novelraw Chapter 108 : Chapter 108
Chapter 108 : Chapter 108
Chapter 108: Mimicry Art (2)
“Ryu Jinwoo, is your body alright? I heard a huge incident happened yesterday. I'm glad you're safe.”
Lee Junhyeok said as he placed a fruit basket on the table next to me.
It was the second one following Spike Blue's fruit basket.
And when Lee Junhyeok came closer, I saw it just the same.
[Lee Junhyeok]
[Touch: 15,000]
‘He has it too.’
It probably relates to the newly acquired mimicry ability.
I don't know exactly how it works.
Or how the number is calculated.
‘It doesn't seem to be just simple combat power.’
I have a burning desire to check it properly right away, but I had to endure for now.
Touching the teddy bear is the best way to verify, but doing it openly in front of them is a bit awkward.
“Ah, sit, sit! What would you like to drink? Sports drink? Fruit juice? Water is refreshing too!”
Spike Blue stood as if he had suddenly become an employee and seated Lee Junhyeok in a chair.
He was looking at Lee Junhyeok with eyes that said he had seized an opportunity.
‘Come to think of it, when he first saw Seol Hayun, he also talked about guild transfer.’
I have no intention of speaking ill of Spike Blue.
Because his loyalty and sacrificial spirit as a hero are very commendable.
His actions at Hero Land also proved that.
However, it couldn't be denied that he had strong worldly desires like ambition for success.
‘That’s not exactly bad.’
But seeing his behavior in front of Lee Junhyeok, I had slightly different thoughts.
“Haha, the seat isn't uncomfortable, is it? I warmed it up until just now. Since the air conditioning here is strong, it's a bit cold.”
“Ah, thank you. Are you Jinwoo's family member? I am Lee Junhyeok.”
“No no, not family, but a senior. I'm also from Zero Academy. Ah come to think of it, I'm Cadet Junhyeok's senior too? What a coincidence! Haha!”
He showed a genial smile and filled a glass he had brought with a drink.
“Ah, you were a senior. I should have greeted…….”
“No no! There's absolutely no need for that. Senior-junior relationships being stiff and all that? Oh, I hate it. More importantly, does your father perhaps need a helping hand or anything? Actually, I'm thinking of transferring guilds…….”
It is very blatant.
To the point where I wonder how he can be this blatant.
After that, the conversation continued naturally.
While talking about the incident that happened yesterday.
Lee Junhyeok made a regretful expression towards me.
“I feel miserable.”
He continued with a gloomy face.
“I should have gone to Hero Land too, but I stayed in the dormitory to train, so I couldn't save people and only made others suffer.”
I don't know if I should say this, but he was right.
Actually, in the original novel, Lee Junhyeok went to Hero Land.
And he was supposed to deal with Gonta appropriately.
However, now that it has become reality, the flow has twisted, and Gonta, who would have originally targeted Lee Junhyeok, targeted me.
In a way, since the work was passed to me, I felt slightly wronged too.
But strictly speaking, it wasn't an issue to nitpick.
“It’s fortunate if you avoided the accident. There's no need to feel guilty. Who would have known such a thing would happen.”
It really was so.
I knew because I played the original game, but normally, it was a terror no one could predict.
Who would think a large-scale terror attack would occur on Jeju Island, the sacred ground of heroes.
“That’s right.”
Spike Blue took up the conversation.
“Juniors just need to focus on training hard to become good heroes. Leave the incidents and accidents happening now to us seniors.”
He pointed at himself with his thumb and laughed confidently.
His pure white teeth flashed.
“But I was the one who actually caught the enemy.”
When I spoke calmly, Spike Blue's smile stiffened.
“Ah, I feel sorry about that. Tsk. If only it wasn't a surprise attack.”
He shrugged his shoulders and made an excuse, then took out a fruit knife and a plate from one side and started peeling fruit.
‘He won’t starve to death anywhere.’
I couldn't help but admire.
Is this the skill of a working adult?
My head nodded automatically.
“More than that, I was surprised. To think my proud junior, who overcame a life-and-death crisis together, was friends with that Lee Junhyeok. How did you become close?”
Spike Blue asked as he offered the fruit plate with a fork stuck in it to Lee Junhyeok.
It seems like modifiers attached when calling me have piled up excessively, but is it just my feeling?
“Is there anything special about friendship? Looking in the same direction from the same place naturally made us friends. As comrades walking the path of the sword together and as rivals.”
Lee Junhyeok answered lightly.
An answer befitting an old soul, but my cheek feels itchy somehow.
Comrades and rivals, I don't think I'm at that level.
“Rivals?”
And Spike Blue seemed surprised at exactly the same point.
His gaze looking at me changed slightly.
Should I say the sparkle increased a bit?
“Oho, rivals with the Sword Emperor's son, I see.”
Spike Blue peeled an apple quickly.
Then he handed me a plate with apples cut into rabbit shapes.
Surely this geezer hasn't decided to look good to me too or something like that, right?
“I look forward to working with you in the future too. Junior.”
A smile engraved all over his face.
It seems I'm right.
‘Is this, an adult?’
If I could see Spike Blue's passive, wouldn't there be something like [Master of Flattery]?
I suddenly become curious.
It was around the time the ‘adult’ smile on Spike Blue's face reached its peak.
KNOCK KNOCK-
And at that moment, someone knocked on the door.
“Visiting hours shouldn't be too long. The patient still needs rest.”
A nurse peeked her head in and spoke cautiously.
“Ah, yes yes. We'll leave right away.”
Spike Blue stood up from his seat immediately.
Lee Junhyeok did the same.
“Take care of yourself, Junior. Finish the fruit.”
“I’ll go to train too. See you next time.”
The two leaving like that.
“Ah, Junior Junhyeok? This is my business card…… I'll give you 2. Keep one, and give one to your father…….”
Even while leaving like that, Spike Blue was doing self-promotion.
At this point, it's respectful.
Like that, the two left, the door closed, and silence settled.
Only the small blowing sound of the air conditioner and the rhythmic beep of the machine monitor remained in the air.
I slowly turned my head and looked at the table.
[Bongbong Teddy Bear]
[Touch: 7]
Finally, it was time to check the secret.
The moment I grabbed the guy.
[Touch: 6]
The number went down immediately.
I rubbed and fiddled with the doll just like that.
But the number remained at 6.
‘It’s not going down?’
THUD-.
I put the doll down on the bed.
And picked it up again.
[Bongbong Teddy Bear]
[Touch: 5]
‘Ah. Does it only decrease when I let go and touch it again?’
I got the hang of it.
I repeated it immediately.
Letting go and touching, repeating 5 times, the number decreased rapidly.
And finally, fruition came.
[Bongbong Teddy Bear]
[Touch: 0]
It was the moment it became 0.
CLICK-!
Suddenly, a noise burst out.
It was the sound of a camera shutter clicking.
I reflexively turned my head.
‘What?’
My eyes scanned everywhere.
Naturally, there was no such thing as a camera.
Since it's a single room, there's no other person to take pictures either.
Did I hear wrong?
I turned my gaze towards the teddy bear again.
“…….”
At the same time, I was speechless.
The ‘status window’ floating next to the doll was changing.
[Bongbong Teddy Bear]
[Touch: 0]
Those letters wavered like spreading paint and changed form.
A frame appeared, forming a square outline, and an image began to wriggle as if being drawn.
‘A photo?’
Before I knew it, the letters had turned into a photo.
A square frame, slightly faded colors, white margins on all sides.
A polaroid photo.
Inside it, the teddy bear was captured.
My moment of staring blankly at that sight was brief.
WHOOSH-!
The sound of wind cutting burst out right next to me.
Something was extending from my side.
Something long, reddish-purple, and sticky.
It was a tongue.
A tongue that popped out of the Mimic's mouth.
‘Ugh.’
Extending long like a frog's tongue, it reached out towards the doll.
Precisely, towards the polaroid photo generated next to the doll.
Soon the photo was wrapped around the guy's tongue.
SLURP-
The photo was sucked straight into the Mimic's mouth.
‘Oh, I saw something I shouldn't have again.’
It is not easy to explain the grotesqueness of that sight in words.
What is certain is that it's nauseating.
[SLURP SLURP! NOM NOM! GOOOOD!]
The guy started to chew and suck on the photo like eating chewy candy.
The sound was so vivid that it caused revulsion.
Can't I use the mimicry ability to change this bastard's appearance?
I mean, if we have to keep living together anyway, wouldn't it be better if it changed into a somewhat harmless-looking form?
Just as I was watching the guy's meal with disgust.
[KKIHEEHEE! I got it! I gooooot it!]
With violently bursting laughter, a shout as if dying of joy.
And following that, the guy's pages began to open rapidly.
FLIP FLIP FLIP-!
The guy's ‘pages’ stopped at one point.
[Tactical Manual]
[Mimicry Art - lv.2]
[1. Stone 2. Balzac 3. Doll 4. (-) 5. (-) 6. (-)]
Basically, it was a structure like a photo album.
There were a total of 6 square slots.
A photo of a rock in the first slot.
An earthworm with an eye, Balzac, in the second slot.
The teddy bear captured just now in the third slot.
The remaining three slots were empty.
‘Was the touch count a condition to put on the mimicry list?’
Intuition flashed.
And immediately solidified into certainty.
[Tactical Manual]
[Mimicry Art - lv.2]
[Mimics a target.]
[Rock]
- Appearance Modification: 100%
- Mimicry Passive: [Hardening], [Natural State]
[Balzac]
- Appearance Modification: 10%
- Mimicry Passive: [Soul of the Emperor], [Weight of the Crown], [Master of Deception]
- ??? : Condition not met
- ????: ■■■■
[Bongbong Teddy Bear]
- Appearance Modification: 100%
- Mimicry Passive: [Fluffy] [CoCoNenne]
Rock, the same format as Balzac.
That meant registration was complete.
Then now the next step.
It was time to test the newly acquired ‘Mimicry’.
‘Appearance modification is a bit much.’
Suddenly, me on the hospital bed changing into a doll?
From that moment, my life will flow into news subtitles.
- Magicless Academy Cadet, Unidentified Mutation Phenomenon. National Agency Emergency Investigation Underway.
I'm not saying this for laughs; it will actually appear like that.
So appearance modification should only be attempted when the probability of someone seeing is zero.
At least not here where nurses or visitors can come and go.
[Mimicking ‘Bongbong Teddy Bear’.]
Calmly adjusting my mind, I adjusted so that only the mimicry passive activates.
Just like when ‘Mimicry Instinct’ was triggered in the meantime, overwriting only the traits without changing the appearance.
Reviving the sensation from back then, it wasn't that difficult.
[Bongbong Teddy Bear (Mimicry)]
[Passive: Fluffy, CoCoNenne]
I clenched my hand.
‘Fluffy.’
The texture of pressing softly and slowly returning.
It was the sensation of the inside being filled with cotton.
And it didn't stop there.
‘……Sleepy?’
My eyelids became heavy.
My head became dull as if wrapped in cloth, and thoughts blurred softly.
[CoCoNenne: Sleep comes.]
‘Was it an insomnia treatment passive. If it existed in reality, it would be usef…….’
Before I could finish that last thought, my head dropped.
I slept just like that.
Helplessly.