TNAAS Ch 16

Episode 16

“Ha. You know that no matter how great a Spirit Master is, they have no offensive ability at all, right?”

“Hey, how many years do you think I’ve been playing this game?”

“What do you mean?”

It had already been over ten years since Yeonwoo started playing this game. When it was first released, Yeonwoo had only been an elementary school student, so he couldn’t play heavily and just enjoyed small bits of content, but once he became an adult, it was different.

He knew almost everything there was to know, from strategies shared in communities to efficient methods of equipment enhancement, and he had studied them all. Which meant one thing.

“Even a mere Spirit Master can defeat a boss. You shouldn’t have turned this into a game. You’ve underestimated the potential of Korean players way too much. So stupidly.”

Indeed, most players in Korea had an almost masochistic obsession with pushing the limits, constantly trying countless methods to defeat bosses even under extreme circumstances. Many of those strategies had spread widely through YouTube as popular content.

That was exactly why Yeonwoo had been trying to save money. Even if it took time, as long as he could get good options and skills, he could challenge the final boss as a Spirit Master.

“Pfft.”

Yeonwoo, who had been looking at him with a smug, triumphant expression, was taken aback when Helleo suddenly burst into laughter. He already knew the man was insane, but had he finally gone completely mad? While Yeonwoo was seriously wondering that and staring at him as if he were a bug, Helleo barely stopped laughing and lifted his head. His eyes had turned crimson.

The moment their eyes met, a thought crossed Yeonwoo’s mind.

Run.

His instincts screamed at him. Run away right now. If he didn’t, he would experience a pain far more excruciating than death.

Yeonwoo, who had stubbornly held on through despair without collapsing, lost strength in his legs and fell to the ground. A dark fog radiating from Helleo began to coil around him, as though ready to devour him whole. He wanted to cast a status ailment immunity spell, but he had no mana left and no time to even think of it.

“Why do you think I kept you trapped here?”

His body wouldn’t move, and his words broke apart before they could form in his mouth. Though the fog had yet to physically bind him, his thoughts were paralyzed by a primal terror rising from deep within him. Like a herbivore standing before a top predator.

“Why do you think I went through the trouble of bringing the Kraken before you? And why do you think I imprisoned you within your mindscape?”

The Kraken? So it appeared earlier than it should have because of Helleo?

Then that means because of me, that person…

Driven into panic by fear and guilt intertwined, Yeonwoo looked up at him with trembling eyes. Apparently satisfied with his reaction, Helleo lifted one corner of his lips into a smirk and kindly lowered himself to Yeonwoo’s eye level.

“You can’t leave this place. Until you yield to my words, the endless darkness will consume you. I don’t need your soul, only your power. So turning you into a puppet that obeys my every command doesn’t sound so bad, does it?”

He gently tilted Yeonwoo’s chin upward and leaned closer, stopping just short of their breaths touching. His eyes still held Yeonwoo’s gaze captive.

“You’re fairly good-looking, so… making you my plaything might be nice.”

Yeonwoo, as if under some spell, lost the vitality in his eyes that had been tinged golden. In his fading consciousness, he thought he heard the desperate cries of the spirits, but his body would not move, and he could not call out to them. He could not even stop the man who was approaching as if his lips would touch Yeonwoo at any moment.

“I always told you, if you go insane, at least do it moderately.”

Perhaps because of that voice from somewhere, Helleo’s power weakened, and the enchantment over Yeonwoo’s mind began to lift. The eyes that had been darkening returned to their normal color, and something came into view.

“Rai…”

Unlike the appearance he had during the subjugation raid, he now had glossy black hair and seemed to have forcibly torn open the fog-sealed space with sheer power. The fog, split apart by that sudden force, couldn’t withstand it and began to crumble and dissipate.

“You’re just playing childish tricks. Aren’t you too old to be acting spoiled?”

As Rai finished speaking, he put his strength into his hand as if to smash the space itself, and destroyed the wall he was holding. Watching quietly, Helleo ground his teeth and glared at Rai as if he wanted to kill him.

“You bastard… Do you even know where you’ve dared to set foot?!”

“This place? It’s Yeonwoo’s mindscape.”

Ignoring Helleo’s outburst, Rai vanished in the blink of an eye and reappeared beside them, scooping Yeonwoo into his arms. Before Helleo could react, Rai raised his hand, closed it into a fist, and struck Helleo’s face hard.

“And don’t stick your filthy mouth near him. You stink.”

Yeonwoo, who had been listening to their exchange, was dumbfounded and could not make sense of the situation. The fog that had bound him a moment earlier was gone, and his body, which had been paralyzed when he met Helleo’s eyes, could now move freely in Rai’s arms.

With his body and mind relaxed, he tried to piece together what had happened, but it was not easy. Realizing that this was not just game story content made it harder. Judging from their conversation, the two were definitely not close; in fact, they seemed to hate each other enough to emit murderous intent.

Helleo’s “that bastard” likely referred to Rai. Moreover, the two looked strikingly similar. As if…

“Are you brothers?”

“No.”

“Who’d want anything to do with a bastard like that?”

Well, there was no need to reject it so vehemently. After watching them flatly deny it so decisively, Yeonwoo looked up at Rai. He didn’t know why Rai could be so unfazed, but for some reason, it felt like Rai would never lose to Helleo.

“But you two really do look alike. It’s not just the black hair, your eyes turn red at times, too.”

“That’s…”

“We have the same father, but different mothers.”

Helleo answered without protest and glanced at the angry Rai with a smirk. He had been terrifying before, but now… he couldn’t have seemed more childish. Rai hesitated for a moment, then sighed as if there was nothing he could do and, still holding Yeonwoo, put off giving a full explanation.

“I’ll explain once we get out of here. If I keep looking at that bastard right now, I might actually kill him.”

“Then you could just kill him…”

There could be nothing more for Yeonwoo to be grateful for. If Helleo were killed now, Yeonwoo might be able to return to his original world immediately. But life was never that easy.

“Can you wait about a hundred years? When a fight breaks out, it usually takes about that long.”

“???”

A hundred years? One hundred years?

While Yeonwoo stared tremblingly between Rai and Helleo, a mist spreading from Rai’s body began to envelop them. He was getting ready to leave, but Helleo, standing before him, surprisingly did nothing and remained still.

If Helleo went so far as to bring Yeonwoo here, he would have tried to steal him away or interfere, so Yeonwoo wondered why he simply watched without moving. Helleo, seemingly sensing his doubts, smiled faintly and answered.

“We’ll meet again soon anyway. Whether you come looking for me or I come for you. The former is most likely.”

“It’s because you’re just a residual consciousness. Still haven’t shaken off that habit of posturing, huh?”

Listening to the brothers trade barbs gave Yeonwoo a headache. They were even speaking in words he could not fully understand, which made him more irritated. He did not want to speak anymore. The more he exchanged words with Helleo, the more it felt like talking to a wall, leaving him frustrated, and he wanted to get out of there as fast as possible.

Rai seemed to feel the same. Ignoring Helleo’s swearing, he wrapped his whole body in mist. Yeonwoo sensed instinctively that they were finally leaving. It might not be his original world, but they were going back.

Feeling more at ease, and since they were about to depart, Yeonwoo finally let the words that had been hovering at the back of his throat slip out.

“It was filthy being with you. Let’s never meet again.”

It was time to wake up.

* * *

Strong sunlight pricked Yeonwoo’s eyes, and he forced his eyelids open with difficulty. Not yet accustomed to the brightness, he frowned and blinked repeatedly until the surrounding scenery slowly came into focus.

Before he knew it, the surroundings were no longer the undersea tunnel but the blue waves spreading across Vieta Beach. Yeonwoo’s dulled sense of time left him unable to comprehend what was happening. With half of his view blocked by a chest, tilting his head in confusion, he reached up and pressed lightly, wondering whose chest it was.

He could have been reported for sexual harassment, but Yeonwoo wasn’t coherent enough to care.

At that moment, a low chuckle sounded above him. Like a small animal reacting on instinct, Yeonwoo naturally lifted his head toward the sound.

“I know you like my chest, but if you touch any more people around us will report you.”

People around them? There was only the sea…

Suddenly snapping to his senses, Yeonwoo whipped his head around with such agility that it strained his neck, surveying his surroundings. Whether they’d been there all along or not, the people who had joined the subjugation raid were encircling him.

Some had cried until their faces were streaked with tears; others glowed with bright eyes as they looked at Yeonwoo. What on earth was happening? Hoping desperately for an explanation, he turned back to Rai, who shrugged his shoulders and answered calmly.

“They’re people who came together saying they’d die if their savior died.”