The Hidden Piece (3)
“Ah!”
The sound rang inside my head, buzzing like a dying bee.
The chill red light piercing my eyes beneath the black robe… it was unmistakably the form of a lich.
The pain that squeezed my skull along with that eerie power—it was something I never, ever wanted to experience again.
“Jinwoo! Are you okay? You’re sweating so much…!”
Once I came to my senses, I saw Yoo Dahui gently wiping my face.
My entire body was drenched in sweat, and the sensation was unbearably sticky.
“Here…?”
The room structure was clearly that of an inn—the Rest Area.
How the hell had I ended up lying here?
The sunlight streaming through the window completely scrambled my sense of time.
When I’d left, there had been zero light in the night. Yet now, as soon as I blinked, it was broad daylight.
“You. What exactly did you do last night? Why were you collapsed outside the inn?”
“I was collapsed outside the inn?”
“That’s right! It was time to wake up, but you wouldn’t come out. I came looking for you in the room. No matter how many times I called, you wouldn’t answer. When I opened the door, you weren’t inside. Unnie had already gone downstairs and found you in front of the inn door. What the hell were you doing wandering around last night…?”
Suddenly, Yoo Dahui’s eyes narrowed.
It was a gaze of suspicion laced with disgust.
Oh, fuck.
Before the mask-man circuit jumped out, I needed to throw her something that would grab her attention.
What the hell should I say to turn her focus somewhere else?
Lately I’d been thinking it was a real shame.
Yoo Dahui and Kang Hana had gone hunting together.
After everything we’d gone through—after getting close—I’d have to fake a reset if I died.
There had to be a way to avoid that…
“Actually…”
“Actually?”
“Ever since I got summoned here, I’ve kept seeing these weird things.”
“Weird things?”
Yoo Dahui still looked at me with that uneasy, strange light in her eyes.
The gaze mixed with suspicion always excited me.
I continued talking, forcing calm into my voice.
“…How do I even explain it. The people I first saw—the ones who seemed strangely familiar… Jeong Hyeonjae, Lee Hyeong-u… and that dwarf player, Poreng…?”
“Wh-what? How do you know those people?”
This loop I hadn’t even gone near the Korean Party.
The dwarf Poreng was someone Yoo Dahui had only met once before.
Names of people only Yoo Dahui should know.
From her perspective, it was a nightmare.
“I don’t know. That’s why I’ve been having trouble sleeping lately. I remember going for a walk, but after that I woke up here.”
“……”
Yoo Dahui’s face turned serious as she racked her brain.
She seemed to have wiped away all thoughts about the mask-man.
It was going exactly according to my plan.
“What the hell am I supposed to do? You’re too familiar with them…”
“Kim Jinwoo…”
I moistened the corners of my eyes with fake tears.
It was an over-the-top act, but it was perfect for getting me out of this mess.
Lineage of Victory.
Not just any line.
“Just rest for a bit. I need time to think.”
“Sure. I feel kinda sleepy too. I should sleep.”
Yoo Dahui left the room.
It wouldn’t take long for her to think it was like a regression loop.
Huu…
Once she was gone, I checked my own information.
A hollow info window greeted me—my Divinity and Spirit Magic were gone.
In their place sat Black Magic Lv.2.
Shit, this is fucked.
It wasn’t unusual for Black Magic to erase Divinity and Spirit Magic—elemental affinities didn’t mix, so one had to disappear.
In my case, the Lich Pluto had simply chosen Black Magic for me without even giving me an option.
“Black Magic”
—A general term for sorcery that draws on the life force of other living beings, not mana.
At a steep price, its efficiency, power, and raw force far surpass anything else.
Most villains in this novel used skills built on the principle of life contempt.
It certainly drew eyes for multiple reasons, but with Return by Death in play, it held little real weight.
Just another thing that made me the ultimate regressor.
This time it looked like I’d even get a proper half-regressor costume.
It was flowing too smoothly.
Time to test it.
Black Magic had many branches, but since I’d only learned it as a skill, I could downgrade any type to use.
Far weaker than true Black Magic, but with broader versatility.
What should I try?
Let’s start with the mind-controlling kind.
“Brain Control…”
⟨ [Spell Name] ⟩
[Insufficient Life Force]
[Caster’s Life Force is consumed.]
Wait, hold on—
Suddenly my consciousness snapped off.
That was probably the right word for it—blackout.
How long had it been?
“Drlllll. Cuckcough.”
I woke to the sound of my own snoring.
The sunlight had grown weaker than before.
It was sunset.
Shit.
I immediately went out into the inn lobby.
My stomach was empty and I was starving.
Nothing here.
In the lobby, Kang Hana sat there blankly.
Because of me, she hadn’t gone hunting today.
Maybe she’d gone out and come back alone.
Yoo Dahui was probably still inside the room.
“Unnie.”
“H-Huh, Jinwoo…? Are you feeling better?”
“I’m fine. I feel completely normal.”
Naturally, I sat across from her.
Kang Hana’s cheeks flushed as she worried over my body.
I could only thank her.
“Then that’s good… later, tell Dahui it was nothing. She was worried sick.”
“…Dahui?”
“Yeah.”
Even though Kang Hana spoke flatly, the meaning behind it was completely different.
It was enough to make me smile unconsciously.
“But you know… Jinwoo, you and Dahui… were you two close back in the real world too?”
“No? We met here.”
“Only a few days have passed since then…? You met on the same day as me.”
“That’s right?”
Kang Hana muttered with a strangely bitter look in her eyes.
“You two look so close… I’m jealous.”
“Eh, uh… it’s just because we’re the same age. It was inevitable.”
“Even so, it’s still jealousy.”
Kang Hana slumped over.
Only her chest came into view—those cruelly feminine curves.
She looked pitiful. I couldn’t just leave her like that.
“Then we’ll just have to get closer. Starting today, we can get even nearer.”
“Eh…?”
“Let’s go eat. I haven’t had a single meal all day and I’m starving.”
I lifted Kang Hana, who was hesitating with difficulty.
Kang Hana pretended to resist as she followed me out of the inn.
I had plenty of coins. There was no reason to stuff myself with inn bread or soup.
With someone else to eat with, it was even more reason to head outside.
The Beginner Village had roads radiating out from the central Colosseum plaza.
Neither too wide nor too narrow.
Every summon, the number of players varied wildly—sometimes bustling, sometimes empty.
And right now it was broad daylight.
The sun hung high in the sky.
There shouldn’t be anyone here.
Yet every so often I saw black wisps trailing above the heads of the few people walking around.
What the hell were those?
The only thing that made sense was Black Magic.
“Is there anything you want to eat, Unnie?”
“U-uh… nothing really…”
“Then I can treat you to something on the go?”
Just then, a little guy selling gimbap appeared, so I bought all of it for 50 coins.
The black aura clinging to the little guy bothered me.
I couldn’t just watch it.
Since it had started after I got Black Magic, I had to find out what it was.
“Will you absorb Life Force?”
After taking one piece of gimbap from the little guy, the black aura was pulled toward me and connected.
It was like the little guy and I were tied together by a black thread.
The message about absorbing Life Force.
The moment I absorbed it, I was finished.
I couldn’t PK in the safe zone, but harming residents would trigger the village guards’ pursuit.
These guards were ridiculously strong—thanks to the God’s Blessing—and only targeted players.
I refused the Life Force absorption and sent the little guy home.
“Go home.”
“Thank you, handsome oppa!”
“Enjoy it. See you.”
“Bye! Big-breasted unnie!”
I handed one piece of gimbap to Kang Hana.
Kang Hana’s face was beet red as she muttered something.
“You’re not eating?”
“I’ll eat. I really will…”
I couldn’t tell if the little guy’s words were a blessing or a curse.
From Kang Hana’s reaction alone, I had no idea.
Anyways, as I walked down the street with her, I noticed black auras everywhere—icons indicating Life Force absorption.
Yet there was some kind of criterion that decided who had it and who didn’t.
I wanted to figure that out too, but I couldn’t find any common pattern no matter how hard I tried.
I walked with Kang Hana, chatting about all sorts of things, heading toward the west gate.
Near the west gate there was a hill—practically a park in the Beginner Village.
“Whoa. There’s even a place like this.”
“Right?”
I leaned back against a chair in the area and stuffed gimbap into my mouth.
After dragging Kang Hana outside, I realized inside the Tower of Struggle there was literally nothing to do.
“Y-you know, Jinwoo.”
“Yes?”
Kang Hana had been holding back words she wanted to say.
The quiet atmosphere made her finally speak.
“Dahui seems kinda weird, doesn’t she? She hasn’t said anything strange to you?”
“What kind of strange words? I haven’t heard any. I haven’t even seen her since this morning.”
Back talk? From Kang Hana?
This was a whole new side of her.
Exactly what had Yoo Dahui said to make Kang Hana bring this up while the two of us were alone?
I listened, curious about what would come next.
“Dahui… she told me she’s a regressor… she said…”
“…Eh…?”
Wait, shit.
Not a confession of faith. Why the hell was she talking about regression?