Deadly flower (3)

[At the orphanage, the superintendent gathered the children. Cale and Xin Jian (who was reading in Cale's room) reluctantly stopped what they were doing (for Cale, it was screwing over criminals; and for Xin Jian it was reading while thinking of her next pranks and watching Cale screwing over criminals) and left Cale's room.

"Everyone, today we're all going to visit a museum."

Someone raised their hand.

"What if we don't want to come?"

"It's not optional, everyone has to come."

Xin Jian raised her hand in a weak voice.

"Mrs, I…"

"You have to come, even if you're sick or your leg is broken."

Xin Jian shut up. Could this person read minds? She didn't remember using an excuse to skip an outdoor activity yet.

That's how Cale and Xin Jian were forced to go out with everyone.

Bored, Cale watched a kid pick a fight with Xin Jian, already knowing how it would end.

Then, he saw Xin Jian bickering with them while remaining as polite as possible, and the other kid insulting her in the conversation before Xin Jian brought an adult into their fight and complained that she had been insulted, winning the argument while the other was scolded.

Finally, she went back to Cale's side and began reading the book she had brought.

As she opened the book, Cale asked her a question.

"What would you like to receive on your birthday?"

Xin Jian paused, seemingly thinking about it. She didn't really want anything.

After a while, she answered.

"…A music box."

Cale nodded and the subject ended.

Later, on Xin Jian's birthday, Cale offered her a small packaged gift.

Xin Jian neatly opened the package, not tearing it apart because she intended to keep the beautiful paper, then looked at what was inside.

"…"

She looked at the music box, not saying anything, and turned the handle to start the melody.

Xin Jian continued to stare at it for a while and finally mumbled in a low voice.

"Thank you…"]

Cale remembered the interior of Xin Jian's drawer he had searched through in the orphanage before.

Indeed, when he had been there the last time, the music box had been nowhere to be found in her room. She always brought it with her.

He left the kid and continued on his way.

In the subway train, the Oldest Dream pointed at her bulging pocket because he still didn't know what was in it since he first met her.

"So, what is there?"

Xin Jian blinked and took out the object.

"This?"

She smiled.

"It's a music box."

***

"Cough! Cough…!"

Yoo Jonghyuk threw away the blood stained petals he had coughed out and looked at the meteorite at his feet.

Even though he had been cursed, at least that hidden scenario had made him far stronger. He now felt confident enough to be able to single-handedly defeat this disaster.

Yoo Jonghyuk injected his magic inside the meteorite for several hours until it showed signs of cracking.

He planned to wake up the Lesser Dragon Igneel in advance. Now that Han Sooyoung had stopped acting strangely since the 4th round, he had to do it himself.

(Han Sooyoung: Achoo!

Han Sooyoung: I feel like a vicious bastard is thinking about me. *shivers*)

Suddenly, the platform started vibrating.

Kukukung…!

Yoo Jonghyuk looked at the trembling 'meteorite' and stepped back, putting his hand on his sword.

The fourth scenario hadn't even ended and the 'disaster' of the fifth scenario was about to appear.

A red aura appeared around the meteorite and glowing lights shot all over the platform.

The red aura spread across the platform and a faint veil surrounded the station. Now he wouldn't be able to leave this place. However, his goal was to defeat the disaster to begin with.

[Many constellations' eyes are shining at the 'omen'.]

He would show these damn constellations that the prey wasn't him, but the dragon.

[An omen of the fifth main scenario has appeared.]

Then this message popped up.

The surface of the meteorite cracked and a red light poured out. Yoo Jonghyuk evaded the light.

The surrounding platform burned and released a bad smell. Then the temperature of the air rose rapidly and breathing became painful.

[The 5th grade fire dragon species, 'Lesser Dragon Igneel' has appeared!]

Yoo Jonghyuk remained calm and waited for the dokkaebi to come and downgrade the difficulty while the meteorite stretched out a long tail.

Kukukung…!

The meteorite was at most two metres in length, but the monster crawling out from the gap was over five metres long.

The remainder of the meteorite split apart and a dragon species entered this dimension.

Kuoooooh!

A violent dragon that was just born. Despite being a deteriorated version of a hatchling, a dragon still reigned at the apex of all monsters.

A 6th grade monster could wipe out all the prophets here and this was a 5th grade fire dragon.

[A few constellations are complaining about the unusual scenario difficulty.]

The next moment, sparks flew in the air and a small child-like presence appeared.

It wasn't a low grade dokkaebi like Bihyung. He wore a tidy suit with two little horns on his head. He was an intermediate dokkaebi.

[Hrmm. This is difficult. How did you get this 'root'? It was only installed recently…]

Once his voice rang out, the movements of the lesser dragon stopped.

[A disaster woke up in the fourth scenario?]

The dokkaebi appeared thoughtful and looked at him before snapping his fingers.

[I have decided. I won't downgrade the difficulty.]

However, what came out of his mouth wasn't what was supposed to happen.

Yoo Jonghyuk questioned his ears for a moment.

[The hidden scenario has arrived!]

The lesser dragon started moving again. The red leather-covered paws hit the floor of the platform. Yoo Jonghyuk avoided the scattered debris and looked at the scenario that arrived.

[Hidden Scenario – Defeat the dragon!]

Category: Hidden.

Difficulty: SS.

Clear Conditions: Hunt down the 'Lesser Dragon Igneel'.

Time Limit: None.

Compensation: 20,000 coins.

Failure: Death.]

Flowing flames started pouring out.

Kwa kwa kwa kwa!

The walls burned by the flames melted and distorted terribly. The dragon was slowly moving to his side.

[The 5th grade fire dragon species, 'Lesser Dragon Igneel' is preparing the 'Flames of Destruction'.]

Fortunately, Yoo Jonghyuk possessed heat resistance and would be able to survive the attacks.

However, he wasn't confident in defeating a 5th grade monster.

[The 5th grade fire dragon species, 'Lesser Dragon Igneel' is using the 'Flames of Destruction'.]

This wasn't what was supposed to happen.

A huge spark started from the centre of the platform and began to spread throughout the station.

The dokkaebi should have downgraded the monster.

Pschhht-

However, when did everything ever happen as expected?

Yoo Jonghyuk unsheathed his sword.

Clang!

And fought with the dragon, as planned.

Claang!

It was still possible to defeat it.

Until finally…

A long time later, Yoo Jonghyuk leaned against the wall, exhausted, while panels announcing the completion of the scenario appeared before him.

Suddenly, special messages showed up and he understood why the dokkaebi hadn't downgraded the difficulty.

[The nebula 'Veras' is reading into your fate.]

[The nebula 'Olympus' is reading into your fate.]

Yoo Jonghyuk froze.

[Incarnation 'Yoo Jonghyuk' will die because of the person he loves the most.]

[Incarnation 'Yoo Jonghyuk' will die because of the person he loves the most.]

Facing this message that appeared two times, Yoo Jonghyuk gritted his teeth.

"Cough, cough!"

He was indeed dying.

"Cough, cough! Cough cough! Cough!"

After he killed the 5th grade monster, the nebulae who were afraid of his strength decided to kill him.

Since his sponsor prevented him from receiving probability storms, they had decided to read his fate. It was the same tactic they used against Kim Dokja.

"Cough cough!"

The same tactic that killed Kim Dokja.

Crimson petals fell from his mouth, creating a strangely beautiful scene.

Each time he thought of Kim Dokja, he felt an excruciating pain in his chest, as if a plant was growing there. There was no doubt now, the person these fates talked about, and the person designated by the Hanahaki disease was Kim Dokja.

"Cough cough!"

Amidst the coughing, Yoo Jonghyuk lost strength in his legs and fell to his knees.

That was the scene of a man slowly dying, and the man in question had no way to avoid that fate.

Yoo Jonghyuk collapsed to the ground, surrounded by crimson flower petals.

He regretted this round as well.

Should he end this round now? Wouldn't it be a better idea than to continue on when he was done for? He wouldn't even be able to last until the latter scenarios.

The only one able to save him now was supposed to be dead since long ago.

What a stupid way to die…

His coughing finally died down but it was still hard to breathe.

He stood up and went on his way, the blood blending in with his black coat, hiding the traces of what had just happened.

Yoo Jonghyuk was dying.

While Yoo Jonghyuk fell upon Zhou Mingrui once again soon after and chased after him, Zhou Mingrui questioning his life choices and wondering another time what he had ever done to the regressor to deserve this, Xin Jin was thinking.

"Imagine if this situation happened to Klein or Cale."

"Who is Klein?"

"You know, Zhou Mingrui."

"But why are you calling him Klein?"

"Stop asking questions."

Xin Jian continued her what-if scenario.

What-if scenario: [Incarnation 'Zhou Mingrui'/'Kim Rok Soo' will be killed by the person he loves the most.]

The Oldest Dream sighed and played along.

"Fine, what would you do then?"

"Then, I'd be like… 'But, can't I just, not kill him?'"

The Oldest Dream frowned.

"Why do you think you're really the person they love the most?"

Xin Jian replied confidently.

"I'm jinxing it, like Yoo Jonghyuk who thought he was the strongest incarnation before. So there should actually only be 3 people they care about more than me. (Because three people were stronger than him then.)"

For example, for Klein, Sharron (maybe). Or his family Benson and Melissa, or the Nighthawks, or his fellow compatriots Amanises and Roselle (wait, not Roselle, she was still better than him), or the Tarot Club…

After all, who wouldn't like the beautiful and magnificent Amanises?

Xin Jian thought that there should actually be more than 3 people Klein cared about more than her.

Xin Jian: *the kind of person to confidently say bullshit while knowing that others are mentally judging her*

Meanwhile, despite him being far stronger compared to the beginning of the scenarios, Yoo Jonghyuk still failed to kill Zhou Mingrui and strengthened his resolve to murder the latter under the pretext that our Lord of Mysteries was dangerous.

(Yoo Jonghyuk, he's literally an Outer God, of course he's dangerous.)