Chapter 54 - The Face Behind the Mask
At the sa ti, Jhin ’s mind flashed back to the kobolds they had t at Eastport Station.
The ones whose bodies had been stolen by contracts — leaving their souls mortgaged to the kobolds.
There was a question hidden there.
Why did they have to lose their bodies?
Why, of all things, did soone need to steal soulless bodies?
Up until now, they hadn’t been able to imagine the answer.
But now, it was all too clear.
«Those bastards created extra lives,» Jhin said quietly.
Suppose — at the very mont of death — their souls were automatically transmitted into the bodies of kidnapped children?
Suppose the contract had built in that kind of contingency?
—It was entirely possible.
’Because the contracts are adjusted by the system.’
Now that reality had beco a ga world, the "system" was as absolute as divine law.
Nothing in this world could defy it.
Jhin was sure of it now.
The rchants had been exploiting the system itself.
’Of course, they probably lost a lot in the process...’
Maybe massive amounts of experience points, maybe stats that could never be recovered.
Maybe even pieces of their souls themselves burned away during the transfer.
But compared to the price of staying alive — it was a small price to pay.
Jhin furrowed his brow and muttered under his breath.
«Those damn bastards...»
With him in the lead, the group redoubled their search through the traders’ belongings.
Thankfully, the rchants’ bundles hadn’t been included inside their personal inventories — aning they could seize everything.
«Three masks... and a bunch of random junk.»
Inside the bundles, they found three masks shaped like animals and so miscellaneous items — mostly packed lunches and spare clothes.
There were a few trinkets too, but nothing important.
Nothing that explained everything... until Jhin found it.
An underground contract.
’Party A’ shall provide ’Party B’ with items necessary for survival. Upon ’Party B’ using the provided items, this contract is considered formally established. ’Party B’ must repay the borrowed items in full to ’Party A,’ with no set deadline for repaynt.
Just as Hans had once explained — a "benevolent" contract, lending you essential items and vaguely asking you to "soday" pay them back.
It showed how the contract looked before soone agreed to it.
And scrawled in tiny, almost invisible letters on the back, there was a hint about the hidden terms — the true underground contract.
Barely visible, but unmistakably there.
’Once the contract is accepted, it twists into that vicious, monstrous form.’
A clause so one-sided and cruel that it could strip a person of anything —
even their soul.
It was a contract designed to steal everything.
«Over just one flimsy piece of paper...»
anwhile, Caleb stood there, staring at the contract, his lips pressed into a tight line.
He bit his lip hard.
A man full of heart — no wonder he’d been a cop.
Soone who couldn’t simply walk past injustice.
Especially sothing this unjust.
Jhin understood perfectly.
No matter if this was "just a ga," deciding the fate of soone’s body, life, and soul with a scrap of paper was disgusting.
Even more so when a person’s decades of life could be wiped away by a few sentences.
«So, you’re saying... Neon is behind all this?» Millie said, her eyes burning with fury.
Even without activating her Burn Blood ability, her face flushed red with anger.
It was clear just how furious she was.
«Neon’s na ca out of the traders’ mouths,» Jhin replied, calm but cold,
«but we can’t be certain he’s the mastermind yet. No matter how many rumors there were about him being ruthless, he was never this trashy before.»
«Still... we can’t know for sure.
Soone that bad in a ga might be even worse in reality...» Millie said bitterly.
Jhin nodded slowly.
He couldn’t fully guarantee anything based on the Neon he rembered from the ga.
After all, Millie herself — who had appeared as a cold, aloof avatar — was, in reality, an idol.
Maybe Neon’s personality had been softened inside the ga.
Maybe, in reality, he was even worse.
Hadn’t he already committed fraud before the ga shut down?
Millie slamd a fist against the wall with a loud bang.
«Neon is not soone we can trust.»
«Got it,» Jhin said.
«For now, we’ll treat him as a suspect.»
«No — it’s certain,» Millie said fiercely.
«Neon is the culprit.»
But even with her certainty, Jhin couldn’t agree so easily.
Even if Neon had scamd him once before.
’Neon was a rchant.’
And a rchant’s most essential trait was trust.
Sure, Neon might have Neoned up prices or sold information at a premium — but, aside from that one case, he had never tampered with contracts.
Jhin rembered once asking him — half-joking, half-serious.
Why didn’t Neon just scam people outright?
Neon had laughed and said,
’If I ss with contracts, maybe the system will change my class to Con Artist.’
In other words — if Neon was still playing as a rchant,
it made no sense for him to wreck everything just for a few cheap scams.
The long-term benefits of staying a rchant outweighed any short-term gain from turning into a scamr.
At that mont, Luke, who had been quietly listening, asked,
«Is Neon really that bad of a person?»
Millie shook her head bitterly.
«The worst con artist there is.
He cos at you with a smile... and stabs a dagger straight into your heart.
I once worked so hard to get a rare gun — and if it weren’t for him...!»
Only then did Jhin understand why Millie had been so furious.
She had also been betrayed by Neon.
«...You too?» he asked quietly.
«Huh? Wait, Jhin , you too?»
They locked eyes.
A deep, silent bond ford between them — an unspoken understanding.
Clearly, Neon hadn’t just betrayed one or two people before the server shut down.
’...No way.
Did he screw over all the top rankers?’
Jhin sighed heavily and said,
«Still... let’s just treat him as a suspect for now.
We don’t have concrete proof yet.»
«Fine. But if we do et him again... can I punch him at least once?»
«...At least once,» Jhin allowed with a sigh.
But it was then.
Clang!
A sudden loud noise rang out from one side of the cabin.
The noise ca from the direction where the rchants’ bundles had been piled up
a place where supposedly no one should have been.
’No — not no one.’
Jhin tensed up imdiately and moved cautiously toward the pile.
There, among the bundles, were the kidnapped people the rchants had dragged along —
their bodies soulless, tied up like cargo.
And among them —
Jhin ’s brow furrowed as his eyes landed on sothing familiar.
A small cross-shaped earring dangling from a man’s ear.
A unique item ant only for high-level veterans, with a level requirent of 300.
There had been only one owner for it.
’Why didn’t I notice before?’
Amidst the soulless bodies — drooling, weeping, moaning in strange ways —
one man awkwardly smiled and waved a hand.
«...Ta-daaa.»
It was Neon.
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