10 Quad: A Gamer's Instinct
"We can still get out in time."
Since the Gui Seon ship had excellent mobility, it could easily outrun the fleet and escape.
"If we do that, they'll find the Treasure Island."
"We can't stop them alone anyway. The Demon Twins, the Mad General… and who's to say the Sword Emperor isn't with that fleet too?"
Dump, uncharacteristically cautious, was reacting to the fact that there were still 420 survivors left.
"I think we should retreat too. If they summon an Epic Monster, we might not stand a chance."
Even Limin agreed with Dump this time.
Logically, it made sense to turn back here.
But something felt off.
'What is this disgusting, uneasy feeling?'
An overwhelming thought gnawed at Seowoon's mind: they couldn't let the enemies enter the Mirage Sea.
"Limin, head in."
"Hoo…"
With a sigh, Limin set the ship in motion toward the Mirage Sea.
"Will we be okay?"
As Kichan asked nervously, Juriel answered instead.
"This is the Main Order's command. We have to trust and follow."
Namsagwang also backed her up.
"Agreed. The reason I teamed up with this weaker guy is because I trust his natural gamer instincts."
Everyone nodded at their words, but the overwhelming presence of the Mad General's fleet still made the team uneasy.
Eventually, Gui Seon crossed into the Mirage Sea.
Despite the name, the sea didn't look any different—until the moment they entered. Suddenly, Gui Seon tilted forward.
The team's eyes widened as the ship began accelerating like it was sliding.
-Ding! You have entered the Mirage Sea. You cannot leave this area until you find the Absolute Treasure Compass.
-Ding! Seowoon's squad has entered the Mirage Sea in search of the Forgotten Treasure. The game advances to Chapter 2. Normal seas are now restricted. If you do not enter the Mirage Sea within the given time, you will be trapped within the field.
Even amid the chaos, the system alert made Seowoon frown.
Only then did he realize the source of his unease.
"Limin!!! Do something!"
Dump shouted as the ship slid down the slope like a gentle hill.
"Damn it! What do you expect me to—Hang on tight!"
Suddenly, Gui Seon plunged down a nearly 90-degree slope, and the team screamed.
-Uwaaaaaah!
Clinging to various parts of the ship, the team tumbled down with Gui Seon.
Helpless in the face of the unexpected situation, the ship eventually caught a current and stabilized.
-Shwaaaaaaaa!
After a brief moment of weightlessness, gravity returned, and the ship finally stopped. The team started looking around.
The steep slope had evened out, and water splashed around the Gui Seon in a dramatic display. Dump was the first to speak.
"This is supposed to be the sea?"
Everyone looked around and nodded.
They were mesmerized by the strange environment, which seemed to defy the physical laws of water.
It was like a mountain made of sea, with chaotic currents flowing as if rails had been laid across the ocean.
Gui Seon now floated gently along a current, as if gliding over rolling hills—while beside them, another current flowed in the opposite direction.
-Heeheehee. Scaredy-cat Dump screamed.
Watching the nearby Siren, Seowoon opened the side hatch and asked,
"Have you been here before?"
-Of course. This is the homeland of all Siren.
"…Oh."
Seowoon was speechless. The idea that this impossible environment was their home left him stunned.
Mountains of sea, cliffs, and islands floating serenely—it felt unreal.
"Hyung, look at the map."
Prompted by Kichan, Seowoon quickly opened the map and furrowed his brow.
The entire Mirage Sea map was blacked out except for the small section they were currently in.
"This is insane."
"Still, entering first was the right call."
At Juriel's comment, referring to the system alerts, Seowoon looked around.
"Where are they? They'll be here any moment."
Jinryung pulled out a spyglass and scanned the area, but their view was blocked by sea-mountains all around.
-Once someone enters this place, the entrance disappears. No one else can enter until they find a different entrance.
"Wait, there's more than one entrance?!"
-Yep. Entrances appear and disappear randomly all over the sea.
That explained the intuitive unease everyone had felt at the name "Mirage Sea."
"Check the survivor list!"
Juriel shouted this time.
389/1000
…
Kant – Deceased (outside restricted zone)
Zirent – Deceased (outside restricted zone)
Kurei Sanatsu – Deceased (outside restricted zone)
Every time they refreshed the survivor list, the number dropped rapidly.
They couldn't see what was happening outside the Mirage Sea, but they could easily guess.
"This game's turned into a pure luck-based survival game, hasn't it?"
If you couldn't find the entrance to the Mirage Sea, even the most skilled players would end up dead. So it wasn't an exaggeration.
"But they shouldn't have known this rule. How did they decide to enter the sea?"
At Namsagwang's question, Seowoon paused to collect his thoughts before answering.
"Instinct."
That single word was all he could come up with.
A gut feeling honed from years of gaming in internet cafes since elementary school. The kind of intuition that detects a doomed game from the smell of bad balancing, or gauges the difficulty of a monster at a glance, knowing it was designed just to torment players.
"Instinct… huh. You've got good instincts."
'You can tell those cash-grabby games just from their ads. And based on everything so far, it was obvious this damn game was run by people who didn't give a damn.'
Finishing that thought, Seowoon looked around and spoke again.
"Anyway, that means we have to find the treasure island now."
"They're probably expecting us to search all those islands, right?"
Jinryung glanced around at the various islands floating amidst the strange sea currents and sighed, clearly feeling overwhelmed.
There were all sorts—tiny islands no bigger than ten pyeong with a lone palm tree on a golden beach, rocky islands, densely forested ones, even one inexplicably covered in snow.
And then, one island caught Seowoon's eye.
A gloomy, shadowed island, almost monochrome in appearance.
What drew his attention was the "?" mark floating above it.
"Hey, that thing…"
"Yeah, that's probably it."
Staring at the conspicuously marked island, Seowoon gave the order.
"limin, can you steer us over there?"
limin studied the flow of the currents—they would have to exit the one they were currently riding.
"I'll give it a shot."
The moment he turned the wheel, the ship jolted and started veering sharply in the opposite direction.
Navigating the chaotic, unpatterned currents, they eventually neared the mysterious island. Seowoon gave another command.
"Stop. I'll go alone for now."
"It's safer to have at least three people go," Juriel argued.
Seowoon understood her logic but shook his head.
No one knew what monsters or traps might await on that island. Yet he was insistent on going alone. She looked at him, confused.
"Instinct," he said.
Leaving just that word behind, Seowoon dove into the sea toward the ominous island.
As soon as his body touched the water, he transformed into a merman and swiftly swam to shore. And as he stepped onto the gloomy island, it began to brighten.
From the deck of the ship, the team watched with growing curiosity.
-"Bro, the island's getting brighter as you move further in."
-"Yeah, I can feel it too."
Pushing through the overgrown brush, Seowoon reached the center of the island, where a worn-out chest gleaming with bright light was sitting squarely.
Anyone could tell it was a treasure chest just by looking.
Seowoon's eyes trembled with suspicion.
"It stinks… That nasty scent of bait."
His instincts screamed that a game this cruel wouldn't hand out rewards so easily.
But he couldn't not open it.
After glaring at the chest for a moment, Seowoon finally opened it.
The "?" above the island vanished, and a system message appeared—prompting Kichan to shout over team voice chat like he was screaming.
-"Bro! Get off that island!!!"
As Seowoon looked inside the chest, he muttered under his breath.
"The devs are f*ing bastards."**
Inside the chest was a black sphere with a red timer ticking down.
10. 9. 8…
The moment he saw it, Seowoon knew exactly what it was.
-BOOM! BOOM!
-Splash!
From the ship, the team watched the island with growing dread.
The "?" was gone, replaced by a message and a countdown timer.
-"Boom. Maybe next time. Exploding Island." (10, 9, 8…)
As the countdown hit zero, the island exploded without a trace, and debris rained down near the ship.
The crew stood frozen, unable to process what had just happened.
"…Ah."
"…What the hell…"
"Pull yourselves together. We need a new Main Order and have to keep playing. The game's not over."
As Namsagwang tried to rally the group, a familiar voice cut in first.
"Why don't you just hold a funeral for me next time?"
Turning toward the voice, Juriel saw Seowoon staggering back aboard the ship and ran to him.
But someone beat her to him.
"Ugh…"
Lyle tackled Seowoon from the side, hugging him tightly.
"W-Wait a second."
Casting a healing spell, green light pouring from her hands, Lyle helped Seowoon slump to the floor.
"That item's what saved you, huh?"
Namsagwang noted the damaged armor: a cracked shoulder guard, a dented chest plate, a broken helmet, and shattered gauntlets.
Seowoon, clad in the full Black Dragon Armor Set he'd taken from Subaru Jin, nodded.
"If it weren't for the auto-equip function, I'd be dead."
That little convenience had bought him just enough time to get armored up before the explosion.
"Good thing you survived… but it looks like it's trashed after just one use. What a waste."
At Dump's comment, Seowoon shook his head.
"I thought so too, but apparently it has self-repair. As long as it's not completely destroyed, it'll fix itself over time."
Kichan nodded in admiration.
"Worth every penny."
Even if it was just a rumor, the set was said to cost billions—possibly trillions.
When Seowoon said "Disengage," the armor detached from his body like a sci-fi mech suit.
-Clang.
The armor dropped to the deck, revealing that Seowoon's injuries were worse than expected.
Blood ran down from his head, his ribs were visibly fractured, and his ulna had snapped and was bulging under the skin.
Though the bone hadn't broken through the skin, the sight was grim.
-Crack!
lilingwi, who had quietly approached, set Seowoon's broken arm with a painful twist.
"Gah!"
Seowoon had entered this survival game and prided himself on having experienced nearly every type of pain, but the agony of having his broken arm reset by force was far worse than dying.
Even when an arrow pierced his forehead and he died, it hadn't hurt as much as this.
Seowoon had saved his recovery scroll until the very last moment and had used Lyle's healing to recover. Finally, he let out a long sigh.
"Hah… I really thought I was going to die."
Once the throbbing headache subsided, he managed a relieved expression.
"But… we'll have to keep entering islands like that, won't we?"
At limin's words, all the players fell silent.
"Saghwang, don't you think you could get out of that island within ten seconds?"
"…"
Even the mighty Namsagwang hesitated to respond to Seowoon's sharp question.
"If it's an island that small, I could probably make it, but… anything bigger? I can't guarantee that."
At his answer, Juriel added her thoughts.
"Traps don't always just explode, you know."
Nodding at her words, Seowoon fell into thought.
'What are they trying to accomplish by making us find the treasure island?'
As he was thinking, a new notification sounded.
[Ding! The Senlurk Squad has entered the Mirage Sea to find the Forgotten Treasure.]
[Ding! The Skers Squad has entered the Mirage Sea to find the Forgotten Treasure.]
[Ding! The Verus Squad has entered the Mirage Sea to find the Forgotten Treasure.]
…
…
…
A total of ten squads entered the area, and the notifications kept coming.
"What's going on?"
Seowoon had known that once a squad entered this area, the gate would close behind them.
So how were ten squads entering at the same time? Dump couldn't understand it.
It wasn't just him—most of the team looked just as confused.
"It's simple. Multiple squads must have been mixed together on the same ship."
At Seowoon's words, Dump, looking as though he had discovered the secret to a magic trick, tilted his head.
"Is that even possible?"
"If it wasn't, this situation wouldn't make any sense. It's a pretty common strategy for teams to mix up their squad members to form new teams."
Despite everything, Juriel was still analyzing the enemy's strength and smiled.
"That means the enemy's force has been cut down by more than half."
At her sharp observation, Seowoon smiled in return.
"They might send more, but for now, that's the right way to look at it."
The fact that the enemy's strength had been halved was a good sign for Seowoon's squad, especially with their numbers still intact.
"Now the problem is how we're going to defeat them."
In Seowoon's mind, a strategy to wipe out the enemy—now more than ten times their size—was starting to form.
[T/L: Read extra chapters on my ko-fi page "Pokemon1920" : https://ko-fi.com/pokemon1920 ]