Bab 19: 19 Living Nothing
["Maybe I should try Fantasy Projector. Guys, is it fun?" a single sentence uttered by the Japanese genius witch. Is this a sign of the changes of the era!?] - 2023/4/29.
["THIS BIRD IS MINE~!!" After countless desperate attempts, player Fierno has finally managed to tame the wild phoenix in the world of Harry Potter after Dumbledore's death. This event shall change America greatly.] - 2023/4/24
["I am... deity," players Ling Tianming broke through whatever his cultivation stage is and stepped into the Level 5 realm. Jesus, why don't celestial use the modern leveling system!?] - 2023/4/24
[Godly editor with unfathomable skill in editing and a face that rivals no one!? Korean hate this man!] - 2023/4/23.
I was surfing through the articles I hadn't in weeks because I was busy. Then, I was rather surprised to find news about myself.
The article's provider actually dared to publish my face without my permission in it. If I was still working at Nintendo, I would like to hire a lawyer to sue them but I had no money right now to hire a lawyer.
Nor was I motivated to deal with them personally. Besides, it's just my face, and the articles are actually helping boost my wife's popularity.
Regarding money, Slice of Life Fantasy, unfortunately, doesn't often give you a mission that rewards you greatly. At most, it was [go to school with tadano] that rewarded you 1000 yen.
So I left this thought for now and tried searching for the reason how I actually got to stand on the articles. I was aware that I do look good after being complimented by Tadano but I'm not that good as to attract millions of fans with just a picture.
I soon found the source of my unmasking as it was the only thing I could think of aside from voyeurism. My wife's YouTube Channel.
It doubled... the subscriber count went from 57,000 to 132,000. I did accompany my wife on her stream from time to time and also edit in my free time but I hadn't paid attention to her subscriber count.
However, it was an expected result if you look at it normally. First of all, Sakamata Chloe was a beauty. Simply said, she had the ability to charm people even without speaking.
Now accompanied by her interesting, terribly honest, dame-ningen personality along with my editing assistance from time to time.
It was an expected result.
Just, what I had failed to analyze at the time was that 40% of her viewers were expecting my appearance. And the day, when I appear in the stream, was named [Blooming White Day] among the community.
Not to mention, the most popular video, clipped out from our stream was my first real spar with my wife, before the opening of the Komi-san server.
Amounting to 2,031,765 views. Moreover, the most viewed part of the video was where I speak to my wife, 'tons of babies' or whatnot... please don't make me remember it.
I hesitated of giving Chloe permission to upload this clip but in the end, gave her one. That choice of mine was unsurprisingly a good choice as the result was clear through the view count.
I looked at the comment section before regretting it.
[Never let them know your next move.]
[Dang I want a wife right now, I'm going to marry the AI]
[DIESOFCRINGE]
[If you're losing, says bullshit -Moon Tzu.]
etc, etc...
Although I was dying inside surfing through the comments, I knew that this was a good thing. If my existence was supporting my wife's dream, then it was a good thing.
Closing the browser, I went to the Fantasy Legacy where Chloe was waiting.
---
It's been almost a month since I started training inside the game. Of course, I wasn't always going to the shooting range, and shooting practice is one of the trainings I've begun skipping.
Sometimes, I ran around Japan to train my body. I also tried to join the gym to build muscle but after looking at my wife, I decided against it because I predicted that my muscle would naturally build up.
And I was right. Throughout this month, the abs in my belly were slowly forming. Although it wasn't complete yet, the sign was showing.
Some of you may be wondering, but it isn't pointless to train inside the game.
First of all, games nowadays are so realistic that even after reducing the aftermath, death inside the game can still result in injuries.
It isn't that hard to replicate fatigue and with fatigue, comes beneficial training. Simply saying, your brain judges that you're running and your muscle in real life will move in the same way as running.
The topics got off track, but it has been almost a month. So I wanted to surprise my wife a little bit.
Seeing my wife sitting by the bench talking with her viewers, I wanted to get her off-guard, and doing so to the former assassin was near impossible.
After all, she can detect even the tiniest 'intention,' it was unfair but that was the ability unconsciously formed in her assassin age.
But, what if I became a living being that doesn't have intents? If I became a living nothing, even my wife couldn't detect it.
I've never mentioned this but wherever I train, I record every single movement of myself so that I can review it later, therefore, I had already noticed what I did when I first tried to learn how to erase the sound of my footsteps.
In my extreme conditions, I managed to escape Chloe's perception and leave the room without her recognizing it. Normally, that would be impossible even if you erase all your sounds because your presence is present, and for an assassin of Chloe's level, it's easy to detect the movement of presence.
I learned that 'sounds' have little effect on presence. Although this recognition is a common practice, nevertheless it was a great discovery for me.
However, that wasn't enough. After all, 'presence' wasn't sound. Presence was much more complicated but simply said, it is the sound of your heart.
Not to be misunderstood here, is that stopping your heartbeat doesn't mean completely erasing your presence. The sound of the heart used here is the proof of your existence which is the source of intentions.
From my theory, I began thinking of a way to stop thinking, to kill the sound of my heart. The easiest way to erase the sound of your heart was by killing yourself. After all, the corpse doesn't have intention.
But that's not how I wanted to achieve this technique. I wanted to accompany my wife until she die, after all.
As a beginner who intended to learn how to kill the sound of my footsteps, I am aware that my mindset greatly went off-track but I also knew that if I managed to learn this advanced technique, I would be able to bring a greater effect than erasing the sound of my footsteps.
This is also the reason why I hadn't learned the footwork technique Chloe gave me even after a month. I wasted a month and skipped my gun training for this bullshit that even I don't know if it'll work.
However, if it did work, the useless me would disappear from now on. With the thought of changing myself, I executed the movements I failed hundreds of times and attempted to erase myself.
'Don't think anything,' I thought to stop thinking.
Life is a mysterious being. After being birth, they're given proof of existence and the 'intentions' powered by it. Whether they cry, it is their intention. Whether they sleep, it's their intention.
Looking at something, recognizing something, breathing, drinking, hugging your proof of existence, rejecting your proof of existence. Everything was under life's intention.
Wanting to surprise my wife was also my intention, but to do that, I decided to kill those intentions, by shutting down the sounds of my heart.
Carried by the winds, the leaves fluttered past me.
Then, I disappeared from the world.
[You have truly experienced Death]
[You have learned skills: Silence]
[You have experienced both Life and Death on a living body. You have gained access to the world of the afterlife.]
[You have leveled up to level 20.]
I had misunderstood something. No matter how advanced a technique gets, killing the sounds of your heart is impossible.
Intentions were proof of your existence and if that was gone, your existence would also be gone as if data were being erased. Although those 4th-dimensional beings can still perceive you.
'I am here.'
'But I am also not here.'
'Where am I?'
I am not invisible, but I cannot be seen.
I am interactable, but I am unidentified.
I became a living nothing.
Slowly, I began feeling resistance. Resistance from whom? That, I don't know.
'Instinctively, I knew that I had to hurry. If not, this universe would fully reject my existence,' I thought as I suppressed the choking sensation around my neck.
From behind, my hands passed aside Chloe's cheeks and blocked her sight. Then, I opened my mouth to greet her.
"Boo!" Along with my call, my existence returned to Chloe's world.
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
R4IN
R4IN Let me say, [Silence] is really an op skill and not even Sakamata could be compared to it in terms of its ability.
Also, give me time to create characters, regardless if they'll appear in the novel. I'm creating around 40 characters