Chapter 23
Chapter 23
Ch. 23 .｡.:✧ Shadow Clone Technique (2) ✧:.｡.
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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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‘Th-this…’
After completing 10 years of knighthood, he was betrayed by his lord and became an adventurer. But banditry seemed to suit him, and as he repeatedly engaged in it, his underlings rapidly increased before he knew it.
The small bandit gang transformed into a large horde in the blink of an eye, quickly gaining notoriety in the region. ‘These damn bastards.’ 10 years of real combat experience was not to be taken lightly. Even nimble swordsmen and promising mages had their heads lopped off the moment they resisted.
However, the type that troubled the boss most was not such powerhouses.
“Final warning!”
The man and girl calmly chatting despite a blade pointed at them. It was maddening. There wasn’t a soul in the area who didn’t know of the bandit horde’s infamy.
While the other passengers had all quickly raised their hands and hurriedly jumped out to empty their pockets, this pair seemed to not fully grasp the situation, maintaining a leisurely attitude.
‘This is why I hate dealing with idiots the most.’
If they resisted, he would at least have justification to behead them, but these types were even more of a pain to handle. He couldn’t let them live and save face after ignoring his warnings. Slitting their throats wouldn’t even be satisfying like this.
Just as the boss clicked his tongue and raised his sword,
“Hm?”
Yoo-jin’s eyes widened as he sensed faint killing intent, meeting the boss’s gaze. A chill instantly ran down the boss’s spine. His 10 years of varied combat experience. The keen senses honed from facing mages. They were all screaming at him. To run.
The moment he realized that, the boss was already moving. Thinking would be too slow. He had learned to instinctively leave his body to move unconsciously in order to survive.
‘Huh? But why is my vision spinning in the opposite direction?’
However, the way his field of view was rotating was strange. If he was leaping out of the carriage, his head should be turning towards the entrance. But the boss was twisting his neck the other way.
“Ah, damn-”
Only then did he realize. When his vision spun around and his own back came into view, he finally noticed. In an instant so brief he couldn’t even perceive it, his head had been sliced off.
“Hieek?!”
Thud. While his head was still rolling around inside the carriage, the boss’s headless corpse had already tumbled out and was rolling on the ground before receiving commands from his brain. The subordinates’ faces paled as they faced their boss’s decapitated body.
“Tch. That guy looked the toughest. I can’t even use them for training like this.”
Thump. Thump. Heavy footsteps echoed from inside the carriage as a figure emerged. As if deliberately refusing to reveal his face, the man stopped in the shadows. One, two, three, four…
He nodded his head, counting, then raised his sword. Not a single drop of blood stained the blade that had just severed a neck. There hadn’t even been time for blood to adhere.
“V-Vice Captain. What do we do?”
“Fuck, what is there to do! Everyone run…”
At that moment, the man’s figure vanished. And in the very next instant, the vice-captain’s vision spun.
* * *
Clop clop clop clop. The carriage bound for the village was so quiet it felt desolate. As if only corpses were riding in it. …Of course, that was a joke. I hadn’t killed a single innocent passenger.
“Hic.”
“…”
Slightly lifting my hat, people averted their gazes from me. They all tried their hardest not to look at my face or make eye contact with me. I was grateful for that. It would be troublesome if my identity got out.
Even if I became famous later on, it would be much more convenient to operate without my name and face being known.
‘Ack. It hurts.’
I suppressed a groan as I pulled the hat back over my face. I almost let out a moan from overload-induced pain.
If someone so much as touched my leg right now, I would likely immediately scream like a little girl. But since everyone was sitting far away from us, that likely wouldn’t happen.
‘Did I overdo it just now?’
Indeed, with all my focus poured into Mana Control, my speed had been tremendous.
Enough that a seemingly seasoned swordsman had his head cleanly lopped off without any resistance. However, maintaining that state was another issue. There were about 50 bandits remaining. Having energetically leaped out of the carriage, I couldn’t even behead 10 of them before going berserk and succumbing to overload.
The moment overload hit, I was essentially neutralized, but the match had already been decided. The terrified bastards had fled into the mountains without looking back. There was no need to even farm loot. Those jerks really didn’t carry a single decent sword.
They seemed to have left behind anything that would hinder their mountain climbing, so there were no valuables either. Instead, I took the dog tag hanging from the boss’s neck. It looked so out of place in a fantasy setting that my hand moved before I realized it from laughter.
In the end, I gave up on farming and laboriously climbed into the carriage with unsteady steps. It took quite a while for the wary passengers to get back on, greatly delaying our departure.
[Achievement Unlocked]
[NPC Slaughter!]
[As a reward for the achievement, the trait ‘Reputation’ is given.]
At least I gained something else besides confirming Mana Control’s performance. The Reputation trait. Come to think of it, I had killed quite a few people in previous regressions, but this was the first time I saw an achievement like this. NPCs and ordinary civilians seemed to be differentiated.
[Trait: Reputation]
[Check your reputation score.]
[Yoo-jin: 0.01%]
[Known by a small number of people. Very low presence.]
[???: 11%]
[Starting to gain notoriety. Presence is growing.]
Now what was this? I almost let out a sigh of absurdity the moment I saw it. Besides ‘Yoo-jin’, there was another unidentified column labeled ‘???’.
‘Is it because people don’t know my identity yet?’
The passengers hadn’t seen my face. Nor did they know my name. All they knew was that I could use a sword and had a hooded girl with me. The existence created by combining those pieces of information was probably ‘???’.
It seemed reputation was calculated separately from me as an individual named Yoo-jin.
‘This will be pretty convenient.’
I had assumed it would be a useless skill, but it looked quite handy. I could check in real-time how much rumors about me were spreading. Moreover, this trait had one more function.
‘Isn’t this just a trait for multi-accounting?’
It enabled shadow clone technique, so to speak. More precisely, it allowed me to instantly determine if a clone attempt succeeded. If a new identity was added to the reputation window when I introduced myself under a new name, it was a success.
On the other hand, if something like ‘Rumors are starting to circulate that he has a bit of a mental illness’ appeared in the ‘Yoo-jin’ column, it was a failure. ‘Eugh. I’m a bit reluctant to do it.’ I had always been a mild-mannered user even on anonymous online communities.
I would just occasionally mobilize like four or five accounts to upvote my own posts to the featured section, or mass downvote malicious posts. All to contribute to the virtuous cycle of the community. I was a decent netizen who never rigged votes or fabricated anything.
So I felt somewhat hesitant. But what else could I do? It was my policy to utilize everything at my disposal. For the first time ever, I resolved to set my conscience aside a little and attempt some vicious multi-accounting.
“…Danger.”
“Aah!!!”
Thud. A tiny hand landed on my shoulder, causing me to scream like a little girl. The overload-induced pain concentrated on my shoulder, making me think I would die from agony.
Blinking back tears, I turned to the side and saw Undecided chasing a fly buzzing in the air with her eyes, after leaping off my shoulder. After I told her to wake me up if there was danger, she woke me up because of a fly…?
[???: 11.2%]
[Starting to gain notoriety. Presence is growing. …A tic disorder is suspected.]
Fuck.
Should I sell this account?
* * *
On a pitch-black night, a large hand descended upon the head of Jill, who sat hugging her knees, unable to fall asleep. Slowly caressing her hair, the hand made her want to look back from the tender touch, but arms gently wrapped around her waist from behind.
Jill felt secure in that moderate pressure and leaned back. Resting her head against a broad chest, she nuzzled against it. She felt like being spoiled right then and there. Interlocking her fingers with the hand stroking her stomach, Jill quietly whispered,
“Let’s not go anywhere tomorrow and just stay together…”
But she couldn’t finish her words. Her throat seemed to stiffen, and no more sound came out. The sturdy body supporting her from behind and the strong arms encircling her waist vanished. A forlorn expression rippled across Jill’s face.
“Haa! Haa… Haaa…”
At dawn, Jill woke from her sleep, heavily catching her breath. Her hands were clammy, and cold sweat beaded her forehead. That dream again. The dream with the unknown man.
For some reason, being with that man made her feel at ease. She felt like he would accept her even if she revealed the ugly depths of her being. And above all, he felt reliable. As if no matter what happened, he would never leave her side and would protect her.
“Phew. Just what is this dream…”
It was definitely a nightmare, if one could call it that. Because the dream always ended with the man vanishing from sight. When she tried to see his face, he disappeared. Even when she gave up trying to figure out his identity and just wanted to savor that warmth, he quickly vanished.
It was clearly a man she had never met before. Yet this sense of reality refused to fade. Like most dreams, she thought the surge of emotions would die down after waking up and some time passed. But it wasn’t so. As time went on, the dreams became more and more vivid, and she began to have increasingly elaborate ones every night.
‘Could it be my fated partner or something?’
Jill snorted and slowly walked outside. She wasn’t one to be swayed by mere dreams. She would never be captured by something as trivial as a dream, becoming conscious of a man she had never deigned to spare a glance at in her entire life.
It might be the work of sorcery or magic by the faction opposing the saintess.
“Hm?”
Jill’s eyes narrowed as she checked the mailbox. An unfamiliar envelope. Not just unfamiliar, it was made of low-quality paper, not looking like something a noble would send.
Jill frowned and pulled out the envelope. It was obvious without even looking. Some commoner expressing their gratitude and well wishes to the saintess. She would toss it straight in the trash anyway, but she roughly tore open the envelope to read the contents, just in case.
“…”
The moment she ripped open the letter, Jill’s brow furrowed. The contents were unpleasant. A mischievous prank-like message claiming the anti-saintess faction was plotting something. The sender column was blank. But Jill quickly realized this was no mere prank.
“Huh?”
A wave of emotions crashed over her all at once. Before she knew it, tears were streaming down Jill’s cheeks. At the same time, fragments of memories began to resurface.
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