Chapter 47
Chapter 47
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 47
Chapter Title: Curtain Call
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**Chapter 47**
*Crash!*
A shattering sound echoes from inside. Followed by a shrill scream like tearing metal. The walls muffle it, so the exact words are unclear, but it sounds like a woman—or maybe a child—unleashing a torrent of curses.
This is already the second time today. And I'm not even working. Regardless of my irritation, my senses sharpen, detecting the shapes, numbers, and directions of the mana surging inside Basilissa. I slowly shift one step to the side.
*Boom! Crash! Clatter!*
Basilissa's front door flies open as if it's about to shatter, and a burly man comes hurtling out. He tumbles right into the spot where I'd been standing moments ago.
"Argh! Colly, you fucking bitch!"
The man scrambles up, bellowing. He doesn't look like your average, upstanding Paju citizen during the day.
His mana reserves are impressive, and the muscles clinging to his frame are substantial too. We've never been formally introduced, but a quick mental rewind pulls up the info from my game playthroughs. Fixer name: J.J., right?
Just one of the mass-produced NPCs you can pick as a helper for tough quests. Not an important character.
"You rotten mouth!"
But the one who presumably sent him flying wields mana on a level J.J. couldn't even dream of touching. A chair comes hurtling from inside Basilissa at blinding speed, slamming into J.J., who was standing there awkwardly. He lets out a strangled squeak and flies back into the shadows.
He doesn't move after that. Looks dead.
Of course, my senses pick up not just his appearance but the mana dwelling in his body, so I know he's not. The woman rampaging inside seems to know it too.
"Hey, J.J. or whatever the fuck your name is! Stay right there. I'm coming to kill you!"
J.J., sprawled on the ground for a moment, senses her voice closing in and bolts upright, vanishing into the dark alleys of Geumchon-dong. A beat later, she bursts out after him...
A woman of surprisingly petite stature.
Short, but with a flashy look that stands out anywhere.
Long hair bleached bone-white, a gleaming red leather jacket, and in one hand, a massive zanbatou that's absurdly oversized.
Her power matches what I sensed—intense, dark mana. She checks that J.J. has vanished, stamps her foot in frustration, and snaps.
"Damn it. You raccoon bastard!"
She hurls aimless curses into the alley's darkness.
"If that ugly mug of yours shows up in Basilissa again, I'll slice you to ribbons! Better find a broker besides Tudor!"
Tough one. Her name... unknown. Her real name was never revealed in the game either. Fixer name: Curtain Call. I'd glimpsed her a few times entering and leaving Basilissa, but never had reason to interact with the fixer.
Still fuming, she glances around and spots me.
"What are you staring at? Why are you standing there?"
"A customer."
"...Oh, right. This is Basilissa. Sorry."
Before I can even register if I'm annoyed or not, she bows a full ninety degrees in apology. Hard to stay mad at that. I just shrug.
"Mind if I head inside?"
"I'm going in too. After you."
Curtain Call sheathes her zanbatou and slips into Basilissa...
"Colly! Grab a chair!"
"Coming!"
...only to dash back out at Tudor's call, snatch a chair, and hustle back in. Her movements are pure berserker boar charge, fitting for such a powerhouse warrior. I step aside to avoid her path, and apparently, that catches her eye.
As she runs back with the chair, Curtain Call eyes me.
"You're a customer—why are you dodging like that?"
"Wouldn't want to get hit. Might die."
"Huh?"
Curtain Call looks puzzled, glances up at my mask, then scans me head to toe. Realization dawns—specifically, the "poor guy, built like a twig" expression.
"Oh. Got it. Sorry. And sorry for yelling earlier!"
With that, she hauls the chair inside and vanishes.
"Huh... was she always like that?"
I tap my mask with a finger and step into Basilissa.
For all the commotion, the inside of Basilissa is surprisingly intact.
Not quite the usual peaceful vibe, though.
A half-broken chair is piled in the corner—probably tossed by Curtain Call—along with a shattered glass and a table split like it'd been axed. Traces of her recent rampage, left as is with no one bothering to clean up. What sparked all this?
It's a spot frequented by rough mercenaries and fixers, so not exactly safe and quiet, but with charismatic Tudor running the place, bar brawl events like this are rare.
'Oh, and there's something else off.'
Yeah, Tudor's no idle lounger who'd clean that up. As a fixer brokerage, sure, but for cafe operations, someone else handles the big and small stuff in his stead.
And that someone's missing.
No sign of Orb, the monitor-headed barista who's the cafe's icon.
Instead, a bald mercenary leans casually against the counter nearby and greets me.
"Yo, long time. How've you been?"
The fixer who'd once tried recruiting me to his team: Kang Il-sam. Fixer name: Fourteen.
"Yeah. But what the hell's going on? Where's Orb? And Tudor?"
"Orb's out on an errand for Tudor. Back soon, probably. As for Tudor..."
He nods toward a table over his shoulder.
At a corner table, tiny-statured fixer Curtain Call chats with Tudor.
No clue what they're discussing, but tall, elegant Tudor leaning in with a gentle smile toward pint-sized Curtain Call looks, at a glance, like a young mom scolding her wayward kid.
Curtain Call's bizarre behavior shatters the image, though.
She's listening to Tudor with a grumpy expression...
While chewing on a glass cup?
Not a metaphor or joke. She's crunching it—*crunch, grind*—eating the damn glass.
What the hell? Why's she eating a cup? No, I don't care if she eats cups or slices tables—that's her business. The question is, why is *that person* eating a cup?
For confirmation, I ask Fourteen.
"That's... Colly, right? Curtain Call?"
"Oh? You know her?"
"Nah, just seen her face around."
"Makes sense. She's famous. Most fixers in this scene are nuts, but that one's on another level."
Not famous—I'm familiar because she's a named NPC worth remembering. No need to correct him, though. I nod along to encourage the misunderstanding.
"Lately, she's been showering Orb with affection. No Orb today, so she's off-kilter. Then J.J. picks a pointless fight, and boom—chaos."
"What the hell kind of weird backstory is that?"
"Hahaha! She's one of a kind!"
Fourteen laughs it off heartily, but this might not be so dismissible.
Something's wrong. It doesn't match what I know. A quirk that unique should've stuck in my memory, but Curtain Call's lore as I recall has no such thing.
Just her wielding oversized weapons despite her small frame, plus some vague traits to appeal to certain gamer tastes.
No "crushing on Orb" or "eats glass."
"Her rare diet always like that?"
"Nah... started getting weird right when she fell hard for Orb."
"When was that?"
"Hmm... about... one, two months ago? Came back from somewhere with a few new abilities and a touch of madness."
In Paju's shadows, crawling with madness and abyssal beings, fixers changing in personality, tastes, or diet isn't rare.
Among the people I've met: Jang Hyun-deok, from security taxi pro to super-elite medium; Lee Chang-hyuk, turned monster after gulping abyssal fluids; Lee Sun-bin, hospitalized in the magic ward overnight from sudden madness.
And Fourteen's dismissal of her Orb fixation as mere madness suggests Curtain Call's just having a temporary episode now that Orb's absent. J.J. was the unlucky victim...
I share my reasoning with Fourteen, and he nods with a grin.
"Spot on. But J.J. ain't innocent. That prick's been an asshole forever—knew he'd get his someday."
He laughs *kehahaha*. He's about to launch into funny J.J. stories, but something else nags at me.
"So, around two months ago? Exactly?"
"Right after he showed up here."
Tudor cuts in between us. Must've wrapped up with Curtain Call. Fourteen seamlessly picks up.
"Yeah, around then."
"Of course, no connection to him. Just coincidence the dates line up."
Tudor says it casually, but his expression is oddly subtle. A rare serious look, eyes lingering on my mask...
"Sounds like you think it's not just coincidence."
"No, I do think it's coincidence. But Colly isn't the only one who's gotten a bit strange since the day he showed up."
"More people acting weird?"
Tudor nods slightly, but Fourteen disagrees a tad.
"True, but cases like Colly are rare. And this stuff? Occupational hazard for fixers. Happens more than you'd think."
Fair point. ...Fair, but it still bugs me. What if the game's settings are shifting, keyed to my arrival in this world?
One change begets more, rippling out into new events... My game knowledge could become useless.
Take my contract with Tudor: many reasons, but key was his 100% loyalty—no betrayal—in gameplay. If that twists?
I'd be lost in this chaotic world, knowing nothing.
'No, pointless worrying.'
Didn't I decide to upend the game's script anyway? Follow it faithfully, and all that awaits is the grand bad end.
If changes happen, investigate them. Start with Curtain Call. And others suspected of shifting.
'This could be the clue to escaping this world.'