- You’ll be cursed.

‘What kind of bullshit…’

I wasn’t the only one that heard it. I saw everyone looking around, so I was certain that the voice had filled the entire shrine.

“Just now.”

“Priests, please recite a purification spell again…” Lee Sang-Hee requested.

“Okay.”

Nothing serious was happening, but hearing a voice like that definitely made me feel nervous. It was to the point that I wanted to leave this place. Lee Sang-Hee and party two still remained calm, but our party looked a bit confused.

- You’ll be cursed…

“Do you feel magic anywhere?”

“No, I don’t feel anything. My magic sense doesn't… show any reaction and the same goes for holy magic,” Hwang Jung-Yeon replied.

- Intruders will be cursed…

“It seems like a function that’s been installed within the dungeon.”

“I wonder what kind of curse it is…”

“It’s difficult to tell since all we can hear is its voice,” Hwang Jung-Yeon said.

“Let’s move back… we’ll move back immediately and use a holy shield spell,” Lee Sang-Hee suggested.

All of a sudden, amidst the sound of the wind blowing, the scene in front of us started to turn white. I had no idea what was going on, but I started to feel dizzy and nauseous. I wanted to throw up. It felt like the world around me was changing, but this wasn’t exactly the best way to describe it. The phenomenon was difficult to describe. The thought that everyone else must be experiencing the same thing as me only lasted for a moment.

After the scenery changed, I heard a voice coming from somewhere, which surprised me.

- Why did you do it?

- Why… did you abandon me?

‘Oh no.’

The person in front of me was a woman whose name I didn’t know, but her face was familiar. During the tutorial, she was the woman that was being eaten by monsters. This wasn’t a strange situation because I had always felt sorry for her when I chose water and food over her.

“What kind of shitty situation is this?”

The way the woman walked toward me as blood was dripping out of her was a sight to see. She looked exactly the same when she was getting eaten by the monsters.

I did frown, but I wasn’t scared because I already knew that…

‘This is fake.’

She was definitely fake.

- It was painful. So much. I thought that you were going to save me… I believed you were going to do that, but you turned your back on me.

“Damn it.”

- You’re a shitty person.

“Park Hye-Young.”

I even heard the voice of Park Hye-Young who died under Jung Ha-Yan’s hands. Her eyes were filled with resentment and her limbs were severed as she looked straight at me. She felt bitter about the fact that I didn’t choose her and of course, her situation was a bit different from the woman whose name I didn’t know. I had the choice to save her, but…

‘There’s no need for me to feel guilty.’

…That had been the most reasonable choice.

- You always protect yourself with those thoughts of yours. It was a reasonable choice and you probably couldn’t help it. It’s really funny. In my eyes, you and I are the same type of people.

“Are you even worthy of saying something like that? You crazy murderer. I’m completely different from you.”

‘Jung Jin-Ho.’

The way he walked toward me with Kim Hyun-Sung’s sword in his neck looked a bit grotesque.

- We’re not that different at all. We’re the same type of people. We’re selfish and greedy. Did you kill Mr. Seok-Woo because you thought it was necessary?

The citizen of the slums that Sun Hee-Young killed, Yoo Seok-Woo, and two of Jung Jin-Ho’s lackeys. Those that had a connection with me started appearing one by one.

‘It's this kind of a curse?’

I didn’t think that the others were seeing what I was seeing. I might not have been aware of it, but all the things I was seeing right now were the types of situations I never wanted to see. I guess there was still some guilt left inside me because I wasn’t in a good mood.

- You killed them.

“Shut up.”

- Rationalization. You’re a coward.

“There’s nothing bad about rationalizing since that’s how humans are designed. Humans are bound to rationalize any situation, you idiots,” I retorted.

- And you’re feeling guilty.

“It’s an emotion I can have, but I don’t regret it.”

- Piece of shit.

“Is that all you know how to say? No matter how much you blame me, the reality is that I’m standing here and you’re looking at me as I stand here because you all died. That won’t ever change. If I got another chance, I would do the same thing,” I told them.

- You’ll eventually be with us.

“Damn it, that’s your wish.”

My sight started to clear up. When the ones that were looking at me started to disappear, I became nauseous.

“Blehhh.”

I couldn’t help but throw up whatever was inside me. Seeing the corpses of the dead wasn’t exactly the most pleasant experience. Unlike a moment ago when I was being chatty, my entire body was now covered in cold sweat. My legs started shaking and even though I knew that they weren’t real, my lips kept drying up.

‘It’s fake.’

‘Shut up.’

Even after returning to reality, I could still hear their voices whispering into my ear.

‘Damn it.’

- You killed us.

‘Damn it.’

- You killed us. It was you!

‘Damn it.’

It affected me more than I thought and an unpleasant feeling started to fill me up. When I started breathing heavily, I felt someone tapping my shoulder. I was surprised and subconsciously slapped the hand that was on my shoulder, but then I heard a comforting voice.

“Go away!”

“Are you okay?”

I saw Kim Hyun-Sung, and I started to feel a little comfortable. This place wasn’t that place.

“Oh… yes. I’m fine,” I answered.

Kim Hyun-Sung was sending me his mana little by little.

‘The others…’

I was sure that the others were experiencing the same phenomenon as me. As I expected, the scenery I saw was difficult to explain in words.

“Ahhhhhh…”

Kim Ye-Ri was holding onto herself as she was shaking and then I noticed her waving her hands as if she was trying to shake something off. She looked as if she was trying to push away the people that were approaching her. Her mouth was moving as if she wanted to say something, but she had a hard time talking.

“Stop… stop. Mom… mom! Help me. Mom… please…” she said.

It was probably a memory of hers when she was still in the slums and just by looking at her, she was obviously experiencing something unpleasant. Meanwhile, Park Deok-Gu was cowering. Seeing him cowering and trembling without saying a word gave me an idea of what he was seeing. I guess Sun Hee-Young was looking at a moment during that time because she was crying. She wasn’t screaming, but there was blood trickling down her lips. She was biting down hard on her lips. Out of all of them, I couldn’t understand what was going on with Jung Ha-Yan the most.

“Noooooo! I don’t want to. Please. Please. Oppa. Oppa.”

‘...’

“Please, it was my fault. It was all my fault. Please. Please… I’m sorry. I’ll do better from now on. Please don’t leave me. Please…”

‘Shit.’

I couldn’t help but think that her situation was dire. Tears were flowing down her eyes and there was blood on her nails. Jung Ha-Yan had ripped her flesh with her own hands and seeing as how she lost some parts of her hair, I guess she pulled out her hair as well. Not only was she having a hard time breathing, but she was crying so much that her voice was cracking.

“N-No…”

‘...’

“Don’t do that with that woman. Don’t do that, Oppa. I’m sorry. No… no! No!”

I had an idea of what she was seeing. Besides her, the others were shaking their heads and showing strange reactions. I did see a few coming back to their senses in the middle of it, but they either collapsed and vomited or they remained confused. On Lee Sang-Hee’s end, she kept apologizing to someone.

“I’m sorry. I’m very sorry. I really am…”

I wasn’t exactly sure, but it seemed like she was apologizing to the people that were in here. I could understand why she was reacting this way since she must be worried about the survivors. Hwang Jung-Yeon finally returned to her senses because I saw her looking around while secretly crying.

Besides Kim Hyun-Sung, the people that came back to their senses had high intelligence stats. There were differences individually, but I guess the amount of intelligence had influenced what was going on. Unfortunately, Jung Ha-Yan was a special case.

‘Her mental state is unstable.’

She couldn’t push away whatever she was seeing right now.

“Mr. Hyun-Sung, when did you…”

“It hasn’t been that long for me either,” he replied.

“How long has it been?” I asked.

“I don’t think it’s been that long. I don’t really understand it either, but…” he said.

It felt like I was in there for at least 10 minutes, so it was difficult to believe that it only happened for a moment. Of course, resolving the situation was more important than grasping the situation. After getting rid of the questions that were in my head, I quickly spoke to Kim Hyun-Sung. “How can we wake them up?”

“I think letting your mana quietly flow into them is the best although, holy magic will be more effective… Mr. Ki-Young, please take care of Miss Ha-Yan first,” he said.

“Oh, okay.”

I guess Kim Hyun-Sung thought that it would be best for him to wake Sun Hee-Young up first. With a slightly haggard face, Hwang Jung-Yeon did the same and started walking toward the priests that were in her party. As I calmed myself a little bit, the strange feeling that restrained me started to disappear, so I quietly headed toward Jung Ha-Yan.

“I need to kill…”

‘What is she talking about?’

“I-I need to kill. All… I need to kill all of them so that I can become one with oppa. Yeah. I should. That’s what I should do. I’ll kill them all,” Jung Ha-Yan mumbled.

Since she was mumbling, I was sure that the others didn’t hear her. I wasn’t sure what she meant by being one with me, but it sounded scary. When I approached her quietly and let my mana flow into her after grabbing her hand, I could see that Jung Ha-Yan’s complexion was improving.

“I’ll always be with you,” I whispered into her ear.

If it was Jung Ha-Yan, I was sure that she would quickly come back to her senses and that was when I felt her waking up. Her eyes were definitely open, but it seemed like she was still trying to come back to her senses. Her labored breathing started to calm down and when her limbs stopped trembling, I knew that she had returned to her senses. Her eyes, which looked like they were spacing out, landed on me.

“Oppa?”

“Are you okay now?” I asked.

“O… oppa,” she said again.

“Yeah.”

She wrapped her arms around my neck tightly as if she didn’t want to let me go. I was suffocating, but I couldn’t make it noticeable.

“Oppa… oppa, oppa.”

“Yeah, I’m right here,” I told her.

Earlier, Jung Ha-Yan sounded like she was crying, but now she was sobbing. She realized that what she had seen just now was nothing more than a hallucination. I felt like I was taking care of a child that had a nightmare, but it wasn’t so bad.

- You’ll abandon her too.

I heard the voice again, but of course, I ignored it since it was probably the effect of the curse.

- It’s not an effect of the curse. It’s a voice coming from your heart.

I was sure that I wasn’t the only one who could hear this voice. Even after waking up, I noticed the others talking to themselves.

- In the end, no one will be by your side because you’re going to abandon all of them. The people that are beside you right now will someday be with us and all of us will be watching you. Wait and see…

“It’s really you, right oppa?” Jung Ha-Yan asked.

“Yeah.” I nodded.

“It’s really you…” she mumbled.

“Yeah, that’s right,” I told her.

When I saw how Jung Ha-Yan was trying to make sure that I was actually here with her, I knew that I wasn’t the only one who could hear that voice. She must have heard that voice just now. I couldn’t help but feel anxious because of the unknown voice.

I gulped as I looked at Jung Ha-Yan who seemed confused.

‘I’m getting worried…’

It felt like a bomb was going to explode. That was how unstable Jung Ha-Yan looked.