Epilogue

Epilogue

Kim Hyun-woo gasped for breath as he wandered the streets. No matter which direction he walked, north, south, east, or west, the same scenery kept appearing. Yet there was a reason he continued walking and searching through buildings. Doing this occasionally yielded food and water. Moreover, even places he’d already searched sometimes had items when he looked again, so he had to keep searching the same scenery until his mind went blank.

“Haah…!”

Today he was lucky. It was bread he’d found after three days. It smelled somewhat spoiled, but even this was something to be grateful for. Just as he was about to tear into it desperately, a kick sent him flying. It was Go Jae-won.

“Fucking bastard, I knew it. You’re eating it all by yourself!”

“Aaaah! No! No! I haven’t eaten any! Me, me too! Give me some too! I’m hungry!”

Whether Kim Hyun-woo protested or not, Go Jae-won devoured the spoiled bread frantically. A stench worse than the bread emanated from him. His eyes were half-glazed, having lost his senses, and at some point, ears, noses, and lips had grown here and there on the back of his head and various parts of his body. Kim Hyun-woo sobbed and begged for just one bite, but he was only trampled on with curses until his bones broke.

Kim Hyun-woo cursed reality. Where on earth did this demon-like bastard come from? It was better when Go Jae-won wasn’t here. Back then, at least he could monopolize the food. The team members were useless idiots who couldn’t help. Shouldn’t they fight against Go Jae-won in this situation? But now they had become like insects crawling on the ground and eating monsters, having lost both speech and reason, making such laments futile.

After greedily finishing the bread, Go Jae-won’s eyes widened. He’d noticed someone watching them from a rooftop. Someone was already there, giggling as they watched. The visitors changed each time, and today it was Joo Ho-young and Yoon Seung-ryong. They were enjoying watching them act so pathetically.

“Aaaaah! Please! Please get me out of here! I was wrong! I was wrong!”

Kim Hyun-woo ran toward them, wailing. But no matter how much he ran, somehow he couldn’t get closer to the building. Joo Ho-young grimaced.

“Ugh, why are you completely naked? You’re going to ruin our eyes.”

Only then did Kim Hyun-woo realize his naked body. And in his clouded mind, he barely recalled that he’d thrown off his clothes because it was too hot. Regardless, without any sense of shame, he sobbed and begged.

“I, I, I’ll go to prison. I was wrong! Pleease, please… send me to prison!”

The heat had recently turned into a searing sensation that tormented him severely. Unable to sleep properly, the pain became even more extreme. Moreover, being aware that his body was slowly twisting due to contamination was truly both painful and frightening. Even then, Go Jae-won was still glaring at Joo Ho-young with wide eyes. Then he fell to his knees with a thud. Soon, without hesitation, he banged his head on the ground repeatedly, pleading desperately.

“Ho, Ho-young! Seung-ryong…! I’m begging you like this. Please… forgive me for old times’ sake. I’ll do anything… You can use me as a slave for life…”

“Those things are talking like humans?”

Go Jae-won’s head snapped up. At some point, Seo Yak-rin had also appeared, arms crossed, watching with a displeased face. Kim Hyun-woo quickly prostrated himself and barked like a dog. Not to be outdone, Go Jae-won made animal sounds too. They couldn’t even think about dignity. They just wanted to escape their insect-like state trapped in this trap. Because sometimes when they were merciful, rewards were given. Otherwise, they wished they would just kill them. They didn’t want to live.

There was one more piercing gaze. It was Lee Chan-ha’s. However, Go Jae-won couldn’t even raise his head in Lee Chan-ha’s direction. Because he knew well that if he upset him even slightly, this place would transform into something more vicious according to Lee Chan-ha’s will.

For example, like this: hard-won useful items would suddenly rot, or perfectly good food would become infested with maggots. Or he’d be fighting monsters hard only to come to his senses and find himself punching a building, or hear insults degrading him personally all day long, etc…

Those were the mild cases. When he barely escaped and went home, only to open the front door and see this scenery again, that’s when he really wanted to collapse and die. But even dying wasn’t up to him. No matter how many times he ended his life, he’d open his eyes again the next day. And each time he attempted death, more terrible ordeals came.

“Excuse me, excuse me…”

A faint voice was heard. It was Park Seung-min appearing from a corner in a terrible state. Gasping as if dying, unable to get even a sip of water in his mouth. Flesh had been torn from bite marks all over his body. He was the only one who hadn’t been affected by contamination, being a purifier even if low-grade. And he was also the purifier who was mercilessly exploited by both Go Jae-won and Kim Hyun-woo every day.

“Yo, Yohan, I have something to say to him. Please call Yohan… I really have something to say. Something important. I still haven’t finished paying back all the money.”

Park Seung-min also begged and begged in despair. But the response was cold. Lee Hyun-muk, who had appeared at some point, said:

“That won’t work. Our Yohan said he never wants to see you again.”

Besides these people, there were others who had fallen into this hell. Hwang Young-chul and Kim Jong-seok. They too wandered the streets, unable to die, but being civilians, their contamination progressed so quickly that their original appearances were now unrecognizable.

“Aaaah! Please! I’m begging you like this! I want to die! Kill me! Just kill me instead!”

Park Seung-min wailed in despair. Every time he slept, he dreamed the happiest dream. A life of awakening as a high-grade purifier, receiving everyone’s praise and living luxuriously. It was more vivid because it wasn’t just a dream but something he’d actually experienced. And every time he woke from that short, sweet dream, he despaired terribly. Reality was too miserable compared to the dream.

In front of these people wailing from their different kinds of terrible despair, Lee Hyun-muk took something out. It was a bag containing several syringes. The crying of those less than beasts stopped abruptly.

“When I first got this, I hoped we’d never have a situation to use it… But maybe Yohan brought it knowing we’d use it at a time like this. Do you know what this is?”

Lee Hyun-muk, speaking in a gentle voice, somehow looked more human than before. But that wasn’t very important to them. With everyone focused, Lee Hyun-muk kindly informed them, his eyes narrowing long.

“It’s morphine.”

Morphine…! At the name of the powerful narcotic painkiller, greedy expressions appeared on their dirty, blotchy faces. It was the only thing that could make them forget this pain even a little. Lee Hyun-muk tossed a syringe in front of them.

“Aaah! It’s mine! Mine!”

“Fucking bastards! Get lost, you sons of bitches!”

Everyone enjoyed watching them fight like demons, biting and tearing at each other. The winner among them was Go Jae-won.

“Ah, ahhh…”

Go Jae-won’s body went limp after quickly inserting the syringe and injecting it. He swayed in the peace that had come after so long. He even ignored Kim Hyun-woo, who was screaming and beating him after having the painkiller stolen right before his eyes.

“Now, you want more of this, right?”

Before their bloodshot eyes, morphine syringes were thrown one by one. Not close like before. They were scattered far away in different places, invisible to them. Seeing this, they screamed and ran toward where the syringes had fallen.

“Haha!”

Watching that, Lee Hyun-muk laughed for the first time like someone taking revenge. Anyway, the morphine from earlier was the only real one; the rest were all syringes filled with water. And did they know? That this moment was the less hellish one…

They would be trapped in the rift forever until the day they were eventually consumed by the abyss. When that happened, they could never return here again. Even Park Seung-min, a low-grade purifier, would have his limits since even Yohan, a high-grade purifier, had struggled with this place.

In a place where even Lee Hyun-muk with his firm will and colleagues who had formed deep bonds had fought—could these people endure to the end?

“Let’s go. Our youngest is waiting.”

Seo Yak-rin, already losing interest in the vermin-like traitors, grumbled. Lee Hyun-muk also agreed with the talk of his lover waiting, so he didn’t look back. No matter how much he laid down his shadow, he didn’t want to leave Yohan alone.

Yohan was waiting obediently in a nearby van, maintaining his weapons. On his spear, an eternal stone that Seo Yak-rin had painstakingly found and maintained sparkled. Lee Hyun-muk felt slightly disappointed that it wasn’t a black-and-white eternal stone. However, thinking that splitting and giving away his eternal stone had contributed to that previous disaster, he restrained his greed.

“Did you all have a good trip?”

Even knowing they had gone to take cruel revenge, Yohan didn’t specifically ask but just welcomed them warmly. Everyone sat down after patting Yohan’s head once. Yohan, now accustomed to this much, received their touches and put down his weapon composedly.

“Let’s go eat samgyeopsal today!”

“Aren’t you tired of that damn samgyeopsal?”

Seo Yak-rin, sitting in the driver’s seat, scolded Yoon Seung-ryong’s suggestion. Though she often got angry and seemed like she’d drive recklessly, she was surprisingly an exemplary driver. Yohan quietly cast his vote for Yoon Seung-ryong.

“I like samgyeopsal too.”

“If Yohan likes it, I like it too.”

“I don’t care what we eat~”

Joo Ho-young, absorbed in his game console without getting carsick, cast his vote in favor. However, they ended up not eating samgyeopsal. A call came in about a high-grade monster appearance. The van heading downtown immediately changed direction.

The location where the high-grade monster appeared this time was northern Seoul. Since successfully reclaiming the north with Yohan’s cooperation recently, Team Sun had become busier than before. Unlike when they used the Han River as a boundary, monsters kept coming down from the north. As they headed to the helicopter landing site, Seo Yak-rin complained irritably.

“Why can’t we just go in and sweep everything clean?”

“It almost collapsed but hasn’t completely collapsed yet, so there’s nothing we can do.”

Lee Chan-ha answered indifferently. After the first great rift, several countries couldn’t endure and collapsed. North Korea was one of them, and after that day, the dictator’s family fled abroad.

Yet when South Korea said they would subjugate the North Korean land because of the monsters constantly coming down from the north, they strongly opposed it, so negotiations were ongoing. Though it was already ruined land, the government was still trying to keep the noise down as much as possible, but to Team Sun, it was just annoying.

Soon the van arrived where the Special Forces helicopter was waiting. Yohan, now fearless, boarded the helicopter and looked out the window. Admiring the peaceful scenery of southern Seoul, he recalled events from not long ago.

That day, the chaos Lee Hyun-muk caused was somehow settled well. It was an incredibly huge incident for something done by an individual. Moreover, since the government had shot down all the drones at the time, no one really knew the truth of the incident. So it was announced to the public that Team Sun had resolved a great rift that appeared in an unusual form.

However, those higher up seemed to have somewhat grasped the truth. According to Lee Chan-ha, after that, the operations against Team Sun disappeared completely.

That was because Lee Hyun-muk’s endlessly expanding shadow had covered even Yeouido. What those who had been safely staying in residences near the Rift Management Agency and in Yeouido’s bomb shelters heard, saw, and experienced after being sucked into the shadow, and what measures the Sun Guild took after that day—the team members didn’t tell him exactly. Yohan didn’t particularly want to know either…

Anyway, after that, they had been groveling to the point of being servile, so Lee Hyun-muk even made this joke:

“We should have done this from the start.”

Hearing that, Yohan thought: No… Even so, it wasn’t particularly something I wanted to experience…

Anyway, after that, everything went smoothly. Besides the video that Park Seung-min had desperately begged not to be released, various other videos became known. Criticism poured on the government, and various officials resigned or went to prison. Then Go Jae-won, Park Seung-min, and others disappeared without a trace. Only Team Sun knew well where they had ‘fled.’

There was more good news. Captain Jeong Si-young was promoted. Though not to minister since he adamantly refused, he took the position of Director of the Rift Management Agency and was operating much more smoothly than before. As various purifiers awakened one after another, people no longer feared rift phenomena as before. With awakeners active without being intimidated, the recovery of lost territory became active. People’s lives improved a bit.

The Awakener Association also officially began its activities. Now that the Rift Management Agency, Pan-Rift National Security Department, and various high-ranking officials had been completely replaced, it was peaceful, but it wouldn’t last long. They couldn’t let various abuses be committed like before. But they couldn’t let awakeners run wild freely either. The Awakener Association would find good compromise points in the middle and mediate… While Yohan was lost in such thoughts, the helicopter had already arrived at its destination.

“Ah, there it is!”

Seo Yak-rin shouted excitedly and looked back with eyes seeking permission. When Lee Hyun-muk nodded, she jumped down without hesitation. A huge golden net spread out and constricted the long monster crawling up the building. Then team members jumped down onto the building rooftop one by one with thuds.

“I don’t think we all needed to come.”

Even with the building making eerie cracking sounds as it crumbled, Yoon Seung-ryong yawned lazily. Meanwhile, Joo Ho-young burst the building’s water tank. The water that poured down froze as it was and supported the weight of the collapsing building. Lee Chan-ha, who had gone down below the building, protected civilians hiding nearby in fear.

The monster stuck to the building couldn’t move at all, only its disgusting cilia wriggling. It exuded such deadly poison that civilians would die instantly just from touching it.

Before more damage occurred, Lee Hyun-muk’s lightning struck down. When it struck once, the monster convulsed and stiffened; when it struck twice, it charred and went limp. Kuuung… The massive body fell to the ground with a heavy weight. Terrible contaminants and poison filled all directions. Now it was finally Yohan’s turn.

A cluster of bright light poured out from Yohan’s body. It flowed down from atop the building like a waterfall, devouring the thick poison. The acrid air and dirty bodily fluids disappeared and became clean. In the place swept by the light cluster up to where the monster had been, there still remained… something disgusting. Perhaps the original was a caterpillar…

A hand gently embraced Yohan, who still shuddered at bugs even after purifying them. A tender voice praised him.

“Good job, Yohan.”

When he raised his head to look up at his lover, Lee Hyun-muk was smiling pleasantly. Yohan, feeling proud, looked down at the building below again. The place that had once been a rift zone was as clean as if just cleaned. Even now, rift zones and the contaminated were gradually becoming cleaner.

Though it would take quite a long time, someday the abyss would stop appearing. That alone was great comfort and strength to these people who had barely survived in this terrible hell. Thinking that the abyss was slowly wearing away from starvation, Yohan always felt good every time he purified.

“I have this thought.”

Looking at his precious lover who literally always shone brightly, Lee Hyun-muk suddenly murmured. Yohan, who had been smiling triumphantly, tilted his head.

“What thought?”

Lee Hyun-muk’s gaze looking down at Yohan was deep. Though his face was shadowed, it wasn’t backlit where his features couldn’t be seen. It was just ordinary. The eyes of a person who was wonderfully and beautifully perfect.

“The thought that I really did well following you…”

In the abyss, and also in dreams like fleeting spring fantasies, Yohan always shone like a lighthouse, guiding and leading Lee Hyun-muk. And at the end, he unfailingly saved him. My precious and dear…

“Yang-yang.”

“…Yes?”

“You’re my yang-yang.”

To the person bewildered about why he was suddenly being called by a pet name, Lee Hyun-muk kissed his lover instead of explaining. And smiled.

Simply, he was happy like a human being.

<END>