

He was trapped and couldn’t escape from Taggiros. He had to stay there day by day.

Moreover, from what he could infer from previous conversations, it seemed Taggiros had prevented his memory erasure.

Owing a debt for that, Akata couldn’t easily suspect him of being a villain or demand to know his intentions.

‘If the game managers had taken me, they might have really erased all my memories. So, in any case, I received help from him.’

With nothing else to do, Akata spent his time rolling around on the bed and watching the unmoving Gio. He ate the meals Taggiros provided.

The timing of the meals was strangely irregular, so he asked why.

“Sorry. I can’t feel the passage of time well. I don’t even know how many times a day people eat… Oh, is it 15 hours in a day?”

When Akata corrected him, saying a day is 24 hours, he understood why sometimes he was fed too often and other times not enough.

At the same time, Akata felt a sense of wonder.

‘How has this person lived to be so ignorant of basic things? And he claims to be the first player.’

Oddly, there were no other administrators in this place. The bathroom was dry and unused. Taggiros lived separately, outside the door.

After their brief conversation on the first day, Taggiros never initiated a conversation. Even when Akata asked questions, he rarely answered.

He only came in three times a day to provide meals, always gazing softly at Akata before leaving.

‘If he just put me in the glass tube like Gio, he wouldn’t have to bother with feeding me. Why does he go through the trouble?’

There were many unknowns.

Eating the neatly arranged, artificially made food provided by the system, Akata fell into his thoughts.

‘I remember the time spent with Aria.’

He quickly shook his head to forget that thought.

He soon began speculating about Taggiros’ intentions.

‘Just like Rudel and I couldn’t talk about reality, maybe he’s restricted from talking about himself.’

This was assuming he was an ally.

As Akata sat idly, Taggiros brought over puzzles and blocks, stacking them beside him.

‘Does he think of me as a pet to be taken care of?’

In any case, to avoid upsetting him, Akata played with the puzzles, though his mind was elsewhere.

‘Rudel must be alive. If it’s Rudel, definitely.’

It was hard to believe without any evidence.

Even so, Akata believed, expending a strength that felt like tearing his soul apart.

In truth, he was deeply anxious.

[Agasa Guild, Insufficient Members!]

He remembered seeing this message when he was defeated by the champion.

Akata’s status window was still active.

When he searched the player list, Rudel and the three guild members had disappeared without a trace, as if they had never existed.

‘No. If it’s Rudel…’

He shook his head, refusing to believe it.

During his tranquil captivity, a guild interview special event for the upcoming quarter took place.

Upon request, Taggiros arranged for him to have a viewing screen.

[“This special’s theme is ‘Mourning.’ Tell us about those who have left.”]

On the screen, his friend Nahean, who had lost his original guild and joined Ice Castle, was crying.

The system even issued an official notice stating it would decide what to do about the detained players, Gio and himself.

The belief in Rudel’s survival in his heart was like waves continually obscuring the truth written on the seabed.

‘No matter how amazing Rudel is.’

‘How could he possibly beat the system?’

The idea of Rudel being alive surpassed his wildest imagination.

His sanity, which had been sustaining him in the white room, was gradually breaking down.

‘Rudel…’

He clung to the glass tube that held his only remaining family, Gio.

‘Everyone says you’re dead. Even the omnipotent game managers.’

Gio’s face blurred. Akata hugged the glass tube tightly. Tears fell like rain on the surface of the glass.