player POV-Chapter 72: The meeting once again 2

"We have met once again..."

I heard the voice, but I paid it no attention.

My mind was scattered, drowned in endless chaos, as I searched frantically for my brother.

"Ryan... where are you?"

I screamed his name over and over, my voice’s echo fading around me.

I turned my head in every direction, ran, stopped, then ran again, as if my feet were moving on their own. I searched everywhere my eyes could reach... but there was no one.

I finally stopped, my breaths broken, and I felt a suffocating weight settle in my chest.

I lowered my head slowly, and felt tears gather in my eyes before they poured down.

"After I thought I had finally returned to you... here I am, completely alone."

The words left my mouth in a trembling voice, barely audible. I truly believed that everything would turn out fine.

"I thought everything would be okay... that what happened was nothing more than a long nightmare, a bad dream, and that I would wake up from it. But where did you go, Ryan?"

I raised my head slightly, a desperate smile carving its way across my trembling face.

"I must be dreaming... right?"

The moment that thought crossed my mind, I raised my hand and struck my face hard without any hesitation.

My body recoiled backward and I fell to the ground, feeling the taste of blood fill my mouth, but it was not enough.

I clenched my teeth and raised my hand again.

A strike... then another... then another.

I was hitting my face madly, tears pouring down, and my heart sinking every time as if it were being dragged into a deeper abyss.

"Wake up... wake up!"

I screamed as I continued hitting myself, but nothing changed.

.

Suddenly...

A calm voice pierced the silence,

"Stop hitting yourself. I don’t like watching people hit themselves... but if I’m the one hitting them, that doesn’t matter."

I raised my head slowly, my heart pounding violently.

"And honestly, I don’t understand what you’re trying to do. After all, I’m the one who summoned you here from the very beginning... after that snake swallowed you."

I finally stopped hitting myself after I heard the voice speak again.

A heavy silence prevailed, and all I could feel was a dull pain in my face and a chest rising and falling violently. I raised my head slowly, as if the words required tremendous effort to leave my mouth.

’So... I was the one dreaming that I had returned to my brother, while all this time I was inside the belly of a snake.’

I paused for a moment, processing what I was thinking, then continued,

’Does that mean I was unconscious? And that my return to Ryan was nothing more than a dream my mind created?’

A short, hollow laugh escaped me unintentionally.

’Or are you joking with me? Are you trying to say that I actually died... and then reincarnated?’

Then I took a deep breath, as if trying to calm the storm inside me.

’Of course... I know the truth. I realized it every time. But I kept convincing myself that it was just a dream... a dream I could wake up from at any moment.’

My voice trembled.

"That’s why... I had that small hope. That stupid hope... that everything would end with me waking up one day."

I lowered my head,

But... after everything... this is real.

The moment I accepted this truth, a strange feeling swept over me, a feeling I had never experienced before.

"Ha... hahaha..."

An unstable, loud laugh burst out.

"Hahahaha... it’s real!"

I laughed loudly, nonstop, as if mocking myself and reality at the same time.

I was laughing... and at the same time I felt heat in my eyes, and tears began to gather and then pour down.

"It’s... real..."

I cried and laughed at the same time, like a madman.

I could no longer distinguish between pain and mockery, between collapse and acceptance. I remained in that state for a long time—hysterical laughter intertwined with bitter crying—until I felt that I was losing my mind...

I could no longer stop.

At that moment... the owner of the voice sighed in a clear tone, carrying impatience.

"Ugh... honestly, I don’t like having people cry near me."

He paused for a moment, then continued as if thinking out loud:

"I shouldn’t have let you reach this state... it seems I need to help you regain some clarity before you completely lose your mind."

He fell silent for a moment,

"Ah... it seems you’ve already lost it."

I felt a slight movement in the air.

Despite the dense fog, I noticed something moving. It was a small sphere, red in color, glowing with a faint light, rushing toward me. The sphere collided with my head.

And the moment it touched me... everything stopped.

The laughter cut off abruptly. The crying faded away.

And that madness that had been raging within me disappeared. A strange calm prevailed.

My facial expression became still, unnaturally calm. I raised my head slowly... and fixed my gaze in the direction of the source of the voice.

The feeling controlling me was strange in a disturbing way.

As if my emotions at that moment had been tightly shut, completely sealed. My mind, unusually, was at the highest level of clarity and calm—a calm I had never known in my life before, not even in my most stable moments.

I raised my gaze slowly and stared at the source of the voice.

Amid the dense fog, a figure sat in complete calm, his crimson eyes fixed on me.

And the moment our eyes met...

memories surged into my mind all at once. I remembered him.

I remembered my first meeting with him, when I was trying to use the element for the first time. The memories I had lost returned as if they had never left me.

I looked at him calmly.

"What did you do to me?"

The owner of the crimson eyes watched me for a moment,

"I temporarily sealed your emotions. Hmm... you seem calmer compared to the last time we met."

Silence fell between us for a moment.

I lowered my voice slightly and said:

"That bracelet... where did you get it from?"

At that moment, something changed in his gaze.

He did not answer immediately.

He remained silent, his crimson eyes narrowing slightly, before finally speaking:

"What are you talking about? And why are you asking me as if I stole it from you?"

He leaned his body slightly forward, his tone becoming sharper:

"Isn’t it mine already? Why ask about something so obvious?"

I was about to reply, but I stopped.

I fell silent for a few seconds, gathering my thoughts, then raised my head and spoke in a cold voice, devoid of hesitation:

"Stop lying. You won’t fool me. I know very well that it’s not yours. That bracelet... is my bracelet. He gave it to my brother as a gift for me, isn’t that right?"

The owner of the crimson eyes narrowed his eyes clearly, and the tone of his voice changed as he replied:

"And what makes you think it belongs to you? You are not a small child... As for me, I have lived a long time. A very long time. And my will was sealed inside this bracelet a long time ago. That means it has been with me for far longer than your ancestors’ ancestors were alive. What a pitiful human nature... everything your eyes fall upon, you declare it to be yours. Then you begin inventing stories—this person gave it to me, this was mine long ago—just to convince yourselves. Tell me... why should I believe you?"

His voice suddenly dropped, turning into an outright threat:

"If you continue saying illogical things, I will not hesitate to destroy the will that exists here, until you completely lose your mind. Ah... it seems I won’t need to do that. That snake will take care of it—it seems it will digest you soon."

I listened to the words of the owner of the crimson eyes and began to review my thoughts in silence.

What makes me certain that it belongs to my brother?

But for the first time, I was able to remember clearly.

Yes... my brother was the one who gave me that bracelet.

And I finally understood the reason for that strange pain I used to feel in my heart whenever I looked at the bracelet. It was not a fleeting feeling, but the trace of a memory my mind had tried to bury.

What a fool I am... how could I not remember that?

At that moment, I wanted to hit myself, but I held back and restrained my impulse. I raised my gaze toward the owner of the crimson eyes,

"I can’t prove it, but I know for certain that this bracelet is the one my brother gave me. So I’ll ask my question once again... how did you obtain this bracelet? And don’t tell me empty words, I don’t need to hear them."

The owner of the crimson eyes looked at me with a complicated gaze, then sighed slowly before speaking:

"Well... honestly, I do not know. I do not have most of the memories of my original body. And as you see, I am just a will. My true body made a pact with someone long ago, and as a result, I left my will here, inside this bracelet. The only thing I remember clearly is the deal. The deal stated that if the first person obtained this bracelet, I must extend a helping hand to them whenever they need—"

He stopped speaking suddenly. At that moment, the place began to shake, before the owner of the crimson eyes said in a serious tone,

"It seems we no longer have time to talk. I suppose I should start helping you... before you are completely digested."