Chapter 34
“Aigoo...”
A black handbag lay fallen at the base of a cliff, like something a herb gatherer familiar with the mountains might lose.
They really disguised it like a lost item and left the money there!
Vice Director Seo Hye-ju, terrified of retaliation, had planned even this tiny detail meticulously to cover her tracks. As long as I kept my mouth shut, they'd never trace the connection back to us. It lifted the pressure off me too—no room for failure. Even if this was all just a dream.
Still...
“What now?”
Retrieving the handbag safely was great, but heading back the way I'd come? No way in hell. Had this plan completely ignored the finder’s perspective? Vice Director Seo Hye-ju could just toss the bag of cash off the cliff and call it done, but for me—the guy who had to fetch it and climb back up or bushwhack down the mountain—it was a nightmare.
The silver lining? My stamina from years as a swimmer was a huge help.
“...Huh?”
A chill suddenly crawled up my back. I glanced over my shoulder—
‘Holy shit!’
I bolted without a second thought. Direction? Path? Didn’t matter. As long as I kept moving.
Why? Kiiikiiik!
I’d spotted a bizarre bipedal creature I could swear I’d never seen in my life!
“What the hell is that thing?!”
It had no hands or feet—just two pairs of arm-like blades and one pair of leg-blades. Its torso was gaunt, skin clinging to exposed ribs and spine like a starvation victim. And its head...
“......”
A strikingly beautiful woman with rusty iron-red hair. Her lips parted slightly like she was entranced, silent—
Kiiiiiik!
“Gah!”
But the monster scraped its arm-blades and leg-blades together like a violinist gone mad. Kiiiii!
“This is insane!”
I’d only been watching out for Magic Boy Choi Kang-min as a threat. This was totally out of left field.
Shh-shh-shh—
The monster slashed through the underbrush with its razor limbs, closing in at terrifying speed. Its movement was pure speed skater!
‘Is that even possible?!’
Fine on ice, maybe, but this was rough dirt littered with rocks and branches. Physics said no.
Whatever—shh-shh— the creepy sound of it slicing grass grew closer.
‘Keep running like this, and I’m dead...!’
Complaints about monsters in Choi Kang-min’s dream could wait. I forced my panic down to avoid getting diced by this thing.
The monster raced with just the tips of its blade-feet skimming the ground. But that cost it—
“Hup!”
It kicked off a blocking boulder straight ahead, yanking its path ninety degrees vertical.
Meanwhile, kiiikiiik?Bam!
The monster couldn’t turn and smashed headfirst into the rock.
‘Just as I thought!’
That skating glide over the ground made it fast, but with zero friction, inertia was its weakness.
“Phew!”
Blind panic had narrowed the gap, but I’d pulled away again, buying time to breathe. Time to look back.
‘If only it gave up now... Nah, too much to hope for?’
Shhhk—Rumble...
It vented on the shattered boulder and kept chasing. Kiiikiiik!
“Damn it!”
Shhhk—
Small obstacles? Sliced clean through. Couldn’t slow it down. Unless I kept finding big rocks, it’d catch me eventually.
I needed another way.
‘But how?’
Fighting a monster that carved boulders like tofu? Suicide. And I was unarmed, bare-handed.
“Ugh!”
My body was wrecked. Scratches from brush and branches everywhere, stamina draining fast.
Meanwhile, kiiiiiik! The thing showed no signs of tiring.
“Just a bit more...!”
This was a modest urban mountain. No endless loops—just reach the populated edge, and safety.
The monster wouldn’t follow there. Why? If it ignored territory, it’d have been spotted and exterminated ages ago.
...That’s what I’d naively thought.
“Huh? Eek!”
“M-monster...!”
“Help! Monster!”
“Gasp!”
Hikers waiting at the trailhead for friends or family spotted the monster chasing me and scattered in panic.
And me? “Monster! Over here...!”
I did the exact opposite of everything so far.
Kiiik?
“Come at me! I’m your prey, right?!”
I stopped running and taunted it. Even if it got me killed early.
It’s just a dream anyway, right? That lazy thought played a part too.
“......”
“Eek?!”
The monster lowered its raised arm—poised to cleave a fallen hiker—and twisted toward me. Straight on.
No obstacles between us.
Rattle—
Different from its slippery slide through brush and dirt—it charged in a dead-straight line.
‘...I’m dead.’
I’d yelled boldly, but I had no plan to take it down. I just couldn’t stand by while someone died because of me.
Dream character or not.
Kiiik!
“Run! Hurry!”
I shouted at the fallen hiker, then turned and ran again. To buy as much time as possible before it caught and killed me.
Bang!
A gunshot rang out.
Kiiik—?!
The monster lost balance and tumbled sideways. Who fired?
Answer: the sky.
Whup-whup-whup—
A helicopter carrying a sniper descended slowly. Then the loudspeaker:
“Esteemed citizens! Do not worry about the monster! The Earth Union Army has arrived!”
Kii, kiiikiiik...
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The monster flailed its blades futilely at the one-sided assault from above until it was put down.
* *
“Thank you! You saved my life!”
“No need. It’s what the Earth Defense Force is here for.”
“Still, thank you.”
“Let me see your injuries.”
“I’m fine.”
“Wandering around like that will scare other citizens.”
“...All right, then.”
The Earth Defense Force. While Magic Boys with unfathomable power handled big incidents, they mopped up the small stuff. Minions of evil, side characters maybe? Elite, verified by P’s Aptitude Test, but humanity’s threats were so absurd they got stuck with grunt work...
That’s the griping I heard riding their chopper to the rooftop of Elmolrans Hospital.
“We meet again so soon.”
“Ha, ha, ha... Yeah.”
I ran into the doctor who’d introduced himself as a genetic engineer before. Severe anemia and fatigue had me craving a nearby hospital, but without ID, this was my only option.
“Bad luck running into a Sword Demon...”
“That’s what they call it, huh.”
Sword Demon. Intuitive name anyone could get behind. A “virtual monster” possible only in dreams.
Though... ‘Too detailed for something based on Choi Kang-min’s imagination...’
No time for occult pondering now. Dragging Magic Boy Choi Kang-min from dream to reality was challenge enough.
Still, I filed away the warnings.
“Sword Demons are a new type that’s appeared recently.”
“Recently...”
“Unknown cause, but they have intense hostility toward living humans. Like... undead jealous of the living.”
“Got it.”
“I’ve heard they ambush lone hikers. So stick to the trails.”
“Will do.”
I hadn’t strayed for fun. Blame Vice Director Seo Hye-ju hiding cash there! I wanted to storm her office and chew her out, but meeting again would just endanger her.
“Mr. Kang Moon-soo.”
“Yes.”
“While we’re treating you, how about a full scan—”
“No thanks! Absolutely not!”
I shot down the doctor’s offer and fled Elmolrans Hospital like my life depended on it.
‘Okay, then...’
Even with a Sword Demon hunting me, I hadn’t ditched the handbag full of cash.
Just the cash? Nope.
“Hope the USB data copied safely too...”
I’d exploited how items—including clothes—carry over from reality to dream. Vice Director Seo Hye-ju’s letter to her future self was one example. Mine? Not paper—a video.
But first...
“Gotta hide.”
Handing it to super-speed killer Choi Kang-min in person? Suicide.
Time for a deadly game of hide-and-seek.
* * *
Choi Kang-min, lately gripped by unease and discomfort from his odd health, was blowing off steam by toying with a female employee he’d hired for her looks.
“Ch-Chairman! I’m sorry! It hurts too much now...!”
“Who told you to speak?”
“......”
Unlike his wife, who couldn’t keep up with his stamina anymore, employees were like batteries—replaceable.
Finally feeling bett—
Bang!
“Chairman! Big trouble!”
His office door flew open as his secretary burst in.
“Eek!”
The startled employee covered her chest with her arms and dove under the desk.
“...I said no one enters.”
“Sorry! But this is urgent—you need to know now...!”
“...Out.”
The employee, makeup ruined from tears, slipped out quietly, closing the door.
Just the chairman and secretary now—close enough to share secrets.
“Big trouble?”
“Yes.”
“Bigger than the trash media whining about damages from my late arrival?”
“This isn’t the time to worry about Magic Boy’s reputation!”
“...What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It broke as breaking news on TV—zero warning!”
Magic Boy couldn’t complain as an apostle of justice, but businessman-politician “Chairman Choi Kang-min” could. He’d crushed critics without mercy.
Public broadcast doing this? They wouldn’t dare unless they wanted ruin.
“Where?”
“Everywhere, basically.”
“......”
Too brazen. Meant they had ironclad proof—beyond legal retaliation.
Serious shit.
“...Turn it on. Now.”
“Yes!”
(Kang-min. How long do you plan to run from the fact that you incited your friends to bully your little brother Kang-hun?)
“Hngh?!”
The TV flickered on to his late father’s face. Choi Kang-min gasped, chilled to the bone.
“Th-this is...!”
(If anything happens to me, all assets go to my second son, Choi Kang-hun. May this reach a just soul.)
“It’s a recording from the former chairman, 20 years deceased. Circulating online—”
“Fake! Computer graphics manipulation for sure...!”
A 20-year-old nightmare resurfaced. Choi Kang-min shrieked in denial.
Who did this?
‘Kang Moon-soo!’
The man who’d long nagged at him floated to mind.