Chapter 89

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A being that changes the flow of this world.

It was a word that could never be taken lightly.

I tried to check on it, but there was no response, as if the status window was already in the process of being updated.

All I could see was that there were four days and thirteen hours left before the status window would be updated.

Although there was an explanation added underneath that the status window could be used gradually depending on the elapsed time, the certain fact was that nothing could be confirmed right now.

Change the flow.

What does it mean?

The notification windows earlier than that were also meaningful.

A singularity in the scenario, and a change in the main scenario.

What on earth will change, and how?

“… Tsk.”

After thinking for a while, I shook my head, clicking my tongue.

Nothing would be changed even if I thought about it like this now.

Rather, it would be better to find out the contents of the update when it's done, checking for any changes in the status window.

I went outside and walked towards the warp gate.

Perhaps because of the time, the park was so quiet.

“…… .”

And a man was standing there looking at me.

When he spotted me, he took a small breath and said.

“Can I talk to you for a moment?”

Seeing my reaction, he nodded for a moment, and when I took another step toward him, he rolled up his sleeve to reveal the inside of his arm.

It was the pattern of the Red Case.

“I haven't come here with bad intentions.”

He immediately raised his hands as if surrendering.

Then he looked around and whispered.

“I am a member of the Infiltration and Espionage team. My leader sent me.”

The leader of the Infiltration and Espionage team.

She was the one who was currently hiding within the association and was against the Seven Evil, who was imitating the Red Case boss.

When I looked at him as if to ask him to say more, he let out a small sigh of relief.

“I thought I was going to die right away, but that's a relief. Our leader told me that half of the Killer team died because they were involved with you.”

He acted extremely cautiously, as if I were some kind of pleasure killer.

At that sight, I lifted my fingers and pulled out Henir's Shadow and the branches of the World Tree and began to surround him.

“Thi, this…… May I ask what this means?”

“I’ll trust you for now.”

It was a lie.

I started doing everything I could to subdue him at any time.

Henir's Shadow was placed right next to him, ready to leap out at any moment in the form of a clone and snap his neck.

“But can you give me a little more faith? I need insurance too.” 

“… Yes, right.”

He remained silent as he looked at Henir's Shadow and the branches of the World Tree as if anxious.

After making an encirclement so tight that even that wave-wielding woman I had met in Aegis before couldn't escape, I nodded to him as if I was okay now.

"First, to tell you the truth, our leader said she wanted to fight alongside you." 

[Note: the author has used the neutral word '그', but I'm using 'She' as the Mc knows the leader is a female.]

“Are you asking me to join the Red Case?”

“No, not like that.”

He shook his head.

“Our Infiltration and Espionage team have decided to join the will of the leader. And she wants to take down the current boss.”

“Simply put, it’s a rebellion.”

"Right."

I nodded as if interested.

“But why do I have to hold hands with you? To put it bluntly, I’m just an academy student, and a first year one at that."

“Because half of the Killer team is dead because of you.”

He opened his mouth as if to assert.

“And that has significantly reduced the Killer team's presence within the organization. It's natural. Because missions kept failing and members of the team kept dying. The problem is that sparks flew for us in the process. In the name of not gathering information properly, two of our people were cut to pieces by the Killer team leader and died. And one of them lost contact.”

"So you're saying you're going to start a rebellion because your heads are falling off?"

"For us, our lives are the most important. But our leader is different. That person…… has a greater meaning than that.”

He said so and quietly added to me.

“There were two things our leader wanted me to convey. Do you have any intention of holding hands and fighting? And be careful."

Currently, the leader of the Killer team is targeting you.

He trembled as if he was afraid at the thought of it.

“The Killer team consists of a total of three groups and one leader. A total of 10 people. And six of them died, so he said he would deal with you before there is any further damage, and he declared that no one should touch you."

“… What about the other Killer team?”

"I've heard they're on a different mission now. Originally, we couldn't share information, but after our people died, the connection was completely cut off...…I've heard that they are working on something related to the Big Watch, but I don't know the details."

“What's the ability of the Killer team leader?”

In fact, I knew his ability.

To be precise, I only remembered his ability in the Killer team.

His ability was none other than to nullify all skills, arts, and characteristics, along with the decline of status.

People within a certain distance of his location would have their physical abilities reduced to the point where they were no better than normal people, and all their abilities would be unusable.

And this also applied to the man who was the leader of the Killer team.

In short, everyone is no different from the general public.

But he didn't care if that happened.

After using his ability, all he had to do was to pull the trigger of the gun he always carried with him toward his bewildered opponent and that was it.

Because of the fact that his ability would be ruined if it was discovered, he hid his ability thoroughly and even killed his own subordinates on the spot if his ability was discovered.

Because of this, he had never failed a mission before and had become the leader of the Killer team and had gained a lot of trust from the Seven Evil, the current boss of Red Case.

“I, I’m sorry. I don't really know...… Should I tell you my ability?”

He murmured as if he had no face.

“My specialty is that, what? Yeah, I read traces. It's called psychometry."

“I am not interested in you.”

“Oh, I see…… .”

He smiled awkwardly and asked, trying to get a look at my face.

"So…… How would you like me to answer?”

“Tell her to come and talk to me in person. We'll talk about it then."

I said that and looked straight at him.

“Your leader is infiltrating the association now, right? I'm sure your leader was the one who caused the Aegis to be attacked? After all the events, that person is talking about holding hands and tells me she's actually going to betray….. I can’t instantly believe her with those words, can I?"

“… Yes, I understand.”

He nodded.

“I will tell the leader that. then…… .”

“Oh, wait.”

Before he left, I moved Henir's shadow toward him once.

He flinched and shook his body.

"I think it's better to give more faith before you go."

“What kind of faith are you talking about… ?”

“Well, for example, the faith that this situation itself isn’t actually a trap or something?”

I said, looking at him.

"Starting with your team members, the personal information and abilities of the members you know…… If you tell me all of that, I think I'll have some faith."

At the end of that, Henir's Shadow and the branches of the World Tree began to press on him.

I smiled a little when I saw him with a pale expression on his face.

I did not forget that Red Case was one of the organizations that I would have to destroy someday.

* * *

Eventually, I took his all personal items such as notebooks and diaries from him and looked at them, and through the information I heard from him, I was able to roughly grasp the abilities and personal information of some members of the Red Case.

In fact, it could be said that it was a bigger harvest to be able to understand the rough situation between Red Case and other organizations.

Simply put, the current situation was nothing more than a three-way war.

He said that the Big Watch, the Thorns Cross Society, and the Red Case were all on each other's radar, and there have been frequent cases of interfering with each other or even armed clashes.

His colleagues, the Infiltration and Espionage team, were also in charge of various missions against the Thorns Cross Society and the Big Watch. 

And considering various other situations and incidents, each of the three groups was in an explosive situation.

It meant that if there was a more direct trigger, the ridiculous idea of annihilating each other might actually be possible.

On top of that, I found out that Red Case had also tried to get the pendant I had recovered.

Also, the fact that their leader had deliberately set up the mission to fail.

It was a moment when I had a little more faith.

When I got back to the academy after all that, it was already late at night, so I quickly fell asleep.

“… Is this such a huge thing?”

And the next day, I woke up early in the morning, and as soon as I woke up, I took out the pendant I had hidden in Henir's Shadow and lifted it up.

No matter how much I looked at it, it was just an old pendant.

Even in the sequel, it had only been used to show off because it came out during the draw.

Since I couldn't use the status window, all I could do was look at it using mana.

However, there was no way I could figure out what Han Soo-Young, who was much more capable than me, couldn't figure out.

Eventually, I decided to approach Mandragora, who had come of the tank and was lying by the window, as if sunbathing, and show him the pendant.

The guy was lazily basking in the sun, but when I approached, he quickly moved himself.

“Hey, look. What do you think about this? Huh?"

He used to be obsessed with something that exuded strange energy or magic.

If something like that is lurking in this pendant, maybe he'll react...… .

Tuk!

“Aww!”

He suddenly hit the pendant.

Henir's Shadow caught it from falling to the floor and handed it to me.

When I looked up in surprise, Mandragora had got up from his seat and was furious at me.

“… ! … … !!!”

“What, why are you doing this?”

Mandragora jumped out of place and began to show various gestures.

Then he pointed once at his pendant with the root, which he used as his hand, and suddenly pretended to strangle himself.

“… Don't bring it near you?"

At that, he nodded.

I don't know why, but I thought there must be a reason, so I put the pendant back into Henir's Shadow.

“…… .”

Then, as if he was satisfied now, he picked up the dark cellophane paper he had been using like sunglasses again.

Then he looked around as if he had smelled something, and soon approached me and stuck out his roots.

“… What?"

Then he bobbed the root up and down again, as if to say don't hide it.

His gaze was fixed on my right arm.

Is it because of the Dryad's seed that the branch of the World Tree took?

Just as I was thinking that, the branch of the World Tree gently appeared from my right arm.

“… !”

Mandragora was startled to find it, and immediately sat down.

And then, to my surprise, the branch of the world tree also shook a little bit, as if it could communicate with him.

It was an astonishing scene even for me who was watching it with my eyes.

“…… .”

It was a scene that was quite exhausting to keep watching.

I left the two of them alone and laid out the items Horie Yuzuki had sent through the warp on the bed.

A sword with a black blade for Choi Hyun-Woo.

A grimoire for Han Soo-Young.

And a necklace and Mirage's gloves for Jin Ye-Seul.

I tried on the Mirage's gloves first.

However, it seemed that it was not possible to draw out the hidden power unless it was Jin Ye-Seul, too.

Honestly, I didn't have any expectations, so I took it off and put it down carefully.

Since I would not be doing any close combat like martial arts, I thought it would be better to give it to her as planned.

I'll have to hand it over to her when I see her later.

With that in mind, it was when I was about to pick up the necklace along with the gloves and push it to one side.

For some reason, Han Soo-Young suddenly came to mind.

And the way she showed me her earrings.

Next, she asked me not to give this kind of thing to others until I gave her a proper answer.

For some reason, the words lingered in my ears.

“…… .”

I gently stroked the grimoire.

To be honest, I still didn't know why she was doing this to me.

No.

In fact, I had roughly expected it.

Fixed favorability.

Yeah.

It's probably because of that.

So I couldn't stand the disgust I felt against myself.

Whether it was intentional or not, it was because I was fooling other people's hearts.

That's why her heart was burdensome and I had no choice but to feel guilty. 

It was all the more so because she was always kind to me, even though I was a stranger.

It was when I was staring blankly at the things laid out on the floor.

I heard my cell phone ring.

It was Han Soo-Young.

"Why."

― Why? Isn't the reaction too cold?

Han Soo-Young said that as if she was sad inside. 

It was a time when I was feeling mixed feelings towards her even if I didn't want to, but it was a time like this.

“…… .”

Does she really know?

And if she finds out, how will she react to me?

Will she just pretend she doesn't know?

Or will she despise me?

Or will she say it's okay because of the fixed favorability and the system...… .

― Hello?

“Uh, sorry. what?"

―You, me, and Hyun-Woo, don't you want to meet the three of us like this today?

She then murmured as if she didn't like something.

―What, are you still not awake? It's already 9 o'clock. You can't keep sleeping late.

“No, I'm not. Yeah, where should we meet?  I happened to have something to give you."

― Hmm, see you in front of the library in an hour later. But what are you giving me?

"I don't know. What could it be?"

― What is this…… you're so boring.

Han Soo-Young said, okay, and hung up the phone saying, please don't be late.

I put my phone down and got up thinking that I should take a shower first.

Han Soo-Young...… .

Yeah.

Let's just stay as we are now.

That's probably the best.

It was when I was making such a resolution.

[Part of the update has been completed!]

[Part of the status window will be available.]

[Update List ― A more detailed explanation has been added among the contents related to the status window. A function to know the approximate status of colleagues has been added.]

It was a notification that I had no choice but to stop walking.

As soon as I opened the status window, most of the functions were still locked, but some functions were available.

And in one corner of the status window, a new window called 'Colleagues' was flickering.

“…… .”

When I touched it, the names of Han Soo-Young, Choi Hyun-Woo, Lee Myung-Joon, and Jin Ye-Seul were written in bold on the top.

Below that, the names of people such as Lee Ye-Eun, Cass Lyle, Horie Yuzuki, Alice Blesbuck, and Lee Yu-Na were lined up in a blurry list.

Han Soo-Young.

Choi Hyun-Woo.

Lee Myung-Joon.

Next to the names of these three, there was a separate mark.

As soon as I saw it, I could see what kind of mark it was.

There was a clear indication that there was a fixed favorability.

As soon as I touched the mark, another explanation window popped up.

Fixed favorability

― This is the number that has the most absolute effect in a relationship.

Fixed favorability does not disappear under any circumstances.

In general, the number of favorability is expressed between 0 and 100.

By default, it starts at 50, and the number changes depending on several factors and events.

* List of Fixed favorability.

Han Soo-Young (+3)

Choi Hyun-Woo (+3)

Lee Myung-Joon (+3)

“… Huh?"

What.

Without realizing it, I just mumbled blankly.

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