Chapter 33: Time for Judgment (5)

"Ju... khurk!"

Shink—

A familiar sword burst through the thug's head right in front of me.

"Ms. Jung Heewon, I guess you didn't learn kendo for nothing?"

"Does this look like kendo to you?"

"I've never learned kendo, so how would I know?"

I didn't know the first thing about swords, so how was I supposed to tell whether that was a proper kendo strike or just wild swinging?

Maybe she had simply acquired a swordsmanship skill.

"Want me to clear a path for you?"

"No need. These bastards are mine."

If I just stayed still, Jung Heewon could probably wipe them all out by herself.

It would be like blowing my nose without lifting a finger.

But...

Why should I?

Bam!

Crunch!!

"I told you to stay put!"

"You were going to enjoy this sweet event all by yourself, weren't you? Killing them, getting Coins, even sponsorships?"

"What?"

She glared at me as if she genuinely couldn't believe that was my reason.

Still, all she could do was listen to me.

Unlike before, a red aura now enveloped her body, suggesting she had gained something new, but it probably wasn't enough to beat me.

"How about a bet? Whoever kills more gets all the Coins earned this round!"

"Ha! Just don't start bawling after you lose!!"

***

Damn it, I shouldn't be getting pushed back this badly. What the hell is everyone doing...!

Crunch

Crack

Slash

Spurt

Cheon Inho despaired.

A brainless idiot with nothing but brute strength, and a woman who had seemed like a nobody. Because of those two, everything he had built up until now had collapsed.

Where had it gone wrong?

When he took that woman in?

Or when he accepted that strange pair of siblings?

"Inho."

"Yes?"

"You need to be careful of that bastard Dokyun. He's the kind of man who tears people in half. I'm not speaking figuratively. I saw him rip someone in half with my own eyes."

Cheon Inho's fatal mistake was that he had only paid attention to Kim Dokyun.

Because Dokyun was someone absurdly easy to manipulate as long as Kim Dokja wasn't beside him.

The one he really should have feared wasn't anyone else. It was Kim Dokja.

She was the source of every choice Kim Dokyun made, the one who could hold him and shake him however she pleased, and the only person who could stop him with a single word.

Cheon Inho had failed to grasp that, and that was how things had reached this point.

"I'm at fifteen. What about you, Heewon?"

"Fourteen for me. What a shame."

"Hmm. Looks like there's one last one right in front of us... Then is it a draw?"

"Looks like it. A draw... for now. Next time, I won't lose."

The shadow of death slowly fell over Cheon Inho.

Past Dokyun and Heewon, Cheon Inho met Dokja's eyes.

Her expression was unmistakably mocking him.

Only then did he realize it.

He had believed he was controlling and manipulating everything, but in the end, he too had been played in her hands.

And then he saw it.

Dokyun walking toward Dokja, wagging an invisible tail like a mutt that had finally found its owner again.

The beast who had been tearing people apart like an animal just moments ago—no, worse than a monster—was now being stroked by the woman he had dismissed.

Cheon Inho thought of one thing.

Clinging to the hope that he could still escape this situation.

"Mr. Dokyun!"

"?"

"Mr. Dokyun, please listen to me. You may not feel it, but your younger sister is controlling you!"

"..."

"I'll help you! So you can become stronger!! So you can break free from your sister!!!"

"..."

Cheon Inho thought,

Got him!

He took that silence as agreement.

Even if he died here, he thought it would be enough if he could drive a wedge between those siblings.

In the end, they would stop trusting each other and collapse on their own.

The siblings who had led him to ruin would be led to ruin by his final words.

What a delightful thought.

Suppressing the laughter rising from that thought, he waited for Dokyun's answer.

Everyone in Geumho Station stared at the siblings.

Even Jung Heewon stopped walking and looked at Dokyun with uneasy eyes.

Because there was almost nothing worse than ending up in a fight with Kim Dokyun.

The one who broke that short yet long silence wasn't Dokyun, but Dokja.

"I know."

"Pardon?"

"Oppa already knows. He knows I pull his strings. He follows me even knowing that."

"Haha... Mr. Dokyun. You heard her, didn't you? Your sister just admitted herself that she's controlling you. So—"

"Who do you think you are?"

Cheon Inho—no, everyone in Geumho Station saw it.

The life vanished from Dokja's eyes, leaving behind only emptiness.

No, even emptiness wasn't enough to describe it. What remained was something sticky, a possessiveness that would never let go.

Shiver!

Everyone except Dokyun felt chills run down their spine.

"Oppa's body, his heart, his Coins, his skills, his attributes... they're all mine. They were mine even before the world fell apart, and they'll stay mine from now on. So if I'm going to use what's mine, what's wrong with that?"

Cheon Inho saw it.

Maybe everyone in Geumho Station except Dokyun and Dokja saw it too.

Dokyun's leash, and Dokja holding it.

He had thought the strong Dokyun was the one holding the weak Dokja.

It was the opposite.

He hadn't simply respected her as family; he was bound to Dokja in every sense of the word.

"Heewon."

"...Yes."

Putting aside the foul feeling crawling over her skin, Jung Heewon slowly started walking again.

And when she reached Cheon Inho—

Slash!

She split Cheon Inho in half.

Even as he was being cut apart, he thought,

Disgusting.

Those two were abnormal.

Not because the world had ended.

Just look at the way they looked at each other.

How could that possibly be the gaze of family?

Twisted, and heavy.

Sticky, and revolting.

It almost looked like they were trying to merge into one inside a chrysalis.

No one knew what that chrysalis would metamorphose into.

Only one thing was certain... whatever emerged would be shocking enough to overturn everyone's expectations.

I tried to control things like this...? What a stupid thought.

Thud

[All the Constellations in the channel feel intense ecstasy.]

[The survival fee is being settled.]

***

"Whew, now it's finally over. I want to change clothes."

"..."

"Doesn't it feel gross, sitting in a pool of blood? Want me to help you up?"

[The Demon King, 'Demon King of Wrath and Lust,' has taken a liking to you.]

[The Constellation, 'Goddess of Love and Beauty,' feels indescribable pleasure at the clingy, dangerous love between the siblings.]

[1,000 Coins have been sponsored.]

"Mr. Dokyun, are you really unaffected by this?"

"Pardon?"

"I saw you tear through Cheoldupa by yourself. And this time too, you ripped people apart like a child playing with toys. But... how can you be fine after that?"

'Fine,' huh...

I wanted to blame it on my attribute, but unfortunately, no message had appeared saying my mental shock had been offset because of it.

Maybe this was just what I was really like.

What did they call it in martial arts novels again?

Something like a Heavenly Killing Star, or a Slaughter Star...

The name wasn't important right now.

What mattered was whether I was really a psychopath who could kill people without feeling anything.

Was I really unaffected? No, that wasn't it.

Even I knew I had killed them far too brutally.

I just...

"I just can't stop."

"What... does that mean?"

"Exactly what it sounds like. If you want to survive in a world like this, you have to get used to every kind of death."

"..."

"There are lots of ways to accept death. You can justify it by saying they deserved it, or run from reality by pretending this world is really just a game, or, like me, run from guilt because you have a reason you can't stop."

Jung Heewon looked at me quietly.

"If I stop even for a moment, I might lose something again. I might get swallowed by guilt... so I can't stop. Even if my muscles melt and my bones break, I keep running."

I'm just running from guilt.

Because if I collapse, Dokja will collapse too...

"Get up. It's not a good sight, seeing a beauty covered in blood and sitting in a pool of it."

"...Okay."

"I hope my answer helped, at least a little."

[Every night at midnight, 100 Coins of 'survival fee' will be collected automatically.]

[If you fail to pay the 'survival fee,' you will die.]

[The 'survival fee' penalty will remain until the second Main Scenario is cleared.]

[You have entered the area of the second Main Scenario.]

[Find the place where the Scenario is activated and move there.]

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