Chapter 173
To avoid crossing paths with the stalker, Name deactivated the elevator and climbed the stairs to the thirteenth floor.
As expected, the front door was open, so she entered Yoonseul's home.
Name's gaze slowly moved from right to left.
The house was a complete mess.
Because it was a high-end apartment, the fire magic hadn't burned it down, but soot marks were scattered across the furniture.
“Haa... haa... At this rate, I should've taken the elevator.”
Even though her stamina had improved, it was still just as exhausting as ever.
“What are you doing? Why are you still in Yoonseul's house?”
She spoke into the utterly silent space.
No sooner had she finished speaking than a man wearing a coat trudged out of the master bedroom. It was wholly inappropriate attire for early summer.
His shaggy hair and beard, which looked as though he hadn't trimmed it in days, only added to his haggard appearance.
“Who are you...? Rika's little sister?”
The intruder, however, also looked quite bewildered.
The girl's frame was so small that even his attempt at threatening her sounded harmless.
The man stared at Name for quite some time before suddenly widening his eyes, as though he had remembered something.
“Wait, aren't you NoName? How are you...?”
The man had no choice but to doubt his own eyes.
It was the avatar of NoName, who had appeared alongside Kariri several times during her collab streams.
For a moment, the intruder even thought he was connected to virtual reality.
“Then you must know me well.”
An anger-filled voice escaped Name's lips.
“That means you know you'll be beaten half to death by me before the police arrive.”
The girl's expression held no emotion as she uttered those chilling words.
“You'd better pray the police get here quickly.”
The man's brow furrowed for a moment at Name's words.
“The police? What did I do for you to report me?!”
“Isn't it obvious? Look at the hell you've made of this place.”
A brief silence passed.
Even then, Name was racking her brain for a way to subdue the man.
The man appeared to use fire magic. His physique was that of an ordinary adult male, but judging by the power he had displayed, he was by no means low-level.
‘About the third circle. No, let's assume the worst and say he can use up to the fourth circle.’
Name's body was, after all, no more than that of a seven- or eight-year-old child.
If she relied on her experience in the game, she was liable to suffer a nasty surprise.
Especially since she had just used Arabesque Knot through a mass cast, she needed to conserve her mana even more carefully.
To prepare for a prolonged fight, she devised a spell that would consume as little mana as possible.
[Transmutation: Muscimol-Ibotenic Acid Synthesis]
[3rd Circle Cast: Hallucination]
“You... Chena sent you to kill me too! You think I'm going to let you finish casting?!”
The man sucked in a sharp breath. He had suspected as much, but the girl really could use magic.
He decided to temporarily set aside his complicated thoughts. His instincts told him this was an unmistakable signal that combat had begun.
The man charged at Name, shouting as he tried to interrupt the spell.
He transferred the sparks crackling at his feet onto his fist, then swung mercilessly at the spot where she stood.
Whoosh—
His fist cut through empty air.
Just as the fist was about to connect, the figure blurred, and a hazy cloud of smoke appeared where Name had been standing.
“Do you really think you'll hit me swinging that slowly?”
A mocking voice came from behind the man.
The little girl was gone. This time, an exotic-looking woman sat on the master-bedroom bed with her legs crossed.
“Wh... who...?”
“Strange. You'd think this form would look more familiar.”
Long, slender limbs, fine golden hair falling to her waist, and blazing amber eyes—the man knew this person well too.
Name's World of Arseria character.
“Ha! So the earlier one was the hallucination, and this is your true form? Yeah, this one feels more real.”
The man gave a small nod. Right. There was no way a little girl could use magic like that.
That appearance must have been intended to make him lower his guard from the very beginning.
This time, the man set both fists ablaze, raising the flames to an even higher temperature.
Blue flames seared through the air in every direction, charring the master-bedroom wallpaper black.
“Who knows which one is the real me? This form is more comfortable normally, but I've gotten pretty used to the little-girl one lately too.”
“Enough with the word games...!”
The man charged at Name again.
Their eye levels matched, making it easier for him to aim at her face and throw his punch.
Even as he moved with the certainty that he would crush her jaw, the woman still looked completely relaxed.
‘Why isn't she moving?’
That question rose in his mind, and his thoughts grew increasingly complicated as he wondered whether she had some hidden motive.
Tap—!
However, the man had not expected his full-force blow to be blocked so easily by the woman's delicate hand, and his eyes filled with bewilderment.
“How...?”
“You're weak. I was worried for nothing.”
“What did you say? Weak?”
Name had touched a raw nerve.
The man had never once heard anyone call him weak.
“Yeah, you're so weak that the fifteen-year-old maid who used to live at my house was stronger than you.”
“Shut your mouth!”
“That's not how you use strength. Now,
kneel
.”
Name ordered him in a low, sunken voice.
“What...?”
The man's expression twisted horribly.
But soon, his eyes began to tremble as a wave of fear came rushing over him.
‘What... what is this...?!’
His breathing grew ragged, and chills ran through his entire body.
A terror like he was about to be devoured by an enormous darkness seized control of him.
Thinking that he would die if he didn't kneel immediately, the man's knees slowly bent.
“Yes, much better. It was hard looking up at you. Now
get down
.”
“Nghhhhh!”
His large body collapsed onto the floor as though it had been thrown down.
Sitting on top of him, Name picked up Yoonseul's hair tie from the master bedroom floor and tied her golden hair into a single braid.
“I told you, didn't I? You'd better pray the police get here quickly. Looks like it's taking them a while.”
Name grabbed the man by the back of his neck as he lay face down on the floor, unable to move.
“Or try breaking out of the hallucination using your own power.”
In the instant the man blinked, the room's scenery turned completely white.
“Th... this isn't magic or anything...!”
The man's suspicion was justified.
When Name had ordered him to kneel and lie face down, there had been no magic circle to be found anywhere.
“Shit... no way... I'm still hallucinating...”
Only belatedly realizing that he had failed to escape the hallucination, the man struggled desperately.
“I told you, you can escape if you just figure out what magic I'm casting, didn't I?”
[Unique Magic – Estacia Style Fourth Form (式) - Medusa]
Hallucination magic itself was generally of little practical use.
If someone merely knew roughly what spell their opponent was casting within the illusion, the magic would not work on them.
That was because it borrowed the principle of ‘pseudocasting’ in an imaginary space instead of actually casting magic.
Alternatively, someone with excellent aura control could surround their entire body with a barrier and protect themselves from the hallucinogenic substance.
“I could tell just by looking at your posture. You don't seem to have any experience fighting professionally.”
Conversely, to anyone who satisfied neither condition, hallucination magic was extremely threatening.
Thanks to Name's excellent choice of magic, the intruder was completely neutralized.
His neck turned to stone, and the petrification gradually spread.
His torso, arms, legs, and even the tips of his toes.
The man could only watch with his eyes wide open as his entire body, apart from his head, became petrified.
“Now,
stand up
.”
“Mmph! Mmph! Mmmph!”
The command to stand was implanted in his mind.
However, his completely rigid body could not carry out the command, and as a penalty for that, an overwhelming sense of terror dominated him.
Seeing the man's eyes so bloodshot that the capillaries had burst, Name sneered.
“Perfect. You can just keep listening like that. And answer my questions from time to time.”
“Ngh...! Please... just let me live...”
“Of course I'll let you live. You have to pay for your crimes.”
“Ah... no...”
“Why did you come to Seol Yoonseul's house?”
“...”
The man continued to tremble violently.
Displeased by the sight, Name abruptly stood up and kicked his right arm.
Crack—
“...! Aaaaaaaaargh!”
The stone arm shattered into pieces, and the man's body tilted over the fragments.
“Does it hurt?”
“Ngh... h-hic... nghhhhh!”
Even though he could no longer feel anything throughout his body, the pain of dismemberment was conveyed in full.
He wanted to scream, but his mouth would not open.
The pain exceeded his tolerance, and as his facial muscles contorted violently, the only thing the man could do was clench his teeth.
“It hurts, huh... It must. I know what kind of pain this is too. So it would've been nice if you'd answered me in time. Don't you think?”
“S-sorry... Please, just let me live... Ngh...!”
“Don't apologize to me. Go apologize to Yoonseul. You're an attempted murderer. You made a girl who can't even use magic fall from the thirteenth floor. So why did you come here?”
“Mmph! Chena... Chena came and told me to kill Rika... She kept...”
“Hmm. I can't hear you very well. Should I balance things out by doing the same to the other side? Then it'd be easier for you to talk, right?”
Name touched the other arm, which had gone rigid, with the tip of her foot.
The man endured the pain and squeezed out the last of his strength to confess the truth.
He couldn't bear to go through a hellish experience like this a second time.
“I... I'll tell you everything... I'll tell you all of it, so please spare me, officer... Agh... It wasn't because I wanted to; Chena kept contacting me through DMs... She messaged me every night, telling me to kill Rika. Th... that's right, Chena possessed my body and made me come here too! I really wasn't going to go this far, but she kept begging... I came from Busan Station, but Busan Station burned down in the Great Fire of 1953 and was rebuilt and expanded in 2003, so I was able to find it safely—Aaaaaaaaargh...!”
“What?”
“Th... that's right, CCTV! There are CCTV cameras in the house...! 189 CCTV cameras kept following and monitoring me, so I really had no choice... Chena said she'd kill me and my family if I didn't... Aaaaaaaaargh—ngh!”
“You can stop talking now.”
“Mmph... mmph...!”
Name petrified the man completely up to his neck.
She let out a deep sigh and glanced around. The faint sound of a police car could be heard outside the window.
Then she crouched in front of the man rolling around on the floor and met his eyes.
“All that matters is that I'm scarier than any delusion your pathetic brain can come up with. Right? It's a very simple thing.”
Ssssk—
“Death never gets familiar, no matter how many times you experience it, but there is one thing you can improve. Do you know what it is?”
With the man's mouth, then his eyes, and finally every individual hair on his crown hardened, Name passed sentence on him.
“Being able to control your deathbed flashback at will. It's a shame I can't tell you how. Try to figure it out yourself.”
The man could only stare blankly.
Name placed her open palm against the crown of his head.
In the illusion, where it felt as though time would flow forever, mana gathered around her hand in a vortex.
The mana condensed and seeped into the stone like raindrops.
When the cold condensate had spread through every corner of his body like a network of ant tunnels, she quickly clenched her fist.
[4th Circle Cast: Rapid Cooling]
‘I... I'm going to die...!’
The rapidly cooled liquid caused cracks to form in the stone.
As the pain of his entire body crumbling apart tore through him, the man could do nothing but scream silently until he lost consciousness.
* * *
“He doesn't seem to be here!”
Police officers completely clad in protective suits burst into Yoonseul's home.
“Did you check the master bedroom too? If he's not here, then he must've escaped up the apartment stairs to the roof.”
“I found him here, Chief! Huh? He's collapsed, but is this the guy...?”
The intruder found in the master bedroom was lying collapsed, foaming at the mouth.
Finding this suspicious, the police officer hurriedly cuffed his arm.
As the female officer took a radio from her pocket and requested a stretcher, the wardrobe behind her creaked open.
“We have apprehended the suspect in the act. Please send a stretcher here—yaaah!”
Startled, her hand reflexively reached for her Taser.
However, the one approaching the police was a young child who looked about six or seven years old.
The child scampered over, threw herself into the officer's arms, and buried her face against her.
“A strange person came in, so I kept hiding! Thank you for coming to save me, police sis!”
“Huh...?”
“Cough.”
Blood seeped from the child's mouth.
“Child, you're bleeding...!”
The girl pressed down hard on her chest, swallowed the blood that had welled up into her mouth, and explained, trailing off at the end.
“Ah... That person hit me!”
The girl pointed at the collapsed intruder, naturally.