Chapter 6
Chapter 6
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 6
Chapter Title: The Stigma of Lyra (3)
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“Two Whopper Sets~ That’ll be 15,800 won! Is this for takeout?”
“Yes. To go.”
On the way home.
I stopped by a nearby burger joint to grab some dinner.
‘Damn, why are burgers so expensive.’
The hand pulling the bills from my wallet trembled like that of a chronic alcoholic.
My stomach felt like it was about to turn inside out, paying more than three times the price for something I could get for 2,000 won a piece if I bought it frozen.
“Two Whopper Sets, order up~!”
I turned and walked away, leaving the brightly smiling employee behind.
I walked through a narrow alley filled with old, crumbling houses.
The pungent smell of mold and the damp air stung my nose.
“Hoo.”
I looked up at the darkening sky and let out a short sigh.
‘In the end, another lie.’
Suddenly, an old memory surfaced.
A memory from my childhood, more than fifteen years ago.
Fragments of a past that now felt unfamiliar floated through my mind.
-A lie? You call that a lie?
Was I eight, or maybe nine?
I once pranked the director by lying that there was a fire in the kitchen.
The image of the bald director, his face beet red as he threw a fit.
Oh-jin had snickered and flipped him the bird.
-You damn little brat!!
The director’s face contorted, red and purple with rage, as he approached with clenched fists.
He was a perfectly ordinary man in his forties, blessed with the holy trinity of ailments—diabetes, high blood pressure, and hair loss.
But when it came to throwing a punch, at least ‘without leaving a mark,’ his skill was enough to astonish a pro.
A rain of violence poured down on my crouched body.
-Don’t hit my Oh-jin, you bald bastard!!
A girl with reddish-brown hair, swaying like fire, leaped into the fray.
Despite her doll-like, delicate features, the girl’s movements were as swift and fierce as a wild beast’s.
But even so.
A girl barely ten years old couldn’t stop an adult’s violence.
-The two of you!!!
The bald director swung his fists wildly.
Oh-jin and the girl clung to each other, enduring the director’s furious assault.
“Seems like nothing’s changed since I was a kid.”
I walked down the desolate street, which looked as if it had been ravaged by monsters, and arrived home with a bitter smile.
*Creeeak.*
Opening the old door revealed the cramped interior of a house less than 350 square feet.
“Ughh.”
Did the sound of the door wake her?
A faint groan was followed by the creaking scream of an old bed.
“I’m home.”
I casually placed the bag of burgers on the floor and took off my shoes.
“……”
A woman sat up, pushing aside the blanket.
Fiery, reddish-brown hair.
Like a ruby dropped in a mud puddle, she shone beautifully even in this old, mold-infested house.
Having just woken up, she slowly turned her gaze toward Oh-jin.
No.
‘Turned her gaze’ wasn’t the right expression.
Because—
“…You’re back?”
—in her pale, faded eyes, nothing was reflected.
Fumbling.
She awkwardly pushed the blanket aside.
Revealing a pair of pale white legs.
The legs that should have been a pair were now a lonely one, only the left remaining.
“Yeah, I’m back.”
I nodded with a smirk.
The woman with reddish-brown hair stared up at Oh-jin blankly, then…
“If you’re back━ then hurry up and stick a cigarette between my fingers.”
…she grinned, holding out two fingers.
Oh-jin let out a dry laugh at the sight of her leisurely extending her hand as if ordering a servant.
“Giving me shit the moment I walk in.”
“Ahem. Shit? Is that any way to talk to your dear nunna who’s like the sky above you?”
“Nunna, my ass.”
“I heard that’s what’s popular these days.”
Is it?
“Ha-eun nunna…”
“Ugh, gross. Stop. I’m gonna be sick.”
“Hey, you told me to say it.”
“Kyahaha!! It sounds so cringey hearing it out loud.”
Seeing her unchanged demeanor, Oh-jin’s lips curled into a slight smile.
‘Looks like she’s doing okay.’
Song Ha-eun.
The woman, two years his senior, who had been his sole pillar of support during their hellish life at the orphanage.
The tenacious bond forged in their orphanage days had continued even after they left.
Precarious and clumsy, but…
Vivid.
“Here.”
I rolled up the receipt from the burger purchase and stuck it between her fingers.
*Click.*
I flicked the lighter.
“Sss… *Cough!* *Hack!* What, what is this?!”
“A cigarette.”
“The hell you mean, a cigarette, you bastard!” Ha-eun shouted, violently throwing the lit receipt.
I picked up the receipt from the floor and snuffed out the flame.
“Cut back on the smoking. What are you going to do if your health gets even worse?”
“Hmph. For your information, I’m much healthier than you.”
Ha-eun shrugged and grinned.
She wasn’t just bluffing.
In reality, her body was several times healthier than mine.
It made sense, since she was an ‘Awakened.’
‘Though a half-baked one who can’t use the stigma’s magic.’
Still, her physical specs were far superior to mine, an ordinary person.
No, to be precise.
‘They *were* superior.’
Things were different now.
He had become an Awakened, too.
“I brought some food.”
“Oh, thanks. What’s on the menu today?”
“Burgers.”
“Heh heh! That’s my boy! You know what’s up!”
Ha-eun chuckled, satisfied.
She liked burgers.
Not particularly because they were delicious, but because they were easy to hold and eat.
For her, who couldn’t see, even using utensils was no simple task.
*Rustle.*
I unwrapped a burger and handed it to her.
*Chomp.*
Her small mouth bit into the burger.
“…Huh?”
Her eyes widened.
As if in disbelief, she took several more bites.
“What, what is this? Why is it so good?”
“Because I bought it from a store, not the frozen kind.”
“…What?”
Ha-eun’s jaw dropped.
“Are, are you sick? Did a monster smack you in the head or something?”
Her voice trembled, unable to believe it.
The thought that she would be this surprised over a burger set that cost less than ten thousand won briefly crossed my mind, but reflecting on my usual behavior, I could understand her reaction.
“I came into some money.”
“…It’s not like you didn’t buy them before because you had no money.”
True to her words, the reason I had been so extreme in saving on living expenses wasn’t because I was broke.
It was true I didn't earn much for a life-threatening job, but there were times I made tens of millions of won in a month.
I could have eaten a burger set, which cost less than ten thousand won, whenever I wanted.
‘Though I never did.’
And yet.
The reason I had scrimped and saved so obsessively was to gather as much money as possible.
‘Because there’s something I absolutely have to buy.’
Oh-jin gazed silently at Ha-eun, who was gobbling down her burger.
“You have sauce on your mouth.”
“Ah, really?”
Ha-eun turned her head and stuck out her chin.
“Here, I grant you the honor of touching your nunna’s lips.”
“Would you look at that.”
“You better believe it.”
“You’re driving me nuts.”
I wiped the corner of her mouth with a napkin.
“Heehee! Hey, what’s this called?”
“A Whopper Set.”
“Yesss! The king of burgers, indeed!”
Ha-eun grinned with satisfaction.
“Then from now on, I’ll buy these instead of the frozen ones.”
Oh-jin also took a bite of his own burger.
‘Damn, this is delicious.’
It was on a completely different level from the frozen burgers I usually ate.
It was so good I wanted to shove my fist in my mouth and cry.
“……”
A strange silence descended.
Ha-eun’s pale gaze turned toward Oh-jin.
“You… something happened, didn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
Oh-jin nodded calmly.
“I became an Awakened.”
“……!”
*Splat.*
The cola Ha-eun was holding fell and spilled on the floor.
***
Late at night.
A gentle moonlight seeped through the window.
“Hoo. Finally got some time to myself.”
By the time I finished explaining everything to a frantic Ha-eun, it was already this late.
‘Well, I guess it’s only natural for her to be so shocked.’
It would be stranger if she wasn’t stunned to hear that I had suddenly become an Awakened, and an Apostle of ‘Polaris’ at that.
Overwhelmed with worry, anxiety, excitement, and anticipation, she had bombarded me with questions for hours.
Of course, I couldn’t explain the whole tangled situation right now.
‘…How do I explain that I’m lying to a Constellation about being a regressor?’
As things settled down a bit, my head began to throb again.
“Alright, let’s sort things out one by one.”
Oh-jin went to a nearby playground, sat on a creaking swing, and gently closed his eyes.
‘First, this Heukcheon thing.’
The unknown power that had devoured the Stigma of Lyra engraved on Lee Shin-hyeok’s left chest.
‘…This was something I had from the beginning.’
I had no idea why such an unknown power resided within me.
But one thing was certain: this thing called Heukcheon was originally mine, unrelated to ‘Lee Shin-hyeok’s regression.’
After all, if I hadn't absorbed the Stigma of Lyra with the power of Heukcheon, Vega would never have mistaken me for a regressor.
‘And Vega believes that the being who possesses this Heukcheon will destroy the world in the future.’
That would mean my future self would destroy the world.
No matter how many times I thought about it, I just couldn’t understand.
‘What the hell happened to me in the first timeline?’
I thought the world was a fucked-up place, but I never once thought it would be better off completely destroyed.
“This… I have no way of knowing right now, so let’s put it aside.”
The problem was the fact that I possessed Heukcheon.
‘I have to hide this at all costs.’
No matter what, I couldn’t let it be discovered.
The moment the truth about Heukcheon was revealed, it would also come out that I wasn’t a regressor, but a third party who had absorbed a regressor’s stigma.
‘Wait, but what the hell is this Heukcheon anyway?’
A power that absorbs stigmas and makes them your own.
I had partied with many Awakened, but I had never heard of such a power.
Oh-jin checked the system window, visible only to the Awakened, and pressed the part that read ‘Heukcheon.’
*T-ring!*
A blue message window appeared before his eyes.
[List of Innate Abilities]
【Heukcheon (Black Heaven)】
1. Status: One-Star Transformation
2. Traits
① Stigma Absorption: Absorbs the magic of a stigma and stores it within Heukcheon.
② Veil of Darkness: Completely conceals the aura of Heukcheon. This trait can also be used on possessed stigmas.
③ Succession: Reads the records contained within a stigma. Affected by Heukcheon’s transformation stage.
3. Currently Possessed Stigmas
① Stigma of Lyra *Set as the representative stigma.
“Ugh.”
Oh-jin let out a low groan after checking the message window.
‘This doesn’t tell me much.’
This was just a summary of Heukcheon’s functions.
It didn’t explain what Heukcheon was or why it resided in me.
“Then let’s move on from this for now, too.”
In the end, he decided to temporarily shelve the question of ‘why this happened to me.’
It wasn’t like he would find the answer by sitting here and mulling it over.
‘In that case.’
What he needed to think about now was ‘what to do from here on out.’
“A regressor…”
The most important thing right now was how to appear more ‘regressor-like’ during his meeting with Vega in a week.
‘Just talking my way through it has its limits.’
If he couldn’t at least get his skills and abilities recognized, a seed of doubt would sprout, no matter how much he ran his mouth.
‘To be acknowledged by Vega.’
He needed to raise the ‘Star’ of the Lyra stigma as quickly as possible.
‘I need to reach at least 2-Star within a week.’
For an Awakened to advance to the next stage, two conditions had to be met.
‘The amount of magic contained in the stigma, and the skill to wield it.’
He didn’t need to worry about the former.
‘I’m overflowing with magic.’
He had received a stigma from both the ‘first timeline’ Vega and the ‘second timeline’ Vega.
If anything, he had too much magic.
“…In that case.”
It meant that if he could just improve his skill in wielding the stigma, he could ‘advance’ much faster than other Awakened.
“Looks like I’ll have to go to the gate again tomorrow.”
Two or three years ago.
An Awakened he had partied with once said that there was no faster way to improve one’s stigma-wielding skills than through real combat.
Indeed, the high-ranking Awakened who had achieved explosive growth all frequented gates.
‘Guess I should head to bed.’
*Creak.*
He got up from the swing and left the eerie playground.
“Hm?”
As he was walking home while looking at his smartphone, an article caught his eye.
[Abnormal Phenomenon Occurs in 1-Star Risk Gate in Sinheung-dong, Incheon, as Ant-horns Move in Packs of Over 20… Victims ‘Surge’.]
It was the gate he had gone to today.
[In response to this phenomenon, the Association has urged caution and advised refraining from entering the gate for the time being, citing the possible appearance of a ‘variant’.]
“…A variant.”
Oh-jin narrowed his eyes.
‘I didn’t see any variant back then.’
But it was possible he had missed it.
He hadn’t been in a state to care about variants or anything else.
‘…Can I take it down?’
A variant monster, an extremely rare occurrence.
Depending on the situation, they could be weaker than the original species, but generally, variant individuals possessed greater power than their counterparts.
A monster that a newly awakened 1-Star Awakened couldn’t dare to challenge.
‘But.’
He wasn’t a typical 1-Star Awakened.
Even the Apostles of the Zodiac were several times more powerful than the apostles of other constellations right from 1-Star, but he was an Apostle of ‘Polaris,’ a being that even the Zodiac couldn’t compare to.
In fact, he had single-handedly slaughtered a swarm of dozens of Ant-horns today.
Of course, he had received help from Vega midway through, but—
‘Even before I received the blessing, they were manageable enough.’
Hadn’t he even thought it was too easy?
And that was when he only had the stigma from the ‘first timeline’ Vega that Lee Shin-hyeok had possessed.
Now that he had also received the stigma from the ‘second timeline’ Vega, it was a given that it would be even easier.
“Alright.”
After a moment of deliberation, Oh-jin gave a calm nod.
Tomorrow’s destination was set.
***
The next day.
He headed to the place where he had first met Lee Shin-hyeok.
“I’m a 2-Star Awakened of Fornax! Anyone looking to party?!”
“2-Star Awakened of Canis Major here! Going to hunt the variant!”
When he arrived in front of the gate, noisy shouts filled his ears.
‘Quite a lot of people.’
Although the Association had advised against entering, there were more Awakened gathered in front of the gate than usual.
‘Was it said that a variant’s mana stone fetches a much higher price?’
It seemed they had gathered with the same goal as him: to hunt the variant.
“Hmm…”
Oh-jin paused for a moment, lost in thought.
‘Should I find a party?’
Now that he was a real Awakened, he didn’t have to put on the same tearful ass-kissing show as before.
‘…No.’
After a moment of thought, Oh-jin slowly shook his head.
He was confident he could handle the variant on his own anyway.
If he formed a party, he would have to share the profits, and it would be difficult to experience a proper ‘real battle.’
“Well then, shall we go?”
He entered the gate and headed for the place where he had encountered the Ant-horn swarm yesterday.
A dark forest path.
The sticky humidity clung to him unpleasantly.
*Rustle.*
The sound of rustling bushes.
‘It’s coming.’
He grabbed the spear on his back and lowered his stance.