A Series of Chaotic Situations
A rural village somewhere in eastern America.
Thousands of survivors who had fled the cities had formed a community here. They had settled in this village from the very beginning of the apocalypse and survived together. People cooperated voluntarily, and after the use of firearms was suppressed, they systematically divided roles to adapt to the ruined world.
As long as they stayed within reasonable bounds, they could act freely without much oppression or control. Quite a few Awakeners had arrived early on, so they remained relatively safe without facing major threats.
Of course, the peace they enjoyed was thanks to Nick, an Awakener who had joined in the early days. Because of Nick, they could survive more comfortably than other survivor groups.
Perhaps people had naturally gathered here precisely because Nick had come.
Anyway, as time passed since the apocalypse began, the power of Awakeners became increasingly essential. Naturally, the strong took leadership positions within the group. Among them, Nick—who was exceptionally lucky and had obtained numerous opportunities—rose to become the leader.
Nick, who succeeded at everything he did, was admired by everyone. No matter what he attempted, everything went smoothly, as if the world itself favored him. Everyone liked Nick, and he took that affection for granted.
Nick had no doubt that he was a chosen human. That is, until yesterday.
“Nick’s back… Huh? Nick? Nick!”
“What the hell. Hey! Gem merchant!! Why isn’t Nick moving?”
“Th-that’s…”
Nick had been safely led back to the base by the gem merchant Emilia. However, his real ordeal was only just beginning.
“Nicholas!!!!”
“This… What on earth…”
Nick’s real name was Nicholas. He was the leader of one of the largest survivor groups in eastern America and the savior blessed by the good gods.
Yet this man had returned as a wreck in less than a week, leaving everyone at a loss as to how to handle such an absurd situation.
“Everyone, step back. I’ll check.”
At that moment, a large, muscular blond man with blue eyes—looking like a football player—pushed through the crowd. He pulled a massive book out of thin air and began chanting a spell.
“Right now Nick is with the Book of Manti… and Confusing You and Endless One Drink? What the hell are these?”
Michael, the man who looked like the very embodiment of white supremacy, had used his skill to read Nicholas’s logs. He clicked his tongue after discovering that Nicholas had his memories erased and was gradually turning into a woman.
‘It’s not the Witch Parasite… From the description of swallowing alcohol, someone must have fed him cursed liquor. His memories were erased in a similar way…’
He wondered how to explain this to the others with minimal fallout. No matter how much he thought about it, there was no good answer.
‘Memory erasure, a gender transformation curse, and even time freeze… There’s only one person the gods warned us about. That bastard, the Satan of the 666.’
He tried to think of a way for Nick to escape the Book of Manti, but found no solution. The time freeze created by the other race’s sorcery wasn’t something even the “Great Sage” could easily undo.
Just then, a white woman who had been examining Nick’s condition asked the troubled sage a question.
“The Book of Manti…? What’s that? Is it this strange book Nicholas is reading right now?”
“Yeah. That’s the official name of the book Nicholas is reading. It forcibly seals Nicholas for ten thousand hours… The price of the seal is learning the language of the other race. Honestly, it’s just a useless effect used to seal Nick.”
“Who on earth would do something like this to Nick…”
The white woman speaking to the Great Sage was the Saintess, a very nerdy-looking woman wearing red horn-rimmed glasses.
She had poured every kind of purification and dispelling skill she knew onto Nick in an attempt to remove the Book of Manti, but it was futile.
The effects of an item protected by causality were absolute.
Once the malicious sorcery of the high-ranking other race inscribed on the item activated, there was no way to undo it until the effect ran its course or a counter-item was found.
Or there was one extreme method—pouring an even greater amount of causality than the item possessed. But that would require the help of the gods.
“Damn it…”
“Are the gods saying nothing?”
“Oracle! Where’s the Oracle?”
Eventually, the group gathered in front of Nick began searching for the Oracle, the one who communicated best with the gods aside from Nick himself.
While they were looking for her, the Oracle was already receiving a revelation from Cephonus, the one who governed order.
“Ah… Aah…”
The Oracle’s eyes were filled with light. In her possessed state, her hands never stopped moving. Her right hand busily wrote down the revelation as it descended.
“The… the bottom… of the abyss… cracked… ankh…”
She recorded the gods’ revelation. The Book of Manti stated that the good gods would provide a solution. However, erasing the effects of the Memory Eraser Wine that had already been fully consumed would require an enormous amount of causality. It wasn’t an efficient course of action, so the good gods decided to tell Nick’s companions how to restore his memories instead of Nick himself.
For that reason, the good gods revealed to the Oracle that a way to recover Nick’s sealed memories existed at the bottom of the abyss.
“We need to obtain the cracked… ankh…”
Now she had learned how to restore Nick’s memories. And the cracked ankh mentioned in the revelation was something Jang Jo-jun also possessed.
Nick’s companions and Jang Jo-jun would likely meet at the bottom of the abyss.
******
Before entering the black market, Jang Jo-jun spoke with Palus after she requested a meeting.
“So you’re saying their skill dependency is too high?”
“That’s right. After teaching people here for a few days, I’ve noticed they tend to rely far too heavily on these so-called ‘skills.’”
Palus explained her thoughts.
Most Awakeners who had survived this long could already sense the mana within their bodies.
However, instead of trying to control that mana themselves, the majority preferred to simply use convenient and easy skills.
Palus didn’t like that. She believed skills should be used, but one shouldn’t become completely dependent on them.
In her view, too many people were wasting their efforts by relying on easy and convenient things without developing their own combat style.
“Skills are nothing more than tools. They’re supernatural abilities you can use immediately without training, so everyone keeps spamming skills… but improper skill usage only wastes mana. We can’t keep shooting skills at each other forever.”
After fighting multiple times against not only Arum but also Aram, Eun-ji, and Ha-rin—who had joined the training at some point—along with others specializing in close combat, Palus had reached a reasonable conclusion.
She needed to whip them into shape. Aside from Mer, no one met her standards. Palus wanted to train them thoroughly—until they became insane killing machines who could slaughter people even in their sleep. That was why she had come to ask permission from Jang Jo-jun, their de facto master.
“Of course, I think it might take decades of training to properly handle such supernatural abilities in reality… but relying solely on skills won’t lead to any real progress. So what I’m saying is…”
“Hmm… That’s enough. I roughly understand what you want to say. In other words, you want to use skills as a medium to further solidify their own combat styles. Basically, you want to whip them into shape, right?”
“That’s… correct. There are too many people who just spam skills without thinking during battle. It’s just… their abilities seem too wasted…”
Mages like Jang Jo-jun were meant to rely on skills. However, as Palus said, those who specialized in close combat could lose in a battle of skill even with good classes if they depended too much on skills.
Palus was concerned about that. She wanted all Awakeners to become strong like Merhere, without relying on skills.
Palus, who had reached the top despite having a wretched body, felt frustrated to death whenever she saw people who couldn’t properly use the power they possessed.
“Alright, I understand for now. That’s what your role was supposed to be anyway—covering those weaknesses. I’ll leave it to you. Do your best.”
“Thank you. I’m glad I can train them more intensely.”
With that, Arum, Eun-ji, and the other women with close-combat classes were scheduled for hellish training. While Jang Jo-jun was down in the black market, they would be dragged around by Palus’s insane regimen and spend hellish days.
“Good. Then we’re pretty much done with what we needed to talk about…”
Jang Jo-jun sent Palus away and called for Lee Hoon.
Soon, Lee Hoon entered the principal’s office, scratching the back of his head with a clueless expression.
“Uh… You called for me…”
He was visibly tense. He thought Jang Jo-jun might be angry because he had been going out ghost hunting on his own lately without permission.
“Yeah. I heard you’ve been going out at night lately.”
Lee Hoon felt that the inevitable had come. Jang Jo-jun hadn’t explicitly forbidden going outside, but sneaking out of the school every night could easily lead to suspicions of colluding with the enemy.
“Yes… Well, actually, to get stronger… I need to consume souls…”
“And Eun-ha goes with you, right?”
“Huh? Ah. That North Korean girl… Yes. Almost every time I go out… together…”
Jang Jo-jun slightly furrowed his brow.
“Do you have feelings for Lee Eun-ha?”
“Aigoo! No!! Your woman… How could I possibly… touch her.”
“Really?”
“Yes! Not at all! Absooooolutely not! I have no interest. We’re just companions when we go ghost hunting together.”
“Hmm… Companions? Hmmm… Hey. Do you know why Palus turned into a woman?”
“Huh? Uh… I heard it was because of some rare and strange disease…”
Jang Jo-jun took out a small glass bottle and shook it in front of Lee Hoon.
“It’s because of this.”
“Huh…?”
“I fed it to her.”
“Uh… Th-then… you…”
“Yeah. I turned Palus into a woman. It makes me uneasy to have a man teaching my woman… Even if Palus has no interest in women… what if, just in case, my woman looks at another man? That won’t do. I don’t want even a one percent chance of that happening. Just imagining her making eye contact with some other guy while I’m gone… makes my stomach twist. You get it? Hoon-ah. Do you understand?”
“Uh… B-brother!!! Please!! Please, just this once, forgive me!!! I-I won’t ever go near Lee Eun-ha again!!”
“No. Wait, Hoon-ah. Don’t end the conversation on your own…”
Lee Hoon’s throat went dry.
The person in front of him was a madman. A lunatic who would arbitrarily change an innocent man’s gender just to prevent NTR at the source.
“Hoo… About Eun-ha. She doesn’t seem to have any attachment to this place. Her only sister spends every day plowing fields, learning the joy of labor. And the man she trusted—me—keeps wandering outside… She must be floating alone and lonely. She needs a friend. Eun-ha does.”
“B-brother…”
“So you need to become Eun-ha’s friend. She said herself that you’re a South Korean comrade she can talk to pretty well. Hahaha…”
Lee Hoon sensed the fate that awaited him from Jang Jo-jun’s words.
Jang Jo-jun, who pathologically rejected any man being around his woman.
At the same time, Jang Jo-jun was ordering him—a man—to become Lee Eun-ha’s friend.
And Jang Jo-jun, who had turned Palus into a woman because she would frequently meet other women.
“Aah…”
Lee Hoon despaired. His only pleasure had been the weekly sex time given as slave welfare, but even that was about to be taken away.
Jang Jo-jun quietly handed Lee Hoon the glass bottle containing “Confusing You.”
“Drink it.”
“Brother.”
“Drink that. From now on, call me oppa.”
“Brother. Please…”
“No. Drink it now!!!”
At Jang Jo-jun’s command, Lee Hoon received the glass bottle with tears in his eyes. The master’s orders were absolute. He could no longer refuse Jang Jo-jun’s command against the rising pain.
“Huuu…”
—Gulp.
It was a whiskey that went down smoothly.