Every time I threw a punch, monsters burst apart.
My whole body was dyed red with their blood.
The wounds Yoo Joonghyuk had given me split open again with every violent movement, stinging sharply.
If anything, that pain made me realize this wasn't just some nightmare.
It was reality.
The reality that Dokja might have failed to find a room and died.
[Haha! This is getting interesting.]
[Then I suppose there should be a penalty today too, just like yesterday?]
[A Scenario penalty has occurred!]
[Some of the existing 'Green Zones' will be deactivated.]
"Get that message out of my way."
The message blocked my view and got in the way of fighting.
It was getting in the way of tearing those bastards apart and killing them!!!
[The Constellation 'Demon-like Judge of Fire' is horrified, saying you're crying tears of blood.]
Crunch!
Crack!!
Riiip!!!
Sounds that couldn't, shouldn't, ever come from a living body rang through Chungmuro Station.
I could feel the fear of the survivors still left inside the Green Zone.
To them, I must have naturally started to look worse than the monsters that were harmless as long as they stayed inside the Green Zone.
"I can't push forward."
Those things couldn't kill me.
But they could stop my advance.
Human wave tactics.
No matter how many I tore apart and killed, more than that came surging in.
There were only two ways to stop that kind of swarm.
1. More people.
2. Overwhelming firepower, enough to make numbers meaningless.
Things I didn't have right now.
'I need a weapon more than ever.'
I needed a weapon.
Because a weapon could raise what raw stats alone couldn't.
Wait.
Did a weapon really have to be an object?
If I could just swing it... didn't that make it a weapon?
"Ueong?"
"Grrr?"
As it happened, right beside me were things with horns, things that could stab.
Grab!
"This is a primitive knuckle, you motherfuckers!!!!"
Whooom!
Crunch!
Whiiish!
Boom!!
The performance was beyond imagination.
Because it was so huge, it turned into an unintended area attack, making countless bastards explode or get flung away.
And if the horn hit dead-on, it punched a donut hole through their bodies and killed them instantly.
Just as I thought, what I lacked was a weapon.
Boom!!!
Maybe I'd handled it too roughly, because my weapon collapsed.
One had its jaw shattered, and the other had its jaw torn open.
Well, it didn't matter.
Right now, everything around me was a 'weapon.'
The reason humans had evolved like this and managed to survive
was because we could use anything we could grab as a tool.
Come on, you sons of bitches.
I'll carve a fear into you so deep that even the Scenario's coercion won't matter.
Into your souls.
Into your instincts.
.
.
.
How much time had passed?
At some point, the Constellations' messages stopped coming.
I couldn't feel people's eyes on me anymore, either.
My vision was stained red.
What the hell happened to me?
Why couldn't I hear even the smallest noise?
Only then did the scene around me finally enter my sight.
A silence that refused to allow even a single sound.
The monsters, the Constellations, even the survivors all kept silent as if they'd made a pact.
One entire floor was covered in monster blood, and no matter where I looked, there was nothing but gore.
Around me lay the corpses of monsters with nothing but their jaws smashed to pieces.
There had to be dozens of them.
I must have put a lot of force into it.
Not that it mattered now.
"I wonder if there's anywhere I can wash up."
I'd been ripping and crushing them in the open. There was no way blood wouldn't get all over me.
Step.
Step.
When I moved, the monsters fell back, keeping a fixed distance from me.
A path made only of blood.
This was the real red carpet.
"Feels like I've become some kind of 'king.'"
"The monsters' 'king,' I mean."
[A small number of Constellations feel fear toward you.]
[You feel unease as you look at the majority of Constellations.]
[The Constellation 'Demon King of Wrath and Lust' regains his laughter, saying you look like a 'tyrant,' with bloodshed staining every place you go.]
[The Constellation 'Demon-like Judge of Fire' grows uneasy, saying the Incarnation 'Kim Dokyun' would become the worst enemy imaginable if he ever turned into absolute evil.]
Asmodeus was the same as ever.
Uriel too.
Now that the path was open, I should head down.
To meet the 'villainess young lady,' little sister of the 'tyrant.'
[Illusion Prison has been activated.]
[You have become a 'ghost-type' being.]
"Dokja."
[Due to excessive immersion, the influence of [Fourth Wall] temporarily weakens.]
'No. This memory is a problem.'
Thump.
Thump!
Thump!!
A horrific scene spread before my eyes.
Only the relentless pounding of my heart filled the space.
Beep beep beep beep beep
Beep-riiiik!
A password was entered, and with a bright sound, the door opened.
It was Oppa.
Oppa had come home late after playing outside.
'Did Oppa see this too? I don't remember.'
'I can't even see his expression.'
Come to think of it, how much did Oppa know?
Did he only know that Mom had killed that man?
Or had he seen the moment she killed him too?
There were too many questions.
I didn't want to see Oppa even in a place like this.
"Yoo Joonghyuk? Are you Yoo Joonghyuk?"
"...No. You're not Yoo Joonghyuk."
Was the trauma starting again?!
"You seem to be Korean, but who exactly are you?"
[The exclusive skill [Character List] has been activated!]
[Character 'Anna Croft' is using [Mental Barrier] Lv.6.]
[[Character List] ignores [Mental Barrier] Lv.6.]
[There is an excessive amount of information related to this person.]
[[Character List] is converted into [Summary List].]
[Character Info]
Name: Anna Croft
Attribute: Prophet (Legend), Savior (Legend)
Exclusive Skills: [Foresight] Lv.5, [Past Sight] Lv.4, [Reasoning] Lv.8, [Sage's Eye] Lv.4, [Advanced Magic Training] Lv.4, [Mental Barrier] Lv.6, [Lie Detection] Lv.7, [Great Demon’s Eye] Lv.1 ......
Just as I thought...!
A person who could ignore spatial restrictions and enter someone else's consciousness whenever she pleased.
A character from Ways of Survival who saw the future and tried to design the world through that future.
She was one of the Ways of Survival characters Oppa hated most.
If I quoted Oppa...
He'd called her "a stupid bitch who thinks she can control a future that changes every second with even the smallest choice."
He wasn't wrong.
The reason Yoo Joonghyuk had regressed over a thousand times was because the future changed according to her actions.
Just like how some bat-themed hero couldn't block every variable no matter how many plans he made.
Just like that publisher's 'What If' series.
It was impossible to see every infinitely branching future and design the world around all of them.
And he'd even added that she was "a bitch with the narrow-minded view that because she can see the future, what she knows must be everything in the world"....
I had never doubted that, in Ways of Survival, Anna Croft was someone Oppa hated almost as much as Yoo Joonghyuk.
"The prophet, Anna Croft."
"How do you know me?"
"Because I'm a prophet too."
[Character 'Anna Croft' activates [Lie Detection] Lv.7.]
[[Lie Detection] has confirmed that your words are false.]
As expected, that wouldn't work on a real prophet.
If Oppa had been here, he might've tried to snap Anna Croft's neck on the spot.
"Reveal your identity obediently. Who are you?"
"Did you really come here without knowing who I am?"
"...What?"
"You received and used the 'sea dragon core' that 'we' sent you, didn't you?"
"You should've implanted [Great Demon’s Eye] into your eye using the core's magic power, right?"
I deliberately emphasized the word 'we.'
So she could agonize over it herself.
Hopefully she'd figure out what 'we' meant.
"D-don't tell me... you're the one who requested [Broken Faith] from the Exchange...?"
"You! What exactly is your name? And what do you mean, we?!"
Just as expected.
She'd started taking an interest not only in me, but in Oppa too.
The problem was that if those two met, it wouldn't be a comedy. It would be a tragedy.
"How..."
[The influence of the exclusive skill [Fourth Wall] slowly returns.]
"Why... can't I see anything...?"
"You'll meet me someday. And I won't be the only one you can't see."
[The exclusive skill [Fourth Wall] has fully returned.]
.
.
.
"Wake... up!"
It was a familiar voice.
"Wake up!!"
[The exclusive skill [Pama] Lv.1 is activated.]
"I'm awake!!!"
"...Oppa?"
"No. That's not the line you're supposed to say at a time like this."
What was someone who'd probably just been crying and making a scene talking about?
That line couldn't possibly be...
"...What a strange ceiling?"
"Keh~ Yeah! That's it!!!"
Oppa had already been half out of his mind, but it looked like he'd finally gone completely insane.
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