VHN 10

Only after depositing 1 billion won into his account as an advance payment did Joo Seo-won finally calm down. Maybe it was because he was a money-grubbing bastard, but his attitude changed completely after receiving the money. He went in and out of the banking app several times to confirm whether the amount written in his account was real.

Anyway, I entrusted Joo Seo-won with the first request. What he had to do was obvious. I was seriously coveting the Healer I saw this morning.

I even considered killing him, considering the possibility that I might be the Usurper, but I realized it was inefficient and gave up.

First of all, I was currently F-rank, so even if I was the Usurper, it was obvious that I wouldn’t be able to properly implement the healing ability. And secondly, it was also because of the ‘Mimic(S)’ skill I possessed. If necessary, I could use the skill to mimic it, so it was better to have a complete Healer.

And more than anything, Do Ye-hyun was a character who didn’t appear in the original work, so I was confident that even if I took him and manipulated him, there wouldn’t be any penalties that would fuck up my body in the name of consistency.

It seemed that this consistency itself was being applied more flexibly than I thought.

Joo Seo-won listened to my request, looked at me with a horrified expression, and shook his head.

“So, Darling. You want me to find a twenty-year-old kid named Do Ye-hyun? Where does he live?”

“South Korea. Um, Seoul?”

“Thanks for narrowing down the range so much, you bastard. …Until when?”

“Today.”

“Is he really crazy?”

“Just kidding. I’ll give you plenty of time. Three days.”

“Wow, what? God, my employer is insane.”

Still, Joo Seo-won was good at his job. He smoked cigarettes like crazy, collected information, and figured out Do Ye-hyun’s whereabouts on his own. Of course, I had already left that lung cancer-inducing space and headed to the hotel.

Now that I was in the hotel, there was something I had to do. I couldn’t do it when I was with others because I was conscious of the people around me…

“Status window.”

‘Seo Je-hyun,’ you are enthusiastically welcomed!

I needed to find some sense of reality. To be honest, I still desperately wanted to deny reality.

“Can you talk? There must be someone controlling you behind you. If it’s a program, there must be a programmer?”

‘Seo Je-hyun,’ you are enthusiastically welcomed!

“Come out. If you don’t come out, I’ll show you how petty a human can be.”

Yeah. I knew it wouldn’t be a conversation at once. Still, I was sure that I would be overwhelmingly superior if we competed to see who was more persistent.

First, I should spoil it on SNS live. No, would YouXube be better? Without hesitation, I took out my phone and accessed SNS, and the letters on the status window changed.

Switching to 1:1 system chat mode.

Yeah, machines only listen when you beat them.

I had things to ask, but everything has an order of importance. For example, the system wouldn’t be able to answer the question of why I became like this. So, I’ll check first.

“Is your answer a prompt? Or is someone answering through you as a medium?”

I had to check whether the customer service representative was AI or not.

system: We provide answers that match the questions based on the entered information.

“It’s a prompt.”

So, there is someone behind this status window. It said it entered information. But who is it?

‘Well, let’s put these thoughts aside and ask what I need to ask right now.’

Hmm, I pondered for a moment and stared at the status window, which was quietly waiting for my question.

“What the hell is consistency? I’ll skip over the letters that were covered up because anyone with intelligence would be able to recognize them. So, I’m the Seed of the Great Demise, but does that mean consistency is only satisfied if I follow the original story?”

system: If there is a possibility that it can happen, consistency will not be broken. Anything is fine as long as you can reach the ending.

“What exactly is that ending? Does it mean I have to destroy the world, or do I have to kill Kwon Tae-han? Or both?”

system: Any process to reach destruction is allowed if there is consistency.

Isn’t that the same thing as before? Does that mean destruction is more important? Killing Kwon Tae-han is part of the process?

“When you say destruction, are you talking about the destruction of humanity? Or do you want some kind of thermodynamic death or Big Crunch? Or do I have to bring in something mythical? Like Armageddon or Ragnarok?”

system: It is the Great Demise that encompasses everything.

“I don’t know who made this, but the function is so fucked up. It speaks so ambiguously. Anyway, why do I have to do that? What’s so good about it?”

system: This is the path that ‘Seo Je-hyun’ has chosen, and it is a predetermined duty as the Seed of the Great Demise.

“Don’t bullshit me. I never chose it, you bastard.”

Is it crazy? What did I choose? But even with the curse, the letters on the status window did not change.

“…What happens if I don’t fulfill my duty?”

system: History will repeat itself countless times until you reach the ending.

“You’re going to make me regress? Okay. The Kwon Tae-han route.”

The answer is so bastardly. A system that only gives whips without carrots to make people work. I walked around the room and organized my thoughts for a moment. Should I just obediently survive and bring the world to destruction? Then Kwon Tae-han will kill me for sure. Does that mean I should bring the world to a state close to the end and die to Kwon Tae-han?

‘Why should I?’

I don’t even get anything after I die, so why should I listen obediently?

But is this really someone’s ‘word’?

Yeah, Im Seong-yeon said that his shitty novel was a kind of apocalypse. Then there must be someone who gave the revelation. Hunters and Gates, the status window and the power that sent me to another world, and Kwon Tae-han’s regression. Of course, there must be a connection.

The existence that can do that must be far beyond the realm of humans.

‘So, God… I don’t know if I can simply call it God, but it has that much power.’

It went around and around, but the conclusion was surprisingly simple. I put my hands in my pockets and stared out the window. I could see the sun setting between the tall buildings.

“Then can the information entered into you be adjusted?”

system: Yes.

I completely pulled back the half-closed curtains and watched the sky gradually turn yellow as the sun began to set. In the comics about mythology that I read when I was very young, God was depicted as an existence in the clouds above. I thought that was true for quite a long time.

“Who entered that?”

No, this question is not appropriate. I turned around and stared straight at the status window that was still floating behind me.

“No. Can I meet that guy?”

The letters on the status window were completely erased by my question, and then reappeared after a while.

system: When you reach near the ending, it is possible due to the establishment of consistency.

I smiled happily for the first time in a long time. It was the answer I wanted to hear.

* * *

After that answer, I beat the status window for a whole day and listened to what I could listen to. The most worrying thing was the penalty I received due to the damage to consistency, but the phrase ‘damage to consistency’ was ambiguous, so after checking, I was able to get a rough guide to the degree of damage.

‘It’s more sensitive to letting people know about the existence of the original work than changing the original work.’

So, it’s okay for me to meet Joo Seo-won and change his future, but I can’t let Joo Seo-won know that the original work exists in this world. The spoiler I gave to Ryu Tae-yeong seemed to have come as a direct penalty in the same context.

‘Then can I call this consistency?’

I had such a question, but I put it aside for now. The important thing was something else. My purpose had become clear.

I was living a normal life and suddenly came to a world full of Dungeons and Hunters, so shouldn’t I find out the reason? And I, as a human, wouldn’t be able to find out even if I struggled for a hundred days.

‘So, I’ll target the existence that is clearly related to what made me like this.’

It said that I had to get closer to the ending to meet God, so I was going to follow the ending of the original work as much as possible. The process will be slightly… different, but I can either destroy the world or kill Kwon Tae-han. Considering that Kwon Tae-han saved the world, the two were about the same.

‘I’ll obediently go to kill him.’

Once the final goal was set, I felt more alive.

I simply treated the area where I felt a tingling pain from being hit by Joo Seo-won. My body was automatically strengthened according to the Hunter rank, so it felt like my body was relatively nerfed. Still, the good thing was that if I had money, I could buy potions that showed amazing recovery speed.

Of course, I didn’t even need that much this time. Maybe it was because he knew I knew Joo Min-ha, but he didn’t hit me with the intention of killing me. I thought for a moment and made a call.

-The customer… Why would you call? Huh? I’m busy as hell right now.

I snorted at Joo Seo-won’s words and immediately took the words.

“How much have you done? It’s almost timeout.”

-Are you going to urge me like this every day?

“……”

-…I’ve got Do Ye-hyun’s personal information, but I’m trying to figure out his exact location. It seems like he ran away today.

“Personal information? More than that, he ran away?”

-He was caught by an illegal guild and was paying off his debt.

No wonder Do Ye-hyun, whom I saw at the center, was overly wary of others. I didn’t know there was such a behind story.

“A twenty-year-old? There’s a 90 percent chance it’s someone else’s money.”

-Oh, right. It’s a debt left by his uncle. Anyway, should I send you his personal information?

“No, keep it. I’m going to go to where you are later anyway.”

-…Really?

Really? I raised one eyebrow and asked back.

“Really?”

-…If our customer really wants to come, I’m welcome.

“Okay, wait.”

I asked the hotel front desk for a call taxi and suddenly remembered that I didn’t have a car right now.

‘Come to think of it, I should get a car soon.’

For now, it’s urgent, so I’ll have to take someone else’s. Just in time, there was a choice in front of me.

“Do you have a car?”

-…I do, but why?

“Let’s borrow it.”

-Hey! I haven’t even finished half of the installment! You have so much money. Don’t you have a car?

“I had one, but it flew away because the Dungeon exploded.”

When I told him honestly, a solemn reaction came back. He’s heartbroken about this. Tsk tsk, you shouldn’t chase money.

When I clicked my tongue openly, I heard a sound like he was grinding his teeth on the other side. I ignored it and remembered the purpose of the original call.

“Joo Seo-won. Where do you buy items?”

-Huh? There are a few stores that only handle items. If you look around the Hunter Market… There are stores in department stores too.

Yeah, there would be. But I wasn’t asking that right now.

“Seo-won. Are you going to keep pretending to be stupid?”

Look how natural he’s acting. It’s going to be difficult if you act like this from the beginning. Joo Seo-won, who had been silent at my words, sighed deeply.

-What are you… What the hell are you? What did you hear?