Chapter 27: Club (4)

Neck caught, floating in the air.

Exposed lower abdomen.

A rolled-up hem.

A chest rising and falling breathlessly.

“Ugh, let go…!”

Her legs instinctively kicked in the air, but they only spun uselessly.

Haruki’s body was already a piece of paper floating unreservedly.

Resentment reared its head.

The arrogant attitude of the fourth-generation chaebol was quite irritating.

Why did she show off when she couldn’t do anything?

“If you’re going to die, die alone. Urk…”

Her tongue stiffened. The last word stuck on the tip of her tongue disappeared.

This is how the hunter industry is.

Death comes suddenly, and there is no time to leave a will.

The air was cut off.

She opened her mouth and gasped, but her lungs couldn’t take in air.

The world faded.

She sank into the flickering darkness.

‘I didn’t think I wouldn’t be able to see it with my eyes….’

Spirit Eyes.

Eyes that allow one to see spirits.

Thanks to that, she was always in an advantageous position in her relationship with spirits.

But now it was different.

There was a spirit that even she couldn’t see.

This is what a difference in rank is like.

Since she can’t see it, she can’t even resist.

If it wants to kill, she can only die unilaterally.

Terrible injustice.

It was when she foresaw her end.

Bang!

A loud noise from somewhere made her tightly closed eyes open.

It was so loud that her ears felt numb.

‘Gunshot?’

It was unfamiliar.

No one in the industry used guns. The job market for gunslingers is frozen. It’s out of step with the flow of the world.

It was enough for expectations to fall.

As she lowered her head expressionlessly.

A dreamlike phenomenon unfolded before her eyes.

A bullet that pierced the void exploded.

Flash? Flames? No.

It was pure white.

Not light, but the absence of color.

Complete whiteness that does not allow warmth.

Crowd Control.

Status effect, Freeze.

A chilly cold spread elegantly.

Bearing crystals, the spirit revealed its hideous form.

At that moment, the pressure near her neck disappeared.

She took a breakfall and adjusted the impact.

Her posture was immature because she was in a hurry, but there was something more urgent than the impact that hit her whole body.

Air rushed deep into her lungs.

Her throat violently welcomed the oxygen, and her trembling vocal cords let out a moan.

“Ugh, cough. Whew.”

Momentary hyperventilation.

Oxygen soaked her cells.

She was alive.

But even that sensation was twisted by a single thrill that ran through her body.

The feeling of relief was greater than the feeling of relief.

“No way.”

The reality in front of her was beyond the scope of what common sense allowed.

Is this how someone who witnessed the forbidden feels?

She witnessed magic that does not exist in this world.

The moment she first saw a spirit wasn’t this shocking.

‘Freeze? Ice? Was there such magic in the world?’

Haruki recalled the basic principles of magic.

The [System] awakens humans.

And along with the status window, it instilled the sense of handling mana.

Thus.

All magic is manifested through unique mana.

But ice?

It’s not an attribute. It’s a phenomenon.

‘There’s no such thing as a unique mana that handles ice. The academic world did not recognize the ice attribute as an independent attribute.’

It’s a technique that requires controlling the thermal energy of molecules with the sense of handling fire.

Therefore, it was premised on impossibility.

The rules of the macroscopic world and the microscopic world are not the same.

The position and momentum of particles cannot always be accurately observed.

The world follows a clear causality, but the world of particles that make up its foundation exists only in probability.

Temperature is a measure of the average kinetic energy of particles.

To lower the temperature, you have to slow down the particles.

But how do you handle something invisible?

There is no human in the world who can see probability.

“……”

Haruki organized the situation with her mouth wide open.

Just before the saliva dripped, rational thinking intervened.

“It must be a skill…?”

The [System] compensates for all impossibilities.

That one possibility could explain this situation.

It was impossible to use freezing magic with skill.

Then.

Thump. Thump.

Footsteps spread.

Her gaze automatically shifted.

Discordance.

The first thing she recognized was that.

The silhouette was unusual.

Curves that didn’t match the small body were strangely approaching.

“Are you alright?”

Her eyes were not visible beyond the sunglasses, but her lips were clear.

A strong contrast engraved on white skin.

She was still young. But it was clear.

A glimpse of the qualities of a beauty who could topple nations . Someday she will become a national-power-level beauty.

Shake shake.

Haruki shook her head.

What is she thinking about when she almost died just now?

When she shook off her silly thoughts, a name came to mind.

There’s a lot of talk about her these days, so she couldn’t not know.

“There are many features. Black glasses and outstanding appearance. Top student?”

Blink Sword said that.

That there is a future for the academy among the freshmen.

Is that really so?

It was an evaluation that could only be questioned.

Seeing it in person, the rumors didn’t explain the reality.

‘She’s so young…. The world is wide and there are many geniuses.’

It’s an age where you have to think about the future.

What will she become later?

The next moment.

The girl picked up the book and said as if muttering.

“I’ll take this book.”

A visually impaired person and a book.

It wasn’t a very good combination.

That’s why it was an unexpected act.

Haruki trembled with a thrill that ran through her whole body.

The feeling of her insides being turned upside down was revealed as it was.

“Ack! You too? What are you going to do with a book, blind person?”

“Read it.”

“Nonsense! I can see that you have a sense-related skill, but the power of the Book of the Dead will become stronger as you turn the pages, and even the status ailment you put on will be released. In the end, it’s obvious that you’ll cough up blood and fall miserably before you even finish reading it!”

“It’ll be different if I do it.”

Ernian tilted her head with a calm and indifferent face.

It was when the hidden sniper revealed herself.

It was a judgment that she had confirmed that there was no element of threat.

‘She’s nagging a lot. I have a plan.’

Would anything change if she added more words?

All actions needed to persuade others felt meaningless.

Anyway, a normal person wouldn’t understand the world she sees.

No matter how much.

Even if she has Spirit Eyes.

“Stop!”

The woman whose lower legs were stained yellow hurriedly reached out.

But.

It was too late.

Under the sunglasses.

The hidden eyes were opened.

No one knew the criteria for the [System] to choose awakened ones.

It was incomprehensible like the will of God, light like chance, and cruel like inevitability.

Because of that.

An era has come where even ordinary people can awaken and seize power if they are lucky.

Conscience was a luxury for those with violence.

How many people wouldn’t become arrogant when there are few people to stop them from doing whatever they want?

Being honest with power was an attribute of hunters. To the point of considering one’s own martial prowess as a privilege.

That’s why the personalities of hunters were basically screwed up.

‘It’s not for nothing that they say they’re Hunter-Dragons.’

Among them.

Those who crossed the line were called villains.

This book is also like that.

Instinctive disgust rose up.

A nasty sensation scratched my stomach.

Just by someone reading this, the world rotted a little more.

But.

It didn’t apply to me.

I’ve just opened my eyes.

It was clear.

I didn’t even need to turn the pages because I could use X-ray vision.

As I blinked my eyes a few times, the letters rushed in like a flood.

Not one page, one paragraph, one sentence.

The entire book was engraved in my head at once, like a single structure.

A speed that doesn’t even feel like reading.

A sensation like recalling something I already knew.

Thousands, tens of thousands of letters were arranged in my mind.

A blade-like desperation was hidden between the words.

The words left on the page were already faded.

But the fear that permeated between the sentences did not disappear even after time passed.

‘She said the power gets stronger as you turn the pages.’

Lives are soaked in like ink.

Life was reduced to letters and sentences, binding the living moments into the grain of the paper.

The thicker it gets.

Soon, it means that more lives have been absorbed.

Therefore, the spirit born from this book is ‘death’.

There is a sense of déjà vu.

It wasn’t the first time I saw death take shape.

‘The Lich I encountered in the Wednesday daily dungeon also handled the concept of death. He raised corpses and made them march, beating their rotten bones.’

Stories are like this.

Unlike martial arts and magic, insight is meaningless.

Because it is a life that an individual has accumulated.

No one can walk in their place, and no one can fall in their place.

Even if you open your eyes wide and look, how can it be the same as the mire stuck to the ankles of the person involved?

‘Of course, it was a story that wouldn’t have been manifested if it hadn’t been corrupted by [Source of All Evil].’

Why is this, how, in the academy?

Who brought it, and for what purpose does it exist?

Unanswered questions still lingered, but the deed was already done.

‘There is a way to fix it.’

Even if it is corrupted, the essence does not change.

There is only one thing to do with a spirit.

Contract.

Just as I was about to step forward.

My attention was drawn to the howling cry.

“Stop! It’s good that you didn’t open the book. But are you trying to make a contract?”

“Yes. Why?”

“How can you try to make a contract when you’re not even a spirit studies major? A contract is a mutual agreement based on spiritual resonance. So a spirit never submits if the ranks don’t match. How can you make a contract when you can’t even exchange essence?”

“Just. Well?”

“Aaargh! Are you crazy too! How much do you have to get hurt to be humble? That’s a King-class spirit that even I can’t handle! If something happens to a pretty girl like you, it’s a cosmic loss.”

She was jumping around as if she was frustrated, but I could feel the tone of caring for me.

It’s not in vain because the sincerity is visible to my eyes.

‘…Am I that cute.’

What is beauty? Is it the curvature of a line, the harmony of light, or the length of time that people’s gazes linger?

I don’t have a standard for beauty . I didn’t understand the lingering attachment towards me.

‘Still, it’s advice from a major, so should I take it to heart. Does the term rank mean a modifier?’

There must be a reason why she’s doing this.

I thought about the reason for her concern.

It was said that the rank of a hunter is revealed by modifiers.

When they achieve a great achievement or show off their martial prowess, the system gave them modifiers.

It was the identity and great honor of a hunter.

The more grandiose it was, the more it proved that they were greater.

Flame of Roar, Blink Sword, and War God were like that.

Then.

There’s no reason to worry.

Ernian Ludwig.

My modifier was Death God.