Young Master's PoV: Woke Up As A Villain In A Game One Day
Chapter Summary
Chapter 325: Someone MissingAfter another two days, I reached the conclusion that something was indeed seriously wrong. We were slowing down dramatically, waking up with bruises we had no memory of getting, and growing more exhausted after sleeping than before it. When I tried to remember who had taught it to me, all I could make out was that it had been a boy I liked bullying.
Chapter 325: Someone MissingAfter another two days, I reached the conclusion that something was indeed seriously wrong.
We were slowing down dramatically, waking up with bruises we had no memory of getting, and growing more exhausted after sleeping than before it.
That wasn’t normal.
That wasn’t hunger or lingering injuries from our fight against the Moon Eater.
Something was acting on us while we weren’t aware of it.
...
No, maybe we were aware.
Maybe we just kept forgetting.
Because while checking my Cards yesterday, I found something strange.
[Scorched Oath] I had no recollection of acquiring that axe from anyone.
Or rather, I couldn’t recall it.
I knew someone had gifted it to me, but I couldn’t, for the life of me, remember who it was.
Now, I could chalk that up to my bad memory.
But let’s be honest, even my memory wasn’t that bad, right?
...
Right?
It wasn’t!
Right!?
Ahem.
Anyway.
There were a few more inconsistencies, a few more empty spaces in my thoughts and memories that I couldn’t quite put my finger on, but I knew they were there.
Apologies for sounding cliché, but it was like an itch in my mind that I couldn’t scratch.
Like I said.
Something was seriously wrong.
I wasn’t just imagining it.
The question that remained was — what?
What, exactly, was wrong?
Was it the terrain?
No.
That had been my first thought.
Could this valley be stretching endlessly to keep us trapped here?
But after confirming that we were undeniably moving forward, I discarded that stupid theory.
Then were we in a dream?
No, I highly doubted that as well.
Believe me, I took precautions.
I made sure nothing was messing with our heads the way it had back at the Nightmare Temple.
The conclusion was simple.
Either we weren’t in a dream, or this was the most realistic dream that had ever existed.
If it was the former, we were safe.
If it was the latter, we were completely fucked and there was nothing we could have done to change that.
So that left only one possibility.
And it might sound insane...
But I had come to deduce that someone among us was...
missing.
Now, I know what you must be thinking.
Missing?
In a place where we could barely afford to lose sight of one another for more than a few seconds?
Yeah.
I thought the same.
Which was exactly why it scared the hell out of me.
Because the idea didn’t come from counting heads.
It came from the absence of weight.
There was a gap in our formation that didn’t look like a gap.
There was a silence between us that didn’t sound like silence.
It was like if you remove a brick from a wall so perfectly that the structure still stands, yet something about it feels wrong.
...
Okay, that analogy didn’t make much sense.
But bear with me.
I started thinking back on this journey.
There were too many situations we shouldn’t have survived, yet somehow did.
Remember the inconsistencies I mentioned earlier?
They kept piling up the more I tried to recall every detail.
For example, I wasn’t a frontline fighter.
That had never been my role.
Alexia hadn’t been a B-ranker for the better part of this journey.
So who had been supporting her in those fights?
And remember how I had the Scorched Oath in my arsenal with no discernible origin?
Well, it turned out Juliana also had a Card she didn’t remember obtaining.
To top it off, I knew an Essence Circulation Technique application that I shouldn’t have known.
Hell, I shouldn’t have known about the Circulation Technique itself to begin with!
When I tried to remember who had taught it to me, all I could make out was that it had been a boy I liked bullying.
I focused on that thought.
A boy I liked bullying.
That narrowed it down to...
what, half the population?
I frowned and rubbed my temples as a dull ache bloomed behind my eyes.
The harder I pushed to remember who it was, the more resistance I felt, like my thoughts were dragging through thick mud.
A boy.
Same age as us.
He was annoying, mouthy, a goody two-shoes, and stubborn as hell.
He kept coming back no matter how much I messed with him.
In fact, he reminded me a bit of Ivan.
A more detestable version of Ivan.
I could almost picture him.
But only almost.
Because every time I got close to remembering him, his image blurred, slipped away, and collapsed in on itself like how you forget a dream the moment you wake up.
It made my head throb.
...
That was when it hit me.
This wasn’t simple memory loss.
No, no!
This was total removal.
Someone, or something, had been excised from our memories so cleanly that our personal realities had rearranged to compensate for the absence.
That explained everything.
Most importantly, it wasn’t happening to just me.
The night before, Kang and Ray had been arguing over something so trivial I hadn’t even paid attention to it.
Annoyed by their raised voices keeping him awake, Vince suddenly snapped, "Will you two shut it before he starts lecturing us on camaraderie again?!
" We all looked at him, confused, because none of us knew who he was talking about.
And that was only one example among many.
There was no denying it.
We...
had forgotten someone.
••• My suspicions were confirmed the next day when Ray approached me and showed me a video.
Bored and exhausted, he had been reviewing his footage when he stumbled upon a clip of our group being attacked by monsters that looked like an unholy union between giant grasshoppers and praying mantises.
It was a normal fight, something that wasn’t even worth remembering for me.
...
Except there were more people in the frame than there should have been.
The footage was shaky, filmed from Ray’s perspective as usual.
It was chaos — full of dust, shrieks, and flashes of light.
I watched myself barking orders, Juliana tearing something apart with her swords, and Kang bravely intercepting a blow meant for Alexia— And then I saw someone move along the left side of the frame.
It was a boy.
He stayed close to the front line, weaving in and out with reckless precision.
He shouted something, but the audio distorted like radio static.
Whatever he said made Ray curse and shift his position.
Then one of the beasts lunged toward me.
I wasn’t watching my flank.
By the time I noticed it closing in, it was already too late.
The creature slashed at me with one of its scythes, and I braced myself to tank the hit.
But before the blow could land, that same boy stepped in front of me.
He parried the scythe with his sword, but he couldn’t stop the creature itself.
It bit into his right shoulder, its needle-like fangs sinking deep into his flesh.
Blood sprayed through the air.
A second later, Alexia leapt in and crushed the beast’s skull with a single punch, pulping it like a watermelon.
Ray froze the video.
We stared at the paused frame.
Something was very, very wrong.
I could see the boy’s outline clearly.
His dark hair was matted with sweat, hiding a lean build beneath clothes that looked unmistakably like mine.
His posture was relaxed in the most infuriating way, like he was fighting something lethal while mildly annoyed by it.
But his face!
His face refused to stick!
Every time I focused on it, my gaze slid away.
His face wasn’t blurred or censored.
It was simply...
ungraspable.
I wanted to say his name, but couldn’t.
It was like trying to remember a word that dissolved the instant you thought you had it.
Ray’s hands were shaking as he resumed the video.
The fight continued.
Orders were shouted while he kept darting in to cover blind spots and I kept using my power to pull people out of lethal trajectories.
Alexia and Juliana were a killing machine in equal rights.
Vince buffed everyone while Kang protected Lily as she directed the flow of the battle with her call-outs.
Near the end of the clip, I heard myself shout, "Fall back!
Now!
" The camera jerked as we retreated.
That was when I saw him turn around.
He was grinning.
He was bloodied, breathing hard...
and grinning as he raised two fingers to make a peace sign toward the person behind the cameraman.
Me.
"You owe me one, Theosbane.
" The video cut.
Ray lowered his phone slowly as neither of us spoke.
My mind was racing.
A boy I liked bullying.
A boy who was annoying, mouthy, and always in my way.
...
A boy who was supposed to be here.
I asked Ray to play the video again.
He did.
The same thing happened.
Every time I tried to focus on him, my thoughts slipped away.
Every time I tried to grasp his name, there was resistance, like my mind was being gently but firmly pushed aside.
And that resistance was growing.
The more I replayed the video, the less I noticed him.
The harder I tried to remember him, the faster my thoughts slid away.
The feeling was nauseating.
Whatever this force was, whatever thing was making us forget this boy, its influence was accelerating.
Before long, he would be completely erased.