Chapter 2: Kill the Player (2)
c53“Hah…”T6h5
DZwrA shabby blanket, a cheap mattress so hard it could crush your back and a dirty floor… Everything was the same as the first time I opened my eyes in this world.m3f9
FMz“Huu…”soGzrPs
838t8Walking into the bathroom, I found a reflection of my face on the large mirror. Looking back at me was a fairly ferocious set of facial features and wild black hair. It was quite a decent countenance, even for a game where all the characters looked attractive in general except for the third-rate villains.6ZXwp
aRJj3h5If I remember correctly, the character designer was famous for not being able to draw ugly characters.DyQ
bcqKorin Lork.kx9t
fTNSufoA side character who appears in an episode where the protagonist and his party venture off to save their classmates who are in danger soon after entering the guardian academy. He was a disposable NPC there to help the protagonist shine, and at the same time, that was my name.I5WG6id
0Oe8K“Was that a dream?”0HTyE
1w7Hah, yeah. That must have been a dream. Otherwise, how could a human do such a…Cdi
rvKDEven a psychopath wouldn’t kill people for annoying them. Right? A human should have standards.bNvObaJ
rfG1eUnless they have cider[mfn]*Cider = Cider (Sprite in Korea) represents a fast and satisfactory development whereas sweet potatoes represent an unsatisfactory and suffocating plot development. Comes from how Koreans drink sprite with sweet potatoes to alleviate the stuffiness of a sweet potato.[/mfn] instead of blood flowing in their veins, how could someone do such a thing? Haha.c81c
4QT2TAlthough Park Sihu is a little dark and has an icy gaze, he’s not that bad of a…Qoi
Fhs1That was when multiple events flashed through my mind. One of them was the flood at Roteon River, when the dam broke accidentally during the eradication of river monsters which wiped a whole village.qCSxGLE
5I8MwaWhat did he murmur to himself again when looking at the horrendous scene with over a thousand dead monsters and thousands of human casualties?qqv4G5m
lyl『Huhu. Jackpot!』8Je8
Sh9e5“…”rSwZyoB
L5mlSLooking back, it was such a wicked smile that it gave me chills. It was disturbingly well-timed for it to be a coincidence, and there were no other plausible explanations for it.b6sE
mlovW‘That demon. What did he gain by killing so many people?’kBcT
ZKR3In this game, you do earn exp points by killing lives, but killing normal civilians wouldn’t give that much…fEjR5
xkCtemAh.tXf
iY5But if that reached thousands… and considering all the monsters that were killed by his other colleagues…rcFpJ
9adtx“H… Hah.”sjnx
9tAAfrMaybe he was a Satan back on Earth? No, even that would be an understatement.nT5
WsiOT“Huu…”ayWx
hF5For now, I had to confirm the current state. This room looked the same as the cheap inn I stayed in before entering Merkarva Academy.vnx
jdhp0rI walked over to the window and opened it with a creak.WTM
onTdwVtOutside lay the bustling scene of a city with a large train noisily rushing down the railway, and crowds of people walking across.NofNAjv
zKkpUIIt was the scene of another world that appeared to be a mix of things from the 16th to the 20th Century.VLCNp
cY07jr6How would I ever forget such a vivid and intriguing sight?dgj6cHB
6BE‘The clock tower… is still there.’gSx
RYttThe pride of the city, the clock tower, was destroyed during a fight against a unique grade enemy. I knew because I was the one who defeated it.Nwq3
Yz1BThere was no way they would have repaired it already.84e7
arruyuLooking at the calendar of the motel, I realized today’s date was Year 999, February 27; which should have been 3 years ago.88l
AXvNbDid I…really come back?vXq9
PZA“That’s impossible.”PBycx
ajqThat was what I initially thought, but the calendar was not lying and the puzzle pieces that fit together were telling me this was reality.AJUI
SDewHow much had I suffered following Park Sihu? To think all that hard work was in vain…Nz5Lnhk
FGBBWait a second. What about Park Sihu?x2u
O8pDid Park Sihu also return to the past like me?3rlO
wH1“…”cThC3
l9JhMlAHe would probably stay the same. While singing chants of efficiency, he would nonchalantly murder people.mIkNyJV
rAQDBHe would say something like, ‘It’s fine because this world is a game’.ngFvA5z
mjdsrAnd yes, I do understand that mindset to some extent, considering how we entered the game we were playing, which still had a status screen and an ongoing scenario.dtH
0Es1If there was some type of a reward like, ‘You can go back to the real world upon clearing the game’, I can understand him trying to clear it without paying any heed to the process or the method.iUztVRz
A7lABut that’s… way too cruel is it not?LZFFI
ir3There was a line in this world that shouldn’t be crossed. Even in a game, you would be called a psychopath for decapitating an NPC and placing the head in your house like a trophy, and yet this guy did things that were far worse.b4U
wxEQuHe had casually killed a hundred thousand people.v7o5
G0KGNIf he was someone with common sense and even a sliver of a rightful mindset… he wouldn’t have carried out so many unnecessary massacres.vgORUZ
CDLBLqcBesides, there was a limit to how much experience points you could gain due to the level cap, and there were only so many items you needed depending on your skill tree.TGbmN
LqC1VAfter hitting Level 99, farming was no longer impactful, and you did not need ‘hidden pieces’ for a knight when you were going down the skill tree of a mage.UzIDKf
zH0mHowever, he had unnecessarily killed a lot of people. Was that really for efficiency?IE96
opxAuNo.Bn8m
Jw6omfCThat guy was just enjoying it. He was simply relishing the pain and suffering of people he had put on display.DD3
Arhi0Park Sihu, that son of a bitch, had absolutely zero respect. Efficiency was just the excuse he came up with to mask his insanity.hBO
j5sIf he really did love efficiency, he would have shared all the countless hidden items which he couldn’t even use to his other party members rather than keeping them for himself.PD7km
NZHKt7vBecause that was how you were meant to play this game – by strengthening your party members.eTf
KsWNfCeThe fact that he devoured all that for himself, meant he was just a greedy damn pig.IppG4MJ
2xMcdJT“If it’s now… I can stop him.”gJp9R1o
Je9SdIPark Sihu wasn’t monstrously strong yet.I2Y
7Ejw‘Do I have to kill him? Park Sihu? The player?’py0
SLk45QmThough I might not be someone with an especially strong sense of justice, I still prided myself for having enough of a moral standard.2MZG
Gck0『Who knows? I don’t think the kill log was over 100k… Ah, three more and I’ll hit 100k.』GqaG
yruAd8SI clenched my fist.BT4
roYThe overflowing amount of money and treasures in that underground treasury. Although some of them were ownerless items located throughout the school, there were some which he had stolen from their original owners.bri2
Iv2symThe demon-slaying sword which belonged to the granddaughter of the Sword Emperor, as well as the elixir ingredient that was constantly sucked out of ‘her’.QwtP
VTKeThose were all things he had stolen and snatched from others. Even apart from that, his unbelievable growth in power must have been made possible only thanks to the sacrifice of many others.VlJJ
mYw“Park Sihu…”h3S9
HRuRI used to think of him as a hero.LodYzGO
d16Although he had a bit of chuunibyou, I thought he was a true hero who accepted his fate as the player of the game and tried to save the world. I thought his personality was just slightly flawed.tEa
qeXjQBut I was wrong.l9nB
QhOSJHe was a psychopath and a ciderpath[mfn] *Ciderpath = A web novel reader who is obsessed with ‘cider’ development.[/mfn] who did not love this world in the slightest.xD7
GEdAExIEven though he was a homosexual who filled the party with handsome male characters, he did not love them.ME1
n1mWas that why he was ruthlessly killing people?KQI
kdQ8tHe took everything for himself, stole and harmed people to exploit the weak ones that could not even fight back at him.pTiGIru
B1DlPHrBut even so, was it correct to kill the player?Tygvx
EGLHIt was true that he was an evil person, but at the same time he was the one destined to save an innumerable number of people. He was the protagonist who despite killing a hundred thousand people would soon save the world…hahdBDJ
UnxPfWait, this guy lost, didn’t he?P4AOW
mV7t13Looking back, he lost at the final boss fight.sfMrm9d
h6SXSo he wasn’t even the one destined to save the world? Why was this guy even singing chants of ‘efficiency’ the whole time then?QBhs
dRFX4qtIt was annoying the more I thought about it.0HK
t3rBThis fucker was a mage, so why the heck did he gather so many damn swords in the first place?FGGK
se8LcnRLook at the demon-slaying sword as an example. It’s not even usable unless you reach the very end of a knight’s skill tree, so why the heck did he even get it?JiTpb6
XlHHe wasn’t an efficiency-lover; he was just a greedy monopoliser!AtA280u
xIRIf he won at least, I would have accepted it but… he lost!tsD
bZg****EZ42
Plr❰Heroic Legends of Arhan❱ had various hidden items and ways that allowed one to strengthen both the protagonist and the party members.nn0
SUbSThe most symbolic of them all were the ‘hidden pieces’ located all across Merkarva Academy.z9XA
xxNtThose included the demonic spirit sealed in the library;vfoT
ohNzWuThe seed gained through infinite rerolls;kQrw8h
xpKzAnd the God of Lake, who duplicates items.sLhD
auOxbThose were some of the things that came off the top of my head – they were the ones I told Park Sihu about, which he probably knew about himself.xgB
MGoIEven apart from that, meditating in front of the wobbly rock of the emerald forest inside the campus can double the effect,a5Pc8S
s2uAnd there were the grimoires hidden in the library which allowed one to gain an ability by simply reading them.nGH
Vb9qU5YAll these had one thing in common.omW
AZQX8Y6It was that they all had to be found after entering Merkarva Academy.Ize
iBhIn other words, it meant Park Sihu would get stronger in full swing after entering the academy.YUfBtq
4Uhxl7The entrance ceremony in ❰Heroic Legends of Arhan❱ was the day after the anniversary of the ‘Continental War of Liberation’, March 2nd. Currently, it was the 27th of February, and Park Sihu would most definitely be at the level of 『Grade 5』 right now.keX4c
XWYWhy was I so certain of it, you may ask?RTxfj
SDqdIt’s because, considering his smartass personality, he would have flaunted his skills in one way or another during the admission test. He would have become the best freshman of history, or would have broken the high score to leave a record.k9o
yqpC2Why? Because that gloomy bloke had to show off his smart ass.4xNe6A
FxiCjBut during the admission test, he barely made it through, which meant he was a complete newbie on my level at this current point in time.FrADc2
JuOwvoXIt was hard to imagine how much stronger he would become immediately after entering the school grounds. In fact, he might even get stronger on the day of the admission.sDNcTnA
C6rBut right now. it was a different story. Although I was just a random 『Grade 5』 knight for now, that was the same for Park Sihu as well.iilc
2KUEzwOur abilities would exponentially grow further apart, which means—Ylir
NJP“I have to do it now.”436VQN
sKm7yNow was the only chance to kill the player.oj8nbs
nMYTWThen going back to the main question at hand; where was Park Sihu?iAS
Zf2rmWaI had no idea.Kycga5
gOivHowever, he had to be near this city right now, because he must be planning on killing the Sword Emperor’s granddaughter, Alicia Arden, to steal her sword.fFMTOim
zzr55OIt was one of the first big events that stirred up the academy alongside the vampire event.KRoQBc
Tegq4u8The granddaughter of the Sword Emperor, Garrand, famous for being an unfathomably powerful 『Unique Grade』 knight, did not show up in the entrance ceremony.rYiJcmn
x4gNaturally, it created an uproar as city guards were all dispatched to search for her. It was only 3 days later that they discovered her corpse.kWzX2
JSwNMHHer death was due to a monster. It seemed that being left alone with a sharp stab to her rib had been the biggest cause of her death.1EGX
bbk9Yc5According to the state of the corpse, she was estimated to have died around 5~7 days prior.WFl6
OfJShe was discovered on March 5th. The estimated time of her death is from February 26th to 28th. Which means…2wFWcD
JFIe‘She might be killed today!!’jDq2YEk
rJasIn fact, she might have been killed already! Now was not the time for this.vLTyaa
7prdsI quickly changed my clothes and left the inn.Ygjv
wYKAlicia Arden’s estimated time of death was from yesterday to tomorrow.x5F
lhdvJThe reason I clearly remembered the estimated time of her death and the forest she was discovered in was because I looked into it from how strange it was for the story to deviate from the main plot.OAVyw
VbWLBack then I couldn’t find out anything else and had to get over it despite how unsettling it was, but now I knew exactly what happened.WDeB
Ta9It was Park Sihu who killed Alicia Arden. And…II1oRxq
UsPBfyFIn turn, that meant saving Alicia Arden would also coincide with an opportunity to kill Park Sihu.z32s
lfCBvsHow was Park Sihu able to come across Alicia Arden? Why would a strong character like Alicia Arden, who could easily reach 『Grade 2』 already be involved with a 『Grade 5』 like Park Sihu?dC8GsC1
XQwXBJx“……Tutorial quest.”nQz
vHT9The first quest given to a player playing the game in order to let them grasp the initial combat system.SC1
rhN7nRThat was the only time that Park Sihu could have been involved with Alicia before admission.KA0silk
GIdI knew the location of the tutorial quest. It was a place I naturally started to remember since I have played it multiple times.gb2mG
q5J2“I have to break into the tutorial.”Xcfm
re2a7DTIt won’t go the way you want this time.3a1Xe
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