A world without you there (2)
Cale wanted a life where he could just laze around all day and stay with his family.
He wanted a life where he wouldn't have to see his friends die.
'It hurts…'
Cale didn't like pain, but he was used to it.
'Raon, On, Hong, Alberu, Choi Han…'
He had wanted to avoid this pain. He should have pushed them all away when he still had the chance.
Maybe, he should've even been beaten up by Choi Han, and this wouldn't have happened…
But Cale knew that it wasn't the case.
Cale wanted his slacker life. He wanted to finally rest, far away from any hunters, deaths, apocalypse or monsters. Was this really an impossible request?
As he died, he felt the excruciating pain of his plate being broken for a few long minutes until he finally lost consciousness.
Then, the record ended…
…And was replayed another time.
"Human! Can I brush your hair?"
Cale was covered in cold sweat.
Even though he knew it was a record, he couldn't extricate himself from this scenario. His eyes were fixed on the scene.
[The constellation 'Demon-like Judge of Fire' finds your trauma sad.]
[The constellation 'Secretive Plotter' empathizes with you.]
[The constellation 'Abyssal Black Flame Dragon' enjoys the massacre.]
[The constellation 'General of the Golden Headband' recommends your story.]
[You have been sponsored 500 coins.]
Cale had a big headache.
「He was now only the constellations' toy, being watched and having to complete scenarios for them.」
The record repeated itself for one-hour straight until Cale failed the sub-scenario. Thankfully, the penalty wasn't death but only a few coins.
「…And another part of his mind being broken.」
Cale's eyes dimmed.
His trauma was to have seen all his friends die right in front of him.
His clenched his hand.
To the childhood friend whose name he could not remember anymore, he made a promise…
'Even if I have to finish the scenarios to do that, I will find you.'
Because she was the only person he had left.
At the same time, Xin Jian continued to watch his story.
"Okay."
Some words were thoughts, some words were said, and some words were unheard.
"I'll be waiting for you."
***
Meanwhile, a few days ago:
After killing all the zombies, Zhou Mingrui sighed and raised his head.
[5 seconds remaining before the end of the scenario.]
He immediately activated Creeping Hunger and teleported to the other end of the bridge.
Ignoring the messages signaling the completion of the scenario, he felt the poisonous gas and continued to teleport while searching for an underground entrance, occasionally pulling out some paper substitutes from the pores of history to get rid of the poison.
He took out a walking stick and familiarly divined the location of the nearest station while continuing to teleport.
As he was heading toward Chungmuro Station, his spiritual intuition prevented him from deviating from the plot.
Zhou Mingrui decided to follow his spiritual intuition and teleported to Geumho Station instead.
Appearing among a crowd of people, no one noticed him.
"…"
Wait, wasn't this someone he knew? He had already arrived here?
Should he have gone to the other station instead?
Zhou Mingrui deliberated whether to leave right away and finally settled on a divination.
'No.'
So he stayed.
The person in question noticed his gaze and turned his head to him.
"…"
Zhou Mingrui thought that he must seem very suspicious now.
After all, after staying alone on the other side of the bridge with a horde of zombies because he could not fly, he was already here a few minutes later.
Yoo Jonghyuk approached him with a menacing aura.
As expected, he should have just left.
"What are you doing here?"
Zhou Mingrui looked at the handsome regressor and said bullshit.
"It must have been fate."
Except that 'fate' here was his spiritual intuition.
Zhou Mingrui nodded to himself.
Xin Jian must have slightly influenced him.
[Lie Detection has confirmed that you are lying.]
Zhou Mingrui observed Yoo Jonghyuk's murderous expression and realized something.
'Ah, maybe it was him who possessed the ability to detect lies.'
In the subway train, his spiritual intuition had warned him that one of the two people who had arrived could tell if he was lying.
Hmm, then he wasn't in a good situation now.
"Would you believe me if my intuition told me to come here?"
[Lie Detection has confirmed that your words are the truth.]
Seeing that Yoo Jonghyuk continued to stare at him, Zhou Mingrui decided to act as a fanatic to pull himself out of this mess.
A fanatic saner than Gehrman, of course. The setting shouldn't get him more reasons to be disliked by the person his spiritual intuition had told him to approach.
He clasped his hands and said piously:
"It must be the blessing of my lord who granted me this ability."
In some way, it was true. He was the trinity of believer, blessed and god after all.
[Lie Detection has confirmed that your words are the truth.]
Seeing that the person in front of him was a fanatic, Yoo Jonghyuk frowned.
He already had a bad experience dealing with believers. They were the most stubborn and the hardest to change their minds.
He stepped away and left.
'You won't even greet me? That's not polite.' Zhou Mingrui lampooned.
Having achieved the intended effect, he sat down in a corner.
Zhou Mingrui: 1 — Yoo Jonghyuk: 0.
Bored, Zhou Mingrui pulled out a pendulum from the pores of history and began to divine the regressor's secret with all kinds of tropes from famous webnovels.
'Yoo Jonghyuk is a human who has spent 1000 years in reclusion.'
The answer was no.
Recalling the sword he wore just now, Zhou Mingrui continued with a focused expression.
'Yoo Jonghyuk recovered the memories of his previous life where he was a genius swordsman.'
The pendulum slightly turned counterclockwise.
Zhou Mingrui felt that he was getting closer to the truth.
'Yoo Jonghyuk is a powerful demon king who comes from hell.'
After all, he shouldn't be human to be so strong at the start of the scenarios.
The pendulum turned counterclockwise once again.
He should probably stop making statements that were too detailed.
'Yoo Jonghyuk was reincarnated as the child of a star with his twin and tried to enter the entertainment industry to avenge their mother who died in their childhood.'
As he expected, the pendulum wildly shook counterclockwise, but Zhou Mingrui didn't give up.
'Yoo Jonghyuk possesses a portable grandpa.'
That wasn't it either.
'This is a novel that Yoo Jonghyuk has read.'
No.
'Yoo Jonghyuk has entered his own novel.'
No.
'Yoo Jonghyuk has entered the novel he has edited.'
No.
'Yoo Jonghyuk comes from another world.'
That wasn't it either.
'Yoo Jonghyuk is the protagonist.'
Yes.
'Yoo Jonghyuk-'
Hmm? What? No wonder he was so handsome, and no wonder that his spiritual intuition had told him to get closer to Yoo Jonghyuk. Zhou Mingrui continued to make random guesses.
'Yoo Jonghyuk is actually a Saiyan.'
No.
'Yoo Jonghyuk is an alien.'
Neither.
'Yoo Jonghyuk is living his second life.'
Still not it.
'Yoo Jonghyuk is trying to get revenge on someone.'
The pendulum shook slightly in a clockwise manner.
On who? Was his girlfriend stolen away by someone?
However, that still didn't tell him what Yoo Jonghyuk's secret was.
'Yoo Jonghyuk is single.'
Yes.
Apparently, that wasn't it.
As he was about to start another divination, someone interrupted him.
"Excuse me, are you new here?"
'Hey, I didn't finish investigating the protagonist's private life!'
Lampooning, Zhou Mingrui raised his head and saw who had talked to him.
It was a thin man with light hair and narrowed eyes, who wore a black turtleneck.
Cheon Inho, who had seen Yoo Jonghyuk speak to Zhou Mingrui, had approached the latter.
Zhou Mingrui nodded.
"Yes."
Cheon Inho continued asking questions.
"Are you acquainted with Mr. Yoo Jonghyuk?"
"Yes."
Zhou Mingrui entered his Gehrman Sparrow mode and didn't provide further details.
Gehrman Sparrow stared coldly at the unknown man.
Cheon Inho was dumbfounded but kept his composure.
"How did you know him?"
"Asking someone about their private life is not polite."
'You should divine it instead.' He lampooned.
Gehrman Sparrow, who had previously done something impolite, consciously ignored that fact.
After all, what did Zhou Mingrui have to do with him, Gehrman Sparrow?
Cheon Inho was at a loss for words.
"…I see. Sorry for being impolite."
He stared at Gehrman Sparrow and looked at him up and down, judged that he seemed too weak to join their group, and left.
The latter deactivated his Gehrman Sparrow mode and became Zhou Mingrui once again.
Then, he got up.
From his observations, there was a main group controlling others and another one depending on them. Nothing interesting.
That was just how humans were.
As expected, he shouldn't have come here.
Protagonist or not, Zhou Mingrui decided to ignore Yoo Jonghyuk and his spiritual intuition altogether and did as he wanted.
Heading to the tunnel, he put on a layer of illusion on himself to not be stopped by anyone.
Zhou Mingrui lazily bypassed the ground rats and yawned. Even though he was one of the pillars of the universe, he didn't want to fight here with this weak body. Moreover, pulling out an angel or a demigod charm straight away would make it seem like he was bullying the monsters.
[The 2nd main scenario has arrived!]
+
Category: Main.
Difficulty: E.
Clear Condition: Cross the tunnel and meet the survivors in the first main base.
Time Limit: None.
Reward: 500 coins.
Failure: ???
+
After a while, another scenario window appeared in front of him.
[A new sub scenario has arrived!]
Ah, this was the return of the ominous feeling coming from his spiritual intuition.
But what could possibly threaten a Great Old One?
[Sub Scenario – Welcome Prison]
Category: Sub.
Difficulty: D~F.
Clear Conditions: Escape from Welcome Prison within the time limit.
Time Limit: 1 hour.
Compensation: 300 coins.
Failure: ???
+
[Sub scenario – Welcome Prison has begun!]
Zhou Mingrui would soon receive an answer to his question.