Chapter 27: You took very well

‘Where am I? Who am I…?’

I was tricked by that damn notification window again.

I trusted it… I trusted and trusted that it wouldn’t throw me into a crime scene again, but it did!!

‘It’s going to stab me in the back like this?’

Sihyun felt anger building up for the first time in a long while.

‘Honestly, I want to quit everything, but…’

Anyway, if I don’t do it, the world will be destroyed.

Moreover, Eclipse holds a piece of the story about Luna.

‘I can’t… give up on Luna. Haah, what is this damn affection, really.’

Unbeknownst to himself, Sihyun had already become deeply attached to Luna.

Ding!

[Whisper, whisper… Sihyun-nim is a lolicon…]

‘I told you not to read my mind. And is this really the time for jokes?’

[Hehe. Because Sihyun-nim looked too serious.]

‘Do I not look serious? Someone forcibly sent me into the eye of the storm again, didn’t they?’

[Wow. Whoever it is, they’re a really bad person!]

–*Crack*.

‘Ah, right… I get betrayed because I expect something in the first place.’

Seriously, if I expect even an inch from you again, I’m a dog, a dog!

[Hmmmm. Are you really sure, Sihyun-nim? You haven’t forgotten who gave you the beginner’s package, have you?]

‘Ah.’

[Kuhuhu.]

‘……Woof woof.’

[Hehe. It was just a joke, but Sihyun-nim is an easy man.]

‘That was truly a devilish prank… I’d really die without that.’

Sihyun, who had to survive in the middle of this grim story, decided to abandon his petty pride.

‘Ugh. My pitiful fate.’

As he groaned inwardly, a man suddenly ran up and knelt down.

–*Thud*.

“I beg of you! Please save Tsuki. Phantom!”

‘As if being betrayed and having my status drop to a dog wasn’t sad enough. Who are you now?’

“I lured you in. I’ll pay for that sin with my life!”

–*Flintch*.

Ren’s single sentence made Sihyun instantly understand all the causality that led to the current situation.

‘Right now… what…?’

Of course, it was that dog-like notification window that threw me here.

But you were the cause of the ghost story’s appearance…?

Sihyun had already been feeling anger building up little by little since before.

But he had endured it. Because getting angry wouldn’t solve this situation anyway.

However, now.

*Snap*.

The thread of reason that Sihyun had barely held onto snapped.

–*KWAANG!*

‘This was all because of you!!’

Black energy began to violently surge, as if responding to his rage.

‘To ruin my peaceful daily life. You’ve declared your own sin!!’

–*Squeeze!*

Even Phantom, who usually ignored his will and acted on his own, was now listening.

‘For this moment, even you’ll follow my words.’

Of course, he had no intention of killing Ren at all.

He just intended to pick him up and slam him down hard once.

However, at that moment, a scream suddenly echoed from somewhere.

[KRAAAAHHHH!!!]

A strange, Dobby-like creature sprang out from Ren’s shadow.

[It’s Eclipse’s clone, Sihyun-nim!]

‘Huh… a clone? But why is it coming out from there?’

Just as the Eclipse of the Underworld has three stages, Eclipse also divided its power into three.

One of them had been hiding in Ren’s shadow, waiting for an opportunity.

‘This just happened by chance?’

As Sihyun was bewildered inwardly.

The pitch-black aura surrounding his body automatically annihilated the clone cleanly.

‘Ughhh???’

What on earth? I just wanted to land a blow on Ren.

‘Somehow, I ended up freeing Dobby…?’

He just poked it, and the clone instantly died.

Ding!

[Sihyun-nim. I’ll explain later, but you need to say something! Everyone is looking only at you!!]

‘No, you’ve been automatically spouting lines from some manga since earlier, haven’t you? You did something weird to the beginner’s package again, didn’t you?’

[Ah, that’s because the manga lines Sihyun-nim watches looked cool, so I secretly updated them a bit… Hehet.]

‘…Can I really not just hit you once?’

[You don’t even know my heart, trying to help you. Sihyun-nim is a fool! Humph!]

‘What is this? This classic tsundere heroine line.’

Every time he talked to the notification window, Sihyun felt like he was getting dragged into something.

‘I must have sinned in my past life. Sigh, what a fate I have.’

[……Sihyun-nim didn’t commit any sins.]

‘What? You were cheerful a moment ago, and now you’re suddenly getting serious.’

[Ah, it’s nothing! Anyway, Sihyun-nim, please say anything. Everyone’s attention is focused on you.]

He looked around and saw everyone sending intense gazes.

It was a look filled with fear and awe directed at an overwhelming presence.

‘Screw it. Since it’s already updated, I’ll just stick with this concept.’

Then, a lofty voice echoed, as if looking down on a trivial existence.

“How slow you are. Even at disappearing.”

‘Ugh. I feel like I’m going to die from the cringe.’

****

All the guild members were dumbfounded.

Even if it was just a clone, Eclipse was a disaster-level ghost story.

To annihilate a part of such a powerful ghost story with just a wave of his hand.

“That’s immense power… it’s like authority itself.”

“This is truly apocalypse-level… He annihilated a disaster-level being as if stepping on an ant.”

“The Korean Guild and the Task Force’s words were true. Phantom is definitely apocalypse-level.”

Everyone nodded at Leon’s opinion.

There was no fool among them who wouldn’t acknowledge it after witnessing Phantom’s actions just now.

However, among them, the one most shocked right now was undoubtedly Tsuki.

She still doubted whether the reality before her eyes was just an illusion she was seeing.

‘Why… why is that person here?’

She had thought that even the moon in the sky couldn’t hear her prayers.

She had thought that the only way was to quickly stop breathing.

‘The one who appeared to reclaim the life I had given up on…’

The savior, Lucian.

‘How could I forget you, who always sacrificed yourself for countless others.’

A person who seemed cold on the outside but had a warmer heart than anyone else. A person who always greeted everyone with a smile.

But.

‘You went to stop the destruction… and then lost contact. How are you here…?’

At that moment, faint memories surfaced from the depths of Tsuki’s subconscious.

A voice heard from within memories like a hazy fog.

“I wish you good fortune, Lucian-nim.”

“Don’t worry, Shrine Maiden. I’ll be back soon.”

‘Wh-what is this memory…?’

In the blurry afterimage, she was talking to someone.

A worn-out memory where even the other person’s face wasn’t visible.

However, what was clear was that the being standing there now overlapped with the man who had the voice in her memory.

‘Ah… Lucian-nim, surely…!’

–*Drip*.

Tsuki’s silver eyes could do nothing but shed tears.

Even though she had already become a terrible ghost story herself.

‘Yet, to keep his promise to me…’

The promise to return soon.

A light sentence that could have been dismissed as just a greeting and forgotten.

‘Lucian-nim… he was that kind of person… one who never spoke idly.’

His back, as he came to keep his promise to her, was just like the lost days of the past.

Tsuki stood up with all her strength and bowed deeply towards the pitch-black man.

“Thank you for… keeping your promise to me, Lucian-nim…”

****

Lucian?

‘What’s that, you damn otaku.’

Who is that woman who keeps calling me something strange since earlier?

‘Phew, anyway, I’m still not appeased! I wanted to get a hit on that bastard Ren, but it ended with just catching some weird Dobby-like creature!’

I’m seriously going to die from anger!

Unlike Phantom, who was outwardly lofty and utterly serious, Sihyun was fuming inwardly.

Then, a grotesque voice echoed in the underworld.

[There seems to be a rather decent being among humans. To have noticed this body’s clone.]

“Th-this is Eclipse?! You weren’t dead?”

“What Phantom annihilated was a clone. It possesses a cockroach-like vitality, Eclipse.”

[The game is over. I shall personally kill you.]

A massive crack began to appear from the center of the fiercely burning red moon.

*CRACK—*

The crack spread like a broken mirror.

*CRACK— CRACK—*

Through it, dark red mist flowed out, and Eclipse, the mastermind behind all these events, revealed itself.

[It has truly been a long time since I was on the surface. This space filled with terrible screams, the blood-reeking air, and humans plunged into despair.]

[You truly pitiful and wretched mortal beings. Quietly fall into the eclipse and die—]

–*KWAANG!!*

Just before Eclipse finished speaking, Phantom suddenly moved rapidly and began to stomp on the ghost story.

‘You picked the right time to show up. I needed something to take my anger out on anyway.’

At present, Sihyun was in no state to care about ghost stories or anything else.

[Kuhuhuhu… How humorous. I was merely careless because this body has been sealed for so long. I will no longer allow any attacks—]

*Thwack!*

*WHAM!*

[You’re quite capable. But I hadn’t even opened my eyes yet. From now on, it will be different. If this body gets serious—]

*CRUNCH!!*

*CRACKLE!!*

[W-wait a mi—!]

–*Thud*.

In exactly 30 seconds since its appearance, Eclipse passed out.

‘Phew, that feels better now!’

[Sh-shudder… Sihyun-nim… sc-scary…]

The notification window seriously thought it should stop forcibly summoning Sihyun.