Cha Seohu looked down at the corpse with a complicated gaze.
It was a life they had needed to keep alive, no matter what.
The cult had handed the woman that syringe even knowing they were ready to be exposed as the ones behind it. Which meant she must have known so much that it didn’t matter if they got found out.
Clicking his tongue, Cha Seohu turned his head.
‘It can’t be helped.’
The plan had failed, and as infuriating as it was, he’d lost to those cult bastards again. There was nothing to be gained from clinging to someone already dead. All he could do was accept reality and make the next plan.
Turning away without hesitation as he followed Eun Woojeong, Cha Seohu opened his mouth.
“What did you take?”
He’d seen Eun Woojeong take something from the corpse’s neck.
It wasn’t right to question someone like this when they’d just lost their biological mother, but it didn’t look like there was any bond worth worrying about in the first place, so it didn’t matter.
Even if there had been a bond, this wasn’t the time to care about that. The woman was dead, so they had to find information some other way.
“This?”
When Cha Seohu caught up and asked, Eun Woojeong shrugged and, surprisingly, pulled out what he’d taken without much resistance.
A palm-sized pendant that had been hanging on a necklace. In the center of the gold pendant, a white gemstone had been set.
“It’s nothing. It was in her inventory.”
Eun Woojeong tossed the pendant once into the air with a careless flick and caught it, then began taking out the items from the inventory one by one.
Cha Seohu had been hoping something would come out—some evidence she’d been colluding with the cult—but only small, meaningless things appeared: a hairbrush, scissors, a razor.
Disappointed, Cha Seohu watched as—
Clack.
A new item dropped out of the air. A small square frame.
“This is...?”
Cha Seohu bent down and picked it up.
Behind cracked glass was a faded photograph. When Cha Seohu checked it, his eyes widened slightly.
It was a picture of a woman and two young boys.
The woman, wearing a neat suit and smiling toward the camera, looked shockingly like Eun Woojeong.
She had no wrinkles and wasn’t emaciated, but she was unmistakably the same Spiderweb head who had just died. And in her arms, she was holding a boy.
That boy looked nothing like her. Brown hair, a sullen expression. Black eyes that carried a rebellious edge.
From top to bottom, an appearance completely different from the woman’s. Yet she sat in the chair holding him like something precious.
“.......”
Cha Seohu’s gaze moved to the opposite corner.
Another boy standing with one hand on the back of the chair the woman sat on.
Cha Seohu drew in a short breath. He didn’t even need to ask to know that boy was Eun Woojeong.
A child who looked exactly like the woman.
Before his awakening, his hair had been black, but those distinct eyes and features—anyone could tell it was Eun Woojeong.
But something else grabbed his attention even more.
The boy’s condition.
Even though the photo was old—or the quality was blurry and faded—the bruises and bandages on the boy’s body stood out clearly.
His legs, visible under his shorts, had bandages stuck here and there. Dark bruises mottled the parts of his body exposed beyond his clothes.
There was even a big bandage stuck to his round cheek.
You couldn’t write it off as a boy who just got hurt a lot. He was too skinny. And this composition—him standing off in a corner alone, like an outsider—was far too unnatural.
“Hm.”
Eun Woojeong looked at the photo too and lifted the corner of his mouth slightly.
Even though it was a photo of his painful past, he reacted like it was amusing.
“Looks like you’re curious?”
Eun Woojeong liked that Cha Seohu’s attention had been caught by a single photo. From behind him, he spoke in a soft voice.
“This one is my older brother.”
His gloved finger tapped the boy in the woman’s arms.
“As you can see, his personality was trash. He was already a piece of shit, but that woman spoiled him rotten, so he became a real human garbage.”
Eun Woojeong shuddered lightly.
“If I told you he killed more than ten people before he even turned fifteen, would you believe it? And that woman kept praising him, saying he was perfect to inherit her. It was so ridiculous. Anyone would think ‘Spiderweb’ wasn’t an information group, but some cold-blooded assassination squad with no tears or blood.”
“Where is that ‘older brother’ now?”
“Dead. That’s why she lost her mind every time she saw me. Her precious son died. I was supposed to die instead, but my brother died and I lived—so she feels wronged and furious over it.”
With a snort, Eun Woojeong took the frame from Cha Seohu’s hand.
“The funny part is, she’s the one who gave him the reason to die. She gave us the same mission. She must’ve believed I’d fail and die because I was weak and had never even killed anyone once—but too bad for her. Since she shoved him off the cliff with her own hands, how unfair and absurd must it feel?”
Eun Woojeong’s eyes sank cold as he stared at the photo behind the cracked glass.
“Well, it’s a common story. Not even interesting. Anyway, forget this.”
Eun Woojeong mercilessly threw the frame behind him. Clatter—along with the sound of glass breaking, it fell beside the woman’s corpse. The frame and photo sank into the pool of blood.
“The really important thing is this.”
Eun Woojeong pulled out a new item from the inventory.
With a clunk, a black object fell to the floor. It looked like a cellphone.
“It’s a communication device connected to Spiderweb’s internal network. It was hers, so if I issue a new order with that, the members chasing us will stop. And while I’m at it, word will spread that I’m the ‘real’ head now.”
At that, Kwon Taehyuk let out a sigh of relief, and Yoon Jeha’s face brightened.
Finally, they could get away from Spiderweb. Tossing the device into the air a couple times, Eun Woojeong spoke to Cha Seohu.
“And you know, Cha Seohu.”
Eun Woojeong leaned forward slightly toward Cha Seohu and smiled.
“My mother was apparently helping that religion you’re chasing. It’s awkward to call this an apology, but I’ll make you an offer.”
“What are you trying to say now.”
“Oh, come on. You’re so cautious. It won’t be bad for you. I’m offering to hand over to you everything my mother was giving that religion.”
“What?”
Cha Seohu asked back with a mix of surprise and disbelief, and Eun Woojeong shrugged smoothly.
“Of course, we’ll have to dig properly from here on out to know the details. But it’s an information group, right? Don’t you think we probably didn’t just hand over our information power to them for free? I’m saying I’ll do that for you now instead. Then you get information, and the cult gets cut off. Isn’t that killing two birds with one stone?”
“...Are you serious?”
Cha Seohu narrowed his eyes and stared at Eun Woojeong.
Eun Woojeong was the system’s designated “lead,” they’d known each other for over a year, and Cha Seohu had saved him four times—yet he still felt too uneasy to trust him comfortably.
At that bluntly suspicious gaze, Eun Woojeong clutched his chest like he’d been wounded.
“You’re so cruel. I’m courting you like this. Still... I admit I haven’t earned enough trust. So just wait a little. Once the cleanup is done, I’ll gather the internal information and bring it to you. How about you decide after you see the results? You can accept that much, right?”
With a voice tinged with laughter, Eun Woojeong tempted him again with the proposal.
After hesitating, Cha Seohu nodded. If he brought proof, there was no reason to refuse—especially if it was information about the cult bastards that might still remain inside Spiderweb.
Once the offer was accepted, Eun Woojeong looked satisfied.
“Good. Then I can’t keep you here any longer. You can leave first. From here on out, it’s family business. Like I promised, as soon as the cleanup is finished, I’ll organize the materials and bring them to you in Korea.”
Cha Seohu hesitated, but Yoon Jeha gestured at him like, hurry up, let’s go.
Kwon Taehyuk and Cha Sahyeon also looked at him, urging them to leave this dangerous place as quickly as possible.
“Keep your promise.”
In the end, Cha Seohu left that final warning and turned away. After Cha Seohu approached his teammates, a moment later, black shadow surged up from the floor and swallowed the five of them.
Soon, only Eun Woojeong remained in the room.
In the room where silence settled, Eun Woojeong’s quiet humming began to echo. Tapping the communication device lightly, Eun Woojeong pulled out the pendant again.
The last remaining item in the inventory appeared in midair and dropped to the floor.
A silver ring. In the center was a gemstone that shimmered green.
It was the ring the woman had worn while living underground. The same type as the one Eun Woojeong had inherited—an item ring that perfectly concealed an awakened one’s energy.
Rolling that ring in his palm, Eun Woojeong recalled the moment his own ring had shattered.
‘...Cha Sahyeon.’
As promised to Cha Seohu, he would look into information about the religion.
Centered around that suspicious man called Cha Sahyeon.
