Chapter 251
Side Story 8
5. Your daily routine (3)
Ding, dong. Ding, dong….
From the elementary school kids who’d find the embrace of their mothers more comfortable than their respective classrooms, right up to those teachers with greying hair and only a little bit left on their clock until retirement…
….The sound of the end-of-school bell, capable of re-energising pretty much everyone who heard it, rang around noisily throughout the school.
Most of the kids in the classroom formed expressions of ecstasy as if they were about to fly away. Meanwhile, Jin-Woo, sitting among them, carried a carefree face as he greeted the end to his school day in this place.
“Everyone, don’t go home late because you want to hang out with new friends you made today, okay! Understand?”
Yeees-!
After the token replies, half consisting of mischievous voices of the male students and the other half high-pitched tones of the girls were made, the classroom became empty in no time at all now that the day’s schedule had come to its end.
Jin-Woo deliberately took his time packing up his bag, before he spotted Young-Gil hesitantly and slowly approaching him like a full-bellied tortoise.
‘….?’
Jin-Woo stopped packing his bag when Young-Gil cautiously asked him a question.
“Uhm… I’m heading off in the direction of the ‘Gigamart’, but what about you?”
‘Ah, I guess he wants to get close to me.’
An easy-to-read relaxed smile formed on Jin-Woo’s face.
‘A minor favour shown when young can also become the start of a relationship later on like this, huh?’
Jin-Woo smiled for a little while, before shaking his head.
“Well, yeah, it’s in the same direction, but there’s something I gotta do first.”
“Oh….”
As Young-Gil stood there in disappointment, Jin-Woo lightly tapped the boy on the shoulder and grinned brightly.
“Let’s go.”
Not too long afterwards, both of them exited from the school building.
“What? Track and field club??”
Young-Gil asked with a surprised voice, while Jin-Woo nodded calmly as his reply.
“Yup.”
The reason why Jin-Woo chose this school, far from his home, instead of those nearby was because it was only this particular one that happened to have a track and field athletics department.
Young-Gil could only tilt his head when Jin-Woo replied that he’d join the track and field team from today.
‘Was Jin-Woo good at track in the past?’
He remembered hanging around Jin-Woo for only about a month or so. The memories of him playing that game really well were the only thing that came to the boy’s head, but he just couldn’t recall Jin-Woo doing anything particularly outstanding during physical training or club activities.
No, Young-Gil simply remembered Jin-Woo doing pretty much everything at his pace – which was leisurely.
‘A high school track and field club should be operated by only the talented students, though….?’
The boy suddenly felt worried about Jin-Woo and found himself unconsciously chasing after his friend. Meanwhile, Jin-Woo crossed the athletics field and approached the group of athletes loosening themselves up in the corner of the field.
“Mm…?”
Their attention soon shifted towards the incoming duo of freshmen. They initially expected the two to walk past them or change their heading, but their expectation turned out to be off the mark. The senior with the biggest physique took a step forward and ‘greeted’ the duo.
“What do you two want now?”
Jin-Woo briefly scanned the atmosphere of the team members and replied with a smile.
“I’d like to join the athletics club.”
The senior with big physique, the captain of the track and field team Choi Tae-Woong, alternated his gaze between Jin-Woo and a shorter kid with a rather unhealthy complexion.
“You wanna join the club?”
“Yes.”
“Both of you?”
Jin-Woo looked behind, and Young-Gil hurriedly shook his head.
“…No, just me.”
After seeing Jin-Woo’s continuously-smiling mug, the seniors grew interested and gathered around the freshmen.
“Ohh, what’s this? We have an applicant wanting to join us?”
“This is my first time seeing a freshman barging in here and wanting to join the team, though.”
“He’s not playing around, is he?”
Choi Tae-Woong scratched the top of his head and scanned Jin-Woo from top to bottom before asking another question.
“You a student-athlete?”
“No, I’m not.”
“Okay, you have experience running track in middle school?”
Although Jin-Woo was rather experienced in running all over the gap between dimensions to kill Sovereigns, that wasn’t something he could refer to as his middle school days, or running track competitively, so he could only shake his head with a wry smile.
“No, I don’t.”
The seniors in the athletics club were ready to welcome this enthusiastic newcomer right up until that answer. But now, their complexions were hardening drastically.
A freshman who hadn’t even run track competitively wanted to enter the athletics club comprised only of student-athletes?
Wasn’t this kid taking high school track & field way too lightly?
One of the seniors blessed with a short fuse suddenly jumped into the conversation from the side.
“You haven’t run track before, so why do you want to enter the team?”
Jin-Woo’s reply was rather simple.
“There’s someone I’d like to meet during the athletic meet, you see.”
She was still in the middle school division, but without a doubt, she possessed enough talent to participate in the regional competition.
Well, she used to be an excellent athlete before she had to give up on that dream after becoming a high-ranked Hunter, didn’t she?
If it was an athletic meet featuring participants from both middle and high schools, then wouldn’t he be able to naturally run into her there?
Jin-Woo judged that, rather than forcibly get close to her and insert himself into her life that way, this might be a far better approach for both of them.
However, judging from the expressions of the seniors, it seemed that they didn’t share his thought process.
“Athletic meet….??”
The expression of the senior with the short fuse, Jeong Gu-Shik, hardened like stone. Even if one was to look down on running track, there was a line one shouldn’t cross.
Jeong Gu-Shik’s anger shot up to the top of his head and he was about to roar out some choice words to chase away the freshmen, but then, captain Choi Tae-Woong formed a grin and gave his permission.
“Fine.”
Jeong Gu-Shik looked back at his captain with an expression of a man failing to comprehend the situation.
“What?!”
“However, there is a condition.”
Choi Tae-Woong used an expression that said ‘Be quiet’ to defeat Jeong Gu-Shik, and pointed at a glasses-wearing student busy stretching his muscles over yonder.
“You see that friend over there?”
Jin-Woo followed after the pointing finger and nodded his head.
“Yes.”
“That friend is the worst runner in our team, a reserve from the second year. Meaning, you gotta at least beat that friend to earn the right to enter our team.”
That was a bold-faced lie.
Even before he heard the explanation, Jin-Woo had already analysed that particular second-year student’s abilities, and as a result, he began chuckling inwardly.
‘At first glance, that student’s thighs and calves look lean and thin, but they are actually hard and well trained. And confidence simply oozes from the rest of his body….’
Spying from the student’s steady, relaxed breathing or his upright posture, Jin-Woo knew immediately that he was looking at no ordinary athlete here.
Meaning, the third year seniors were trying to make fun of him. How could Jin-Woo not laugh when their intentions were so easy to read like this?
Jeong Gu-Shik also belatedly realised what Choi Tae-Woong was trying to do and quickly changed his expression.
“Ahh, right! You said that you’re aiming to enter the athletic meet, right? Well, in that case, a simple little admittance test like this is no problem for you, right?”
Jin-Woo didn’t like the way this guy was grinning slyly like that, but still, asked back in a calm manner nonetheless.
“That senior…. Is he really a reserve?”
“I guarantee it.”
Choi Tae-Woong replied in a confident voice, and the rest of the athletic team members had to try their best to hold back their laughter.
‘He’s a reserve, alright. Well, the truth is, he did finish third place in last year’s regional meet, but he sprained his ankle during winter training so he’s been demoted to a reserve spot, for the time being.’
If he were to get technical here, then Choi Tae-Woong wasn’t really, really lying by saying that the glasses-wearing guy was the worst ‘runner’ here due to the lengthy unscheduled lay-off, and that he was in the reserve spot because of the injury.
Jin-Woo then replied in an easy-going manner to captain Choi Tae-Woong and his insidious smile.
“Very well, I understand. Let me try.”
This b*stard, he fell for it!!
Not just Jeong Gu-Shik, but everyone in the athletics club shouted out “Hooray!” in their heads.
‘A guy who can’t even recognise the third-place finisher from the regionals last year wants to join the track and field team? Gimme a break.’
Choi Tae-Woong, standing in front of the group to deal with Jin-Woo, did his utmost best to hide his laughter threatening to break through his lips.
“Very good. However, just running the track like that wouldn’t be any fun, so…. How about this? If you win, you get to join the team, but if you lose, you do the team’s laundry and cleaning for one month, free of charge.”
“Sounds good.”
“J-Jin-Woo….”
Young-Gil tried to stop him, but Jin-Woo simply formed a smile that said: “It’s fine.”
‘Let’s see how long you can keep that relaxed face of yours.’
Choi Tae-Woong looked towards the ‘reserve’ student and shouted out loudly.
“Hey, Sahng-In-ah! Looks like you’ll have to take to the track for this one.”
The ace of the team, Woo Sahng-In finished his stretching exercise and raised his body up.
“It’s not a problem.”
He took off his glasses and entrusted it to another member of the club, suspiciously ominous aura shooting out from his eyes. Jin-Woo held the senior’s fierce gaze while handing over his school bag and his jacket to Young-Gil next to him.
While the members of the track and field club were thinking that here was a chance to let a freshman taste the bitterness of life, Jin-Woo was deeply pondering inwardly just how seriously he should run so that the sheer mental shock his seniors no doubt feel wouldn’t be as high.
“Hey, freshman, are you ready?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Sahng-In, what about you?”
“I’m ready.”
Jin-Woo and Woo Sahng-Min stood side by side on the starting line.
The former assumed a posture that best optimised one’s ability to rapidly change directions and enter a battle at any time, while the latter assumed a posture solely designed for track competition.
This time, the team members didn’t bother to hide their ridiculing laughter at Jin-Woo’s weird posture.
“What the hell is up with this idiot?”
“And he still wants to join the athletics club? But, isn’t he a d*mn beginner who doesn’t even know anything about running track?”
Jin-Woo didn’t pay any attention to their mocking words and controlled his breathing.
“Ready?”
Soon, Choi Tae-Woong’s baritone voice signalling the start could be heard.
“Start!”
***
“Teacher-nim? How are you feeling now?”
“Ah…. yes, well….”
‘Venomous Snake’ Teacher Park Gi-Sool replied half-heartedly at his colleague’s question after they ran into each other on the corridor, and with hurried steps, he quickly walked past the confused-looking fellow teacher.
Park Gi-Sool’s crumpled expression easily spoke of his current mood.
‘I ended up making a fool of myself in front of all the gathered students today….’
He definitely must have made a mistake. Without a doubt, his strange hallucination was the fault of not eating a proper breakfast earlier today.
It felt as if every student was laughing at his expense. He quickly evaded their gazes and slipped into the teacher’s lounge, before spitting out a sigh rushing out from the deepest part of his chest.
“Fuu-woo….”
‘Should I smoke to take the edge off?’
Since almost every teacher was a smoker, smoking in the lounge was permitted, which meant that this place was like a safe haven for the current Park Gi-Sool.
He stuffed a cigarette between his lips and stood next to the windows while lighting it up. Just as he mindlessly shifted his gaze down to the athletics field…..
….His eyes grew extra large and he hurriedly lowered himself below the windows while spinning around.
‘W-what the hell?! Why is that kid running around the track with the rest of the athletics club members??’
It was then, the director of the track and field team entered the lounge and discovered crouching Park Gi-Sool.
“Ah, Park Teacher-nim!”
Wondering if the dizzy spell from the morning had come back again, the director hurriedly ran over to Park Gi-Sool and helped him up.
“Are you alright? You sure you don’t need to stop by at a hospital?”
“I, I’m fine, thank you. Just feeling a bit dizzy, that’s all….”
Park Gi-Sool made an evasive answer before asking back.
“B-by the way…. Why is the student named Seong Jin-Woo running together with the kids from the athletics team?”
“Ahhh…. That? So, that student’s name is Seong Jin-Woo?”
The director took a look outside the window over Park Gi-Sool’s shoulder and formed a wry chuckle as if he still couldn’t believe it.
“It seems that a freshman just showed up and said that he wanted to join the team. Kids tested him out, and as it turned out, he has a talent, so they just couldn’t chase him away. Apparently, what they are doing now is to test his stamina.”
“H-his stamina, you say??”
“Yes. That’s his 20th lap already. Just watching him going around is exhausting, so I quit first and came up here.”
Sports, and sports clubs.
There was no better alternative to get rid of one’s overflowing hot-bloodedness of youth than sports.
Several thoughts crisscrossed within Teacher Park Gi-Sool’s mind, then. Student Seong Jin-Woo, the one he pre-judged to be a troublemaker, seemed to be trying his best to discipline himself by joining a sports club.
‘It’s possible that…. That I have been holding the wrong idea about him….’
Now that he thought about it closely, there was simply no way that a boy walking around with monsters would exist in reality.
Student Seong Jin-Woo was just another exceedingly normal learner still searching for a place to call home within the fields of academia and sports, after a lengthy spell of aimlessly wandering around in his life.
But here was a teacher busy going on about seeing monsters and phantoms and whatnot from a regular student like that…. The reputation of the ‘Venomous Snake’ had been thoroughly stained with this matter, indeed.
Park Gi-Sool chuckled meekly, stopped hiding, and stood back up.
‘That’s right…. I should look at him without judging him first. I’m sure that will help resolve all the misunderstanding.’
Seeing Park Gi-Sool form a serious expression before breaking into a chuckle, the director looked at him with a concerned face.
“Park Teacher-nim….?”
“Ah, no. It’s fine now. I don’t feel dizzy anymore.”
“Oh… In that case, that’s a relief.”
Park Gi-Sool successfully made the director withdraw and slowly turned around to look behind him. He could now see a boy, covered in sweat and running diligently around the track while being showered by the bright, warm spring sunlight.
How could anyone point fingers at such a boy?
He focused his gaze on Jin-Woo, currently running steadily and unflustered even after lapping the panting and breathless members of the track and field team several times already.
‘Indeed, this morning was….’
Too bad, even before he could celebrate himself…
….Without any warning whatsoever, Park Gi-Sool’s entire field of vision was dyed in black and the spectacular sight of the Shadow Army stretching on endlessly entered his eyes.
He nearly toppled over from fright, but he forced his legs to steady himself and gritted his teeth.
‘This, this is a hallucination. This isn’t real!!’
It was then.
A certain ant monster standing in the front-most row of the soldiers kitted out in black armour, gazed straight at him and opened its maw wide.
[Khak!!]
“U-uwaahk?!”
In the end, Teacher Park Go-Sool did fall on his butt and lost consciousness.
[….]
Within the subspace in Jin-Woo’s shadow, Igrit watched Beru’s action and used his elbow to rib the former ant king in the side.
[I told you to stop that, didn’t I?]
[Kiieehh…. That human can really see us, can’t he?]
Beru lightly scratched the side of his head and before his liege could order him to, planted his head firmly on the ground first.
***
Late at night.
Detective Woo Jin-Cheol and the youngest detective in the squad stopped by a diner that served ‘gopchang’.
Once enough alcohol entered their bloodstreams, stories they found hard to talk about during the day came out – mostly from the youngest’s mouth, actually.
“Excuse me, Senior Woo….?”
“Mm?”
“You’ve been investigating that missing prisoner case until now, yes?”
What was this guy trying to say here?
Woo Jin-Cheol tipped his glass filled with booze, his head beginning to develop an ache already.
Unfortunately, completely oblivious of his senior’s wishes, the youngest detective continued with his questioning time.
“That day… you really did see something, didn’t you?”
“What day?”
Woo Jin-Cheol played dumb deliberately, but the youngest simply grinned and replied.
“Eii, senior, you… You already know, don’t you? I’m talking about that day when the suspect went missing. Didn’t you really see something that day?”
This kid, he had this habit of catching people off-guard when they least expected it.
‘Well, that’s a good talent to have as a detective.’
Woo Jin-Cheol recalled his own newbie days and formed a slight chuckle as he replied.
“What if I did?”
“Really?”
The youngest looked to be adequately drunk until then, but his eyes suddenly began sparkling and his ears even physically perked up. That wasn’t so surprising, considering that the youngest was closer in age to being a student than a full-fledged member of society, anyway.
That was probably why he applied to the Violent Crimes Investigation Unit of the National Police Agency, reputed to be the worst paid but with the highest amount of workload.
Maybe the power of the booze circulating in him was to blame, or maybe, he just wanted to use this opportunity to get some stuff off his chest – Woo Jin-Cheol began speaking of things that he’d never even think about uttering in normal times.
“An ant…. Ant monsters.”
Gulp.
The noise of saliva sliding down the throat of the youngest detective could be heard from where he was sitting.
“Even I can’t tell for sure what I saw back then. In any case, those things looked like ants.”
“Ant monsters, is it? Are you saying that giant insects like ants came out?”
“No, not that. Well, they were ants, but….”
It was right then.
Just as Woo Jin-Cheol spoke up to there, a certain man unsteadily tottering about, as if he had one too many to drink, stopped walking past the duo and addressed them.
“T-those ant monsters, are they monsters with the heads of ants, but bodies that look like humans??”
The heads of the two detectives, Woo Jin-Cheol and his junior, raised up towards the owner of the voice.
Chapter 252
Side Story 9
5. Your daily routine (4)
Didn’t someone say that the ground would harden after the rain had fallen?
Now normally, people would grow much closer when they made up after a big fight. But then, the bond between young boys created through sweat and drive to succeed was far hotter and stickier then any old saying could intimate.
“One, two! One, two!”
As the early dawn’s fog thickly covered the school’s athletics field, every member of the track team was energetically roaring out their rallying cries.
“Hey, Jin-Woo! How about it? Isn’t this doable?”
Before anyone had noticed it, Jin-Woo was now permitted to run alongside the captain of the team, Choi Tae-Woong. The former replied in a refreshing manner.
“Yes, it is doable!”
“Very goooood! One, two! One, two!”
Choi Tae-Woong raised his speed just a bit higher and shouted out.
“Our goal is to conquer the whole country!”
“Our goal is to…..??”
The members almost subconsciously chanted after their captain’s words, but they quickly caught onto the fact that their warcry had changed and began questioning their leader.
“Hey, captain! I thought our goal was the overall win in the regionals?”
“Uh-huh!! You’re aiming far too low in front of our new ace! Again! Our goal is to conquer the whole country!”
“Conquer the whole country!!”
“The whole country!!!”
Glance.
The captain glanced at Woo Sahng-In, currently running behind him.
“Hey, Sahng-In-ah, are you crying right now?”
“N-no, captain!”
“Don’t give up yet, ace of the second year! Although the ace of the team has changed, how can we conquer the nation without your aid?!”
“I… I shall do my best, captain!!”
“Very goooood-!! Conquer the whole country!!”
“The whole country!! The country!”
“Conquer the country! The whole country!!”
While the members of the team lapped around the athletics field, positively buzzing with a heightened fighting spirit, only Oh Young-Gil’s complexion was turning blue amongst all the runners present. The poor kid ended up following after Jin-Woo and inadvertently entered the team as well.
“Pant, paaant, paaant….”
Jin-Woo, running out in front, heard Young-Gil’s heavy, rough breathing and tutted inwardly.
He wanted to improve the boy’s rather feeble constitution, so he said yes to the idea of one-plus-one admittance to the athletics club, but this….
….It was only a matter of time before someone keeled over at the rate things were going.
But then again, it’d not be an easy task to let Young-Gil escape in this atmosphere when the fighting spirit of the seniors had reached a brand new height that they had never seen before.
Left with no choice, Jin-Woo loaded just a little bit of Mana and sent it behind him. Like dandelion seeds being carried in the wind, the lump of Mana gently floated in the air and entered Young-Gil’s nose and mouth.
“…..??”
The effects of Jin-Woo’s Mana were an immediate stamina recovery, as well as a temporary boost to one’s muscular endurance, reaction times, flexibility, and to one’s rate of stamina recovery, etc….
Basically, it was a comprehensive buff gift set, filled with his desire to help out a friend.
Since it was a gift set straight from the Shadow Sovereign who reigned over in another world as basically a god, the effects of the buffs were rather incredible.
“Eh? Uh? Uhhh????”
Young-Gil’s eyes opened wider and wider as soon as he inhaled the comprehensive buff set.
‘Wha-what’s going on?! My body, it… It’s getting hotter?!’
Thick veins rose up on the boy’s legs as they powerfully kicked the ground away.
Paht, paht, paht!!
One by one, seniors running ahead of Young-Gil were left behind, and then….
“Ohh, ohh!!”
Then, Young-Gil’s solo sprint began in earnest.
‘N-no, hang on a minute…?’
Choi Tae-Woong was instantly impressed by Young-Gil who managed to shoot past ahead of everyone. The captain loudly shouted out in excitement.
“Look at our newbie’s fighting spirit burning up like that! How can us folks calling ourselves his seniors remain lukewarm when things are like this??”
“No, we can’t!!”
“Definitely not!”
“We chase after the newbie with everything we’ve got! Let’s go!”
“Let’s do it!”
“Let’s go!!”
Jin-Woo was inwardly worried whether he had given Young-Gil too much energy or not, but that only lasted for a brief moment.
The bright flames of the athletics team swept across the track today, as well.
***
While performing his duties of guiding incoming students from next to the school’s gate, ‘Venomous Snake’ Teacher Park Gi-Sool was keeping tabs on the track and field team diligently going through their morning training regime at a distance.
Contrary to his initial worries, it seemed that Student Seong Jin-Woo was getting used to the life in the track team without any problems whatsoever.
Heck, the headmaster even thanked Park Gi-Sool out of nowhere, too.
– I heard from the director of the track team that you, Park Teacher-nim, is always watching over Student Seong Jin-Woo.
– Ah, that…. Yes, more or less….
– Isn’t the problem child behaving himself so well a fruit of your hard labour? With you around, Park Teacher-nim, I can truly rest easy.
– Oh, uh…..
The only thing Park Gi-Sool had done so far was to watch Student Seong Jin-Woo until he fell or lost consciousness. He became so embarrassed that he’d rather become a potted plant that the headmaster was watering at that moment.
That happened earlier in the morning.
Park Gi-Sool tasted this bitterness deep within his core whenever he thought about the headmaster’s high expectation of him versus his own pathetic situation where he couldn’t even look Student Seong Jin-Woo straight in the eye.
And that was why… Because of his circumstances, he ended up getting p*ss drunk and unloaded all the useless stuff off his chest to a couple of people he’d never even seen before in his entire life.
‘Now why did I have to go and do something like that….?’
Just from recalling that night’s events, Park Gi-Sool felt like tearing out all of his hair.
A few days ago, in a certain diner he stopped by out of sheer frustration….
“T-those ant monsters, are they monsters with the heads of ants, but bodies that look like humans??”
With their conversation being interrupted rather rudely like this, the two men shifted their curious gazes at the same time towards Park Gi-Sool, and that helped the school teacher to sober up real fast.
“Ah…. What on Earth am I saying… I’m very sorry. Looks like I must be really drunk. Both of you, please don’t mind me and carry on.”
Park Gi-Sool politely bowed his head and turned around to head back to his own spot, but then, Woo Jin-Cheol actually called out and stopped him in his tracks.
“Excuse me.”
The school teacher turned his alcohol-reddened face behind him and saw that Woo Jin-Cheol had gotten up from his seat to pull a chair closer to his own table.
“That tale of the ant monster…. Can you tell me more about it?”
Just where would anyone be able to safely tell the story of a teacher seeing strange things when looking at a student?
After being admitted to a mental hospital? Now, which parents would entrust their kids to a teacher who frequented the mental health institution’s hallways?
Park Gi-Sool had been silently suffering all by himself, unable to tell a soul what he saw, but now that he was given a chance, he came completely clean as teardrops formed at the corners of his eyes.
“You see, I am someone who teaches his students with his charisma. Charisma, you know? So, where can I possibly go and speak of these things?”
Still, he felt a bit more refreshed, a load off his shoulders, now that he got to say the things he wanted to say. With that, he was given enough leeway to take a gander at his surroundings.
Even though what he said sounded like a lame joke, the two detectives next to him were listening to his tale with serious expressions on their faces. It was at this point that Park Gi-Sool grew quite curious as to what these people’s story might be.
“By the way…. Why were two police detectives like yourselves discussing stuff like monsters in a place like this diner?”
Woo Jin-Cheol exchanged glances with the junior detective before explaining their circumstances – minus the bit about him actually witnessing the real monsters, of course.
“….And so, the brass ordered us to look into this matter, but well, it’s really difficult to even find a single clue, you see. Right now, I wouldn’t mind grasping at straws if that will help us.”
Woo Jin-Cheol pulled out his business card and handed it over to Park Gi-Sool as he continued on.
“That’s why, I’d like to stop by at the school sometime later on, but will that be fine with you?”
“Ahh, of course. Of course, we must help with the police’s investigation. You can come and visit us at any time.”
And so, the booze-shared diner experience came to a rather friendly end in that manner, but now…
Some time had passed since then, and after thinking about it for a little while, Park Gi-Sool couldn’t help but wonder if he had unnecessarily made the situation even worse than what it was.
‘How can a student have anything to do with the case of missing suspects…?’
Especially a boy who was wholeheartedly focusing on the club activities since early dawn?
Fearful that he might see another weird thing again, Park Gi-Sool couldn’t stare for too long in Jin-Woo’s direction, so he could only afford to sneak quick glances at the boy, instead. Eventually, he shook his head in resignation.
Then, he spoke to another teacher manning the school gate alongside him.
“Teacher Yun, my apologies, but I had a bit too much to drink last night and my innards are….”
“Ahaha, come on now, Park Teacher-nim. No need to apologise for that. Please, go back inside and take a break. I’ll cover for you and keep an eye out here.”
“Mm, thank you.”
Before he went away, Park Gi-Sool took another quick glance at Jin-Woo and slunk off into the school building.
Only then did Jin-Woo shift his gaze towards the departing teacher, even though he hadn’t shown any signs of noticing the glances right up until then.
‘…..’
Recently, a teacher was staring at him in a rather open manner. He couldn’t just gloss over what was happening here. From inside the darkness of his shadow, Grand-Marshal Bellion’s quiet voice entered his ears.
[My liege…. Wouldn’t it be better to erase that human’s memories and take away his abilities?]
Back when he returned home from the gap between dimensions, after ending the war – as Jin-Woo stepped onto the ground of his home, feeling rightly emotional about his return, a proxy of the Rulers showed up and left behind some advice of sorts.
He said that, even if it was only a tiny bit of the Sovereign’s powers, it’d end up causing a humongous change to this world. And that was why Jin-Woo had been avoiding interfering directly unless it was something utterly necessary.
‘For now…. Let’s just observe him for a little while longer.’
[I understand, my liege.]
Jin-Woo wordlessly stared at the entrance Teacher Park Gi-Sool had disappeared to, before turning around to leave himself.
The members of the athletics club who were heading off to the club room before him were waving their hands towards him.
***
Woo Jin-Cheol found himself hesitating several times in front of the school gate.
It had been a week already since he was gifted an unthinkable piece of a lead in a gopchang diner. Starting from then, right up until now, all sorts of thoughts crisscrossed in his head.
He could have treated that testimony as a crazed teacher rambling on about some incoherent nonsense. However, every now and then, a link would suddenly be established between two seemingly unrelated cases and that would lead to an untangling of a dark web that seemed impossible to unravel initially.
‘The suspects that encountered monsters, and the monsters of a student that only one teacher can see….’
Woo Jin-Cheol found a vague link between these two disparate incidents. This was from the instincts of a detective, something that couldn’t be explained by logic.
However, there was a problem – there was a massive hurdle to overcome here. If there was indeed a link, then what should he say exactly to the student in question?
He couldn’t just bet everything on that drunken teacher’s words and start questioning this student named Seong Jin-Woo about monsters and stuff, now could he?
As for asking a question in a roundabout way, the nature of the question itself was too broad for that, too.
– By any chance, do you know anything about these Shadow Monsters? What about ants that stand up and walk around like people?
No matter how hard he practised it in his head, he just couldn’t picture the interview going down well at all. Woo Jin-Cheol pored at the memo pad containing detailed records of the investigation so far and spat out a long, long sigh.
‘It’d be a miracle not to be labelled as a madman while asking around these sorts of questions….’
At the end of a long, long dilemma, Woo Jin-Cheol turned around to leave. He might come back later after thinking up another pretext, but for now, it didn’t seem like the time was right.
And so, as Woo Jin-Cheol took steps to get out of there, he lowered his gaze to the ground without thinking much about his actions.
Shuk.
If it wasn’t him, famed even among the fellow detectives for possessing a pretty keen pair of eyes, but someone else not as sharp, they would have missed a faint movement on the ground.
Without a shred of doubt, he noticed a blob of shadow move from the shade of a tree towards the school’s wall.
He definitely saw it.
Goosebumps broke out all over his body and he hurriedly spun his head back towards the school.
‘There is… there is definitely something here!!’
Woo Jin-Cheol’s determination firmed up, then. He no longer cared if people pointed at him, calling him insane.
As long as he could find out the reason for this sense of loss that continued to plague him every now and then; as long as he could find out the exact cause why he felt his mind relax for a little while after encountering those ant monsters, then he’d not hesitate to pay any price.
With a hardened expression, Woo Jin-Cheol began walking towards the grounds of this high school.
***
At the same time.
Jin-Woo was spinning a pen with his fingers as he listened to the droning sounds of the geography lesson while the heads of many kids were dozing off all around him.
‘Did he see the sentry I posted there?’
As expected of Woo Jin-Cheol, the former President of the Hunter’s Association. He should no longer have any memory of his previous life, yet his sharp eyes must’ve remained intact.
Jin-Woo closed his eyes and recalled the very last image he had of Woo Jin-Cheol.
The image of him tearing up when Jin-Woo revealed his plans of waging war against the Sovereigns all by himself remained vividly etched in his brain.
Back when the late President Goh Gun-Hui died, the voice requesting for revenge also remained, unforgotten, in Jin-Woo’s mind, as well.
Was that why?
Even though this ‘visit’ would prove to be rather troublesome in his efforts to maintain his current lifestyle of pretending to be a normal person, the smile etched on Jin-Woo’s lips didn’t want to leave him all that easily.
Soon enough, the knocking on the classroom’s door resounded out, followed by the surprised voice of the geography teacher.
“A d-detective?”
“It’s not a big issue, actually. It’s just that, I have some questions to ask a student named Seong Jin-Woo.”
Ohhh-!!
At the announcement that a detective had shown up, kids let out gasps of amazement and shifted their gazes to Jin-Woo.
The thing that was coming had come.
Jin-Woo’s eyes remained closed throughout, but then, with that grin getting deeper, they opened calmly again.
At that moment, Woo Jin-Cheol was entering the classroom’s door and his gaze met with a certain student’s. Even though the geography teacher didn’t specifically point the boy out, the seasoned detective knew that student was Seong Jin-Woo with just one look.
Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump….
Woo Jin-Cheol’s heart began pounding away, as if it wanted to explode.
Chapter 253
Side Story 10
5. Your daily routine (5)
Woo Jin-Cheol led Jin-Woo to the end of the school corridor. He only stopped walking once they got to a distance far away from the classroom where their conversation wouldn’t be overheard by someone else.
Jin-Woo, quietly following behind the detective, also came to a stop as a result. He sneaked a glance towards the classroom.
For some reason, this sense of distance he felt by being a student that was looking into the classroom from the outside seemed rather large.
Perhaps Woo Jin-Cheol was conscious of that too, because the first thing he did was to apologise to Jin-Woo who was still looking back at the class.
“Sorry about dragging you out in the middle of class like this.”
“No, it’s fine.”
Jin-Woo held back the words of ‘I wanted to escape from there anyway because it was so boring’, in consideration of the teacher doing his best to teach the classroom full of kids.
Rather than say anything, Jin-Woo looked up at Woo Jin-Cheol, instead.
The detective was young.
Since Jin-Woo had changed his physique to match that of a high school freshman, Woo Jin-Cheol was now actually a good head taller than he was, with much broader shoulders, as well.
‘A guy who looked like he’d give a gangster a run for his money was actually working as a detective.’
A smile abruptly bloomed on his face after seeing a friend’s face in what felt like aeons.
It had been years – no, decades actually, if he added the time spent wandering around the gap between dimensions – since he last saw the Association President Woo Jin-Cheol.
Even though Jin-Woo didn’t want to show anything outwardly, there was not much he could do about his expression betraying him with a hint of happiness.
‘……?’
However, Woo Jin-Cheol was immediately beset with confusion after discovering the smile on the student’s face.
There would be only a handful of people alive who’d remain unflustered after suddenly being visited by a cop, and not only that, a detective with such a threatening face like his.
More than that, was there a reason to say anything else when the person in question was just a high school student?
However, this kid in front of his eyes was actually smiling.
‘This boy…. Something’s different about him.’
Woo Jin-Cheol felt it the moment he stepped into that classroom – this kid was different.
Thanks to his job being what it was, he had run into his fair share of murderers who killed many people, or gangsters that lorded over the backstreets with iron fists.
However, not even once had he meet anyone with a pair of eyes as calm as this boy.
‘How can a student possess eyes like that?’
Gulp.
Unbeknownst to him, Woo Jin-Cheol swallowed back dry saliva from all this tension in the air. Starting from the moment he saw the boy, his heart was still violently pounding away for reasons unknown to him.
To dissolve the many questions swirling and circling inside his head, Woo Jin-Cheol pulled out his memo pad and began looking into it.
“By any chance, Shadow… no, wait. Ants….”
Woo Jin-Cheol was looking at the contents of his memo pad, but no matter what he did, he just couldn’t form any coherent sentences. So, he pulled out a pen from his inner pocket, instead.
Jot, jot….
While Jin-Woo watched on with an interested gaze, Woo Jin-Cheol quickly drew something on the page of the pad and presented the resulting artwork.
“…..”
Jin-Woo inwardly praised the detective’s effort.
‘This dude, he’s actually a lot more talented in art than I thought.’
What Woo Jin-Cheol sketched just now was the general appearance of Beru.
Although it couldn’t be called exact description, still, he got right the head of an ant, human-like hands and feet, the sharp claws, as well as the ant’s wings on the back, etc, etc.
Anyone who knew what Beru looked like, they would recognise him from this drawing in an instant. Woo Jin-Cheol asked his question then.
“By any chance, can you think of something when you look at this image?”
Jin-Woo looked at the drawing for a bit before raising his head and spotted Woo Jin-Cheol and his slightly-blushing face. Even he should be aware of how ridiculous this whole thing must’ve looked.
But regardless of all that, he seemed to be desperate to recover the memories of things that happened to him, but were later taken away, even if that meant he’d have to resort to doing something like this.
Containing all of his desperation….
“….Do you know what this is?”
….Woo Jin-Cheol asked one more time.
Before the hints of embarrassment, as evident in the detective’s voice, could grow larger, Jin-Woo quickly answered him.
“Yes.”
Ba-dump.
Woo Jin-Cheol’s heart powerfully rocked and pounded on his chest.
“Y-you know what this is??”
The detective’s voice grew louder. But, Jin-Woo’s expression was utterly calm in his demeanour, a complete contrast to Woo Jin-Cheol’s.
“Yes.”
Woo Jin-Cheol’s eyes trembled violently.
Finally.
He finally found it.
His breathing quickened considerably, and his voice picked up just as the greatly urgent questions flew out of his mouth.
“What is this ant monster? And what is your real identity?”
Jin-Woo took a step back in order to avoid the agitated Woo Jin-Cheol. The latter realised that he made a mistake and quickly calmed himself down.
“Ah, I got too carried away there for a second. I’ve been chasing after this case for a while, you see.”
One by one – he would dig into what this student knew, step by step. Didn’t he have to go through so much hardship to find this clue already? So, there was no need to be too hasty now.
Woo Jin-Cheol managed to tide over his pulsing heart with those thoughts and spoke up with a much more calm voice.
“Alright. So, you know something about the creature in this image?”
“Yes.”
Jin-Woo replied briefly with a nod of his head, before an ‘innocent’ expression formed on his face.
“Isn’t that a monster that pops out from one of those special effects dramas that kids like to watch? Like, Kamen Rider?”
“Ah…”
Woo Jin-Cheol was immediately overcome with this sense of despondency, akin to watching a sand castle he built all day long get washed away by a single incoming wave. A small but heartbroken sigh leaked out of his mouth.
Since his expectation had been great, the ensuing disappointment was just as great, too. His hand holding the memo pad naturally dropped lower.
He looked so fatigued right now, so tired that he couldn’t even hold that little pad up anymore.
For a brief moment there, he grew angry at this boy for needlessly stringing him along with his vague answers. But, well, what crime did this student commit exactly, when he spoke only of the things he knew about?
Woo Jin-Cheol forced a smile on his face.
“Thank you for your cooperation.”
“Is that all?”
“Yes. I spoke to your teacher, so there shouldn’t be any issues when you go back.”
Woo Jin-Cheol spoke up to here and was about to pocket the memo pad, but then, Jin-Woo quickly addressed him.
“That image of a monster, can I have it as a souvenir?”
The detective looked at the student’s bright expression, and a genuine smile floated up on his face. He opened his memo pad and stared at the sketch for a little while, before tearing the page out cleanly and handing it over to Jin-Woo.
“Here.”
“Thank you.”
As if he didn’t want to get arrested by any lingering emotions, Woo Jin-Cheol spun on his heels and jogged down the steps as soon as the student bade him goodbye.
‘……’
Jin-Woo remained in his spot and listened to the detective’s footsteps echoing down the staircase. In the meantime, his shadow sneakily expanded to the side like spilt water and Igrit quietly emerged from there.
[My liege.]
“Mm?”
[Why… didn’t you tell that person the truth?]
Igrit retained his memories from back when he was still a human, and thanks to that, he knew better than anyone just how sad and difficult it was for a person to be forgotten from the minds of those he cared about.
And that was why he thought of the Detective Woo Jin-Cheol’s entrance as perhaps the most ideal opportunity that came knocking so far. Even if it was just one individual, wouldn’t it be a good thing for the Sovereign to let someone know how he had saved this world?
There was this distinct hint of rueful longing in Igrit’s voice.
Still, Jin-Woo shook his head.
“Being able to forget is supposed to be a god’s gift to humans, you know.”
Even if that was an artificially created result after using a Tool of God; Jin-Woo thought that he didn’t possess the qualifications to choose which memories to erase and which ones to keep.
Only a god should do something like that. That was why he decided to let the former Association President Woo Jin-Cheol go in this manner.
[Are you sure about this, my liege?]
“Yeah.”
It was then, Jin-Woo abruptly looked down on his left hand.
There it was, the evidence of the Dragon Emperor’s powerful attack.
The burn scar on this left hand, earned from blocking the ‘Breath of Destruction’ head-on, couldn’t be healed no matter what he tried. An unpleasant memory that couldn’t be forgotten was rather similar to this scar – a wound that couldn’t be healed.
Even if the person in question wanted it, was there really a need to deliberately bring those painful memories back?
Right now, not a trace of pain and misery that was suffered at the hands of the monsters and Sovereigns remained in the memories of people living on this planet.
And that was why Jin-Woo didn’t want to let the memories of the past remain in the mind of the former Association President Woo Jin-Cheol.
[I understand, my liege.]
Igrit silently submerged back into the shadow, as if he accepted the explanation.
Jin-Woo remained standing on the spot looking down at the bottom of the stairs before turning around to enter the classroom.
***
Once the break came, the boiling interests of the kids finally focused on Jin-Woo.
Seriously now, just when would these kids get to experience a TV drama-like situation of a police detective suddenly barging into their classroom? It was only obvious that their unbridled attention would be focused on the protagonist of that tale.
Even the girls who were interested in Jin-Woo before but couldn’t say it outright hurriedly rushed towards him and soon, a rather sizeable horde of people formed around his desk.
“What happened just now?”
“Hey, Jin-Woo? Why did a detective-nim come to school??”
Jin-Woo grinned softly at the burning curiosity of his classmates and spoke of the fresh excuse he just cooked up on the spot.
“Well, he’s someone that I know, and he just stopped by to ask me about something, that’s all.”
“Wowsers, that’s awesome.”
“You’re an acquaintance with an actual detective?”
“Jin-Woo, I’m so envious, you know?”
Jin-Woo found it hard to keep his laughter in check as the kids’ interest began heading down a slightly unexpected direction.
‘Young-Gil-ah, why are your eyes sparkling like that now?’
Still, thanks to the detective-nim’s unannounced visit, it felt as if the invisible wall these kids felt around Jin-Woo had crumbled just a little. Girls took this opportunity to ask about those things they were dying to know.
“I heard from other boys that you got a killer body?”
“Really? Are you an athlete or something?”
“Ahh! I saw Jin-Woo running on the track with the seniors from the school’s track team the day before yesterday.”
“Wahh, look how broad his shoulders are.”
Kyahk, kyahk….
As the girls surrounded him from all sides, Jin-Woo began pondering how he should go about making them quietly return to their seats, but then…
The quartet of the hooligans found one person hogging all the attention quite displeasing and decided to interrupt the fun.
“Hey, you. Aren’t you getting really popular now? Even a cop came to see you and all.”
Once this quartet entered the scene, the boys quickly retreated to their seats, while the girls began to quietly back away.
A boy named Nam Joon-Shik, the one with the highest position within the quartet, began slapping Jin-Woo’s shoulder that played host to the curious touches of high school girls not too long ago. The corners of his eyes began curling up.
“Does me being mischievous like this count as school bullying? Are you going to report me to the detective-nim now?”
‘….It’s your hand that’s gonna hurt if you keep hitting me like that, though.’
Jin-Woo stared at the dumb kid with apathetic eyes, and sure enough, Nam Joon-Shik’s complexion began reddening gradually when he realised that his hand hurt like hell, but despite his efforts, his target’s reaction seemed way too lukewarm.
“Argh, just why the hell are this punk’s eyes so sh*tty, man?”
Nam Joon-Shik then swiped everything away on Jin-Woo’s desk. Textbooks, notebooks, and his pencil case, plus a couple of other things tumbled to the floor.
Ten million-strong Shadow Army hiding in Jin-Woo’s shadow all roared out in anger after they witness this show of force from the teenaged fool.
The teen hooligan didn’t stop there and reached out to grab the collars of Jin-Woo, whose complexion had hardened just then.
“What? You wanna have a go? You better loosen up while I’m still being civil, got it?”
It was then.
A massive arm suddenly pounced from above and wrapped tightly around Nam Joon-Shik’s throat.
“Keok!!”
The hooligan grabbed at the thick arm as he began choking pathetically, and in the meantime, a familiar face revealed itself above the pale-faced kid.
“You have business with our beloved ace of the track and field club, boy?”
That face belonged to none other than the captain of the club, the third year senior Choi Tae-Woong, and he was being accompanied by another third year, the senior with a short fuse, Jeong Gu-Shik.
All four members of the quartet found themselves trapped in armlocks and headlocks of their seniors, their complexions paling gradually from the lack of oxygen.
Jin-Woo wordlessly got up from his seat and picked up the pencil case. Jin-Ah bought this case as a gift to commemorate his successful admittance to the high school, so these four hooligans wouldn’t have gotten away scot-free if anything had happened to it.
He dusted the case and placed it back on the desk before asking his question.
“Seniors, what brings you all here?”
“We showed up to dissuade our ace from beating the living crap out of four idiots.”
“No, please. Be serious.”
“Ahahahat-!”
Choi Tae-Woong’s large framed quaked as he roared out in a peal of loud laughter before he continued on.
“I forgot to tell you guys that we were planning to hold a welcoming party for our new members later today, you see. You and Young-Gil both have free time today, right?”
Jin-Woo glanced at Young-Gil and the latter nodded his head.
“Yes, we do.”
“In that case, see you both after school.”
Still smiling, the seniors began leaving one by one, but then, Jin-Woo called out to them to stop their march out of the classroom.
“Seniors? Where are you taking those four still stuck under your arms?”
“Ahaha, these idiots?”
Choi Tae-Woong exchanged some knowing glances with Jeong Gu-Shik.
“Well, what should we do with them?”
“How about we do an easy lap around the track, captain?”
“Sounds gooood!”
Soon afterwards, the loud shouts of “Conquer the whole country!” slowly got further away from the classroom’s interior.
***
Ding, dong. Ding, dong.
Several end-of-school bells rang around, and then, quite a few more bells later.
Jin-Woo stepped out of the school’s gate along with the rest of the track and field club members.
Young-Gil had now grown to appreciate the joys of sweating after getting used to the training regime of the club, although he did receive a few timely boosts from Jin-Woo every now and then.
While Young-Gil was listening to the advice of the seniors as he walked among them, Jin-Woo remained a step behind and eavesdropped on the unfolding conversations.
It was, without a doubt, a peaceful sight of a normal day.
Jeong Gu-Shik walking up ahead and turned his head towards Jin-Woo and asked.
“Ah, right. Hey, Jin-Woo? What was up with those idiots earlier in the day? Should we the seniors speak to them ‘nicely’ so they won’t start anything stupid later on?”
Jin-Woo replied with an unconcerned expression.
“Nah, it’s fine.”
“I’m not doing this because I’m worried about you. No, I just don’t want to see problems suddenly crop up and prevent you from participating in the regional meet because of those idiots.”
Jin-Woo grinned refreshingly.
“Don’t worry. I won’t let that happen.”
It was then.
Someone suddenly popped out from behind the shadow of the gate’s wall and called out to Jin-Woo.
“Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim.”
It was as if time itself had come to a standstill, just then. Jin-Woo froze up on the spot, and slowly shifted his head in the direction of that voice.
Detective Woo Jin-Cheol had been waiting for Jin-Woo until now.
The latter’s voice trembled slightly.
“But, how…?”
Having finally gotten his confirmation from Jin-Woo’s reply, Detective Woo Jin-Cheol’s eyes began tearing up.
“As I thought… you are him.”
Chapter 254
Side Story 11
5. Your daily routine (6)
“That image of a monster, can I have it as a souvenir?”
A few hours ago.
As a souvenir for his reunion with Woo Jin-Cheol, Jin-Woo wanted the sketch of Beru the detective had drawn up on the spot.
‘Well, it does kind of resemble Beru, so I want it because of that….’
Of course, a certain someone hiding in his shadow didn’t think the same as his liege, though.
[Oh, my kinggggg!! I beg thee not to fall for that shoddy and crude doodling of a plebeian!!]
Beru desperately pleaded with his liege that he was nowhere near that ugly in the sketch, but Jin-Woo simply let that whining enter one ear and go out the other.
In the meantime, Woo Jin-Cheol stared at his own drawing for a bit as if to let go of all his lingering attachments.
Soon, though…
Riiip…
….He cleanly tore the page off the memo pad. Woo Jin-Cheol extended his hand holding the drawing to Jin-Woo.
“Here.”
“Thank you.”
Jin-Woo gladly accepted the sketch.
And during that process, the detective’s hand briefly touched the tip of Jin-Woo’s finger.
It was surely nothing important in the grand scheme of things. However, massive events that left their mark in history books sometimes began with seemingly insignificant little things.
Woo Jin-Cheol turned around and hurriedly descended the staircase.
‘I knew it, this whole thing was a dumb mistake.’
Regret was rapidly filling him up.
Because he got too hyped up from the prospect of finding a clue, he ended up doing something that he’d be unable to explain even to the youngest detective in the squad with a straight face.
The sense of embarrassment and regret rushed in like the incoming tides, now that this was all he had to show for his efforts.
‘Stairs always feel so d*mn long only on days like today, don’t they?’
Detective Woo Jin-Cheol bitterly muttered to himself as he climbed down the staircase, but then, his steps had to come to an abrupt halt.
‘Mm….?’
He suddenly heard a voice from somewhere, that was why.
– Association President. Do you trust me?
‘…..??’
Woo Jin-Cheol froze up when a chill-inducing feeling crept up on his spine and he quickly scanned up and down where he was. He saw not one person coming down from the stairs or climbing up from below.
Classes were still ongoing, so the steps of the school were quite literally, quiet and still.
Woo Jin-Cheol tilted his head this way and that, before he tried to climb down the remaining few steps to the ground floor only to hear another voice again.
– Yes, of course, I trust you.
This time, it was his own voice.
‘W-what the heck is this?!’
A person with an easily-scared personality would squat down or start screaming from fear by now. However, Woo Jin-Cheol wasn’t one. He simply remained calm while he scanned his surroundings once more, before pulling out a memo pad and a pen as a sombre expression formed on his face.
‘I’m suddenly hearing auditory hallucinations. Could it be that the sense of loss I feel or the ant monster I witnessed were evidence of something wrong with my brain?’
The end of a brief observation was signed off with a question mark scribbled on with his pen.
Woo Jin-Cheol felt rather weirded out now. He stuffed the memo pad inside his inner pocket and hurriedly descended the rest of the steps. And with a speed far quicker than that, he escaped from the school building.
But then….
….Yet another auditory hallucination rocked the inside of his head.
– In that case, I hope you will believe everything I’m about to show you.
“Euhk!!”
Woo Jin-Cheol gritted his teeth and covered both of his ears.
The voice he had never heard before and his own words that he never uttered before as well, began making a mess out of his mind. An intense bout of confusion crashed into him like an unstoppable tide.
“W-what the hell is this?!”
And then, out of all those voices swirling in his head, there was this one phrase that kept ringing so clearly in his head.
– Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim.
– Hunter-nim.
– In that case, what should we…. No, what should I do to help you, Hunter-nim?
– Hunter-nim!
– Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim!!
A name that didn’t want to leave his head alone. The name of Hunter Seong Jin-Woo.
‘If it’s Seong Jin-Woo, then…. Isn’t that the name of the student I just met?’
He heard that patients suffering from mental disorders often came up with crazy stories that featured people from their lives. Could such a thing be happening inside his head now?
Woo Jin-Cheol walked forward as his body swayed unsteadily. He kept frowning in pain as a migraine viciously pounded away at his temples.
Even then, even if the inside of his head had become so complicated and messy to the point that he didn’t know how to unravel all the tangled thoughts in there – every time he recalled the name ‘Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim’, it felt like the big hole in his heart was slowly filling back up for some weird reason.
Woo Jin-Cheol crashed down on a park bench and began murmuring repeatedly the name that continued to swim inside his mind.
‘Hunter Seong Jin-Woo, Hunter Seong Jin-Woo, Hunter Seong Jin-Woo…
That name holds the clue.
I definitely know that name, Seong Jin-Woo.
I must remember it.
I must drag it out into the open.
I must find all the memories of him, and the reason why those memories are erased from my mind.’
“Euh-euhk!!”
While still under an extreme case of a migraine, Woo Jin-Cheol fought hard to recall his memories and eventually, a certain scene popped up in his head.
“Association President. Do you trust me?”
“Yes, of course, I trust you.”
“In that case, I hope you will believe everything I’m about to show you.”
“Excuse me?”
The tip of a finger belonging to someone approached his forehead. The moment it touched his skin, darkness dyed his view for a short while but during that time, a countless number of images flashed past his eyes.
Those were the memories that connected the past, the present, and the future. And they contained the stories of Gates, monsters, Hunters, Rulers, and Sovereigns.
“This, this can’t be…. Just how can such a thing be….?”
Woo Jin-Cheol couldn’t finish what he wanted to say, and Jin-Woo, now the Shadow Sovereign, replied with a lonesome expression.
“Well, a higher being’s memories aren’t affected by the flow of time, you see.”
Indeed, a Sovereign’s memories easily transcended the boundaries of time itself.
“Pant, pant….”
Woo Jin-Cheol panted heavily and with great difficulty after emerging from the flashback of the ‘past’. For a short moment in time that no longer existed, his consciousness was connected to Jin-Woo, who was a higher existence.
And it happened then; memories sealed tightly away somewhere within his soul had been unlocked through yet another contact with Jin-Woo, and were brought back up to the territory of his consciousness.
“Oh, my god….”
The sense of emptiness that felt as if there was a hole in the corner of his heart slowly filled back up, and warm tears began trickling down from Woo Jin-Cheol’s eyes.
He then remembered the question he asked Jin-Woo after learning of what the latter was planning to do.
– Seong Hunter-nim…. Are you planning to fight these things? All by yourself?
The answer to that question, it was right in front of his eyes now.
A young man whose name was unknown, walking past the park bench while listening to music through a pair of earphones; a pair of lovers brushing past him while whispering their undying love to each other….
An old man out to walk his dog, and people loosening their muscles near the exercise equipment in the park….
In this world, in this place, there were no Gates. No monsters. No battles.
Woo Jin-Cheol now bore witness to the miracle that man had created through his hands, this incredible peace, and thicker, hotter tears began flooding out from his eyes.
“Seong Hunter-nim, you… did it.”
Woo Jin-Cheol recalled the screams of so many people meeting their ends at the monsters and continued to weep for a long, long time.
‘….No, hang on. I, I shouldn’t be doing this.’
The veteran detective’s rough, calloused hands busily moved about to wipe away the tears.
Even if the entire world had forgotten about the truth, Woo Jin-Cheol had to go and tell Seong Jin-Woo that at least there was one person who knew the latter had battled for the sake of the world itself.
Such a sense of duty began welling up in his heart, but at the same time, a sense of uncertainty also entered him, wondering if what he was about to do was for the sake of that man.
‘He’s spending his time as a regular student now, having willfully forgotten about his past as a Hunter.’
If he wanted to remind Woo Jin-Cheol of the past, then there were ample chances to do so. Jin-Woo could’ve answered his questions, or just like before, transmit a whole section of memories through nothing but a fingertip.
However, the youth didn’t show any reactions when a detective showed up in this place through a series of coincidences, before quietly letting him be on his way.
Could it be that… he didn’t want his peaceful everyday life to be interrupted?
If that was the case, then wouldn’t them going back to their regular lives, while pretending to be none the wiser, be for the better for Hunter Seong Jin-Woo in the end?
Woo Jin-Cheol fell into a dilemma.
His dilemma grew heavier and harder to resolve and he remained stuck with it right up until students began leaving the school for the day. However, watching them cross the park one by one did help Woo Jin-Cheol with coming to a rather tough conclusion.
‘….Right.
Rather than me deciding this, let’s leave it to Hunter Seong Jin-Woo.
I’ll call out to him, and if he pretends to not understand me, then I shall respect his choice.
However.
Even if there is a small reaction, then I….’
Woo Jin-Cheol hurriedly returned to Jin-Woo’s high school. And then, he didn’t leave the side of the school gate even when no more students walked past him.
He was currently acting on this groundless assumption that Hunter Seong Jin-Woo hadn’t left the school yet.
And so, as he stood there for several dozen more minutes, while anxiously sucking on one poor cigarette after another….
“….I just don’t want to see problems suddenly crop up and prevent you from participating in the regional meet because of those idiots.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t let that happen.”
….He finally got to discover Jin-Woo walking out of the school gates. Feeling genuinely happy now, he took a large stride forward and called out the youth’s name.
“Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim.”
Ba-dump.
Just how much courage did he require to mutter out those simple words? Woo Jin-Cheol felt his heart madly pound away and waited for Jin-Woo’s reaction.
Sure enough, the youth turned around to look, his entire body now completely frozen stiff. There was an expression of genuine surprise etched on his face.
“But, how….?”
The light in Jin-Woo’s eyes told everything there was to know.
Having finally gotten his confirmation from Jin-Woo’s eyes, Detective Woo Jin-Cheol began tearing up once more.
“As I thought…. you are him.”
***
The two of them moved to the park in the vicinity of the school, the very location where Woo Jin-Cheol recovered his memories.
Sunlight reflected on the gently undulating surface of a small pond located in the middle of the park, creating ripples of ripe gold.
Woo Jin-Cheol stopped walking around there and opened his mouth first.
“I hope I didn’t cause a problem between you and your club seniors.”
Jin-Woo formed a thin smile and shook his head.
“They are good seniors. Sure, their competitive streak can be a bit much at times, but…..”
Woo Jin-Cheol asked Jin-Woo if they could speak for a while, and the latter had to ask his seniors for their understanding on this one. Since there was a prior engagement, the older kids could’ve easily gotten unhappy at this situation, but….
“Don’t be too late!”
“Until you show up to the welcoming party, we’re holding Young-Gil as our hostage, okay?”
“S-senior?!”
The seniors from the track and field team didn’t sweat it and left for the party venue ahead. Jin-Woo recalled Young-Gil’s tearful face as he got dragged away by the seniors and smirked softly to himself.
“Still, the life of my friend is hanging in the balance here, so I can’t stay for too long.”
Woo Jin-Cheol broke into a gentle chuckle after seeing the youth’s expression that showed how much he was enjoying his current life.
“In that case, I understand. Let me get to the main topic, then.”
The smile was gone in an instant from the detective’s face after he finished those words.
“How long… how long have you been fighting against those creatures in the gap between dimensions?”
According to the records, Jin-Woo was missing for around two years.
However, Woo Jin-Cheol had seen the overall combat force of the Sovereigns through the memories of the Shadow Sovereign, and he knew that the two years were simply not enough to defeat them all.
Jin-Woo cautiously replied.
“27 years….”
The moment he heard that reply, Woo Jin-Cheol sucked in his breath.
To think, he had to fight against over ten million enemies for nearly 30 years in the gap between the walls of different dimensions, where not a single thing could exist….
Woo Jin-Cheol couldn’t even begin to imagine how difficult and arduous the battles must’ve been. For a long while there, he failed to come up with something to say, but eventually, forced his lips to part just a little.
“…..You don’t regret anything?”
Jin-Woo’s reply this time was instantaneous.
“No, I don’t.”
He could say this with absolute confidence.
“If I were to be given the same opportunity over and over again, I will make the same decision every single time.”
Everything that happened – from when he and his father went to a baseball game while holding hands during the latter’s off day; the doenjang stew mom cooked with so much care and love; his little sister’s smile, bright and unclouded by the fear of the monsters….
….All of these were precious things that couldn’t be measured with any financial value.
If the price he had to pay for all of these things was to carry the weighty burden by himself, then he’d not hesitate to carry it over and over again.
“I don’t regret anything.”
Woo Jin-Cheol heard Jin-Woo’s composed voice and in that instant, felt his nose sting once more.
‘Thank you, Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim.’
He barely managed to swallow back those words that almost came out of his mouth. He knew that these simple words of gratitude could never convey his true feelings to Hunter Seong Jin-Woo, that’s why.
He took a quick look at his wristwatch while thinking about the ‘life’ of the hostage and raised his head.
“It looks like you’re living a wonderful life now.”
Jin-Woo smirked softly.
“It is satisfactory, yes. Well, other than my body not ageing anymore so I need to constantly modify my body shape, that is.”
‘Eternal youth and immortality.’
Hunter Seong Jin-Woo had now possessed god-like powers after becoming the Shadow Sovereign. However, even though he possessed such powers, he chose to live the life of a simple, normal person. If that was his decision, then….
“May I ask whether you thought about what you’d like to do in the future?”
“I haven’t thought that far ahead yet, unfortunately.”
“In that case…. How about, you know, joining this side?”
Woo Jin-Cheol displayed the police identification card inside his wallet.
“You mean… the National Police?”
“Recently, many hardened criminals visiting our offices are all whining about the exact same thing. They say that it’s hard to make a living with Shadow Monsters around.”
Jin-Woo studied the identification card for a while and returned the wallet with a grin on his face.
“But, if I become a police officer, other cops won’t have anything to do anymore, you know?”
“That’s precisely why we’re working very hard, you see – to create a world like that.”
He hadn’t changed.
From when he was the Chief of the Association’s Monitoring Division, and when he was the President of the Hunter’s Association itself, the expressions Woo Jin-Cheol had shown back then remained as he continued his life as a police detective now.
“I’ll think about it.”
Jin-Woo replied so and turned around to leave as he began to worry slightly about his friend’s safety. Woo Jin-Cheol quickly bade him goodbye.
“I shall wait for your favourable reply.”
“Please don’t. I heard that there’s a crap ton of work but the pay is pretty bad.”
Jin-Woo waved his hand as he walked away, and Woo Jin-Cheol smiled gently as his silent reply.
‘Lots of work, but rubbish pay, is it?’
A wry chuckle leaked out automatically from his mouth after hearing that wonderfully succinct assessment that left no room for a rebuttal. At the same time, he recalled the face of the youngest detective who actually volunteered to join such a squad out of his own free will.
‘Isn’t he off today, that kid?’
Well, so what if it was the junior’s off day?
While thinking that he’d just call out the youngest and treat the kid to a hearty meal, Woo Jin-Cheol politely bowed his head towards Jin-Woo’s departing back, now a faint silhouette in the distance.
As the only man who knew of that youth’s sacrifice, he stood for everyone in this world and expressed his gratitude, perhaps for the first and the last time.
Chapter 255
Side Story 12
6. Decision
‘That’ suddenly appeared without any warning.
On a certain day in April, only a stone’s throw away from May’s doorstep, an American emergency call centre was blessed with a strange phone call.
– “Hello. I’m a tourist currently travelling through the desert.”
It was not uncommon to hear about tourists getting lost. Since that was the case, the call centre operator figured that this call was from yet another poor stranded soul searching for a way out from the middle of the vast desert.
“Did you run into an accident, sir?”
– “No, it’s not actually that.”
“In that case, did something else happen to you, sir?”
– “No, no. I’m not calling you because I ran into a problem, but I’m calling to report something that I’m seeing right now.”
The call centre agent got ready to connect the call to the emergency dispatch service while replying in a calm voice to make sure that the caller wouldn’t start panicking over the phone.
“Is it something urgent? Should I dispatch the emergency personnel to your location?”
– “Urgent… is it? Honestly, I also don’t know how to explain the current situation to you.”
The caller’s voice indicated that he was feeling really hesitant over something here, so just in case, the agent decided to confirm the caller’s identity first.
As it turned out, the caller was actually a college professor, and judging from his family circumstances, or the past records of lodging emergency calls, he didn’t seem to be the sort to make prank calls for fun.
“Sir, you need to describe the situation so we can dispatch the right kind of response personnel to the scene.”
– “…”
“Can you explain to me in detail what you see?”
It was at that point that the agent heard the caller take deep breaths over the phone’s speaker.
– “Something is about to shatter. There are lots of cracks.”
There was a building in a desert about to topple over? The agent tilted his head this way and that before asking again.
“Where are these cracks exactly, sir?”
– “Well, that’s the darnedest thing….”
The voice of the caller hesitated for a long time again as if he still couldn’t believe what he saw, but eventually it did come out of the phone.
– “The sky… the sky is breaking up!”
***
April.
This was the time when pretty much all students would find themselves with barely any free time, but for Jin-Woo facing mid-term exams and the track competition literally around the corner, it proved to be a great deal more hectic than usual.
As he was studying deep into the night, his little sister, Jin-Ah, entered his room while carrying a tray of sliced Korean melon.
“Oppa, Mom says you should eat these while studying.”
Jin-Woo was concentrating on the textbooks below the desk lamp’s light, and raised his head to greet her.
“What about Dad?”
“Dad is on night shift duty from this week again.”
Jin-Woo received the plate with melon slices neatly arranged on top and nodded his head. But then, he reached out to snatch his sister’s ponytail just as she was about to sneak out of his room.
“Stop right there.”
“Heok!”
Jin-Ah turned around to face him with wide-open eyes and he sternly asked her.
“Why are all these slices missing the soft middle sections?”
“I, uh, I don’t know….”
“You should say that while getting rid of those pips stuck near your lips.”
“Ahh-iinng…”
Jin-Ah formed an unhappy expression at the fact that she got busted, but he found her way too adorable when she acted like this and couldn’t hold back his own laughter.
He used his thumb to remove the pips from the ends of his sister’s lips and out of pure mischievousness, formed another stern expression.
“If you eat only the softer part of the melon again, I’m gonna make you eat nothing but the hard part for a whole day as punishment, okay?”
“Hiii-eeeng….. Okay.”
Jin-Ah turned around to leave with a tearful expression and he lightly patted her on the head.
Currently, she was in her sixth year in elementary school. Jin-Woo had seen her grow up once before already, and pretty much anything she did came across as adorable to him.
Crunch.
He began chewing on the sliced melon piece and focused his concentration back on the questionnaire on the desk. When he did, though, Igrit began to offer his counsel once more, as he was still worried about his liege’s academic success.
[My liege, the 24th question should not be tackled in this manner, but…]
‘I’m going to check the answer sheet, then?’
[….Allow me to ponder this query for a little while longer, my liege.]
‘…….’
It was rather commendable that he was so concerned about his master, but this….
‘Oh, well. At least, I’m not bored during studying, so there’s that….’
Crunch.
As the number of questions remaining on the questionnaire decreased, so did the number of sliced melon pieces on the plate.
Tick, tock….
And so, just how long had it been?
Abruptly, Jin-Woo sensed this chill and raised his head.
‘What was that? Where?’
He shot up from his chair and shifted his head in the direction of where he detected that strange phenomenon. He closed his eyes and focused his perception.
….He definitely hadn’t made a mistake just then. Right away, he imagined the worst possible scenario and his expression hardened as a result.
‘Where is that business card….?’
He quickly dug through the pockets of his school uniform and pulled out a certain business card. It was none other than the one left behind by the envoy of the Rulers.
Jin-Woo quickly dialled the number and tapped on the ‘Call’ icon on his smartphone. The call itself got through really quickly.
– “It has been a while, Shadow Sovereign-nim.”
The envoy tried to greet him with a warm, welcoming voice, but Jin-Woo simply spoke up certain coordinates without any hints of emotion. And then, he added one more thing at the end.
“Is this your people’s doing?”
The envoy was stunned by his serious attitude and replied quickly.
– “I don’t understand what…. Hold on. Allow me to confirm.”
“…”
The brief silence was soon shattered by the panicky voice from the other side of the line.
– “This, this is definitely not us. We are also finding out about this matter through your call, Sovereign-nim. I’m sure you already know, but this method of crossing dimensions is different from ours.”
As expected – it wasn’t the absolute worst possibility, much to his relief. Still, it didn’t mean that the situation itself had become any better, though.
‘To Earth…. Someone, or something, is coming.’
Whether they held good or bad intentions, there was no way to tell for the time being. So, he should start preparing for either case right away.
Jin-Woo fell into deep thought as he stood there, still holding the phone, before he spoke to the envoy.
“Can you come and see me?”
He added that there was also something else he’d like to talk about and that prompted the envoy to reply as if it had been waiting for that all this time.
– “I shall come and speak to you tomorrow.”
***
The meeting place was the cafe where Jin-Woo met Yu Jin-Ho for the first time outside the dungeon. He got there just in time and found the envoy already waiting for him by the corner of the cafe, having arrived a while ago.
After entering, Jin-Woo wordlessly settled down on the opposite side of the Ruler’s proxy. The latter only discovered the former’s presence after he appeared right in front of its eyes. The envoy performed a polite bow of the head.
With the situation being what it was, Jin-Woo went straight to the meat of the discussion.
“The things trying to get here…. Do you have any clues on who they are?”
“They are the ‘Outsiders’ that tried to step into my world not too long ago. They were beaten back by the Army of the Heavens and it seems that they have now set their sights on this world, instead.”
“Why are they trying to come here?”
“They are a race of giants that consumes the rocks found on a planet that can support lifeforms. They are referred to as a race of ‘Titans’ and are known for their evil nature even back in their own world. Their reason for coming to Earth should be rather obvious at this point.”
Jin-Woo leaned against the chair’s back and nodded his head.
“….So, they are not friends.”
“Yes, they are most certainly not.”
Now that he knew what their purpose was, the nature of his response had been decided, as well. However, there was something he still felt curious about.
“This didn’t happen before the Chalice of Rebirth was used, so what gives?”
Jin-Woo could only remember the Gates and monsters, but nothing about the attack of an alien race capable of ‘eating’ a planet. The envoy hesitated slightly with his answer before willingly admitting to it.
“Yes, you’re indeed correct. Actually, when I told you about them invading our world not too long ago, I was referring to the timeline that has been overwritten.”
“Meaning, the creatures that should have been aiming for your world changed their heading towards Earth, instead?”
“Yes.”
The envoy replied as thus, carefully observing any changes in Jin-Woo’s mood. Of course, he immediately figured out the reason for this change.
“I’m the cause.”
“Those creatures chased after the traces of Sovereign-nim, who possesses incredible power…. At least, that’s what the exalted Rulers believe happened in this event.”
Just like how one would rely on the light from the lighthouse illuminating the lone pathway to navigate the treacherous nighttime waters when you couldn’t see an inch in front of your nose, the race of ‘Titans’ had been led towards this small planet by the enormous power being emitted by the Shadow Sovereign.
The potential influence Jin-Woo’s powers would have on this world, the one that shouldn’t exist and shouldn’t remain – the part the Rulers were worried about had finally become reality.
Still, the Rulers felt that they owed Jin-Woo big time and thus, they weren’t planning to sit back and watch another crisis unfold on Earth. The agent made sure to drive this point home.
“The exalted Rulers have already deployed the Army of the Heavens.”
Jin-Woo slowly shook his head.
“No, it’ll be too late.”
Even if they started creating a tunnel connecting from that side to here right now, at a bare minimum they would still need a good few years to get here. By then, everything would be over.
In that case….
“I shall take care of it.”
‘….My soldiers and I will stop those b*stards.’
Jin-Woo was fully confident of defeating these new enemies if they were on the level of being driven back by the Army of the Heavens.
The voice of the Shadow Sovereign seemed to heavily press down on the envoy’s shoulders and he nervously swallowed his dry saliva. Regardless which forces they were, none of them would prefer to have this man as their enemy. The Ruler’s agent suddenly felt pity for this race of ‘Titans’ now.
By the way, if this meeting wasn’t to ask for reinforcements, then why were they even here?
Jin-Woo replied as if he had seen through the agent’s thoughts.
“What you asked me back then…. I thought it’s about time that I tell you my answer.”
“Ah, ah. I see. You were talking about that matter.”
The Rulers made an offer to make available a location that the enormous power of the Shadow Sovereign wouldn’t cause an issue. It seemed that he was able to come to a decision due to this crisis. The envoy nodded his head after seeing Jin-Woo’s determination-filled expression.
“I understand what you’re trying to say. As soon as this crisis is resolved, we….”
“I’m remaining on Earth.”
“….Pardon?”
The envoy’s brows rose up after hearing that unexpected reply. However, Jin-Woo’s voice remained composed, with just a hint of a grin etched on his lips.
“You know, I still want to live here.”
He wanted to spend his time in this world populated by his family, friends, as well as others that he’d like to meet and talk to. After he ran into Association President Woo Jin-Cheol, no, Detective Woo now, he had finally realised what he wanted to do.
‘Well, it’s a bit cumbersome that he keeps calling me up so he can buy me food, but still.’
In any case, Woo Jin-Cheol was a good man. And that was precisely why that young detective being dragged around by him could carry a happy expression like that.
‘I’d like to be with those people.’
Jin-Woo thought that he’d like to be by their sides and be able to laugh along with them. The envoy spied on Jin-Woo’s smile and replied with a sheepish smile of his own.
“Actually, I…. I was getting really bored with staying in this world, you see. What a relief this is. Now I can finally return to my world as well.”
One year since that day. If one said it was short, then it was, but if one said it was too long, then it could be, as well.
The envoy’s mission of remaining in this world to wait for the Shadow Sovereign’s decision had finally come to an end. And seeing his expression, it was rather clear that the odds of him changing his mind were absolutely none.
“Well, then….”
While looking as if a load had been taken off his shoulders, the envoy stood up from his seat. He then bowed his waist towards Jin-Woo, no, the greatest hero who brought the war of two worlds to an end.
“I entrust this world to your capable hands.”
***
Jin-Woo stopped digging through his closet and scratched his head.
‘This isn’t good….’
He couldn’t see a single piece of garment that could hide his face. But then again, he bought a hoodie and a baseball cap to hide his face riddled with scars he earned while working as a low ranked Hunter, so it was only obvious that they wouldn’t remain anymore in the new timeline.
Left with no choice, Jin-Woo decided to create the clothing he wanted.
The black smoke quickly enveloped him and became thick like actual liquid, before transforming into a hoodie that he used to wear so much in the past. He pulled the hood up and stood before the mirror in his room.
‘How long has it been, me in this look…..?’
He experienced renewed reminiscence of the time erased, as the reflection was like looking at his past self. His lips exposed below the hoodie curled up into a grin.
“Nice.”
With this, his preparation was over. And his figure slowly submerged into the shadow beneath his feet.
***
Somewhere in the desert, west of the United States of America.
The American government sealed tight the surrounding area and invited every expert they could get their hands on to this place, but in the end, every single one of them failed to come up with a meaningful hypothesis.
“I wonder. Well, this could be….”
“I’ve researched many strange weather phenomena across the globe for over 30 years, but this is my first time seeing something like that.”
From the get-go, how could any expert, regardless of the numbers gathered, be able to explain the phenomenon of cracks developing in the atmosphere?
Crack, split…
Even as they dithered about, the empty sky was slowly but surely breaking apart bit by bit. Understandably, the American defence forces surrounding this area just in case something bad happened were very tense right now. If one were to exaggerate the scale a bit, more than enough combat forces had been gathered here to literally blow away a foreign nation.
The commander confidently spoke to the President of the U.S.A.
“Even if something pops out of there, Mister President, we shall take care of them. Yes, yes, sir. The scale of the crack has grown much larger since its initial discovery….”
While chatting on the comm device, the commander shifted his gaze over to the ranks of the soldiers without thinking too much and discovered a certain man walking closer to his position.
A man whose face was obscured by the pulled-up hoodie was walking straight towards the commander’s location.
“Who the hell is that guy? How the f*ck did he even enter here?”
– “Is there a problem, commander?”
“No, sir. Let me call you back a bit later, sir.”
The commander hurriedly ended the call and, along with his adjutants, quickly ran towards this unknown man.
“Excuse me! Who are you?”
This was a restricted zone secured by a water-tight cordon of soldiers, yet how could a normal-looking civilian waltz right in completely unhindered? Signs of irritation floated up on the commander’s face as an annoying situation suddenly came to visit him.
However, the man didn’t show any signs of fear, even though he was surrounded by heavily-armed soldiers. The uninvited guest coming to speak to the commander was, of course, Jin-Woo. And he certainly had something to say.
“Please, withdraw your troops from here. This place is dangerous.”
His English didn’t sound natural.
‘Is he a foreigner?’
The commander formed a deep frown and in order to put the fear of God in this uninvited guest, he shouted out at the top of his lungs.
“Do you have a death wish?! Do you seriously not know who is in real danger here?”
‘What do you mean by that, mister? It’s you, obviously.’
Jin-Woo knew that convincing these people with words would be impossible, so he released just a tiny bit of his power. When he did, the commander, his adjutants, as well as all the soldiers watching Jin-Woo floated up in the air at once.
“Uh, uhhh?!”
The commander became flustered and he quickly took a look around him. There was only one person with both of his feet firmly planted on the ground. Not only that, the vehicles, various machinery and equipment, and even heavy tanks were floating over a metre in the air.
Having witnessed something that couldn’t scientifically happen, the eyes of the commander began trembling hard.
“B-but, how?!”
Deciding that this much was enough, Jin-Woo brought them back down to the ground.
However, the first thing the commander did upon landing was to yank out his sidearm. His highly-agitated voice rang around loudly in the desert sky.
“What the hell are you?!”
Jin-Woo raised both of his hands up to his shoulders to clearly indicate that he didn’t want to fight and calmly continued on with his explanation.
“Soon, enemies possessing similar powers as what you saw will emerge from that spot in the sky. And….”
He used Mana to take away the commander’s sidearm and had it float over to near his head.
When the pistol suddenly began moving towards Jin-Woo seemingly on its own, the nervous soldiers quickly cocked their rifles and got ready to fire, but the commander was equally as quick to raise his hand to stop them from doing anything.
“Hold your fire!”
While he was busy calming his subordinates down, Jin-Woo used the ‘invisible hand’ to pull the trigger of the pistol now aimed at his face.
Blam! Blam! Blam!!
Bullets that failed to even touch Jin-Woo’s body fell powerlessly to the ground. The gazes of the soldiers relying on their firearms until then were rapidly filling up with sheer astonishments and panic.
Jin-Woo could sense their hearts freezing up, too. He swept his gaze around and took in their eyes of shock and panic, before calmly continuing on with his explanation.
“Your weapons will not work against the incoming enemies.”
Soon after that, his gaze landed on the commander, still rooted firmly in his spot.
“Are you willing to watch the meaningless deaths of your subordinates?”
“What should…. What am I supposed to do, then?”
“Withdraw your troops from here as far as possible. I shall be the only one to remain here.”
“You alone…? Are you planning to fight against the enemies by yourself?”
Him alone, was it….
Jin-Woo didn’t particularly feel the need to explain himself any further, so he just nodded his head.
“…”
The commander shut his mouth and began weighing his options, but then suddenly, he yanked out his spare sidearm tucked neatly in the back of his pants and fired several shots at Jin-Woo.
Blam! Blam!! Blam!!! Blam!!!!
Every single bullet fired from the commander all tumbled to the ground powerlessly as soon as they reached Jin-Woo’s vicinity.
This man was a ‘monster’. No, at this point, wasn’t he more like a character from some mythical legend, rather than a simple monster?
The commander bore witness to the miracle that kept repeating itself and eventually lowered his weapon. He then spun towards his soldiers and shouted out loudly so that they could hear him.
“All personnel, pull-out!! We withdraw from here, as quickly and efficiently as possible!!”
The adjutants quickly relayed the commander’s new order to the rest of the defence force.
“Pull out, now!!”
“Pulling out!”
This well-trained army quickly distanced themselves away from the potential combat zone. Jin-Woo observed their withdrawal process before shifting his gaze over to the large fissure rapidly developing in the sky.
He could sense it now.
He could sense the intense greed of the enemies wanting to devour this land.
He could even sense their heavy breathing as if they were close by.
For the first time in a while, his Black Heart began pounding hard again to notify him of the entrance of new enemies. A grin formed on Jin-Woo’s face as he summoned his shortswords from subspace.
Soon, they would….
Craaak
Split, crack!!
The atmosphere rocked from an intense impact force and the dimension finally split open. With that, giants seemingly made out of rocks stepped onto this land.
They belatedly discovered a small lifeform below their feet while emitting a thick amount of hostility towards them and began snorting in derision.
[What’s this? Just you alone wish to stop us?]
This feeling – Jin-Woo closed his eyes to enjoy this stillness before the battle and slowly opened them back again.
Ba-thump, ba-thump, ba-thump, ba-thump!
His heart was beating loudly.
He finally unleashed all of his powers and spoke up.
“Does it look like I’m alone to you?”
With that, his shadow extended in the blink of an eye to encompass the vast land behind him, and the Shadow Army of ten million rose up at once.
Chapter 256
Side Story 13
7. A day in Fangs’ life
Gooood morning!!
….Was what I’d like to say, but there was no distinction between day and night in the world of shadows. So, I simply stretched my limbs without saying anything after waking up from my nap.
Yawn-!!
The sleep one could get inside this place, the ‘territory of eternal rest’, was absolutely the best, no two ways about it. Honestly speaking, the majority of the Shadow Army’s soldiers would spend most of their downtime sleeping until our liege summons us.
I should be seen on the side of those who enjoyed napping, but today was a very important day and I just had to rouse myself up. Soldiers stretching their muscles to get ready for the day discovered me and began bowing their heads to greet me.
“Oh, hello, Fangs-nim.”
“Sure, sure.”
“Good day to you, Commander Fangs.”
“Right, right.”
I didn’t want to show it, but heck, I couldn’t help but feel good when this happened.
I came under my liege’s wings relatively early compared to some other soldiers and after my various accomplishments were recognised, I now found myself in the position to command all the magic-wielding soldiers in the army.
The hierarchy within the Shadow Army was determined by how trusted one was by our liege, and that was why Ancient-grade Dragons were paying their respects to a mere High Orc Shaman like myself!
My Sovereign-nim, hooray!!
My exalted and great Shadow Sovereign-nim, hooray!!
‘Tsk, tsk….’
I ended up shouting out three cheers towards my liege again today due to the overwhelming gratitude I felt. While feeling happy and content, I headed towards the portion of the army comprising of ant soldiers.
Quite unlike other Shadow Soldiers, these ants didn’t seem to enjoy napping and were always doing something or rather to keep themselves busy. After finding me visiting their territory, they began bowing their heads in greetings.
“Huh-huhuh….”
I half-heartedly accepted their greetings and quickened my walking pace. If I were to be honest, I felt a wee bit scared by these ant soldiers, even though we were on the same side.
Because, well, not only were they the most vicious and cruel of all the Shadow Soldiers, but they were also scarily diligent with their given tasks, too.
Kkiieek!
Kkiiiahk!
Whenever these ants screeched out those sounds containing meanings that were lost on me, I couldn’t help but flinch my shoulders just a little.
‘If it isn’t Beru Marshal-nim, just who would be capable of commanding this lot….?’
Thankfully, Beru Marshal-nim in question must’ve read my mind, because I didn’t have to walk far to meet him, who had graciously come out to greet me as well.
When our gazes met, though, his shoulders began quivering ominously.
“Kiieehehehehehet.”
“Ehehehehe.”
“Kii-hahahahahat!”
“Ehehehehehet!!”
We stood face to face while laughing to our hearts’ content.
Judging from the expression on Beru-nim’s face, a very satisfactory item must’ve been created. So, it was only obvious that a big smile would form on my own face too, as it was me who entrusted the creation of that item to him in the first place.
Beru-nim quickly approached me and then, showed me the ‘item’ hidden behind his back.
“So, what do you think?”
I was so moved by my emotions that I ended up exclaiming out loudly.
“Hoh!!”
The item that I requested Beru-nim who possessed excellent crafting skills, with its creation even at the risk of inconveniencing him! A robe with a hood attached that resembled what our liege wore not too long ago had been completed and was waiting for me.
“Kii-hehehehet!”
“Ehehehehet!”
I threw off the robe on my body right away and put on the brand new one Beru-nim handed over.
The best!!
Was there a need for any other description than these two words?
I couldn’t control my overflowing, heightened emotions and addressed Beru-nim with an abashed voice.
“I can’t even imagine how should I go about repaying you for this, Marshal-nim…”
“Keh-hehehet. How can I turn a blind eye to your wish to become more like our liege? As long as you’re happy, it’s all good.”
“Yes, I am truly happy. So much so that I’m almost tempted to make it a duty of every Magic Soldier to wear this robe, Marshal-nim.”
“Kii-hahahahahat!”
“Uwehehehehet!”
Beru-nim couldn’t control his laughter for a long time, but then, he fixed his gaze on me as if he had discovered something else.
“That thing…. Wouldn’t it be better to turn that item into a staff rather than walking around with it in your hand?”
What Beru-nim was pointing at was the ‘Bead of Avarice’ I carried in my right hand most of the time.
“Heuh…. Does that mean I can entrust you for this one as well….?”
I was sheepish, but still, I presented the Bead, but Beru-nim raised his hand to stop me.
“I can’t help you with magical artefacts. Unless you bring me a living kin of the bearded Dwarves, then the story might change.”
“Ah…. I see.”
“Since we’re talking about it, how about entrusting the job with the bearded Dwarves? They might be pretty terrible at warfare, but they are still talented artisans, aren’t they?”
“…..”
I rubbed my chin and pondered this dilemma, and eventually, nodded my head.
“That is a good idea, Marshal-nim.”
“Kii-hehehehet!”
I bowed my waist 90 degrees to express my gratitude towards Beru-nim and his excellent work, before quickly making my way out of the ant’s area. This time, my steps took me to the area populated by my friends, the Dragons.
We grew quite close after comparing our firepower, you see. I explained to them my circumstances, and they willingly stepped forward to lend me aid. I chose the smallest of my friends and climbed up on his back.
There was only one reason why I chose this guy. Well, I was cursed with short legs so if I mounted a friend with a bigger body, I might have to suffer through the terrible pain of my groin being torn in half, that’s why.
Soon, my Dragon friend flapped its wings and flew up in the air. I pointed in the direction where the bearded Dwarves were residing.
We were currently inside the world of eternal rest. It was wide enough to be called infinite, and on top of that, there were ten million soldiers residing here, so some places could only be accessed after borrowing the abilities of my friends like this.
Flap, flap….
As the Dragon friend flew rapidly to our destination, I sneaked a glance below us and oh boy, there sure were lots of soldiers below us.
‘There is… Grand-Marshal-nim.’
Slap, slap!!
“Stand up straight, Titans!!”
Currently, Bellion Grand-Marshal-nim was using his long sword that could be manipulated by one’s mind like a whip to properly re-educate the newest additions to the army.
The newbies must’ve been fairly renowned back in their own world and that resulted in them still being influenced by their old habits, which meant that Grand-Marshal-nim would have to strictly discipline them for a little while longer.
“….Ah!”
Bellion-nim discovered me and my Dragon friend in the air and waved his hand at us, necessitating me to hurriedly bow my head to him as well.
After we flew past the location of the newbie training area, I spotted Igrit-nim. He was so immersed in studying that he failed to notice a Dragon flying above his head. We couldn’t disturb Igrit Marshal-nim when he was being like this, so we did our best to get out of there as quietly as possible.
Kii-ahhk!
Once we put the areas with Marshal-nims behind us, my Dragon friend unfurled its wings even wider and increased his speed.
A truly wonderful scenery greeted us!
Countless Shadow Soldiers, now no bigger than ants in our eyes, went past in a blur below us.
Soldiers that were asleep; soldiers that were in the middle of training; soldiers noisily chatting away; soldiers playing cards to while away time; and even those soldiers busy grabbing at each other’s collars, their voices getting louder still….
What a colourful bunch they were.
Indeed, soldiers of all varieties could be seen below my feet. It wasn’t originally like this, however.
We were psychically connected to our liege’s mind, and as his powers grew stronger and stronger, we began to grow closer in personality to him, as well. Meaning, we who only knew and desired wanton destruction were gradually learning more about our liege’s human side.
The process of many new and different emotions of a human filling up our once-empty chests was quite a refreshing experience, that’s for sure.
When our liege’s heart begins to pound, even our hearts would go on a riot alongside it.
I liked my liege very much.
I could only express my gratitude to my liege who had shown me a new world that I never ever imagined experiencing before.
My Sovereign-nim, hooray!!
My exalted and great Shadow Sovereign-nim….
‘Eh?’
While I was unconsciously exalting my liege after being moved by my emotions once more, we had already arrived at the area populated by the kins of the bearded Dwarves.
Perhaps fitting for our comrades that enjoyed crafting things, they had managed to construct a proper village, what with houses and smithies, as well as other buildings dotting the landscape.
Flap, flap.
After my Dragon friend landed on the ground, I cautiously stepped down, my toes wiggling and searching for solid footing.
“F-Fangs Commander-nim!”
“Commander-nim?”
The bearded Dwarves discovered my sudden, unannounced visit and quickly gathered around before politely bowing their heads. I was pretty sure that they were flustered by my presence, since it would be very rare for a Commander to come visit this far-flung ‘frontier’ area.
I politely explained what my situation was to these very courteous folks. When I was finished, their Elder replied with a bright expression.
“Ah, I see…. Please, leave it to us. As a matter of fact, we were troubled by the fact that we couldn’t find a good place to use the divine timber our liege had bestowed upon us.”
“Hoh-oh!”
It seemed that the right material had been prepared already.
While I was being treated to a cup of warm tea at the residence of the Elder, other artisans gathered together to craft my new weapon.
“What do you think, Commander-nim?”
The Elder confidently presented a cool-looking staff and I cried out as another bout of emotions overwhelmed me.
“Hoh-ohhhhh!!”
I had no choice but to carry around the Bead of Avarice in my hand, but that beautiful thing glowing in bright crimson hue was now decorating the end of this great staff.
“Very good! It’s wonderful!”
My mood lifted up so much that I almost flew away from there. And as I took hold of the staff and assumed several different poses, the corners of the Elder’s lips curled up.
“The word wonderful would better suit the robe you’re wearing right now instead of the staff, Commander-nim!”
“Uwehehehehehet! I see that you too have a great sense of fashion!”
I was able to leave the residential area of the kins of bearded Dwarves in utter satisfaction. I watched them wave their hands to bade me goodbye and raised my thumb up real high as my reply.
If, in the distant future, my liege asked me about the coolness of this staff, then I swore in my heart to mention their hard work in crafting this item.
I went back the way I came and returned to the area of the Magic Soldiers. The first thing I did was to summon all the Magic Soldiers under my command and showed off my new robe and weapon combo.
“It’s really cool, Fangs-nim!”
“It’s the best!”
“I can’t stop my tears from gushing out, Fangs Commander-nim!”
Rather obviously, praises kept pouring in from everywhere. It was the romance of all Magic Soldiers to wear cool-looking robes and hold cool-looking staffs, after all!
“Uwuhuhuhuhut!!”
I magnanimously shared my joy with the rest of the Magic Soldiers, and then, gifted the highest-quality robe I used to wear until recently to this one particular soldier busy clapping his hands who said a moment or two ago that he couldn’t stop crying.
“Thank you, thank you, Commander-nim!!”
“Uwuhuhuhuhut!!”
He was expressing his joy with his entire body and I lightly patted his shoulders. But it was at this point that my eyes caught the sight of a few big guys that I hadn’t seen before.
“And who you guys might be?”
The giants made out of rocks scratched the backs of their heads, and one of them spoke to me in an awkward voice.
“Bellion-nim ordered us to come to this place.”
‘Ah, ah. I see.’
It seemed that there were a few Magic Soldiers among the ranks of the new additions to the army. But then again, wouldn’t such a big guy shooting magic spells around be a waste of his hulking…. No, hang on a minute, that wasn’t something I could say with a straight face, now was it?
In any case.
There was this one process that all newbie Magic Soldiers had to go through if they were to be put under my command.
“There, there. Other Magic Soldiers, you’re dismissed for the time being. The newbies, settle down there for a second.”
The rocky giants were so well disciplined that they politely knelt down on the spot and quietly waited for me.
“From now on, I shall describe in detail what I’ve accomplished during the first battle our liege fought against the horrifying enemy called the Dragon Emperor, and then, every achievement I earned during the ensuing battle within the gap between dimensions. Listen well, and then…..”
After I finished telling them the lengthy tale of my unforgettable history, I had the newbies still stewing in admiration towards me return to their respective posts. It was then that I realised my day had come to an end.
I sensed the encroaching embrace of Lady Sleep, so I unfurled the bedding, lied down on it, and let out an almighty yawn.
“Yawn-!!”
I liked wonderful clothes, cool weapons, or telling stirring heroic tales, but what I liked the most at the end of the day was to fall asleep. Especially for sleep that closed out a day like today, which was hectic, to say the least.
I pulled the duvet right up until my neck and slowly drifted into my slumber while being embraced in this wonderful warmth. But then, just as the sleepiness sneaked its way closer and carried me off to the land of dreams, someone suddenly began shaking my shoulders!
How dare he?!
How dare anyone try to disrupt the sweet slumber of Commander Fangs?! My eyes shot wide open as I got ready to rip the idiot apart.
“…?”
Igrit Marshal-nim was quietly looking at me from near my head.
“I love you, Marshal-nim.”
“….I am also grateful for your sincere loyalty.”
“By the way…. What brings you here, Marshal-nim?”
I pushed my upper torso up and Igrit Marshal-nim pointed to the distant sky above.
“It’s about to begin. Didn’t we, the Commander-grade soldiers that serve our liege from close by, agree to cheer him on when the time came?”
“Heok!!”
I kicked the duvet off and hurriedly jumped up before raising my head towards the sky. Like a gigantic movie theatre, the sky morphed into a screen to share what our liege was viewing to the rest of us.
“Finally, is our liege about to meet Lady Hae-In?”
“That’s correct.”
“Uwohohohot!!”
So moved by the fact that I was allowed to share this historical moment together with my liege, I ended up crying out loudly. The rest of the Shadow Soldiers cheering on our liege then also raised their arms high up and roared out as well.
Waaaahhhh-!!!
When our liege’s heart pounded away, ours would pound away as well. I too raised my arms up high and joined in the chorus of soldiers’ roars.
Waaaah-!!
My heart was beating really loud now.
Chapter 257
Side Story 14
8. Only I’m Max Level
Antares was my name.
I was the ‘First Sovereign’ born from the darkness, as well as the ‘Strongest Sovereign’. I was the king that lorded over all Dragon-kind, an existence that signified terror and destruction.
That’s right.
All those who knew me referred to me as the ‘Dragon Emperor’ as a sign of respect and awe.
However, something strange happened.
On a certain day, as I was getting ready to invade the planet called ‘Earth’ alongside the ten million-strong soldiers within our hideout inside the gap between dimensions….
….I opened my eyes to discover that I was now occupying the body of a human being.
‘…….’
And rather inexplicably, I seemed to have retained all the memories of this human, as well. I quickly found a mirror in the corner of the room and took a look at myself, only to emit a shocked gasp.
‘What’s this? Why does this human’s face look so feeble?’
Hah-ah, how pitifully pathetic this man was.
The name of this human was Seong Jin-Woo, a young man acting as a rank E Hunter in a nation called the Republic of Korea. It seemed that this human never gave up on being a Hunter, even though his pathetic level of abilities drove him to the moments of near death quite often.
‘His reason is…. his mother’s illness?’
Just as I began thinking to myself that such a measly little illness would be healed in an instant with my magic, the human’s mobile phone suddenly began vibrating loudly.
Vrrr…. Vrrr….
I discovered the miniature electronic device angrily vibrating on top of a desk and picked it up. When I did, I was greeted by an urgent female voice coming from the other side of the phone line.
– “Seong Hunter-nim, where are you? It’s almost the raid time, yet you still haven’t arrived yet….”
I tried to match this voice to the memories of my human body and soon, came across a result of ‘Hunter’s Association Employee’.
‘Hmph.’
I was thinking of ending this call which was answered purely out of this body’s habitual reaction, but then, what this female said towards the end got on my nerves somewhat.
– “Are you going to be late again?”
‘…..!!!’
Being ‘late’.
The action of failing to meet the promised deadline because one lacked the ability to arrive on time. Meaning, this female just dared to ask me, the mighty ‘Dragon Emperor’ and the personification of omnipotent powers, that I’d do something which was the very symbol of incompetence.
Since this was completely unacceptable, rage quickly filled up my eyes.
“You…. Where are you right now?”
– “What do you mean, where? We are right in front of the Gate, you know. And why did you suddenly stop using the polite speech all of a sudden, Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim?”
I concentrated for a bit to find the exact location where this insolent female was speaking from. My sensory perception spread out to envelop the entire city and soon enough, I found her coordinates.
“Found you.”
– “Pardon? What do you mean by you foun….”
Click.
The location was about 11 kilometres away in the human distance measuring system, and since it wasn’t too far, I ran with all my might and arrived there in only a couple of seconds.
And then, I stopped right in front of that female Association employee as she began lowering the phone away from her ear, now that the call had been disconnected.
“Now, am I still late, woman?”
“H-Hunter-nim?!”
Perhaps she had sensed just a tiny fraction of my limitless power, because she began backpedalling with a deeply frightened expression etched on her face.
I reached out and grabbed her shoulders as to make sure she’d not get away and asked her again.
“Tell me. Am I being tardy now?”
“N-no, not at all.”
“Very good.”
I released her as a look of satisfaction floated up on my face. I then swept my gaze around the surroundings to find a group of Hunters raising a bit of fuss.
Rather than focusing on these unremarkable individuals and their forgettable faces, I focused on the distinct aroma rising up from the paper cups they were holding at the moment.
“Coffee…. I also want to drink coffee.”
I turned around to look at the female employee with her rapidly-paling complexion, and she bowed her waist with all of her heart.
“I-I’m truly sorry, Hunter-nim. We ran out of coffee just now…..”
“It’s not an issue.”
“Pardon?”
Even before she had the chance to raise her bowed heard, I walked over to the closest human and snatched his paper cup away.
“W-what are you doing?!”
Gulp, gulp.
I swallowed the sweet liquid in one go and formed a crumpled expression, causing the flustered man who lost his coffee to me to jump up in fright and quickly flee from there.
“Hahah!!”
The one possessing great powers would take away what the weak possessed, that was the way of the Sovereigns. It seemed that such logic also applied to humans and that certainly made me feel rather refreshed.
“Mister Seong…. Isn’t he acting a little bit weird today?”
“Yes, his eyes today are a bit….”
“Well, I’ve been getting this really creepy, eerie feeling from him since he showed up here.”
Other Hunters were murmuring amongst themselves behind my back, but there was no reason to pay heed to the opinions of these lowly humans anyway, so I outright ignored them.
“There, there. Since everyone is here, let’s get started.”
While the Hunters began stretching their muscles to get ready for the raid, I shifted my gaze towards the ‘Gate’ that these people were scheduled to enter.
‘….’
That place, it… was quite suspicious.
The Gates that appeared on Earth were, without a doubt, the ploy of the Rulers, yet…. Why was I picking up the aura of a Sovereign from there?
There was a need to investigate this. I glared at the Gate with eyes as sharp as a hawk and stood behind the Hunters getting ready to enter.
“I’m coming along.”
“O-of course, you do need to come with us, Hunter Seong.”
Perhaps they too had detected the eerie, chilling atmosphere oozing out from the interior of the Gate, because the Hunters were forming flustered expressions as well. I accompanied them and stepped past the portal.
***
Pow, bang, boom, thud!!
As I began pummelling the fake monsters placed here to hide the real purpose of this dungeon into oblivion, other Hunters began showing me their respect.
“Isn’t Mister Seong acting seriously weird today??”
“No, well…. Maybe the monsters of this dungeon are just too weak…?”
“But, I can’t see his movements. My eyes can’t follow Mister Seong at all….”
I took care of all the monsters in an instant and finally discovered a suspicious entrance.
“We go through here.”
“Hold on, we need to take a vote to decide on such issues…”
This man didn’t get to finish his sentence. Because he lost his consciousness from a single hit from me.
Plop.
I looked down at the collapsed old man before scanning the rest of the Hunters.
“Anyone else want to take a vote?”
“….”
The decision to enter the passage was unanimous. We walked the seemingly-infinite corridor and finally arrived at the giant door at the end.
“But, how can there be a door at the end of the cave?”
“Has there ever been a boss room with a doorway before?”
“No, this is a first….”
“This… wouldn’t this be too dangerous?”
Noisy, noisy….
The Hunters didn’t bother to hide their high level of anxiety. I too had detected the truly scary aura leaking out from the interior and agreed with their opinion that things could get dangerous.
That was why as soon as I opened the door, I grabbed the collar of a Hunter standing at the front of the pack and lightly tossed him inside.
“U-uwahk?!”
The thrown idiot flailed about unsightly on the floor, but contrary to initial worries, nothing happened. Only after confirming that it was safe to enter, I strode right in. The vast open interior waiting for me was decorated like an ancient temple.
“W-what is this place??”
Other Hunters belatedly entered behind me and began searching around, but they were wasting their time doing that.
I closed my eyes for a brief moment and focused my senses; soon, I discovered the b*stard that was basically the true puppeteer of this place.
“It’s that one over there.”
Hunters quickly gathered in front of an angel statue holding a stone tablet that I pointed at.
“Looks like something is written on the tablet?”
“Uh, uh? It’s the Rune letters!”
It seemed that a Hunter capable of reading the Rune letters were not present among us, so I read it out loud for them, instead.
“The Laws of the Karutenon Temple.”
When I did, though, someone suddenly pulled at my arm. I looked behind me only to find a young girl with a completely pale complexion standing there.
“T-the god statue over there, it….”
“Unhand me.”
I shook off the girl’s hands and continued to read down the stone tablet.
“One, worship the god. Two, exalt the god. Three, prove your piety. Those who do not keep to these laws shall not leave this place alive.”
It was at that exact moment two beams of crimson light shot out from the eyes of the gigantic god statue sitting in a corner over there.
Zzzziiinnng-!!
I didn’t even bother to dodge or block those beams and simply stood up proudly to clash face-to-face with the attack.
“You dare to belittle this Emperor with so little power?!”
I ridiculed the destructive power of the beams that didn’t even come anywhere remotely close to that of the Breath fired by an Ancient-grade Dragon, before stepping forward to display what true destruction looked like.
Kwahaaaaaaahhh-!!
The ‘Breath of Destruction’ fired out in a straight line from my mouth completely blew away the head of the god statue.
“Now that is true power.”
That served as the starting signal. The statues lining up the walls of the temple like some decorations began rushing towards me while ignoring other Hunters.
“Keuh-hahahahaha!!”
What a bunch of arrogant dolls!
With nothing but my bare hands, I began smashing apart the heads of the statues pouncing at me one by one.
Boom! Bang! Boom! Kwa-jeeck! Ka-boom!!
“Too slow!! So slow!”
Hunters quickly lowered themselves to the floor in order to dodge the debris flying all over the place. Some of them even began crying out, too.
“Why! Why does it feel like there was another way?!”
“What was up with those laws or whatever just now?!”
Even before their desperate cries could come to an end, most of the statues were turned into nothing more than shattered rubble by my hands. It was only obvious, but well, they didn’t even serve their role as a proper warm-up for me.
“Is that all you have??”
The angel statue with the stone tablet suddenly rose up from its seat and loudly shouted out, perhaps incensed by the fact that all of its careful preparation had been rendered useless by my power.
[Y-you b*stard, just what is your iden…..]
“Silence!”
I yanked the spear loose from the grip of a broken statue and threw it straight at the angel. In less than a blink, the spear penetrated through the neck of the b*stard and it collapsed down to the floor.
I didn’t come here to converse with a fake. What I wanted to bring out was the true figure hidden behind the scenes!
“Reveal yourself, you coward!”
I got rid of all the hindrances and roared out loudly, and that prompted the headless god statue to quietly raise itself up off its throne.
Indeed, that’s better.
The corners of my lips curled up as the sensation of boiling blood coursed throughout this body. The god statue strode closer and stopped right before me to look down.
[The Sovereign of Destruction, our paths were fated to cross like this. Here, in this place, I shall put an end to our ill-fated relationship!]
“Ha-ha!! Now that is an excellent idea!”
The god statue was rapidly enveloped in a jet-black aura and transformed into a gigantic shadow, and I unleashed all of my strength in order to contend with that massive hunk of power.
An ecstatic jolt coursed from the tip of my toes right up to the ends of my hair.
“Come!”
Our battle would not end that easily!
***
“Heok?!”
Jin-Woo hurriedly raised his upper torso from the bed.
He spotted the familiar bed, familiar wallpapers, familiar ceiling, and his old computer. He quickly took a look around and finally realised that the place he woke up was in his own room.
‘It was a dream?’
It was a truly rubbish dream where he had become the Dragon Emperor. No, should he say that the Dragon Emperor became him, instead?
‘Hold up….’
He hurriedly confirmed the current time with his smartphone and sighed in relief afterwards. There was still some time left before the beginning of the exams.
‘Now that I think about it… It’s been four years already since I got rid of the Dragon Emperor.’
Time flew by in the blink of an eye, and here he was, scheduled to take the College Scholastic Ability Test later today. Him having a crap dream like this was good evidence of how tense he felt right now.
Smirk.
Jin-Woo chuckled helplessly for a moment there before getting up from the bed. Today, he’d get to confirm the fruit of his hard work and determination of the past four years.
He had already decided on which university he wanted to go to. Because this one person he just had to meet would attend that institution later on.
‘What a relief that you aren’t so good with studying, Jin-Ho.’
Yu Jin-Ho.
Jin-Woo reminded himself of the name of the guy he dearly missed and pulled open the curtains covering up the windows to the side. The dusky aura of the dawn was gradually fading away outside.
‘I shall go there first and wait for you.’
Jin-Woo breathed in the winds of the early morning entering through the open gap of his window while thinking about the reunion that’d take place in the near future. It was at that moment when the door to his room was pushed open, accompanied by the loud, hurried footsteps.
“S-son, you know that today is the CSAT day, right?”
“Son, as your father, I can take you there, you know?”
His parents couldn’t catch a wink during the night, worried that their son might end up missing out on this all-important exam because he woke up a bit late today. Jin-Woo looked at their haggard faces and gently smiled while nodding his head.
“I’m ready.”
[Let’s go, my liege.]
Jin-Woo soon stepped out of his home as Igrit, sounding tense for some reason, spoke words of encouragement.
What a refreshing morning this was.
Chapter 258
Side Story 15
9. I’m going there to meet you right now (1)
The United States of America, inside the official residence of the nation’s president – the White House.
Several bigshots gathered in this iconic white building created for the President of the U.S. of A to live and work.
“….”
Every single one of these important government officials occupying a spot inside the briefing room all carried tense expressions. Among them, one person carried the gloomiest expression.
The American President continued to rub his face, wondering over and over again if he had made the right call.
‘Rifts formed on an empty sky, and unidentified objects began appearing from there.’
It was an unprecedented historical event. But, was it the right thing to handle this incredible event without saying a word to the public at large?
No, before that, did they even possess the capability to deal with ‘the objects that came out’ from there?
All he could do was anxiously wait for the arrival of the commander in charge of the operation. And, when the entrance to the conference room opened up and General Chester Harrison entered, the President quickly got up from his seat to welcome the military man.
“Harrison, just what the hell happened back there?”
The final report sent in from the location of the event was…
– The situation has been normalised. I repeat, the situation this side has been normalised.
….That report, sadly enough, lacked the most important ‘how’ of that normalisation process.
That was why so many bigshots, including the POTUS himself, were nervously waiting for the arrival of the military man inside this conference room.
Chester mouthed a brief greeting to his boss and scanned the room for a short while, and stood in front of the room.
“Rather than me trying to describe the situation to you, it’ll be far quicker to play the video contained in here.”
What he was holding was a small USB stick. The President grew curious about its contents in an instant and hurriedly nodded his head.
Not just him, though, but everyone present within the room was staring at the tense-faced general’s hand. He slotted the USB stick in the terminal and video footage began playing on the giant screen installed on the wall of the conference room.
“This is the footage captured by the surveillance drones and robots.”
Chester Harrison spoke those short introductory words and stood beside the screen while swallowing down his own nervous saliva.
He couldn’t even begin to imagine how these folks would react to the footage about to be played. Well, he’d seen it several times before coming here, and he was still unsure how to take it, even now.
However, what was really important here was that it did happen.
The evidence of that was contained within this USB drive, and as the commander in charge of this operation, it was his duty to reveal it to this gathering of higher-ups.
The beginning of the footage started off with the ‘cracks’ in the sky.
“Keu-heum….”
“Huh-uh!”
Several gasps of shocks came from here and there as giants seemingly made out of rocks emerged from the rift reminiscent of dimension itself shattering away.
If it weren’t for the heads-up they received in regards to the existence of those bizarre creatures, the inside of the conference room would’ve descended into pure chaos by now.
But the truly shocking scene happened after that. In front of terrifying giants, ones so scary that you’d forget to even breathe while looking at them, stood the lone figure of a person.
‘Judging from his body size…. a boy?’
‘An East Asian, maybe?’
The Secretary of Defense couldn’t hold it back anymore and pointed at the screen while asking his questions.
“That man!! Who is that man?? Where were our troops, Harrison? And why was there a civilian standing in the middle of those creatures?!”
It was as he said; this footage wasn’t a record that everyone in this room was expecting to see in which the mightiest army on Earth – the American military – smashed apart and drove back the creatures of another world.
No, this video was all about a lone, nameless man whose face they couldn’t even see.
With excellent timing, the screen now showed pitch-black ‘soldiers’ suddenly rising up from the ground behind that lone man. General Chester Harrison, his gaze fixed to the screen until then, spoke as if he was letting out a pained moan.
“….I’d like to know that myself as well.”
***
“Does it look like I’m alone to you?”
When those words came to an end, nearly ten million Shadow Soldiers simultaneously lined up right behind Jin-Woo.
The number of Titans that emerged from the rift in the sky was around several hundred. So, it was ten million versus a few hundred. In any other normal circumstances, the ‘ten million’ should’ve easily overwhelmed the opposition with this number.
The problem today, however, was the fact that each Titan possessed powers equal to that of higher existences.
Ba-thump, ba-thump!!
Facing a battle for the first time in a long while, Jin-Woo’s heart began pounding away quite loudly. He sent a mental communication to Fangs, currently in charge of commanding all the Magic Soldiers.
– How are your preparations going so far?
[There is no problem on this side, my liege.]
Not just Fangs, but all of the Magic Soldiers were entrusted with performing and maintaining magic spells to minimise the shock waves that no doubt would be generated by this battle.
He had no choice but to do this, since this world had no Mana, and it was simply far too fragile as it currently was.
Also, the uninvited guests came here with the purpose of literally devouring this planet, so they wouldn’t go about flinging around unnecessarily powerful magic spells, either. Inevitably, the battle about to take place would be a confrontation involving physical powers between allies and enemy forces.
A contest of pure raw strength, in other words.
– Good.
Thankfully, he didn’t dislike such a type of fighting, to begin with. A smirk formed on Jin-Woo’s lips.
One of the Titans completely misinterpreted the meaning behind that smirk and in the blink of an eye, smashed its fist down in pure rage.
BOOM-!!
Too bad, the target – Jin-Woo – had already risen up in the air. He had lightly jumped up like a pole vaulter and settled down gently on top of the Titan’s fist like a falling feather.
‘……?’
This Titan’s expression hardened and a sense of ominous foreboding crept up along its backside after seeing that smile etched on the human’s face as he stood upright on top of its fist.
Sure enough, the human began dashing forward on top of the arm next.
Pah-bababaht!
His legs were moving so fast that even the Titans, possessing as much power as higher beings, couldn’t react in time. And when they did, Jin-Woo was already well past this particular Titan’s shoulder, heading straight to the back of its neck.
Soon, the shortsword held in his hand penetrated straight into the Titan’s rocky neck.
[Kuwaaahk!!!]
It was almost like scratching the paint of a car with a coin. While gripping tight the shortsword still buried in the neck of the gigantic creature, Jin-Woo ran towards the other shoulder, leaving behind a long, long line on the poor thing’s skin.
Kwa-gahgahgahgahgahk!!
The black aura loaded on the blade cleanly separated the head of the Titan from the rest of its body.
Riiip!
Jin-Woo stood tall on the shoulder as the huge head rolled off its body, and he provocatively glared at the other Titans. He could sense rage, fluster, and fear creeping up on their expressions.
One at a time….
Memories, as well as the feelings he had while hunting down the Army of the Chaos World in the gap between dimensions, floated back up in his head one by one.
He knew he had succeeded in breaking the fighting spirit of these creatures.
His original goal was the complete annihilation of the race of Titans. And so, he finally had his Shadow Army break out of its standby mode and enter the fray.
‘All personnel, advance!!’
The will to fight from the enormous army beginning to make its move could be felt from below.
Waaaaaaahh-!!!
‘It’s no good that their leader stops moving here, right?’
At least, that was not his style, the style of the current Shadow Sovereign. Jin-Woo’s sharp glare began searching for his next prey.
Flinch.
One of the Titans that met Jin-Woo’s glare flinched its shoulders.
The enemy that lost itself to fear would be the first one to be devoured. He pounced in that direction while swinging his shortsword, packed full of black aura.
This blade might not have been the ‘Kamish’s Wrath’, but Jin-Woo had been roaming the battlefield for 27 years already, and the control he could exert on the black aura was no longer dependent on the weapons he wielded.
The black aura spreading out from the end of the shortsword stretched out towards his front and completely sliced up the face of the frozen Titan.
Kwa-gah-gahk!!
The giant that got terrified by the overwhelming power of this small lifeform lost its life so easily like that. However, as it turned out, not all Titans were cowards like this guy.
Jin-Woo’s brows shot up in surprise. Right behind the falling body of the dead Titan with its torn-off head, he could now see other Titans throwing everything they had in order to kill him.
He used his ability to fly to dodge beneath the huge fist approaching him from the front, while another one sharply digging in from his back was avoided by him flying up.
The skill, ‘Ruler’s Authority’, had now been fully ingrained within his body and he could manipulate it without any restriction whatsoever. The thing was, though, the enemies and their abilities also surpassed his expectations, as well.
The fist of a Titan slammed down like a hammer, and Jin-Woo kicked it away, only to be greeted by the back of a hand flying in from the side. He quickly gathered his arms and got ready for the impact while crouching, to minimise the surface area of his body.
BOOM-!!
In order to ensure that he wasn’t flung away, Jin-Woo yanked at the back of the Titan’s hand that smacked him with Mana. In an instant, that huge hand was pulled towards him and his shortsword, swung without mercy, sliced off the creature’s wrist in one go.
Slice-!!
The Titan grabbed its now-severed wrist and roared loudly to the sky.
[Kuwaaah-!!]
Jin-Woo rapidly approached its neck and stabbed his weapon deep into where the creature’s Adam’s apple should be.
Kwa-jeeck!
One razor-sharp killing move later, and another massive physique came crashing on its backside. Jin-Woo kicked the chest of the toppling Titan and jumped up high, before slicing and dicing the hands of the Titans relentlessly reaching out towards him.
To his side!
He dodged the edge of the Titan’s hand, swung with all of the creature’s might, by flying up, which in turn helped him to find enough leeway to take stock of the current situation.
In that briefest of moments, Titans keeping close to his position crashed into him with their shoulders from both sides.
BOOM-!!
“…!!”
Trapped between the two humongous shoulders, Jin-Woo extended his hands to stop himself from being squashed and then, shoved both of the Titans away with his raw physical strength. Like an unbelievable lie, those two huge figures were pushed away from him.
[Keu-heum!]
[How could he, with such a small body of his?!]
While there were Titans freaking out over the fact that they lost out in the contest of strength, there was also another Titan who was smashing down with its arm as if it was waiting for this precise moment.
While the palm swung downwards viciously as if to crush a bug to death….
“UWAHHH-!!”
….Jin-Woo spat out Mana with a terrifying roar to deflect it away.
The Titan got flustered by the invisible hand suddenly shoving its arm away, only to belatedly realise something.
‘….??’
It realised that there was a massive black fist flying straight in its face.
KWA-BOOM!!
The black aura concentrated on Jin-Woo’s right hand morphed into the arm of a giant before cleanly blowing away the head of the Titan. Soon, he transformed into a giant himself by enveloping his body with the black aura and proceeded to mercilessly destroy the Titans around him.
Like a group of starving wild beasts, the giant shadow and the Titans made out of rocks went on a crazed melee of pure chaos and confusion.
The end result came out pretty quickly.
Right in the midst of the Titans kneeling and collapsing to the ground, the black shadow giant standing tall was busy crushing an arm made out of rock with his pure physical strength after ripping it off from one of its victims.
Wu-duduk!!
Maybe they finally had enough of Jin-Woo’s fighting spirit, the Titans surrounding him began backing away one step at a time.
‘….?’
Jin-Woo scanned his enemies with puzzled eyes, but then, a Titan even bigger and sturdier-looking than all the rest confidently strode out from among them.
Strangely enough, though….
[Hoh-oh.]
The one to actually speak was a rather small lifeform standing on the shoulder of this particular Titan, instead.
[I now see that even a small planet on the outskirts of the universe can contain a pretty useful talent.]
It was a humanoid made out of rocks that looked like a miniaturised version of the Titans. It threw a rather insidious grin in Jin-Woo’s direction.
[However, the mere fact that you need to increase the size of your body in order to enhance your power is a sure sign of how primitive your species is. On the contrary, we, the Titans, decrease in size when we need to fight with everything we have.]
The talkative creature had both its hands reach out before pointing back at itself as a wide grin formed on its face.
[Fu-hut. Of course, such a thing is only possible for the greatest warriors of the Titan race…..]
It was then.
Jin-Woo was forming an expression of ridicule as he listened to the fool talk, but then, his head quickly snapped to the side.
Flash!!
With excellent timing, a streak of crimson light flew in from behind Jin-Woo and utterly erased the so-called greatest warrior of the Titans from existence.
It was fired by an Ancient-grade Dragon, which was currently being ridden on by Bellion. The Grand-Marshal asked his boss in a bit of fluster.
[My liege, were you perchance conversing with that creature?]
Jin-Woo shook his hand to show that it was all good and shifted his gaze towards Bellion.
“You know, these guys seem to be way too arrogant for their own good, so it looks like you’ll have to pay them extra special attention later on.”
[Please leave it to me, my liege.]
The trusty Grand-Marshal bowed his waist politely before flying away to somewhere else, and Jin-Woo took a sweeping look at the remaining Titans.
Most of the invading rock giants’ higher-levelled combatants had been destroyed by Jin-Woo, and as for the remaining ones, they were being overwhelmed by the black tidal waves created by his Shadow Soldiers.
[Kuwaaaahhk-!!]
[Kuwahk!!]
Loud screams spat out by the giants made out of rocks completely filled up this nameless stretch of the desert.
***
“…”
“…..”
Utter silence.
Could there be any other words that could better describe the current atmosphere pervading within the conference room?
As if someone doused the entire room in icy cold water, it was eerily quiet in there.
The POTUS had become completely speechless after watching the footage. However, he did eventually regain his voice, albeit with great difficulty.
“That man…. Have you uncovered his identity yet?”
The general shook his head in silence.
The true monster capable of toying with those scary-looking monsters ended up saving the United States of America without anyone even realising it.
‘No, maybe the entire world….’
Unfortunately… if you flip the notion of a power capable of saving the world on its head, it also implied that the same power could destroy this world, as well.
The President realised that uncovering the identity of that mystery man, at the very least, should be their top priority and asked the bigshots present within the conference room.
“Is there any way to uncover and confirm the identity of that man from the footage? Anyone?”
They began offering up their opinions here and there, but they all agreed that it was realistically impossible to do so. But then….
“Indeed, it may realistically be impossible. When we are talking about ‘realistic’ means, that is, sir.”
The director of America’s Central Intelligence Agency, David Brennan, raised his voice. The President quickly looked at him.
“…..Is there something you’d like to tell us, Director?”
Director Brennan cautiously spoke up.
“If a realistic approach is impossible, how about we employ ‘unrealistic’ means, instead?”
The bigshots around him tilted their heads, but Director Brennan simply formed a grin.
“We do have a way. A certain person who can inform us of the truths that no one would have known, through fantastical means.”
Could he be talking about…?!
Pretty much everyone living in the United States of America would’ve heard of her name by now. It was an open secret within the world of politics that she had been maintaining a special relationship with the CIA.
The President recalled her name and his brows shot up.
“What you’re saying is….?”
The Director replied confidently.
“That’s right, sir. It’s Madam Norma Selner. Just like before, she will help us with the right answer this time as well.”
Chapter 259
Side Story 16
9. I’m going there to meet you right now (2)
Once more in the United States of America, somewhere in the quiet suburbs on the outskirts of a city. A black saloon car gliding smoothly on a certain road finally arrived at its destination – a small, but cosy and inviting house, with a red roof.
Tap, tap, tap.
The ones climbing out of the vehicle was the Director of the CIA, David Brennan, and his two bodyguards. The director studied the red-roofed residence for a little while before issuing a new order to his underlings.
“You two, wait for me here.”
“But, sir…”
Since these two agents were charged with protecting him, that order was a rather difficult one to accept, but the director’s attitude remained unchanging.
“It’s fine, it’s fine.”
He waved his hand dismissively towards his underlings trying to dissuade him.
“Madam doesn’t enjoy noisy visits like this, anyway.”
Leaving behind his entourage by the car, the director walked alone towards the front door and began fixing his attire. Once he felt satisfied by his grooming attempt, he cautiously knocked on the door.
“Madam? It’s me, Dav….”
Even before he could finish introducing himself, the door opened up and a young African-American child peeked his head out. The director recognised Madam Selner’s grandson and crouched lower to match the boy’s eye level before patting the kid on the head.
“Is your grandma home?”
“She’s been waiting for you, bearded uncle, for a while now.”
David Brennan looked at the child pointing at him and couldn’t help but chuckle gently.
But, of course. Just who was the woman he came here to speak to?
The psychic, the prophet, the real ‘Esper’.
Didn’t matter which title was used, none of them would sound ill-fitting to Madam Selner, the world’s pre-eminent soothsayer. That’s who he came here to see today.
Of course, it wasn’t as if he trusted her words in the beginning.
But then, she began solving serious problems that even the CIA, an organisation at the peak of the cut-throat intelligence world, had given up on with preternatural abilities, and the director had no choice but to stop suspecting her gift there and then.
She was the real deal.
‘A true superhuman…’
So, predicting his unannounced arrival for someone like her would be easier than, say, changing the channel on TV with a remote.
Guided by the grandchild, the director was led into the sitting room where the Madam was waiting for him with a cup of warm tea on top of a coffee table. He politely greeted her.
“It’s been a while, Madam.”
“Good to see you, Dave.”
The director raised his head.
The last time he stepped in here was about a year ago; he took a look around at the interior decoration of the sitting room that hadn’t changed since his last visit before carefully parking his butt on one of the couches.
“Madam, you probably can’t imagine how difficult our work has become ever since you announced your retirement.”
One could say that the information on the past was of no value compared to the information on the future.
The CIA reaped a great deal of harvest by cooperating with Madam Selner, so the sense of loss the agency felt after she retired was indeed well above one’s imagination.
The director might have spoken with a smile as if he was cracking a joke, but his genuine belief, hidden beneath the surface, could be heard if one paid closer attention.
Too bad, the Madam spoke composedly as if she was tiding a young child throwing a tantrum for more cookies.
“Dave, I’ve already told you this, haven’t I? I can no longer see the future after that person arrived.”
“Ah….”
Was she talking about that story of the ‘God of Death’ again?
The director could only smack his lips wryly at the exact same answer she gave every time he asked her.
It was the story about how her powers became useless after an existence powerful enough to twist destiny as he saw fit had descended to this world.
The director forgot what he wanted to say next after remembering her reason for retiring, one that defied one’s attempt to understand through logic.
“….”
And so, silence weighed down between these two people.
David Brennan wondered how he should go about breaking this awkward atmosphere before his nose picked up on the enticing aroma of food.
“Madam, were you in the middle of a meal?”
She slowly shook her head.
“Actually, I have been entertaining another guest.”
“Ah…. I see.”
She didn’t enjoy meeting with people, yet she was with another visitor?
The director tilted his head slightly, but soon enough, made up his mind to stop beating around the bush. The smile on his face vanished next.
“In that case, I shall get right to the point and get out of your hair as soon as possible.”
When he said that, though, the Madam replied as if she was waiting for him.
“The answer to the first question is a ‘yes’, and for the second one, a ‘no’.”
“H-hang on….”
The director could only form a flustered expression when his questions were answered even before he had a chance to say them out loud. She grinned refreshingly.
“You wish to ask me how I knew about your questions if I can’t see the future anymore, am I wrong?”
“….Well, no.”
“Dave. The answers you seek from me are actually the matters of the past. I simply took a glimpse at a portion of the past and provided you with a suitable answer.”
“Oh. Ohh…”
The director nodded his head, a soft moan leaving his lips. She carefully continued on.
“Well, then. Shall I provide you with proper answers to your questions?”
David Brennan pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed the sweat on his forehead.
“Of course. Please go ahead, Madam.”
She then began with her explanations.
“That’s right, Dave. I know just who it is that you wish to find out about.”
Her answer to the first question was ‘yes’. However, her answer to the follow-up question was ‘no’.
“Unfortunately, I will not divulge any information on that person to anyone.”
“But, Madam!”
The director’s voice suddenly grew louder. He wasn’t trying to threaten her or anything like that. It was just that his agitation got the better of him and he ended up shouting out.
“If it’s you, Madam, then you should already know what he has done! We can’t just let someone like that run around without a respo…..”
It was at that moment that the Madam herself shouted out as if she couldn’t hold it in anymore.
“I’m choosing not to say anything precisely because I know!”
This must’ve been the very first time seeing her like this.
The director didn’t know what kind of expression he should form now after being confronted by the Madam’s angry expression for the first time ever. Too bad for him, though, her angry voice didn’t stop there.
“Director, are your eyes just for decorations??”
“Madam!”
“Didn’t you see the footage contained in that USB drive, then??”
“…”
Indeed, he did see it.
He saw the sight of a single human being not even taking a step back while standing up to those frightening giant monsters. The power that man possessed was scary and incredible, but it did rescue humanity back then.
“Would you believe me if I told you…that event wasn’t the first time?”
The Madam formed a serious, nay, a grave expression, and the director’s own expression froze up instantly.
“….”
There was another incident like that in the past??
The moment the director thought of humanity facing extinction-level threats multiple times in the past without him knowing about them, his entire body began shuddering uncontrollably.
But when he pondered it some more, he realised that such a case wasn’t so surprising anymore; even this event had been classified as a top-top secret by the U.S. government and, besides an extremely small number of people related to the matter, no one else knew just what happened or who did what on that particular day.
If that was the case, could he really come out and say with full confidence that no similar things happened in other countries as well?
‘Perhaps, just like what Madam has said, that man really…..’
The director rested his chin on his hand and began pondering something else before raising his head.
“No, I trust you, Madam.”
He only knew her for around three years, but for some reason, he’d sometimes get this feeling that he’d known her for a far longer time than that. That was perhaps the reason why he felt this sense of trust in her. One based on absolutely nothing but his gut feeling, really.
The Madam nodded her head in reply. The director cautiously asked her another question.
“That man from the footage…. Can you assure me that he’s not a dangerous individual?”
She answered him without a moment of hesitation.
“Yes, I can.”
He nodded his head again, alone this time, and as if he finally came to a conclusion, raised his head.
“In that case, I understand. I shall pretend that I never heard you talking about that man.”
The director rose up from his spot while forming a rueful but relieved face.
“Well, then.”
He bade her a short goodbye and turned around to leave, but her warm voice stopped his feet from taking another step.
“Dave, I’ve baked some cookies. Would you like some?”
“Oh….”
He spotted a bag of cookies in her hand, but could only decline the offer with a smile of his own.
“No, I’m fine. Thank you for your offer.”
Now that his official visit was over, his expression reverted to that of a regular, normal uncle. The Madam bade him goodbye with a gentle smile and called for her grandson to guide him to the car.
The child really liked this ‘bearded uncle’ for some reason, so he quickly rushed to the bearded David Brennan and hung on to the older man’s hand.
“I shall come again sometime later, Madam.”
“Be careful on your way, Dave.”
The director, his hand still being held tightly by her grandchild, finally left the residence, prompting the other guest hiding on the other side of the sitting room to emerge into the open.
“Huh. I don’t like that old man. Hey, grandma, should I go teach him a lesson for you?”
He was a giant of a man with slicked-back blonde hair. He took a handful of cookies out from the bag in Madam’s hand and shoved them inside his mouth.
“Thomas, I thought your competition licence will be revoked if you caused another incident outside the ring?”
Thomas grinned sheepishly and chewed on the cookies that filled up his mouth.
Crunch, crunch….
“Well, that is…”
This man was none other than Thomas Andre.
Not many people knew that the current Heavyweight champion of the UFC was one of her very few friends that she chose to keep. If the reporters learned of this fact, they would jump up and down in sheer madness while clicking the shutters of their cameras non-stop.
He emptied out the bag of cookies in the blink but that didn’t seem to fill him up at all, so he took the bag itself and tossed the cookie crumbs down his gullet next. When he was finally done, he opened his mouth to speak.
“Hey, grandma. Can I ask you a question?”
She grinned refreshingly and nodded her head. Thomas rolled the empty bag into a ball as he spoke.
“I’m sure lots of people die through accidents, not just someone like me.”
Especially with car crashes, where innumerable people would die almost every single day. However, almost none of them would receive a phone call from the Madam before that happened.
On that much-awaited off day, Thomas was climbing inside his treasured sports car so he could go for a crazy-fast drive through the back roads. And then, he became one of the very lucky few that did get that fateful phone call.
After answering her call, he hurriedly checked out the tyres of his beloved ride only to find a small nail stuck in one. Thankfully, he avoided getting into an accident, but if he started the car and drove away, then he’d have lost his life, just as how Madam had warned him.
Which meant that Madam Norma Selner was the saviour of his life.
Afterwards, Thomas grew close enough to her to share meals like this, yet what happened on that day still remained a mystery to him.
“Why did you save me on that day?”
Well, she couldn’t possibly have been a fan of the UFC and that prompted her to quickly pick up the phone, so….
Thomas Andre always felt curious about why she went out of her way to help him.
“…..”
Madam Selner looked at him without saying anything after hearing his rather sudden question, before providing a belated answer to her friend, one of the top sports stars in the country.
“Because… you did many good things in your past life.”
“…..I did?”
Thomas Andre, known as the ‘Bad Boy’ of the UFC, no, Devil of the Octagon, did what now?
He briefly wondered if this grandma ate something she shouldn’t have, but then, he decided not to say what popped up in his head after remembering that he owed her big time.
“Hohoh.”
Madam chuckled softly and shifted her gaze outside the sitting room window to stare at the black saloon driving away with the CIA’s director inside. Her grandson was waving his hand at the ‘bearded uncle’ until the car couldn’t be seen anymore.
The ‘relationships’.
Seeing that relationships of the past were being formed anew either consciously or subconsciously by the parties involved, perhaps this ‘fate’ was a real thing after all.
That’s how she felt right now.
After confirming that the director was gone for sure, Thomas plopped down on the very spot on the couch where the leader of the CIA once sat.
“Alright, then. Just what did the man in the video do that an uncle like him came to see you?”
Madam replied in a tone of voice belonging to someone busy putting up still-wet clothes on the washing line.
“He saved the world.”
“…..”
Sometimes, it was hard to tell whether this old lady was joking or was being dead serious.
‘Well, that’s why it’s so fun being around her, anyway.’
Thomas put on the pair of sunglasses he liked to wear all the time, and shifted his now-darkened gaze towards Madam Selner.
“In that case…. What would Mister Hero who saved the world be doing right about now?”
Madam kept her gaze on her grandchild walking back inside the house, a quiet smile forming on her lips.
“Hmm, I wonder…. Maybe he’s enjoying his youth to the fullest somewhere?”
***
Waaahhh-!!
In the location of the qualifying rounds of the track and field competition filled with the heated cheerings of the spectators, featuring schools from all over South Korea.
When the captains of the two rival high school track teams came together on the field, perhaps unsurprisingly, proverbial flames began erupting from the eyes of both men.
“Oiii, Choi Tae-Woong! Looks like you’ve lost your way, doesn’t it!! You even let a freshman enter every type of competition, didn’t you!”
Jin-Woo’s school track team was now facing off against the pointed ridicule belonging to the captain of their long-time rival from Hwaseong Tech High, Joh Gi-Seok.
“I heard that your former ace, Woo Sahng-In, got injured and took a break for a few months. Did that result in your prowess falling so much that you don’t have a choice but to make a freshman your new ace??”
Joh Gi-Seok continued on with his provocation, but Choi Tae-Woong simply smirked brightly and grasped Jin-Woo’s shoulder.
“Soon enough, you lot won’t be able to close your mouths at the talents of this first year.”
“Heee~yah, rather than you guys breaking more records, you got better at cracking jokes, instead!”
Figurative sparks flew in all directions after these two’s war of nerves grew to an intense level. Meanwhile, Jin-Woo was scratching the side of his head with his index finger.
‘With things like this, it’s going to be difficult to stick to my plan of holding back so that I won’t get noticed….’
While Jin-Woo stood there showing just a tiny hint of how troubled he was, Joh Gi-Seok scanned him from top to bottom and received a great boost of confidence from his expression. The corners of the Hwaseong Tech High Captain’s lips curled upwards.
“Here’s the thing, though. What a funny coincidence this is, you know?”
Joh Gi-Seok turned around and gestured towards his team members; when he did, a big dude standing behind them strode forward with an expression filled pure, unbridled confidence.
“You see, we also got ourselves a freaky freshman, too.”
It was at that point that Jin-Woo ended up blurting out a surprised cry after seeing the face of this so-called freaky freshman.
“Uh?”
“Looks like your own freshman can sense it already, no?”
Joh Gi-Seok increased the volume of his voice while placing his hand on the shoulder of the newbie team member who possessed a physique that far surpassed the level of a regular high schooler.
“This kid here, he’s Hwaseong Tech High’s secret weapon, Kim Cheol from the first year.”
Chapter 260
Side Story 17
9. I’m going there to meet you right now (3)
The ‘impulse’.
An overwhelming impulse, that’s what Kim Cheol felt; this powerful impulse, strong enough to nearly blow his reasoning away, almost completely swallowed him up.
‘But….. But how come I…..’
Why did he want to kneel down in front of a kid that he’d never seen before, a student from the same year, but from another school?
In that brief moment, if he didn’t force his ankles and calves to be still with all his might, then he would’ve shown a pretty disgraceful sight to everyone.
Way too close for comfort, indeed.
Kim Cheol couldn’t describe this situation in any other way. Still, he managed to overcome it somehow and wiped the cold sweat pooling on his forehead with the back of his hand.
It was at that moment that a really plausible theory popped up in his head.
‘Could it be that…. I’m scared by a dude from the same year as me?’
If it was not that, then how else could he explain away this current situation where his breathing quickened up suddenly and he wanted to avert his gaze while all strength drained out of his legs, as soon he met his opponent’s eyes?
Too bad, Kim Cheol simply couldn’t accept reality as it was.
‘Don’t make me laugh!!’
By relying on his superior physique surpassing that of high schoolers, as well as physical strength that matched his size, Kim Cheol enjoyed incredible prominence during his middle school days. Yet here he was, getting scared by another kid in the same age bracket?
Such a thing was not possible. No, more than that, such a thing could not be allowed to happen.
“H-hey, Cheol-ah? What’s wrong?”
“You feeling okay, my man?”
The seniors began showing concern for his well-being, and as his reply, veins bulged in Kim Cheol’s throat as he roared out.
“Nothing’s wrong, seniors!!”
‘That’s right, there’s nothing wrong with me!’
Kim Cheol convinced himself of this fact and powerfully nodded his head.
‘Right, I was suffering from a simple dizzy spell because I didn’t have a fulfilling breakfast. That must be it.’
In order to prove right the theory that he just cooked up on the spot, Kim Cheol slowly raised his head and stared straight at the freshman of the opposing school.
Although possessing a pretty well-trained physique, the first-year high school kid standing there was like a stalk of straw compared to himself. Finally regaining some sort of leeway now, a grin floated up on Kim Cheol’s lips.
Smirk.
‘….I knew it.’
Getting scared by a kid that might get knocked out in one punch from him? What an absurd thing that was.
Kim Cheol straightened his slightly hunched figure as the unbridled confidence from earlier on returned to his face.
The members of the Hwaseong Tech High’s track team were feeling worried from the sudden changes Kim Cheol was going through, but they regained their smiles after confirming that their ace had returned to how he was.
“Dayum, you surprised me there.”
“I’m telling you, our ace freshman really knows how to command attention.”
The seniors patted his shoulder to encourage him, and Kim Cheol replied with a confident smile before fixing his gaze back on Jin-Woo.
‘What a disgrace, why did a dizzy spell have to happen at the same time as looking into that guy’s eyes…?’
Kim Cheol began thinking that he needed to return this ill-timed disgrace he suffered back to his opponent tenfold somehow. The best method to overturn an embarrassing situation was to suppress the other’s spirit.
‘…….’
Only now did he notice that, even though he was glaring at the kid, this fellow first-year was being insolent by standing upright and shooting a glare right back.
Not once did Kim Cheol let a moron like that walk away in one piece until now.
“Hey, you.”
He lowered his voice and pointed to the rear of the athletic field with his chin.
“I’ve got something to say to you, so follow me to over there for a sec.”
Oh, ohh-!
While the members of the Hwaseong Tech High’s track team whistled in excitement at their junior’s spirited display, Jin-Woo’s seniors were hurriedly blocking him from disinterestedly following after Kim Cheol.
“Jin-Woo! Listen to me, you mustn’t commit murder!”
“You ain’t thinking of spilling someone’s blood on the day of the competition, right?? You gotta hold it in.”
“That’s right, let’s just think of it as saving a poor soul today and let that kid be.”
Jin-Woo chuckled and gently shook off the hands of his seniors.
“Don’t worry, seniors. I’m sure nothing will happen over there.”
The seniors tried to confirm the safety of his ‘opponent’ once more.
“Really? There really won’t be anything bad happening to that kid, right?”
“We’re choosing to believe you.”
“That friend over there, he’s definitely walking back here on his own two feet, right?”
Jin-Woo smiled brightly in order to put the worries of his seniors to rest and quickly walked over in the direction Kim Cheol had disappeared to.
‘…..’
The captain of Hwaseong’s track team, Joh Gi-Seok, watched all of this unfold from the side and formed a disbelieving expression before walking up closer to his rivals.
“You guys…. You all being serious right now?”
Choi Tae-Woong sneaked a glimpse at Joh Gi-Seok’s face before shifting his gaze back in the direction where Jin-Woo had gone off to and spoke up in a worried tone of voice.
“Don’t talk to me, man. I’m feeling really conflicted right now.”
Choi Tae-Woong had been watching Jin-Woo’s monster-like motor reflexes from a close vantage point, so all he could do now was to fervently pray for that fella named Kim Cheol to not try anything funny for his sake.
***
While walking after Kim Cheol, Jin-Woo’s anticipation grew just a tiny bit. Could it be that this kid also regained the memories of the past, too?
If that was the case, how would human ‘Kim Cheol’, and not the Shadow Soldier ‘Iron’, react to the memories of those days?
Unfortunately, it didn’t look like Kim Cheol had called him over here to discuss their past, judging from the light in the kid’s eyes as he turned around.
“Hey, you.”
The high school kid’s murderous eyes were now looking down on Jin-Woo.
“What, just because I’m wearing a school uniform while standing on the same field as you, you think I’m a pushover?”
Kim Cheol was getting riled up here, but well, the sight of him being agitated like this reminded Jin-Woo of him losing his crap back inside the Red Gate, which caused an unplanned smirk to break out in response.
Sure, he did get annoyed back then, but now, weren’t they all his cherished memories? Too bad, though, Kim Cheol didn’t remember a single thing from those days, and Jin-Woo’s smile didn’t go down all that well with him.
“You son of a b*tch!”
Kim Cheol’s rough hands reached out and grabbed Jin-Woo’s collars in an instant. When that happened, there was a chorus of ‘Waaaah-!!’ breaking out from his shadow, made by the Shadow Soldiers cheering out loudly.
[Yes, Iron is returning to us!]
[Welcome back, Iron!]
[My liege, entrust this lost sheep to me. I, Bellion, swear to re-educate him properly and ensure an event like this will never happen again….]
‘……’
It seemed that there was a real need to teach his Shadow Soldiers about the ways of the modern world. Jin-Woo inwardly tutted and stared deeply into Kim Cheol’s eyes.
Without a doubt, someone was challenging him right now, but maybe because the fond memories of the days when this kid was a loyal Shadow Soldier, Jin-Woo just couldn’t bring himself to despise him.
No, rather than that, he grew real curious about whether Kim Cheol would regain all the lost memories if they came in physical contact here.
‘…..’
The burly high school kid sensed something strange from Jin-Woo’s eyes and inadvertently swallowed dry saliva.
‘What’s going on….?’
If this was in the past, he’d not give a d*mn about being disqualified from the track competition and have thrown a punch by now, since the other guy was seemingly making fun of him.
But, rather than emotions of anger or even the desire to settle the score, a different kind of feeling, thicker and purer than anything else, began to wiggle violently from the deepest part of his chest.
And as Kim Cheol stood there conflicted on what to do next, Jin-Woo slowly and cautiously grasped the boy’s wrist right then.
The ends of his fingers touched Kim Cheol’s skin.
When that happened….
“Uh….??”
Tears began flooding out from the boy’s eyes.
He didn’t know why he was crying all of a sudden, yet the tears didn’t want to stop falling down. Soon, all strength abandoned his legs and he plopped down to the ground.
“B-but, why….?”
Kim Cheol looked up at Jin-Woo.
He was searching for an answer, but all he got in return was a rueful smile from the mysterious boy, instead.
‘If the Sovereign’s memories weren’t shared in the past, then the memories won’t come back even if we make physical contact, huh?’
Unless… he restored the memories forcibly, that was.
Jin-Woo recalled the faces of people he shared his memories with, in the now-erased past.
‘Association President Woo Jin-Cheol, and….’
….And, Madam Norma Selner.
He thought about the distinct possibility that she might have also regained the memories from the erased timeline, and while wondering about that, he turned around to leave.
He no longer had any business with ‘Iron’, no, ‘Kim Cheol’. Because… the kid was living as a ‘human’, and not as a Shadow Soldier, now.
But then, the boy on his knees called out to Jin-Woo and stopped him in his tracks.
“H-hang on….. Wait.”
Kim Cheol wiped his eyes with his hands and hurriedly stood back up. His tears might have stopped, but his nose was still beet-red, but not caring about that, he squarely met Jin-Woo’s gaze shifting back at him so he could speak, his voice choked up with thick emotion.
“This, is this…. what they call love?”
He was being swept up by the sudden torrent of powerful emotions that he had never experienced before. Although he was deeply mistaken about what his feelings were, he was dead serious right now as he had ever been in his life.
“…”
Jin-Woo stared at the boy for a long while in an utter daze, feeling like he’s been struck hard in the back of his head. Eventually, a lengthy groan escaped from his mouth.
“….This won’t do.”
Indeed, he couldn’t let some poor kid live the rest of his life confused about his sexual orientation like this, now could he? When Jin-Woo walked closer, Kim Cheol’s cheeks blushed beet red like a maiden in love.
Unfortunately…
Snap!
All signs of cognition and emotion were wiped from the boy’s face along with the sound of fingers snapping. Kim Cheol’s eyes lost focus and became blurry. Jin-Woo stood in front of him and began inserting new memories to replace the old one.
“Okay, so…. You tried to provoke me, but then found out, coincidentally, that I was the son of your father’s friend’s friend’s friend and that’s how we got to resolve our differences.”
Kim Cheol dazedly nodded his head.
“Oh, and also….”
For a brief moment there, Jin-Woo recalled back to when the kid was still ‘Iron’ and was crying his eyes out as they were about to say goodbye, right before the Chalice of Rebirth was to be used. A thin smile floated up on his lips and he continued on.
“From here onwards, you gotta stop behaving like a bad person, alright? You were one of the guys who fought to protect this world, so be proud of yourself, man.”
“…..Yes, sir.”
After hearing a hushed, soft reply leaking out of Kim Cheol’s lips, Jin-Woo finally undid the hypnosis and let the boy be.
Snap.
“Uh…. Eh?”
Kim Cheol regained his consciousness and stayed rooted in his spot for a little while, utterly confused, only to belatedly discover Jin-Woo’s distancing back over yonder.
As if he was separating again from a friend he met after a long time, Jin-Woo waved his hand in a genial manner.
“Hey, see you again next time!”
“Uh…. O-okay.”
Feeling bewildered by this situation, Kim Cheol waved his hand and smiled along awkwardly as well.
‘Nice.’
Jin-Woo turned away from the kid’s direction, a happy grin forming on his face now. The unexpected encounter with an old comrade had come to a successful conclusion, but it was now time to search for that girl in earnest.
With excellent timing, he heard the announcement reverberating throughout the athletics field.
– The preliminaries for the middle school participants will begin shortly. All athletes, please report to the competitor’s area.
***
Somewhere at the far back of the athletics field, which was quiet and sparsely populated.
A young girl managed to get to the shade of a tree with some difficulty and plopped down on her butt there. Her shaking hands reached down to take off one of her shoes and her sock. Her swollen ankle testified as to what her current situation was.
She lightly bit her lower lips and glared at her ankle, before squeezing her eyes shut and leaning against the tree’s sturdy trunk.
What a blunder it was.
Her shoulder was shoved away by another runner right next to her and that caused her to stumble ungainly during the race. She somehow managed to pass the first round of preliminaries even with this fairly heavy injury, but now….
Now, it was clearly asking for too much to compete again with her leg being like this.
‘I’m furious….’
Indeed, she was.
This might be the last time she competed as a middle schooler, and so, she didn’t want to end the day with an injury.
That was why….
‘That’s why… I should just carry on.’
This was a line of thought that could only be cooked up by the head of an immature middle schooler, who still hadn’t shed the mindset of a child yet.
And it was the role of the adults to stop such a child from going down the wrong path since the dawn of time itself.
“You want to hide your injury?”
The girl flinched grandly after hearing the voice of a male student, walking out from behind the tree, that she failed to detect earlier. This mysterious male student didn’t look at her, but instead, stared into the distance.
“Even though a certain someone competed in that condition, hurt her ankle even more and had to spend over a year to recuperate, but still ended up as a third-rate athlete and could only regret the decision she made today?”
The male student shifted his gaze back to the girl with her wide-open eyes and formed a refreshing grin.
“I was talking about a person that I know, actually.”
Here was a strange guy telling her a strange tale. But the girl, Cha Hae-In, didn’t immediately run away from here and instead, chose to observe the boy for a bit longer.
‘Isn’t he an athlete….? A high schooler, right?’
She could detect a hint of this nice scent coming from the male student for some reason.
As for the identity of that scent, the ‘smell’ of the purest Mana leaking out of Jin-Woo, as well as her possessing a unique constitution that allowed her to sniff out Mana, she’d get to learn about them much, much later on.
As Hae-In grew more flustered by the second, Jin-Woo crouched near her and carefully placed his hand on her swollen ankle.
“Ah….”
She flinched again for a moment there but didn’t resist him all that much, either. And when his hand left her skin, her ankle was completely healed.
She raised up her shocked eyes and stared at Jin-Woo.
“Run without any regrets. You only have one shot, right?”
She shone so brightly as a rank S Hunter fighting against monster threats, but today, her sweating figure under the bright sunlight would shine just as wonderfully.
Jin-Woo smiled and tried to stand back up, only for his wrist to be grasped in a hurry by Hae-In.
“W-wait a minute.”
“…..?”
Could it be that a change occurred with the contact they made just now? Now facing off against Jin-Woo’s curiosity-laden gaze, Hae-In’s face flushed just a little.
“Excuse me, we…. Have we met somewhere before?”
She had to work up so much of her courage just to ask that simple-enough question that even her neck had turned beet-red by the time she was done asking it.
“Let’s run.”
“Eh?”
Hae-In visibly grew confused, but Jin-Woo maintained his grin.
“If you run against me and ever win, then I’ll tell you everything.”
“…..I saw you compete, oppa. I saw you coming in at first place in every preliminary race you entered.”
Jin-Woo smirked and stood back up.
“I’ll take that answer as you giving up.”
But then…
“I-if that’s the case!”
Cha Hae-In worked up her courage once more and made a suggestion.
“The record for the preliminaries about to take place in a bit…. How about you telling me the truth when I break that? Even if it’s not right now?”
Jin-Woo’s head lowered and did his best to suppress his chuckles.
‘Whether she’s younger or older, she’s still so pure.’
While briefly entertaining the idea of breaking the world record for the under-18 track event today, he nodded his head, a warm smile filling up his face.
“Alright, deal.”
Having successfully changed the condition of the bet, Hae-In formed a sunny smile as well.
‘Well, you ain’t going to be smiling later, though.’
Jin-Woo turned around and left her side for the athletics field while continuing to suppress his chuckles from breaking out.
On that day.
Under the bright spring sunlight, the world record for high school male athletes was shattered in what was supposed to be yet another ordinary preliminary race meet.
And the track team Jin-Woo was a part of defeated their rival Hwaseong Tech High on their way to achieving their goal of an overall first place finish.
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