Chapter 2 : Past Life, Or Possession (2)

…It’s a strange dream.

A very vivid and strange dream.

In the dream, he was an ordinary young man living in a world called ‘Earth’.

An orphan without parents.

Nevertheless, he somehow succeeded in becoming independent in a harsh society and lived each day.

He was engrossed in something while looking at a small, rectangular, thin box that emits light…a monitor.

A game.

That was also the place he had to go to…He was spending time on a game called ‘Elysion Academy’.

He was controlling a human being, and he could see someone fiercely fighting on the other side of the screen.

That person was…a person with pure white silver hair and red eyes like the moon…

…himself?

Beep-

When he realized that, everything stopped with a tinnitus.

The world turned gray, and the game on the other side of the screen and the young man who was enjoying the game also stopped moving.

But that was only for a moment.

Squeak.

The black-haired young man began to look back at himself.

A face slowly revealed…

no, a mirror instead of a face.

In that mirror, ‘myself’ was reflected.

Crack.

The mirror cracked.

The crack, which let out bright light, slowly widened as if expanding its territory.

Crack!

It completely shattered and darkened my consciousness along with the light.

“….!”

A flash.

Right after waking up from a strange dream, ‘he’ got up with his eyes wide open.

“…What was that just now?”

A strange dream. A dream that was too vivid for a dream.

Recalling it, he narrowed his brows and got out of bed.

As he looked around the room, he felt that his room, which should have been familiar, felt unfamiliar.

More importantly, what was the dream just now?

A kind of mental attack? But even if that were the case, he couldn’t tell what the attack was aimed at.

It wasn’t the kind that would destroy your mind, nor the kind that would seduce you and control you as you wish.

But…

That was when.

“…Ugh.”

He felt a headache as if his head had been hit with a hammer along with tinnitus.

Along with that, information worth at least several decades flowed into his head.

It was one life.

The life of a young man living on a world called Earth.

Lee Hyun-jun.

26 years old.

Republic of Korea.

Elysion Academy…

He grabbed his head How long had it been since he had endured the waves of information that had been hitting his head for so long?

“…Hoo…”

‘He’ sighed and sat on the edge of the bed, holding his dizzy head with one hand.

“…What is this?”

The more he organized the information that had hit his head, the more the man felt the emotion of ‘bewilderment’, which was extremely rare.

In the man’s head, the memories of Lee Hyun-joon, a 26-year-old young man living in the Republic of Korea on Earth, were planted.

His life, and his own life…

Among those two lives, he could not tell whether he was ‘Lee Hyun-joon’, a 26-year-old young man from the Republic of Korea, or ‘Telos Nehemoth’, the boss character of Elysion Academy.

‘He’ slowly closed his eyes.

Was it because of the memories of ‘Lee Hyun-joon’, he felt the sensation of ’emotions’ that had been worn away for a long time being revived.

Emotions that he had not felt since becoming ‘Nehemoth’.

Joy, pleasure, love, pain, hatred, sadness, longing, despair, fear, self-reproach…

Emotions that he thought he had abandoned in the past were planted inside him like seeds, trying to sprout.

They were faint, but they were clear emotions.

He opened his eyes again.

His gloomily sunken eyes turned to the full-length mirror standing next to the bed.

He saw a young man sitting on the edge of the bed.

Silver hair that shone softly like the eerie moon and blood-red eyes.

It was unfamiliar yet familiar.

With a contradictory feeling, he got up from his seat.

“…I am Telos Nehemoth.”

I am Lee Hyun-jun.

The different voices entangled and formed a harmony.

At the same time, the eyes that clung to the subject like sticky blood met the pitch-black eyes.

Before he knew it, a young man with black hair and black eyes was facing him in the mirror.

He looked at it, quietly closed his eyes, and opened them again.

The image reflected in the mirror changed slightly.

On the right half, there was still a young man with black hair, but on the left half, there was his own image.

The two dissimilar images of young men overlapped, and the mirror showed them.

“…Is that so?”

He exhaled deeply and quietly turned his back.

And.

[The character was created. Please check your current status.]

“…Really, it’s not even funny.”

Looking at the blue window floating in the air that appeared in front of him…

‘That’,

Telos Nehemoth muttered expressionlessly.

Possession, or a previous life.

I figured that I had experienced one of the two phenomena, even though I didn’t know for sure.

A situation that would often come up in stories about subcultures.

I quietly sighed at the current situation that didn’t even make me laugh.

“…Is it a game?”

The fact that his entire life was nothing more than a game in some world.

It was a shocking fact, but it didn’t feel particularly exciting for Lee Hyun-joon, who had no connection to Telos’ life, and even for Telos.

Since when did the world care about humans? There was nothing strange about using the lives of tens of millions of humans as entertainment.

It was somewhat surprising that the ones consuming it were humans from other worlds.

Anyway, Telos had no reason to care much about it.

People who enjoy drinking at the expense of others’ misfortunes are ubiquitous in this world.

There was nothing more useless than feeling unpleasant toward humans from other worlds.

More importantly.

[Character created. Please check your current status.]

“…Status window, huh?”

After searching through Lee Hyun-jun’s memories, he was able to quickly figure out what the window in front of him was.

Status window.

A blue window that objectively shows the strength of a character by quantifying it.

This was also evidence of a player.

‘…Not surprising.’

The character Lee Hyun-jun created in the first place was ‘Telos Nehemoth’.

It was natural for him to go from being a boss to becoming a player.

‘Then what happens to the main character who should appear in the original game?’

However, that was the important thing.

What happens to the main character who should appear in the original?

Thinking that I would find out later, I opened my mouth while looking at the blue window in front of me.

“Confirmed.”

[The request has been confirmed. I will now check the player’s status.]

I wondered if it would be okay to say it, but the status window opened, whether it was confirming my intention or reading the keyword.

[Name: Telos Nehemoth]

[Attribute: Curse of Death]

[Status]

[Vitality -53]

[Magic -96]

[Stamina -59]

[Strength -71]

[Agility -91]

[Endurance -64]

[Luck -18]

[Skill]

[Whisperer (Nehemoth)] – MAX. LV

[Magic of Death] – MAX. LV

[Ghost Body] – MAX. LV

[Aura Blade] – 3LV

[Shingeomhapil] – 2LV

[Assassination] – MAX. LV

[Cold Blood] – MAX. LV

[Extra Sense] – MAX. LV

…..

[Currently Wearing Equipment]

[Mortal Blade (Simulation)]

My eyes sank as I looked at the status window that stretched out.

‘It really quantifies everything.’

It was a strange feeling.

Seeing a table that objectively quantified my strength.

‘One thing for sure… Is the boss a boss?’

Looking at myself with an objective table gave me that feeling again.

In the game Elysion Academy, the maximum stats for all characters, including the player, are 99 for each ability.

A being whose stat reaches 99 is called a transcendent in the work, and is treated as the greatest power of humanity.

In the meantime, if you look at your own abilities, it is no exaggeration to say that you have almost reached the level of a transcendent.

However, you should keep in mind that the stat becomes exponentially more difficult to raise as the number goes up, and that even a difference of 1 in a stat that reaches the 90s is enormous.

‘However…’

I immediately turned my gaze to the skill slot.

[Whisperer (Nehemoth)] – MAX. LV

[Description: This is a mark engraved on you and a vice that you must carry for the rest of your life. This power raises your status and draws out your power beyond what you have, and grants you the power of ■■.]

[Passive Effect: It exponentially increases the efficiency of each stat. It allows you to exert more power than the actual stat value. It also increases the level of the skill you have.]

[Active Effect: Spits out false whispers that deceive reality. Those with lower ranks drown in a false reality, and those with higher ranks are also made to wander in a dream.]

This is the description of the skill,

[Whisperer].

It is explained that the efficiency of each stat increases exponentially.

Considering this, it can be said that it possesses power that is not inferior to the Transcendent in terms of stats.

There are other explanations, but…

‘…For now, isn’t that what’s important?’

I ignored that for now and looked at the equipment slot below.

[Equipment]

[Mortal Blade (Imagination)]

Mortal Blade.

It is the same thing that led Lee Hyun-jun to be possessed by Telos Nehemoth.

Telos closed his eyes and concentrated his mind.

Mortal Blade.

It doesn’t usually reveal its form.

The reason it says (image) next to it is because it is unified with Telos’ image.

That’s why, when Telos concentrates his mind to manifest it himself…

Hwaaaaah…!

With a crimson light, the ‘Mortal Blade’ appears in reality.

A dagger with a strangely twisted black blade is revealed.

Telos grabs it.

“…It’s here.”

As he stares at it, a blue spear appears.

[Mortal Blade]

[A blade that embodies death itself. Even an immortal god cannot escape his predestined death.]

Description:

[???]

Attack Power:

[Wear Condition: One Cursed by Death]

[Weapon Unique Skill]

[Curse of Impossible Life: Those who are wounded by this blade will be denied all life. Those wounded by this blade are incapable of natural regeneration and any regeneration, including divine powers. Wounds inflicted by the blade gradually eat away at the target, dealing damage proportional to the target’s maximum health. The damage coefficient varies depending on the size of the wound.]

[Law of Contempt: Death is all It is an absolute concept that exists above the law. Even the universe will eventually face inevitable death. The blade, which is a singularity itself, despises and destroys the laws of physics, including time and space, and the discipline of the world made up of mana.]

[Mortal (滅): Through the ‘death’ contained in the blade, it will definitely annihilate the target to its source. When used, it consumes vitality. The vitality consumed varies depending on the target’s level.]

The same explanation as the spear I saw before I was possessed or reincarnated.

When I saw that, I closed my eyes and summoned the mortal blade.

Whaaaa…

The mortal blade dispersed into dark red particles and disappeared.

Then…

“…Cough.”

I coughed on my own.

I covered my mouth with one hand and coughed, then took my hand away…

The sight of dark red blood soaking my palm was vivid in my eyes.

I looked at it with sunken eyes for a moment.

“…First of all, was the summoning itself a success?”

Leaving everything else aside, the summoning was a success.

I considered that the summoning wouldn’t work due to the effects of possession or previous life, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

I checked everything that needed to be checked.

The effects of possession were changes in memory and emotions…

and the status window.

So now…

“…What should I do?”

I realized my future due to possession or previous life.

Probably, no matter what I do, I have a high chance of dying without achieving my ‘purpose’.

So, I couldn’t help but worry about what I should do going forward.

Like that, I continued my thoughts with sunken eyes.

Until the maid in the house knocked on my door.