Free Web NovelThe moment the words left my mouth, a warning window filled my vision.
Warning.
Do not damage pl■ausibility.
Damage plausibility, my ass.
I ignored the warning and opened my mouth to keep talking to Kwon Taehan. But I couldn’t get another word out.
For the first time in a while, a horrific shock slammed into my head.
Warning.
Do not damage pl■ausibility.
Do not damage pl■ausibility.
Do not damage pl■ausibility.
Do not damage pl■ausibility.
Do not damage pl■ausibility.
Do not damage pl■ausibility.
Do not damage pl■ausibility.
Do not damage pl■ausibility.
Do not damage pl■ausibility.
Do not damage pl■ausibility.
The warning window dyed my vision red and blared noisily. It felt like someone had smashed me in the head. I’d violated penalties plenty of times, but lately I hadn’t had pain this severe. freёwebnovel.com
‘So it’s telling me not to say it to Kwon Taehan?’
Fuck, protagonist perks. Normally I would’ve just snorted and backed off, but facing pain like this for the first time in a while made even that hard.
Trying not to frown, I stepped back. Kwon Taehan’s eyes were wider than before.
‘Is he pissed?’
So what if he is? Ignoring Kwon Taehan, I turned my head to the side, looking for words that could smear over the situation enough to kill the pain.
But Kwon Taehan grabbing me again was faster.
“What the— ...Seo Jehyun!”
What is wrong with this bastard?
Kwon Taehan seized my arm and spun me around, then reached out. I was about to smack his hand away when it came up toward my neck like he was going to grab my collar again—only for him to wipe away blood with his fingers.
I lowered my gaze just a little and watched the drops of blood falling to the floor.
‘Fuck.’
The moment Kwon Taehan’s hand brushed under my nose, the warning window that had filled my sight vanished all at once.
The pain did too. The agony that had been crashing into my head evaporated without a trace.
‘Ha.... What the hell is this supposed to be?’
It was screaming at me not to damage plausibility, then the second Kwon Taehan intervened, it acted like none of that had happened... like this was normal.
Is this a Status Window, or a fucking asshole?
“Your blood....”
I slapped away the hand that was still trying to wipe it, rubbed under my nose with my sleeve, and left the hospital room. And in the most ridiculous development imaginable, the guy who’d just threatened to kill me if I showed my face again followed right after me like a lost puppy.
I waited for the bleeding to stop, walked to the bathroom, and scrubbed every last trace clean. Only then did I look up in the mirror and confirm Kwon Taehan was still standing behind me.
After staring briefly at the bloodstains on his hand and clothes, I met his eyes through the mirror.
“...Internal injury?”
If the warning window vanished the moment he intervened, did that mean I’d slipped out of “damaging plausibility” at that moment?
How? No... why?
‘This is a first.’
The penalty pain was gone, but the afterimage of it lingered, leaving my head tingling. Still, it didn’t feel bad. If anything... it was the opposite.
When I didn’t answer, Kwon Taehan asked again.
“I’m asking if it’s internal injury.”
“Why would I answer that.”
“This is a hospital. If you’ve got internal injuries, you can get treated.”
“Sure, but why would I tell you? In a worst case, it could become a weakness.”
At that, Kwon Taehan’s expression stiffened again. Transparent reaction. If this was his fifth life, shouldn’t he be better at hiding things than this?
Or maybe that kind of guy was exactly why he could function as the “protagonist.”
“Do you think I’d need your weakness... just to kill you?”
“Probably not. You’re an S-rank Hunter, right?”
“.......”
“Then if it’s not because you’re trying to find a weakness, what—”
I crooked my lips and continued.
“You’re worried about me?”
“.......”
“The guy who threatened to kill me is trailing after me just because I got a nosebleed.”
Before I even finished, he strode closer and stopped right behind me. I gladly turned to face him.
Depending on the angle of the light, his black hair carried a faint reddish sheen, swept back in an awkward way. Under that was a smooth forehead, dark brows, and a nose bridge that stood pretty high.
The scar half-hidden by his high neck collar, the line of sight only slightly lower than mine—everything was familiar. Almost bizarrely so.
“Seo Jehyun.”
“Yeah.... I know my name. You don’t have to keep saying it.”
“Why did you go into that dungeon? Even getting internal injuries.”
Every word of that sentence was wrong, but I didn’t bother correcting him.
“Yeah. Like I wanted to go in.”
“I’m not here for wordplay.”
“Then why are you here, Hunter Kwon? You’re not even her guild master.”
“That’s right.”
“Sure.”
I snorted and set a hand on Kwon Taehan’s shoulder. He lowered his gaze to check my hand, then lifted his eyes back up.
“You even got past security.”
“...I didn’t ‘get past’ anything. I was in that dungeon too.”
“So that gives you visiting rights?”
“.......”
Kwon Taehan held my gaze, then let his eyes drop slightly.
Whatever complicated emotions he was chewing through on his own wasn’t my problem.
“Then go ahead.”
“...What?”
“If you came to visit, then visit. I didn’t expect SH Hunters wouldn’t be guarding this place.”
I tipped my head like it was nothing, and Kwon Taehan looked confused. Watching that subtly stiff expression for a moment, I fell into a different train of thought.
In the end... is the one who can break through “plausibility” Kwon Taehan?
Why had “Seo Jehyun” kept going to him every time? To steal his skill?
‘Regression....’
But when I killed people before, I never got a chance to steal anything. Which meant something had to activate first.
Once the dam broke, thoughts poured out in a rush.
Among my skills, there was one that was blacked out. An EX-rank skill—still no clue what it was, or when and how it triggered, but it was still... usable, in its own way.
‘Wang Tiansin.’
I remembered what Wang Tiansin had said to me at that party in Shanghai, when I went with Joo Seowon.
‘Your skill....’
‘.......’
‘Your body can’t ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) handle it. It isn’t yours to begin with—and I can’t even see what kind of skill it is.’
So that meant this blacked-out EX-rank skill... was it something born from my “usurpation”?
Staring at Kwon Taehan, the realizations came one after another.
That EX-rank skill I still couldn’t use, the one that was blacked out, was tied to Kwon Taehan. And probably to regression.
And with a high probability, I’d stolen his skill.
If so, do I need to learn about “usurpation” now? There were two usurpers I’d guessed so far. One was Im Haekyung, who had probably usurped Do Yehyun’s skill before, and the other was... Jin Haedo, the one who made it blatantly obvious he was using a skill born from “usurpation.”
Between the two, whose mouth would be easier to pry open?
No—here, I needed to adjust the question.
‘Which one is more useful to me right now?’
The moment the doubt formed, the decision came easily.
“I... don’t like you.”
“Why? We’ve basically just met.”
“Hah. ‘Just met’....”
Kwon Taehan let out a hollow laugh and looked away. I stood crookedly, weight on one leg, and shoved a hand into my pocket.
Thinking about it, after we cleared the dungeon, even when he grabbed my collar, Kwon Taehan had acted like he wasn’t seeing me for the first time—mixing resentment with something like disgust.
Just like now.
But penalties still didn’t apply to him. Because he never had them in the first place.
For Kwon Taehan... there was no “damage” to plausibility.
‘This....’
A laugh burst out of me before I could stop it. When I suddenly laughed out loud, Kwon Taehan’s expression sharpened instantly. But this time, I wasn’t laughing to provoke him.
The realization hit like lightning.
Why “plausibility”?
Like this reality was a novel, and it was warning me not to stray from the original story’s track...
So why was this Status Window defining me as an “outside” person? Why could Kwon Taehan act without being bound by plausibility? Even though he had a Status Window too?
The answer was simple.
‘There’s no way the protagonist would be someone who cares about plausibility.’
For him, even this moment would’ve never been “not reality,” not even once.
“I really meant it when I said I didn’t want to see you again—”
“Haha....”
God, I seriously can’t hold back my laughter.
I lowered my head, then lifted only my eyes to meet Kwon Taehan’s. I didn’t look away until the very moment his mouth shut.
“You really are kind of special.”
“...What?”
Watching him frown, I slowly raised the corner of my mouth.
“You don’t want to see me again?”
“.......”
“Yeah, got it.”
No matter what Kwon Taehan wanted, whether we saw each other again wasn’t his decision.
It had always been mine.
With that, I patted his shoulder twice and left without looking back.
