Chapter 140 |
In his previous life, the powers referred to as supernatural abilities in this world actually existed.
While not everyone possessed such powers, one thing was certain: those who did were assigned important roles. Unlike the vague notion of ‘destiny’, this had a somewhat coercive aspect.
And Lee Jaehun’s ability was ‘regeneration’. At first glance, it seemed simple and of little value, but since dying would still result in penalties even if one could resurrect, his ability was regarded quite highly. Consequently, in his past life, he played a crucial role in the world. It was only natural.
However, due to his inherently childish and flawed nature, Lee Jaehun. was disliked by many. And, to reiterate, his ability was regeneration.
“Have you heard of brain mapping?”
“…….”
“The nerve endings are much more sensitive than other areas.”
Meaning it was extremely difficult to kill him.
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Song Inmyeong used the back of his claw hammer to pry open the wound on Lee Jaehun’s hand and then jammed it in. Not in one swift motion, but slowly, like a delicate craft, the sound of tearing skin echoing.
Riiip—
“…Ugh…”
“If you can’t escape, it becomes a weakness. Such a foolish evolution.”
Despite his excitement, Song Inmyeong’s languid gaze fell upon Lee Jaehun’s mangled hand.
The pristine, barely-used hammer had a sharp enough edge to easily tear off a grown man’s fingernails. All five of Lee Jaehun’s nails were long gone, and the wood he clung to was stained crimson from the hammer grinding against his exposed flesh.
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Slowly working the hammer’s head into the trembling, torn skin of Lee Jaehun’s hand, Song Inmyeong continued,
“Personally, I think the bones in the hand are incredibly fragile. They break and shatter so easily with such simple tricks. After I cut all the muscles, can it still be called a hand?”
“…Agh…!”
“It’ll just look like a lump of meat dangling from your wrist. In that case, it might be better to just cut it off cleanly. Ah, of course, I haven’t tried it myself because my own hands are precious…”
This crazy b⋏st⋏rd, the more excited he got, the more he talked. It was incredibly annoying.
‘Back at the shelter, he just lazed around like a bum.’
The fact that this guy, who barely spoke unless it was to his friends, was so excited because of him was unsettling. But the fact that all of Song Inmyeong’s attention was focused solely on Lee Jaehun was a blessing.
Annoying and frustrating as it was, Lee Jaehun was quite immune to this kind of situation. What people commonly referred to as torture.
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Crack.
“See? When you break the bones like this…”
“Ugh…!”
“…Huh? Huh? Why aren’t you losing your grip? I was about to catch you.”
Song Inmyeong seemed quite perplexed.
“Normally, you lose strength in your hand when the bones are broken…? Is this related to that algae monster? Have you already become a monster?”
“Bʊllshⁱt…”
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Although he wore a pained expression, he could endure it.
‘The disgust is far greater than the pain.’
In his past life, his ability was regeneration, and the amount of pain he had endured was too vast and varied to remember. His current body, influenced by the memories of his past life, had a dulled sense of pain. This level of agony was nothing.
But his mind was a different story. A body that regenerated, even if its head was severed, was a perfect subject for inflicting pain. However, he had quickly adapted, so if one wanted to truly torment him, mental anguish was more effective than physical pain.
His body could heal, but it was difficult to adapt to the incurable pain of the mind.
“Gasp, ugh…”
Lee Jaehun absolutely hated the one-sided pain he endured, unable to retaliate. It was more nauseating and agonizing than having insects crawling ⁱnsⁱdㅌ his mouth.
“It would be better if you just dropped Ms. Kang Mina.”
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“…….”
“Then you could climb up and kill me. You wouldn’t have to suppress your murderous intent… Wouldn’t that also be a form of sacrifice? How fascinating.”
“…Bʊllshⁱt…”
“That woman won’t even realize you let go of her hand.”
The amused voice grated on his nerves.
“She’s so far gone, how could she possibly remember such a trivial thing as she dⁱㅌs?”
Lee Jaehun couldn’t refute that. Partly because it was so absurd, but also because, strictly speaking, Song Inmyeong’s words weren’t entirely wrong.
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“Agh, ah… sob, ugh, hack…”
“…….”
He clenched his jaw against the tremors he felt around his waist.
He prayed that even if Kang Mina regained her senses later and remembered this, she wouldn’t recall this particular moment. It would be better for her not to remember.
‘I knew trauma would be a problem, but…’
Kang Mina had already almost fallen to her death from the company building. Below, monsters had waited to devour her, and it seemed she was reliving that experience now. There was no other explanation for her sudden mental breakdown and loss of coherent speech.
This other world knew how to exploit personal trauma in the most brutal and grotesque ways. Even breathing was enough to break a person in this world, so how could Kang Mina, still so young and vulnerable despite her recent growth, possibly endure this?
‘Should I be grateful she’s not struggling?’
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She seemed to have forgotten his existence entirely, lost in her panic, but the desperation in her grip spoke of a fierce will to live. As if instinctively knowing that struggling would be fatal, she simply clung to him, unmoving. That was a small mercy.
So, to do anything, he needed to push the murderer away and climb up…
—Riiip!
“…!”
“Ah, don’t try to climb.”
As if reading his mind, Song Inmyeong twisted the knife embedded in his hand.
The precise rotation almost made him lose his grip, but he dug his fingers deeper into the tree root, holding on. Blood flowed down his arm, soaking his shoulder and face, but if he dⁱㅌd here, how could he fulfill his deal with the algae monster?
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‘…Is it nearby? If I dⁱㅌ now, will it eat this b⋏st⋏rd? I did lure him here, so it might honor that…’
If Jung Inho hadn’t healed him, he wouldn’t have been able to endure even this much. Even now, with the mental burden significantly lessened, he felt his mind twisting with trauma. If he were in his previous state, he would have simply given up and dⁱㅌd. Or committed suicide.
And for the sake of the chick’s efforts, Lee Jaehun had no intention of dying now.
“…This…”
Calculating distances within the park in his head, he continued,
“I don’t understand why you think this is sacrifice.”
“…Then what is it?”
“Isn’t this usually called self-satisfaction…?”
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Holding onto the edge of a cliff with a broken, mangled hand, supporting another person’s weight, wasn’t something a human should be doing. His arm trembled violently, blood dripping down.
He was disgusted with himself for being unable to deal with this piece of trash.
“It’s just that, since I have no other choice, this is the only thing I can do.”
Instead, he decided to rob Song Inmyeong of his composure.
‘Someone will come soon.’
Before forming the gathering team and starting the exploration, Lee Jaehun had given the remaining fruits to Firefighter Han Doyoon and Teacher Lee Yoonbyeol. It wasn’t simply because they were both injured.
Firefighter Han Doyoon, second only to Lee Jaehun in terms of being a pushover in the story, was a self-sacrificing person, though it wasn’t readily apparent. He had dⁱㅌd doing something foolish to save someone else. On the other hand, Lee Yoonbyeol was pragmatic. With a young child to protect, she knew how detrimental a severe leg injury would be.
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‘So Han Doyoon won’t eat the fruit, and Lee Yoonbyeol will agonize over it and eat it only at the last minute.’
He had his reasons for giving them the fruit, but right now, Lee Jaeheon was waiting for Firefighter Han Doyoon’s decision.
‘He’ll tell one of Jung Inho’s group that he received a fruit.’
And the most likely candidate among the remaining members was Intern Noh Yeonseok.
He was easy to talk to, not s*upid, and physically capable. Even if Han Doyoon hadn’t chosen him, Lee Jaehun thought Noh Yeonseok would react, knowing Kang Mina was in the gathering team, and would come looking for them.
That was enough.
“…There are other options.”
“There aren’t.”
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“Just drop Ms. Kang Mina. Then you can live. You can kill me.”
“So, I said, there aren’t.”
“Are you really insane?”
Someone capable of handling this situation would come.
All Lee Jaehun had to do was shatter what little sanity Song Inmyeong had left.
“I learned that this is sacrifice, Mr. Lee Jaehun.”
“You learned wrong. You’re confusing sacrifice with selfishness.”
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It was just a matter of stripping away the other person’s composure.
“…This is fcking awesome.”
If he set things up like this,
Wham.
“—You son of a bⁱtch!”
Someone else would clean up this mess for him.
“…Ah.”
With Song Inmyeong’s stunned cry, Lee Jaehun felt the knife ripped from his hand. Blood gushed out, drenching his shoulder and face.
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“Mr. Lee Jaehun…!”
“…Ha…”
Of course, that wasn’t important right now.
‘What’s more important is that I’m free.’
He readily accepted Detective Hong Kyungjun’s help as he was pulled up. Watching the two friends’ brawl in this other world was a spectacle in itself.
Seo Janghwa grabbed Song Inmyeong by the collar, pinning him down and shouting,
“Song Inmyeong, you fcking b⋏st⋏rd, fʊck, fʊck, really…!”
“Wow, I’m fcked.”
“You son of a bⁱtch, why are you doing this! Why did you do that, why!”
“I lost.”
Song Inmyeong, looking up at his furious friend, burst into laughter, seemingly relieved and delighted. The sound made Lee Jaehun exhale.
“But.”
The monster continued,
“You lost too, ahjussi.”
“Song Inmyeong…!”
“You know what I mean, right?”
Huh.
“…….”
Lee Jaehun couldn’t argue with that.
It was truly dⁱsgʊstⁱng.
* * *
To Seo Janghwa, Song Inmyeong was a friend.
There was no other way to describe it. They’d spent so much time together that they were nothing but friends, knew and respected each other enough to confidently call each other friends to others. He was a strong, confident person, worthy of the title of friend. He was Seo Janghwa’s friend, someone she believed would never break.
So any flaws were acceptable. Even if he was inherently unethical and had a tr⋏shy side, Seo Janghwa was still Song Inmyeong’s friend. He wouldn’t change even if Seo Janghwa hit him upside the head, but Seo Janghwa believed she could help clean up his mess. She believed they could help each other when things went wrong.
So, yes.
She believed.
“Song Inmyeong…!”
How devastating it was to have that belief shattered.
“Ah, our gorilla is pissed. Scary as hㅌll.”
“Please, ah. Please stop… stop this bʊllshⁱt…”
She couldn’t finish her sentence.
Even when she’d found the child’s corpse, she’d been indifferent. Seo Janghwa only cared about her friends, so even if someone dⁱㅌd, she felt no more than she would watching a news report about an accidental death in her neighborhood. So, Seo Janghwa wasn’t a good person either.
But when she saw the scattered remains on the way here, when she saw the bloodstains in the familiar shape and size of fingers, the feeling Seo Janghwa experienced was beyond the simple word ‘miserable’.
“You, you… you…”
“What.”
“…You shouldn’t have done that, you son of a bⁱtch…”
Could this simply be called “betrayal”?
She felt the detective, who had come this far with her, pulling someone up from the cliff. She heard the cries of the traumatized woman. The stench of blood, thick and cloying, ⋏ss⋏ʊltㅌd her nostrils, a sensation she hadn’t considered particularly sensitive, and stabbed at the back of her eyes.
Overwhelmed by nausea, she stared down at the person whose collar she gripped. The monster she’d believed to be her friend casually stroked her cheek.
It was chilling.
“Hey, are you crying?”
“…Don’t fʊck with me…”
“Yeah, don’t cry. You look ugly as hㅌll.”
“…….”
“This is hilarious, I told you not to cry, but you’re still crying.”
And the way he chuckled seemed so surreal.
“…I…”
I,
“…….”
believed in you.
Because I believed, because I believed even though I knew you were inherently trash. Because I thought you, at least, tried to protect those within the line, I pretended not to notice even when I felt something was wrong.
“That’s why you shouldn’t have looked away.”
“…Ha.”
“If you thought something was off, you should have killed me first, Seo Janghwa.”
At those words, her grip on the collar loosened.
The monster, with a familiar face, continued, his gaze fixed on Seo Janghwa. The words weren’t directed at her, yet those sharp, predatory eyes were chillingly familiar.
“Ahjussi, I’ve been thinking…!”
“…….”
“Every time someone looks at a corpse, the monsters seem to go wild, you know? Just now, the monster went on a rampage because you saw it, right? Huh? Don’t you think so?”
“…Song Inmyeong.”
“What do you think?”
The large hand that had been stroking her cheek now gripped her throat, and the eyes she met curved into a strangely gentle smile.
The jarring dissonance within the familiarity paralyzed Seo Janghwa; she couldn’t bring himself to shake off the hand.
Ah, did I.
“…I…”
Take the knife away from this b⋏st⋏rd?
“Such a shame.”
Thud—
A burning sensation bloomed in her throat.
“Right, Janghwa?”
It hurts.
“…Ugh.”
It hurts, but—
Why are you crying even now?
“…….”
What did I see and judge in this short moment? Did you consider me a friend? Was my choice wrong? Are those tears I see now real, or fake?
If they’re real, are they tears of mourning? If they’re fake, what are you acting for? Why…
“My friend.”
“…….”
Ah.
“…Aha…”