Chapter 256
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Sekai furrowed his brows.
Fuck.
Three months had already gone by, but they still hadn't found any leads.
Though the company did not know about their blunder just yet, that bloody bitch Xin Yi looked like she was getting closer and closer to informing the higherups of their mistake, which he just couldn't accept.
He didn't want to go through another round of brainwashing when they realized that he and Xin Yi had not immediately reported their findings to them and instead went to search for the King Vampiric Willow themselves.
It was already hard enough to maintain his own thoughts as the brainwashing slowly weakened over the years but going through it again would just blow all of his effort out of the water.
Sekai was this close to just ditching her and making a getaway, but he knew that if he did that, the bloody woman would immediately make a report against him. That's how much they hated each other's guts.
Even if he could ditch her, the moment she reported to the company, they'd be able to track him down.
The main problem was that the branding that the company used to keep tabs on them was doing something to mess with something in their brains.
He didn't know how they were doing it, but he found himself a lot more irritable than he had ever been.
Not only that, every time he felt like he was about to get insight into how to break the branding, the thought slipped through his fingers.
The people that had forcibly joined the company all had the brand in common. They couldn't talk about the brand with anyone.
Nor could they mention anything about the company, or what the company's goals were.
He'd seen what it had done to someone who forcibly broke the restrictions.
It wasn't something he was ever willing to personally experience.
It wasn't just pain. It had been bordering on the line of torture, both mental and physical.
The human body should not have been made to bend that way.
And the worst part of it was that the company had *ordered* that person to break the restrictions to show them just what it did, and the man had just accepted it like a proper brainwashed slave.
Sekai shivered when he thought back about the scene.
…No. Fuck it.
He couldn't continue doing this with Xin Yi by his side.
He had to get rid of her somehow.
He'd never met a single woman more disagreeable than her, and that was even *with* the stupid ban on his love life.
Or the lack of it, really.
Really, fuck that System that sent him here.
Even if he was desperate for a woman – which he wasn't, by the way, he would never choose Xin Yi even if she was the last woman on the planet.
That was how much he hated her guts. Just as she did his.
They were like oil and water.
The only thing that held them together was the damn company's orders.
If he ever met the System that sent him here again, he'd punch him straight up in the face no questions asked.
Sekai peeled himself out of the crowd that he'd mingled around in the name of 'searching for clues', but he really was just using the time to think without that woman's presence for once.
The man headed back to the inn that they agreed to meet up at the end of each day and plunked himself in the rowdy dining area.
He ordered two mugs of beer and started chugging it down.
He medicated himself on a daily basis because he was stuck to that bitch.
It was only after half an hour passed, where Sekai was steadily getting tipsier the more beer he downed, that a hooded figure appeared in the empty seat before Sekai.
In actuality, Xin Yi had already been here an hour before Sekai appeared, but she much preferred to deal with the tipsy Sekai rather than the prickly and abrasive idiot who thought he was all that.
They were both fooling themselves if they thought that the other didn't know what they were doing, but since it worked, it worked.
They were more than willing to buffer the other's presence than deal with them normally.
Sekai chugged the whole mug down upon seeing Xin Yi, slamming it down onto the table so hard it was a wonder that neither the table nor the mug broke into pieces.
"Hey," he spoke first. "We can't keep doing this. You and me together? We're just not covering enough ground."
Xin Yi was silent because he was right.
They truly weren't able to cover all the ground because they were stuck together, but what could she do?
Company orders said that the team had to stick together no matter what.
They had to be in the same vicinity in order to justify it to their higherups.
Sekai seemed to sense that she was wavering, and he pressed on harder. "Forget it already! We've already broken company rules by delaying our report that the King Vampiric Willow is missing! What's another broken rule?"
"Fine. But let it be known that this is your idea. If we still fail after all this, it's on your head."
Sekai sneered. Seriously. Even when it had already come to this, she still wanted to be like this.
This was exactly why they could never get along.
"Fine," he said shortly.
Xin Yi felt like it pained her to ever agree with something that Sekai said. She nodded curtly at him and instantly disappeared.
Sekai snorted, but he felt a little lighter without that bloody woman's constant eyes on his back, just waiting for him to slip up one more time so that she could get rid of him.
-Author only posts this on w.e.b.n.o.v.e.l.-
Sekai secluded himself in a cave in a forest that not many people bothered to visit.
For one, the place was filled with various high-ranking monsters and creatures, so it was no walk in the park.
Another reason why was that the place was always dark and gloomy, so not only were there hardly any valuable herbs that grew here, it was easy to lose their lives in this place.
A single misstep could cause their deaths.
He had no intentions on finding the King Vampiric Willow's traces.
Quite honestly, if they hadn't found anything by now, it was unlikely that they were going to do so in a short period of time.
It was almost as if it had just sprouted legs and walked off on its own.
They'd already looked into the mercenaries that were in the area at the time, but they'd checked out clean, so that was a dead end.
For all he knew, the King Vampiric Willow might have broken through to be able to assume a human form and walked off on its own or something.
Regardless, there was no way that Sekai was going to continue going down this route.
He knew that the company would never forgive them, and they already didn't have a single hope of finding the King Vampiric Willow, so he may as well do his best to try and continue breaking the seal.
Fuck.
He'd already amassed more knowledge in the area than he had in anything else because of his desperation to break it, but to no avail.
There was only so much information without any practice could do, and he was already hitting the wall hard.
This was his last chance to figure out how to break it.
Taking a breath, Sekai pulled out a stack of paper and a single calligraphy pen.
He looked at it apprehensively.
He just knew this was going to take a fucking long time. His penmanship was notoriously atrocious.
Please report us if you find any errors so we can fix it asap!
Sekai furrowed his brows.
Fuck.
Three months had already gone by, but they still hadn't found any leads.
Though the company did not know about their blunder just yet, that bloody bitch Xin Yi looked like she was getting closer and closer to informing the higherups of their mistake, which he just couldn't accept.
He didn't want to go through another round of brainwashing when they realized that he and Xin Yi had not immediately reported their findings to them and instead went to search for the King Vampiric Willow themselves.
It was already hard enough to maintain his own thoughts as the brainwashing slowly weakened over the years but going through it again would just blow all of his effort out of the water.
Sekai was this close to just ditching her and making a getaway, but he knew that if he did that, the bloody woman would immediately make a report against him. That's how much they hated each other's guts.
Even if he could ditch her, the moment she reported to the company, they'd be able to track him down.
The main problem was that the branding that the company used to keep tabs on them was doing something to mess with something in their brains.
He didn't know how they were doing it, but he found himself a lot more irritable than he had ever been.
Not only that, every time he felt like he was about to get insight into how to break the branding, the thought slipped through his fingers.
The people that had forcibly joined the company all had the brand in common. They couldn't talk about the brand with anyone.
Nor could they mention anything about the company, or what the company's goals were.
He'd seen what it had done to someone who forcibly broke the restrictions.
It wasn't something he was ever willing to personally experience.
It wasn't just pain. It had been bordering on the line of torture, both mental and physical.
The human body should not have been made to bend that way.
And the worst part of it was that the company had *ordered* that person to break the restrictions to show them just what it did, and the man had just accepted it like a proper brainwashed slave.
Sekai shivered when he thought back about the scene.
…No. Fuck it.
He couldn't continue doing this with Xin Yi by his side.
He had to get rid of her somehow.
He'd never met a single woman more disagreeable than her, and that was even *with* the stupid ban on his love life.
Or the lack of it, really.
Really, fuck that System that sent him here.
Even if he was desperate for a woman – which he wasn't, by the way, he would never choose Xin Yi even if she was the last woman on the planet.
That was how much he hated her guts. Just as she did his.
They were like oil and water.
The only thing that held them together was the damn company's orders.
If he ever met the System that sent him here again, he'd punch him straight up in the face no questions asked.
Sekai peeled himself out of the crowd that he'd mingled around in the name of 'searching for clues', but he really was just using the time to think without that woman's presence for once.
The man headed back to the inn that they agreed to meet up at the end of each day and plunked himself in the rowdy dining area.
He ordered two mugs of beer and started chugging it down.
He medicated himself on a daily basis because he was stuck to that bitch.
It was only after half an hour passed, where Sekai was steadily getting tipsier the more beer he downed, that a hooded figure appeared in the empty seat before Sekai.
In actuality, Xin Yi had already been here an hour before Sekai appeared, but she much preferred to deal with the tipsy Sekai rather than the prickly and abrasive idiot who thought he was all that.
They were both fooling themselves if they thought that the other didn't know what they were doing, but since it worked, it worked.
They were more than willing to buffer the other's presence than deal with them normally.
Sekai chugged the whole mug down upon seeing Xin Yi, slamming it down onto the table so hard it was a wonder that neither the table nor the mug broke into pieces.
"Hey," he spoke first. "We can't keep doing this. You and me together? We're just not covering enough ground."
Xin Yi was silent because he was right.
They truly weren't able to cover all the ground because they were stuck together, but what could she do?
Company orders said that the team had to stick together no matter what.
They had to be in the same vicinity in order to justify it to their higherups.
Sekai seemed to sense that she was wavering, and he pressed on harder. "Forget it already! We've already broken company rules by delaying our report that the King Vampiric Willow is missing! What's another broken rule?"
"Fine. But let it be known that this is your idea. If we still fail after all this, it's on your head."
Sekai sneered. Seriously. Even when it had already come to this, she still wanted to be like this.
This was exactly why they could never get along.
"Fine," he said shortly.
Xin Yi felt like it pained her to ever agree with something that Sekai said. She nodded curtly at him and instantly disappeared.
Sekai snorted, but he felt a little lighter without that bloody woman's constant eyes on his back, just waiting for him to slip up one more time so that she could get rid of him.
-Author only posts this on w.e.b.n.o.v.e.l.-
Sekai secluded himself in a cave in a forest that not many people bothered to visit.
For one, the place was filled with various high-ranking monsters and creatures, so it was no walk in the park.
Another reason why was that the place was always dark and gloomy, so not only were there hardly any valuable herbs that grew here, it was easy to lose their lives in this place.
A single misstep could cause their deaths.
He had no intentions on finding the King Vampiric Willow's traces.
Quite honestly, if they hadn't found anything by now, it was unlikely that they were going to do so in a short period of time.
It was almost as if it had just sprouted legs and walked off on its own.
They'd already looked into the mercenaries that were in the area at the time, but they'd checked out clean, so that was a dead end.
For all he knew, the King Vampiric Willow might have broken through to be able to assume a human form and walked off on its own or something.
Regardless, there was no way that Sekai was going to continue going down this route.
He knew that the company would never forgive them, and they already didn't have a single hope of finding the King Vampiric Willow, so he may as well do his best to try and continue breaking the seal.
Fuck.
He'd already amassed more knowledge in the area than he had in anything else because of his desperation to break it, but to no avail.
There was only so much information without any practice could do, and he was already hitting the wall hard.
This was his last chance to figure out how to break it.
Taking a breath, Sekai pulled out a stack of paper and a single calligraphy pen.
He looked at it apprehensively.
He just knew this was going to take a fucking long time. His penmanship was notoriously atrocious.
Sekai furrowed his brows.Fuck.Three months had already gone by, but they still hadn't found any leads.Though the company did not know about their blunder just yet, that bloody bitch Xin Yi looked like she was getting closer and closer to informing the higherups of their mistake, which he just couldn't accept.He didn't want to go through another round of brainwashing when they realized that he and Xin Yi had not immediately reported their findings to them and instead went to search for the King Vampiric Willow themselves.It was already hard enough to maintain his own thoughts as the brainwashing slowly weakened over the years but going through it again would just blow all of his effort out of the water.Sekai was this close to just ditching her and making a getaway, but he knew that if he did that, the bloody woman would immediately make a report against him. That's how much they hated each other's guts.Even if he could ditch her, the moment she reported to the company, they'd be able to track him down.The main problem was that the branding that the company used to keep tabs on them was doing something to mess with something in their brains.He didn't know how they were doing it, but he found himself a lot more irritable than he had ever been.Not only that, every time he felt like he was about to get insight into how to break the branding, the thought slipped through his fingers.The people that had forcibly joined the company all had the brand in common. They couldn't talk about the brand with anyone.Nor could they mention anything about the company, or what the company's goals were.He'd seen what it had done to someone who forcibly broke the restrictions.It wasn't something he was ever willing to personally experience.It wasn't just pain. It had been bordering on the line of torture, both mental and physical.The human body should not have been made to bend that way.And the worst part of it was that the company had *ordered* that person to break the restrictions to show them just what it did, and the man had just accepted it like a proper brainwashed slave.Sekai shivered when he thought back about the scene.No. Fuck it.He couldn't continue doing this with Xin Yi by his side.He had to get rid of her somehow.He'd never met a single woman more disagreeable than her, and that was even *with* the stupid ban on his love life.Or the lack of it, really.Really, fuck that System that sent him here.Even if he was desperate for a woman which he wasn't, by the way, he would never choose Xin Yi even if she was the last woman on the planet.That was how much he hated her guts. Just as she did his.They were like oil and water.The only thing that held them together was the damn company's orders.If he ever met the System that sent him here again, he'd punch him straight up in the face no questions asked.Sekai peeled himself out of the crowd that he'd mingled around in the name of 'searching for clues', but he really was just using the time to think without that woman's presence for once.The man headed back to the inn that they agreed to meet up at the end of each day and plunked himself in the rowdy dining area.He ordered two mugs of beer and started chugging it down.He medicated himself on a daily basis because he was stuck to that bitch.It was only after half an hour passed, where Sekai was steadily getting tipsier the more beer he downed, that a hooded figure appeared in the empty seat before Sekai.In actuality, Xin Yi had already been here an hour before Sekai appeared, but she much preferred to deal with the tipsy Sekai rather than the prickly and abrasive idiot who thought he was all that.They were both fooling themselves if they thought that the other didn't know what they were doing, but since it worked, it worked.They were more than willing to buffer the other's presence than deal with them normally.Sekai chugged the whole mug down upon seeing Xin Yi, slamming it down onto the table so hard it was a wonder that neither the table nor the mug broke into pieces."Hey," he spoke first. "We can't keep doing this. You and me together? We're just not covering enough ground."Xin Yi was silent because he was right.They truly weren't able to cover all the ground because they were stuck together, but what could she do?Company orders said that the team had to stick together no matter what.They had to be in the same vicinity in order to justify it to their higherups.Sekai seemed to sense that she was wavering, and he pressed on harder. "Forget it already! We've already broken company rules by delaying our report that the King Vampiric Willow is missing! What's another broken rule?""Fine. But let it be known that this is your idea. If we still fail after all this, it's on your head."Sekai sneered. Seriously. Even when it had already come to this, she still wanted to be like this.This was exactly why they could never get along."Fine," he said shortly.Xin Yi felt like it pained her to ever agree with something that Sekai said. She nodded curtly at him and instantly disappeared.Sekai snorted, but he felt a little lighter without that bloody woman's constant eyes on his back, just waiting for him to slip up one more time so that she could get rid of him.-Author only posts this on w.e.b.n.o.v.e.l.-Sekai secluded himself in a cave in a forest that not many people bothered to visit.For one, the place was filled with various high-ranking monsters and creatures, so it was no walk in the park.Another reason why was that the place was always dark and gloomy, so not only were there hardly any valuable herbs that grew here, it was easy to lose their lives in this place.A single misstep could cause their deaths.He had no intentions on finding the King Vampiric Willow's traces.Quite honestly, if they hadn't found anything by now, it was unlikely that they were going to do so in a short period of time.It was almost as if it had just sprouted legs and walked off on its own.They'd already looked into the mercenaries that were in the area at the time, but they'd checked out clean, so that was a dead end.For all he knew, the King Vampiric Willow might have broken through to be able to assume a human form and walked off on its own or something.Regardless, there was no way that Sekai was going to continue going down this route.He knew that the company would never forgive them, and they already didn't have a single hope of finding the King Vampiric Willow, so he may as well do his best to try and continue breaking the seal.Fuck.He'd already amassed more knowledge in the area than he had in anything else because of his desperation to break it, but to no avail.There was only so much information without any practice could do, and he was already hitting the wall hard.This was his last chance to figure out how to break it.Taking a breath, Sekai pulled out a stack of paper and a single calligraphy pen.He looked at it apprehensively.He just knew this was going to take a fucking long time. His penmanship was notoriously atrocious.
