The Death Sentence

I breathed a sigh of relief the moment the necromancers finally appeared. "You're finally here!" I'd been starting to worry something had gone wrong when they took so long to show up. I'd even begun to suspect I'd accepted a request that had no problems whatsoever.

Skeletons crawled out of the ground and began charging toward us, jawbones clacking. There were at least twenty of them by my count.

Hwa-ryeong hadn't even drawn her sword yet. My body moved first.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

My vision flashed with the familiar system message. I drove my fist between the first skeleton's ribs, ripped out its spine, and swung the bone like a club to shatter the skull of the one rushing in from the side. I ducked under the attack from behind, then kicked the approaching shin bone to destroy its balance. Even stomping down on the fallen skeleton's skull was part of one seamless flow.

Regardless of my own will, my body danced across the battlefield like a performer. It evaded the bony attacks with minimal movement and slipped into the most efficient routes to destroy vital points. They were simple punches and kicks, yet the skill within them looked like the pinnacle of mastery.

"...Heh."

Hwa-ryeong, who had drawn her sword at some point, could only stand there stunned, not daring to interrupt the scene before her. The movement was on a completely different level from the tryout. Back then it had been desperate survival. Now it was the image of an absolute being utterly dominating its opponents.

With a final crunch, I ripped out the last skeleton's neck bone and tossed it aside. Silence fell over the mansion's front yard, now littered with bone dust and shattered remains.

Control of my body returned with the system alert. As I caught my breath, Hwa-ryeong approached from behind, still dazed, and spoke carefully.

"...Helper. You."

"What?"

"That movement. Don't tell me you've learned martial arts as well?"

"It's not exactly martial arts... but I obtained a similar opportunity."

"Hmm. Then the thing beneath..."

She wasn't wrong. Whatever was beneath had allowed me to move like this. I didn't bother correcting her misunderstanding and simply looked toward the mansion.

"Anyway. Shall we head inside now?"

"Let's. By the way, corpse puppetry... Are there necromancers here?"

"Probably?"

"Then they must have posted this request to gather corpses. How truly vicious."

Together with Hwa-ryeong, who clicked her tongue in disapproval, I smashed through the front gate and entered. The massive oak door crashed inward with a thunderous boom. As expected, the mansion's interior was filled with a stale, dusty smell and damp chill. A chandelier swayed precariously from the ceiling, and bizarre portraits lined both sides of the hallway. We barely had time to examine our surroundings.

Necromancers in black robes emerged from hiding spots along the second-floor railing and hallway. Without hesitation, they thrust their hands toward us.

"Arrow of Hatred."

"Bone Spear!"

"Purple Bullet."

Were they all 3-Star? The necromancers unleashed a barrage of varied spells. The fact that they could mass-produce so many 3-Star ability users really showed how broken true magic was.

"Ugh, we have to dodge...!"

Damn it. This wasn't a matter of whether I could dodge or not. The sheer volume that filled the entire space couldn't be avoided with physical ability alone. I grit my teeth and braced for impact. At that moment, Hwa-ryeong stepped in front of me. She still wore that carefree smile.

"The welcoming greeting is rather intense."

The moment she finished speaking, Hwa-ryeong raised her sword. She brushed a hand across her face, and the tip of her blade began drawing an elegant circle in the air.

A strange sound rang out, and the space around her sword seemed to ripple. The fiercely flying spells were sucked into the circle, then veered off in random directions and fell harmlessly to the floor.

Had they not expected their volley to be blocked? The necromancers stared down at Hwa-ryeong in shock, unable to believe every one of their attacks had been neutralized. Was this really a hunter who hadn't been scouted by any guild? As if enjoying their gazes, Hwa-ryeong confidently named the technique.

"This is none other than the Wudang Sect's ultimate art, the Taiji Sword."

"...Didn't you say something about Mount Hua last time?"

"Well, the two sects are practically neighbors."

While we spoke, the undead controlled by the necromancers came pouring out from inside the mansion. Hwa-ryeong left the rear to me and dashed toward the second floor.

"This one shall handle the corpse puppets!"

"Got it. Leave them to me!"

I left the necromancers to Hwa-ryeong and followed the guidance of auto combat to deal with the undead. While her sword danced on the second floor and necromancer screams erupted, my fists and feet on the first floor played a symphony of shattering bones. But that rhythm was broken in an instant.

A single wraith rose from deep within the mansion. It wore tattered armor, and blue light flowed from its empty eye sockets. Just its presence lowered the surrounding temperature. It was on a completely different level from the zombies and skeletons I'd faced so far.

"...A wight?"

I followed auto combat and threw a punch at it, but my fist passed straight through. Since it wasn't dealing proper damage, this had to be a 3-Star undead. In that case, I couldn't rely on auto combat here.

"Hand Mode, activate."

"Just do it!"

The Mother Box from my bag instantly equipped itself on my right hand, revealing a pure white gauntlet. There were no mana stones this time. Last time I'd changed a stone's color to match, but that wasn't possible now. I'd have to extract the color directly from the wight's mental image. Fortunately, I didn't need to approach it. The cold air spreading through the hallway like a current was the mental image itself.

When I touched the white gauntlet to the fog-like cold flowing across the floor, the gauntlet gradually turned blue. A cold azure light spread across it like blooming frost. My fist now carried the same attribute as the wraith.

"Kwaaaaaah!"

Perhaps displeased at having its mental image stolen, the wraith shrieked and slashed at me with its claws. Dodging with my own senses instead of auto combat was incredibly precarious.

But by mimicking the movements I'd seen in auto combat and combining them with the physical growth from absorbing mana stones, I barely managed to evade. Still, I couldn't win by dodging alone. The wight kept attacking, but I endured and waited for the right moment. The instant I could reproduce that perfect strike auto combat had shown me.

Impatient at how hard I was to catch, the wight spread both arms wide and drew in a breath as if preparing a technique. Right then, I saw a blue trajectory in front of my eyes. Auto combat wasn't active, but I knew the perfect timing had arrived. I followed the trajectory only I could see and threw my punch. My fist easily froze the wight's body and shattered its chest.

Blue light exploded outward from inside the wight. Without even a final scream, its very existence collapsed, scattering into a handful of clean ice powder in every direction.

"Hoo..."

A thrill ran through me at having personally reproduced the movement auto combat had shown. I deactivated Hand Mode, which was no longer needed, and caught my breath. At that moment, Hwa-ryeong, having finished off all the necromancers on the second floor, lightly leaped down and approached me.

"I was going to help, but it seems that wasn't necessary. As expected of you, Helper."

"Did you finish everything over there?"

"Indeed. Somehow or other."

For someone who had just fought a battle, Hwa-ryeong didn't look tired at all. Even I, who had relied on auto combat, was starting to feel the limits of my stamina.

"Good. Now the mansion..."

It was time to explore. Just as I was about to say so, something strange caught my eye. On the second floor where the necromancers had been wiped out, something resembling a grim reaper stood. The moment it swung its scythe and cut the noose around its own neck...

"What?!"

All the corpses in the area began decaying and rotting at terrifying speed. It didn't take long to deduce this was the effect of a spell and that the bodies had been offered as some kind of sacrifice.

"It's dangerous! Get back!"

I shouted a warning and tried to escape the reaper's line of sight, but it was already too late. A horrific scream burst from within the black robe, and a purple wind swept over everyone present. As I tried to understand what was happening, one of the decaying corpses suddenly jerked upright.

"I declare. Your fates have ended as of this moment. I foretell. Retribution shall visit those who slew the blood kin of the Styx. The end approaches. Therefore, I mourn you."

Bloody tears flowed from the risen corpse's eyes as it uttered the final phrase that completed the curse.

"I pronounce. This is a sentence of death."

The corpse that had spoken the curse collapsed to the floor. At the same time, numbness began spreading from my hands and feet.

"Oh ho. It appears to be a curse triggered by killing the necromancers."

"...You're awfully calm about this?"

"Well. I'm quite used to curses spoken by the dead."

My legs gave out and I collapsed onto the mansion floor. Yet Hwa-ryeong remained perfectly fine as she observed the situation. I could feel my life force being drained in real time. Why was she completely unaffected?

"It's simple. I can endure it by pushing the curse back with internal energy."

"Internal... energy?"

"Yes. I'm currently enduring it through Qi circulation. Anyone who has learned martial arts can do it, so you should try as well."

Her expression was far too serene for someone supposedly circulating energy, but there was no falsehood in her words. A curse was still ultimately a form of power. Since it was devouring my body through mana, I should be able to resist it by circulating my own mana.

I closed my eyes and tried to control the flow of mana, but my mana moved far too normally. No matter how I circulated it, the energy simply spun in place without pushing out the curse. Was something wrong?

While I struggled, the curse ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠grew stronger until even breathing became difficult. I could feel that I didn't have much time left. Damn it. Was I really going to meet my first death like this?

I didn't want that. Dying in battle was one thing, but dying to a curse from an enemy I'd already defeated was pathetic. Desperate to overcome the curse somehow, I accessed the community with a sliver of hope.

Mental Image Manifestation? It could be dispelled using Mental Image Manifestation? There was no way I could do that right now. I was only 1-Star. There was no chance I could suddenly become 5-Star and use Mental Image Manifestation here.

"...Mental image?"

But my desperately spinning mind found a hint in that phrase. Why could it be dispelled with Mental Image Manifestation?

Mental Image Manifestation was the act of bringing one's inner world out into reality. Wouldn't that process naturally push one's mental image throughout the entire body?

A curse was also a form of power. And power was a mental image. In other words, the curse was another person's mental image infiltrating my body. If I could fill my body ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with my own mental image, there would be no room for anyone else's to enter.

But something felt off when I thought about it. My mental image was several times larger than a normal person's, so there shouldn't have been any room for another mental image to infiltrate in the first place. The moment that realization hit me, I understood the reason.

It was because I was still only 1-Star. I was at the stage where I could only circulate mana. I hadn't reached 2-Star, the stage where I could change myself using my mental image. That meant my mental image currently existed only within my mind and not in my physical body. No matter how large my mental image was, there was more than enough space for another to invade.

In that case, the solution to breaking this curse was simple. If I filled my body with my own mental image, the curse would no longer be able to harm me.

I closed my eyes and focused. My mental image was the Earth itself. If I tried to contain the entire planet in my body, it would explode.

So I didn't need to contain everything. I only needed to contain what I could handle. Only as much as I could endure.

Measuring that limit was easy. It was the range I could see with my future sight. That's right. I would contain only the Last Shion game community within my body.

But how? The community was a nonexistent space on the internet. How could I contain something like that? The question flashed through my mind, but the answer came quickly. I had already contained something nonexistent in my body before.

The Mother Box. Remember the sensation when I installed it. Remember when auto combat moved my body. I repeated that sensation without missing a single detail. Following it, I realized what I needed to do. I repeated the words I had spoken when I first became ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠1-Star.

"...Login."

The moment I uttered the activation word, the numb sensation crushing my body vanished instantly.