Chapter 725: Counseling (2)
Every sentient being carries a shard of origin. It’s literally the source of a person. The fundamental of existence that even Transcendents have never fully dissected. Something had probably gone wrong there.
“So it’s like… it feels like there’s a crack in a really important place…”
It was hard to explain exactly. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure. When I cut the system and lost all sensation, even after drinking the gem the King of Predation gave me and recovering, I could still feel a tiny flaw. It felt like my very existence was creaking. Maybe it was just my imagination. I hoped so, but I couldn’t shake the unease.
“Like one of those instincts where you just know, if this breaks, it’s really over?”
“An instinct, huh.”
I snorted. Yeah, it might sound ridiculous, but look, there was a reason I couldn’t help worrying.
“I cut the system.”
“What?”
Thunk. I pulled the God–Slaying Spear out of my inventory and slammed it into the floor. Even though this was all inside my consciousness, it still looked the same, spilling its dull white light. Even drained of power, it was unsettling enough that the other me pulled a face.
“…What the hell is this.”
“A spear for hunting Transcendents.”
He reached out and touched it suspiciously, then furrowed his brows deep.
“Shit. It’s real. But I can’t use it.”
“Yeah?”
“You and I have split pretty far apart by now. I figured I wouldn’t see it again after that time.”
“Well, you’re practically someone else at this point. So Han Yujin No. 2 can’t use it.”
“Why am I 2. Chronologically I’m 1.”
“Hey, I’ve lived longer. That makes me the eldest.”
“You’re 2. Bigger number. Congrats on getting old.”
“This body is twenty–five. Twenty–six now that another year’s passed!”
“Sure, call me big bro then. Bow for New Year’s money.”
This little shit who never backed down a single line was unbelievably annoying. Had I really been that obnoxious?
“So you smashed the system with this.”
“And took down a Transcendent.”
His hand, calloused even more than mine, toyed with the spear. We were clearly thinking about the same thing. Everything has a price.
“Even if it’s a spear I got as a system reward, I’m the one swinging it. I almost died doing it, too.”
“You’re really living recklessly.”
“Wipe your own drool off your face.”
“Up to twenty–nine, I only ever picked fights with high–rank Hunters at most.”
“To an F–rank, a Transcendent or an S–rank one–shots you the same.”
Of course, I was the one who got one–shot. He gave me a look like, so that’s why you’ve lost your fear, huh. I sent the same look right back and roughly explained the situation.
“It’d be great if I could say, I made it home safe and lived peacefully ever after, but that’s… not how it’s going to go, honestly.”
It wasn’t like the Transcendents were going to sit quietly, and I still had things left to do.
“It’s been razor–thin up to now, and I’ve got this feeling I’m really going to have to scrape myself all the way down to the bottom. That kind of thing.”
Young Chaos had told me I could stretch my lifespan by becoming subordinate to a higher–tier being, a Transcendent. But if my very foundation shattered, even that wouldn’t help. You’d need something like an origin beyond Transcendents to fix it. The sort of beings you couldn’t even communicate with.
“It’s just a feeling, though.”
“Right.”
“Either way, you’re not planning to give up.”
“Right.”
The white spear vanished. I conjured a chair and sat down. Water lapped in gently, wrapped my toes for a moment, then slid away again.
“Honestly, we’ve never been that attached to staying alive, right?”
“Speak for yourself.”
“What? You’re me, what are you talking about.”
The me in front of me also sat down, crossing one ankle over his knee.
“Because of you.”
“Because of me?”
“Yeah. Thanks to some annoying bastard going, Why don’t I live your life for you, I thought, screw you, my life’s mine, you lunatic.”
He was talking about what happened in the Nightmare Dungeon. I really had been unbearable back then. I grimaced.
“It felt disgusting. I thought, wow, my little brother actually came to get me, and then I hear I’m just a monster inside a dungeon, while the so–called real one is whining that he got his little brother killed and isn’t going to live long either. The people tiptoeing around me, not knowing how to treat me, were irritating enough, but the absolute worst was—”
I heard him grind his teeth. Yeah, I really had…
“That Sesung Guild Master son of a bitch!”
“…Huh?”
“The more I think about it, the madder I get. Who the hell is he to say he’s going to take me in? There’s someone else who actually treats me as real, and he’s basically going, A Han Yujin is a Han Yujin, might as well pick up the spare and have some fun. He doesn’t even bother hiding it! Like I’m not even worth the effort of pretending!”
“Uh, well.”
“After getting treated like a fake so much, it made me want to look after myself out of sheer spite. That bastard Seong Hyunjae, still alive?”
“Uh, yeah. His personality’s way better than before, actually. He’s kind of nice these days.”
“When you wake up, stab him with that spear for me. You said it can skewer Transcendents.”
“…I’ll step on his foot at least. If I remember.”
“A faint after–image should stick. I felt it back then too, you’re pretty close with that guy, huh?”
“We’re roughly at the friends level.”
For about the hundredth time, he looked at me like, you insane bastard. I mean, he’s not as bad as you’d think… His personality is as nasty as his face is pretty, sure, but… Let’s just say I’m the weird one. Still, even someone like Chief Song spends time with Seong Hyunjae like they’re almost friends. It’s not just me.
“So what about you.”
He tossed the question out. Me—
“I’ve been thinking I should live. More like, at least I can’t die because of the kids. Then, bit by bit… I started to enjoy it, I guess. Even when I’m crawling in the dirt, if I make it back alive, I can live happily.”
Me, standing among the people I loved. I’d been able to step into the happy scene I used to watch from a step back.
“But if I try to live… If I start playing it safe, that’s it, isn’t it. It’s not that I want to die. I do want to live. It’s just…”
“Without losing anyone.”
“That’s the problem! My greed is bigger. And, and…”
I stared down at the ripples wetting my feet. No matter how much I thought about it, no answer came. I couldn’t back out, so all I could do was move forward.
“When everything’s over, I want to still be there too.”
“Quit whining.”
He snorted. It was kind of irritating. So his life was peaceful, huh. All he had to deal with was his little brother threatening his life.
“Just keep holding out. It’ll work out.”
“Easy to say when it’s not your problem.”
“It’s not exactly someone else’s problem. It matters to us too.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? Because we were technically the same person once?”
If something happened to me, would it hit him too? He stood up. A big bed appeared beside him. He slapped the mattress.
“Sleep more.”
“You said I shouldn’t sleep.”
“Normally, yeah. But you’ve got someone to wake you. Sleeping here is efficient. Too long would be dangerous, though, so I’ll toss you in the water in about an hour.”
After a moment’s hesitation, I went to the bed and lay down. I really was still tired. As soon as I stretched out, my eyes closed on their own.
“If you don’t give up, you won’t die.”
“That’d be nice. If I’d been born S–rank… I don’t even need that, if I’d just been S–rank, or even A–rank, I wouldn’t be worrying like this. They’ve got a whole different level of durability.”
There was a limit to what this body of mine could withstand.
“Think some special power is going to pop up now?”
“Nope. You and I are just F–rank.”
“You got boosted in the dungeon, though. Still low–rank, but.”
Despite everything that had happened, the body I’d been born with hadn’t changed. My stats were still stuck at F–rank. You’d think they’d bump me up one rank at least. They’d said that once the system disappeared, the limits would disappear too, but still.
“You’re doing your best. Hang in there.”
“Don’t pretend you’re comforting me just to slip a keyword in.”
“We both know everything about each other, what’s the big deal. If I register it, it’ll be easier to check if you’re alive. But it’s not working.”
“I feel like I’d know if you died anyway.”
My consciousness began to waver. I batted weakly at the hand patting my head. He laughed.
“Don’t worry too much. It’ll work out. For you—”
For me, what. Like I could not worry… I closed my eyes. I sank into darkness, and then—
“Pwah!”
“Hyung!”
As I flailed, Yuhyun grabbed me and steadied me. I panted like I’d almost drowned.
“W–water…”
Felt like I’d fallen into water. A dream? Ah, Yerim!
“Yerim!”
“She’s outside. She’s fine.”
Yuhyun supported me and led me to the window. Through the glass, I could see everyone gathered. Yerim holding a huge fish on a skewer, Chief Song controlling the fire. Myungwoo and Mari were cooking what looked like porridge together, and Liette was butchering the game they’d caught. Noah was expertly slicing meat, and Samir was just as deftly chopping vegetables. Elder sat on a chair, with Seong Hyunjae brazenly standing next to him and Moon Hyunah saying something to his face. We were too far to hear, but the atmosphere was cheerful.
– Kkuuung.
Peace circled around me, making a worried sound. I smiled to show I was okay.
“Guess I dreamed about drowning because of that whole water disaster.”
“How’s your body?”
“I’m fine. Maybe because I got good sleep, I feel pretty light.”
I let out a small yawn. It felt less like I’d fallen than like someone had dunked me. Maybe a water ghost had shown up. I couldn’t remember clearly, but whoever it had been was nasty. Even when I was flailing, they kept shoving my head down, so I grabbed their hair too… Just a regular nightmare.
“It’s only been an hour. You can sleep more.”
Only an hour, huh. Then I could nap a bit longer. When I lay back down on the bed, Peace hopped up and curled by my head like he was standing guard.
“You get some sleep too, Yuhyun.”
He could chase off any water ghosts that came. I closed my eyes again and drifted off. This time, I didn’t dream at all.
“Mr. Yu Myungwoo is a genius!”
Mari shouted as she set a bowl of porridge down in front of me.
“He says it’s the most perfect porridge in the world!”
Myungwoo looked at me with a slightly worn–out expression. Mari really was very energetic. I thanked him and took a spoonful. The porridge was perfectly warm as it filled my mouth. The grains of rice rolled lightly over my tongue, then melted away. A nutty aroma rose up, and before I even realized it, I’d swallowed. Then I was already lifting a second spoonful. Wow, this was really good. Even though there was no strong seasoning, just a light saltiness, it never got old and went down endlessly.
“Nothing feels weird?”
“No. The King of Predation said it was good for me and made a jewel out of his own blood. I drank that, and everything cleared right up.”
At my words, Young Chaos nodded. I really was more or less fine now.
“That’s a relief.”
Seong Hyunjae said. Why did I keep wanting to smack the back of this guy’s head. It wasn’t anything new, but the urge was particularly strong. Maybe I should at least step on his foot. I scraped the bowl clean and turned to Myungwoo.
“Nothing from Newbie?”
“No. Looks like they’re still busy. It’d be nice if we could go right back, but everyone involved in the bet is being held…”
“Good thing we sent the sub–team.”
So until Newbie came back, we just had to keep resting, huh. As I started to get a little antsy, Elder crooked his finger at me.
“Eldest, let me take a look at that body of yours.”
“…Sir? I’m fine!”
“You still pushed yourself. I’ll be gentle.”
“You said that last time too!”
I tried to bolt, but no one helped me. They grabbed me and handed me over instead. I screamed plenty, but I did end up feeling much better. And it seemed Young Chaos hadn’t sensed anything off at all. Even Transcendents had their limits.
As soon as I escaped Chaos’s hands, I stomped down as hard as I could on Seong Hyunjae’s foot, which had been hovering suspiciously close.
“Ow!”
Naturally, only my foot hurt. Damn it.
“What’s wrong, hyung?”
“Did Mr. Sesung do something again? Want me to step on him for you?”
“Nah, it’s nothing… More importantly, where’s Hwang Rim?”
I hadn’t seen him in a while. Yerim blinked and glanced around.
“Over there.”
Seong Hyunjae pointed toward the forest. A moment later Hwang Rim strolled out and gave Young Chaos a polite bow.
“Elder, sir, an honor to meet you.”
“Eldest, this punk went missing for about thirty minutes.”
“Hey, I just stepped out for a bit of business!”
“Grab him.”
The words were barely out of my mouth before Liette’s kick flew. Hwang Rim barely dodged and started babbling out excuses.
“Babe! You know how it is!”
“You said you couldn’t contact them!”
“This place is different! I didn’t say anything weird, just gave a status report! Just a report!”
Shady bastard. He’d said he’d lost contact with the puppeteer, but now that we were outside our world, he’d clearly reached out again.
“I swear that’s all it was! I swear! I love you! You know how I feel, right?”
“Elder. He kidnapped me. He’s a kidnapper.”
“Xiaojin, have merc—”
Clang! A frying pan smacked the back of Hwang Rim’s head. It was Myungwoo. Even being S–rank didn’t help much when someone could manipulate space. The force transferred as–is, so it probably didn’t hurt too badly, but Hwang Rim still ducked his head flat. Myungwoo spoke in an icy tone.
“Yujin, what should we do with him?”
His expression said, let’s throw him out right now, but I’d feel safer keeping him where I could see him.
“Let’s tie him up tight and stash him somewhere.”
And so Hwang Rim ended up buried in the ground with only his head sticking out.
[Honey!]
A day passed. Newbie appeared along with a message window.
[I got in touch with the system creator you told me about before, Honey! They think they can come by for a little bit and help out, but in exchange…]
“Yuhyun, can you take out the lucky pouch?”
Yuhyun pulled a black pouch out of his inventory and handed it to me. I took out a bigger pouch of the same design. It was the New Year’s money I’d received from the system creator, Sloth.
“As a subordinate of Creator No. 05, I’ll be in your care.”
The blue sigil embedded in my wrist surfaced, shone, then faded away. Returning what I’d been given, I asked for help. A black figure soon appeared, slowly pushing himself up.
“Boy.”
A man with long black hair and pink eyes looked at me.
–TL Notes–
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