The Rat’s Gamble

“How can you be so sure of that? Your denial only makes you more suspicious.”

“P-please, believe me. It is the truth.”

“Is that so? Shall we check and see?”

Baek Geon-ha rose from his seat. It felt as if a massive wall had suddenly grown before my eyes. Once again, I realized just how overwhelming his presence truly was.

“It is a simple problem, is it not? I only need to slit your belly to find the answer.”

Baek Geon-ha likely knew his logic was absurd. Therefore, a naive answer like “humans don’t have internal cores” would be useless.

Begging for mercy would be the same. Honestly, if I were Baek Geon-ha, I’d want to kill ‘Ice Block Seol Ah-heon’ too.

‘There’s no way he’d spare someone who ate his elixir and bolted.’

Forget the Demonic Cult—even the Righteous Faction wouldn’t forgive such a deed. I had committed a capital crime, so I had to die… or maybe not. Quite naturally, I desperately wanted to live.

“Young Cult Leader, what would you do if I told you I knew the recipe for the Soul-Snow Divine Pill?”

I prostrated myself and shouted. I didn’t know if this bait would be taken, but the fact that Baek Geon-ha hadn’t drawn his sword immediately meant it was half-successful.

“The Soul-Snow Divine Pill I stole was but a single pill. Of course, it is a supreme elixir that tremendously increases one’s internal energy with just one dose, but what if there were three, five, or even ten?”

“…….”

“Please, just spare my life. If you do, I will give you the recipe for the Soul-Snow Divine Pill!”

I wasn’t sure, but this probably wasn’t what Bing So-yu intended when she gave me the recipe. However, wouldn’t she also want her only disciple to save himself somehow rather than die a futile death? Probably.

“In exchange for losing one Soul-Snow Divine Pill, you would gain a recipe to manufacture as many as you desire.”

Baek Geon-ha remained silent. I wanted to check his expression, but I didn’t dare lift my head. Growing anxious, I added:

“Surely this should be enough to pay for the life of a lowly rat.”

“Are you brainless because you are a mere insect?”

Finally, Baek Geon-ha spoke. His tone was somewhat indifferent, yet it was laced with a murderous intent so thick that even I, who hadn’t opened my energy senses, could feel it.

“Who do you think the Young Cult Leader of the Sun and Moon Divine Cult is, that you dare try to delude me with such nonsense? It is quite novel, but utterly ridiculous.”

“I am not lying. Please believe me, Young Cult Leader! If you give me time, I will prove it…!”

“Your story doesn’t add up. If you knew the recipe, as you say, you could have simply made it. Why go through the trouble of infiltrating the Cult to commit theft?”

It was a valid point. However, the (real) Seol Ah-heon and Bing So-yu must have had their reasons. With my mind racing in this life-or-death situation, I could easily guess why.

“I-I had no way to obtain the ingredients.”

The original novel described it that way, and Bing So-yu said it too: “The Soul-Snow Divine Pill is a supreme elixir crafted from Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Essence.”

Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Essence is a collection of pure Yin energy that has aged for ten thousand years. Its very creation is a miracle, so naturally, it cannot be bought even for a fortune. There was no way Ronins like Bing So-yu or Seol Ah-heon could obtain such a thing.

But for Baek Geon-ha, the Young Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult, things were different.

“You, Young Cult Leader, would be able to obtain the Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Essence. Other ingredients would also be easily prepared by you.”

“…….”

“What more can a man who has committed a capital crime say? However, killing me now won’t even serve as a proper vent for your anger. Please, act in a way that is most beneficial to you.”

For someone who said they had nothing more to say, my tongue was quite long. The subtext was this:

‘You’ve already lost the pill. Killing me now yields zero profit. Wouldn’t it be better to get the recipe instead?’

It was sheer brazenness. It wasn’t wrong, but it certainly wasn’t something a thief should be saying.

I had no idea where this courage—or rather, recklessness—was hidden within me. No, this was closer to pure audacity.

‘I should have toned it down a bit.’

I squeezed my eyes shut. Regretting it now was like crying over spilled milk.

Actually, I didn’t regret it that much. If I didn’t speak this boldly, I wouldn’t have been able to pique Baek Geon-ha’s interest at all.

In <The Chronicles of Mount Hua>, Baek Geon-ha had a fickle temperament. Usually, this was a flaw, but in a situation where things couldn’t get any worse, it was almost a virtue. Whether out of curiosity or some other reason, I only hoped he would exercise that boiling whim of his to keep me alive.

“…Urgh!”

At that moment, something rushed toward me like the wind. I instinctively dodged. Rolling my eyes to check, I saw a sword embedded in the spot where I had just been prostrating.

‘I-I almost actually died!’

My blood ran cold.

Even though I knew I was in mortal danger, part of me thought I would be fine. It was the typical complacency of someone who had lived in a relatively peaceful world.

But now, death felt closer than ever. It was incomparable to when I was being chased by assassins right after the reincarnation. Even the moment I was about to be hit by the truck wasn’t as terrifying as this.

“You aren’t drawing upon your internal energy. Why is that?”

“Ugh, huff.”

Falling into a panic, I gasped for breath. Regardless, Baek Geon-ha pulled the sword from the stone floor and aimed it. The blade, flowing with a sharp blue aura, touched my chin.

Trying to avoid the sword forced me to lift my head. Naturally, my eyes met Baek Geon-ha’s. It was a gaze that seemed to see right through me.

“Mediocre.”

“I-I’m sorr—”

“You are mediocre as a thief, as a swindler, and as a martial artist.”

Baek Geon-ha muttered as if talking to himself.

“It was strange from the beginning. You act like a commoner who hasn’t learned martial arts, yet it’s certain you consumed the Soul-Snow Divine Pill… What is this? Are you truly the Ice Block?”

As he tilted his head, his silver hair cascaded down. It looked like light flowing over a well-forged blade.

I didn’t dare open my mouth. As I swallowed hard, the sword barely brushed against my Adam’s apple.

“Gulp.”

I caught my breath. Seeing this, Baek Geon-ha frowned for the first time.

“How did a dim-witted rat like you manage to infiltrate even the secret library of the Cult?”

“…….”

It seemed I had succeeded in piquing Baek Geon-ha’s interest as planned. Only, it was in a bad way….

“Your tongue was wagging just fine until a moment ago; has it suddenly been glued shut? Answer me. If you do not, I will cut out that wicked tongue and pickle it in salt.”

“T-that is…”

Despite the cruel threat, I couldn’t answer easily. How could I explain? Even if I told him, “You’re a villain in a novel and I was a fan who ended up possessing this body,” he wouldn’t believe a word of it.

The truth was the most unbelievable part of the situation. I racked my brain to fabricate a plausible excuse.

‘What should I do? It’s already been exposed that I don’t know how to use martial arts. Should I say I have amnesia?’

That didn’t seem likely to work. It would make my claim about knowing the elixir recipe suspicious. Still, the concept of “losing memories” was a useful one.

Suddenly, a look of boredom crossed Baek Geon-ha’s face. It was a clear danger signal. I quickly opened my mouth.

“T-the truth is, I was subjected to a Soul-Binding Art. It was because I stumbled upon a secret I wasn’t supposed to know.”

“A Soul-Binding Art, you say.”

Baek Geon-ha tilted his chin, as if telling me to keep talking.

“Because of that, I have forgotten my past, common knowledge, and even my martial arts. That is why I appear like a commoner.”

The Soul-Binding Art (攝魂術) is a technique that interferes with the target’s mind, much like a form of hypnosis. In short, my claim was:

‘I was hypnotized and lost part of my memory!’

It was an excuse no one on Earth would believe. But in the Murim, it might be different. It would be more plausible here than simple amnesia.

However, Baek Geon-ha didn’t look like he fully trusted my claim.

“And what was that secret?”

“That… I do not know.”

“Of course you don’t.”

Baek Geon-ha said with a snort.

“There is a flaw in your claim. Why bother erasing memories when a certain method like ‘killing to silence’ exists? I don’t know who used the Soul-Binding Art on you, but they must have been incredibly merciful. Or an utter fool.”

The murderous aura radiating from Baek Geon-ha made my stomach churn. I wished he would at least move the sword, but the tip was still aimed at my throat.

However, I saw a glimmer of hope in that.

‘If he was going to kill me, he would have done it long ago.’

The fact that he had kept me alive despite everything meant there was still room for persuasion.

I decided it was time to play my trump card.

“……Instead, what would you do if I knew information that would be of help to you, Young Cult Leader?”