You Will Be Blessed If You Do Good Deeds¿

Chapter 26

"Yoo Han-ul, collapsed?"

I rushed over and checked his pulse, relieved to find that he was still alive. Thankfully, there didn’t appear to be any major external injuries.

However, something seemed off. No matter how much I shook him, Yoo Han-ul showed no signs of waking up.

“Wake up, Yoo Han-ul!”

In my panic, I slapped his cheek, but there was no response.

I grabbed him by the collar and shook him, but the result was the same.

I tilted my head.

‘Is there something wrong with his mana circuit? Should I check it?’

Actually, injecting my mana into someone else’s body to assess their condition is quite rude. It's practically like offering your neck to a sword without any defenses.@@@@

But since Yoo Han-ul was unconscious, I decided not to hold back and sent my mana flowing into his body to check his condition.

‘The mana circuit looks... fine.’

There were no lingering aftereffects from the smoke we inhaled earlier. The flow of mana through his body seemed perfectly normal.

So why can’t he wake up?

‘There’s no visible trauma...’

This was an odd situation in many ways.

To be honest, when Yoo Han-ul disappeared earlier, I thought he was somewhere fighting enemies.

Since he was clearly caught in an enemy trap, I expected him to be in a dangerous situation.

But here he was, physically fine but unable to regain consciousness.

‘The only thing left is mental magic...’

In magic, humans are seen as being composed of three elements: soul, mind, and body, and there are spells that interfere with someone else’s mind.

The complexity of a single mind is almost like an entirely new dimension. In fact, interfering with someone’s mind is similar to invading a new dimension.

Moreover, such magic has a huge impact on the mage’s own mind, so it’s not something to use lightly...

‘And Yoo Han-ul has a high soul level because of his accumulated good deeds... How could someone have shaken him this much?’

It was filled with questions.

Two Dungeon Breaks had been triggered in a short period of time, and the ability to cast spells so discreetly that I couldn’t detect them—someone with that ability should be a serious threat. But to think that such a person would go through all this trouble just to indirectly kill me?

“No... wouldn’t it be easier for them to just come and kill me directly?”

What kind of person would go to such lengths to make things so complicated?

As I pondered over this incomprehensible inefficiency, a system message appeared.

The system is requesting assistance from ‘Jung Da-on.’

“Assistance?”

The system quickly followed up with another message.

User, ‘Yoo Han-ul,’ has suffered severe mental damage.User, ‘Yoo Han-ul,’ needs assistance.User, ‘Yoo Han-ul,’ asks that you intervene in his mind to awaken him.

I furrowed my brow upon seeing the message.

It wasn’t impossible to do.

When someone suffers severe mental damage, the standard method is to directly contact their mental world and help them recover.

However, this requires the mage to have a much higher standing than the subject they’re healing...

‘I suppose I’m high enough.’

The level of a soul is measured not by good or bad deeds, but by the hardships the soul has endured and the achievements it has accumulated.

The problem, however, lay elsewhere.

The system directly asking for my help?

Of course, while I was cooperating with the system, it wasn’t truly an alliance. The system knows better than anyone that if there’s any opportunity, we’d both tear each other apart.

Yet, the system asking me for help meant it had decided that Yoo Han-ul’s survival was beneficial for humanity’s existence. It needed him alive.

‘Well, Yoo Han-ul would probably benefit humanity’s survival...’

Still, something felt off. I had an instinct that something was being hidden from me.

“...Fine.”

I accepted the system’s request.

“However, I’ll need compensation. I want stat points as a reward.”

The system agrees to Jung Da-on’s proposal.

“...”

This was getting even more unsettling. The system agreed to the compensation so easily.

The system provides Jung Da-on with a basic tutorial on mental magic.

“I don’t need it. Do you take me for a fool?”

I wasn’t fond of it, but most mages divide magic into simple categories called "circles." This "soul-searching" magic, which interferes with someone else’s mind, falls under the lower magic of the 6th Circle—probably around the 4th Circle in this case.

Currently, based on my abilities, I was a low-level mage at best, barely able to access magic of the 2nd or 3rd Circle. However, the amount of mana needed for mental magic wasn’t much. The key was the soul level, mana control, and sensitivity.

‘I can handle it, though.’

Putting that aside, the system's kindness felt suspicious for many reasons. I reluctantly placed my hand over Yoo Han-ul’s head.

I drew mana up and slowly separated his soul from his body.

It was similar to an out-of-body experience.

Then, holding the soul in place with mana, I threw myself into Yoo Han-ul’s mental world.

It felt like falling into deep water, and a sense of suffocation overwhelmed me.

A human is like a world unto themselves.

Core detected.The system has detected a massive threat to humanity.The system defines the ‘enemy of humanity.’The system is searching for an entity to confront the ‘enemy of humanity’...The system has selected user, ‘Yoo Han-ul.’

Without hesitation, Yoo Han-ul answered as if it were the most natural decision.

He was truly an incomprehensible person.

Past life, present life, and perhaps even future lives, I would never understand him.

No, at least if I were him, I’d want something out of this quest, but Yoo Han-ul remained calm.

“Still, I need information. What am I supposed to fight? Is it an SSS-rank monster or something?”

That was a reasonable question.

And I was curious too. What was this threat to humanity?

Honestly, humanity was already living with the threat of its own self-destruction. Was there an even greater threat?

The system provides Yoo Han-ul with information about the ‘enemy of humanity.’

The moment that message appeared, my vision flickered.

Since I had entered his unconscious state, his vision must have changed too.

‘Is it going to show me the appearance of the enemy?’

I followed along eagerly, wondering what the system would show as the enemy of humanity.

Yoo Han-ul’s vision revealed a desolate wasteland.

That was the end of my curiosity.

It was a scene I was all too familiar with.

A barren land, where not a single blade of grass grew, covered in poisonous mists.

In a place where I couldn’t see an inch ahead, a giant beast raised its head threateningly.

“This is...”

Yoo Han-ul looked around, bewildered.

Did he not recognize it?

But I remembered it.

This was the place my soul had originally belonged to.

Before long, Yoo Han-ul, now clad in silver armor and holding a shining holy sword, stood alone in the wasteland.

And in that wasteland, there lay the humble, cut-down body of a demon.

Seeing that, Yoo Han-ul—the hero who had defeated the enemy—looked up at the sky and lamented.

Was this truly the right thing to do?

And while the hero gazed at the sky, I looked down at the scene.

The fallen demon’s broken body.

That... was me.

Honestly, I didn’t expect to see my past life like this again, so I was surprised.

But more than that, I didn’t understand the system’s intention in showing this scene to Yoo Han-ul.

Didn’t the system say it would show the ‘enemy of humanity’?

Yet it showed Yoo Han-ul and my past life?

Had the system, with whom I had already formed an alliance, suddenly decided that I, too, was a threat to humanity?

The hero’s eyes filled with regret.

And the scene changed.

The hero was no longer standing alone in the wasteland.

In a grand castle draped in rich tapestries, the hero, now in magnificent armor, knelt before his lord.

My knight, the hero who protects this kingdom.

A voice full of kindness and authority.

I had never forgotten that voice.

Even now, after all these years.

When I was little, it had whispered lullabies, fairy tales, and dreams as I learned to walk.

Once my sibling.

Once, my family.

The king, seated on a high throne, praised his knight.

Yet, in the end, you brought the head of the demon who had corrupted and nearly destroyed my kingdom.

And in the end, the one who became the enemy.

I fully realized what was happening when I saw the hero kneeling and looking up at the king.

Though I knew it couldn’t be, for a moment, I felt like our eyes met.

But the truly shocking event came next.

You have witnessed the ‘enemy of humanity.’A quest is given to the hero, ‘Yoo Han-ul.’A quest has been created.Quest: SAVE THE WORLD.

I was struck with shock, as if I had been hit in the back of the head, and I came to my senses in an instant.

What remained was not the memory that had been replaying, nor the beautiful mental world, but only the cold sensation of the asphalt beneath me.

Apparently, I had collapsed.

A cold sweat was running down my back.

I barely managed to sit up and found the core that had caused the Dungeon Break lying under Yoo Han-ul’s body.

It glowed red like it was mocking me.

Crack!

I stomped on the core that had triggered the Dungeon Break.

The red jewel shattered under my foot, but no matter how hard I stepped on it, the powder never completely disappeared.

Just like the ties I thought were long broken from my past life.

Dungeon Break has ended.