Chapter 196
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 196
Chapter Title: Sudden Situation (2)
The group expressed confusion at my sudden words, but thanks to my urgent expression, they went along with it for now.
As we moved, I could see through the chimera's eyes why Seo Yu-ju had ended up like that.
'Damn...! The cloning clay...!'
The problem was that I'd set the cloning clay to maintain my appearance until a certain amount of time passed.
I could see the corpse sprawled out in the same space as Seo Yu-ju.
A corpse that looked exactly like me.
'Shit...!'
I never imagined the situation would twist like this.
If I'd known, I wouldn't have set the cloning clay that way, regardless of getting caught or whatever.
'She thinks I'm dead.'
Having spotted the cloning clay in the form of a corpse, Seo Yu-ju had lost her reason.
Considering how obsessively attached she was to me, it wasn't hard to understand why she'd lost it to this degree.
With my low stats, I was currently being carried by Yoon Yeon as we hurried along.
As a man being carried by a woman, I felt a pang of shame, but now wasn't the time to worry about such things.
Lee Jae-hyo, curious about why I was like this, asked me.
"What the hell happened?"
"... Yu-ju thinks I'm dead."
"... Pardon?"
Not just Lee Jae-hyo—Yoon Yeon and Ha Yu-ri also looked puzzled, wondering what I meant.
Of course they wouldn't understand. I was right there in front of them, perfectly fine.
With me alive and well before their eyes, it was natural they couldn't follow when I suddenly claimed Seo Yu-ju thought I was dead.
I couldn't tell them the truth, so I had to embellish it appropriately.
"To escape from those bastards, I swapped myself with the cloning clay. But they killed the clone, and Yu-ju found it—the one in the shape of my corpse."
"Clone—you mean from back then..."
Yoon Yeon and Ha Yu-ri looked confused at the word "clone," but Lee Jae-hyo seemed to grasp it roughly.
After all, he'd seen me use the cloning clay back in Silan, so he'd remember.
The two women didn't press about the clone.
They glanced at each other upon seeing Lee Jae-hyo nod, faces suggesting there was something they didn't know...
"... How do you know the clan master's situation, Mr. Lee Yun-seong?"
A natural question.
It was suspicious that I, having been captured and escaped, knew what was happening to Seo Yu-ju.
Of course, I had my answer prepared.
"I left the chimera that was guiding you with Yu-ju."
"Ah..."
Everyone's faces showed they understood the gist of it.
"Yu-ju has completely lost her reason. We need to let her know I'm alive as soon as possible."
"....."
They all nodded, knowing our relationship with Seo Yu-ju.
'The problem is that their sense of how serious this is differs from mine...'
But there was no helping it. No time to explain every detail.
"What the hell is this?"
Yoon Yeon grimaced at the corpses scattered around and spoke up.
Ha Yu-ri and Lee Jae-hyo's faces hardened too.
"... This is all that woman's doing?"
There were about twenty corpses, all outlaws.
But the number wasn't the issue. They were brutally mangled.
Limbs torn off was standard; some heads were completely gone, and even those with heads intact had died with expressions frozen in utter terror.
You could tell the extreme fear they'd felt right before death.
Some were even blasted apart with mana, scattered everywhere.
'Insane...'
Beyond the corpses stood a silhouette gripping a spear—her back to us.
Everyone instinctively flinched. Even Yoon Yeon and Ha Yu-ri, stronger than Lee Jae-hyo, weren't exceptions.
Yoon Yeon checked Seo Yu-ju's state and clicked her tongue.
"Ha... I wondered what you meant by her having lost it..."
Seo Yu-ju turned to look at us.
'What...'
No reaction even upon seeing me. Her unfocused eyes staring blankly left me momentarily flustered.
"Yu-ju, it's me..."
Boom!
'Huh?'
In the blink of an eye, Seo Yu-ju thrust her spear toward us. Yoon Yeon stood before me, blocking it with both hands.
"Ha, she's completely lost her mind."
Yoon Yeon scowled at my dazed self and yelled.
"What are you doing? Snap out of it and fall back! Hurry!"
Forget Yoon Yeon's words—my mind went blank from the fact that Seo Yu-ju had attacked me.
'Fuck... Seo Yu-ju, what the hell? Did you just attack me?'
"You...! What do you think you're doing?!"
Ha Yu-ri, unable to watch, grabbed my arm and pulled me back.
"How can you just stand there like an idiot?!"
'Shit, why... why doesn't she recognize me?'
I'd brought these three just in case, thinking seeing me alive would snap her out of it.
- How intriguing.
'... What?'
A sudden voice. It was Aditi.
- I said it's intriguing.
- ... What do you mean?
- That human woman. The one you cherish.
- ... So what's intriguing about her? Do you know something about this situation?
- You're angry. Irritated because she's attacking you?
'Ha...'
Just as Aditi said, this unexpected situation had me pissed.
Maybe that's why I couldn't control my emotions properly.
- Someone up there has taken a liking to her. Well, it's only natural, I suppose.
- ... Up there?
- I've learned much by seeing this changed world through your eyes. Including about you 'players.'
I listened silently. She seemed to know something.
- The beings who summoned you players here.
- ... The ones who brought us to Eras?
- Yes. One of them is linked to her. And... it forcibly connected during her lapse in reason.
- What... forcibly connected?
I couldn't comprehend.
Forcibly linked to Seo Yu-ju? By whom?
- Explaining the details is complicated, but right now, she's not just using her own power—she's being supplied strength from above. It's not a normal method.
'Supplied with power?'
I glanced at Seo Yu-ju following Aditi's words.
Yoon Yeon and Lee Jae-hyo blocked with their bodies, while Ha Yu-ri sniped with magic in the gaps.
Though the goal was to subdue her, even with three against one, it didn't feel overwhelmingly in our favor.
'Her technique isn't superior. But her raw power is abnormally strong.'
Having lost her reason, she wasn't using those bizarre techniques from the earlier fight.
But the sheer output of her strength was on another level.
Clang—!
Screeech.
"Ha...!"
Yoon Yeon, blocking the spear, was pushed back and let out a bitter laugh.
"The power and mana in that spear are ridiculously abnormal. What the hell is going on?"
If even Yoon Yeon said that, Seo Yu-ju's power was definitely off.
"Freeze!"
Seo Yu-ju's feet charging at us suddenly froze.
"......"
But white mana burst from her body, shattering the ice in an instant.
'Definitely different.'
Seo Yu-ju's mana was golden. This alien white mana wasn't hers.
'Some bastard is empowering Seo Yu-ju.'
- That murky white aura. It's him.
'Him?'
Seo Yu-ju had fought two executives from the Execution Church not long ago; she couldn't have recovered this fast.
And now her power output was abnormally amplified.
I didn't know who this "him" Aditi meant was, but someone above was meddling with Seo Yu-ju.
Crunch.
A foul mood surged through me.
'Which bastard... is touching what's mine?'
Seo Yu-ju—the regressor—was mine alone to handle.
The thought of some unknown entity coveting her filled me with rage.
Any impurities tainting Seo Yu-ju were unacceptable on my end.
My plan to make her a transcendent didn't involve injecting power from some mystery bastard.
- ... How do you know all this, Aditi?
A natural question. I still didn't know Aditi's true nature. All I knew was the name she'd given me.
When I'd read the description of the Cocoon of Birth through these eyes, I'd realized Aditi—protected within it—wasn't just some monster, but I still didn't know exactly what she was.
- Because I was up there.
- What? You were up there?
- Yes. Though now I'm in this state. Those up there cast me down.
'......'
That revealed quite a bit.
- So... you were something like a god managing Eras?
- Who knows. Humans call us gods sometimes, but it's easier to think of us as the planet's administrators.
- Then why is one of these administrators doing this to Seo Yu-ju?
I couldn't understand. From the tutorial's mysterious voice, I'd guessed higher beings existed in Eras.
But linking it to my first regression, both sides should want to stop the World Eater.
- You think too rationally of those above. They're no different from you. No different from any intelligent life. Me included. Just a difference in tier.
- What...
- Hmm... Humans get tangled in complex politics and issues, right? Sometimes lunatics appear.
- ....
- I'm the same, and so are those up there. I don't know exactly why it's supplying her power with yours. Could be whimsy, madness, or trying to make her its own.
- Make her its own?
- Just as I saw potential in her, so do they. She has the potential to surpass an administrator and become a transcendent.
'Ha...'
I got the gist. Details could wait.
Priority now: restore Seo Yu-ju to normal.
'She's strong, but... it's subtle.'
Impressive that three-on-one was even workable, but she hadn't just gotten stronger.
She was brute-forcing with raw power and mana. She swung the spear, but her technique was worse than when sane.
'... How do I snap her out of it?'
Subduing her in this state risked something going wrong. Someone could get seriously hurt.
Yoon Yeon was fine, but Lee Jae-hyo—who'd lost an eye and lagged behind top rankers—was struggling, face etched with awe and alarm toward Seo Yu-ju.
'Fuck... what do I even do...'
Boom!
Seo Yu-ju was blasted back by Yoon Yeon's fist.
'Ah.'
It was coincidence. As she staggered into view, her hand caught my eye.
More precisely, the ring on her finger.
A ring identical in appearance to the one I wore.