Deceptions & Truth

"Yes, I am also a transmigrated person." Absolute being's words were like a thunder in Zack's ears, he couldn't form any correlant thoughts for a moment. He expected that there will be surely many others who met god and transmigrated, after all it couldn't be that he was the first, right? But never in his wildest dreams did he imagined that he would actually meet one.

Now the problem is the way he should react, should he be hostile? Or friendly?

Wait‽ Why did the absolute being revealed this in the first place, he was sure that Absolute being isn't a idiot who would just tell this secret without thinking of consequences.

Wait a second, he also said that this was not really him but just a consciousness he left behind, then where is the real one? Zack knew that if the absolute being also got 3 wishes then no doubt he would also be overpowered.

Questions like these poured into his mind in only a moment, the eery silence in the silence continued for a few awkward moments before Zack finally regained his bearing and said: "I… see, So that makes us brothers of some sort, right?"

"…"

The awkward silence ensued once again while Zack was feeling a little embarrassed at himself for being stupid.

Not planning to lose any more dignity, he coughed a little and said: "Why did you tell me this? And how did you knew that I was also a transmigrated?"

Thankfully, instead of silence, the absolute being replied in a serious voice: "I was the one who created the monarchs or rulers since I was bored after living for so much time, I naturally made sure that no foreign being could enter this world, but my defence was nothing in front of you, it wasn't that hard to deduce that you must be a transmigrator like me."

Zack frowned a little due to his reply, he didn't even sensed any sort of formation on this planet, not to mention he used cosmic shift to directly teleport breaching any form of barrier, it shouldn't be logically possible for absolute being to know, but there were also many unknown variables here, like the wishes of the absolute being.

"As for why I'm telling you this, I also don't know." He finished his explanation.

Zack's frown deepened as he asked: "What do you mean you don't know, then why did you told me in the first place?"

This wasn't just making any sense right now, after a long time Zack was truly confused at this moment and wanted to uncover the truth behind the situation.

"like I said before, I'm not the original Absolute being, I can only do what my original part had told me to do. Absolute being left me here to with the intent to inform something to any possible transmigrator."

"He gave a long explanation to me but after thousands of years, now I only remember a few, he said that 'everything is a lie, don't let it fool you, don't even trust what you have.' I apologize but this is the only message that I could relay to you."

Zack heard his words with all of his attention but no matter what, he couldn't understand anything at all. What did he mean 'everything is a lie', or whom should I not let fool me?

"Your time here is over, I can't handle having this space maintained for too long, but I hope that you find this useful."

Then, just like that Zack felt the space laws in the surrounding area dissipate, he cosmic shifted back to the Queen's lair in hope that hae-in would be alright.

He appeared in the Queen's lair and saw ant's corpse littered everywhere with no trace of anyone…

He clicked his tongue and went outside, he sensed some hunters roaming the surroundings, maybe examining the area for any ants that were left.

'So the raid is already over? *Sigh* It seems I couldn't really change the fact that hae-in would be saved by Jinwoo and he would take Beru in his army.'

'How would I explain my disappearance to Hae-in? Knowing her, she would be worried sick at this point.' He shook his head with a wry smile on his face, he really liked it when hae-in cares about him but he didn't wanted her to be worried.

He just decided to teleport back to South Korea since he was near Japan…

(Hae-in POV)

A beautiful young woman was sitting in a bedroom looking room, her beauty would've dazed any man in existence if not for the fact that she was shouting on the phone: "I DON'T CARE ABOUT THAT, CHAIRMAN!! I TOLD YOU THAT HE WASN'T EXPERIENCED ENOUGH."

"Don't worry, Hunter Cha. We haven't found any body matching of Hunter Zack, please rest asuured that we will find him shortly."

"Body‽ Are you already considering him dead‽"

"We didn't said that, Hunter Cha. You should first calm down, our search team is already searching for any injured hunters on Jeju island."

Then without saying anything else the call ended, Go Gun-hee knew that it was futile to talk to hunter Cha right now, it is known that hae-in cares deeply for her fellow hunters in guild, not to mention Zack who was her closest 'friend'.

*Sigh* "Is it my fault?" She muttered with some tears in her eyes, on the Jeju island raid, after taking care of the queen, another ant who could talk attacked them, it was extremely powerful, to the point that they had to suffer casualities even after sever S ranks attacking at once. When she was about to be killed, she remembered catching a glimpse of someone's shadow, only now did she find out that he was the famous S rank hunter Sung Jinwoo who became S rank only after few days of Zack...

But she couldn't care less about all this, the first thing she asked after waking up was if Zack was alright, the response she got was horrifying, she was told that Zack is essentially missing right now, even the cameras didn't capture him leaving the group and they didn't knew what happened to him.

Suddenly, she heard a knock on the front door, Strangely a sense of hope developed in her mind as she prayed the god that the one outside was Zack.

She hurriedly got on her feet and approached the front door but her hand froze midair while reaching for the doorknob.

What if it isn't Zack? She didn't wanted to lose the last hope she had now, she was having an internal war when there was another knock on the door.

Hae-in bit the bullet and opened the door with her eyes closed tightly, she was desperately hoping to hear the familar voice, and sure enough…

"What are you doing? Why are your eyes closed? Don't just stand in the way."

The familar voice made her open her eyes and saw the figure of Zack, she couldn't control herself and ended up hugging him tightly.

Zack wasn't too startled by this, he knew that she is a big worrywart and would be like this when he came back, he felt apologetic seeing her relieved face.

He also wrapped his arms around her waist and hugged her back, now their bodies sticking together, Zack couldn't help but enjoy the comfortable warmth of her body, her figure felt too good in his embrace, he kissed her hair and said: "Don't be a crybaby now, haein. We are hunters after all, it is natural for us to risk our lives during missions."

Hae-in's grip on him tightened she looked up to him and said: "I know… I also believe the same… but when it comes to situations like today, I just can't keep myself thinking rationally."

Zack expected her to retort with something like, you don't have to risk your life or you are the only friend I have… He was pleasantly surprised when she answered in such a way, he showed a warm smile and kissed her head…

"I am safe for now, and I think that's all that matters."

It didn't take long for hae-in to calm down, she demanded explanation of what has happened to him and where did he go? Zack decided to tell her half-truth, he said that he sensed someone powerful nearby, so he 'impulsively' decided to find and kill it, it turned out to be a sort of general of ants. It was quite a hard fight and he was injured so he couldn't come back, he was found by investigation team and after meeting a healer, he came back here.

Hae-in felt that the story was not true, there were just too many holes in the story, How was Zack able to take on the Ant alone, Why didn't he told anyone else? And why didn't the cameras caught him leaving?

She was skeptical that he was hiding something but didn't ask him, for all she knew, if Zack wanted it to be a secret then she wouldn't pry into his privacy.

After that bout of interrogation, Zack was finally able to catch the bed since all the hunters participating in the Jeju island were given time to rest, hae-in also decided to rest in her own room.

Lying on the bed with his head in his hands, he thought of the message the Absolute being left for him, what exactly was the reason he left a message in the first place?

He said that everything is a lie, right?

Then what comes in 'everything'? His own existence? But isn't he real, alive and kicking?

This is just too confusing, he had to just try to sound cool and left a half-assed message, couldn't he just explained everything properly‽

'Don't even trust what you have', what is he taking about? Is he talking about a certain thing? What did he had in the first place? His looks to capture the hearts of women? Or his powers?

Wait‽ His powers‽

Zack's eyes immediately shot open as he thought 'If he was, by any chance, telling me to not even trust my powers, then what does that entail?'

'I shouldn't trust my own powers? Wait!! Thai isn't my powers!' his eyes widened in realization.

'These powers were basically 'given' to me by the god, they aren't mine in the first place, is that the meaning behind his words? But why shouldn't I trust these powers?'

He thought, immediately he remembered the third message 'Don't let it fool you.'

'If what I think is correct, then this makes absolute sense, he told me not to trust the powers given to me by god, and to not let myself be fooled by the god, who gave this power to me.'

But this doesn't make any sense! Why would god fool me? Didn't he gave these cheats to me because he made a mistake?

Wait a second! First part, 'Everything is a lie.'

Zack then came to a very horrifying assumption which he didn't wanted to believe himself, 'From the start, everything was a lie, god never made a mistake with his soul, his powers were not given to him because of generosity or apology, and the god has somehow fooled him, not to mention he didn't even knew if the god was real or not, or if the world he was in was real or not, his powers were a fluke or not.'

The message said, 'everything is a lie', so that means that the moments he spent with hae-in were a lie, or the times when he played games with Jasmine was a lie, heck, he didn't even knew if the message was true or not.

He clutched his head in frustration, his blood pumping heavily, his mind was in a chaos, he subconsciously tried using 'Calm mind' but to his horror, nothing happened...

He started losing conciousness due to the heavy mental strain, his eyes felt droopy, after a few moments he couldn't resist and ended up falling asleep.

⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂

God knows how much time has passed, but Zack's eyelids finally fluttered and he started gaining his Conciousness back…

He felt sore all over his body as if he had done heavy workout, he stretched his sore muscles and felt his body aching all over.

He opened his eyes and couldn't help but look twice where he was, he expected to be in hae-in's house, sleeping in his own bed but the reality couldn't be any different, he found himself on the floor, the surrounding was filled with deep blood red colour, the walls, the floor and even the furniture was blood coloured.

He tried standing up but couldn't find the strength in his legs, suddenly a deep booming voice resounded, dripping with disdain and mockery: "Hahahaha, So you are finally awake, mortal."

Zack's head jerked towards the direction of the sound, his eyes widened with shock as his mouth gaped at what he saw.

This is… not going too well for him.

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