Misunderstanding (3)

Yeon-ji thought Park Jung-woo was a strange man.

When she encountered him during her "Ji Yeon-hwa" days, he was just a manager with an unpleasant impression who stuck close to Shin Ah-yeon.

However, the information she later heard through Jo Chang-woo from Upstream was enough to change that impression.

'Returnee.'

At first, she thought it was nonsense.

Disappeared after being sucked into the rift three years ago?

Yeon-ji remembered that rift incident clearly.

There was no way she could forget the accident that became the cause of Shin Ah-yeon's mana hall breaking.

Based on the information, Park Jung-woo was listed as missing after getting caught up in that rift accident, and he had reported his survival only a few months ago.

'Is it true?'

Most people probably thought that.

Even now, they must be watching him with uncertainty.

It was entirely reasonable, since it was far too preposterous to believe as the truth.

Even she, as Ji Yeon-hwa, hadn't believed the information that he was a returnee.

But now, as Yeon-ji, she believed he was a returnee.

Shin Ah-yeon's circle magic, and the dark magic he had taught her.

Both were based on magical theories that couldn't exist in the modern era.

That wasn't something a genius could come up with alone.

It was the discipline built up over a long, long time.

So Ji Yeon-hwa believed that he was a returnee.

'... Absurd.'

Yeon-ji was astonished by the conversation between Shim Chun-hoo and Jung-woo.

She had just heard something she hadn't expected at all.

'Was what he just said really true?'

Shim Chun-hoo said he didn't have much time left to live.

Looking at the current state he was in, it was plausible.

The problem was that Shim Chun-hoo and Jung-woo were said to be in similar circumstances.

Yeon-ji naturally thought Jung-woo would deny it, but Jung-woo simply closed his mouth with no reaction at all.

As if what Shim Chun-hoo had just said was true.

'Now that I think about it, it was strange.'

He was a returnee.

That was why, even if he showed knowledge that didn't exist in the modern world, she could accept it.

Because it might be knowledge from another world.

'But the power he possesses is strange.'

If he were an Awakener, she would have dismissed it as power he gained in the other world.

But Jung-woo wasn't an Awakener.

He couldn't store magic power in his body, and his body didn't surpass human limits.

Yet, he single-handedly closed an S-rank gate in Jeju Island.

How shocked she was when she first saw that reported in the news.

She just thought another absurd monster had appeared somewhere.

And yet, that person turned out to be Jung-woo.

'How on earth did he obtain such power?'

She had wanted to ask ever since she first heard about it at Mount Gwanak.

But with her circumstances, it seemed laughable to ask such a thing, so she just let it go.

'If Jung-woo received something similar to Shim Chun-hoo... no, something even stronger...'

It couldn't happen according to modern knowledge, but if those demons from another world had intervened, perhaps there was a way.

And if the price of that strength was a shortened life, just like Shim Chun-hoo...

'Is it true? You, do you really not have much time left?'

She wanted to ask that, but couldn't bring herself to say it.

If it was true, what would she say anyway?

So Yeon-ji chose silence over asking Jung-woo for the truth.

In situations like this, it was usually more helpful just to remain quietly by someone's side.

'Why did she suddenly become silent?'

Jung-woo wondered as Yeon-ji, who until a moment ago had been glaring fiercely at Shim Chun-hoo, dropped her gaze.

Did Shim Chun-hoo's words about running out of time make her feel sympathy?

She didn't seem like the type to empathize with that, but who could say for sure?

"Do you... know the method...?"

Regardless of Yeon-ji's reaction, Shim Chun-hoo continued to speak.

Barely holding onto his sanity, his voice came out in drawn-out tones.

"They said... you might know something. That the procedure done to my body was originally for humans... and that only you have perfectly made it your own."

Perfectly made it his own, he said.

That might be true. But there was one thing that bastard was misunderstanding.

"Sorry, but I don't know."

"What...?"

"And it's not like I succeeded perfectly either."

Jung-woo had merely survived.

Miraculously, he hadn't died, and having survived, he was granted this power.

Why he survived—he didn't know.

Was it because he was someone from another world?

He had considered that, but seeing Shim Chun-hoo now, it seemed that wasn't the reason either.

"But I do know one thing."

"... What do you know?"

"The reason they sent you to me."

Slowly, Jung-woo unclenched his tightly gripped fist.

From Shim Chun-hoo's question just now, he had come to understand the demons' intentions a little.

And he realized there was nothing more he could get out of Shim Chun-hoo.

This guy knew nothing.

"Looks like... they just wanted to get an answer by making you ask me."

He didn't know how the demons had obtained that technique.

Of course, there were all sorts of ways to get their hands on it.

There were plenty of reasons to covet the technique.

A human empowered to the level of a demon—the technique that could enable that, if used on a demon, could create something even greater.

He now understood why the demons had attached such a nobody to him.

Shim Chun-hoo was only ever a throwaway card.

"To put it simply, you're just a lab rat."

"......"

No one would be that interested in a mere lab rat.

Sending him to Jung-woo, they would have thought it a bonus if they managed to get something by luck.

He didn't know for sure, but some sort of magic might have been put on Shim Chun-hoo's body to relay the current conversation.

"I was... just a lab rat?"

"Ah, but not just any lab rat. You're a useful lab rat, at least."

Grrrind!

As Jung-woo said this flatly, Shim Chun-hoo's teeth ground together, his eyes growing bloodshot.

The insanity that had just barely subsided began to take over Shim Chun-hoo again.

"You, you bastard...!!"

Jung-woo had been careful with his words, thinking he still might get information out of the guy, but there was no need anymore.

The demons wouldn't have taught a lab rat anything important.

"I'll kill you!!"

As a jet-black aura erupted from Shim Chun-hoo's body, the asphalt began to bubble and sizzle.

It was a phenomenon caused by the reckless surge of demonic energy and magic power mixing together.

'So his heart is just a human heart packed full of demonic energy.'

Speaking from the viewpoint of someone who had experienced something similar to Shim Chun-hoo, the "heart" was the most important aspect of the procedure.

If a higher-rank demon's heart had been used, his body wouldn't have collapsed so quickly.

But Shim Chun-hoo's heart was just a human's, stuffed full of demonic energy.

'Did they consider it a waste to even use a demon's heart?'

A higher-rank demon's heart was valuable even to demons, as it could be used to create the boss of an erosive dungeon—in other words, a Demonic Zone.

But even so, was Shim Chun-hoo not worth using it?

"Well, whatever."

Before he knew it, Shim Chun-hoo's black sword was right in front of Jung-woo.

He could see Shim Chun-hoo's miserably howling face, but he didn't feel sorry at all.

After all, all of this was brought upon himself by his own evil deeds.

"It's all your just deserts."

He made a fist.

Taking a deep breath, his heart pounded, blood surged into his right arm, and his fist began to turn black.

Now, this act was all too familiar.

Unlike Shim Chun-hoo, his body didn't collapse, nor did he feel pain.

There was no risk of being overtaken by madness. Everything was under his complete control.

He had told Shim Chun-hoo he didn't know the reason.

That wasn't a lie.

But that didn't mean there had been no pain in gaining this power.

For the first year after crossing over into another world, being alive was truly hell.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

He blocked Shim Chun-hoo's repeatedly swinging sword with his fist.

He had called him a lab rat with a laugh, but that didn't mean Shim Chun-hoo was weak.

Even if he didn't reach S-rank, he certainly wielded the power of an A-rank over.

"Damn it, dammit all!!"

But now, Shim Chun-hoo's blade, possessed by madness, was clumsy.

He had been much stronger when he first fought Yeon-ji. Right now, he was just a child swinging his sword in frustration.

"Huff, huff."

Jung-woo easily blocked Shim Chun-hoo's emotionally charged sword swings with one hand.

Seeing Jung-woo fend off all his attacks one-handed, Shim Chun-hoo was left breathing heavily.

'I'm at my limit.'

He had pushed his broken body too hard out of emotion.

Shim Chun-hoo tried to swing his sword again, but his knees buckled, and he collapsed to the ground.

"... Why."

The anger boiling inside him gradually cooled.

It was because the demonic energy he had gathered had been completely depleted.

"Why aren't you attacking?"

"......"

Jung-woo only blocked Shim Chun-hoo's attacks.

Even though he could have counterattacked at any moment.

"Ha, ha, thinking I'll die soon anyway if you leave me be?"

Shim Chun-hoo laughed like a madman.

He couldn't understand why things had turned out this way.

Was he too greedy?

Was struggling to become stronger really so wrong?

"There's just too many eyes on us."

Jung-woo answered indifferently to Shim Chun-hoo's self-deprecating words, standing quietly in place.

He looked as if he were waiting for something.

'What is he waiting for?'

Yeon-ji couldn't read his thoughts at all.

Was he looking for other demons nearby?

Impossible. He had said himself that he was only a lab rat.

Then why on earth...?

"Shim Chun-hoo!!"

At that moment, a familiar voice reached Shim Chun-hoo's ears.

A voice he never wanted to hear in this place.

"You bastard, what the hell are you doing?!"

It was Superintendent Shim Hyuk-soo of the Awakener Crime Investigation Division, who had rushed to the scene upon hearing of Shim Chun-hoo's rampage.

Seeing Shim Chun-hoo, who was on the verge of death, he was running toward him from afar.

Staring at him, Shim Chun-hoo muttered blankly.

"... So that's what you were waiting for."

"Not for you. It's for Superintendent Shim Hyuk-soo."

Watching Shim Hyuk-soo approach, Jung-woo turned and signaled to Yeon-ji with his eyes.

Since everything was over, he planned to leave before Shim Hyuk-soo could catch them.

Shim Hyuk-soo would take care of the aftermath.

"One thing..."

Shim Chun-hoo spoke calmly to Jung-woo as he was turning to leave.

"There's one thing I haven't told you."

"What?"

Jung-woo looked back at him, as if to ask what he meant.

Even Shim Chun-hoo found it pointless that he was saying this.

"They said this to me."

Just as Park Jung-woo had said, he had only been a lab rat.

The demons used the JM or Javelin guilds as tools, but never gave him crucial information.

But just once, at the end, someone had let slip a careless remark.

When Shim Chun-hoo had asked about Jung-woo's identity, Sebin said:

"They said you were a person from 300 years ago."

"What?"

"They said they didn't know why a person from 300 years ago was here."

It was probably said without any special intent.

The demon had just said what he knew.

But Shim Chun-hoo's intuition told him this was important information for Jung-woo.

"What does that mean?"

"As a lab rat, how could I know that?"

Shim Chun-hoo closed his eyes after saying that.

It meant he had nothing more to say, so Jung-woo should hurry and go.

Staying here any longer would only mean getting caught by Shim Hyuk-soo.

"... Fine. I won't thank you, though."

Shim Chun-hoo had committed too many sins to deserve gratitude.

Jung-woo spared one last glance at the unmoving face of Shim Chun-hoo, then turned to leave.

'Three hundred years ago?'

It looked like he hadn't just gone to another world, after all.

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=300 year timeskip.Also, it seems Jung-woo has demon blood?【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】

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