Death Flag System: I Became An Extra From The Author Who Killed Me!
Chapter 49: Piece Connecting Together
Cillian slowly opened his eyes and watched the blinking screen that seemed to slap him in his current reality.
[Death Flag]
’Seriously?’
Exposing Jack and the Target Organization’s attack is not enough to reduce the raised death flag?
’Does that mean the hunt will continue?’
Cillian thought to himself before moving his gaze sideways and seeing Aster looking at him suspiciously, his expression clearly showing that he wanted to ask many questions.
Cillian blatantly ignored him and landed his gaze on Phillip and Vin on the other side of the bed, and looked at the raised flags above their heads.
[Red Flag]
[Red Flag]
"Motherfucker."
All three people inside the room frowned upon hearing Cillian curse suddenly as they saw him resting his head again on the bed.
Cillian calmed his thoughts down before asking.
"Tell me what happened while I was out."
Instead of answering, Phillip decided to worry about Cillian’s condition.
"I think you should rest for a while instead of worrying about it."
Cillian clicked his tongue and looked at Phillip, his eyes turning cold and repeating the same question with a cold tone.
"Tell me what happened while I was out."
Phillip couldn’t help but shiver at those deep, penetrating blue eyes staring at him, as he couldn’t help but feel nervous, watching Cillian act differently.
’Is this really the Cillian I knew?’
The way he acted after Fergus got sent from prison had changed. He became more sociable, cunning, and cold, to the point that if someone was watching Cillian closely enough, they could notice the difference right away.
Cillian was an easy-going person when he’s sociable, but he can turn pretty scary if he’s pissed.
Phillip remained silent for a moment before Aster, who was silently watching throughout the time, gave Cillian the answer he needed to hear.
"After you collapsed in class, Student President Freya brought you to the nearest clinic. Instructor Ulrich came to check on you after a few minutes. Freya also informed the principals, with Third Year Principal Darwin leading the search for Jack Trade."
"Then?"
"Jack Trade got caught, and they seemed to have interrogated him before a wild evacuation happened, where every student was transferred to the ground complex. It seemed like after finding something out from him, they started to move.
"You got here with the help of the medic. Every match from the academy tournament has been postponed. The ongoing matches couldn’t be stopped since the time limit for each versioned battlefield is a week, so the remaining matches were going to be the last ones for now."
Aster took a pause.
"The Academy had contacted the Viola Family as well. The House of Commons and Lords were also informed. Soldiers from these forces are likely to come here tomorrow. The school also issued students their preferred weapon."
[Death Flag]
Cillian watched Aster’s flag above his head, still unchanged even if that was supposed to be good news.
"Tomorrow, huh."
Cillian slowly sat up in his seat, still feeling mentally exhausted, and opened his ability to check his mental load.
"Domino Trace."
[Domino Trace activated!]
[Please choose which flag to trace]
[Mental Load: 45%]
[Warning: Using Domino Trace with a high mental load will cause excessive headaches. Advising the user not to use Domino Trace until the mental load reached 5%.]
’Of course, I’m not going to use it. I’m just checking my mental load, which still has a whopping 45% load. I’m not going to risk it for now.’
Cillian mused inwardly as he decided that if there were ever a situation where he needed to push everything, he would likely use these two abilities.
It doesn’t matter if the mental load was high or he had to go through countless deaths to probe possible outcomes.
Surviving and winning... and having fun in the mix of those as well.
One couldn’t have fun if they died, after all.
Cillian chuckled at the mere thought before looking at Phillip and Vin.
"Can you guys leave for a moment? I want to talk with Aster alone."
’His face is almost on the verge of speaking what’s on his mind, and the only reason he’s hesitating is that you two are here.’
Cillian added inwardly and waited for both of his friends to leave them alone.
After giving Cillian one final check and confirming that he no longer needed any more assistance, Phillip and Vin left the makeshift room.
An awkward silence filled the room the moment the extra and the main character were completely alone.
’Come on, now. You’re free to talk. What’s with you? Speak.’
Cillian waited for Aster to speak, who seemed to be pondering his words carefully, before he heard him calmly.
"How did you get what I meant there?"
’Hmm? What there?’
Cillian tilted his head, visibly confused, before Aster continued.
"When I went to your club and asked to collaborate with you, did you already realize that I was testing you to see if you’re an enemy to take me? After all, if you’re an enemy, you’ll likely accept that deal to get closer to me and snatch my Five Swords of Chaos."
"Whoa, whoa. Hold on now."
Cillian had to stop Aster from whatever he was thinking as various thoughts entered his head.
’Mouthful Eye said that Aster is indeed testing me and trying to consider if I was an enemy or not. The enemy he was talking about is the people who are trying to take his Piece? Coincidentally, it’s the Target Organization, the one who used Fergus to gauge his strength. Was this it? They wanted to know if he indeed held the Five Swords of Chaos?’
It wasn’t so hard for Cillian to connect the dots now that everything was linking together, and when they did, it all made sense.
The Target Organization needed to get that Piece as the one final act.
However, that still doesn’t sound quite right.
If Ruiners were to assimilate their Piece successfully, and Butchers were to snatch that Piece from that person’s body, the power would most likely be half or worse. This will cause those Pieces to be ruined, which will turn them into Fragmented Pieces.
Fragmented Pieces are never meant to be assimilated again.
Pieces that become Fragmented are either made as an Artifact with skilled Artisans related to building or creating such an item, or just sold around through black markets since they couldn’t be taken again for a Ruiner. One couldn’t sell Fragmented Pieces in the normal markets since one would instantly know it came from a dead Ruiner.
It was something Cillian read when he got the books from the library, but the information relating to Ruiners is low, hence he thought he might be missing something.
Aster then fully explained.
"I will explain it as simply as possible. But first, you have to understand this. Do you happen to know Singularity Pieces?"
’Singularity... wait just a moment. Isn’t that what Mouthful Eye mentioned to Aiden’s Humored Insanity?’
Cillian thought inwardly, remembering the time when Mouthful Eye mentioned this word in passing after meeting the artifact for the first time and never explained it again, before nodding lightly.
"You do?"
Aster was slightly surprised.
"Not so much. I just know the word. If you can explain, that will really be appreciated."
Cillian answered right away, and Aster sighed and explained.
"Just the word alone is enough. Singular is equivalent to single. The Sword of Chaos is the only Piece you can find in the Runic Gate, Harbinger of Chaos. The Piece I got within me is not normal and unique that even if I’m killed to extract this piece, the Five Swords of Chaos will not become fragmented. That’s the unique identity of Singularity Pieces compared to the normal ones."
Aster clicked his tongue and was becoming more alarmed the more he realized.
"If you happen to hear this Piece from Jack Trade, then that only means the Runic Gate, Harbinger of Chaos has been found. They probably possessed the Runic Book and found out my Piece, and they probably knew about the Singularity Piece. Now that they had confirmed it, it was probably because I showed its power after confronting Fergus."
Aster paused while he dropped his head, his face turning sour.
"I’m usually careful about my actions, but after the advancement ritual had been completed, my mind was just in complete chaos to kill that bastard Fergus. He ordered a kidnapping for me, then tried to pick a fight by harassing my friends and me right after. After everything he did to make my first month in this school so fucking hard, who wouldn’t be filled with anger?"
Cillian watched Aster, the main character of the dogshit novel he got transferred into, seem to regret his decisions.
After all, actions are bound to have consequences, and Aster was slowly realizing it now.
"Because of me, I put my friends, students who don’t have any idea what was happening, and the whole school in danger. Whoever is targeting me is probably not going to give up, no matter what, just to get this power out of me. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry."
Cillian calmly watched the character Aster in front of him.
This character, who realized that these actions made everything a mess, was regretting them now. However, this gives him what it means to have the quality of a true novel’s protagonist, no matter how trashy the novel is.
It’s a character development every reader would want to see happening right in front of their eyes.
If Cillian had seen this in the webnovel, he might’ve been swayed a little.
Just a little.
But who really gives a damn about his apology?
"So, you want me to comfort you or something?"
Aster slowly raised his head and looked at Cillian, wearing a face that seemed twisted and funny to look at.
"Huh...?"
"Should I give you the words "it’s not your fault" or "don’t blame yourself too much" kind of lines? Oh shit no! I’d rather die before saying those embarrassing things!"
"Huh?"
Aster was left stupefied.
On the other hand, Cillian was huffing and giving him a disgusted look for asking for comfort from a professional hater like himself.
You want comfort? Get it from your mother.