– Hahaha. Hahahahahaha.

It was a sound that could not be described in any way.

While one could infer it was laughter based on context and pronunciation, the noise, like fluttering wings, was endlessly chilling.

That bizarre sound made me realize anew.

Though I had been casually speaking informally, I was conversing with something beyond human.

‘But since it’s a being beyond human anyway, it probably won’t obsess over formal or informal speech created in the Korean language system.’

Seo Suji thought this as she waited for that creepy laughter to stop.

[νόμος is laughing at your words.] [νόμος is laughing at your words.]

Even without the log repeating, the sound echoed in her head.

As Seo Suji muttered something to herself and then fell silent, Peace, who had been observing, carefully spoke up.

“Team leader… What’s going on?”

Feeling quite tired just from briefly conversing with the ‘great beings’, Seo Suji mouthed to her team members.

‘I’m talking with the owner of .’

At those unbelievable words, Saint and Peace’s faces showed they were bursting with curiosity.

If only the ring wasn’t a bound item, she could have shared this voice with them.

It was just regrettable.

‘I’ll summarize for you after I finish talking.’

It didn’t seem like an easy conversation for team members to participate in anyway, so that seemed more efficient.

Perhaps because they had worked together for so long, all three seemed to understand perfectly just from her lip movements.

Seeing her team members nod with serious expressions, Seo Suji moved to sit alone on the beach.

Sitting on the sand that had become quite hot, feeling the stinging light of the luminous body shining down on her whole body, the long laughter slowly came to a stop.

She couldn’t tell what the ‘great beings’ were thinking. It seemed best to extract as much information as possible when they started chattering excitedly.

Seo Suji spoke up again.

“Are you done laughing now?”

– Getting to talk directly like this is more enjoyable than I expected.

“Can’t we speak directly?”

– There are restrictions.

“Those restrictions. I saw them before too, but why do they exist?”

– Hehe. I should explain that first. It’ll be a long story.

Every piece of information was precious right now.

Seo Suji nodded to the arrogant one for now.

– We’re making a bet with The Lord.

That spine-chilling voice suddenly uttered a strange word.

At the disconnected word that suddenly came out in this situation, she struggled to grasp the context.

“Explain slowly so I can understand.”

– The Lord is one of us. Our equal. But one who walks the opposite path.

Seo Suji made a face showing she didn’t understand at all.

She asked one by one.

“What’s this bet?”

– A bet. A game where you stake something for fun. There are many universes, so. We can play with them and put them back, that’s all.

“What does that mean?”

– To put it simply, The Lord sets a date to kill all of you, what you call humanity. I’m talking about the Second Wave. The one you saw.

It felt like she might curse before getting proper information. Seo Suji gritted her teeth and listened to the rest.

“And then?”

– And we get 10,000 days counting back from that day. By your standards. And then we do it. We make it so you can prepare for the Second Wave. Kindly creating a system, building towers, setting up cute little monsters.

‘Make it so we can prepare for the Second Wave?’

It sounded like they were talking about a game.

Realizing how vastly different the being she was casually talking to was, goosebumps spread over her whole body and she felt deflated.

What was becoming of everything she had risked her life for?

They were just saying humans were their playthings.

Like betting on racehorses.

No, it’s far worse than that.

Racehorses don’t immediately die if they perform poorly in a race, but in their bet, humans were beings that didn’t matter whether they lived or died.

Her hope of watching hit series on OTT hadn’t even started yet.

She ended up participating before even watching ‘S*uid Game’.

‘Wait. You said 10,000 days? So how much time is left?’

She rubbed her goosebump-covered forearm and did a rough calculation.

Dividing 10,000 by 365 leaves about 27 years and 100 days.

‘This year is the 27th year since the First Wave. When did the nightmare of the First Wave begin?’

A week from now.

That means only about 100 days are left from now.

She didn’t like jumping to conclusions before trying, but even with 1,000 or 10,000 days, she wasn’t confident in overcoming the horrific nightmare she saw on the final floor of . Let alone in just 100 days.

“It’s impossible.”

Seo Suji muttered her thoughts aloud.

A seemingly flustered response came right away.

– Oh no, don’t say that. I’m telling you, this time we really perfected the system.

“What do you mean ‘this time’? Are you saying you’ve done this multiple times?”

– That’s right. We’re at 101 losses and 1 win now.

“Hahaha.”

She let out a dry laugh, dumbfounded, hugging a pillow.

“Who makes a bet with 101 losses and 1 win? At that point, isn’t the balance totally screwed? How is that even a bet? You set the conditions wrong from the start. How can we face that crazy monster?”

Though he must have heard the anger rising in her voice, the reply came nonchalantly.

– Don’t say that, just try climbing the tower first.

“Tower? The Sage’s Tower?”

– Call it whatever you like. Anyway, we set it up so you can grow properly through the towers installed in each country. This time it’s really possible. I have nothing left to lose, so I’m in a situation where I have to win now.

Seo Suji’s face crumpled terribly.

“You say we can grow properly?”

Grow.

We can.

There’s no doubt the rewards for clearing each floor were good.

But how much do we have to struggle between life and death for that growth.

“You want us to do that for your bet?”

– Don’t say it like that. It’s something essential you have to do for humanity’s survival, isn’t it?

It was a calm voice.

Seo Suji laughed hollowly, dumbfounded.

Thinking of her mother who died climbing that tower, she felt anger rising to the tips of her hair.

That feeling of her whole body filling with rage was indescribable. Seo Suji glared at her ring with a look like she would kill it right now.

“What if we don’t?”

– Huh?

“What will you do if we don’t climb?”

– Why?

“Why should I care if you win your bet? Ah, so that’s why you suddenly appeared when I started pulling up weeds? Because I’m not doing what I’m supposed to? To monitor me?”

Maintaining composure in sudden situations may be a quality of a hunter.

But right now, she couldn’t do that.

Clearly, until she put on this ring, she had thought she would do her best for humanity no matter what.

How could they ruin a person’s mood so quickly?

The words to throw it all away rushed to the tip of her tongue.

Thinking about it, she understood why they hadn’t approached her while she was struggling to climb the tower, and why they suddenly appeared to watch when she declared a break and started pulling weeds.

Seo Suji was someone who would work hard even if left alone.

For their ‘bet’.

‘Do beings at that level get so bored with life? Enough to make such a pathetic bet?’

She didn’t dislike the sweetness of rest or the joy of games… No, she actually liked them, but she didn’t want to understand those psychopaths.

Not because she wanted to extract more by coaxing them, but because she really didn’t want to deal with them anymore.

In an endlessly sinking voice, Seo Suji whispered to the ring.

“I can’t. I won’t. Just kill me now.”

It wasn’t the expected reaction, and after a moment of silence, the reply came.

– You’re being unreasonable.

“Unreasonable?”

Seo Suji gave a hollow laugh.

Telling them to kill her now was said in the heat of the moment, that’s true.

She was fine with climbing the tower of her own will for revenge for her mother… but she didn’t like the idea of playing along with their bet.

“Think what you want. You climb that precious tower yourself.”

With those final words, Seo Suji took the ring off her hand.

She threw it into her inventory and lay down on the sandy beach.

In an instant, so much information had rushed in that her head was throbbing.

But somehow, it was so useless compared to the amount of information.

[νόμος protests your actions.] [Νύμφη laughs at your actions.] [σκιά applauds your actions.] [απόγευμα finds your actions amusing.] [νόμος is displeased with your actions.]

The logs suddenly became noisy, perhaps disliking her thorough ignoring, but it was none of her business.