Remolding Bones, Embracing the Stars
There was a phenomenon in the Tower that only a handful of players were said to have experienced.
It came after consuming spirit elixirs, equipping a special item, or receiving a blessing from a named NPC.
Among them, an extremely rare few encountered something far from ordinary.
They remolded their bones. They shed their mortal shell.
In other words, they were reborn as an entirely new existence.
Of the tens of thousands of players, those who had undergone it could be counted on one hand.
It was that rare.
Even Yujin in the first timeline had never experienced it.
But right now—
Yujin was changing.
Crack—! Crrrack—!
His already exceptional musculature twisted and snapped into an even more perfect form. The difference was minute, yet Yujin felt a shift as vast as heaven and earth.
Ah…
It was the cosmos.
A black, boundless universe unfolded inside his mind.
Golden Spirit Fruit [C], West Wind Distillate [C], Fresh Green Juice [C], Phantom Spirit Condensate [C], Flame Butterfly’s Mana Core [C], Azure Moon Herb Crystal Fluid [C].
Six elixirs formed an unimaginable harmony and became a single colossal force—a world unto itself.
And through that world flowed the incomparably beautiful Star Essence [C].
It was the Milky Way.
So it wasn’t a lie after all.
Euphoric? Moving? Spine-tingling?
He didn’t know how to put the sensation into words, but he finally understood what that bastard who had eaten the Star Essence in the first timeline must have felt.
So you hogged something this good all to yourself, huh?
Yujin buried the bitter feeling rising inside him.
If you’d eaten something like this, you should’ve at least lived a little longer.
The guy was dead.
When and where, Yujin had no idea. He’d only seen him once. Aside from Yujin himself, not a single person had been left alive, so the fool had probably keeled over somewhere just like the rest of those idiots.
He didn’t feel sad or pitying about it.
Still, if they ever crossed paths again, he wanted to say one thing.
This time, I ate it.
So don’t go acting tough and dying an early death somewhere.
A brief stretch of idle thought—and in that span, Yujin’s body finally finished its transformation.
Outwardly there would be little difference, but Yujin knew today would become the greatest turning point of his climb through the Tower.
As if to prove it—
Enormous rewards poured in.
A title, Coins, and a B-grade sword—rewards on a scale that rivaled even the vast mana he had gained after swallowing seven elixirs and surviving the brink of death.
As expected, the Akasha System…
It was blatantly playing favorites. There was no other way it would hand out this much.
The haul was so outrageous it almost felt wrong.
Yet Yujin remained largely unmoved.
The Milky Way flowing from crown to sole filled him with endless calm.
He was certain now that his emotions would never again drag him around by the nose.
Deep. Heavy. Steady.
Yujin reflected on the changed landscape of his mind, then slowly opened his eyes.
Lee Sia and Vivian stood a short distance away.
The moment his gaze met Sia’s, her mouth opened.
“Uweeeegh.”
A dry heave.
Yujin felt the serene composure that could have withstood a falling meteor shatter into a million pieces.
“What the hell is wrong with this brat?”
Lee Sia stared at Yujin with eyes that simply refused to believe what she was seeing.
“Wh-what even was that?”
From the start it had looked off.
Unmonghyang had a mild climate, yet he had looked ready to freeze to death on the spot. Thin ice had even formed across his whole body.
Startling, sure—but not enough to frighten her. In the Tower, that level of weirdness barely registered. She could have written it off as Yujin messing around alone and botching a skill.
The problem came after that.
Yujin had suddenly raised a hand, and Vivian had used Financial Healing [C].
From that moment, things went wrong.
His body had begun to crack and twist in grotesque ways—like a scene from a Japanese horror film. Sprawled on the ground, Yujin had performed a full-body contortion dance. Joints dislocated and reassembled; his skin stretched and shrank in unnatural waves. The fact that it never tore only meant his hide was ridiculously tough.
“Uuugh.”
Sia’s face had gone deathly pale watching it. She was already weak to horror; seeing that with her own eyes instead of on a screen… not bolting on the spot had been a miracle of willpower.
If Vivian hadn’t been standing there completely unfazed, staring at Yujin, Sia would already have spun around and fled Chwiwolru.
“U-unnie, is this really okay?”
Ribs moving of their own accord, his chest writhing—dry heaves rose unbidden.
“It’s fine.”
Vivian remained composed, as though she already knew exactly what was happening. She simply stood and watched.
Sia decided Vivian’s head was not quite right either.
The only normal ones here are me and Ji-hoo.
She took a step back while thinking something that would have made Yujin choke if he heard it.
About ten minutes later, he finally opened his eyes.
Their gazes met—his clear and bright, carrying an almost enlightened air. He felt different from usual. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but something had definitely changed.
None of that mattered.
The second their eyes locked, the nauseating spectacle she had just witnessed came flooding back.
“Uweeeegh.”
The dry heave she had been holding finally escaped.
“What the hell is wrong with this brat?”
Enlightened Yujin vanished; ordinary Yujin snapped right back into place as if nothing had happened.
“How’s your body?”
Yujin was already on his feet and starting toward Sia when Vivian asked.
“Ah, I’m fine.”
He smoothed the furrow between his brows and answered.
“What happened?”
“Nothing major. I just scavenged a few elixirs and they disagreed with me.”
“That’s what you get for hogging them all yourself.”
Sia cut in, lips jutting out in a pout.
“…You, shut it for a second.”
Yujin sighed and shook his head.
“Anyway, I’ve been getting help from you a lot lately.”
Twice already—once with the Flower Keeper, and now.
“Yeah.”
Vivian did not deny that she had helped him.
“I watched real hard from the side too, you know? Worrying myself sick you might die?”
Sia peeked out from behind Vivian and chimed in again.
“Not worry—hoping I’d die, more like.”
Sia flinched.
“H-how did you know?”
Feeling her true thoughts exposed, she instinctively shrank back.
“Forget it. Arguing’s a pain.”
Yujin withdrew his attention from her completely.
“Need anything? If I took help, I should pay it back.”
“Elixirs.”
“What?”
“I want elixirs too. I’m short on mana.”
“Me too! Lately every time I use a skill my joints ache like crazy. I’m dying from lack of mana.”
Yujin blinked at the two women, then asked,
“Elixirs will do?”
“Plenty.”
“All right. I’ll give you some once the kid gets here. Wait a bit.”
“Really?”
Sia’s eyes went wide. She’d only been testing the waters—he was actually going to give them some?
“You get yours based on performance, so don’t go counting your chickens yet.”
“Hey, why am I the only one?”
Sia shouted in indignation, but Yujin had already stopped caring.
“You brought everything I told you to, right?”
“Yeah. It’s in the Dimensional Mailbox [B].”
“How much?”
“A lot. Enough that we won’t run short for a while.”
“Good.”
Yujin nodded in satisfaction.
“Once we reach the 25th floor, go outside and…”
He trailed off, thought for a moment, then asked Vivian,
“You’re American, right?”
“Yeah.”
“…Any plans to come to Korea?”
“No.”
Vivian never left the Tower in the first place, so there was no reason she would go to Korea.
“Then hand everything you brought over to Park Ji-hoo and that one.”
“That was the plan.”
Vivian answered immediately, as if she had considered it from the start.
“Good. Hey—when we hit the 25th floor, take the materials out and deliver them to Mr. Lee Ki-seok.”
“Depends on how well you behave, mister.”
For a split second Yujin considered it.
Hit her? Or not?
The debate was short; the decision was faster.
Thanks to the elixirs, he was overflowing with energy anyway.
Perfect timing.
Yujin became a streak of wind and shot toward Sia.
“Wh-what?”
Her eyes blew wide. She had never dreamed he would actually charge her. She couldn’t dodge—and wouldn’t have managed it even if she tried.
The wind became a storm and swallowed her whole.
Thwump-thwump-thwump-thwump-thwump—!
The sound of a leather pouch bursting rang out dozens of times a second.
“Aaaaaagh!”
Sia’s scream tore free.
“Stop! Aagh! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Stop it, you son of a—!”
Pleas and curses flew for a solid five minutes.
Yujin looked down at the rag-doll version of Sia and smiled, thoroughly pleased.
“Y-you lunatic.”
Still cursing even now—he had to admit she had guts.
“Quit the theatrics and get up. I didn’t even hit hard.”
Quite the opposite, in fact.
What he had just done was closer to a massage than a beating. His fists had drummed against her body, stimulating her mana. It would sting for the moment, but once some time passed her mana circulation would be far smoother.
“Uugh…”
Sia staggered to her feet. The actual pain was nowhere near as bad as the noise had suggested. Mostly she just felt filthy.
“So? How did the other matter go?”
Yujin frowned at her, then tossed out an abrupt question.
Sia understood at once what he was asking. She brushed the dust from her clothes and answered.
“…They’ll never be able to threaten my family again.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes. Absolutely sure. Completely impossible.”
At her bold claim, Yujin looked to Vivian.
“She’s right.”
“I see.”
Only then did a satisfied look settle on his face.
“You handled it pretty well.”
He didn’t bother adding It couldn’t have been easy. The fine tremor in Sia’s eyes told him just how hard the decision had been.
“It was a little annoying. Two of them were easy, but the last one was a pain.”
“A pain?”
Yujin looked like he found that hard to believe.
“At your level, those guys should’ve been at least twice as weak as you.”
“He wasn’t particularly strong. He just used a really annoying skill.”
“Tell me.”
Unlike Sia, who was trying hard to sound casual, Yujin’s expression had grown slightly serious.
“He used stealth. Hiding and stabbing with a dagger. If unnie hadn’t been there, I would’ve been hit.”
A large-scale battle had been raging nearby at the time. Otherwise she would have sensed him in advance.
“Was it a red dagger, by any chance?”
“Huh? How did you know?”
“Did you catch a name?”
“Yeah. Lee Do-gyeom, I think? Something like that.”
“Ah…”
Annoyance settled over Yujin’s face.
“You didn’t see another guy nearby? Around twenty, younger-looking.”
“No? Nobody like that.”
Sia shook her head, then asked with open curiosity,
“Who is that?”
“Lee Do-jin.”
Yujin answered without hesitation.
“Lee Do-gyeom’s little brother.”
Other people might not know the name, but someday he would be known as one of the Ten Evils—the White Devil.
“Compared to his older brother, he’s a murderer on a completely different level.”
At minimum three hundred deaths.
Maybe twice that.
That was the kind of bastard he was.