001 – Scorpion Syndrome
Every man has an experience he never forgets.
For example, a late-night movie you stumbled upon as a child without thinking.
The movie I saw was titled “Perfect Education.”
It was about a man who kidnapped a beautiful woman, and eventually, they fell in love.
“That was my first risque film, so I can’t forget it. But there was one thing I could never understand…”
Why would the kidnapper and the victim fall in love?
“Later, I learned that it’s called Scorpion Syndrome. It’s a psychological phenomenon where the hostage sympathizes with the captor, defends them, and even cooperates. Aren’t I smart?”
“Stockholm Syndrome, you idiot! And will you let me go already? Do you even know who I am and what you’re doing? Let me go right now!”
Thrashing uncontrollably.
The sight of a woman bound in heavy chains, trapped in a creepy basement, struggling desperately, was rather comical.
“You scumbag kidnapper! Do you know what my dad will do to you? He’ll lock you away in a mountain villa where no one can find you and cut off your fingers and toes one centimeter at a time!”
Anyway, it was just a movie.
Love between a kidnapper and a hostage doesn’t exist in reality.
Anyone who argues otherwise is going to get a punch in the head from me.
“So Ga-eul, I’m going out now. Make sure you eat well. If you need to use the bathroom, I left a cola bottle over there. For anything… uh… bigger…”
“AAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!”
“Alright, alright. You should be fine. I’m leaving now. There’s a kid who gets pissy when I’m late.”
Whoosh!
After closing the heavy iron door, I finally let out a sigh.
Yes.
I am the kidnapper who abducted Seugal, the only daughter of the chairman of Seonam Group, known as one of the world’s richest families.
But how did I end up here?
—
When I turned twenty, the world kind of ended.
It sounds like the opening line of a novel, but it actually happened, which is pretty absurd.
There was no warning or signs.
One day, the sky opened, and monsters emerged, completely destroying the world.
Of course, humans are relentless survivors.
Just like those who search through garbage dumps in the direst poverty, people in this apocalypse didn’t lose hope and continued fighting the monsters.
With superpowers and magic.
People called those with such abilities “heroes,” and the most active among them were revered as “Supernovas.”
Like supernovas that shine without giving up in a world where darkness has consumed the sun.
And me?
I was rummaging through garbage dumps.
“Wow! A fan!”
From amidst the junk, I found a fan with slightly broken wings. Its surface looked relatively intact, so it might still work if connected to electricity.
And next to it, I saw a bag of ramen.
“The expiration date was only a year ago?”
Finding both a fan and ramen on the same day made me feel incredibly lucky.
If word gets out that I have a fan, maybe I’ll get confessions from cute girls or something.
That’s the kind of world it is.
“Yining! Big brother’s back!”
Dragging my sore leg back home made me feel slightly relieved.
Home, well, it’s a shabby shack built with scrap metal, wooden planks, and iron sheets, carelessly pieced together near the dump. But in a world that’s fallen apart, having a place to call home is truly amazing.
“How long has it been since I’ve eaten ramen?”
Bubble, bubble—boiling broth. A dash of magic ingredient—ketchup.
And voilà!
“The true essence of ramen.”
Nom, nom, nom.
I quickly devoured the ramen, and a satisfied smile spread across my mouth.
However, my stomach growled loudly almost immediately, dampening my mood.
“I can’t even remember the last time I ate until I was full. Should I eat the emergency stash?”
Sneak.
In one corner of the house, a hamster cage contained the thing I call my “emergency stash,” which I had given a few strands of ramen to eat while it wobbled its body, round and blue like a baseball.
—Gweee.
“Nah. Even if I eat that, it’ll probably just ruin my liver.”
Let’s sleep.
Lying down on a somewhat soft carpet, despite its wear, gave me a view of the stars through the holes in the ceiling.
If only the mosquitoes buzzing in my ears weren’t there, it would have been romantic like a novel by Alphonse Daudet.
Still, I had a fan today.
An item that creates a cool breeze during the scorching summer? That’s real superpower, true magic.
“I’m really happy. I have a full belly, a house, and a fan, so I might be in the top 30% of the upper class. I’m the top groom candidate in this world, aren’t I?”
Creak, creak, psshhh—
“The fan just broke, so maybe top 47%? Still, that’s better than average.”
—Gweee.
Shhhhhhh…
Suddenly, without warning, it started raining, and water began pouring through the ceiling.
“Figures why my injured knee’s been bothering me all day.”
Whenever it looked like it might rain, my left foot, which was injured in an accident at 19, would ache, keeping me awake like today. I wondered what my life would have been like if I hadn’t injured my leg that day.
Would I have been called a supernova too? A successful Awakened One, popular with women?
Grrrrrr…
I’m hungry and can’t sleep.
Most of all, I feel painfully lonely.
When was the last time I had proper conversation with someone, not just talking to myself?
“Wouldn’t it be nice if someone—anyone—were by my side right now? Ideally a beautiful woman. While we’re at it, I wouldn’t mind her having a great figure and a sweet personality. Also rich and skilled in cooking—”
Knock, knock, knock.
As I was daydreaming, someone started knocking on the door.
—Does someone named Hanamjin live in this old incineration plant?
Hanamjin?
That’s my name.
I tried to open the door, but then suspicion crept in.
The voice I heard from outside was a thin female one.
Why would a woman come looking for me?
“Who’s there?”
—There’s something urgent I need to discuss. Can you open the door?
The voice was clear and crisp enough to wake nine out of ten sleeping people.
After much deliberation, I eventually gave in to masculine instinct.
How beautiful could the face be behind such a lovely voice?
—
Click.
As I opened the makeshift iron door, a woman drenched in the rain stood there, looking at me.
Whoosh—my breath caught in my throat.
She was the most beautiful woman I’d seen in this ruined world.
She had black hair and striking red cat-like eyes.
Despite a long scar under her left eye, she was undeniably gorgeous.
“I’m Hanamjin. Why have you come here?”
Could it be—did she hear about me finding the fan and come as a love interest? sh*t! That fan is already broken!
As I was panicking, the woman stepped inside without taking off her shoes and took a look around.
“The quality of life has indeed worsened compared to before, but your situation seems excessively dire. How can you survive in a place that looks like a dump? The mana concentration here is like a dungeon—”
Stopping mid-sentence, she clasped her long sword from her waist.
Swoosh!
“Monster…!?”
The reason she drew her sword wasn’t because she was a psycho, but because she noticed the slime monster I kept in a corner of the house in a hamster cage.
— Ing-ing-yeeeng!
Yining, the blue hamster-sized slime.
My one of the few conversational partners and emergency food supply.
“Hanamjin! Move! There’s a monster in your house!”
“Wait! Yining may be a monster, but it’s a kind monster!”
“I’m warning you. There’s no such thing as a kind monster in this world. If a monster acts friendly to a human, it’s just deceiving you for greater malice. Move aside! I’ll exterminate it!”
“What? k*ll? Hey, you d*mn woman! Can’t you hear me? Yining is a kind monster!”
“…What?! What hole did you put what into…!?”
The woman furrowed her eyebrows.
Even her frowning face was beautiful.
Maybe I prefer her like this over her smiling.
Though that’s not the issue right now!
“I was about to treat you nicely because you’re pretty, but do you even know how old you are? You look younger than me! How dare you enter someone’s house without taking off your shoes!”
“…”
Inside the room, Yining shivered, while the woman glared at it. An intense tension filled the small cramped space, then her lips parted.
“Can you prove that it’s a kind monster?”
“Proof?”
I took Yining out of the small hamster cage and placed it in my palm.
“Look! Isn’t it well-behaved?”
“…”
“Yining dances when I sing. Want to see? If only tied and imprisoned by the river, following it for two hundred miles, Butta Fly! Wild Duck! The Homeland of Birds~. Even if someone claims it’s their land, Alligators appear, alligators!”
—Ing-ing-yeeeng.
Wobble wobble.
Yining began dancing to my song with its slime body, and I couldn’t help but shake my shoulders happily, enjoying the rare opportunity to have an audience for my singing.
“How’s that?”
“…That’s strange.”
“Monsters are supposed to be strange. Didn’t you know?”
“Not about the monster! Your singing!”
After observing me and Yining with suspicious eyes for a while, the woman sheathed her sword, flicked her wet hair back. The shampoo scent was so nice.
“I came because I heard about a man who could tame monsters. Looks like I came to the right place. How did you do it? A monster shouldn’t harbor any kindness toward humans. Do you have some kind of secret?”
Did I tame Yining? I just happened across it while scavenging useful items from the dump.
If I must guess, there is one thing that might come to mind.
“Maybe because I sing incredibly well?”
“That’s absolutely not it!”
“Then it must be because I make excellent ketchup ramen.”
“Ketchup what? Anyway, I heard about you, Hanamjin. You can do anything if paid, correct? There’s something I need help with.”
As she scanned me from head to toe, a familiar sense of déjà vu came over me.
This woman was a client.
“So, it’s not about the fan after all.”
“What fan?”
“Never mind! I don’t do anything for money! I have my pride, you know. A man without pride is just a corpse, right?”
“Keep in mind, I can pay you whatever you ask for.”
“True, pride doesn’t put food on the table. I’ve always been a practical person.”
“Good, we’re getting somewhere. And by the way, I’m not some suspicious person. My name is Seugal. Seugal. Ring a bell? I used to be quite famous.”
“Seugal?”
Honestly, this was the first time I was conversing with such a stunning woman, so my head was spinning. The women around me usually only gave me cold stares whenever I tried to talk to them.
And then, the name “Seugal” popped out from my tangled memories.
“Are you the ‘Supernova’? The one with multiple abilities?”
“Right. Supernova. That’s what they called me. Also ‘The Worst b*stard.'”
What did that mean?
Showing up unexpectedly, pulling out her sword, and calling herself ‘The Worst b*stard.’
Could she be a real psycho?
She’s pretty, though.
While I was having these thoughts, Seugal asked me,
“Have you ever regretted anything in life? If you could go back in time, what would you do?”
