Chapter 148
Beyond the shattered branch, there stood a person.
“Run!”
At some point, Kim Taekjin had limped into the room, gripping the crossbow with trembling arms. But he couldn’t hold on for long and dropped it. Even so, his scream… telling me to run, rang sharply in my ears.
I moved on instinct and leapt upward. As I grabbed onto the bark and climbed, I could hear the sound of massive arrows flying and Lee Hoin rushing in, batting away the leaves.
Clenching my teeth, I kept climbing. Before I knew it, Lee Hoin had come close and was covering me.
Blood began to seep once again over the scar on my palm that had previously torn open. If you asked whether it hurt, of course it did.
The flesh that had only just begun to heal was tearing open again.
‘If you ask whether it’s something worth worrying about…’
No. Not really.
I barely managed to climb up to its mouth and shoved the pill into the massive mouth that was muttering something.
Such a tiny pill… I couldn’t even be sure it was properly swallowed.
‘Did it go in properly?’
The Great Death Tree’s frantic movements suddenly stopped. The leaves that had been raining down violently, the branches that had been stabbing sharply, even the heavy roots that had been whipping around… all of it came to a complete halt.
—
[For now, it seems its hunger has been satisfied. Though who knows how long that will last.]
—
At that, I let out a breath and stepped back. The Great Death Tree stood still for a moment before slowly beginning to move again.
Unlike before, the sharp, blade-like sounds of the leaves clashing had diminished. They still collided, but no longer with that honed, cutting edge.
It sounded… calmer.
I climbed down slowly, exhaled, and sat on one of the roots at its base.
‘All this just for one fruit.’
What a mess.
Still, it had calmed down. That’s what mattered.
“You are…”
The enormous face of the Great Death Tree looked down at me.
“A human.”
Its expression was entirely different from before… relaxed.
“Did I… injure you?”
A sharp branch slowly lowered, as if apologizing. Just before it touched me, Lee Hoin raised his greatsword, and the branch stopped.
With eyes lowered as if understanding everything, the Great Death Tree spoke.
“How did you quell my hunger? It must have hurt… why did you show me such kindness?”
It wasn’t really a question born of curiosity, but of guilt.
“Just because.”
I said, lightly tapping Lee Hoin as if to signal it was fine. Lee Hoin, still tense, slowly stepped back.
“Just because? For something like this…”
The Great Death Tree’s large eyes moved between me, bleeding, and Kim Taekjin, limping in the distance while drawing his bowstring, and Lee Hoin, whose body bore several cuts.
“You’re injured.”
Its brows furrowed with regret. Slowly, its massive head lowered.
Clang–Clang!
The sound of blade-like leaves colliding rang out as its head came down, revealing a fruit deep within, like a ripe red apple.
“Take it. Heal yourselves. It will benefit you.”
Three fruits in total.
Lee Hoin used his greatsword to push aside the leaves and plucked them. He handed one each to Kim Taekjin and himself.
“Eat.”
I exhaled and bit into it slowly. As soon as I did, Lee Hoin followed.
My Strength, which had dropped to 2, instantly returned to 3.
My depleted vitality surged back, and torn flesh closed up. A faint itch spread across my hand.
At the same time, Kim Taekjin clenched his teeth and grabbed his leg.
The process of recovering vitality was always like this… the more severe the injury, the greater the pain.
I waited for him to calm down. Lee Hoin, like me, only had minor cuts, so he didn’t seem to suffer much.
“Are you alright?”
After enduring the pain of bones forcibly realigning, twisted muscles returning to normal, Kim Taekjin staggered to his feet.
“…Ha… yes…”
Lee Hoin supported him, and after I gave a final farewell to the Great Death Tree, we stepped back.
I didn’t know how long the effect would last, but judging from the narrator’s remark, “who knows how long it will last,” it clearly wouldn’t be long.
“Let’s go.”
We needed to move to the next place to obtain another item.
***
“Hah.”
Lee Hoin stared at the empty chamber in disbelief.
More precisely, at the massive, shriveled corpse, blackened as if burned to death.
“It’s been killed.”
Kim Taekjin said while drinking water… a simple statement of fact.
This was the third time. Third.
Places where items should have been… were empty, only corpses or wreckage remained.
No doubt about who had done it.
Of course, it was Sa Jaeheon.
‘Ha.’
We had deliberately gone in the opposite direction of where he would be, yet it was as if he already knew… he had already swept through everything.
Even when we skipped a few spots just in case, they were already cleared.
—
[As expected of the protagonist. No matter how much he hates the world, he is still the one and only person loved by it.]
—
It didn’t seem like he had predicted our movements; it was more like he had simply bulldozed everything at this scale.
Even if we had followed the standard route, it would already have been devastated.
‘…His clear speed is absurdly fast.’
Is this the power of an overpowered protagonist?
Now I understand why other characters lost their will or froze when facing him.
It wasn’t just his monstrous instincts or violence… he himself was overwhelming.
Excessively so.
“Damn, that bastard’s insane.”
Lee Hoin planted his greatsword into the ground like a support and raised a brow.
It really was impressive.
Cha Hyeongseo could easily pull the weight of two people, but even then, this kind of speed would be difficult.
We weren’t resting either.
“Hasn’t he already cleared everything by now? At this rate?”
It was a reasonable guess.
If Sa Jaeheon had already wiped everything out, then what we were doing now was just wasting time.
‘…Should we just go straight to the Story Merchant?’
Unless killed, the Story Merchant would definitely still be there.
So…
“Let’s go. We need to find the path.”
Let’s just meet the Story Merchant and leave.
—
[Well, now. Will the Story Merchant really still be there?]
[Story Merchants aren’t invincible, you know.]
—
A subtle unease crept in.
***
The path to the Story Merchant was eerily quiet.
As expected, Sa Jaeheon had cleared this place too.
Even knowing nothing would appear, the silence itself was oppressive.
‘I know nothing will come…’
But I couldn’t help staying tense.
It wasn’t the monsters that scared me.
It was Sa Jaeheon.
If he ambushed us, we might die before we could even react.
When we finally reached the end of the corridor, we heard someone humming on the other side.
Lee Hoin pushed open the wooden door with the tip of his greatsword. The one humming turned his head.
“Yahoo! New customers! Welcome, welcome!”
A fluffy creature with what looked like tiger or cat ears had a panel embedded in its face, displaying emoticons instead of expressions.
A cheerful emoticon.
[^▽^]
“I am a Story Merchant.”
With theatrical flair, it introduced itself.
“I buy and sell stories. Not just stories, items, materials, all sorts of things. Now then, would you like to browse my wares?”
At the mention of buying and selling items, Lee Hoin quietly set down his backpack.
“You buy too?”
“Ah, of course! I buy anything, even junk! After all, what’s junk to one person might be quite useful to another. Here’s a premium tip: in some areas, something like a cat’s paw pad is considered junk… but to witches or necromancers, it’s a prized material. It makes crafted items feel nice and soft!”
Wow, talkative.
Story Merchants weren’t a single entity but a species, so there were all kinds of personalities.
Some even adopted a “refuse to sell” concept… lying down and refusing to trade, while displaying rare items. Since the seller refused, the price became whatever they demanded.
“I have something I’d like to sell.”
Lee Hoin began to open his bag…
Crackle.
Crackle–crackle.
Thud.
From the cracked panel on the Story Merchant’s head, sparks flew as a dark green liquid splattered outward.
The Story Merchant… was dead.
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