Chapter 107
Chapter 107
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 90
Chapter Title: Inferno Awakening
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While the group including Hyeok Tae-jun was having an awkward encounter with Shin Jin-seong, one person was unable to join them.
His name was Kim Do-hyun, the great hero who had fallen into a coma due to Lee Young-gil—whom Shin Jin-seong had just dealt with minutes earlier.
True to that heroic title, he wasn't lying in some ordinary hospital room but in a far more "state-of-the-art" one. It was so advanced that he needed no human assistance at all.
In other words, the sight of a man tending to Kim Do-hyun was not something you saw every day in this high-tech ward.
Kim Hyuk-jung felt a mix of bitterness and injustice gazing at his son, who was now nearly the same age as him.
His wife's death and the passage of time were enough to shatter any man's heart, but Kim Hyuk-jung was a father, however clumsy, and he couldn't afford to break.
"Do-hyun, please... Open your eyes and look at me. I wonder how your voice and speech have changed... if your personality's different. So many questions..."
It had been about twenty years since they'd last seen each other, and now his son lay in this hospital bed, eyes closed. Kim Hyuk-jung's heart burned like fire.
"Haha... My heart really must be on fire. I swear I smell smoke..."
The sensation was so vivid it tricked his senses into thinking it was real. Anyone could guess how intense his anguish was.
But then, the clamor filtering through the door crack reached Kim Hyuk-jung's ears.
"F-Fire!"
Yes.
It was a real fire.
"Wh-what?"
Kim Hyuk-jung suddenly recalled a shocking newspaper article from the past about a hospital fire.
And the outcome of that blaze—five deaths—had seemed disappointingly small given the scale.
But being in the middle of it now meant he could be one of those five.
Invisible flames seemed to intensify below, sending chills down his spine with the sounds of shattering glass and explosions echoing up through the walls.
To reiterate: the bed Kim Do-hyun lay in was ultra "state-of-the-art," hooked up to machines that made it impossible to move.
Realizing this in a flash, Kim Hyuk-jung hoisted his son onto his back on pure spinal reflex, bypassing his brain entirely.
Tubes, wires, and unidentified lines clung to Kim Do-hyun's body, but Kim Hyuk-jung was no expert and had no time—he ripped them off as best he could.
Kim Hyuk-jung wasn't weak, but he wasn't strong either.
Just a bit above average for a man his age, and years surviving inside tales had sapped his vitality.
So carrying a full-grown adult male was a staggering burden, making his legs tremble.
"Tch!"
But the power of those three syllables—"my son"—dwarfed any stimulant. Kim Hyuk-jung never once thought his boy was heavy.
He shoved the sliding door aside with force and bolted down the hospital corridor.
From what he heard, the fire was rising from below, and the frantic doctors, nurses, and patients fleeing up the stairs confirmed it.
Climbing those stairs with someone on his back through the chaos was no easy feat.
Yet a single resolve—to protect his unfamiliar-looking son—made it possible.
Black smoke, screams, and the blaring fire alarm rose from below.
Sprinklers spewed a bitter-tasting liquid everywhere, soaking his clothes and weighing him down.
Overcoming it all, Kim Hyuk-jung reached the hospital rooftop.
As he checked on Kim Do-hyun's condition, gasps of despair rippled through the crowd, as if the ground itself were crumbling.
He didn't need to search for the cause.
The entire vista stretched out beyond the roof—hundreds of kilometers to the horizon—was ablaze.
Every four blocks, one burned red; police and fire trucks clashed in chaos, sirens wailing.
This only snarled the roads further, sparking new crashes that fed the flames.
A balding elder with thinning white hair muttered softly, "Doom..."
It wasn't just him—everyone on the roof thought the same. And soon, they realized that doom was closing in on them.
A scholarly-looking doctor bellowed.
"Th-this means the fire trucks can't reach the hospital!"
Bad news spreads faster than good, and on that cramped rooftop, it took just one second.
"What do we do then?"
"Th-the fire's still rising!"
"Wh-what? Smoke's already seeping under the door!"
In a way, this was scarier than any tale.
Some tales offered unexpected safety, but this disaster left no hope of survival.
Kim Hyuk-jung quelled his pounding heart, threatening to leap from his chest, and pondered his options.
On his back lay his grown son, unconscious. To atone for lost years, he had to survive.
"This is... hopeless."
Despairing words echoed around him; some even came to blows over bruised egos.
Nearly a hundred people crammed on that tiny roof made more noise than the chaos below.
"H-hey! Grab that guy!"
Then, a man who seemed mentally unhinged shook off a nurse and leaped off the roof.
"Aaaahhh—"
Splat!
The outcome was predictable.
"Kyaaah!"
The ensuing panic was equally inevitable.
But that sight sharpened Kim Hyuk-jung's focus.
"I've survived twenty years in tales—worse than this."
His mind raced at breakneck speed.
He listed every possible escape route, narrowing it down to two.
"Jump like that guy... or head down those stairs."
He had to act fast.
Delay, and the flames would reach the roof, prolonging exposure on the way down.
His decision was swift and sure.
Recalling where he'd survived before, he tore his pocket handkerchief in half, tying pieces over his and Kim Do-hyun's mouths and noses.
A few onlookers watched curiously before resuming their own desperate searches. By then, Kim Hyuk-jung was already charging for the stairs.
How hot is fire?
Kim Hyuk-jung, whose wife had always handled even cooking, had no idea.
So this massive inferno exceeded his wildest imagination.
Flames scorched his skin; acrid smoke burned his lungs. Fifteen floors screamed impossibility.
Yet he ran.
His mind held only one thought: "Go as fast as possible." No room for "live or die."
He could control his breathing; his son couldn't, inhaling smoke relentlessly.
The air grew hotter with each descending floor, nearing 100 degrees Celsius and goading his sweat glands into overdrive.
Amid the descent, a memory surfaced.
"When Do-hyun was five... He had a fever, and I carried him all the way to the hospital. Yeah... This is nothing."
With every floor, his condition worsened beyond words.
Legs and arms stung from burns; his right arm barely moved.
Still, he didn't stop. The world rewarded his effort by letting him reach the first floor.
"Just a bit more! Ten steps—!"
But his vision blurred.
Too much smoke inhaled.
He'd pushed beyond human limits, but he was only human—limits couldn't be surpassed.
Eyes drooped; legs grew leaden.
Reason snapped; reality faded.
Kim Hyuk-jung collapsed unconscious, not even hearing himself fall.
But then, a miracle occurred.
More precisely, a fabricated one—Shin Jin-seong's dramatic miracle.
Kim Do-hyun's long slumber ended; his breathing stabilized. Trembling eyelids finally lifted.
Honed by years at the Tale Management Bureau, his superhuman situational awareness kicked in: he was in a fire, someone had carried him to safety before collapsing.
Without question, Kim Do-hyun shouldered the man.
He'd inhaled plenty of smoke while out, leaving him in rough shape too.
Yet the noble path his savior had forged ended just shy of the exit—finishing it was simpler than lying in bed.
Fresh air, out of place amid the ground-level pandemonium, soothed his raw lungs.
Kim Do-hyun checked his rescuer's condition.
Mangled from head to toe, but alive—thankfully.
An inexplicable sense of familiarity furrowed his brow.
Memories rewound to the past, brushing the history where he'd died, revealing the man's identity.
"Ah... Father?"
It was Shin Jin-seong's atonement to Kim Do-hyun.