Chapter 248: Real and Fake (2)
“You already heard the basics before, right? He’s my partner.”
“All I got was useless information.”
Well, that was true. How much should I even tell him? Since Seong Hyunjae had gone as far as sending a quest asking for an introduction, I didn’t have to worry about privacy concerns.
“For starters, he’s an S-rank awakener.”
“That’s it?”
…It was fine when I said it, but hearing it from someone else was a little annoying. He’s my business partner, after all. If anyone gets to look down on him, it’s me.
“He’s about ten years older than you. His appearance is similar, but experience makes a difference. You’re still young, Sigma. Ah, don’t pout.”
“I’m not.”
“He’s also the guild leader of Sesung. Basically, he holds a position similar to yours. His skills are similar, and his weapon seems to be the same. Would you mind if I checked the item description?”
Sigma shot me a suspicious look. Did he think I was going to steal it? …Well, I had stolen a lot before. Fair enough.
I assured him I’d only check and even offered to hold just the end of it—or we could write a contract if he wanted. Only then did Sigma take out the chain.
[Noble Seeker’s Chain – Increases the contractor’s rank by +1 (up to Mythical Grade)]
A chain forged from the deepest moonlight of a crescent moon. Though it appears metallic, its essence is light.
It was identical, down to the last letter, to the chain I had seen in Seong Hyunjae’s status window. Seriously, what was going on?
“The weapons are completely the same. Where and how did you get this chain?”
“I’m the one asking the questions here.”
“Oh, come on, you can at least tell me that. Where are you from? It’d be great if you could tell me your real name too. Do you have any family? I’m just very interested in you, Sigma, so how about we exchange personal details? For starters, I have a kind and adorable younger brother, and my parents passed away a long time ago.”
I didn’t know much about Seong Hyunjae’s past, and even if I asked, he probably wouldn’t answer. But Sigma—maybe if I coaxed him a bit, he’d open up.
“Why should I tell you?”
“For smooth communication, of course. Oh, don’t frown. At least tell me about your family. I told you about mine. Are your parents alive?”
“Where is Seong Hyunjae now?”
Sigma ignored my question and asked his own. Should I count this as his second question? His first was about who Seong Hyunjae was, but that didn’t include location information.
“He’s in the system.”
“…What? You said he was an S-rank awakener.”
“It’s a long story. That counts as your second question, so you only have one left. Think carefully before you ask. Or, trade it for your personal information. I’ll even value it highly.”
Sigma’s eyebrow twitched.
“I don’t have to answer unless I explicitly state it’s my third question.”
He belatedly set a restriction.
“And I don’t have enough information on Seong Hyunjae.”
“What exactly do you want to know? His height? His weight? I’d guess it’s similar to yours. His birthday is August 30th, and last year, he wrecked a cruise ship on his birthday. I only know small details like that. The more I think about it, I really don’t know much. He’s probably not married, but who knows? With that face and age, he’s definitely dated before. Sigma, are you seeing anyone?”
“No.”
“What a waste of a good face. See? You should smile more. Smile~”
Sigma’s expression hardened even more. Maybe I was pushing it. But he really would look better if he smiled. He probably didn’t have any friends either. Maybe I should introduce him to Yuhyun… or Hunter Noah. They might get along.
But then, reality hit me.
Hyunah had said this world was just as real to her, but still…
At that moment, I heard the sound of chains moving. I absentmindedly watched as they slithered across the table like a snake—wait, what?
“Isn’t this a contract violation?”
“If you get hurt struggling to escape, that’s on you.”
Sigma replied shamelessly. In moments like this, he really was similar to Seong Hyunjae. The chains wrapped around me, pulling me onto the table. What did I say that set him off?
“What were you thinking just now? When you looked at me.”
His low, suppressed voice sent a chill down my spine. Had my expression given me away? What kind of face was I making? Maybe—maybe I had felt something close to pity. That would be completely out of line.
I tried to look up to check Sigma’s expression, but I was practically sprawled over the table while he had already stood up. I could only see his legs.
“I was thinking that I hope the dear Sigma makes friends, dates someone, and even gets married someday.”
“Liar.”
“I’m not obligated to answer. Use your last question if you really want to know. But I wouldn’t recommend it—you’d just be wasting it.”
Sigma leaned down. His scarf came undone, and his fingertips brushed against the back of my neck. Even though we had a contract guaranteeing each other’s safety, I still got goosebumps.
“If you fail to fulfill the contract conditions, C-rank, you will belong to me.”
“If you drink too much kimchi broth, it gets too salty. Ah, but you probably don’t know what kimchi is.”
“If I had known you couldn’t die, I would have finished engraving the mark back then.”
“My life isn’t infinite, you know. Next time, I really will die.”
“Lies. How many times are left?”
“What do you mean, ‘how many times’? Normally, you only get one chance.”
“The main mana flow of the human body isn’t just the back of the neck—it extends along the entire spine.”
The fingertips pressing lightly on my nape slowly moved downward. His tone was as if he were giving a lecture on human anatomy.
“They usually keep the engraving small and only on the back of the neck for safety reasons, but it’s not like no one ever attempted to engrave it along the entire spine.”
Sigma’s hand paused briefly at my lower back.
“But not a single person was able to withstand it.”
“Human experimentation? That’s disgusting.”
“If the engraving covered all the major mana pathways, theoretically, it would allow perfect control over the body’s detailed mana flow. It would enhance one’s ability to manipulate their own mana with extreme precision, significantly increasing skill efficiency. However—”
The hand that had stopped began to move again.
“Depending on how it’s set, it could also allow complete control by an external force. Some say it’s even possible to directly manipulate the brain using mana. Given the existence of mental-type skills, it’s not an entirely absurd notion.”
This time, it wasn’t Sigma’s intimidation that sent a chill down my spine—it was my own imagination. Theoretically speaking, sure, but if anyone could actually pull that off, it would be Sigma. Just looking at how precisely he handled electricity was enough proof of his control.
“I’ll let you experience it firsthand, C-rank. Then you’ll have no choice but to be honest.”
…Had I underestimated this guy just because he was in his twenties? If anything, he was even more reckless than Seong Hyunjae. My dear partner preferred to subtly tighten the noose over time, rather than locking someone down in one decisive moment like an engraving. …Neither of them had a great personality.
Well, Seong Hyunjae had once pinned me down before. He had changed a lot since then. But even if he saw me as nothing more than an object without personal agency, he wouldn’t be the type to carve such a horrifying engraving onto someone. Sigma, on the other hand, was younger and much rougher.
‘Speaking of which, isn’t my dear partner being a little too quiet?’
He wasn’t just sitting back and eating popcorn while watching all this, was he? Some young version of him is over here tormenting me!
“Sorry to disappoint, but I have full confidence that I’ll fulfill the contract conditions. You should go find a doll to hug instead.”
“Confident, are you? Then speak.”
“How about you untie me first?”
Sigma didn’t budge. Fine, I wasn’t too keen on seeing his face while talking anyway.
Since Yuhyun had been excluded from the contract penalty, I had briefly considered that even if I failed to fulfill the conditions, it might not be a big deal. If I belonged to Sigma, it could actually make things more convenient—he’d have to take me around, and once this dungeon was cleared, I’d naturally be freed.
But that engraving—absolutely not.
I didn’t have enough points to buy an anti-engraving item right now. I could earn more by hunting, but if he dragged me off and engraved me before I had the chance, I’d be in serious trouble. Maybe I should have gone monster hunting with Yuhyun this morning.
I swallowed a sigh and spoke. If I had to, I was ready to use up one of my lives.
“I’ll give you the information promised in the contract. This world has already been destroyed.”
There was no immediate response.
“The world you’re in now is just a recorded echo. It’s a fake, created from that data. Sigma, you’re not real either. You’re just… leftover data. I don’t know if games exist in this world, but it’s like you’re a game character. The information of a real person was inserted into you, allowing you to move, speak, and think in an incredibly realistic way, but ultimately, you’re just an advanced virtual construct.”
“A fake.”
Sigma’s voice was calmer than I expected.
“Yes.”
“Then you, C-rank.”
“I’m real. Think of me like a player inside a game. I came from another world, and one day, I’ll leave. When that happens, I don’t know exactly what will happen to this world—whether it will disappear or simply freeze in place.”
“That Seong Hyunjae… he must have come from the same place as you.”
“That’s right. We came together. Han Yuhyun, Alpha, and Lambda as well. More precisely, people from my world entered Alpha and Lambda’s bodies. That’s why Alpha, who originally had no older brother, now has me as his sibling.”
A heavy silence settled between us. It was impossible to guess what Sigma was feeling.
“You.”
I felt his hand on the back of my neck—and then on my head.
“To you, C-rank, I was a fake from the very beginning.”
“No, I—”
The chains loosened. I straightened up. Sigma was staring at me, his expression unreadable. Then, in a cold voice, he stated,
“The real one is Seong Hyunjae.”
“You don’t have to put it like that!”
Of course, I had mistaken Sigma for Seong Hyunjae before. I had even thought of him as an imitation.
“They’re different people! Seong Hyunjae is just Seong Hyunjae, and you’re… you’re like a trace of yourself.”
Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything. There had been no real reason to tell him this. But out of all the information I could give in exchange for the contract, this was the most certain. It directly related to Sigma, and it was something he hadn’t known about this world.
Unlike me, who was feeling irrational guilt, Sigma appeared composed on the surface. After observing me for a moment, he finally spoke.
“Did you also take over someone’s body in this world?”
“…No. This is my original body. At the very least, I am completely real.”
I was undeniably real. I absentmindedly rubbed the back of my neck. There was nothing there, but—
“I’ll take this back with me, just as it is. And at the very least, to me… no matter what happened to the original Sigma, the only Sigma I know is you. The real one probably didn’t even know I existed. I didn’t know him either.”
As I spoke, an indescribable feeling welled up. The only Sigma I knew was the one in front of me. Whether real or fake, he was the only one I had ever met.
Moon Hyunah’s words surfaced in my mind. She had said she was sincere about this world, that to her, it was real.
Damn it, what even is real or fake? At least to me, the only Sigma that exists in this world right now is the one standing before me. It doesn’t matter whether he’s real or not—there’s only one of him. Why should I care about some version of him I’ve never even seen?
“Sigma.”
I met his golden eyes.
“I take back what I said about you being fake. To me, there’s only one of you, so of course, you’re real. How could the only one of something be fake? There’s only one guy who kicked me in the stomach, only one guy whose item storage I looted, and only one guy who followed me all the way here.”
Sigma tilted his head slightly.
“Of course, I am real.”
…What the hell.
“Hey! You were the one who said you were fake!”
“I said, ‘To you, C-rank.’ Not from my own perspective.”
“Oh, great, good for you! Must be nice to have such an unshakable sense of self-worth!”
Seriously, I really didn’t need to be worrying about any version of Seong Hyunjae—real, fake, or otherwise.
“But I don’t like that Seong Hyunjae guy.”
“That has nothing to do with me. You still have one question left, so ask and be done with it.”
I slumped back onto the sofa, eager to get this over with. Sigma looked down at me, a faint smile playing on his lips. What now? He actually looked like he was in a good mood. Was it because I called him real?
“In the end, the information you provided was incorrect.”
“…What?”
“You first said I was fake, then you called me real. That means you gave me false information, doesn’t it?”
“Wait, hold on—hey!”
Could he really twist it like that? No, but the fact that this world is just leftover data from reality is true! Sigma’s smirk deepened.
“I should give the doll to Han Yuhyun as a gift. He’ll need something to replace you.”
“You still haven’t thrown that thing away?! What gift? That’s not a gift!”
Panic rising, I quickly checked the contract. Damn it—there really was a breach notification. The contract had automatically updated, shifting focus to the penalty conditions.
“Let’s skip the engraving, okay?”
“Why should I?”
“Because if you don’t, I’ll use an escape item and get out of here.”
Seong Hyunjae, are you watching this? Give me a small quest or something. I just need 30,000 more points.
Sigma frowned in displeasure.
—KIIIIIIIEEEK!
Suddenly, a monster’s shriek echoed through the air. It was close.
We both instinctively turned toward the living room window, but the cityscape in broad daylight showed no signs of disturbance. That meant it was coming from the other side. Just as I moved toward the door, someone shouted from outside.
“A monster has appeared in the mana hall!”
In broad daylight, from the mana hall.
Even Sigma seemed taken aback. Without hesitation, we sprinted outside.
–TL Notes–
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