By Zephyria She spread her arms wide as if to show off.
“The hotshots already screwed up the world twice. We’re just trying to do something with our own hands this time, and you don’t like that? Should we just wait for the Awakened to save us? Always prioritizing the Awakened?”
Something was off about her words. It was as if she wasn’t an Awakened herself. Besides, she knew about the two Doomsdays. Eui-jae frowned. Ga-young crossed her arms and shook her head.
“Well, I’m reflecting a little~ I didn’t expect it to come so soon…. If I had known, I would have shown them the terror of Doomsday before letting them out.”
The words “terror of Doomsday” couldn’t be ignored. Eui-jae had only realized the situation after hearing Cluck’s explanation. But she was accepting it as if it were natural. All of this. Ga-young tilted her head with a puzzled look.
“Huh? J, didn’t you endure it too? Judging by how you’re moving around perfectly fine.”
“……”
“Ah, I see…. Is it because you’re a traitor to the world? You’re amazing. You’re ahead of the curve all by yourself.”
Ga-young twisted her lips into a smile. Dark malice overflowed from the smile. People swallowed by the gaping maw of a giant Monster, a man covered in blood, wailing and clinging. His chest felt tight. Were they also people who had been forcibly dragged away? Or were they brainwashed and driven to their deaths? Ga-young didn’t seem to have an ounce of guilt. Even while standing on their blood.
“What is your purpose?”
“Purpose?”
Ga-young took off the employee ID card hanging around her neck and threw it away. Splat…. The employee ID card that fell on the black Poison melted without a trace. Screams were heard from all over. Eui-jae adjusted his spear.
“Don’t you already know? Of course, it’s to prevent Doomsday with human power! Not leaving it to the Awakened who have already failed twice.”
“……”
“And to prevent Doomsday….”
Ga-young looked up at the sky with a blissful expression. Eui-jae also looked at the sky. Monsters were pouring out endlessly from the pure white hole. Ga-young chuckled.
“…First, Doomsday has to come, right?”
“Judging by the way you talk, you don’t seem to be an Awakened, you.”
“Huh? That’s right, I’m not an Awakened.”
“But the hospital director….”
“Ah? Ah, that.”
Ga-young raised her index finger and smiled brightly.
“Back then, there were still loopholes in the Awakened registration System, so manipulation was quite easy. I didn’t even get to meet the director in person during the interview. He’s such a busy person!”
His insides churned a little more each time he heard her cheerful voice. No, he mustn’t be consumed by emotion. Eui-jae took a small breath. He was losing even the composure to use polite language. Eui-jae took a step forward.
“…Did you come in targeting that kid from the start?”
“No~ Of course not. I didn’t even know he existed at first. You hid him so well. Well, I did go in expecting to find some pretty good material.”
“……”
“As a result, it became the best choice of my life. Right, cutie pie?”
When Ga-young asked affectionately, the human kneeling, the cutie pie, slowly nodded his head up and down. No, could he even be called a human? The crushed skin resembled Sa-young in the past, and the creaking movements resembled the Mutants. Strangely, he couldn’t take his eyes off it. It must be because he instinctively knew. It was probably made based on Sa-young’s data. And….
If Lee Sa-young had been unlucky, he would have become like that.
“……”
Eui-jae gritted his teeth so hard that the sound of his teeth clashing could be heard. Ga-young smiled at Eui-jae.
“It’s my masterpiece. The strongest of everything I’ve made so far, and it listens well. However….”
She walked around the human and let out a deep sigh.
“If that kid had been there… it wouldn’t be in such a tattered state. That’s a bit of a shame~ If I had experimented a little more, I could have figured out how to restore the crushed skin.”
At the same time, a strong hand gripped Ga-young’s neck. Keuk, Ga-young frowned and showed her palm to the human. The human, who had risen as if to pounce, knelt down again. Both feet were floating off the ground. Ga-young grabbed the hand gripping her neck and tried to smile.
“Ah… Keuk, are you… allowed to attack… civilians like this?”
“……”
“There are… heok, a lot of eyes… watching.”
“Shut up.”
Eui-jae pressed his face close. A modulated voice, devoid of emotional inflection, muttered.
“Please shut up, because I’m holding back.”
“……”
“If I had my way….”
The hand gripping her neck tightened a little more. Her face gradually turned white.
“I would have already killed you.”
Thud, Eui-jae released the hand that had been gripping her neck. Ga-young staggered, clutching her neck and catching her breath. After panting for a while, she raised her head. Bloodshot eyes glared at Eui-jae. A hoarse voice shot out sharply.
“Why…, why don’t you just kill me? Ah, you can’t kill people, can you?”
“……”
“Hypocrite. Relying on your power to make threats like that!”
Eui-jae ignored Ga-young and checked his phone again. There was no reply from Sa-young. Had he lost consciousness again? His mind was in a mess. Ga-young’s words, his worry for Sa-young, and the Monsters constantly falling from the sky were all mixed up. Eui-jae bit his tongue hard. Only after tasting blood did his head clear a little.
‘First, I have to take this woman away. To the Awakened Management Bureau or the Wave Guild…. Or ask Hong Ye-seong. No…, the fish market would be fine too.’
There were many stories to hear from Ga-young. Not only Sa-young’s story, but also about Prometheus. Eui-jae quickly scanned the numbers on another phone. Meanwhile, Ga-young staggered towards the human she had created. She muttered.
“He was really helpful, that kid.”
“……”
Eui-jae’s hand, which had been quickly pressing the screen, stopped. Ga-young was looking at the empty air. She seemed to be recalling memories.
“Unlike other humans, he didn’t wail or struggle, and he endured the pain very well.”
“……”
“Do you know? He followed me on his own two feet.”
Keuk keuk keuk, she shook her upper body and laughed. Lies. That couldn’t be. Sa-young had promised to wait for him, and hadn’t he been waiting until now? Eui-jae didn’t answer and ignored her. But he couldn’t completely block the feeling that kept drawing him to her.
“You know, J…. You were active in those days, so you know well, right? Do you know what happened when civilians were swept into the Rift and their limbs were cut off or they were in danger of dying?”
In most cases, they died without receiving proper treatment. Even after the Awakened Management Bureau was established, the medical paralysis was not resolved. There were too many casualties, the medical staff was limited, and the Awakened who could fight against the Monsters were treated as a top priority.
“Then… what happened to that kid without you?”
“……”
The back of his neck turned chillingly cold. Like pouring cold coolant into a bubbling heart.
It took a huge amount of money and materials to treat a young boy who was dying without a single healthy part. Eui-jae went around and around the Dungeon where Poison Monsters appeared when he had no calls. To get the ingredients for the Antidote. He also paid a lot of money to the hospital under the guise of donations for society.
It was a luxury that was possible because he was J.
If that J had disappeared.
Crack…. The screen of the phone in his hand cracked. Ga-young chuckled.
“If I hadn’t taken him, he would have slowly died as he was. Without receiving any treatment….”
“……”
“It was okay for up to two months. Until then, there were quite a few people who believed you would come back. The materials and donations you had saved were also plentiful. But by the third month…. Everything ran out.”
“……”
“That’s when I realized you were an amazing person…. Without you, the world started to go wrong little by little. There was a shortage of manpower, the Awakened were exploited that much, the number of injured Awakened increased, that much medical staff and resources were put into treating the Awakened, and civilians were neglected….”
“……”
“Isn’t it ridiculous that everything starts to break down with just one person missing?”
Ga-young’s shoulders shook as if she was sobbing. She adjusted her crooked glasses.
“Even at the hospital, no matter how much you entrusted the child to them, they couldn’t take care of him for free. There was also a severe shortage of manpower. He was just a dying ordinary child, not even an Awakened. The number of people taking care of the child gradually decreased, and they started to do only the minimum amount of management.”
“……”
“So I brought him. I even asked the child directly.”
Eui-jae stared at Ga-young without a word. Ga-young moved her lips.
“I asked him what he would do if he could go with me to save J.”