Chapter 43
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 43
Chapter Title: Dreaming Girl
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The southern tip of the uninhabited island.
The crude huts of the southern faction's village were all ablaze.
In the central clearing lay 150 corpses. One of the survivors spat out his rage.
“Omer, you deceived us!”
It was Jian, who had once led the assault team.
Standing before him was his leader, Omer Ashk, the head of the southern faction.
Omer was claiming the life of his 149th subordinate.
Jian burned with fury, desperate to tear Omer apart, but paralysis left him unable even to twitch a finger.
Omer had gathered all his subordinates in the clearing and activated a pre-prepared paralysis magic circle.
The few who had resisted it had long since been dealt with by 'B', the leader of the western pirates.
“You worthless scum! You’d go this far, commit this madness, just for coins?!”
“A leader who tricks and slaughters his own men. You’re worse than trash!”
“Spare me! I’ll give you everything I have! I’ve always been on your side!”
The cries of those still alive rang in his ears.
But former commander Omer Ashk’s blade never paused.
[Omer Ashk has completed the hidden quest ‘The Leader’s Betrayal’]
[An astonishing feat! Achievement rate: 161%]
[Reward: 15 indigo coins granted]
[Additional achievement bonus: Skill coin ‘Guillotine Blade’ granted]
[Omer Ashk has completed the quest ‘200 Lives Taken’······.]
[An ordinary feat. Achievement rate······.]
“Huff. Huff······.”
It was easy.
Severing the necks of 161 people who couldn’t resist was far too simple.
Slicing down those who joked, wept, and swore their trust in him—it was straightforward, yet Omer Ashk heaved as if exhausted.
His right wing quivered lightly, drinking in the blood of the victims.
Omer gripped the wing with a veined hand.
“I’m heading to the new world. The vermin of this world can all be trampled. Yes, it’s fine. It’s all fine. I am the great Omer. Omer Ashk.”
[The resentful spirits of the unjustly sacrificed wail. Absorbing them strengthens the power of your contract.]
[‘Demon Wing’ ability evolves to stage 2.
High-Speed Flight rises from C+ to B.
Black mana limit increases by 100.
Single Strike Demonic Might grade rises from A+ to A++]
A notification chimed from somewhere. But to Omer, none of it felt real.
Not the blood-soaked sleeves, nor the coins and items scattered on the ground—they all seemed distant.
Then, someone placed a hand on Omer’s shoulder with a firm tap.
The jolt brought a sliver of reality back.
Turning, he saw a bald man with yellow eyes.
It was 'B', who had prepared the groundwork for this massacre.
“Omer Ashk, sir. Here are the coins from the escaped hunters. Take them quickly.”
'B' had helped with all of this yet asked for no reward.
He devoted himself to Omer as if he had lived his entire life for him.
“Next are the western pirates. They’re my subordinates, but their items and coins are higher quality than these hunters’.
The serial killer extermination quest and grudge spirit absorption quest will make you even stronger, Omer, sir.”
“And you? Why do you help me like this?”
Omer asked 'B', who had so readily sold out even his own men without demand.
He replied with utter satisfaction, unleashing a torrent of words.
“It’s simple. You alone can kill Ju Gonghyeok! Ah, fragments of memory are surfacing!”
Clutching his head with both hands, 'B' gazed at Omer with reverence.
“‘Laplace’s Mad Dog’ Omer Ashk. You are the greatest killer of all! No one escapes your blade, no hero survives your grasp! Until your final moment, the fate of the world rests in your hands!”
‘He’s completely insane.’
His words made no sense. He slapped on nicknames of his own invention and praised nonexistent feats.
A perfect lunatic murderer.
Omer had sensed something off since the amnesia talk, but the mania seemed to be worsening.
‘That mania has worked in my favor so far······.’
But selling out his own comrades to a stranger proved he lacked all judgment.
Omer decided to deal with him before that manic blade turned on his own neck. He staggered off somewhere.
Past the jungle outside the village, toward the south, a vast coastline stretched out.
He spread his wings and leaped from the tall sea-eroded cliff carved by waves.
At its base lay a sea cave, similarly sculpted by waves and saltwater.
A dank cave where high tide brought seawater up to the knees.
Omer entered with a shadowed, weary face.
Each step echoed with splashing water, and the blood pooled in his steel boots dyed the seawater red.
Deeper in, it grew darker, no light penetrating, but Omer navigated effortlessly with a hunter’s agility and senses.
He stopped as the seawater rising into his boots grew colder.
A rasping voice slithered out with a soft slide.
“Oppa, you’re here?”
Omer said nothing and pulled a torch from his inventory.
Ice bars and a single woman came into view.
Beside her, haggard and filthy after over a month imprisoned, piled white Flesh Mending Flowers.
“It’s bright, oppa. I like light now.”
She continued in a hoarse, choked voice.
“In the dark, I always have bad dreams. On the second floor, there was a war between two races. I worked hard healing for my side, and we won big.
But the other side had people too, it seems. The survivors among the monsters said it: ‘Ruthless Witch.’
And maybe I healed too well. My own side got no kills. I overheard them whispering: ‘Reward-Blind Witch.’”
She lifted her head.
“Just closing my eyes brings that dream back. The same scenes loop in my mind. That’s why I’m scared to close them.”
Her eyes remained shut, even as she muttered playfully.
“But it’s funny—even with them open, I can’t tell. Everything’s pitch black wherever I look.
And after blinking a few times, strange things appear? I’m in a prison. My ankles are chained so I can’t move, one hand feels wrong, it’s cold and damp······ A chain of witch dreams?
You said you were gathering people, so I went, but they branded me a witch again and locked me up. Then you said you needed me, so I kept making Flesh Mending Flowers. I knew something was off······ But if I didn’t, they’d torment me endlessly and withhold food.
It’s dark and damp, but I won’t give up.
I know you’ll come save me someday.
You’re strong and smart and can do anything. I just pretend to listen to these people and hold on—everything will work out. Hehe.
But after blinking a few times, strange things appear? I’m in a prison. My ankles chained so I can’t······.”
After that, her disjointed ramblings repeated endlessly. Dreams and reality, future and present, all jumbled together.
“You’ve come to save me for the 21st time, oppa. Want me to spoil the story? You kick down this ice with your foot, grab my waist, lift me up. Then I get a kiss······.”
Omer Ashk kicked her through the bars.
Her body tumbled mercilessly across the stone floor.
“Atheist bitch. Shut your mouth.”
Before entering Babel, he had been a devout Muslim.
The habitual slur soured his mood further, and Omer slumped onto a nearby rock.
“Those guys just called me worse than livestock. But among them were the ones who personally severed your ankles and wrists. Hilarious.”
His gaze wandered into the void.
“In the end, what’s the difference between me and those who say they had no choice to survive when it’s not their own affair?
Right, we’re all the same. The same. They had no right to say that! It’s the pathetic drivel idiots always swallow before dying!”
At Omer’s obsessive self-justification, the fallen woman spoke.
“It’s okay, oppa. Even if everyone curses you. Even if they say you’re wrong······.
I believe in you. I believe there’s meaning in what you do. No—even if you say there isn’t, I’ll believe.
I’m······ always on your side.”
Silence fell between them.
“Pointless. Time to end it.”
Omer stood, his demon’s right wing flapping open.
[Wing Whip (C-) activated]
Crash!
The ice bars shattered, and Omer stepped into the stone-and-ice cell.
He looked down at Ha Yeonsi, eyes still closed, seeing nothing, and raised his blade.
“Hand over the avatar.”
“Avatar?”
“Yes. I’m the human you call oppa. Say it—hand it over. Now.”
Ha Yeonsi turned toward the voice, toward Omer’s face.
“Oppa······ said there were plenty of other avatars······.”
For the first time, Ha Yeonsi’s eyes opened.
Her obsidian-smooth pupils were cracked.
Eerie eyes, like shattered black glass melting inward.
Omer flinched under an inexplicable pressure but shook it off, tensing his wing.
She’d been locked up a month, ankles and wrists severed.
He’d heard enough grudges and screams. Getting spooked here would make the recent massacre a joke.
‘I’ll gouge out those creepy eyeballs first.’
Then someone clung to his wing.
“What are you doing?!”
It was 'B', who had tailed Omer here.
“You told me to kill them all just now—why interfere?”
“No! You mustn’t kill her!”
“What, sparing her because she’s a woman? After I just butchered a bunch?”
'B' whipped his head side to side fiercely.
“You’re wrong! She······ Yes! Ha Yeonsi is a saintess! You absolutely cannot kill her! The world will change!”
“How do you know this bitch’s name? You plant a spy?”
“No! I just know! Ha Yeonsi is great! Not as great as you, but great! It’s true! I don’t remember well, but it’s true!”
“Ha······.”
Another damn manic episode.
“Oh? The real oppa’s here. Hehe.”
Madman and madwoman.
The world had gone mad.
Omer shoved 'B' away irritably.
“So what now? Leave an SS-rank avatar user like this?”
“She’s important. I’ll take responsibility and manage her! I’ll handle everything later! Let’s go for now! Thirty killers await to die by your hand, Omer, sir!”
'B' dragged Omer away by force.
The dropped torch hit the floor, its embers dying in the seawater.
Darkness and silence once more blanketed the dank, saltwater-soaked cave.
“Wait. Don’t go, oppa······ I hate the dark······.”
Silence.
“Don’t go······ Don’t go······ Don’t go······.”
Her meaningless voice echoed back.
······.
Silence.
······.
Sile——nce——
······.
Si, lence······.
“Ah······.”
Darkness.
And.
Silence.
And.
“Oppa, you’re back?”
Alone in the cavern, the 998th dream began.