Chapter 42 : Uninvited guest

“Sorry, but I have no intention of following your words.”

“…You.”

The way she glared at me with such a fearsome intensity was quite intimidating.

My hands trembled unknowingly at the killing intent brimming in her eyes.

I circulated mana to steady myself.

After the mana, meant to endure Sia’s killing intent, circulated through my body a few times, my breathing stabilized, and my mind calmed.

Just as I was realizing the effectiveness of the mana cultivation method I had awakened myself, Sia spoke in a threatening tone.

“Fine, so you don’t care what happens to your family?”

“Sorry, but those people aren’t my family.”

“…What? He personally confirmed your family relationship—”

‘He’, I pondered who this ‘he’ she mentioned could be.

Sia might have been like Lü Bu in the game even when she was male, but in reality, she was a hopeless case, a natural outsider who couldn’t

even initiate a conversation.

Maybe that’s why she craved the attention in the game that she couldn’t get in reality, but anyway.

Being a natural outsider, she had no friends, but she cherished fiercely those she acknowledged as friends.

Like the common representation of Liu Bei from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms – a good friend who deeply cares for ‘his people’.

For someone like that to sneak into the bedroom of a former friend, albeit an old one, late at night?

Especially after her passionately loved boyfriend went missing?

There had to be someone behind it.

Perhaps that mastermind was holding her most precious person, her boyfriend or other acquaintances, hostage.

Daring to guess, it was highly likely that the person called ‘he’ had ordered Sia to bring him my head.

‘If so, why specifically target me?’

The mastermind was likely a hardline player.

Otherwise, there would be no reason to deliberately target me.

However, no matter how careless I might have been, it was impossible for a player capable of kidnapping Sia’s boyfriend while avoiding the

senses of Sia, a Rank 4 Rogue-class user, to remain among the hardliners.

Kidnapping is fundamentally a specialty of the Rogue-class professions, and Sia is a top-tier ranker and specialist in that class.

If a monstrous Rogue user capable of evading Sia’s senses was leading the hardliners, the capital of South Korea would likely be spectacularly

ablaze by now.

I, too, would have lost my head long ago.

“…Threatening you with your family is useless, I see. You’ve really changed while I haven’t seen you.”

“I’d appreciate it if we didn’t bring up the past.”

“You used to cherish your family so dearly. Look who’s talking about changing a lot. I just got hooked on the pleasure of being penetrated, but

you’ve simply become a monster without blood or tears.”

“Coming from a serial killer who massacred over 100 users in reality, even if you only picked criminals, that doesn’t sound right.”

“At least I’m not a cold-blooded person who lets precious people die.”

“So you massacred irrelevant people because only the people precious to you matter? Wow, look who decided to show up, the great saint.”

Though no curses were exchanged, after several rounds of raw accusations that had long crossed the line, an awkward silence fell again.

Instead of breaking this silence, I activated the magic I had been chanting inwardly beforehand.

Sia’s rabbit ears twitched as if sensing the anomaly.

“Han Gyeoul, you…!”

“You noticed just now? Your senses have dulled quite a bit. Is it because you’ve only been dealing with small fry?”

–<Middle-Level Magic: Chain of Eternal Atonement>

I never thought a skill I learned for its slight potential utility, despite its garbage cost-effectiveness, would be this useful.

“No matter how much you have the type advantage, you shouldn’t be careless when facing an opponent of a similar level.”

Chain of Eternal Atonement.

It was a peculiar skill that included a crowd control effect, and its binding strength increased proportionally to the target’s Karma value,

accumulated through evil deeds.

In the game, killing more than 10 users outside of PvP arenas or battlegrounds marked you as a public enemy.

Veteran players would hunt down public enemies for the money dropped upon death, so such players were usually eliminated within hours at most.

Naturally, a user’s Karma resets to ‘0’ upon dying and reviving, making this ‘Chain of Eternal Atonement’ one of the hopeless skills in the

game with a long casting time and little utility—

Paradoxically, it was an incredibly threatening skill against a certain ranker who had accumulated a massive amount of Karma by murdering

over 100 users.

“It’s a skill I invested in preparing for a battle with the Rank 1 player on the battlefield, but I’ll use it specially for you.”

To avoid the countless chains raining down from all around, Sia moved her feet as quickly as possible.

‘Crazy, there was a ranker who actually invested in that trash skill?’

A trash skill so universally ignored that even Sia, a veteran among veterans, could count on one hand the number of times she’d seen it in-

game, was being used by a high-ranking player who should have been meticulously investing every single skill point.

‘If I get caught by that, it’s over.’

Sia’s class was ‘Shadow Rogue’.

A typical, simple Rogue class specialized in ambushes and surprise attacks, stronger in shadows and weaker elsewhere.

Therefore, she desperately wanted to flee into the shadow-filled alleyway immediately, but naturally, Gyeoul, seemingly aware of her

intentions, had already blocked all escape routes with the chains.

‘Damn it, I should have noticed she was chanting magic.’

If she had realized Gyeoul’s ploy sooner, escaping from her grasp would have been very easy for Sia, whose ‘escape’ skills were acknowledged

even by the monstrous Rank 1 player.

However, in this situation where terrifying chains, capable of binding one’s entire body for dozens of minutes just by touching them, were

blocking every path to nearby shadows under Gyeoul’s control, she couldn’t find an answer.

Any other ordinary mage might attempt a frontal breakthrough or try to induce a control mistake through harassment skills to escape

through an opening— but her opponent was that Gyeoul.

She would have naturally prepared for every situation.

‘But there are really no escape routes left now. I have to break through somehow…!’

Sia drew the blades hidden in her hood.

Getting caught by Gyeoul here meant it was game over.

Sorry, but I have no choice but to break through with full force.

She decided not to think about who might die or get injured in the process.

Just as she aimed her blades at her former friend, a piercing, unpleasant sound struck her ears.

“Oh dear, looks like the alarm went off.”

“What alarm in a situation like this…?”

Sia, who was about to leap towards Gyeoul, detected two enormous presences through her senses.

This powerful aura, these were ranker-level users, at least level 150.

“My house also has a barrier installed that distorts the wide sensory range unique to Rogues and detection magic.”

Ah, by the way, the people coming this way for support are Rank 2 and Rank 34. You probably know who they are, right? – Sia stared blankly

at Gyeoul, who added this nonchalantly, then let out a hollow laugh.

“…Haha.”

There’s no escaping this.

She had fallen perfectly into her plan.

Appear alone to induce carelessness, then capture the opponent with unexpected binding magic, and finally, call for backup.

It was an incredibly simple plan, yet she, who had been walking around with her shoulders squared, feeling proud of being a ranker, had

fallen for it completely.

Maybe her brain had indeed hardened from only dealing with small fry.

However, not all hope was lost yet.

There was the scroll that man had returned to her, commenting that it was ‘full of chaff’.

‘He said it was useless to him and told me to tear it only when in danger. Well, it’s worth a shot.’

Feeling the auras of the two ranker users drawing closer, Sia took out the red scroll from her pocket, just as the man had instructed, and tore

it.