Became a stagnant person in a squalid prison cell

Chapter 46 —

Because of the warden’s nagging, I couldn’t completely stop all the love calls (recruitment offers) rushing toward Helios like a tidal wave.

Helios didn’t say much—he seemed to understand the situation.

The real issue was that while Helios rejected offers on his own, and I handled the more forceful ones in secret… the thing I feared finally happened.

Wham!

“Sigh…”

Like I said before, scouting in this world isn’t like normal scouting—it’s on a whole different level.

For example, if group A wanted Helios, then rival group B, who didn’t want A to become stronger, would try to harm Helios just to block him.

The guy lying on the ground now was part of B.

Though honestly, he was weak—he got knocked out by Helios in one hit.

Still, there were others left.

Helios’s eyes glowed slightly. Uh-oh, someone’s about to get wrecked.

While watching Helios fight and quietly dealing with some shady people trying to approach Kia…

I suddenly remembered what Seth said:

“The prison director is back.”

That bastard.

The one person I never wanted to meet again. Not because he’s strong—but because he’s like a leech. No matter who you are, he’ll drag you down and ruin you.

‘So that’s why things were quiet lately. He must’ve been away.’

If he’d started snooping around for me, the warden would’ve already contacted me.

‘Guess I should lie low for a while.’

Wham!

A prisoner flew toward me and interrupted my thoughts.

Looks like “Garet” (my fake identity) can’t stay low-profile anymore. Since I disappeared as “Mint,” this is the best I can manage.

‘Helios just took out three mid-tier fighters by himself.’

The fight ended, and Helios walked over. I brushed myself off and stood up.

“Let’s go. To the 33rd floor.”

“…Aren’t you going to say anything else?”

“What?”

Helios stayed quiet.

I looked at the knocked-out prisoners, the spectators, and then back at his handsome face.

“Next time, aim for the weak spots. Dragging a fight out only hurts you.”

“…”

“What?”

“Forget it.”

Helios pushed back his sweaty hair and walked past me.

“Maybe he just wanted some praise?”

That was Hyra, who had been waiting to enter the next floor with us.

“Praise? For what?”

“…He won?”

“That fight was an obvious win.”

Hyra blinked.

“So… you trusted him?”

That’s putting it too nicely.

“They weren’t even on his level. Why would I need to trust him?”

“Then what if his opponent was someone strong enough to hurt him?”

“Then it’d be a good experience.”

“…And if they were strong enough to kill him instantly?”

“I’d get rid of them.”

Hyra stared at me silently.

We’d talked more than I meant to, so I knew she got into this place through some sort of con. If she conned her way in here, she must have committed a pretty serious crime.

She gave me a warm smile—something she was weirdly good at despite being sharp-tongued.

“You know, you barely have any expressions. Just a blank face or a tiny smile. That’s it.”

…Not sure what she wanted me to do with that, but okay.

“I had a hard time reading you at first. But now… I think I see a little.”

“…”

“I’m not heartless, you know. I want Helios to do well. And I’m glad it’s not just one-sided feelings. At least… I think that’s a good thing.”

“Summarize.”

“Have you noticed Helios acting weird lately?”

“That’s not a summary.”

“If you see him in a situation like earlier, try looking more closely. You’ll see something good.”

She smiled like she knew something I didn’t.

After the warden successfully negotiated with the current top dog, the difficulty of the 32nd floor dropped compared to the 30th.

Not a huge difference, but enough that Helios and the others could handle it.

‘Though maybe the difficulty dropped because of me… and when trouble pops up, I’ll take care of it.’

There’s a saying:

If you keep giving a genius kid basic math problems over and over, they’ll get bored and mess up eventually.

That was kind of like what happened to me.

“Huh? The dart landed near you, big bro! I think it’s your turn this time…!”

I had forgotten one important thing: I could also be chosen as the “fear target” on this floor.

‘Oops.’

Everyone turned to look at me.

Helios’s stare was especially intense—his eyes were practically burning.

“You’re going to burn a hole in my face, guys.”

“Ah, sorry, big bro. We’re just curious.”

“Haha, yeah! What could you possibly be afraid of?”

Good question. Honestly, I’m not even sure what I’m afraid of myself.

Fear is something buried deep in the unconscious. This floor probably can’t dig deep enough into my mind to pull out anything serious.

“Sorry, guys.”

“Huh?”

“This floor’s about to get a lot harder.”

A voice rang out from the air:

— “Fairytale! It’s a fairytale!”

— “Fairytale!”

Fairytale?

The dartboard giggled.

— “There’s a hidden surprise!”

The space around us started to warp and shift.

“W-Wait!”

“Our bodies…!”

“What do we do?!”

Unlike before, Helios and the others were starting to fade away.

“Don’t worry. It’s not dangerous.”

I raised my hand.

“We’re just being moved.”

“Huh?!”

I looked at Helios’s shocked face as he vanished.

“See you in a bit.”

Weirdly… I felt a little lonely watching him disappear.

When I opened my eyes, I was in a totally new place.

Like the others, I’d been moved somewhere else.

‘Where am I now?’

A forest.

Just like the 32nd floor was a forest—but this time, it was daytime instead of night.

Looking up, I could see a big castle not far away.

‘32F was based on Hyra’s abandoned forest. 31F showed Ged being falsely accused of war crimes.’

I remembered how real everything had looked—even the background characters were incredibly detailed.

‘Now it’s my turn… so I guess this floor will be harder.’

It seemed the difficulty of the boss depends on the fear level of the person chosen.

But here’s the thing… I had no idea what fear this was supposed to represent.

Then, I heard a voice in the air:

— “Once upon a time, in a faraway kingdom, there lived a princess with snow-white skin and black hair.”

‘Huh?’

I blinked.

— “Because she was born in winter, the king named her ‘Snow White.’”

That sounded familiar.

Memories I had buried a long time ago came to mind.

‘Snow White?’

The dartboard had shouted “fairytale” earlier.

‘This is so random. Why a fairytale all of a sudden?’

Then I remembered…

“I hate fairytales.”

Back when I lived in Korea—before I entered this world—I hated fairy tales.

Looks like the system couldn’t dive deep into my unconscious fears, so it pulled something more surface-level.

If this is what it chose…

‘Then this level is gonna be a breeze.’

Might as well enjoy it. Bonus stage!

While I was thinking that, the voice kept narrating the fairytale. It was already near the end.

— “Oh no! The princess ate the poison apple! But luckily, a prince on a white horse was passing by…”

“That’s great. I didn’t want to see the whole thing anyway.”

I glanced down and noticed something weird about my clothes.

‘What’s this uniform?’

It was a blue, noble-looking outfit. Nothing like the prison guard uniform I normally wore.

Then I noticed something even stranger: a pure white horse was standing next to me.

A horse?

No way.

“Ugh. Don’t tell me… I’m the prince?”