By Zephyria What could one say to someone who was going down a path where they might die smiling? Eight years ago, Jung-bin couldn’t do anything for the young man who entered the West Sea Rift. He couldn’t tell him not to go, let alone offer a single honest word, and he didn’t make any suggestions to the higher-ups. Would his heart have been lighter if he had said even one word to stop him from going?
The past eight years had been a continuous series of regrets.
The young man was young. Anyone could tell he was young. People pretended not to notice, exploited his goodwill and naivete, and finally pushed him in the back. To death.
But now, J has returned and stands before Jung-bin. Looking stronger than before. And he’s about to leave again.
Jung-bin asked with a smileless face.
“Is this a choice forced upon you by someone?”
“No.”
“Brainwashing or pressure?”
“No.”
“A sense of responsibility?”
“…There’s a little of that.”
“You’re saying you’re going to die simply because of a sense of responsibility?”
“Well, there’s responsibility, but…”
J looked up at the sky. The black, swirling Black Hole was slowly brightening. The back of his neck felt cold. Loud siren sounds rang out from everywhere.
Doomsday had begun to stir again.
The phone in his pocket vibrated incessantly. Jung-bin hurriedly took out his phone. J waved his hand.
“It’s okay, answer the phone.”
Jung-bin bit his lip and pressed the call button. An urgent voice poured out information from beyond the phone.
—Prometheus has started moving again, groups are gathering and praying to Doomsday….
—The Whitehole will open its eyes faster than expected!
Meanwhile, J leisurely got up from his seat, lightly jumped up, and stood on the railing. His movements were relaxed, as if he alone had escaped the flow of time.
“I have something to repay that bastard for.”
“……”
“He took something very precious from me.”
Jung-bin half-listened to his subordinate’s report, looking up at the back of J standing on the railing. Gray hair and a black jacket fluttered in the wind. He looked stronger than he had eight years ago.
What happened to you during that time?
He swallowed the words that rose to his throat. He couldn’t erase the past mistakes. But….
“If you’re going…”
He could avoid repeating the mistakes.
He took a deep breath and smiled gently.
“Please come back this time, too.”
He would respect the young man’s will. Even if it was a path to death.
“I’ll be waiting. While doing what I have to do.”
He would do the work that J entrusted to him.
J turned his head while standing on the railing. Jung-bin held out his fist upwards.
“That’s what division of labor is, right?”
J stared at the outstretched fist for a long time. Jung-bin didn’t withdraw his fist even during the silence. He would just wait. For him to answer with his own will.
Finally, J turned his body completely and squatted on the railing.
Thud, fist bumped fist. A small laugh leaked out from behind the black mask.
“I will.”
“Thank you.”
“That’s what I should be saying.”
J tidied up his wind-blown hair.
“Before, you went out of your way to find me, who was stuck in the corner, and talked to me. You even bought me drinks from the vending machine. Well… I couldn’t drink them in front of you, but you were taking care of me, right?”
“……”
“And… you took Lee Sa-young and made him into a person.”
“…Excuse me?”
“No, really. Team Leader and Bae Won-woo-ssi raised that guy’s social skills.”
“…Me?”
“Anyway….”
Click, he lifted the lower part of the mask. Under the mask, a slightly raised corner of his mouth was visible.
“Thank you.”
The short smile disappeared behind the mask. J stood up and balanced himself on the railing again. He bowed his head politely, then,
Jumped down.
Jung-bin blinked, staring at the empty railing.
Wasn’t that a lower face I’d seen somewhere?
Eui-jae shuddered and scratched his arm vigorously. Damn it, his whole body itched after he spilled out everything he had to say and shouldn’t have said.
‘I had to say thank you.’
Did he say too much because he was caught up in the atmosphere? Eui-jae scratched the back of his neck. It was then.
Rumble….
With an ominous cracking sound, the Black Hole shone white. It looked like it would open its eyes soon. Judging from what they said about Prometheus, they must have committed some kind of ritual again. He could already feel the presence of Monsters everywhere.
‘Seriously, those guys are no help at all.’
Eui-jae moved by leaping from lamppost to lamppost. How long it would be open this time, how much damage would occur, everything was unknown.
‘Should I deal with this and go, or…’
Should he go straight to deal with the source? This was a kind of speed war and attrition war. Eui-jae had to choose. At that moment, a sharp voice from below grabbed his feet.
“J!”
It was Honeybee. Eui-jae jumped down from the lamppost and stood facing her. Honeybee had already dealt with a few Monsters and was holding her Rapier.
“Why is Doomsday here already? Wasn’t there still time?”
“Prometheus must be performing some kind of ritual again. The more you mention Doomsday, the faster it comes…”
“…Those bastards.”
“So I’m wondering whether to go there or get rid of Doomsday—”
Honeybee hit J in the back before he could finish speaking. It was a strong smash that caused a stinging pain.
“Ugh!”
“Why are you even thinking about that? Why aren’t you leaving right now!”
“Wh-where…”
“Where else! Can you get rid of Doomsday? Then you have to go. I know Mok Taeo better than you do. I’ll take care of that idiot.”
“……”
“We should each do what we’re good at, right?”
He received the words he had said to Jung-bin right back. Was this how he felt? A small laugh escaped. Eui-jae nodded. Honeybee snorted.
“So, how do you get to Doomsday?”
“Through Big Mouth’s mouth.”
“…Wasn’t that nonsense?”
“It’s real. Why is someone who’s been to the Destroyed world so untrusting?”
“I’d trust it if it was something believable, but this…”
Behind Honeybee’s bewildered face, a light flashed. Bae Won-woo’s huge shield was blocking Big Mouth’s mouth.
“Nice timing.”
“Hey, are you really going?”
“Of course. Bae Won-woo-ssi, open that bastard’s mouth!”
“Y-yes? Ah, I understand!”
Bae Won-woo instinctively followed the order. He put all his strength into opening Big Mouth’s mouth up and down and fixing it. Kang Ji-soo, who followed, also stretched out her hands with a dazed face, creating vines and binding the struggling body. Eui-jae bowed politely.
“Thank you.”
“What? Are you going to get a dental exam? Or did Doctor tell you to catch him?”
“Neither.”
“Then what?”
“I’m going inside.”
“Yes?”
He rubbed the floor a couple of times with his Walker. The Walker, which had been shiny when he first received it, was now covered in ash and scratches. But it was still sturdy and fit his feet perfectly.
Just like Cha Eui-jae himself.
Eui-jae lowered his body slightly. He estimated the distance and height between the Monster and himself. And,
Tap—
He kicked off the floor and ran out. And jumped high. Kang Ji-soo’s eyes widened in surprise, and Bae Won-woo’s face, with his mouth wide open, flashed by in an instant. Strangely, he burst out laughing. His feet were light. Everything that had been binding him was cut off in an instant.
Liberation.
Eui-jae shouted loudly.
“I’ll be back!”
He fell into the opened mouth, towards the endless void.
Immediately after the ends of his gray hair disappeared into the mouth, Bae Won-woo let go of the hand holding the mouth.
“…Ugh?”
He was making an expression similar to the screaming human in the famous painting. Kang Ji-soo’s face was not much different. Big Mouth, whose mouth was free, licked its tongue and smacked its lips. It tilted its head, as if something had gone into its mouth, but it didn’t know what it was.
Bae Won-woo pointed at Big Mouth with mechanical, jerky movements.
“H-hey, h-he, j-just now, just now.”
“…Suicide?”
“Don’t say such scary things, you idiot!!”
“Ack!”
Bae Won-woo flicked Kang Ji-soo’s head and forcibly opened Big Mouth’s mouth again. And peeking his head past the licking tongue, he shouted desperately into the void.
“J-nim! J-nim! J-niiim! Please answer me!”
“Vice Guild Leader… it’s over. Didn’t you see it just now? He was almost a diving athlete. He went in perfectly without even touching the teeth.”
“Shut up! What is J-nim, a golf ball? Huh? Did he get a hole-in-one? Huh? J-nim!”
“Well, he did look like a golf ball…”
Honeybee covered her mouth and muttered. Bae Won-woo took a couple of steps back and collapsed to the floor.
“J-niiiiim!”
His desperate cry echoed through the streets. Kang Ji-soo made a different decision instead of adding harmony to it. There was no way that J, who had dived in after screaming, would pop out.
She tightened the vines around Big Mouth’s body, which J had dived into, and took out her phone and pressed the number.
“Yes~ Thank you for your hard work. This is Wave Guild Hunter Gardner. I’d like to request cooperation from the Rift Management Bureau. Do you have any Monster capture frames left? No, no, not killing them, but capturing them alive. No, it’s nothing special, but someone dived into Big Mouth’s mouth…. Yes? Who did such a crazy thing?”
Kang Ji-soo deftly blocked the phone’s speaker. At the same time, Bae Won-woo, who was lying on the floor, cried out.
“J-niiiiiiim!”
“…If I say the name, will the image? Will something like that be damaged? Yes, I don’t want to be sued… it’s a bit difficult to say… Hey~ you know, it’s not allowed. But it’s an urgent matter. Just this once. Yes, yes. Yes, I’ll send you the location, please dispatch as soon as possible~ Thank you~ Yes~”
Click. Kang Ji-soo, who had hung up the phone, looked up at the pale sky. She couldn’t help but sigh.
‘J-nim, no, J-jjang.’
She narrowed her eyes, covering the sky with her palm.
‘You owe me one…’
“J-niiiiiiim!”
Bae Won-woo’s howling showed no signs of ending. Kang Ji-soo quietly put on her wireless earphones and turned up the music to the maximum volume. Only then did the howling become a little less audible. She leaned her back against the side of Big Mouth, which was wriggling while tied up with vines. Tsk, she smacked her lips.
‘Life isn’t easy.’