Chapter 249 – Real and false (2)
“You’ve heard those trivial things before, haven’t you? He’s my partner.”
“That was just useless information.”
It was. I wondered how much would be okay to tell him. Sung Hyunjae even sent a mission to introduce him, so personal information shouldn’t be concerning.
“Firstly, he’s an awakened person of S rank.”
“Just that?”
…It was okay for me to call it ‘just’ anyway, but when others did, it annoyed me a little. He was my business partner. If anyone was going to pursue him, it should be me.
“He’s your senior, about ten years older than you. Outwardly, you two look alike, but after all, there’s nothing you can do about the level of experience. You’re still young. Ah, you’ll start getting angry again.”
“I never did such a thing.”
“He’s also the leader of the Seseong guild. It’s a position more or less equal to yours. His abilities are like yours and your weapon could be the same; Can I take a look at the item description window?”
Sigma gave me a suspicious look. Was he wondering if I would steal it? Well, I had stolen a lot. It made sense for him to be suspicious of me.
It wasn’t until I said I would just hold the end to check it, that I could even write a contract for it, that Sigma brought out the chains.
[Refined Seeker Chains: Contractor rank +1 (maximum myth rank)
Chains forged from the deepest light of the crescent moon. They look like metal, but their nature is light.]
It was identical to the status window I had seen before for Sung Hyunjae’s chains. Seriously, what was up with this?
“Your weapons are exactly the same too. Where and how did you get these chains?”
“I’m the one asking questions.”
“You can tell me that, can’t you? Where are you from? I would like you to tell me your real name too. What about your family? I’m very interested in you, Sigma-ssi, so what do you think about exchanging personal data? I’ll start; I have a kind, cute, adorable, and perfect little brother, and our parents passed away a long time ago.”
Sung Hyunjae’s past was unknown and he probably wouldn’t give me answers even if I asked, but Sigma could tell me if I convinced him kindly.
“Why should I tell you?”
“So that communication can be smoother. Eh, don’t frown. Then at least tell me about your family. I told you about mine. Are your parents alive?”
“Where is Sung Hyunjae now?”
Sigma ignored my question and asked. Should I note this as his second question? His location didn’t fit into the question of who he was.
“He’s on the side of the system.”
“…What? You definitely said he was an awakened person of S rank.”
“It’s a long story. That was your second question, so you have one left. Think carefully and ask. Or you can exchange personal information. I’ll give you a high payment.”
Sigma’s eyebrows raised.
“I don’t need to answer unless I confirm it’s the third question.”
He belatedly added a restriction.
“And your information about Sung Hyunjae was missing.”
“What do you want to know exactly? His height? His weight? They’re probably similar to yours. He was born on August 30th, and on his last birthday, he destroyed a cruiser. Even I only know insignificant things. The more I think about it, the less I know about him. I don’t think he’s married, but I’m not sure; He must have been in a relationship, given his age with that face. Sigma-ssi, are you dating someone?”
“I’m not.”
“What a waste of your appearance. That’s why I said you should smile a little. Smile~”
Sigma’s face became even more hostile. I guess I was interfering too much. Still, I thought it would be much better if he smiled. Needless to say, he probably didn’t have any friends. Should I introduce him to Yoohyun? Or Noah-ssi.
While thinking ‘the three of them would get along’, I suddenly remembered reality.
Hyuna-ssi said this place was the same as the real one, but as I thought…
At that moment— chrrr —I heard the sound of chains moving. I watched them distractedly slither across the table like snakes… ugh.
“Isn’t this a breach of contract?”
“That would only be the case if I hurt your body. I’m not at fault if you injure yourself while struggling to escape.”
Sigma said brazenly. At times like these, he looked like Sung Hyunjae. My body, wrapped in chains, was placed on the table. What was he concerned about now? It could be.
“Just now, what were you thinking? When you looked at me.”
The low, restrained voice sent shivers down my spine. Had my feelings shown on my face? What was my expression like? It might have been a feeling akin to pity. That would be a definite fault.
I tried to raise my head to see Sigma’s expression, but since I was lying face down and he had stood up, it was impossible. I could only see his legs.
“I was thinking it would be good if our dear Sigma-ssi could make friends, go on dates, and get married.”
“You’re lying.”
“I have no obligation to answer. Use your last question. But I wouldn’t recommend it. It would be a waste.”
Sigma leaned in. Pulling at my scarf to release me, the tips of his fingers brushed against my nape. Even though we had signed a contract guaranteeing each other’s physical safety, I got goosebumps.
“If you don’t comply with the terms of the contract, you belong to me, rank C.”
“You’re counting your chickens before they hatch. Ah, I don’t know if you have chickens here.”
“If I had known you wouldn’t die, I would have finished the engraving process back then.”
“It’s not like I have hundreds of lives. Next time I’ll die.”
“You’re lying. There must be several left.”
“What do you mean several? It’s normal to have only one chance.”
“The main mana flow in the body passes not only through the back of the neck but through the entire spine.”
The fingertips lightly pressing my nape slowly slid downward. As if he were giving a lecture with a model of the human body.
“For safety reasons, a small engraving is made only on the back of the neck, but it’s not that we haven’t tried to engrave them on the entire spinal column.”
His hand stopped at the lower part of my back.
“But they said not a single person could survive.”
“Human experimentation is terrible.”
“If you engrave in each main mana channel, theoretically, it is said that you will gain complete and perfect control over every minute aspect of mana flow in your body. You’ll be able to handle your own mana with absolute precision, so the efficiency of your abilities will increase, but at the same time.”
His paused hand began to move again.
“Depending on the setup, it’s possible for others to completely control you. Some say it’s even possible to influence the brain through mana. That’s not nonsense, as mental abilities exist.”
This time, it wasn’t Sigma’s pressure but my own imagination that gave me chills down my neck. He had said it was theoretical, but if it wasn’t anyone but Sigma, that level of mastery seemed possible. Just by seeing how he handled electric current, his control wasn’t a joke.
“I’ll let you confirm it with your own body, rank C. Then you’ll have no choice but to be honest.”
…I felt that when I heard he was in his twenties, I had taken this idiot too lightly. He was more reckless than Sung Hyunjae. Instead of finishing this at once with the engravings, my dear Partner-ssi would enjoy provoking me (not too much) while silently tightening my bindings even more… He didn’t have a good personality either.
On the other hand, he had pressured me before as well. And now he had changed a lot. Still, even if he considered me a personality-less object, marking insidious tattoos like that wasn’t Sung Hyunjae’s style. Those young brats were really impulsive.
‘Now that I think about it, Partner-ssi, aren’t you being too quiet?’
You weren’t just eating popcorn and watching, right? There’s a young guy who looks like you harassing me.
“My apologies, but I’m sure I can fulfill the terms of the contract. You can hold the wrist in my place.”
“You’re trusting, you say. Then speak.”
“Why don’t you let me go first?”
That Sigma bastard didn’t move at all. Well, I don’t want to see your face while I talk either.
Yoohyun wasn’t included in the contract penalty, so even if I simply didn’t fulfill the terms, I thought it would be fine. If I joined Sigma, it would be more convenient to move around, and if the dungeon raid was completed, I would naturally be released anyway.
But with those tattoos, I couldn’t do that. I was a little short on points to buy items that cause immediate damage. I could accumulate points by hunting, but if he dragged me and made the tattoos immediately before that, things would get tough. Should I have gone monster hunting with Yoohyun in the morning?
Sighing, I opened my mouth. I was even willing to lose a life.
“I’ll tell you the information that is the payment for the contract. This world has already been destroyed.”
There was no response.
“The world we find ourselves in now is just a forgery built from records and data of that. You, Sigma-ssi, are not real either. You’re just… persistent data. I don’t know if you have video games here, but you’re like a game character. Since you contain data of a person who actually existed, you act, speak, and think almost as if it were real… an astonishing character of virtual reality.”
“False, you say.”
Sigma’s voice was calmer than I expected.
“Yes.”
“So, rank C, you…”
“I am real. Something like a player who has entered the game. I came here from another world and at some point I will leave. And when I do, I… I don’t know exactly what will happen to this world. It will probably disappear or stop.”
“That Sung Hyunjae must have come from the same place as you.”
“You’re right. We met. The same goes for Han Yoohyun—Alpha—and Lambda. To be exact, people from our world entered the bodies of Alpha and Lambda. That’s how Alpha, who has no siblings, ended up being my brother.”
Silence fell. It was hard to guess how Sigma felt.
“You…”
His hand touched my nape and then my head.
“You must have seen me as a fraud from the beginning.”
“Not me-”
The chains loosened. I got up. Sigma was staring at me motionless. It was hard to guess from his expression what he was thinking. He spoke coldly.
“And Sung Hyunjae as the true one.”
“There’s no need to say it like that!”
Of course, it was true that I had mistaken Sigma for Sung Hyunjae. So I… considered him the fake.
“First of all, they are different people. Sung Hyunjae is just Sung Hyunjae, and you are you—or his vestiges…”
I shouldn’t have said it like that. There was no need to go on and tell him this. But this was the information that could most securely satisfy the price of the contract. Information about this world deeply connected to Sigma, which he himself didn’t know.
Unlike me, feeling needlessly guilty, Sigma seemed outwardly calm. As he watched me, he opened his mouth.
“Do you also possess someone in this world?”
“…No. This is my original body. At least I am completely real.”
He definitely was real. Unconsciously, I ran a hand over my nape. Although I didn’t get anything within reach.
“This will go with me when I leave. And at least, for me… Whatever happens to the original Sigma, for me, you are the only Sigma. I didn’t even know the true one. And he didn’t know me either.”
As I spoke, I felt stranger and stranger. The only Sigma I knew was the guy in front of me. Whether real or fake, I didn’t know any other.
Moon Hyuna’s words also came to mind. That she was approaching this world sincerely and how she had told me that this world was real.
Damn it, forget about fake and real. At least, for me, this Sigma in this world, at this moment, was the only one. Who cares about reality? There’s only one. Why should I worry about someone I’ve never seen?
“Sigma.”
His golden eyes met mine.
“I withdraw the word fake. For me, there is no other version of you, so naturally, you are the true one. How can a single instance of a person be false? There’s only one guy who kicked me in the stomach, only one guy whose item storage I stole, and only one guy who followed me here.”
Sigma tilted his head slightly.
“Of course I am real.”
…What would you say?
“Hey! You said you were fake!”
“I said I was for you. Not for me.”
“Sure, good for you. I’m glad you have so much self-esteem!”
Ah, seriously, there was no need to worry about Sung Hyunjae, let alone any bastard who looked like him.
“But I don’t like that guy Sung Hyunjae.”
“That’s nothing to do with me. You have one question left, so ask it.”
As I sat back on the couch and said ‘let’s hurry up and finish this’, Sigma looked at me with a smile. What? You seem very happy. Is it because I said you’re real?
“In the end, the information you gave me was incorrect.”
“…Huh?”
“You said it was fake, but then you said it was real, so, wasn’t that false information?”
“Wha-wait, no!”
Di- Did that count? No, still, it was true that this world was leftover data from the real version. Sigma’s smile grew deeper.
“The doll… Han Yoohyun can have it as a gift. Since he’ll need something to replace you.”
“You still haven’t thrown it away?! And what do you mean by gift?”
Almost in tears, I hastily checked the contract. Crap, a contract violation signal had really appeared. The contract contents had been automatically replaced by the penalty conditions.
“Forget about the tattoos!”
“Why should I?”
“If you don’t, I’ll use a damage-causing item and run away.”
Sung Hyunjae, are you watching? Give me a minor mission, please. I just need exactly 30,000 more points. Sigma’s expression turned disgusted.
– Kiiik!
Suddenly, I heard the eerie screech of a monster. The sound came from nearby. We both reflexively looked towards the living room window, but only the urban landscape during the day was visible. So was it from the other side?
As I was about to head for the door, someone shouted loudly from outside.
“A monster has appeared at Mana Hall!”
In broad daylight, at Mana Hall? Sigma’s expression also indicated that it was the first time he had seen this happen. We immediately ran out.