“Why don’t you stay away from here for a bit?”
“I’m sorry. I was too excited to see you after a long time. Umm… Do you want to smoke a ciga…” Ji-Hoon couldn’t finish his sentence since Seon-Hu was staring at him coldly. He looked back at them multiple times as he was leaving, and he soon disappeared into a crowd of people.
“I wanted to meet you. Should I call you Odin?”
“Follow me.”
Seon-Hu moved to his place as it was a spot where people couldn’t see them. The space had a different atmosphere compared to the outside and felt eerie and out of place. Seong-Il’s and Soo-Ah’s groans of pain stirred up the tension.
“We have a healer. I’ll bring him if necessary.”
However, Seon-Hu entered the master bedroom without replying. Woo-Seong felt like he was being dragged to face a judge.
Did Odin notice what I have been trying to do here? But there wasn’t enough time for him to do so. Plus, didn’t people say that he doesn’t care about the village affairs?
Thud. Thud.
Woo-Seong’s heart pounded quickly as if it was trying to warn him. Seon-Hu sat on the couch and used his chin to point at the seat in front of him, hinting at him to sit down. Woo-Seong couldn’t smile at Seon-Hu the way he usually did to the other people in his village. Contrary to the assumptions made by his comrade, Odin was a young man who looked to be in his early twenties. Young people were bound to be hasty until their values became settled after experiencing many mistakes. Even if Woo-Seong wanted to make his mind stop obsessing over this, he kept thinking that he might die there because of the young man’s impatience and the knife in his hand. He thought back to what he knew about the man.
“Odin killed Cheol-Yeong as soon as he cleared the wave. Snip. He blew his neck with a single skill shot.”
“Why?”
“…We were surprised since we didn’t know the reason. He must have not liked him. Anyway, Cheol-Yeong was a good guy. But other than that, fortunately, nothing much has happened.”
“I’d like to hear more about what you said in the beginning. Could you please elaborate on that? When the guide asked for an offering, Odin…”
Woo-Seong sat as he recalled the story about the central village’s second leader, who used to be a young doctor.
Seon-Hu asked, “What did you do before, Mr. Kang? I mean your job in society.”
“I was doing a small political activity.”
“A member of the National Assembly?”
Woo-Seong shook his head, “Ah, I’m grateful that you even think I could have been one, but no. I was just on a small city council.”
Seon-Hu became quiet.
“…”
Woo-Seong felt that the sudden silence heralded that danger was coming. He couldn’t figure out why his opponent had called him up. There must have been a reason why the man who loathed interacting with others decided to interact with him.
From then, the awkward silence in the space became stifling as all Woo-Seong could notice was Seon-Hu’s mysterious gaze. It was hard to figure out whether the younger man had goodwill, curiosity or hostility toward him. His gut instinct, however, screamed that it was hostility.
Woo-Seong forced a smile on his face while his dripping sweat made his back wet.
“Hahaha… This is awkward.”
“Yeah, it must be. I’d like to ask you a few more questions. If you succeed in breaking through the Stage of Advent, what will you do outside in the real world?” Seon-Hu asked.
Woo-Seong had a strong intuition that this conversation would determine his life or death. He had this feeling from the moment he walked into this building.
But why? What about me has bothered him to that extent?
***
Seon-Hu still dreamed of the streets in his past life, which were filled with neglected bodies and underweight children who either followed the Awakened or searched through garbage and monster carcasses. No one even took a second look at those streets. The areas near his home, where he had rummaged through in hopes of finding his aunt since his mother had become depressed after her disappearance, were especially peculiar.
For him, those days of searching through the streets were a turning point in his Awakened life as he had met this guy, Kang Woo-Seong. He was known as the top-ranked among Korean Awakened. His leadership was great, and his wise words had impressed Seon-Hu, who had barely managed to regain his humanity after becoming a murderous monster. Therefore, Seon-Hu had a thought while going through the guild in North America with Woo-Seong while looking for his aunt. He had believed that a man like this would brighten the devastated streets of Korea.
However, Seon-Hu saw Woo-Seong again during the biggest civil war in the world: the Battle of European Revolucion. Woo-Seong was called ‘No Return’ there, which meant death. He was the guild leader of the Seventh and Eighth Virtue’s spearhead. Although he wasn’t one of the Eight Evils and Eight Virtues, he was powerful and genuinely believed in their values.
He was the System’s supporter and a skillful agitator. Therefore, the battles he had participated in were always fierce and brutal. He killed anyone on the opponent’s side, including Awakened and civilians. Those who followed him also slaughtered and tormented the opposing camp like beasts. However, he treated other neutral people the same way even though they weren’t on his opposing side. In other words, he was also savage to the small number of Awakened who weren’t on either side.
Kang Woo-Seong… You were the most vicious guy among those who supported the System. Even Eight Virtues were more careful than you as they cherished their own lives.
Seon-Hu was recalling the time when he had been captured by Woo-Seong and his guild members. He had been taken to the Eighth Virtue’s headquarters. Without the sacrifices of the teenager Jonathan had brought with him, Seon-Hu would have been killed that day.
But…
Many things had changed already. Seon-Hu had already recruited some of the Eight Evils and the Eight Virtues in his team, who used to be his enemies in the past. Human civilization hadn’t imploded on itself as he had kept the financial system intact. He had also modified a part of the random System and clearly witnessed the downstream effects with his own eyes. The number of people who had survived so far was also much higher than before.
In the past, weird prayers and rituals had been created to receive rewards around this time. The attempts to categorize the System as good or evil had also been heightened. However, that wasn’t the case now. People were able to direct their own growth of their free will even if skills and items were still being given out randomly.
“I don’t want to cause any trouble. Please let me know if I do anything against your rule. I’ll always listen to you. Hahaha…”
Seon-Hu maintained his heartless expression.
There is no problem now because the likelihood of you supporting the System has been reduced significantly. However, the problem is that your beliefs and ambitions won’t go away. I know exactly who you are. Even if the environment changes, your inborn nature cannot change. You better not try to pull a stunt.
“Please answer me, Mr. Kang Woo-Seong.”
No, Mr. ‘No Return.’
***
It was the prerogative of those in power, especially in such a world where power dominated everything. Woo-Seong opened his mouth, acknowledging that he couldn’t avoid answering. “I will join the World Awakened Association. That speech on TV was impressive.”
“Oh, yeah?”
Woo-Seong continued, “Thanks to him, I was able to prepare in advance. I said goodbye to my family just in case, but I still didn’t know I would be chosen. I don’t know if I was lucky or not.”
“What do you think? Do you think you are lucky?” Seon-Hu asked.
Woo-Seong smiled wryly. “I’m trying to think that way. Although this world is tough, I will be able to help the world fight against alien invasion if I get stronger here. I will protect my family and neighbors with the World Awakened Association.”
“So, are you going to quit your municipal job?”
“There are many better guys than me. I was only able to get the job because they had helped me a lot. I’m not that exceptional. Also, I should be faithful to my duties as an Awakened since I was chosen. That is my plan.”
Woo-Seong was able to relax a bit. He could tell that Seon-Hu wasn’t pretending to be an adult. His calm voice, glaring eyes, and choice of vocabulary was not something that a young man in his late teens or early twenties could have. It was true that they were still in the land of death, but at least his chances of dying due to a young man’s impatience had disappeared.
This young man called Odin was mysterious. At that moment, one thought crossed Woo-Seong’s mind.
If such a strong, mature young man helps me… Wait, no. What am I thinking? He will cut my throat if I take a wrong step.
“Odin killed Cheol-Yeong as soon as he cleared the wave. Snip. He blew his neck with a single shot of skill.”
Snip?
Woo-Seong’s eyes widened as it had happened in a blink.
Wait, why?
Snip!
***
“You shouldn’t have lied…” he muttered.
Blood flowed under Seon-Hu’s feet. If Woo-Seong had been honest without an attempt to pull the wool over his eyes, then he would have been incorporated into the new empire like the Second and Fourth Virtues had been. While he was talking with Woo-Seong, Seon-Hu had activated his Sense to its fullest extent to listen to the conversations of those who came from the north with the older man.
The people from the northern village had mentioned ‘Jeon-il’ a lot. It no longer mattered whether Woo-Seong had used that name to unite the villagers or whether it was because he sincerely felt bad about the current situation. The way Woo-Seong constantly rolled his eyes while thinking reminded Seon-Hu of his heyday.
Seon-Hu carried the older man’s decapitated body on his shoulder while he sandwiched the head under his armpit. Then, he moved forward, leaving bloody footprints.
Stomp, stomp.
He was trying to move the body over to the graves of the war dead. When Seon-Hu opened the door and came out, he ran into Ji-Hoon. Although Ji-Hoon had seen dead bodies before, he instinctively stepped back.
“I… I… I was…”
Seon-Hu said bluntly, “This is the last time. I will kill you if you approach me again. Get out of the way.”
Seon-Hu’s eyes glared with murderous intention as he vividly remembered how Woo-Seong had treated him and caused a number of innocent deaths. Ji-Hoon felt like even his blood was freezing. It was a terrible fear, and he couldn’t even control his body.
When he became flustered and fell back, Seon-Hu walked past him. Blood from Woo-Seong’s body also fell on Ji-Hoon’s face. When Ji-Hoon stopped breathing and watched Seon-Hu move away, other people also turned to look at him. Among them, some were from the northern village who knew Woo-Seong had gone into Seon-Hu’s building to have a conversation. However, no one made a sound as Seon-Hu looked inhuman and heartless.
Everyone kept silent.