Chapter 458

〈 Episode 458 〉 Part 1, Chapter 19, 14

“Mint Chocolate Kim Penril is out of the question, right?”

“Of course.”

“Such a shame.”

Kim Penril slumped her head on the table in disappointment. While she was working at the café, as usual, she sported her green cat ears, but since she had been officially hired as a full-time employee, she now wore a proper barista uniform.

“Boss, I’ll have another shortcake-”

“They’re all gone.”

“…Gah.”

I took out a strawberry-scented gum from my pocket and began chewing it. Chewing gum in a café might be considered rude, but being the landlord gave me some leeway. Sue me.

“But is it okay to slack off like this?”

“We’ve got a new trainee, so it’s fine, nya~.”

Crash!

The maid girl with green long hair slammed down the tray roughly. The desk could’ve shattered from the loud noise, yet surprisingly, the desserts and drinks on the plate remained perfectly intact.

“My goodness! Trainee, the Mint Chocolate Cake’s shape is messed up, nya~!”

“Shut up.”

Jeolpung muttered a curse and returned to the kitchen. Kim Penril giggled and whispered to me.

“Lately, she’s been hanging around job community forums, nya~. Please understand if the service is bad, nya~.”

“Jeolpung has problems, but you’re quite bold too. Hiring her just because she’s part of you seems reckless.”

“Think of it as a condition for cooperation, nya~. Even so, she’s still a side of me; locking her away like a figurine in storage would be cruel, nya~.”

Kim Penril wanted to let Jeolpung live in modern society under the condition of becoming Sakpung. It wasn’t a bad deal for me either, so Kim Penril suggested hiring her as a café staff member.

“Looking at you two, people might think you’re twin sisters. Pfft.”

“Landlord, you’re pushing it.”

“…Did I say something wrong?”

Just by appearance, aside from differences in hair length and the presence or absence of cat ears, they were identical in looks and build. If Doppleganger changed her appearance slightly, no one would notice the difference. I spat out the gum into a tissue, feeling a drop in blood sugar, and stuffed a bite of Mint Chocolate Cake into my mouth.

“As expected of the landlord. You know how to enjoy Mint Chocolate, nya~.”

“I brushed my teeth. Now I have an important person to meet.”

“……”

I stood up and grabbed my coat. The weather was getting chilly, signaling the approach of winter, and the world was inching closer to its end.

“Aruel, take good care of her, Penril.”

“Understood, nya~…? Are you meeting Aruel?”

“Yes.”

There was someone more important than Aruel to meet.

“Brushing your teeth with mint chocolate? That’s rock bottom.”

“She hates the smell of mint chocolate.”

“Then fair enough.”

Our first greeting at the shrine.

* * *

“Really-”

“It’s a beautiful night, so stop talking already.”

“Tch.”

I cut off Chang-yeom’s greeting early. I approached the front of the shrine, and Chang-yeom waited silently with her head bowed as I came closer.

“Is there anything you want to say to me?”

“So many things… so many…”

Thud.

Chang-yeom buried her face in my chest.

“…Can’t you just ignore me and leave it at that?”

“Nope.”

“You’re so decisive.”

Chang-yeom continued to talk with her face buried in my chest, clearly avoiding eye contact. So, I just stood there.

“Hearing my story will be unbearable for you.”

“That’s for me to decide after listening.”

“How can you judge something when you don’t even know if it’s true or not?”

“If it’s true, I’ll make a judgment accordingly. And if it’s false, well, you do blush when you lie, don’t you?”

“Pervert.”

“Says the one clinging to my chest.”

Chang-yeom wrapped her hands around my lower back and pulled me tightly into an embrace.

It was both a test of whether her words were true and a request for a hug. For a spirit, an existence akin to a god of the world, to act so childishly was momentarily baffling.

“When we reach mythic status, we must become perfect beings. We already meet the conditions for synchronization. Yes, mutual love. …I don’t dislike you. I don’t.”

“…”

“But here’s the thing: our statuses differ. Status-wise.”

Chang-yeom went on to explain, though her words initially seemed hurtful, I patiently waited for her to continue.

“I am, technically speaking, one of the seven gods of the world but exist in a two-dimensional form. I may not see myself that way, but that’s what I’ve become. In contrast, you are an ordinary human but come from the fourth dimension. …What do you think will happen if we synchronize?”

“One of us will die, right?”

Either Chang-yeom or Phoenix. One of them would die. That thought crossed my mind.

“Your status rising is impossible. There’s nothing we can do about that. So, the other option is lowering mine.”

Chang-yeom looked up at me with sunken blue eyes.

“You must forget everything. About this world being a game, about falling into it from reality. All memories of playing through the game will be replaced as dreams, and you’ll simply become a resident of this world. Unable to return to reality, trapped in the game world, losing yourself.”

“Would that be my death?”

“…You’ll lose all memories and merely become another resident of this world. A doppleganger of Baek Cheonghwa living here. That’s the end result of synchronizing with me.”

Not death in the sense of life ending, but rather losing all memories, becoming a mere resident of this world, unable to return to reality. My existence would completely vanish, replaced by ‘Baek Cheonghwa.’

Certainly, it’s death.

“But it’s contradictory. You said you don’t want to die. That’s undoubtedly your true feelings. Yet, if we don’t sync, Seongju will kill us.”

I grabbed Chang-yeom’s face.

“We haven’t experienced not being able to return to reality, so you don’t really know. It’s just your assumption. We won’t know until we try.”

“…What if I’ve tried every possible method?”

Chang-yeom started to sniffle, tears brimming in her eyes. Just from those words, I realized what she was saying and why she had taken my memories.

“…How many times now?”

“I lost count.”

Chang-yeom wasn’t lying. She’d repeated this so many times she herself couldn’t remember.

“You’ve done everything to save me, haven’t you? Since the 2000s, trying different activities, from the original timeline onwards. Every situation ended in catastrophe. And the one who gets hurt is you, and I can only watch helplessly.”

Chang-yeom stepped back slightly and pulled out a bead. One of the “memory beads” she described, exceptionally radiant and red.

Snap.

Chang-yeom flicked her finger. The walls of the shrine began to crumble, and beyond them, faded memory beads poured out in numbers too vast to count, filling the shrine.

“You know what, you’re such a selfish person?”

Chang-yeom, teary-eyed, pushed the red bead towards my heart.

“Why can’t you just turn your attention to someone else and be happy? Why are you always obsessed with saving me….”

My vision turned red.

* * *

“Ah, this is ridiculous.”

I was utterly confused by my current predicament. I had been contemplating which parts of Earth to burn within the scheduled time while planning to fall asleep, but some strange entity appeared and forcibly took over my body.

“What is this shrine anyway?”

I collapsed onto a chair, looking like some kind of priest. The world was bathed in blue, and I sat there blankly, keeping an eye on the situation.

“Clearly trapped.”

I could use infinite magic power, but despite that, there was no way out of this shrine. I had already destroyed and burned it over ten times in an attempt to escape, but it acted like a barrier, preventing my exit. At this rate, I wondered if I’d ever get to destroy the Earth.

“Then who is controlling my body now? A substitute sent by Seongju?”

If something else was taking control of my body, that was certainly plausible.

“Blend into the human world? Pretend to have memory loss?”

The most likely assumption was that a replacement personality was sent to adapt to the human world. To allow a high-ranking officer of the Dark Legion to easily integrate into human society, erasing the officer’s identity and making them function as a human made sense.

“Seongju will arrive, establish roots in the human world, and then awaken to his true self… sounds nice, huh, pfft.”

If someone who lived 25 years as a human discovered their true identity as the harbinger of the world’s end, they’d surely be shocked. In that case, I’d just reclaim—or steal back—that body. If necessary, I’d crush the personality and burn it to ashes.

“Come on in already.”

I awaited the thief who had taken over my body at the entrance of the shrine, pondering various methods of execution. Having already incinerated tens of millions of humans in the past week, I sought something more elaborate than mere strangulation or dismemberment.

While devising countless murder methods against this imaginary intruder, a figure appeared as the shrine’s entrance rippled.

“Chang-yeom!”

The black-haired human spread their arms wide and grinned at me like a mountaineer reaching the summit.

“Nice to meet you! I’ve really missed you!”

“…Was Seongju sending you to collaborate with me? Something feels off.”

“I’m here to devour you!”

Whoosh.

Without realizing it, I flicked my fingers. He was enveloped in blue flames and turned to ash.

“…What is going on?”

No one responded. But could anyone explain this bizarre situation where a random black-haired human declared they’d ravage me—meaning possess me?

“Though, ‘ravishing’ might mean something else.”

Perhaps it was a metaphor for seizing my position, erasing my identity. Regardless, it’s too late now since I’ve already killed him.

“Chang-yeom!”

“…Again?”

He reappeared at the shrine’s entrance, spreading his arms once more. Clearly, I had burned him to ashes before, yet here he was again.

“Nice to meet yo-”

Whoosh.

I flicked my fingers again, killing him instantly. He turned to ash and vanished. Humans supposedly experience immense pain when burned alive, but perhaps he wasn’t human, or maybe he didn’t feel the pain.

“I should ask next time.”

If he appears again. This time, I reduced him to nothing but ash, so he shouldn’t return. I laid back in the chair.

“Chang-yeom!!”

He reappeared. Unlike before, he didn’t spread his arms but instead raised a hand toward me, a gesture distinctly different from earlier.

“…What is this? Do you revive after dying?”

“Looks like it.”

“Looks like it? Seriously? …Wait, isn’t that my ability?”

Regeneration and resurrection. Any severed parts regenerate instantly, and regardless of the cause of death, one can come back to life—a divine power. This human-like entity possessed my abilities. Apparently, within less than a day of inhabiting my body, he had figured out quite a bit.

‘Unless he was instructed beforehand by Seongju.’

Either way, it was an incredibly frustrating situation for me. If the latter, it meant Seongju didn’t trust me and sent another entity to use my body. If the former, I’d strangle him without hesitation.

“Who exactly are you?”

“It’s hard to explain in many ways, but how should I put it…”

He crossed his arms, hesitated briefly, then clapped his hands and smiled broadly.

“To put it simply, I’m an alien. An extraterrestrial being here to save you.”

“…”

I couldn’t comprehend his words for a moment. The somewhat frivolous-looking individual extended his hand toward me, smiling wistfully.

“In 25 years, you’re definitely going to die. That’s why I’ve come here to save you.”

“Who are you to say that?”

“Your future husband.”

“Crazy bastard.”

Whoosh.

In one swift motion, I tore his head off. Blood gushed from the severed neck, soaking me entirely, and I purified myself with flames. The lunatic claiming to be my future husband predictably turned to charcoal and disintegrated.

“Chang-yeom!!”

“Not.”

This was already the fourth time, right? First, I wanted to correct how he addressed me.

“I’m actually Blazing Phoenix.”

“No, you’re Chang-yeom! Explaining would take forever, so I’ll cut to the chase.”

He cleared his throat and composed himself.

“If you have sex with me, you’ll survive!!”

Whoosh.

I burned him to ashes without leaving a single bone. His audacious declaration of sex—sexual intercourse, mating for reproduction—infuriated me.

“Where did you get the nerve to proposition…a virgin?”

Am I a virgin? Something feels off…

“Chang-yeom!!”

He reappeared, standing confidently before me once more.

“I’ve come for sex!!”

“…”

First, I’ll kill him, gather my thoughts, and then start the conversation. Within ten minutes of meeting him, I had already killed him five times.

“Chang-yeom, I’ve come for sex!!”

Six times.