This World is too Cruel to Men – Chapter 214

Chae-rim, lost in thought, was unaware that the gazes of the Association and the Association Chairman were focused elsewhere, not on Dogun.

To be precise, it was because a fire had fallen on their feet, leaving them no time to worry about Dogun.

From the perspective of the Association or the Association Chairman, such a situation was unavoidable.

The reason for this inevitability was… the emergence of a third returnee right behind Chae-rim and Dogun.

And not just any emergence.

Unlike Dogun and Chae-rim, who had fallen into a deserted mountain, the man who was officially recognized as the third returnee suddenly dropped right in front of the Association building.

Yes, he literally ‘fell.’

He plummeted through a super-small rift that didn’t even trigger their rift detection device, crashing to the ground like discarded trash.

He had lost both arms and legs in the process.

Just two days ago, he was writhing on the marble floor, looking like a bug, and those present, along with the Association, were only slowly grasping the situation as chaos ensued.

It was no wonder, as the sudden appearance of the man signified a lot.

Most seriously, the fact that a super-small rift even existed—one that the rift alarm device failed to detect—and that it opened right in front of the Association building.

An Another capable of conversing with humans?

Any human involved with the Association was already aware of the existence of such beings, thanks to Chae-rim’s return interview.

Yet, despite that knowledge, there was an underlying arrogance among the members of the Association.

After all, what could a clever little monster really amount to?

That arrogance, a common human thought, shattered with the man’s arrival.

Naturally, it was a recipe for chaos.

When the existing perception was shattered, people realized.

The man’s sudden appearance was, in fact, a warning—a threatening one—from the queen of the Anothers, the being mentioned in Chae-rim’s interview.

It was undeniably effective.

After all, humanity had managed to fend off Anothers effectively up until now.

Sure, in the early days, they suffered massive losses due to the lack of detection methods for rift occurrences, but now that the rift alarm device had made its historical debut, such losses were a thing of the past.

Of course, if they faced an organized assault from the other side, like the mass occurrence of rifts a month ago, they could still take damage.

But even that would be unavoidable.

If such a situation had happened before the rift alarm device was developed?

The terms ‘first wave’ and ‘second wave’ invasions would have been newly added to history textbooks.

However, the last incident wasn’t nearly as bad, and because of this, humanity grew a sense of ‘confidence.’

Even if the Anothers decided to overwhelm them with sheer numbers, they felt sure they could mitigate the damage with the rift alarm device.

That was the prevailing opinion until a few days ago… until the man’s arrival flipped everything upside down.

More precisely, it was the existence of the super-small rift used to ‘transport’ the man that caused the upheaval.

Currently, the cornerstone of humanity’s defense against the Anothers was undoubtedly the rift alarm device.

What happens if the rift alarm device detects signs of rift occurrence?

They would deploy heroes to the location as quickly as possible to eliminate the Anothers emerging from the rift, forming the basis of their strategy against the Anothers.

But what if the central rift alarm device fails to function?

What if super-small rifts open up in various places, leading to isolated, chaotic battles?

It could very well lead to a repeat of the first and second invasion scenarios.

Such fear occupied the minds of those from the Association who were aware of the situation, which was precisely why they took measures to control the narrative.

In a typical organization, monitoring every person’s mouth would be impracticable, but the Association, having long positioned itself as humanity’s shield, possessed the power to erase the truth.

Of course, since measures had to be taken for resolving the crisis, the truths of the incident did trickle down to the upper echelons of various countries’ Associations.

And that was precisely why Chae-rim remained unaware of the situation.

The Chairman had been quick to eliminate the possibility of information leaking out to other places.

Thus, in Korea, only the Chairman and her closest secretary were aware of the incident.

So how could they afford to worry about Dogun?

An even pressing issue had arisen!

Because of that, the Chairman of the Korean Hero Association, a woman who could be seen as a target of Chae-rim’s wariness, was currently boarding a plane heading to America.

Of course, that was due to news relayed from the Association’s headquarters.

And the moment she arrived at the headquarters in America, she would participate in the hearing regarding the circumstances of the man officially named as the third returnee.

However… it wouldn’t turn out to be as fruitful as one might hope.

Unlike the seemingly sane Lightning Lady or the young boy Dogun, the man clearly showed signs of having been exploited as ‘prey’ for an extended period, and even an untrained observer like her could tell he wasn’t in a normal state.

His eyes were clouded as if he were on drugs, and he kept grinding his teeth, likely due to the deep-seated fear that had infiltrated his bones.

Despite high-level Awakened beings with healing talents being summoned from the headquarters to assist him in real-time, it was to no avail.

So, one could hardly expect the man to produce coherent speech.

Naturally, the words that did emerge from his mouth were a series of incomprehensible utterances that barely qualified as language.

Nonetheless, many gathered at the window connected to his hospital room, sacrificing their time, and for a simple reason.

“I’m looking for, looking for… a sacrifice… just a little more gathering… I will soon be able to see…”

The man was correct; he was, in a way, a piece of stationery.

A letter sent by the queen of the Anothers, which, according to Chae-rim’s interview, had the appearance of a girl.

And the moment that letter concluded… it was as if the man’s time permitted to him was up, as his life extinguished.

And right at that moment—

“Chairman…”

“…What is it?”

“A, a rift… a rift occurrence report…”

The relationship between humanity and the Anothers was about to enter a new phase.

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Dogun’s Point of View

“Damn…”

How the hell did it come to this?

I didn’t know.

Not knowing was the problem.

And amid all this madness, what was even more maddening—

—Kiiirrrr…

The sounds of the beings I thought I wouldn’t hear again were growing closer by the second.

And as if Bora, who had suddenly found herself under me, could hear it too.

The hand I was using to cover her mouth trembled with intense fear.

Feeling that tremor, I thought inwardly.

If I had known this could happen, if I had just kept Chae-rim informed while pretending to help Bora just for the sake of it…

When Bora suddenly appeared and asked if I could show her around the neighborhood, I thought it was just a quick trip nearby and naively believed nothing would happen.

But who would’ve expected this?

That a goddamn rift would pop up right inside the shopping complex of all places.

And unlike last time, there was no disaster alert this time.

So when I first spotted that ominous gap among the crowd, I couldn’t help but freeze.

Others probably felt the same way.

So just keeping still like that…

Ugh, the very thought of it made me nauseous, but I had to hold it back for now.

—Kiiirrr…

Even now, the distance between me and them was decreasing little by little.