Chapter 15. Backroom (3)
We immediately moved on to the food section.
All kinds of colorful foods were beautifully displayed before us.
“Oh my God!”
My resolve had wavered a little when we encountered the terrain section, but I was glad I had insisted on taking the western door.
I felt rather proud of myself, but I still didn’t let my guard down and pulled out the book.
After all, there might be Mysteries like food that killed you when eaten, or poison disguised as food.
Lee Yeonhee had been about to start eating immediately out of excitement, but after seeing what I was doing, she stopped and waited beside me.
I opened the book and quickly skimmed through it.
There were only two unfamiliar names.
[19. Scq229 - Harmony Between Flowers and the Body
Scq278 - The Most Perfect Day]
The Most Perfect Day was the book I had first read in the book section.
As for Harmony Between Flowers and the Body, I had no idea what that was.
I opened the descriptions of both Mysteries and read them.
[21. Scq229 - Harmony Between Flowers and the Body]
[Upon viewing the corresponding painting, part of your body will transform into flowers and achieve harmony with them.]
The first Mystery seemed to have been in the painting room we had passed through earlier.
Your body would turn into flowers just by looking at the painting?
And we had walked straight past something like that?
We could have been in serious trouble.
A mixture of unease and disbelief washed over me.
I silently vowed never to take my eyes off the book again.
Then I checked the second Mystery.
My eyes immediately widened.
[19. Scq278 - The Most Perfect Day]
[The way to experience the most perfect day is to repeat that day until it becomes perfect.
If, on the day you opened this book, you personally feel dissatisfied with how the day went, time will rewind and that day will repeat.
If, on the day you opened this book, you feel satisfied with how the day went, nothing will happen.
*Not even death can interfere with your perfect day. If you die, you will return to the moment when you opened the book.
*This book becomes bound to the first person who reads it. It can be summoned anytime, anywhere.]
“Oh my God.”
This Mystery was basically a cheat.
Infinite lives.
Infinite saves and reloads.
I regretted not taking it with me from the book section so much that I almost felt like dying.
Wait.
It said that if I died, I would return to the moment I first read the book.
Should I just kill myself right now?
If I hadn’t calmed myself down enough to read the final sentence, I might genuinely have gone through with it.
By the time I finished reading that last line, a thrilling sensation ran through my entire body.
It became bound to its owner.
And I could summon it whenever I wanted!
Thank goodness.
If I had killed myself here, I might have been able to obtain the book again, but all the memories and relationships I had built with Lee Yeonhee would have disappeared.
The bond we had formed after going through life-and-death situations together wasn’t something insignificant.
Of course, those feelings weren’t deep enough for me to give up a Mystery like this.
Still, I was relieved that I could keep both.
But how exactly was I supposed to summon the book?
I closed my eyes and imagined the book sitting in my hand.
Something suddenly appeared in my grasp.
When I opened my eyes, the book I had seen earlier was resting in my hand.
I stared at it in amazement before gently stroking it like some priceless treasure.
While I was doing that, the book that recorded Mysteries floated over toward me.
I could practically feel jealousy radiating from it.
Come to think of it, they were both Mysteries in the form of books.
Calling both of them simply the book was going to get confusing.
Should I give the Mystery-recording book a nickname?
As if it had read my thoughts, the book violently fluttered its pages.
That was one enthusiastic yes.
“Then I’ll call you Lucy from now on.”
I gave it the name of the cat I had raised in my previous life.
The book—
No, Lucy—
went wild with joy.
It fluttered around the room, happily flying in circles.
Lee Yeonhee, who had been watching the whole thing, walked over.
Her eyes were fixed on the book in my hand.
“What’s that one?”
Curiosity filled her eyes.
Could I tell her?
Regression was dangerous information.
But even if I wouldn’t tell anyone else, I felt like I could trust her with it.
She was the person who had risked herself to save my life, after all.
Just as I was about to answer—
Growl.
A loud sound came from Lee Yeonhee’s stomach.
I pretended not to hear it and spoke naturally.
“Let’s eat first. This place seems safe, so I think we can relax here for a while.”
Lee Yeonhee nodded, her face turning slightly red.
And just like that, a small party began inside the Backroom.
I tore into some cold fried chicken while opening a can of beer with my other hand.
Honestly, since we had already rested once in the room with the terrain section, we could have simply stocked up on food and continued moving.
But that previous rest had only been a short nap.
It felt like the kind of rest that merely removed the bare minimum amount of exhaustion necessary to keep moving.
It hadn’t been proper rest.
Both our minds and bodies were still exhausted.
After thinking about it for a while, we decided to stay here until we had completely recovered.
Our expected break would last two days.
We planned to spend the first day drinking and having fun.
Then we would spend the next day recovering from the hangover.
“Hic! This is… hic! Really tasty!”
“You’re already drunk. Slow down.”
“It’s actually my first time drinking alcohol… Hehe.”
“Your first time?”
“Yes! I only became an adult recently, and my parents were a little strict…”
Her expression darkened slightly when she mentioned her parents.
But soon, she relaxed again and took a bite of chicken along with another sip of beer.
A small smile appeared on her lips.
I bit into my own chicken and opened the Gallery.
It hadn’t even been a full day since the last time I visited, but somehow, it felt like much longer.
Apparently, the Gallery users felt the same way.
The entire board was flooded with posts talking about me.
[Gallery Master ← Upvote if this bastard pisses you off lol]
[No matter how I think about it, if Gallery Master can only learn one thing, Martial Arts >>>>> Magic, right?]
[Gallery Master hasn’t entered the Gallery for 8 hours ㄷㄷ]
[Did Gallery Master die?]
[Aren’t supernatural powers the true foundation of an apocalypse…?]
[Gallery Master has currently been absent for 8 hours and 12 minutes.]
[My universe went dark for eight hours…]
There really wasn’t anything better than browsing the Gallery while resting.
I briefly looked through the posts while sipping my beer, then wrote a post summarizing my current situation.
Unlike before, I wasn’t asking for advice.
I was simply letting them know what had happened to me.
It was more like a survival report.
Or maybe a diary entry.
Notifications for replies immediately began pouring in, but I ignored them.
I could make plans and think things through tomorrow.
For today—
I was going to enjoy myself.
Smiling, I casually started reading some of the posts.
[Gallery Master ← Upvote if this bastard pisses you off lol]
[Author: Greatest Heavenly Demon of All Time]
[Gallery Master ← Upvote if you think this bastard has already forgotten his roots because he didn’t use the Gallery for eight whole hours lolol
I’ll start lolol]
└He skipped the Gallery for eight hours and immediately gets publicly executed ㄷㄷ
└But seriously, if he didn’t enter the Gallery for eight hours, hasn’t he completely forgotten his original spirit?
└I think losing that particular spirit is probably fine.
└I can forgive a lot of things, but not using the Gallery for eight hours? Absolutely unacceptable lol
└Use the Gallery nonstop for eight hours vs. not use the Gallery for eight hours.
└Obviously the second one;;;
└Teacher, this question is far too easy.
└If you guys spend eight straight hours on the Gallery, what happens to your real lives? ㄷㄷ
└Real life? What’s that?
└The Gallery is my life.
└I’ve been using the Gallery nonstop for 420 years, and honestly, disappearing for eight hours really does mean he’s forgotten his roots.
└What kind of bastard are you to waste 420 years on this place? lolol
└I’m an ordinary xianxia cultivator.
I chuckled after finishing the post and clicked the one directly beneath it.
Compared to the others, this one had an absurd number of comments.
There were more than ten thousand.
For a moment, I wondered if I had seen the number wrong.
Now I was curious.
I immediately opened it.
[No matter how I think about it, if Gallery Master can only learn one thing, Magic <<<<< Martial Arts, right?]
[ㅇㅇ]
└Magic seems way better than that primitive crap only martial arts idiots bother learning.
└Bro really posted “ㅇㅇ” without a single piece of evidence lolol
└This isn’t even a murim world, and you’re saying he should abandon magic to learn martial arts?? Bullshit.
└Seriously lol. While those guys spend all day swinging at imaginary enemies, a mage can erase an entire village.
└And it takes more than 500 years to reach the Life-and-Death Realm in martial arts, while becoming a 9th-Circle mage doesn’t even take 100 years. That’s a fact.
└100 years my ass lololol What kind of bullshit is that? lololol
└It’s theoretically possible though?
└Then theoretically I can wake up tomorrow, achieve enlightenment, awaken the Heart Sword, and reach the Life-and-Death Realm within a year too, dumbass lololol
└Is this a Mage Gallery offline meetup? Every single one of you showed up lololol
└Honestly, I think this post is right. Martial arts used by real men are way cooler than magic used by pussies.
└Isn’t magic just something click-spamming losers learn…?
└Isn’t martial arts just something idiots learn because their brains can’t calculate spell formulas? lolol
└For real. If your brain is bad, your body suffers lolol
└Yeah, but if your body is good enough, your brain doesn’t have to suffer~
└Why is everyone so angry? lololol
└A cultivator who uses neither magic nor martial arts will quietly pass through~
└But honestly, aren’t martial arts better than the techniques cultivators use?
└Bullshit. Magic is way better;;
└No matter how far you master magic, can you use the Heart Sword? lolol
└No matter how much you train martial arts, can you reverse time? lol
└No matter how much I think about it, I think cultivators are the best at giving birth ㅇㅇ…
└Your parents are the ones who gave birth to you.
It was a remarkably violent discussion.
