Free Web NovelChapter 48: Game Changer
Death
Cillian had thought it was a very interesting concept because it was something he had felt after the author of the novel stabbed him and was supposed to kill him.
If not for the fact that he made that desperate attempt to bring the author down with him, Cillian knew that the author would’ve definitely lived.
He thought he had escaped from Death. He had done it once already.
Yet he did it again after escaping from Aiden’s clutches with the help of his system.
Twice, he had faced the doorsteps of Death, yet he continued escaping from it.
Cillian felt excitement walking the thin line where Death lingered and lurking at its edges. Yet when reality forced him to face it head-on, Death proved to be a rather terrifying existence.
It was so scary that Cillian lost every ounce of energy to move after the Death Flag Probe #3, letting the horrific upcoming scene unfold before his eyes.
At Death Flag Probe #4, he found his head rolling on the floor after he was toyed with.
At Death Flag Probe #7, his limbs got dismembered and were displayed on the walls, as his killers forced him to watch his own body.
At Death Flag Probe #15, Cillian’s tongue got pulled out as his killers watched him bleed to death, after trying to fight back.
Some killers appeared yet again from these probes, but new ones appeared once in a while.
It got to the point where his mental load, after witnessing so many deaths in a single sitting, had already turned into 80% ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com
He was killed throughout the time.
[Death Flag Probe #29 has started]
[Mental load increased by 5%]
Cillian found himself inside the Investigative Crew Club.
Enormous hands emerged from Aiden’s open door, their surfaces covered in bizarre, child-like patterns. They wrapped around his body, but their grip was anything but funny.
Both his legs were already gone. Blood gushed from his waist as those enormous hands tore his limbs away as if plucking petals from a flower.
"Ahhhhh!"
Cillian screamed.
Twenty-eight times.
He had died that many times in these simulations of his deaths, unable to do anything as the black-robed individuals ganged up on him, ambushed him, or forced him into situations so unfair that he could not fight properly using the best of his abilities.
He was unable to do or discover anything.
He had no advantages.
Now he was about to add another to his death records.
Death really doesn’t appreciate being watched.
Even so...!
’My plans...! Using Freya, Dina, and everything I have in my kit is not enough to fucking overcome death!’
Even though everything was just ’possible’ outcomes from probing his death flag, Cillian felt frustrated that he couldn’t fight back from all these enemies that appeared in these simulations.
It made him realize how weak he is.
Painfully so.
Even though the enemies had a numerical advantage against him, it was a reality check to make him realize that his current strength doesn’t matter if those unfavorable scenes showed.
He really tried twenty-eight times.
These probes showed him he was pathetically weak.
The twenty-eight deaths that are soon becoming twenty-nine are enough proof of that.
Maybe he got drunk on the power he possessed, which he thought was enough to fend off all enemies that he might encounter, but he was entirely wrong.
After being thrown left and right, Cillian found out that nothing was fun in here. Only death awaits at every single route.
This made Cillian fall into thought.
What does he need to do to overcome these Death Flags? These routes that only led to his demise, what can tip the scale to turn things around?
At the very least, decrease the death flags or change the future outcome?
A surefire plan that leaves changes in these possible deaths?
After all, having a Death Flag didn’t necessarily mean dying. It just favors the possibility of dying, which Cillian was trying so hard to fight.
What could be the game-changer here?
Crunch—!
Cillian’s left arm was torn from his body as one of the enormous hands plucked it away with ease, waving it in the air as if amused by it.
He couldn’t see Aiden inside. In fact, Cillian had an idea what Aiden had become after he was disturbed, something he’s at fault for.
"Ugh! Fuckkk!"
Cillian cursed as he felt his eyes growing heavy and his consciousness slipping away.
[Mental load increased by 1%]
Just as he was on the verge of breaking apart, Cillian’s eyes gained a moment of clarity, and after twenty-eight deaths, a small, painful smile appeared on his broken face.
Crunch—!
His last arm was torn from his body with ease as the enormous hand was ready to crush Cillian, ready to end his misery.
Yet he didn’t mind.
He got an answer after trialing through these deaths.
"Stop Death Flag Probing!"
[Death Flag Probing couldn’t be stopped while the probed death is on display.]
"Fuck you!"
Crunch—!
The enormous hand slowly crushed Cillian as brutally as possible, dragging out his suffering, forcing painful screams from his mouth.
He was experiencing pain unlike anything he had ever felt before, as if it were happening in real life.
"Ahhhh! Fuck!"
The Berserk Aiden took his time.
"FUCK!"
Cillian then got completely obliterated.
[Death Flag Probe ended.]
[Mental Load: 86%]
[Advice: Don’t use Death Flag Probe with a high mental load percentage. Reaching the maximum mental load will lead to cognitive overload]
"AGHHHH!"
Cillian screamed at the top of his lungs while bleeding from his nose.
Inside Classroom 1-A, who were doing their own things, mostly talking about the incoming tournament matches or lazing around with their peers, all jolted awake before they directed their attention at Cillian, who continued screaming.
Cillian was finally back to reality.
"Damn it all!"
"Hey!"
Freya immediately approached Cillian and started shaking him.
Fred, who was watching from the sidelines, stood up and carefully got closer. Meanwhile, Aster and Melissa approached Cillian almost immediately and were the first to reach him.
"What’s wrong with him?! Is he going to be all right?"
Melissa worriedly asked Freya, who didn’t even glance at her and continued looking at Cillian, who was still bleeding excessively from his nose.
"AGHHHHH! God fucking damn it!"
Freya clicked her tongue as Cillian continued screaming without responding, then turned her attention to another monitor in this classroom.
"Harold, contact Instructor Ulrich. He needs to know what happens here. Now!"
"On it."
Harold, who was tasked with monitoring Aster, frowned while watching Cillian act as if he had been possessed by an evil spirit and was trying to escape from it. Yet it didn’t take long before he left the classroom to find Class 1-A’s instructor.
"Hey!"
Suddenly, Cillian shouted angrily, his painful and piercing scream stopped altogether as he looked up with an exhausted expression.
"You!"
Cillian looked at Aster, who was looking at him with a frown.
The others look between Cillian and Aster, almost as if the former is picking a fight with the latter due to how rough his words are.
"You will help me here!"
Aster tilted his head and got even more confused.
Before he could even speak, Cillian gritted his teeth as if the words he was about to say were something he would regret.
But Cillian could only come up with this new strategy because it is a way to mess with those people who targeted Aster’s back.
Whatever he was about to say wasn’t his usual style of doing things, but keeping it from them would definitely be a loss for him.
And Cillian hated losing the most.
It was already shown in the probes that Cillian’s style would not work against the academy’s incoming attacks.
"Listen carefully, okay?! Listen to every word I’ll say now! Open your fucking ears. The Academy will be attacked tonight."
Freya, Aster, and the rest of the class were all taken aback by those words that came out of Cillian’s mouth.
"I heard Jack Trade, the presumed leader of Class 1-C, is talking with someone through an artifact. They talked about two things. First, they put a target on Aster and are trying to take away his Piece, the Five Swords of Chaos. Second, there are smuggled Pieces happening within the Academy from the Runic Gate, Elsewhere In Time."
Aster got chills running down his spine when Cillian mentioned that sword, his frown deepening.
"Inform the school! Arrest Jack Trade and made him confess! And you, Aster...!"
Cillian looked at Aster, whose face was turning into a genuine shock about what was truly happening, before continuing.
"You stay with me...!"
Cillian, whose head felt like it was about to explode, couldn’t help but let out a small smile.
This was the game-changer that had appeared in his mind, confessing everything he knew about the upcoming attack.
In that way, the playing field will grow even longer.
Cillian knew that was the only thing he could do at this moment after peering through the deaths he had seen from his system.
All those times he was inside the probes, Cillian felt little or alone.
Can’t do it alone?
Then make it so that everyone gets involved in this problem instead of letting only him think about it.
Will these work?
Cillian had no idea.
But it increases his chance of winning and mostly surviving, the first goal he had set, which he adhered to strongly.
Will it change the outcome of his Death Flag?
’I really hope so.’
That was the only thing going through Cillian’s mind before he fainted on the spot.
