Necromancer Survival

able to reach ‘Seo Dawon’s’ side without any interference.
There, in front of ‘Seo Dawon,’ I raised his face–looking like he would cry at any moment–to meet my gaze.

     “Lee-kyung-ah.”

     “……Yeah.”

     “Are you returning?”

     “……”

     As expected…My assumptions were correct; this ‘Seo Dawon’ was fake.

     He tried to deceive me–he succeeded in making me doubt my own memories, something crucial went wrong.
That was probably why so many strange events that went against the laws of this world had manifested, breaking down this illusion of a peaceful daily life and causing this sweet dream to fly away.

Perhaps that was why I could feel some hasty impatience in this ‘Seo Dawon’s’ tone.
“The ‘bug’ can be fixed quickly.”

     “……”

     “I can also modify it to match anything you want.”

     “……”

     “Fine.
Let’s stop this ‘high school first love’ scenario… How about becoming lovers before ‘Seo Dawon’ dies? You can return to three years before, when Bae Jaemin betrays him, and save him.”

‘Seo Dawon’ dangled tempting bait before me, enticing me to stay.
I looked at him quietly as he continued to speak.

     My high school first love did not work out.
His name was still foggy to me right now, but, nevertheless, this ‘Seo Dawon’ must have utilized those memories.
This place that instilled so much ‘deja-vu’ within me was crafted through ‘Seo Dawon’s’ imitation.

However, I had also imagined what it would have been like to have met Seo Dawon in high school.
What he would have been like back then, if we had attended school together.
Those kinds of thoughts.

     As ‘Seo Dawon’ had proposed, I had also entertained the idea of going back in time to save Seo Dawon in my dreams.
As I grew to like him, I wanted to let him forget the wounds he had received.
If that were possible, I would’ve done anything for that goal.
Return to the past and persuade ‘you’… It would have been nice if it had been Bae Jaemin, not ‘you,’ that was roughly shoved onto that sandy dungeon floor…

     However, none of that was real.
Even if I saved ‘Seo Dawon’ hundreds of times here, I wouldn’t be able to save him back in reality.
Rather, the longer I stay in this world, the more difficult it will become for him.

After steeling my resolve, I walked closer and grabbed ‘Seo Dawon’s’ hand.
I held both hands together, covering the cross-shaped scar on his palms with my own.

‘Seo Dawon’ stopped talking and looked at me desperately–begging.
I burst into laughter at the sight of such a pleading expression on the face of someone I liked.

     ‘Will there ever be a day where Seo Dawon will plead to me with that kind of face?’

     So, I wasn’t upset.
Also, I… roughly perceived the real identity of this ‘Seo Dawon.’

     I rejected his offer with a gentle tone.
“I wanted to do that before.”

     “Lee-kyung-ah…”

     “If it were back when we released Koo Hui-seo… I would probably have lost myself, deeply, here.”

“”

     “……”

     “Sorry.
I have to return.”

     “……”

     “There are people waiting for me.” Then, without a chance for me to react, ‘Seo Dawon’s’ visage shattered, starting from the hands I held.

      Subsequently, it felt as if small windows were encapsulating my view; as ‘Seo Dawon’ shattered into small pieces, the ‘real’ space beyond was soon revealed.

A thin, feeble ray of light shone down from the ceiling into this dark, black space.
The light illuminated a butterfly with black wings.

Because I had experienced this kind of space and its strange air a couple of times, I was able to retain some calmness.
This was the space where the ‘real’ Vengeful Ghost Memory would unfold.  And, probably, the butterfly with palm-sized black wings was Woo Ragi.

     Woo Ragi lightly flew around as if he were swimming midair.
His first words, after he landed lightly on my chest, was…

–You’re homo?

     That.

TL: Not gonna lie, it was mega confusing, when translating, to distinguish between the two Seo Dawons.
But, I think the novel did something interesting.
Now that Lee-kyung knew Seo Dawon became a monster, all of his dialogue showed up in brackets, like other boss monsters within the game.
His name was perpetually in brackets as well!

As for theories…I wonder what you all think?

For me, ‘Seo Dawon’ probably was the system (guided by Woo Ragi?? Unguided?) testing Choi Lee-kyung.
[Seo Dawon], the monster, though, was an anomaly the system definitely didn’t expect.
Does that mean that this possibility of a [Seo Dawon] is real…somewhere out there? In parallel worlds? Who knows.
You’ll also probably get explanations for why this happened in a few chaps as well.

Next chapter: Woo Ragi.
Whew.
He’s…interesting.