novelraw Chapter 59 : Chapter 59
Chapter 59 : Chapter 59
Chapter 59: Curse
“......What is his condition?”
A low, heavy voice came from somewhere.
Soon, another voice followed.
“Both pulse and blood pressure are stable. He will be fine as long as he doesn't overexert himself yet.”
The conversation drifted through my hazy consciousness.
The smell of disinfectant brushed my nose.
As I forcibly lifted my eyelids, a white ceiling caught my vision.
‘Where am I?’
Slowly rolling my head, I saw the shape of a medical office. It was a hospital bed.
‘Did I collapse?’
I remembered up to the moment Stage 4 started, and converting ‘Pain’ into electric shock pain and releasing it.
After that, it was just a blank, like cut film.
“Ugh.”
As a groan escaped, a message window popped up before my eyes.
[Tactical Manual]
[You have realized the utilization of Pain.]
[Pain: You can convert the energy swimming inside your body, ‘Pain,’ into a specific form of pain. The types of pain you can reproduce increase based on experience.]
“......Huh?”
Ding-!
Messages appearing consecutively.
[Pain]
- Electric Shock: Converted into the pain of current.
- Forging: Converted into the pain of battering the body.
.
.
.
‘Converted into pain?’
So, in other words, does this mean I can self-harm with this power?
‘Is it crazy?’
I glossed over it earlier because I was distracted.
But looking at the status window explanation, it became clear.
Pain literally gives me ‘pain,’ and my bizarre constitution converts that pain back into power.
Put differently, Pain meant a power that literally tortured myself.
I looked down at the Black Fang, utterly dumbfounded.
This cursed sword bastard, what kind of power did it give me?
At that moment, while sitting blankly, a shadow cast over the bed where I lay.
“Oho, you regained consciousness early.”
The identity was Instructor Kang Mooseong.
At the same time, a scene vividly resurfaced in my brain like a lightning strike.
‘─Stop it, you son of a bitch.’
I clearly remembered saying that to someone, and I realized that someone was Kang Mooseong.
‘......Ah.’
I'm screwed.
I reflexively sat up and knelt on the hospital bed.
“Uh-oh, Cadet Ryu Jinwoo! It’s dangerous if you overexert yourself!”
The school nurse urgently grabbed my arm, but my priority was different right now.
Surviving in front of the instructor whose temper I had provoked.
“It seems you remember.”
Kang Mooseong’s voice was unexpectedly calm.
“Don't worry about it. It was like an accident.”
Although he spoke coolly, a thick vein was bulging on his forehead.
[Kang Mooseong]
[Displeasure, Anger]
‘Damn it......’
Kang Mooseong approached me and slowly continued.
“It was an accident. Yes. But it was refreshing. Because no one has ever called me a son of a bitch before.”
“Haha......”
Avoiding Kang Mooseong’s narrowly slitted eyes, I bowed my head deeply.
“......I apologize.”
“Right, that’s enough. What's the big deal about hearing a little curse.”
He kept mentioning it for something that wasn't a big deal.
However, I didn't voice those words.
I knew he was already angry, so there was no need to fan the flames.
A brief silence hung in the air.
In the atmosphere that had settled down to some extent.
“How is your body?”
Kang Mooseong broke the silence and asked.
“I think...... it's okay.”
“What about your heart?”
“My heart? I do feel a slight tightening sensation.”
“I see.”
A moment of silence.
Kang Mooseong seemed to be pondering something deeply, then finally spoke.
“First of all, your performance in this training was truly outstanding. I couldn't help but praise it.”
“Performance?”
“Yes, cutting down all the targets. In an instant. It was amazing.”
“......Targets?”
My memory was faint.
Converting Pain into electric shock, dropping the sword due to that pain, and grabbing it again—after that, it was blank.
The remark that I had cut down dozens of targets was unexpected.
Did I swing the sword while unconscious?
Kang Mooseong nodded with satisfaction and patted my shoulder.
But that was only for a moment.
“However, there was one problem.”
He narrowed his brow and continued.
“For a moment, your heart stopped. To be precise, it was on the verge of stopping.”
The words flowing from Kang Mooseong’s mouth were shocking.
‘My heart almost stopped?’
I barely closed my mouth, which refused to shut, and looked down at my chest.
A tingling sensation still remained.
“This is the first time I’ve seen a case like this. You weren't hit by anyone, nor did you suffer any damage, yet your heart stopped purely while swinging a sword.”
“......”
“Do you have any idea why? It would be trouble if something similar happened again. Like a history of heart disease.”
“That’s not really......”
Probably not. Actually, I don't know well.
Because I don't know the details of the past of this body, ‘Ryu Jinwoo,’ which I possess.
I didn't inherit his memories, nor was he the type to keep a diary. He had no family either.
After possessing him, I was too busy with quests and training to even check.
“I suppose so. Since there were no medical records either. I asked just in case.”
“Are you saying I collapsed while swinging my sword?”
“Yes, you cut all the targets, and at that moment, your heart stopped. It was a terrifying event. You were safe thanks to immediate emergency measures.”
Safe, but it meant I almost died.
Feeling a chill run down my spine, I looked at the status window.
[Pain: You can convert the energy swimming inside your body, ‘Pain,’ into a specific form of pain.]
Black Fang, you bastard, what kind of power did you give me?
At that moment, Kang Mooseong’s gaze also turned to the Black Fang.
He spoke calmly.
“This accident, that might be the cause.”
“Excuse me......?”
“A healthy boy with no history of heart disease suddenly had his heart stop. Coincidentally, just a few days after acquiring the ‘Cursed Sword’.”
He paused for a moment, then added in a low voice.
“No matter how much I think about it, no scientific cause comes to mind. But if it's a ‘curse’...... it makes sense.”
His gaze staring intently at the Black Fang.
‘......He's not wrong.’
The reason my heart almost stopped was probably because I converted too much Pain into suffering at once.
Pain is a power that emerged after acquiring the Black Fang. So, the cause ultimately circles back to this damned sword.
The problem is that I can't guarantee that the current me can fully control that power.
To be blunt, another cardiac arrest might occur if I make a wrong move.
“So, if the Black Fang is the cause, some measure is needed.”
“A measure, you say?”
“Yes.”
If it's a measure, what kind of measure is he talking about?
Just as I was wondering, he took something out of his pocket.
“This is it.”
What he took out was a glove.
A glove emitting a pure white light.
On the back of the hand, a pattern was engraved that looked like thin, intricate chains intertwined and wound around each other.
A shape of unbreakable links interlocking to form a circle.
I instinctively knew the moment I saw it.
That this was not a simple item.
Kang Mooseong held out the glove and said calmly.
“This glove has the effect of resisting curses. I brought it directly from the Central Order. It will probably be effective.”
I hesitated for a moment, then accepted the glove and put it on my hand.
Snap- The feeling of it adhering to my hand.
It felt as if someone covered and held my hand with both hands.
And soon, a somehow warm and cozy feeling spread. Is it just an illusion?
And at that moment, the energy that had been wildly stirring inside my body calmed down.
The flow that had been sloshing and swirling uneasily until now felt stabilized.
I stared blankly at my gloved hand.
‘This actually has an effect.’
Surprise and admiration.
And at the same time, a realization suddenly flashed.
‘......Wait, the flow of Pain subsides when I wear this?’
Then Pain really was a ‘curse.’
Red pill swallowed in an instant.
I looked down at the glove on my hand in a daze.
Even the flow circulating in my body began to feel ominous somehow.
“Do you feel anything?”
Kang Mooseong asked with his hand on my shoulder.
I clenched and unclenched my fist and answered carefully.
“Uh....... The tightening sensation in my heart has decreased.”
“Is that so? That's a relief. Consider it a minimum preventive measure. It should prevent the curse from taking your life.”
Then Kang Mooseong’s gaze turned to the Black Fang again.
“If the Black Fang was truly the cause...... your goal is clear. To become able to fully control the Black Fang. Then this guy's curse won't be able to take your life. Rather, that curse will become your strength.”
Kang Mooseong stroked his chin as if intrigued and assessed the situation.
I also followed his gaze and looked at the Black Fang.
A strange guy that suddenly got caught in my hand and stuck to me.
[Kee hee hee! Soft! Fluffy! Smooth!!!]
And even the strange crazy guy who was stuck to me from the beginning.
‘What a fate.’
One guy causes cardiac arrest.
One guy throws a full-body pain party.
A miraculous combination has been completed.
***
A few days later.
A large cafe outside the academy.
Soft sunlight filtered through the floor-to-ceiling windows.
It was bustling with students and citizens, and the scent of fruit lingered along with the subtle aroma of coffee.
My group occupied a window seat in a corner, lounging around.
On the table, scattered were an iced Americano with melting ice floating, a sweet latte, and a half-eaten dessert plate.
Seol Hayun had a book open.
The sound of calmly turning pages served as appropriate white noise.
Do Haru, who was fiddling with her phone, sucked up the drink she was holding, glanced at me, and opened her mouth.
“So you won't suddenly collapse if you wear that, right?”
Do Haru pointed at my hand with a straw in her mouth.
The glove with geometric decorations of connected rings on the back of the hand exuded a mysterious aura.
“For now, they say so.”
My answer was calm.
The incident where I collapsed during specialty training was officially concluded as ‘accumulated fatigue.’
If the fact that the Black Fang's curse was the cause spread publicly, it was obvious things would get complicated for me. It was Kang Mooseong's consideration in his own way.
However, Do Haru and Seol Hayun had already noticed before I even said anything.
Both knew that the Black Fang was bound to me, and more than anything, Do Haru had experienced that curse firsthand.
“Anyway, I told you that sword is really strange! Do you know how much I suffered last time?”
Do Haru shook her head from side to side and sighed.
By last time, she meant the incident where she held onto the Black Fang for a long time, got cursed, and was trapped in the bathroom for 30 minutes.
Although the curse didn't have a name, if it did, wouldn't it have been something like ‘Curse of Stomachache’?
“I will never touch it again. Never......”
Perhaps recalling the memory of that time, Do Haru shrank back and distanced herself from me, chair and all.
‘You’re blatantly avoiding it, but I’m wearing it on my waist......’
Even the curse emitted by that guy is circulating inside my body.
Under the name of Pain, ready to turn into suffering at any time.
Even at this moment, it was flowing, only suppressed to some extent.
I couldn't get used to the sloshing sensation at all. Damn it.
“Still, it’s a relief that there is at least a way to control it.”
Seol Hayun said calmly while turning a page.
Certainly, after wearing the curse resistance artifact Kang Mooseong gave me, the unstable energy swirling around my body subsided to some extent.
I tried using Pain a few more times after that, but cardiac arrest or fainting didn't happen.
What I confirmed during that time is as follows.
The Black Fang's curse is converted into pain.
And that pain is converted into strength according to my constitution.
If I think of the stat I want to raise, the flow within my body generates the corresponding pain.
Agility corresponds to electric shock pain, Strength to pressure pain and fracture pain, Stamina to fatigue, etc.......
Since the pain rushes in real-time, it felt like dying every time I used it.
Amidst this, should I say it's fortunate?
The pain given by Pain did not lead to actual injury.
If converted to a burn, I only felt the pain of a burn, but no marks remained on the skin.
The same applied to the pain of broken bones and electric shock. My body was fine.
It only perfectly transmitted that vivid pain to my senses.
‘Was the cardiac arrest because it was excessive and caused shock?’
I unconsciously pressed my chest.
The memory of the moment my heart almost stopped was still vivid.
In any case, I decided to share the truth that ‘my heart almost stopped due to the Black Fang’s curse’ only with Instructor Kang Mooseong, the medical staff, and a very few instructors.
It's an unknown phenomenon that hasn't been fully identified yet, and there's a high possibility it might attract the attention of monsters or other villains.
‘......Actually, I’m already entangled with a villain group because of Balzac.’
There is a group of lunatics who mistake me for Balzac.
One guy even came in person, pretended to be my uncle, and left.
‘Bremen.’
A crazy group that covets relics and artifacts even to the point of terrorizing government agencies.
‘If those guys find out about the Black Fang's curse, they'll definitely go crazy for it.’
The Black Fang had very high value as a special artifact.
It's famous as an item shrouded in mystery, and I'm in a position where I'm using the curse of such a Black Fang.
To that psychopathic group, I would be a subject worth researching with fire in their eyes.
Regarding them, there hasn't been any news since Jack took care of Seo Seungbeom's gang.
Perhaps from their perspective, since I'm already a colleague who successfully infiltrated the academy, their calculation is not to make trouble unnecessarily.
But we are bound to run into each other someday.
Above all, when incidents occur in the future, I won't be able to help but be conscious of their gaze.
‘I'll have to keep pretending to be Balzac to them.’
Because if they find out by any chance that I'm not Balzac, I don't know when my neck might be severed without anyone knowing.
Although I managed to defeat Balzac somehow, Balzac was the weakest among them simply in terms of martial power.
If I end up fighting the others, and furthermore, turn that entire group into enemies?
‘Just imagining it gives me the creeps.’
I shook my head.
Anyway, since I'm living a normal academy life now, I just need to focus on what's in front of me.......
“Hey, hey, Jinwoo. Isn't that your uncle?”
“......What?”
I turned my head.
The cafe door pushed open, and a man dressed in a black suit entered.
A familiar face.
[Jack]
The familiar name that appeared in the Eye of Deception.
The moment I resolved to focus on what was in front of me, the guy appeared right before my eyes.
‘Fuck.’
It was driving me crazy.