[boom]
Explosion.
A confusing corridor of look-alike designs.
“Catch him! There!”
Combat nurses from Paju Central Hospital sprinting after me.
“Hehehehe! It’s Kim Sinhwa!” “War! It’s war!” “Grrrrrk!” “Gyaaaah!”
Freakish patients in the locked ward making a racket in rooms that are basically prison cells.
And—
[crackle-crackle-crackle!]
A metal wall suddenly forms with strange sparks.
“Ha, that really is a neat ability.”
Gong Isu’s power that can decompose and reassemble any substance. To block me, he reconfigured the corridor’s structure and threw up a wall.
“But this isn’t enough to stop me, sir!”
[Material Decomposition]
[shhh—shh—shhh]
Walls shatter and scatter into particles in an instant. But faster than they crumble—
[rumblerumblerumble!]
A wall rises again—
[screeeee!!]
Spinning sawblades and spikes come whistling in.
[Gremlin’s Prank]
[crack!] [squeeeal—] [bzzzt—]
The spell that breaks machinery paralyzes the metal gizmos flying at me.
“Ah, annoying.”
[Blink]
Short-range teleportation magic.
I used to only use it as a survival tool, but now I can trigger it freely even without routing through the [Mask of Carcosa].
I chain a few Blinks—arriving at my destination in a flash.
A big iron door.
I start to knock without thinking—then sense high-voltage current running through it and stop my hand.
“Hey. Sir! Bit much, don’t you think?”
“Don’t come in! Get lost!”
“Fine. I have manners, so I’ll leave it at this.”
Saying that, I fold my arms and stand before the iron door of the [Round Room].
“...What did you even come here to do?”
“You said you’d come back in half a month, but you should give me the proper date. When did Gafu visit?”
“Kim Sinhwa... are you actually insane?”
“Some days I’m less insane, so don’t worry.”
“...”
After a long silence, Gong Isu speaks again in a very small voice.
“Five days ago.”
So roughly ten days left?
“Got it. Then I’ll get to the point.”
“What now... Stop it. Get out. I don’t want to be entangled with you anymore.”
“If you don’t want to be entangled, why do you keep watching me?”
“...”
“You think I wouldn’t notice? You’ve been sitting there watching me the whole time, right?”
Time and space don’t mean much as barriers to Gong Isu.
Ever since he locked himself back in this [Round Room], he’s been watching me continuously.
After a brief silence, Gong Isu speaks again.
“Yeah. That too, now...”
“No. The ones down in the Abyss are watching me anyway, so that doesn’t matter. What I meant to say is this.”
Mm, honestly I came here on impulse—but saying it out loud is a little embarrassing.
I clear my throat once and say it in one go.
“Thank you.”
“...What?”
Ah—way to make it twice as awkward.
“Thank you. I don’t know what happened between us in the future, and since that’s erased now there’s nothing I can do about it—but anyway, thanks for helping this time.”
“...You smashed your way in here just to say that?”
“Yes.”
“...It was always like this.”
So I was the perpetually brisk and healthy Kim Sinhwa, huh.
Maybe he’s lost in a moment of reminiscence; after muttering to himself, Gong Isu speaks dryly.
“Fine. Go back now.”
“Sure. I’ll drop by again.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
Gong Isu’s cold reply.
“Why—”
“What are you trying to do?”
What I’m trying to do? I plan to escape this world.
There might still be a future where I meet Gong Isu and do something... but—
If I leave this world before that happens, all of it will vanish.
“Go back. I don’t need polite farewells. Please don’t come again.”
“Wha—? I was being controlled? By a monster?”
Before I started muscling my way to meet Gong Isu, I had to settle the matter with Gapureum.
During the fight with the [Dream Weaver], parts of Gapureum’s ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) memory collapsed, and other parts turned to mush.
So, during the escape, I took some of her memories with me.
Well, it wasn’t solely for Gapureum’s mental health.
Thanks to that, I managed to retrieve most of the sensitive, delicate information related to people around me.
“Wow! You really are Kim Sinhwa? For real? Wow!”
Human memory works in slightly fuzzy ways. When there’s a hole somewhere, it weaves nearby information together and makes a new memory.
In Gapureum’s head, I had turned into her; to push back the Abyss’s temptation I triggered [Narcissus’s Sigh]—a spell that draws out self-love.
Misfire, and you can end up a severe narcissist.
Anyway, thanks to effects like that (or as the message window said, as a reward for the achievement), Gapureum started to think of herself as something like a sidekick working for a [hero named Kim Sinhwa].
“Nya-ha! If you need anything, just say the word!”
Well, if it’s good, it’s good.
Since the things beyond the message window had made a public issue of it, I slapped a suitable protective talisman on Gapureum and sent her on her way.
Right, Gapureum isn’t the point.
Bottom line: that filthy conversation I heard inside her memories wasn’t a lie.
But should I call it a relief?
I already checked with Heo Sanghyun and Jang Hyundeok. They didn’t remember the specifics. Not really.
Just—maybe only the sense that they’d had a positive conversation with Gapureum remained?
“Probably the tuberose scent induced a kind of hypnosis.”
Even if they don’t remember details, a vague doubt and hazy awareness would remain.
If not now, then soon Heo Sanghyun will recall the family of his that I so badly wanted to hide, and Jang Hyundeok will realize his life started collapsing the day he met me.
“Damn it. That trash spider.”
Solution?
“There’s a simple way, you know?” “R-right. We’ve done it before.”
The psychopaths in my head are being helpful again.
“Ah, I should visit a psychiatric hospital tomorrow.”
I don’t know.
If the worst occurs, who knows, but at the very least I won’t treat them the way I used to—like broken machines.
“So I went and saw Gong Isu too.”
Good.
Steeling myself that way, I opened the door of the hungry mansion.
“Sir, you’re back.”
Heo Sanghyun meets me at the entrance and welcomes me.
As always, those big eyes carefully search for what I need, then with a courteous manner he offers a meal.
“What would you like for dinner?”
“Mm, I should eat. Is Hyundeok here?”
“Yes, you can eat together.”
“Mm, thanks.”
Heo Sanghyun pads off to fetch an apron.
Watching his back as he cinches the apron strings tight, I suddenly feel the urge to speak to him... but—
In the end I sigh and walk to the living room.
“Yay! Wizard! Look at this!”
Jang Hyundeok, who’d been lazing on the living room sofa, jumps up with a cheer and runs over.
And with him, thundering in a clump—Achilles, Doldoli, and Red.
“Hey, hey. One at a time, one at a time.”
After I give Achilles, Doldoli, and Red their pats—Jang Hyundeok, eyes shining as he waited his turn, thrusts out his smartphone.
“Car photos.”
“Right! But not an ordinary car!”
Indeed, not ordinary.
The kind of modified vehicle problem-solvers who roam Paju’s danger zones—or security taxi drivers who constantly face comparable risks—might consider.
“What is this?”
“Ah, the last ‘Bboong-bboong’ got totally totaled, remember?”
“And?”
“So I figured it’s time to get my life back on track—went to look at Bboong-bboong Mark II.”
“Aha?”
With a serious face, Jang Hyundeok shows me the Bboong-bboong Mark II candidates.
“For now, I like this little guy the most. A 2021 model with a mana-stone engine—wow! Sick, right? Oh, and. You remember Bboong-bboong had that drrrr— drrrr— thing?”
“Mm. A minigun?”
“I checked if any have something like that, and look at this one. This. It’s a 2015, but watch the clip. You have to see this.”
When he hits play, a vehicle that looks like a 1-ton wing-body truck appears.
“Okay, watch. Whiiir—”
With a whirr the cargo box opens, and a rocket launcher pops out.
“Mm. I admit, that’s cool.”
“Right? I was torn between these two. What do you think, Wizard? You’ll ride with me sometimes—which one do you like more?”
Sometimes?
“This mana-stone engine one—ah, cute. Only five hundred million! Wow. Cheap!”
Cheap?
“I can take this one home on full financing at thirty-eight percent interest.”
Thirty-eight percent?
“One point nine hundred million a year just in interest?”
“Nope. I’ll be paying it down, so less than that.”
“Oh, genius.”
“Right? I’m hitting the limit of clinging to you, so I should go out and live steadily again.”
Steadily?
What part of that is steady?
“Hey, why are you buying a car?”
“Huh? A car? Uh? Of course I am?”
“Uh... hang on.”
I tap my forehead with my right index finger, organize my thoughts, then speak.
“When your car broke before, I covered it, right?”
“C’mon, that was—work-related damage, so you covered it.”
“Aha?”
“This time, though, it happened because I followed you of my own accord. And it wasn’t really your job either.”
Why is this punk being pointlessly upright in the weird parts?
“Hyundeok.”
“Yeah.”
He answers with a triumphant grin.
What’s with that face? Is he feeling proud and accomplished?
“You won.”
The blond punk tilts his head.
“What did I win?”
“The bet. Gapureum, remember. She didn’t come because of you after all.”
“Ah—aaah! Right! The bet! Ha! Told you I was right!”
He bounces, and Achilles, Doldoli, and Red, excited by his bouncing, start tearing around.
“Behave!”
Heo Sanghyun’s scolding booms from the kitchen.
“Jang Hyundeok, you too. Behave.”
“Ah, yes.”
Good. I can push through with this.
“Okay, so name your wish. I lost. I’ll grant you exactly one thing you say you need.”
“A wish?”
“Yeah.”
“Mm—a wish...”
Jang Hyundeok folds his arms and sinks into thought.
“Mmm—”
Ask me to buy the car.
“Mm-mm—”
Or ask for money.
“Mmmmmmmm—”
You know I’m rich, right? Big bro Sinhwa, please buy me the car. Say it!
“Mmmmmmmmmmmmm—what should I ask for?”
“The car! The car! The car, you punk! The car!”
“Eh?!”
“The car! You said you need a car! The car! Steady, you punk! Steady!”
“Oh, come on—”
He snorts like I’m being ridiculous.
“Where would you get money, Wizard? I’ll earn it fast. Once I’m back behind the wheel I clear over ten million a month.”
Ugh, my head hurts.
“I’ll buy the car with my own means anyway!”
Ah—ahhh—my head really hurts. Really hurts!
“More than that, I’ll ask for something else.”
“Whew—haa—A request? What?”
“So there is something you want. Good. What is it? I’ll do anything.”
“Could you take off the mask just once?”
“Mm? What?”
“I want to see your real face once. How about it?”
Silence.
Even the sounds of Heo Sanghyun cooking in the kitchen stop.
