Chapter 192
Chapter 192
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 192
Chapter Title: Shattered Mask
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*Crackle...*
The mask, shattered into countless pieces, clattered to the floor. With nothing left to hide his face, Soo-hyuk let his arms drop to his sides.
He could always cover his face with his hands or bow his head.
But what good would that do?
His opponent was Hailz.
The great archmage who ranked just below the Heavenly Demon.
Once she set her mind to something, Soo-hyuk had no power to resist her in his current state.
"......"
"Satisfied now?"
Soo-hyuk asked in a voice tinged with irritation.
Hailz examined his face thoroughly. He was handsome, but it was a face she'd never seen before.
She tilted her head this way and that, then muttered in a slightly dazed tone.
"You're... pretty good-looking?"
Soo-hyuk was, in fact, quite handsome.
His features were sharp and refined, and there was a masculine edge to his gaze.
But that wasn't what Hailz had been hoping for.
"Does it match? Lee Soo-hyuk's?"
Hailz gave an awkward smile at Soo-hyuk's sharp question.
As if it could.
It was a face she'd never laid eyes on before. Far from resembling Lee Soo-hyuk, there wasn't a single similar feature.
She knew what Lee Soo-hyuk looked like.
'Showing him my face was the mistake.'
Soo-hyuk recalled the time he'd revealed his face to Hailz in the past.
"What are you gonna do, see my face?"
"Don't be stingy. It's not like it'll kill you to show it."
"It won't kill me, but I'm going for the mysterious vibe right now, unintentionally."
"Not hiding an ugly mug, are you?"
"...Here, take a look. Ugly?"
Soo-hyuk had taken off his mask in response to her cheeky taunt.
It hadn't mattered back then, but who knew it would come back to bite him like this?
Not that he regretted it much.
Who could have predicted he'd die and reincarnate as someone else? Let alone that Hailz had a crush on him?
Besides, Lee Soo-hyuk's face wasn't some grand secret to begin with.
'The mask was just an item.'
A solid piece of gear with great stamina bonuses.
Wearing it constantly had been one of many measures to handle lightning.
The problem was that over time, it led to weird nicknames like the "Faceless Player" or "Golden Knight of the Mask."
"Haa..."
"Ha, haha."
Hailz looked troubled at Soo-hyuk's sigh.
'I thought maybe he wasn't dead after all...'
The streamer Lee Soo-hyuk shared too much in common with the real one.
It even made her heart race the same way. That's why she had to confirm it.
Her first test had been the guild recruitment offer.
If he really was the Lee Soo-hyuk she knew.
No matter the excuse, he would never join any guild but Blue Eyes.
"So... why not join a guild?"
When Soo-hyuk refused, Hailz had impolitely removed his mask.
It was an offer from the great archmage Hailz herself.
Accepting it could land him a top position in a major guild. Just being known as under her protection would catapult him to the top ranks.
He didn't seem stupid enough to miss that calculus.
His streaming showed he was sharp as hell.
That's why she couldn't understand it.
"I'm not even the real deal?"
"Yeah. Everyone calls me Fake Soo-hyuk."
"No, it's not that you're fake, it's just..."
"I just don't want to."
Soo-hyuk cut her off without further explanation.
"You know I'm a streamer. Gotta stick to my day job."
"Soo-hyuk..."
Unhyang watched from the side with an impressed expression. Hailz, meanwhile, was still confused.
That was really the reason? For real?
If you weighed the values on a scale, the choice was obvious. That's why Hailz couldn't shake her bewilderment.
Sticking to his main job?
He didn't strike her as that professional.
Anyway.
"...I overstepped."
Right now, Hailz had to admit her mistake.
"Sorry. I got too emotional."
"It's fine. Lucky for me, I'm not ugly."
"Yeah. You're handsome."
"Still, don't go blabbing about what I look like. You know I commit hard to the concept."
"Oh... right."
A streamer who looked eerily like Lee Soo-hyuk—that was the streamer Lee Soo-hyuk's entire identity.
That's why he'd kept his face hidden all this time. There were plenty of faceless streamers out there, and he was just one of them.
'Not the only reason, though.'
Soo-hyuk glanced down at the mask fragments reduced to powder.
'Never know when I'd need this face.'
This face was his hidden card.
For the day when the war against Blue Zone and the traitorous Blue Eyes guilds began.
This unknown face would serve as his true mask.
"Haa..."
Hailz flinched at Soo-hyuk's deep sigh.
She knew she'd messed up. Fidgeting anxiously, she raised her staff.
"S-Sorry. Not asking for forgiveness with this, but for now..."
*Whirr-*
Hailz's staff glowed with bright purple light.
At the same time, the mask fragments scattered on the floor began floating up lightly.
"Want me to fix the mask first?"
*Crackle...*
"......!"
The countless shards reformed over Soo-hyuk's face.
As if it had never shattered, the mask returned to its original form without a single seam.
He touched it with his hand. Could this really be the same mask that had just exploded?
'She didn't just glue it back.'
It looked like simple magic at a glance, but it wasn't.
'Time reversal on the material... something like that?'
Using such advanced magic just to fix a broken mask.
He hadn't been surprised when they first met, but this was genuinely shocking. He'd heard she was a great archmage, but not that she could do this.
Soo-hyuk looked at her with new eyes.
Back then, she'd just seemed like a tomboy from another guild.
'Can't view her like old times.'
She'd become a massive figure. Forgetting that could get him hurt.
Soo-hyuk adjusted the perfectly restored mask and nodded.
"Looks good as new."
He played dumb, but his gaze on Hailz had clearly changed.
"I'll make it up to you later. Points if you want, but you're loaded, so..."
Soo-hyuk nodded.
Having his face seen wasn't a huge deal, but owing Hailz a favor now wasn't bad.
"Call me if you need anything later."
"Like a summon?"
"You won't come?"
"Well... that's not it..."
Hailz scratched her head at Soo-hyuk's bold demand.
Even if she was in the wrong, summoning the great archmage like a servant?
When was the last time she'd been treated like this?
Certainly not since earning her title and leading her team to victory in the counter-war.
*Crack-*
That's when another breaking sound echoed.
"Huh?"
The space Hailz had created began cracking bit by bit.
The rift started from where Unhyang had smashed through with her magic.
"Is that because of me?"
"Yeah. It was half-broken when you came in, so it held up pretty well."
It had lasted this long thanks to Hailz's magic.
"Ah, going out there will be a hassle..."
She was still dodging her guild's pursuit.
Hailz glanced at Soo-hyuk and Unhyang thoughtfully. Wondering what she was up to, she acted first.
"Can't do this."
*Humm-*
"Let's bail for now."
Her staff flashed red.
The surrounding colors returned to normal as her magic space collapsed, reconnecting to the outside world.
"Hailz—!!!"
The guild members' desperate calls rang out.
*Whoosh-*
A massive wingbeat whipped up a gale.
"Kyaa!"
"D-Dragon!"
"What the—?!"
Soo-hyuk and Unhyang steadied themselves hurriedly.
A red dragon had been summoned beneath the three of them, spreading its wings and taking to the skies.
"Hailz—!"
"Run awaaay~!"
The guild member chasing Hailz was a ranker too, pursuing her relentlessly with magic for a while.
But no matter how skilled, he couldn't catch Hailz. That would take mobilizing an entire guild, maybe.
In the end, Soo-hyuk and Unhyang soared high into the sky with Hailz aboard the dragon.
High above, where the ground looked distant and tiny.
Hailz stood on the dragon's head, arms spread wide.
"How's the air up here? Nice, right?"
Riding a dragon through the sky felt utterly unique.
It was fast and high, yet stable—no turbulence or fear.
"This would get great reactions on stream."
"Kill it now?"
Hailz grinned sheepishly, having overheard Soo-hyuk and Unhyang.
"You two are real pros."
"Of course."
"Money talks."
Unhyang and Soo-hyuk answered almost in unison.
Hailz chuckled at their synced response and looked up at the sky.
Gazing heavenward, she fell silent for a moment.
A brief quiet.
Deep in thought, Hailz finally spoke.
"Hey, how high have you two gone?"
Soo-hyuk tilted his head.
If she'd watched his stream and paid any attention to streamer Lee Soo-hyuk, she'd know that much.
"You watched my stream, right?"
"Not floors. The sky."
"The sky?"
How high in the sky have you gone?
It wasn't an easy question. Hell, he'd never heard it before.
People usually asked about floors climbed.
"Never been up in the sky."
"Me neither."
Hailz nodded as if she'd expected that.
"I've been up there."
"The sky?"
"Yeah. I got too curious what was beyond this sky we see."
Hailz thought differently from most players.
Most, like Soo-hyuk, climbed the tower to reach the world's end.
Exploring the tower's peak and what lay there.
But Hailz had simply ascended into the sky.
Borrowing dragon power and magic.
"Does that look like the sky to you?"
Hailz shook her head.
"That's... a ceiling."
"Ceiling?"
"Yeah. An unbreakable one, no matter the magic. A ceiling mimicking the sky perfectly."
The divider between worlds.
At that boundary, Hailz could do nothing.
"We've forgotten it, ever since that day we learned the truth."
Since realizing it, Hailz had felt suffocating frustration.
Because she understood.
"Hey, what the hell are we trapped in?"
That they were just birds in a giant cage, deluding themselves into thinking they were free.