Chapter 173

Name, who had stopped the elevator to avoid running into a stalker, walked up the stairs to the 13th floor.

Seeing the front door ajar, she stepped inside Yoonseul’s home.

Name’s gaze slowly shifted from right to left.

The inside of the house was a mess.

Being a luxury apartment, it didn’t catch fire even after using fire magic, but there were soot marks all around the furniture.

“Hah… Hah… I should have taken the elevator after all.”

Even though she claimed her stamina had improved, it still wasn’t easy.

“What are you doing? Why are you still in Yoonseul’s house?”

She spoke to the overly quiet space.

As soon as she finished her sentence, a man in a coat stepped out from the master bedroom. His attire was unsuitable for early summer.

His unkempt hair and a few days’ worth of stubble added to his disheveled appearance.

“Who are you…? Are you Rika’s little sister?”

However, the strange man also looked quite flustered.

It was understandable, as the girl’s small stature made any threatening attempt sound harmless.

After receiving Name’s gaze for a while, the man seemed to recall something and suddenly widened his eyes.

“Wait a minute, you’re No Name, aren’t you? How did you…?”

The man couldn’t help but doubt his own eyes.

This avatar was No Name, who had appeared several times during the cooperative event with Kariri.

For a moment, the strange man even thought he was in a virtual reality.

“Well, you seem to understand.”

Name’s voice oozed with rage.

“Before the police arrive, you’re going to get beaten to the point of death.”

Not a hint of emotion was present on the girl’s face as she uttered the chilling words.

“You better hope the police arrive quickly.”

The man furrowed his brow at Name’s words.

“Police? What have I done to be reported to the cops!”

“Isn’t it obvious? Look at the mess you’ve made.”

A brief silence fell.

Even in that moment, Name was devising a plan on how to subdue the man.

He was presumed to use fire magic. Though he was of ordinary adult male stature, his power was evidently not weak.

‘Let’s assume he can use up to 3 circles, or considering the worst-case scenario, even 4 circles.’

Name, after all, had the body of a child barely eight years old.

Thinking back on her experiences from the game would surely lead to disaster.

Reflecting on having just used the knot of Arabesque in a full-circle event, she had to conserve her mana.

She concocted a spell that would use as little mana as possible, anticipating a long battle.

[Crafting: Musashi-Mol – Iboten Mountain Synthesis]

[3 Circle Cast: Hallucination]

“You… you’re also trying to kill me, sent by Chae Na, aren’t you? You thought I would let you cast!”

The man swallowed nervously. He didn’t expect the girl to know how to use magic.

He decided to push aside complicated thoughts for a moment. His instincts told him this was undoubtedly a signal to commence battle.

The man lunged at Name with a growl, trying to stop her spell.

Transferring the embers flickering at his feet to his fists, he swung mercilessly at the spot she was occupying.

Bwoom—

His fist sliced through the air.

At the moment his fist was about to make contact, Name’s form blurred, and a cloud of smoke replaced where she had been.

“Swinging that slowly, do you really think you can hit me?”

A mocking voice came from behind the man.

The little girl had disappeared, and now a woman with an exotic appearance sat cross-legged on the bed in the master bedroom.

“Wh… who…?”

“You should be more familiar with this appearance, it’s strange.”

With long, slender limbs, beautiful blonde hair cascading down to her waist, and glowing amber eyes, this was a figure the man had seen before.

Name’s character from the World of Arseria.

“Ha! So that hallucination was just that, and this is your real form? Honestly, this one feels more realistic.”

The man nodded slightly. It was ridiculous for a little girl to possess such magic.

This was evidently all a setup to lower his guard from the start.

This time, the man ignited flames in both fists, raising the output temperature even higher.

The blue flames flickered out, charring the wallpaper in the bedroom black.

“Well, which one is real? Originally, I was more comfortable with this side, but recently I’ve adapted quite a bit to the child side as well.”

“Stop the wordplay…!”

The man charged at Name again.

With their heights aligned, it was easier for him to aim for her face and deliver a blow.

Despite his intention to shatter her jaw with certainty, the woman seemed unfazed.

‘Why isn’t she moving?’

That question bloomed in his mind. Perhaps she had a hidden agenda that complicated his thoughts.

Thwack—!

The full force of his strike was unexpectedly stopped easily by the girl’s delicate hand, and his eyes widened in shock.

“How… how could this be?”

“Too weak. I worried for nothing.”

“What did you say? Weak?”

Name poked at the man’s sore spot.

He had never been called weak by anyone before.

“Yeah, too weak. The maid who lived in our house when I was about twelve was stronger than you.”

“Shut that mouth!”

“Strength isn’t meant to be wielded that way. Now, kneel.”

Name commanded in a low voice.

“What…?”

The man’s expression contorted in extreme disbelief.

However, soon the overwhelming wave of fear began to creep into his eyes.

‘What is this… what’s going on?!’

Breath quickening, his body began to tremble.

The terrifying feeling of being devoured by a massive darkness overcame him.

Thinking he’d die if he didn’t kneel right away, his knees slowly bent.

“Good, that’s nice. It was difficult to look up at you. Now, lie down.”

“Grrhh!”

The burly figure crashed to the floor.

Name, sitting on top of him, picked up Yoonseul’s hairpin that had been scattered around the room and tied her golden hair back into a single ponytail.

“I told you, you better hope the police arrive quickly. It seems they’re taking their time.”

Name seized the man by the nape of his neck, making him lie on the ground.

“Or try to break free from the hallucination with your own strength.”

As the man blinked, the scenery in the room transformed entirely to white.

“This… this isn’t magic or anything…!”

His suspicion was valid.

At the moment Name ordered him to kneel and lie down, there was not a single magic circle in sight.

“C-Could it be… I’m still hallucinating…”

Realizing too late that he hadn’t escaped the hallucination, the man started to struggle.

“If I know what magic I’m casting, I can get out, right?”

[Unique Magic – Esteria Ryu, 4th Form – Medusa]

Hallucination magic itself is generally impractical.

As long as the opponent has a rough idea of what magic is being cast within the illusion, the spell won’t work.

This was due to the principle borrowed from ‘virtual combat’ in an illusory space rather than actual spellcasting.

Otherwise, if one simply has excellent control over their aura, they can wrap themselves in a barrier to protect their body from hallucination substances.

“I could tell just from your stance. It doesn’t seem like you’ve had any professional fighting experience.”

Conversely, to someone who does not satisfy even one of those criteria, hallucination magic appears immensely threatening.

Due to Name’s superior selection of magic, the strange man was completely immobilized.

His neck began to turn to stone, and the range gradually expanded.

His torso, arms, legs, and eventually even the tips of his toes.

With only his head remaining, he had no choice but to watch, wide-eyed, as his entire body became petrified.

“Now, stand up.”

“Uuugh! Ugh! Uuuhhh!”

The command to get up was injected into his head.

However, his completely frozen body couldn’t obey the command, flooding him with an extreme sense of dread as a penalty.

Seeing the man’s eyes filled with blood to the point of bursting, Name laughed mockingly.

“Perfect. Just listen to me. Occasionally answer my questions.”

“Grrrh…! Please… just spare me…”

“Of course, I’ll spare you. But you must pay your debt.”

“Ah… no…”

“What was your purpose for coming to Yoonseul’s house?”

“…”

The man continued trembling.

Not liking that display, Name abruptly stood and kicked his right arm.

Thud—

“…! AAAAAAHHH!”

The stone arm shattered into countless pieces, and the debris caused the man’s body to tilt.

“Does it hurt?”

“Grrhh… Huhhh… Grrrhhhhh…!”

Though he still felt no sensation throughout his body, the pain of the severance was conveyed entirely.

He wanted to scream, but his mouth wouldn’t open.

Beyond the threshold of agony, his facial muscles contorted violently, leaving him with only his teeth to bite down on.

“Right, it hurts, doesn’t it? I know what this pain feels like. Wouldn’t it have been nice if you had answered in time? Isn’t that true?”

“I-I’m sorry… please just spare me… Grrh…!”

“You should apologize to Yoonseul, not to me. You’re an attempted murderer. You tried to throw a defenseless girl off the 13th floor. So why did you come?”

“Ughh! Huhh, Chae Na… Chae Na told me… to kill Rika… keep on…”

“Hm. I can’t really hear you, so should I balance things out by doing the same on the other side? That would make it easier to talk, wouldn’t it?”

Name touched the other arm, which was stiff as a board with the tips of her toes.

The man endured the pain, squeezing out his final bit of strength to confess the truth.

He’d never want to experience such hellish torment again.

“I-I’ll tell everything… I’ll share it all, please spare me, officer… Aaaa…! It’s not something I wanted to do, but Chae Na… contacted me through DMs… every night, asking me to kill Rika. I… it’s true she could control my body to get here! I didn’t want to go that far, but she begged so much… I came from Busan Station, but Busan Station burned down in the 1953 Great Fire and was reconstructed in 2003, so I managed to make it here AAAAAHHHH!”

“What?”

“T-That… there are CCTV cameras in the house! 189 CCTV cameras followed me around, watching me! I had no choice… otherwise Chae Na would kill me and my family… AAAAAHHHHHH!”

“I think that’s enough talking.”

“Ugh… Ugh…!”

Name petrified the man up to his neck.

With a deep sigh, she briefly glanced around. The sound of police cars echoed faintly outside the window.

Then, she squatted in front of the man lying on the floor, meeting his gaze.

“As long as I’m scarier than anything your little imagination can conjure up, that’s all that matters. Isn’t it simple?”

Swish—

“Death, no matter how many times you experience it, never becomes familiar, but there’s one thing that does improve. Do you know what it is?”

As the man’s mouth, then eyes, and finally every single hair on his head froze to stone, Name delivered the death sentence.

“It’s the ability to control the passage of time at will. I can’t tell you how. It’s unfortunate, really. Just try to do it well.”

The man could only stare blankly.

Name placed her open palm against the crown of his head.

In the illusion, where time seemed to flow eternally, mana swirled around her hand.

The mana coalesced, seeping into the stone like raindrops.

As the cold concentrated liquid spread throughout his entire body like an ant nest, she quickly clenched her fist.

[4 Circle Cast: Rapid Cooling]

‘I’m… going to die!’

The rapidly cooled liquid cracked the stone.

The man had to continuously suppress silent screams of agony until he lost consciousness, as every inch of his body crumbled into dust.

* * *

“It seems like he’s not here!”

Police officers clad in protective gear stormed into Yoonseul’s house.

“Did you check the master bedroom? If he isn’t here, he must have escaped to the roof via the apartment stairs.”

“We found something, Captain! Huh? He’s collapsed, is this him…?”

The strange man found in the master bedroom was foaming at the mouth as he lay unconscious.

The skeptical officer hurriedly cuffed his arms.

As the woman requested a radio to call for support from her pocket, there was a creak behind her as a closet door swung open.

“I’ve apprehended the suspect at the scene! Please send a stretcher—AAAH!”

Startled, the officer’s hand reflexively reached for her taser.

However, approaching her was a child who looked to be about seven years old.

The child raced up and threw herself into the woman’s arms, burying her face in her chest.

“A strange person came in and kept hiding! Thank you for coming to rescue the police lady!”

“Uh…?”

“Cough.”

Blood trickled from the child’s mouth.

“Kid, you’re bleeding…!”

Clutching her chest, the girl swallowed the blood that rushed into her mouth and explained with a slurred voice.

“He… hit me!”

The spot the girl pointed to was undoubtedly the collapsed strange man.