You Found Me

"I found you."

He stepped forward and crouched beside the sword. He closed his eyes and recalled how the novel mentioned the steps to obtain the thing hidden beyond the sword.

[Ciae found an unnatural sword right behind the Hart's mansion. It pierced an anvil that was stuck on a large stone. He examined the sword for seven minutes and noticed something odd on its hilt.]

"I'm sure it's around this part…"

He brushed his fingers on the hilt. He flicked his gaze to the setting sun and realized he doesn't have enough time to enjoy the seven minute privilege as mentioned in the novel. 

He traced the surface of the hilt. After a while, he felt a faint roughness on its texture. He looked closely and it resembled a button. He pressed it without hesitation.

Click.

The sound echoed faintly. He felt the hilt shift subtly beneath his grip. Slowly, he twisted the hilt with much care as if he was opening the lid of a fragile jar that might shatter at the slightest misstep.

Then, somewhere in the distance, a howl echoed across the forest.

It was a mournful cry of a wolf as the sun dipped lower into the horizon. Its last rays casted long shadows through the forest. Time was slipping away, and so was his life.

Three minutes. 

That was all the time left before the sun hides itself completely.

"Hurry…. I need to hurry…"

He turned the hilt with greater urgency. The hilt loosened at last. With a faint metallic scrape, it came apart at the same time as something small tumbled out. It was a smooth, glass-like orb, no larger than a marble, and dropped itself neatly into his waiting palm.

The orb was icy to the touch. Like a titeral bone-deep chill that made his fingers tingle. It was also the same cold he felt when he first woke up in this world earlier.

The orb shimmered faintly as it caught the light of a dying sun. It glowed, like as if a fragment of the sun itself was plucked from the sky and placed in his hand. 

Then, the hilt of the sword turned and twisted on its own. He watched it in stunned silence as the metal realigned itself seamlessly.

The button was gone.

He ran his fingers over the surface, but there was no trace of it now. Bump, mark… nothing to suggest it was there. Well, if he remembers it right, the novel mentioned this.

[Once this orb is obtained, there will be no second chance.]

"But is this really it…?"

As much as he doubted it, he knew he couldn't afford second-guessing. Time wasn't on his side. He tightened his grip around the orb. His hand trembled as he brought it closer to his face. His breath hitched, and his even pulse roared in his ears. He didn't want to do this.

And yet, he raised his free hand.

With a deep breath, he steadied himself. And then—

"Gahhhhh!!"

The scream tore from his throat as his fingers plunged into his left eye socket. The pain was immediate. His nails scraped against the flesh and bone as he clawed at his eye. Blood poured freely down his face as it dripped from his chin. His vision blurred. His tears mixed with the blood and his screams echoed through the trees. 

Still, he didn't stop. He couldn't stop.

Finally, the eye came free. It dangled grotesquely for a heartbeat before he tore it out completely. The severed nerves trailed like broken strings.

Without any hesitation, he pressed the marble-like orb against his eye socket. The moment it touched his torn flesh, it moved on its own and slid into place as if it had been waiting for this exact moment and for that exact place. It was as if all this time… it craved that place.

"Urghh…"

He groaned. At first, the orb felt freezing cold, like shards of ice were piercing his skull and being shoved down to his brain. His fingers clawed at the ground as he fought against the pain. 

But then the cold shifted. The frost melted away and was replaced by searing heat.

It was as if his blood had turned to molten metal, burned through his veins, and ignited his nerves. He grasped his face in desperation with dirt still in his fingers. 

The orb finally merged with his flesh and bone.

"Hah… Hah…"

Visions flooded his mind.

He could see a blinding light, endless skies, and a dark silhouette watching him from beyond the horizon. His screams turned to gasps as his left eye snapped open.

"Hah…"

It looked no different than a normal eye, as if the marble-like orb transformed itself. From the outside, it was still Seven Hart's gray-blue eyes. At least, until his left-eye shone like gold.

The world no longer looked the same.

Colors bled into each other, twisting and warping infinitely like a Van Gogh painting.

Blood still dripped from his cheek, but he could no longer feel the wound. He stood unsteadily, wiped his face, and stared into the forest with his new vision.

Howl.

The wolf howled again, and it appeared behind him. It was a small—puppy if it was a dog. He swung his hand, throwing his extracted left eye-ball as far as he could and the wolf pup immediately ran to chase it.

And then…

Ding!

[Anomaly Detected.]

[An extra character has obtained Theia's Eye. A revision is required.]

[Revising…]

[Replacing the original storyline…]

[Revision complete.]

[You have obtained 7777 Narrative Points.]

This is the ability that the protagonist in the novel possessed. Theia's Eye. It was the artifact that shaped his entire journey from the moment he obtained it.

"Replacing the original storyline…?"

He closed his eyes as he leaned against the nearby tree. He tried to calm himself down as he let his thoughts flow freely.

"This is bad. Doesn't that mean my actions have already begun to alter the story's course?"

If the story was already changing, then everything he had known—the future written in the novel might no longer exist.

"But it's not like I have a choice. I need this to survive in—"

He paused and squinted his eyes. Ahead, he could see the flow of mana in the air was disrupted, and it was going… at him.

He quickly tilted his head.

Swosh.

A dagger sliced through the air. It narrowly missed him and just grazed him as a thin line of blood formed in his cheek. He leapt backwards and grabbed the dagger that stabbed the ground—the dagger he narrowly dodged.

"Right. There's still that…"

He looked above, and the sun was nowhere to be seen. He smiled as he realized that it was now the time for this to happen. Time of his death.

"Oh! You dodged that?!"

A voice echoed through the forest. His eyes darted around and searched for its source. Shadows flickered between the dense trees, but no figure emerged.

"It was such a pain to find you in this cursed forest."

The voice chuckled.

"Dense trees, and no clear trails… And yet, here you are, standing before the tomb of…"

The voice trailed off abruptly, and a figure materialized as if stepping out of the air itself. A man cloaked in black stood next to the ancient tomb.

Ding!

[Name: Lythian Ace (Oh Son-ji)]

[Main Talent: Assassination]

[Characteristics: ??? Reader]

[Gift: ???]

"Ha… Ha.."

Seven laughed, though it sounded more like a rough breathing.

'I… have a chance…'

He can survive this, or so he believes. After all, the one he was facing right now wasn't the so-skilled seventh assassin from the novel, but a reader like him who got transmigrated into this world into a body of that assassin.

But seconds later, he frowned. He didn't know if he should be thankful as this assassin now is less skilled, or scared because he had to kill someone like him, a fellow reader.

Seven locked his gaze at him. From his eyes, he could see two fire-like energies inside the assassin's body.

'Two aura gates? Damn it.'

The assassin examined the black sword. His hand paused above the hilt. But…

"Where is it…?"

Nothing.

There was no button that he read back in the novel. The assassin found nothing. Hurriedly, the assassin turned around to face Seven.

"Hey, did you—"

The man stopped his words as he quickly pulled a dagger to block the dagger aimed at his neck. He looked at Seven.

"You f—"

"Looking for this? It was shining brightly in my left eye the whole time. Are you blind?"

"You fucker! How do you know about that?!"

The assassin flung a dagger straight at Seven and disappeared.

Seven focused his attention to the mana and could see a faint trace of the trajectory of the dagger. He tilted his head and grabbed the hilt of the dagger as it flew past him. But then, the moment he caught it… there was another one trailing right behind the first.

A double throw.

It was now inches away from his neck.

"It worked, fucker. Die!"

Stab.

Pain seared through Seven's… hand, palm rather. Not his neck. It was because he dropped the dagger he caught and used his palm to block the other one.

"What?"

The assassin said, though he was still invisible. But in Seven's eyes, he was just dashing swiftly repeatedly. And now, the assassin appeared with a dagger inches away from Seven's neck. Those two daggers he threw were just distractions for this.

"This is what I learned after reading countless novels, fucker. Die!"

Seven turned his body, and the dagger stabbed his shoulder. But he endured the pain as he kicked the falling dagger he dropped earlier back into the air. It was the reason why he dropped it instead of using it to block the attack. The dagger spun above and he snatched it mid-flight.

Without hesitation, he ducked low and drove the blade into the assassin's leg.

Stab.

A perfect combo.

"W-What—?"

"This is also what I learned from reading countless novels, idiot."

"Novels? Are you— Arghhh!!"

Seven stabbed him using the dagger on his shoulder.

"So, which reader are you? First? Second?"

"Why should I tell you? You fuc— Ahhh!!"

Seven stabbed him again, using the dagger he blocked with his palms earlier. But he pulled it right after, stabbed again, and pulled it out.

"I asked you."

"Second! I am—"

Seven stabbed him one more time.

"Arghhhh!! You fucker! Why—"

"That's strange. Why do I feel like you're lying?"

"Y-You're crazy! I'm… I'm the Fourth Reader! My name's Oh Son-ji!"

"Oh Son-ji? Fine. Die."

"W-Wai—"

Seven slammed the dagger onto his head. The assassin dropped to the ground. Without any hesitation, Seven turned around.

The golden glow of his left eye faded as Theia's Eye was deactivated. The usage was too much for his slender and pale body. He coughed up blood as he gripped his temple because of the excruciating pain.

"I guess power really comes with a price—"

Cough.

A burning hot sensation exploded on his back. Turning his head, it was the assassin lunging a dagger on his spinal cord. Seven's vision blurred as he stumbled forward.

"You… You're still alive?"

The assassin, Oh Son-ji, laughed. His eyes were wide with an insane, triumphant gleam. Though the dagger was still buried deep into his skull as blood poured down his face, there was still a sick smile on his lips.

"Gift… this gift is amazing! I'm… immortal…"

Slash.

A figure appeared and slashed the assassin's neck. But it was too late. Seven was already falling as he lost all his strength. But before he reached the ground, the wolf pup came back and sat beside him, along with the figure who also crouched down and caught him.

As Seven was losing his consciousness, he caught a glimpse of the figure's ocean eyes. And in the novel, there was only a single person with that eye color.

"…Sister?"

Seven lips curled into a slight smile. The Seven Hart in the novel originally died not in this area of the forest, but somewhere near the mansion.

So he didn't expect that Eden Hart would find him this early. 

"...You finally found me."