The double stood bewildered. Hyun-woo reacted before the attack had even been launched. And it wasn't luck.
It wasn't even an assumption or that he got lucky. He knew where the attack was going to come from. The path it would take.
Hyun-woo couldn't see everything yet though. It was way too early and imperfect.
An ability to predict the future however much was nearly an unprecedented feat in even the tower. Only a select few possessed that ability.
It's much too demanding or rather near impossible for someone to consistently use without gruesome training.
I can see it. The path of its attack. I know where it's coming from. He didn't know what it was. But Hyun-woo used it to the fullest extent possible.
Striking again and again and Hyun-woo fending off each of them with little effort made the copy shocked, "How is this possible? This can't be happening."
Hyun-woo, drained but incredibly calm in a flow-like state, " "You look surprised. Did you really think I'd lose to a fake?"
Steel screeched as Hyun-woo parried the last blow, boots scraping against the cracked ground as he backed off to gain some space.
Charging towards the copy with his katana, ready to end this fight, Hyun-woo swerved around the path of the copy's sword and swung his in a smooth vertical motion to cut its arm off.
The double didn't show any fear. No panic. After losing its arm, it just simply took a few steps back.
It knew this fight had ended. There was no reason for it to fight any longer.
It placed its other arm to hold the stump on his shoulder where the limb once was. "I guess this is where it ends". It dropped its arm and took a long pause. "Be wary, your future is a disaster. You're going to get caught up in many dilemmas." Its eyes wandered around. It felt a sudden emptiness and embraced its inevitable end.
Hearing this out of the blue, Hyun-woo was stunned with no reply.
He was always bad at responding to unexpected moments but there was no response he could come up with that would be suitable for this instant.
What am I supposed to say? It felt sincere, what he said. Saying anything right now would feel like making a joke out of him.
From when the double showed up, this was the first time Hyun-woo had thought of the thing standing in front of him as an actual person, referring to it as him.
And now that he saw him as an actual person, Hyun-woo's mind was conflicted. It was the very first time he had to kill someone resembling a human. Much less someone with the same appearance.
An eerie silence filled up the place. A sharp wind pierced the surroundings and the crimson red sky lightened up.
Taking off his hand from the hilt of the blade and re-tightening his grip, Hyun-woo started to walk towards him. "I'll keep your words in my mind". This was the only thing he could say.
The double closed his eyes, clenched his fist and prepared himself for death.
Hyun-woo's shaky hands lifted his blade and in one swift motion, cut his head off. The air around him could hear his heart beating. He was thinking, …thinking about what he had done. What he could have done differently.
He was a warm human being who could be cold when needed. But killing someone, a human, was something that never occurred to him before all this.
He's dead. There was a long silence between each of his thoughts. Why did he say that? What did he mean by it? How does he know?
Questions filled his mind. And there was no one to answer them.
He did not often speak his mind and would bottle up his thoughts. Never revealing them to anyone.
This was a time where a quality like this would cause great harm to him.
He closed his eyes for a moment. Sat down on the ground and crossed his legs. His pants had gotten wet because of the water. He took a deep breath and let it out all at once.
It was hard to think during such a gruelling fight that it would end so anticlimactically. But there was no other way it could conclude. One of them had to die.
Everything had gone quiet all of a sudden after such a life-or-death battle. No blood splashed around. The copy had just dissipated into nothingness like it was never there.
Hyun-woo decided to ponder over what had happened sometime later. He didn't want to stay any longer than he needed to in this world.
The mood had definitely dimmed despite him not wanting to think about it right now.
Finally that hellish trial is over. The damn hidden class better be worth it after all this.
Now that I think about it, there wasn't anything like a hidden class in TTC (The Tower Of Chaos). So, why is it different now?
There's gotta be a lot I don't know. The future I know could change due to my influence. Well, its already kinda changed.
System Message
[Congratulations]
[You have completed the trial]
[You have reached Level 20]
…
System Message
[You will not receive a class]
[You will not be able to use Status Window]
Never once in the Tower of Chaos had such a phenomenon ever happened. Not in the future he had read.
It was unheard of to not receive a class. Both the weakest and the strongest beings in the tower started off with a class.
The first thought that came to Hyun-woo's tongue when he saw that was, "WHAT THE FUCK".
"...I did all that for nothing. YOU COULD'VE JUST NOT GIVEN ME ONE FROM THE START."
After getting through the initial disbelief, Hyun-woo assumed there was a reason he didn't get a class.
He thought it was only logical to presume someone with the power to control the system did this on purpose. Whether it was beneficial for himself or for that being.
Okay. Let's calm down. There's gotta be a reason this happened. It's not like I can change it.
Hyun-woo was bewildered, he knew this was no coincidence. But henceforth, he had to live with it.
Not knowing any of the advantages, traits, abilities of being classless and on top of that not being able to use the status window seemed like a huge disadvantage at the time.
But such a rigorous trial would never prove the outcome useless.
It was basically a universal law in the tower that the harder a challenge or trial get, the better the rewards.