Chapter 405: Don’t Blame Others, An Sang-cheol |
“As expected, he’s not cooperating.”
Ryu Min had anticipated An Sang-cheol’s reaction to some extent.
It wasn’t just because he had the Rune of Future Sight, but also because he could read thoughts and knew it for certain.
He knew that An Sang-cheol blamed him.
“Do you think what happened to you was my fault?”
“Of course I do!”
An Sang-cheol shouted, almost in a fit.
“You ruined everything! Black Scythe! If it weren’t for you, I would have never made that wish to the boss!”
“Are you referring to the wish that he should trust you instead of me?”
‘There was no other option. In cycle 101, Ma Gyeong-rok was under Yamti’s mind control.’
However, Ryu Min didn’t make the mistake of revealing the truth.
Provoking An Sang-cheol at this moment wasn’t a good idea.
“That’s why you asked him to trust and depend on you instead of me. At first, everything seemed fine, but the boss couldn’t make rational decisions and appointed someone like you as CEO. As a result, the company went bankrupt.”
An Sang-cheol glared at Ryu Min with resentment.
“It’s all your fault. Because of you, I made that wish.”
“So the company went bankrupt, and this is all my fault? It’s entirely my responsibility?”
“Yes!”
“But if it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have been able to enter the Wish Room. You wouldn’t even be alive now.”
“...Tsk.”
An Sang-cheol couldn’t refute that.
As much as it irked him, it was true.
“The company failed because of your own mismanagement. You couldn’t handle things properly, and this is where we ended up. There’s no other reason. Wasn’t it you who made that wish?”
“No! If it weren’t for you, I—”
“Don’t blame others for your own mistakes, An Sang-cheol. I always knew you were narrow-minded.”
“You damn...”
Ryu Min sighed internally as he watched An Sang-cheol fume with anger.
Though it wasn’t intentional, he had ended up aggravating him even more.
“Cooperation is something we can no longer expect...”
In fact, even if people stayed home, they wouldn’t be entirely safe from the Hosts.
The Hosts could infiltrate through door cracks in liquid form.
“If only they’d seal the doors properly, they could minimize the damage...”
Since An Sang-cheol wouldn’t cooperate, Ryu Min had to handle things himself.
“To draw the attention of the Hosts and the Seeds, I’ll have to go to the TV station.”
Ryu Min decided and turned away.
There was nothing more to expect from An Sang-cheol.
“Since you rejected my request, our relationship ends here. I don’t care if you live or die.”
“Hmph. Even without your help, I’ll...”
An Sang-cheol’s words trailed off.
In the blink of an eye, Black Scythe had vanished.
——————
After parting ways with An Sang-cheol, Ryu Min headed straight for the TV station.
“My name is Black Scythe. I have a message for the nation regarding the current situation.”
A man wearing a white mask and wielding a large scythe claiming to be Black Scythe.
Naturally, he caught the station’s attention.
The audience was guaranteed.
“This is important and needs to be broadcast in an urgent news bulletin.”
“Please wait, we need to discuss it...”
“There’s no time. Hurry.”
Shortly after, with the station director’s approval, Ryu Min got the chance to speak before the nation.
“I am Black Scythe. I’m here to inform the nation. First, those creatures people call ‘black shadows’ are actually Hosts. They are parasites that can infest humans and are here to destroy the world.”
He calmly explained about the Hosts and how to confront them.
“During the time it takes me to eliminate them, avoid going outside. If you’re outside, you’ll be easy prey for the Hosts. If you don’t want to die, stay indoors until this is over.”
He didn’t specify how long they should remain hidden.
Even he didn’t know how long it would take to eliminate all 300 Hosts and 12 Seeds.
“It’ll take a week, but I can’t guarantee it.”
I’ll do my best, but there are limits when I can’t pinpoint their locations.
“That’s all I have to say.”
After finishing the broadcast, Ryu Min requested that the video be spread as widely as possible for everyone to see.
Then, he left at the speed of light.
———————-
[Breaking News: Black Scythe Warns About the Black Shadows.]
[174 total comments]
└What is this news? Where did Black Scythe come from?
└Didn’t you see the live broadcast? He suddenly appeared in a news bulletin, and it freaked me out.
└Black Scythe is the player who was active a few years ago. Now he’s just unemployed.
└He doesn’t have to be unemployed.
└Why did he storm into the TV station with a scythe and a mask? Isn’t that a crime?
└Leave him alone. Maybe he thinks he’s still a player.
└Is he trying to get attention?
└What does he mean by being careful of the Hosts? Should we just stay home?
└At least I’ve been doing that well so far.
└It’s scary living with those black shadows around.
└But how are we supposed to survive if we don’t go outside?
└Delivery companies are booming now. Delivery drivers should go out and make money.
└Yeah, that’s true. Don’t listen to Black Scythe. He just wants attention.
└There are many fools who wouldn’t believe the world is ending.
The video of Black Scythe quickly became news and spread on YouTube, rapidly reaching people worldwide.
‘It’s done. Although it took time, this should delay the damage.’
Even though there were negative opinions, he didn’t have time to worry about that.
He had to start eliminating the Hosts immediately.
‘If An Sang-cheol had cooperated, I could’ve saved time, but there’s no choice.’
Ryu Min scoured the internet for information on the Hosts.
Articles related to the Hosts were popping up worldwide.
“By checking this, I can figure out the Hosts’ locations.”
Previously, he had used a Seed for navigation, but in this timeline, that didn’t seem necessary.
Flap!
He spread his wings and soared quickly.
The first target to eliminate was a Host in South Korea.
—————–
Ryu Min spent a considerable amount of time hunting Hosts.
Although he had the incredible Skill to move at the speed of light, the cooldown was one hour, so after using it, he had to fly.
Crackle!
“Kyaak!”
After eliminating a Host in Vietnam, he headed south to Malaysia.
Since the suffering of those affected by the Hosts was being broadcast in real-time, it wasn’t difficult to locate them.
“Found it.”
As soon as he spotted the Host in Malaysia, he struck it with lightning.
Crackle!
He instantly eliminated it and moved again, reflecting on the number of Hosts he had hunted.
“I’ve been at this for almost two hours and only caught 11.”
At this pace, he could wipe them all out within a week, but he couldn’t prevent the damage in the meantime.
“There’s no choice. I’m the only one who can stop the Hosts.”
Online, posts about sightings of a black Reaper with wings began to appear.
There was even a journalist who managed to capture a photo of Ryu Min eliminating a Host.
“International Headline: Black Scythe Spotted in Hong Kong!”
(Photo of a figure with black wings hovering over Hong Kong)
“Black Scythe, who warned about the Hosts, has been spotted in Hong Kong. (Photo by Park Sang-hoon, Journalist)”
[86 total comments]
└Wow, is he really taking down the Hosts?
└They’re not black shadows; they’re Hosts.
└Ah... I thought he was a criminal, but he’s actually a savior. I was wrong.
└Black Scythe, please save humanity from these aliens.
└Black Scythe, my god, my life, my soul, my everything.
Public opinion quickly shifted from negative to positive.
Not only in Korea, but globally, people were rooting for Black Scythe.
“Public sentiment is favorable. Everyone is clamoring for the Hosts to be eliminated.”
While people in various countries suffered because of the Hosts, there was only one person available to deal with them.
“There’s no choice; I have to give it my all.”
Determined to focus solely on saving people, he continued crossing borders into different countries.
“The cooldown for the Rune of Light Speed is over.”
Since the cooldown was finished, he no longer needed to fly.
“Use Rune of Light Speed.”
Upon using the Skill, it felt like the world around him stopped.
This was because he was moving at the speed of light.
“I need to check the Hosts’ locations worldwide again.”
As he zoomed across the Earth, he tracked the Hosts’ positions once more.
“Hm?”
He detected a Host in a village in Taiwan.
But what was peculiar was another entity observing from above.
“Hosts don’t take interest in other Hosts. They have no reason to monitor them like that.”
This meant that the being watching from the sky could be a Seed.
Seeds typically monitored the Hosts to ensure they were doing their job properly.
“Cancel Rune of Light Speed.”
When time resumed, Ryu Min read the entities’ thoughts.
Though Hosts and Seeds might appear similar at a glance, their thoughts gave them away.
-Kill. Humans. Absorb them all.
While the Hosts had simple thoughts like these.
-That stupid Host! It killed all the humans around! Move to another area to gather more life energy!
The Seeds, on the other hand, clearly mentioned the Hosts and treated them as subordinates.
“So the one watching from above is a Seed.”
Finding a Seed was a significant achievement.
Ryu Min immediately used the Rune of Lightning to electrocute the Host below.
“What... what’s this?”
The Seed in the sky was startled to see the Host it was watching die suddenly.
But it had no idea what was about to happen to it.
Crack—
As the surroundings suddenly darkened, the Seed was bewildered.
“Where am I? Is this a different space?”
Ryu Min had instantly transported the Seed to the Temporal Void.
“Why am I in the Temporal Void...?”
“I brought you here.”
Ryu Min appeared before the Seed, wielding his scythe menacingly.
“Since you won’t listen to words, how about we warm up a bit before our conversation?”
In the blink of an eye, Ryu Min’s scythe slashed the Seed’s body into pieces.
———————
The Seed, Akirachia, was utterly bewildered.
“Me, being cut... by a human... Grrr...!”
Being helplessly cut by a human was shocking, and experiencing unimaginable pain for the first time was even more so.
The terror of death.
Akirachia vividly understood what humans felt as fear.
“Why did I capture you in the Temporal Void and destroy you like this?”
“Ugh, ugh...”
“To get answers from you. If I simply asked, you wouldn’t have answered honestly, would you?”
“What do you want to know? I’ll talk, anything. Just, please...”
“You want the chains of pain to stop, right? Fine. As long as you answer my questions well, I won’t torture you anymore.”
“I-I will. Just ask.”
Akirachia responded obediently, not daring to resist anymore.
After trying to fight back several times, it realized that the gap between them was like heaven and earth.
“Alright, first question. How many Seeds are on Earth?”
“T-Twelve.”
“Not people, but entities.”
“...”
“You’ve massacred many people; how much life energy have you gathered? How much more do you need to collapse this timeline?”
“That is...”
Before Akirachia answered, Ryu Min’s eyes widened.
He had already delved into its mind and read its thoughts.
“The vital energy needed for the collapse has already been gathered.”