Chapter 227
Chapter 227
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 228
Chapter Title: The Glitching Doppelganger
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I stared at the 'Kim Sunwoo' standing across from me.
The 'Kim Sunwoo' met my gaze as well.
Facing a guy who looked exactly like me felt strangely eerie, a sensation creeping up slowly.
It was a sense of displeasure, perhaps?
It felt completely different from looking in a mirror.
"...There are two seniors?"
Then a small voice came from beside me.
Eun Seol-ah, who had collapsed onto the ground, was looking at me and the doppelganger with wide, startled eyes.
"Don't worry. I'm the real one."
Even at my words, Eun Seol-ah didn't drop her guard.
It was a perfectly normal reaction, since the doppelganger copied personalities too.
"It's true. Doppelgangers don't fight each other."
"Oh."
Only then did Eun Seol-ah's wariness toward me melt away. She let out a sigh of relief.
I turned my gaze back to 'Kim Sunwoo.'
He was still looking at me with an unreadable expression, his thoughts inscrutable.
It even sent a chill down my spine.
I wondered if other people felt this way when they saw me.
"Hoo..."
I let out a deep sigh and prepared for battle.
There was no reason I would lose. My opponent was a 'fake' with only about 50% of my power.
If I stuck to fundamentals over fancy techniques, victory was mine without question.
I gathered my mana and focused it at my toes. Then I shot forward.
Paat!
As I charged, 'Kim Sunwoo' reacted to my movement, shifting to counter my attack.
But there was no way a fake with half my power could keep up.
In an instant, I closed the distance right to his face.
He tried to backstep away, creating space. But my speed outpaced his movement.
"...Kuh!"
That was when it happened.
Woooong...
I sensed a flow of mana from his body.
It was unusual, but familiar.
Instinctively, I realized what he would do next.
'Instant Acceleration.'
It was a technique I often used for counterattacks in crises.
And in that brief moment, I felt utter bewilderment.
First life detection, and now Instant Acceleration too?
Would it start copying my perfect counters next?
I halted all attacks and braced for his Instant Acceleration.
Just as he began moving his mana to activate it.
Something unexpected happened.
His body froze up like it had malfunctioned. At the same time, his entire form filled with openings.
I didn't know what was going on, but it was clearly an opportunity.
Woooong!
I quickly manifested a magic orb and fired it straight into his gut.
Kwaaaang-!
His defenseless body tumbled across the ground.
He lay face-down, unconscious. I'd won the fight without even understanding what happened.
"...What the hell?"
The situation was so sudden that I blinked in confusion at the fallen 'Kim Sunwoo.'
He remained still, sprawled on the ground.
No trembling, no breathing.
He looked frozen solid, like ice.
"Senior?"
Sensing the fight was over, Eun Seol-ah cautiously approached me.
"Are you okay?"
"...Yeah, I'm fine. You?"
"I'm okay too."
Eun Seol-ah gave a faint smile. Then she bowed deeply, saying, 'Thank you for helping me!'
Her polite demeanor brought a pleased smile to my face.
I turned my gaze back to the doppelganger.
Eun Seol-ah followed my lead and looked at it too.
"But didn't that doppelganger just freeze up a second ago?"
"Yeah. It stiffened like it broke."
"...Why did that happen?"
"...No idea."
I had a few hypotheses in mind.
Maybe a minor glitch in the doppelganger itself.
Or perhaps it tried to use 'Instant Acceleration,' a technique beyond its capabilities, causing an error...
One thing was certain: this bizarre behavior from the doppelganger had never been mentioned in the original story.
"......What is it."
Oh, right.
I hadn't gotten the doppelganger kill points yet. Was it still alive?
I hurriedly looked back at the doppelganger.
At that moment, I jolted in shock at the sight before me.
"...What is this?"
The doppelganger, which had been face-down on the ground moments ago, was now standing and staring at me.
But that wasn't why I was shocked.
The doppelganger's current appearance was no longer worthy of being called 'Kim Sunwoo.'
Its face was melting like paint, its body twisting grotesquely with sticky sounds.
And between the flesh, faint blue magical runes glowed.
In other words, it was reverting from its stolen form to its true 'doppelganger' shape.
—...Ugh! Kek! Kk! Kek!
"S-Se...nior?"
Shock filled Eun Seol-ah's eyes. With fearful steps, she backed away and clutched my clothes.
I had no idea what was happening, but it sure wasn't normal.
A doppelganger was a virtual monster created by the 'Demon of Observation.'
It wasn't a monster with free will.
It was more like a program woven from spells.
For it to suddenly show this form meant either a problem with the 'Demon of Observation' or an error in the 'doppelganger.'
It shuffled toward me like a zombie.
I immediately surged my mana and fired an orb.
The orb shot toward its head at high speed.
Kwaaaang!
A powerful explosion erupted, smoke rising. I could tell it had hit true and defeated it.
But...
It didn't fall.
Its neck snapped back from the magical impact, yet it stood as if nothing had happened.
"...What the actual hell?"
Then it lifted its head. Half its face gone, it stared at me.
—...Kek! Kk! Kek!
With its head half-blown off, it had clearly taken damage.
If so, I'd just keep blasting it with magic until it died.
I manifested multiple magic orbs and unleashed them at its body.
The orbs scattered, hammering its form from all sides.
Kwang!
Kwang!
Kwaaaang!
As I poured out the spells relentlessly, a message rang in my head.
[You have defeated the doppelganger disguised as a teammate.]
[You acquire 300 points.]
"Hoo."
Finally, I'd properly taken down the 'doppelganger.'
I walked forward and looked down at its corpse.
Its body was now blue jelly, fully reverted to the true form of a 'doppelganger.'
In the international research city 'Wigen,' where the Holy Martial Games trials were held.
The second trial of the Holy Martial Games, 'Nighttime Doppelganger Hunt,' was being broadcast live inside the arena.
The crowd was plunged into great confusion watching the feed.
A few doppelgangers had shown bizarre behavior, creating shocking scenes.
"...Did some kind of error happen?"
"Nah, no way. It's all staged."
"If it's staged, why is only Kim Sunwoo's doppelganger acting like that?"
The doppelgangers showing grotesque actions on screen were all from the Korean Wizardry Academy—'Kim Sunwoo's' doppelgangers.
It was so shocking to the spectators that rumors spread the Holy Martial Games trials were just a scripted show.
And.
In the 'Wigen Central System Control Room' at the heart of Wigen, which managed all systems, it was currently in 'emergency' status.
The doppelgangers' bizarre actions during the trial were unexpected even by Wigen's researchers.
"Why are they doing that?! Why are they reverting to their original forms?"
"We don't know. The spell structure forming the doppelgangers was perfect, but from some point, they started glitching."
One researcher pulled up a screen on the massive monitor.
"It's an error, right?"
"Yes, it's an error... Though we can't dissect the spell data to confirm."
"How does a perfect spell glitch?"
"No idea. It feels like some kind of virus or malware..."
The Chief Technology Officer frowned at the response.
"Are you saying Kim Sunwoo is a virus?"
"No! Not that. I'm saying it's irregular. It's completely ignoring the rules of the spells that build the virtual world."
The officer fell into thought.
"'Apostle of Observation' has nothing to say?"
"...No, no response at all."
"Hah. That thing really does whatever it wants. I knew it from when it wouldn't answer despite being made for future observation."
"Anyway, the glitching doppelgangers—are they being properly defeated?"
"Yes. Already three 'Kim Sunwoo doppelgangers' have been hunted."
"Then proceed with the trial as is. Canceling over some error would embarrass us worldwide."
With that, he glanced at the small photo of Kim Sunwoo in the bottom left of the monitor.
"...What the hell is going on?"
Five minutes before the end of the 'Nighttime Doppelganger Hunt' trial.
Werner sat leaning against a tree, staring blankly at the ground.
He'd somehow managed to eliminate Yang Ying, the top student from the Chinese Wizardry Academy, by disguising it as coincidence.
Yang Ying was better than expected, so he'd mixed in a bit of seriousness midway, but it probably didn't show.
The problem came next.
"...Couldn't find him to the end."
He'd failed to locate Kim Sunwoo, the real target of this trial.
It was a fresh shock—the first time since 'that person' that he hadn't found a single trace despite serious tracking.
"...What a humiliation."
To think he couldn't track down one 19-year-old kid.
Sure, he'd rotted away doing research in Wigen, but...
His skills hadn't dulled.
"Hmm."
Kim Sunwoo was suspicious no matter how he thought about it.
He could only conclude the guy had deliberately hidden his presence.
And there'd be no reason to hide without cause.
Which meant he might have noticed he was being tracked.
"Did I go overboard?"
Well, how would Kim Sunwoo know our goals? He's not a god.
"Before that..."
Werner sighed and shifted his gaze to the ground in front of him.
There lay 'Kim Sunwoo's doppelganger,' collapsed.
"What the hell is that?"
He'd found several doppelganger corpses like this while wandering the forest.
They were grotesque mixes of original doppelganger forms and Kim Sunwoo's face.
"Did the 'Demon of Observation' glitch out?"
As a top Wigen researcher, Werner had contributed to creating the 'Demon of Observation.' Just looking at the corpses told him something was wrong.
He rested his chin in thought.
If the Demon of Observation had glitched, it wasn't something to brush off.
It could impact their plans—a major incident.
"Guess I need to talk to the Apostle separately."
...That was when he sensed the gravity of the situation.
[The second trial, 'Nighttime Doppelganger Hunt,' has ended.]
[Surviving participants, you have earned the 'qualification' to challenge the next trial.]
[Moving to the 'intermediate zone' shortly.]
The trial end message rang out.
Werner hung his head in futility.
"......Sigh."
No satisfying results after all. He'd bragged to his colleagues—what would they think?
"Tch."
This wasn't the time for dejection.
With the trial over, the remaining doppelgangers in the arena would vanish soon.
Time to leave this place.
After the trial ended.
Enveloped in strong light, we arrived in the underground auditorium of the [Intermediate Zone] mansion.
Looking around, there were 26 students.
Originally 35, so 9 eliminated this round.
"Fewer than expected. 26? Nine out?"
Yoo Ah-ra scanned the surroundings and muttered quietly.
Beside her, Lee Seo-jun frantically looked around, searching for someone.
"Where's Hyun-joo?"
"...Yeah? Haven't seen her since earlier."
Yoo Ah-ra also searched for Lee Hyun-joo.
"...She must've been eliminated."
Lee Seo-jun muttered regretfully. Lee Hyun-joo was a key fighter for the Korean team.
Her elimination wasn't good news.
Now left from Korean Wizardry Academy: me, Lee Seo-jun, Yoo Ah-ra, Choi Seo-yoon, Eun Seol-ah.
Just five.
"It's fine. Don't worry. Other teams are worse off."
I turned my gaze to the Chinese Wizardry Academy side.
They all wore devastated expressions from losing their ace.
That was when it happened.
The side door by the platform burst open, and the three examiners reentered.
Apostle of Observation, Werner, James.
Werner had already reverted to his calm examiner facade.
"Students who survived the second trial, well done."
The Apostle of Observation scanned us. Her gaze paused on me.
With a stiff, oddly intense stare, she looked right at me before speaking again.
"Some of you likely had unexpected experiences during the trial. I apologize on this occasion."
A few students who understood glanced at me.
"Now, we will announce the results of the 'Nighttime Doppelganger Hunt' trial."
The Apostle swung one arm wide.
A massive screen appeared in the air.
It was a hologram created by the 'Apostle of Observation,' master of this virtual world, using spells and mana.
1st: Kim Sunwoo - 1,900 points
2nd: Lee Seo-jun - 1,200 points
3rd: Lily Rose - 900 points
"1st place is Kim Sunwoo!"
"Whoa, 1,900 points?"
Everyone reacted with surprise at the rankings.
The gap over 2nd and 3rd was huge.
Of course, it was possible thanks to the outsider perk 'Character Insight.'
['Holy Martial Games Trial 1st Place' achievement unlocked.]
[Acquired 3,000 points as reward.]
"Kim Sunwoo, who took 1st, receives 500 team points and 500 personal points. Congratulations."
I stared blankly at the rankings.
Being chased by Werner, I'd never dreamed of 1st. An unexpected outcome.
Satisfying, but had I stood out too much? Unnecessary worry crept in.
As I thought that, I glanced at Werner.
He stared back with a rigid smile. He was definitely pissed.