Surrender

“I came because it suddenly got noisy… Marcus! Is that Sir Walter and Sir Nathan behind him? Then…”

“It’s been a while, Yellow Tower Master.”

“Princess! You’re alive!”

Finding the first one was difficult, but everything after that was easy.

It was like rolling a snowball.

Since survivors like Teresa’s group had formed teams to survive in the demon realm, they could find multiple people at once, and some occasionally had information about other survivors, allowing them to decide their next destination without wandering aimlessly.

Thanks to this, Yuseong was able to find eleven survivors just over a month later.

“Is it over?”

“The attacks seem to be getting stronger lately. Shouldn’t we be a bit more careful for now?”

“Never mind that, let’s rest first. This is already our third battle today.”

Yuseong watched people gathering in small groups to chat before accessing the demon realm network.

‘So they’re finally starting to move seriously.’

The site was filled with ominous articles about high-ranking demons considering taking action directly, or tactical weapons being authorized to reduce losses from wars of attrition.

Yuseong’s eyes narrowed.

The only reason they had managed to hold out until now was because the demons had dismissed the current situation, thinking things like “There are still humans alive? How interesting” or “Looking at how they’re acting, they’ll be caught soon.”

But things would be different once the demons started responding seriously.

It’s not that demons can’t create transcendental powerful beings or super-scientific weapons – they just choose not to.

‘I suppose it’s time.’

It would be dangerous to stall any longer.

If the demon lords mentioned in the articles took action or weapons like plasma missiles were used, everyone here would die without even being able to put up proper resistance.

Moreover, there was no one left to save.

While demons hadn’t paid much attention during the early period when vigilance against humans was low, he began searching the network for human traces and hunting down survivors once the terrorism started.

As evident from the name [24-Member Suicide Squad Wanting to Escape from Demon Realm], there were 24 total survivors remaining in the demon realm.

Among them, excluding the 11 here, of the remaining 13 – 4 had died, 5 had been captured, and 4 had uncertain whereabouts…

‘They’ve been caught.’

An article just went up saying the remaining 4 had been captured during their recent battle with the demons.

After closing the terminal, Yuseong walked toward the group.

“Ahem.”

“…”

People either avoided his gaze with fake coughs or glared at him with hostility.

This was because they knew Yuseong wasn’t Marcus but a user borrowing his body.

Perhaps because Changwei had made too big of a mess before leaving.

Even though he had saved their lives, treated their bodies poisoned by demonic energy, and given them food, people still refused to trust users.

‘Actually, Teresa is the strange one.’

No matter how desperate the situation, asking for help from users who were like mortal enemies who had put them in this state wasn’t a decision just anyone could make.

“Stop right there. What do you want?”

An elderly man with an irritable expression blocked Yuseong as he tried to approach Teresa.

The Yellow Tower Master Decker.

He was among the first survivors they found and one of those who initially insisted they couldn’t accept help from users before finally being persuaded by Teresa.

Seeing Decker openly showing hostility by summoning electricity at his fingertips, Yuseong gave a bitter smile and answered.

“It’s getting dark, so I was thinking we should have dinner. I came to ask the princess for permission.”

“Dinner, is it.”

Decker’s scowling face relaxed slightly as Yuseong approached.

Though he disliked users, food was a different matter.

For people who had spent the past 3 years eating only contaminated monster meat, roots of unknown plants, and tasteless porridge-like food that demons ate, warm and delicious food was not just tempting but fatal.

When Teresa nodded, Decker immediately said.

“The princess has given permission. Hurry and prepare the meal.”

“Understood. Everyone seems tired, so I’ll prepare something special.”

Decker and the others didn’t sense anything strange.

However, Teresa, Walter, and Nathan were different.

Unlike the others who had only heard part of the plan about causing a commotion to draw survivors’ attention, those who had heard Yuseong’s entire plan tensed up at the words “something special.”

“Um…”

“Haha, I’ll prepare it quickly, so please wait a moment.”

Though his face wore a smile, his voice was firm.

Walter, who had been hesitantly trying to speak, read the resolute will in Yuseong’s eyes and quietly backed down.

‘That’s insane. That’s suicide. Such a scheme – no, such a gamble can’t possibly succeed. But…’

Walter gritted his teeth as he recalled the scheme Yuseong had told him about.

A method with practically no chance of success.

But no matter how much he thought about it, his mind couldn’t come up with a better method.

Sighing, Walter shook his head at Nathan who was reaching for his bow.

“Dinner is ready! Come and get it!”

“Hmm hmm.”

“My goodness, to think such delicious food can be made just by adding boiling water. It’s amazing no matter how many times I see it.”

People ate the food and drank the beverages Yuseong had prepared without any suspicion.

At first they had shown obvious distrust by eating only food they made themselves, but seeing Teresa’s group eat without hesitation, they soon gave in.

Slurp.

“Aren’t you going to eat?”

Even some of the more cautious people hesitantly brought food to their mouths after seeing Yuseong eat without hesitation.

If there had been even one person who maintained their guard and ate food they prepared themselves, an unexpected situation would have unfolded.

If there had been even one person among them familiar with modern food loaded with MSG, they would have noticed something was off immediately upon tasting it and spat it out.

However, every single one of them ate the food, dismissing the strange taste as simply the unfamiliar taste of food from another world.

In the end, everyone except Yuseong was poisoned without exception.

“Uh, uhhh…”

The first to notice something wrong was the mage who had joined most recently.

The effects of the poison appeared first in him as he had been constantly inhaling food, apparently quite taken with the stimulating instant food.

Trembling hands, unfocused eyes, slowing breath.

“Why… is this…”

Thud.

The mage who had been trying somehow to bring his spoon to his mouth finally staggered and collapsed.

The mage who wasn’t moving at all.

For a moment, silence fell among the people.

Bang!

The first to break the silence was Yuseong.

Using Flash Step to slip between people like lightning, Yuseong thrust his fingers at the Adam’s apple of Decker who was creating lightning arrows.

“Khaak!”

The nearly completed magic disappeared.

Magic created using only incantations and formulas without spreading a magic power field lacks stability.

Though not enough to be an issue in actual combat, magic gets canceled when receiving strong impacts like this.

After flowing behind him like water and knocking Decker unconscious by pressing his carotid artery, Yuseong immediately launched himself toward the people.

Nine duplicates appeared to deceive the eyes while countless vines sprouted from where his footprints remained to wrap around ankles.

“W-wait! Why suddenly…”

“The user has betrayed us!”

People belatedly realized the situation and began to respond.

The warriors and knights surrounded the closest mage to block the duplicates.

The mage chanted spells to block the vines and try to catch Yuseong.

Everyone here was a powerful figure in their own world and heroes who had survived for years in this strange otherworld.

While killing them might be possible, it would be impossible for Yuseong alone to subdue them all.

But Yuseong wasn’t alone.

“P-princess?!”

“Sir Walter! Come to your senses!”

“Nathan! What are you doing?!”

Teresa, Walter, and Nathan suddenly began attacking the others.

Walter tilted his sword to strike the most skilled knight’s back of the head with the flat of the blade, while Nathan used magic power to protect the vines by piercing through magic.

Though Teresa lacked the strength to fight heroes, she had her status as princess.

Just her clinging to someone was enough to fully bind one hero.

Already poisoned and then ambushed by their companions, people were pathetically subdued.

After spitting out the Supreme Grade Blood Poison Wine received as a reward from the [In Search of Treasure] quest, Yuseong knocked everyone unconscious and tied them up tightly with Thorny Vine.

“What a relief. I was worried things might go wrong since everyone’s abilities were stronger than I expected, but fortunately it succeeded.”

“…”

“Do you have something you’d like to say?”

Just before being bound by Thorny Vine, Teresa, who had been silently glaring at Yuseong, spoke in a low voice.

“If you betray us or things don’t go according to plan, we’ll all either die or become toys for the demons.”

“I absolutely won’t betray you. If we fail, I’ll keep trying until we succeed.”

“What if you give up?”

“I won’t give up.”

A promise of mere words.

However, in the current situation, there was no choice but to believe.

Teresa bit her lip until it bled.

To entrust their lives believing only a user’s words.

The anxiety and humiliation were unbearable.

She wanted to pretend none of this had happened right now.

‘But then what should we do after that?’

Barely 20 survivors remaining.

Days of drinking dirty water and digging up roots to fill hungry stomachs.

Deteriorating physical condition and demons appearing whenever they started to forget about them.

It was the worst situation that could end at any moment.

‘There’s no other choice.’

The possibility of another user unrelated to Changwei appearing again.

And what were the chances that user would be as capable as Yuseong?

Though she didn’t know the exact probability, Teresa was certain they would die before then, unable to hold out.

“If we succeed in returning to our original world, I’ll give you what Changwei wanted so badly as payment.”

“…Is it okay to give that away so easily?”

“It’s only a problem when Changwei has it. Without Vimana, it’s just a useless object.”

“Giving a useless object as payment. Isn’t that a bit too stingy?”

“How is offering something that can freely control our world’s strategic weapons stingy?”

Yuseong couldn’t help but laugh at Teresa’s shamelessness in instantly changing her words.

“What if I sell it to Changwei?”

“You’re the owner, so it’s none of my business what you do with it. Though if you’re going to sell it, I hope you get a very high price.”

An answer filled with anger toward Changwei.

Yuseong gave a slight smile before firmly binding Teresa and sitting down leaning against a nearby rock.

How much time passed after that?

The sound of engines and rotating rotors began to be heard from far away.

Soon after, Yuseong raised both hands toward the blank-faced demons and said.

“I surrender.”