Chapter 99
Chapter 99
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 99
Chapter Title: Shattered Illusion
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99
6
“Meryl! Where are you!!”
“If you can hear me, say something!”
Cain’s voice and mine vanished into the fog.
No response came back from beyond the thick veil of mist.
All that lingered was an eerily heavy silence, no matter how long we waited.
“This won’t do. Let’s split up and search.”
“No, Senior. The fog’s too thick. We could lose each other.”
The fog in Popuri Forest was growing denser by the minute.
Cain’s figure was barely visible, even though we couldn’t see more than a handspan ahead.
Just three steps apart, and we might never find each other again.
The one silver lining was that I at least had the forest’s layout memorized.
Without a map to check, I had to rely on rough intuition, but it was better than nothing.
Unlike me, though, Cain had no familiarity with this place. If she got lost, who knew where she’d end up.
If we could at least see the sun, we could use it as a guide...
But the thick fog had long since blocked out the sun like clouds on the ground.
“But what if Meryl’s in danger!”
“I’m worried too. But we need to stay calm right now. Senior, Meryl’s fine. Let’s believe that and keep moving.”
Cain’s face twisted in frustration.
For a moment, her vivid red eyes trembled faintly even through the fog.
Then she swept back her glossy red hair and nodded.
“Got it. I can’t lose my cool.”
It was a relief she listened so quickly, given how urgent things were.
Cain cupped her hands around her mouth and called out for Meryl again.
Still no answer.
Something’s wrong.
This was definitely, seriously wrong.
If a Giant Rabbit had gotten her, she’d have screamed.
Those rabbits specialized in strikes from their powerful hind legs.
Unless you were some elite assassin, getting hit meant groaning in pain, and getting startled meant screaming—that’s just human nature.
So, scratch the Giant Rabbit theory.
Next possibility: she ran from a monster and got lost.
But it was weird that there was no response even after we’d been shouting our lungs out.
More than that, there were no signs of Meryl moving anywhere nearby.
I’d used dimensional magic to scan everything around me as a substitute for sight... but there weren’t even footprints from anyone, let alone Meryl’s.
It was like she’d evaporated.
Or like the forest had swallowed her...
Rustle...
The sound of leaves shaking in the wind echoed through gaps in the fog.
Strangely, the forest visible through the mist looked enormous.
I had to find her soon.
Find what, exactly?
Wait, hold on.
Where... was I even going...?
7
“I’m home.”
I muttered the greeting mechanically as I stepped through the front door.
My aunt’s family, gathered around the dining table, reacted much as usual.
Her son and daughter—twenty-five and twenty-four—glared at me, while my uncle cleared his throat awkwardly.
“Oh, you’re back early? What do we do? We didn’t expect you so soon, and the food’s all gone...”
My aunt rushed over to block my path, feigning regret.
Her acting was so obvious it came off unnatural.
I shot her a look, the sickly sweet smell wafting from the entryway stinging my eyes.
On the table sat a mountain of mouthwatering braised short ribs.
Just yesterday, she’d scrimped with a bit of kimchi and some mystery canned goods, claiming tough times.
Sensing my gaze, she subtly shifted to shield the table.
Every evening, the house reeked of all sorts of food, and they’d come back from eating out stinking of meat. Now they were panicking? I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“I finished work early and grabbed dinner. I’m tired, so I’ll head to bed. Don’t worry about me.”
I brushed past her with a curt reply.
She gave an awkward smile and told me to rest well, but I didn’t bother responding.
Passing through several doors, I reached the innermost room—a storage space crammed with clothes and junk, with just enough room for me to lie down.
I spread out the cheap bedding and fired up the rattling old laptop. Voices drifted from beyond the door.
My cousins whining about when they’d kick me out, my uncle snapping that they’d done enough already, and my aunt insisting they had to keep me around until they could claim their “rightful” insurance payout.
They didn’t seem to care if I heard.
“Haa...”
If they’re gonna talk insurance, at least feed me properly.
It pissed me off watching them paint rosy pictures of their future.
I unzipped the pillowcase and pulled out the bankbook hidden inside.
The number on it softened my bitter heart a bit.
A fixed deposit maturing this month, scraped together bit by bit: just over ten million won.
Not a fortune, but enough for a deposit on a one-room near campus.
“If I can just get out of here, that’s all I need.”
This wasn’t a home.
It was a prison where I could sleep and wash.
My aunt acted like she was looking after her orphaned nephew... but she did nothing of the sort.
She’d swallowed a billion-won life insurance payout, then fed me cold rice with a scrap of kimchi—ramen if she couldn’t even be bothered.
No tuition help either.
Scholarships and loans covered that.
Yet she demanded I repay her “kindness” with chores and grunt work.
Out of some shred of conscience—or thinking I wouldn’t notice—they didn’t make me do dishes.
“...Gotta ditch this laptop when I leave.”
Even this was junk my cousin had dumped on me after getting a new one, years old.
It took nearly three minutes to boot up.
At this point, it was a miracle it even turned on.
Forcing crap like this on me and acting generous? I was sick of it.
If I’d kept the insurance money, I could’ve afforded a decent one-room, paid tuition, and still bought top-tier gaming laptops several times over.
“...My fault for being stupid.”
Trusting my aunt at the funeral was my biggest mistake.
We weren’t close with relatives to begin with, and I had no options back then.
Right after finishing my college entrance exams, I got the news of my parents’ death.
By the time the funeral and paperwork were done, I was legally an adult—but barely two months out from my first go at the exams.
Still, I believed her because she’d been crying at the funeral.
Stupid kid that I was, I fell for her line about it being dangerous for a young orphan to hold big money and handed over the insurance payout.
“Stupid’s my crime. Yeah, stupidity’s the crime.”
That was a year ago.
Now they treated me like trash.
Is this how Cinderella felt with her stepmother?
Blood’s thicker than water? Total bullshit.
Or maybe those people beyond the door weren’t family at all.
“Endure it. Just hold on.”
I’d game before bed.
Even on lowest settings, the laptop lagged, but escaping reality for a bit while playing was what mattered.
Storage was limited, so I only had one game installed.
Naturally, I launched Broken World.
I waited through the long loading screen.
What was I gonna do today?
Suddenly, Popuri Forest popped into my head.
Did I progress to Popuri Forest yesterday?
What was there to do in that forest?
As I pondered, loading finished.
Leon stood in Riverflow on screen.
Pretty far from Popuri Forest.
Why’d I think of Popuri Forest, though?
Was there a side quest there?
No, it felt like I had to find something...
It wouldn’t come to me.
Meanwhile, night fell over Riverflow on screen.
My face reflected in the darkened display.
It was my face in the game, but not me.
It was Theo Agrit’s face.
I reached out unconsciously.
The moment my fingers touched the screen’s reflection—
Crackle!
Like a lightning bolt, it all came rushing back.
I am Theo Agrit now.
And I was searching for Meryl, who’d vanished in Popuri Forest.
This space shouldn’t exist.
No, it mustn’t exist in Broken World.
“An illusion...!”
An illusion that shook my very perception.
But no matter how masterful, once you recognize it as illusion, the immersion cracks.
I bit my lip until it bled.
The metallic taste sharpened my mind as I manipulated mana.
I twisted the dimensions around me, forcibly shredding the illusion.
Crack, split—the dimensions themselves fractured.
With a sharp burst like shattering glass, the illusion crumbled away.
8
“Haa, haa...!!”
My blocked breath returned in a rush.
I clutched my chest, gasping repeatedly.
I tried forcing my consciousness to unify... but there was no blood taste in my mouth.
The surroundings weren’t my aunt’s house—they were the foggy Popuri Forest.
-Have you finally come to your senses?
“Deathwise...”
-I called you so many times... Tsk tsk. Did you get lost in an illusion?
“Yeah, a damn well-crafted one that pissed me off.”
I couldn’t tell where the illusion began.
All I knew was this fog must be laced with hallucinatory magic.
It had spread slowly but stealthily, undetectable until it hit.
“Damn it.”
The fog closed in again.
If I let it envelop me unprotected, I’d fall back into the illusion.
Experiencing that hell over and over? No thanks.
I wrapped mana around my body, isolating it from the surrounding dimensions.
It was just a thin barrier, but severing the dimensions burned through mana fast.
On top of that, I deployed dimensional magic around me to substitute for vision.
Only then did I notice the tracks of circling in place.
I’d been looping the same spot ever since the hallucination hit.
-A hallucination potent enough to numb senses and thoughts? Whoever did this is no slouch of a mage.
Yeah, not many could wield such advanced hallucinatory magic.
But right now, finding Meryl came first.
Wait, Cain’s gone too.
If they’re both trapped in hallucinations, that’s bad.
I spread mana wide, sparing none.
Forest data flooded my brain as I moved quickly.
First up: Meryl.
She wasn’t far—slumped against a tree, face buried in her knees, sobbing.
Her stifled cries dissolved into the fog.
I rushed to her, wrapping her in dimensional magic too.
Isolating her on a dimensional level, I grabbed her shoulders and shook.
Her unfocused green eyes cleared up.
“I, I... I...”
“You’re okay. It was all an illusion.”
I didn’t know what she’d seen.
But it was just an illusion, that much was true.
As I soothed her, Meryl trembled violently, too distraught even to wipe her tears.
“Good... you’re safe...”
Then, like a puppet with cut strings, she lost consciousness and collapsed.