A moment later.
Or a few months ago.
Gong Isu and I returned to the past.
[System : Penalty Trait [Prey of Tindalos] is activated.]
[System : An error has occurred. [Master of Tindalos] is absent. Recovering error....... To recover the error, please save the current configuration under modification and reboot the world.]
[System : Activation of [Prey of Tindalos] is on hold.]
Fortunately, the [Veil Ripper] hasn’t returned yet.
In other words, as a time traveler, Gong Isu can use his abilities a little more freely than before for the time being.
[You have crossed the wall of space-time and returned to the beloved past. No doubt it was your sense of duty to prevent the catastrophe you confirmed in the future. And there is still a truth you must uncover. What wounds that ordeal and truth may inflict upon you are unknown, but with unbending conviction and a sense of justice you will resolve it all. Be brave!]
Oh really? It tells me to be brave?
“Quit smearing syrup and get that out of my face.”
I waved my hand vaguely and checked my surroundings.
A “beloved past,” huh?
It’s a stretch to slap that phrase on this situation—especially in a place like this.
A cramped, gloomy underground with heavy yin energy pooled thick.
It’s underground like the basement of the [Hungry Mansion] where we were just staying, but this is somewhere else.
“Looks like we’re back at the bunker.”
Right—the [Underground Bunker] where I was making the [Golden Hairpin] together with Gong Isu.
“We didn’t move through space.”
Gong Isu, whose head had recently kept an hourglass shape, had returned to his usual clock head.
Except we did move through space, didn’t we?
Ah, I get what this is about.
Because [Kim Sinhwa of this time frame] was in the Underground Bunker—we had no choice but to land here?
I feel like I both do and don’t understand Gong Isu’s concept of space-time.
Can it be read to mean that a target’s position is partially specified by time slice?
Wait—maybe this isn’t so much time travel as it is closer to save and load?
If you tried to move in time but ended up moving in location too—that’s... somewhat acceptable.
I asked Gong Isu about the thought I had, but he shook his head.
“Kim Sinhwa. This world isn’t a game.”
“No, I’m saying if you interpret it like that, some of it starts to make sense.”
“Does it? I haven’t really played many games, so I wouldn’t know.”
Mm. Not helpful.
My brain feels itchy.
If I dig a little more, I feel like I could find a slicker answer—but I still know less than I don’t, so I can’t be sure.
“Whatever. Think about it later—want to head outside first?”
“Let’s.”
In this narrow, dark Underground Bunker, it still doesn’t feel real that we’re back. I want to see a wider space.
A moon with a bite taken out of it and tossed away.
Stars pricked bright.
Looking up at that sky, it finally feels like we’re back.
Of course, what’s spread under the sky is Tanhyeon in its unreal landscape—
But even that is far better than the “roughly ruined world” we’d been stuck in.
The air itself feels different from the future where gray despair lay like ash. That alone puts me in a bit of a better mood.
And one more thing.
I spoke toward the air-headed voice on the other end of the phone that really sold the feeling I’d returned.
“Yeah, Hyundeok. That’s how it is, so if you’re free, swing over here. Mm, I’m turning in a little early today. A reservation? How much is that customer paying you? Five million won? Hey, how about I pay you more and you cancel that? What? Huh? Heh? This guy, seriously—what? What did you say? Ah? That so? Hahaha—wait right there. I’m sending fifty million won right now. I said I’m sending it! Bye!”
I hung up and immediately opened my banking app—
“Kim Sinhwa?”
“Senior, one second! I need to thrash this idiot first!”
“Thrash?”
He said five million won, right? I transferred fifty million won to Jang Hyundeok on the spot and called back.
“Hey! Check your account right now! What? Huh? Eh? I’m going to lose it! I said check your account—your account! Your account! Man, just hang up and look! Then pull over! No! Park on the shoulder! Aaaagh!”
Watching me rave, Gong Isu asked in bafflement:
“Kim Sinhwa, why not just move comfortably by magic? I have spatial movement in addition to time travel.”
“No! I already sent fifty million won! I have to ride that moron’s car if only so the money isn’t wasted!”
“Mm...... right.”
He gave me the warm look people reserve for lunatics, then said:
“Take this while you wait for your lacking friend.”
Bzz-crackle!
At some point he had torn off his own head.
“Hey? What are you doing, clockhead! Why your precious head again!”
“You might have a bad memory of it— but this is all I can give you.”
What he reconfigured his head into was that same pocket watch from before.
“This is—”
“It’ll be a bit different from the last one.”
There was a definite difference.
[Reversal Pocket Watch (?-grade Singularity) : A tastefully designed pocket watch. Forged by combining “wise metal,” “gold beyond space-time,” and a fragment of an “abyssal being.”
The fervor of observers who lauded the one who sought to overturn his own fate is concentrated within.
Thus it has been granted the name Reversal.
Reversal : Flip a situation or position to its opposite. However, each time this effect triggers, one of the abyssal beings is granted a tremendous advantage.]
The pocket watch he made before didn’t print a message like this.
And not just the message.
The stored mana and constituent materials are completely different.
Gazing at the message window, at Gong Isu, and at the pocket watch at the same time with [Spatial Dominion], I asked:
“Singularity. What is it?”
It’s a concept that never appeared in [Cthulhu World]. And the part about “observers,” too.
“I don’t really know.”
Flat, short answer.
Yup—typical Gong Isu.
“How did you use something you don’t really know?”
“......That was poorly phrased. I mean I don’t know its fundamental identity. A singularity is like a supra-real energy that grants power to abyssal beings or others. As for ‘observers’—we personify them when we talk, but they’re probably not personal entities. Think of them as an abstract source that provides the wellspring of a singularity.”
He sounded like he was quoting someone.
“So someone taught you how to use it?”
“Right.”
If he says even this was told to him by future Kim Sinhwa, I’ll—
“The futu—”
“Argh! Damn!”
“—I taught Idian—what? Why? What’s wrong?”
Startled by the yell I let out, he flinched back—and I hurried to arrange my face into something respectable.
“Ah, not future Kim Sinhwa, future you, Senior.”
Maybe my reaction was funny—Gong Isu chuckled and continued.
“Hahaha, right—it wasn’t future Kim Sinhwa. Future me learned it from Idian.”
“Your past self can know information you learned in the future?”
“With a slightly complicated method, yes. Thanks to that, some specifics get lost, like now.”
He said it’s like hiding a time capsule to be opened at the desired moment. It triggers time paradoxes, so even he doesn’t use it often.
“And I have my own singularity separate from that.”
He tapped his head as he said it.
“Separate?”
“[Hourglass of Distortion]? Something like that.”
He spoke like he was reading letters off a screen.
“The narration printed it a moment ago. I’ll read what’s printing. ‘There were two singularities. Gong Isu collected the power of a singularity that had been shattered to pieces. But he hesitated. Would it be all right to give this to Kim Sinhwa? Using that power, Kim Sinhwa might one day betray Gong Isu. Gong Isu is spouting hollow delusions. Enough—stop speaking. Kim Sinhwa is looking at Gong Isu like he’s a madman. Stop talking.’ The narration throwing a fit telling me not to read it out loud is delightful.”
Looks like the way things print for him is a bit different from the messages I get.
After a brief low laugh, Gong Isu addressed me in a sober tone.
“This could be a trick too—but in fact, there were two singularities. One was for you, the other for me. They’ve been spent and damaged in various ways—but let’s split what’s left.”
And indeed, he could do absurd things like tug the horizon closer—or swat a meteor hanging in the sky.
So yes, it does provide some transcendent strength.
“But the side effects are stronger than we thought.”
I read out what I saw in the message window.
[However, each time this effect triggers, tremendous advantage is granted to the abyssal beings.]
“Right. I knew ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) that much, but I didn’t realize the advantage they’d get would be that strong. It’s possible the singularity concept itself is a trap set by them, so don’t use it carelessly.”
“Got it.”
Mm, true—the explanation ‘singularity’ sounds fancy, but it may be more dangerous than it looks.
I laid a simple sealing formula over the [Reversal Pocket Watch] and tucked it into my clothes.
We decided to walk up to the roadside so it’d be easier for Jang Hyundeok to approach.
When the road came into view in the distance, Gong Isu spoke.
“Kim Sinhwa.”
“Yes.”
He hesitated awkwardly for a moment.
“Now...... what are you going to do?”
A question I hear a lot.
What now?
Obviously, start with what matters most.
“Mm. First we go to the [Hungry Mansion] and eat.”
There was a ton of food left in that house, so it wasn’t a huge inconvenience—but not enough to nibble off for a month.
I miss a proper meal.
“Food again? Kim Sinhwa, is there anything in that head of yours besides food?”
“Ah, I’m joking. Are you really that touchy?”
Besides, you liked Heo Sanghyun’s cooking too, didn’t you?
He sighed.
“Fine, we eat. And after that?”
“I heard Mun Gyeongha of Yeonam Group is throwing a party soon.”
He must have found the word random—he looked like he was trying to decide if I was joking again.
“A party?”
“Yes. A party. Not a joke. That mess that broke out in the future looks like it was Yeonam Group’s doing.”
“A plan to stop the nearest disaster first?”
I nodded.
“That, and—there’s someone to meet there while we’re at it.”
“Meet who? That woman, Mun Seunghee?”
“No. It’s a party where famous rich people flock in droves besides Yeonam insiders. Plenty of well-heeled cultists too—if we’re lucky, we might meet the head of Helistic.”
Right.
Helistic.
If I want to check information related to the body I possessed, I have to look into that place.
From the future slice I searched places linked to Helistic—
And for some reason, every important piece was wiped.
Honestly, that was one of the reasons I decided I had to come back to this time frame.
“Helistic? You mean Baek Beomjin?”
Baek Beomjin is the name of Helistic’s C.E.O.
He’s famous in this world, so it isn’t weird for him to know the name—but there was a fairly specific emotion in Gong Isu’s tone.
“You two know each other?”
“Once—in the past—I killed him.”
Normally you can’t use the past tense for someone alive, but conversations with time travelers are truly entertaining.
For reference, what kind of person Baek Beomjin is—you can tell from Helistic’s track record so far.
Human trafficking, organ trafficking, smuggling, human experimentation, murder-for-hire as a baseline—
And like any other famous figure in [Cthulhu World], he’s a madman capable of kicking off an apocalypse-level end of humanity.
Probably among the time I spent with Gong Isu and my future self—
“He’s someone I fought long before I met you—in other words, back when I was the Feast’s Offering.”
Mm, I didn’t foresee it tying into lore that deep.
“Yahoo! Wizard, I’m here!”
“Are you laughing?”
“Ugh, why say that the moment you see my face? Did something happen?”
I definitely argued with Jang Hyundeok on the phone, but that was just in my head.
From his point of view, that squabble was just “the wizard is saying weird stuff again,” apparently.
“Where’s your senior?”
“Gone.”
“Where?”
“He said he was going to check into something and flew off.”
Until the [Veil Ripper] returns, he can travel time relatively freely.
So while I do what I can do in this time frame, Gong Isu decided to try as much as only he can do.
Specifically, he said he’d go meet the Ndians.
“Oh, then when’s he coming back? Tomorrow?”
“Mm—not for a while.”
More precisely, he said he’d be back when needed—and left. Not a sudden farewell.
“Huh? Really? He just whooshed off without even saying goodbye?”
“Yeah. He says he doesn’t do goodbyes.”
Even if he leaves such a note, people usually don’t remember him anyway.
“Eeeh—”
“Let’s just go home. I’m starving.”
“Mm—okay.”
I did say I’d attend Mun Gyeongha’s party, but there’s still time for that.
“First, we fix your problem.”
“Me? What problem do I have?”
“The used car, idiot! The used car!”
“Eh? What about the used car?”
“We’re taking care of that first thing tomorrow.”
“Eh? Why so suddenly?”
“Because when I need you, you’re off doing something else, and that’s a pain.”
And as a human being I just can’t stand it.
At this rate, if I stumble into a situation where I get violently killed one day, my dying words might be, “Before I die, that bastard Jang Hyundeok—his car—”
“Anyway, it’s decided. Act accordingly!”
