Original Chapters (Manhwa): 73~75
17: thoughts of a reader
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Han Sooyoung made a face as she looked at Kim Dokja and Ahn Eun-Byeol.
Holy shit.
One look and she knew something was up.
But how?!
How the fuck did that happen?!
In the first place, Ahn Eun-Byeol should have been dead a long time ago, as long as when the First Scenario started, but lo and behold, the beauty who surpassed even the protagonist was well and alive. And it turns out, he was even crazier than his sister who originally managed to get this far, only to step onto a path of self-destruction.
Now, she heard from Ahn Binna that her brother was someone who can match Yoo Junghyuk?
This doesn't make any sense!
While Han Sooyoung questioned life, Kim Dokja thanked The Fourth Wall for blocking most of his embarrassment. If not, he would have been a blushing mess right now.
His sunbae asked for sex next time.
Sex.
Kim Dokja, who was a virgin, was asked by this pretty sunbae to have sex with him. He must be dreaming. It never once crossed his mind that he would do such a thing in his life. Though he had crushes, it never went beyond that. So, when his sunbae asked if he could fuck him next time, Dokja's reaction was to smack his sunbae on the head.
Come to think of it, even if he didn't know a single thing about sex between guys, he could roughly conclude how it would go. Just thinking about it made him scrunch his nose, and he dismissed those thoughts quickly lest they delved deeper than they should. He didn't want to think about things he shouldn't whilst trying to survive.
As the four of them walked together, Binna, like the loquacious little girl she was, chewed Han Sooyoung out for being reckless and acting on her own when she specifically told the older woman to wait for her. "Besides, weren't you following me because you wanted to join forces? Then, first rule, when my brother says to go west, never go east!"
The writer rolled her eyes. "I don't need to form a team with you anymore. The Fourth Scenario's already done, you know?"
"Hmph. As if you can have a smooth-sailing time in this round. With my brother as a teammate, you definitely don't have to worry about anything~" Binna puffed her chest out in pride as she boasted about her brother. Sooyoung couldn't help but take a step away from this little fangirl who couldn't shut up about her sibling.
The two kept bickering while Eun-Byeol laughed at the back with Dokja growing weary. All this was interrupted when a shriek reached their ears.
Quickly heading to the source of that noise, they found several cages on the road, trails of blood staining the pavement. Some were old and some were quite recent. "I think this is it. The werewolf headquarters."
"Looks like someone's already been through here. There aren't even lookouts."
"The stench of blood is too concentrated," Binna commented while looking around before her eyes landed on the human limbs hanging on a pole, as if they were pork being sold in the market. "Ah, no wonder, this must be their dining area."
Han Sooyoung covered her mouth and nose, appalled by the smell of rotting flesh.
Kim Dokja could only thank The Fourth Wall for nullifying his emotional shock. If not, he might have vomitted on the spot.
Contrary to Dokja, Eun-Byeol had no qualms observing the limbs, just like his sister. "Cannibalism, right? As psychotic as I am, I have never thought of resorting to cannibalism. I don't think humans are as healthy as the animals we raise."
Sooyoung, who glanced at him in utter shock: "..." What the hell?
Dokja, who gave his sunbae an exasperated look: "..." So, he's aware he's a psycho?
Binna, who hugged her brother's arm: "I know, right? I think there are few humans who might be healthy enough to eat, though."
Sooyoung and Dokja: "..." Like brother, like sister?
Gunshots rang in the air. They followed where the sound came from and discovered a pile of burnt werewolf corpses. Footsteps soon followed, and a group of people arrived holding guns. The leader appeared to be the one wearing a mask, a veil attached to it which covered her entire face.
"They're wanderers," Han Sooyoung said. "They're pretty powerful, but now they've become the strongest of them all."
"We've met that auntie before, haven't we, Sooyoung?" Binna added out of curiosity. "She seemed to know quite a lot like you."
The beau that had been silent for a while suddenly made a move when a person from the other group raised her gun. Just as the first shot fired, the woman felt a splitting headache that caused the gun to fall from her hands. Eun-Byeol's eyes glowed a faint red, that eerie pair of eyes resembled a doll's.
To Kim Dokja's surprise, the bullet that had been fired was aimed towards the pile of corpses. That one bullet made the pile collapse, revealing a meteorite that they had been searching for. Instantly, the reader grabbed his sunbae's hand.
"Sunbae, you can stop now."
"..." Displeased, the beau huffed and deactivated his skill, Mental Manipulation, and revealed his disinterest at the other party.
Suspiciously enough, the leader of the wanderers didn't get angry. Kim Dokja found that weird.
"What a nasty kid," the woman who fired a shot, Cho Yeongran, massaged her temples, even shooting Eun-Byeol an annoyed look. "Anyway—" her attention shifted to Kim Dokja, causing said nasty kid to take a step forward and partially hide the reader behind him. "—are you Kim Dokja?"
"... you must be mistaken. My name is Yoo Junghyuk."
"We already know you're Kim Dokja. There's no use in lying."
"If you already knew," Eun-Byeol butter in with a smile. "Why even bother asking? There's no use trying to power-trip us. I alone am enough to annihilate your little group."
Cho Yeongran felt a nerve pop. That kid seriously needs to chill. She wasn't even power-tripping, she was just doing what their leader ordered her to do, alright? "Our King has said—" she ignored the rude kid instead. "—that we will entrust you with the meteorite."
Things were starting to get confusing, that Kim Dokja couldn't figure out what the King of the Wanderers was thinking by giving the meteorite to them. And what was that about dealing with the Catastrophe in the North while they dealt with the remaining four?
Watching those people leave, it made Dokja even more curious about the identity of their leader. However, by chance or on purpose, that masked leader turned around and caught his eye.
[This character's information cannot be viewed using Character Profile.]
Dokja suddenly found it difficult to breathe.
No way.
Just one look and it made his heart race in fear. Or maybe anger. He wasn't sure.
It felt like he was about to suffer a heart attack.
No way.
No way.
It can't be—
"Dokja-shi." A pair of clear brown eyes stared straight at him, two hands cupped his cheek and tilted his head. A familiar stunning face filled his view. Just seeing his sunbae relieved his heart of stress. "Do you want me to kill them? What about I start with their leader? I saw her looking at you just now."
"..." Kim Dokja suddenly choked on his spit. The reader grabbed his sunbae's arms and shook him lightly. "Sunbae, killing isn't the solution to everything!"
"Of course it is. Killing makes the nuisances disappear, noh?"
... he has a point but still!
"I can take care of her underlings!" Binna raised a hand enthusiastically at the side, eagerly looking at her brother. "I can help brother-in-law, too!"
Han Sooyoung: "..." I'm crazy, sure, but these guys are crazier holy shit.
Although they showed their care in a pretty brutal way, it actually touched Kim Dokja, which made him wonder if he had gone crazy himself. Dokja couldn't help but laugh. Color returned to his face, giving him a lively look. "It's really fine, sunbae. We still need to work together to finish this scenario."
Kim Dokja, unaware of how his laughing expression made his sunbae feel, released the beau's arms to approach the meteorite.
In the background, Han Sooyoung took a peek at a certain man's face. Sure enough, a deep fervor burned brightly within his eyes. Ugh. Lovesick moron. Who has the time to fall in love?
If Dokja were to use his skill on Ahn Eun-Byeol now, he would only see one word repeating countless times. His name.
Ahn Binna glanced at her brother, then at her brother-in-law. She really wondered what Kim Dokja did to hook her brother like that. For her brother who rarely let anyone get into his head, only two other people managed to make her brother act out of character. One was Yoo Junghyuk and the other was someone she had never met before.
She wasn't sure about the entire picture but Yoo Junghyuk elicited extreme dislike from her brother and the other person brought out extreme longing. Once, she asked her brother about that person but he was tight-lipped. It took her a long time to get something out of him.
But it was also that person's presence that her brother—
No.
Nevermind.
She should just forget about it since it was in the past.
It wasn't even certain if her brother would find that person.
Right now, it was still best if her brother got together with Kim Dokja instead of those two people who didn't have her blessing.
Having that thought, the determined Binna approached the reader with eagerness. "Brother-in-law, what do you need help with? I, Binna, will lend you a hand!" So fall in love with brother and get married already!
...
Lycaon Isparang, a noble Imyuntar of Chronos, had just stepped out of the meteorite when a gaze so chilling made his heart freeze.
It was a very familiar gaze.
One that made him feel so insignificant, so worthless that when compared to a bug, even they would look down on him.
He remembered the person who made him feel that way. She was such a tiny little thing compared to him, as if he could squish her with two claws. But that small body of hers contained a destructive power that made him, Lycaon Isparang, kneel to worship.
She was even worse than constellations who watched the ruin of planets as past times.
That small girl had no name. She appeared like a human being but she was no human.
Lycaon stiffly searched for the source of that gaze.
Ah.
It really was her.
That small human-like girl who wielded a scythe more than twice her height.
Before the Imyuntar could kneel in greeting, the small human-like girl's gaze narrowed.
Act like you don't know me. Slip up and your very soul will wander the abyss.
A sense of relief overwhelmed him. It was better this way. If he ignored her, he would be able to do his task at ease.
But... why was she here in the first place?
...
Kim Dokja expected the Imyuntar to scold him after divulging the fact that no one became the absolute king. Instead, this three-meter tall wolf remained silent. This piqued the reader's curiosity. He was ready to argue with Lycaon and show the Protection Symbol of Imyuntar.
However, the Imyuntar simply knelt down in respect, forehead touching the ground.
Amidst it all, it had not gone unnoticed how Lycaon Isparang kept stealing glances in a certain direction.
Was it his sunbae he was looking at? No, it didn't seem so. If it wasn't him, then it should be... his sunbae's sister, Binna. What was their connection? Kim Dokja wasn't sure, he didn't have enough information at hand. I should keep an eye on her. Even if she's Byeol sunbae's sister, she's still an anomaly like us. Her actions are bound to change some things in the plot.
Kim Dokja and company spent the next few days with Lycaon, Dokja trying to learn the Imyuntar's skill.
Alas, he didn't seem to have the talent for it.
"Brother-in-law, my brother made some food!"
Wiping off his sweat, Dokja decided to take a break and sat around the campfire that his sunbae started. Han Sooyoung was already gobbling down food, eating as if she hadn't eaten his sunbae's cooking for the past two days.
Binna scrunched her nose at the writer in disgust. "Can you not eat like a civilized human?"
Han Sooyoung rolled her eyes. If there's good food, do I have to act ladylike?
"It's fine," Eun-Byeol chirped in while handing Dokja his share. "If she fattens up like a pig, we can feed her to the monsters if it comes down to it."
"That's true!"
Han Sooyoung, who was in the middle of taking a bite out of the scrumptious meat: "..."
Kim Dokja almost dropped his food after hearing the siblings' conversation. "Pfft— you guys, just eat. Didn't sunbae say that we should gather some materials before the start of the Fifth Scenario? We can do that after eating."
"I'd like to pack up some clothes. I can't afford to let anyone else see Dokja-shi naked."
Han Sooyoung choked on her food. She had to violently smack her chest while Kim Dokja shot his sunbae a glance. The reader received a smile which made Dokja helpless. He forgot that this was his sunbae, one of the most shameless people he knew.
Probably the worst one out of them as well.
"Can we just eat?" Every time his sunbae brings that up, Dokja can't stop thinking about inappropriate stuff. It was best if the beau forgets about it but Dokja had a feeling that his sunbae would never get over it.
... I didn't see him naked first either so we're even, I guess? I was out cold when it happened, after all.
Dokja wasn't even aware what sort of road his thoughts were starting to wander. Soon enough, he probably wouldn't even notice the way he looked at his sunbae would change.
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I'M BACK
Anyway, I also got my hubby from Star Rail, spent all my resources on him, and I regret nothing.