SSS Awakening: I Can Class Change at will - Chapter 259 Near Perfect Illusion.

Chapter 259  Near Perfect Illusion.

“You absolute fools! Why are you falling for such an obvious manipulation?! This is designed to weaken us, such a blatant divide and conquer scheme! How are you people supposedly the strongest awakeners of your generation?! Do you have shit for brains?”

His former teammates continued their advance without hesitation or response to his words.

“Just die, Moon,” Grant said in pity. “If you surrender willingly, we will make it as quick as possible. You have our word.”

Moon fought back with everything he possessed, casting healing spells to sustain himself, attempting to activate his runes repeatedly.

Nothing worked. Not the defensive inscriptions, not the offensive ones, not the support runes.

‘Did I make errors inscribing them? Did something about this realm interfere with the enchantments? How did it come to this?’ Moon thought, his eyes drifting to Mirage’s fallen form.

[You have died]

[You have lost 2,000 Lives]

Another death. A sword strike from Caleb this time, the berserker’s blade finding purchase in his chest.

Moon reappeared, but now the entire group had repositioned to completely surround him, cutting off every direction of movement and escape.

He had tens of thousands of lives remaining. That wasn’t the problem.

The problem was that he couldn’t accomplish anything meaningful. Every attack was absorbed, every skill was neutralized or removed, every option was somehow anticipated and countered perfectly.

He tried to access his status screen to assess his current condition and remaining resources.

It wouldn’t open.

‘A restriction imposed by this realm? Or something else preventing me from seeing my own information?’

[You have died]

[You have lost 2,000 Lives]

Moon’s eyes widened in fresh shock as he reappeared once more, his hands quivering involuntarily for the first time. At that exact same moment, in the real chamber, something unexpected happened.

The lightning that Moon had cast, and maintained despite not having consciousness had finally managed to kill him, frying his body despite his resistance.

The fox’s left eye suddenly dilated with shock, its three tails shaking with visible agitation as it stared at Moon’s physical body—which had briefly disappeared and then reappeared exactly as it had been for the past few minutes.

“H-How…” the fox’s voice came out shaky, losing its composure for the first time. “I didn’t even touch him yet. How did he die without my direct intervention?!”

The fox’s mind worked frantically as it processed this impossible variable, one it hadn’t accounted for in constructing the illusion and one it couldn’t have foreseen.

Moon had died at an interval that didn’t coincide with the illusion’s fake death. Which meant the illusion’s internal kill notifications were triggering real life loss even without the fox actively causing deaths in the real world.

“Shit… he needs to die. Now!” the fox abandoned all pretense of management, beginning to attack Moon’s physical body at dramatically increased speed and ferocity. It no longer cared about maintaining the perfect illusion internally, no longer ensured every element was proceeding to plan.

Its right eye returned to full purple, the fox withdrawing active participation from the illusion’s management to focus entirely on ending Moon’s physical life before this variable could cause further complications.

The carefully created illusion became slightly less perfect, the teammates’ responses less coordinated, the chamber’s details slightly less convincing.

And most importantly—

[You have died]

[You have lost 2,000 Lives]

The notification blazed again.

And just as before the notification appeared without him actually dying.

‘This isn’t normal…’

His mind began working at maximum speed, stripping away assumptions and examining everything around him.

Deaths happening without clear cause. Skills not doing as they should. Teammates displaying power beyond what they should be capable of. Status screen inaccessible. Runes that he’d inscribed himself failing to respond.

And then the critical detail: his teammates had claimed to notice and remove his runes, yet they hadn’t said so until after he’d already tried to activate them. If they’d truly removed the runes beforehand, why wait to mention it?

Unless they’d only known to mention it because the illusion was scripted to explain away any tactical options he attempted to use.

‘This is an illusion!’

[Title: Inheritor of Flaws partially activated]

[Hint: Your mind is your enemy]

The moment the notification appeared, Moon stopped fighting entirely.

He stopped casting. Stopped moving. Stopped engaging with any element of the false reality surrounding him.

Instead, he turned his consciousness inward with complete focus, searching for the thread that connected his trapped mind to his actual body.

The entire illusion collapsed instantly, like a soap bubble popped by a needle.

Moon’s mind slammed back into his real body.

And three fox tails actively trying to penetrate his skull, their purple tips pushing against the lightning barrier his body had maintained throughout the entire ordeal.

His hollow eyes filled with light, the moment consciousness returned to Moon, the fox stepped back instantly, recognizing the danger of being caught at close range. Within heartbeats, the creature had retreated tens of meters away, staring at Moon warily.

“How…”

Moon took a deep, shuddering breath, forcing his trembling body to stabilize. The accumulated death debuffs hit him at once making him significantly weaker, but his healing runes continued their work, and he cast his healing skills repeatedly.

“None of your business,” Moon replied coldly.

He immediately summoned Mirage from his Beast Taming Space and began casting [Lightning Raiju] simultaneously, channeling everything he had remaining into one final, decisive attack. Mirage materialized with a defiant neigh, immediately charging toward the fox alongside the crackling wolf-spirit that Moon released. Both galloped across the chamber, covering the distance with explosive speed. The fox felt real terror for the first time in its existence. Realizing it couldn’t outrun the guided attack and had no choice but to engage, the creature prepared to meet the assault head-on one final time.

CRACKLE!

But just before the collision, the fox released a small, concentrated puff of purple mist.

The Lightning Raiju struck the fox, coursing through its body and locking every muscle in temporary paralysis. The creature convulsed, unable to move for a crucial second that Mirage was prepared to take advantage of.