I Have No Intention of Taking Responsibility
"Everything Hunter Cha Yujin said is true."
Moments before 'I' threw that punch at the Baekya Guild tower, I must have known exactly how it would end.
Brainwashing myself the way I did, I'd even believed I had steeled my resolve.
Even if there were victims, everyone inside Baekya was, in the original story, a traitor to the guild and an enemy of the protagonist.
A decision made in the depths of self-rationalization. A guiding principle that demanded I escape this place at all costs.
Right up to the very end, 'I' had tried to control a protagonist's power that had no brakes.
Even at the last of the last, the best-case scenario was simple: collapse only the floor I was standing on, then hurl myself through the shattered glass wall beyond.
Judging purely by the process, it wasn't a bad plan. It wasn't a bad attempt. I'll even admit it was desperate.
But the result was anything but good.
The overwhelming force, unleashed without a single brake, exploded outward into a shockwave that obliterated the entire Baekya Guild tower.
And then, together with the dying screams of those swept away in the blast, that sensation poured into every inch of my body.
I had taken a life for the very first time. And it wasn't just a life — it was a massacre, plain and simple.
'Ah... aah... ah...'
'I' despaired.
The crushing guilt of having snuffed out countless lives. The stress and headaches that had been piling up ever since I possessed this body — all of it converged with the psychological shock, and I felt my sanity begin to crumble at the edges.
And in that very instant, a defense mechanism kicked in, hard.
That was how 'I' ran away.
Leaving the present 'me' behind in my wake.
'So that explains it.'
Now that I picked through the memories piece by piece, the discrepancy was glaring.
However similar we might have looked on the surface, we were far too different. There was a profound gulf between the 'me' in my memories and the way the present 'me' operated.
Like the heads and tails of the same coin.
The decision to end a life came far too easily to me. Worse, the Yoon siblings — Sihyeon and Sia — were entirely innocent. By any reasonable standard, they were the victims here. If anything, because of me, Guild Master Yoon Sihyeon had lost his treasured guild tower and lay hovering between life and death with catastrophic injuries. The rage and condemnation from his younger sister, Vice Guild Master Yoon Sia, were entirely justified.
And yet, I had been intending to savor her fury. To savor her hatred. To turn her into a useful little puppet.
All of it — every last bit — was far, far too different from 'I'.
And that could only mean one thing.
"...How pathetic."
I laughed inwardly, because the situation was simply too absurd for words.
Unable to bear the consequences of his own mistake, he had fled in a pathetic panic — and what he chose to abandon in the process was the present 'me'.
It was laughable, truly. And to have it laid bare through Cha Yujin of all people.
'Wasn't it enough to be transmigrated into a novel — now I've gone and turned into a lunatic?'
Strangely enough, I felt nothing at all.
Staring at the devastated scene, witnessing the carnage I myself had summoned — I had wondered if there was something wrong with me, feeling so utterly hollow.
If I ever switched back to the original 'I'... he might very well collapse to the ground, wailing and retching in disgrace.
'Self-loathing would be a given. He'd regret the choice, rot under the consequences, and completely fall apart.'
This 'I' was made of glass — so fragile that he'd once thrown up on the spot just from witnessing the protagonist's wretched state at his own home. Plunged into that degree of self-hatred, his mind might well shatter entirely.
'And then he'd run away again... and dump it all back on me?'
Like calling in a professional fixer to clean up the mess on his behalf.
So I was going to be treated as a tool. Disgustingly used, and then discarded.
It was genuinely galling. It made my skin crawl with displeasure.
"Well, isn't that something."
In short, it meant this: solve the problem your own way, right now. The cleanup afterward — the original personality, 'I', could deal with that himself.
Just then, a cluster of presences made themselves known, and my gaze drifted toward them. Figures emerging from the shimmering haze beyond the portal.
The S-Class hunters of Geobhwa.
And at their head, Seo Yeram's face.
"You...?"
Our eyes met.
In that instant, I instinctively measured the distance between us.
'How hilarious.'
The present me was already wielding the protagonist's physical capabilities as naturally as breathing — the very abilities that had never once come under his control.
As my senses sharpened, the information surfacing in my head was all about cooking Seo Yeram right where she stood. How to kill her. Which method would be most efficient. That I was even entertaining such thoughts.
I pressed a hand over my face.
If I wasn't careful, I was liable to slaughter every single person here — Seo Yeram and all.
'No. Absolutely not.'
If our memories were shared, the original personality might not be able to bear it — his mind itself could collapse.
And if that happened, predicting the outcome became impossible. In the worst case, he'd end up a broken husk, a vegetative shell of a human being. Then even 'I' might never get to act again.
'Well — unless the initiative stays in my hands.'
That outcome held far greater benefit for the present me.
Useless moral scruples wouldn't obstruct my actions. There'd be no hesitation whatsoever whenever I chose to use this power. Never finding myself boxed into a suffocating situation — that was critically important.
'Freedom.'
That was the moment the present me settled on it as my goal.
'I'll play the tool for a while. It doesn't matter.'
All I had to do was seize control of this body once the time came.
The moment the thought finished forming, I pulled down my mask and smiled.
Revealing my bare face of my own will.
Seo Yeram's eyes went wide.
'That's right. You know exactly what this gesture means, don't you?'
The protagonist — Mumyeong — had accepted his life. Swept up in the honeyed coaxing of his childhood friend Seo Yeram, he had lived as a being who existed for the sake of the world, as she so eloquently put it.
In truth, he was nothing more than an insurance policy for Seo Yeram alone — a tool to be used and discarded.
And now that very man had suddenly chosen to show his face. There was no way Seo Yeram's heart wouldn't quake at the sight.
'After all, right up until his betrayal, the protagonist followed Seo Yeram's every word without question.'
The protagonist's overwhelming power was information shared exclusively between Seo Yeram and the government. The Association itself was an organization built by the government, which was why it had lavished him with the Rank 1 S-Class seat and enormous subsidies despite his conspicuous lack of public achievements.
Of course, the protagonist had handed every one of those rights straight to Seo Yeram. On her instructions, he would participate in dangerous raids only when the risk was low, and he never once revealed his true strength.
Every situation had been nothing more than a stepping stone for Seo Yeram's ascent.
And since the protagonist was a being even the government feared, he had been left with no choice but to obey the sole person he trusted — Seo Yeram — whenever she demanded it.
'And now those reins have become utterly useless.'
The moment I — a reader — possessed his body, everything had come off the rails.
The government and the Association, who had been holding their breath and obeying Seo Yeram's every whisper, would turn on a dime after this. And at the center of it all would be the present me.
'Now then. I've stirred up quite the wave for you. Go on — struggle on top of it all you like, Seo Yeram.'
I bore no particular grudge against her, Geobhwa included. I was, after all, nothing more than a reader who had possessed the protagonist.
But the path Seo Yeram pursued and my own path did not intersect — so conflict between us was inevitable.
I had absolutely no intention of defeating the boss on the Tower's final floor.
Seo Yeram, however, must defeat that boss.
With our goals so fundamentally opposed, colliding was only natural.
Ignoring Seo Yeram's stare, I turned and walked toward the forest of cameras.
The fallout from everything I was about to say and do — the original 'I' could carry that burden himself.
'Let's see what you've got. I'm going to keep you so busy you won't have a second to drown in self-loathing.'
I would make it so he had no choice but to lean on me — and with every crisis, I would strip away more and more of his control.
With a bright smile, my mouth opened.
Mumyeong had removed his mask with his own hands, revealing his face to the world.
Camera flashes burst from every direction, and every eye in the plaza locked onto him.
"Everything Hunter Cha Yujin said is true."
The entirety of Gwanghwamun Square sank into a heavy, suffocating silence.
The Rank 1 S-Class hunter Mumyeong, who had been radiating something unsettling for the past several minutes, was now confessing the truth of his own accord.
The reporters were practically vibrating with the urge to swarm him, questions crowding the tips of their tongues.
But between the string of incomprehensible events that had unfolded since his retirement announcement and the freshly collapsed ruin of the Baekya Guild tower, none of them dared to move rashly.
"What...? Cha Yujin, what on earth did you tell them?! Answer me!"
Stunned, Seo Yeram rounded on Cha Yujin, eyes blazing. Cha Yujin dodged that fury-filled gaze — but a smile was playing at the corners of her mouth all the same.
Now that Mumyeong had admitted it himself, every ounce of the blame would fall on him. Even Seo Yeram couldn't turn this situation around anymore.
Cha Yujin was certain of it.
'That bastard's actually being useful for once!'
The moment she had laid eyes on Seo Yeram, exactly as expected, she had seemed to make a decision of some kind. Quietly delighting in the fact that her calculation had landed perfectly, Cha Yujin was busy congratulating herself.
She'd have to endure Seo Yeram's wrath later, of course — but Seo Yeram could never abandon her. The board had already been laid out to her advantage, and the success of the upcoming raid would demand her cooperation without fail.
'Because the only S-Class recovery-type hunter in the country is me!'
And in the middle of it all, Mumyeong's voice drifted into her ear.
"All of you will no doubt seek to hold me responsible for the failure of this raid."
"Wait—!"
Seo Yeram wanted to cut him off.
But in that instant, a bone-chilling current of killing intent swept across the whole of Gwanghwamun — there and gone in a breath.
The press corps. Ordinary civilians. And among them, even the S-Class hunters of Geobhwa.
Because of that, Seo Yeram's movement froze, if only for a moment.
Mumyeong's voice followed right on its heels.
"I have no intention of taking responsibility."
The tone was so flat and matter-of-fact that the crowd misheard him. The flow of the moment had been pointing unmistakably toward a confession, an acceptance of guilt — and yet Mumyeong had just spoken words of outright denial.
"Let me make myself perfectly clear one more time. I have no intention of taking responsibility. Ah — and the same goes for the collapse of the Baekya Guild tower."
At those follow-up words, the S-Class hunters of Geobhwa went rigid.
Then, belatedly, they registered the scene behind him — Yoon Sihyeon lying crumpled on the ground, and Yoon Sia glaring daggers at Mumyeong.
Seo Yeram's face, a beat too late, twisted into shock.
Shin Yuri, eyes burning ferociously, glared at Mumyeong's back. The man was speaking pure, unadulterated nonsense.
If what Hunter Cha Yujin had said was true, the sin of a failed raid was crushing.
What the Rank 1 S-Class hunter had just done was nothing short of an international crime — a crime that transcended national borders entirely.
The whole world had its eyes fixed on the ominous Tower standing in the heart of Korea. This had never been Korea's problem alone.
To wreck the final-floor raid upon which the eyes of the globe were trained, and then declare he wouldn't answer for it? It defied all reason.
Worse, radio transmissions were already flooding in — reports of a mounting death toll, unfolding in real time, from the ruins of the Baekya Guild tower.
A violent criminal who had committed outright massacre was standing there, shameless and composed.
And if you added the psychotic break he'd apparently exhibited mid-conversation with Hunter Cha Yujin—
It amounted to saying that Korea's Rank 1 S-Class hunter had lost his mind.
This was an international humiliation.
"Wh-what in the... that's insane! You can't possibly mean that!"
One of the reporters, overwhelmed by emotion, finally shattered the silence, voice shaking with fury.
Mumyeong's gaze turned toward the man — precise, unhurried, exact.
"Yes. I'm well aware it's an unreasonable and absurd situation. You are all welcome to pursue whatever it is you want. As for me — I will resist with everything I have, for the sole purpose of not taking responsibility."
"You listen to yourself, you son of a—!"
At that moment, unable to stomach another word, one of Geobhwa's S-Class hunters burst forward.
Rank 3 S-Class. Shin Yuri.
"Stop!"
Before Seo Yeram's cry could reach her, sparks crackling to life around her, Shin Yuri closed the distance in the blink of an eye, driving straight for Mumyeong's back.
A flawless ambush — launched from a low, coiled stance, faster than perception.
'I've hated your guts from day one! That rotten, filthy guts of yours! I'll crush it with my own two—!'
Then, in the instant before her strike could land, Shin Yuri finally recognized it — far too late.
In a world that had slowed to a crawl, he had already turned to face her, faster than anything she was capable of.
Looking down at her with perfect precision, reacting to her speed as though it were nothing—
Mumyeong's eyes. Cold as death itself.