Looks Like This Is Only Just the Beginning (2)

As she confirmed the enhancements to her body and brain, Jin Gyeo-wool found herself freshly astonished. By any measure it hadn't been a massive leap in stats, and yet she could feel something like a breakthrough taking shape.

Feels like my win rate at this tier just went up by about five percent.

But it still wasn't enough. If she wanted to compete as an amateur, she needed to climb to Master tier at minimum. And if she wanted recruitment offers even as a girl, she'd have to hold Challenger for at least a year.

In the end, she had to raise the Memory Erosion Rate.

Her own cognitive ability sat only a little above average, and Hon Gyeo-wool's physical ability was roughly the same. Combine the two and you still didn't get a pro.

Only when the two of them became one — only when the bond grew stronger — would those abilities amplify, and only then could she aim higher.

So this was the penalty.

Even a single percent unlocked bonus abilities. But in exchange, she would inevitably be dyed by Hon Gyeo-wool and undergo a kind of change.

She could say with certainty that at twenty or thirty percent erosion she'd already be outperforming most amateurs. But once she reached that level, could Jin Gyeo-wool — a girl carrying a man's soul, still holding Bae Do-hyun's identity — keep herself intact?

Wouldn't she simply become a bystander, body and mind both surrendered to Hon Gyeo-wool?

And what even happens when erosion hits a hundred percent…? That's what I want to know most, and there's no way to find out…

She could guess at two possibilities.

One: Hon Gyeo-wool takes her place, and she returns to being a wandering spirit.

The other: she and Hon Gyeo-wool fuse completely and are reborn as a new self.

Neither ending looked particularly good for the current Bae Do-hyun identity.

Right… so until I win Worlds, I have to keep this erosion rate from hitting a hundred percent…?

Regulate the speed of erosion and climb to the goal in one breath — that was Jin Gyeo-wool's ultimate objective.

It was like a long-distance marathon. Fail to manage your breathing midway and you'd be completely swallowed by Hon Gyeo-wool. Over-regulate and you'd never cross the finish line ahead of everyone else.

Which meant the right move for now was to pick up the pace. Play it too safe from the start and the power gains would crawl.

Go all in!

I am Jin Gyeo-wool. I am Jin Gyeo-wool. I am Jin Gyeo-wool.

Jin Gyeo-wool — no, Bae Do-hyun — knew life never resolved that easily. But people couldn't help hoping for a lucky break.

She identified herself with Jin Gyeo-wool for a long while, and almost no warning chime sounded. She heard it only once, right around the time she stopped repeating the words.

"Ah, hell."

That was it. The reason erosion hadn't climbed no matter how hard he identified himself with Jin Gyeo-wool.

Erosion gains were tied to Memoir completion conditions.

When Jin Gyeo-wool clicked the Companion Spirit Memoir notification, a new window opened the same way the milestones had earlier.

So that was how it worked. Jin Gyeo-wool's face finally settled into something like understanding.

"Figures. Of course it was never going to just hand things over."

On top of that, most of the Memoir's conditions weren't even listed. Achievements you could only unlock by spending time with the Companion Spirit Jin Gyeo-wool and stumbling through a few incidents along the way. A memoir in the truest sense.

In theory, sitting still and chanting I am Jin Gyeo-wool ten thousand times might squeeze out a little more bonus — but even that looked like it had a ceiling. Those kinds of bonuses almost always capped out at the ten-thousand mark.

"While I'm thinking about it, might as well ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠try."

Time didn't matter. Jin Gyeo-wool was only eighteen, and right in the middle of winter break.

Time was the one thing she had to spare.

I am Jin Gyeo-wool, I am Jin Gyeo-wool, I am—

And so the challenge of repeating the same sentence ten thousand times began.

"…Shit. This is way more exhausting than I thought."

She'd figured it would be nothing, but repeating the same sentence ten thousand times inside her head was no small labor.

She could manage roughly one repetition every one or two seconds. By the time she finished, about five hours had passed.

The clock now read eleven at night. Whether it was from sitting cross-legged on the bed repeating a single simple sentence, her head was throbbing.

"I should… eat something…"

The brain consumes more nutrients than any other part of the human body. Even without a scrap of physical activity, overthinking that hard was bound to drain you dry.

Still, checking the Memoir status at the computer put her in a good mood.

Memory Erosion gained: 2.8%. A number that would have taken two hundred eighty games in the Soul Assimilation state.

That alone had saved an enormous amount of time.

On top of the two-percent-range bonuses, she'd also claimed the three-percent bonus.

A little more and the four-percent bonus would be within reach.

"I wonder if the erosion stages have special bonuses at five percent, ten percent…?"

If they did, great. If not, fine. Just watching her stats climb like this was enough for Jin Gyeo-wool to feel herself drawing closer to her goal, step by step.

Games are one thing… but I need to find somewhere to buy that incense candle, no matter what.

Effort alone could raise the Memory Erosion Rate as much as she wanted. Simply becoming one with Hon Gyeo-wool and playing games would make Jin Gyeo-wool stronger in proportion to the time invested.

But to reach the goal faster — to claim better bonus abilities — she needed to spend more time with Hon Gyeo-wool. She needed the incense candle's power so the two of them could talk more.

Having locked in her next goals — steady game play and buying the incense candle — Jin Gyeo-wool headed straight for the fridge. Nothing looked appealing.

In this household, Hon Gyeo-wool's word was absolute — but something sat even higher than her word: Min Cheong-ha's orders.

Min Cheong-ha wanted Hon Gyeo-wool eating only good food, so the housekeeper wasn't allowed to stock snacks or junk food.

That was why Hon Gyeo-wool used to refuse the housekeeper's cooking and go buy food at the convenience store herself. A tiny act of rebellion Min Cheong-ha wouldn't so much as blink at.

"We're going to the convenience store."

"What? At this hour?"

"So what. Come on. Get dressed, hurry up."

Jin Gyeo-wool barged straight into Jin Ju-yeong's room to drag him along. She could have gone alone, but this was Hon Gyeo-wool's precious body. If something happened while she was out alone at night, it'd be a problem.

So she'd gone to fetch Jin Ju-yeong purely for safety.

She used to go by herself just fine…

Jin Ju-yeong found the whole situation uncomfortable. He couldn't remember going anywhere with his little sister even once since she'd started elementary school.

Min Cheong-ha had dragged them out ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to eat a few times, but that was it. They'd never even walked to the convenience store out front together.

And now, out of nowhere, she wanted him to come along. He had no idea what she was thinking.

But if he refused when she said they were going, his hair was definitely getting half-harvested. Jin Ju-yeong swallowed his tears and pulled on a thick padded jacket.

Jin Gyeo-wool said nothing from the apartment door through the elevator ride down to the first floor.

Only when they reached the ground floor and felt the cold air of the building entrance did she finally speak.

"Let's do an apology stream."

"Uh. An apology stream…. Huh?"

"What? You said it'd be better if you handled it."

Jin Gyeo-wool lifted the corner of her mouth with complete confidence.

"I'll do it. If it bumps my name recognition even a little and clears out future headaches, I'll do it as much as you want."

At that, the dark sunglasses that had kept plunging Jin Ju-yeong into terror finally came off.

His sister was strange. No matter how he looked at it, this was not the Jin Gyeo-wool he'd known before.

An apology? Jin Gyeo-wool? The same Jin Gyeo-wool who always insisted she'd only responded the right way?

Who the hell are you. You're not Jin Gyeo-wool.

"Jin Gyeo-wool. When's your birthday."

Jin Ju-yeong, finally able to see reality for what it was, fired the question without warning. Jin Gyeo-wool couldn't answer right away.

She'd checked the resident registration card in the wallet, sure — but she hadn't memorized it. It hadn't seemed important.

"Our unit number. Our address. Your school's name."

Only then did Jin Gyeo-wool realize.

She'd talked about Hon Gyeo-wool and her dead friend, about what happened the day of the accident, about Hon Gyeo-wool's dreams, about the incense candle, about Hon Gyeo-wool's past incidents…

But she'd never properly asked about Hon Gyeo-wool's personal information.

Now what?

Jin Ju-yeong was staring at her with deep suspicion. In his head, Jin Gyeo-wool was already no ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠longer the old Jin Gyeo-wool.

No good approach came to mind no matter how she turned it over. In the end, Jin Gyeo-wool settled on the simplest and most accurate response available to a possessed person: charge straight through.

"Sorry. I think I actually have amnesia."

Jin Ju-yeong's mouth fell open.

And suddenly every one of Jin Gyeo-wool's recent behaviors snapped into place.

Cleaning her room. Not getting angry. Always greeting him with a smile. Not remembering their mother and mistaking the housekeeper for her. Thinking he was a half-sibling.

All of it because she'd lost her memories.

Only when the cold air rushing into his gaping mouth made the inside of it sting did Jin Ju-yeong finish sorting his thoughts and close his mouth.

But was there an accident that could cause memory loss…? Did anything like that happen…?

Nothing came to mind. The biggest recent blow to Jin Gyeo-wool had been the death of her best friend, Lee Bom — and that was it.

Ah.

The moment he thought of Lee Bom, Jin Ju-yeong finally understood — and at the same time began to form a particular misunderstanding.

Don't tell me… she couldn't accept losing Bom… and every memory connected to Bom just got wiped out…?

That would explain it. One of the direct reasons Jin Gyeo-wool had become such a vicious root-ripper was Lee Bom. Going back ten years to when Jin Gyeo-wool was a first-grader — it had started right after "that incident" involving Lee Bom.

Before that… she really was a good kid who listened to Mom and smiled a lot…

Why she couldn't remember the address, her birthday, or even her school wasn't entirely clear, but he decided to chalk it up to aftereffects from losing a massive chunk of memory. Jin Ju-yeong filled in Jin Gyeo-wool's condition to suit his own taste and said:

"If that was it, you should've said so sooner…"

"Every time I tried to ask you anything detailed, you ran away."

"Ah."

If he'd known, he would have talked with her more. If Jin Ju-yeong hadn't gotten scared and fled every time, he could have figured out her condition right away.

"Th… that's on me. Sorry."

But was she not planning to fix the casual speech? Now that his sister had gotten nicer, Jin Ju-yeong decided to try correcting their upside-down hierarchy as well.

"But…. how long are you going to keep talking to me like that? I'm your older brother."

"Oh. Are you?"

But what lived inside Jin Gyeo-wool was twenty-four-year-old Bae Do-hyun, and he had absolutely no intention of putting the word "Oppa" in his mouth. He'd considered trying "hyung," but that didn't sit right either.

In the end, his choice was to keep the casual speech.

"Can't we just keep talking like this? It's more comfortable for me."

Jin Gyeo-wool shrugged and went dead serious, and Jin Ju-yeong instinctively dropped his gaze.

The harvester might be powered down, but the fact that she was a hair thresher hadn't changed. So Jin Ju-yeong had no choice but to take a step back.

"Y… yeah. Okay."

What kind of girl kept smiling and then suddenly went stone-faced? It only made her scarier.