Chapter 1: This world is not right

“Red, wait for me!”

In the pitch-black dungeon, by a campfire, a female knight clad in armor stood up.

Her furious gaze was fixed directly on the man’s retreating figure not far ahead.

But the man called Red simply slung his backpack over his shoulder and kept walking forward.

“I’ll say it again, stop!”

Yet it was useless.

Red’s mind was made up, and there was no way this female knight could persuade him to stay.

He strode straight toward the exit just ahead.

“If you quit now, no one will want a Mage like you anymore. Even the Hero Party rejected you; other teams definitely won’t want you either.”

Red’s footsteps paused for a moment.

Just as everyone present thought he might reconsider and breathed a sigh of relief, he spoke.

“Don’t you know me yet? When have I ever regretted my choices?”

With that, his figure gradually disappeared into the darkness.

Everyone was shocked and bewildered by Red’s departure… except Letia.

She was nothing more than an emotionless gnawing machine.

Since arriving in this world, coupled with memories from her past life as a Past Life Worker, Letia understood clearly that in any company, the first to get laid off are people like Red—those responsible for Logistics.

After all… no boss sees how hard the logistics staff work.

Bosses hate seeing people idle.

And conveniently, the logistics manager always looks like the laziest one.

Moreover, this team was all women except for Red, the only male.

So the situation turned out like this—a bunch of people criticizing him over the smallest things.

If Red could tolerate being scolded like this every day and still chose to stay, Letia would find it strange and think he was a bit of a coward.

But he left decisively, and that earned Letia’s respect.

After all, this team was quite famous among Adventurers.

Being able to pick up and put down—now that’s a real man.

“What the hell is he doing!”

The angry female knight flopped down on her backside.

Her name was Liz, captain of this Hero Party.

She came from a prominent family with the backing of powerful Nobles, so naturally, she wielded the most influence within the team.

“Come on, Liz, calm down a bit.”

Next to Liz stood an Elf archer named Bethany.

She patted Liz’s shoulder and said,

“He’ll definitely come back.”

“Probably just a moment of anger.”

“…”

The women chattered among themselves.

If Letia guessed right, now was the part where everyone started whispering behind Red’s back.

Human nature is like that~

Besides, how could the usually arrogant Liz ever admit fault on her own side?

The others were just her echo chamber.

“What is he playing at? Our progress in the Hero Party is already slow enough. Is this really my fault?”

Liz’s mood was visibly irritated.

She impatiently threw a stone into the fire, and sparks flew out, landing briefly on her greaves before vanishing.

Letia stared at her face, and suddenly, her mind became hazy.

In the blurred haze, Letia seemed to see blood all over Liz’s face, her pupils dilated and unfocused.

Looking down… her lower body had disappeared.

“!?”

The sudden vision made Letia shiver and immediately grab the Staff beside her.

“What’s wrong?”

But the next moment, Liz’s voice snapped Letia back to reality.

Everything was normal, as if the blood and light had been a mere illusion…

No, wait…

Letia frowned slightly.

Her mind was suddenly flooded with many vague memories and texts.

But these memories and texts were so blurry she couldn’t make out the details.

Only one fragment of the story was clear.

“Liz, during the assault on Second Layer Twenty-Five, to speed up progress, underestimated the enemy and rashly advanced, inadvertently entering a Beast’s ambush and tragically perishing…”

What was going on here?

Reading this, Letia’s face suddenly stiffened.

She searched those unclear texts and memories for clues and quickly realized something.

The world she had crossed into was not an ordinary Western fantasy setting.

It was a Retreat-Genre Novel—one of those very traditional and classic ones.

And, unfortunately, Red was the protagonist of this book.

Her own team was the “villains” in this story.

Letia tried to extract useful information from the script in her mind, but the memories were too vague, allowing her only a faint glimpse of the future.

It was blurry, but Letia barely saw her own fate.

One word.

Miserable…

She would be devoured alive by a pack of Beasts, watching helplessly as her body was torn apart bit by bit until the very end, her consciousness crystal clear even in death…

Letia abruptly pulled back her awareness, her hands involuntarily trembling.

Because the information was too fuzzy, Letia didn’t know what exactly caused this outcome.

Only that it was very likely to happen on Second Layer Twenty-Five.

The exact timing was unknown, but considering she was currently on Second Layer Twenty-Three, it might not be far off.

“Letia, are you okay?”

Bethany, sitting beside her, noticed Letia shaking and patted her shoulder.

“Are you upset about Red leaving too?”

“Ah…”

Letia came back to herself, opening her mouth to say something.

But Liz cut in first.

“Of course! Honestly, we treated him well enough, didn’t we?! And he didn’t spare us a single thought. Does he think we need him that badly?”

Liz’s face was flushed, whether from anger or the firelight, it was hard to say.

She kept repeating “we” to rally the remaining teammates into joining her verbal assault.

Bethany nodded in agreement.

“Forget it. It’s better that he’s gone. Tomorrow, we’ll continue exploring.”

“I have a suggestion…”

At that moment, Letia spoke up.

“We’ve lost a member. We should return to town first to resupply.”

“Letia, do you also think we can’t clear Second Layer Twenty-Three?”

Clearly, Liz was displeased by Letia’s proposal.

The leader looked at Letia with questioning eyes.

Letia smiled and shook her head.

“Not at all. Of course we’re capable of clearing Second Layer Twenty-Three. But aren’t you all very dissatisfied with Red?”

“That’s true.”

“So shouldn’t we find a new teammate before continuing with Second Layer Twenty-Three? That way, we can rub it in Red’s face.”

There’s a saying—if you go along with a fool, the fool will agree with you.

But that didn’t stop Letia from being a bit of a fool herself.

Sure enough, Liz was somewhat tempted by Letia’s suggestion.

“You have a point. Let’s rest here tonight, and tomorrow we’ll return to town and find a new member. Let Red open his eyes and see that our team is just the same, with or without him.”