Chapter 55: Orochimaru, the Mysterious Guardian

The spoon in my hand remained motionless over the bowl.

I clicked on the article.

According to the official statement, more than three hundred people had been pulled into the Overlap, which had covered the park and several nearby buildings. The area had been cordoned off shortly after the incident began, but the spatial distortion created by the core had prevented the Guardians outside from immediately reaching those trapped within.

Search and rescue teams had entered the area after the Overlap was cleared. Although most of the survivors had been safely evacuated, twenty-seven people were confirmed dead.

Twenty-seven people...

When I tried to chew the cereal in my mouth, the food that had tasted sweet only moments ago suddenly left a bitter taste behind. A lump formed in my throat, making it difficult to swallow as I slowly lowered the spoon into the bowl.

"This is all my fault..."

If I hadn’t used that four-star card, the Overlap never would have appeared.

But none of that changed the fact that twenty-seven people had died.

I was the one who chose the card.

Even if I hadn’t known what it was, I was the one who created the Overlap.

When I closed my eyes, the corpse I had seen on the ground appeared in my mind again. One of the white creatures had copied his appearance and sat beside his still-warm body. The first monster that had taken the form of a little girl and the elderly couple had probably worn the faces of people they had killed as well.

Maybe some of the creatures I had fought had been wearing the faces of those twenty-seven people I couldn’t save.

Taking a deep breath, I continued reading the article. Blaming myself now wouldn’t bring them back, but ignoring what had happened did nothing to ease the weight inside me either.

The article included several photographs taken after the Overlap was cleared. The first showed stone roads trapped beneath the ice and ruined buildings rising between the trees. In another, rescue workers carried stretchers in front of a broken wall.

I hadn’t seen any of those places.

The Overlap had been much larger than I thought, and the path I had followed made up only a small part of the area inside.

I quickly scrolled past the photographs. I didn’t want to keep looking at covered bodies or the faces of people searching for their loved ones.

When I reached the bottom of the page, another headline caught my attention.

[Who Is the Mysterious Guardian "Orochimaru"?]

I stared blankly at the screen for a moment.

Then I opened the article, and my mouth fell slightly open the moment I saw the large photograph.

The person in the picture was me.

Or rather, it was Orochimaru, whose entire body was covered in Umbrella’s black armor.

I stood among the rubble of the ruined temple with the black umbrella resting casually against my shoulder. The smoke rising behind me, the shattered stones, and the remnants of black flames around me made the image look like a promotional poster for a movie.

The photograph had been taken from such a perfect angle that anyone who didn’t know about my shattered ribs, broken arm, and the blood I had coughed up only seconds earlier would think I had done everything effortlessly.

"Which bitch took this photo?"

As I scrolled down, I found statements from eyewitnesses about the mysterious Guardian. The article said that no Guardian named Orochimaru existed in the official records, that the Nexus he had used couldn’t be classified, and that his identity had yet to be determined.

Some people believed I was an independent Guardian, while others claimed I had come from another country. The fact that I had completely concealed my face and left the scene before the official teams arrived only deepened the mystery surrounding me.

At least no one knew my real identity.

Except Cecilia...

The article also contained several short videos. In the first recording, I charged into the white creatures, smashed one monster’s head with my bat, and sent another flying backward with a kick. The footage had been recorded from a distance with a shaking phone camera, but my movements were still easy to make out.

The next video showed the black explosion inside the temple.

The screen was swallowed by darkness for a moment before most of the building shattered and exploded into the air. When the smoke cleared, I could be seen standing at the center of the explosion with my umbrella resting against my shoulder.

The number of comments beneath the video continued to rise.

[How did this guy remain standing in the middle of that explosion?]

[Does his Nexus allow him to control black matter?]

[That umbrella turned out to be tougher than the buildings.]

[Orochimaru cleared the entire Overlap by himself. He’s definitely a high-class Guardian.]

Without realizing it, I straightened my back slightly.

People mistaking me for a powerful Guardian wasn’t a bad thing. As long as they didn’t know how terrible my actual stats were, I could enjoy the misunderstanding.

However, the small amount of pride on my face vanished the moment I opened the final video.

The footage began with the ram-headed monster grabbing me by the face and slamming me into the ground. I took blow after blow for several seconds before my eyes suddenly drifted between the monster’s legs.

Knowing what was about to happen, I tried to close the video, but my finger was too late.

The moment I swung the bat with all my strength and struck the ram directly in the balls was replayed in slow motion. Whoever had added the dramatic sound effect hadn’t stopped there—they had also zoomed in on the monster’s expression.

Most of the comments had received even more likes than those beneath the other videos.

[BALL SLAYER!]

[Orochimaru’s secret technique: Bloodline-Ending Strike.]

[Anyone calling it dishonorable can go face that monster themselves.]

[Every one of that monster’s ancestors felt the pain at the same time.]

[I propose a new Guardian name: The Testicle Calamity.]

I slammed my fist against the table.

"You sons of bitches, did you really have to post that?!"

I had used that attack to survive. The only way I could reach the ram’s eyes was by immobilizing it for a few seconds, and I hadn’t exactly had the luxury of fighting honorably at the time.

Even so, millions of people didn’t need to watch that moment in slow motion.

I closed the news site in frustration and opened one of the social platforms. I had hoped people’s interest was limited to a few articles, but the moment I saw the trending list, I realized how pointless that hope had been.

[#Orochimaru]

[#UmbrellaGuardian]

[#BallSlayer]

[#AsLongAsEvilExistsICannotRest]

As I scrolled down the screen, more images of me appeared. Someone had edited black flames into my photograph after the explosion, while someone else had combined clips of me fighting the monsters with music to create a short video.

Fan pages for Orochimaru, who hadn’t even existed a few hours ago, had already been created.

One of the most widely shared posts featured the words I had said to Cecilia last night.

["As long as evil exists, I cannot rest." — Mysterious Guardian Orochimaru]

My eyes widened as I sat up straight.

"That kid!"

I had only said that to Cecilia. Since no one else had been around to hear us, she had definitely been the one who told the reporters.

"Did she seriously tell the reporters that?!"

A random line I had said while trying to look cool was now being shared by thousands of people. Some had created wallpapers featuring the quote, while others had added it to their profile descriptions.

Even worse, all of it genuinely looked impressive.

With the black armor, the umbrella on my shoulder, the smoke rising behind me, and that sentence written underneath, the person in front of me didn’t look like me at all. He looked like a mysterious Guardian who had dedicated his life to saving people, cleared dozens of Overlaps, and feared nothing.

In reality, that same person had been standing beside a frozen river only a few hours earlier, clutching his hair and saying he didn’t want to die.

Annoyed by how cool my own image looked, I shut down the computer. If I kept looking, I would either die of embarrassment or start enjoying all the attention.

The second possibility was far more dangerous.

The cereal in my bowl had already gone soggy. As I pushed it aside, I began thinking about the problems in front of me.

I needed to buy a new phone, make sure my angel was safe, contact Eris and explain why I had disappeared, and go cosplay shopping with her. I also needed to get a replacement key, examine the rewards the System had given me, and avoid getting caught while the entire city searched for the identity of the mysterious Guardian Orochimaru.

I covered my face with both hands and let out a long breath.

"I have way too much to do today."