NOVEL NEXT Chapter 70: Abandoning Jessie
It was a very confusing state, but deep down he was unfolding this mystery, feeling controlled, almost like a robot.
Pinpointing something had been hard till now, but this revelation made one thing clear — his instincts were subdued, deranged.
Ash wanted to get out of this state, but every time he put thoughts into it, they drifted away from him. The more complicated his thoughts wandered, the less sense he made to himself.
It was a strange feeling that stopped him from comprehending anything jagged or rational.
"Luck… Luck… Luck…" he kept murmuring, trying to hold onto the thought.
His fingers trembled as his mind allotted the stat points to Luck. He had no idea why he was doing that — it was a primal intuition to save himself. His mind had already forgotten why he was doing it, but he believed in himself.
If he made the decision to increase his Luck stat, then it must have been for some important reason. All he could do was trust his former self — believing that it must have taken the decision with purpose.
The moment his Luck skyrocketed beyond twenty, his head throbbed as if fighting back. The excruciating pain came, and then—his eyes fluttered open, the sharpness of a calculative person returning.
He scanned around, heartbeat rising and falling. A realization dawned upon him — "Mind Hex."
His Luck might have created a barrier to protect his mind for now, but it was like a constant assault — like someone hammering at the wall to break through.
His mind registered everything that had happened till now — the way people talked to him, how he met everyone who matched his thoughts, how they spoke like the teenagers from his previous world.
All these thoughts accumulated into a shocking realization, "Are these people even real?"
Now that he could think clearly, everything looked rehearsed — as if it existed solely to please him and make him comfortable.
But it all gave way when Ash realized he had no memory of this world, and most of his memories were from his previous life — which made everyone around him act like the people from that world.
It was a terrifying thought — that someone could read his mind, extract his preferences, and mold the world around him, making everyone adapt according to his psyche.
"Who could it be?" Ash wondered, thinking about the old monk. He was the most suspicious person.
It had been barely a minute since he broke free from the Mind Hex, slowly unfolding the mystery.
The gate swung open as a tall, broad man lunged at him, swiping a knife made of wood.
Ash rolled around his arm, his other-hand clasping the man's head — one hand on the chin while the other pressed atop his skull vertically.
Crack.
The neck made a snapping sound, breaking like a crunching leaf.
Thud. The body fell as Ash turned toward Jessie, who had just woken up.
Whoever was using the mind attack had realized that he was no longer under control — so they chose to eliminate him instead.
But surprisingly, the people controlled by it weren't as powerful. They were barely stronger than normal human beings.
He wanted to laugh at the person behind all this — sending a puppet to kill him who wasn't even D-rank.
He grabbed Jessie's wrist, pulling her to her feet as they ran out.
Someone capable of influencing his mind and breaking through his Luck barrier had to be at least B or A-rank.
He had resisted the Dragon's Ask skill of a B-ranker with lower Luck, yet failed to resist this one even with higher Luck — that only pointed to one thing: whoever was behind this held more power than a B-rank.
The thought of encountering a B-rank was already terrifying, yet fighting one as an E-rank was suicide.
As he tried to drag Jessie along, he felt resistance.
Looking back, Ash saw unfamiliarity in Jessie's eyes — a fire burning in her hands.
"Snap out of it!" Ash shouted, activating his talent — Phantom Veil.
He ducked sideways as the fireball shot toward him. Closing the distance, Ash pinned her down, holding both her hands while his knees pressed her back into the ground.
"Jessie, snap out of it! It's a trap!"
But there was no response — only a distant reaction, as if she saw him as her sworn enemy.
He instantly realized it wasn't her true self — someone else was controlling her movements and emotions.
A faint blue pulse throbbed beneath her skin.
Ash wasn't sure what to do, but soon he was left with no choice.
A dark circle manifested beneath him as he felt his vitality dropping, his defenses crumbling.
"Twilight Trap," Ash muttered, recognizing the spell. Moments later, a torrent of fire surrounded him, burning his skin under the intense heat.
"Ash!" He heard Jessie's faint voice through the haze. Jumping out of the fire, he ran as fast as he could, Phantom Veil still active — seeping 3 MP every second.
As he emerged from the hut, hundreds of villagers waited to eradicate him. Unlike ordinary men, some were even C-rank.
Two smoke bombs appeared in his hand; he threw them down, creating a cloud of thick smoke that bought him a split second before the mages unleashed their spells into it.
The smoke was obliterated by the combined storm of fire, water, wind, and other elements.
Ash retreated rapidly toward the village boundary. The most important thing now was to survive. If he was right, Jessie would remain trapped inside the Mind Hex.
Ash checked his system screen:
[AGILITY: 8 (+12) | ENDURANCE: 5 (+20) | STRENGTH: 5 (+14) | LUCK: 23 | WILLPOWER: 499]
[MP: 110 / 110 (Recovery Rate: 1 per 270 seconds)]
[Stat Points: 5]
His Willpower had recovered, but as he looked back, several of them approached at double his speed. Some were C-rank knights and hunters — there was no way he could escape like this.
He invested the remaining 5 stat points into MP.
[MP: 160 / 160]
He could have invested in Agility to increase his speed, but he had a different plan. If he could make them freeze in place, what could be better?
[King's Domain]