I Became a Fortune Teller in the Game My Little Sister Made – Chapter 163

A dome is formed.

The arena’s floor crumbles and rises to become a single wall.

Walls that defy the laws of physics gradually curve together.

Finally, it blocks everything around.

“…But can you even see anything like this? I can’t see a thing.”

“………….”

“Luke Ebenstein…senpai…?”

“If it’s that guy, he’s probably off sleeping somewhere.”

In an instant.

The voice changes.

The dome made of earth blocks all light. Only stygian darkness fills it, making it hard to even know where Luke Ebenstein was.

However.

At the very least, I remember that this wasn’t the kind of voice I was used to.

No, rather—

“This is dark. Truly dark.”

“……….”

“After realizing my fate, and the reason for my existence…this is the darkness I felt.”

“You…”

“This is the first time I’ve seen you in reality. Or rather, I can’t see because it’s too dark, right?”

Laughter echoes.

It was a sound that both mocked me… and seemed like a sneer at himself.

It was a familiar sound.

“…Namgoong Min?”

“That’s right. You won’t be able to see me, though.”

The other me I met at that gate, in “Dream Within a Dream.”

The me that existed before I came to this world.

Abducted by the Emperor, I heard I escaped.

Me.

“How…?”

“Well, how do you think?”

“…So there was an accomplice.”

“………….”

“You teamed up with the principal.”

“…How surprising. Are you truly seeing the future…or is it some strange ability?”

It wasn’t a difficult deduction.

After all, the other me is also a <Fortuneteller>.

Naturally, he couldn’t change his appearance like <Actor> nor manipulate land as <Architect> whimsically.

Even so, if he created this dome while looking like Luke Ebenstein…

Then surely someone must have helped him.

“Damn it.”

It wouldn’t work out just with one <Architect> and one <Actor> helping.

If another me who escaped from the Daehan Empire’s royal palace is so boldly appearing in a place like the Romance Academy, in the midst of a Martial Arts Competition…

Then the most suspicious person among those capable must be the principal.

That’s why I poked around and it seemed to hit home.

“As expected, controlling emotions is clumsy.”

The me in this world, perhaps because he hadn’t met that cultist bastard.

Though he seemed to want to resemble me, he was too clumsy in controlling his mind and emotions.

“But it’s too bold, isn’t it? We’re smack in the middle of a Martial Arts Competition. There’s no way you can keep this dome up forever, and escaping will be difficult.”

“What does it matter?”

“…?”

“As long as I can kill you, nothing else matters!”

Whoosh!

Turning my head aside was truly a stroke of luck.

My activated <Observation> had ‘seen’ something coming, and by moving right away, the only consequence was having my cheek torn.

The fiery pain from my ripped cheek, the hot blood, and.

A chilling sense of murder.

“…A card?”

Thanks to <Observation> leveling up, the dome that had been devoid of light was now brightly visible.

My right pupil was glaring at the other me.

With a smirk on one side of his mouth.

Holding a tarot card in his hand, Namgoong Min.

“What’s with the card?”

…No, wait a minute.

That card looks familiar──

Swish!

“Cough!?”

Before I could recall the memory of the card, the other me came running with a smile.

Even in the darkness, he ran straight for me, swinging the card like a sword.

I hurriedly raised my hand to block it, only to have the back of my hand sliced open by the card.

‘This is…!’

An edge and force that was hard to believe came from a card.

Only now did I remember.

After clearing Liu Yan’s character event and opening the <Rich Tycoon Exclusive Shop>, I had been able to purchase the final equipment for each class.

And one of them looked exactly like that.

Unlike a regular tarot card, the end was finished in silver metal, and it depicted an ominous image unlike anything else.

Of course, I never bought it, but it was the exact same appearance I had seen in every round…!

‘But why does that guy have it?’

Isn’t that supposed to be with Liu?

A moment of doubt crossed my mind, but there was no time to resolve it.

The other me, holding a tarot card that could practically be seen as a short sword, charged at me like a madman.

Clang! Clang!

In haste, I raised my sword to block the cards, but before I could block properly a few times, they were already slicing and breaking.

‘That was the sword Liu gave me…!’

It must have been quite a decent sword, but not a scratch marred the cards.

Before I could even feel the absurdity of it all, my body was being torn and sliced by tarot cards.

Thanks to <Observation>, I was somehow dodging, but how long would I last?

‘The possibility of rescue…’

They would likely be confused by the suddenly appeared dome outside, but they probably won’t intervene.

Surely they would consider it part of the match and wait until the dome disappeared.

‘If it were the Special Class kids…’

I figured they’d be able to sense the anomaly beyond the dome and rush over.

But given that Liu, Eileen, Eun-ha, and Rain had yet to step in even after I got this hurt… it seemed like there was something done to the dome.

‘Could it be the principal created this?’

Creating a dome as if it was the work of an <Architect> from a distance and blocking outside interference?

…With that crazy girl, it was certainly within her capabilities.

Even if I dragged this out, intervention would be difficult.

Then.

“Huff…!“

“What the hell!?”

Clang!

I threw the sword I was blocking with wildly at the guy’s head.

As a result, his unguarded shoulder was deeply sliced, but I didn’t care.

While he was bewildered by the sword flying at him, I drew another sword.

And.

The basic skill <My Own Little Fortune Teller's Shop>.

In an instant, the world overlays.

The pitch-black space inside the dome transforms into a purple fortune teller’s shop.

Before long, a table appears between me and him, forcibly widening the distance.

“Ah! So this is…!”

Before he could finish his sentence.

I throw the second sword.

Clang!

“What a foolish act!”

“Nice deflection.”

“What?”

He lightly deflected the sword flying directly at him with the card.

That guy, the other me, surely had superior physical ability than I do even in “Dream Within a Dream,” so this reaction was expected.

I aimed for that.

The basic skill <Cleanliness>.

It couldn’t be used in the dome that was made by the principal.

But of course, it could be used in <My Own Little Fortune Teller’s Shop>, my space.

<Cleanliness>, a skill that cleans my acknowledged space back to its original state.

Things out of place return to their original positions, broken things are repaired, and dirty things become clean.

This time, I aimed for just two objects.

One was the sword.

Phew!

“Cough!?”

The guy glaring at me suddenly groaned.

Behind him, the first sword I had thrown came back in the same trajectory it had flown and hit him on the back of the head before returning to my sheath.

The unforeseen shock caused him to stagger.

Phew!!

“Cough!?”

The second sword that I previously threw and simply deflected struck him again.

The second sword, which had previously hit him while he was staggering back into the trajectory of the first sword, returned to my sheath just beforehand.

As the second sword pierced through him, he knelt down, spilling blood from his abdomen and mouth.

“Namgoong Min, the me of this world.”

“Cough… Cough…”

“Honestly, I don’t understand you.”

The first time we met was in “Dream Within a Dream.” In that dream within a dream, he met me, tried to deceive me, and even attempted to kill me in the dream.

So I went to the Daehan Empire’s royal palace, where he was said to be abducted and imprisoned.

But I couldn’t find him. I heard he had escaped.

And then came this moment.

‘He knows me well.’

But I don’t know him, the other me.

Why is he trying to kill me? Why does he hate me?

The Martial Arts Competition arena, blocked from outside intervention by the dome.

This was a chance for him to kill me without disruption, but it was also my chance.

A chance to secretly gather information.

“You’ve lost. But in a while, you’ll bleed to death, right?”

“………Cough.”

“I don’t want to kill someone else… someone who is another me at that, but.”

No matter what.

I won’t show mercy to the guy who charged at me trying to kill me first.

‘It’s fine to underestimate your enemy, but it can’t happen twice.’

That was what that cultist bastard had told me.

“I’ll let you go if you talk.”

“What… what nonsense….”

“It’s about traveling through the principal’s power, right? But this is my space.”

“……….”

“Do you know what I’m saying?”

No matter how powerful a <Battle Wizard> you are, you can’t barge into a space created by my skill.

At that moment, his complexion, which had been pale from bleeding, turned even whiter.

“Are you alright with dying here? I… think I’ll manage. It’d be less shocking than when my parents were buried.”

“………….”

“But not you. If you survive, you could aim for another opportunity, right?”

It’s a lie.

I’d let him live, but immediately afterward, I’d mobilize everything in my network to track and monitor him down.

‘They must be connected.’

The other me and the principal who cooperated with him.

The Emperor who had abducted the other me.

And… the ‘Former God’ who made Jisoo a Hero, the one who whispered the future to the Emperor.

If I keep following that lead, I should be able to find that Former God I met when I held the Holy Sword.

Then.

‘I can meet Jisoo.’

Seeing the perfect ending, seeing Jisoo again. That sounds nice, but.

If it’s possible to see her sooner, there’s no reason to hesitate.

So I whisper.

“I’ll save you.”

Say it.

“………….”

Tears of blood streamed down from the prolonged activation of <Observation>.

I paid no mind to it.

I had to discern what he was saying, his actions, the veracity of it.

At my declaration, he clutched his abdomen while pondering momentarily.

“Damn… begging for my life to you….”

“Feeling inspired to talk?”

“Hahaha… hey, Namgoong Min.”

“What is it, Namgoong Min?”

“How much do I have to say… for you to spare me?”

To ask such a rudimentary question.
As expected, this guy is far from becoming a true <Fortuneteller>.

“Just one thing.”

“What…?”

“The reason you hate me… and want to kill me. Just that.”

“………….”

It wasn’t that I was showing mercy.

It’s just that there was nothing else I was curious about.

‘Why does the other me despise me?’

Honestly, I did nothing. It was just my younger sister who brought me into this world.

The abduction was done by the Emperor, I never even knew of this existence, and initially, he himself had struck first in “Dream Within a Dream.”

Yet why is he trying so hard to kill me like this?

“…When I was young, my family fell apart and we moved to a slum.”

“Go on.”

“My mom, dad, and I. Even though we lived in a slum, we were happy. We were doing quite well… until my parents committed suicide.”

“……….”

“I didn’t know why they killed themselves. They just suddenly left… then, on the day I was left alone at home, a god… spoke to me.”

──Namgoong Min.

──Huh…?

──Hmm, it seems quite different from the original. A failure, such a pity…

──Who… are you…?

──Well? Who could it be? Hmm… should I keep experimenting since this is also an opportunity?

──………….

──Even a failed product has some worth.

“…An experiment?”

“I was an experimental subject.”

“What… do you mean?”

“You, to create the real Namgoong Min, were the experimental subject!”

“………….”

What?

What do you mean──

“I heard. Your younger sister is a usurper. She usurped the position of a god and exists as… a Former Hero.”

“……….”

“After being usurped by the usurper, the god always wondered. How can a mere human usurp the position of a creator?”

“What….”

“So that being began to study the usurper and turned its gaze toward the family.”

The usurper, Namgoong Jisoo, the only blood relative she raised almost single-handedly.

Namgoong Min.

“That being thought… cough! To understand the usurper, it must know you, who raised the usurper.”

“No way….”

“So, I was created.”

To learn about Namgoong Min.

The being that had its place usurped had gathered its remaining power to create another Namgoong Min.

Because its power was inadequate, not every element could be replicated perfectly.

There was no usurper, and there was effectively no cultist who created the current Namgoong Min.

But the Former God believed it had sufficient value to experiment.

“I later learned. I was happy when I was young, then my parents collapsed, and I lived in poverty until they committed suicide.”

“……….”

“That was the ‘predestined role.'”

And in the eyes of the Former God.

The ‘Namgoong Min’ created that way fell far short of the real ‘Namgoong Min.’

So it determined it was a failure, but the god who saw the ‘failed product’ slightly changed its mind.

‘Since we’ve come this far, let’s experiment a bit more.’

“The god said, soon the Emperor of this land who follows my voice will come to take you away.”

“But why do you hate me? If you think about it, that’s evident….”

“I resented that being at first. So I wandered around the slums shouting. The god is dead, and another has taken the position. The Emperor will come to catch me.”

“………….”

“When I was really abducted by the Emperor… education began.”

Education meant to make use of the failed product.

The Emperor, the Principal, and the Mediator all participated in that education.

To the twelve-year-old <Fortuneteller>, who was somewhat capable, they gradually transformed him.

And.

“The god whispered to me.”

“…Tsk, now I roughly understand.”

“If you kill you, if I replace the real you…! I’ll return my parents, my daily life…!!”

The failed product’s thoughts changed.

He no longer hated the god.

Instead, the more fundamental cause was.

The reason the Hero had usurped the god’s position was the origin.

And the true culprit was the Namgoong Min who raised that hero, right?

Thus, the failed product nurtured his hatred in the underground of the royal palace.

For the day when the ‘real’ would one day come to this world.

To become the real thing himself.