EVS Chapter 111

Living because I can’t die.

That’s what Sa-yoon had always thought since realizing he couldn’t die due to the system’s interference. Figuring that if he couldn’t avoid it, he might as well enjoy it, he acted frivolously and lived shamelessly. At the time, he thought that was the only way to endure.

But.

Was that really necessary?

Sa-yoon lay in bed, lost in thought. After his suicide spectacle, the guild members prevented him from leaving his bed, helped him eat regularly, and used all sorts of precious sleep incenses to ensure his body slept normally and absorbed nutrients. Their care was so meticulous it could bring tears to one’s eyes, but the current Sa-yoon lacked the energy to praise and appreciate the guild members’ efforts.

He wasn’t even particularly grateful, since they had prevented him from venting his frustrations in the first place.

‘Perhaps all my struggles were meaningless acts.’

Sa-yoon returned to the worry that had been occupying his mind lately. If he was living because he couldn’t die, he had tried to live properly, enjoying it, but perhaps that had been wrong.

He didn’t need to do anything.

Whatever he did was futile.

All of Sa-yoon’s struggles and resistance since the system interfered with his life could be summed up in that one sentence. His attempts to avoid forced execution at first, his acts of dying at others’ hands in case someone could kill him, bringing Han Geon-joo into the guild upon hearing that activating a resistor might be possible.

Looking at the results, everything had been futile in the end.

It was all in vain, a waste of time.

So why bother doing anything more?

Sa-yoon was now completely exhausted. Two weeks ago, things might have been different. At least then, he still had the will to find Han Geon-joo again. But now, Sa-yoon didn’t even want that anymore.

Finding Han Geon-joo again was nothing more than self-inflicted hope torture. If he were to be recaptured only to escape again, or if the ‘resistor’ wasn’t actually a means to counter the ‘true evil of humanity’… All sorts of ominous assumptions overwhelmed Sa-yoon, and he lost the obsessive determination to try again as he had before.

Because it had been his most firm belief, his most fervent effort, the weight of frustration and loss pressed heavily on Sa-yoon’s life. Perhaps losing Han Geon-joo had been a process for realization.

That all attempts were ultimately futile.

…What superficial thoughts.

After a moment of contemplation, Sa-yoon sighed, disparaging his own thoughts.

To be honest, he was tired. There was no better word to accurately express his current state.

Sa-yoon was tired of enduring, tired of acting shamelessly, tired of struggling, tired of living.

So he didn’t want to live. While that feeling had always been consistent, both then and now, this time the specifics were different.

In the past, he had simply desired ‘death’, but now he didn’t want to continue any actions associated with ‘life’.

Interacting with people, moving his body, feeling emotions, perceiving and thinking – all those actions.

He couldn’t yet define whether he was that drained of energy or if he simply didn’t want to fail at anything anymore. However, what was certain was that he lacked the energy to continue living, which was why Sa-yoon didn’t rebuke the guild members who had confined him to bed.

He made no attempt to go outside and didn’t struggle to die again by expending energy as he had before. He just lay still.

After spending a week like that, he even began to wonder why he had lived so earnestly before. He could just live like this until he died. Then be resurrected again and repeat this life.

If he had to choose between the simple repetition of life and death, and wasting various energies while experiencing emotional exhaustion, dying, and then coming back to life, the former was undoubtedly more comfortable.

So Sa-yoon lay quietly for over a week. He even withdrew the order to find Geon-joo. As he lay there idly, a quest appeared.

It was a quest warning that if he didn’t raise his lowered rank within the time limit, it would drop again.

But Sa-yoon didn’t care. He felt that rank didn’t matter if he was just going to repeat living and dying anyway.

It might not be so bad to lose everything at this point.

Perhaps the loss felt so immense because he had possessed too much. Sa-yoon calmly entertained the thought that if Jongsik heard this, he would call it sophistry and break down crying. He waved his hand slightly to dismiss the quest window.

Another week passed.

More than two months had now passed since Han Geon-joo had left Sa-yoon’s side.

During this time, much had happened within Night Rat. For the first three days, the Night Rat executives had been relieved that Sa-yoon had become docile. However, when they saw that he had become so inactive that even the focus in his eyes had disappeared and he just lay still, they went into a state of emergency.

The Sa-yoon they knew had always been full of energy.

He was cheerful, generous, vicious, and sometimes kind.

And above all, he was strong.

Fundamentally, people are intrigued by the strong. The Night Rat guild members admired Sa-yoon’s strength. They revered him and sought to follow in his footsteps. Or they wanted to assist him, or gain honor and wealth through him. The four executives of Night Rat were the people with the strongest such inclinations.

Among the Night Rat guild members, Jongsik had the strongest desire to assist Sa-yoon, while Gyeongjin sought to gain wealth through him. Yen was the person most intrigued by Sa-yoon, and Chanhee was aiming for the honor of becoming the next Night Rat guild master.

For these four, this incident couldn’t be anything but shocking.

Only Jongsik and Gyeongjin, Sa-yoon’s closest confidants among the executives, knew about Sa-yoon’s suicide spectacle where he repeatedly took his own life. Among them, only Jongsik knew that Sa-yoon was struggling against the system. The other executives like Yen and Chanhee only knew that Sa-yoon’s mental state had collapsed to the point of repeatedly self-harming based on his strong recovery ability.

Sa-yoon had always been overwhelmingly strong with exceptional mental fortitude. The executives, sitting around the conference table with serious expressions, all frowned, unable to believe that their guild master could be so frustrated.

Except for one person, Yen.

“To pine away like this over some guy named Geon-joo or Gweonju. Is it lovesickness?”

“Stop talking nonsense and be serious, Yen.”

Jongsik admonished Yen for his playful muttering. Chastised, Yen shrugged and looked at Gyeongjin.

“So what are we going to do now? The ‘Entice the Guild Master’ operation has failed from Plan A to Z, hasn’t it?”

The operation to persuade Sa-yoon to recover his broken spirit and regain his will to live, dubbed the ‘Entice Sa-yoon’ operation, had all come to nothing. Even bringing his favorite blood as an offering didn’t interest Sa-yoon, and attempts to provoke his anger by bringing up Han Geon-joo again were met with indifference.

He behaved like someone who had forgotten all emotions. So talking about new gates or the emergence of new strong individuals yielded no meaningful results.

Thus, all their ambitious plans had failed. It had already been two weeks since Sa-yoon started lying in bed like an invalid.

For other guilds, this would have been more than enough time to stage a rebellion and aim for the guild master’s position. Yet Night Rat remained quiet, firstly because most guild members were genuinely loyal to Sa-yoon, and secondly because they were too afraid of him.

Even in his weakened state, Sa-yoon was still Sa-yoon. Most of the guild members in Night Rat had been beaten to near death by Sa-yoon at some point. And at the same time, they had also been saved by him. So they didn’t dare dream of rebellion. In fact, it would be more accurate to say they didn’t even consider it.

That’s why Sa-yoon could maintain his original authority even after his breakdown, but no one knew how long this status quo would last. If Sa-yoon didn’t recover his strength, problems could arise at any time. If Night Rat were to fall apart now, it would be nothing but a loss for those who had risen to executive positions.

For Sa-yoon’s sake, and for their own, they needed to make a concerted effort for Sa-yoon’s recovery.

But Sa-yoon wasn’t responding to anything.

No one had expected that all their plans would be ineffective, leaving them speechless. If he showed no interest even in the story of Han Geon-joo, who was presumed to be the catalyst for his current state, there was no chance he’d be interested in anything else. Feeling that no strategy would work, frustrated sighs echoed throughout the room.

They never expected to experience such an insurmountable wall in this way.

As all the executives maintained silence in the conference room, letting out only sighs, a new quest window appeared before Sa-yoon, whom they were trying to help.

<The true evil of humanity does not indulge in laziness. Clear the gates. (b ᵔ▽ᵔ)b>

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[Special Quest – For a Refreshingly Vivacious Evil of Humanity!]

‘Clear 10 gates within the time limit.’

Reward: 1,000 Karma

Failure Penalty: Death of your four closest confidants

Time Remaining: 30 days

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This new quest window elicited the first meaningful response from Sa-yoon, who had been lying like a corpse.

His foggy mind cleared as if doused with cold water.

“These fucking bastards.”

Just when he thought things had quieted down, they were up to their tricks again.