HACKED 23

“…Ah.”

Immediately, Yeon’s body began to tremble like an aspen tree. It was a learned fear.

<The Drum that Sounds on its Own> also knew. This voice was definitely…

“Disobeying orders? How dare you.”

The sisters shut their mouths as if by unspoken agreement. Their breath came in gasps, as if an invisible hand were strangling their throats.

“Incarnations are supposed to be made so they cannot defy orders, so why? Is it because of the contamination level? Well, I suppose since I’ve been running you through combat rotations for nearly 24 hours straight. It’s about time you hit 100.”

“…”

“Both of you are just three-stars. Your skills are ambiguous, your traits are ambiguous. There’s no reason… to keep you alive. Keeping you would just be a waste of resources. Hmm, yes. I’ve just reached a conclusion.”

The opponent’s footsteps grew gradually closer.

“Both of you, disposal.”

Even while speaking of such a ghastly thing, the opponent showed no agitation. It was a dry, monotonous tone, as if deciding on the disposal of some junk rolling around the house that wasn’t even worth being treated as livestock.

Disposal?

The words that entered through my ears shattered inside my head. The moment I understood the meaning of that word, it became unbearably painful. It felt as if the fragments of the shattered words were circulating through my veins.

“Unnie.”

The whisper of her younger sister, Yeon, awakened her.

A gaze met beyond the blurred vision. Sorrow and determination were held together in the bloodshot eyes. Since some point, the younger sister had been gripping the silver knife tightly as if it were her own life.

“You won’t die. I’m going to cut you just enough to be on the verge of death, looking like you’re dead to anyone who sees. Besides, if my corpse is next to you, they’ll think unnie died along with me.”

“…”

“Survive no matter what. Even if you have to disguise yourself as a corpse. If it gets really dangerous, use this silver knife.”

The ominous presence drew closer and closer. Yeon finally pulled out the silver knife. A small, slender blade, perhaps only a span long, was revealed.

“Yeon, no. Not this. I’d rather die and you…!”

“Don’t forget. This silver knife, don’t let it be taken, don’t lose it, you must keep it.”

“…”

“Don’t forget… that I was unnie’s sister.”

“…Gasp!”

A sharp pain pierced the shoulder blade. Yeon twisted the blade she had plunged into her sister’s body with all her might, drawing a long diagonal line across the entire torso. Blood gushed endlessly from the cut.

However, <The Drum that Sounds on its Own> did not lower her head or grimace. With eyes wide open, she took in every single movement of her sister.

“If by any chance, by some chance… even in the very distant future, if you meet the Master in person…”

The following words were not heard. No, she could not hear them.

Thud!

A fountain of freshly sprayed blood poured from the crown of her head over her entire body. Is this my blood, or…

Consciousness ended there. <The Drum that Sounds on its Own> ended up closing her eyes.

˙✧˖°🎮 ⋆｡˚

I think I had a dream. A dream constructed based on someone else’s memories that weren’t mine. But when I actually tried to look back, I couldn’t quite recall exactly what kind of dream it was.

“…Huh. I’m not dead.”

A metallic sound, like someone who hadn’t drunk water for about ten days, came from my throat. My vision was dim. In the middle of it, only the square liquid crystal screen of the terminal was emitting a faint light.

“What? I survived this? Why didn’t I die…”

I reached out a hand that felt like it weighed a thousand tons and touched the screen. As most people living in modern society do, it was due to a sad habit of checking phone alarms as soon as one wakes up.

Passive Skill: Unyielding Spirit(Bound Item: <The Trumpet that Sounds on its Own>’s Silver Knife)

This skill activates exactly once when the possessor of this item reaches the point of death, completely restoring the possessor’s vitality. A skill that has been activated once cannot be canceled, and after the skill is used, this item is destroyed.

• Skill activation complete.
• Item ‘<The Trumpet that Sounds on its Own>’s Silver Knife’ is destroyed.

This alarm looks like it arrived quite a while ago. The silver knife must have been destroyed long ago… that is, at the point the passive skill activated. That would mean I’ve been unconscious for a long time.

Anyway, so the silver knife had this kind of function. I can fully understand now. The reason I didn’t die, and the reason Ja-myeong-go gave me the silver knife. If it were just a tiny knife with no function at all, there would be no reason to risk one’s life to cherish it so much.

‘But is the dream I had earlier related to this silver knife?’

I feel like I know, yet I don’t. All that remains is a faint sense of déjà vu. That déjà vu is also fading rapidly by the second.

“Myeong, Mr. Myeong!”

Ah, so noisy. Let’s be a bit quiet. Do you own the Pantheon all by yourself?

“Are you awake? I think you’re awake! You’re awake, right?”

A situation where a chirping noise attack is flying at me without warning while I’m unable to pull myself together. For some reason, I feel a sense of déjà vu. Hmm… This familiarly dirty feeling. It felt exactly like this when I first possessed this game.

“As expected of Mr. Myeong. A prepared Compiler! Your attitude of checking the terminal first even before you can open your eyes is amazing!”

First, I have to stop that noisy sound. With that thought, I fumbled toward the place where the sound was coming from. Since I caught something like a fluffy, round ball of fur, I immediately pressed down on it.

“Kuek! I-I am not the Ja-myeong-go…”

“Yes, Ja-myeong-go.”

I blinked my stiff eyes a few times. Only then did my vision brighten a bit. Chirpy was right in front of me. With the crown of his head pressed down by my hand.

When I say right in front of me here…

“But aren’t you a bit too much in front of my eyes?”

The gap is within a span.

He was shoving his body forward as if he were going to ram it into my face. Even so, since he was only the size of a fist, he wasn’t a threat, but I was a bit surprised.

“Chirp chirp. You’re conscious? Is your body okay?”

Come to think of it, I heard this fellow also received treatment when I was moved to the breakroom earlier. I don’t know what method was used, but the wing of the fellow that once had a hole in it was cleanly healed without a single scar. It was a relief.

“Don’t you think those are my words to say?”

“No, you were hit by an arrow. Are you okay now? It doesn’t hurt?”

“That kind of thing is nothing! More than that, I, hic, I thought Mr. Myeong, Mr. Myeong… might have something happen to him…”

“I get it. But move your face. I don’t want to breathe in the air you’re exhaling.”

“To ignore my sincere concern in such a way!”

“It’s not ignoring, it’s just a bit burdensome.”

“Uwaaaaaah…”

“Ha… fine, look. Look. Look all you want.”

Chirpy examined me thoroughly right in front of my face with eyes brimming with tears.

“But, Mr. Myeong.”

Stopping midway through surreptitiously wiping his runny nose on my shoulder, Chirpy asked.

“Yeah.”

“Is that tiger over there something you’re raising?”

“Huh?”

Chirpy pointed to one side with his wing while wearing an indescribable expression.

“You didn’t leave him like that on purpose because you decided to make him a pet, did you?”

I had an ominous premonition. From my position lying flat while looking at the ceiling, I raised only my head to look down.

And I found him. Mountain Hero, lying face down by the bedside with his cheek leaning against my stomach, eyes closed without a single movement.

“Whoa, holy shit! Scared me!”

Anyone would do that if they found some dark, huge man quietly stuck to them in the darkness. Especially if that guy had a history of piercing through one’s chest.

Whether he intentionally killed his presence or not, I didn’t even know he was there until now while talking with Chirpy. Once I realized it, I was flabbergasted.

For some reason, my torso had been feeling a bit heavy since a while ago. But I just thought it was because my body was in bad shape. My whole body aches as if I’ve been beaten; how was I supposed to know…

“…”

Then Mountain Hero quietly opened his eyes. In the dim darkness, two pairs of yellow lights flashed. I got the goosebumps.

“Ack!”

I shuddered and bolted upright. However, I couldn’t escape from him. It was because Mountain Hero hugged my waist and pulled me back down to lie down. Then, he even went as far as leaning his profile against me again.

How can he act so shamelessly? Was it a dream that I had my chest pierced by his claws?

No. My shirt, which was not just tattered but had a hole blown through it, proved that the event was reality. Even the fabric around the hole was all stained with blood. All of this blood came from my body? I felt like I was about to develop a dizziness that wasn’t there before.

The memory from earlier revived like a flashback. The moment the heart was pierced in a defenseless state. The claws that carved through the skin, crushed the ribs, and entered all the way inside, tearing apart the most important organ in a single strike, and the blood gushing into the thoracic cavity, leading to death before I could do anything…

“Wait, let go of—”

But he didn’t budge. Instead, he applied strength to the arms hugging me and buried his head as if ramming it into my upper body.

Because the center of my shirt was grandly pierced, bare skin met bare skin. Even though the wound was fully healed and fine, the sensation of another person’s face rubbing against my bare chest… was by no means pleasant.

‘Is he… listening to my heartbeat right now?’

At first, I thought it was just a posture of resting his cheek, but looking closely, he had his ear pressed against my chest. Moreover, given how he stubbornly refused to part from me, it seemed my hypothesis was correct.

‘Is he seriously a madman? After he stabbed me to death? I survived because of the skill contained in the silver knife, but conversely, doesn’t it mean I would have died instantly if not for that one silver knife?’

“Hey… ugh.”

The strength of the arms wrapping around my waist became increasingly strong, to the point where it was difficult to breathe. I tapped near his shoulder a few times with difficulty.

“Let go for a bit. I won’t run away. I said, I’m not going.”

He was still unresponsive. However, the force that was tightly constricting my upper body loosened slightly. I could finally breathe.

However, now that I felt like I could live a bit, the anger I had been suppressing surged up.

“Just what on earth are you doing? If you were going to kill me, you should have killed me earlier when we first met! It’s not like you’re playing with a person, what do you think you’re doing right now? Pretending to be on the same side, then stabbing me in the back, and now this again…! Hey, say something. Huh? What kind of grudge do you have against me, what did I do so wrong!”

The sorrow and resentment accumulated until now burst out. It was a statement that made one wonder if I had lost my fear. But the opponent already had a record of trying to murder me without hesitation. What would be the point of acting craven now? I snapped at him as much as I could.

And while I was huffing for breath, Mountain Hero, who had been silently listening to my words, finally opened his mouth. I figured I’d hear what kind of nonsense he’d spout.

“I don’t know.”

“…Pardon?”

“Myeong’s pet tiger doesn’t know anything difficult like that.”

Like a puppy that has committed a fault and is feigning innocence in front of its master, he slightly avoided my eyes to look at the air, then turned his gaze back to me. And he added a beat late.

“…Roar.”

“…”

Silence fell. Not to mention myself, even Chirpy was unable to continue speaking.