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79. The Mask
People react in various ways when faced with an unbelievable situation.
Some are surprised, some look bewildered.
Some have their faces freeze like statues.
That's how Hwang Yong-min was.
'Ryu... Min? Black Scythe was... Ryu Min?'
Two scenes overlapped in his mind.
One was Ryu Min curled up like a turtle, being beaten by him.
The other was Black Scythe cutting off his limbs with overwhelming charisma, making him tremble in fear.
These two completely contrasting images pointed to the one person before him.
'Th-the same person... Impossible. That loser Ryu Min is Black Scythe...'
Hwang Yong-min looked up again.
Even rubbing his eyes, the man who took off the mask was clearly Ryu Min.
"Seems you can't believe it. That I'm Black Scythe."
"..."
"Well, it's understandable. Until last year, I was the one getting beaten by you."
"You... What? Were you playing with me all this time? Why did you act like a loser?"
"What are you talking about? When did I ever act like a loser? But..."
Ryumin's scythe spun once and Hwang Yong-min's arm fell off.
"Being called a loser by trash like you is a bit unpleasant."
"Ugh, aaargh..."
"Quiet. Unless you want your tongue cut off too."
"Ack, ugh..."
Hwang Yong-min held back tears and endured the pain.
Blood was trickling from the cut surface.
"Don't worry. I'll give you first aid."
Ryumin raised his hand and used First Aid.
The bleeding stopped and the cut surface was restored as if by magic.
However.
"Oh? You've become one-armed."
"..."
He just couldn't reattach the severed arm.
"Well, whatever. You can live with one arm, right?"
Though it was done to make him feel humiliated, Hwang Yong-min felt no emotion.
He was just unable to come to his senses from the shock and surprise.
"Are you really... the Ryu Min I knew?"
"No."
Ryumin shook his head lightly.
"The Ryu Min you knew is gone now."
As he said that, he slowly raised his scythe.
Like an executioner beheading a prisoner.
"Farewell."
"W-wait! Just a moment, Min!"
Hwang Yong-min shouted in an urgent voice.
"Please spare me! I-I bullied you a lot, right? I-I'm sorry. I really regret it!"
The moving scythe paused in mid-air.
"Really?"
When Ryumin lent an ear, Hwang Yong-min saw hope.
'M-maybe I can live!'
If he chooses his words carefully, he can save his life.
With that thought, Hwang Yong-min chose his words more carefully than ever before.
"Th-there's no benefit in killing me. Why don't you use me instead?"
"Use you? How?"
"Um, how... Ah, right! I'll be your personal shuttle! I'll crawl if you say crawl, run if you say run. I'll do whatever you order, whether it's errands or being bait while hunting!"
"Hmm..."
As Ryumin seemed to ponder while stroking his chin, Hwang Yong-min's eyes were filled with expectation.
But only briefly.
"I still can't do it."
"Huh? Wh-what?"
"You're still thinking of stabbing me in the back."
"Wh-what are you saying? When did I..."
"You were planning to watch for an opportunity to kill me."
"M-me? Ha."
Though Hwang Yong-min reacted as if it was absurd, inwardly he couldn't help but be terrified.
'What the hell? Is this guy a ghost? How did he know? Is he just guessing?'
Hwang Yong-min hadn't considered the possibility that he could read minds.
"I can't keep a dog that tries to bite its master by my side."
As Ryumin raised his scythe, urgency appeared on Hwang Yong-min's face.
"Huh? W-wait!"
"Your usefulness ends here."
"Wait, give me a chan...!"
Slash- Hwang Yong-min's head fell off.
It was a miserable, insignificant, and futile death.
"I already gave you countless chances. In previous regressions."
When he didn't have the Rune of Inner Thoughts, there were times he was fooled by Hwang Yong-min's glib tongue and spared him.
The result was of course betrayal.
'I was such a sucker back then.'
Only after dying did he realize how foolish he was to spare him.
Of course, that was when his level and experience were much lower than now.
"Farewell, you bastard."
This ended their long, unpleasant relationship.
Perhaps because it was the last time seeing that unlucky face, unlike before, he felt refreshed.
'First I need to clean up the scene.'
He erased the four corpses with the Erase Traces skill.
There were no witnesses based on Presence Detection.
'Clean.'
Ryumin put away his scythe and put on his mask again.
With this, he achieved his goal of dealing with Hwang Yong-min and the Plseba executives.
Now he could take a step closer to the Plseba chairman position.
No, not one step but dozens of steps.
'Then shall I go to his house?'
Ryumin quickly disappeared into the darkness.
* * *
People appeared in Plseba's video chat room.
Though it wasn't Sunday, an untimely meeting was held.
-Nice to see you, Chairman!
-Welcome, Yamtti-nim.
Yamtti who greeted with a smile peered at the chat room screen.
-But I don't see the other executives?
-That's actually why we had to urgently hold this meeting.
-Did something happen?
The chairman sighed before answering.
Something did happen.
A major incident that could shake the cafe's existence.
-The executives died.
-What?! Died?
Yamtti who was startled looked at the screen again.
There were many empty seats.
The executives who were never late were late today.
-What happened? Did you try calling?
-I tried to check but...
The rest didn't need to be said.
The chairman's gloomy expression said it all.
-Even when I tried contacting them individually, there's no response. They must have met with an accident while going for the interview.
-Wh-who could have? D-don't tell me?
Yamtti thought of one person.
As if confirming her guess, the chairman nodded.
-That's right. Black Scythe, that person is hunting our cafe members.
Strictly speaking they weren't members but executives, but the chairman didn't quibble over details.
The important thing was that the cafe he built with difficulty was under attack.
By Black Scythe, called the #1 ranked in the other world at that.
-Th-then Soboroo? Tastes Bad-nim t-too, Poporin-nim too... They were all killed by him?
-That's right.
-Why? What did those kind people do wrong...
-What reason would a murderer have for committing murder? Just self-satisfaction probably. Or maybe he didn't like us growing in power.
-Ah...
Hearing the chairman's words, she understood to some extent.
There are twisted people who try to take what others have if it looks bigger, no matter where you go.
'Was it envy and jealousy, wanting to interfere out of such feelings?'
Yamtti completely revised her image of Black Scythe.
From someone to recruit, to someone to kill.
-Oh? Then his application to join the cafe was to lure out the executives?
-That's right.
-Ha... I was looking forward to meeting Black Scythe, but he turned out to be a psychopath hostile to us... I really feel self-loathing. We could have been in big trouble if we accepted him as an executive.
-Indeed. I would have regretted it for life. Or maybe my head would have been taken by Black Scythe before that.
Perhaps because he lost executives, the chairman's expression wasn't good.
-Black Scythe is now clearly our enemy. We must find him and avenge our lost members.
-Yes yes, we should. But...
At the tone full of certainty rather than speculation, Yamtti carefully asked.
-Are you sure Black Scythe is the culprit?
-There's an eyewitness.
-Ah!
If there's an eyewitness, that's different.
-Lost Yak-nim?
The tanned man occupying one side of the screen answered.
-Yes, Chairman.
-Please explain the situation at the time to Yamtti-nim as you reported to me.
-Understood.
Lost Yak explained the confrontation with Black Scythe with a gloomy expression.
* * *
-Then I'll see you at the next regular meeting.
-Yes, Chairman. Take care.
-Take care, Chairman!
After the chairman left the chat room, Lost Yak also exchanged greetings with Yamtti.
-I'll see you next time, Yamtti-nim.
-Yes, Lost Yak-nim must be tired after experiencing something unpleasant today, so go rest quickly.
-Yes! Thank you! Then...
Lost Yak who ended the chat and exited took his eyes off the monitor.
"Fortunately it seems they didn't notice."
He opened the equipment window and pressed the helmet unequip button.
Then his face rippled and returned to its original appearance.
Not the tanned Lost Yak, but Ryumin's appearance.
"I guess I'm cut out for acting after all."
Ryumin grinned and looked at the unequipped item.
[Assassin's Mask]
- Category: Helmet
- Grade: Unique
- Defense: 1
- Effect: By saying the activation word 'Disguise', imitates the appearance of a killed player. Face, skin color, voice, and even build change perfectly.
- Durability: 3,000/3,000
- Usage Restriction: Expert grade or higher
- Description: A thin, transparent mask said to have been favored by an assassin with a 99.9% success rate. It is said no one knows his real face.
It was the helmet he chose with the Unique Item Selection Ticket from the time attack reward last time.
'The Assassin's Mask is the best unique item I need right now.'
Though it's an item with no stats and practically no defense...
'Being able to change into the appearance of killed players is a huge merit.'
Not only can he deceive opponents, but it can be used in various ways like obtaining information, sowing discord, deception, etc.
It's truly a mask optimized for assassination.
'There's no easier assassination than betrayal by allies.'
That was the reason he wore the Assassin's Mask and killed the Plseba executives today.
Because he had to infiltrate disguised as an executive.
'Now I can change not only into executives but even Hwang Yong-min if necessary.'
The mask he took off in front of Hwang Yong-min was just an ordinary mask with no function.
When killing him, he was wearing the transparent Assassin's Mask, so he could imitate him.
Though he planned to focus only on Lost Yak's role for now.
'If I hadn't looked into Lost Yak's inner thoughts before, I wouldn't have been able to deceive the other executives.'
He had already figured out Lost Yak's speech patterns, habits, relationships etc. with the Rune of Inner Thoughts in previous regressions.
This is why he could break into his studio apartment and use video chat like this.
Of course, it's a plan that couldn't be utilized without the Assassin's Mask.
'Originally I was planning to approach gradually from the bottom, but thanks to the mask the plan was accelerated.'
All that's left is to seize the opportunity to take the chairman position.
'I'd like to kill the chairman and transform into him if I could. Then I could easily control the organization.'
But that's impossible.
The Assassin's Mask only targets players.
'In other words, the chairman isn't a player.'
The ironic situation where the leader of an organization made up of players isn't a player.
But approaching him is difficult with the tricky player Yamtti around.
'I can't handle Yamtti's abilities with my current self.'
He needs to avoid contact with the executives until he prepares countermeasures.
Fortunately, he can prepare a method in Round 7.
'Until then, I should faithfully play Lost Yak's role through video chat while observing the situation.'
With this, the situation was more or less settled for now.
They probably won't look for Lost Yak until the next meeting.
'That's fortunate. I have some time to spare.'
There was something he had to do when he had time.
Namely, recovering durability.
'I should go on an overseas trip after a long time.'
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