Chapter 3 (1/2)
Psychopath (1)
“Wake up! Team Leader?!”
Someone was lamenting.
‘Team Leader? What team leader?’
It was a long time ago when I had heard this word being called out, it took me some time to fathom it. It was a word that held meaning, all until civilization on Earth collapsed.
“Stop!”
Darkness split along the grain. The light shook over the closed eyelids.
My body’s sense began to awake to perception gradually.
‘Wait, sense?’
Something was amiss. My fingers were close enough for me to feel their sensation.
It felt like I was lying on a very soft mattress. But will Riga remain on Earth?
No, before that, what was this power passing over my body?
“Oh, do you know you’re already awake? The sound of your breath has changed. Pretending that you’re still asleep won’t work! The Guild Leader asked me to call him right away!”
The day I had lost my age, I felt the same vitality and vigor course through me. Strange, instead of my body, I felt the discomfort of overturning a shell.
“Oh really, Byung-ho. Have patience. You can’t do that now. Stay calm. Don’t get too excited. Think of these things when you want to beat it.”
[Monthly Rent]
[National Pension Plan]
[Special Defense Tax]
[Urban Reconstruction Fund]
[Community Stabilization Fund]
The man who spoke the mesmerizing word eventually lost it.
“Oh, it’s not happening! Your dad is so tough that you called me!”
Then…Jiying!
I felt a mind-shattering pain. An aching sound exited my mouth.
“Keuup!”
In this instance, when every feeling, emotion, and touch are distastefully estranged, a simple message resonates in the mind.
-Inconsistency between the memory preserved in the soul and the memory recorded in the biological brain!
-The system starts forced reconstruction.
These system messages have been haunting me ever since I underwent my awakening as a hunter.
But this time, the message was unfamiliar.
And…
‘Gagging!”
My ears were not prepared for what came out of my mouth. This was not the time to care.
“Ouch!” I yelled.
It was excruciatingly painful.
“Oh damn! I am shocked! Why are you yelling!? I haven’t been here in a while!” The person spoke in a fit of exasperation.
Hot liquid flowed from my nose and mouth. I could barely open my eyes. A man was observing me with distress.
Two dark brows frowned. I mumbled something with great difficulty.
“Darn it! This time, I guess it’s real! You’re not faking a disease or a sickness.”
I struggled.
“Great!”
ChoiSeunghyun’s memories were infusing in my mind, each memory fragment blending and flowing, uncountable instances.
However, before I could find my way and sift through the strange assortments, it faded, and a new one arose.
Just like rain blocks vision clarity, no memory settled in my mind, and that made my head ache.
“Oh, hello? Yes, I think you need to send someone quickly. No, this time, I’m serious. My nose and mouth were both vomiting, and I was upset. Is this self-harm? No! Do you have the ability to bleed without a trigger? No matter how promising it may be, hasn’t the public awakened?”
The man left in a hurry, so he didn’t hear the message from the system. It kept ringing inside me.
-Soul and body memory match… 0%!
-Confirmation of vigorous rejection between spirit and body. Mental collapse is may be imminent.
-Skill [Successor’s Eye (Rank: EX)] is activated to protect the user. No mana cost upon activation.
The pain which was tearing my body and spirit was now fading.
-The effect of the skill [Successor’s Eye (Rank: EX)] reduces the impact of physical memory on the soul and slows the pace of coordination.
-Skill [Successor’s Eye (Rank: EX)] helps the soul’s memory take over the ego instead of the biological brain.
Indeed, as it appeared in the message, the memories of a third assailant who was not ChoiSeunghyun became prominent. The fragments flashed through my mind, steadily slowing down.
Owing to this, I was able to carefully observe the memories that ChoiSeunghyun’s inexperienced memories.
I learned who the owner of the memory was.
I sat up and raised my upper body, shaking off the pain.
“Okay!”
Because of the unheard-of unique skill, I revived the contents of the document I saw briefly as a definite ‘ChoiSeunghyun’s memory.’
The contents of the documents and much of the information we just witnessed from a stranger’s memory matched.
My body quaked. I grabbed the bedsheet with both hands. I shouted with a crackling voice.
“This is Seongjin-wook, Seongjin-wook…”
This specific portion of the memory was of a man named Seongjin-wook.
The man speaking on the phone gave me an exhausted glance and then continued to respond to the other side.
“Have you heard the self-introduction right now? It’s not ‘I’m Seongjin-wook’ but ‘This is Seongjin-wook.’ He’s a regular guy, but this time the genre is different. Soon, a 19-year-old man will be destroying his essential grammar, which is less than a five-year old. Send the doctor immediately.”
My eyes turned to the huge mirror hanging on the wall. In the place of an elderly man’s face, there was a youth in his 20’s glaring back with a pale, bloodied look. It was hand-in-hand with the photos I had seen in the papers before.
Seongjin-wook, heir to Seogyu-cheol, the Cheonryong Guild Leader, the first S-rank hunter in Korea.
Yet, there was a lingering suspicion.
‘Seongjin-wook…’
I remembered! Seongjin-wook was a man who had died long ago, much before SSS dungeon collapsed.
*
The second party seemed reluctant to send a doctor. A doctor came after many exchanges of endangering threats to the other side.