Episode 571. It’s getting blurry (1)
[Curse: Ghost of the Past]
[Collapse : 100%]
[Restriction : Grandfell Claudi Arpheus Romeo]
Flickering Message.
[Enter Curse, ‘Ghosts of the Past’].
Behind me, I see an familiar face and background that appears out of thin air. This is kind of new, but it’s been decades. How do you still have the same face from middle school, you guys.
‘No, that’s not it.’
It’s not that the old faces are still there, but the curse has turned them back into those faces. Everyone’s back to the way they were when they were in middle school.
-Ding dong ding dong.
As if that were the correct answer.
A bell rings in the dimly lit Seongseon Middle School.
It must be the bell that signaled break time.
‘Barbatos.’
A demon that doesn’t look like a demon.
Maybe that’s why I don’t want to deal with him anymore.
Indeed, you do not betray my first impression.
I sifted through my memories for a long time.
‘Was it Hyunmin or someone else who got possessed?’
As I thought about it, it made sense why neither Diend or Tempest had tracked down Barbatos. Barbatos had been suppressed, his powers suppressed, his body given up, and he had lost the weight of the Ten Thrones.
‘If you’re possessing a normal person who isn’t even a player there…….’
At best, you’d only be able to wield the power of an ordinary demon. It’s not hard to find a demon of that caliber in the real world when the [Corruption] status is active.
‘No wonder I couldn’t find one.’
Barbatos, you.
“If you’d just stayed out of the way.”
If he had wanted to, he could have stayed hidden a little longer, but Barbatos did not. The last of his pride, or whatever.
Rather.
[Restricted: Grandfell Claudi Arpheus Romeo]
He taunts me.
It has manifested a curse that only I can enter.
In a place that can only provoke me further.
“I suppose it’s all in your dreams, too.”
I make a rough guess.
‘Years, maybe.’
Didn’t he think I’d hesitate? The fact that I still haven’t forgotten my past and the background of Seongseon Middle School.
I’ll admit it.
‘Maybe, just maybe, I would have wavered.’
If it was me not so long ago.
But I was determined.
In order to keep something, you have to give up something.
I hear a voice in my head saying.
《My past doesn’t matter anymore.》
It does.
Decades ago.
I’m too old to be haunted by the past.
Even if I do face some ghosts of the past in this damned curse.
‘I won’t be swayed.’
So I took a step without hesitation.
Seongseon Middle School.
Barbatos.
Toward the ghosts of the past.
*
Nam Cheolmin said as he moved his fingers in a frantic manner.
“Well, the danger itself doesn’t seem that high. Should I say that the power is weak, not comparable to the curse of Jeju Island where Paimon appeared?”
After checking the exact numbers, he continued speaking.
“It may not be exactly the same as a rift, but considering that the change when the collapse reaches 100% is also extremely minimal……. there’s anything to worry about.”
Not dangerous.
That’s what he meant.
What came back from beyond the loud worry signal was my younger brother’s sigh.
-Phew
Nam Cheolmin laughed bitterly.
“You’re worried, aren’t you, Taemin?”
-Is it obvious, bro?
“You think I, the big brother, don’t know that?”
Why is there a mosaic of such insignificant cursed access restrictions? Well, only Mr. Hoyeol, who entered the curse, knows the reason.
“Anyway, I don’t think you need to worry too much, you’re waiting in front of the curse, you know. The radius of the curse isn’t huge, and the chances of it being a trick of the eye are extremely low, right?”
It was an unremarkable curse, other than the special access restrictions.
So maybe it’s a trick.
Maybe it’s not real.
The Holy War Alliance hadn’t let go of the benefit of the doubt.
I didn’t notice anything new.
-Yes, you’re right.
The strands of tension that had been hanging in the air were lifted.
A message arrived for Nam Cheolmin.
It was from the government.
After checking the documents, he immediately said.
“Oh, and it looks like they just finished the background check.”
-Really?
“Yes, as expected, it was a Seoul citizen.”
Seongsun Middle School.
The figures hovering above it.
As caught on camera by citizens and Netubers.
They were ordinary citizens of South Korea.
Nam Taemin grunted.
-Isn’t it fucking ridiculous, bro? Why do demon bastards take normal people hostage every chance they get? Don’t they realize that they’re just like the other mobs? Why don’t they just get their asses kicked and start ……!
But Nam Cheolmin couldn’t argue back.
The citizens who had been caught up in Barbatos’ scheme.
There was only one thing they had in common.
“Wait a minute, they’re the 21st graduate of Seongseon Middle School……? ”
All of the people caught in the curse were graduates of Sungseon Middle School.
It could be assumed that they were caught in the curse during the meeting.
Nam Cheolmin judged like an analyst.
‘Coincidence? What are the odds of that?’
What are the odds that a group of graduates from Seongseon Middle School would be caught in a curse by coincidence? Especially at this late hour, around 10pm. None of the shops around were open for business.
So there was only one answer.
‘What if it’s not a coincidence?’
The curse was manifested at Seongsun Middle School.
The fact that there were alumni of the school in the area.
What if it was all part of Barbatos’ plan?
‘It’s not just a possibility.’
There’s more.
“If that’s the purpose, then …….”
No way.
Nam Cheolmin snaps his fingers quickly to confirm the last remaining possibility. As the head analyst of the Great Alliance, it shouldn’t be too difficult for him to gather the data he needs at this moment.
Then, words appeared on the tablet’s LCD screen.
The list of the 21st graduates of Seongseon Middle School.
Click.
He pressed the [Find] button and typed in the name.
Yes, that name.
The name of the Commander-in- Chief who stepped into Seongseon Middle School under the curse.
“……!”
[Lee Hoyeol]
The light from the LCD illuminates the three words.
“Taemin.”
-Yeah?
“What was the exact name of the curse?”
Nam Taemin answers casually.
-A ghost from the past, why?
For a moment, tension washed over Nam Cheolmin’s face.
It was inevitable.
There was only one player who could enter the curse that no one else could.
It was the Commander in Chief. Until just now, he hadn’t been the least bit worried. Evidence was slowly emerging that the curse was a cunning, elaborate plan.
No matter how you look at it
“Maybe this curse is a trap for the Commander in Chief.”
-What do you mean by that all of a sudden, bro?!
Nam Taemin asked.
Nam Cheolmin couldn’t say anything.
‘There are ten of them ……. ‘
The idea of giving up one’s power, showing one’s ugliness, and executing a plan was too foreign to be called a plan. I shouldn’t have thought of that.
‘What if he was targeting someone important to Mr. Hoyeol?’
Wasn’t there someone more important to him than his middle school classmates, his family? Nam Cheolmin continued to think from the perspective of the station manager.
‘If it’s not just hostages.’
What is the use of these people who just appeared out of thin air?
Luckily, Nam’s worries didn’t last long.
Changes began to appear on the screen.
Puzzlement
At first, he thought it was just noise on his screen, but it wasn’t. The shapes were moving around in the air like noise. And the movements were eerily familiar.
“Like flesh tearing ……! ”
Nam Taemin reported the situation.
-Brother, it looks like the corruption has begun?!
Status Abnormality, Corruption.
An abnormality that transforms the target into a demonic race, unlike possession.
It was the Great Alliance, that confirmed the danger through Lox.
Since his corruption and rampage, Lox has never made a public appearance. He could not show his demon wings, the symbol of his corruption, in public.
Lox once said.
-“I don’t really care what people think of me, I just don’t want any negative emotions to come from it.”
He said he didn’t want the public to see his corruption, because he was once a hero to his country and a symbol of the player, and the Commander in Chief told him.
“It’s not your fault, Lox.”
As always.
“It’s the fault of those who don’t recognize your pride.”
Class 2.
Nam Cheolmin finally shook his head.
There, Barbatos.
He could see through the man’s impure intentions.
“He’s trying to deceive and sway the Commander-in-Chief.”
It was clear that he intended to corrupt, manipulate, and harm the Commander’s friends.
Considering the way the commander-in-chief treated Lox.
“He will be merciful as always.”
He’s trying to appeal to the Commander’s emotions in the process.
Nam Cheolmin hadn’t forgotten to be prepared.
“Taemin, let’s be prepared for anything.”
There would probably be no bloodshed. Still, it was necessary to be sure. They had to keep a close eye on Seongseon Middle School, where the curse was manifesting.
I thought to myself.
Kuguguggung……!
I felt a tremendous vibration that was a beat behind the sound.
Before I could ask what was going on.
I hear Nam Taemin’s tongue-in-cheek voice.
-Mr. Commander-in-Chief, you seem really angry?
“What does that mean?”
Nothing came up on the screen.
I wondered if the unstable broadcast signal from earlier had been lost.
That wasn’t it either.
-I think he triggered it again.
“He triggered it? You mean ……? ”
-Yes, the same skill he used on Jeju Island.
What it meant was simple.
There was no problem with the signal or equipment.
It meant that the darkness on the screen was the darkness of Hoyeol’s intentions.
*
Nam Taemin looked at Hisagi and said.
“So who told you to break protocol and leave the Magic Tower without completing the proper formalities? If you were proud once, you should have been proud the whole time, right?”
Hisagi nodded grimly.
He didn’t want to agree with Nam Taemin too much.
He was holding his tongue.
‘With this, the variable disappeared.’
He could tell, thanks to his intuition, which had been sharpened by entering the realm of anomaly.
It pales in comparison to Paimon’s curse.
If it weren’t for the special entry restrictions.
They could have handled it on their own.
Therefore, everyone was expecting to lose.
Suddenly, Nam Cheolmin’s voice was heard.
-No.
“What do you mean by ‘no’?”
-Maybe this is Barbatos’ trick, too.
“What? A trick?”
Nam Cheolmin gritted his teeth.
The Commander-in-Chief could go on a rampage in the middle of Seoul!!!
[2 -7]
Barbatos entered Seongseon Middle School.
He found the classroom of 2nd year 7th class.
deuteug.
He opened the door, sat down at his desk, and looked out the window.
The ants had fallen and were beginning to seize.
He looked at Hoyeol, who was spewing killing intent in front of him and muttered.
“Do your best this time.”
Choi Changwoo’s voice.
“Giving a little sympathy is your specialty, isn’t it, Hoyeol?”