Chapter 49

Modern weapons can deal significant damage to monsters.

Nevertheless, there were several reasons why Contractors used cold weapons.

While there were various reasons – such as having no choice because the beings they borrowed power from were warriors, martial artists, or knights who used cold weapons, or gunfire drawing excessive attention from monsters – there was one decisive reason: the existence of monsters immune to firearms.

Bang!

The evil spirit that was shot precisely between the eyes returned to its original state and charged forward.

Though it was knocked back when struck with a mana-infused fist, Yuseong’s expression was hardened.

‘I’ve already used half my mana.’

While firearms were highly effective against ordinary monsters, the occasional ones immune to physical force were problematic.

Alice’s mana was very low, making the title of witch seem unsuitable.

Though not so low as to cause problems using skills, prolonged battles were a different story.

‘The problem isn’t just mana.’

[Paying 1,000 karma points to withdraw 5.56mm magazine(D-)]

Shooting requires bullets, and withdrawing bullets requires additional karma points.

The problem was that neither karma points nor bullets were infinite resources.

Though karma points were quite abundant thanks to the previous quest, bullets weren’t sufficient enough to sustain this kind of reckless combat.

Click!

Clicking his tongue at the magazine that was already empty despite not firing much, Yuseong slung the gun over his shoulder and sprinted in the opposite direction.

-Wait! You haven’t forgotten what’s in the center of the mansion, have you?

‘There are monsters gathered there, right?’

-You know but you’re heading there?

The group of monsters that had forced him to make the extreme choice of jumping out the window after failing dozens of attempts with no viable strategy in sight.

However, Yuseong didn’t slow down or change direction – instead, he threw himself at full speed toward the central hall.

‘There’s only one chance.’

In the extreme focus manifested through Asura Perception Way, the thorny vine extending from Yuseong’s fingertips wrapped around the chandelier hanging from the ceiling, and Alice’s light body successfully landed on the opposite side of the hall.

“All those hundreds of falls were worth it.”

-Now that that’s done, please hurry to somewhere safe. They’re already chasing us!

At Alice’s urging, Yuseong ran down the corridor.

Breaking doorknobs and entering rooms was simple, but monsters weren’t stupid.

If only one doorknob was broken among all the intact ones, they would naturally think something was in that room.

“In this case, we’ll break all the nearby doors and hide in a suitable place…”

Creeak!

“W-what?!”

A suddenly opened door and an arm reaching through.

Startled by what he thought was a monster’s attack, Yuseong heard an unexpected voice.

“Quick, come in!”

‘A person?’

The first human voice he’d heard in this world.

Though he thought it might be a monster disguising itself as human, the approaching sounds left Yuseong no choice but to enter the room.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The approaching footsteps gradually grew distant until they could no longer be heard.

However, despite safely escaping the monsters, Yuseong couldn’t relax.

“……”

“……”

Gray hair reaching the shoulders and transparent skin.

A petite girl barely over 150cm tall with gentle eyes and golden pupils.

It wasn’t Alice.

That was the description of the girl right in front of him.

When the girl reached out toward him, Yuseong instinctively started to reciprocate but caught himself and stepped back.

“What are you?”

“W-what about you? Why do you look like me? Are you… perhaps a doppelganger?”

“If one of us is a doppelganger, it would be you, not me.”

“I’m human! You must be the doppelganger!”

Seeing the girl shouting, Yuseong addressed Alice.

‘Do you have a twin sister?’

-As I’ve said many times…

‘I know, I know. But this is beyond mere resemblance.’

Except for one having military high school girl-like equipment, they were identical down to their clothes.

-W-what should we do in this situation?

‘Based on experience from novels and games, this kind of development usually doesn’t end well. Sometimes they cooperate and overcome crises together, but more often you get backstabbed or held back. In my opinion, taking care of it would be the safest option.’

-Take care of it? You mean kill someone who looks exactly like me?

‘Hmm. Is that too much?’

If this were a normal game with choices, Yuseong, being someone who doesn’t allow unnecessary variables, would have swung his weapon at the girl without hesitation.

However, this wasn’t a game but clear reality, and like before, it was impossible to redo wrong choices through retries.

“……”

From his perspective, it would be cutting off a potential danger at the root, but objectively speaking, it would be nothing more or less than the act of an indiscriminate murderer.

‘Quest standards are strict.’

Let’s say you’re performing a quest to find the culprit of an incident.

If you use every otherworldly skill and tool available or randomly poke around here and there to discover the culprit’s identity, the clear rank would naturally hit rock bottom.

However, what if you don’t clear the quest but retry, and in a situation where everything has returned to the starting point, you point out the culprit’s identity?

Would you get a high clear rank because you achieved the goal without using any skills or artifacts?

No.

In such cases, while skill and artifact usage rates wouldn’t increase, the fate change rate would hit rock bottom.

Even if the result is correct, there needs to be at least some intermediate process that makes such a choice feel natural – in other words, plausible coherence.

It’s similar to losing points for writing only the answer without proper solution steps.

The current situation was the same.

Taking a girl’s life suddenly because of a possibility could have unpredictable effects on the fate change rate.

Recalling that his purpose wasn’t mere survival but discovering the secrets of this mansion and Alice, Yuseong finally lowered his axe.

“Talk.”

“A-about what?”

“To tell whether you’re human or a monster mimicking one, I need to know something, right? What’s your name?”

“Ah, Alice! My name is Alice!”

-Huh? Did she just say her name is Alice?

Yuseong’s eyes narrowed at the familiar name.

“Just a first name, no surname?”

“Huh? Yeah.”

“What skills- no, what magic can you use?”

“A witch’s magic isn’t something to be casually told to others…”

After hesitating, Alice, unable to withstand Yuseong’s gaze, spoke in a small voice.

“Mana Control, Thorny Vine, Curse of Decay.”

“Why leave out Eye of Truth?”

“H-how did you know that? I’ve never told anyone!”

“Never mind that, do you remember anything before coming here?”

“Well… My memories are hazy so I can’t be sure, but I think I lived alone in the forest, staying out of people’s sight. When I opened my eyes, I was here.”

“……”

“It’s true, believe me! Honestly, I don’t understand anything right now! I don’t know where this is, there are strange monsters roaming outside, I was hiding in here scared when I suddenly heard a human voice and told you to come in, that’s all!”

‘Where have I heard this story before?’

-Y-yeah?

After a moment’s hesitation, Yuseong peered through the girl with Eye of Truth and lowered his axe.

Given that he sensed no abnormalities, she was definitely real, not an illusion magic or doppelganger.

“Alice.”

“Yes?”

-Yes?

“No, wait a minute. I mean, not you but the other one…”

Stammering between the two Alices, Yuseong cleared his throat at the girl looking at him strangely.

“From now on, I’ll call you Number Two.”

“You just heard my name, didn’t you? Why give me a weird name like Number Two when I have a proper name?”

“There’s already someone using the name Alice. Having the same name would be confusing.”

“Wait, is your name Alice too?”

“Something like that. But don’t call me Alice, call me Yuseong.”

“If you’re not going to use the name Alice, I can use it.”

The girl who suddenly lost her name puffed up her cheeks, but soon seemed to give up and muttered in a deflated voice.

“At least call me something more human.”

“How about Alish?”

“…That’s better. But do you know anything about this situation? Where this is, why monsters are roaming the mansion. And why you and I have the same name and look identical.”

“I don’t know either. That’s why I was investigating by moving around the mansion.”

Two girls identical in appearance, personality, and memories.

To be precise, it wasn’t that there were no hunches at all.

A massive experimental facility, virtual simulation, clone created through magic or other means – just closing his eyes brought up dozens of plausible clichés.

However, he couldn’t speak of them as they were merely his imagination.

“You were investigating a mansion with monsters roaming around? Why? Can’t we just leave?”

“I can’t help being curious. You wait here. I’ll come back for you when it’s time to escape.”

After a moment of silence, Alish carefully approached and grabbed Yuseong’s sleeve.

“Take me with you.”

“Hmm, wouldn’t it be better to stay here? You know what’s out there beyond the door.”

“I know! I know that! But it’s too scary to be alone!”

Though Alish tearing up was pitiful, it was hard enough to protect himself even with modern weapons in this mansion.

However, when Alish pulled out an object from her pocket, he had no choice but to change his mind.

“A key? Where did you get that?”

“It was in my pocket. I can’t be certain, but I could open all the nearby doors with this key. I’ll lend it to you if you take me with you. How about it?”

Breaking every doorknob in the mansion would consume considerable time and energy.

After weighing the potential risks of taking Alish against the risks of leaving her behind for a while, Yuseong finally made his decision.

“You can come. But you must strictly follow my instructions. Can you do that?”

“Of course! But are you really going to investigate this mansion? Wouldn’t it be dangerous with just the two of us…”

“It would have been if it were just us two.”

“Two?”

Yuseong approached the door with a small sigh.

Though he wanted to minimize the use of otherworldly items due to both the clear rank and Kang Changseok’s words, this mansion’s difficulty was far too extreme.

The situation made exploration, let alone investigation, impossible with just Alice’s pure abilities.

Proper investigation required using otherworldly skills and items.

‘Even if I give up now and escape, the points spent so far would be wasted and the rank would drop. I prepared them just in case though I didn’t actually plan to use them… but now I have no choice but to go all the way.’

Somehow it felt like falling into a typical sunk cost fallacy.

Looking at his hands hesitating whenever he thought of the clear rank, Yuseong finally steeled his resolve and pulled out a new item from his inventory.

“What’s that? I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

-I’m curious too. What is that?

“Well, it’s like a familiar. I can see what it sees.”

It was the moment a drone made in 21st century Earth took flight in an unknown otherworld’s cursed mansion.