novelraw Chapter 54 : Chapter 54
Chapter 54 : Chapter 54
Chapter 54 Tactical Manual Ver.2 (2)
[Subdue the ‘Black Self’.]
Along with the message that appeared in my view.
“......”
A bizarre entity revealed itself.
An alien existence with the exact same face and body as mine.
Born from the shadow, it made snapping- sounds, as if regulating its body.
It was stiff, like an unlubricated machine.
At the same time, its entirely black eyes, whose depth was unfathomable, were staring precisely at me.
At a certain point, the guy stopped moving.
As if all preparations were complete.
And slowly, it began to approach, one step at a time.
It was quiet.
There was no sound of footsteps.
The silence was so profound it felt suffocating.
As it drew closer, a strange sensation began to engulf my entire body.
A feeling like peering into a deep, dark cave.
‘......Mimic? No. It’s slightly different.’
It definitely emitted an aura similar to the Mimic.
Yet, it was subtly different.
It was much heavier, and much more ominous.
Where did the Mimic go anyway?
The moment the question crossed my mind.
Snap-
The body of the being identical to me strangely undulated.
And in an instant, it reached right in front of me.
A sword was now in its hand.
“......!”
A large diagonal slash was drawn.
The sensation of flesh tearing covered my entire body.
A scream ripped through my throat and escaped.
“Kuaaak—!”
All my strength instantly drained away, and my body stumbled and fell over.
In my overturned vision, the face of the ‘guy’ who copied me was imprinted.
An indifferent, expressionless face.
Amidst the gradually blurring sight, a hissing- whistling- sound echoed in my chest.
Air was leaking from the deep incision in my lung.
My mouth and throat desperately gasped for air.
But the air only escaped through the open wound, as if it were a bottomless jar.
My knees slumped to the ground with a thump-.
Blood gushed out as I clutched my chest.
My hands trembled, not knowing what to do.
‘I’m going to die.’
With that brief realization.
My consciousness was abruptly severed.
“......”
And soon, I opened my eyes.
No, it felt as if I hadn't closed them in the first place.
I was standing again.
With a perfectly fine body.
As if nothing had happened.
“......What is this.”
My chest was clean.
No wound, no blood, and my breathing was normal.
But that was only for a moment.
“Ugh!”
The pain remained.
The sensation of my lung tearing, the despair of air leaking out, still constricted my chest.
I was brought back to life, as if time had been rewound, but the pain of death remained intact.
“......This is the worst.”
I staggered and retreated.
And when I raised my eyes.
Another me with black eyes was walking toward me again without any expression.
Footsteps without sound.
The sword the guy held was approaching me faster this time.
Slice-!
A short, sharp line of the sword cut through the air.
Thwack-!
A sound of something tearing echoed from my neck area.
Before I could even register it, the world tilted.
The scene before my eyes warped and slowly rotated.
My vision slid toward the ground, and a hot, sticky liquid splattered onto my face.
My ‘body’ was still standing, but my vision had already detached and was floating in the air.
‘......Was my neck cut?’
A cold sensation passed for a moment, then an intensely hot sensation, like burning fiercely, filled my neck area.
A sudden lunatic had started killing me.
Strangely, the passive [Evasion Instinct] did not activate.
Even my skills wouldn't activate.
It was one hurdle after another.
Was all of this meant to test me?
By killing me over and over again?
When my neck was severed, my breathing stopped cleanly.
Because my muscles weren't moving.
I think I tried to pretend to breathe.
It must have been nothing more than a meaningless movement.
And the moment my consciousness was severed.
I opened my eyes again.
The exact same sight as the beginning.
[Subdue the ‘Black Self’.]
The message was etched into my sight again.
A threat approached without a sound, as if keeping pace with it.
Toward the guy rushing at me. I drew the sword from my waist.
Slice-!
And once again, I died.
***
Slice-!
Shush-!
Thud- Thump-thump!
My identical ‘clone’ kept killing me.
In a situation where communication was impossible, he was nothing short of a madman.
And the system told me to subdue it.
I had given up counting how many times I had died long ago.
My hands screamed from the jarring impact every time the swords collided.
The tip of the guy’s sword pierced me without the slightest deviation.
“Ugh—!”
Speed, strength, both surpassed mine.
I had no choice but to admit it.
The sword I swung showed no sign of connecting, and no matter how hard I tried to evade, the guy never missed a momentary opening.
Slice-!
The sensation of my guts spilling out.
Immediately, my vision flipped, and then returned to the beginning again.
When I raised my head, gasping for breath, it was always the same scene.
The me with black eyes was walking toward me again, expressionless.
‘There's no answer, damn it......’
There was utterly no path visible.
It was already an opponent who surpassed me, and the accumulating pain from the repeated fighting only tormented me further.
From the lung injury inflicted in the first death, to the slash across the forehead just moments ago.
I was resurrected countless times, but the pain steadily accumulated.
It was bizarre.
My body returned to normal, but the pain alone was accumulating in lumps.
The pain of bones being crushed.
The sensation of flesh being ripped apart.
The despair of lungs burning.
All of it remained intact within me.
“Are you trying to make me beg you to just kill me, you damn thing.”
I supported my staggering body with difficulty and let out a hollow laugh.
Whether I laughed, shouted, struggled, or pleaded, the situation did not change.
Instead, the sticky pain was being engraved heavily and coldly somewhere inside my body.
Ding-!
[Subdue the ‘Black Self’.]
The system message popped up, as if urging me.
“This is truly ridiculous......”
There's a limit to how unreasonable things can be.
Not only did it crawl into my hand arbitrarily, but now it was an infinite refill death experience.
I looked at the clone that was rushing toward me without fail.
No matter how much I talked to him, the guy remained silent.
He was like a machine designed solely to kill me.
How was I supposed to defeat a target that was overwhelmingly superior to me, when the [Evasion Instinct] passive and all my other skills were blocked?
Moreover, that bastard was using skills without limit.
I could see movements that I knew.
‘......Damn it.’
I lowered my head in this desperate situation, then immediately raised it.
A thought crossed my mind that if I lowered my head now, everything would be over.
I had to find a way somehow.
I couldn't just give up and rot in this purgatory of pain.
Even hell would be better than this.
I began to watch the guy's movements closely.
The trembling of his muscles, the shifting of his power, even the subtle gestures.
I desperately hoped a path would reveal itself.
I died in real-time, engraving the movements into my eyes again and again.
During the long time my whole body was covered in pain, I somehow clung to my sanity, trying not to miss his every action.
And then, a single clue appeared.
‘......There it is again. That move.’
Through repeated observation, a ‘pattern’ began to come into view.
There was one peculiar movement.
A diagonal slash.
It was a normal diagonal slash, but the way he gripped the sword was unique.
A powerful slashing motion, holding the sword with his right hand and bracing the end of the hilt with his left.
And the moment I evaded it, he adjusted the sword with his left hand and immediately twisted his body to stab.
As if executing a continuous, pre-programmed action exactly.
I witnessed that perfectly repeated movement.
‘A skill.’
The guy was using a skill.
A movement perfectly defined and recorded in the Tactical Manual.
‘I don't know about subduing him.’
But I strongly felt the urge to land at least one blow.
A powerful impulse surged up.
Hiss-!
The guy slashed his sword diagonally.
Taking that familiar stance.
I evaded the downward diagonal slash by pulling my waist back and retreating.
A sharp, tingling pain passed the bridge of my nose.
The guy immediately gripped the sword with his left hand, which had been bracing the hilt.
Slice-!
A thrusting motion that rushed in, cutting the air.
Thud-!
I offered up my stomach.
My stomach was cleanly pierced as if it were pudding.
Why was it so soft?
Nevertheless, I did not refuse.
I did not evade the guy’s sword.
The black eyes stared into mine.
I don't know if the guy was surprised.
His expression hadn't changed at all.
He was a guy who didn't speak in the first place.
However, I advanced straight toward him.
I pushed my body forward as is.
The sword that pierced my abdomen was driven in deeper.
And finally, when I reached right in front of the guy's face.
I grabbed his shoulder and waist and tackled him to the ground.
Crash-!
I mounted the guy who had fallen to the floor.
An exquisitely formed mount position.
Luckily, the guy didn't react, holding onto his sword.
As if he were a malfunctioning robot.
“You......”
My fist was clenched tightly.
“Son of a bitch!”
I swung my fist as is.
Thud, Pow, Thwack-!
I didn't know if they were effective hits or if the attacks were connecting properly.
But I desperately wanted to smash that face.
Splat-!
Black blood erupted from the guy's nose.
His face became covered and smeared with black blood.
I pressed down deeper and continued to rain down punches.
My knuckles ached as if they were splitting, but I never stopped.
Just as the strength in my arms began to fade.
I grabbed the guy's head with the last remaining grip strength.
Bang-!
I used the momentum of my falling strength to deliver a headbutt.
Pain, as if my forehead was splitting.
My vision blurred.
Crash-! Bang-! Crashh-!
But I didn't stop.
“Haa...... Haa......”
My vision suddenly blurred.
I realized I wasn't breathing properly.
I lifted my upper body and looked down at the guy.
A distorted nose bridge.
Swollen lips.
A face covered in black blood.
Yet, still.
The guy's black eyes were staring at me expressionlessly.
‘......Is it not working? Damn it.’
The awareness of failure flashed through my mind.
Would my consciousness be cut off again, and would I return to the start?
Just as I wondered if I should look for another method.
The clone’s body slowly began to melt.
It vaporized like dry ice.
It began to lose its form and turn into black smoke.
‘Is it coming inside?’
Hiss-!
Soon, that mist seeped into my body.
It couldn't be blocked even with my hands.
The smoke was forcing its way into me somehow.
A repulsive sensation.
A shuddering feeling like bugs crawling under my skin.
“Ughhhh—!”
Then, without time to think, only a scream burst out.
As the black mist entered my body, a sinister and unpleasant sensation dominated my whole being.
A feeling like countless insects were crawling all over and under my skin.
It was so intense that I was overcome with the impulse to burn my whole body right then.
No matter how much I rolled on the floor or screamed, the pain did not subside.
Instead, it only intensified.
‘You son of a bitch—.’
My whole body screamed.
A rough energy was fiercely swirling through my body.
Cold sweat poured down like rain.
All I could do was barely maintain my breathing.
If I lost consciousness here, would I return to the beginning again?
I held onto my sanity with faint awareness and retraced the events.
When I slashed the clone’s arm, it turned into black mist and entered my body.
The black mist was roughly wandering inside my body like a ‘force.’
And the message that popped up.
‘Subdue the Black Fang.’
The goal was ultimately to subdue it.
If I was told to subdue this.......
With the mindset of grasping a lifeline, I put strength into my entire body.
‘If I can somehow suppress this energy.’
A desperate desire surged up.
And at that moment, I began to feel the sensation of grasping the formless energy.
Very, little by little. It dimly responded to my will.
My instinct screamed.
That I must not lose this flow.
I pressed down and suppressed the wildly surging energy.
‘Just a little more. A little. Just a little......’
The taste of blood permeated my tightly clenched lips, which helped me hold onto my sanity.
How much time passed like that?
The wildly rampaging energy gradually began to flow stably.
The unpleasant sensation that tormented my entire nervous system also gradually faded, and finally.
[You have subdued the ‘Black Self’.]
[Your understanding of the Black Fang has increased.]
[You can now utilize ‘Pain’.]
A series of messages popped up.
***
“......Hooak!”
I shot up from the bed with a rough gasp.
The bed was damp; sweat was pouring down like rain.
I was in the dormitory. Just as I had lain down after training.
I immediately checked the time.
It was the exact moment I had lain down.
Neither the date nor the time had changed.
‘Was it a dream?’
Did I have a short dream in a fraction of time?
However, to dismiss it as a mere dream.
[You have subdued the ‘Black Self’.]
The system message had still not disappeared.
[Kee hee hee! Wriggle, wriggle! Slosh, slosh! Gooood!]
The Mimic, which had reappeared, was shouting as if pleased.
“Slosh, slosh......”
The flow I felt when the clone's black energy flowed into my body in the mental world.
I felt that strangely sloshing energy swirling throughout my body.
I already knew the name of this energy.
[You can now utilize ‘Pain’.]
‘Pain.’
In other words, did it mean I could use Pain?
Feeling a wave of nausea, I narrowed my brows and looked at the Black Fang sprawled on the bed.