Chapter 304

Past Events (2)

Jin-hyuk sneered as he watched the fire rain descend at an extremely slow, leisurely pace.

It seemed like a scare tactic, as if to threaten that it wouldn’t end unless he gave in.

“It seems you’re willing to talk. Let’s hear it.”

【There is something you must do.】

As Jin-hyuk shifted his posture, the silhouette’s tone also changed.

“Why does it have to be me?”

【It doesn’t have to be. I just happened to find you. As the right person.】

Though he acted composed, Jin-hyuk wasn’t exactly calm.

He immediately addressed the urgent matter.

“Can you stop this meteor shower?”

【I can easily eliminate it.】

“What exactly do I need to do?”

【I’ll explain as we go.】

“What do I get out of it?”

The silhouette raised its arm, fluttering like a curtain, as if to show off.

【If you don’t go, it’s total destruction.】

As soon as those words were spoken, the asphalt beneath Jin-hyuk’s feet began to move strangely.

No sound could be heard.

Perhaps it was because time had stopped, making sound impossible.

Beneath Jin-hyuk’s feet, a space resembling a bottomless pit, studded with a galaxy of stars, revealed itself in an elliptical shape.

The swirling vortex seemed to beckon him, and Jin-hyuk’s indifferent eyes wavered for a moment.

Even the boldest and most cynical person couldn’t help but feel suffocating fear at such a sight.

“Do I just step into this?”

【There’s no time.】

Dududududu-.

It wasn’t just the fire rain.

The ground began to shake and crack.

“I’ll go, so stop the destruction. And take care of the chairman. He has a lot of responsibilities.”

【I’ll take good care of him. Hurry. I’ll explain as we cross time and space. The contract will take effect as soon as the explanation is complete.】

Jin-hyuk glanced back at the old chairman.

“I’m best at comparing and analyzing, but there’s no time for that now. I hope you survive.”

Jin-hyuk said this with a smirk.

Seeing Jin-hyuk’s rare smile, Hong Ki-jun felt a sharp pain in his chest.

There were still so many things left unsaid.

“Thank you for everything, Chairman.”

With a slight bow, Jin-hyuk stepped into the darkness.

“Ughhh-.”

Hong Ki-jun crawled toward where Jin-hyuk had disappeared.

【Old man. You can’t go.】

The silhouette flailed its arm, like a black curtain, and grabbed Hong Ki-jun by the scruff of his neck.

Hong Ki-jun strained his voice with all his might.

“Jin-hyuk-! When you come back, take care of our daughter, pleaseeee-!”

It was almost comical how he was only now spitting out words he hadn’t been able to say before.

He felt sorry for the old man’s stubbornness, revealing his true feelings at the last moment.

But at least it was a relief.

Jin-hyuk, falling further and further away, seemed to nod as he looked up.

Slowly, the entrance closed, and the solid asphalt returned to its original form.

【Shall we finish this now?】

“Wh-what-.”

Before Hong Ki-jun could even voice his confusion, the clock began to move.

Kwaaaaang-!

“Aaaaah-!”

“Kyaaaa-!”

Kkwaaaang-!

The night sky lit up as the meteor shower poured down.

Raindrops turned into fireballs, melting the concrete, and meteorites the size of vans tore through people and cars.

There was no place to hide, no place to take shelter.

Kwaaaaaang-!

Kkkwaaaa-!

Massive explosions were witnessed throughout the city.

In an instant, roads were severed, overpasses disappeared, and buildings collapsed.

The once-glorious cityscape was quickly engulfed in darkness, turning into chaos.

In contrast, the sky above shone with a dazzling light, heralding the end.

“Ah, ah······. No. My daughter. I lied, I lied-.”

Tears streaming down his face, Hong Ki-jun muttered like a madman, alternating between the hellish cityscape and the silhouette.

【What is true, and what is false? Old man, can you tell? Is your existence real? When existence itself is a lie, can your words be called true? I, who am not real here, and who have not made a contract with you, bear no falsehood.】

The words were hard to comprehend.

Hong Ki-jun had no time to ponder.

【You are nothing but insignificant parasites. I have come under the command of Toolso to cleanse this polluted world.】

“Th-then, what about Team Leader Son······.”

【I merely found a soul that aligns with my personal goal. He will live. If he fulfills the contract, that is. Even I cannot break what is bound by contract.】

“If this happens, even if he lives, there’ll be no place to return to-.”

【That is not your concern, old man. For a hundred days and nights, the earth will split, the seas will churn, and fire will rain from the sky. That is the will of the gods. If you’re lucky, you might survive for a hundred days. Crude spaceships, underground shelters. Try to hide, you insects-.】

The silhouette grew larger as it swallowed the surrounding darkness, gradually moving away from the ground.

As a powerless human, an old man, there was nothing Hong Ki-jun could do.

He could only desperately shout at the silhouette.

“A-a witness! Make a witness contract with me!”

Finding the opponent’s weakness, grasping at straws to negotiate.

That’s what the insignificant human Hong Ki-jun had clung to all his life.

In the final moment, that was all he could trust.

The headless silhouette seemed to tilt its head.

【A witness contract? There’s no such thing. Still, contracts are intriguing. Explain.】

“Y-you. No, whoever you are-. There’s no guarantee you’ll keep your promise to that person! Please, make me a witness!”

【So you don’t trust me.】

“You’ve already lied!”

【Did I?】

The silhouette responded with an annoyingly nonchalant reaction.

“I-I’m begging you······.”

Hong Ki-jun finally knelt and prostrated himself on the ground.

【Hoh-. That posture is quite pleasing. It feels like being worshipped.】

Hong Ki-jun, the master negotiator, didn’t miss the opportunity.

“Yes! Whoever you are, I’ll worship you, so please make me a witness-. Doesn’t it mean something for someone to witness and acknowledge that person’s struggles?”

【Indeed, insignificant beings assign meaning to even a blade of grass or a tree.】

As the silhouette extended its arm, an invisible force enveloped Hong Ki-jun’s body.

【Then it’s a contract. You’re coming with me, old man.】

In the blink of an eye.

When Hong Ki-jun regained his senses, the blue sphere, Earth, was as small as a baseball in the distance.

And countless meteors trailed their tails toward that sphere.

“Ah, no······. Honey, Soo-jung······. My poor daughter-. Where are all those meteorites coming from··· oh nooo-.”

【Those meteorites are another form of me.】

The silhouette pointed somewhere.

A star so blindingly bright, so overwhelmingly large.

Hong Ki-jun couldn’t open his eyes.

The giant’s wrath, tearing apart the tiny planet, was pitiful.

“That hell will last a hundred days······. Isn’t there any mercy to end it in an instant······.”

【Is that mercy?】

Hong Ki-jun stopped crying and looked at the silhouette.

“Yes. It would end without pain.”

【I see. Mercy is good.】

The silhouette extended its arm.

And then, it lightly clenched its fist.

That was the end of everything.

The world they had lived in disappeared without a trace.

Without light, without sound, turning into cosmic dust.

“Where did all those lives go······. How pitiful. Oh nooo······.”

Fortunately, the silhouette didn’t scold him for whining.

It seemed like an emotionless being.

【You’ll be bored. Until that person fulfills the contract, you won’t age or die. You won’t feel hungry or tired.】

“Where are we going now?”

【To Det Snife Etyuni Ted Roda. A place where you’ll be safe from the teeth of time.】

**

Jin-hyuk simply scratched his earlobe, which a mosquito had bitten, showing no particular reaction.

From his pouting lips and calf-like blinking eyes, Hong Ki-jun couldn’t detect any emotion.

“Are you okay······?”

“Yes. What else······.”

“You’re really fine?”

Hong Ki-jun widened his eyes in surprise.

“It’s already happened. I was curious about the reason, but you explained it. Now I understand. Why you treated me so well.”

Hong Ki-jun let out a dry laugh.

A person who clings to small meanings but doesn’t waste energy on meaningless things.

A person who doesn’t bend their pride in front of a transcendent being but readily sacrifices themselves for strangers.

– 【Humans are simple yet complicated.】

Yeah, they’re complicated. Hong Ki-jun muttered with a distant look.

“I think I understand why you’re so obsessed with space development, why you keep digging the ground.”

“Hahaha-. Let’s call it a pathological obsession. Even though you’ve been given a pardon, there’s no guarantee something like this won’t happen again.”

“I understand.”

Whooosh-. Jin-hyuk even whistled softly, as if to say, “I’m really fine.”

It was a truly random whistle, but it seemed to say, “I’m really okay.”

“You know.”

“Hmm.”

“That’s a memory only the chairman knows, right?”

“Now you know it too.”

“Even after you told me, it doesn’t feel real. It must have been erased. It just feels like, ‘Oh, I heard something like that happened somewhere long ago.’ Like it’s someone else’s story.”

“I see. As long as you’re okay. That’s a relief. I was worried the shock might be too much for you to return to normal life.”

Hong Ki-jun’s expression brightened.

“Do you have anything else you want to do? Ah, do you need to go to college?”

“I don’t plan to go to college.”

“I know how you feel about college, but there’s still something to learn there···.”

In the past, Jin-hyuk had bluntly told Chairman Hong Ki-jun, who asked why he dropped out of college, whether Korean universities even deserved to be called ivory towers, saying they were just places where people pay exorbitant fees for certifications and jobs.

He believed that specialized knowledge and skills were not learned but self-taught, and that studying and broadening one’s intellect and culture could be done through books, experience, and people alone, and he lived that way.

“They say there’s the romance of campus life, right?”

Even if a giant wave came, its power wouldn’t be the same as before. Back then, even though people said it was hard and difficult, not all college students struggled to continue their studies. Jin-hyuk already knew that. Even if they encountered the typhoon of bailouts, it wasn’t just a cold wind blowing through the campuses.

“You can make friends there too.”

“That’s exactly why I’m not going.”

Hong Ki-jun looked back as if to ask what he meant.

“Look at those people.”

Jin-hyuk’s gaze fell on Jo Seol-chan, Choi Mi-kyung, and Kim Eun-jung, sitting side by side with fishing rods. Under wide-brimmed straw hats, basking in the scorching sun.

Choi Mi-kyung was scratching her mosquito-bitten neck, Kim Eun-jung was staring at the fishing float like a cat, and Jo Seol-chan was gaping at Kim Eun-jung.

Choi Tae-yang was struggling to pedal on the boat.

“These are friends who hung out with me without any conditions, even before they knew who I was or who was behind me. If I go to college, can I really meet people who will be friends with me with pure hearts?”

Hmm-. Hong Ki-jun let out a groan of understanding.

Even now, he’s heard through the secretariat that some celebrities and second or third-generation heirs of famous companies are trying to approach Son Jin-hyuk. Of course, it’s an attempt Jin-hyuk has no reason to consider. It doesn’t even reach Jin-hyuk’s ears.

“I always emphasize to my friends and juniors. If you want to show off your friendship with me, never make a mistake anywhere. Don’t think about gaining something by selling my name, and if you’re not confident, don’t pretend to know me.”

“I think I understand what you mean.”

“I already have many friends, but more will come. It’s natural as you live. Of course, I could make such friends in college too. But even so, I’m not confident I can see them without prejudice.”

“That makes sense. It seems you’ve thought enough. You must have been busy.”

“Thinking is what keeps me human.”

Ah, right. Thinking.

One of the ways to avoid being consumed by darkness.

And Hong Ki-jun found another key.

Not being alone.

Just having this one-on-one conversation cleared the fog in his head.

Blindly living, tormented by nightmares, he had forgotten for a moment.

“And.”

“Hmm.”

“I’ve improved a lot, but my peers still seem too young. It’s like they’re my nephews, which feels uncomfortable. Friends like Mi-kyung, who I’ve known for a long time, are still okay.”

I see.

It was the disconnect between mind and body that Hong Ki-jun had also experienced. Based on his own experience, it would probably take another five years. For the mental and physical ages to align.

“Then······, what will you do?”

“I want to work. Something fun.”

Even though the world has changed, the atmosphere where college is seen as the natural next step after high school still remains. Even though Sein Group took the lead in removing academic restrictions, the hiring threshold is still high. Removing academic restrictions didn’t mean lowering the standards of culture and knowledge.

Still, this guy could do it. Hong Ki-jun is a witness.

There’s already an organization being prepared, isn’t there?

Hong Ki-jun’s eyes gleamed as he recalled the plan.

The Hong Ki-jun who was wandering and wavering had already become a thing of the past.

“Is that all you want to achieve?”

“Even if it’s not, I’ve already achieved everything.”

Hong Ki-jun’s pupils shook.

Jin-hyuk smiled faintly.

“We met like this and I spilled everything. I was wondering what residue was left in my heart, but I guess this was it. The king’s ears are donkey ears.”

Hong Ki-jun’s pupils moved quickly.

He looked somewhere above Jin-hyuk’s head, and even searched the shadows on the floor.

Seeing Hong Ki-jun’s frightened puppy expression, Jin-hyuk silently laughed.

‘You’re looking for Dugu Elil.’

But the silhouette didn’t appear.

In front of anyone.

***

That night.

Hong Ki-jun, along with Son Kwang-yeon, Cheon Gil-ryong, and Yoo Myung-sun, drank makgeolli late into the night and passed out in the living room. It was a deep, sweet sleep he hadn’t had in a long time. Even as Yoo Se-ra, with her bad sleeping habits, kicked him in the groin with her heel, snored in his ear, and ground her teeth, he didn’t wake up.

It was a peaceful night.

Except for Jin-hyuk, who was taking care of his siblings.

“Uncle Bear is so fat-.”

Nya nya-.

Yoo Jin, who was hugging Uncle Bear and singing in her sleep, had taken over the bed. Jin-hyuk, having no choice, took the floor, lying Jeong Won and Hong Soo-hyuk on either side.

“Hyung-, let’s sleep nose to nose. Hyung, sleep nose to nose. Soo-hyuk, sleep nose to nose.”

“Okay. Our Soo-hyuk, sleep tight-.”

He spent a long time soothing Hong Soo-hyuk, who was restless in an unfamiliar sleeping place.

‘I don’t struggle anymore. I don’t even worry. The past is just the past.’

What Jin-hyuk valued was the present. It had always been that way.

Still···, no matter how much it’s in the past, I’m angry at Dugu Elil’s atrocities.

His eyelids, which had been fluttering up and down, finally closed.

【Ta-da-.】

The unnecessarily cheerful guy appeared as if he had been waiting.

‘You’re here?’

【Hehe-. If I tell you what I found, you might jump up in surprise and wake up, returnee.】

‘Is that so······. I’m already surprised.’

【Ooh-, you predicted it without me saying anything? As expected, you’re sharp. Worthy of being my chosen one.】

‘No.’

You’re just too shameless.

You damn bastard.

Ugh-.

The sleeping Jin-hyuk clenched his teeth, loading up the curse.