Chapter 50 :

Episode 12 : The Competition (2)

I sat next to the window, looking out from it to find someone. 

Afterwards, I became bored, so to get rid of my boredom, I took out the core from my inventory, inspecting it with full concentration.

I mumbled, suddenly dazing. "The core of ‘Mist of Deepest Fear’.." 

‘Master, are you going to use it on the players?’ Lucifer spoke in a worried tone of voice.

"It's good to stop everyone from fighting."

‘But wouldn't it traumatize the players onward?’ 

I stared at the core that had an angelic feather poking out from the top before saying. "You appear to have grown merciful toward the players."

‘No, master! I was just thinking that it's not wise to mentally harm the players or else in the future they won't be useful tools for you!’

"Alright." I sighed, switching my gaze at HwanGi. "Who was that boy in his nightmare?"

‘Master?’

"That boy in his nightmare looks familiar but I can't seem to remember him."

‘You can ask HwanGi when he wakes up, Master.’

"Hm." 

I turned to have a look at the window, still waiting for my skill's prediction to come true. 

I was going to place my katana on the table, until Lucifer suggested to me seriously. ‘Master, I think you should prevent your irides from changing to red every time an angel is near or spies on you.’ 

"Why?" I narrowed my eyes when I heard that suggestion.

‘Last time, Alaine could have seen your red eyes. If it weren't for me stopping it for you, you would have to listen to more questions from her.’

"You became quite talkative lately. What's the occasion?" I smiled innocently while avoiding his statement on purpose.

‘...I'll be quiet now.’ 

After Lucifer said that, a moment of silence and peace arrived for me to relax.

"..U..Urgh.." 

Or maybe not...

I found HwanGi awoke, sitting upward on his bed the moment he groaned.

"I see that you're awake." I talked to him, causing him to strangely startle from my voice.

"Where am I..? And what happened to me?" HwanGi's voice filled with slight confusion when he asked me.

"You're back to your room. You don't need to worry what happened to you." I grabbed my katana, indicating to Lucifer for him to disappear quickly in which he did.

HwanGi looked around, confirming whether or not he was in his room.

Then he kept watching me with his blue eyes as if wondering who I am.

Finally, he opened his mouth to ask me these words. "Are you Sans?"

‘Sans? Is that the boy that I saw from his nightmare?’ I thought before telling HwanGi. "I don't know what you're saying but I'm not the person you're looking for."

"Oh.. Sorry for asking." 

In that short period of time, we didn't say anything to each other for a while, forcing the atmosphere to get increasingly awkward for us.

Fortunately, a system message was able to stop this awkward atmosphere, on the other hand, knowing that it was a system message made the atmosphere surrounding us switch to a grave one.

[Stage #8 has been forcibly ended.]

After seeing the system message, I quickly looked out the window and found the person responsible for this sudden end to the stage.

[Stage's Reward has been compensated to players who have completed the Stage's Task.]

5 Medium potions of MP and HP materialized in front of us, outlining the potions with sparkles that flickered brilliantly before fading away when it descended onto our hands.

As HwanGi and I both stored our potions inside our inventories, he questioned me, looking at me with eyes that implied his desperation to understand me. "JoonChul, do you know what this means?" 

I became stunned by his sudden change and pondered. ‘What the heck is wrong with him now? Did his trauma trigger him to be like this?’ 

After some moments later from checking HwanGi's status, I discovered nothing wrong that affected him to act like this.

Furthermore, it seemed that I took too long to view his status because he was in front of me, asking me again. "Is there something wrong?"

Naturally, I was surprised that HwanGi suddenly appeared in front of me but I kept myself cool-headed and said. "Nothing." 

"Hello everyone! Did you get bored hurting monsters? Then you ought to thank me for ending this stage early." A loud voice that almost sounded like a man's voice, resounded from the sky.

Both me and HwanGi simultaneously glanced at the window to witness an angel with burning flame encircling her body.

"HwanGi-ssi, I advise you not to go outside." I told him before opening the window to jump out of it.

I caught a glimpse of HwanGi reaching his hand toward me when he saw me leap off. 

His eyes were widened, expressing his fear of losing someone special to him through his expression. 

When I landed on the ground, I looked up, finding HwanGi who was poking his head out of the window. 

At that moment, I thought with an irritated expression on my face. ‘Seriously, I don't understand what he's trying to do.’

Immediately, I ran on the path that led me to the kingdom's entrance where the angel was floating from above.

———

Meanwhile, HwanGi with his hand stretched out, wanting to grab JoonChul's hand when he left.

He stared at his hand, baffled as to why he was acting oddly toward JoonChul. 

"He's not Sans.. So why am I being like this?" HwanGi questioned himself, clenching his fist tightly.

HwanGi didn't know what caused him to act like this, but he could think of a reason why. 

"Thanks to that creepy nightmare or whatever that was, I was able to remember Sans's appearance and.. JoonChul resembles him." 

He murmured to himself. "If JoonChul is really Sans, then I would be.."

Constant knocking on the door reverberated inside the room until HwanGi answered the door to stop the person who was knocking on it.

To his surprise, it was Alaine who was here to see him.

When Alaine laid her eyes on HwanGi, she began to stare at him as if she was lost in her own thoughts. 

Until HwanGi snapped her out of it. "Why are you here?"

"O-Oh..! I was just checking if you were awake.. and since you are, why don't we have a look at why that new ‘Helper’ is here?" Alaine replied back with her voice being as timid as a mouse.

"Okay." 

"Then shall we go?" Alaine held HwanGi's hand before leading him outside of his room.

HwanGi thought he should let go of her hand but this time he noticed that Alaine was holding onto his hand so tightly than before. 

‘I'll let this slide for today..’ HwanGi nodded to himself while walking beside Alaine.

———

After arriving at my destination, I observed my vicinity, using my hidden skill to identify any players around me. 

Since my hidden skill, ‘Player Analysation’ only works on players, it served as a way for me to locate any players surrounding me.

And it also helps me to memorize all the skills that I have seen through ‘Player Analysation’.

Making it easier for me to use those skills by copying it through my hidden skill, ‘Skill Imitation’.

Even though I knew a lot of skills in my past lives, ‘Skill Imitation’ won't register them to its list of skills. Thus I needed to add them in by using ‘Player Analysation’.

So all in all, it killed two birds with stone.

I smirked to myself, walking toward the crowd up ahead. 

"Hey! Hey! Players! Are you ready for the next stage?" The angel with short hair in the color of flaming hot red exclaimed loudly for the players underneath to hear. 

‘She is quite enthusiastic about this.. Much less calm and elegant.’ I pondered while watching the angel.

"The next stage is going to be lit, so you better get ready to fight! Because the reward may declare you as the King Candidate for this kingdom!!" She emitted a burst of flame above her as big as a cloud when she finished talking.

The angel flew around the flame without coordination almost as if she was a child, giggling so much so that one could forget the burst of flame moments ago.

‘What is with her?’ I scowled before exhaling a sigh, annoyed by the fact that an angel like this was created. 

"Now now everyone! I'm going to shut you all up so that I can continue my time talking." 

With that being said, the angel pointed her index finger up into the sky, releasing a wave of flame expanding itself toward the people below. 

The moment the fiery wave touched someone, nothing harmful happened except that someone was unable to produce any sound when they tried to yell.

However, as for me.. 

[Hidden Skill, ‘Simulation’ has offset the Hidden Skill, ‘Wave of Silence Fury’.]

Although my skill has stopped it, I pretended I was unable to talk because I didn't want to attract attention from that angel.

‘But seriously, ain't she being impolite as an angel?’ I wondered while being pissed off by this angel.