The Boss Wants to Die - Chapter 24

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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.
Episode 24
“You told me I mustn’t kill Evil God.”
Michael pressed his fevered brow with the heel of his hand, his voice hoarse as he whispered the words.
“And then the world…….”
Michael’s brow furrowed deeply as he struggled to recall.
“It all went dark.”
“…….”
“I don’t understand what happened.”
“Of course you don’t.”
Akt answered with a sneer and uncrossed his arms.
His eyes—dark and fathomless as an abyss—turned toward Michael.
All the vitality that had once filled them was gone, leaving only shadows and a suffocating gloom.
‘When did he change like that?’
Even as Michael wondered absently, Akt tilted his head.
“Are you going to kill Evil God again this time?”
“……No.”
Michael Iruber seized his own hair with both hands, the pain too much to bear.
A sound of anguish tore from him unbidden.
Akt simply watched him with sunken eyes.
“I don’t understand this. How is Evil God still alive? She was dead—I killed her with my own hands, I know I did.”
The sensation of splintering bone and tearing muscle returned to him with sickening clarity.
It was an old memory, yet his entire body trembled as though he had only just now ended her life.
Akt watched Michael shake and smiled with derision.
“Michael. You never grasp the essential point. Remember how poorly you did in your scripture studies?”
Heat crept slowly across Michael’s face.
Akt popped a peanut into his mouth.
It was a response wholly at odds with a man who had wept so desperately.
“Doesn’t any of this bother you? Back then, you were…….”
You wept.
Like you were cursing the entire world.
“Does it look like I’m fine?”
Akt’s black eyes rolled slowly toward Michael, fixing him with a stare.
The moment their gazes met, an inexplicable chill raced down Michael’s spine.
“Fine? Me?”
Akt suddenly burst into laughter.
The laugh was cold and twisted, cutting through the air like a discordant note, raising the hairs on anyone who heard it.
“You’ve lost someone you loved.”
Michael barely withstood the eerie pressure that radiated from Akt and forced out the words.
“I made it happen.”
“…….”
“But you’re talking to me now. To the one who killed Evil God. Do you think that’s normal?”
“Listen, Michael.”
All trace of amusement had vanished from Akt’s face as he called to him in a hollow tone.
“Lost someone I loved? What are you talking about?”
“…….”
“Evil God is alive. She’s perfectly fine.”
“But——”
“Michael.”
Akt seized the back of his neck with strangling force and wrenched his face forward.
In an instant, their foreheads nearly touched.
Akt’s black eyes, staring down at him from that proximity, were as dark as a chasm that swallowed everything—the very pit of hell.
“People, sometimes we take shortcuts. We drive a control pin into our minds so we don’t go completely insane. Do you know why?”
“…….”
“Because there’s something that matters. If you let go, if you give up, if you collapse—sure, it would be easier. But because there’s something more important than that, we can’t lose our minds. We hold on.”
Akt stared straight into Michael’s eyes as he continued.
“You have to move, no matter how much you have to force yourself. Where’s the time to grieve? Where’s the space to sit with those feelings?”
“…….”
“Even if I tortured you senseless right here and now, it wouldn’t satisfy me. But would that make anything better?”
“…….”
“It’s pointless. All I’m doing is venting my worthless hatred.”
Revenge requires leisure.
It’s a luxury you can only indulge in when you have the luxury to do so!
Akt’s voice rang out at full volume.
“While I can’t master my emotions, the Evil God is suffering! Every second I waste is strangling her. How could I possibly…….”
……
“How could I possibly pull out the Control Pin in my head and do as I please? Huh?”
Michael was utterly overwhelmed, his mouth hanging agape.
“What? Can you use that three-inch tongue of yours again? To say the Evil God is dead?”
……
“Answer me. Is the Evil God dead?”
“N-no. She’s alive.”
“Right. She’s alive.”
Akt’s expressionless face delivered the answer.
“That’s what matters.”
At last his grip loosened.
His hands had been so tight that the blood rushed back with a delayed throb, leaving his head spinning.
While Michael pressed his palm against his forehead and drew ragged breaths, Akt washed his throat with beer and spoke coldly.
“Your comprehension seems poor, so I’ll explain it plainly. You came back to the past. That’s why the Evil God is perfectly fine. Simple as that.”
“But you…….”
Akt hadn’t aged at all.
Rather, the atmosphere around him alone seemed to have grown older.
“The thing that matters,”
Akt cut Michael off yet again.
“is how you came to remember that. Did you know from the beginning?”
“……It wasn’t complete at first.”
Michael, thoroughly deflated by Akt’s dominance, answered willingly.
“There were suspicious points. My Search Skill being excessively high, for one…….”
“And then?”
“I left the Sanctuary a bit early to uncover the truth. I was trying to find you, but things kept getting stranger.”
When Michael encountered the Evil God, he’d felt an eerie warning.
An unpleasant sensation rippled through his entire body, yet he couldn’t fathom its reason.
So he’d vaguely thought it was because the Evil God was wicked.
Now, looking back, it wasn’t the Evil God at all—it was a warning sent by memories etched into his soul.
That he must not kill the Evil God.
“Most of my memories came back after I met you. When I was trying to kill the Evil God.”
Akt recalled Michael fleeing through the window, the Holy Sword left behind.
The image was still slightly amusing to think back on now.
“You remembered when you met me?”
“Yes. And since I’ve met you now, the memories have become clearer still. It must be the same reason—meeting you.”
As Akt turned over Michael’s words in his mind, a sudden realization pierced through him.
“Ah…….”
And the moment he grasped how things were unfolding, he started cursing.
“Damn it all.”
Akt swore with uncommon vigor and drained his beer.
Then he pressed his master—still sitting slumped in the chair—to bring more drink.
While waiting for fresh beer, he chewed peanuts irritably, spewing every curse he knew.
Michael stared at Akt with wide-open eyes.
It was for a reason similar to Irowen’s reaction.
He’d never seen Akt curse like this in his life.
‘He wasn’t the type to swear. When did his mouth get so foul?’
Akt cycled through curses, pressing his fingers to his brow as though suffering a migraine, then back to more curses.
When the master brought fresh beer, he emptied the first sip in one gulp, cold enough to freeze his spine.
By then, Michael too sensed the gravity of it.
“What’s wrong all of a sudden?”
“Listen, Michael.”
Akt exhaled, his breath reeking of strong alcohol.
His face was one that wouldn’t have seemed out of place flipping the table over.
“If you’ve regained memories of ‘before’ because of my influence, then what about the other Players?”
“Other Players?”
“Haven’t you grasped it yet? There’s more than one Player who’s killed Irowen.”
Michael fell into confusion.
“That would mean…….”
“In this world, there are other Players who have slain the Evil God.”
Akt, exasperated by Michael’s slow understanding, rubbed his face openly.
“If those bastards retained even hazy fragments of memory……. Dammit. The more I think about it, the more absurd it becomes.”
“…….”
“If they meet me? Their memories will sharpen.”
Cursing under his breath, Akt set down his beer glass with rough force, gritting his teeth.
Michael still couldn’t comprehend.
“What’s the problem with that?”
“They don’t understand the situation. You alone, Michael, are the only one who witnessed me reduced to a wailing fool.”
Akt explained.
“Once their memories return, they’ll attempt to kill the Evil God the same way—seeking the Experience Points and Items she grants.”
“……What? But——”
“Michael. When you killed the Evil God, you must have felt something go wrong. That’s because I lost my reason and couldn’t control my strength.”
Akt swept back his fallen hair with a sigh.
“Synchronized with my emotions, you may not have understood all the details, but you realized that killing the Evil God wasn’t the ‘right answer.’ And I say again—I was inexperienced then.”
“…….”
“But the other Players aren’t. They’ll have sensed that something was amiss. Yet that’s all. They won’t know that the Evil God’s death was a ‘failure.'”
“…….”
“They’ll have glimpsed what amounts to a strategy guide for subjugating the Evil God in their memories.”
Michael finally understood.
“Then they’ll come seeking the Evil God the moment they satisfy the conditions.”
“Finally you grasp it.”
“But she’s still difficult to kill, isn’t she? She’s the Final Boss. Undefeated for six years.”
“Did you forget that this Final Boss wants to die more than anyone?”
Michael went silent. Akt exhaled slowly.
“Everything’s gone to hell.”
The man who had raged so fiercely now seemed composed, exhausted after venting, rubbing his weary eyes.
“Simple as it is, what needs doing—we’ll have to draft a new plan.”
Though they’d need to start from the beginning, Akt showed no sign of dismay.
Even though all his carefully laid schemes had become worthless.
Where had that man gone—the one who couldn’t endure his first despair, the one who’d been at a loss?
Sensing the abrupt shift in atmosphere, Michael awkwardly began to rise.
“So you’ll help me, Michael. As a priest from the same Sanctuary.”

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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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