Chapter 48
Chapter 48
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 48
Chapter Title: Clashing Oaths
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“Uh… Huh? B-but that won’t work…? U-uh?”
In that instant, Shin Nari didn’t betray me. But her condition was deteriorating rapidly.
“Uh, uh… Uuugh, uuugh, n-no, I, I have to… listen to… someone…”
She shook her head side to side, crying out in confusion.
“Huh…? Why won’t you listen? Sis, Nari sis! Are you really not gonna listen to me? We made a ‘promise,’ remember! Listen to me, do what I ask! Obey me!!”
The puppy’s furious shout echoed through the street, and then an utterly unexpected message appeared.
Grrrrr
Crack, crack!
A sound like something tearing open tough hide by force echoed in my ears like an auditory hallucination.
No way, no fucking way—was the System’s correction breaking down?
Every hair on my body stood on end, and I felt the blood drain from my skull straight down.
My head spun. This was dangerous, really dangerous. The very source of the power that made me who I am was under attack.
The System itself was being assaulted. By that woman’s inexplicable power.
I had no idea how to handle this unprecedented crisis.
The System breaking down? No Awakener on Earth had ever imagined an attack like this.
“This is insane.”
I bolted out without hesitation. Through the front door window, I could see the woman.
Just a few steps, and I’d reach her.
All I had to do was grab the door handle and go.
But.
I spotted the massive, rippling presence behind the puppy. Only detectable by a high-rank Awakener’s hyper-senses and enhanced vision.
“Th-that’s…”
A subspecies of the fourth seat of the Four Evils Kaiju, ‘Nergal.’
A named individual among the subspecies. Known for its invisibility and slashes that ignore air resistance. I’d seen countless mercenaries and Awakeners lose their heads to that scythe.
“No fucking way.”
My throat tightened.
The Grim Reaper was strong, no doubt. I could beat it now, but it’d cost me dearly. Still, I was confident I could win.
But the real terror wasn’t the Reaper. It was the fact that the bitch’s mind control worked on monsters too.
Taming the power players of human society was bad enough, but taming monsters with that skill too?
Monsters didn’t have minds to tame—that was the accepted wisdom.
Puppy, what the hell are you?
Some protagonist of this world…?
“Why, why did this happen to my sis?! Why?!”
Why—did—this—
happen—
Her bellow echoed through the middle of the street.
Could I take down the Grim Reaper and kill her at the same time?
No— was the Reaper even her full force?
Even assuming one Reaper was all she had, and that the puppy had the stats of a pure mental-type Awakener with zero self-defense, could I fight it and stop her from running?
“You? You fucking bitch, Aurora, you did this to my sis?!”
“N-no, that’s not… What are you talking about? My ability doesn’t work like that! You know that!”
If the puppy, currently venting on the wrong person, spotted me and escaped, it was game over.
She’d mobilize every connection she knew to hunt down and slaughter Shin Yu-hyeon.
Then my worst-case scenario would become reality.
She’d have her mind-controlled elites from society plaster my face everywhere as a top-priority fugitive to the Anti-Kaiju Special Warfare Unit and Slaying Witch’s combat squads.
I had to avoid even rank-2 Awakeners coming at me in squads, no matter what.
“Fuck…”
Cold sweat trickled down my back, sending chills through me.
I’d been arrogant.
The simplistic assumption that the queen of the school was wandering alone without backup had backed me into this corner.
A natural-born psychopath like her wouldn’t let her guard down.
As I frantically ran through scenarios, frozen in indecision, the puppy grabbed Shin Nari’s hand.
Tap.
“All I need is sis. Just sis, heehee, sis, siiis♡ Come with me, okay?”
Her tone suddenly softened into coaxing whispers.
But Nari resisted to the end.
“U, uuugh, no, s-sorry. I, I can’t… go…”
“…’No’? …’Can’t go’?”
A strange mix of satisfaction and pride welled up—my possession, mine, prioritizing loyalty to me over years of altered common sense.
But regardless, the situation kept worsening.
Something snapped at Nari’s refusal, and the puppy started muttering repeatedly.
“…We made a ‘promise,’ remember? A promise? Promise, promise, promise, promise promise promise promise promise promise promise promise promise, promise promise promise promise promise promise promise promise!!”
Grabbing Nari’s hand, endlessly muttering ‘promise.’ Each keyword triggering her power.
“Sis, siiis… Come with me. Okay?”
“U, uuugh, n-no!”
The puppy flew into hysterics again at Nari’s refusal, as if dealt a massive blow.
“What the hell, why is this happening, why! Why! WHY! Sis said she’s mine, she said she’d be mine, she admitted it, whispered it, nodded to it, she’s my sis, my one and only sis! She does everything I ask, eats with me, feeds me dessert, watches dramas with me, shares my blanket and bed, teaches me naughty stuff, wakes up with me, dresses me, washes every inch of me, hugs me, sings me lullabies, looks only at me, calls me pretty, strokes only me, plays only with me only with me only with me only with me only with me with me with me with me with me with me with me with me only plays with me, obeys my every word like a puppet— she’s my sis, MINE, MIIIIINE—!!”
“Aaaah! Ack! Urk!”
The puppy had completely lost it at Nari’s refusal to obey, her eyes rolling back so the whites dominated, screeching mad mutterings that tore at her throat.
That woman was insane.
Tears flowed, then laughter, roars, sweet whispers, panting—then collapse.
A chaotic flicker of fractured thoughts.
I couldn’t tell if her mental waves were radiating out, but just hearing that madness sapped my mind in real time.
It felt like observing a monster that wasn’t even human.
Overwhelmed, Aurora turned pale and glanced my way. Even she, dragged here in an unstable state, found this eerie scene terrifying.
Aurora was a decent Awakener, but behind the puppy loomed the Grim Reaper, the Contaminated Area Butcher. And she was unarmed, oblivious to its invisibility.
Should I fight here?
I kept hesitating. Could I win? Was it possible?
This sucked. My possession on the brink of breaking by someone else’s will, yet unable to confidently face an overwhelmingly superior foe—this whole situation sucked.
“Uh, uugh? M-Mas… ter…”
Shin Nari convulsed like a stroke patient, drenched in cold sweat pouring like rain.
If she’d met me as a blank slate and been under my total control from the start, this wouldn’t have happened. But Nari was a special case.
Years of steady reprogramming clashed with my overlaid total dominance, overloading her brain.
In a way, it proved my late-blooming Awakener power was superior enough to resist years of alteration, but that wasn’t important now.
“Think.”
A way out.
A way to turn this around.
What abilities did I have?
Solid combat prowess, Oath Compulsion to enslave, unique trait to exploit slaves’ signature skills… And.
“Empathy.”
Empathy—the over-spec skill to share my stats.
With it, I could turn someone into an all-purpose melee DPS or an unkillable tank. Plus,
‘Mental Power stat.’
Sharing my near-limit Mental Power could grant mental attack immunity!
Shin Yu-hyeon, you dumb fuck—why’d you forget your most obvious skill? Still stuck in pre-Awakener thinking?
You moronic bastard.
I spat curses at myself and hurriedly activated Empathy.
[Empathy]
Target: Shin Nari ‘Toilet Bitch’
Share: Stats
Stat Type: Mental Power
Whoooosh—
My Mental Power flowed through the metaphysical thread connecting me to Shin Nari.
“U… uuugh…”
[Wear 99]
...Stabilized.
It stopped.
“Huff… huff…”
My heart pounded like it would burst. Even without swinging a blade or breaking bones, I was soaked in sweat.
It felt like a life-or-death chess match against an unknown foe.
If I’d been even a second slower to think of sharing Mental Power via Empathy, Nari would’ve collapsed mentally and followed the puppy like an idiot.
I’d put out the fire on my foot, but the situation wasn’t over yet.
I nodded at Aurora, who gaped at me like an idiot with her mouth hanging open.