Once Again

After waking up, Ian looked around himself in a daze.

'What's this place?' He thought in confusion while staring at the rows of beds in a room covered in the color white.

Apart from Ian's bed, which he occupied, the remaining beds are all vacant.

After a period of initial confusion, he started recalling everything, making him alarmed.

'This… I came back to the past again?' He thought, astonished by this new development.

But after a period of extreme shock and confusion, he calmed down and started thinking about everything that made the last run go wrong.

In his past regression, He lived as if there was no tomorrow.

He did everything rushed and never cared about the consequences.

That's the main reason why he ultimately failed, dying in the hands of Osiris by getting mistaken for a traitor.

While he was thinking about the memories from his past regression. he thought about something else that made his eyes lit up.

'So Every Time I Die I go back in the past?'

When Ian thought about this attentively, it felt like a ridiculous cheat.

Going back to the past whenever he died!

What kind of cheat is that!?

This means he can never die. He was immortal!

This conclusion overjoyed him, but his face turned ugly when he thought of something else.

'Why did the pain become worse compared to the first time I returned to the past?' Ian mulled over it for a while before thinking of two possibilities.

The first is that the pain he would feel after every regression is proportional to his grade before death.

And the second one is for every time he regressed, the next one would be more painful...

He hoped that the second one wasn't true, but he didn't have the guts to try dying again to find which possibility was true.

Whether it be the first one or the second one, Ian was sure that after a dozen of regressions he will go insane and can be no longer considered the same person.

That makes it no different from death.

Hence, he stopped thinking about these any further and decided to put these speculations in the back of his mind.

"Oh! You were awake"

Hearing a familiar voice and seeing that facade of a smile once again; Ian started feeling goosebumps all over his body.

His eyelids started twitching and his body inadvertently shook because of the terror that was felt in his heart.

"Hmm? A trauma? " Questioned Osiris as he glanced at this weird state displayed by Ian with puzzlement.

But after recalling what happened to Ian, Osiris felt it made sense.

After undergoing such torment, anyone would experience trauma.

"How are you feeling?" Osiris asked.

After hearing his question, Ian took a few deep breaths and calmed down his nerves before answering.

"Better than before…"

Osiris nodded after hearing Ian's answer.

"I think I recognize what this painful experience you experienced is..." Osiris said as walked towards Ian and sat on the chair beside him.

Ian was filled with worry when he heard that.

'Did this guy found something again? '

Ian recalled having a similar dialogue with Osiris before getting erased from existence.

He began praying to all the gods he knew, even though he knew that no god could save him if Osiris intended to kill him.

Osiris didn't respond and continued to stare at Ian for a moment before sighing.

"I am the main reason for this… If it wasn't for me you wouldn't have to go through that pain," He said while looking at Ian guiltily.

Ian was baffled when he heard that.

' What do you mean when you said it was because of you? Are you sure you didn't misunderstand something again? Stop talking in riddles and speak everything in one sentence as*hole! '

Clueless about what Osiris might say, Ian just perked his ears and continued listening.

"If it wasn't for me introducing you as my grandson at the opening ceremony, there wouldn't have been a Curse directed at you… It must be those Chaos realm bastards only they are good at things like this." Osiris stated while frowning.

He started getting annoyed when he thought of those damn traitors.

The amount of damage they caused to humanity, whether it be direct or indirect, is unimaginable.

'Scrounges like them that still roam the central realm are the main reason for it to fall to such a state.' Thought Osiris, while gazing at the sky from a window nearby.

His eyes… filled with melancholy and craziness that betrayed his gentle smile.

Ian didn't notice any of these as he was paying attention to something else.

' A curse… huh, ' He thought, baffled by this misunderstanding.

But after a period of careful speculating, his eyes glistened

'This misunderstanding might be more convenient for me.…'

He then looked at Osiris with confusion.

"What do you mean by a curse? And… chaos realm? what's that?" Ian questioned.

Ian's reason for acting ignorant was simple.

Among the books that were given by Osiris, there weren't any books that have information about realms or different factions.

Moreover, Ian recalled that the first introduction of realms in his novel was given at a History Lecture a month after the opening ceremony. Hence, acting ignorant might be better for the current situation.

After all, it's his Over knowledge persona that didn't quite fit with his background that aroused Osiris's suspicions about him in the last run.

Osiris gazed at the Confused Ian and contemplated on whether he should say it or not. A moment later, he sighed.

"Curse… It's just as its name implies… A special type of power that can kill people remotely. Of course, there are certain conditions and there is also a certain price that needed to be paid. But you don't need to learn about them for now..."

After which he continued inside his mind.

' Since the curse didn't work entirely, they must have used the name Von Griffin as the target...'

For a curse to work, there need to be particular details about the target and the vaguer the details are, the higher the price that was needed to pay.

Moreover, once a curse was used, there is only one possibility- Death.

Osiris felt that the main reason Ian suffered the curse was that the moment he announced Ian as Von griffin, Ian can also be considered as Von griffin.

But because this name isn't Ian's true name, the effect of the curse greatly diminished, only able to make him bleed from his seven orifices.

'Since those chaos realm's factions are willing to pay such a high price, then this guy isn't a spy from them.'

After getting to this conclusion, Osiris's facade was soon replaced with genuine feelings.

'As long as he isn't a traitor...'

Osiris knew that even though there may be many internal conflicts between Mind practitioners, all of their primary goals are the same.

Hence, can unite in the face of a genuine crisis.