Killing the Possessor - Chapter 11
“…What?”
I stubbornly ignored the sound ringing in my ears and rubbed my eyes. But no matter how much I tried to rub the pain away or closed my eyes and opened them again, the message floating in the air wouldn’t go away.
[The residence period for ‘Kim Saei’ is currently set to ‘Chapter 18.’ After this period, your soul will be erased.]
“…So it’s 18?”
Residence permit? What is this?
“I’ve already had enough trouble!”
I muffled my mouth with the blanket and silently screamed in frustration, the feeling of injustice rising to my throat.
How long had I been lying there? Wondering if it was all a dream, I pulled back the blanket and looked at the ceiling, only to find that the message had disappeared.
“Huh? Was it a dream?”
Just as I was about to feel relief, my eyes caught another message at the edge of my vision.
[D-15]
“Could it be… D-Day?”
I mumbled the thought I didn’t want to believe, but the message floating in the air confirmed it once again.
[18 chapters remains until your stay expires.]
“…”
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes again. Then, I screamed into the blanket with all my might.
“Uoooh!”
After letting out a frustrated yell, I gasped for air, trying to calm my breath. A tangled mess of emotions, whether anger or sorrow, poured out like a volcanic eruption.
“It says Chapter 18! So why is it 15 days?”
I wasn’t even hoping for 18 years, but at least I should be getting 18 days, right?
Of course, I could try to see the positive side. When you look at a half-full cup, instead of thinking it’s half-empty, you might focus on the fact that it’s half-full.
Depending on the development of the story, 15 days could be a short time, and I might consider myself lucky to have gotten even that. But I couldn’t accept that! Plus, the sudden deadline felt like a punch in the gut.
“So what? Am I supposed to die in 15 days?”
Was this some divine mercy, telling me to give up since surviving was nearly impossible?
Just then, as if answering my doubts, another message appeared.
[Please do your best to renew your residence permit!]
“…Renew?”
Seeing hope, I quickly jumped up, but as I did, the message shifted, moving from the ceiling to the wall in front of me. It seemed like it adjusted to always appear directly in front of me.
“W-wait, how do I do that? What do I need to do to try harder?”
It felt like I had just seen a lifeline come down from the sky in a critical moment. But then the message changed again, shattering all my desperate hopes.
[Access to related information is unavailable.]
“…Are you kidding me?”
If it had been a monitor, I would have punched it without hesitation. I was struggling here, and now they were just toying with me with meaningless false hope.
“Is there any way not to die?”
As if things weren’t already hard enough, this was just another thunderclap out of nowhere. Maybe this was my punishment for all the curses I had thrown at characters in the bleak stories I had read, telling them to suffer more.
No, at this point, maybe the gods were running a bet on me—”Won’t you just give up? Even now? Even now?”.
As I sank deeper into despair, my mind began to wander. Just then, another machine-like sound rang out, followed by a new message.
[If you want indefinite stay, you need to obtain a residence permit. Any illegal dimensional traveler who does not obtain a residence permit by the end of all chapters will have their stay terminated, and their soul will be erased.]
“Residence permit?”
That damned word ‘erased’ showed up again, like a set, but at least this was new information.
A residence permit. So how do I get one of those? Please don’t tell me it’s another case of ‘information unavailable.’
As if reading my mind, a longer message appeared.
[The conditions for obtaining a residence permit are as follows:
If you fulfill one of the conditions from A, B, or C:
-
- Make a name for yourself across the continent! (But, the child living on the remote island must know your name.)
-
- Donate 50 million gold (around 50 trillion KRW) to the temple!
-
- Marry one of the leads!]
