Three days later, she arrived in the human realm.
The first to greet her was not a crowd of welcoming people or the clamor of Youkai, but rather Jeongsan Chang, who was reviewing the recent field play.
[Hidden Route: Simultaneous Subjugation Achieved]
[Hidden Route: Prince’s Return Achieved]
[Challenges]
[Simultaneously subjugate the Youkai Queen and Youkai General (Achieved)]
[Clear the field within the time limit (Achieved)]
[The bastard prince returns to the palace (Achieved)]
[Turning Point]
[The bastard prince seizes the power of the Youkai realm (Achieved)]
[Extermination Rank: SSS]
[Subjugation Rank: SSS]
[Challenge Rank: SSS]
[Overall Rank: 10★/3★ (+700%)]
[TOWARDS THE LEGEND]
[The difficulty level of all fields reaches its maximum.]
[Random and hidden events will occur “almost always.”]
[WARNING! WARNING!]
[Strong signs of a historical alteration have appeared (1/3)]
[If two more significant turning points are triggered, the planned outcome of the half-youkai realm may change.]
The potential for an unknown change in the outcome, one she could not predict.
To her, it was a distant, pointless tale of the far-off future.
But for the viewers who had seen multiple endings and knew how things could unfold,
this was a clue that would keep the community busy for at least a month.
‘It seems I’ve reached a strange place.’
With no recognition of the chat room, the silent swordsman’s attention shifted elsewhere.
[Story mode]
Upon arriving in the human realm,
the atmosphere here was notably different.
Compared to the usual fields filled with artificial objects,
this place had more natural elements, but the glaring artificial structures stood out much more.
The amount of garbage piled up was so immense, it was almost believable to think that an entire city had been destroyed.
Ash and dust scattered with the wind,
the smell of burning trash mixed in the air,
and beyond a mound of refuse,
there lay a massive trash heap.
[Random Ghosts]
These half-youkai were mindlessly scavenging,
eating whatever trash they could find and spitting it out without care.
At their feet, a narration appeared in front of the silent swordsman,
who had just opened her eyes in the middle of the path leading beneath the mound of trash.
[The dirtiest and most degraded of places, a landfill where no Youkai dare approach.]
[In the center of this place, the exit to the dimension door awaits.]
[This is the Queen's outpost for advancing into the human realm.]
Clank. Screech. Clank.
[The faint sound of a massive compactor crushing trash comes from somewhere.]
[What reason does the Queen have to make this filthy and disgusting den of cowards her base?]
[If you’re in a hurry, escape quickly.]
[If you’re curious about the secrets, wander through the trash heap.]
[Before your corpse joins the pile of burning, crushed trash.]
The trash heap seemed insignificant, but the warning sign hinted at something secretive hidden beneath its surface.
[Player mode]
Like a mountain of trash,
this heap formed from the ruins of a destroyed city.
“Cleared a field and didn’t even finish the broadcast?”
“Mom, are we going to space?”
“Did this person just become the King of the Game?”
“When do you even sleep? Haha.”
“We’re sorry, please stop playing the game, you madman.”
“Isn’t this like a return from the dead? I’m scared it won’t come back after this broadcast ends.”
“Isn’t this an NPC merchant map?”
“Yeah, it's a map for treasure hunting with a wandering merchant.”
“Wait, this isn’t a special quest field for repeatable quests?”
“But the treasure’s only visible if the wandering merchant is there, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then, why are we even here if we can’t find treasure?”
“Where’s the wandering merchant who would trade it?”
“No idea.”
Lost in the overwhelming size of the trash heap,
Ha Eun-eung wandered aimlessly for a while until she found something oddly familiar in the midst of the endless piles.
‘Why is this here?’
It was Boogeyman’s wardrobe.
Why?
Why would this wardrobe be here?
At first, it just seemed like a similar one, but upon closer inspection,
the signs of wear and tear, the marks and scratches on the metal, confirmed it was Boogeyman’s.
‘Did he change his home?’
Could it be that the Boogeyman, whose real body was inside the wardrobe, discarded his old one and replaced it with a new one?
If that was the case, could it be described as a kind of shedding, like insects do when they molt?
Knock knock.
When she knocked on the wardrobe, Boogeyman’s distinct, broken voice came from inside.
“Trapped.”
“?”
“Yŏryeok Bonginji-da. Here, I cannot, use my power.”
After that, Boogeyman fell silent.
Ha Eun-eung realized.
The Boogeyman, who had been floating aimlessly,
had been relying entirely on his yŏryeok to move.
According to his own words,
if this was indeed a Yŏryeok Bonginji-da zone,
then the Boogeyman, currently inside the wardrobe,
was an incapable Youkai who couldn’t move without his power.
“......”
She had fought alongside him and he was the only comrade who had come with her to the human realm.
Unless he abandoned her first, she had no intention of leaving him behind.
She waited, hoping he would move,
squatting by the wardrobe, standing against it as her legs grew tired,
knocking again, pounding, and kicking the wardrobe,
yet five minutes passed with no response from Boogeyman.
“......”
A growing realization set in.
If she didn’t abandon him,
she would have to drag this massive wardrobe around
in this vast trash heap.
It was so heavy it wouldn’t even fit into her inventory.
“Hahahaha”
“Boogeyman’s a baggage now.”
“He really became luggage haha.”
“Why did he even come?”
“Shouldn’t he just stop following? It’s so annoying hahaha.”
“Is she going to leave him?”
Trying to lift the wardrobe, Ha Eun-eung felt the weight of it,
starting from her fingertips, all the way up her arms, shoulders, waist, and legs.
The resentment filled her eyes as she glared at the wardrobe.
[▶Exiting the game.]
[▶Silent Swordsman has ended the broadcast.]
15,500 viewers were left stranded in space.
“What’s happening?!”
“I went to check the wardrobe and now my whole house is gone!”
“This is the worst timing for a broadcast to end!”
“Why do I feel bad even though I prayed for you to stop the broadcast?”
“I think we’re about to enter the lunch dimension.”
“Where did mom go?”
“This is a disaster scene haha!”
“You’re laughing? Laughing? Laughing?!”
“Yeah, laughing now? No one knows when the next stream will be, and it could be months!”
“Ah.”
“Hah.”
“Shit.”
“Mom, come back! Come back, mom!”
“That was Silent Swordsman’s last broadcast.”
“Suicide bombing! They’re suddenly bombing!”
“Broadcasts are like landmines!”
“How many hours did the last stream last?”
“Two hours in total.”
“How many months did that take?”
“Two months.”
“So, that’s a month per hour?”
“Is that so?”
“But this time, it was 64 hours?”
The chat, filled with cosmic horror, went silent.
It felt like watching a scene from a horror movie, the chilling truth sinking in.
“64 months???”
“5 years, 4 months???”
“Shit, is that even a person?”
“At that point, you’d forget your name!”
“If Silent Swordsman had any sense, they wouldn’t do this.”
“Would someone with sense communicate with V1 tools?”
“Ah... Ahhh...”
“Actually, that was the farewell photo, lol, showing a pretty face for the last walk.”
“Bastard.”
“No, this can’t be the end.”
“5 years, 4 months??? 5 years, 4 months????”
The viewers, realizing the forbidden truth,
became crazed,
a victim of cosmic horror.
The shock of the lost space travelers was greater than ever,
and the audience was swept away by a level of terror never before seen.
2.
After the game ended and Ha Eun-eung stepped out of the capsule,
she instinctively tied her hair up, her hand pausing as she tried to place a hairpin in it.
‘Did I go too far?’
The half-youkai realm was another world.
In the real world, there shouldn’t even be hairpins.
She thought she had firmly closed the door on her feelings for the prince,
but unconsciously, perhaps there was still some lingering attachment.
‘I might be a little tired.’
This wasn’t a special case.
It had always been this way when finishing the half-youkai realm.
The NPCs in this world felt so real,
too real to just be programmed actions.
They couldn’t possibly be considered as mere programmed characters.
‘What exactly is this half-youkai realm?’
From the point where she could use her internal power,
she couldn’t shake off the suspicion that this game was somehow connected to another world.
She already suspected, with certainty,
that this wasn’t just a fictional world,
but a place that actually existed.
‘How should I face this world?’
Her serious reflection on the half-youkai realm
led to another question:
‘How do other people play this game?’
She became curious.
Not how she saw the half-youkai realm,
but how others viewed it.
Were they also playing this game with such exhaustion and tension,
just like her?
[Search: Half-Youkai Realm Gameplay]
[Results: About 2,760,000 entries]
Gameplay videos of the half-youkai realm.
[Executioner 1 Death 3rd Clear]
[Swordsmanship Skill Tree Recommended]
[Full Body Blessing Play]
"?"
There was something missing in their gameplay.
"Die."
"Pretty good."
"Heh, got me."
The NPCs spoke in mechanical tones,
only giving short responses.
The bosses, once high-level AI,
now looked awkward, like puppets controlled by something else.
‘They really do look like zombies.’
Even with self-awareness, they couldn’t act freely,
controlled by some sorcerer.
In the martial world, they would call them "zombies,"
and she had once been a part of the Blood Sect, under the control of its cursed brand.
It wasn’t hard to figure out why.
At the start of each video,
the cause was blatantly written out.
[This strategy was started after the 2nd death.]
[Beginners should clear the Boss Subjugation with at least 3 deaths for easier strategies.]
[You know the difficulty drops after dying, right?]
The difficulty drops upon death,
leading to weakened boss patterns and degraded AI.
The NPCs she had fought against,
who she had considered real,
were rejected by other players who didn’t want emotional exchanges or complex communication.
What they wanted was a game with manageable difficulty,
a playstyle that matched their own skill level,
not a real experience.
‘No one will understand this feeling.’
Ha Eun-eung felt the weight of loneliness.
In the martial world, in the half-youkai realm,
and even in the real world, she had always ended up alone.
With her sword resting on the wall,
she gazed at the window outside,
feeling the loneliness growing deeper as the sun slowly set.
She was reminded of life’s transience and the futility of existence.
Then, she was interrupted by a notification.
Jua-Young: Sis!! Are you free right now??
Ha Eun-eung: What’s going on?
Jua-Young: Let’s go buy clothes! I’ve been noticed everywhere, and I haven’t been able to do anything outside recently.
The only person who could speak to her comfortably,
Jua-Young, reached out.
Ha Eun-eung: Sounds good.
Jua-Young: Nice!!
Jua-Young: (Seal clapping photo)
Jua-Young: (Dog wagging its tail photo)
Jua-Young: (Selfie with a serious expression)
Jua-Young: Then, come by here by 9 PM! I’ll coordinate your outfit from head to toe, so be prepared!!
She wasn’t even buying clothes for herself but for someone else.
Was it really such a joyful task?
She didn’t usually enjoy shopping for clothes,
but...
‘Seeing her so excited, I don’t want to disappoint her.’
A soft smile crept across Ha Eun-eung’s lips.
This chapter is updat𝓮d by freēwebnovel.com.