The Boss Wants to Die - Chapter 21

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The boss wants to die.
Chapter 21
Aktu poured whiskey straight down his throat and wiped the spill from his lips with his sleeve.
Only then did his headache seem to ease a little.
“Pride doesn’t help. So I threw it away. Long ago.”
The alcohol hit him all at once, rising to the crown of his head, and he looked at me through eyes that had gone soft and unfocused.
His eyelashes fluttered with a languid rhythm that was brazenly seductive.
“I want to. Play at being lovers.”
“…….”
“Even if I’m used foolishly, I don’t care anymore. Not about that.”
He drained nearly half the bottle in a single pull, then fished something from his Inventory.
A small Golden Name Plate engraved with the names Aktu Hebgenia and the Evil God Helord.
The proof of the contract between Aktu and me.
“The contract hasn’t broken, and you’re still by my side.”
“…….”
“You haven’t died.”
As if hammering home the essential fact, he muttered “haven’t died” a few more times and shook the name plate.
“No matter what happens, we’re together now. That’s what matters.”
“…….”
“Let’s do it—play at lovers. What’s wrong with keeping it light between us? And sometimes, even as a game, feelings deepen.”
“Why…….”
It was strange how he remained unmoved, no matter how cruelly I spoke or how deeply I wounded him, and still wanted me.
He must have seen my ugliness plainly.
Yet he wants me unchanged, wanting the same thing—to stay together.
He wants us to play at being lovers and laugh as if nothing were ever wrong, haha, ho ho.
Never questioning what lies we’ve worn, how much we’ve hurt each other…….
Just because he wants to be with me.
‘Is he an idiot?’
My chest twisted.
Aktu seemed foolish, acting dumb even though he knew exactly what had been done to him.
So I wanted to bite him.
I was curious what he would taste like.
A sweetness that terrified, perhaps.
Warm enough to thaw the frozen places in my heart…….
Even as I tried to warn myself not to be fooled, biting my lower lip, the walls I’d built around my heart kept wavering, threatening to crumble.
‘This can’t happen. Not if I’m to sever this bond…….’
Could I tear myself away?
Was that even possible?
I looked at Aktu.
As if remembering something, he rummaged through his Inventory once more and pulled out a small Turtle Keyring, which he held out to me.
When I pressed the turtle’s shell, a cute little turtle peeked its head out from inside.
“Saw it on the way past. Bought it. Do you like it?”
“Because of this…….”
Was this why he came back to the Inn?
He said he was going hunting, but he hurried back and ended up witnessing something he shouldn’t have…….
I bit the inside of my cheek hard.
Otherwise I feared I would cry.
‘Even though you know I want to die.’
My hand trembled faintly as I held the soft Turtle Keyring.
‘This will only hurt you more. You know that, Aktu.’
And foolish as I was, I couldn’t push him away completely.
Truly, there was no saving me.
Neither him nor me.
“I’ll play along to your tune while I search for my own path. I’ll do everything I can to die, using both methods.”
“…….”
“You still want to, knowing I’m not what I seem?”
“Yeah. I do.”
Aktu smiled temptingly.
“I want to be fooled by you.”
At those words, I came undone completely.
I bit my lip as I felt the cold air that had settled between us gradually grow warm again.
‘I can’t push Aktu away entirely.’
His proposal held no disadvantage for me whatsoever.
Whether I made him happy or found another path, I could exhaust myself searching for death in every direction.
It was only Aktu that troubled me…….
“Then do as you like. I’ll use everything. Don’t forget that.”
I made sure to speak clearly.
No matter how much Aktu weighed on my mind, I couldn’t spend the rest of my life inside this game.
My desire for death cannot be stopped.
And for some reason, I felt that Aktu knew this too.
I forced my head away from Aktu’s dark, unwavering gaze and left the room.
He didn’t try to hold me back.
***
Outside, a keen wind was blowing.
Since we’d just crossed into afternoon and the sun was tilting toward the ridge of mountains, I climbed onto the Inn’s roof to watch the sunset.
I crouched at the pointed edge of the roof and drew my knees close.
The quiet world was beautiful, like the most perfect moment a photographer had ever captured.
Sky and crimson blended like a cocktail overhead.
Artificially gleaming green leaves dazzled my eyes with their brilliance.
It was a world of impossible beauty.
“And it’s all fake.”
Yet there was nothing real in this place.
Somehow I’d staggered upright and now stood rigid atop the roof.
The wild wind pushed me frantically from left to right, then right to left without respite.
The ground below looked impossibly distant.
I tried to count how many stories up this was.
As befitted the largest Inn in the Village, it was quite tall.
I thought that if I fell from here, even the swiftest beast would not escape death.
Until the moment I stepped into the void, I felt nothing at all.
My light body naturally gave way beneath me.
My pounding heart wrenched upward, my stomach lurching with a violent thud-thud.
The ground rushed toward me in an instant.
At this rate, death would be no surprise.
Flutter—!
Suddenly my body dangled in the air as if my clothes had caught on a branch.
I stared blankly down at the ground below.
The earth still hung impossibly far away.
Against my will, the Evil God’s Wings unfurled and carried me back onto the Inn’s roof.
As if by covenant, not a soul was anywhere near.
No one knew I was here doing this pointless thing.
I was alone.
Still.
“I want to get out of here…….”
I muttered distantly.
“I want to stop pretending to be an Evil God.”
I looked down at my hands.
They were hands that had stolen the lives of countless Players.
“I want to stop mocking the Players who came to kill me.”
I want to see my family.
I want to see the real world.
I want to remember what I was like before.
I don’t know anymore what is the Evil God and what is me.
I want it to stop.
“……I don’t want to hurt Aktu anymore either.”
But it was a dream that could never come true.
As long as I’m controlled by the Evil God.
I buried my face in my knees.
***
I stared at the open Quest window for a long time.
Aktu had gone out hunting, and I sat huddled in the corner of the bed, having a pointless staring contest with the screen.
‘Why would a Monster have a Quest popup?’
I exhaled slowly and scrolled through the hologram with my finger.
Then I saw Michael Eruber’s Favorability score.
[Michael Eruber’s Favorability Progress: 80 points remaining.]
“Huh?”
I blinked hard, doubting my own eyes, then opened them wide.
The number didn’t change.
“This can’t be right.”
Confused, I looked closer—and there it was. Michael’s Favorability, which had been plummeting toward -100, now sat at zero.
‘What on earth did I do to make it jump this high in a single day?’
I thought back to Michael, who had abandoned his Holy Sword and fled for reasons I couldn’t fathom.
His massive blade was still leaning against the wall of my room.
‘Should I go find him?’
I opened the Quest window.
[A Heart That Worships the Evil God.
― Time Remaining: 28 days, 12 hours, 32 minutes.]
My temples throbbed.
‘If I fail, I’ll get a Penalty, so I need to go anyway. I should find out why his Favorability changed.’
Since my plan to die by Michael’s hand had failed, I had no choice.
What troubled me was the reward.
“One Hidden Story unlocked? How is that a reward? I didn’t even want it in the first place.”
Grumbling, I read it again—and spotted something small below the reward: ‘See Details’.
The text was so tiny I’d somehow missed it until now.
Curious, I tapped ‘See Details’.
[Reward: One Hidden Story unlocked.
See Details
> The Hidden Story connects to the player’s final Quest, ‘Evil God Subjugation,’ and relates to this game’s ‘Ending’.]
This was information that made my eyes nearly pop out of my head—I tumbled straight off the bed.
“An Ending?”
I bolted upright, then my foot caught and I crashed under the bed frame.
But I felt no pain.
Laughter poured out of me uncontrollably, splitting my face into an uncontainable grin.
“An Ending!”
I rolled across the floor in jubilation, then glanced back at the hologram window.
The thrilling word held its ground in the same spot.
“An Ending! How didn’t I think of this before?”
There was an Ending to this game.
This was solid proof that I could Logout when I died.
And that wasn’t all.
I could also gather information by clearing Quests.
There might be another way to see the game’s Ending!
“Now it makes sense. The Boss Monster is impossibly strong. There was a reason the Subjugation failed for six whole years—I needed to find clues in the Hidden Story.”
It was an interpretation heavily stacked in my favor, but there was a logic to it.
Quest rewards were meant to give players what they needed.
In a game world with freedoms as vast as the real world, even more so.
If each player had a different story, then each would move with different goals, and to make them move, they needed rewards that were both unique and fitting.
I was no exception.
Which meant this reward was information I absolutely needed.
“Let’s go find him right now!”

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