Chapter 26: Illusion

I found the content thanks to the Main incident that happened over a month ago.

Thanks to that, not only did the big Andromalius subjugation event happen, but the video itself was quite shocking.

The background of that little kid who was the protagonist of that video had already been pretty thoroughly investigated.

You shouldn't underestimate users' dedication.

There were many survivors from the incident at the time, and information could be obtained from the knights as well.

And all that accumulated information was organized on the Tree Wiki.

As expected of Tree Wiki. Like the Akashic Records containing all records of the universe, even information about a single NPC was stored there.

Of course, most of the information is said to be distorted and unreliable.

But at least when it came to the game, it was a place that provided reliable information.

And so Im Ha-neul drifted through the sea of information with just one keyword: 'tattoo'.

It was quite an interesting experience when 'Demon's Blood' popped up as a related search term when it seemed completely unrelated.

"?"

Ha-neul tilted her head and immediately went to that related search term, and was able to reach the records of the Main incident.

Ha-neul moved straight to the information about Main among the various categories.

The Main who caused the incident at that time was a 14-year-old boy.

He was a local kid in that village, and although the Demon's Blood manifested when he was 10, it was hidden due to the remote nature of the village.

His parents loved their child and worked hard to keep it hidden.

Thanks to that, even the villagers didn't know until then that the little boy had Demon's Blood. If only time had just passed like that, but sadly tragedy struck the year he turned 14.

Unable to endure the Demon's Blood, he finally lost his sanity. The incident grew from there, and eventually spread to the whole world.

What Ha-neul was curious about here was this:

First, she understood that Demon's Blood was extremely dangerous. After all, a mere kid nearly destroyed an entire village and even summoned a demon.

She could roughly understand how much NPCs antagonized the Manifestors, given that countries would put out recruitment notices just to catch one demon.

But how do you know when Demon's Blood has manifested?

Fortunately, this method was surprisingly simple. Without a single exception, Demon's Blood Manifestors all have demon-related tattoos appear on their bodies.

While the shape of the tattoo and where it appears varies, what's certain is that it appears.

In fact, when they examined the corpse of that kid who became Main, they found one tattoo engraved. An ominous demon's claw.

"No way..."

Her thoughts naturally connected.

The horn-shaped tattoo engraved on Yor's collarbone, and how he tried excessively to hide it.

He was a Demon's Blood Manifestor.

Realizing this, Ha-neul fell into a different kind of shock.

Wanting to know more information, she searched hard about 'Demon's Blood'.

But perhaps because this information was only recently revealed to users, no matter how much she searched, no other information came up.

The only thing she could find out was that Manifestors are extremely harmful.

That's why the people there execute all Demon's Blood Manifestors.

Here, Ha-neul felt a bit of pity. To her, people born with the blood were still just humans.

They just happened to be born with that blood. The world simply couldn't accept them.

"Then that person too...?"

Ha-neul thought.

She was starting to understand why Yor lived in such a dangerous forest.

He is a Demon's Blood Manifestor. And according to the world's logic, he was in danger of being executed.

However, through some method she didn't know, he escaped and managed to survive in this forest until reaching adulthood.

The promiscuous past she had held prejudice about didn't exist at all.

The other person was just fiercely living day by day in the forest. Thinking about that made her feel slightly apologetic.

"......"

Now she had two choices she could make.

Either report to the state like the people there did. Or just ignore it.

"......"

Her thoughts deepened for a moment.

It didn't take long to make the decision.

*

It had already been two days since that woman who fell from the sky disappeared.

During that time, I had made all the preparations I could.

First, I packed everything I could take so I could leave the cave immediately.

Although I lived like a naturalist, I had quite a lot of luggage. After all, I had many items I'd collected over time stored in the warehouse.

When I packed those along with some survival supplies, the luggage was substantial.

Besides that, I attached thin ropes and bells near the trees. It was to hear if someone came to this forest.

Of course, wild animals often touched the bells and made me nervous, but that much was bearable.

Other than that, I secretly set fire to the goblin village.

Sorry to those guys, but this way they'll be on high alert.

If people come, they'll cause a commotion to let me know. Goblin cries are quite distinctive after all.

Anyway, with this I'd made all the preparations I could.

All that was left was to wait in the cave.

My response would differ depending on whether the next visitor was just a guest, or a raiding party with swords and bows.

If it's a raiding party, I need to run to the deep layer without delay.

No matter who they are, they won't be able to bring an army into the deep layer.

The waiting time itself was quite stressful.

I couldn't predict whether what would come for me would be goodwill or swords and spears. I had to stay alert even at night. Of course I couldn't sleep well.

It was quite a nerve-wracking time.

The change came on the morning of the third day.

When I went outside the cave with drowsy eyes, someone was looking for me.

It was that mage woman from 3 days ago. Though I hadn't heard any noise, she must have flown through the sky like last time.

"Ah, finally found you."

Her eyes widened when she discovered me.

I raised my guard first.

Regardless, she just slowly approached.

*

People like plot twists.

Because our genes evolved that way.

Long ago, humanity was surrounded by unknowns and had to activate curiosity to find answers.

So humans evolved to activate nerve endings and secrete dopamine when seeing secrets or plot twists.

In other words, simply put, people are attracted to the unexpected.

Commonly known as 'gap moe'.

Someone you ignored turning out to be an amazing person.

Hearing about the misfortune of someone you thought was only happy.

Or.

"...What is it."

Someone who seemed like they might be promiscuous turning out to be a lonely person with a sad past.

That was why Im Ha-neul came back to the forest.

How much she had wandered the forest since morning just to meet this NPC.

She almost thought she wouldn't find him.

Yor, who discovered Ha-neul, was raising his guard to the maximum.

Sharp like a hedgehog raising its quills.

Ha-neul thought for a moment about what to say.

Unfortunately, not being very sociable, she couldn't think of much good conversation.

After thinking for a while, she decided to just get straight to the point.

"I haven't told anyone else, so don't worry."

Yor standing opposite flinched for a moment.

He seemed disbelieving. Well, he wouldn't believe just words alone.

And honestly speaking, she couldn't pull out definitive proof. As an NPC, he wouldn't be able to see their world.

But she could show through actions to some extent.

Suppressing her embarrassment, she pointed at his right collarbone while speaking.

He was still wearing short sleeves, probably to hide that tattoo.

"Can you show me that for a moment?"

Well, asking to see someone's body right after meeting them - in reality that would get you taken to the police station.

The other party didn't seem to mind that though, so she moved past it.

Of course Yor was suspicious at first. Meeting again and suddenly being asked to show his collarbone again.

It wasn't a normal request.

"Ah, I won't take pictures or anything, so don't worry."

"......"

But at her somewhat knowing request, Yor decided to just show it briefly.

After all, she was someone who had seen it once already. And if she tried to take a screenshot, he could immediately react with 'Player's Eye'.

It didn't matter if she tried. He could escape to the deep layer without hesitation.

As he lowered the front side slightly, she took one step closer to Yor.

Then she started emitting mana with her hand.

"Do you know how many points I spent learning this?"

Gradually, Yor's tattoo started disappearing from sight.

More precisely, rather than disappearing, it was just being hidden from view.

It was the magic Illusion that she had recently learned.

Of course it's difficult to use in combat, and awkward to use in daily life.

But there's nothing better for showing goodwill to the other person.

Ha-neul's words didn't end there.

"I'm Yoo Chae-rin's editor."

Usually these kinds of people prefer practical efficiency over simple words.

They need to know there's benefit for them to let their guard down.

It might seem somewhat cold on the surface, but she thought this would be better for putting him at ease.

"And you're the number one contributor to our YouTube views. I have no intention of killing the goose that lays golden eggs. Got it?"

Yor blankly stared at her for a moment. Ha-neul couldn't quite guess what he was thinking right now.

Whether he believed her, or was still suspicious. It was even questionable whether the other party knew the concept of YouTube.

"So what I mean is..."

Ha-neul sorted through words in her mouth for a while.

But it wasn't easy for someone lacking social skills like her to reorganize her words. Just approaching first like this was already taking great courage for her.

After being flustered for a while, she finally had no choice but to repeat the same words with a sigh.

"Anyway, I haven't told anyone, so don't worry..."

The sunlight is high.

The crisp spring energy gave off a wonderful atmosphere even in this cruel forest.

And so Yor blankly received her illusion magic for a while.

Only her faint heartbeat echoed softly in the quiet forest.