"One hour?"
The result was shocking.
Something felt off. Had that little time really passed?
It had felt like I'd spent at least half a day doing nothing but meditating.
And on top of that, they'd said it would take three days.
"I did it right… didn't I?"
I went ahead and wrote a post.
_____
Title: Just got my 1st circle.
Author: Anon (9F)
It only took an hour… that's fine, right?
Also, instead of a sea, something like a drought-stricken land appeared…
I got the circle either way, so there shouldn't be a problem?
______
Refresh.
[Comments]
Anon (216F): What, why are you back already.
Anon (341F): ??? Did you just go and come back?
Anon (452F): How does that even make sense…
Anon (710F): You basically just took a nap and came back;;;;;;;
└ Anon (351F): fr are you sure you didn't just doze off and confuse it with a dream?
Anon (9F) (OP): nope I can still see the circle inside me right now.
└ Anon (621F): that's genuinely insane…you actually cleared it in one hour?
They'd come back in an hour and nobody believed it.
It took answering several rounds of questions from gallery members asking whether I was really using Black Magic before they finally came around.
Anon (431F): why tho…gg
Anon (710F): unbelievable lmao
Anon (621F): jealous jealous jealous jealous jealous jealous jealous jealous jealous
Anon (312F): Is the newbie just a genius, or is Death Note Grand Canon full of shit. Wasn't it supposed to not take that long normally?
Anon (274F): Who's Death Note Grand Canon?
└ Anon (312F): DeathNoteGrandCanon.
└ Anon (511F): lol that guy was probably just going off his own experience?
└ Anon (621F): no no…anyone who uses Black Magic knows—getting the next circle takes at least a full day no matter how high your INT is.
└ Anon (451F): "at least a full day" is already insanely fast, dragon-lineage mages take like ten years per circle lol but one HOUR lmaooooooooo
Anon (621F): at this rate she'll be running around one-shotting things tomorrow right? straight to floor 1000 let's go
└ Anon (421F): voodoo police incoming.
└ Anon (621F): too much of a genius, kinda pissing me off;; the sea not showing up seems special too…
└ Anon (211F): fr lol
The thread was flooded with reactions, but they were all just people being shocked.
Nobody had answered my actual question.
I needed an interpretation of why the cracked earth had appeared instead.
Everyone was busy being jealous, but that was the only thing I was worried about.
'Where did my teacher go…'
After waiting a little while, the username I'd been waiting for appeared.
Death Note Grand Canon: Congratulations! To have seized a circle in such a short time—you may well rejoice. You possess the same once-in-an-era genius as I!
└ Anon (9F) (OP): So did you also see land instead of a sea, Master…?
Death Note Grand Canon: That I did not.
└ Anon (431F): Then maybe drop the "same as I" in good conscience…
└ Anon (671F): fr lol
So what exactly had I seen?
Even my teacher seemed to have no idea.
Death Note Grand Canon: How strange that you did not see the Black Sea. This Parched Wasteland you speak of—I know of no such place. If you did not retrieve the circle from the Black Sea, then how did you acquire it?
How did I acquire it—well, obviously I just bent down and picked it up…
└ Anon (9F) (OP): I just picked up one that was lying on the ground. Someone said the bigger the better, so I went with the biggest one…
└ Anon (621F): ???
└ Anon (710F): that's not something you can just farm like that…
└ Anon (451F): "circle adoption" what kind of technique is that lmaooooo
└ Makanong: she picked it up off the ground lol
└ Anon (710F): actually thinking about it, if it was land instead of sea, the circles would've just been lying around on the floor.
└ Anon (451F): did the newbie drink all the seawater so they'd be visible?
└ Anon (710F): how would that even work…she probably just sank into a different type of space.
└ Anon (621F): …so the newbie went to a buffet alone?
Went to a buffet, huh. I guess that's one way to put it.
Honestly I had no idea what any of it meant, I just hoped there wasn't a problem.
The comments buzzed with chatter, and then my teacher added a single reply.
Death Note Grand Canon: You… chose the circle yourself?
└ Anon (621F): sir.
└ Anon (710F): what do we do if even the teacher doesn't know…
└ Anon (319F): first time I've ever seen this guy surprised lol
└ Anon (432F): self-proclaimed once-in-an-era twice-in-forever having a mental breakdown lmaooooooooo
This was the worst.
It meant nobody knew what I'd actually done.
└ Anon (9F) (OP): Should I have come out and consulted first? I picked the biggest one. Though I didn't know I'd get it right away either…
Death Note Grand Canon: …No, you did well. As I said, the larger the size, the finer the quality… How large was it, specifically?
└ Anon (9F) (OP): About a meter in diameter.
└ Anon (710F): ?????????????
└ Anon (315F): holy absolute unit gggggggg
└ Anon (621F): my 6.9cm smol circle is going to go die now bye
Death Note Grand Canon: …There is not a single thing about you that is not a mystery.
It was clearly something extraordinary.
Because just like the comments said, I'd never seen my teacher talk like this before.
Death Note Grand Canon: In the Black Sea, the surface obscures what lies beneath, so one cannot choose a circle. Therefore, one must simply accept what the waves offer. How truly peculiar… Was there anything else unusual?
"…Oh right, there was that…"
I'd been so focused on the fact that the sea hadn't appeared that I'd briefly forgotten—something else unusual had happened.
└ Anon (9F) (OP): When I pulled the circle up from the ground, I heard a scream. It startled me so much I almost dropped it.
After I said that, my teacher's reply didn't come for quite a long time.
As if he'd been struck speechless.
└ Anon (710F): wait what was that about…
└ Anon (621F): the circle screamed?
└ Anon (9F) (OP): nope the scream came from the ground.
Then this reply came back.
Death Note Grand Canon: …You took the circle of a living person.
"Hm?"
"Huh?"
└ Anon (621F): oh.
└ Anon (355F): lmaooooooooo what
└ Anon (249F): wait so she just ripped it off a living mage?
└ Anon (351F): the mage who lost their circle is absolutely devastated rn lmaooo
└ Anon (605F): they're probably just dead lol
Makanong: uu… bad Death God…
"That scream… was a person's scream?"
Well, it had definitely been a human scream.
'I thought it was just a sound effect…'
Death Note Grand Canon: My conjecture is that the Parched Wasteland is something akin to a place where the circles of living mages are put on display.
Death Note Grand Canon: Truly unprecedented. How on earth did you sink into such a place…
I had nothing to say.
There was no way for me to know how I'd ended up there.
└ Anon (9F) (OP): But isn't what you fish out of the Black Sea also someone else's?
└ Anon (710F): those are from dead mages…
└ Anon (9F) (OP): ?
└ Anon (710F): the Black Sea is where the corpses of dead mages' circles drift around.
└ Anon (710F): that's why Black Magic lets you skip making a circle 'yourself.'
"Is that how it works…"
It made sense now.
The Black Sea was, in other words, a stray dog shelter.
A place where you could pick up a dog with no owner.
The Parched Wasteland I'd wandered into was more like a dog daycare.
Kidnapping a dog that was already loved and cared for at a dog daycare…
No… that analogy is getting kind of violent…
'Whatever, I'll just charge straight through!'
└ Anon (9F) (OP): But is that not allowed? Will there be a problem?
└ Anon (710F): not really lol
└ Makanong: uu…psychopath Death God…
Death Note Grand Canon: As far as I know, there is no problem whatsoever. Black Magic requires only that the shortcut's conditions be met.
└ Anon (9F) (OP): Shortcut meaning… a shortcut?
└ Death Note Grand Canon: Correct. A windfall. Rather than forging one's own circle, one need only use another's. In your case, you seized the circle of a living person—if anything, that is more in keeping with the spirit of Black Magic. Well done.
└ Anon (9F) (OP): Thank you…
Failed as a human. Passed as a demon.
I was becoming a valued talent in the Demon Army. You could say that.
Good enough is good enough.
That faceless mage would never know who did it for the rest of their life.
And I'd never cross paths with them either…
Hmm…
"I need to get above floor 100 fast…"
I decided to push forward.
If they were a mage who possessed such an enormous circle, they were almost certainly someone of considerable standing.
There was no telling what methods they might use to track down my whereabouts…
I asked urgently. I had the circle now—it was time to learn magic.
└ Anon (9F) (OP): What's the next step?
└ Death Note Grand Canon: Yes, the basics are done. From here, the real training begins.
Ready or not, I was ready.
I swallowed dryly and waited for the next reply.
Death Note Grand Canon: To awaken the Instant-Kill Skill—the secret art and foundation of the Death God—there is a gate one must pass through without exception.
"What is it??"
I was so desperate to know that what was meant to be a typed comment came out as a voice out loud.
But before I could even ask, the reply came back.
Death Note Grand Canon: You must die once, by your own hand.
└ Anon (9F) (OP): Excuse me?
I doubted my eyes.
Die?
└ Death Note Grand Canon: To reach the Death God Realm, you must cross the threshold of death by ending your own life.
└ Death Note Grand Canon: Now then—sever your own neck with that scythe!
My mind went completely blank.
Not just mine.
The entire Gallery fainted.
Anon (432F): the way he says it so calmly makes it sound like it's nothing lmaooooo
Anon (418F): this crazy old man wtf protect the newbie
Anon (241F): wait is this legit? any Death God players wanna weigh in??
Anon (461F): is he trying to stomp out the genius sprout?
└ Anon (241F): fr feels like he's jealous and trying to kill the once-in-forever just…
Anon (621F): Death God Black Magic is absolutely brutal lol
I was confused.
Cut my own neck, he said.
└ Death Note Grand Canon: The great scythe that Death Gods are born carrying. Do you know its true purpose? It is not to cut down enemies. It is a scythe designed to cut one's own neck.
└ Anon (154F): a ritual dagger gg
└ Anon (621F): for real? Death God RP is rough…
└ Anon (710F): it's true lol
└ Anon (9F) (OP): But… if I cut my neck, won't I just die…
└ Death Note Grand Canon: Yes. You will die.
└ Anon (431F): ding dong dang lmaooo
Death Note Grand Canon: While in the state of death, a Death God can sink into the Death God Realm and view the Great Stone Tablet. Find your name on the Great Stone Tablet—the name of the one you killed—and erase it. Do so, and you will gain the right to inscribe upon the Great Stone Tablet, and that is the Instant-Kill Skill. Fail to accomplish this, and you go no further.
'The very first thing you learn being an Instant-Kill Skill… this curriculum is genuinely brutal…'
The curriculum was bizarre.
But I supposed that was what came with being a Death God.
└ Death Note Grand Canon: If you are truly too frightened to cut your own neck, wait for the Golden Carriage. You could purchase an anesthetic and swallow it.
They sell that kind of thing at the Golden Carriage?
I hurriedly threw out a question.
└ Anon (9F) (OP): hey when did you guys say the Golden Carriage was coming?
└ Anon (505F): payday is in three days. Golden Carriage comes then too.
Three days.
My breath caught in my throat.
Wait three days?
└ Anon (9F) (OP): ah I can't wait three days. I'll just cut now.
The Gallery erupted.
└ Fenrir: YOU CRAZY GIRL STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!
└ Anon (418F): hey hey hey x17
└ Anon (148F): you're actually gonna do it???
└ Anon (741F): did the speed fry your brain wtf lmaooooo
└ Anon (9F) (OP): this isn't even something that takes time so it should be fine actually.
I slammed the hologram panel shut.
Swoosh.
I picked up the scythe lying on the floor.
"The name was… Death Scythe, wasn't it."
Now that I was really looking at it, it was a vicious-looking thing.
A long handle. And a black blade curved inward.
No matter how you looked at it, this wasn't for farming.
But to think it was for suicide.
I reversed my grip on the scythe.
Brought it to the back of my neck.
I felt the cold of metal touching skin.
It was deeply unsettling.
Not a stethoscope, and yet—I could feel my pulse.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The beat of the blood vessel surging beneath my skin transmitted itself through the blade, straight to my fingertips.
I swallowed.
Drew in a deep breath.
And opened both eyes wide.
Clenched my back teeth hard…
"KYAAAAAAAH!!"