Chapter 143

“…I’m famous?”

“Yes, but let’s go to my room first .”

I had come here to decide the fate of this lunatic kid—the murderous Reaper—but somehow, the topic had shifted to my supposed fame. Feeling slightly taken aback, the two of us entered Yuuki’s room.

“Here, have a seat.”

Yuuki gestured for me to sit on his bed, while he perched on the chair in front of his desk.

“Two famous figures came all the way from Korea to visit me… It must be because you’ve figured out that I’m the Reaper, right?”

Yuuki suddenly straightened, clasping his hands together to cover his mouth—a pose straight out of an anime villain’s handbook.

“I’ve expected this day to come for a very long time.”

He acted as if everything was going according to the plan, adopting a calm tone and an icy expression. But judging by the flaring of his nostrils, he seemed to be suppressing his excitement.

This guy… was trying to show off. Typical middle-school syndrome nonsense—he must have wasted who knows how much time on seriously preparing for situations that would never happen.

“…”

Still, I kept my mouth shut and listened. Pointing out how unlikely the current situation was if I weren’t a regressor might provoke some unpredictable reactions, and people tend to lash out when their vulnerabilities are exposed.

“Ordinary people might think I leave no traces behind, but clearly someone like you was able to uncover the clues I left behind. Impressive, though it took longer than I expected.”

Yuuki rambled on, pretending to be composed while clearly reciting a rehearsed script.

I could tell because his words were coming faster and faster, like someone too focused on reading prepared lines to notice.

“I don’t know if you’re here to help me or to condemn me, but there’s one thing I must say.”

Yuuki unclasped his hands, reached into his desk drawer, and swiftly pulled out a dagger.

“You lot. Coming into the Reaper’s territory without a care in the world—isn’t that a bit too careless?”

-Wooong.

As dark mana rippled from Yuuki’s body, his form started to blur and then vanished entirely.

“Huh? What the—?”

Choi Ji-won sprang up from the bed, even unsheathing her Bung-bung, clearly alarmed. Considering her detection abilities were among the best in the world, it was shocking that she couldn’t sense anything.

“Ha! Are you surprised? My voice now echoes from nowhere, and you can’t hear my breathing either, can you? My trait is ranked S, after all. This much is only natural.”

The Reaper’s trembling voice echoed from all directions. As he said, pinpointing his location was impossible. Judging by Choi Ji-won’s reaction, she couldn’t detect his body heat or breathing either.

Now I understood how this guy managed to assassinate top-ranked players. With stealth abilities like these, he could kill anyone. Just because someone was a player didn’t mean a blade couldn’t pierce them.

“The essence of this world lies in perception. How we perceive the world determines its reality. And now, as someone who cannot be perceived by anyone, I have essentially vanished from this reality. I exist, yet I do not exist…”

“…What are you doing under the desk?”

For some reason, I could clearly sense Yuuki’s position.

“Ha, bluffing won’t work on me.”

“You. Why are you curled up under the desk?”

“?!”

The reason I could pinpoint the Reaper’s location was simple: mana.

Every player possesses mana. From the moment they gain a status window, they’re automatically granted a mana stat of 10. Top-ranked players often invest more into mana to use their traits efficiently.

But even the highest-ranking players don’t fully understand mana. They merely use it artificially through the authority of their status windows.

Of course, I’m different.

Baron Jorge on the third floor once told me that if you consistently remain aware of your mana, you’ll naturally learn to control it. Mana is like a part of your body—something anyone can master with time.

And at this moment, I was the human most familiar with mana. Why? Because I’ve lived the longest due to my regressions.

As a result, my mana detection skills were far superior to any other player’s. For someone like Yuuki, who hadn’t yet mastered mana, it was easy to locate him since his body was leaking mana everywhere.

If he had been even slightly proficient in controlling mana, he could’ve concealed the residual energy emanating from his body. His internal mana wouldn’t have been detectable at all, meaning he had no clue how to use it.

“Come out.”

“T-This can’t be happening…”

“If you don’t come out, I’ll kill you for real.”

“…Yes, sir.”

The so-called Reaper Anzai Yuuki surrendered immediately.

**

“I apologize. I dared to test you. But I swear I had no intention of harming you. Please, believe me.”

Yuuki knelt politely on the floor. At first, he seemed genuinely flustered, but now he wore an expression that screamed, “Well, this is what I expected from people like you.”

Seriously, who does he think he is to evaluate us so highly?

Well, at least we finally had the groundwork for a conversation. With our arms crossed, Choi Ji-won and I looked down at the kneeling Yuuki.

“Zhang Lei from China. Did you kill him?”

“Yes, I killed him.”

“Why?”

“Because he deserved to die.”

Yuuki’s previously hunched shoulders began to straighten as if he were a shy engineering student suddenly chiming in about a subject he actually knew at a drinking party.

“Do you think you’re qualified to judge someone’s life?”

“No, I’m not. But he was, without a doubt, someone better off dead.”

Yuuki tilted his head, looking genuinely puzzled, as if he couldn’t comprehend what was so wrong with his actions.

“The heinous criminals I’ve killed are extraordinary beings who cannot be restrained by current human laws. If someone doesn’t stop these outlaws from slipping through the cracks of our legal system, the result will be even more victims.”

“Don’t use needlessly complicated words.”

“Yes, sir.”

Cutting off Yuuki’s attempt to show off with overly complex vocabulary, I let out a deep sigh. Unfortunately, what Yuuki said wasn’t entirely wrong.

If the Reaper hadn’t killed Zhang Lei… there’s a good chance, as he claimed, that many more people would have become victims in the future. Killing one man could have potentially saved tens, if not hundreds, of civilians down the line.

“Fine. I’ll agree that some people deserve to die. But according to my investigation, some of the people you’ve killed were completely innocent, or at the very least, morally ambiguous. How do you explain that?”

“That was… an unavoidable sacrifice.”

Yuuki frowned, his expression clearly annoyed. Was this brat seriously getting irritated at me right now?

“Player crimes are inherently cunning. Because they use their abilities to commit them, there’s often no direct evidence left behind. Most of the time, all we have are unreliable rumors. Without torture, you can’t get any reliable information.”

“…So your first instinct is to torture them, is that it?”

“As I’ve said, it was an unavoidable sacrifice. If killing ten innocent people could save a thousand, I’d do it without hesitation.”

“…”

His words hung in the air.

Still kneeling, Yuuki narrowed his eyes dangerously, a glint of resolve flashing through them.

From the conversation so far, one thing was clear—this kid wasn’t dumb. In fact, given his age, it wouldn’t be a stretch to call him exceptionally smart.

But, thanks to his middle-school-syndrome mindset, his philosophy was far too extreme. Willingly killing ten people to save a thousand? Could he say that if he were one of the ten? Could those sacrificed go to their deaths willingly?

“I… I’m not entirely denying the value of your actions, given the current situation. But I still think you’re going too far. And you’re just too young.”

“Why can’t someone like you understand me? Are you testing me? My resolve is unwavering. You don’t need to doubt me.”

Yuuki thumped his chest in frustration, his exasperation palpable. Watching him, I felt my own irritation boil over.

“Someone like me? Ha, right. You said you knew me, didn’t you? What exactly do you think I am?”

“A dark hero working in the shadows, of course.”

“…”

The phrasing was a bit cringy, but to my surprise, it wasn’t entirely off the mark. After all, my status window did have a trait labeled ‘Hero’.

“You save lives, and I take lives… Together, we’re a yin-and-yang duo operating in the shadows, aren’t we? So when you act like this, I can’t help but feel disappointed. I only became the ‘Reaper’ because of you—”

“Wait, what? Hold on, what are you even saying?”

“I scoured gore sites day and night to master torture techniques. I trained in dagger combat until my hands were covered in blisters. I’ve even sneaked into airplane cargo holds and gone without sleep. And yet, you don’t understand my feelings…!”

What? He started all of this because of me? His first murder was a month and a half ago, wasn’t it? At that time, I was still on the 4th or 5th floor, wasn’t I?

“Sniff… Sniffle…!”

And now Yuuki was outright crying, tears streaming down his face in a way that didn’t align with someone who had tortured and killed countless people. What the hell was this?

“Wait. Hold on. So why exactly am I famous? How did you even find out about me?”

“…It’s because of the Elixir.”

“Elixir?”

I had obtained an elixir twice—once on the 2nd floor and once on the 4th floor. But what did that have to do with anything?

“How did you get the elixir on the 4th floor?”

“…By saving everyone and earning the 50,000-point reward, of course.”

“…”

“Ah.”

The point reward, of course, was granted to every player who cleared the 4th floor.

And I had saved every living creature that entered the 4th floor with me. That included the 99 other players besides myself.

Which meant…

“Crap.”

Because of me, the market ended up flooded with 99 lower-tier elixirs.

– – End of Chapter – –

 

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