I Killed the Game’s Heroine

Chapter 10

Arc 2: Today too, I continue living in the game world. Today, and tomorrow.

***

After a child with spirit power enrolls in the academy, those recognized as exorcists have two obligations.

First, not to kill innocent civilians using their power.

Second, to risk their lives fighting against malevolent spirits.

Due to having spirit power, humans force children who aren’t even adults yet to fight life-threatening battles.

Although the current reality forces adults to make such demands on children to face the inevitable calamity of malevolent spirits.

At the very least, people provide numerous benefits to children who enroll in the academy.

Tax exemptions, various free education, pensions, and many other benefits.

If a child with spirit power enrolls in the academy, they receive so many benefits that they can live by just hunting malevolent spirits without working.

But Nokra had been thinking until now – are those benefits worth sacrificing children’s youth and lives?

While one could say absolutely not, she cannot deny that without children with spirit power, this world cannot be protected.

The number of people who can handle spirit power is too small.

In such situations, malevolent spirits keep appearing.

No matter how much the academy people teach and train, young sprouts break helplessly before the threat of malevolent spirits.

Nokra has lived trying to prevent such things somehow, and she achieved various results in her own way.

She created a system allowing children to connect with proper spirits unlike trash like Yeong Hyeong among those called spirits in modern times.

She made it mandatory for supervising teachers to accompany new students when they go on missions.

She eliminated the bad practice of throwing newly enrolled students into life-threatening malevolent spirit extermination sites under the pretext of skill verification.

It might have been easier due to her original identity.

No one can deny that she developed systems for children in this country.

But all those systems operate because of the dangers and pain that exorcists must shoulder.

Because there must be appropriate compensation for shouldering such dangers.

Since it’s dangerous work, they get treated accordingly.

Though it’s the most difficult thing to say in this world, at least because the above words make sense, people listened to her.

While some students simply accept their fate of becoming exorcists due to having spirit power, others express dissatisfaction.

But many of those students endure after seeing the many benefits they can get just by graduating from the academy.

However, for a child who receives neither benefits nor respect yet fulfills what people call an exorcist’s duty – what are they fighting for?

Nokra suppressed the sudden thought in her heart and verified- no.

Under the judgment it was true, she told the spirit power investigation team about the malevolent spirit information the boy mentioned.

Suspicion of possession entity appearance, characteristics of possession entity victims the boy mentioned, even unique skills.

The malevolent spirits that gathered like being drawn to that giant hand, and the hand that kept appearing no matter how many times they eliminated it.

She could believe it more because when combining the boy’s words, it explained everything the exorcists found strange.

The hand spirit that kept appearing was probably acting like a detector checking if there were suitable people to target nearby.

To find target people, it would need such a detector to distinguish curses emanating from negative emotions.

The malevolent spirits were probably drawn to the curse flowing from that detector.

With this information gathered, even a child exorcist should be able to find it.

Originally, the academy exorcists were aware of and pursuing the special malevolent spirit controlling children and other malevolent spirits.

Until now they were making useless efforts because they hadn’t thought it could hide spirit power.

But knowing the characteristics and skills the boy mentioned, they can find it conversely.

The method is using civilian reports.

Even without spirit power, people can instinctively sense the presence of malevolent spirits.

Things like getting goosebumps suddenly while walking at night, or feeling someone watching.

Perhaps cases where people suddenly don’t want to take their usual route are human survival instincts sensing malevolent spirits standing in opposition.

Even if a possession entity, the most troublesome and dangerous among malevolent spirits, hides its spirit power, it cannot ignore even such human survival instincts.

Therefore, they can find that possession entity.

They need to find places where recently there were sudden reports of malevolent spirits, malevolent spirits are discovered, but no spirit power is sensed.

Normally if there’s a malevolent spirit but no spirit power is sensed, they’d dismiss it as just a weak malevolent spirit appearing and disappearing that can’t even kill people.

But if there’s a skill that can hide spirit power, it would be different. If they investigate again now, wouldn’t there be many malevolent spirits gathered to a suspicious degree where spirit power can’t be sensed?

That would likely interfere with eliminating the possession entity.

“…No, simple malevolent spirits aren’t the problem.”

No matter how many malevolent spirits that get enthralled by flowing malevolent spirit power gather, they can’t defeat even one B-rank hunter.

But this possession entity that appeared is dangerous.

It creates split spirits like the hand spirit, hides spirit power, and is cunning enough to not reveal its existence to anyone.

Furthermore, the fact that it takes children but protects rather than kills them means it has a place to protect them.

That means this possession entity has already manifested a “unique domain” that only a few A-rank malevolent spirits can manifest.

“Damn it.”

Nokra squeezed her eyes shut.

A unique domain is the worst space where a malevolent spirit’s skills manifest at maximum power and even limitations on those skills are nullified.

The last time a possession entity powerful enough to manifest a unique domain appeared was 25 years ago.

That possession entity emerged in China’s Hunan region and was barely eliminated after causing casualties numbering tens of thousands including Chinese exorcists called Taoist priests.

If a malevolent spirit with a unique domain is born in South Korea, right in the middle of Seoul, the word calamity would be insufficient.

A special malevolent spirit – possession entity – born when a child with spirit power harbors curses toward the world beyond their spirit power.

Nokra looked at the gradually warming sky and thought.

Though it was frustrating that all she could do in this emergency was wait for accurate investigation results.

Even more frustrating was the matter of that boy.

He knows an abnormally large amount. A boy with spirit power living on the streets without proper food.

Knowing the hand spirit is fake and even its skills? It’s impossible by common sense.

Unless they knew the child well before they became a possession entity, while they were still human.

“I thought there must be something since he suddenly followed me…”

Let’s judge rationally excluding emotions. Imagining the most reasonable possibility for this situation.

Looking back at the boy’s mentions again.

The boy also knew about the possessed child’s parents.

He said he barely managed to escape thanks to the characteristic of not killing children.

Setting aside knowing about the parents – is that possible?

A-rank doesn’t stop at human casualties but causes national disaster level situations, yet he escaped from such a monster?

Well, it is possible. When just transformed into a possession entity, there are cases where human reason remains. In such cases, it’s not impossible.

Similar cases actually existed in the past.

Usually in such situations, possession entities first massacre those who abused them.

But stories of possession entities sparing and safely releasing those who showed them kindness are often passed down like legends among exorcists, and actual records remain.

Then the boy actually faced an acquaintance who became a possession entity, and survived because that possession entity showed mercy.

If the boy had been one of those who tormented the child who became the possession entity, or someone they didn’t know, he couldn’t have survived.

When her thoughts reached there, Nokra began understanding the boy’s actions until now.

Every night, without missing a single day, hunting all visible malevolent spirits.

The boy’s actions of dealing with malevolent spirits despite having no paying requests seemed strange even just for clearing ruins to spend the night.

Perhaps he was searching for the boy who became the possession entity. While searching like that, he met her.

After much deliberation, he tried to use her to find the child who became a possession entity but it didn’t work well-

By chance, as if a real god rather than a spirit-like being played a cruel joke, he witnessed a child cursed by the possession entity at his home.

The possession entity that had long lost its reason would have been no different from a malevolent spirit.

The malevolent spirit had seen the boy before, and since the boy met the criteria of children the possession entity targeted, it began targeting him first.

Though having lost reason, the possession entity’s actions of trying to save abused children like itself may seem like pitiful goodwill at first glance.

But the goodwill of something that has become a malevolent spirit is no different from malice, and inevitably harms living humans.

She was there at that place but failed to notice. She was only surprised that the delivery girl had spirit power.

Though her eyes could see many things, she failed to notice the curse quietly hiding itself.

She felt something but – she was too surprised by a child with spirit power working as a delivery driver to look carefully.

How foolish. If she had looked more carefully, she would have noticed. Nokra rubbed her eyes after slightly lifting her sunglasses.

If she still had her “eyes” intact, she would have noticed everything.

Nokra felt slight regret rising within her but quickly shook it off.

Until now she vaguely expected there must be some reason for the boy constantly wandering outside.

Those called exorcists all have their own circumstances, and that becomes a line they don’t allow other exorcists to cross.

Therefore, all Nokra could do was cheer for that boy to overcome his past weighing him down.

But to think it was something like this. Her chest feels tight and nausea rises. Nokra held her breath while swallowing.

The boy who presumably knew the child before they became a possession entity well enough to know what kind of people their parents were.

What must have been the feelings of that child who miraculously survived and then searched for that possession entity?

Did he wander the streets alone trying to stop who had been his friend?

Questions like exactly who the person who became the possession entity was to the boy no longer hold meaning. There’s no reason to find out right now either.

The child who became the original of the possession entity is already dead, and their parents must be dead too.

They’re probably lying somewhere in the unique domain in the most horrible state.

Though she thought so, she inwardly hoped this prediction was her misunderstanding, and that the boy had somehow been mistaken or lied.

If it ends with her having foolish delusions due to a child’s lie, it would just leave one report and no problems.

She could just laugh it off and get annoyed once at the boy for telling such scary lies.

But if what she thought was true…

Ring ring-

Nokra rolled her eyes hearing her phone ring. It was a call from the spirit power investigation team.

23 minutes from her initial report to the current call.

As soon as she reported what she heard from the boy and said a possession entity might have appeared, they said she, the most capable in the country regarding investigation, would take this job.

Therefore, getting a call in less than 30 minutes was natural.

Hoping her thoughts were false, she connected the call.

“[ – That report was correct. A-rank malevolent spirit’s unique domain discovered in Myeongil-dong direction. Successfully confirmed inside using dolls, and confirmed flesh vessel judged to be possession entity inside. Skills are exactly as reported and the exorcism specialist team judges it as a special danger situation.]”

“[ The malevolent spirit naming specialist team has named the possession entity. All B-rank and above exorcists will be gathered to conduct exorcism of ‘Sethani’, the A-rank secret malevolent spirit, starting from the current time. ]”

Hearing the call, she let out a deep sigh.

The world was truly a cruel world.

End of Chapter