The Unidentified Entity Appears Again
The unidentified existence appeared before us once more. Without revealing its true form, it borrowed another's body.
I didn't know who it was, but I was certain its purpose was to interfere with me.
“Why did you appear again? You probably didn't come here just to say hello this time either.”
The being in front of me was walking along the edge of the building, humming a tune in a low voice.
Walking precariously at the edge of the building, humming a tune in a low voice. In that dangerous situation where it could fall at any moment, my fists unconsciously tightened.
“Hmm, well.”
He turned around and said.
“You don't have much time left until your debut. So, I've come to congratulate you.”
“Congratulate?”
His lips twisted into a smile at my questioning look.
“Of course, the congratulations are only for you. Do Won-woo, your debut is basically confirmed, but Won Ji-an isn't, right? You don't know if you'll live or die.”
He was deliberately shaking someone's psychology. I knew that. Still, listening to it made me feel disgusted.
Meanwhile, Won Ji-an seemed to be trying to understand the situation.
“Do Won-woo. You said it. There's no fault of yours for this kid becoming unfortunate.”
Saying that, he looked at the scenery beyond the building and then stared at me.
“You haven't thought that you're ruining everything?”
As he continued speaking, he looked up at the sky. A raindrop fell on his face and soon slid down his cheek.
“Making this novel a mess, stealing the place that others should have...”
His low voice flowed from his mouth as he looked up at the empty space.
“By making you happy, the people around you had to bear your misfortune instead.”
From the end of the building, he said to me.
“You are that kind of person. You push others into misfortune to survive.”
“Yeah, go ahead and spout nonsense.”
I no longer get tired of it. No matter what others say about me, I've reached the point where I can say whatever I want.
At that moment, Won Ji-an, who had been standing behind me, took a step forward and shouted.
“No.”
Our eyes met. It's been a long time since I've seen such an angry face.
“Won-woo isn't that kind of person. Everything about taking on the misfortune was my choice. So, don't talk like that.”
“...”
“You don't know who I am, but why do you need to appear in front of us and say hurtful things? There's no need for that.”
Then he burst into laughter.
“Whether it's necessary or not is up to me to decide, you idiot.”
The rain sound grew stronger.
The thin rain lines had become thicker and were pouring down fiercely.
“So, you came back just to say such things? You were going to mock me with some fake congratulations?”
He listened to my words with eyes wide open as if it was amusing, tilting his head to the side.
In the increasingly heavy rain, his figure became hazy.
“No. There's no way I came all the way here to say such pointless things.”
Standing at the end of the building, he smiled brightly at me and said.
“Congratulations can't be without a gift.”
“...A gift?”
“You, if you're an obstacle in my path, it's only right to get rid of you, right?”
After finishing his words, he spread his arms wide. It didn't take long to understand what gift he was talking about.
“No!”
The moment Yoon Hyeon-min's body leaned back, my body moved on its own.
After coming to my senses, I was grabbing the arm of Yoon Hyeon-min who was about to fall from the building. An instant pain as if my shoulder was about to dislocate came rushing in, but I couldn't let go.
Won Ji-an, who had been standing behind me, hurriedly ran over and grabbed me, barely pulling Yoon Hyeon-min up.
“...Ha, crazy bastard.”
After pulling him up, no words came out.
“Eh?”
And Yoon Hyeon-min, who seemed to have regained consciousness, looked bewildered.
After the unidentified existence entered and left the body, he was in a daze for a moment.
To snap him out of it, I snapped my fingers in front of his eyes.
“Hey.”
Yoon Hyeon-min startled and looked around.
“No, what, what happened...? I really didn't think of jumping.”
A hollow laugh escaped me.
I knew this would happen.
After putting my hand in Yoon Hyeon-min's pocket, I took out the recorder inside.
So, he was recording after all.
In the end, he had no intention of dying, and the moment I admitted my mistake, he was clearly going to do something ugly as a pretext. Whether it was exposure or not.
In the end, what Yoon Hyeon-min wanted was not an apology but my downfall.
“Why did I save this bastard?”
The aftertaste was bitter.
Honestly, I didn't do it out of any sense of justice.
It was just instinct. I couldn't just stand by while a person was dying in front of me.
“But thinking about it now, maybe I should have just let him die.”
Meanwhile, Yoon Hyeon-min, who saw me, fumbled and shouted.
“What, what!”
“I admitted it with my own mouth earlier. I really didn't think of jumping.”
“I don't know, damn it. Yeah! I didn't think of dying! Who would die for me? But when I came to my senses, my body was...”
Yoon Hyeon-min seemed uncomfortable with the fact that I saved him.
Although I didn't expect it, there was no thank you. I didn't save Yoon Hyeon-min expecting gratitude either.
“You see? The System isn't here to help you with your revenge. It just uses you for fun.”
I took a step forward and said.
“You were used like an idiot. Whether you die or not, the System doesn't care.”
“...”
“So, snap out of it. Pretending to have gone crazy after learning a false truth, pretending to have gone mad, pretending to have opened your eyes to revenge won't make you anything.”
Yoon Hyeon-min's face flushed red. But he couldn't say anything.
He himself would know. If it had been even a little wrong, he would have died as is.
“Scared? You'll go crazy? Won Ji-an and I have been going through this. Being controlled by the System every single day.”
Won Ji-an, standing behind, nodded.
“You say as if I received some special privilege and came to this place, but I didn't come here easily either. If it were you, you would have gone crazy and couldn't endure even a day.”
I didn't want to say any more. It was obvious that explaining it wouldn't be understood. I hadn't even hoped for understanding.
“Do you want to go back to before you learned the truth from the System?”
Yoon Hyeon-min flinched. His expression showed he wanted to object, but he didn't deny it. In the end, Yoon Hyeon-min would want to live.
He probably didn't have the mind to want revenge even at the cost of his own life.
“I'll erase it for you. Your memories.”
Yoon Hyeon-min looked at me.
“Is that possible?”
“Yeah.”
Yoon Hyeon-min seemed shaken.
Going back to before learning the truth. Maybe it wasn't bad.
“The saying 'ignorance is bliss'. Honestly, I didn't sympathize with that saying in the past. There were too many humans who cursed 'I don't know' when they didn't know. But thinking about it now, it seems better to live as a fool who knows nothing. Than to become a lunatic.”
As I took a step forward, Yoon Hyeon-min took a step back.
“If I say I don't want it?”
“I'm sorry, but I didn't ask for your opinion. I'm notifying you.”
Yoon Hyeon-min's pupils shook.
“Even if you say you don't want it, I'll erase it.”
I thought there was no need to drag it out any longer.
I was starting to get tired of seeing this face too.
“Disappear from my life now. Don't appear again.”
Time passed, and Yoon Hyeon-min woke up again on the rooftop.
“...What was I doing here?”
His memories were erased. The memories of today were replaced with other memories, and he had forgotten everything about meeting the System and hearing the truth.
“Ah, right. I came up here to take photos. But why suddenly photos...?”
Although the memories were replaced appropriately, there would inevitably be parts that didn't make sense even to himself.
But that was all that remained, a slight doubt.
He couldn't know that his memories had been erased through someone.
On the way out of the building and walking, Won Ji-an stopped. Then he turned around and stared at me.
“Do Won-woo.”
“Yeah?”
“Who exactly is that person?”
He's referring to the one who appeared using Yoon Hyeon-min's body.
To Won Ji-an, it would be bewildering. It was the first time seeing him today.
“I don't know either.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“There's nothing good that would come from telling you.”
Won Ji-an let out a deep sigh.
“So, who is it. When did it appear?”
“Recently.”
After explaining the whole story, Won Ji-an's expression became serious.
“If that's true, isn't it more dangerous than Yoon Hyeon-min?”
As Won Ji-an said.
If Yoon Hyeon-min was just a middle schooler with a vengeful complex, this one was someone who could properly use the System and knew all information about us.
“Moreover, today, not only did he enter Yoon Hyeon-min's body, but he also tried to jump while the owner's mind was taken away.”
If I had been even a little late, Yoon Hyeon-min would have died.
Thinking about that, perhaps it's a stronger opponent than I thought. If it's theoretically possible to do such a thing, it means he can kill people.
And a person who can kill anyone if it serves his purpose.
“Damn it, is this idol stuff?”
At this point, I can't tell if I'm reincarnated as an idol or a horror novel.
“If that's the case, if he comes into our bodies next time...”
Turning to Won Ji-an, who asked with a worried voice.
“But, no matter how fraudulent the System's ability is, there's no way he designed it to be so easy to kill people.”
If this structure was easy for anyone, he would have entered our bodies right away and caused all sorts of incidents.
But since it's not the case, it means the ability has limitations.
“Clearly, there are limits to using the ability, and what he squeezed out within those limits is this.”
In the situation where the final was not far away, I could see him desperately trying to prevent the debut.
Pretending to be relaxed, but actually in a huge struggle.
“But why did he try to jump in front of us using Yoon Hyeon-min's body?”
“Well. Although he said it's a gift with his own mouth, he probably didn't do that as a real gift.”
It could be a trick to break the mental state by making someone witness a person's death in front of them, or an intention to link us to Yoon Hyeon-min's death and bury us.
Whatever it was, what was certain was that our debut was an obstacle for him. So, he seemed to want to prevent it somehow.
But...
“I can't let things go as he wants.”
After saying that, I moved my feet further.
“Thinking about it, the quest reward I completed earlier...”
To cool my complicated head, I opened the system window to check the reward of the quest I completed earlier.
“This is...”
As I checked the system window, I froze.
I couldn't not know what this meant.