Chapter 68

Chapter 68.

There was a place I had to visit first.

Happiness House. Or Happiness Villa.

This building, which had ended up with two names after collapsing in the aftermath of a Gate and being rebuilt, was my home and my hideout.

It was small, but it was precious to me.

Just as I was about to move, I stopped.

It was because of the voices coming from outside.

“Brother, your head still looks terrifying.”

“Your face looks brighter. It pisses me off.”

“Hehe, is it that obvious? Look at this. The Apostle gave it to me this time.”

“I am so jealous. I should have become a tanker too.”

“Hehehe. This is the first time since I Awakened that I have thought being a tanker was a good thing. How many points would I get if I secretly sold this on the Market?”

“…Are you going to sell it?”

“Are you insane? I just said it for fun. This is my spare life. I am never selling it. It was set up perfectly for my ability, so even if I sold it and bought something else, it would feel wrong. It is basically impossible to get an artifact that fits me this well.”

“True. Everyone has been saying that too. They keep asking how he managed to get artifacts that match their traits so perfectly.”

“Hehe, that is why the Apostle is amazing. Praise the Apostle! Brother, should I make a fan club or something?”

‘…It has been a while since the villa was this lively.’

After the mobilization order was lifted, the villa finally regained some life for the first time in a while.

In the corner of my room, while carefully making sure no sound leaked out, I had synchronization turned on and was running mana detection at full power.

I had even mobilized Whitey’s detection.

And after I waited for only a short while, the person I had been waiting for returned.

I aimed for the timing when no one was in the hallway, and the brief instant when the CCTV camera was looking elsewhere, then hurriedly dashed out of my house.

Knock, knock.

Then I carefully knocked on the door next to mine.

Bang!

Perhaps because someone had just gone inside, the door opened immediately.

“Who….”

“It is me.”

“!”

An extremely ordinary-looking man looked at me and went deathly pale.

His face was similar to the one I had once seen in the mirror.

That was because I had referred to this man’s face when making my disguise face.

It would not have been strange if he immediately looked at me as if I were a lunatic, grew wary, and slammed the door shut.

However.

“Shit!”

Even as he cursed harshly, he instead urgently grabbed my arm and yanked me into the room.

Bang!

The door closed violently.

The man pressed his ear to the door and carefully checked for any presence in the hallway.

“Hey, you crazy bastard…!”

“What?”

“I told you never to wander around outside.”

“I do not obey orders from someone weaker than me.”

“There! There you go again!”

Thwack.

A light punch tapped my arm.

It had the power of a cotton bat.

“Oh, as expected of Incheon Honey Fist. Your fist is still sweet. My teeth are going to rot.”

I said it playfully, but I knew.

He had hit me while reducing his strength to the absolute minimum because he was afraid that a superhuman strengthened by magic power might break the bones of an Awakening-Incapable Person.

Heh.

Watching that made me feel, at last, as though I had returned to my everyday life. I laughed without realizing it.

Kim Cheol-su, the most ordinary name in the world.

He was my next-door neighbor…

And my only “brother.”

“You are laughing? You bastard, I am worried about you.”

“Your brother is fine.”

“Do you not remember how you said that last time and then got mistaken for a doppelganger? Do you know how hard I had to work to explain that it was a misunderstanding…?”

“Shut up.”

Thwack!

“Ah! That hurts!”

“I hit you to make it hurt this time, you brat.”

Cheol-su let out a relieved sigh, sat down on the bed, and looked me up and down.

“Nothing happened while I was gone, right?”

“Something did happen. A lot….”

“Pfft, bullshit. What kind of ‘something’ could happen to you? Even without hearing it, I know it is about a game. Did you get some good loot?”

“….”

I simply nodded.

Cheol-su shrugged with an expression that said, “I knew it,” then tapped his waist and shoulders before flopping down onto the bed.

“Ugh, I am dying.”

“Was it hard?”

“No, not really. This time, that… person called the ‘Apostle’ planned the operation cleanly. He also handed out artifacts so the tankers would not die, so it was manageable.”

“Really?”

“Wow, but it was damn scary. Two enormous caterpillar-like things came out and started screaming…!”

With his face flushed red, Cheol-su began telling me about the Rezonar subjugation battle, using his whole body as he spoke.

I quietly listened to his story.

Cheol-su talked for a long time about how insane Han Seol-ah’s new magic had been, how desperately that kid named “Ia-something” had fought, and what the great magic the “Apostle” unleashed at the end had been like.

As I looked at Cheol-su, who looked like talking clay, I thought about him.

A brother from the same orphanage, someone I had been close to even before the Tower appeared.

A benefactor who had taken care of me even when I became an Awakening-Incapable Person and my life hit rock bottom.

“Something amazing happened.”

“Yeah. Whew. If even one thing had gone wrong, we would all have died.”

B-rank Healer, Kim Cheol-su.

“Then what kind of person is that Apostle?”

“I do not know either.”

“Was he handsome?”

“I do not know.”

“Was he damn cool?”

“…Yeah. He was damn cool. That black stuff was like… this and that. Then that huge caterpillar turned into an undead and just… damn, wow. It was insane. I cannot even explain it.”

Hehe. I laughed.

“Was he that cool?”

“You will understand if you see him. But he was a little… like a psychopath. I am a healer, you know? I use divine power, right? That is why I can tell. That black stuff is a truly dangerous power. There is no way someone who uses that kind of power is normal.”

“Black stuff?”

“Yeah. It rises from the Apostle’s body like fog….”

I slightly stirred the power of the Death Lord.

I held up my hand and released a little dark mana.

“Like this?”

“Yeah, that is it.”

Cheol-su felt the ominous energy pouring from my fingertips and reflexively shuddered.

“Seeing it up close makes it even more….”

“What is it like?”

“Huh…?”

Cheol-su, who had been answering naturally, fixed his gaze on my fingertips.

Then his head turned with a mechanical creak, like a broken robot.

“What the hell?”

“Ah… do you not know? This is dark mana.”

Cheol-su, frozen in shock, stiffened completely.

“What… happened to you?”

“You do not need to know.”

“Do not give me that bullshit! You bastard! Did you Awaken?”

Worry seeped out of his wide eyes.

Of course. Had he not just described dark mana as the “power of a psychopath”?

Since his brother was using that kind of thing, it made sense that he would be worried.

It was a very Cheol-su kind of worry.

“Yes.”

“Why do you have that kind of power…? Is it because you spent all day in the corner of your room thinking gloomy thoughts?”

“You bastard. How can you say that?”

“Are you really okay?”

“Yes. I can turn this on and off.”

I obediently turned off the dark mana.

“I can do this too.”

When I tapped my pocket, Ratty flipped through the air, leaped out, and landed stylishly in front of Cheol-su.

[I greet my liege’s friend.]

“…!!!”

Cheol-su almost screamed reflexively, then clapped a hand over his mouth.

That was because, during the reconstruction process, a lot of materials had been skimmed from Happiness Villa, making its soundproofing terrible.

If he shouted like this, he would obviously draw aggro from the entire neighborhood.

For reference, skimming materials during construction was not strange.

It was the new normal.

Everyone did it.

I leisurely waved my hand.

“You can scream. I already put up a soundproofing barrier.”

So I had already taken measures.

“Ugh, that startled me. What is this?”

“My summon.”

“Are you a necromancer?”

“No. I am the Apostle.”

“…?”

Cheol-su froze for a moment after facing a tremendous truth.

Sometimes, the truth could make people look like fools.

“The Apostle? Is there a job like that…?”

“Cheol-su. You understood.”

“Huh… huhuhu.”

Cheol-su rubbed his face dry and let out a heavy sigh.

“What the hell happened to you?”

***

The Ha Seong-un that Cheol-su remembered was a “four-dimensional lunatic.”

When they were still at the orphanage, he was the only boy who kept an expressionless face among children who cried, whined, grew angry, and threw tantrums.

After Cheol-su asked him, “Are you a psychopath?” and received the answer, “Do not talk to me, you bastard,” the two of them got into a fistfight.

After that, Cheol-su and Seong-un became friends.

Cheol-su always thought the same thing.

He was a guy whose thoughts were impossible to understand.

A guy handsome enough to pass as an aspiring actor would spout incomprehensible words whenever he opened his mouth.

There was a sports day once.

Other children ate lunchboxes packed by their parents, while the two of them from the orphanage sat on a bench and tore into plain bread.

As Cheol-su watched the sports field, he spoke bitterly.

“Kids with parents must have it nice. They even get sweet fried chicken….”

Seong-un looked at the depressed Cheol-su and suddenly said,

“Look in the mirror.”

“You bastard, seriously… Are you telling me to look at my ugly face and know my place?”

As Cheol-su clenched his fist, Seong-un shoved his own bread into Cheol-su’s mouth and said,

“Appearance is hereditary. Look at your face. Even if your parents had been here, you do not have the kind of face that would make you the protagonist of sports day. So do not blame the absence of your parents. Just think of your genes as unfortunate. And when you are depressed, chewing carbohydrates is scientifically helpful, so finish eating my bread.”

Cheol-su could not tell whether it was an insult or consolation, but strangely enough, his mood improved a little.

In any case, he was an odd guy.

Time passed that way.

A friend became a brother.

One day, the Tower appeared.

Humanity Awakened.

And Ha Seong-un, who had gone missing for a while, returned as an Awakening-Incapable Person.

Cheol-su willingly helped his brother, who had nowhere to go.

He found a place to live and set aside one side of the room for his brother.

Perhaps because of the shock of failing to Awaken, Ha Seong-un had become sharp-edged.

It felt like he carried a blue, razorlike edge.

…Or perhaps like someone who had killed countless people.

The crazy bastard had become even crazier.

The guy who had already seemed like a psychopath had intensified even further, becoming something more “chilling” than that.

But Cheol-su did not care.

Because Ha Seong-un had always been strange.

B-rank Hunter Kim Cheol-su was a busy man, so he often left the villa.

Each time, for the sake of his brother who could not leave the corner of the room, he turned the TV volume to maximum and saved up as many rationed calorie sticks as he could to share with him.

He had already been doing that for ten years.

The strange Ha Seong-un had become even stranger….

As Cheol-su listened to the story of “Apostle Ha Seong-un,” which his brain refused to understand, he gave up thinking.

***

‘This bastard Cheol-su is spacing out again.’

Cheol-su was not smart.

Perhaps his brain worked slowly.

There had been more than one or two times when I had felt frustrated because the speed of his thoughts did not match mine.

‘But he is a good kid.’

The fact that he nodded even when he did not understand a single thing proved as much.

“My slightly lacking but kind Cheol-su.”

“…So what? Why are you telling me this?”

“Something happy happened, so I wanted to tell my brother first.”

“Do not talk nonsense. If you are explaining things to me in this much detail, it means you have something to ask of me.”

This was why I hated perceptive bastards.

“Caught you, did I? You were always like that.”

“Do a job with me, Cheol-su.”

“What is it?”

I took out the Possession Ticket.

Starting now, I would use the Possession Ticket on B-rank Hunter Kim Cheol-su.

***

After I saw Cheol-su vanish in a golden light before my eyes, I hurriedly returned to my room.

[…]

Inside the monitor.

I could see Cheol-su, who had given up trying to understand and was now staring blankly.

[Ha Seong-un? Are you listening?]

I moved Nebula in front of Cheol-su.

[Ugh, you really look scary as hell.]

As if telling me not to come any closer, Cheol-su stretched out his hand in a “Stop!” gesture and backed away.

[Hoo, ha. Hoo, ha.]

Cheol-su calmed his startled heart by taking deep breaths.

As I watched him, I opened the Codex.

[Codex]

[Kim Cheol-su]

[Awakening Ability: Recovery (B)]

[Current Ability: B]

[Potential Ability: B]

From his Awakening Ability to his Potential Ability, everything was B.

As expected of Kim Cheol-su.

He truly was a man who symbolized average itself.

[Stats]

[Strength] C

[Durability] B

[Agility] C

[Magic Power] B

[Luck] C

“You bastard….”

Look at the state of these stats.

Considering Han Seol-ah’s main stats ranged from A to EX, this was simply laughable.

[Traits]

[Unique Trait: The Most Ordinary Existence] (B)

└[B-rank] (-)

“Look at the state of this Unique Trait.”

Truly… Kim Cheol-su was a legend.

[General Traits]

[Business Acumen] (B)

[Landlord] (B)

[Optimistic] (B)

It would not be an exaggeration to call him a true B-rank Hunter.

But this man.

This man was “Ha Seong-un’s” only brother.

That alone gave him EX-rank value.

“Your life has opened up.”

I opened Warehouse No. 99.

There were a total of five Genesis-grade items in Lost Honor.

The fifth, which I had given to Iaun: Primordial Essence.

The fourth, which I had given to Han Seol-ah: Eternal Winter.

The third, which was the developer’s—no, the Dimensional Merchant’s top pick: Nameless.

The first, which I had made for Nebula to wear: Abyssal Shell.

And then there was the second.

—If the day ever comes when Cheol-su plays this game, I will give it to him.

Back when I had not known Lost Honor was a game so closely connected to reality…

I had created the second Genesis-grade item with that thought in mind.

It was a clerical vestment designed to suit Cheol-su, the B-rank Healer.

It was the “Vestment of Immortality.”

Its effect was simple.

[Genesis Trait: Immortal Sun]

…Immortality.