Record of a Thousand Lives - Chapter 95

Chapter 95
The dark forest terrain was very rough and rugged, and it was covered in numerous large tree roots and sharp jagged rocks that made it even more difficult to traverse.

“I cannot see anything ahead,” Iris said, still feeling depressed over the death of her white horse.

Shaneth lifted her finger and said, “Pyrokinesis.” An orange flame burned brightly at her fingertip and illuminated the area like a lamp.

When the surroundings lit up, Henrick praised Shaneth sarcastically, “You’ve become quite useful!”

“Am I an object?” Shaneth shot back sharply.

Kang Yoon-Soo found that his backpack had started shining suddenly. He opened it to find that Yuriel’s hair was what was emanating that brilliance.

[Yuriel’s Hair]

Hair belonging to the angel Yuriel. You may summon the angel if you burn this hair. However, you may not summon the angel at night or in corrupted places.

+The duration that the angel may stay on the earth will shorten the more often you summon her.

‘I guess I have to hold back on summoning the angel unless it is an absolutely dire situation.’

Yuriel was an angel who was over Level 600; an angel would be a guaranteed boost to their combat powers if she were deployed on a battlefield. However, Kang Yoon-Soo would lose a proportionate amount of potential experience points, since the angel would surely eliminate all the enemies.

‘The duration she can stay will also be reduced the more often I summon her.’

He had explored plenty of ruins and places that held numerous secrets of the continent in the past life he had lived as the Explorer of the Unknown, and he had come across an assortment of information regarding angels. The angels were beings who had a near-endless supply of holy power, but almost all of them lived in the heavenly realms and rarely came down to earth. They were different from the demons, who could live on the earth for an extended period of time, and they had limits on the time they could spend on the earth once they came down.

‘I have to find out more about angels descending to the earth later on.’

The sun had fully set, and the moon had risen to its highest point in the night sky.

It was at the moment that they were about to decide where to camp for the night that someone suddenly asked the party a question.

“Where are you from?” a man asked, emerging from the darkness.

***

David only abducted Travelers; the Continentals were from a different world, and so he did not get the same thrill from killing them. Besides, he had another personal reason to be obsessed with only killing Travelers.

‘The feeling I get when I cut off the arm with the wrist device is just ecstasy in itself…!’

The wrist device was an important item that a Traveler would not be able to live without on the continent. They did not have the innate ability to check status messages or inspect their stats without the wrist device. unlike the Continentals. That was why a Traveler without their wrist device was no different from a castaway in this world.

‘They can’t increase their stats even if they level up, and they can’t read item descriptions either.’

The wrist device was attached in a way that even the user would not be able to detach it from their wrist. The only way for a Traveler to lose their wrist device would be to have their wrist cut off.

‘The faces they make when they can no longer see the status messages everyone else can see…’ David thought, his expression filled with ecstasy. Those expressions appearing on Travelers’ faces were the main reason why he only chose to abduct them.

‘I have quite a lot of wrist devices at the ruin now.’ The mountain of wrist devices he kept at the ruin was a testament to the number of murders he had carried out.

He followed the green dot shown on his wrist device, arriving at a place where a group of travelers was about to set up camp. ‘There are two men and two women, and that expressionless man must be the Traveler, judging by the fact that he is the only one wearing a wrist device.’

The description given to him by his Ruin Master class ability had mentioned that the party consisted of one Traveler, two Continentals, and one monster.

David’s brow rose as he read the last line again. ‘A monster?’

He had been expecting to see a Tamer class adventurer, as he had encountered a lot of them invade his ruin, but all he saw in the group were four normal humans. Was there something wrong with his unique class skill?

‘I can always recall back to the ruin if things go wrong for some reason anyway, so I don’t have to worry so much,’ he thought.

The reason why David felt confident leaving his ‘home territory’, the Shy Doll ruin, was because he had certain measures in place to protect him in case of an emergency. He had another skill, ‘Recall to Ruin’, that was unique to his Ruin Master class; it allowed him to instantly teleport to the heart of his ruin in case of any danger he faced outside. Of course, the skill was limited to only one use a week, but that was more than enough to serve him as a precaution when he went outside.

David walked toward the group and asked them, “Where are you from?” Asking his victims where they were from before he killed them was one of his hobbies, after all.

Kang Yoon-Soo, the man with the wrist device, slowly replied, “Somewhere in Korea.”

“I’m from Singapore, Singapore,” David replied.

Shaneth was on guard as she asked, “Who are you to suddenly ask where we’re from? Also, what does ‘Singapore, Singapore’ mean?”

“The capital of Singapore is a city called Singapore,” David replied just as he always did. He twitched a finger in his pocket, and the bush behind Kang Yoon-Soo suddenly shook.

Kwachik!

“You were an intermediate rank?” David remarked, frowning.

Henrick easily deflected the mana threads David had shot out with one hand before saying coldly, “You did quite well hiding your mana threads, but you have too many unnecessary movements. You’ve never properly learned how to be a Puppeteer from anyone, have you?”

“…Are you a Puppeteer as well?” David asked in surprise.

“That’s none of your business,” Henrick said as he twisted the mana threads in his hand. A combat doll that was hiding in a bush suddenly moved according to his command.

“…What the hell?” Henrick muttered as he scrunched his eyebrows. The combat doll that emerged from the bush was not a wooden doll, but rather a doll made out of a human. Tied to the mana threads was a woman who was holding a bow with her left hand, which had been replaced with a prosthetic arm.

Henrick could not hide his surprise and anger as his face crumpled. He exclaimed, “You… Fuck! you crazy bastard! Did you turn a corpse into a doll?!”

David quickly pulled out a knife from his breast pocket and hurriedly cut off the mana threads, then took out his doll summoning box. He summoned twenty combat dolls at once, commanding, “Kill them!”

Shaneth readied her scythe, but she could not hide her surprise as she exclaimed, “T-they all look like humans!”

They were not ordinary combat dolls. They looked no different from real human beings who were just connected to a bunch of threads, from the sword-wielding doll that looked like a man to the staff-wielding doll that looked like a woman.

“They… are all smiling…” Iris murmured, her eyes wide.

The corpse dolls all had the corners of their mouths turned up high. The sight of the human-looking dolls wielding weapons and charging toward the party while smiling made the scene even creepier.

Henrick gritted his teeth and shouted, “Wake up, you punks! They might look like humans, but they’re nothing but dolls inside! You’ll be six feet under if you get hung up on morality!”

The corpse dolls moved at once; they were faster and more versatile than wooden dolls. Shaneth swung her scythe and blocked a sword that was aimed at her, but a fireball flew toward the back of her head and hit her.

Fwaaaaah!

Shaneth had been set ablaze by a fireball thrown by a corpse doll, but she swung her scythe even after being hit by the fireball and exclaimed, “Thanks!”

Henrick also mobilized his own combat dolls and shouted, “Aim for the Puppeteer and not the dolls! He’s controlling them!”

David quickly moved his hands and maneuvered ten of his corpse dolls to block the path toward him.

Kang Yoon-Soo drew his sword and called out, “Iris.”

Iris immediately struck the ground with her fist. The earth splintered, kicking up all the dirt in a large area in front of her. It was a display of strength that would simply be impossible for a human.

‘Is she the monster the system said was among them?’ David thought, furrowing his brows.

The dolls’ formation was disrupted for a moment, and Kang Yoon-Soo immediately dashed in as soon as he saw the opportunity present itself, using a skill. “Abyssal Sword.”

Clang!

A corpse doll that was in front of David hurriedly blocked Kang Yoon-Soo’s strike. David smirked as if he found the scene to be interesting, saying, “You’re quite skilled with the sword.”

David knew these kinds of Travelers very well. Most of the Travelers who possessed such a level of swordsmanship usually had backgrounds related to the sword back in the real world as well. They normally went to a sword dojo, practiced swordsmanship, or trained in fencing.

‘But those were nothing but recreational sports.’

David had killed more than ten people on the first day he had been summoned to this world. The reason he had been able to kill so many people immediately on the first day was not that he was a skilled fighter or anything, however. It was all about his mental fortitude and willingness to kill.

‘Young people like him tend to have more conscience and a useless sense of justice.’

That was one of the main reasons why David used the corpse dolls when he went out to hunt and abduct Travelers. The corpse dolls each had a hand and wrist missing, but they looked no different from normal humans; that was because they had been created from the actual corpses of the Travelers he had killed.

‘That’s why an opening will definitely present itself,’ David thought confidently. The Continentals were a bit more used to it, but cutting down another human being was not something that a normal person who had just come from the real world could do without feeling guilty. Besides, how many people were there who could cut down an innocent human being?

David retreated behind the corpse dolls, summoning ten more. He thought, ‘He’s bound to hesitate at least once, and I just have to wait for that opening to take care of him.’

The corpse dolls he had summoned this time were the ones that looked the youngest among his collection, ones he had set aside specially. The logic of human beings hesitating to kill someone was something David could not understand, but that truth of human nature alone made him certain that Kang Yoon-Soo would hesitate and stop swinging his sword at least once.

‘I can create a better doll if I get my hands on the corpse of a strong and tenacious one like him. He’s going to be excellent material,’ David thought happily. However, things went contrary to his expectations.

“Abyssal Sword.”

Sukeok!

Kang Yoon-Soo mercilessly cut down the corpse dolls in front of him. The head of a corpse doll that resembled a young child was crushed, and its blood spurted all over like a fountain. However, Kang Yoon-Soo did not stop even for a second and kept swinging his sword; he did not show an ounce of sympathy for the corpse dolls, nor did his expression change even once. In fact, the movements of his sword turned even more ferocious as he cut a path through the corpse dolls, charging toward David.

“What the hell is this?” David muttered. He could not stop snickering at the sight of the man carving out a path toward him. He felt a sense of familiarity and kinship with the man, rather than being surprised at his mercilessness and coldness.

“You’re quite good at killing people,” he said.

“They’re nothing but dolls anyway,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

“But you crushed the head of such a young kid without a hint of remorse. Don’t you have a child of your own? Ah, you look quite young, so I doubt you have one,” David remarked.

Kang Yoon-Soo’s gaze had been indifferent the entire time, but it suddenly turned ferocious and hostile for the first time. He recklessly dove into the army of corpse dolls and charged toward the Puppeteer. However, David waved both of his hands and five corpse dolls suddenly attacked Kang Yoon-Soo all at once.

Clang!

Shaneth’s scythe, Henrick’s combat dolls, and Iris’ fists crushed the corpse dolls, and the sound of the dolls’ bones and muscles breaking reverberated across the forest.

David tilted his head in confusion and asked, “Aren’t you guys bothered by this? People usually feel hesitant to kill these corpse dolls because they look no different from normal human beings.”

“Of course I’m bothered by it, but I’d hate to see Kang Yoon-Soo getting hurt more than anything else,” Shaneth replied with a hint of anger in her voice.

David could not understand what she meant at all. He was about to scratch his head in confusion when he noticed that his left hand was missing. The wrist that had been equipped with his wrist device was on the ground in a pool of his own blood.

“Euk!” David groaned and staggered backward.

“Die,” Kang Yoon-Soo said, shaking off the blood from his sword.

David’s easygoing expression crumbled, and his face contorted to reveal his true colors. He laughed like a maniac while grabbing his wrist and exclaiming, “You! What the hell did you do back in our world?”

“I don’t remember,” Kang Yoon-Soo nonchalantly replied.

“I’m certain that you were a crazy bastard like me,” David said, still laughing hysterically.

“There are a lot of crazy bastards in the world,” Kang Yoon-Soo said, thinking of the leader of the Black Tiger Clan, before he thrust his sword toward David’s heart.

“I can reattach my hand with the Body Crafting Kit, and I have plenty of wrist devices stored in the ruin,” David said with a creepy laugh.

However, Kang Yoon-Soo did not give him any reprieve, thrusting his sword forward. Suddenly, David shouted, “I hope we’ll meet each other again! Recall to Ruin!”

Kang Yoon-Soo’s sword narrowly missed David, who disappeared into thin air. Shaneth stared dazedly at the spot David had been in just moments before, stuttering, “W-what… What the hell was that guy?”

He had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and ambushed them before disappearing, and he had not seemed to be scared at all even though he was hurt.

Henrick looked at the corpse dolls that were strewn across the ground, muttering, “Body Crafting Kit…?”

“It sounds exactly like your heirloom. Does that man also have a Body Crafting Kit?” Iris asked.

Henrick thoroughly investigated the corpse dolls that were littered on the ground. He checked the holes the mana threads had passed through, and he also checked the areas that had been stitched together. He let out a sigh and said, “This… It seems this is going to be annoying to deal with.”

“What is it?” Shaneth asked while tying up her blood-drenched hair.

“It’s a long story to explain step by step, but if I were to start with the most shocking thing…” Henrick trailed off before dropping a huge confession. “My ancestor was a psychopathic serial killer.”

The rest of the party casually nodded.

“I know,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

“Is that so?” Shaneth asked.

“I knew it,” Iris said.

Henrick was dumbfounded by their reaction. He exclaimed, “Hey! What’s with that reaction that makes it sound as if it’s an obvious thing?!”