“You’re so bad!” 

A yell came out of the old man’s room, a hint of exasperation hiding in his tone. “To think you would need a week to learn how to use the violin… anyone who gets taught by me should take no more than two hours!”

“At least I learned it!” Himo felt wronged. Isn’t a week fine? That’s a perfectly reasonable amount of time to learn how to play an instrument!

“Oh, whatever…” After staring in silence the child for a moment, the old man gave up. “Have fun playing with your enemies, Little Himo! Kekeke!”

Himo grinned. “That’s for sure.”

The old man likewise grinned. While he acted stern, it was purely because of the expectations he held toward the child. It would do nothing good to spoil him and fuel his cheeky behaviour.

At that moment, Himo waved his hands as he faded from his view, gradually turning into particles of dust drifting in the air.

His consciousness returned to his body, leaving the scythe. Violin in hand, he stood once again atop the spiral stair. Thinking of what happened inside the violin, he felt tired. He wished to stay still for a few seconds, relaxing without thinking about anything.

Ding!

[The User caused a special occurrence inside an Illusion Realm! The User successfully learned the unique skill: Steal Illusion!]

[Steal Illusion]

[You will automatically gain from 1% to 50% of control of an illusion realm based on the difference in realms with the caster. Additional percentage can be acquired through sheer effort.]

[Illusion realm: 

Unlike a normal illusion, which can only alter the perception of someone's six senses, an illusion realm harness the ability to alter the perception and influence anyone under a certain range.

In the illusion realm, illusions can injure fatally. Only by believing that it's an illusion will one be immune from its assaults.

Warning: anyone with strength vastly exceeding the caster can break the illusion and cause a backlash.]

“Oh? This is overpowered! Haha!” Feeling happy over gaining such a broken skill, Himo spun around with wide open arms and jumped down from the staircase, falling from atop the hall. He had forgotten about his previous wish of resting.

He soon reached the floor and raised his head, met by the dumbfounded gazes of the other four.

“I’m back!”

“So fast?” Shela blinked, her gaze not leaving the violin in the youth’s hands. “It hasn’t even been ten seconds since you left!”

The reaction of the two brothers was no different than hers, rushing to Himo with mouths ready to shoot thousands of questions. They held a notebook and a quill in hand, eager to write any important note.

Only Seji stood at the side without much of a reaction. It even surprised himself—after hearing his speeches and seeing his fights, he felt that he was slowly growing numb to Himo’s accomplishments as if they were but the normal outcome. When he gazed at Himo answering the trio’s questions, a thin smile grew on his lips; a smile unnoticeable by anyone but himself.

A few minutes passed quickly, and Himo raised a hand. “Calm down, we can continue talking as we walk. Moreover, what are we going to do now? I doubt that there is any other cursed weapon left in the remains.”

The four frowned. They fell deep in thought, then began discussing what to do. 

Meanwhile, Himo had something else in mind. System, can you give me the description of the violin?

[(Low-grade growth Legendary Weapon) False Reality, True Illusion Violin]

[Abilities: [Create illusion realm], [Alter illusion realm], [Erase illusion realm].] 

[Information about how to cause the growth is sealed.]

Just this? You’re really stingy on information, why there isn’t even a description? He rolled his eyes. I hoped to learn who that old man is, but not only did he not say anything about it, even the status of the weapon hides it!

[The User does not satisfy the necessary requirements to know the name of the individual sealed in the violin.]

How cheap.

Ding!

[Quest Success: Find out what is creating the cursed aura and get it!]

[Quest Difficulty: S+]

[Quest Rewards: 5+55 BS points.]

[You obtained 60 BS points!]

[You now have 60 BS points!]

[You are not poor anymore!]

System, you didn’t have to add that last remark… and wait, it’s already a few minutes that I obtained the violin, yet you only gave me the quest reward this late… are you lagging?

[The system doesn’t know the concept of “lagging”. The system would appreciate if the User were to avoid comparing the system to the mere computers of the User’s past life.]

Oh, the system got triggered. Himo snickered to himself. Ended bickering with the system, he shifted his attention to what the other four were talking about, only to find them all staring at him. “Wha…?”

“We decided to let you decide instead,” Seji explained. “We had planned to follow you anyway, Himo.”

Himo nodded in understanding. He felt amused, being the leader of such a group, but he didn’t hesitate a single moment. Raising a fist, he grinned. “Think about it: this is a remain! Knowing that, the answer is obvious; let’s do it!”

Contrary to his expectation, his declaration was met by silence. The four simply looked at each other as if asking ‘What is he talking about?’.

Seeing their expression, Himo discerned the problem—the four had never read any novel about cultivation worlds! While they held the knowledge that remains might have treasures, they lacked the fundamental belief of how life-changing those treasures could be!

He shook his head and posed a palm on his face. He had to correct such wrong beliefs!

“Hear me right now. The remains are the symbol of adventurers, a hope to find the richest treasure and change their own life for the better! You can’t forget this! From the start of this world, every cultivator traveled the world to search for a way to get stronger, risking their lives to obtain fame, power, and status. How can we let such a chance go? We have to obtain everything that exists in this remain! Let’s go, so that we won’t ever regret missing this chance!

Said those words, Himo marched to the exit of the hall, leaving behind four dumbfounded youths.

They took a second to come back to themselves, a disbelieving expression covering their faces. Not only you just gained a cursed weapon, but you’re aiming for every other disciple’s treasure too?

Thinking that, they all shook their head and followed him.

Walking out of the hall, the five found themselves back to the long, dark hallway, likely leading back to the great hall. This time, however, darkness didn’t find its place, barred by a luminous glint coming from the end.

The first time they had walked inside, the light had traversed for a whole kilometer before giving way to the dark. Remembering that, Himo noticed that less than half a kilometer divided them from the exit. He tilted his head.

“Aren’t we too close to the exit?”

“Now that you say it, it’s true…” Shela narrowed her eyes.

Himo froze. “Could that have been an illusion? Maybe when we believed that we were walking in the tunnel, we were already inside of the hall.”

“An illusion?” Hearing those words, a shiver went down Seji’s back. “Does that mean we fell on an illusion without realizing it?”

Himo nodded. “Seems like it.”

Uncaring of that conversation, Reiji and Serdis walked up to Himo to resume the previous discussion. “So, how did you gain the acknowledgment of the violin?” Shela also perked up her ears, not wanting to miss a single word.

As expected of cursed items’ enthusiasts. He chuckled, then began to broadly explain what happened in the violin. As they had helped him, he didn’t withhold most information, hiding only sensitive information like the existence of the system, his prowess in dreams, and the defects of the violin's illusion realm.

Hearing his words, the hands of the three couldn't help but tremble in agitation. They took both written and mental notes. Grins covered their faces; the trip was more than worth it. From believing they were before unknown artifacts that might kill even the strongest experts upon touch, they learned that cursed items held tests to give a chance to obtain them.

And naturally, they also understood that most attempts, if not all, ended up in failure with the exception of the ones taken by the child before them.

The group discussed as they walked leisurely for several minutes, until they reached the grand hall. At their arrival, a sight of destruction gave them the welcome back.

A putrid smell of death and burned tissues assaulted their nostrils. Scattered in the great hall, severed corpses bloodied the place as others burned into dark, toxic fumes. Signs of fights covered walls and floor, transforming its previous mysterious appearance into a battlefield.

Standing right before the exit, thirty disciples held smirks as they stared at the five. Swords in hand, they strolled to them as they laughed.

“Heeh? A new group? Hurry up and give us anything you’ve found, or you’re gonna end up like them!” One of them, likely the leader, pointed his sword at Himo and at a hand to a pile of burning corpses.

Albeit shocked, neither Seji nor the trio had intention to surrender. They were about to raise their weapons and fight, when…

“Stop!” Blocking them with his arms, Himo shouted anxiously. “Don’t fight, it’s evident that we can’t win! It’s better to do what they want so that we can at least survive!” Showing a pained yet resigned expression, Himo took out a violin and its bow, offering it to the leader. “Take this... it’s the only thing we found in the remain, but I believe you will appreciate it!”

Initially puzzled by his behaviour, the four widened their eyes in shock seeing what he did. At that moment, they sighed in relief, thanking their luck on the fact that they weren’t enemies.

Himo held no empathy for the thirty in front. While it seemed like his usual behavior was unruly, he held proper(?) values and beliefs, so the sight of such a needless slaughter of disciples—even kids—ticked him off.

Unsuspecting anything, the leader grabbed the violin, trying to understand what was so special about it. And froze. In his sight, he saw that a smile grew on the child’s mouth. Before he could utter a single sound, he lost control of his body and positioned to play the violin. Moving the bow with the softness of a feather, he began to play it.

Created an illusion realm, four swords arose around him, pointing at his torso. Unable to lift a finger, he could only stare in terror as they advanced slowly, piercing through his body. Soon, his corpse fell to the ground, lifeless.

Silence fell in the hall. The remaining twenty-nine disciples stared blankly at the corpse, as if unable to understand what happened.

Seeing the result, Himo nodded, grabbed the violin and then posed it at his side. After that, he took out a notebook and a quill, then began to write.

Experiment number one: give the violin to another individual. Result: while the status held no mention of an anti-thief defense like that of the scythe, the subject created an illusion realm and killed himself using four swords. Conclusion: every cursed weapon can potentially force to suicide anyone that isn’t its owner.

Test successful.

Placing quill and notebook back to the storage, Himo smiled to the remaining disciples. “Thank you for your collaboration on the experiment!” Taking out the scythe, he then added, “Since I still have a few things to test, I hope you won’t refuse to collaborate for a few more minutes!”