Chapter 101

Im Haekyung’s bullshit was so beyond expectations that, for a second, I couldn’t even think of a comeback.

“Sorry?”

Barely managing to ask back without hiding my disbelief, I got a casual answer.

“I was joking.”

'Who the hell jokes like that?'

Still dumbfounded, I stared at him. Unbothered by my gaze, he went on, as if he’d been waiting for the cue.

“But the possibility was there, wasn’t it?”

“No. It wasn’t.”

“Even if it’s you, someone who appeared out of nowhere and stirs up Gates like this—if your identity looks off, wouldn’t people be suspicious?”

“No. I don’t think so.”

“Plus you’re young, built well, and oddly purposeful... Really suspicious.”

This bastard doesn’t listen.

Seeing my face, Haekyung laughed bright and crisp. Fine, let the lunatic laugh...

'How the hell did he pull my personal info?'

I’d dealt with a stalker this morning, so anything similar was enough to trigger a rash. I looked at him, full of suspicion.

“How did you find out my personal info or movements?”

“Oh, that.”

He stopped cackling and eased into a soft smile, leaning in slightly. Then, like he was sharing some secret, he started confessing his crimes in all seriousness.

“I have a lot of questions about you, but you don’t pick up my calls, and you keep slipping away... so of course I had to do some background checking.”

“Hm...”

Just your average lunatic, then.

“At first, I only meant to skim the basics. Everyone does at least that much.”

“No, they don’t.”

“Like exact age, family, education, trivial stuff.”

“Not trivial.”

“Ah, since I got it without permission, I can tell you my age and education too if you want. Family... I don’t have any either, so we’re similar?”

Wow. Truly information I did not want. I already knew it anyway.

My expression souring didn’t deter him in the slightest. He was shameless to the bone.

'I want to sock him once.'

“Of course I checked the most important part. Awakening info. Honestly, that’s what I was most curious about.”

“My Awakening info?”

“Yes.”

Answering curtly, he narrowed his eyes at me with a sly little smile, like he had some scheme. He deliberately paused a beat, then asked, all meaningful:

“But surprisingly... you awakened not long ago.”

“......”

“You awakened in early October... Before that, you had no real ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ record, basically living shut-in, then after Awakening you suddenly get active... It’s strange.”

“Because I awakened... Duties of an Awakened, you know. Protecting citizens?”

“Ha! You, Jehyun?”

The way he widened his eyes and laughed like he’d heard the funniest thing was a sight. I answered with a straight face.

“People should live a little altruistically.”

“...I live altruistically, Jehyun. I enter Gates every day.”

“I also enter Ga—”

“Anyway.”

'He’s not listening to me.'

Cutting me off, he concluded:

“So I talked to residents of the officetel you used to live in. Weirdly, no one remembers seeing you. And you’re the type who stands out, frankly. Doesn’t add up.”

“And that’s proof I stayed holed up at home?”

“I checked the CCTV through the building manager too. You rarely went out.”

...More thorough than I thought.

Listening to him, I couldn’t help thinking the system had implemented my past history like garbage. Just like “Kwon Taehan” right now.

'Was it made half-assed on purpose?'

I’d once looked into Kwon Taehan’s past because that “grace period” in the Status Window bugged me. Back when I’d just arrived here, that was the thing I wanted to know most.

Think about it: even before his “regressions,” the Kwon Taehan of this point in time has to exist, right? I genuinely believed that. That the harmless Kwon Taehan before he met me would still be alive.

Because calling it a “grace period” doesn’t make sense if it erases Kwon Taehan himself.

'If meeting was possible, I could lock him up at this point or move him aside.'

Though I figured the causality penalty would stop me anyway.

In any case, with that expectation, I tried to find him—but shockingly, Kwon Taehan’s whereabouts couldn’t be found anywhere.

I dug through the house he was supposed to live in and the school he was supposed to attend at this point, but there, Kwon Taehan existed only as a name. As if his actual presence had been temporarily removed.

Thinking maybe I lacked reach, I had Joo Seowon try. Same result.

So does the system generate slapdash parameters timed to when Kwon Taehan “regresses”?

In the original, it never explained it—just focused on his regression—so I hadn’t cared...

Noticing I’d drifted, Haekyung smiled sweetly and rapped his knuckles on the table in front of me. I brought my eyes back, and he said gently,

“I’m talking.”

“......”

“I mean please focus.”

A warning—softly delivered.

I nodded, and, unlike before, he spoke in a serious, calm voice.

“So, I can’t help being curious—what your purpose is, where you came from, why you’re doing this... but unfortunately, some restriction blocks access.”

“......”

“Which means you can’t explain your own operating principle with your own mouth.”

“......”

He fell quiet for a moment, then met my eyes and asked smoothly,

“Then may I make a proposal?”

So all that earlier junk was the preface?

No idea what he was about to put on the table, but it didn’t sound like anything that would benefit me. Still, I was curious, so I nodded. If it sucked, I’d just refuse.

Satisfied, he smiled.

“It’s nothing big.”

“What is it?”

“May I... touch your mind again, in a slightly different way?”

Then he quickly added, “I’ll be gentle this time.”

In the end, he was asking permission to use Mental Domination. Maybe not even stop at that.

I listened to his crazy talk and thought,

'I’m okay with it.'

My goal from the start was to see Kwon Taehan’s past... so it wasn’t a bad offer. Different motives, same result—pretty decent for me.

But that was my stance. The offer itself was still bullshit. And there he was, looking at me patiently, waiting for me to accept.

“If I let you mess with my mind, how does that help me?”

“Mm... I saw it as a win–win. You don’t know where the boundary is—what’s off-limits. This is a chance to find out.”

“But I’d be handing you leverage.”

“That’s true, but...”

Trailing off, he pinched his eyes slightly.

“I don’t actually need leverage on you. To be blunt... you and I aren’t exactly equals one-on-one, are we?”

“......”

Right. In other words, he can kill me without any leverage, so why would he need it?

Fine. Better to ask for something else as compensation. I was going to accept anyway; this way I’d get more out of it.

“Alright. Your goal is to satisfy your curiosity anyway.”

“Exactly.”

“In exchange, can you do me one favor?”

“What kind of favor?”

If I had to list his strengths: top-tier mental-type Awakened... and a few more. Best of all, he had the kind of capital where burying a person wouldn’t be a big deal.

I thought of the cultist stalker bastard I ran into this morning—who should be snoring at my place by now—and smiled.

“Nothing huge... Could you store something for me?”

“What kind of thing? An artifact?”

“Mm... A little more troublesome than that.”

Right. No need to keep him at home. Milk him for info and dump him on someone else—that was the rational move.

Haekyung paused, then agreed like it was nothing.

“Sure. Doesn’t sound hard.”

Goodbye, you cult freak.

***

After finishing the meal, we moved.

Where to?

Somewhere we can relax.

'...Okay.'

The wording was vague enough to make me wonder if he was taking me to a hotel, but he parked at an apartment complex.

“Where is this?”

“You’ll see.”

This is the standard kidnapping route, isn’t it? Ready to bolt elsewhere if needed, I followed him into the elevator.

We arrived at—surprisingly—a lived-in... ordinary home. Well, “lived-in” was generous; it was pretty bare.

“This is your place?”

“Yes. It’s been a long time since I’ve had anyone over.”

“...?”

His house? I looked around the empty-ish space and asked,

“This is really the Guildmaster’s place?”

“Yes. Why?”

“I didn’t think you’d bring me home. Isn’t this a bit too personal?”

“What we’re about to do is personal anyway.”

Not wrong... If I had to summarize the feeling I got from his night market and this place:

'This bastard doesn’t care about design, does he?'

On average, the interior was crap. The house at least looked neat at a glance since he hadn’t ripped out the default fittings. But the framed art and displayed objects—whether gifts or things he bought himself—were uniformly trash.

“What’s that?”

“I was told the place looked too empty, so I put it there.”

“Looks like a bug.”

I meant it, staring at the bizarre objet. His expression turned peculiar.

“Shall we start?”

“...Ah. Yeah.”

Right. We were here for a reason.