Chapter 136
──────
The Imposter I
Shin Noah
1
If you've been following my story this far, you've probably noticed something faintly.
My tale lacks an essential element that's indispensable to genre fiction.
This element is so crucial that without it, one would be criticized for asking what's even the point of acting like a protagonist.
It's the "monopolization of fortuitous encounters."
For instance, think about Oh Dok-seo from the 555th iteration. The moment he thought he'd entered the world of a novel, didn't he harbor this very thought first?
[Oh Dok-seo: Well, anyway. The only important thing in the Busan Station arc is how early you can secure the spirit medicine hidden in Haeundae.]
Ah, fortuitous encounters! What a sweet resonance.
Elixirs that raise your cultivation realm in an instant. Secret manuals somehow buried in the middle of cliffs. Attempting to gaslight the world's strongest expert who would otherwise have a shattered personality into depending on you through early education from childhood. Farming items whose value no one recognizes yet.
Snatching all such things lightly.
And coolly murmuring, 'Lucky.'
That is the dignity granted to the protagonist of genre literature.
Why hide it?
I, the Undertaker, also had somewhat good luck in my younger days.
It wouldn't be wrong to call me an active "fortune hunter" who sought out fortuitous encounters.
If I entered a certain void, it meant there were definitely rare items that could only be farmed there.
The same applied to oddities. I've kept this secret from you all until now, but the "Heart of the Ten-Legged" was actually an incredible rare item. If you eat it raw as sashimi, you can easily accumulate one Gapja's worth of internal energy (the taste is close to tuna belly).
But that was in the past. The current me no longer yearns for such items.
Rather, I actively avoid them.
Unless it's truly essential, I decline, and if it's too wasteful to decline, I pass it on to others instead of keeping it for myself.
"No... Why exactly?"
Hearing my policy, Oh Dok-seo once frowned.
At that time, Dok-seo was in the middle of writing my story and taking a short break. Thinking his energy was somewhat depleted, I specially sliced the Heart of the Ten-Legged and made Ten-Legged sushi for him.
Oh Dok-seo mumbled "It really tastes like actual tuna sashimi..." while chewing, then continued speaking.
"Are you a hipster or something, uncle? Do you have some ideology about protagonists monopolizing fortuitous encounters being too obvious?"
"Hardly. I'd monopolize them if I could. I have the [CONTINUE] ability to begin with, so the more fortuitous encounters I stock, the better."
"Then why... Ah! Is it because it's more efficient for other comrades to consume them than for you to?"
"Hmm. That's also true, but... showing you would be faster."
I liked teaching Dok-seo "information about oddities" like this. It would all help later.
I opened my spatial trunk bag, took out a certain notebook along with an item, and placed it on the table with a thunk.
Oh Dok-seo's eyes went round.
Perhaps because he was an otaku himself, it was an item with a form familiar to him.
"...What is this? Isn't it the [Monkey's Paw]?"
"Oh. You recognized it immediately."
The Monkey's Paw.
This oddity, literally shaped like a monkey's severed hand, grants a person's wishes up to three times.
However, true to its nature as an oddity, it doesn't grant wishes in normal ways.
Those who dare to try to cheat their way through life face misfortune in some form.
If you wish for "eternal life," it won't grant agelessness, letting you enjoy an eternal silver life growing old forever.
If you wish for "immortality," it will make you perfectly fine even after Earth ends, enjoying infinite space travel alone.
If you wish for "immortality but with the ability to end your own life whenever you please," it will considerately arrange for tremendously horrific and tragic events to continuously occur around you, as if asking if you won't die even from this.
Malicious twisting?
Yes. That's exactly what it is.
That very malicious twisting is the essence of the oddity called [Monkey's Paw].
It's fundamentally impossible to wish for a wish without side effects. You could call it a dark evolution alter version of the magic lamp with a genie trapped inside.
"Strictly speaking, this is both a monkey's paw and a human hand."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"By the time I discovered it, someone had already made three wishes."
"Eh."
Unfortunately, this apocalyptic world was one where the Monkey's Paw's curse had already been fully realized.
"Dok-seo. If someone who thinks they're smart but doesn't yet know what oddities are discovered the [Monkey's Paw], what wishes would they make?"
"...There are 3 wish stacks total. Then first, I'd wish to 'please remove the side effects of wishes.'"
I smiled gently.
"Good. And next?"
"Um... 'Please remove the limit on the number of wishes'? Three is too few. A lot of settings these days say this kind of wish won't be granted, but I should at least try asking."
"My. How can you be so exactly the same?"
"Huh?"
"I'll explain later. Anyway, so what's the last wish?"
"Hmm..."
Oh Dok-seo ate one more piece of Ten-Legged sushi before opening his mouth.
"I'm a bit conflicted, but I'd wish to 'give me good fortune.'"
"......"
"The Monkey's Paw brings misfortune to its user, right? That's the counter-attack. If I max out my luck from the start, misfortune itself would be suppressed."
I couldn't help but give a bitter smile.
Oh Dok-seo's answer was textbook. When I asked Cheon Yo-hwa, Lee Ha-yul, or Seo Gyu, similar answers came back.
Even if the details of the wishes differed, the purpose was identical. The goal of 'removing the Monkey's Paw's limitations and side effects.'
"You're right. Anyone who discovered it would probably have made similar wishes."
"Ah, okay."
I took a sip of café au lait.
And I looked down at a certain notebook placed alongside the Monkey's Paw on the table.
"And that's why I became unable to monopolize fortuitous encounters."
2
The place where I first discovered the Monkey's Paw was Jeju Island.
At the time, I was exploring a tutorial dungeon that had occurred at Seongsan Ilchulbong.
The dungeon was a void with the concept of [School Field Trip], and chronologically, it was one of the earliest tutorial dungeons to appear along with [Baekhwa Girls' High School].
Inside the tutorial dungeon, Seongsan Ilchulbong's elevation had grown to the height of Everest.
Naturally, by the time I arrived, the tutorial had already ended long ago, and Seongsan Ilchulbong had returned to its ordinary size.
In the testing ground where the tutorial had long since concluded, I was searching here and there to see if there might be any items worth salvaging.
'There are quite a lot of corpses.'
No particularly noticeable items were visible. However, as befitting a former tutorial dungeon, bones and corpses were scattered from the hiking trail entrance.
'Are there any people I know among them?'
Checking the corpses' cards and ID cards, most of the bodies near the entrance were Japanese.
The number of corpses was approximately sixteen.
This wasn't strange. In the Busan Station tutorial dungeon I came from, there had been several Japanese people like Uehara Shino.
On Jeju Island, closer to Japan than Busan, even more Japanese would have been forcibly summoned.
"Hmm?"
That was when it happened.
I discovered a somewhat 'peculiar corpse' near the summit.
First, the corpse was covered in thick fur.
No, beyond thick—it looked like the entire body had been smeared with hair growth stimulant. At a glance, one might mistake it for a beast's carcass or a bush rather than a human.
Above all, the corpse's location was quite deliberate.
A slope far removed from the tourist course. The body was hidden at an angle just out of people's line of sight.
'Is this person also a victim of the tutorial?'
The corpse was clutching a thick notebook tightly in both hands.
Thinking it might be this person's will, I picked up the notebook.
――――――――――
《Day 1》
In preparation for a truly unexpected situation, I am writing this diary.
――――――――――
The will was written in Japanese, not Korean.
Flip. I turned the pages of the will notebook without much thought.
――――――――――
The world has become strange.
It was strange before, but it's become stranger. People are dying ridiculously easily.
But I am lucky! When I was dragged to this unidentified place, a 'Monkey's Paw' had fallen right in front of my nose.
Thanks to watching the
There are times when my ex-girlfriend's otaku hobbies come in handy.
Thank you, Sena. I'll even forgive you for cheating on me with another woman.
The Koreans around me didn't seem to know what this was. Fearing someone might notice, I quickly put it in my backpack.
――――――――――
Monkey's Paw?
I looked down at the corpse again. The entire body was so covered in shaggy hair that even the face was unrecognizable.
'Hmm. Now that I think about it, it does look like monkey fur...'
Did this person make wishes to the Monkey's Paw and end up possessed by the oddity?
Flip. I continued turning the pages.
――――――――――
《Day 2》
If you were to get a 'Monkey's Paw,' what wishes would you make?
I'd had such conversations with Sena.
I thought it was just idle chatter, but I never imagined such fortune would actually be given to me.
I feel destiny.
No matter that the 'Monkey's Paw' has side effects, leaving it unused would be foolish. People are dropping dead left and right. I have to survive somehow.
People are dying to the point where I can't endure it without thinking such thoughts. I want to eat gyudon and pineapple.
――――――――――
Borrowing the power of an oddity.
"Hmm."
That was an idea someone not yet accustomed to the apocalypse might have.
But even I, who had experienced hundreds of iterations, could only manage to use the tutorial's fairy and the Inunaki Tunnel at best. Even those came with various restrictions.
A path a novice shouldn't recklessly cross.
But I could fully understand the psychology of wanting to take a gamble when survival was threatened.
Flip. I continued reading.
――――――――――
《Day 3》
The Japanese people summoned here gathered and formed a party. A girl named You was strong.
But she argued that we should each open our backpacks and share resources. Is she crazy? These are private property.
I wanted to join another group, but most were Korean so communication was difficult. I asked for just one night to think.
The girl named You looked at me expressionlessly and said to do whatever I want.
She really is an unpleasant person. Fine, I'll do whatever I want.
I intend to use the 'Monkey's Paw' tonight.
――――――――――
Flip.
――――――――――
《Day 4》
I've already thoroughly planned the wishes I'll make to the 'Monkey's Paw' over several days.
Listing the wishes in order:
1. Whatever wish I make, please don't create any side effects for that wish.
2. Please remove the limit on the number of wishes I can make. If removing the limit is impossible, please count this wish as not having been made.
3. Please give me good fortune. Let me avoid all 'accidental misfortunes' like dying from a falling rock or something.
The core of this series of wishes is ultimately the third one. That is, 'fortune.'
I considered other cheat abilities too but ultimately rejected them all. No matter how powerful an ability I obtain, if this Monkey's Paw delivers 'misfortune,' I'd be helpless against it.
Fortune. Before overwhelming fortune, any ability or misfortune has no choice but to fade.
Perhaps the 'Monkey's Paw' might play some trick while I make wishes in sequence.
It's fundamentally a demon, after all.
So I plan to write all three wishes on paper and present them all at once.
Honestly, I don't know what will happen. I think I've prepared well, but just in case, I'm leaving this diary like a will.
If I fail, I hope whoever finds this diary later will use it more wisely.
Now, here I go.
――――――――――
"......"
Before I knew it, I was absorbed in the diary of this unknown awakened one.
Seeing as they ended up a corpse, this person before my eyes probably failed. But there was as much to learn from failure as from success.
This awakened one observed the fundamental basics when dealing with oddities and voids. That is, the principle of 'leaving records for others.'
If so, this corpse and I were no different from comrades trying to make our way through this apocalyptic world together.
Flip. My hand turning the pages of the will became a bit more reverent.
――――――――――
《Day 5》
I did it!
While on night watch, centaur monsters attacked from the dungeon. But somehow I didn't notice at all while they went only to others.
Half the group died but I didn't have a scratch. Even You, the strongest among us, was wounded.
The amazing thing is, wishes 1 and 2 were properly granted! Limit unlock! Hooray!
Feeling certain that I would never meet a ridiculous death no matter what happened, I suddenly felt at ease. Now even looking at You's face doesn't particularly annoy me.
Amazing. This is real.
I wished to the 'Monkey's Paw' that 'I want to eat gyudon.' When I killed a monster, gyudon dropped. It was so sloppy I laughed.
I got 6 bowls of gyudon and shared them with other group members. That You girl, her expressionless face went wide with surprise.
That's right. That's about the only role suited for you. A simple extra.
We lost half our numbers, but everyone gained energy from the gyudon power. I realized anew the preciousness of eating.
Thank you, Sena! It's thanks to you! I'll even forgive you for two-timing me with others while dating me!
――――――――――
An unmistakable trembling was conveyed from the handwriting in the diary.
In my mind, the image of someone who had bet their own life as chips, gone all-in, and was finally cheering at success was played back. A kind of victory declaration.
But unlike the diary's owner, I still remained vigilant.
'If this person had truly won, they wouldn't have appeared as a corpse.'
The joy continued through Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9, and Day 10. After Day 11, the diary entries became sparse.
When I turned to pages much further back.
Finally, the diary resumed. And her handwriting was wavering in a different direction.
――――――――――
《Day 6??》
Strange. Something is strange.
When I opened my eyes today, centaurs were attacking. It felt somehow familiar, and the situation was exactly the same as Day 5.
Half the group died. You was wounded in the same spot. All events repeated identically.
――――――――――
The diary's owner seemed to maintain composure for a while.
She became diligent again in writing the diary. She wrote in more detail about what had happened, what signs there were.
But when 'Day 6??' repeated again, she could no longer maintain her sanity. Apparently her mental fortitude wasn't that strong to begin with.
――――――――――
StrangeStrangeStrangeStrangeStrangeStrangeStrangeStrangeStrangeStrangeStrangeStrangeStrangeStrangeStrangeStrange
――――――――――
On some pages, she had densely written only the word 'strange.'
Then the diary was blank again for quite a while.
Then suddenly, in the middle of a blank page, a single sentence was written in abruptly chilled handwriting.
――――――――――
Time is turning back?
――――――――――