Chapter 31
Chapter 31
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 31
Chapter Title: Manners Make the Man #5
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"Where's the hunter you took away?"
"Hunter...? Oh, that big sis?"
Hee hee!
The object reacted as if she'd just remembered, flashing an innocent smile.
"I took her to my house! We're gonna be friends forever."
"Friends, huh."
"Yeah! The mean fanatics told me. If you use your power like this, you can be friends forever...!"
"Guh, it's a familiar. True Ancestors have the ability to command familiars. That's probably what she means."
The fox beastkin explained from the side, sweating bullets.
'Ah.'
She couldn't kill them, so she was binding them another way.
One curiosity lingered—
'If we end up all bound up like this and can't clear it, do we just get kicked out?'
That wouldn't be the worst outcome, either.
In this era of conquering the great tower, getting stuck fumbling around at this floor level.
It'd be a massive hit to the reputations of Do-yoon and the other novice hunters.
Bobbling along.
The young True Ancestor swayed her head side to side in a gesture like she was pondering something.
"Y'know, I'm feeling really good right now. 'Cause I really wanted to...! Pay back the people who hurt me, just like they did to me...!"
For some reason, the object utterly loathed and despised the fanatics who were NPCs in this place.
'Must've done something wrong.'
He didn't overthink it.
What stood before him was the Tower Lord, the Wine Lord's past.
Right and wrong didn't matter—only the facts of the incident did.
'Fanatics are the bad guys.'
Do-yoon ran his thought process following the manual he'd picked up from the gallery.
"Good job."
"Huh...?"
The hunters were the ones startled by the praise from Do-yoon's mouth.
Praising the object in this situation.
They were too busy figuring out how to bolt to think of kind words.
Now the two hunters had no choice but to exchange loaded glances.
'This guy's nuts, right?'
'Totally.'
The fear and tension gripping the hunters' hearts aligned perfectly without a word.
"Hee..."
The object, who'd received unexpected praise, tilted her head and looked up at Do-yoon.
"Did I do good?"
"Yeah."
"That's weird... All the bad fanatics called me a monster."
"The ones who call others monsters are the real monsters."
Do-yoon had grown up in an orphanage as a kid.
His memories of family had leaked away white as an old man's hair due to the Gate Break.
Instead, he'd learned early how to handle other kids.
The so-called elementary school lingo.
At those words, the smile that had been constant on the young True Ancestor's face suddenly froze.
"Monster...? The bad fanatics are the monsters?"
"Yep."
"That's weird...? I'm the monster, right? I killed them all? Hee, hee hee. They hurt me, so I hurt them back."
The young True Ancestor's mind tangled into a mess.
An instinct born of malice.
But she had no way to cope with someone praising her and looking at her normally in this broken situation.
'Why?'
She'd even forgotten that the smile had faded from her own lips.
Only then did the True Ancestor properly take in Do-yoon's appearance.
"Y'know what?"
"Huh...?"
"Hide-and-seek is way more fun with two people."
"...Huh?"
In the midst of the spiraling madness, Do-yoon stepped toward the True Ancestor with a warm smile.
"W-Wait...!"
"If you don't want to screw everything up, shut up and stay put."
Do-yoon said coldly over his shoulder to the hunters as he approached the True Ancestor.
This was a moment demanding utmost caution.
The object was a bundle of variables, the prototype boss monster, a ragtag of pain and malice.
In short, a monster wearing the skin of a little girl stood before Do-yoon.
'What to do.'
Leaving the now-silent hunters behind at his words, he racked his brain for a moment.
The object's sudden appearance was highly disorienting.
But if he thought positively, it saved him the trouble of tracking her down.
He would've had to meet her eventually anyway.
'Cooperate.'
To clear the theme stage, he needed to go through the object's story—her ordeal.
For that, he had to resonate with her first and advance the remaining tale.
"Here."
So Do-yoon willingly extended his hand toward the object.
"Let's go beat up... I mean, catch those fanatics."
"That's weird, so weird... The other big sis and big bro were on the fanatics' side."
"...Who?"
"I know everything. People who wanna hurt me like the bad fanatics come in here."
Do-yoon immediately realized the truth behind the 'big sis and big bro' she'd mentioned.
"Big bro's gonna hurt me like the bad guys too, right?"
'Hunters.'
She'd apparently dragged off a few more before coming to him.
'This much?'
A power that could instantly overpower novice hunters like him and reach his location.
'Did the balance team all clock out?'
It was clearly far too harsh an ordeal for a newbie like Do-yoon.
"Hoo."
Do-yoon shook off the gloom creeping into his mind.
"Big bro's friends with those bad guys too, right?"
An undeniable fact.
Do-yoon was a hunter just like them.
"...Hic."
The hunters behind him paled and let out sharp gasps.
They sensed the fragile peace wouldn't last.
-Ssssss...
Do-yoon's gaze caught the blood-red aura creeping up behind the object.
He sensed it instinctively.
An overwhelming power he couldn't even touch.
A natural disaster.
The object was a calamity sweeping through the theme stage.
-Crunch.
Deep self-loathing welled up at his own helpless flailing.
It was powerlessness he'd felt many times before, yet it never got easier.
Perhaps it stemmed from his birth—no, from the day of the Gate Break when he lost everything.
He faced the object as her malice surfaced.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ Due to the target's mental interference, 'Mana Resistance (C)' activates. Failure! "....!"
No sooner had the status window announced failure than a throbbing headache assaulted him.
Do-yoon staggered for a moment but clenched his teeth, regaining his senses and planting his feet firmly.
His mental strength was draining in real time.
A dizzying sensation like plummeting into an endless abyss gripped his shoulders.
He wanted to plot an escape using his full abilities right now, but reason barely held him back.
'Can't run anyway.'
The opponent was the object who'd effortlessly subdued several hunters already.
Reminded of the power gap, Do-yoon calmly recalled the gallery conversations.
The advice to side with her past self as much as possible and soothe her ill temper.
"I wanna play, but... I don't trust big bro."
The young True Ancestor flashed a beaming smile.
The emotion in her eyes was far from joy.
Somewhere between poignancy and emptiness.
"D-Do-yoon."
-Drip. Drip.
Before he could turn at the trembling voice, he spotted blood trickling down his chin.
Nosebleed.
The limit was approaching soon.
Like the other hunters, he'd fail to win over the object and get booted from the tower while kidnapped.
And after that?
-Grind!
Do-yoon bit his cheek to snap out of it.
The world spun and his legs buckled, but he forced a twisted smile.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ Resistance failed! Resistance failed! Resistance fa—! "...How dare a mere imitation that dares mimic me harbor greed beyond your station." Amid the blaring status window warnings, a voice rang out.
But Do-yoon had no spare attention for the unexpected turn.
His vision stayed locked straight ahead on the object, poised to strike at any moment.
The girl with snow-white skin and hair, preserving a twisted image of her happy past.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ The target attempts 'True Ancestor's Memory' and 'Resonance'. "....Huh?"
The object, about to resume her hunt, froze at the bizarre sensation.
Their minds forcibly linked, identities tangling for an instant.
-Crackle!
"Wh-What?!"
A nearby hunter freaked out at the traces of burning mana.
-Kwaaaaa!!
The object and Do-yoon.
An impossibility was unfolding due to some interference.
🔔 RING! 🔔 "M-Me, wha...?"
The mana she'd used to slaughter countless fanatics slipped from the object's control.
Do-yoon spoke as he gazed at the object, now suddenly an ordinary little girl.
"It's okay."
He took a step amid the raging gale.
With each step, new memories and emotions surged into him.
They weren't his.
The source was—
"D-Don't come closer."
The girl—the victim of all this, turned monster by someone's greed—shaken by the unforeseen chaos.
"It's okay."
Before he knew it,
Do-yoon had reached the object's side.
"I'll do it."
He raised his trembling arm toward the young True Ancestor.
"...Hic."
The terrified girl squeezed her eyes shut.
But the expected pain never came.
Instead, the touch she'd craved more than anything warmly enveloped her back.
"Ah?"
Acting on instinct amid the flooding memories,
Do-yoon hugged the object, as if something pushed his back.
The sensation flowing through his arms was far too fragile and delicate for a murder ghost's.
"It hurt so much, and you were so lonely."
"......"
"I'll take care of it now."
He conveyed his willingness to stand in her stead.
The young True Ancestor froze like a broken doll.
Beyond the dizzying haze of her mind, she felt something.
Endless experiments, inorganic gazes, fanatics looking at her not as life but as merchandise—terrifying landscapes.
Behind the pitch-black curtain painted in crimson, fragments of precious memories she must never forget.
"It hurts."
"Yeah."
"Hurts..."
The monster nestled in Do-yoon's arms sobbed pitifully, tears like chick peas streaming down.