Chapter 70: Ex-Girlfriend: ON
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 70: Ex-Girlfriend: ON
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Eunnamu.
Now 26 years old, she was a returnee who had been swept up in a dimensional shift at the age of 17.
The dimension she had fallen into was designated Outer World · 1, a new type of dimension never before seen, even among returnees.
It was a world of Evil Gods.
A hellish dimension where, just by encountering an Evil God, its inhabitants would gouge out their own eyes in agony, their brains would explode, or they would hang themselves in suicide.
That dimension was a playground for the Evil Gods, and having been dropped into such a place, she caught their eye.
A new plaything from another dimension.
The moment they found her, the Evil Gods scrambled to possess her.
They were always starved for new toys, and she was one of limitless value.
As a result, she became a plaything for countless Evil Gods, her mind and body crushed, crumpled, and utterly ruined.
Once, she was turned into a slime-like mass of flesh and rolled around in their hands.
Another time, her brain and eyes were plucked out, and another’s brain was implanted into her body.
But the biggest problem through all of this was that she did not die.
Immortality.
So that they could play with her as their toy, the Evil Gods had made her mind and body immortal.
Unable to even break in that hell, she screamed endlessly.
In the process, the remnants of the Evil Gods continued to accumulate within her, embedding themselves as a kind of curse.
The curse piled up, layer by layer, until it finally crossed a threshold and twisted her very essence.
The moment she gained power nearly on par with a low-level Evil God, she used that power to kill one of the lowest-ranking among them and fled for her life.
She refused to have her mind and body kneaded in their hands any longer. To survive, she desperately crossed dimensions.
And upon returning to Earth, she rejoiced at her escape, but that joy was short-lived.
The Evil Gods hadn’t let her go.
【 Where are you going, our baby? 】
【 Toy! I love it so much! So interesting! 】
【 So this is your dimension. 】
The Evil Gods had only let her go because they were curious to see how their toy would live in another dimension.
“Ah, ahh! Ahhhhh!”
The truth made her despair.
But thankfully, she realized that their influence had weakened across the dimensional divide.
The horrific acts continued—the constant whispers, the Evil Gods implanting things into her from across the dimension for their own amusement—but at least they could no longer harm her directly.
Knowing this, she began to search for a way to kill the Evil Gods.
There was only one way for her to be free.
She had to kill every last one of those damn Evil Gods.
It was then that she learned of Girasung’s existence.
The founder of Girasung possessed the power to kill Evil Gods.
As soon as she learned this, Eunnamu asked for his help, and he told her that if she helped him, he would help her.
Eunnamu agreed and had been living as a member of Girasung ever since.
The mission she had been given was Kang Ha-chan.
The man standing before her now.
A man who had a quirky side, who was hostile to those who were hostile to him, but whose heart was fundamentally soft. A clueless man.
A foolish man who had comforted her for hours that night as she was tormented by the Evil Gods, who had smiled apologetically for the wounds she herself had inflicted on him.
His embrace had been warm, but it couldn't save her from the Evil Gods.
Having long since forgotten the emotion of guilt, Eunnamu was here to kidnap him.
‘Ex-girlfriend?’
Amidst it all, Ha-chan had suddenly uttered those words—his ex-girlfriend from another world.
What kind of nonsense was that?
She didn’t know for sure, but he was a soft-hearted man.
It seemed he had already vaguely guessed she was a woman, but he likely didn't know she was part of Girasung.
‘Did he say that out of the shock of betrayal?’
Eunnamu let out a hollow laugh at her own thoughts.
To think she was worried about him being in shock while she was in the middle of kidnapping him.
Had she grown attached to him in that short time?
She, whose entire life had been destroyed by Evil Gods.
Until she killed them, relationships, life, goals—none of it had any meaning.
Only by killing them could she finally reclaim her life.
Bzzzt—
【 SΦmethinΥg fuη h㉿s cΦme. 】
It happened in an instant.
Her vision blurred for a moment with a burst of noise in her ears.
As if reacting to his words, “ex-girlfriend,” some entity knocked on the inside of her mind.
“...An Evil God!?”
Her eyes trembled.
One of the Evil Gods who had broken her in the past was now implanting something in her again, just for fun.
‘Those damn Evil Gods.’
The moment her eyes became bloodshot, an unfamiliar scene flashed through her mind.
A school, as the sun was setting.
Someone walking beside her in the school building was reflected in her eyes.
He was looking at her, smiling happily, and the moment she saw that smile, her heart began to flutter for some reason.
She knew this phenomenon.
An Evil God was clearly showing her a memory from another worldline.
But a moment later, her vision was covered in blood.
The man who had been smiling so happily was now holding her, tears streaming down his face.
As if he was in agony, having desperately wanted to save her but failing in the end.
A deep, profound grief filled his eyes.
Seeing it, her own chest felt as if it were being torn apart.
“Stop, stop it!”
Screaming, she clutched her eyes and stumbled.
Fwoosh!
As black flames flickered beneath her feet, the memories belatedly began to erode and disappear.
But the turmoil that had taken root in her heart showed no sign of stopping.
Those hateful Evil Gods.
She felt like she was going insane, wanting to escape those horrible things that knew only how to toy with her mind and body.
Shiver—
Barely swallowing the urge to vomit, she felt a chill run down her entire body, and her head slowly lifted.
Another massive presence was there, one entirely different from the Evil Gods.
“Ha-chan?”
‘Something’s wrong.’
Just as her other hand belatedly lashed out toward Ha-chan…
Thwack—
Her hand was caught firmly by someone.
Her gaze traveled up to see that it was none other than Ha-chan’s hand that had caught her.
And it held an abnormal strength, completely different from before.
“Hah, shit. I told you not to get involved. Something else possessed you in the meantime, didn’t it?”
Even though she was on top of him, pinning him down with her strength, Eunnamu’s eyes widened as she watched him slowly rise.
His strength had suddenly become abnormally great.
When he pushed his bangs back with his free hand, she saw that his eyes were, for some reason, stained red.
“I said at least three months. You’re in for a world of hurt when you’re let out.”
Who on earth was he talking to?
As if he had no intention of answering her unspoken question, his red eyes turned toward her.
In that instant, Eunnamu felt a strange sensation boil up from her stomach and strike her head with intense force.
It was as if a colossal being had descended upon that place.
She was getting the same feeling from Ha-chan as she did from the Evil Gods.
But for some reason, as if mesmerized by his face, she couldn’t look away.
And she realized it was because of what the Evil God had implanted in her memory.
But this was different.
This person was completely different from the face in her memories—the one with the lovely smile who had poured out such bitterness and sorrow.
She felt a terrible, indescribable emotion within her body.
A strange sensation, as if someone precious had been stolen from her, tightened its grip on her chest.
“...Who are you.”
Give him back.
Give Ha-chan back…
Eunnamu, about to utter those words, snapped her mouth shut.
She had realized who the person in the memory implanted by the Evil God was.
It was Kang Ha-chan.
The person the ‘her’ from that worldline had loved so dearly, the person she had confessed to and started dating.
The person she had held onto, thinking of him constantly to endure after being swept into a dimensional shift just one day after they got together.
The love she had to break up with after only a day upon her return, terrified that the Evil Gods’ influence would reach him.
The person she had loved and missed the most.
‘This is my memory… but it’s not my memory.’
And yet, the emotion invaded her heart without permission, and she couldn’t bear it.
Moreover, the thought that the man before her had stolen Ha-chan’s body filled Eunnamu with an unbearable rage.
“Why does a bitch who’s about to die need to know?”
When he grinned, the space behind Eunnamu distorted, and a pitch-black scythe appeared.
Gripping the scythe, she immediately swung it at him in a fury. In response, a sword materialized in Baeksan’s hand.
The sword, which looked as if it were forged from lightning, shone so intensely that it momentarily stole Eunnamu’s vision. In that instant, the scythe and sword clashed.
KWANG!
The one sent flying from the impact was none other than Eunnamu.
Her eyes widened in shock as she realized she had been pushed back despite being the one who swung.
Suddenly, his sword began to discharge lightning of its own accord.
Baeksan scowled deeply at the sight.
“Bazra, he’s your master, so listen to me properly.”
As he glared and barked at it, Bazra’s lightning began to slowly subside.
Seeing this, Baeksan gave a satisfied smile, spun Bazra, and pointed it at Eunnamu.
“A gift for you.”
In that instant, red sparks flew.
A bolt of lightning shot forth from Bazra, tearing through the air.
Eunnamu quickly angled her scythe to deflect the lightning.
But an explosion erupted where the lightning struck the scythe, and she was sent tumbling across the ground.
Drip—
At that moment, something fell from her torn chest.
As a weighty piece of flesh fell, she flinched and instinctively covered her chest with her hands.
The explosion had torn through her top and the chest binder she wore underneath.
Her face instantly turned beet red.
Who have I been protecting this for all this time?
‘Wait, for whom?’
Her mind a jumble of memories, she felt confused by her own embarrassment.
“You have time to hide that?”
But Baeksan didn’t even blink as he brought Bazra down on her.
She quickly rolled away as red lightning from Bazra scorched the ground again.
“Kkeuk!”
Swallowing a scream as the current coursed through her body, she staggered to her feet.
But Baeksan was like a runaway locomotive that wouldn't stop.
THWACK!
His foot slammed into her stomach in an instant, sending her flying high into the air.
She soared through the sky, tumbled across the rooftop floor, and finally came to a stop only after crashing into the rooftop entrance.
“Cough, cough.”
Her hand, gripping the black scythe, began to tremble.
‘I have to escape.’
The memories implanted by the Evil God were messing with her mind, and her body wouldn’t listen.
Whenever she tried to harm him, the strength drained from her limbs.
‘What on earth… why did it implant the memory of a worldline where Ha-chan and I were lovers…?’
It was then.
Lovers.
As soon as she thought of the word, her eyes began to widen.
Ha-chan’s words about her being his ex-girlfriend from another world.
The fact that he seemed to have known she was a woman from the very beginning.
The strange looks he sometimes gave her.
As the pieces of memory clicked into place, her eyes grew wider and wider.
He remembers the same thing that I’m remembering now.
The moment she realized this, a look of pure ecstasy dawned on her face.
If he has the memory, then I can be with him again…
Grit!
Eunnamu bit her lip so hard it felt like it would break.
The sharp taste of blood was just enough to pull her back to reality.
She had to admit it.
Her own memories had been completely overwritten by the memories of another worldline.
The power of that memory was too strong; it was slowly eating away at her.
At this rate, it was highly likely her ego would split in two and her mind would shatter.
It was nothing more than a malicious prank by the Evil Gods, but the emotion her body was feeling right now was real.
‘Rather than add to the confusion, I’ll just swallow it whole.’
She had been tormented in the clutches of evil for years.
This was hardly a difficult task.
At the very least, she could be certain that this memory was not one that would harm her.
The fact that her grudge against the Evil Gods was the same in this memory was enough.
Her eyes fell on Ha-chan.
The wild beating of her heart was unfamiliar, but as she began to look at the superimposed memory clearly, she could finally see Ha-chan’s form properly.
Her lover from another worldline, the person she had loved the most.
But now, he was with the Returnee Association, and she was with Girasung. They were enemies.
It was heartbreaking.
The ‘her’ from that other worldline had endured and endured, driven by the sole desire to see him again, and that was how she had escaped the Evil Gods.
She was a world apart from the current her, who had only escaped by chance while being toyed with.
The ‘her’ from that worldline was strong.
And at the very least, she hadn't lost her emotions like she had.
She was envious.
And the one who could fill that envy was right in front of her.
‘If I stay by his side…’
Could she regain the things she had lost?
‘But more important than that right now…’
Her eyes fell on the person who had possessed Ha-chan.
How could the Ha-chan of this world remember her?
‘What if Ha-chan went through the same thing I did?’
Eunnamu’s grip on her scythe tightened.
The person in front of her was not Ha-chan.
It was someone who had stolen his body.
‘Could it be that the reason Ha-chan used up all his lightning energy was…’
Ha-chan possessed an unusually strong lightning energy, but his control over it was pathetic for the power he held.
But at the last moment, he had poured every last bit of his lightning energy into confronting her.
And not to attack her, but only to save Ha Si-ho.
“...Ha-chan, is this why you used up all that ridiculous lightning energy?”
Was it because he was afraid the being possessing him would harm her, his ex-girlfriend?
Her heart began to race again, out of control.
And this time, her newly beating heart filled her with a happiness she had never felt before.
For her, who had lost her emotions to the Evil Gods, this rediscovered feeling was overwhelming.
And at the same time, a deep rage poured out.
The thought that the monster before her had stolen Ha-chan’s body and done the same thing to him that had been done to her… she couldn’t control her emotions.
“...Give Ha-chan back.”
A person’s thoughts are always shaped by their own experiences.
“Give him back? What are you talking about? Have you finally lost it?”
And that is where misunderstandings are born.
Eunnamu’s eyes and Baeksan’s eyes met.
It was the beginning of an absurd misunderstanding.