The 31st Piece Overturns the Game Board

Why was the highschooler trailing him?

Seol realized something when he noticed that the highschooler’s voice was trembling. Still, he didn’t say anything.

Seol just patiently waited for the highschooler to speak.

And because they were the only two people in the quiet alley, the conversation flowed easily.

“Because… I need help.”

“I knew it.”

The only kind of person who would stay up late into the night to observe the rankings was someone who was desperate.

And a desperate person always wanted help.

“Why me?”

“What’s your name?”

“Han Yeo-myeong. You can speak casually to me if you want.”

“I don’t think we’re that close yet. Why don’t we first go to an appropriate place to talk?”

Seol led Yeo-myeong to a quiet inn that had a bar.

After Seol secured his lodging, he sat down on the first floor and asked Yeo-myeong to sit in front of him.

There was something different about Yeo-myeong from the other people he met.

‘His hand…’

His right hand was completely black like it had rotted.

Slide.

Yeo-myeong must’ve noticed Seol’s glances. He covered his hand with his sleeve.

“It’s strange, huh?”

“Why is your hand like that?”

“It’s because it’s possessed by a ghost. I got cursed.”

“A curse?”

Situations like this often happened in The World of Eternity.

This could happen if you touched an ‘Abomination’ quality item or a cursed item or if you were attacked by an evil spirit with a grudge.

However, Yeo-myeong’s hand felt different from a normal curse.

At first, Seol thought his hand had rotted but a closer look revealed that it was hard and smooth.

‘I don’t think it’s a curse…’

Seol became more curious about Yeo-myeong’s circumstances after that.

Yeo-myeong then started telling his story.

“I have a sister.”

“A younger sister?”

“Yeah, a younger sister and… an older sister. Well, I guess it’s ‘had’ now?”

“What do you mean?”

“My older sister died during the 2nd Adventure.”

Yeo-myeong’s story went something like this:

Surprisingly, the three of them were able to meet during ‘The 5 Good Brothers’ Adventure and promised to return back alive together.

Unfortunately for them, ‘The 5 Good Brothers’ Adventure was a difficult Adventure and Yeo-myeong’s oldest sister was on the verge of falling off a cliff during their battle with a troll.

Grab!

But luckily, Yeo-myeong was able to grab his older sister’s, Sae-byeok’s, hand before she fell off.

And his younger sister, Noeul, was watching as well.

T/N: Sae-byeok’s name means ‘daybreak’, Yeo-myeong’s name means ‘dawn/early morning’, and Noeul’s name means ‘sunset’.

- Oppa, don’t let go no matter what! Unni, hold on a little longer!

- No… You’ll also fall at this rate, Yeo-myeong.

“There were too many trolls. Our older sister tried her best, but…”

His hands were sweaty.

He couldn’t hold onto his older sister’s weight with just one hand.

Slide…

Slide…

Yeo-myeong’s body was slowly creeping toward the edge of the cliff.

- Krgh…

- No! Oppa!

Because the other party members were fighting trolls, no one could help.

Yeo-myeong’s body was shaking as he recalled that moment.

“Her voice… the way she looked at me… her last words… I remember everything from back then.”

- …Yeo-myeong, let me go.

- Shut up, Sae-byeok!

- Yeo-myeong, I love you very, very much. …Take care of Noeul for me.

- Fuck! God damn it! Please, don’t let go!

- …I’m going to let go now.

Slide…

That spine-chilling sensation of a hand escaping another hand…

Futility and emptiness…

And her eyes… her eyes were worried about me as she fell…

“She comes up in my dreams every night. I think I’m going to go insane because of it… She comes to me every night.”

“What does she say?”

“To save her… to please save her.”

“And your hand started turning like that since then?”

“Yeah, I got a strange message.”

[An Unexpected Accident! You have earned Characteristic: A Haunted Hand.]

“An Unexpected Accident, huh… I see.”

“Huh?”

“It’s nothing.”

There were various systems in The World of Eternity.

There were systems that gave positive effects but also systems that gave negative effects.

Adventurers normally got these as a result of getting mentally damaged from seeing horrific sights during their adventures.

‘’A Haunted Hand’, huh… He got one that’s hard to get.’

The only ways to cure it were to appease the ghost’s grudge or to receive a purification ritual from a high-ranked priest.

That hand belonged to the ghost now.

Still, there are pros and cons to every situation.

If he was able to take his hand back from the ghost, the haunted hand would become an incredible power for Yeo-myeong.

At least that’s the information that Seol knew.

“Are you unable to move your hand?”

“Yes. I’m right-handed but now I have to eat with my left hand.”

“That must be uncomfortable. Still, what is your request? If you’re asking for a way to return that hand to its original state…”

“N-No, that’s not it. This is because of my regret and guilt so there’s no way to cure it. I wanted help with my younger sister.”

“Your younger sister? What happened to her?”

“She entered a guild. After that incident, we naturally grew apart.”

Seol could guess what happened.

The younger sister poured her anger into her older brother for letting go of her older sister. That was the method she chose to cope with what happened.

“She thinks that I intentionally let her go… To be honest, I don’t know anymore. Maybe I did let he–”

“Is your sister joining a guild such a dangerous thing?”

“Well… Have you heard about the Justice Guild?”

“I haven’t. I’m not interested in that kind of stuff.”

“It was a guild created early that claimed to have the person ranked 1st on the Adventurer Points Leaderboard with them… they pulled in a lot of people because of that.”

“…”

Seol could somewhat remember seeing something like that in the city before. He didn’t have that much interest in it back then though.

“They’re different from what they claim to be. They’re liars.”

“Is that it?”

“No! That’s not all. Apparently, the guild executives form the parties to their liking so anyone who disagrees with them are used as meat shields.”

“And?”

“There was someone who had something bad happen to them after they left on their own, and…! There’s talks about them allying with a guild surrounded by bad rumors…”

“So they’re all rumors.”

“Th-they aren’t just rumors!”

“Then what?”

“My younger sister… she contacted me.”

“…”

“She asked me to save her… The things that I just told you about were things that she found out herself. Noeul said that she’s in danger… she asked me to save her!”

Seol grimaced.

“Even if that’s true, that still isn’t a reason why I should help you.”

“Wh-why? Why…”

“Because I’m not some hero of justice.”

“…”

“Everyone has their own circumstances, Yeo-myeong. I don’t have the time to take care of things that aren’t a part of my goals.”

Seol wasn’t wrong.

The path to Ascension was a difficult one.

He had to clear near-impossible Adventures to get stronger and become even stronger than that.

Both his body and mind had to be strong.

Seol was overcoming adversity for the sake of becoming stronger for Ascension. It wasn’t so he could play the hero.

Not to mention the fact that once he helped someone, other people would come to him for help as well.

And there was no guarantee that everyone who came to him for help would be good people.

Seol could clearly see that he would fail Ascension if he took that path.

But because he couldn’t tell Yeo-myeong the specifics, Seol told him his final answer instead.

“Why?! Why?! Why won’t you when you’re that strong… I heard that Adventurer Points don’t show the difference in strength properly! You have double the Rank 2’s points, then that means… you’re ten times… no, tens of times stronger than him…” retorted Yeo-myeong.

“I didn’t become strong to save people who do nothing while they wait to be saved by others. Save yourself, Yeo-myeong. You have to be the one to save your sister, not me. I can’t save everyone around me.”

“What…”

“Ah, and your hand.”

“My hand?”

“That black hand might not be a curse. If you want to save your younger sister, you have to overcome your guilt first. Anyway, that’s all that I wanted to say.”

Seol stood up and left.

Yeo-myeong was still seated. He was tormented.

Seol watched him for a second before going up to his room.

[‘Cold-Blooded’ has donated 200 Madness!]

[Snowman is cold-blooded! Ah, I guess snowmen are supposed to be cold though?]

- Why the fuck should he help him? He should take care of that on his own.

- You’re an only child, aren’t you?

- I feel this way because I have siblings! She just left after hitting me for drinking her banana milk >:(

- You’re in the wrong though LOL Banana milk is king.

- Honestly I would’ve helped him.

* * *

Yesterday’s incident was still on Seol’s mind.

Still, the words he said to Yeo-myeong were also for himself as well.

‘I can’t get myself involved with everything.’

And this was still the beginning of his new life in Pandea. Those who weren’t able to adjust to the new rules were bound to die.

‘He won’t be able to survive with just me helping him.’

There was always danger in this world.

Seol couldn’t help him whenever he needed help. The path Seol was going to take was decided and his time was limited.

‘Yeo-myeong has a ghost’s hand though. It won’t be hard for him to recover his sister once he solves the mystery behind it.’

Once he was able to solve the secrets behind the ghost’s hand, he would have a weapon incomparable to others.

It was as powerful as it was hard to acquire.

‘That hand would even be helpful to me in the future…’

There were some Adventures that required special characteristics.

And those Adventures gave out much better rewards than normal rewards.

The more Seol organized his thoughts the closer he leaned to protecting Yeo-myeong.

It would be best if he was able to take care of the situation on his own but if Yeo-myeong needed a bit of help, helping him wasn’t too overstraining.

‘Yeah, just a little bit of help. As long as he’s able to change on his own without falling to his sense of helplessness.’

Seol decided to watch over him for now without helping him right away.

That was a part of the reason he was now heading to an information guild hidden in Kongory.

Transferees possibly didn’t even know about the existence of information guilds. It was hidden in a secret room of an old bar after all.

“There’s a lot of information on the Justice Guild. If you want specific informati–”

“The bad rumors.”

“You would need to pay 150 gold coins.”

“Here.”

Clang.

The information that Seol received was exactly what Yeo-myeong told him.

In fact, Yeo-myeong’s version was practically the shortened version. The heinous things that the Justice Guild did were much more severe than Seol initially thought.

And as he was reading the information, Seol found a familiar name.

“Predator Guild?”

- and…! There’s talks about them allying with a guild surrounded by bad rumors…

Seol never would’ve imagined that the guild with bad rumors about them was the Predator Guild.

Seol tapped on his lips as he read the information.

“Can I also get information on the Predator Guild?”

“The bad rumors again?”

“Yes.”

“100 gold coins please.”

Seol was handed information about the Predator Guild.

“Hm… this is really bad.”

It talked about the Predator Guild’s wrongdoings in detail.

Burn…

“Why isn’t anyone doing anything about it?” asked Seol while burning the information.

“10 gold coins please.”

Clang.

“We don’t know. The only time officers have interfered so far were incidents where transferees killed ordinary citizens.”

“So they know that it’s happening but aren’t doing anything about it.”

“They probably believe that transferees should have their own rules. That was my personal opinion though so I won’t be taking a fee for that.”

“Their own rules, huh… I understand.”

Right before Seol was about to leave, he turned around and made a request to the informant.

“Ah, and I wanted to hire someone to follow someone for about a week.”

“Is the target one person?”

“Yes.”

“How do they compare to you in terms of strength?”

“He’s much weaker than me.”

Seol then told the informant about Yeo-myeong.

“It will be 20 gold coins. We will have someone following him from now on, even when he is asleep.”

Clang.

Seol gave an additional 20 gold coins as payment before leaving.

The place Seol headed to next was the ‘Prophets of the Dark’. He wanted to use the skill points that he newly acquired.

“You’re back again.”

The person in charge recognized Seol and spoke to him first.

[[Black Magic is researched here. The person who seems to be in charge of this facility has asked you why you’re here. How do you respond?]

1. [Required: Skill Points] I wish to learn a new skill.

2. [Required: Skill Points] I wish to enhance a basic skill.

3. I wish to test my skills.

4. Is there a task you can entrust to me?

5. [Required: Shadow Summoner, Wall of Awakening] I heard that there was a Shadow Summoner here.

……]

Seol was about to explain that he was here to do the same thing as before, enhance skills, but paused because the options had changed.

‘I can choose option 5 now?’

The option had been grayed out last time but it was completely visible now.

‘Maybe… some information was unlocked?’

Seol selected option 5 without hesitation.

“I heard that there was a Shadow Summoner here.”

“Oh no… it seems you heard too late. You are probably talking about Chao, right?”

“Chao? Yes, probably.”

“She hasn’t contacted us since she left for Nobira. I am a bit worried though since Nobira is quite a dangerous place. It’s already been a month since she left. Chao is strong enough that I don’t need to worry if she’ll get hurt by the ruffians there but you never know how things go in the world.”

Seol thought to himself while rubbing his chin.

This option was related to an awakening event that was supposed to happen about 6 Adventures in the future.

As such, there was no reason to rush it. Still, delaying this could prevent Seol from clearing the awakening event in time.

Seol saw new options.

[[Chao, a Shadow Summoner who could teach you, has gone missing after leaving for Nobira. The person in charge here seems to be worried about her. How do you respond?]

1. That’s a shame.

2. That is none of my business at all. Farewell.

3. Are there no other Shadow Summoners?

4. [Required: Awakened in a Certain Field] I might be able to take Chao’s role.

5. May I look into Chao for you?]

“May I look into Chao for you?”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Then, please!”

[Hidden Adventure 'Missing Summoner' is now active.]