Even if I Make It Roughly, Ex-rank Items Continue to Accumulate - Chapter 39

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Even Hastily Made Ones Keep Stacking Up as EX-Rank (39)

This world too

This world too

Ever since entering the Alchemy Society Hall.

The waiting alchemists hadn’t uttered a single word.

That wasn’t all.

They showed not a single movement. Not even the subtle trembling of fingers or the movement of Adam’s apples that humans should naturally display.

They simply stood still without any of that.

However, for some reason, he could definitely feel their ‘gazes’ following him.

That sensation was so unpleasant it made his skin tingle.

‘Damn it…’

Touching the magic stone in his pocket and activating 《Clear Mirror Still Water》 seemed to calm him down somewhat.

Lee Si-hyeok settled his gaze and looked at the apprentice in front of him.

It was sunset time. Even the sunlight coming through the curtains had disappeared, plunging the Alchemy Society Hall into darkness. Because of that, he couldn’t properly see the apprentice’s face.

But he could tell that he was still smiling brightly.

“…”

Instead of pressing for an answer, Lee Si-hyeok watched the apprentice while bringing up a message window before his eyes.

 

[『Foreigner Adaptation Contract』 is currently active.]

[The target feels favorable toward you!]

 

‘It’s not dangerous.’

As long as the special ability was properly active, there wouldn’t be any sudden attacks.

Then he could be a bit more bold.

Lee Si-hyeok left the apprentice standing there and examined the alchemists more closely.

With each small movement, only their eyeballs swiftly followed. He tried lightly touching them and speaking to them quietly, but got no response. They felt like people in vegetative states.

Then, since when?

No one knew that the Alchemy Society was like this. He didn’t know about the royal family’s situation, but at least among the kingdom’s citizens, no one would know about this situation.

Then they wouldn’t have been in this state from the beginning, so since when had they been like this…

‘Ah.’

As his thoughts reached that point, a memory from not long ago suddenly came to mind.

The first day he fell into Orbes.

After escaping from the inn, he had immediately visited libraries, and finally reached the slum library where he first met Elec.

‘I was definitely reading various books before meeting Elec.’

But there had been a problem while reading the books.

The contents of some books had been erased as if someone had deliberately deleted them.

Lee Si-hyeok had found this strange and called Elec, the librarian, to ask about it, but Elec had instead acted as if asking what the problem was.

‘…Unlike me, those books appeared normal to Elec.’

The alchemists in vegetative states with their consciousness gone.

And people who didn’t notice that fact.

Why did now and then seem to overlap?

Of course, he wasn’t certain. It was just speculation after all.

And fortunately, Lee Si-hyeok had a way to confirm it.

Thud, thud.

Breaking the silence, the apprentice began approaching. Lee Si-hyeok turned his head casually to look at him.

The smile that had felt pleasant until just now couldn’t be more chilling.

Soon the distance closed, and Lee Si-hyeok quietly waited for the other’s words.

After a brief exchange of glances.

Finally, he opened his mouth.

“How was it meeting the other members? They’re all good people, aren’t they?”

“…”

“This is Senior James, who has tremendous knowledge in enchanting. And this person is…”

As expected, he was treating the other alchemists quite normally.

As if suggesting they should greet each other.

To him right now, they appeared to be moving around perfectly fine.

Just like Elec’s reaction when looking at the books in the library.

‘Should I find out more clearly?’

Lee Si-hyeok interrupted the apprentice and asked.

“By the way, didn’t you hear the question I asked earlier?”

“Huh? A question?”

“…Never mind if you didn’t hear it.”

The question about whether the alchemists weren’t basically corpses.

But judging by his reaction, he seemed to have no memory of it at all. It didn’t seem like he was lying either; it appeared to be filtered out from the start.

The apprentice’s introductions continued after that.

Lee Si-hyeok returned to his assigned personal quarters while staying alert and memorizing the content well.

Fortunately, not everyone in the headquarters was in the same state as the alchemists.

The servants like janitors and cooks were in normal condition, but they too, like the apprentice, felt no sense of incongruity when looking at the alchemists.

‘I need to revise my plan.’

Originally, he had planned to achieve results at the Alchemy Society and then have an audience with the princess, but with everyone in that state, it seemed impossible to conduct research, let alone achieve results.

Lee Si-hyeok, who had been racking his brains until late, finally fell asleep.

 

* * *

 

Several more days passed.

He had been observing the ongoing situation throughout.

In the process, he learned two facts.

First, the damage from the ‘black energy’ he had seen in the plaza was continuing to grow.

Due to the phenomenon of humans consumed by the energy attacking other humans, the kingdom’s tension level was rapidly escalating.

Second was related to this – the fact that the Alchemy Society was working overtime every day conducting research to solve the situation.

“…”

Actually, the second point still didn’t make sense to him.

The alchemists had been in a state of silently following him around and staring at him creepily without saying anything since the first day.

How exactly were they working overtime and conducting research?

He had only learned that they were conducting research from what the apprentice told him.

“Whew…”

Lee Si-hyeok sighed and hung his head low.

Still, it wasn’t like he had gained nothing. There was one thing he had realized.

‘…This world has a predetermined scenario.’

He had been vaguely suspecting this from before.

That the Orbes he was currently in was not a living world, but a world that had already perished long ago.

 

[Moving to the forgotten magical kingdom, 〈Orbes〉.]

[This Orbes was once a brilliant kingdom at the forefront of magical engineering, but now has disappeared from everyone’s memory.]

[However, thanks to the arrangements of predecessors, you who passed the selection can glimpse that glory, if only briefly.]

 

This was the message he had seen just before moving here from the ‘Obsidian Mining Site’.

It wasn’t that he had forgotten this, but since the Orbes Lee Si-hyeok observed seemed far from destruction, it hadn’t really resonated with him.

But after facing the truth about the Alchemy Society, he thought he understood what it meant.

This world has a predetermined destruction.

He didn’t know exactly when it would be, but the world was racing toward that destruction, and all the people here were reproducing the exact same process from that time.

‘Simply put, history is repeating itself.’

The history that once occurred is being reproduced exactly as it was.

“And back then, you all wouldn’t have been in this state.”

As the apprentice said, those alchemists would originally be busy day and night with research on the dark energy.

But in this repeating history, only they were excluded.

Lee Si-hyeok uncrossed his arms and stroked his chin.

Inference upon inference led to creating a new hypothesis.

This world is definitely not real.

It’s closer to a ‘fake world’ that someone created to reproduce the Orbes of the past.

Like a replica made by copying the original exactly.

‘If that’s the case…’

…Could this world itself also be an artifact?

Isn’t that right.

When you think of artifacts, you’d usually imagine weapons or tools useful in daily life, but that’s just narrow thinking.

If something was born from magical engineering through someone’s hands, then regardless of what form it takes, it can ultimately be considered an artifact.

Of course, this world isn’t perfect.

Imperfect parts exist like those alchemists, and there are also gaps in information here and there.

But that’s exactly why it was a more plausible hypothesis.

Artifacts can never be perfect. People describe Lee Si-hyeok’s artifacts as perfect, but even so, he discovers his own shortcomings and strives to supplement them.

It would be natural for this ‘mimicry world’ to also have shortcomings.

That’s when it happened.

As if responding to his thoughts, a message appeared in the air.

Flash!

 

[You have reached a dormant truth.]

[Fragments of information connect into a single trajectory.]

[From tools to worlds.]

[You have realized the foundation of ‘Origin Artifact’!]

[Special skill 『Blooming』 hints at the growth potential of 『Mimicry』.]

 

“This is…!”

Lee Si-hyeok unconsciously stood up slightly.

The system window directly proved that his hypothesis was correct. Moreover, it even informed him that this mimicry world was an ‘Origin Artifact’.

‘If it’s an Origin Artifact… is that a stage above Legacy Artifacts?’

He wasn’t sure exactly.

However, his heart raced at the fact that there was still much more to learn ahead. Feeling excitement rather than frustration about the future. That was Lee Si-hyeok’s personality.

Moreover, the growth potential of 『Mimicry』.

Come to think of it, ever since awakening, Mimicry had consistently had the phrase ‘Current Lv. 1’ attached to it. He had been curious about how to raise it, but now he finally knew.

It would naturally follow as he pioneered new territories.

He was moving forward properly.

Lee Si-hyeok let out a pleased smile.

At this point, he was getting a rough idea of how to return to Earth.

There was nothing left to hesitate about.

 

* * *

 

A few hours later.

Lee Si-hyeok arrived at the audience chamber of the royal palace, following the apprentice.

It was to report on the progress of ongoing research. This too would be following the actual history exactly as it happened.

“I pay my respects, Your Majesty.”

Contrary to the apprentice’s words, the throne was completely empty.

He didn’t know why, but from what Lee Si-hyeok could determine, both the king and queen had currently disappeared.

Only the princess, presumed to be the Snow Flame Empress, seemed to be hiding somewhere in the royal palace.

Lee Si-hyeok hadn’t expected much from this audience anyway, so he wasn’t disappointed.

After briefly looking around the audience chamber, he approached the apprentice who was kneeling before the throne with his head bowed.

Until now, the apprentice had been reproducing the flow of existing history exactly as if he were programmed, and even though Lee Si-hyeok, a foreigner, had suddenly intruded in the middle, there was no particular change in that.

“I will speak about the ongoing research.”

“…”

That was incomprehensible.

No matter how much he followed existing history, wasn’t he himself a kind of variable?

Then the flow should change accordingly.

Lee Si-hyeok tried boldly sitting on the throne, just in case.

“Next is the following progress. This time…”

But the apprentice felt nothing strange. He just tilted his head briefly and continued his explanation without knowing anything.

Pfft, Lee Si-hyeok let out a small laugh at that sight.

Then he brought up the system window before his eyes.

‘Is it because of this after all?’

Below the window, he could see the apprentice diligently explaining by himself.

Without hesitation, he touched the button.

Then…

“You, what the hell are you doing!”

The apprentice jumped up and suddenly screamed at the top of his lungs.

“I’ve never seen such a crazy bastard! Get down from there!”

His face turned bright red as if his anger had truly reached its peak. He even tried to drag him down from the throne, so he obediently came down.

“Ca, call the knight commander! There’s a black-haired intruder here…!”

What he had just done was simply turn off the privilege, 『Foreigner Adaptation Contract』.

Just by removing one privilege, the apprentice came to feel tremendous hostility toward Lee Si-hyeok.

The reason why Lee Si-hyeok wasn’t regarded as a ‘variable’ despite being a person who didn’t exist in the original history was precisely this.

Because this privilege that erased discomfort worked so well.

The world itself had accepted Lee Si-hyeok as a member of the world.

Thanks to that, there had been no danger until now, but when you think about it, that had become an obstacle to reaching the truth.

Lee Si-hyeok nodded as he watched the apprentice scream and run out of the audience chamber.

‘I’ll keep moving around like this and create variables. If things flow according to existing history, I’ll be swept up in the destruction too.’

And the first step in that process was to go find the princess.

If he met the princess with the privilege gone, wouldn’t he be able to judge whether she was the Snow Flame Empress or not?

Only he knew the fact that he possessed the privilege. He could just check what kind of reaction came out.

It was just as he was about to leave the audience chamber with that intention.

Cre, creeeeak…

From the alchemists who had been following around like vegetables until now, a chilling sound began to be heard simultaneously.

Lee Si-hyeok immediately raised his guard and stepped back.

The alchemists’ mouths opened all at once.

And the words that came out were of a completely unexpected kind.

“You came from Korea.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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