Chapter 126
Chapter 126
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 126
Chapter Title: The Flower Tree Mark
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Seol Do-yoon lay on the bed, staring at his phone.
He always woke up five minutes before the alarm rang.
He turned off the morning alarm that hadn't even gone off, got out of bed, and straightened the covers.
Every morning when he woke up, he always showered first to clear his mind.
Seol Do-yoon pulled out the clothes he planned to wear that day and headed to the bathroom.
“…….”
He took off his top and glanced at the mirror, where he spotted something suspicious.
“What is it?”
Seol Do-yoon touched the strange pattern near his neck with his fingertip.
It was shaped like a flower tree sprouting from his solar plexus and branching up to his neck.
Seol Do-yoon turned on the faucet, wetted his hand with water and a bit of soap, and wiped at his neck.
It clung to his skin like a tattoo and wouldn't come off.
He had no clue when it had appeared, leaving him flustered.
Seol Do-yoon personally despised tattoos.
He preferred things neat and clean, and he hated anything attention-grabbing.
He didn't like having standout features that could leave a lasting impression on someone.
Above all, he loathed the stereotypical prejudice that came with tattoos.
He scratched at it with his nails until his skin turned red. Naturally, it didn't budge.
‘This is a problem.’
Staring at the pattern in the mirror, a memory flashed through Seol Do-yoon's mind.
The Black Ghost Knight, the soulstone that emerged from and reentered the body, and Ryukrian's flower tree.
And the alert that had popped up when he acquired the hidden class.
[The flower tree implanted in the soulstone manifests on the skin.]
He'd thought it only applied inside the game...
He always hunted down papers on game capsule principles and reviewed various awakening cases, but he'd never encountered an instance where something that happened in the game manifested as a physical change in the real body.
Sure, there were cases after second awakening where hair and eye color changed when using mana, but this was utterly different from those mana-induced shifts.
For a simple simulator, the degree of direct real-world implementation was far too advanced.
Seol Do-yoon suddenly recalled the connection between real-world gates and monster dungeons.
The popular theory that Ninapinta's dungeons were modeled after real gates had way too many holes.
For instance, the number and types of dungeons in Ninapinta vastly outnumbered those of real gates...
‘No way...’
Seol Do-yoon formulated a ridiculous new hypothesis.
Seol Do-yoon opened the unique status window he'd had since birth and stared at it for a moment.
[Name: (null)]
Level: 542
*Please set your name.
From what he remembered, before the characters glitched out, it had looked exactly like this.
It bore a striking resemblance to Ninapinta's system window.
The many similarities between real monsters and Ninapinta's monsters.
Dungeons that popped up out of nowhere and gates of matching types.
Status windows, monsters, gates.
There were far too many overlaps to brush off.
‘Creepy.’
But Seol Do-yoon didn't want to put stock in the idea that Ninapinta wasn't just a simple game.
It felt like some baseless, outlandish conspiracy theory. He'd sooner admit to believing in a flat Earth.
‘Above all, if we assume Ninapinta's world is a real one, how do you explain Dun?’
If they weren't mere NPCs but actual living humans, how was Sae-byeok living with memories from this side?
Given the weakening-related abilities and the second awakening, it might be good to meet in person.
Creak, creak.
Seol Do-yoon turned on the faucet and let the water run.
The flower tree pattern still showed no sign of fading.
* * *
He needed to meet Seol Do-yoon, but had no idea what the guy was up to out there.
Asking another player to drag him over would definitely make him throw a tantrum.
Touch him rashly, and he'd draw unwanted eyes, then unleash a barrage of toothpick-like arrows.
‘He said he'd come find me when the time was right.’
Dun climbed onto the roof of the abandoned observatory and activated his skill, ‘Farsight,’ to search for Seol Do-yoon.
Using Farsight too often made mana pool up in his eyes until they felt ready to burst, so he spaced it out every two hours.
[Who are you looking for...?]
“Ah.”
Dun glanced down at Dogpoo, who was serving as a cushion under his arm.
Now that he thought about it, his little Dogpoo was great at tracking people. But could he find someone he'd never met?
Dogpoo had never encountered Seol Do-yoon.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, an arrow streaked toward Dun at blinding speed.
Dun, still eyeing Dogpoo, reached out to snatch the incoming arrow with his hand.
The formless arrow passed straight through his hand and struck true. Hit by the intangible arrow, Dun cocked his head.
Somehow, his body felt more at ease than before.
[Soul Arrow has struck you.]
[Attack power greatly weakened for 5 hours.]
A welcome notification appeared out of nowhere. Dun pulled up his status window to check his ability utilization rate.
[Ability Utilization Rate: 35%]
“Wow, what the hell.”
This was the number without even focusing. And it lasted five hours, no less.
As Dun's eyes gleamed at the status window, a voice called up from below.
“Dun!!”
Seol Do-yoon had his hand cupped near his mouth, shouting Dun's name. Dun leaned over, eyes widening.
Their gazes met, and Seol Do-yoon broke into a grin, waving.
With Dogpoo asleep atop his head, Dun leaped straight down from the observatory roof to Seol Do-yoon.
The landing cratered the ground, kicking up a thick cloud of dust.
“Flashy entrance.”
Seol Do-yoon covered his nose and mouth with his collar, fanning away the dust as he coughed a few times.
“Hey, you look kinda different from last time?”
Dun strode right up to Seol Do-yoon, shoved his face close, and scanned him from head to toe.
On closer inspection, there was a pattern on his neck. It was so familiar that Dun was a little startled.
‘Why’s that showing up in the game too?’
Dun recalled a time long ago when Seol Do-yoon had shown up with a tattoo on his neck.
‘Wanted to look badass. What do you think? Cool, right?’
‘Total crap.’
He'd sighed, figuring the guy had chuunibyou on top of his cool-guy syndrome.
Keeping the tattoo even in-game. Had the gangster supervisor vibe completely consumed him?
He remembered their friendship cooling off around the time that pattern appeared.
“Why are you staring like that?”
“Uh, uh. Was looking at the tattoo. It’s cool.”
“You weren’t thinking ‘peak chuuni cool-guy disease,’ were you?”
“Huh. How’d you know?”
This side’s Sae-byeok was surprisingly careful with his words. It was kinda funny.
Seol Do-yoon smirked and spoke up.
“But more importantly, how was the arrow I shot?”
“Oh yeah, that. Gimme more of those. They’re awesome.”
His body had felt incredibly light ever since it hit. Just as he remembered, each shot packed a massive punch.
“You like it?”
“Yeah. Been hawking them since earlier—brought ’em for me, huh? Hand ’em over.”
Seol Do-yoon gathered mana in his hand and quickly conjured several new arrows, shaking them in front of Dun.
“I’ll give ’em to you if you answer my questions honestly, as best you can.”
“Deal. Thing is, even when I wanna be straight with you, there’s info I straight-up can’t share.”
“I figured. I’ll read between the lines.”
Flashing a smile, Seol Do-yoon handed the arrows to Dun and continued.
“You said you just woke up here one day.”
“Yeah.”
“Could you give me a quick rundown of what happened after you opened your eyes here?”
“Uh... not much? Woke up in Montgehel. Climbed up to Rihaowel and Genesis, been living there. Pinpointing the timing for your sake—six years ago.”
“...Haha. Thanks.”
Six years ago lined up perfectly with the game’s release.
The fact that Ninapinta’s NPCs had lives even before launch felt strangely profound.
“So how did the adventurers end up here?”
“You know Prima Vera? Prim had this dream about a magic circle that could bring adventurers, so they recreated it and boom—a portal.”
“…….”
Seol Do-yoon fell silent.
He was probably deep in thought, forming hypotheses, testing them, verifying, refuting.
Judging by the pre-launch questions, he must’ve developed doubts about this world.
Dun let his brain churn unchecked, scanning the surroundings before scooping up some quality soil and standing in front of Seol Do-yoon.
“But anyway, I’ve got something you might find interesting.”
“...What?”
Dun placed the soil in Seol Do-yoon’s hand. Seol Do-yoon stared at the heap in his palm and tilted his head.
“Here, grip this soil, picture yourself as an adult, and say it after me. Body transformation.”
“?”
“Just try it. Body transformation.”
“Body transformation.”
He parroted Dun. Nothing happened, contrary to expectations.
“Huh. Player thing, or maybe not a Bachinum.”
“…….”
[Insufficient materials!]
Seol Do-yoon blinked at the alert, then reached out to touch the soil-packed ground and tried again.
“Body transformation.”
Soil began gathering toward his hand, soon seeping into his body.
[You have acquired the skill [Bachinum (dc143c-T) Body Transformation lv.1].]
[You have obtained a physical body. Account will be deleted upon death.]
[Logout impossible while maintaining physical body.]
Dun gazed at the suddenly grown Seol Do-yoon. The baby fat was gone, his features sharper and more defined.
“It said insufficient materials before.”
The pretty-yet-menacing black-ops vibe was intact.
“Oh, hey. It worked.”
This version felt more familiar to Dun than the kid one. It was exactly how he’d looked before dying.
“...So Bachinum isn’t exclusive to Ninapinta.”
“What, you seriously had no idea you were one?”
“Who thinks a game mechanic would apply to real life?”
“Fair point.”
Seol Do-yoon seemed remarkably calm despite learning his true nature.
But Dun knew better. Inside, he was probably spinning wild theories in total chaos.
Dun stayed quiet to give him time to think, then spoke up after three minutes.
“Now that you know what you are, check this out.”
Dun scribbled something on a piece of paper and held it up in front of Seol Do-yoon’s frozen gaze.
[Soul Transfer Path]
[dc143c-T → dc143c-G]
“What’s this?”
“Got it by analyzing the magic circle that summons adventurers.”
“Those letters look familiar. If Ninapinta’s Bachinum setup carries over to reality, does that mean the front part is my world?”
Somehow he’d connected the dots to the right conclusion lightning-fast, already moving on.
Dun appreciated the cooperation.
Dun had tried creating a ‘Creature Summon’ skill once but failed due to insufficient ability, so he jotted down that notification and showed it to Seol Do-yoon.
[Unauthorized Abilities:
Soul Transfer
Soul Extraction
Soul Duplication
Soul Fusion]
“...Explain.”
“So, I’ve got this Daboseok World, right? I tried making a skill to summon its monsters the same way as players. It said I need those skills above. If that checks out, proves I’m no game character.”
“You mentioned the skill-creation ability but skipped this part... You want to summon Daboseok creatures to this world, mimicking how this world pulls in players. That way, they won’t truly die here. And confirming it proves you guys aren’t NPCs—you’re otherworlders.”
Dun nodded at the spot-on recap with no missteps.
“All correct. Got any leads?”
Seol Do-yoon’s eyes narrowed as he stared at Dun in silence for a long stretch.
“What? Why?”
“Nothing. Just figured once it’s proven you’re not a game character, people’ll get real curious about what you are.”
“Always wondered myself.”
Seol Do-yoon smirked, scrolled through his skill list, and lingered on ‘Soul Duplication.’
Did the soul get duplicated and flow into another world?
It wasn’t far off from his hunch that Dun might be an AI modeled after Sae-byeok.
Too many unknowns to lock it down, so for now, helping Dun while gathering more intel seemed smartest.
“Lucky for you, I’ve got every soul-related skill you need. Picked them up with my latest awakening abilities.”
“!”
“Only hitch is they’re all skills... Know anyone who can convert skills into magic circles?”
Things were falling into place.
Dun snapped his fingers and sent a message via record parchment.
{Dun: Prim, help me out.}
Ten seconds later.
{Primavera: Ready.}
Thirty seconds after that.
{Primavera: But what do you need help with?}