The Old Man Is So Good at Acting Like a Loser

＜ 2. Slave and the Sea (1) ＞

“Stir quickly, quickly! I told you to stir your arms so much that I couldn’t see them!”

“You stupid bastards! Match the sum with the person next to you! The ship does not move, the ship!”

“What is this, bastard? Lose strength in your arms? Are your arms weak? It’s very comfortable because the guys next to you stir it for you, huh?”

In the wharf of the galley, countless slaves with their tops off were rowing in perfect order. Everyone was drenched in sweat, to the point where I had the illusion that steam was rising. The overseer, who grew a shaggy beard and had a stern expression, was going back and forth brushing the slaves.

I didn’t know how many hours had passed since I had already rowed. Andrea felt her arms tremble. Every muscle in his body was screaming for help. I thought I would die even if I left it alone, but with the supervisor’s pressure added, there was no hell.

Compared to the other slaves, who had a robust body trained through labor, Andrea stood out in particular for her skinny and gloomy impression. Even if he pretended to, he was less powerful than other slaves, so he was a good prey for the supervisor to quarrel with.

“What is this bastard? Where did this asshole come from? Hey, you’re out there and you’re sticking your head in a pail. Guys next to you, don’t you manage your colleagues properly? All the guys next to him don’t have dinner tonight.”

The overseer knew how to deal with the slaves. When you have a weak slave, if you create an atmosphere to bully him, you will not be dissatisfied with it.

Just as the supervisor intended, gazes filled with hatred immediately flew towards Andrea. Andrea became contemplative.

“sorry···. I’ll starve myself for dinner. I will work harder, so forgive me just once.”

The supervisor gave a mean smile. It was his greatest pleasure to punish a slave who begged for mercy as scheduled.

“Ah, then you can work harder, but you haven’t done it all this time, right? There is no reversal. You go and drop out there, and you all go hungry tonight.”

Andrea trembled all over, but did not get up. He bit his molars hard enough to break them and strained his forearms as he rowed. It was right to see that it did not actually give strength, but squeezed mental power.

“Oh, look at this bastard. Are you chewing on my words now? Aren’t you going out right now? uh?”

Andrea didn’t stop, though, and continued rowing. If he was left out, his colleagues rowing next to him would have a hard time. Cold sweat ran down my back and tears welled up.

The colleagues gradually looked at Andrea with anxious eyes. The supervisor, who was worse off, asked the sturdy slave rowing the outermost row.

“Hey, what punishment should be given to a slave who disobeys orders?”

“…with a whip you must mercilessly hit them on the back.”

“Yes, if you know, bring me my whip right away.”

The slave rose from his seat and immediately brought out a nine-pronged whip. It was a hideous object with a piece of bone embedded in the tip. The slaves who had been beaten with that whip shuddered at the sight of it.

Andrea rowed and fell into a trance, not even knowing what was going on. The supervisor, who was pulling the whip tight, struck Andrea on the back without hesitation.

jump!

Soon, a terrible pain plunged Andrea’s mind into an abyss.

The pain was as if someone had ripped off the entire back. The pain spread along his back, causing the hairs on his body to stand on end, and then the pinna of his ear to become hot. I thought a scream of pain would burst out, but what came out of my mouth was a mute moan.

“Even like this, I won’t be excluded, huh? Even like this?”

A couple of more whiplashes cut through the air like a shotgun. Andrea’s back was quickly covered with bruises and bruises. The slaves around them were terrified that sparks would fly on them, so they devoted themselves to rowing in silence.

Andrea felt the pain drain her mind. I thought the scenery in front of me was floating in yellow, but soon it was distorted like an oil painting scrawled arbitrarily. I was confused whether the tilting of the world was because I was on a boat or because I was dizzy.

Gradually everything faded away. Andrea soon lost consciousness and fell to the floor.

*

It took a long time for Andrea to come to her senses. What you see in front of your eyes is the scenery inside the dark cabin. The pain in the back was so intense that I regretted regaining my consciousness. Andrea seriously contemplated taking her own life.

Falling asleep while waiting for the official release of ‘Dungeon of Infinity’ was the last memory of my life as Jung Hyun.

After that, somehow, Jeong-hyeon became Andrea, a character from Dungeon of Infinity. At first, I thought it was a dream, but after rowing all day and feeling vivid muscle pain, I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t.

I wanted to ask if it was nonsense, but I didn’t know who to argue with. There was something meaningful about the message sent by the developer saying that you would experience the game ‘directly’. But that alone couldn’t be explained.

Even if I wanted to deny it, it was the reality anyway. Rather than thinking about why this happened, I had to think about how to live my life from now on. However, from the beginning, too great difficulties were in front of him.

‘Why must it be Andrea?’

Human sunfish, Andrea. Even a deceased person who has played ‘Dungeon of Infinity’ for more than 5,000 hours will die without passing the 8th floor.

I was able to save even more by being myself. Andrea was a weakling with no way out. Even when I was lying still, I sometimes felt short of breath, and my legs trembled even when I was standing. Even if I exerted a little effort, I felt dizzy, but there was also seasickness, which made it worse.

If she had a body like this, she would have been born affluent, but Andrea was a slave by faithfully following the settings in the game. It is also a rowing slave, a job that even the same slaves tremble and avoid.

It seemed that it hadn’t been long since Andrea had become a rower’s slave. Hearing the stories going around, it seems that he was originally a slave doing other work, but he made a big mistake and was sold here. Had he lived this life for a long time, Andrea would have died long ago.

I missed the company life that I thought was so terrible. Compared to the supervisor who viciously encourages bullying, the deputy manager and deputy manager were angels, and the company’s work was no different than a break compared to the stress that seemed to cause muscle to break.

‘And again, why didn’t you start from the dungeon?’

If this is really a game world, somehow Andrea will reach the infinite dungeon. However, it was doubtful whether Andrea’s weak body would be able to hold out until then.

‘No, maybe it’s better to die before I see more dirty things in the future.’

When he died here, if he had the assurance that he could return to the original state, Jeong-Hyeon was confident that he would end his life hundreds of times. However, suicide was not an option that could be easily chosen because death here could be truly permanent.

Even so, Jung-hyeon’s mind was on the defensive to the point where he wondered if he would just die. At least, if he was on land, he would have tried to escape somehow, but this is inside the galley. It was a prison on the sea from which there was no escape.

I didn’t even know where the nearest island was, and even if I did, it would be impossible for Andrea, who couldn’t control herself properly, to have any talent for swimming.

If I had started in the infinite dungeon, it would have been clear what to do, even though I would have rolled. However, as a rower slave, it was impossible to even try to do anything.

Andrea couldn’t help but lie on the floor in a daze. That alone was daunting. The pain in my back was terrible enough, but my stomach was rocking so hard that I felt like I was about to turn inside out.

“Are you feeling better?”

Then someone entered the cabin. It was dark, so it was hard to see, but judging from the fact that he was not wearing a jacket, he seemed to be one of the same slaves.

‘Greuk, greuk.’

Andrea opened her mouth to answer, but all that came out was the sound of boiling phlegm.

“You don’t have to rush to answer. Rather, take this.”

What the slave brought with him was a bowl of porridge and water. As soon as I smelled the food, my appetite fluctuated, but I was too sick to pass it down my throat. Andrea hurriedly shook her head from side to side.

“If you don’t eat this, you will die. I’ve been doing this for over five years, and I’ve seen plenty of people like you. If you get flogged, get sick, and skip meals, it only takes a moment to become a corpse.”

Andrea just wanted to die. It wasn’t that difficult to get rid of the corpse, since it was the sea anyway, so all you had to do was throw it out.

However, I did not want to refuse the favor of the person who came to me like this. Although it was a blunt way of speaking, it was the first favor she had experienced after coming to this world.

When the furnace was over, the slaves lamented and chatted among themselves, but there was no place for Andrea. Even without a direct lynching, rumors of his poor strength had already circulated, and Andrea was in the process of being a covert bully.

In the midst of all that, the kindness I received was so thankful that I literally had tears in my eyes. Andrea got up, put the pitcher to her mouth, and drank like a dog.

My throat cleared up a bit, and I could barely open my mouth. Andrea’s gaze turned to porridge.

“Please bring this dead to our comrades rather than me. You skipped dinner because of me, so you’re probably very hungry.”

“They don’t have to worry because the other guys gave them food without the supervisor’s knowledge. To think of his colleagues even in the midst of this, his mental strength is amazing even though his body is weak.”

“It would be right to say the opposite. My mental strength is fine, but my body is weak.”

When the slave heard this, he burst into laughter.

“Yes, I know that you know best. Knowing clearly what your weaknesses are is the foundation for progress.”

Gradually, his eyes adjusted to the darkness, and he could see what the slave in front of him looked like. Broad shoulders, short-cropped brown hair, a neat beard and sculpted, lumpy muscles. It was the perfect contrast to Andrea.

“Come to think of it, I haven’t even gotten a full name yet. My name is Marco. He’s in charge of the oars at the very end.”

The end oars are the oars that determine the direction of the galley. Although the intensity of labor was lower than other positions, it was a position that only the most skilled slaves could occupy because even a small mistake was not tolerated.

Andrea awkwardly took Marco’s outstretched hand. Then he came over to this world and introduced himself for the first time.

“My name is Andrea.”

＜ 2. Slave and the Sea (1) ＞ End