Chapter 191. Collapse (2)
For some reason, the back of my neck feels stiff. My skin prickles like the skin of a plucked chicken.
Why is he acting all high and mighty over such a trivial matter?
No matter what he babbles, if the skill has activated, it’s over.
[Invitation to a Dream (Active)]
[Description: Traps the opponent’s mind in a specific space and eventually breaks it. The skill cannot be released by other means without the owner’s permission.]
This is a technique recorded like that in the PIXY site.
If it’s successfully applied, it’s a mentally threatening ability that’s too daunting to match.
“What are you bragging about? Don’t you realize your predicament yet?”
But the foreign errand boy here overlooked one thing.
The skill descriptions that hunters commonly see or the monster descriptions within dungeons.
These are all information manually recorded by a person, so naturally, there are mistakes.
“Hahaha.”
Thus, a misdescription of a skill wouldn’t be surprising at all.
“Do you know what the mechanism of this skill is?”
Dyed blond hair.
Black eyes staring somewhere in the distant void.
The hunter named Gi-ryeo spoke with his hands behind his back.
“Actually, this is a duel between the guest and the host.”
“Hmm?”
“In this virtual form, the initiative depends on who handles the magic better. The criteria for judgment are quite complex, though.”
“W-what?”
“It’s not as absolute as the host possesses. But seeing your reaction right now…”
The guest’s expression slowly changes.
“You’ve never encountered an Awakened stronger than you, have you?”
Talented, huh?
Now he’s grinning widely, almost squinting his eyes in delight.
He’s definitely smiling. He looks very human with a natural smile.
But why on earth do I feel so nauseous since earlier…?
“It’s pitiful to see you jumping around, happy that your opponent deliberately fell for the invitation without even realizing it.”
“What?”
“Anyway, it’s been a while since something worked out. Actually, I’ve been under a lot of stress lately because of various reasons and haven’t been able to use my skills properly.”
The irritation mixed in the opponent’s voice quietly grows louder.
It was strange. This white space was originally a place where I could overwhelmingly toy with everyone.
Every time Alai’s Awakened came here, she felt comfortable and excited as if having a wonderful dream, but now everything felt different.
“A mental attack.”
The foreign Awakened eventually opens his eyes wide.
Not long after, the situation suddenly changes.
Precisely, the blond hunter in front of him begins to change form.
The face of the man who was smiling gradually twists into an unexplainable shape, producing incomprehensible sounds as if it were entangled with noise.
“Good.”
With that short phrase.
“Now, let me show you a proper example.”
Splash.
The unfortunate sorcerer felt an alien sensation touch his toes.
*
Meanwhile.
Outside the mental world.
Indeed… my partner is the best.
Heh.
The female Awakened remaining outside smiled at the situation unfolding before her.
The blond hunter, who had been flustered and unable to act because of Ahn Yoon-seung, suddenly stood frozen with a blank expression.
This was proof that their plan had worked well.
Ghuuk… Ugh! W-what the hell did you do to my brother…?
The skinhead of Korean descent, paralyzed, trembled in horror while glaring at them.
As Gi-ryeo abruptly stopped and fell silent, he too belatedly noticed his companion’s abnormal state.
However, the state effect still lingered, leaving Ahn Yoon-seung unable to move a finger.
And this was the same for the assailants.
An item that disperses its effects so widely wouldn’t spare its owner. But that was fine. Anyway, this side’s purpose wasn’t to win against that A-Class.
Hmph.
The corners of her mouth lifted slyly.
She was already bright with thoughts of receiving a huge payout. Besides, wouldn’t her fame in the industry skyrocket once this was over?
Kim Gi-ryeo, the hunter, was likely struggling quite a bit under the skills unleashed by his teammates.
High-intensity assaults he has never experienced, having been born as an S-Class.
His arms could be twisted and broken, or needles could emerge one by one in the tender flesh of his throat.
Or various other forms of pain within the limits of human imagination.
It’s all over now.
In the dream world created by the skill, killing the opponent wouldn’t affect their life. If you torture them to death, the connecting bridge gets severed midway.
However, making them experience illusions of arms repeatedly being pulled would leave them unable to properly move even if the skill is released. That would leave substantial mental aftereffects.
In other words, from there, they could simply leave the target, weakened, and escape.
Is it time…?
Ghuu…
At that moment, suddenly, a pain-filled groan echoed somewhere.
The consciousness of the two entwined in the skill was released. Before long, someone uttered the first syllable with a fractured voice.
Huu, uuurgh!
Moments later, a horrified scream erupted from behind her.
Gwaaaah!
So horrible that it was hard to believe it came from a human throat, a foreign Awakened screamed and woke up.
Huh?
Gasp!
Alai’s remaining side shivered at that sound, turning her head.
What she saw was her companion, shaking like a willow tree.
Along with the incessant flow of cold sweat. And his pupils, constricted as if exposed to a bright light.
Gwaaaah! Uah, uuh, uuh…
What’s going on? What happened?!
In a panic, the woman shouted something in Spanish, but the Awakened couldn’t respond.
He merely trembled in fear, looking like he was about to breakdown.
How could this happen? Of course, once his skill ended, one of them would surely scream and wake up, but it had always been the target’s side!
Yoon Seung-ah, are you okay? You didn’t get hurt in the meantime?
Brother…!
But just then.
A new voice broke into the opposite side.
Shockingly, Kim Gi-ryeo, who had come out of the hallucination, looked completely unfazed.
Strong strides. An upright posture.
He even appeared cheerful, as if he had just woken from a good dream. Unlike all previous targets, he seemed completely unbothered by Alai’s mental attack.
“By the way…”
Smoothly.
Kim Gi-ryeo drew out the Hydra and rested its sheathed side on his shoulder.
Then he looked down at the assailant writhing in pain on the ground and said, “You’re about to die from just a little teasing, aren’t you?”
Hahaha.
With a dry expression, he let out a laugh filled with meaning.
And as that laughter reached an individual’s ears, that person immediately began shouting something at the top of their lungs.
Alai’s mental world sorcerer repeated the same sentence several times afterward, but only one person here could understood it.
No es humano.
A scream-like Spanish.
The female Awakened facing Ahn Yoon-seung finally seemed to realize something and took a staggered step back.
However, with humans causing such a catastrophic incident, they wouldn’t let it go easily.
B-but… the mental strength of that S-Class hunter is…!
Tap!
Just as she realized it, Kim Gi-ryeo had already sprinted to the center of the aquarium.
Reactively, the errand boy took a defensive stance.
But what followed was the sound of a box top being opened with a clack.
*
Moments later.
Inside Kim Gi-ryeo’s studio, next to a brown desk.
“…Wait, so they were actually like hitmen working abroad for money?”
As a side note, today is Friday.
I had been receiving calls from the police since the golden Friday morning.
Naturally, the police inquired due to the recent aquarium raid incident.
After that, I activated [Surprise Box!] and turned the criminals over to the police.
“Moreover, the client was that researcher named Kim….”
However, the revelation of the incident’s truth was somewhat shocking.
Upon investigating the assailants, police discovered the SNS chat room they had used, and the conversation there was quite ridiculous.
[me: But why specifically an S-Class hunter for such a job?]
[client: That bastard betrayed my trust. I thought he was a decent man, but it turned out everything was a performance. The illusion shattered! And he got mad for refusing a very important request for my career.]
[client: I want revenge.]
[client: It’s not like I’m killing him, so a little torture should be fine.]
For reference, the original text in this chat room is in English.
I can’t believe it, he got mad just for rejecting a research collaboration?
A fanatical revenge sparked by being downcast by the coldness of a hunter he had long admired.
This was the initial conclusion drawn by the police.
A certain researcher who had visited the gym where Jeong Ha-seong was training.
Surprisingly, the chat room contained many messages from someone presumed to be said researcher.
Furthermore, the Fairy’s Promise sent to Alai and her crew also had a note in the researcher’s handwriting, stating they would deposit funds upon mission completion.
“Um… are they crazy?”
He’s only mad because he’s seen my face once and is willing to spend a staggering 1 billion to torment me?
But that wasn’t the only unreasonable part…
.
.
.
Why the hell do I have to go through an account investigation for such ridiculous incidents…!
Inside a police station in Seoul.
An individual, fuming as red as his neck, stands up from a metal chair upon someone’s entrance.
Striped polo shirt and some thick glasses. It was the same researcher I had met before.
“Ah! Kim Gi-ryeo Hunter!”
This Researcher Kim was under suspicion of inciting violence and was currently giving a statement before the police, but as soon as he spotted me entering the station, he grabbed my sleeve and shouted.
“Hunter, listen to me! No! I really know nothing about this!”
He claimed that the identity of the client in the chat room had been stolen, asserting that he had nothing to do with this affair.
“Seriously, you’ve got to be kidding me. Lately, I’ve been living at the lab working on a new project, when would I have time to do something like this?”
“Hmm.”
“Please, Kim Gi-ryeo Hunter, say something!”
“What should I say?”
“That I’m not the perpetrator! You know I was told before, right? Actually, I’m rooting for you, so why on earth would I hire thugs to cause trouble?”
For reference, the police were supposed to check if she truly purchased cryptocurrency to confirm her claims.
Thus, the researcher faced a troubling situation.
Originally, there’s no one without a speck of dust in this world.
During her Ph.D. process, she received monthly allowances from home.
At this time, the school had paid her a separate nominal wage. In other words, her seven years of allowances could all be classified as gifts.
“It’s not even a huge sum to get caught by the tax office, but now I might suddenly have to pay hundreds of thousands of taxes for something ridiculous…!”
Anyway, it seemed there was some issue related to taxes, but honestly, being from another world, I didn’t grasp it right away.
Moreover, that wasn’t the important issue right now.
So, you’re saying you’re truly not involved in this case?
“Yes!”
Lowered brows. A red neck. He was pacing nervously on his heels.
For now, Ms. Kim seemed genuine in her feeling of grievance. On the surface, at least.
But I didn’t fully believe it.
From the beginning, I struggled to empathize with human emotions, and liars exist anywhere in the universe.
Start with me being a scammer…
Because the client used the complex element of cryptocurrency, truthfully tracing the flow of funds would be incredibly difficult.
Moreover, the only suspect, the female researcher, asserted her innocence moment by moment while she actually had a lame motive.
Considering I’ve lived twice, it’s definitely suspicious…
Yet, after ruminating over it, luck was on my side; I had a means to solve the problem.
A magic that distinguishes truth from falsehood.
In fact, thanks to the Blueshell I had obtained not long ago, I was able to utilize that intermediate skill.
Of course, it was very risky to use it short-term.
Though it’s not a healthy method, Earthlings sometimes indulge in energy drinks, so maybe I could push my limits just this once.
“…This conversation seems to be dragging on. It’s still mealtime, so let’s stop by a restaurant and continue the discussion. I’ll treat you.”
“Oh, really?”
This country prohibits the use of magic against ordinary citizens. First, I should change venues.
