Record of a Thousand Lives

are you?” the girl asked.

“You don’t have to know. Come here,” he replied as he manhandled her into an alley.

“Ouch! Why are you doing this to me!?” The girl was stricken with fear and could not resist against him.

Lee Min-Chan raised his right hand once they were in the dark alley.

[Do you wish to manipulate Hanna the apple vendor?]

[The skill will activate if you recite the activation phrase embedded deep within the mind of the target.]

[The spell for Hanna is ‘I heard your parents abandoned you, and that’s why you have to sell apples?’.]

[The manipulation skill is more effective on emotional and weak-willed people.]

[On the other hand, the skill will be less effective on less emotional or older people.]

“I heard your parents abandoned you, and that's why you have to… Euk!” Just as Lee Min-Chan was reciting the spell, he suddenly felt a blunt force strike the back of his head.
The force that hit him was so strong that his eyeballs almost fell out.
He turned around and glared at the person who had hit him, but saw that it was Kang Yoon-Soo.

“What?! Fuck! How did you find me?” Lee Min-Chan started to retreat backward. However, Kang Yoon-Soo lifted his greatsword and started to walk toward him.
The man’s gaze, as emotionless as a puppet, gave Lee Min-Chan chills, and the darkness of the alley amplified his fears.

Lee Min-Chan had not even sensed him, but how had the man found him here? What was his purpose? While he was thinking, however, the man suddenly spoke.

“To kill you,” Kang Yoon-Soo said. Again, he spoke as if he could read minds, making cold sweat run down Lee Min-Chan’s back. He lightly swung his greatsword, and a bloody line formed on Lee Min-Chan’s neck.

“Heo… Heok!” Lee Min-Chan gasped as he lowered his hand.
He stopped his attempt to manipulate the girl and ran away. “Go away! I said get away from me!” he exclaimed, filled with fear.
The pain inflicted by Kang Yoon-Soo had cemented itself in his memory like a traumatic experience.

Soon afterward, he was covered in sweat and left out of breath. “Haaa…! Haaa…!” He panted, stopping for a while to catch his breath before looking back.

He saw a man walking toward him from behind—it was Kang Yoon-Soo.

“Aaaack!” he screamed as he ran away, and the people around him looked at him as if he were crazy. The man wielding the greatsword looked even scarier and creepier to him now.

“Don’t come! Don’t come closer!” Lee Min-Chan exclaimed in terror, running into a narrow alley.

However, Kang Yoon-Soo was at the end of that alley, as if they had agreed to meet there. “You’re late, as always,” he said.

“Aaaaaaaack! I’ll manipulate you!” Lee Min-Chan glared at him and raised his right hand. He gathered all of his mana and prepared to unleash the most powerful manipulation skill he had ever used.
However, a message popped up on his device.

[The target’s mind contains 20,004 years’ worth of memories.
It will be impossible to manipulate the target even if you master the skill.]

“What…?” Lee Min-Chan was stricken with fear, and he fell on his butt. ‘His mind is 20,004 years old…? How long has he lived? Is he even a person…!?’  he thought in disbelief. “You! What the hell are you? Are you even human?!” he asked the man.

However, Kang Yoon-Soo did not reply, and just silently approached him. At the very moment Lee Min-Chan was about to turn around and run away, he hit the back of Lee Min-Chan’s head with the blunt side of his greatsword.

Pukeok!

Lee Min-Chan’s vision turned dark.