Mirror World: Destined Return

Flashback.

“The key dip is nine millimeters, which is one millimeter shorter than the international standard, and the actuation point has been moved 1.3 millimeters inward,” Gerard said with a respectful and deep voice.

“Hmm,” expressed a meticulous-looking man in a tailcoat as he nodded, pressing each of the eighty-eight piano keys. He smiled each time he was met with a perfect tone. “It’s perfect.”

“Would you like to check the strings yourself?” Gerard asked as he brought a tuning hammer toward the man.

The middle-aged man shook his head and replied, “Of all the things that can be wasted in life, I detest wasting time the most. Besides, who would be stupid enough to distrust a master tuner like yourself and waste time checking 220 strings or so of a piano that you’ve personally tuned?”

The man was Arnault Duchaussoy, a world-famous pianist known as the king of pianos.

Gerard smiled at Arnault’s praise and thought, Although I couldn’t achieve my dream of becoming a world-famous pianist, I’ve become a tuner who can tune the piano of a world-famous pianist.

That day, Gerard was more than satisfied by watching Arnault’s performance from the audience seats and listening to the beautiful rhythm of the piano he had tuned.

This performance also contains my soul. Perhaps you could call this an ensemble.

Gerard felt like his dream was half-fulfilled.

***

Gerard panted heavily, forcing his old body to race across the Dark Forest. The mandatory quest had commenced.

I would never have expected the infamous Lost phenomenon to be something like this!

However, his foot got caught on a tree root, and he fell. He groaned in pain as he heard the footsteps of beasts behind him. He was sure they belonged to the monsters known as Black Dogs. He felt like he could hear tones from their footsteps as if they were stepping on the keys of a junk piano.

Urgh... This is the end for me, Gerard thought, abandoning hope to survive.

This place was a screening center for culling the old and diseased. There was no place for someone like him in the new world known as the Mirror World.

Just then, a woman with blue eyes ran to him, her blonde hair fluttering. “What the hell are you doing just lying around, Gramps?! Get up!”

“O-Olga, there’s no hope for me. You should just save yourself—”

“Stop being weak! The safe zone is just a little further!” Olga Lorraine shouted as she helped Gerard up. “You can survive, Gramps! You should live for as long as you possibly can!”

Gerard felt as if the dystopian world, filled with disharmony, was being tuned as he saw the altruistic blaze in her eyes.

***

“Ol...ga,” Gerard mumbled blankly as he held Olga’s lifeless body in his arms.

He had settled in Montpellier, a human city in the second zone, with Olga. However, her corpse was discovered in a wretched condition in a back alley after only a month.

“Huuu, it’s the work of those bastards at Stay Tuned,” said an Asian man who discovered Olga’s body.

“Stay... Tuned?” Gerard asked.

“You don’t know them? They’re a major black clan that has settled in this city. They’re a bunch of lunatics.” The Asian man scratched his head as he continued, “You know the Network that has recently formed, right? The thing that skyrocketed the smartphone users’ value.”

“What does that... have to do with... Olga?”

“They earn points by inputting information into the Network, which can then be used to purchase other information.”

Gerard stared at the Asian man blankly, still unable to understand his point.

The Asian man contemplated whether to tell Gerard for a while, then remarked, “Those Stay Tuned bastards upload videos on the Network to earn points. They advertise them as useful information, but... they’re not good. They’re... extremely violent and triggering.”

“What?”

“Huuu, go and visit a Network user. It may already be uploaded.”

Gerard visited a smartphone D Weapon user as soon as he gave Olga a proper burial.

A man with rat-like facial features tapped on his smartphone and handed it to Gerard, saying, “Hehe, do you like watching this kind of stuff, old man? That’s quite the fetish. Well, as long as I’m paid Coins, it doesn’t matter to me.”

Gerard played the video titled E-rank Health Stat Defense Test. The video faded into a wide shot of a man with green eyes wearing a ski mask, talking to the camera as he showed off his biceps.

—Alright, we have some useful information for you all today as well. How long would it take for someone like me with D-rank Strength to hit someone with E-rank Health to death? How many punches would it take? Let’s find out.

The scene changed to a full shot of a terrified, chained Olga Lorraine. The next scene was a high-angle shot of the man in a ski mask punching the screaming Olga. There was then a close-up shot of a bloody Olga.

The twenty-second scene was a zoom-out shot of the man in a ski mask, shaking off the blood on his fists.

—Oh, man, she’s dead. It took twenty minutes and fifteen seconds. Three hundred sixty-four punches with no mana infused.

The twenty-third scene was a wide shot of the man in a ski mask, bowing as he gave his closing remarks.

—Thank you for watching. Stay Tuned!

The video ended as it faded out.

“GUUURRRGGGHHHHH!” Gerard grunted as he bit his lip so hard that blood was pouring out of it.

He couldn’t even imagine how terrified Olga must have been, or how much pain she must have suffered. Gerard felt like he was being hit by a hammer each time Olga was punched in the video. It felt like his life was ending as well when Olga took her last breath.

His ears rang intensely. He had not even put on earphones ever since becoming a tuner to protect his hearing, so he couldn’t believe what he was experiencing. He was certain the world was out of tune somewhere.

“Tch, it’s a bit distasteful, but they sure are clever. These kinds of motherfuckers always find a way to earn Coins,” said the man with rat-like features, smacking his lips.

Gerard suddenly grabbed the man by the collar and screamed, “ERASE THIS! ERASE IT NOW!”

“Cough! W-what are you talking ab—”

“IF YOU DON’T ERASE THIS, I WILL KILL YOU!!!”

“Kurgh! I-it’s not that I won’t erase it... I-I can’t!”

“What?” Gerard said as he let go of the man.

The man coughed as he rubbed his neck, glaring resentfully at Gerard, and said, “Only the uploader can take down what they’ve uploaded to the Network!”

“Only the uploader... can erase it?”

“Yes! Or you can try looking for the rumored owner of the Network, the Database!” the man shouted as he quickly ran away.

Gerard was left alone as he absent-mindedly mumbled, “Stay Tuned... Database...”

***

Ever since then, Gerard had only one goal: to take down the wretched video of Olga from the Network.

Finding the Database is impossible. No one even knows if they exist, he thought.

Hence, he decided to investigate Stay Tuned. They were a rapidly growing black clan with ranks known as VJ (Video Journalist), FD (Floor Director), AD (Assistant Director), PD (Program Director), and CP (Chief Producer).

Among them, the CP was the leader of Clan Stay Tuned. They were an irregular who was not part of the human ranking because of the lack of information around them, but rumors had it that they were at least the level of a Ranker.

“Who is it? Who uploaded the video?!” Gerard mumbled.

He couldn’t pinpoint which of the Stay Tuned clansmen, numbering over ten thousand, had uploaded the video of Olga.

I lack... information and power! Gerard thought as he stared at his slender arm.

He had become superhuman by opening cubes, but so had his enemies. He wanted nothing more than to kill them all, but he would have to be a High Ranker to do such a thing. Only those like Lee Kang-San, who had recently become a World Ranker, or Lazarus, who had become a High Ranker after swearing loyalty to the angels, were capable of it.

Lazarus... Yes! I need to borrow power from a superior race as he had! But... how?

He had no way of doing so. As he was walking down the street, thinking about how to gain power, he stopped in his tracks because he saw a store that hadn’t been on Montpellier’s main street since yesterday. The store was called Vivienne Information Center.

An information center?

He had visited every information center in the city in search of information regarding Stay Tuned. It felt like destiny to have come across this store. The door opened without a sound.

“Argh, for God’s sake! Why are there so many sons of bitches tainting the Network? No matter how many I delete, there’s no end to them! How am I gonna deal with this goddamn heavy uploader?” grumbled a blonde woman with blue eyes as she stared at her smartphone from the counter.

“Ol...ga?” Gerard called.

“Hm? Oh! Are you a customer? Sheesh, I should attach a bell to that door or something.” The woman smiled cheerfully and greeted, “Welcome. I am Jurie Martin, the owner of Vivienne Information Center, which was just opened today. Is there a specific piece of information you need? Since you’re my first customer, I’ll make it cheap.”

This was the first meeting between Gerard D’Armont and Jurie Martin.

***

“Martin... I have heard of it. It is a prestigious French noble family,” Gerard said.

“Hmph! Noble family? More like a rubbish family,” Jurie replied.

The two of them grew close quickly. Not only did they have many things in common because they were both French, but the cheerful energy that radiated from Jurie, a habit developed from trying to cheer up her little sister Vivienne, comforted the devastated Gerard.

“Maybe I should call you Lady Jurie,” Gerard said as he smiled, seeing the striking resemblance between Olga and Jurie.

Jurie shrugged and replied playfully, “Forget me, I’m more impressed that you tuned the piano of the world-famous Arnault Duchaussoy! Should I call you Artisan Gerard?”

Gerard shook his head and replied, “You can just call me... Gramps.”

“Gramps?”

“Yes.”

Jurie stared at Gerard, who seemed to be desperate for some reason. She recognized the look because Vivienne had the same look when she wanted something from her.

Jurie smiled brightly and nodded. “Okay, Gramps.”

***

A few empty bottles of nostalgia cognacs rolled on the table. A drunk Gerard was crying as he told Jurie about Olga, and Jurie simply listened in silence.

“At this rate... Olga will never be laid to rest. Kurgh! If only... if only I were stronger!”

“Olga Lorraine... She seems like a kind person. It appears kind people... always die early.” Jurie grabbed her glass of brandy and took a sip as she continued, “The same goes for my little sister. Vivienne was...”

Jurie told Gerard about the pains she had been suppressing about her little sister. Everyone had the kind of day they wanted to spend talking about their scars; the kind of day for earning solace, being understood, and regretting that they even brought it up. Today was that kind of day for Jurie and Gerard, and their tragedies developed a bizarre bond between them.

Jurie fiddled with her smartphone as she stared intently at Gerard. After much thought, she made up her mind and said, “Gramps... Do you want to take revenge against those Stay Tuned bastards, or take down the video of Olga from the Network?”

“I want... both, but... There is no way to do either. No matter how quickly I heighten my caliber... I would have to become at least a High Ranker to kill them all.”

“What if I told you... There was a way?” Jurie said.

Gerard raised his head and stared at Jurie. “A... way?”

“Yes. It’s an expedient, if anything.” Jurie put down the glass of brandy and said, “Would you still choose to take revenge if gaining power comes at the cost of you giving up on being a human?”

Her usually warm and bright blue eyes shone coldly.

“You have to choose, Gramps. If you want it, I will tell you how. In exchange, you will never be able to return to being a human again.”

Gerard stared at Jurie for a while and said, “My life is already out of tune anyway.”

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