EVS Chapter 247 – EmberLib

The scene shown by the cluster of white light continued from the moment the boy accepted the System’s offer. The blue screen taught the boy how to survive on the streets. More accurately, it gave him quests that forced him to learn how to survive in the back alleys, compelling him to internalize the methods through his own body.

The boy, who had once relied on the soldier, spent three months drifting through the alleys, learning to survive against people and small-fry monsters. In the process, he was kidnapped and even captured by human traffickers, but whether it was thanks to the System’s help or his own venomous will to save the man, the boy succeeded in escaping every time. The most dangerous moment came when he was pinned under a monster’s foot, about to be devoured by its hard teeth, but even then, other hunters appeared at the perfect moment to save him.

After experiencing such things over and over, once he was finally able to stand on his own, the System began to lead him in a new direction.

Something every hunter must accomplish.

Clearing a Gate.

It was now time to face not people, but real monsters inside a Gate.

Just as the inexperienced Sa-yoon had been thrown around in the field, the young boy was thrown into a Gate and struggled for three months. The difference was that Sa-yoon had died dozens of times in the field, while the boy fought on without dying even once.

Of course, the difference in the Gates’ ranks was also immense. The Gate the boy entered was an E-rank Gate, just one step above the lowest rank. The field Sa-yoon had entered was an S-rank Gate.

Despite it being only E-rank, it was his first Gate and his first time facing adult monsters, so the boy was completely lost. Gripped by terror, he chose ‘survival’ over ‘slaughter.’ The System, as if displeased with the boy, would occasionally send quests demanding he kill monsters. But quests were not all-powerful, and the boy repeatedly failed them, choosing to run away each time. It was an unsightly display, but while Sa-yoon found it pathetic, he also felt a small spark of admiration.

After all, hiding from a boss monster for three months in the cramped space of an E-rank Gate was a remarkable talent in itself.

Perhaps my younger self back then was better suited for assassination than I am now.

「Pant, haah, huff…」

The boy, who had been in hiding, finally succeeded in killing the boss monster three months and fifteen days after entering the Gate. During that time, he had analyzed the boss’s patterns, adapted to its speed, and devised a way to kill it. After ten proper attempts, he had finally cleared his first Gate and received a worn dagger as a reward. The boy, who’d had to kill monsters with an ordinary kitchen knife for lack of an item, clutched the reward to his chest and fainted. When he came to, he was back on the street and received a new system directive to clear the next Gate.

And so, one year, two years, three years passed.

Time flew by, and the boy turned twenty. Even so, his skills were still only at the level of a high C-rank Awakened. The System would get angry, telling him he had no talent, and chide him for his slow growth. Each time, the boy would just sigh deeply, but he never complained and silently carried out his quests.

Strange.

Sa-yoon felt a sense of bewilderment as he watched the scene, which was the most peaceful of the three fragments he had seen so far. The content was exceedingly ordinary. The boy was struggling in his own way, but to Sa-yoon, who had already been through hell and back, the sight offered no real stimulation.

After thinking about why it felt so easy, Sa-yoon realized the biggest difference between his own life and the boy’s.

Why aren’t there any murder quests?

According to his memory, the murder quests had definitely appeared in the early days. Hadn’t the System forced him to kill people, saying that the True Evil of Humanity could not be swayed by trivial sentiment? Contrary to that vivid memory, the boy before him had been doing nothing but clearing Gates for years. His growth was so slow compared to his own that it was hard to believe they were the same person. The System, too, was less harsh than he remembered.

What was the reason?

The System certainly wouldn’t be showing the boy favor out of kindness. For that to be true, his System and the boy’s would have to be of a different kind.

Is it toying with me?

He wondered if it was a ploy by the System to mock him. As he scowled at the fact that everything was different from what he knew, the scene began to fast-forward at a rapid pace.

The boy was now twenty-four. He had become an A-rank Awakened.

「How much longer… do I have to do these quests?」the young man, who could no longer be called a boy, asked the blue screen. In just a few years, his face had become weary and gaunt. The System told him that he had to be at least S-rank to begin the real mission. The young man’s expression, which had been so stoic it seemed numb to all things, clouded over.

He looked like he had much to say, but he just bit his lip and stood up. He didn’t even put up a fight and simply moved on to the next quest. Sa-yoon felt a sense of frustration watching him.

He had more venom in him when he was younger.

The young man’s current state was so listless that even ‘pathetic’ was too generous a word. He looked like a well-made machine that did nothing but follow the System’s orders.

But regardless of Sa-yoon’s feelings, the quests continued without rest, and finally, the young man became an S-rank. It was the year he turned thirty.

And then he died.

His heart was pierced and then ruptured by the claws of a dragon, the boss monster.

He was dying alongside the same dragon he himself had killed.

Through his torn chest, his ruptured muscles were visible. His body convulsed, then fell completely still, like a corpse. Just like the man who had died in the warehouse. The young man’s hazy eyes looked up at the sky where the blue screen floated. The System was furiously telling him to drink a potion, but he didn’t seem to have the strength.

It was a futile death.

For someone who had run for over a decade, it was a meaningless end, having achieved nothing. Without knowing why, Sa-yoon clenched his fists, choking on a sense of disgust.

「The mister…」the young man asked, his lips barely moving. At the question, which seemed to hold a sliver of hope so thin it was almost pitiful, the system window replied that of course, it couldn’t give him the wish ticket. The young man coughed up blood, murmured, “I see,” and closed his eyes.

‘I see,’ my ass.

If it were him, Sa-yoon thought, he would have raised hell and demanded answers. He tilted his head. Just as he was concluding that his attitude was as pathetic as his death, the man whispered.

「If I could go back… could I have done better? So that this death isn’t in vain. Could I have done something…?」

It was a regret anyone on the verge of death might have, a thought muttered to himself without any deep meaning. Death was empty, and this was just a small wish to feel less empty in the face of it. The young man took his last breath. The system window showed no movement. Then, suddenly, as if an error had occurred, the window began to flicker rapidly, and a new, red system window appeared.

The window turned a deep, bloody red, then fizzled out with a crackle of static. At the same time, the scene Sa-yoon was watching filled with noise, and the world went pitch-black. He thought the vision was over, but a single line of light appeared in the darkness, and a new scene emerged.

The first thing he saw were desks arranged in neat rows and a familiar colored chalkboard. The sound of children chattering filled the air.

A small boy, twirling a pen in his hand, looked up. Compared to the thirty-year-old man, he was impossibly small and full of life. He was wearing a school uniform, and on his chest was a name tag.

‘Kwon Sa-yoon.’

As if the screen were slowly zooming in, the name tag filled his vision. Then, with a small, “Huh?”, the scene shifted. The boy who had been twirling his pen had frozen, staring into empty space as if startled by something. The camera slowly panned to follow his gaze.

And there, where the young boy was looking.

The unforgettable window was floating there.

Sa-yoon had lost his voice.

Unlike the first two times, when he had woken up with a violent jolt, this time Sa-yoon’s eyelids lifted slowly, like a person waking from sleep. The moment he regained consciousness, the window announcing he had acquired the third fragment appeared. Then, another window, one he had never seen before, materialized and filled his vision.

Regressor.

Those three syllables were seared into his pupils. The tangled pieces of the Shards of Truth were slowly falling into place.