Chapter 09
“Oh, right.”
I forgot to check the progress of the quest.
As soon as I remembered it, I immediately checked the quest window on the game console.
[Quest]
― Taking off the false accusation
[Description]
― Choi Hyun-Woo and Han Soo-Young were able to deliver the goods successfully after all sorts of hardships.
But the joy will be short-lived, and the two will be drawn into a situation where they are suspected of being thieves.
Please help to prove the innocence of the two.
And keep that in mind.
Without your help, the two will never be free.
[Success Condition]
1) Defend when either of them is accused of being a suspect. [Done] [Successful]
2) Prove the innocence of the suspect and find out the true culprit. [Proceeding]
[Success Reward]
1) Choi Hyun-Woo and Han Soo-Young’s fixed favorability.
(Fixed favorability refers to a favorability that does not change no matter what action you take.)
(If you have a high fixed favorability, they will be willing to tolerate your actions, even if it’s against their beliefs.)
[Additional Success Condition]
1) Catch and hand over the culprit of the case.
[Additional Success Reward]
1) Differential compensation will be paid according to the contribution.
As I was slowly looking at the content, I tilted my head for a moment at the word ‘fixed favorability.’
‘It’s not Miyeon’s poem.’
After muttering like that, I instantly changed my mind.
‘That’s right, the compatibility system between colleagues. That was it.’
Clouds on the horizon unusually had a system that allowed other playable characters to be recruited as colleagues in addition to the characters you played. If so, you might think that the difficulty level was too easy, but in reality, it was not.
This was because there was a compatibility between colleagues. So, if they were recruited as colleagues recklessly, they would antagonize each other and in severe cases, they would leave without permission from the party. In addition, there were often cases of interfering with each other when antagonism between groups was severe.
‘…I see. I’ll have to think about which group to get along with later.’
It was a problem I hadn’t even thought of.
And I came up with a hypothesis about the word fixed favorability.
‘If this is high, will such compatibility discord be tolerated?’
If so, it would certainly make it easier to act within the academy.
More than anything else, the fact that there would be so many people to support me was definitely a good thing.
‘Come to think of it, there was an additional success. This is something that wasn’t even in the original story.’
I naturally adjusted my posture and sat down to look at the few lines of content carefully.
Additional success conditions and compensation accordingly.
Of course, it would be beneficial to me to aim for it.
‘Catch Amelda and hand her over… … .’
Of course, there was no way I could win against her by fighting her head-on.
That didn’t mean I thought I’d lose easily, but winning was another matter.
If it seemed like she would lose, she would run away altogether.
“Hup.”
I stretched my right arm forward and took a small deep breath.
Then, dark green thorn-like vines began to crawl out of my arm through my skin.
I felt a foreign sensation, but there was no pain.
I tapped the floor with my foot, and this time the shadows fluttered and flowed out.
It was a little slow, but unlike before, it felt more comfortable controlling.
“Good.”
Branches of the World Tree and Henir’s Shadow.
It had been a few hours at most, but the practice had certainly been worth it.
On top of that, there was the advantage of these two, which was the most suitable for the current situation.
It was a magical method, so-called barriers or detection magic, the point was that it was not affected by those.
In other words, it meant that in order to detect this, you have no choice but to see it with your own eyes or feel it with your senses.
‘And in the current situation, there is no strength like this.’
With my thoughts somewhat organized, I sat up.
It was time for me to move, too.
* * *
“In other words, based on a series of evidence, Choi Hyun-Woo in the video was fabricated by someone.”
Han Soo-Young, like the original story, had collected all the evidence and said it in a dull yet firm voice.
In the room, the director, General Jang, Amelda, Choi Hyun-Woo, and Han Soo-Young.
Finally, including me, a total of six people, gathered.
General Jang was the first to respond to her words.
“Isn’t that too absurd?”
“But, sir. The director confirmed that the door to the safe was smashed by a right-handed person.”
“What if he purposely changed the hand he uses frequently? I am right-handed, but I can do anything with my left hand.”
“Yes, of course.”
Despite General Jang’s words, Han Soo-Young nodded her head as if she had expected it.
In the first place, she was not shaken at all because she was currently doing a so-called build-up.
“Director.”
“Hmm?”
“Let me ask you one question.”
Han Soo-Young looked at the director.
She looked precisely at Amelda, where she had transformed into the appearance of the director.
“From what have I heard, the director has diabetes and doesn’t eat sweet food at all. My master said that, too.”
“… So?”
“But you ate seven candies in half a day.”
General Jang looked at the director with a slightly surprised face at her words.
Then the director sighed with a stiff face.
“Now you want to put this old man on the spot to save your friend?”
“No.”
Han Soo-Young said that and walked forward, making a sound with each step.
She walked toward the door, and when I saw it, I slipped toward the window.
Then, hiding my right hand behind my back, I began to pull out the branches of the World Tree and the Henir’s Shadow.
“I’m trying to reveal who you are.”
With those words, Han Soo-Young snapped open the door, and beyond that, the emaciated director stood upright.
“What?”
“Two directors…?”
General Jang and Choi Hyun-Woo had bewildered expressions on their faces.
Amelda looked dismayed for a moment but quickly looked confused.
“I found it by unfolding detection magic. It was hidden in a cleverly refracted dimensional gap.”
‘What does that even mean?’
The director, who was sitting in the chair, said to Han Soo-young, who was saying something incomprehensible with a serious face.
“You’re saying he’s the real thing?”
“Yes, he is, at least the General know.”
General Jang, who had been silent for a long time at her words, opened his mouth.
“Director.”
At that, the two directors looked at General Jang.
“What did you eat with me yesterday morning?”
“I didn’t eat anything”
The director, who was sitting in his seat, looked at General Jang as if to see what he was talking about.
“You know that I don’t eat breakfast because I don’t feel well.”
“I ate a cream bun.”
The director with the haggard impression standing at the door said.
For some reason, his face was slightly red.
“I was very hungry that day. You said you were going to the bathroom for a while… Hmm. I ate one without telling you.”
As soon as he heard those words, General Jang immediately hurled himself towards the director who was sitting in his seat.
No, to be honest, he was standing in the place where the director was.
It was so fast that all I could hear was the sound of the wind splitting and the sound of hitting something.
“kohok!”
When I turned my head, the fake director was stuck in the wall and collapsed.
Shaking his fists, General Jang murmured in a low voice.
“You’re dead today.”
At this time, I stretched out branches and shadows and scattered them on the window frame so that they could be drawn at any time.
Normally, it would have been noticed long ago, but no one seemed to have noticed at all because of the current situation.
“What?”
He looked like someone who had made a name for himself as a martial arts hunter and hero in the past.
He grabbed the fallen director by the collar with one hand and lifted him with terrifying momentum.
He then looked at Amelda’s alter ego, who was teetering on the edge of untransformation after a certain amount of impact and murmured in a small voice.
“Transformed into an alter ego… this!”
“Ahahaha!”
Amelda, no Esmeralda let out a high-pitched laugh and flew straight backward.
With a feather-like motion, she climbed onto the window frame and kicked it with her foot, breaking the window as she shouted.
“It’s already too late! Well, take care, everyone… Kyaaa!”
Drunk with triumph, she tried to run away, but with a quick snatch of something, she hit her face on the upper part of the window frame.
She let out her scream at the unexpected pain.
“What is this!”
Surprised, she shouted, shaking off the vines wrapped around her ankle with her feet.
Thanks to this, the eyes of everyone in the room turned to the end of the vine.
After a while, when the gazes focused on me, I smiled as I pulled my arm.
“Just in case.”
“You bastard… !”
Those were the last words she uttered.
She was hit with the fist of General Jang, who suddenly rushed towards her.
That was the end of it.
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At least, everyone in this room, except me, must have thought so.
“You have bad manners.”
Amelda, no, Esmeralda, who had been hit by General Jang’s fist, muttered in a small voice.
And another Esmeralda came out of her waist.
General Jang was not bewildered by such a sight and continued to blow his fists.
“Oh, really!”
Despite the grumbling, Amelda avoided or dismissed his attacks with her skillful gestures.
Then, new Esmeralda’s alter ego flowed spontaneously from her body, as if it were splitting.
At some point, the room was filled with nearly ten of her alter ego.
“…This is fucked up?”
General Jang, who stepped out in front of the group as if he was protecting us, muttered in a small voice.
And about ten Esmeraldas each giggled and laughed at him, perhaps hearing his words.
The branch of the world tree that had been tying her down had long since been severed.
Still, I didn’t panic.
‘Esmeralda’s ability can make up to ten alter ego.’
And now there were exactly ten.
Her ability to alter herself was also annoying, as the body could escape while passing the blow to the alter in an instant.
However, at the moment when the maximum critical point of ten people is reached, the main body would be unable to do the so-called ‘shelling out’ of pushing the impact onto the alter ego.
This meant that in order to give her a decent blow, one would have to create a state where she had created at least the maximum number of alter egos.
‘But, could her alter ego ability be considered overwhelming among abilities of the same type?’
The alter ego was no different from the main body, and if there was any damage to the main body, even that part would affect the alter ego.
In addition, the physical abilities and magic wavelengths were the same as the main body, so only Esmeralda herself could know which one is the main body… It must have been such a setting.
‘But I’m sorry, but I already know all of the destruction methods.’
There are many ways, but this was the easiest and most reliable way.
It was a way to mark the body from the beginning.
‘The main body… Is it there?’
Henir’s shadow that was scattered along with the branch of the World Tree.
It was attached to the body of the main body.
It has been a long time since I confirmed that Henir’s Shadow’s ability could be used separately.
‘Then… … .’
With that in mind, I suddenly poured out the branches of the World Tree that had been scattered widely throughout the room towards the Esmeraldas in an instant.
“Oh, there you are.”
Esmeralda’s alter egos escaped the lightly stretching branches of the World Tree.
Then some of the alter egos fiddled with their faces as if they were throbbing.
“Heup!”
Then, as soon as the lull was broken by my sudden action, General Jang stepped in between Esmeralda and began to rampage wildly.
Some of the alter egos were beaten to death, and some were holding out daggers in a seemingly bloody form.
“Hatt!”
Choi Hyun-Woo broke the cable tie with a shout and stormed in.
Then he hit Esmeralda, who was running towards me with a dagger, and she flew toward the desk.
In the midst of the mess, I took a step back towards Han Soo-Young, who was guarding the director.
‘As expected, am I still not good at using it in real life?’
Well, I certainly didn’t have much time.
With that in mind, I spoke to Han Soo-Young.
“Don’t you know of any attack magic that can accurately hit like a sniper?”
“What?”
“So, it’s an attack that you can shoot and hit… .”
“No, I’m not asking you to say it again.”
Han Soo-Young looked at me as if she didn’t understand.
And I glanced at General Jang and Choi Hyun-Woo, who were fighting together at some point to prevent Esmeralda’s alter egos from heading this way.
“No matter how many alter egos you deal with, it’s meaningless, you have to aim for the main body.”
“Everyone knows that. But who the main body is…….”
Han Soo-Young, who had been muttering like that, looked at me in shock and surprise.
“You, do you know which one is the main body?”
I nodded my head without saying a word.
“How on earth.…? No, it was like that from the beginning.….”
Han Soo-Young, who had been muttering like that, put on a determined expression on her face and, made a hand shape like a gun.
At her fingertips, I could feel that she was gathering magical powers that were unusual even for me, who was a stranger to magic.
It was then.
One of Esmeralda’s alter egos, who had almost been half surrounded by General Jang and Choi Hyeon-Woo, and were engaged in a fistfight, suddenly leaped towards me.
“You’re naive!”
“Ugh!?”
The dagger she swung with all her might narrowly missed, but before I knew it, the part of my cheek started to heat up.
I thought I had dodged it, but the end seemed to have touched.
I stood reflexively covering the two as if to protect Han Soo-young and the director.
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Seeing this, Esmeralda chuckled and spun her dagger, playing with it as if it were a toy, and glared at me with a fishy expression.
“I will make this especially painful for you. So are you looking forward to it?”
“Oh, that’s totally fair. You looked really in pain earlier, too.”
I looked at her with such a retort.
General Jang and Choi Hyeon-Woo, who noticed this, turned to join, but the alter egos and the main body blocked them.
Even in the midst of such a mess, Han Soo-Young was constantly gathering her magic at her fingertips, and the director was muttering in a small voice what he was thinking.
‘The one who attacked me is an alter ego.’
Therefore, it is ambiguous to use the means of blocking it with Henir’s Shadow.
First of all, I hurriedly pulled out the branch of the World Tree, and Esmeralda twisted the corners of her eyes when she saw it.
“You cheeky little bastard… ”
With that murmur, she glared at me as if to strike me dead.
I was well aware that I couldn’t keep up with her speed with my current abilities.
It was only a fluke that I was able to dodge the first attack.
However, I knew exactly where she would aim.
‘When she’s angry, she aims right between the eyes, it was famous.’
Especially in the case of Esmeralda, these detailed settings were mentioned a lot in the game, so I couldn’t forget them even if I wanted to.
So I reflexively swung my arm around, plucking a branch from the World Tree to cover my forehead.
Esmeralda disappeared before I knew it, and I got a feeling from my arm.
“What… ?”
Her wrist was grabbed by a branch of the World Tree.
I quickly reached out and grabbed her wrist while she was still dazed.
And then…
“Ugh!”
I pulled out Nidhogg’s fangs and inflicted a deep wound on her wrist.
She groaned in reflexive pain and jerked her arm away from me.
I watched her back away, discarding her dagger, and I picked up her dagger hanging from a branch as generously as I could.
“Memorization? This coward is really coming this way… !”
The alter ego that was wounded by me could no longer speak.
It was because her abdomen was suddenly pierced by the sharp ice that jutted out from below.
And before she could scream, the thin ice that started from the part that pierced her covered her entire body in an instant.
It was only been about 2 seconds.
“You must have looked down on me because I’m old.”
With those words, the director let out a ragged breath.
Yeah, he was once one of the promising wizards.
While I was thinking like that, Han Soo-Young asked me like shouting.
“So, who should I shoot?”
“The one I marked. I think it’s a target for everyone to see.”
In my words, Han Soo-Young pointed her finger at the place where Esmeralda’s alter egos were.
And she mumbled with a small smirk.
“It’s really a target for everyone to see, isn’t it?”
Along with the words, a magical arrow shot from her finger penetrated Esmeralda’s body, with a black circle appearing on her face as if it were a target.
It immediately became an opening and the difference between victory and defeat.
* * *
Then it was a breeze.
The rescue of the director, the recovery of the stolen items, and the arrest of the real culprit, the internationally wanted Esmeralda.
All three of these could be said to be distinct achievements.
And of course, I was named as a contributor to the association, along with Choi Hyun-Woo and Han Soo-Young.
The fact that there would almost certainly be prize money along with a certificate was an unexpected harvest.
No, to be exact, it was a disappointment.
So I asked if I could get only the prize money instead of the certificate, and the director nodded at my request, saying, ‘Don’t worry.’
In addition, as in the original story, the director wrote a letter of recommendation to the academy saying that he believed in the abilities of Choi Hyun-Woo and Han Soo-Young.
And he looked at me and he said.
‘Ji-Hyuk, I’d like to write one for you, too, but you’re already scheduled to enter the Academy, so I can’t do that.’
Instead, I bowed my head deeply when I heard ‘I would be of help at any time, so don’t hesitate to contact me if you had any difficulties.’
Of course, the director of the archive was someone who could help me in any way later.
‘In any case, I think I’ve done roughly everything I can do with this… .’
With that in mind, I picked up my phone.
There, the status window that only appeared on game consoles appeared.
‘I didn’t expect the additional reward to be a function that allows viewing the same information as game consoles on the phones.’
I didn’t expect it, but it was definitely a big harvest.
In many ways, I think a cell phone is much more convenient to carry.
‘But it’s still a shame that I couldn’t bring Esmeralda’s dagger with me.’
The dagger I took from her alter ego disappeared when the main body lost consciousness.
And the dagger in her body was taken with her as evidence when she was handed over to the heroes, so there was no way I could steal it.
“I had no choice.”
I mumbled, placing the phone on the table.
The place where I had stitched my cheeks throbbed a bit, and my expression distorted slightly.
‘The Academy at last.’
The first step to the original story, the entrance ceremony.
I could feel my heart pounding at the thought that the day would soon arrive.