Chapter 199: Happen

[Mental load increased by 5%]

[Mental Load: 50%]

Under the pale moonlight passing through the huge windows of the academy walls, the extra and the main character faced off as their eyes locked onto each other.

Cillian, who was in Aster’s position, had his eyes widened at the ridiculous situation being shown to him.

Him being killed by himself.

[Black Flag]

It was so ridiculous that the pain in his head, which he thought had subsided, worsened with each passing second.

[Mental load increased by 6%]

Aster’s third possible death was at the hands of his true self.

“What—Bleurgh…”

Before Cillian could even continue speaking, his true self plunged the blade of his sword deeper into his chest, making matters worse.

He didn’t let go because he couldn’t. His hands felt weak. Everything was fuzzy in Aster’s vision, and the pain in his head only added to the pain he was currently feeling.

Cillian pushed the blade deeper.

“Bluergh…”

‘Cillian’s’ head hung closer to the real Cillian as the blood that continued pouring from his mouth stained his true self’s clothes.

Frightening.

‘I’m… scared.’

If there were one word Cillian could use to describe this situation, with his head hung low against his true self’s arm, that word would be terrifying.

This whole situation was terrifying.

‘Why am I killing you… main character…?’

[Mental load increased by 7%]

Cillian, in the body of Aster, felt his hand turning cold, the situation so dreadful that he almost lost all his reasoning.

If not for the pain from his increasing mental load starting to get the best of him, he might have lost himself completely. Instead, it brought him back to his senses right away.

The pain and clarity were somehow mixing together, which was making Cillian think.

It was the only thing he could do at this point that the first thought that came to his mind was…

‘This damn fucking situation doesn’t make any sense.’

Throughout his entire time in this world, Cillian had never had any thoughts of killing Aster. At most, he had tried to avoid him at first because Cillian wasn’t interested in any of that hand-holding and power-of-friendship nonsense.

Well, there was one time back in the Academy when he had thought of killing him, but it was simply an afterthought that he immediately debunked because being greedy wasn’t good.

Even so, Cillian had completely broken the status quo between the two of them.

He had stopped avoiding the main character by asking for his help back at the Academy after seeing dozens of probes of himself fail.

He had to do so, and it did wonders in overcoming his potential death.

The second thought that came to mind was…

‘I’m not that irrational.’

Aster was a valuable piece to Cillian, whom he could use once in a while due to their shared experience with the Shepherds.

Killing him was… not going to help in any way.

It would not benefit him, no matter how many angles the death probes had shown him.

This led him to his final and third reason, which was…

‘In the first place, am I really looking at my real self?’

How can Cillian be sure that it is his real self just by looking through this scene alone?

Could it be someone pretending to be him?

Someone with a different face?

Or… was it really just him screwing up the advantage that Aster brought to him? Everything Aster could assist him with in destroying the Shepherds, simply because he existed?

[Mental load increased by 8%]

‘Fuck it… What is this?!’

‘Cillian’ struggled for a brief moment before using the last bit of his strength to break free from his true self’s grasp, pushing ‘himself’ away from him.

“Hah…!”

His breathing was ragged.

‘Cillian’ continued stepping backward, a trail of blood forming behind him as the real Cillian stared back at him with dead eyes.

“What are you doing… Cillian?!”

Letting out a short groan, Cillian hissed.

‘It fucking hurts…!’

Just as he managed to take several steps backward, Cillian tripped and fell to the ground, lying there as his breathing became even rougher.

Each second felt harder to breathe.

Even a simple walk wasn’t enough for ‘Cillian’ to remain standing.

“Hah… Hah…”

[Black Flag]

Lying on the floor as he struggled to keep his consciousness intact, Cillian continued looking toward his true self, who remained unresponsive.

“Stop… Death Flag… Probe.”

[Death Flag Probing couldn’t be stopped while the probed is on display.]

After stopping the Death Flag Probe from showing even more possible deaths that might befall Aster, Cillian’s gaze fell on himself.

‘It might not be you. It could be someone pretending to be you… but if there’s a chance that it really is you in the future… to do something like this… for you to do this shit…’

He slowly extended his hand forward toward himself, as if he was reaching out to him and begging him for help.

But it was far from that.

He really wasn’t reaching out for his help.

‘The me in this time…’

A soft smile started forming on his lips.

Even that was a struggle, but Cillian managed to do it.

“I…”

[Mental load increased by 9%]

His vision started becoming distorted.

A buzzing sound filled his head.

Every breath he took became even rougher, as the right words he wanted to utter became increasingly difficult to say.

“Will…”

But he continued saying them, even if it filled him with pain.

It was because he wanted to deliver the message to his future self, who didn’t appear to be normal in this scenario.

Four more words.

“Never…”

Three more.

“Let…”

Then two.

“This…”

Cillian only managed to say that much before he could no longer let his future self hear the reassuring words of his current self, who was watching this possible scene that might happen if he didn’t do anything to change it.

[Death Flag Probe #3 Ended]

He thought that he did, but the Death Flag Probe had already ended.

“Happen…”

That’s why, even though Cillian had already returned to the real world, he still muttered the word under his breath.

His head felt like it was being squeezed dry by invisible hands, his eyes already open as he looked at the current situation for himself, though they were exhausted and lifeless.

“Hey…!”

After coming back to reality, Cillian could see the shocked expression on Darwin’s face as he immediately approached him, grabbed a spare cloth from somewhere, and covered Cillian’s nose, which continued to bleed.

He didn’t even notice it.

“You’re bleeding from your nose and burning hot…! Just what the hell are you doing?!”

Shouting in a rather suppressed tone so that he wouldn’t wake Phillip and Vin, who were reacting from time to time, Darwin checked his condition by placing his hand on his head.

“Hah… Hah…”

[A scent of Death is within you]

Cillian looked at the scent of Death that appeared once more, right in the nick of time, making him smile.

Seeing it made him fully realize that he had returned.

His brain immediately began to work.

After waiting for several seconds as Cillian remained unresponsive, Darwin was about to leave the dorm to ask for a medic when Cillian suddenly grabbed his arm.

This forced Darwin to stop as he turned around and saw Cillian wearing a smirk.

But Cillian was smiling.

[Mental load: 80%]

“Listen to me here… Hah…”

“I’ll get you a medic here, then I’ll listen.”

“No…”

Cillian paused for a moment as he took a huge breath to stabilize his worsening condition before speaking.

“If you want to hunt Shepherds to the fullest, I will create a situation where you can annihilate them all.”

Darwin didn’t know why Cillian was worried about that when he had himself to worry about, but he suddenly halted when Cillian’s next words completely threw him off guard.

“Zeist is a traitor.”

The person that he had seen from Darwin’s third and last probe was Zeist, slicing his throat.

That silver ring was similar to the ring that Cillian had seen back in the abandoned house.

No, not similar. It was the same ring Zeist had been wearing back then.

“…”

Cillian then saw Darwin’s expression crack, and a small scoff escaped his mouth as he watched that reaction.

This situation was fun to reveal.

“I’m not someone who can order you around, but don’t confront him yet if you want to hunt Shepherds. You don’t need to be rash. A traitor still has some uses, especially for someone like Zeist who had no idea that he’d been discovered. Hehe, we’ll use that to our advantage.”

He finally decided in that moment.

Cillian would follow Darwin and intervene in some of this crazy bastard’s actions. In return, he would be able to achieve his own desirable results.

“And… don’t call anyone from outside. I’m totally fine. I just need to… rest.”

And the rest that he had told Darwin about, he did just that.

While he was lying down, Cillian truly wished that Darwin wouldn’t do anything rash, only to wake up and find the situation chaotic because of him.

An idea was already forming in his head.

And he liked it compared to his own idea about handling the Shepherds.

‘We’re the ones holding the advantage now, bastards.’

A dragon, a Berserk Darwin, and a traitor.

Cillian Sparrow killing Aster Densworth.

He was able to see all of this because of his abilities.

‘I’m going to have tons of fun with y’all.’

Cillian immediately went to rest, sleeping rather soundly that night.