CHAPTER-10

Lying on the simple straw bed given to him was not any option, thus Jihan slept with his sleeping bag on it. He remembered the weird expression on Biru and Shiru, but it's not like he could do anything about his extreme OCD.

Jihan looked around the small dome like structure he was given to stay in with animal skin as a curtain like door, through which moonlight peaked and the room was slightly illuminated.

Having a moment of rest Jihan felt he should organise his thoughts, opening his mobile phone Jihan silently swiped through his character profile, he clicked on the 'quest area' option.

.............

CHARACTER PROFILE

NAME- Jihan

ATK- blocked MP- blocked

DEF- blocked HP- blocked

TALENT

blocked

TITLES

blocked

IMMERSION

0.01%

SPECIAL CONDITIONS

-none

..............

QUEST AREA

-GET TO THE MAIN QUEST (D)

Time remaining- 9 days

-EAT THE APPLE FROM THE APPLE TREE ON THE APPLE ISLAND (S)

Time remaining- ??

............…..

"Haa"

Jihan felt a bit sarcastic at his plight, a person who let alone completing atleast one main quest, hasn't even entered the main quest area would practically be considered a newborn baby in the world after the rift. Even a D class quest would be considered extremely hard for him since he still yet had to unlock his unique talent, yet he had one ranked S.

Jihan knew this might be the repercussions of his close to unlimited star points, but Jihan still had his thoughts. As a person with a deep understanding of the reason of rifts outside of the novel he knew things might not be as easy as it looks. Opening a small diary he had bought he wrote all that he could explain in as easy terms as possible.

If he could explain it in simpler term it would be as such, suppose your life events and everything in your day to day life, as minuscule as what book you should read to as vast as what conspiracy theory you should believe in is directed by a book.

Now a book continues as long as an author writes it, but one day the author disappears out of the blue, let's say a few literary geniuses try their best to come together at predicting minuscule details, wondering that maybe the author needs a break? Why not let him take one.

These new authors came to be known later as the primordials.

While continuing to do this they start forgetting the original intention of the author. They eventually start understanding how broken of an item the book is and how they could control it together to even change some vast plotlines. Thus they eventually start using it with their own needs in minds. They swayed and dirtied the original pre-devised conclusion of how the book should go, it caused loss to people in many ways, but who cares, as long as the world kept moving.

But now suddenly the book stopped recording their words. The primordials were flabbergasted, tried changing their ways by sometimes writing harshly, sometimes doing so softly, but nothing worked. While they wondered what they did wrong they failed to notice the brewing riot among people, soon it turned so wild that it could not go by unnoticed. Fearing that all this happening might be due to the wrath of original author, the primordials pretended to be kind and handed over the book handling rights to the proclaimed leaders of the riot.

These new leaders later came to be called as the constellations.

But suddenly a miracle happened, they found that due to the united consent of the people, they could write again on the book. Surprised and shocked by the event, few of the primordials decided to gradually give out more powers to the constellations so that they could control them behind the scenes, while the rest completely parted with anything related to the book wanting nothing more than stability.

Meanwhile a very few of them intuitively were able to feel the resistance of the book to what was written on it and felt scared. They tried finding ways to make themselves strong lest the author came and destroyed it all.

The phenomena of rift was created by such people. These bunch of people dabbed their hands in realms that had no idea about such a book existing and were what higher realm beings called 'mindless creatures'.

They believed their fate was in their hands. Such mindless faith shook the primordials to their core. Taking advantage of their faith they were in the process of creating a replica of the original book.

Like every other book, this book too needed stories, plotlines, characters plus a conclusion which could also be dubbed as intention of the making of a book. As a thing that they wanted to use as a weapon of murder in future, it was mainly fed with chaos and destruction.

"...."

To be honest it was scary for people to know that their lives were forced to be a tragedy to meet the requirements of a certain book but Jihan believed that in the end even the primordials also couldn't target people without any rhyme and reason any more than this since they already had to pay an immense price for causing rifts, they won't drain their efforts down the water by making unreasonable stories that would not be accepted by the book, even if it's a fake. And that was enough for Jihan.

He wasn't planning on telling them to change their ways, neither did he know how they could even solve this whole mess even if he had all the information regarding it.

In short he was too lacking.

Sighing Jihan turned to his side as he gazed deeply at the moonlight. To be honest even the original book under the original author would be fair to some and unfair to others, the very primal concept just has been long forgotten

"Fairness is a concept sought by the weak."

With those words Jihan tore of the diary pages, folded them tightly and dropped it on the small table.

Soon he closed his eyes for a much needed rest.

......................

Later when Jihan was still asleep the monkey faced messenger walked in with extreme quite steps. He had a cold expression on his face, quite different from his usual way of speaking. He looked down as Jihan sleeping defencelessly, with an innocent expression on his face.

He stooped down next to him observed him calmly then turned to the white paper on the table and gently opened it, reading the contents his pupil shrank slightly, the he returned the folded paper in it's original place, gave a fleeting glance towards the boy sleeping on the bed and watched him deeply as if to burn his face in his head, turned and walked away.

........................

Kim Hyesung had what his father called an 'innate gift.'

As a person with high IQ and studying materials organised according to it he was always 10 steps higher than his peers. Yet he was never excluded in conversations, whether it was talking to the kids his age or their parents, even their retired grandfathers were no exception.

His father called it a gift of eloquence, while his mother called it a people pleaser's behaviour. Nonetheless it was good for Hyesung. Atleast he was never lonely.

If Jihan had heard Kim Hyesung describe himself as a people pleaser he might would just have jumped of the bridge to calm down his anger for the shitty romance novel.

Nevertheless, this came naturally to Kim Hyesung. While he could hold a conversation, he would not let people take advantage of him while simultaneously maintaining his boundaries. That's why Hyesung never had concerns about fitting-in a certain group in his entire life.

But right now he was facing such crisis.

"....."

He watched as his fellow comrades brought various books and giggled about it while explaining everything to the constellation. They often seemed to look back at his dumbfounded attitude and chuckled among themselves making Hyesung flinch inwardly.

As much frustrated he was he kind of felt glad for this change. To be honest he had no idea what the constellations were playing at but seeing his comrades smiling with relaxed body expressions made him feel a sense of rare comfort.

Ever since the rift, even though there were days for the quest to start, people were constantly struggling for food and water, weapons and adapt according to the environment physically and mentally.

Absence of Internet and any source of communication led to further chaos of the system. Meanwhile any automatic weapon like guns, bombs etc. didn't seem to be working either, making it difficult for the government to calm down public outrage. There also were what could be called cults forming everywhere, it was quite unnerving to see people of different races and identities fighting and killing each other be it for the ideologies and theories of why the rift came to be or for minuscule things like food and water.

There were also the star points that could be earned by doing quests, but no one wanted to currently risk their lives for earning points. The easiest way to gain star points was to kill other human.

Of course Hyesung didn't went around killing on his own accord but to be honest he wasn't a saint either. He had know the importance of star points and thus he had deliberately walked around with his team all day and killed whosoever attacked them.

Killing on his own accord might make his team unwilling to follow him that's why he walked around in the name of changing mindset, understanding what is going on and saving people.

Sighing Kim Hyesung looked at Yoon Jonghyun through his peripheral vision sitting next to him cleaning his swords diligently. Hyesung could intuitively feel that this man was strong.

He met Yoon Jonghyun in what could be called a coincidence, while they were searching libraries for a book with the title 'President's white lotus bunny.' he found Yoon Jonghyun's team in the library too, they seemed to be searching for the same thing thus they joined forces.

'....well, it's less of a team and more like a gang.'

Since his team consisted of his bodyguards wearing all black suits and other close office associates in a full office uniform, unlike Kim Hyesung's team which consisted of many new people outside of his acquaintance in his team. Jonghyun's team seemed to be much more proactive in killing people, they killed any violent person they encountered and specifically looked around for the cults that were forming with a lot of people.

A team of professional snipers and bodyguards, it was easy for them to handle a bunch of hooligans even without the presence of automatic weapons with their years of experience.

Hyesung's team seemed to have some complaints for it but Hyesung shut them up with a polite-helpless shrug. After all he knew that once the main quest starts things might not be the same as now, from what their messenger explained they would unlock their unique talents, of course if they get a sponsorship or discipleship they could unlock a part of it early on, thus removing such scum early on when they were weak would do good in many ways.

Of course no one knew what is the right course of action, should he just accept one of the discipleship he was offered or should he wait for his own talents to bloom, to be honest he was confident enough on his choice but seeing Jonghyun with no unique talents either he felt a slight sense of relief and acknowledgement.

He knew Yoon Jonghyun early on, since the Yoon family and the Kim family were business partners, he had also met him when he was a child.

'A person very similar to himself.'

That was what he thought of Jonghyun who was from similar family conditions, had a high IQ similar to him and studied alongside him most of the time. Yet they never talked much, it was like a tactic understanding of cooperation between them since he had known him. As a person who could very easily gauge someone's emotion Hyesung keenly felt Jonghyun to be always tired. He seemed to be distancing himself from most of his peers, even his elders were treated in basic respect, no more no less. It was as if this very world tired him. Meeting after such a long time Hyesung felt quite intrigued by the changes in him.

If the previous Jonghyun was just tired, this Jonghyun seemed to be tired x3 for some reason, yet there was this light in his eyes, as if he was anticipating something. Along with that he felt for some reason he was slightly more cold to him in general.

'Well not that I care.'

Jonghyun was a good ally but that's it, he would be glad if they kept being together since the level of understanding between them was quite high but he won't force him to it. After all as a person who was more like a peer than the rest of his peers surrounding him he had a strong sense of ego when came to matters related to him.

Suddenly reminded of something Hyesung had a bout of intrigue has he turned towards Jonghyun, seeing his action Jonghyun seemed to think he had something to discuss as he put down his sword and the bloodied cloth making Hyesung slightly embarrassed.

"Where did you get this sword from?"

Hyesung was genuinely curious about is since most of the stuff from museums seemed to hav vanished and turned into what is now called artifacts, with miraculous powers, stored in the store to be bought at exorbitant prices.

Jonghyun looked down at the sword and shrugged at Hyesung's question.

"It's a family heirloom."

"Ah that makes sense."

An awkward silence enveloped them.

'Aish let's just ask about it.'

"That- Where is your wife?"

After all Hyesung had attended their marriage, he had seen the Seo family's daughter that was cherished like a diamond.

'She is exceedingly beautiful.'

That was his first thought about her since the start till the end, she had no notable qualities or inferiorities, just like a doll. As a girl that was sitting on everyone's heart it made him feel quite weird that she was so beautifully bland.

At his words Jonghyun flinched, making Hyesung freeze,

'shit don't tell me! f she is not with him did something happen?'

Hyesung was about to apologise when he saw Jonghyun chuckle with a slightly dark expression on his face as he said with a slight smirk on his face.

"My 'wife' seems to have run away."

At his words Hyesung was dumfounded.