Chapter 330
Chapter 330
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 330
Chapter Title: Confirmation
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It was now more late morning than early morning.
Park Kwang-rim's condition was in such bad shape that breakfast was a simple soup, bread, omelet, and salad...
"Sang-hyun! Hold on a second! We can't eat like this right now!"
Hearing that, Huh Sang-hyun's big eyes shook violently.
"Are you really not feeling well?"
"No, it's just... it's hard to eat anything at this hour..."
Honestly, she'd rather sleep than eat.
On top of that, Park Kwang-rim wasn't in any state to eat anything.
Amid last night's frenzy, she had been the most "normal person," and to keep her sanity, she'd overused Nirvana—and now she was paying the price.
"Ugh..."
After vomiting nonstop for thirty minutes, she was finally lying on the living room sofa, groaning.
There were plenty of rooms upstairs, so it would've been easy to just tuck her into any bed, but what if she suddenly keeled over somewhere out of sight? Or went berserk alone and got stuck in a wall or something? No way to handle that.
"Ugh... it's sparkling..."
If it got any worse, they'd have to take her to the hospital.
"Anyway, this is plenty. Got it?"
"Understood."
Huh Sang-hyun stopped cooking with a crestfallen expression. Felt kinda bad.
Maybe next time, look for something to boost health stats or an artifact with [Strong Digestion].
"Wizard, you okay?"
Jang Hyun-deok asked, chewing on a soft, moist half-cooked omelet.
"You okay?"
"I'm fine."
A hole in his head, and he's fine?
His face was roughly wiped with a wet towel, but the dried blood was still matted in his hair.
"Hey, stop smacking your lips and let me check your head."
"Nah, my head. Head."
"Yeah, let's see your head."
"Ah, you're talking like Yang Seo-ho."
"..."
The super miracle or magical whatever had worn off, so the golden crown was gone, but hey, neighbors! Look at this guy! There's a hole in his head—no, his skull!
A neat hole punched just above the first knuckle from the piercing on Jang Hyun-deok's earlobe.
No blood coming out—but the lack of blood was even creepier.
"Doesn't hurt?"
"Hmm... no feeling? Ow! Of course it hurts if you press like that!"
"So you have sensation. Right?"
"Yeah."
"Yeah, my ass. How 'fine' are you right now?"
"Hmm... very?"
Fair enough—not a great question. If someone asked me, I'd say I was fine too, but by normal standards, I'm always a mess.
My mind's always half-gone, my hands are wrecked, magic stones come out of my body. Probably not long for this world.
"What exactly happened back then? Can you explain it logically, start to finish?"
"Ugh. Too hard."
"What's hard?"
Jang Hyun-deok glanced at me sidelong, then spoke in a crawling voice.
"I'm not great at explaining things logically even normally."
A sigh escaped me.
"Forget structure—just say it."
Jang Hyun-deok scratched his head with a troubled look.
Dried blood flakes fell from his hair to the floor.
"Honestly, my memories keep cutting out, so I don't really know what happened."
"No structure needed—just spit out whatever."
Jang Hyun-deok shoveled a few more bites of omelet before slowly opening his mouth.
"I think I definitely heard Hyunji's voice."
"What'd she say?"
"Something like, 'Let's go save the wizard.'"
"Ah."
"Then at some point, I was flying with Red and these hands came out—and the memories are spotty. Even the parts I remember don't feel real."
Makes sense—he's a medium.
That can happen when you're possessed and moving around. Even I sometimes feel like the things I did in delirium were all illusions.
Hearing my explanation, Jang Hyun-deok went "Ah—" and nodded, fiddling with his fork and poking at the salad for no reason.
A brief silence.
The crunch of salad being chewed.
Silence again.
Jang Hyun-deok suddenly sucked in a breath and spoke.
"Wizard. That grandma?"
"The guardian of Bongam Shrine?"
"Yeah."
"You said it was a fake voice someone made to trick you?"
"Mm."
I'd been curious, but not something I wanted to hear at the breakfast table. My nonexistent appetite fled straight to the depths of the abyss.
"Wizard. Hyunji's really dead, right?"
Wish there were multiple-choice answers.
In a few seconds, I generated and scrapped about 256 plausible options before answering honestly.
"Yeah."
No, not honest.
Hyunji didn't even get a chance to die. She just vanished.
Reduced to a resource for an abyssal being to exploit—worse than death.
No initial soul rites or necromancy could summon her spirit.
"The grandma said just live. Don't try calling the dead—just live."
"She said that?"
"Yeah. She told me to pass it on to the Conqueror grandma too... Uh, will we even meet her?"
"Sure, if we do, I'll tell her."
"Thanks."
* * *
"You look upset."
Creaaak—
The barrier door in the corner of the basement opened, revealing the Smiler.
A distorted half-form of Cheongho.
"You boldly tore off a part of me, but can you fix this damage?"
Through our contract, [The Smiler] had possessed one of its pages into my spectral golem.
The problem was that [Source of Life] had devoured that page wandering around in Cheongho's form.
"Got some back. Here."
I returned Cheongho's face fragment, the spectral golem shards, and the mask with nothing but a mouth hole to [The Smiler].
"Keh—"
[The Smiler] chuckled and donned the mask.
Tzzzzz—
Cheongho's distorted, melting form began slowly restoring.
"I thought you agreed to the constraints of obedience—and the duty of protection."
"You broke the obedience constraint first."
The page of [The Smiler] that got [Soul Shackles] in Buyeo had overestimated its power and attacked me.
Of course, it wasn't remote-controlled, so it wasn't the main body trapped in the barrier's fault.
"From the memories left in the fragments, looks like you baited it."
"Well, a break's a break."
"Hmph. Sly bastard."
[The Smiler] grumbled unpleasantly.
"Not much compensation, but here."
Shraaaak!
I peeled off the deep-sea gold forming the outer shell of the [Golden Hairpin] and tossed it into [The Smiler]'s barrier.
"O— Ooooh!!"
[Deep-Sea Gold] itself was infused with the influence of the [Lord of Murky Waters].
This gold also held [Source of Life]'s power, plus a massive dose of abyssal poison from opening the abyss gate.
Perfect tonic for a [The Smiler] aspiring to abyssal being status.
"Not expecting a thank you, huh?"
"Nope."
At my flat response, [The Smiler] quietly stared at my face.
It wore a mask too—a masked Cheongho.
I faced it, also masked.
"What? What's the problem?"
[The Smiler] broke the silence first.
"Why."
"Why?"
"Why would I be upset over Cheongho?"
Specifically, the situation of Cheongho dying. The fact that he died pissed me off.
"Hmm?"
"I barely knew the guy. No special emotional bond or anything."
Sure, as a named NPC I'd met tons in the game, so there was some instinctive familiarity from the start.
But by that logic, I'd feel the same about every named NPC in this world.
So why the extra strong emotional shake for Cheongho?
And there were a few others I felt this way about too.
What did they have in common with Cheongho?
"You know. You're not taking his form just to amuse me."
"Hm."
"Lack of skins? Nah. Touching that separated page told me—you've got human forms overflowing."
"Kehehe—forms of the humans I dealt with."
Forms of people like Cheongho, who'd met ruin.
"Spill it."
"A formal request?"
Formal request.
Meaning a wish to it, pledging to be its apostle.
A near-suicidal choice for me personally.
"You gonna tell the truth? Or rather—do you even have the ability?"
"Hmm... you're serious this time."
"Talk."
"Regrettably, a wish I can't grant. It exceeds my power."
"Really?"
"Offensive. Yes."
[The Smiler] was a higher intellect.
By abyssal standards, a weak, insignificant thing not even at the table—but far stronger and loftier than humans. Than me.
Similar vibes: demon, spirit king, archangel?
A mighty being worshipped as a god by some races.
If [Living Flame] hadn't whimsically helped, I couldn't have won back then.
And this [The Smiler] can't grant my wish?
[Why do I feel weird about Cheongho?]
A question worthy of a hormonal teen, and it can't answer?
Doesn't know? Or no authority?
"So it's not just my mood?"
I'd half-expected some reveal like "turns out you have unknown daddy issues," but not this level.
"Correct."
An abyssal being—or equivalent—level issue?
This feeling?
[The Smiler] added quietly in a meaningful tone.
"And now I'm upset."
"Why?"
"Guess."
Ah, damn.
I got it.
For real?
"Because of Jeong Hyun-ah?"
Obviously, not that [The Smiler] was upset over Jeong Hyun-ah.
[The Smiler] was upset because it couldn't grant my wish, and I was upset because of Jeong Hyun-ah.
"Jeong Hyun-ah—Cheongho's daughter. What'd you discuss with her? Deal? Contract?"
"She asked a favor."
Save my dad.
But Cheongho died, and Jeong Hyun-ah went mad.
[The Smiler] smiled.
Not seeing the face beyond the mask—the mask covering its face creaked and grinned.
"Accepted a wish I can't fulfill."
"Why would I—"
"Why?"
"Be upset over that?"
Failed quest?
Sure, as a gamer, I'd be pissed if a accepted quest became impossible.
[The Smiler], watching me, spoke in Cheongho's voice.
"I'll become an abyssal being someday."
"Even as a human?"
Humans can too?
"Normally impossible."
"Then?"
Kekekeke—
Hahahaha—
Laughter echoing from somewhere.
"Look at me, Kim Shin-hwa."
[The Smiler] pointed at itself.
"You know this too, right? How a higher intellect, living grimoire tumbling in the dark, pitiful skull, and [The Smiler] like me can become an abyssal being?"
By devouring and assimilating abyss-related things, [The Smiler] would one day become an abyssal being.