Chapter 66: Anomalies (8)
Chapter 66: Anomalies (8)
I haven’t really gone hungry much in my life.
Back on Earth, I never had trouble making ends meet, and I was even more financially well-off on the Eurelia continent.
That was why the hunger I felt now was nothing short of terrifying.
"Fuck."
A hollow sensation, as if a hole had been bored through my stomach. A lethargy that consumed my entire body. A parched mouth. Blurred vision.
And an intense, predatory craving for every living thing that moved.
I had a good idea what had caused this sudden change.
The Curse of Endless Hunger.
It was a debuff Edmerec casts on a random party member upon entering his final phase, with the effect of instantly reducing that character's stamina to 1.
Since every combat action consumes some amount of stamina, it was a powerful curse that effectively neutralized a player.
In the game, it was just one of those annoying patterns, but experiencing it for real... it felt like I was going to lose my mind.
It wasn't just that my strength was failing; the sheer sensation of starvation was particularly agonizing.
But why is this happening now...?
A flash of absurdity and resentment crossed my mind.
Still, what’s done is done. I barely managed to keep my wits about me, opened my inventory, and pulled out a Vitality Potion.
My heart screamed for real food, not a potion like this, but...
This wasn't true hunger. It wasn't the kind of craving that could be satisfied with food.
It would be much more effective to restore my stamina with a Vitality Potion, just as I had in the game.
With trembling hands, I brought the potion to my lips... but Edmerec wasn't about to let that happen.
"I offer this flesh."
"Ah."
Edmerec’s voice was soft but clear.
Then, a translucent maw appeared before my eyes.
The moment I took a sip of the potion, Edmerec’s Void Feast lunged at me.
Crunch!
The shield I had cast in advance blocked the sharp teeth. But it was only for a moment; the barrier shattered helplessly shortly after.
Woom—
One by one, my defensive magical tools activated, only to be crushed under a bite force that tightened like a vise.
I tried to twist my body to escape the trajectory, but my exhausted frame refused to respond to my will.
Finally, Helena’s divine art—my last line of defense—exhausted its power, leaving me completely vulnerable.
And then, the teeth that still held strength sank into my flank.
Crunch.
It was a force that should have snapped my upper and lower body clean in half.
Perhaps the power had been spent breaking through the multiple layers of protection. Edmerec’s Void Feast stopped at merely tearing through my flesh.
"Aaaaaagh!"
That alone was enough to snap me back to my senses.
Splat.
Blood spilled onto the floor.
It wasn't a wound that would kill me instantly, but it wasn't something I could leave alone, either.
"You blocked it? How disappointing."
"You... you bastard... ghk."
The high-grade Vitality Potion I had managed to swallow in the heat of the moment began to take effect.
I escaped the horrific hunger, but pain was next in line.
Clutching my bleeding side, I tried to pull out a recovery potion.
"I won't allow that."
Sensing my intent, Edmerec immediately reached out.
I gritted my teeth and threw myself aside. Once again, fresh teeth marks were carved into the spot where I had just been standing.
"You dodge well. But you cannot run forever."
As if determined not to give me time to heal with a potion, his Authorities poured down in succession.
The sound of mastication behind my back never grew distant.
Normally, Void Feast isn't an Authority that can be activated this rapidly.
Edmerec was likely overexerting himself, desperate to finish me off once and for all.
Indeed, his already pale complexion was beginning to turn a sickly, dark hue.
Of course, Edmerec wouldn't be able to keep this up for long...
But since I was the one with a hole in my side, it was a rational choice on his part to assume I would collapse first.
"Guh... cough!"
Every time I moved, the wound tore further, and it felt like my internal organs were being shaken.
The anxiety that my insides might spill out at any moment, combined with a level of pain I had never experienced before, overwhelmed me.
I had taken a potion with a continuous recovery effect beforehand, but because I was moving so violently, the rate of aggravation was faster than the rate of healing.
As my thoughts reached that point, a weak, creeping doubt began to rear its head.
...Can I really win this?
The question arose before I could stop it. That was the problem.
Thanks to System Correction, my body could move exactly as I intended, wielding a dagger without a single mistake.
But conversely, that meant if my mind crumbled, my movements would crumble as well.
Lost conviction bred hesitation, and hesitation led straight to death.
My body froze for a split second. Without missing that opening, the beast's teeth aimed for my head.
A coarse laughter echoed in my ears like a hallucination, urging me to give up on life.
And just as I was about to blankly accept my own death as if it were someone else's business—
Clang!
"Get a hold of yourself, Yandel!"
A desperate voice came from behind me. Simultaneously, a wall of water surrounded me.
Was this a protection spell from Elisha?
"...How?"
Elisha was a brilliant mage, but she shouldn't have been capable of a spell of this caliber yet.
"What do you mean 'how'! I used a precious artifact that even the Sylvan Magic Tower only has a few of, so hurry up and drink a potion! This won't hold for long!"
"Ah, right."
Dazed, I gulped down a potion, and the wound began to heal rapidly.
"This... this knife-ear bitch...!"
Edmerec, who had been pushing himself to end my life, spat out a curse and reached toward Elisha.
Crunch.
"Kyaaaah!"
Having seen what happened to me, Elisha immediately threw herself aside, but she wasn't perfect.
It was only natural; she didn't know the exact timing or attack range like I did.
Yet, Elisha didn't care about her mangled arm; she was desperately weaving her magic with everything she had.
"......"
Seeing her like that, I finally realized.
Elisha had known from the very beginning what I had only just realized: that we might die here.
Even so, she was fighting tooth and nail to survive and to save the others.
It wasn't just Elisha.
Vincent, who was holding back the Tentacle Giant alone, was streaming tears and snot, even gagging, yet he never stopped swinging his sword.
Helena, acting brilliantly amidst countless clones, was trusting in her massive holy power and taking most of the hits as she fought.
The other students were the same.
Everyone was coughing up blood and screaming, yet they were giving their all in their respective positions.
Even Edmerec was overextending himself to manifest his Authorities.
On the other hand, what about me?
I had never staked my life as a wager. I had never even tried.
I had always acted with the mindset of someone playing a game from a slight distance.
Because I thought I had to.
To begin with, the 'me' from Earth... Shin Yong-chan was just an ordinary college student.
To be suddenly dropped onto the Eurelia continent and told to kill every evil god and save the world—it was just overwhelming.
There was no way I could do it.
If I could do it, then the other people of this world should have been able to do it too.
Though there were differences in knowledge and perspective, the people here were by no means inferior to me.
The fact that it had been impossible for them meant it should have been impossible for me as well.
But what if I wasn't just a college student, but a veteran of H&A?
...I could guarantee that no one was better suited to save this world than me.
Since I had saved this world dozens of times already, I would surely be able to do it again.
That was why I chose to be a 'player.'
Especially when dealing with cultists, I felt I had to act like a true veteran.
I believed that was the only way to win.
But what was the result?
I was fighting in a different location than in the game, and just because the patterns got a bit tangled, I was pushed to the brink of death.
I was wrong.
I had been thinking about it all wrong.
That everything would work out as long as I acted like a veteran?
The very attitude of trying to treat this world like a game was the problem.
This isn't a game; it's reality.
Even if this is the same world as H&A, this is reality, not a game that flows according to a fixed system.
It was an obvious truth I had known for a long time, but it was also a fact I had been desperately trying to ignore.
Because I was afraid of failure.
That was why I tried to lean on my identity as a veteran who had seen the ending of H&A multiple times.
But I shouldn't have done that.
Watching those fighting, bleeding, and dying here, I realized.
I cannot stand back and treat this like a game anymore.
Presenting only one side of myself isn't enough.
To achieve victory, I, too, had to stake myself as the wager.
My whole, true self.