Chapter 324: Death Diary (2)

"Huff, huff..."

Ragged breaths spilled out of Seo Jun-Ho's lips, along with black, dead blood. He scanned his surroundings as his eyes flickered like the flame of a candle.

'How...'

How had this happened?

Things had been peaceful. Even the trivial things made them happy, and they had been laughing joyfully.

How? Why?

Seo Jun-Ho's voice quivered. "Skaya. Open your eyes. Deok-Gu secretly told me to take good care of you."

"Gilberto, you have to go see Arthur. He must be waiting for his dad. Why aren't you getting up?"

"Mio... It hasn't even been that long since you came back... Are you leaving again?"

"..."

Cha Si-Eun and Kim Woo-Joong weren't breathing as well. And they did not respond to his calls.

As his hands trembled, a sick wave of nausea welled up within him.

This was different from the Cave of Trials. Back then, he had killed his friends with his own hands, but they had merely been illusions.

However, that wasn't the case this time.

"..."

He was scared.

It wasn't simply because death was inching toward him.

His friends had gone through so much, and they finally had their happiness in their grasp, but they died such a futile death. The sight of their corpses terrified him.

- Get it together! Whether you lift your sword or run away, just get up!

Keen Intuition's words woke him up like a splash of cold water.

And once again, it hit him again that this gruesome situation was real. He couldn't bear the sight of it and closed his eyes.

'...We started off well.'

They had killed millions of cockroaches after fighting night and day for several days. They fought nonstop, with no leeway to sleep, eat, or even take a sip of water.

Despite the hysterical battle, they had gotten close to victory. And it was only possible because the seven of them were powerful.

"Impressive. You're still breathing."

This creature was the one who had quashed their futile hopes of winning. It was a cockroach with an impossibly strong exoskeleton covering his muscular body like armor. The effects of Exterminator didn't work on the monsters he led.

"You will be worth experimenting on," he said, lifting Rahmadat. The Player had been reduced to a tattered rag.

"Ugh..."

Seo Jun-Ho slowly opened his eyes and slowly stood up. He glared at the creature as if looks could kill.

"Put down... My friend."

"Hm? You're still breathing?" The monster laughed and looked around. "To be honest, I was surprised. Even though you are my natural enemy, I did not expect a group of merely seven to be able to kill hundreds of thousands of cockroaches. You somehow even managed to cut off all my wings."

"...I told you to put him down."

"If I hadn't discovered you through the hivemind early on, I might have been the one who is dead right now."

Seo Jun-Ho gripped the broken Sword of Ambition and charged. "I said! Put him down!"

Clang!

Even though a sword aura was covering the blade like a blanket, it couldn't pierce through the creature's hard exoskeleton. The monster's antennae gently brushed against Seo Jun-Ho's face.

"So this is what you look like..."

At that, the thumping of Seo Jun-Ho's heart suddenly stopped. The creature had just ripped out his heart.

"Gah!"

"Contractor! Get up! Don't die! That's an order!" The Frost Queen's wails rang in his ears.

"I should once again be grateful that I discovered you early."

He was the leader of the cockroaches, a self-proclaimed revolutionary of evolution, the mad insect Erebo.

"Goodbye, my predator."

Crack!

Seo Jun-Ho watched as a giant foot crushed him, and as his neck was shattered, the pain overtook his body.

And then, everything went black...

Light suddenly filled his vision, making him dizzy. Seo Jun-Ho staggered.

"Ugh..."

"Hm? Are you okay?"

Someone steadied him, and Seo Jun-Ho slapped their hands away on instinct. He registered that it was Wei Chun-Hak, who looked embarrassed.

"I apologize if you don't like being touched. It was by reflex," he said.

"Hey, he just helped you. Why are you so sensitive?"

Skaya was there, too, and she scolded him.

Seo Jun-Ho trembled.

'...What is this?'

He quickly scanned his surroundings. He saw Mio, Rahmadat, Gilberto... Cha Si-Eun and Kim Woo-Joong as well. They all looked perfectly fine, and they were staring in his direction, wondering what was going on.

'No. No...'

Seo Jun-Ho shook his head.

They had all died. Rahmadat's body was even taken away to become raw materials to experiment on, and Seo Jun-Ho himself had died as well. In fact, he could still vividly recall the pain.

'That was all just a dream?'

That couldn't be. Actually, the current scene was much more likely to be a dream.

'...Did that bastard do something?'

Maybe that bastard had collected his body and extracted only his brain.

Seo Jun-Ho couldn't hide his confusion as he slowly backed away.

"Contractor?" Even the Frost Queen looked at him like he was acting strange.

Wei Chun-Hak looked out the window. "Oh, it's starting."

The dawn faded, and the bright sun rose. The cockroaches hastily retreated to the darkness, and the initialization process started again. However, Seo Jun-Ho had already seen it a few times.

"Every day at 6 am, the city neatly initializes itself like that."

"..."

It was exactly the same. He was sure that Wei Chun-Hak had said those exact same words on their first day.

***

"Let's all wash up for now and meet up at the restaurant," Wei Chun-Hak said as he handed out the hotel key cards he had brought from the first floor. The guest rooms had been tidily cleaned up with the initialization, and they smelled nice.

Shwaaa!

"...No problems with the water either," said Seo Jun-Ho. He had said the same thing last time.

He left the shower on and stared at the mirror.

"Did I go crazy?"

His reflection didn't answer. All it displayed was the confusion and fear in his eyes.

"...If this is a dream, they should just wake me up already rather than giving me false hope."

Seo Jun-Ho scratched his head and sorted his thoughts.

'I'm sure I died. There's no doubt about it.'

His heart had been ripped out, and in the end, Erebo stomped on his neck, killing him instantly. Not even Cell Regeneration (A) could ever make him recover from it.

'Then, what is this?'

Had all those vivid experiences been a dream? Had it been some kind of precognitive dream?

Yeah, it was strange that such a large number of cockroaches had attacked them.

"..."

His thoughts were all over the place. In the end, he didn't even take a proper shower before leaving the bathroom.

The Frost Queen was sitting at the suite's business desk, writing something down with fervor.

"...What are you doing?"

"I am writing my diary."

"Oh, like the strawberry, banana..."

Wait, a diary?

Seo Jun-Ho suddenly remembered something and quickly dug through his Inventory.

"..." His face fell when he managed to retrieve a familiar book.

'Why is this here?'

If that had all been a dream, he should not have this diary. But on the other hand, if it weren't a dream, he wouldn't be standing here right now.

'What's going on?'

Just as confusion started to overtake him, Keen Intuition interrupted him with advice.

- Hm? Open it.

"It doesn't matter. There's nothing written inside."

- Just open it first.

Keen Intuition's stubbornness made him open the diary. "There, see? Look, there's nothing in—"

He trailed off. He was sure that the diary was empty with nothing written in it, but now, the first page was filled with cramped text. He started reading it as if were possessed.

[#1]

Wei Chun-Hak gave us a basic rundown and left the city. Him leaving was a big loss for us, but I have good news. The Title I got from killing Janabi, 'Exterminator'...

...

...

I don't understand. How did this bastard Erebo find us?

Death took me away as I cried tears of blood, still without knowing anything.

"..."

Seo Jun-Ho's hand covered his mouth. The diary entry was so shocking that he had to grab the wall to keep himself from collapsing.

'Yes... It definitely happened like this.'

He had collected a thousand marbles. He used them on the broken vending machine and obtained the diary. Not even Archmage Skaya could analyze the mysterious artifact.

In the end, they had gone out to hunt without ever finding out what it was. They hunted all the cockroaches on the ground and at the sewage treatment plant. And then, an army led by Erebo consisting of millions of cockroaches ambushed them.

'Then, that means...'

Impossible...

Seo Jun-Ho's legs gave out, his tailbone hitting the floor.

'That wasn't just a dream.'

They had definitely happened in real life. But for some unknown reason—for some unknown reason—he returned to the past after he died.

'Wait, when I returned...'

It was the time of initialization. His eyebrows furrowed. "The initialization... I see..."

That time was probably a Save Point. Wei Chun-Hak had gone to the next Save Point, but that hadn't been the case for Seo Jun-Ho. That was likely why he returned at the time when he witnessed the initialization process for the first time.

"So, I can cheat... Death."

It wasn't exactly cheating death because he had actually died. He was just starting over from the beginning.

'Either way, this is good.'

Seo Jun-Ho's eyes glinted sharply, and he hunched over the diary to closely read the entry a few more times.

'I'm sure the reason will be in here. The reason why Erebo suddenly came to kill me.'

However, even after reading it a few times, he couldn't find any clues. The diary only talked about the key events.

"Wait..."

He hastily arranged himself into the lotus position. He closed his eyes and dug through his memories. He got the feeling that it was the only place where he could find the answer rather than in the diary. It was difficult to recall everything that had happened in the past few days, but his efforts paid off.

[If I hadn't discovered you through the hivemind early on, I might have been the one who is dead right now.]

[I should once again be grateful that I discovered you early.]

[Goodbye, my predator.]

Seo Jun-Ho slowly opened his eyes. Erebo had called him a predator and said that he had found Seo Jun-Ho through the hivemind.

'What the hell is a hivemind?'

He had no idea...

In the end, Seo Jun-Ho could only leave the room after ruminating for a long time.

***

"What's the matter?" Skaya asked. She looked a bit sour in her pajamas. Of course, she was annoyed, as she had already laid down to sleep, but someone started knocking at her door like a madman.

"I have something important to ask you. Can I come in for a bit?"

"Hey, don't you know that a girl and a guy shouldn't be alone in a room? Wait for me at the restaurant."

This was urgent, but this British girl was concerned about that?

But she was right, so Seo Jun-Ho went to the restaurant and waited.

Shortly afterward, Skaya appeared after changing out of her pajamas.

"What is it?" Skaya asked.

"Just read this diary."

"...You've picked up a pretty weird hobby since I last saw you." What kind of person showed their diary to others? Skaya gave him a sidelong look, seemingly a little disturbed.

"Can't you just hurry up and read it so we can talk?"

"Whatever..."

Skaya grinned when she finished reading the first page closely. "You used to worry that you'll become unemployed after clearing the floors, but I don't think you need to worry anymore. You should write a novel."

"It's not a novel."

"Maybe someone from a mental hospital could write a better one."

"I'm not joking either." Seo Jun-Ho looked more serious than he had ever seemed. "Help me. If we don't do anything, all of us will die in two days."