Becoming an Extra in a Trash Game

Chapter 41

Kane, who seemed to have already grasped the meaning of my words, leaped forward like a swift tiger and swung his sword to cut the swordsman’s neck with a quick draw.

“What is this!”

The swordsman, who had been particularly tense, barely countered Kane’s attack and stepped back a few steps, then clumsily covered his sword with aura to respond.

“I guess you’re not familiar with how to use it since it’s not your own body, right?”

After casting Parts Shield on Kane and Luna’s bodies first, I sneered while chanting Binding, as if hooking the ankles of those who were trying to surround Kane and Luna quickly, ignoring the doppelgangers who were reacting slowly with confused faces.

“Why are you doing this, all of a sudden!”

Ignoring the young man who was backing away with his hands up and a dumbfounded expression, I placed my hand on the Codex.

“By the power of truth.”

As white-glowing non-elemental Magic Missiles appeared next to my ear, it felt like an aim screen popped up in one corner of my mind.

Just in case, I targeted the Druid first, throwing Magic Missiles, worried they might try to assist with long-range magic or something.

“Stop… Stop it. Ugh!”

A middle-aged elderly man wearing fur clothes was hit in the abdomen and slammed against the wall, then fell to the floor motionless.

I kicked away the assassin’s dagger, then reinforced Luna’s Parts Shield once more as she shattered the assassin’s shin with a back kick. Then I cast Grease towards the hunter’s foothold as he was throwing a net at Kane.

Luna and Kane comprehensively prevented those trying to approach me from getting close, and I also started to fill the imbalance in numbers with Parts Shield and support magic.

Anyway, if we exchange blows one by one, our attacks will land while I can block their attacks with shields, so even the 3 vs 7 numerical disadvantage is negligible.

Moreover, those doppelgangers seem to have memories of the adventurers they’ve eaten, but it doesn’t look like they’ve properly moved those bodies before.

The swordsman, who is the strongest force, hesitates in his attacks, and in the case of the assassin, without the accompanying stealth, I can offset fatal attacks with shields.

Besides, the Archer and Druid don’t have bows or animals to begin with, so they’re limited to basic capabilities.

Kane is handling the hunter and swordsman, while Luna is dealing with the Dwarf warrior and assassin.

The Druid has been knocked out for now, and the Young man who seemed to have been in charge of miscellaneous tasks is crying and trying to stop us.

“In any case, we only need to leave one mouth to talk.”

“What are you saying, really? Are you crazy? Or are you the doppelganger?”

“Please… Please stop, please……”

“Huh! This rabbit race was suspicious from the start!”

Really, if it’s not me, how are they supposed to solve this with the difficulty in this state? If it’s a Labyrinth, shouldn’t there classically be a minotaur or something, with lots of branching paths?

I figured it out in advance because I have the User’s eyes, but I deliberately took out food to give hints to Luna and Kane.

I used it as bait to induce behaviors that humans would show, like swallowing saliva or showing greed, but normally it would have been impossible to notice.

Monsters that are indistinguishable from humans to anyone’s eyes.

Moreover, everyone except me, Kane, and Luna was a doppelganger, so another party would have collapsed due to internal strife.

‘The suspicious thing is that despite their greater numbers, they tried their best to persuade us. Something feels off.’

I kept casting Grease and Binding like a macro, randomly binding or slipping the feet of the hunter, swordsman, dwarf, and assassin once each to disrupt their balance while recreating the shield that was consumed whenever Kane and Luna were attacked.

“Ow! Damn it!”

“Just fall back already!”

“Old man can’t handle that rabbit bitch alone!”

As Luna had half-crushed the assassin’s shin once, the assassin stumbled in response, and the dwarf swung his axe to check Luna.

Kane approached the hunter throwing a smoke bomb with instant acceleration, cut off his hand, and then retreated after striking down the swordsman’s aura, whose sword tip was shaking with fear.

“So the real ones are over there?”

Watching Luna and Kane struggling hard, I cast Flash towards the Archer who was retreating to protect someone even without a bow, temporarily stealing their vision, and then shot Wind Arrow.

“Huh!”

“Eww… Eww!”

The Archer, momentarily blinded by the sudden flash, twisted his body hearing only the sound and blocked the Wind Arrow flying towards the Young man with his body.

As red blood burst and splattered onto the Young man’s face, it mixed with tears and created a long line around his eyes.

“Stop it! That side is practically a civilian!”

“What civilian, at this point, you should know better. Do you think I’m doing this because I’m crazy? You’re all doppelgangers.”

“What, no… No… We’re not! Stop it!”

“No? Then I need to destroy the evidence. Everyone should die, right?”

As I laughed and quickly flipped through the Codex, raising Magic Missiles and Elemental Arrows in the air and aiming the tips of the arrows at them, their cheeks, reddened with spreading blood, turned pale.

This is what’s good about the Codex. If you have money, you can be overwhelmed with sheer quantity incomparable to a mage’s high-speed chanting.

“Stop! Stop it! We surrender. We lost. We……”

“Young Master… But! Ouch!”

Finally, the Young man who had been sobbing screamed out his words, and the assassin let out a shrill cry as he turned to look back, only to be kicked backward by Luna’s attack and roll away.

“Anyway, sprinkling the blood of multiple people on the altar doesn’t yield much treasure! Please spare them, please……”

As the Hunter struggled to cover with his cut-off hand, the swordsman who had been gradually pushed back also suffered a critical wound as his side was slashed, and the dwarf warrior’s axe blade was tattered from hitting shields or the floor instead of the nimble Luna.

The Druid remained motionless in the corner from my initial attack, and the Young man was originally the weakest in terms of combat ability.

They are indeed too weak, and something feels off.

“For now, both of you stop and come back.”

At my words, Luna retreated, catching her breath roughly and wiping her nose with the back of her hand.

Kane also swung his sword once as if shaking off the blood pooled in the blood groove, then slowly stepped back to cover me from their sight.

“I’m sorry, Baby.”

“It’s okay……”

“Baby. Don’t cry too much.”

“Stop crying, you fool. Who said anyone’s dying now? Baby, don’t cry.”

[%$#―Seed of Doppelganger]

Representative Traits: [Replication(D+)] [Kindness(A)]

Hidden Traits: [Versatility(A)] [Cooking(S)] [Dignity(C+)]

[Kish―Doppelganger that replicated Kish]

Representative Traits: [Replication(A)] [Agility(A)] [Acting(B)]

Hidden Traits: [Assassination(C)] [Patience(B)]

…

…

[Trau―Doppelganger that replicated Trau]

Representative Traits: [Replication(B)] [Axe Skill(B)] [Strength(B)]

Hidden Traits: [Drinking(C)] [Singing and Dancing(C)]

So that guy was the important figure after all.

I looked alternately at the traits of the Young man who was sobbing while pulling the other doppelgangers back, and the other doppelgangers, then let out a ‘hmm’ breath.

“Anyone watching would think we’re the villains here. Why are you crying?”

As I moved only the corners of my mouth to show off a villainous face for the first time in a while, the young man whose eyes had already swollen up looked at me.

“That… Wasn’t my intention… I’m sorry.”

“Then shall we have anyone come over here and reopen the dialogue?”

The Young man tore his clothes to bind the wounds of the others, then wiped his eyes with his sleeve at my words and stood up from his seat. At that movement, the other doppelgangers held him back.

“I’ll go, I’m better than the Baby.”

“What are you saying? I should go. Baby, stay put.”

While they were bickering, I gave Luna and Kane water to drink, made them drink and apply potions, and took care of them meticulously. Then, instead of the chair that was destroyed during the earlier battle, I took out two new chairs and a table.

Strangely, primary processed flour doesn’t spoil even if I put it in the subspace, but if I put juice or lunch boxes in for a long time, the taste flies away and it tastes like chewing an eraser.

How cool and nice would it be to take out cookies at times like this?

Instead of cookies, I just took out water, sat in the chair resting my chin on my hand, and opened my mouth again.

“Ah, just you there, come over. You seem to be the most important figure here.”

I pointed at the Seed of Doppelganger with my finger, and everyone looked at me with turbulent eyes.

“If I was going to kill you, you wouldn’t be here already. I won’t kill you right away, so just come.”

“That’s right. Don’t worry too much and just rest, everyone.”

With a tear-soaked face like a steamed bun, the Seed of Doppelganger wobbled over. I gestured with my chin towards the chair, and he came over and awkwardly sat in the chair, looking at the water bottle.

“First, what’s your name?”

I looked at the %$# shown in the trait window.

It looks just like broken text.

“I don’t have one yet……”

“How can you not have a name? Then what should I call you?”

“Just call me whatever is comfortable……”

Looking at him glancing at Kane and Luna and turning even paler, I took a sip of water and smiled.

“Then, shall we start with something easy? Why are you all here?”

At my words, he slowly raised his head with reddened eyes and met my gaze.

* * *

She often grumbled. ‘This is unfair.’ I didn’t know what that meant, but I didn’t like seeing Kish upset, so I always stroked her back and whispered along.

‘You’re right. It’s too unfair.’

How long have we been trapped here? Are other groups trapped too? Or does a place called ‘outside’ even exist?

Even if I trace back to the very edge of my memory, this chilly, bright yet dark cave always comes to mind first.

Back then, I was in a time when I was very small and squishy and couldn’t do anything.

“It hurts… It hurts. Why can’t we kill first?”

“Because the Master of the Labyrinth doesn’t want that.”

Someone in the group said we were being punished. An endless punishment.

Even if adventurers accidentally entered this floor, we could never attack them.

Suspicion and prejudice. We could only rest for a while by devouring the remaining corpses to increase our strength a little, after they killed each other through public opinion and deception.

Sometimes when we non-humans were cornered, our breath would be cut off and we would burn.

As long as I’m here, I can revive them again unless they’re annihilated by strong magic, so we can’t even die.

Ah… Am I the one making them unable to die forever?

I am their seed, but why am I only making them wither instead of bloom?

With the empathy ability that normal doppelgangers don’t have, I often swallowed the depression and misery I felt from them and instead smiled brightly, pretending not to know.

“Baby, don’t swallow.”

“Don’t forget. We have the ability to replicate, we’re not just parasites living off someone else’s life.”

“Baby, don’t swallow someone’s memories and live in their place.”

“Just live as yourself, Baby.”

Swallowing not enough blood and tears and life to replicate someone’s memories, but just tiny bits, I became a clumsy human shape instead of the original squishy form, but while smiling and saying I understood their words, I coldly asked on one side.

‘What can we do by living like that here?’

Has it been a thousand nights, or ten thousand nights?

Only I felt it. Only I could know… Among the countless days that repeated endlessly, the first day was different.

“Baby. Look at this. There’s a message on the altar after a long time.”

“It seems to be a special message sent by the Master of the Labyrinth.”

“It says if just one of those who came in this time dies, or if we can make them scatter in suspicion of each other, they’ll let one of us out.”

Why? Suddenly? For what reason?

Sometimes there were moments when messages appeared on the altar as if negotiating with us.

Then we could sometimes receive things like books or new clothes.

Like pet mice, or like criminals locked up and under surveillance.

At that moment, an ominous thought flashed through my mind.

“Somehow I feel uneasy. Let’s not overdo it.”

“What are you saying, Baby? This is the moment we should overdo it the most since coming here.”

“That’s right, Baby. Do you know how good it is outside? You don’t even know the sea, right? Stay still. We’ll get you out.”

What meaning is there if I’m alone without you all?

Seeing them say they would kill at least one person even if everyone had to hold them back if it didn’t work out, I smiled awkwardly.

I knew well through empathy that we, who had only eaten people who died killing each other while trapped here, were no different from children holding swords that didn’t fit their hands.

And that uneasiness eventually pierced us like sharp thorns.

‘Kill them all.’

Everyone thought it would be fine as long as we weren’t hit by magic even if our bodies were torn to shreds, but.

‘No!’

They are different.

I instinctively realized. True death that I couldn’t revive was standing before us.

‘God, please…….’

I, who couldn’t eat anything and thus couldn’t learn anything properly, ended up…. Until the very end…

Will I be your burden?