141. Be one and keep living!
“A ghost?”
[No, there are no spirits wandering around here.]
Befitting a fantasy world, of course there are ghosts here too. Even the ghosts I deal with right now are of that kind. Judging by I who rule the spirits, there are no such ghosts around here.
In the spiritual field, I still pride myself on running a saw, but no one can fool my eyes, at least in the spiritual field. It’s like a real ghost singing.
[I’m scared. Then…]
A fragile mental wave that can be mistaken for hallucinations if you don’t concentrate and listen. However, once we started to become conscious of its existence, we could hear someone else’s voice, not ours.
Of course, there are technologies that can transmit voices far away in another world, but I intuitively felt that it was different from that. It’s like hearing it right next to you.
“For a moment.”
Before leaving the dungeon, Cream stopped the group. Soon, she walked in front of Zach with her sword drawn.
Perhaps the most dangerous person in human history was approaching, but Zach did not respond. Cream stared blankly at him for a moment before thrusting out her sword.
“What are you doing!”
Because Cream purposely swung her sword slowly, the sword shot missed Zach. Zach, who was holding the corpse, fell to the floor in a funny way trying to avoid the attack.
It was truly tearful to see him protect the corpse by blowing his body to the ground in case it would be crushed. Cream looked down at Zach, who collapsed with his body and limbs intertwined, and said quietly.
“Psychic wave, source. I, the corpse.”
“Are you saying Emily is alive?”
Apparently, she expanded her senses and tracked the location of the mental waves. By the way, the one who sent the mental wave was a corpse?
That body is dead. Quite a while ago. It’s not like there was a soul in it or it wasn’t resurrected as an undead, it’s just a corpse. Cold without a single point of warmth.
[It’s dark. I can’t see anything. Zach, where are you…?]
“Whoops!”
The next moment, Zach was frightened by the clearly audible mental wave. As he tried to get up after untangling the body with entangled limbs, he fell again.
A mental wave that was clearer than ever came from the corpse. As Cream said. But who the hell is talking in a corpse whose body is already dead and whose soul has already escaped?
“Emily? Emily!”
[Answer me… Is there anyone around?]
I couldn’t deny that voice any longer as an hallucination. Zach cried out his lover’s name in a mournful voice, but the voice he assumed was Emily didn’t seem to hear him.
I was at a loss for words at the bizarre scene where an ordinary corpse, not an undead or a specter, was talking. A knight that has never been seen even after living for hundreds of years.
“What happened? Is Emily alive?”
As if it was a lie that he had given up his mind a moment ago, Zach clung to Cream with a desperate expression. However, Cream shook her head lightly with a sullen expression as usual.
“No.”
“So…?”
And then, Cream still hadn’t retracted the drawn sword.
“The body, inside.”
The next moment, Cream swung her sword. If the earlier was for threats, this time seriously. Zach, who had been relieved by Emily’s voice, could not respond to the attack.
The sound of cutting flesh was heard. Soon, the corpse’s chest cracked open, and the pooled blood poured out through the gap. Like the corpse, the blood was in an uncorrupted state. Just cold
“aaa!”
Seeing his lover’s body mutilated, Zach screamed in panic. He hurriedly reached over the wound and tried to stop the bleeding, but the cold, thin blood flowed through his hand in vain.
I spat out exclamations at the reckless violence worthy of a warrior. Zach, who seemed to have come to his senses a little, glared at us with bloodshot red eyes.
“Substitute…”
“Look.”
However, Cream still only pointed to one side with a grave expression. Following her gesture, Zach turned his head. Where the cream is cut exactly in half.
A red crack widened between soft bones and sore flesh. A heart that has already stopped a long time ago. And, a small black mass embedded in the heart like a bean.
Every time it wriggled, the embalmed heart beat like a pulse.
[Zach, Zach, Zach…]
A parasite that eats away at a lover’s heart calls his name affectionately.
The reason why we couldn’t easily locate the sender of the mental wave. It was simple. This is because the superhuman senses are subconsciously wired to ignore small things below a certain level.
The sound of insects breathing, the sound of rippling water, the sound of wind shaking grass flowers…. You can listen to it as much as you want to, but if you live listening to such sensitive noises all the time, you will go crazy.
To that extent, those who have developed super senses naturally pass over such, really insignificant sounds. There was no difference between the sound of a mouse gnawing at a heart and the sound of an insect clinging to the ceiling.
“Ah, ah…”
[I miss you, Zach.]
Jacques opened his mouth, but he couldn’t form words and only let out a blank moan. Emily is already dead, but reality continues to give him hope.
And all those hopes were dashed. The lover who survived the monster wave was dragged into the experiment, and the reason her corpse wasn’t visible wasn’t because she was alive, it was just because she was dumped into her garbage can.
Emily’s constant voice was just an ugly monster impersonating her. The cruel fate that taunts him finally breaks Jacques.
[Doppelgänger yes.]
I ignored Zach, who had become a half-living corpse for now, and took a closer look at the scabbard that Cream had put out. To be precise, something resembling a worm wriggling inside.
At first, it was called a bug, but if you look closely, its shape is closer to that of a mouse. It only looks like a bug because its fur is black and it has six legs and six eyes each.
“A doppelganger?”
As if hearing an unfamiliar word, Choco tilted her head. Certainly, if it was a doppelgänger, it would be reasonable not to know that it is a monster that is beyond rare and close to extinction.
As you just saw, that insect-like rat is the main body. Or a larva Doppelganger larvae do not have much intelligence, and their bodies are so weak that even ordinary mice can bite and kill them.
However, a doppelganger’s abilities appear when it eats the flesh of an intelligent being. Even a piece of hair or a piece of fingernail is fine. The moment they come into contact with the intellect that dwells within them.
[The body metamorphoses little by little over several weeks or months. And, when the change is over, the doppelganger becomes exactly the same as the original owner of the flesh I swallowed.]
“Hey. Isn’t that a total scam?”
[Well, at first it only duplicates the appearance. This sub-adult doppelgänger, he has infinite hostility towards the original he imitated. And, he recklessly starts chasing the original.]
At this time, the doppelganger, regardless of the cloned subject, has at most a normal adult male, or only possesses a slightly superior level of physical ability. Jisung too, just like that.
It is said that there are no creatures as smart as humans on Earth, but this world is different. Intellect and intelligence are separate domains, so in fact, that level of ability is not that great. Rather, it is a bit behind.
[And, if the doppelganger succeeds in killing the original, then it inherits all of the original’s abilities and memories. Even so, there are limitations.]
“Eh, then it doesn’t seem like a very dangerous monster to say so eeriely?”
Choco’s point was reasonable. Simply put, a doppelganger is not a very threatening monster. When it is a liquid, it is no different from an insect that dies if stepped on, and even when it is a sub-adult, it is at most a level similar to that of a goblin.
Even if it’s an adult that ate the original, it’s not really possible to copy all abilities, so in the end, a doppelganger can only be someone else’s minor copy.
In an era of high-level monsters that single-handedly beat dozens and hundreds to death, at most one person, it’s a power that’s worse than that.
[That’s the scary thing about doppelgangers. A doppelgänger, he considers himself the original.]
“What is that?”
[Even if you meet your doppelganger, can you be sure that you are the original?]
One day, he meets his doppelganger. He kills those who show hostility to him after a fight. If so, is that the end? Can you be sure I’m the one who killed the doppelganger?
From noble mtl dot com
What if I was actually the doppelganger who killed the original? Even humans who are not doppelgangers will show hostility to opponents who are exactly like themselves. Because his own identity was threatened.
There is only one way to determine whether you are a doppelganger or not, and that is to cut open your heart and see if there is a doppelganger larva inside.
A man who killed his doppelganger but committed suicide because he was not sure that he was the original. After successfully stealing the existence, the doppelganger who realized that he was a monster and cut out my heart.
“Of course not! There’s no way I’ll be hunted by such a pathetic guy, right?”
Well, such worries are the responsibility of ordinary people. As Choco said, there’s no way he would ever be defeated by a doppelganger like that, and even if he did, he wouldn’t be able to duplicate the Beast King’s lineage.
This world is terribly cruel only to the weak.
[Hey.]
“·······.”
[Hey!]
Looks like your condition has gotten worse than before. Even if they spurt death, they just look at me with blurry eyes. It means that even the minimum survival instinct has been broken. Is it fortunate that it still responds to external stimuli?
[One day, the child suddenly changed, or he made a mistake that even a child would not do… Have you ever had anything like that? Then, after a few days, it returns to normal again.]
It will take some time for the doppelganger to synchronize its memories with the original. Zach, who was silent for a moment at my question, immediately spat out.
“There was…”
[When?]
“When Emily returned as a child after being kidnapped by the Dark Church…”
[What, not even that recent.]
I don’t know exactly when or when I was young, but I’m sure I have more memories with my doppelganger Emily than with the human Emily. The important thing is that Emily died a long time ago.
Oh wow, he really cares about things like this, and I also lost my personality a lot. However, the fact that he was my host for a short time and that he was a comrade of the same adventurer touched my heartstrings.
[Puhahahahaha! There was no need to worry about this.]
But why are you laughing so much? Well, how are you? Aren’t people meant to live with a smile? The group looked at me with blank eyes at the sudden burst of laughter.
[Do you laugh at this situation?]
[No, then you should laugh on such a happy day. Especially Jacques. You say more.]
I laughed out loud and pointed at the rat that was still wriggling in Emily’s heart.
[Your Fiancée is alive and well over there!]