Chapter 68
The future he remembered had changed.
Moreover, a doppelganger was a high-level monster.
It was not a lowly creature that would appear in something like the ‘Second Night.’
As Adora said, he needed to move as cautiously as possible.
‘[Nonexistent] is active.’
Park Chan-woo checked his own status.
After a few encounters with others, he was sure that [Nonexistent] was functioning.
Even the doppelgangers couldn’t easily recognize him.
However, [Nonexistent] only served to conceal Park Chan-woo’s presence.
‘…Even [Nonexistent] can’t prevent me from appearing as a red dot on the map as a fugitive.’
All fugitives were marked as red dots on the chasers’ map.
Not even [Nonexistent] could keep him from being marked there.
As a result, chasers could see Park Chan-woo’s location as a red dot on the map, but they could not actually see him with their own eyes.
‘I’ve become a ghost.’
It felt as if he were a ghost.
Chasers looked at their maps and cried out in shock—though the red dot overlapped their position, they couldn’t see Park Chan-woo at all.
‘Staying hidden like this is one way.’
The rules of the fugitive.
The longer he survived, the stronger he became.
If he wasn’t caught, he gained additional contribution.
These applied to him as well.
[You have escaped without being caught for 30 minutes.]
[All stats increase by 5%.]
[You have acquired 10 contribution points.]
After 30 minutes, these messages appeared.
Similar messages popped up every 30 minutes after that.
[You have escaped without being caught for 1 hour.]
[All stats increase by 10%.]
[You have acquired 20 contribution points.]
The growth rate was even greater than before.
It meant that the longer he held out without getting caught, his stats and contribution would soar.
Just staying put until morning would be enough to rack up overwhelming contribution points.
There would be no chaser able to catch him while [Nonexistent] was active.
But sitting still didn’t suit his temperament.
Above all—
‘Doppelgangers become uncontrollably strong if left alone.’
The danger of the doppelgangers was beyond words.
They were greedy.
They would endlessly copy targets and grow infinitely stronger.
They could even become a ‘Doppelganger Lord’ if they kept ascending.
If a ‘Doppelganger Lord’ actually appeared, humanity would face a catastrophic disaster.
Survival rate 11%?
No, even 1% survival would be lucky.
If a Doppelganger Lord was born, everyone in the ‘Second Night’ would be annihilated.
And if, by any chance, a Doppelganger Lord escaped the ‘Night Abyss’ and was summoned to Earth…
‘Horrifying.’
Just imagining it was terrifying.
In the past, Park Chan-woo had faced a ‘Doppelganger Lord’ before.
It was a monster that wielded the abilities of a hundred top-tier people at once.
But its scariest weapon was ‘understanding humanity.’
It used human emotions, manipulated information, and sought to dominate humanity itself.
People were divided.
There were even those who sided with the Doppelganger Lord.
Such a calamity could not be allowed to happen again.
Absolutely. No matter what.
“I grow… stronger. Power… overflowing.”
The doppelganger facing Park Chan-woo smiled.
It could feel the source of power as soon as it began to copy him.
It was on a different level compared to the human it had absorbed earlier.
‘…Did it just smile?’
For a moment, Park Chan-woo wondered if he’d seen wrong.
It had only been about an hour since night began.
At most, it could have absorbed one person, yet it had instantly learned to mimic human expressions.
It seemed to have already understood even emotions like joy.
Too fast.
It was far too fast.
This was a different league compared to the doppelgangers’ evolution speed Park Chan-woo knew.
At this rate, a ‘Doppelganger Lord’ might really be born before the night ended.
‘It recognized me.’
Moreover, after killing Shin Jin-chul, the doppelganger immediately ‘recognized’ Park Chan-woo.
It had sensed and found him.
But doppelgangers cannot copy other doppelgangers.
The fact that it was trying to copy him proved Park Chan-woo was not a doppelganger.
‘I have to destroy the mark.’
When Shin Jin-chul died, the mark returned to the doppelganger.
He originally intended to take the mark after dealing with Shin Jin-chul and destroy it.
Taking a doppelganger as a prisoner meant that the person it had copied was dead.
Deaths were nothing unusual in the Abyss, but since Shin Jin-chul was definitely involved, Park Chan-woo had no hesitation in erasing it.
‘Incarnations who profit off human lives—’
He had no intention of showing any mercy to such beings.
The problem was the doppelganger.
He hadn’t expected the mark to be returned like this, or for it to recognize him so quickly.
Park Chan-woo immediately drew the [World Tree Staff].
He had to annihilate the doppelganger before it finished copying him.
But then—
“W-what…?”
Suddenly, the doppelganger blinked in confusion.
Brrrrrrrr!
Then it began to tremble violently.
“M-my ‘magic,’ why…?”
…An anomaly occurred.
The doppelganger’s body began to swell.
Its flesh expanded uncontrollably.
Park Chan-woo had seen this before.
‘Magic Overload!’
When Dragon God Sephiro’s heart caused magic to overload.
Sephiro couldn’t maintain his human form and swelled up just like this.
It was the same as that time.
The doppelganger’s magic was rampaging.
But it was far from an ordinary rampage.
“How did you… destroy my ‘fundamental magic’…!”
The doppelganger couldn’t believe it.
This went beyond simple ‘copy failure.’
Replication was the doppelganger’s very identity.
Forcing it into a rampage was something that should never happen.
Could it really be possible to destroy a race’s ‘fundamental magic’… its ‘origin’?
The doppelganger thought.
What did humans call this feeling?
‘Mon—ster…!’
Fear.
A tremendous fear that could not be resisted.
Humans called doppelgangers monsters, but to a doppelganger, this human—Park Chan-woo—was the true monster.
Terrifying.
Terrifying.
Terrifying!
That monster was erasing life, soul, essence.
It had erased its very identity.
But the doppelganger’s thoughts went no further.
Fwoooosh!
Its rampaging, swollen body burst.
Crack!
The mark was destroyed along with it.
And then another message appeared before Park Chan-woo’s eyes.
[The hidden trait ‘Annihilation Magic’ has destroyed the doppelganger’s fundamental magic, ‘Replication.’]
…The hidden trait had manifested.
In particular, ‘Annihilation Magic’ was one of two hidden traits acquired while climbing the Tower of Arrogance.
‘I never imagined it could destroy fundamental magic.’
There are occasionally races born with special magic itself.
For example, doppelgangers’ replication, vampires’ vampirism, foxfolk’s charm, werewolves’ transformation.
Such things could be nullified, but never destroyed.
They were called fundamental magic, traits intrinsic to a race—how could such things be destroyed?
But it was destroyed.
A hidden trait, Annihilation Magic!
Perhaps it was called ‘annihilation magic’ because it erased magic that should exist forever.
What was certain was that it was an ability beyond common sense.
At that moment—
Ding!
[You are the first to complete the secret quest ‘Betrayer’!]
[Your qualification evolves to ‘Stealthy Betrayer.’]
[‘Stealthy Betrayer’ cannot gain contribution by rescuing fugitives. Instead, you acquire 400 contribution points each time you destroy a fugitive’s mark.]
[However, if the act of destroying a mark is witnessed by another ‘fugitive’ or ‘chaser,’ everyone will know of the ‘Stealthy Betrayer’s’ existence.]
[Also, ‘Stealthy Betrayer’ cannot become a prisoner.]
[If you become a prisoner, your mark is destroyed and you die.]
[Tip: From now on, special shops will be marked on the map.]
[Survive the night by purchasing useful tools and equipment from the shops.]
—
“I-I’ll give it! I’ll give you everything! Please, just spare my life!”
‘Han Shin’ stared at the man with an emotionless gaze.
The man had been hunting people with a pack of doppelgangers.
As soon as he confidently spotted Han Shin, he attacked.
‘What the hell is this guy doing…?’
The man couldn’t understand the situation at all.
There were six doppelgangers.
Seven including himself attacked Han Shin.
Han Shin also had doppelgangers, but he faced all seven alone.
And with devastating might, he subdued them all.
They couldn’t even touch a hair on him.
‘What kind of monster is this guy!’
He wondered if he was even human.
That wasn’t the only strange thing.
‘Why couldn’t the doppelgangers replicate him?’
At the start of the fight, the doppelgangers couldn’t replicate Han Shin.
They reverted to their previous forms, saying replication had failed.
Either he wasn’t human, or he was so extraordinary that even doppelgangers couldn’t replicate him.
He should have run.
But it was too late for regrets.
Clack.
Han Shin extended his hand, and the man tearfully handed over all his marks.
Soon—
[You have made ten fugitives prisoners.]
[You are the first to complete the hidden quest ‘Prisoner Legion’!]
[Your qualification evolves to ‘King of the Night.’]
[‘King of the Night’ grows stronger as you increase the number of prisoners. You also acquire 200 additional contribution points each time you gain a prisoner.]
[Complete the ‘King’s Legion’ with powerful prisoners!]
Han Shin nodded as he read the messages.
He had obtained the most powerful qualification in the ‘Abyss of the Second Night’ just as he intended.
“Y-you’ll let me live now, right?”
The man who had handed over all his marks asked with hopeful eyes.
Han Shin quietly spoke.
“I’ll let you live.”
“Ah! Th-thank you! Really! I won’t ever mess with you ag—”
“Replicate him.”
“……!!!”
The man’s pupils dilated.
Soon, one of the doppelgangers replicated him.
[You have been replicated by Prisoner Doppelganger (10).]
[Destroy the mark of the doppelganger who copied you within 1 hour.]
[If the current state continues for 1 hour, you will die.]
Insane.
He hadn’t expected to be made to undergo replication even after handing over all his marks.
The man glared at Han Shin.
“Are you going to fight me?”
“……”
No way.
This was a monster who had defeated all of them alone.
Trying to fight would only shorten his life.
Han Shin turned and left with the doppelgangers.
Thud!
“Ah… No…”
He ignored the man’s sound of despair behind him.
Han Shin’s mind was on something else entirely.
‘The mage. You must be here too.’
The mage who humiliated him in the Tower of Arrogance.
The one who, alone, received the favor and attention of Death’s Creator Adora—he would surely be participating in the ‘Second Night.’
Han Shin was searching for that mage.
And at least for this night, he had no intention of losing to that mage.
All attention, all glory—
‘They’re all mine.’
They belonged to Han Shin, and to Han Shin alone.