Chapter 61 – Promise (4)

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Translated by Seoulbound

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“They turned into blue particles… and disappeared?”

Only then did I understand why CornerHoney was in such shock and horror.

Turning into blue particles and disappearing when food was brought to the mouth was a characteristic of players.

At least, it had been so until now.

Unlike players, other NPCs ate their meals through normal eating—that is, the act of chewing and swallowing food with their teeth.

However, if he had seen the same phenomenon occur when a monster, who was not even a player, devoured a person, it was only natural for him to be confused.

“Why do you think it did that?”

CornerHoney asked me with an anxious look.

“Are those bastards players too?”

“How would I know even if you ask me?”

“You’re smart, unlike me!!”

This guy was the type who achieved self-awareness quite well when cornered.

But it was not like I had anything in mind either.

In the first place, when I arrived, I did not even see the monsters devouring people.

Just thinking about why the monsters fled upon seeing me was enough to give me a headache, but now even their ‘way of eating’ was the same as ours?

“For now… I think I’ll have to see it with my own eyes before I can say anything.”

When I gave a lukewarm answer, CornerHoney jumped up from his seat.

“I’m telling you, I saw it really clearly!”

“It is not that I doubt your words, but I think I will only feel something if I see it myself.”

CornerHoney asked if those monsters were also players.

However, just because ‘something’ touching their mouths turned into blue particles and disappeared did not mean they could all be considered players.

Even the horned rabbit I had seen when out hunting before had crunched and eaten the cookie I laid out as bait, so perhaps it was an ability unique to the individuals we saw just now.

“Anyway, these alien monster bastards already have the ability to heal their wounds with moonlight. Even if they can heal wounds by eating something, it is not particularly surprising…”

As I stopped speaking right there, CornerHoney looked at me with an expression that said he knew why I had stopped.

“You felt something strange as you were speaking too, didn’t you?”

“……”

I looked down at my body for a moment.

‘Right after possessing this body, I thought of this as a game world, so I didn’t think too deeply about it, but…’

As if reading my mind, CornerHoney asked me.

“This body we possessed. Where did it pop out from? Have you ever thought about it?”

Thinking about it now, even the word ‘possession’ was strange.

If we had possessed them, there should have been at least one person who knew the original owner of our bodies.

Was it not because even Anton could not find a single person who knew me that he doubted my past?

That meant the ‘bodies’ we were currently using had popped out from somewhere on the day we possessed this world.

“So that is why you asked earlier if those monsters were players.”

I looked at CornerHoney and asked.

“What is it that you really want to say?”

At my question, CornerHoney replied with a face more serious than ever before.

“I think… we are monsters.”

I stared at CornerHoney for a moment, and then.

I let out a long sigh.

“Whew…”

“Hey! How can you sigh when someone is speaking seriously? Then do you not find your body suspicious right now? It was strange. This body, its physical abilities are weirdly high too!”

Certainly, while dealing with the large-class monster earlier, I had also thought that this was an output that my ten-year-old body could not possibly produce.

I had thought that physical abilities or healing abilities were merely player privileges…

There might be some other secret.

However.

“We probably are not monsters. First of all, we do not have gems.”

“Ah…”

Hearing about the gems, CornerHoney seemed to regain his composure a bit only then.

Distinguishing between monsters and humans depended on appearance or healing abilities, but the most important thing was the presence of a ‘gem.’

Monsters born from meteorites had a gem that served as their core, and even if a rabbit with antlers on its head ran around, if there was no gem embedded in its body, it was just a mutant rabbit.

Since gems were not attached to our bodies, thinking of ourselves as human-form monsters was going a bit too far.

At my words, CornerHoney, who seemed to be contemplating something deeply, whispered softly.

“But still, those guys had strangely high intelligence. Couldn’t it be that there are players who possessed large-class monsters?”

He seemed to think that those monsters were related to players in some way or another.

However, I also took this opinion seriously.

“What you are saying is not entirely nonsensical. Since there seems to be someone who possessed an adult body like the Unicorn zone player, there could be other exceptions.”

“Right?!”

“So I must see it with my own eyes all the more. If those bastards are players, I will make them regret messing around in my front yard. If they are not…”

Seeing the commander and Meursault emerge from the tent one after another over CornerHoney’s shoulder, I quickly wrapped up the conversation.

“Let’s think about that when the time comes. Whether we are humans or monsters, the fact that we have to clear this world does not change.”

CornerHoney did not seem particularly convinced by my words that ‘nothing changes whether we are humans or monsters,’ but he still nodded his head obediently.

I quietly watched CornerHoney and then asked.

“By the way… do you not find it strange that I chased the monsters away?”

Thinking it would be normal to question why they ran away when I appeared if their eating habits were strange, I asked, and CornerHoney answered with a face that truly did not find it strange at all.

“So what? Even I would run away if I saw you.”

Hmm.

What on earth did Meursault and this guy think of me?

* * *

After finishing the reorganization, we set out for the search again.

Originally, we had reorganized the team with the intention of just searching until the wounded soldiers returned and then heading back.

But after hearing CornerHoney’s story, it felt like I should capture at least one of the four escaped bastards to check.

Whether those guys could really heal their wounds by turning food into blue particles when brought to their mouths, and why they moved in a group and fled upon seeing me.

Unless I found out something clearly, this uncomfortable feeling would not go away.

I glanced at the combat rations hanging at my waist.

‘I don’t know if combat rations will be judged as food for monsters too, though.’

If that was the case, I would have no choice but to offer one of my arms, even if it meant risking injury.

The problem was how to lead this team, which even included the commander, not just to search but also to track down those four monsters.

To make matters worse, the snow that had started falling a while ago was gradually growing thicker, so it did not seem like we could continue the search for long.

The signal flare we fired when we discovered a monster was white.

If the snowfall grew heavier, it would become indistinguishable from the snow.

“Lord Haydam.”

Second Lieutenant Plato, the former leader of Team 9 who came to Team 1 with me due to the reorganization, approached me with sparkling eyes.

The reason that guy was talking to me now was obvious.

It was because the others in Team 1 were also busy taking turns talking about my exploit from earlier.

To the question of how I had chased away four large-class monsters with just a glare, even I had nothing to say, and I was already tired of making up excuses.

“Are you also curious about how I chased them away?”

When I looked at him with eyes already weary, the fellow waved both hands as if asserting his innocence.

“Ah, no, Lord Haydam.”

“No?”

“Actually… I do not know why everyone is making such a fuss.”

This was a new perspective.

As I looked at him with interest, Plato continued speaking.

“Chasing away three or four large-class monsters is nothing for you, Lord Haydam. Even the monsters fled because they knew they were no match for you, but it is just a pity that the soldiers of the same zone still do not know.”

Ugh. I think you are making the biggest fuss, though?

“Anyway, what I wanted to ask about is something else.”

“What is it?”

“Determining the gem’s location. Did you tell the military about it, Lord Haydam?”

Although I had made sure the method of determining the gem’s location was trained to the newly appointed officers before the subjugation battle, I did not specifically inform the military or the new officers that it was a method I created.

It was for the same reason that Meursault, not I, was known as the operations officer of this subjugation battle.

Since it was a method implemented for the first time this year, I had wondered if the soldiers would truly believe and follow it if it were said to have been devised by a mere ten-year-old like me.

While the new officers were people who had personally seen and experienced me at the military academy, the ordinary soldiers were different.

Most of the soldiers probably did not know my face well.

Even in the combat situation earlier, they had not immediately followed the instructions I gave, moving only after checking Meursault’s reaction.

Therefore, the gem location determination method was delivered to the soldiers through headquarters after the commander and Meursault had thoroughly verified it.

However, Plato seemed convinced that this method was also created by me.

“Why do you think I was the one who told them?”

“Because even though we were educated on this determination method, when we actually faced multiple large-class monsters, almost no soldiers applied it properly. Yet, as soon as you arrived at the front lines, did you not kill two monsters by firing only two shots, Lord Haydam?”

Hmm. Meursault helped with the first one, but that seemed to have already been forgotten in people’s minds.

“Assuming I did tell them… why are you curious about that?”

“Although I mentioned just now that almost no soldiers applied the method properly… it is because I saw a soldier hunting monsters with movements nearly at the same level as yours, Lord Haydam.”

Saying so, Plato looked back.

Plato’s gaze landed on CornerHoney, who was following us at a slight distance from behind.

Since the number of team members was too small, if the two of us stuck together, that guy would surely make a slip of the tongue, so I had told him to follow at a distance.

Plato withdrew his gaze from CornerHoney, looked back at me, and added.

“The large-class monster killed before you arrived, Lord Haydam, was also caught by that friend.”

“Is that so? I didn’t know that.”

To think he killed a large-class monster and then came to me only to complain about the monster being strange.

Was it that shocking to him that a monster had the same ‘meal’ as us?

It seemed the reason the commander brought CornerHoney to Team 1 was not simply because he had run over to help me at that time.

“You seem to be acquaintances with him, Lord Haydam… is that correct?”

Since almost no one was unaware that CornerHoney and I were close, I did not particularly deny it and affirmed.

“Yes. We are acquaintances.”

“Then…”

Plato hesitated for once, unlike him, and.

He asked me in a low voice.

“Is that child, by any chance, the one my father kidnapped?”

I stopped walking and stared at Plato.

‘How does this guy know this?’

No way, this guy.

Is he now running background checks on his own father for me?