Near-Ink, Black (Illustration)
Brilliant light pours down.
I rub my eyes and look around.
Stark white tiles, a stark white ceiling, people dressed in white coats.
My consciousness naturally begins to melt into the frame.
Inside the pitch-black unconscious, I was back in the studio apartment where I had taken over Sawol’s body. There was no resistance. After all, I was simply recalling a memory.
Sawol had never settled on a single place to live. She moved every few weeks or months, constantly changing her hideouts. That was why she had no acquaintances nearby.
Why had she done that?
Every time I thought of the being called Sawol, the same question circled in my mind. Why?
I sat down in the chair she must have used. Traces of the loneliness she left behind seemed to linger everywhere.
According to Nadja, Sawol had been someone who felt loneliness deeply and craved affection. The reason such a person had avoided all human contact so extremely was probably because she didn’t want to leave any trace of herself anywhere.
I picked up an empty liquor bottle rolling across the floor. It had tumbled out from the tiny refrigerator.
Beyond the window, the bustling downtown area was visible.
Sawol had always looked at the city lights through that window.
A place full of light. A large, dazzling, bright place in stark contrast to the dark, gloomy outskirts of the city.
In this moment, I had become Sawol.
The power of an Enhanced Human manifests from the final wish held in their heart at the last moment of their humanity.
The laboratory that had fed and sheltered me no longer existed. The nameless children who had loved me like family were gone too. The entire city was frantically searching for me, desperate to rip something out of my body.
I had no idea how much time had passed while I hid alone. There was no one around to share even a casual conversation with. My stomach never growled even if I didn’t eat. I never felt sleepy even if I didn’t sleep.
Someone in my memory had once said that even if you aren’t hungry, you must eat, and even if you aren’t tired, you must sleep. Otherwise, something terrible would happen.
I didn’t know anymore. The only things I had learned while wandering the city alone were the weight of the green bottle rolling across the floor and the weight of the power given to my hands.
Then, in this situation, what was I supposed to do?
I looked out the window. The city shone blindingly bright.
I looked at where I stood. It was dark.
I wanted to steal that light. I wanted to reclaim the happy past.
Only then did I begin to understand, even a little, the malice inside my heart.
It was an entirely pitch-black space.
With nothing to use as a reference, it was impossible to tell where the center was or which direction anything faced.
After walking for a while, a window appeared.
Through it, I could see the scenery outside.
The sight of Chae Yuha, fast asleep.
I wondered when exactly I had naturally begun to think of that figure as myself.
“Hello.”
A voice came from behind me.
I hadn’t seen the speaker, but the voice alone was enough to tell me who it was.
“Can you hear me?”
“...”
“It’s okay, you don’t have to speak. I can feel it.”
A soft he-he laugh.
It sounded exactly like the laugh I had forced out as Chae Yuha whenever I wanted to hide my true feelings.
The only difference was that this laugh sounded completely natural, as if she laughed that way all the time.
“I have a question. May I ask?”
“...”
“On the airship, why did you set it up so that the hostage’s collar would activate no matter which remote was pressed?”
That was obvious.
I kept painting over my existence with new lies every time. If I got my hands dirty with something like a massacre, there would be no turning back.
“He-he, you didn’t have to kill them… Just enough for Last to think he had ‘killed’ them in that moment would have been fine, right? You could have adjusted the voltage or something. That way you could have earned even greater hostility from him.”
That was…
“You’re hesitating, aren’t you?”
With a clack, the window opened.
A beam of light poured into the pitch-black space.
The form of the being that had been speaking to me endlessly was finally revealed in full.
“You’re hesitating because you’re afraid the malice growing inside you will devour you whole.”
“...”
“For the time being, you don’t have to worry. Since you tried to understand me, I’ll try to understand you too.”
“...”
I asked the being for her name.
She smiled brightly, as if looking into a mirror.
“My name is Sawol. I’m always here.”
I shattered the frame.
My consciousness was thrown back outside.
Someone calling my name woke me up.
“Chae Yuha!”
That name had now become the symbol of who I was. I had chosen it arbitrarily, but it was no longer fake.
Before me stood the four comrades I had decided to trust with my back in this world.
Nadja, A.G.O, Kim Seokho, and Kim Seolhwa.
I only ever felt sorry toward Nadja.
She treated me warmly, thinking I was Sawol, yet I could never become the Sawol she remembered.
I placed a hand over my heart.
But now, Sawol was inside there.
In truth, I had noticed it quite some time ago.
Stealing food from a convenience store, destroying security cameras in public buildings, using people for my own purposes—none of it had felt wrong, as if I had been doing it for a very long time.
It had been the same when I killed a person for the first time. That was why it had frightened me even more. Not because the being called “me” was slowly changing into something else, but because it felt like the being called “me” had already disappeared somewhere.
But this time, I finally understood.
I was still me.
I was simply coexisting with the being called Sawol. I was still here.
Only now had I truly become Chae Yuha.
I felt relieved. I no longer needed to carry pointless guilt.
I had thought I had devoured Sawol and been born from her, but she was living inside me.
Wait, isn’t this actually amazing?
I left a 5,700-character hate comment on my favorite hero webtoon and got possessed, and now the final boss has become my sponsor!?
I lifted my head and let out a soft “He-he,” the laugh that had now stuck to my lips like glue.
As soon as I thought that, the blue translucent screen that had been floating above my head and tormenting me nonstop sent me a message.
> ‘Inner Malice’ is impressed by your way of thinking.
Hmm, I see.
You’re part of me now too, so I won’t ignore you anymore.
You must have been so frustrated. You just wanted to watch how your own body was being used, but I kept trying to close the only window you had.
But I don’t need things like a shop anymore.
It’s not some all-powerful status window from a Munchkin story anyway. This is just another kind of ability.
What I need is exactly this much.
> Current Evil Points: 6700/100000
> Threat Level: B
It was enough to simply show me how well I was doing my job.
“...She’s doing it again? Pressing into the air like that.”
“...Can’t be helped. This time I’ll have to hit her hard on the head.”
Beyond the blue translucent window, I saw Nadja and Seolhwa holding a club.
Wait, hold on a second.
“Sorry, sis!!”
THWACK!!
I was struck on the head and lost consciousness again.
> ‘Inner Malice’ sneers at you.
“Sorry, sis…”
Nadja stroked the large bump rising on my head and sniffled.
On the bedside table sat a single sandwich that Kim Seokho had made.
Freshly toasted bread with clear grill marks. Crisp vegetables and ham tucked between the slices.
From what Nadja told me, it was the food Sawol had loved most back at the laboratory.
I devoured the sandwich in an instant to fill my empty stomach.
They say hunger is the best seasoning. I hadn’t eaten sandwiches much in my previous life, yet this one tasted incredibly good.
Was it the body’s influence?
Come to think of it, I had never paid attention to such things before.
I glanced up at Seokho with a look that clearly said I wanted more.
Seeming to notice my desire, he sighed as if annoyed and turned to leave.
I grabbed him and asked him to make ramen instead of another sandwich.
He looked down at me with displeased eyes, muttered “Ramen’s easy enough…” and headed to the kitchen.
He seemed unusually kind today. Was it just my imagination?
“Here. Ramen.”
Once again, a bowl of freshly boiled ramen with steam rising from it was placed before me.
Neatly gathered noodles topped with thinly sliced green onions. It looked like he had put real care into it, which strangely made me happy.
“Can you move now?”
“Want me to feed you, sis?”
“No, I’ll just take the thought.”
“U-ueh… You’re making her uncomfortable…”
…These people were being excessively kind today. Did something happen while I was unconscious?
I gratefully ignored their kindness and picked up the chopsticks.
Ramen was my favorite food in my previous life.
It’s hard to make it taste bad, but food always carries nostalgia and memories of home.
Someone once said that memory is the best seasoning.
Slurp. The noodles rushed into my mouth.
The taste of the ramen I finally held on my tongue was pure ecstasy. I had eaten so frantically that I didn’t even realize when the bowl had been emptied.
“Thank you.”
Seokho turned his head away awkwardly at my words of gratitude.
Yes. I was me. I had confirmed everything I needed to confirm.
It was time to start cleaning up the messes I had made.