Popular NPC in a Gender-Reversed Game

The cold air of the sky greeted me as I descended.

As time passed, the slightly reddened sky now felt incredibly close.

When I suddenly found myself teleported into the sky, the first thought I had was this:

‘...Is this an illusion?’

Yes, it didn’t make sense for me to be suddenly transported to the sky like this. It just didn’t add up.

However, the cold air around me, the shining sunlight, everything was too vivid to be an illusion.

In fact, because of inertia, I stayed in the sky for a brief moment, but soon, following the law of gravity, I began to fall.

Swoosh—!

The winds in the sky didn’t just brush against me anymore, they now felt like they were hitting my skin directly.

That’s when I realized this wasn’t a damn illusion.

‘This is bad.’

I was really falling from a great height!

A sudden sense of danger hit me. If I kept falling, I’d surely become jerky dried fish.

Just as I was about to struggle and do something—

“AAAH! What is this?!”

“AAAHHH!”

A voice suddenly came from behind me. I quickly turned around to check.

It seemed that I wasn’t the only one who had been teleported to the sky.

In that narrow alley, we had no choice but to be in a straight line. Everything had been caught in the palm of the other.

Hanbyeol’s eyes were wide open, and Chae-rin was screaming at the top of her lungs. It seemed Chae-rin had a bit of a fear of heights.

Among them, the only calm one was Haneul.

She must’ve been just as flustered by the situation, but fortunately, she had a way to handle it.

“Wait a second! I’ll prepare a flying spell!”

She quickly closed her eyes and began chanting the incantation. Her expression showed an undeniable urgency.

Though I wasn’t an expert in magic, I at least knew that one could cast a spell on all four of us simultaneously.

It seemed she needed a bit of time to prepare. And this situation—while falling—wasn’t the best to work under.

‘Well, at least I have some backup now.’

That fact alone gave me a bit of relief.

Of course, I couldn’t just leave my life in the hands of others, so I also prepared myself.

Whoosh.

I made a small cut on my palm and let some blood drip out in advance. It was in case the flying magic failed, and I would need to cushion the fall.

Anyway, with my preparations done, now I just had to wait.

“AAAHH…”

“Ah, Chae-rin, please be quiet!”

Although my heart was pounding as we fell in real time, the view of the world from above was quite beautiful.

Even the viewers, who didn’t seem to care about what would happen to us, were chatting away about the scenery.

It was sunset, and the sky was a deep orange-red, which really added to the atmosphere.

But above all, something else caught my attention.

It was the red pit at the end of the horizon.

[What the hell is that?]

[Is an imp popping out from there constantly? Wow… Can it even be closed?]

[This feels like a real horror game now, geez…]

Everyone who saw it was momentarily speechless. Even Hanbyeol, who was struggling desperately, and Chae-rin, who was screaming, had fallen silent.

I, too, felt slightly overwhelmed.

“...”

I had heard it was big from the knights, but I never thought it would be like this.

Thinking about the imps constantly popping out from there... yeah, it was pretty eerie.

Even though they said no high-ranking demons would appear, the fact that something like this could suddenly emerge... it felt a little unsettling.

Even though Belled had thrown in the corpses, could something like this really be created?

For some reason, the apocalyptic theories that Liya and Sephir had spoken about seemed to resonate more now.

“Done!”

While I was thinking about that, Haneul finally finished casting the flying magic.

Thanks to that, we managed to land safely just before we hit the ground.

“Hah… Hah…”

Haneul, after landing, panted heavily.

She had to not only lift all four of us but also fight against the speed of our fall, so she must’ve used a lot of mana. She looked nearly unable to move.

I sighed in relief, standing near Chae-rin.

“Haneul, carry me. We need to escape from here.”

Though we had just barely saved our lives, that didn’t solve everything. We still needed to fight our way through countless imps and escape this deep city.

“Kiiiii!”

“Kkeeeek!”

Imps came rushing from all sides. They had probably seen us fall from the sky, and many imps were now charging toward us.

Although each imp wasn’t particularly strong, their sheer numbers made them formidable. On top of that, my party was starting to get tired from consecutive battles.

The situation was not looking good.

Sure, we had that gem we stole from the thief...

But it was just one.

“Sigh… Yor, should I take the gem just in case? We’re the ones who’ll lose a few days and experience points if we die.”

“No! If I die here, I might lose the top spot on the rankings!”

[Hanbyeol, just die quietly. It's pathetic.]

[Is this déjà vu? Feels like I saw this scene a few days ago.]

[The 20-million-won armor, go well, haha.]

[Chae-rin... even if you die, we must keep Yor alive...]

[Yeah, NPCs should never die.]

I chuckled and took the gem from Chae-rin.

“I’ll take it, but... I won’t need it right now.”

I then stepped forward and stood in front of the advancing imps.

Even though the lives of the otherworldly beings weren’t very valuable, the risks weren’t negligible.

And honestly... I thought we could escape.

Drip. Drip.

Blood from my palm, where I had cut it earlier, dripped onto the ground.

Though the wound had healed, I wasn’t about to waste the blood I had already drawn.

As usual, I performed blood magic.

It didn’t need to be very powerful. After all, these imps wouldn’t be able to defend against an attack properly.

What I wanted was just a vast range of attack.

Even if I had to use a lot of blood, I wanted an attack that would sweep everything in front of me.

Swoosh!

Slowly, I began to clear my path. I extended my spear, sweeping everything in front of me, and shot thorns at the imps approaching from the sides.

The imps didn’t decrease easily. Was it because the plaza was wide, or because the chaos was escalating?

It felt like I was swimming against a strong current. If I lost my balance, I’d be swept away.

So I had to maintain my momentum, pushing forward.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

With all my focus on the tip of the spear, I swung it.

It didn’t take too long to reach the edge of the kingdom’s borders.

“Hah… Hah…”

After arriving near the tent where people were staying, Yor sat down and caught his breath.

It was only natural to be tired after running and swinging weapons for so long. Especially since there were so many enemies this time, and I had used up a lot of abilities.

Of course, it had been quite the spectacle.

“...”

Chae-rin stared at him with an expression that seemed to say she was looking at a monster.

She had always known he was strong, but...

‘I didn’t expect him to cut through all those enemies...’

It seemed this was the first time she had seen him use his abilities so actively.

It made sense. It wasn’t the most efficient way to fight.

There were side effects to worry about, and it consumed a lot of stamina.

As I had mentioned before, since the holy water had become abundant recently, I had only tried it because of that. I couldn’t do this regularly.

“But... what’s with that symbol?”

While Yor was catching his breath, Chae-rin asked.

On his right collarbone, a symbol had spread.

Actually, it would be more accurate to say it had expanded.

The patterns, like snakes, twisted and spread out from the center of Yor’s collarbone. Some of the patterns reached up to his neck and shoulders, wrapping around them.

At Chae-rin’s question, Yor awkwardly scratched his cheek and answered.

“Oh, this? Sometimes it happens when I push myself too hard. ...Does it look weird?”

For him, it was a pretty embarrassing sight.

He’d rather his clothes tear than this.

Having the tattoos spread like this was uncomfortable for him. It felt like he was blatantly advertising that he was an emitter.

He didn’t have any good memories associated with this symbol, so he didn’t really like it.

“Ah, it’s nothing. Not weird at all.”

Of course, Chae-rin waved her hands and denied it. It was just a little strange, but it didn’t make her feel disgusted.

Even if it did, she wouldn’t show it in front of him.

And the reactions in the chat weren’t bad either.

[Wow, snake tattoo, cool!]

[Look at how the tattoo wraps around, haha.]

[If I saw him on the street, I’d be too scared to even make eye contact, geez.]

[Please step on me once, pretty please… It’d be even better if you spat on me.]

[These guys, haha, they were admiring him and now they’re all getting all excited.]

But still, we made it back safely.

Yor felt like he had had enough of the experience.

He had met Remegaton, collected the strange crystal, and even seen the pit from the sky.

It was only a day, but it had been enough fun.

Now... it was time to head back.

Since I had seen so much, I had plenty to tell the knights.

Taking a deep breath, Yor asked his companions.

“I’m thinking of going back... what about you guys?”

“Let’s go together. We need to exchange some items anyway.”

“I’ll come with you.”

Both Chae-rin and Haneul quickly agreed.

The only one who hesitated was Hanbyeol.

Her gaze lingered on Yor for a moment.

Though she would have liked to go with him, she had come here for the same reason as the others.

And since she had already died once, she needed to make up for the experience points she had lost.

With a deep sigh, she finally turned down the offer.

“I’ll stay. I found my armor. Now I need to maintain my ranking. Oh, and Haneul.”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for the flying spell earlier. It saved our lives.”

“...”

Surprised that someone thanked her first, Haneul’s eyes widened for a moment. But soon, she smiled briefly and nodded.

“Then we’ll go.”

And so, a day later, we were riding in a carriage, heading back to the Empire. There was a lot to do when we got back.