“Gong Isu is an incredible problem solver... but he carries a curse.”
This was the remark of a broker who was acquainted with Gong Isu.
“Wherever he goes... grotesque and horrifying monsters appear.”
This was the remark of someone who claimed to be Gong Isu’s friend.
Grotesque and horrifying monsters tracking Gong Isu.
Known as [Hounds of Tindalos], these creatures are the worst penalty that befalls only those who cross the boundaries of time and space and escape the observation range of this world’s inhabitants.
They cannot be stopped by any means, they never give up no matter what you do, and they will pursue their target through any era.
“Mental stability is severely compromised, full isolation and control are impossible. And considering the monsters that appear around him, a Red Level 1 classification is appropriate.”
This was recorded in the minutes of Paju Central Hospital when Gong Isu was first isolated.
Paju Central Hospital and the Foreign Management Agency deemed him an alien and dangerous entity worthy of isolation.
But over time they realized that judgment was mistaken.
The monsters that appear beside Gong Isu track only him and attack only him.
More importantly was Gong Isu’s own attitude.
“He wants to sever ties with the outside world. There’s no need to protect the world from Gong Isu. Rather, we must protect Gong Isu from the world.”
This was the remark of the researcher in charge of Gong Isu.
Gong Isu longed for isolation from the outside world. He wished for it desperately, and soon Paju Central Hospital judged him not as an object of isolation but as one to be protected.
“How do you confine someone who can destroy and reassemble any object and travel through time and space?”
This was the remark of the suppression agent once responsible for monitoring Gong Isu.
In the end, they concluded strict isolation itself was meaningless, and that if certain conditions were met he would cause no danger.
On grounds that Gong Isu himself was highly cooperative and could control his abilities, he received a conditional safety grade, Yellow.
Recently, taking into account his sensitivity to observation and surveillance, even the cameras in his room were removed.
“I was against it. That bastard X is dangerous.”
This was the remark of Yang Seohu, who once captured Gong Isu.
There were minor objections, but over time Gong Isu’s isolation level was lowered.
After it was confirmed that his abilities could not be reproduced or imitated, even researchers seldom visited his room.
At last he gained an entirely silent, peaceful—plantlike life.
“No— no. No! No! No! No! No! No! I won’t participate!”
Gong Isu’s frantic scream marked the end of that plantlike life.
[System: Unique trait ‘Time Traveler’ activates.]
The round room built to isolate the Time Traveler shattered its temporal and spatial barriers and vanished beyond observation—time elapsed since this room lost its master—
1 second.
Kudangtang!
“Aaah!”
Gong Isu reappeared in the round room.
“Aaah! Aaah!”
Crouched, he clawed at, groped, struck his body convulsively, screamed, and burst into tears.
Of course he cannot shed tears. The clock floating where his head should be has no eyes to cry.
“Is he alive? Is he alive? Did he return alive?”
With this leap, he visited a total of—
Tick— tick— tick—
Tick— tick— tick—
Tick— tick— tick—
including the near future, the far future, the near past, and the distant past: twelve places in all.
At the last moment, he was pursued by twelve [Hounds of Tindalos].
“Hah— hah— damn it... hell—”
Gong Isu pulled a fist-sized stone from his pocket. The thing that Kim Sinhwa, wearing a crow mask, could not find no matter how hard he searched: the Wedge Stone.
Tick— tick—
I opened my eyes.
“I believed in you, sunbae.”
“...You believed?”
Tick— tick—
Along with the ticking clock I heard Gong Isu’s voice.
His tone was as if surprised.
“Of course.”
There was part of me—Kim Sinhwa—that had objections, but I never doubted. As I predicted—and as I declared—Gong Isu escaped the round room and saved me.
Tick— tick—
“You of this timeline have never seen my form before and yet you’re not startled. Do you possess precognition, huingae?”
“No. I simply believed in you. And it’s not as if a change in hairstyle is enough to keep me from recognizing you.”
“...”
Tick— tick—
Gong Isu fell silent. Well, he never had a mouth, but when he fell silent the ticking clock floating in place of his head sounded excessively loud.
‘He returned wearing a clock instead of a helmet.’
I wasn’t entirely unperturbed, but somehow I expected such a change to occur.
“You speak of similar things...”
His tone held sadness or reminiscence.
Ugh, it’s about to slip into a past recollection.
I intended to speak something else to avoid wasting time, but Gong Isu spoke first.
“You said the same thing to future me.”
Huh? It’s not a past story.
“To future me? Will I say such a thing later?”
“No—you already did just now.”
“You mean that my answer now will change the future?”
“That’s right. But in my memory you will remain the one who said those words.”
Although brief, I grasped why Gong Isu had been so irritable before.
By uttering words that future me would speak, I erased the future he experienced.
But that does not erase Gong Isu’s memories.
“Are you from the future, sunbae?”
“No. I am the present... Gong Isu. I went to the future because I was curious.”
It seems I almost said another name instead of Gong Isu. I wanted to discuss that further, but now is not the time.
By the way, where is this? A wide room sealed on all sides.
The structure and space, and the remaining traces, reminded me of the ‘lounge’ inside my mind where I once talked with other Sinhwas in a dream.
Seeing the layout and size, I realized what Paju Central Hospital had done to isolate me.
“They tore out the corridor and simply converted it into this room.”
“That’s right. They couldn’t find a way to transfer you, so they rebuilt the corridor itself as a room in desperation.”
Security devices and surveillance cameras were installed everywhere—but now they all lay destroyed and inactive.
‘Did Gong Isu break them?’
“Here—take this.”
He handed me the Wedge Stone.
An artifact capable of curing cognitive dissonance in the subject.
‘It has only a 50% success rate, yet it has miraculously always worked.’
Is it truly a miracle? Or is something contrived at work?
“But I kept searching and couldn’t find it—where did you get this?”
“I took it from your bag at future you’s request.”
“My bag?”
“Yes. While you were obsessing over [Reckless Destruction] and doing absurd things.”
“Oh—”
The buffalo bone skull-shaped mask. While I was suppressing it, I once lost my bag briefly.
‘I didn’t lose the bag—it was taken by Gong Isu.’
“Keep the promise you made me.”
“A promise?”
“In the future I will come for you with the hounds.”
Ah, the Hounds of Tindalos.
Monsters from another world that track the Time Traveler. Presumably as many appeared as the number of times Gong Isu crossed time this time.
“How many are there?”
“Twelve now. But that’s not important yet. What matters is later. There will probably be quite a few then.”
Twelve? He moved twelve times in the meantime?
Now I notice black steam rising from the makeshift prison’s corners here and there.
“How exciting. Apart from that, any other promises?”
“I did.”
“What are they?”
“They’re meaningless to you now.”
“Hmm... A cryptic tone is stylish, but I think—”
The future Kim Sinhwa who made promises with Gong Isu...
No longer exists. Everything Gong Isu says and does now will erase the future he experienced.
“You wouldn’t understand.”
Does he mean that no matter what I did, I can’t meet the Kim Sinhwa he once knew again? Or that I can’t understand the troubles of a time traveler—a regressor? Perhaps that I cannot understand Gong Isu’s trauma and feelings.
“No matter what I do, I’ll never meet the Kim Sinhwa I once knew. You— you—”
Tick—tick—tick—
“You have done something truly horrible to me.”
Gong Isu said that, but it’s an emotion I cannot fully empathize with or understand.
Trying to decipher what he wants to say now serves no purpose.
Honestly, I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do.
‘I’d like to ask if I kissed future me or something...’
But I shouldn’t say that, right?
In any case, I was the one who forcibly brought out Gong Isu who had rejected being involved. Despite the strangeness, I did not press him out of respect.
And anyway, now is a time to ask something else.
“I will escape from this hospital now. What will you do, sunbae?”
“I’m not going. When you’re ready, future me will come to meet you.”
“Future sunbae?”
“Yes. You and I will meet six more times. No, one is gone, so it will be five.”
I hadn’t anticipated this form, but it seems Gong Isu crossed many time periods in a short span.
‘In any case, we’ll meet about five more times.’
“I don’t know how many more will be erased, but probably around that number.”
“Understood. Then what about future sunbae?”
“I have more to consider. And to avoid complications if I meet past me wrongfully, I won’t move for now.”
“I see.”
Time travel is indeed a complex and dizzying ability. And its penalties are no joke—grrrrr—
Monstrous heads began forming at the room’s corners.
“This is the end. We must flee before they fully take shape.”
“Shall I help?”
“Take care of yourself first. Ah—and—future you requested I prepare a few things.”
“Preparations?”
“Someone will come soon to help you escape.”
“Ah—that’s something to be thankful for.”
“And a message from future you.”
Tick—tick—tick—
“A message?”
“Yes. At her request—meaning the request of the one who will help you escape—she asked that you grant two favors.”
“A message. Understood.”
Whatever it is, it must be important if I’m to grant it.
“All right, I go now.”
With that, Gong Isu moved to the left. To the left—further left—tick—tick—tick—
He vanished in a direction I could no longer observe, beyond my ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) gaze.
“He’s gone.”
Indeed, his ability operates in a way completely different from magic. But thanks to the trait I implanted to gain mage talent and my thirty Intelligence...
‘I could mimic it somewhat with my own abilities.’
But if I did that, I’d end up like him...
And I don’t want that.
‘By the way, why did future me bother to assign someone to help with my escape?’
Paju Central Hospital’s closed ward is one of the most dangerous and grotesque places in Paju, but I’m not so incapable that I can’t escape on my own.
I checked my body’s condition and waited for ‘the person who will help me escape.’
Kriiik—
The door opened.
Long curly hair down to the waist, glasses beneath which mad eyes gleamed, a white lab coat.
“Excuse meeee—”
And a trailing tail on her words.
“.......”
I don’t know what future me was thinking when devising this plan in a sane state... but it must be so.
‘She asked for two favors?’
