Chapter 223
Chapter 223
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 223
Chapter Title: Gong Isu's Assistance
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"Gong Isu is an incredibly capable fixer... but he's cursed."
This was the statement from a broker who had been on friendly terms with Gong Isu.
"Everywhere he goes... grotesque and horrifying monsters appear."
This came from someone who Gong Isu claimed was a "friend."
The grotesque and horrifying monsters that track Gong Isu.
These creatures, known as [Hounds of Tindalos], are the worst penalty inflicted only on those who can cross the boundaries of time and space and escape the observational range of beings in this world.
They can't be stopped by any means, they never give up no matter what you do, and they pursue their target relentlessly, no matter what era they flee to. Hunters to the end.
"His mental state is extremely unstable, full isolation and control are impossible. And considering the monsters that appear around him, Red Class 1 is appropriate."
This was recorded in the minutes of the Paju Central Hospital meeting when Gong Isu was first contained.
Paju Central Hospital and the Foreigner Management Agency considered him a heterogeneous and dangerous entity that needed to be contained.
But as time passed, they realized that judgment was wrong.
The monsters that appeared beside Gong Isu only tracked and attacked Gong Isu.
More importantly, it was Gong Isu's attitude.
"He wants to be cut off from the outside world. There's no need to protect the world from Gong Isu. On the contrary, we need to protect Gong Isu from the world."
This was the statement from the researcher in charge of Gong Isu.
Gong Isu wanted to be severed from the outside world. He desperately hoped for it, and soon Paju Central Hospital judged Gong Isu not as a containment subject, but as a protection subject.
"How do you lock up someone who can destroy and reassemble anything, and teleport through space-time?"
This was the statement from a suppression agent who once oversaw Gong Isu's monitoring.
In the end, strict containment itself was meaningless.
And that he posed no danger as long as certain conditions were met.
Based on the facts that Gong Isu himself was extremely cooperative and could control his own abilities, he was assigned a "Conditional Safety Rating," or Yellow.
Recently, even the surveillance cameras in his room had been removed, taking into account his sensitivity to observation and monitoring.
"I opposed it. That bastard's fucking dangerous."
This was Yang Seo-ho's statement, the one who had captured Gong Isu.
There were minor oppositions, but over time, Gong Isu's containment level was lowered.
After it was confirmed that his abilities could not be reproduced or imitated, even the researchers stopped visiting his room frequently.
Finally, he had obtained a perfectly quiet, peaceful life—like a plant.
"No—no. No! No! No! No! No! I'm not participating!"
Gong Isu's obsessive scream was the bursting sound signaling the end of that plant-like life.
[System: Unique trait 'Time Traveler' activates.]
The round room where Gong Isu pierced through the barriers of time and space and vanished beyond observational range. The room installed to protect the Time Traveler lost its master for—
Tick.
Clang!
"Arghhh!"
Gong Isu reappeared in the round room.
"Arghhh! Arghhh!"
Gong Isu, curled up, clawing, groping, hitting his own body spasmodically, screaming and bursting into tears.
Of course, he couldn't shed tears. There were no eyes to cry with on the clock floating where his lost head should be.
"Am I alive? Am I alive? Did I come back alive?"
The number of time periods he visited in this leap was a total of—
Tick-tock. Tick-tock. Tick-tock—
Tick-tock. Tick-tock. Tick-tock—
Tick-tock. Tick-tock. Tick-tock—
Tick-tock. Tick-tock. Tick-tock—
A total of 12 places, including the near future, distant future, near past, and distant past.
At the final moment, he had been chased by 12 [Hounds of Tindalos].
"Haa—Hah—Damn it... Fuck—"
Gong Isu pulled a fist-sized stone from his bosom. The wedge stone, the item that even Kim Shin-hwa in the crow mask couldn't find no matter how hard she searched.
* * *
Tick-tock.
I opened my eyes.
"I believed in you, sunbae."
"...You believed?"
Tick-tock.
Gong Isu's voice came with the sound of the clock's second hand turning.
He seemed flustered.
"Of course."
Kim Shin-hwa in my head had opposed it, but I hadn't doubted at all. Just as I predicted—and declared—Gong Isu escaped the round room and came to save me.
Tick-tock.
"You're not surprised, even though this timeline's you is seeing me for the first time. As expected, you have precognition, junior?"
"No. I just believed in you, sunbae. And it's not like a hairstyle change makes you unrecognizable."
"......"
Tick-tock.
Gong Isu fell silent for a moment. Well, he didn't have a mouth to begin with. Anyway, as Gong Isu went quiet, the ticking of the clock floating in place of his head sounded excessively loud.
'A clock instead of a helmet this time.'
I wasn't not surprised, but somehow, I figured it'd be a change like this.
"You're saying something similar..."
His tone was tinged with sadness or reminiscence.
Ugh, atmosphere shifting to a flashback.
To avoid wasting time, I was about to change the subject, but Gong Isu spoke first.
"The future you said the same thing."
Huh? Not a past story, then.
"The future me? Will I say something like that later?"
"No, not anymore. You just did."
"So, my answer just now changed the future."
"Right. But in my memory, the you who said that will remain."
It was a short reply, but it helped me understand a bit why Gong Isu had been so neurotic before.
The words the future me would have said—I'd said them now.
That single short action erased the future Gong Isu had experienced.
But that didn't erase Gong Isu's memories.
"Did you come from the future, sunbae?"
"No, I'm the current... Gong Isu. I went to the future because I was curious about something."
He almost said a different name instead of Gong Isu for a second. I wanted to ask more about that, but now wasn't the time.
Where is this, anyway? A large room sealed on all sides.
It reminded me of the 'break room' in my head where I'd talked with the other Kim Shin-hwas in my dreams.
From the structure, size, and remaining traces, I realized what Paju Central Hospital had done to contain me.
"They pushed the hallway aside and just rebuilt it into a room."
"Right. Couldn't find a way to move you, so it was a desperate measure—reconstructed the hallway itself into a room."
Security devices and surveillance cameras everywhere. But now they're all stopped and destroyed.
'Did Gong Isu wreck them?'
"Take this."
The wedge stone.
An artifact with the ability to cure the target's delusions.
'Success rate's only 50%, but it's miraculously succeeding every time.'
Is it really a miracle? Or some contrived intervention?
"But I searched everywhere and couldn't find it. Where'd you get it?"
"At the future you's request, I took it from your bag."
"My bag?"
"Yeah. While you were obsessing over [Reckless Destruction] and doing ridiculous stuff."
"Oh—"
The mask shaped like a water buffalo skull.
I'd lost my bag briefly while subduing it.
'I didn't lose the bag—Gong Isu took it.'
"Keep the promise you made me."
"Promise?"
"I'll bring the dogs later."
Ah, the Hounds of Tindalos.
Otherworldly monsters that track Time Travelers. Probably as many as the times Gong Isu jumped through time this round.
"How many?"
"Twelve right now. But that's not important now. Later is. It'll be... a lot more then, probably."
Twelve? He jumped twelve times in that short time?
Come to think of it, black steam was rising from the corners of the makeshift prison.
"They're having a blast. Any other promises besides that?"
"Yeah."
"What?"
"No point telling the current you."
"Hmm... The cryptic attitude is cool and all, but I think—"
The future Kim Shin-hwa who made promises with Gong Isu...
She's gone now. Everything Gong Isu was saying and doing right now was erasing the future he'd experienced.
"You wouldn't understand."
Is he saying I couldn't grasp the promise even if he told me? Or that I can't understand the woes of a Time Traveler—a regressor?
Maybe he means I can't understand his trauma and feelings.
"No matter what I do, I can never meet the Kim Shin-hwa I knew again. You—you—"
Tick-tock-tick-tock-tick—
"You've done something truly terrible to me."
That's what Gong Isu said, but it was hard to empathize or understand.
At this point, trying to figure out what he wanted to say was pointless.
Honestly, I had no idea what he even wanted from me.
'I want to ask if future me at least kissed him or something, but...'
Better not say that.
Anyway, I was the one who dragged out Gong Isu, who refused to get involved. Regardless of how hard it was to understand, out of respect, I didn't ask more.
And right now, there were more pressing things to ask anyway.
"I'm escaping this hospital now. What about you, sunbae?"
"I'm not going. When you're ready, the past me will come meet you."
"The past you?"
"Yeah. You and I will meet six more times ahead. No, one got erased, so five."
I hadn't expected this form, but Gong Isu had traversed a ton of timelines in that short span.
'Five more meetings later, then.'
"Not sure how many more will get erased, but probably around that."
"Got it. What about future you, then?"
"I have more thinking to do. And if I run into past me, it'll get messier, so I'll stay put for a while."
"I see."
Time travel abilities are seriously complicated and messy. Penalties galore too—Grrrrr—
Grotesque heads began forming in the room's corners.
"It's about over. We gotta run before they fully form."
"Need help?"
"Worry about yourself. Oh—and. As the future you requested, I prepared a few things."
"Prepared?"
"Someone to help with your escape will come soon."
"Ah—That's appreciated."
"And a message from the future you."
Tick-tock-tick-tock-tick—
"A message?"
"Yeah. Her request—well, two favors from the person helping your escape."
"Hmm. Understood."
Whatever it is, it's important, so I'll do it.
"Alright, I'm off."
With that, Gong Isu moved left. Further left—tick-tock-tick-tock—
He shifted to a position beyond where my gaze could follow leftward and vanished in a direction I could no longer observe.
"He's gone."
Definitely an ability that operates completely differently from magic. But thanks to the trait I embedded to gain wizard talent and my 30 Intelligence...
'I could probably mimic something similar with my abilities.'
But if I did, I'd end up like that...
No thanks.
'Why did future me insist on attaching a helper for the escape, though?'
Paju Central Hospital's closed ward is one of the most dangerous and bizarre spots even in Paju, but I'm not incapable of escaping on my own right now.
I checked my body's condition while waiting for the 'escape helper.'
Creeeak—
The sound of the door opening.
Long curly hair down to her waist, mad eyes glinting fiercely under glasses, pristine white doctor's coat.
"Excuse meee~"
And the drawn-out ending.
"......"
I have no idea what future me was thinking with this plan, but... it was made while sane, right?
'Two favors for that woman?'