Chapter 101: Persuasion
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 101: Persuasion
Crash!
Seeing him lose his balance and go tumbling into a trash can, I immediately spun around and sprinted away.
Thanks to remembering the sensation of grasping that thread of control from before, I’d once again managed to leave a precarious five percent of my aura remaining.
But I had no time to celebrate. I scooped Si-ho into my arms and began to run for my life.
I had to escape while Hyeok-seo was still reeling from my aura’s rampage.
I knew all too well that at my current level, I stood no chance against an S-rank returnee.
It was obvious he’d recover quickly from that last blow and come right back.
“Si-ho, wake up!”
That was why I needed Si-ho more than anyone right now.
I felt bad for pushing her when she was already strained, but I needed her spatial movement ability.
However, Si-ho’s complexion was anything but good.
The backlash from having the dimensional gate cut off midway, combined with being unable to breathe inside the shadow, seemed to have taken a huge toll on her.
This was bad.
At this rate, Si-ho was the one who needed medical attention.
Just then, I burst out of the alley.
I was about to make a run for it when I froze, dumbfounded by the sight of the road completely swarming with dimensional entities.
“…Fuck.”
It was absolute chaos.
Having laid waste to the ground level, they were now moving quickly in search of prey.
The problem was, these bastards had an incredibly keen sense of smell when hunting.
And their gazes were turning toward me.
I’m fucked.
Literally.
Truly.
So fucking fucked.
“Kri-ra-ra-ra-rak!”
As one of them roared and charged in my direction, the others immediately followed suit.
One right beside me thrust its head forward, and I instantly slapped it across the face.
“Giyeeeeek!”
The dimensional entity I’d slapped shrieked as its head caved in.
My ability is lethal to dimensional entities.
But with so many of them swarming me while I had to protect Si-ho, I was completely out of options.
I immediately turned and dashed back into the alley.
It was the only escape route I had.
Behind me, dimensional entities began pouring into the alley, squeezing their way in.
Those crazy bastards were chasing me with the sole intent to kill, not caring if their bodies, larger than the alley itself, were torn apart in the process.
“Domi, you bastard!”
In the midst of it all, I came face to face with Hyeok-seo, who was staggering toward me.
He seemed to have just regained his senses, a bruise already forming on his face as he glared at me.
Sorry about that.
But I couldn’t help but offer him a slight smile.
It was a smile of trust, like one you’d give a reliable tank in a game.
“Hyeok-seo, take the aggro!”
“What?”
The moment he voiced his confusion, I slipped through a narrow gap in the alley wall.
Hyeok-seo stared blankly after me for a moment before his eyes belatedly found the dimensional entities, his expression turning dumbfounded.
“Domi, you son of a bitch!!!!”
Naturally, the dimensional entities prioritized the new prey that had appeared before them over the one that had just vanished.
He let out a satisfyingly loud curse at me as he swung his shadows.
“Nice toss.”
Meanwhile, I ran back down the alley, vaulted over a fence, and crashed through the window of a building.
Running around blindly outside would only end with me getting caught and killed by those things.
Since this was a residential area, it was far safer to run across the rooftops.
Si-ho.
I checked on her condition again.
Si-ho, who had been trembling with her eyes shut, let out a faint moan.
It seemed like she was about to wake up.
Deciding I needed to move to the next building, I opened a window.
I was about to leap across to the opposite building.
Suddenly, a jet-black wall shot up from below the window, blocking my path.
The black wall was none other than a shadow.
“Dammit, already?!”
I quickly raised Thunderbolt and fired a round, but it didn't even scratch the shadow wall.
At such a low output, it was useless.
Thump—
At that moment, footsteps echoed from the stairs.
They sounded like they were heralding my end.
*
Shadow Proclamation.
As he activated his signature skill, Song Hyeok-seo touched his own face, where a bruise was beginning to appear.
That kid, Domi. If he hadn't managed to wrap himself in shadow, his head would have been blown clean off.
More importantly, this kid’s aura is strange.
Song Hyeok-seo, who referred to Ha-chan’s aura by his own term, yoryeok, dropped the hand that was stroking his chin.
The total amount of aura seemed to be the most he had ever seen in his life, but his ability to control it was severely lacking.
Could it be that he had awakened as a hunter?
But even hunters aren't incapable of controlling their aura.
When a hunter awakens, the Tower of Revelation grants them an innate understanding of how to use their power.
Of course, there are differences in proficiency, but they don’t have trouble regulating their aura.
Could it be because he has too much of it?
That was a possibility.
Ha-chan’s output was abnormally high.
The sight of him wiping out enough dimensional entities to cover the skies of Jung-gu with a single bolt of red lightning was nothing short of phenomenal.
In terms of raw output, he was even greater than Erebos.
“In any case.”
Cracking his neck, Song Hyeok-seo reached the top of the stairs and faced Ha-chan.
With Si-ho behind him and a gun aimed forward, he was clearly tense.
“Are you done running?”
“Hyeok-seo, can we talk this out now?”
“Says the guy who just left a big blue bruise on my jaw.”
“Honestly, I think you deserved it. And you probably deserve a few more.”
This kid… he’s always been one to say whatever’s on his mind.
Of course, that was one of the things he liked about him.
But right now, he and Ha-chan were enemies.
“I have to save Se-hee.”
“I want to save Eva, too. Didn’t she go to persuade you in the first place?”
“She did. I heard most of it from her. That an acquaintance of yours has a way to save Se-hee if we can just retrieve her body.”
“So she didn’t tell you who it was.”
It seemed Se-hee had deliberately omitted Juksim’s name, assuming Hyeok-seo might target her as well.
From her perspective, she wouldn’t have wanted to cause Juksim any trouble.
“But I also heard that the prerequisite is the same.”
The prerequisite that Si-ho had to be the one to retrieve Se-hee’s body.
That was what had led to this whole mess.
“Domi, doping enhances abilities. It’s temporary, but one shot of what Girasung has, and Ha Si-ho will be able to handle her spatial abilities twice as well.”
The Awakening Inducer that Girasung possessed was a drug that forcibly dragged future potential into the present.
Though it consumed life force, it was a special drug that could make one’s abilities far more effective.
It was, of course, difficult to obtain and illegal.
Even Girasung had spent a fortune to have it specially commissioned just to target Ha Si-ho.
“You’ve heard it too, haven’t you? The chances of safely retrieving Se-hee’s body at Ha Si-ho’s current level aren’t that high.”
He was right. Ha-chan had heard as much from both Si-ho and Juksim.
To be honest, the probability of successfully recovering Se-hee’s body was unknown.
Even Si-ho was a novice in this area and couldn’t make any rash guarantees.
According to her, the chances were basically fifty-fifty.
And in Baeksan’s world, Hyeok-seo must have injected Si-ho with the drug to awaken her, raising the probability and ultimately succeeding in retrieving Eva’s body.
But because Juksim wasn’t there, the Song Hyeok-seo of Baeksan’s world couldn’t save Se-hee in the end.
He had resorted to inhuman methods to get that far, and still, he couldn’t save her.
Ha-chan had no intention of watching that world repeat itself.
“…I have no intention of siding with Girasung either. I’ll steal the drug myself. Can’t we make it work somehow? All we need is to bring Se-hee’s body back safely, right?”
If they did that, they could surely retrieve Se-hee’s body.
And this time, with Juksim here, they could save her immediately.
But Ha-chan was just as stubborn as Song Hyeok-seo.
“Anything that affects Si-ho is absolutely out of the question.”
Song Hyeok-seo narrowed his eyes at him, and Ha-chan shielded Si-ho.
“I’m not finished. Hear me out. I listened to you.”
Did he listen to me just so he could have his own turn to speak?
Then and now, this kid always knew how to steer a conversation.
“Hyeok-seo, the acquaintance Eva and I mentioned is Juksim.”
His next words made Song Hyeok-seo tilt his head.
“What’s more, Juksim is a Constellation from the Divine Realm, just like Girasung’s Erebos.”
“…What did you say?”
Song Hyeok-seo’s eyes widened at those words.
A Constellation from the Divine Realm.
He knew all too well what kind of absurd monsters they were.
“Eva made a request to Juksim. She asked her to make a promise. If you kidnapped Si-ho, she was to never, ever resurrect her.”
If Se-hee had said this to Hyeok-seo herself when they met, it would have been harder to persuade him.
Knowing this, Se-hee had deliberately kept it from him.
She’d left it as a threat, a card for someone else to play when trying to convince him.
“Has she lost her mind? This is about her own life!”
“You’re the one who’s lost it. You’re so blinded by the fear of Se-hee dying that you can’t think straight.”
Ha-chan saw through Hyeok-seo’s heart better than anyone.
“If it were about my sister, I might have done the same thing. But you know this isn’t something that can be solved by being reckless.”
Song Hyeok-seo bit his lip.
He knew that, and yet he had still come this far.
“And Se-hee doesn’t want you to act this way, either.”
He knew that well.
Se-hee herself had come to stop him.
Ironically, the fact that she had come to stop him was what made it impossible for him to stop.
It felt like she was giving up on her own life, and that drove him mad with anxiety.
“She’s never once thanked you for doing things this way, has she?”
Ha-chan’s words pierced Hyeok-seo’s heart like a dagger.
Am I making the same mistake again?
In Gihangjeon, he had lived for Se-hee, but she had never once said thank you.
Of course she hadn’t.
He hadn’t done it to be thanked; he had done it simply because he wanted her to live.
But the look in Se-hee’s eyes was identical to how she had looked back in Gihangjeon.
Please, just stop.
It was stubbornness, pure ego.
He knew that, but the fear that Se-hee would die tormented him endlessly.
To him, Se-hee was the last precious person he had left.
He had spent his entire life protecting her, so he knew no other way.
That was all he had.
Tossed into another world at the age of ten, he never would have survived without the single-minded determination to protect Se-hee.
To ensure his own survival, Song Hyeok-seo had to cling to that resolve.
That resolve had seemed to fade for a moment after meeting Ran in Gihangjeon.
But Ran had died.
In a way, Se-hee was his trauma.
Even now, Song Hyeok-seo had never escaped that day when he was ten.
「Oppa, where are we? I’m scared.」
That voice had shackled him his entire life.
In Gihangjeon and on Earth, Song Hyeok-seo knew nothing but how to protect Se-hee.
But that was constantly being denied.
Was what he was doing now really for Se-hee, or was it for himself?
Was he deluding himself into thinking he was acting to save her, when in reality, he was just letting his own anxiety run wild?
He had promised Ran he wouldn’t fight with his sister anymore, yet here he was, doing the exact same thing. Song Hyeok-seo ground his teeth.
“Hyeok-seo.”
And then, Ha-chan called his name.
“Let’s save Eva together. We can do it.”
Ha-chan reached out his hand.
The first person since Ran to say they’d protect Se-hee with him.
That person was standing right in front of him.