Hans Christen. For some reason, the name was familiar.

"Ugh! Bjorn! This man...!

I remembered him without Misha's prompting. He was surrounded by all kinds of summoned beings.

"He's a summoner!" Raven said.

Last time, the formation of summoned creatures consisted of one attack type and three support types, with an average of rank 7. After making sure that each of them was such, I sighed.

No wonder he seemed so familiar to me.

Thus, the probability that it was just a similar person was reduced to zero. It was Hans G, a guy I recognized as a player based on his knowledge of Riakis's behavior patterns and the conditions for the Death Knight to spawn.

Bloody hell.

What happened after I met him last time? The troll appeared on the 4th floor and almost killed everyone. Player or not, every Hans in this world was a plague.

*Top!*

My heart grew cold.

I have to kill him.

Only this thought prevailed in my mind.

"Mr. Yandel?" Why are you just standing?

I rushed forward with more force than ever. The pause before that was only to pick up speed.

*Boom!*

Leaving clear footprints on the solid surface of the ground, I closed the distance between myself and this bastard in the blink of an eye. Hans G also did not stand aside.

"Kyaaa!" The lizard shouted, spewing fire. To be precise, it was a summoned fire beast called Naimpi.

*Uuuuh!*

As a rank 7 summoned beast, its flames weren't too formidable, but when the buffs from summoned support-type beasts were added to it, the power of the fire increased dramatically.

*Chhhhhh!*

The heat burned my skin. So what?

'Behellaaa

The upper part of my body was covered by a shield, and the rest was compensated by Fire Resistance. When I ran through the fire, it burned some of my skin, but everything has priorities.

*Crunch!*

The mace that contained the Ogre's power made a pleasant sound.

At the same time, Hans G's head exploded and he collapsed to the ground. It must have been an instant death, because he disappeared in the beams of light before his body even touched the ground.

"What are you doing!?" Raven exclaimed, as my actions were at odds with our plans.

Not that I didn't understand her anger, but it wouldn't be too late to explain it later.

"Don't come any closer!" I shouted imperiously and walked quickly towards my comrades. Then I took the breath I had been holding back.

"Ugh!

Ready. Maybe I met Hans, but I didn't breathe the contaminated air. So everything will be fine. No, everything should be fine...

"Can't it be poison?"

No, not poison, but... What is the answer to this?

— Yes. Let's give up this road.

"What?" Wait, is it really poison? But there was no hint of this...

"Forget it. Come along.

With a somewhat arrogant look, I led the team in the other direction. Was Raven unfamiliar with this side of me? She followed me without question, but her expression was serious.

— It's quite far away.

After walking for about 5 minutes, I stopped. Just as I was about to turn around and explain what had happened...

"What...

I tripped over an uneven rock and stumbled.

Somehow keeping my balance, I did not fall, but even this did not seem like a coincidence. Maybe the Hans effect has begun? But it was only a Double, not the real Hans. Perhaps this will be the end of the misfortunes...

"Yandel!" There is still more to come!

At Mr. Bear's shout, I quickly looked around. Two Doubles were approaching us. The reason I immediately knew they were Doubles was simple: They both had the same faces.

Bloody hell.

I closed my eyes, then opened my eyes again, but the picture before me did not change. Is this really hell?

— Я... К-Кри... сен.

— Х-Ханс... Кри... сен...

Hans was copied.

***

Everything was exactly the same as the first time. Either the flames grew stronger or not, I immediately rushed forward and crushed their heads. At the same time, he did not breathe.

"Everyone hold their breath. We are breaking through!

"Huh?" A what?

"There's no time to explain!"

Since there was no way back, I held my breath and ran quickly through the passage. When it dawned on me that this was enough, I turned around and checked how my comrades were doing.

"Bjorn, you have terrible eyes!" Ainar exclaimed.

"What the hell is going on?" No matter how I think about it, I don't think it was poison. Was it someone you know? Raven demanded. My teammates couldn't hide their confusion about my strange behavior.

— Yes. I know him.

I calmed myself down and explained everything: that the Double we had just met was called Hans, and all the bad things that happened every time I met Hans.

— This is a big problem! But what should I do? I was breathing!

Einar, who had received the Hans education I had given to the barbarians, listened to my hidden history and bit her nails with nervousness.

— ... It seems that this is not just a coincidence.

As a superstitious researcher, Mr. Bear also put on an indecisive air.

And Raven...

"What?" What do you mean?

Standing still, with a stony look that seemed to say, "What kind of nonsense are you talking about?" burst out laughing.

"Pff, hahahaha!

Is she crazy? How could she laugh in such an atmosphere?

"It looks like you're really a barbarian, Mr. Yandel.

- This is a racist statement.

"Oh, I'm sorry if that sounded like that. But... pfft! If you're really worried, maybe you need the protection of a magician?

Mage protection? This was not the case in the game.

Best Game Consoles

 

As I scratched my head, Raven explained calmly, as if talking to a child.

"When a mage visits a poor area, children run up to him and ask for good luck. This is the protection of a magician.

... So these are just empty words?

"I don't need it.

"Why?" This will at least help you calm down.

Laughing, Raven assured me that she was not joking. She began to talk about a study that showed that a strong belief in something can affect the physical body.

She seemed to be referring to the placebo effect...

Who does she think I am?

"Do it."

"Seriously?" Oh, how was it done!? And! Can you bend down for a minute?

As I simply sank to the ground, Raven patted me on the shoulders as if knighted, with a rather reverent expression on her face.

She added uncharacteristically warm words.

"Everything will be fine. You got my luck.

I don't know about luck, but I felt that a little sanity was coming back to me. Come to think of it, it was just the evil eye. Was Hans there when I met the Dragon Slayer?

"Ugh, honestly!" Gather! You are the leader of the team!

As Raven said, I need to be on my guard. Even if the Hans effect is real, while we were inside the Chasm, meeting the real Hans can be considered a fait accompli. All I could do was be more careful than usual.

"Me too!" Do it for me!

"Can you—" Should I do it too?

"And then me."

Perhaps because my face became calm, my teammates gathered around Raven like birds.

"Haha... Okay. Line up.

Sighing, Raven gave each of them protection and even added words of blessing. Has she always been like this? It seems to me that I saw a new side of her.

"Now tell me." I'm sure you didn't kill him without thinking about countermeasures. You know him, don't you? About that Hans or whatever he is.

— To some extent.

After the blessing, I took the time to share the information I knew about what essence Hans Kriesen possessed and who his teammates were.

"So, an elf archer, a human warrior, and a mage?"

"The last thing I saw.

"Only four?"

"Since they're in the Chasm, it's very likely that there are 5 of them now. Perhaps he added a guide to the remaining space.

The fault of the 4th floor opened somewhere above the 25th stage. Without a guide, it was almost impossible to find the Chasm before it was completely filled.

"It's definitely likely.

When I told them what I knew about his teammates as well, Raven nodded in relief. I thought I knew what she was thinking. Unless there were major changes, Hans G's team was clearly inferior to us.

"I don't think we will have to worry about any problems related to the distribution with them.

— Problems are our job.

— If the situation allows. We still don't know anything about the last team.

Having finished the exchange of information, we resumed the expedition.

Fortunately, it seems that we were out of their range, because then we faced only our Doubles.

What a pity. I was hoping to find out about the last command in advance.

It seems that our paths did not cross, because the unknown team did not show itself in any way. But it was useless to be disappointed.

"Oh! Another mana stone crate!

All day long we wandered around the cave and from time to time opened the boxes that appeared. This was the main reward for Chapter 1 - "Cave of Shadows".

Since Doubles didn't drop mana stones, this was our way of finding balance.

However, this is a bit strange.

I thought it was just a system built into the game, but after experiencing it personally, I felt a bit of a mismatch. It was almost like in a real game.

"Recently, there has been a hypothesis in the scientific world that the labyrinth was not discovered, but created."

Perhaps Raven's words were true then. If someone created a labyrinth, then this explains its structure.

But what kind of world is this?

Is it a game or another reality?

The questions I've had since the first day I woke up in this world are popping up in my head again, but I'm rolling them up and putting them back in the corner as always. There will be no answer from the clues I have now. Wasting energy on something useless was unwise.

"Now all the boxes are open. There are almost no doubles either. What are you going to do?

"Aren't you the one who has to make the decision here?"

I shrugged my shoulders and relayed the decision to Raven.

She said what I was going to say.

"I think we should rest here and go downtown tomorrow."

Faithfully.

"Why?"

"Because there is a high probability that other teams have already gathered in the center. There's no need to camp there, right?

This was a sorcerer's safety-oriented judgment. In this judgment I particularly liked the latent distrust of others.

"What, do you want to say something about my decision?"

— Not at all.

"Hmm, and your eyes are kind of strange...

"I just thought how lucky I was to have a mage like you on our team.

It was sincere. She will never know how much easier it has become for me since she became a member of the team.

— ... Flattery will lead nowhere.

Yes, yes, then why do you have a smile up to your ears?

After that, we set up a simple camp and took turns keeping watch by the fire, and so the 8th day ended.

And then the 9th day began.

[05:07]

Waking up a little earlier than usual, we went to the very center of the cave. We ended up here only because of the boxes, but the way there was very easy, so we didn't get lost along the way. You just had to walk along the passage overgrown with grass.

*Top! Top!*

The closer we got to the center, the more weeds and moss appeared on the wall. Soon a wide passage opened up in front of us.

"Finally, the latecomers have arrived!"

10 researchers have already gathered there.

"Oh! You're here, Mr. Yandel!

Of course, Hans G was here too.

***

Did they really spend the night here? When we arrived, the researchers were already clearing the camp. I looked around quickly.

Hans G's team turned out to be what I expected.

None of the members had changed, and all four were the same as I had last seen them. The unknown woman, apparently, was new.

And the other team...

I didn't know them. They were a dwarf, a beastman, and three people. Their equipment looked about the same as ours. The only feature was their sharp eyes. Given the circumstances of the Chasm, this wasn't particularly strange either.

- Who is your leader there? A dwarf approached us. It was the same guy who called us out for being late as soon as we arrived.

"Oh, I guess Mr. Yandel. This is the one I told you about.

"A little Balkan?"

"Yes.

It seems that they have already met.

Hans G said something to the dwarf and then addressed me in a friendly manner.

"It's nice to meet you again." I didn't think I'd see you here. You can't imagine how surprised I was to see your Double-...

"Stop."

— ... And?

"Don't come any closer.

I lowered my voice and didn't let Hans get closer. As it seemed to me, such a distance was just right for us.

There were no masks in this world, right? I turned away from Hans G and turned to the dwarf.

"ID tags?"

For some reason, it was Hans G who answered.

"Oh, haha!" I've already checked their tags, so you don't need...

Yes? You make me even more worried.

– ID tags.

I ignored Hans's words and repeated.

The dwarf grinned and asked back:

"You guys get yours first.

Did he want to start a war of nerves or something like that? I didn't particularly want to avoid it either, but identification came first, so I showed it to him.

"Now it's your turn.

At my request, the dwarf showed us his.

"Well, are we done?"

— ... We're done.

I nodded.

At that moment, Raven's voice rang out in my head, using transmission magic to secretly transmit messages.

"[Mr. Yandel. These people are not from town].

Yes, you noticed too. Those bastards from Noark.

Survival in the game as the Barbarian. Chapter 181 – The Hex (Part 1)

Hans Christen. For some reason, the name was familiar.

"Ugh! Bjorn! This man...!

I remembered him without Misha's prompting. He was surrounded by all kinds of summoned beings.

"He's a summoner!" Raven said.

Last time, the formation of summoned creatures consisted of one attack type and three support types, with an average of rank 7. After making sure that each of them was such, I sighed.

No wonder he seemed so familiar to me.

Thus, the probability that it was just a similar person was reduced to zero. It was Hans G, a guy I recognized as a player based on his knowledge of Riakis's behavior patterns and the conditions for the Death Knight to spawn.

Bloody hell.

What happened after I met him last time? The troll appeared on the 4th floor and almost killed everyone. Player or not, every Hans in this world was a plague.

*Top!*

My heart grew cold.

I have to kill him.

Only this thought prevailed in my mind.

"Mr. Yandel?" Why are you just standing?

I rushed forward with more force than ever. The pause before that was only to pick up speed.

*Boom!*

Leaving clear footprints on the solid surface of the ground, I closed the distance between myself and this bastard in the blink of an eye. Hans G also did not stand aside.

"Kyaaa!" The lizard shouted, spewing fire. To be precise, it was a summoned fire beast called Naimpi.

*Uuuuh!*

As a rank 7 summoned beast, its flames weren't too formidable, but when the buffs from summoned support-type beasts were added to it, the power of the fire increased dramatically.

*Chhhhhh!*

The heat burned my skin. So what?

'Behellaaa

The upper part of my body was covered by a shield, and the rest was compensated by Fire Resistance. When I ran through the fire, it burned some of my skin, but everything has priorities.

*Crunch!*

The mace that contained the Ogre's power made a pleasant sound.

At the same time, Hans G's head exploded and he collapsed to the ground. It must have been an instant death, because he disappeared in the beams of light before his body even touched the ground.

"What are you doing!?" Raven exclaimed, as my actions were at odds with our plans.

Not that I didn't understand her anger, but it wouldn't be too late to explain it later.

"Don't come any closer!" I shouted imperiously and walked quickly towards my comrades. Then I took the breath I had been holding back.

"Ugh!

Ready. Maybe I met Hans, but I didn't breathe the contaminated air. So everything will be fine. No, everything should be fine...

"Can't it be poison?"

No, not poison, but... What is the answer to this?

— Yes. Let's give up this road.

"What?" Wait, is it really poison? But there was no hint of this...

"Forget it. Come along.

With a somewhat arrogant look, I led the team in the other direction. Was Raven unfamiliar with this side of me? She followed me without question, but her expression was serious.

— It's quite far away.

After walking for about 5 minutes, I stopped. Just as I was about to turn around and explain what had happened...

"What...

I tripped over an uneven rock and stumbled.

Somehow keeping my balance, I did not fall, but even this did not seem like a coincidence. Maybe the Hans effect has begun? But it was only a Double, not the real Hans. Perhaps this will be the end of the misfortunes...

"Yandel!" There is still more to come!

At Mr. Bear's shout, I quickly looked around. Two Doubles were approaching us. The reason I immediately knew they were Doubles was simple: They both had the same faces.

Bloody hell.

I closed my eyes, then opened my eyes again, but the picture before me did not change. Is this really hell?

"I... K—Kree... sen."

—H-Hans... cri... sen...

Hans was copied.

***

Everything was exactly the same as the first time. Either the flames grew stronger or not, I immediately rushed forward and crushed their heads. At the same time, he did not breathe.

"Everyone hold their breath. We are breaking through!

"Huh?" A what?

"There's no time to explain!"

Since there was no way back, I held my breath and ran quickly through the passage. When it dawned on me that this was enough, I turned around and checked how my comrades were doing.

"Bjorn, you have terrible eyes!" Ainar exclaimed.

"What the hell is going on?" No matter how I think about it, I don't think it was poison. Was it someone you know? Raven demanded. My teammates couldn't hide their confusion about my strange behavior.

— Yes. I know him.

I calmed myself down and explained everything: that the Double we had just met was called Hans, and all the bad things that happened every time I met Hans.

— This is a big problem! But what should I do? I was breathing!

Einar, who had received the Hans education I had given to the barbarians, listened to my hidden history and bit her nails with nervousness.

— ... It seems that this is not just a coincidence.

As a superstitious researcher, Mr. Bear also put on an indecisive air.

And Raven...

"What?" What do you mean?

Standing still, with a stony look that seemed to say, "What kind of nonsense are you talking about?" burst out laughing.

"Pff, hahahaha!

Is she crazy? How could she laugh in such an atmosphere?

"It looks like you're really a barbarian, Mr. Yandel.

- This is a racist statement.

"Oh, I'm sorry if that sounded like that. But... pfft! If you're really worried, maybe you need the protection of a magician?

Mage protection? This was not the case in the game.

As I scratched my head, Raven explained calmly, as if talking to a child.

"When a mage visits a poor area, children run up to him and ask for good luck. This is the protection of a magician.

... So these are just empty words?

"I don't need it.

"Why?" This will at least help you calm down.

Laughing, Raven assured me that she was not joking. She began to talk about a study that showed that a strong belief in something can affect the physical body.

She seemed to be referring to the placebo effect...

Who does she think I am?

"Do it."

"Seriously?" Oh, how was it done!? And! Can you bend down for a minute?

As I simply sank to the ground, Raven patted me on the shoulders as if knighted, with a rather reverent expression on her face.

She added uncharacteristically warm words.

"Everything will be fine. You got my luck.

I don't know about luck, but I felt that a little sanity was coming back to me. Come to think of it, it was just the evil eye. Was Hans there when I met the Dragon Slayer?

"Ugh, honestly!" Gather! You are the leader of the team!

As Raven said, I need to be on my guard. Even if the Hans effect is real, while we were inside the Chasm, meeting the real Hans can be considered a fait accompli. All I could do was be more careful than usual.

"Me too!" Do it for me!

"Can you—" Should I do it too?

"And then me."

Perhaps because my face became calm, my teammates gathered around Raven like birds.

"Haha... Okay. Line up.

Sighing, Raven gave each of them protection and even added words of blessing. Has she always been like this? It seems to me that I saw a new side of her.

"Now tell me." I'm sure you didn't kill him without thinking about countermeasures. You know him, don't you? About that Hans or whatever he is.

— To some extent.

After the blessing, I took the time to share the information I knew about what essence Hans Kriesen possessed and who his teammates were.

"So, an elf archer, a human warrior, and a mage?"

"The last thing I saw.

"Only four?"

"Since they're in the Chasm, it's very likely that there are 5 of them now. Perhaps he added a guide to the remaining space.

The fault of the 4th floor opened somewhere above the 25th stage. Without a guide, it was almost impossible to find the Chasm before it was completely filled.

"It's definitely likely.

When I told them what I knew about his teammates as well, Raven nodded in relief. I thought I knew what she was thinking. Unless there were major changes, Hans G's team was clearly inferior to us.

"I don't think we will have to worry about any problems related to the distribution with them.

— Problems are our job.

— If the situation allows. We still don't know anything about the last team.

Having finished the exchange of information, we resumed the expedition.

Fortunately, it seems that we were out of their range, because then we faced only our Doubles.

What a pity. I was hoping to find out about the last command in advance.

It seems that our paths did not cross, because the unknown team did not show itself in any way. But it was useless to be disappointed.

"Oh! Another mana stone crate!

All day long we wandered around the cave and from time to time opened the boxes that appeared. This was the main reward for Chapter 1 - "Cave of Shadows".

Since Doubles didn't drop mana stones, this was our way of finding balance.

However, this is a bit strange.

I thought it was just a system built into the game, but after experiencing it personally, I felt a bit of a mismatch. It was almost like in a real game.

"Recently, there has been a hypothesis in the scientific world that the labyrinth was not discovered, but created."

Perhaps Raven's words were true then. If someone created a labyrinth, then this explains its structure.

But what kind of world is this?

Is it a game or another reality?

The questions I've had since the first day I woke up in this world are popping up in my head again, but I'm rolling them up and putting them back in the corner as always. There will be no answer from the clues I have now. Wasting energy on something useless was unwise.

"Now all the boxes are open. There are almost no doubles either. What are you going to do?

"Aren't you the one who has to make the decision here?"

I shrugged my shoulders and relayed the decision to Raven.

She said what I was going to say.

"I think we should rest here and go downtown tomorrow."

Faithfully.

"Why?"

"Because there is a high probability that other teams have already gathered in the center. There's no need to camp there, right?

This was a sorcerer's safety-oriented judgment. In this judgment I particularly liked the latent distrust of others.

"What, do you want to say something about my decision?"

— Not at all.

"Hmm, and your eyes are kind of strange...

"I just thought how lucky I was to have a mage like you on our team.

It was sincere. She will never know how much easier it has become for me since she became a member of the team.

— ... Flattery will lead nowhere.

Yes, yes, then why do you have a smile up to your ears?

After that, we set up a simple camp and took turns keeping watch by the fire, and so the 8th day ended.

And then the 9th day began.

[05:07]

Waking up a little earlier than usual, we went to the very center of the cave. We ended up here only because of the boxes, but the way there was very easy, so we didn't get lost along the way. You just had to walk along the passage overgrown with grass.

*Top! Top!*

The closer we got to the center, the more weeds and moss appeared on the wall. Soon a wide passage opened up in front of us.

"Finally, the latecomers have arrived!"

10 researchers have already gathered there.

"Oh! You're here, Mr. Yandel!

Of course, Hans G was here too.

***

Did they really spend the night here? When we arrived, the researchers were already clearing the camp. I looked around quickly.

Hans G's team turned out to be what I expected.

None of the members had changed, and all four were the same as I had last seen them. The unknown woman, apparently, was new.

And the other team...

I didn't know them. They were a dwarf, a beastman, and three people. Their equipment looked about the same as ours. The only feature was their sharp eyes. Given the circumstances of the Chasm, this wasn't particularly strange either.

- Who is your leader there? A dwarf approached us. It was the same guy who called us out for being late as soon as we arrived.

"Oh, I guess Mr. Yandel. This is the one I told you about.

"A little Balkan?"

"Yes.

It seems that they have already met.

Hans G said something to the dwarf and then addressed me in a friendly manner.

"It's nice to meet you again." I didn't think I'd see you here. You can't imagine how surprised I was to see your Double-...

"Stop."

— ... And?

"Don't come any closer.

I lowered my voice and didn't let Hans get closer. As it seemed to me, such a distance was just right for us.

There were no masks in this world, right? I turned away from Hans G and turned to the dwarf.

"ID tags?"

For some reason, it was Hans G who answered.

"Oh, haha!" I've already checked their tags, so you don't need...

Yes? You make me even more worried.

– ID tags.

I ignored Hans's words and repeated.

The dwarf grinned and asked back:

"You guys get yours first.

Did he want to start a war of nerves or something like that? I didn't particularly want to avoid it either, but identification came first, so I showed it to him.

"Now it's your turn.

At my request, the dwarf showed us his.

"Well, are we done?"

— ... We're done.

I nodded.

At that moment, Raven's voice rang out in my head, using transmission magic to secretly transmit messages.

"[Mr. Yandel. These people are not from town].

Yes, you noticed too. Those bastards from Noark.