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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: Cataclysm (2)
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"Ugh..."
Wiping away the tears that had involuntarily spilled from the excruciating pain, Kang Sa-hu gasped for breath.
He stared at the holographic message floating before his eyes, his face a mask of bewilderment, wondering if he had finally lost his mind.
In an instant, the sky had shattered, and an utterly surreal message unlike anything he'd ever seen had appeared before him. Yet Kang Sa-hu calmly assessed his own condition.
Confirming that his cognitive abilities, memory, and senses were all functioning normally, he became convinced that he wasn't hallucinating.
"So... this is all real?"
As he reread the text on the hologram, it shattered into fragments like it had been waiting for him, splitting into dozens of cards.
The cards filled his vision, their message clear: they were meant for him.
The people who had called themselves Awakeners.
This was exactly like what they had described.
And as a Necromancer himself, he instinctively knew this wasn't an illusion or trick.
In other words, choosing a card here would awaken him and grant him powers.
More importantly, realizing his feet wouldn't move and that time around him had slowed to a crawl, Kang Sa-hu understood this wasn't a choice—it was practically a demand.
The cards came in various colors.
Most were white, followed by blue.
A scant few gleamed gold.
Looking closely at a card magnified it, as if focusing a camera lens.
"What the hell is all this? Tarot cards?"
Each card bore an illustration.
A person wielding a sword, another holding a staff, even a monster with elongated claws instead of a human figure.
Beneath each image was text that seemed to name it.
"Death-Devouring Knight, Mage...? Names straight out of a game..."
As he puzzled over the cards' nature,
amid the slowed world, his sharpened senses detected a powerful surge of Soul Power hurtling toward him at blinding speed.
The entity, unaffected by the time dilation, was the Shaman's Spirit, who had been greeting the bereaved family during the funeral rites.
[Young man. What in the world is going on?]
"I have no idea. There was this massive roar, the apartment collapsed, and then the sky cracked open."
[Good heavens, what...! Wait. What's that in front of you?]
The Shaman's Spirit recoiled in shock at Kang Sa-hu's words, then peered ahead with confusion.
Realizing what the spirit meant, Kang Sa-hu pointed at the cards hovering defiantly against gravity.
"You can see these?"
[Yes, those. They're bizarre. Each one pulses with an absurd, unnatural power.]
"How can you see them? I thought spirits perceive a different world from the living—one of souls,魄, and Qi/Mana, not physical objects."
As a Necromancer, Kang Sa-hu knew that spirits couldn't perceive real-world objects, only intangible forces like the souls,魄, and Qi/Mana of the living.
If this spirit could see the cards, they must be akin to living entities.
[Hard to put into words. I don't know exactly what they are. But I can feel the power they hold.]
The Shaman's Spirit's explanation prompted Kang Sa-hu to examine the cards with a more serious expression.
Combining the card descriptions, illustrations, and the spirit's words, he intuitively grasped their meaning.
These cards represented the path he would take.
"I see. I understand what this means."
His eyes rapidly scanned the cards.
There were over thirty hovering before him, so his head tilted downward as his gaze flew across them.
But after viewing them all, his expression twisted oddly.
"...This is weird. Warriors, archers, thieves—fine. But there are mages and holy knights, yet no Necromancer?"
[Is that so? What I see differs from yours, so I wouldn't know.]
Kang Sa-hu nodded bitterly.
Proud of his identity as a Necromancer—and having chosen a related profession for that very reason—his disappointment was palpable, even to the spirit.
Unsure what to say, the Shaman's Spirit hesitated before suddenly asking, puzzled,
[But why aren't you looking at that one over there?]
"...Pardon?"
As he pondered which to pick, Kang Sa-hu blinked in confusion at the spirit's words.
The will-o'-wisp-like spirit, unable to point directly, flitted about in frustration.
[Over there—that lone, peculiar power. The others are strange too, but that's especially familiar yet eerie. You examined them all except that one, so I had to ask.]
Following the spirit's agitated movements, Kang Sa-hu stared blankly.
He faintly sensed something far from the array of cards, but his eyes saw nothing.
'Could it be...?'
Noting how the spirit perceived it clearly while he only sensed it dimly, he murmured a Necromancer incantation in a low voice.
Using magic multiple times today strained his Qi/Mana, but this was crucial enough to endure.
Normally, using Necromancer powers outside the society—or amid civilians—was taboo.
But with the sky shattering and explosions everywhere, there was no time for scruples.
As he completed the incantation and opened his eyes, a deep green glow emanated from them.
This power let him glimpse the spirit world more intuitively, mimicking the spirit's perception temporarily. Beside where the spirit hovered, a card appeared that he hadn't seen before.
Unlike the others, it was dark and rusted, barely holding its form.
Any other person would recoil in horror or ignore it entirely—it looked downright ominous.
But as Kang Sa-hu examined it closely, his eyes widened.
A figure in a deep black robe, hooded shadow concealing its face, leaking trails of blue-green glow from its eyes.
And below, in faded, corroded script: a word that matched exactly what he'd sought.
"...There it is."
Kang Sa-hu read it with trembling eyes.
Necromancer.
A word he'd been bound to by family tradition since birth, yet one he took immense pride in.
Finding the Necromancer card, he ignored the flashy others and reached unhesitatingly for the crumbling, tarnished one.
Kieeeaaaaah!
Hwaaaaaah!
Cannot select this class.
The hologram popped up before his eyes.
[Wh-what was that?!]
The Shaman's Spirit had heard it too and began trembling violently.
Already a spirit and a lifelong master shaman, it keenly sensed the unearthly wail's peril.
It was impossibly dangerous.
"Looks like you're affected too. Stay back."
[Young man, that's far too dangerous. Wouldn't another be better?]
"No. It has to be this one."
His resolute tone silenced the spirit, which retreated farther away.
Confirming the spirit was safe, Kang Sa-hu reached again for the faltering Necromancer card.
Kieeeaaaaah!
The chilling wail echoed once more.
Yet he didn't cover his ears or pull back.
Eyes wide with determination, he gripped the resisting card tightly, refusing to let go.
Kiyaaaaah! Kyaaaaah!
The longer he forced his hold, the louder the screams grew, disrupting his equilibrium and balance.
But he persisted until, at last, something shifted.
Cannot select this class.
Cannot select a class you already possess.
Cannot select this class.
■■. You have ■■ ■ class.
Existing ■■■ will be ■■.
Time's distortion blurred his sense of how long he'd held on.
Through hazy vision, he glimpsed fractured hologram text, then the card crumbled to ash and scattered.
Clang—!!
"Urk!"
Like a taut wire snapping, the card's wail cut off, and Kang Sa-hu's body collapsed.
Not with his eyes, but in his mind, messages flooded chaotically.
Body readjusting to class.
Mind readjusting to class.
■■■ exceeds class limit. Attempting readjustment.
Readjustment impossible. Amplifying abilities due to backlash.
He collapsed face-first, cheeks scraping the ground, but his senses returned swiftly, allowing him to rise.
"What...? Did it work?"
The cards were gone.
Glancing around, time's sluggish flow—like a slow-motion video—had normalized.
"...Is it over?"
Despite the force that had overwhelmed even his genius Necromancer senses, the anticlimactic result left Kang Sa-hu deflating with a sigh.
As sensation returned, he felt the spirit—having fled the wail—rushing back with potent Soul Power.
A sense of déjà vu hit as he turned, only to startle.
The spirit, once radiating pure, transparent power befitting a shaman, now churned with negative energies: rage, hatred, panic.
[Young man! Young man—!]
The spirit hurtled toward his face without slowing, though it would pass through harmlessly. Kang Sa-hu raised a hand to calm it.
"What's wrong? What happened?"
[A monster! It attacked my family—!]
Disorientation and blazing fury erupted from the spirit like flames.
Its potent Soul Power amplified the emotional backlash, staggering Kang Sa-hu.
"A monster? Where's your family?"
[Funeral hall—! Funeral hall—!]
Even the most stoic person in life could unravel after death as a spirit, swayed by the slightest negativity.
Known well to Kang Sa-hu, this danger left no room for delay.
"Let's go."
The spirit flew off with a wrath-distorted shriek, half-maddened.
He watched worriedly as it grew tainted by dark emotions.
But soon, spotting the funeral hall and the unidentified monster prowling before it, green and blue glows swirled fiercely in his eyes.
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