The Secrets I Forgot

Two different people.

As Rin kept running, he realized something.

The people couldn't see or hear the monster chasing him.

It was more than obvious since he had just run through a street full of people.

They were surprised to see Rin running alone, especially at such an incredible speed, but none of them knew why.

As for the beast, it ignored everyone except him and didn't even bump into anyone.

He kept running until he reached an alley on Street 21, where a group of people were sitting together, drinking, smoking, and playing cards.

Gangsters? Rin thought, but this wasn't the time to think.

The skinny men and the muscular ones all turned toward Rin as he entered the alley.

"Well, well! Are you tired of living? You dare come in the..."

Before the burly man could finish speaking, Rin leaped into the air, planted his right foot on the bald man's head, using it as a foothold to propel himself even higher before landing on the roof of a nearby house beyond the alley.

"..."

They were all dumbfounded by the unbelievable scene they had just witnessed, while some of them even stood up to look toward the rooftop.

Meanwhile, the hybrid creature also leaped into the air before landing on the same roof and looking left and right.

Rin was nowhere to be seen, and it could no longer sense him.

It scanned the surroundings for a moment before going off to search elsewhere.

Five minutes later, it returned to that very same rooftop after sensing Rin's presence once again.

And there he was.

Standing calmly on the rooftop with a mocking smile on his face.

The creature let out a long growl before charging at him, completely unaware of what awaited it.

The moment it came within one meter of Rin, he clenched his fist and threw a punch straight into the hybrid creature's face.

It screamed in pain and was blasted three meters backward.

A loud impact echoed across the rooftop, alarming the gangsters down in the alley below.

"Hmph. You dare attack your own author? How disrespectful."

Rin shook his head as though he were scolding a child.

In truth, he was merely following the script he had written.

The moment he reached the rooftop, he had used the creature's few seconds of delay to write a scene ensuring that it could neither find nor sense him.

With his writing speed and his unexplained superhuman physical abilities, writing two long sentences in five seconds wasn't impossible.

During those five minutes after the creature left, he had been writing a scenario.

And what was happening now...

Was exactly that scenario.

Writing that he suddenly used supernatural powers would've been inconsistent and therefore wouldn't work.

However, since he had entered this world with superhuman physical abilities, writing that he could perform a few not-too-exaggerated feats was simply treated as revealing more supernatural abilities beyond his already inhuman speed and jumping power.

The hybrid creature stared at Rin in confusion, unable to understand what had just happened, before charging once more.

Even though it possessed supernatural abilities, it couldn't use them.

For one simple reason.

The author hadn't written them into the scenario.

Pleased that he held at least some authority over the beings of his own novel_even if he wasn't certain it would work against the greater entities-Rin clenched his fist again.

This time, he vanished.

An instant later, he reappeared beside the charging creature and slammed both fists down onto its heads simultaneously.

The impact was so powerful that cracks spread across the rooftop beneath them.

The creature crashed to the ground...

And died.

Rin shook his head before sighing, placing a hand over his chest as though he were in pain.

"You wanted to hurt the author who cared so much for you... what a disappointment."

He glanced around.

It seems Charly isn't one of those systems that bombards you with notifications twenty-four seven.

Is she waiting until I finish the mission before showing herself?

He started walking away, leaving the corpse behind.

After all, normal humans couldn't even see the creature.

He wanted to find somewhere quiet where he could continue writing and properly act as an author.

He needed to obtain a Neph as quickly as possible and become stronger.

Relying solely on the feather was too dangerous.

He needed complete control over everyone in this world if he wanted peace and eventually return home.

Obtaining a Neph would increase both his own strength...

And perhaps even the feather's power.

As he walked away, he suddenly heard a strange sound, similar to a large amount of water being poured out.

He spun around immediately and was shocked to discover that the corpse had vanished.

Only a large pool of blood remained.

Blood that hadn't been there before.

It slowly gathered together, forming words.

"..."

" I liked how quickly you eliminated that subordinate. If you're not satisfied, I can send you more. What do you think? "

A chill shot through Rin's scalp, forcing him to take a few steps back.

That bastard Nygoroth again?

Before he could think any further, Charly suddenly interrupted, as though she had read his mind.

[This is not the same sender as the one writing messages through the mirror. The host must leave this place immediately.]

His heart immediately began pounding.

Two different people?

What terrified him the most was that the scenario he had written before fighting the creature had been overwritten at some point.

For example, the script clearly stated that he would leave this place safely without encountering anyone else, leaving the invisible corpse behind.

Yet...

He hadn't left peacefully at all.

Someone had sent him a message.

And that wasn't part of the script.

As Rin hurried away, the hooded young boy appeared once again on a distant rooftop behind him, quietly watching him leave with a faint smile.

A middle-aged man wearing a trench coat and a top hat appeared beside him.

The hooded boy spoke.

"He's strong. I didn't even get the chance to help him. He might even be stronger than I am. And strange beings keep targeting him. His spiritual body has been marked."

He turned toward the man.

"What if we simply tell him what we want from him instead of constantly watching him?"

The man replied,

"Are you afraid he'll mistake us for enemies and attack us before we're certain of his strength?"

The hooded boy smiled before nodding.

"Yes."

The other man looked at him before turning his gaze back toward the distance.

"You've noticed something strange about him too... haven't you?"

The hooded boy answered without hesitation.

"Yes. Yesterday at 6 p.m., before the incident, he had no supernatural presence whatsoever. But now he seems to attract supernatural beings like a magnet. I think..."

Before he could finish, the man quietly interrupted him.

"Then let's continue observing him for now."

The man walked over to the bloodstained spot.

Before he could read the message...

The blood along with every trace of it vanished.

He quietly looked in the direction Rin had disappeared and murmured,

"Not just any kind of magnet."