SSEI | Chapter 2.4

There was no guarantee she even knew their specialties, and even if she did, she had no obligation to share that information.

Even if she said she didn’t know, or that it was a secret, it wouldn’t be a big deal.

But then—

“You really picked the only two people whose specialties are still a mystery. I get why you’d ask, since they were both your partners, but still…”

“You mean their specialties haven’t been revealed?”

“Yeah. I’m sure they know what their own abilities are, but no one’s ever managed to figure them out. And that’s despite the fact that both of them have been here for quite a while—long enough to be considered veterans.”

Eren Noeul tilted her head, frowning slightly.

“Hiding their specialties even from their own partners basically means they refuse to use them in front of others. But why go that far to keep them secret?”

Yuan also found it strange.

It made sense for the Red Man to be secretive—he radiated that kind of energy. Of course, he’d keep his trump cards to himself.

But Lork? Yuan hadn’t expected him to hide something like that.

He was curious about what kind of specialties they had, but now wasn’t the time to dwell on it.

Right now, the bigger issue was figuring out his own ability.

Not that he had any clue where to start.

‘Well, I’ll find out eventually. Hopefully, it’s something useful for survival.’

As he wished for that deep down, Sael and Eren Noeul continued their steady trek across the wasteland, heading toward their next destination.

Would they enter that forest-like area again?

Last time, they hadn’t even made it to the foothills.

Would they be able to reach it this time?

Yuan felt a quiet anticipation growing within him.

However, the place they arrived at was nothing like what he expected.

“Oh, nice! Tonight’s setting is Maze Village!”

“Yuan, this must be your first time seeing Maze Village, right? Want a proper look?”

Through the gap in the clam’s shell, Yuan’s mouth fell open in awe.

The setting had changed again—the sunset had deepened, meaning they had moved to the next phase of the game.

But instead of the forest, they had arrived in a completely different place.

A village, long abandoned, untouched by human hands.

Old, crumbling houses lined the area, their structures worn and weathered, barely clinging to existence.

The half-collapsed ruins, bathed in the eerie glow of the crimson sunset, exuded an undeniable sense of foreboding.

Eren Noeul and Sael strode through the eerie, desolate village, their steps unhesitating despite the unsettling atmosphere. The entire place was deathly silent—not a single rat scurried through the streets or within the buildings.

The buildings, their walls half-collapsed, cast long, thick shadows, and every time those shadows so much as flickered, Yuan flinched involuntarily. Of course, there were no lurking monsters or ambushes—the only thing moving was the cold evening wind sweeping through the ruins.

Despite being far more open than the forest, this place felt strangely oppressive.

Trying to push away his unease, Yuan busied his mind with thoughts. Eventually, a question came to him.

“By the way… the location. This time, it’s not the forest, huh?”

“The forest? Oh, yeah. That’s one of the evening locations. So last time, you ended up there?”

“Wait, there are multiple evening locations? I thought it was just the forest.”

“The wasteland is the only location during daytime, but from evening onward, there are multiple places. The forest, Maze Village, an amusement park, a canola flower field, and a lakeside—those are the five main locations. Sometimes, special terrain gets added or removed.”

As he spoke, Sael knelt down and used a fallen stick to draw on the ground.

The diagram he sketched looked like a dartboard—large concentric circles stacked inside a square, each ring divided into sections.

“The structure moves inward. This outer square represents the wasteland, the daytime zone. As you move inward, the cycle progresses—evening, night, dawn, and then daybreak. Except for the wasteland, each time period has multiple areas.”

“Got it… So, does that mean we have to enter the daybreak zone? I heard we have to survive until dawn.”

“More or less. But the further in you go, the more dangerous it gets. Evening is riskier than daytime, night is worse than evening, and so on. Most people don’t even make it to daybreak—they give up right before it.”

“Sounds like a brutal journey…”

After finishing his explanation, Sael erased the drawing with his foot.

Even after the marks were mostly gone, he kept brushing the ground over and over, making sure no traces remained.

It was a careful move—but also seemed oddly obsessive.

Come to think of it, both Sael and Eren Noeul had been subtly tense ever since entering the evening zone.

Yuan was nervous because of the ominous atmosphere, but that wasn’t the case for them.

‘Are they expecting an enemy?’

According to the diagram, the deeper zones were physically smaller.

The wasteland was vast enough that you could wander for hours without encountering another person, but from evening onward, with less space and more people, fights were bound to break out more frequently.

Now that he thought about it, Yuan had met that man in the forest, another evening zone—and ended up dying there.

Maybe the wasteland was just a warm-up.

Maybe this was where the real battle began.

It would make sense for the two of them to be on edge.

‘But something still feels… off.’

They weren’t acting like they were avoiding conflict.

If they were only wary of enemies, they’d be moving stealthily, keeping out of sight, staying on guard.

But instead, they walked boldly down the main road, occasionally stopping to scan their surroundings.

Sael, in particular, had a strange habit—every time he looked around, he would cover part of his face with his hand.

Yuan had no idea what that meant, but he could tell it was important to them.

‘Are they watching out for something other than just enemies?’

As he pondered this, a thought struck him—something about the village felt wrong.

“Uh, actually… I have a question.”

“I figured you would. Everyone asks at least once the first time they step in here.”

“So you expected me to ask? Well, I get that this place is a village… but why is it called Maze Village?”

The moment he spoke, Yuan shuddered.

Whooosh.

The wind, which had been blowing softly all along, suddenly felt unnaturally cold as it brushed against his cheek.

Scattered bits of paper and leaves were swept up into the air.

No—not just in any direction.

Yuan’s eyes narrowed as he tracked the motion.

One of the leaves, caught in the breeze, suddenly stopped midair—as if it had collided with something invisible before dropping straight down.

There was no sudden gust from another direction. No reason for the leaf to fall like that.

Just as Yuan was about to voice his concern, Sael spoke up.

“Yuan, you said you went to the forest last time, right?”

“Yeah.”

“How did Lork act back in the forest? He avoided the main roads that were wide and well-maintained, taking the narrowest side paths possible, right?”

“I think so. I assumed it was to avoid getting attacked by enemies… But was there another reason?”

“It wasn’t just that. In the forest, the main roads are actually more dangerous. They look easy to navigate, but in reality, they’re crawling with monsters and traps. If anything, people deliberately take the main roads when they want to avoid enemy players.”

“So that means… I see. Our competitors aren’t the only threats we have to watch out for.”

Now Yuan finally understood what Sael meant earlier.

The evening zones were more dangerous than the wasteland. The night zones were worse than the evening zones.

But it wasn’t just because enemy players were more concentrated.

As Yuan mulled this over, Eren Noeul chuckled and threw a question his way.

“So, Yuan. Why do you think this place is called Maze Village?”

“…Does it have invisible walls or something? I saw a leaf earlier—it was caught in the wind, but then it suddenly dropped, like it hit something.”

“You’ve got sharp eyes. You’re half right.”

“What’s the other half?”

“I’ll tell you… after we take care of our first encounter.”

Wait, an enemy?!

Yuan tensed and tried to look around, but his vision was blocked by the clam’s shell, and he couldn’t turn his head.

If there was an enemy, it had to be somewhere in front of Eren Noeul and Sael—which meant behind Yuan.

“Loading the crossbow. They haven’t noticed us yet, right?”

“They’re about 50 meters away. No, they haven’t. Judging by that hairstyle and those scars, it’s Blue Dot and Essanoch. What the hell are those two doing up there? If they activate that windmill, it’ll only lead to a disaster.”

“Maybe Blue Dot is trying to show Essanoch the layout of Maze Village. Essanoch is strong and has some experience, but I heard he’s barely been here.”

“Right. He usually wreaks havoc in the forest and the canola flower field. But Blue Dot is a veteran—he wouldn’t put himself in such an obvious position unless he had a reason. Stay sharp. He might have found out something and is trying to confirm it up there.”

The two of them kept whispering about things Yuan had no clue about, completely leaving him out of the conversation.

Annoyed, Yuan fidgeted, trying to move.

Eren Noeul noticed and burst out laughing.

“You want to see too? Fine, Yuan. Hold on a sec.”

While Sael loaded a bolt into the crossbow and wound the clockwork mechanism, Eren Noeul adjusted Yuan’s position, setting him down so he faced forward.

Finally, Yuan could see what was going on.

Beyond the wide-open road, a massive windmill loomed in the distance, just as decrepit as the other buildings around it.

Its third or fourth floor—whichever it was—had lost more than half its walls, leaving the inside completely exposed.

And within that broken structure, two figures were moving.

Sael and Eren Noeul had already identified them, but Yuan’s eyesight wasn’t sharp enough to make out details from this distance.

Still, he could tell that someone was up there, shifting around.

“What are they doing?”

“Who knows? Could be trying to activate the windmill’s mechanisms. But what matters is… they’re completely exposed.”

“So you’re going to attack them?”

“Yep. We haven’t heard any screams yet, so no one’s gotten the first kill this round. Even if we only take out one of them, we’ll rack up some decent points.”

“Uh… uh… wow…?”

“You don’t have to pretend to be excited. It’s normal to feel uneasy about killing people at first. But remember, this is a survival game. As long as we kill with proper manners, it’s fine.”

“Manners? What does that mean?”

“One shot. Painlessly. When they’re off guard. Ideally, without them even knowing who did it.”

…So, ambushes count as good manners?

Well, now that Yuan thought about it, a painless death was preferable to the alternative.