World of Masks

Chapter 6

Translator: Seven

Editor: Ana_Banana

Jin-suk thought about quitting the ridiculous play right away.

An angel.

Maybe that old man really was senile?

The old man coughed lightly while staring at him with thin eyes.

“Anyway, it’s just the play from an old man. So just go with it.”

“Well, that’s true but an angel? I’m sorry, but rather than being an angel you(grandfather) seem more like…”

“The devil?”

As Jin-suk nodded, the old man smiled.

“Of course, to other people I’d be the devil. But for you I could be considered more as an angel.”

“…you mean it’s relative?”

“That’s right. Most people usually long for heaven or want to go to heaven. But then. Let’s change the subject from a human to a demon instead. Is the heaven that people dream of, a heaven for demons too?”

Jin-suk shook his head. No matter how he thought of it, the image of a demon going to heaven and living happily couldn’t appear in his mind.

“Exactly. For humans, heaven is heaven. For demons, hell is heaven. It’s the same. I don’t know if I’d be a demon to others. But at least I’ll be an angel for you.”

“Because I’m a psychopath?” (TL: he’s not admitting, but sticking to the play)

“You understand very fast.”

The old man claps loudly as though it brought him great pleasure to finally progress in the conversation.

“So. Why did the ‘Devil Angel’ come to me?”

“I can feel that you’re being very sarcastic, but this time I’ll let it go. I just wanted to give you a gift. A way to deal with your desire to kill and destroy.”

“Wow. That’s a great gift.”

“…you are very careful.”

The old man spat out these words to Jin-suk, who was showing an expression as if reading a Korean novel, as if he was sick of it.

Even though he’d said that he would be able to help him solve his most serious problem, Jin-suk still never showed his true feelings.

“Well, that’s fine. All I need to do is deliver it anyway.”

The old man took a device out of his suit jacket.

“This is the access tool for World of Masks.”

The World of Masks.

At that moment, Jin-suk’s eyes were drawn to the item in the man’s hands.

If the old man’s words were to be believed, then the item he held was notorious around the world for its human-eating game.

“The World of Masks is literally another reality. It should be enough to satisfy you. Besides, since it’s not the true reality, it doesn’t matter what you do inside. Murder, rape, assault. You can do whatever you want there.”

“…isn’t it dangerous because of the feedback?”

“You’re gonna have to deal with that. Aren’t you in a situation where you don’t care whether the food is hot or cold?”1

He was absolutely right.

“Besides, the World of Masks is no ordinary game. If you do well you could easily have wealth, power, honor and beauty follow you.”

“Even then, it’s still a game.”

Jin-suk turned his head away as though he wasn’t interested.

The old man then said firmly.

“In real life.”

Jin-suk turned to look at the old man, his eyes clearly asking what the old man was talking about and he shot Jin-suk a proud look.

“World of Masks is a very dangerous game. Do you think that people would play the game just do things they can’t do in reality? Not everyone is a bloodthirsty psycho like you.”

‘Well, you’ll find out more while playing,’ the old man said the last part in his head.

Jin-suk looked at the device in the old man’s hands with suspicion.

He didn’t fully trust the old man’s words.

However even if the story about wealth, power, honor and beauty was fake, the device would be well worth it since it would solve his present needs.

But he was wondering if he should accept something that an unidentified old man gave him.

“What are you worried about? If you have this then your troubles will be solved completely. You don’t need to worry about it do you? It’s a game where you can kill as many NPCs and players as you want. Well, dead players are more likely to be traumatized or die from shock, but they should’ve been prepared for that.”

“…still, don’t you have a guilty conscience?”

The moment he didn’t spit out ‘Ah! It’s like this’ as was expected, the old man standing in front of him began to laugh crazily. He pressed the fedora to his face as he laughed heartily.

At first glance it might be unpleasant, but Jin-suk scratched his cheek, feeling embarrassed.

Conscience.

It was not a word that suited him.

It was long after that the old man stopped laughing.

“Kukuku. Ah. I laughed really well. I feel like you have a really good sense of humor. I thought I came here to give you a gift but instead I got the real gift.”

The old man was still twitching from his outburst.

“I received a big gift, so I have no choice but to give you my gift. Take it.”

The old man threw the device in his hand at Jin-suk who was able to catch it gently at the end of its parabola.

The device, which looked like a headband, shined silver even in the dark.

The feel of the cold machine in his hands was like the devil’s seductive touch.

“Now the play is over. I’m thankful that you played along with my sudden inspiration. You can give that headband that I gave you to your lover. It’s your reward for playing. Of course, you don’t believe what I said so far do you? It was only a ‘play’ after all.”

The man winked at Jin-suk, causing him to laugh.

Headband? This cold and heavy device?

Give it to your lover?

Isn’t the difference pretty big?

He once again took a close look at the so-called ‘headband’ in his hands.

“That will be all for now. It was a fun conversation with you. I think it’s called a good game. In the country it’s called ‘gg’ right?”

Jin-suk raised his head and looked at the man as he heard him saying his goodbyes.

The old man had turned his back to him and was walking into the alley while waving his hand.

Looking at the old man’s back, Jin-suk wondered if he could send him on his way now and he looked down at the knife in his hand.

A sharp glint could be seen.

As he couldn’t make up his mind, Jin-suk scratched his back and raised his head again.

“…gone?”

In front of his eyes was only a dark alley with many dark, ominous shadows.

There was no trace of the old man he had just been talking to.