“It’s easy for you to say!”
Hearing Kim Sinhwa shout, Gong Isu moved on reflex.
“Sir. If you don’t step back further, I can’t guarantee your safety.”
Can he do it? Yang Seoho isn’t an easy opponent.
“Shut up. Zip it.”
Gong Isu perceives the world differently from others. For example—the message currently being output is something he can also see.
“Looks like that explanation isn’t for me. So I’ve become an observed subject after all?”
Gong Isu thrusts his left hand—packed with the power of destruction—toward Yang Seoho—
[crack!]
But Yang Seoho was faster.
“Ghk—”
“Senior!”
Kim Sinhwa’s yell sounds far away.
As Yang Seoho’s left fist smashes the clock on Gong Isu’s head, her left elbow slams his heart—and her right hand, like a separate predator of its own, clamps his wrist and rips the arm clean off.
[rip-snap]
A foul sound and searing pain. With it, the sensation of the left arm vanishes.
It’s fine. I can fix this much with my right hand. But ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) Yang Seoho’s attack isn’t over.
She twists on her right foot as a pivot and moves her left.
[crack]
Gong Isu feels an irreparable comminuted fracture in his spine—and realizes too late that his right knee is bent backward.
“Too much.”
Kim Sinhwa welcomed the circumstance that let Yang Seoho exert maximum power—but that very constraint has, perversely, turned into Gong Isu’s misfortune.
If Yang Seoho could truly go all out, she wouldn’t need such sadistic strings of techniques.
They’ve crossed hands once before, so Yang Seoho knows how dangerous Gong Isu is. It was a foolish choice. Bubble Head.
“I know.”
You are not Feast’s Offering.
“I said I know.”
But I’ll give you a chance.
[System: Unique trait of ‘Abyssal Being: 71ck-70ck M4n’ — ‘Re;Wind’ activates.]
“It’s easy for you to say!”
“Sir. If you don’t step back further, I can’t guarantee your safety.”
Can he do it? Yang Seoho isn’t an easy opponent.
Gong Isu feints a retreat, drawing his body back as if yielding, and tries to touch the wall with his left hand.
[slash!]
“Hm—”
“Senior!”
Blood fountains from below his elbow before he knows it.
[crunch-snap!]
Without stopping, Yang Seoho rams the torn-off left hand straight into Gong Isu’s chest.
“Damn.”
You are not Feast’s Offering.
“I said I know.”
But I’ll give you a chance.
[System: Unique trait of ‘Abyssal Being: 71ck-70ck M4n’ — ‘Re;Wind’ activates.]
“It’s easy for you to say!”
“Sir. If you don’t step back further, I can’t guarantee your safety.”
Can he do it? Yang Seoho isn’t an easy opponent.
“I surrender.”
With that, Gong Isu raises both hands. It’s a ploy to induce carelessness.
The real aim is to set the head into a more aggressive configuration—
[KA-BOOM!]
There’s nothing where a head should be.
Yang Seoho didn’t relax. Closing in faster than Gong Isu could register, she smashed his head in a single blow—sending it flying.
“Senior!”
The clock head is driven into the wall and utterly pulverized.
“Harsh woman. I said I’d surrender.”
“A diligent public servant, that’s all. You had no intention of surrendering.”
They’ve crossed hands before, so she knows how dangerous Gong Isu is.
Without stopping, Yang Seoho chops down at his clavicle with a knife-hand.
[squelch-crack]
Bone and muscle mush like pudding—his heart is destroyed in an instant.
“As expected, brute force.”
You are not Feast’s Offering.
“I said I know.”
But I’ll give you a chance.
[System: Unique trait of ‘Abyssal Being: 71ck-70ck M4n’ — ‘Re;Wind’ activates.]
Already the tenth time.
Gong Isu glances down at his abdomen with her fingers buried in it and thinks:
“What thinking? All I can think is that it hurts.”
So worthless a challenge it makes his anger at Kim Sinhwa a moment ago feel silly.
He tried every countermeasure that came to mind, but Yang Seoho tore through Gong Isu’s body with unstoppable momentum.
He suddenly recalls what she declared to him before he was admitted to Paju Central Hospital.
“No need to repeat it. I remember.”
If we meet outside the hospital—she’d kill him without warning.
Years have passed; you’d think she might forget—but she really is a conscientious public servant.
“Shut up.”
You are not Feast’s Offering.
“I said I know.”
Are you going to keep going?
“I give up. I’ve done enough.”
A good decision. For now, lie low.
[System: Unique trait of ‘Abyssal Being: 71ck-70ck M4n’ — ‘Re;Wind’ activates.]
“It’s easy for you to say!”
“Sir. If you don’t step back further, I can’t guarantee your safety.”
“Yes. I’ll retreat.”
Ah, I’m really going to lose it.
I ground my teeth as I watched Gong Isu brazenly back away.
“Junior. It’s too late anyway. There won’t be a next attempt. People have already stopped thinking about pasta.”
True enough.
Behind Yang Seoho, twelve guests look at me.
Among them, some like Gaf and Thirteen still keep friendly eyes on me, but they’re in no position to help—and most wear faces tinged with resentment and anger.
Wrong call.
I’ve lost the initiative completely.
If there’s no hope for pasta, there’s no repeating.
And even for Yang Seoho, there’s no way she can destroy an endless stream of new anomalies in a confined space.
Meaning, the moment someone dies, [One Who Tears the Veil] will begin to act in earnest—and I’ll be devoured by him.
“Huh, wait?”
Suddenly—I catch a strange nuance in what Gong Isu said earlier.
[KA-THOOM!]
The noise of Yang Seoho smashing the hands budding from the window.
Normally I’d declare a rule about staying away from the windows, but as Gong Isu said, that’s meaningless now.
I use the opening to ask him:
“Hold up. Hey, senior. There won’t be a next attempt?”
“Yeah.”
An oddly indifferent tone.
“Oh—did you give up?”
“I did.”
“Going back to the past, then?”
“I’ll watch a bit more.”
Me, the current failed Fourth Kim Sinhwa—or even lower...
In other words, he’s counting me as a discard for the next attempt.
He’ll observe to the end, then go back and rewrite everything that led here.
“Senior.”
“Why?”
“You’re quitting too easily—what if all of this was the plan from the start?”
“What?”
Gong Isu looked at Kim Sinhwa.
The mask hides his face, but Kim Sinhwa is definitely smiling.
It’s the smile Gong Isu saw many times—earlier than now, or later than now.
“Shut up. No, not that.”
Kim Sinhwa raises an index finger to cover the corner of his mouth.
“Senior, if you’re not going to do anything anyway—then just watch quietly. Don’t rewind at some useless moment.”
If the situation were a little freer—
I could try something else, but both my thinking and my mana are maxed just keeping this space stable.
“I’ve got leeway for, what, two spells at best?”
Tsk—I wanted to end it with pasta if possible...
There’s no way around it against that hard-headed public servant.
I call out to Yang Seoho as she demolishes a fresh anomaly.
“Nuna.”
“Nuna?”
“Ma’am.”
“Ma’am?”
“Officer.”
“Why?”
“I wasn’t lying. It’s really dangerous.”
“Hm.”
“So, what I mean is—”
“If you wiggle your fingers without permission, I’ll start with your mask and split you end to end into two pieces.”
“Eek! The mask didn’t do anything wrong! The mask!”
“Fine. I’ll give you a chance. Say what you were going to say. For reference, this is the last chance. Pull anything and I’ll attack with no warning.”
I push mana into the pocket watch I got from Gong Isu and say:
[viiiiiiiinnnnng!]
“The pasta is real. Pasta will save us.”
“I’ll note that down as your last words.”
Sensing my mana shift, Yang Seoho launches at me just like she said she would.
[vwooom!]
I provoked her to attack anyway.
The timing is perfect; the spell fires without a hitch.
[Manager Privilege: Space Reconfiguration]
My view flips in an instant.
She’s repeated this enough times that she doesn’t make the same mistake and crash into a wall like before—
But the place I moved to is a spot Yang Seoho can’t attack!
“You bastard!”
“Ha! Go ahead, try to hit me!”
[shra-ra-ra-ra-rap!]
My left hand unfurls like a snake.
“Aaagh!” “What are you doing!” “Why me too!?”
In a flash, I split my left hand into dozens of tendrils and wrapped the twelve people.
The twelve guests squirm and chatter in protest. But they can’t break free!
“Taking hostages again? Is that the only trick you know?”
Ah, in Buyeo too I took the Foreigners’ Administration officers hostage, didn’t I?
[Despicable Villain Kim Sinhwa]—can’t say it’s undeserved.
“No, I can do other things too.”
Using my left hand—made of the [Guts] of [Scaled Stratagem]—as a medium, I cast.
[shra-ra-rap!]
[Mental Erosion]
[Voice of Authority]
This space is saturated with the mental contamination effect triggered by [One Who Tears the Veil], so artificial brainwashing doesn’t take well.
That’s why I kept hammering the pasta story so hard.
But what if the message stays aligned with the trend so far?
For example, how about this:
“Sir Yang Seoho will prepare the pasta—and save us!”
“Pa-pasta?”
“Sir Yang Seoho!?”
“To save us!?”
“Genovese pasta?”
“Sir Yang Seoho!”
A wave of manufactured hope sweeps the guests.
The fervor is so intense—it startles even Yang Seoho for a moment.
“What did you do?”
“Simple. I gave them hope.”
“Hope?”
“Ahahahahaha! Yes, hope! At last it’s in place! Everyone is wishing for the same thing without a shred of doubt!”
This isn’t something simple brainwashing could have done.
If it were, I’d have used it from the start.
“And if I’d known Yang Seoho would show up, I wouldn’t have had to struggle this much either.”
Again: I’m not the one calling people here.
I’m protecting the ones [One Who Tears the Veil] keeps shoving in at random from dying—
“Making them want the same thing I do.”
That is my victory condition.
To ruin my plan, [One Who Tears the Veil] probably dragged in Yang Seoho.
As he expected, she acted more Yang Seoho than anyone—and with my power, I couldn’t make her want what I want.
“She even stole the hearts of the people I barely managed to rope in with her relentless action and charisma.”
If I can’t take people’s hearts back from her?
If I can’t beat her?
“Well then, if I get on Yang Seoho’s side, I’ll be on the winning side.”
Now, in these people’s heads, Yang Seoho is the idol who will save the world—with pasta.
“Ma—Magus. Hostages, tentacles, brainwashing... you look a little like a villain.”
“A little”—Jang Hyundeok is generous as ever.
“You... nuts... Was this your plan from the beginning? Even fooling me?”
Gong Isu mutters in disbelief.
“What are you talking about? Gong Isu, you were fooled too?”
I don’t know what bad blood lies between them—but now even between Gong Isu and Yang Seoho, a certain common understanding has formed.
Horror or anger toward the wicked, despicable Kim Sinhwa.
“Hm, sorry, but I’ll have to say something I don’t mean.”
Steeling myself lightly, I said to Gong Isu and Yang Seoho:
“Ahahahahaha! Now I can explain everything! Yes! I fooled you all from the start! I was waiting for exactly this situation! The rules were nothing but bait to grab people’s attention! All we needed anyway was fierce fixation and a single shared focus! Unity! Yearning! Desire! A unified will tied to one point!”
“Even me? Junior, me too?”
Gong Isu’s rebuttal.
“Yes! Now you see it, don’t you?”
“For what!? Why go this far!?”
“For what? I told you from the beginning.”
I raised my right hand—pointing at the ceiling, no, the sky.
“For pasta!”
“Pasta!?”
“Pa...sta?”
Now not only Yang Seoho but even Gong Isu has a powerful image and awe for that thing called [pasta] stamped into his mind.
I didn’t stop.
“Now then, great Sir Yang Seoho who will save us through pasta! Strike down that shameless abyssal being who trapped us here—and let’s complete the pasta!”
