Just as we were about to conclude the talk, I raised my hand to ask her to pause,

"Before you go, I just wanted to know: is this the battle of Hwangsanbeol?"

"No, it is not." Min Jiwon spoke as such.

My initial guess on the background of the scenario was thrown out of the window, but I still couldn't help but doubt it,

"What makes you say so?"

The troops around Min Jiwon seemed exasperated at my question, but Min Jiwon raised her arm to settle them down again.

"If it was, then the scenario name would be as such, and the advantage would be on Baekjae's side as history dictates as such. However, the scenario has to be 'fair'. Therefore, this is not the battle of Hwangsanbeol."

I studied Min Jiwon during my contemplation, realizing Min Jiwon probably had gotten more information about the scenario than me.

That makes sense. Min Jiwon wouldn't come unprepared, after all.

So then, was there some other meaning to a scenario like this?

I couldn't help but feel deep down that there was more to the scenario than meets the eye, but my superstition was usually wrong.

Nevermind, no use thinking about it now.

I nodded my head to show that I understood Min Jiwon's explanation.

Noticing that there were no more questions, Min Jiwon did not dally.

In a moment Min Jiwon and her allies shot out and disappeared as if they never appeared in the first place, except for the rustle of the trees.

With the others gone, Lee Jihye and Na Bori stepped up to question me.

"So what did she mean?" Lee Jihye asked first, referring to the 'outside the scenario'.

"Well, we're not part of the scenario right?" I began.

Na Bori nodded her head, "Yeah, so we can't interfere."

"Um..." I swerved my head upwards, feeling like that was a wrong inference, "So where does the scenario set its boundaries, exactly?"

"Well, of course-" Na Bori paused, and suddenly understood something, "Wait a second, where DOES the scenario end?"

Lee Jihye looked back and forth at us, not following the conversation.

"Exactly." I snapped my fingers, glad that my question guiding actually worked, "The scenario only talks about the "five battles" and "picking a side", not anything about "outside the five battles". In this case, there are two possibilities I can think of." I paused and looked at Na Bori and Lee Jihye.

"So, we can sort-of do something without doing something about the scenario?" Lee Jihye seriously tried her case, gesturing with her hands.

On the other hand, Na Bori gave more specifics, "Yep, there are no scenario restrictions on our actions. We can attack anyone, except we can't interfere during the 5 battles."

I nodded my head.

"And so the other possibility-"

"The other possibility is that we can't." Jung Youngho added to the conversation suddenly.

We looked at Jung Youngho in surprise.

"As outsiders, we won't be able to interfere with anything directly, so if we went to attack now, it would be counted as invalid and we'll be stopped." Jung Youngho surprisingly gave out the other answer I was looking for, but his posture was as slovenly as always.

I really didn't expect Jung Youngho to say this sort of thing.

Then again, I recalled his actions that overturned Min Jiwon's momentum when bargaining.

He was actually sharp-

Just as I was thinking about Jung Youngho in a positive light, Jung Youngho yawned and picked his ear, blowing off the earwax at his fingertip.

Nope, I give up.

"Yep, that's what I was thinking of." Lee Jihye sagely nodded her head after we all fell silent.

Na Bori made a face at Lee Jihye, knowing it was a lie.

To prevent sidetracking, I decided to butt in.

"So with that, let's get on the way?" Deciding not to stall any more, I took out the coat I had received by the first apostle's avatar and bought another three more from the Dokkaebi bag with Youngkik's help on the secret exchange.

It hurt to spend money, but I had a reasonable amount left, and besides, I could always earn it back...so I convinced myself.

Although the robe from the first apostle was a little tattered and it still had a number '1' that I disliked sewn onto it, it was still a functional piece.

When I had taken out the robe from the bag, my hand had come into contact with the [???] item I had also forgotten about, but I decided to check on it later when the time was right.

"What's that?" Na Bori asked curiously, receiving the cloak.

Lee Jihye snorted and said, "Obviously, it's an identity concealing cloak."

Lee Jihye took the cloak and draped it over herself proudly.

"Sure, you fantasy-reading dork." Na Bori rolled her eyes.

"Not as much as you, romance addict idiot." Lee Jihye shot back.

Then they both giggled to each other while Jung Youngho held his to the side.

I looked at this scene with amusement, and a little enviously.

Luckily, the cloak shrunk or expanded to accompany everyone's sizes, or it would be an awkward image. Additionally, we used an item that concealed our presence.

With preparations in place, we set off.

Of course, the journey was not smooth, but it wasn't dangerous either.

Using our inhuman techniques and stats, we were able to scale steep cliff-sides and avoid most of the Baekje troops.

During our path, there were no other 'incarnations' we encountered, although we had managed to find a few soldiers patrolling the area.

"Did you feel something?"

At the entrance to their stronghold, a soldier standing atop the wall couldn't help but speak to the person beside them.

Rubbing their arms with the polearm held in-between, his partner shook his head, "Don't say that, the wind is giving me the creeps. What if there was a ghost - eek!"

In response to his partner's gibberish, the first soldier who spoke patted his partner's back harshly,

"Stop with your superstitions!"

However, the first soldier also formed a few goosebumps at the sudden gust of wind.

-of course, it wasn't a ghost who passed them just now. The wind and the sensation of brushing past was our group.

Having successfully infiltrated, I signaled to the others to get on the move and take their places to the different barracks, training areas, and logistics department from our observation prior.

How I ended up as the leader and giving orders was still a mystery...but I still carried on.

Surveying the stronghold a-top the mountain, I rushed to where we assumed fuel, rations and clothes were being stored.

As the light of a torch got closer, I decisively reached out to take it from the hands of a patrolling soldier.

"W-who are you?!" The soldier was alarmed and stepped back instinctively.

But I was quicker.

My dagger shot out from under my cloak, but just as it was about to piece through the soldier's thigh, an invisible force held it in place.

[Warning! You aren't participating in the scenario.]

[Please pick a side]

Another screen popped up with two familiar options, but I wasn't paying attention to it.

Although my first objective failed, my other was on the torch in the soldier's hand -

[Warning! You aren't participating in the scenario.]

Once again, the invisible force reappeared, and I could not breach it to catch the torch, no matter what.

Hmm, so this is not it either.

In this short exchange that lasted fractions of a second, the soldier couldn't help but fall backwards to avoid the dagger, and the torch tumbled out of his hand.

Before the soldier could alert the others, I dove for the torch.

I was expecting the same reaction as earlier, so it was to my surprise that I was able to snatch it up this time.

I gave a look between the torch and the soldier.

There wasn't any time to know what it meant as I heard a series of foot-steps close in to check out the commotion.

With the burning torch in my hands, I hurled it at the warehouse.

"No-!" The soldier on the ground shouted, too late to stop the light that would soon set the warehouse ablaze.

However, the soldier didn't need to worry.

[Warning! You aren't participating in the scenario.]

Harmlessly, the torch bounced off of the warehouse and tumbled a few times on the ground under the dumbfounded eyes of the patrolling soldier.

By this time, a small group of seven soldiers appeared on the scene.

"Private, what is going-" The commander in the lead first saw the soldier sitting on the ground, and then at the intruder that showed up inexplicably.

"You!" The commander instantly readied his weapon and the others followed suit.

Although I was caught, I wasn't too flustered.

[Hmm, this situation happens often with you, doesn't it? I'm getting deja vu. Also, what is with that get-up?] Youngkik chose this opportune time to pop in, along with a few constellation messages.

['Lily Blooming in Aquarius' is asking which incarnation this is.]

['Great King Heoncheon Hongdo Gyungmum' is asking which incarnation this is.]

[Constellation, 'Maritime War God', is answering the others.]

[Some constellations are happy at your misfortune.]

[233 coins have been sponsored.]

Are they mocking me?

[As you can see.] I answered Youngkik simply.

I didn't have the luxury of giving full attention to our conversation, however.

As the spears or swords pieced from all directions with a shout, I leapt over their heads.

"Stop dodging, you coward!" One of them shouted.

What, then get stabbed? I thought, irked.

Still, I had to think quickly about what I wanted to do in this situation. My heartbeat began to race.

The commotion would drag more and more people onto the scene, but I wasn't sure if I would be able to escape the pursuit of everyone in the camp.

I had left the presence hider in the custody of Na Bori, and I didn't want to buy another just yet.

Also, I hadn't achieved all my objectives.

Think.

What can I do in a situation like this?

I bemoaned my blanking mind as I rapidly zipped through the seven soldiers to the warehouse.

"Stop right there!"

Just when one of the soldiers shouted that, I glanced at the lamp found in their hands, and a spark skidded across my mind.

"You're welcome to catch me!" I smirked from under the cloak, but did not stop, although I did slow down.

When the soldiers came close enough, I slammed to a halt, and with little to no recovery time, stabbed out decisively.

"Uwah!" Several of them have a strange shout at the unexpected attack that appeared to defy inertia.

Just as it appeared that I would miss, I forcibly changed the stab into a side slash at the ground, sending clouds of dust flying.

Breaking formation, two of the soldiers didn't notice but bumped into the side of the warehouse.

With a little luck playing its part, as one of the soldiers tried to steady themselves, they bumped the other.

Not expecting the sudden hit, the lamp was successfully knocked out of the soldier's hand and crashed into the warehouse's side.

As the dust quickly filtered away from the wind in my attempt to prevent a dust explosion, the soldiers quickly caught sight of a beginning fire.

So this works?

"Fire!"

"There's fire! Quick, get the buckets."

"B-but the intruder, sir!"

Cries of alarm rose from the soldiers, but they didn't have the luxury to pay attention to me anymore.

"Forget about them! The warehouse is more important. Someone else will handle the intruders."

Slipping away in the blazing chaos, I maneuvered through the panicked soldiers onto a nearby wall, lying in wait for the potential fish.

[Get ready, I sent some very angry customers to you~] Jung Youngho sent me a carefree message through the station member group chat.

I looked up and around for Jung Youngho's silhouette in the darkness.

"Get back here!"

"State yourself!"

Trailing behind were another two silhouettes in the front, and followed by a few others.

I squinted my eyes, and as they came into view, I couldn't help but internally curse Jung Youngho in my mind.

Before this, I did ask him to find and provoke Cha Sangkyung and Gu Daesung, but I hadn't thought he would lead them to me without much of a heads up.

As soon as we were about to make contact, another loud explosion reverberated through the fortress, and new cries of alarm rose up.

That must be Lee Jihye...I thought to myself.

Looks like she succeeded in making a distraction for the soldiers.

With this, we could focus on Cha Sangkyung and Gu Daesung without being surrounded by more forces.

"What is going on? Is this your doing?" Gu Daesung shouted at Jung YoungHo who was in the lead.

"Nope, it's not me, but the leader's wishes!" Jung YoungHo replied flippantly, and landed next to me.

That drew the duo's attention.

They soon swiftly landed opposite to us on the wall, and a stand-off was about to begin.

"Explain yourself, evil being." Cha Sangkyung aggressively spoke as the exposed eye bulged in anger.

[Stigma, Law of Interest, lv. 2, has been activated.]

A gust of wind timely flew by, fluttering our robes.

As I glanced at the "1" stitched into the robe as it flowed, I blurted out some nonsense that I hadn't been able to sort out my thoughts on yet.

"I am the first apostle."