Chapter 133 |
The protagonist, Jung Inho, was born with a diminished capacity for empathy.
He understood that he shouldn’t harm others, but his reasoning was, ‘If I do, they’ll get angry at me, and that’s disadvantageous’. The common understanding of ‘because it hurts them’, or ‘because it’s a bad thing to do’, was incomprehensible to young Jung Inho.
However, he was adaptable. He had a desire to improve and was receptive to new information. Although it stemmed solely from the understanding that ‘parents are stronger than me’, Jung Inho made an effort to understand and accept what his parents told him.
The problem was, his parents gave up on him far too quickly.
“That’s a monster, not a human!”
“…….”
“You never know when it’ll stab me in the back. Huh? Honey, please… let’s get rid of it. I’m too scared now. I can’t handle it anymore….”
“…Sigh….”
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Surprisingly, the protagonist was hurt by his parents’ argument.
Having a lower capacity for empathy than others didn’t mean he lacked emotions. He was deeply attached to his parents and, though not explicitly stated, learned to call that attachment love. Even if it was an obsession, Jung Inho had never harmed his parents.
But when the protagonist teared up or expressed hurt at their words, his mother and father would look down at him with disgust in their eyes. Later, the protagonist would realize they probably thought he was feigning pain for attention.
Misinterpreting the protagonist’s sincerity as a lie, they clicked their tongues, saying Jung Inho was becoming increasingly cunning.
“What if… what if the child I gave birth to becomes a murderer? That thing… that thing will definitely cause big problems later on. I know it.”
“…Don’t say that in front of the child.”
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“Then you take care of it, huh? You don’t even come home from work, what gives you the right to say that? Do you know how late you’ve been coming home?!”
“I told you my workload has increased.”
Thus, the protagonist spent his childhood semi-neglected.
The reason for the term ‘semi-neglected’ was that, while his parents showed little interest in his basic needs, they were relentless about his education.
They acted as if they would teach him every ethical principle, moral, and norm in the world as long as he just stayed home. And the protagonist believed that if he absorbed all of this, his parents would finally accept him.
However, the protagonist realized a little too late that to his parents, ‘Jung Inho’ was nothing more than a potential murderer. If he had known sooner, he wouldn’t have bothered with their education.
Unfortunately, the protagonist had already come to yearn ‘goodness’.
“What? A police officer? A firefighter?”
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“Yes, then I can catch criminals and put out fires to save people….”
“Don’t be ridiculous…! How can you catch criminals and save people! I taught you so diligently, why do you keep lying to Mommy? Huh? Why are you doing this?!”
“…….”
He couldn’t bring himself to say it was ‘sincerity’, not a lie.
But the protagonist was no longer a blank slate, and he had emotions. His attachment to his parents, who disregarded his sincerity, had long since turned into a love-hate relationship, so he couldn’t help but express his discontent.
“…I’m annoyed.”
“…What?”
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“I said I’m annoyed.”
It would have been better if he had expressed anger or hatred instead.
“…….”
His parent’s reaction wasn’t anger or hatred, but ‘fear’.
“H… Honey.”
“…….”
“Honey!!”
As if they had heard a death threat, they reacted with terror to their child’s first expression of displɛasʊrɛ.
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The situation worsened after that. They resorted to vⁱӨlㅌncㅌ whenever the protagonist was in sight and confined him to his room upon returning home. Concerned about appearances, they bathed him, but even that resembled cleaning an object. They didn’t care if the child struggled or couldn’t breathe properly while submerged in water.
The protagonist’s parents acted as if their violent behavior was justified. Because someday soon, that monster will come to hurt us. They believed their current actions were self-defense, anticipating the pain and trouble he would cause them.
Then, one day, when the weather was clear.
“…I’m going to kill you.”
The protagonist decided to kill his parents.
The child was quite meticulous. He believed that at his age, and given his circumstances, society would consider his act of murder as self-defense, and he decided to kill them before he got any older. He even held a kitchen knife in his hand.
The irony was that before the protagonist’s wish could be fulfilled, his parents dⁱㅌd.
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“…You… you are—”
“…….”
“You’re Inho.”
His parents were murdered by some lunatic, they said.
Not by his hands, but by someone else.
“Inho will live with your uncle from now on. Understand?”
“…….”
It was a horrifying truth.
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More than the fact that he didn’t kill them, it was the fact that he regretted it.
“…Yes.”
Just like they said, he was a monster who wanted to kill people.
The fact that he had become trapped within their words, fulfilling their worst fears. The one perfect, undeniable truth that he could never be a good person.
It made Jung Inho, the protagonist, smile.
“Please… take care of me.”
Sincerely,
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and properly.
***
So, there wasn’t much the villain could do for the protagonist.
“It’s a gift.”
“…Yes?”
“Use it if you need it.”
Still, he did his best.
Probably no one would believe it, but he was sincere about that much.
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***
And back to the present situation.
‘Let’s look around.’
Lee Jaehun was preparing to dⁱㅌ.
When he used the healing fruit, the transferred pain disappeared if the injured target dⁱㅌd. Noh Yeonseok or Ha Sungyoon’s injuries would not return even if Lee Jaehun dⁱㅌd, so it was clear that his quick death meant the protagonist’s group could live longer.
No, the obvious fact was that it was the most efficient win-win choice for everyone.
‘Of course, their morale will probably plummet after I dⁱㅌ…’
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You know this manager trust you, right? Lee Jaehun spouted ludicrous refreshing nonsense internally.
It’s not like you guys failed without trying anything. You worked hard and got screwed, so your morale shouldn’t be too bad, right? Right? Anyway, I did everything I could. If you appreciate it, you should start becoming independent soon.
Thanks to the protagonist, his mind had cleared up a bit, and his empathy had slightly improved, but that didn’t mean his already broken mentality had reverted to what it was before he regained awareness of his past life. In truth, when faced with the brink of death, anyone would struggle to demonstrate proper empathy. Right now, Lee Jaehun was too preoccupied with sorting out the things he needed to handle after his regression.
And the person who needed to dⁱㅌ right now was none other than Song Inmyeong.
“That guy probably went to pick fruits…”
He didn’t know the exact time, but the day was bright and clear. Morning, or perhaps lunchtime.
Lee Jaehun, now fully recovered, joined the gathering team with Detective Hong Kyungjun’s consent. The team consisted of the two of them, Song Inmyeong, Seo Janghwa, Kim Kijung, Ha Sungyoon, and Kang Mina. They still had some supplies left from their previous gathering, but it wasn’t strange that they were already going on another expedition.
‘I’ve fully recovered too… Last time, things ended abruptly because of the monster incident, so I guess they felt some unfinished business.’
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Seo Janghwa, in particular, seemed determined to withstand the stray dog monster’s mental attack this time. At least, that was what Lee Jaehun thought.
And now, he was a little further upstream from the lake, away from the other gathering teams’ eyes.
To be precise… close to the spot where the group had settled down to rest before.
“Since I snuck away like this, I’ll probably get an earful.”
Well, it didn’t matter.
“…….”
He was going to dⁱㅌ soon anyway.
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“…Seeing you again makes me feel nostalgic.”
He chuckled softly, looking at the vines swaying within his field of vision. He was now asking a monster for cooperation, of all things. It was a sign of how far gone he was, though he’d realized it a while ago.
But in this situation, could there be a more reliable ally than this creature?
“I’ll bring him here.”
“…….”
“So, go ahead and make a scene.”
He was asking for cooperation from none other than the green algae monster.
‘For some reason, it seems quite favorable towards me.’
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And, one more thing.
‘To break the detective’s composure, a monster is the perfect tool.’
Although the gathering area didn’t have any dominant monsters besides the water snake monster, the green algae monster was a different story. Especially the neutral water snake monster wouldn’t try to confront the aggressive green algae monster, even if its territory was invaded and destroyed.
So, if the green algae monster made enough of a fuss, Lee Jaehun could provoke the killer without Detective Hong Kyungjun noticing. Since he was quite far from the pavilion, pretending to gather food, the other survivors, including the protagonist, wouldn’t be in too much danger.
‘That aside, they’ll be busy with the defense… but the current survivors should be able to handle that much.’
Of course, it was uncertain how well the green algae monster would listen to Lee Jaehun, but—
“…….”
“…Good.”
The fanged vine left without a sound.
Again, the green algae monster was quite a decent ally.
‘It’s so convenient when it’s on my side.’
Of course, Lee Jaehun didn’t trust it.
He didn’t know why the monster had only demanded one prey. He also didn’t know how his lucid dream and the otherworld were connected. He didn’t know what the green algae monster truly wanted, what would change because of his actions, or if his mind would truly be safe now.
But he was quite skilled at fabricating non-existent scenarios.
“…Then, I’ll…”
And he was also good at hunting.
“Look for bait.”
There were two people, and two hunters, and two prey.
‘To elicit the desired response, there needs to be bait.’
Lee Jaehun had provoked him enough so far, but it wasn’t quite enough to make him attack recklessly.
Objectively, both Lee Jaehun and Song Inmyeong had to be ⋏sshӨlㅌs. But Lee Jaehun wanted to be a slightly better ⋏sshӨlㅌ than Song Inmyeong. There needed to be a decent starting point to create some semblance of plausibility for why they tried to kill each other and ended up ruining everything.
And Lee Jaehun thought there was a pretty plausible story.
“A corpse.”
A human corpse, other than the child’s.
The person Song Inmyeong killed.
‘Or people.’
It should be somewhere around here.
‘When I was digging and causing a fuss… it was strange that the abandoned dog monsters backed away easily.’
He recalled the memory of rampaging with the monster in the middle of the night.
The abandoned dog monsters rampaged because they were hungry, and they satiated their hunger with physical food. He could understand they got agitated because the fish guts weren’t enough, but that made it even stranger that it retreated so easily.
The child’s corpse was relatively intact, considering the bite marks all over it. Abandoned dog monsters tend to become more docile with younger prey, so it probably went on a rampage due to hunger but stopped upon realizing the prey’s young age. That was the only explanation for the child’s intact face and hands.
‘But then, why did they retreat so easily?’
If their hunger wasn’t satisfied, their agitation wouldn’t subside easily.
Lee Jaehun had thought there would be casualties in Detective Hong Kyungjun’s team, but aside from a few injuries, the survivors were in decent shape.
‘At least no one had chunks of flesh ripped off.’
Then it meant there was other prey.
“Where could it be?”
Lee Jaehun smiled as he quickly scanned the surroundings.
There was a middle-aged man among the group of college students in the original story. They were described as having joined after entering the park, so it was questionable why he was nowhere to be seen now.
Then, let’s think about the variables. Variables, variables. The difference was the presence of the child and a man in this park. The boy, presumed to be Owner Choi Jungman’s son, was definitely saved by Lee Jaehun, but there was no reason for the child to come to this remote park just because of that. It was too weak a flap of wings to be considered a butterfly effect.
‘They said an adult pushed the child over.’
As if the child was thrown as bait, according to Detective Hong Kyungjun and Dr. Ha Sungyoon. Then, the most likely scenario was that the man used the child as a decoy and ran away. It was the middle of the night when the abandoned dog monster was rampaging.
‘And the finger-shaped bloodstains.’
Even though Lee Jaehun was disoriented when he first saw the child’s body, he had noticed the bloodstains on the tree. His head was hurting too much then to think deeply about it, but looking back now, it was a rather obvious story.
Perverted b⋏st⋏rds with firm convictions always leave their mark.
“…Does he enjoy the thrill?”
A trace that even the disoriented Lee Jaehun could notice.
“That piece of trash.”
Song Inmyeong.
That guy had already committed murder.
“You hid it well.”
Lee Jaehun grinned as he looked at the gruesomely torn pieces of flesh.
The pervasive scent of dog, the lethal amount of blood splattered everywhere, and the scattered body parts, so mangled it was hard to imagine they were once part of a whole—even Lee Jaehun would have been nauseous if Jung Inho hadn’t significantly relieved his accumulated mental fatigue.
However, his gaze first landed on the tree.
“…Finger-shaped bloodstains and…”
Secondly, on the relatively intact torso of a man on the ground.
“…Knife wounds, and…”
And lastly, his gaze landed on a seemingly clean clump of bushes.
As he rummaged through the slightly flattened bushes, something immediately caught his hand.
“Evidence.”
A bloodstained jackknife and a pair of latex gloves.
Savoring the air that momentarily trembled violently, Lee Jaehun smiled with satisfaction.
“Perfect.”