Chapter 12
Chapter 12
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: I'll Get It Back
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“Mm...”
With a groan, Yoon Seo-ah woke from her sleep.
She rubbed her sleepy eyes, and something fleeting brushed through her mind, which hadn't yet grasped the situation.
[Immediately upon waking, forget Yoo Jun-hyuk. The memory gap from forgetting him will be naturally corrected to feel seamless.]
“...”
Her smooth forehead furrowed.
A sense of loss washed over her, like she'd misplaced something precious, but she couldn't for the life of her remember what it was.
“What did I forget?”
Slowly, she retraced recent events one by one to figure out what she'd lost.
She'd seen Choi Yu-ra's interview, picked a fight with her, and when there was no response, she'd tried to get revenge somehow...
'Then suddenly my head hurt, and I heard hallucinations.'
After that day, hell began.
Hell so agonizing that death might've been preferable.
If not for that one other voice mixed in among the horrific hallucinations, she'd have died long ago.
'The only hallucination that worried about me.'
Following its words changed her world.
It had pushed her forward when she lacked the courage to step into the light, always claiming she was factory trash.
It had given her a chance at a new life.
She wouldn't cling to Go Jin-yo anymore.
She would live anew.
“Yeah. This is the end. This is the end, so...”
Why did her chest still feel so empty?
She wanted to dwell on it more, but Yoon Seo-ah remembered what she had to do.
“For now, it's still Go Jin-yo. There's unfinished business.”
She gazed at her computer.
She couldn't live with her head held high until this was resolved.
Everything she'd built up until now would crumble, but she no longer needed any of it.
“Whew, I'm gonna get a ton of hate, huh?”
She began to act.
For her new life.
＊＊＊
“Here’s your latte.”
“Thank you.”
A weekday afternoon working at the café.
Nothing seemed different from usual today, but my heart raced with anticipation.
'No news yet.'
Go Jin-yo, Yoon Seo-ah's change of heart.
The last time I'd seen her, I'd hypnotized her to reveal her true feelings, confirming she'd truly reformed.
So I'd expected some act of atonement, but days had passed with no sign of it.
'Deleting my memory from her—did that affect her remorse too?'
I'd never planned to erase my memory from her.
But after hearing her say she wanted to depend on me, I'd done it anyway.
'It has to be her own choice, not something I force, for it to be real remorse and repentance.'
If she took action,
I'd assumed it'd be through the Go Jin-yo channel, so I'd subscribed and hit the notification bell.
It was frustrating that there was still no movement.
Bzzz-!
Then my smartphone vibrated.
I quickly opened it to see the YouTube icon greeting me at the top.
'Oh, finally?'
I dove straight into the Go Jin-yo channel.
Sure enough, the notification was from there, and I checked the newly uploaded video.
[The Truth Behind the Videos Uploaded as Go Jin-yo So Far.]
The ominous title had me hitting play immediately.
The video revealed that her first Go Jin-yo upload targeting a high-rank Awakener was based on rumors, debunked those rumors, and ended by defending the person she'd targeted.
[I sincerely apologize to Hunter Kim Eun-ha for the immense mental and physical harm my videos have caused.]
I'd played it right as the notification hit,
but comments were already piling up by the dozens.
[All of it was bullshit??? You fucking bitch??? I only trusted you???]
[LOL, who didn't know it was fake? Everyone knew. Pretending otherwise now is disgusting.]
[Crazy bitch fooled all her subs. I'm ashamed I believed trash like you and trashed innocent people.]
As expected, most were hate comments from existing subscribers.
A few were like, 'What? Go Jin-yo finally snapped out of it.'
“Yeah. She finally came to her senses.”
You can't fix people.
It's a saying about how hard it is to change someone's heart.
But my attempt had worked perfectly. I'd succeeded at the impossible.
“Good.”
My chest swelled with pride.
It wasn't over yet, but I'd splendidly changed one person's life.
It felt like I'd become the hero I'd once dreamed of.
'I thought I was satisfied enough. Guess I'm human after all—greed creeps in.'
At the same time, this thought crossed my mind.
'Look at me, you harem protagonists! Unlike you assholes who learned a bit of hypnosis and fuck every woman you see, I'm using this power for good!'
With power like this, isn't it a person's duty to use it for good and contribute to society?
With Choi Yu-ra, it was repayment to my benefactor.
But reforming Go Jin-yo—a villain, no, a societal scourge—filled me with even greater satisfaction.
“It won't end with just one, right?”
I believed she'd upload more.
Time to be her loyal fan.
＊＊＊
[Go Jin-yo lost her mind. Is she ditching 200k subs? Cyberbullying pays steady cash, doesn't it? Why drift off now after doing so well?]
[Even if not much, she was pulling in hundreds of thousands a month. Sudden reality check?]
[Reality check my ass. Who did she target? All high-rank Awakeners. She dodged them fine until she finally got caught and blackmailed.]
└[Possible. They couldn't go public since the tracking was illegal, so maybe they let her off if she deleted the channel and apologized for her crap.]
After the first video,
Yoon Seo-ah steadily uploaded apology videos, several a day.
[This video starts with a post I saw on some community...]
The source of the rumors in her videos.
Whether those rumors were true.
How she'd crafted the videos and what lies she'd woven in.
[In the case of Hero Kim Hee-yeon, after awakening, she worked tirelessly to become a Hero, and even now that she's achieved it, she keeps pushing herself like this.]
And how excellent and heroic her targets were.
She even attached footage of A-Rank Hero Kim Hee-yeon—still called by that name—training at the facility even on her days off.
Her atonement didn't stop there.
As she dissected each of her videos, she also sent personal apology emails to every Awakener she'd targeted.
[I sincerely apologize for what I've done. If you wish, I'll meet you in person and bow. What I did was inhuman...]
A rambling 5,700-character apology letter.
Most Heroes just read the email and moved on.
“What apology now?”
Some didn't buy her sincerity.
“Unexpected. Well, it kinda lifts my mood.”
Others believed her but weren't the type to be swayed by mere cyberbullies, so they let it slide.
“...She seems genuinely remorseful.”
And some forgave her outright.
But not everyone was so forgiving.
“She really showed up? You're really Go Jin-yo?”
Even high-rank Awakeners were human.
Naturally, some hated Go Jin-yo and wanted payback.
“Y-Yes...”
“Hmm, not what I pictured. I figured you'd be ugly under that mask. You're pretty decent-looking.”
Of course, what she'd done was legally untouchable—defamation at worst, a fine.
Personal punishment was far more effective.
“Bite down.”
It wasn't a society that tolerated it,
but she'd emailed offering to meet if desired.
So when one of her high-rank Hunter targets decked her in the face—a classic 'dead punch'—it was par for the course.
“Urk!”
“Not done yet.”
The violence continued.
His precise strikes, calibrated to avoid life-threatening injury, were artistic.
“Whew, feels good now.”
“Hah... hah...”
“Do that shit one more time, and it won't end like this.”
“Y-Yes...”
He tossed his business card at her as she gasped for air, teeth broken and ribs cracked.
“You know where our guild is? Bring that for free treatment. Go get fixed up.”
“...”
“Don't doubt it. I don't like you, but you're better than the rest, so I'm doing this.”
“...What does that mean?”
“You think you're the only piece of shit like this?”
Go Jin-yo was a famous cyberbully,
but YouTube was crawling with them.
Bigger operations than hers, plus tons of randos slandering high-rank Awakeners with hate comments.
“Unlike you, most other losers get nabbed quick. But when you sue, it's hard to face them.”
Send a lawsuit, demand to see their face,
and a proxy with power of attorney shows up.
Or their parents.
The high-rank Hunter left after saying that.
“But you came in person. I've always wanted to punch some cocky internet troll myself. You made my dream come true, so here's a little gift.”
“...Thank you!”
And one more.
The email reached Choi Yu-ra, whom she'd tormented most viciously lately.
“...”
She stared at it silently, then deleted it.
She wasn't soft enough to dwell on Go Jin-yo anymore.
And she had an unexpected thought.
“I'll forgive you.”
She checked the Go Jin-yo channel.
There, more effort than any other apology: back-to-back videos clearing Choi Yu-ra's name.
“Thanks to you, I got to meet Jun-hyuk. Not that you meant to.”
With Choi Yu-ra's video, Go Jin-yo's apologies finally wrapped up.
And one last upload.
[At exactly noon today, I will delete this channel.]
Channel deletion.
Some called it clickbait, but at the stroke of noon, the Go Jin-yo channel vanished for real.
[Go Jin-yo deleted her channel.]
[Too bad. Could've sold a 200k sub channel for decent cash.]
It stirred brief commotion in communities,
but like a storm in a teacup, it fizzled out in days.
[Yo, you see Baeksu Daewang's channel? Nailed it this time lol]
[So addictive lol. Total chaos. Someone's gonna die at this rate?]
The internet world stayed the same as ever.
It didn't take long for people to forget her.
＊＊＊
“Phew, almost done packing.”
In the bright room, Go Jin-yo—no, Yoon Seo-ah—stretched her back after sealing a box.
She hadn't picked a new place yet, but she was organizing so she could leave anytime.
“Staying here just makes my chest feel empty.”
It had been her home, where she'd lived fine until now.
Why this sudden feeling?
Maybe she'd been possessed.
'Maybe that hallucination that changed my life was a ghost's whisper.'
No more voices now.
Had the ghost achieved its goal—saving her—and ascended after she did?
She chuckled at the absurd thought.
“No point clinging to the past anyway. Better to move.”
She'd made plenty from Go Jin-yo activities.
Enough to coast without work for a while.
Research showed her skills could land her white-hat hacker gigs with security firms for big money.
Corporate jobs were stabler, but freelancing let her rest when she wanted, so that's the path she'd take.
“Oh right! Gotta remove that too!”
Standing on a chair, she reached for the ceiling.
She peeled off a tiny camera, hard to spot unless up close.
“Expensive thing.”
Targeting high-rank Awakeners as she had,
she trusted her skills against trackers, but life was unpredictable.
Someone better might catch her.
“Time to delete the program too.”
So as insurance against such an attack, she'd filmed her room with this special camera—high-def video and audio.
Videos auto-saved to the cloud; unaccessed for 40+ days, they'd auto-send to the police.
“Wasted money buying it.”
Her shady deeds had made her paranoid enough to splurge on the black market.
Useless in the end, what a shame.
“The footage probably isn't much anyway. Just me in here.”
Wait.
Did it catch the hallucination?
If it really was a ghost whispering?
'Ghost-hunting shows record ghost voices!'
Might as well check.
But against her hopes, no ghost voice was recorded.
[Come on, hurry up? Camera's rolling.]
There was an unknown man tied to the chair.
And her own unfamiliar face filming him.
'A guy I've never seen.'
Why did he bother her so much?
She couldn't look away, drawn in.
Long video, but she could skip to motion or audio detections, so it didn't take ages.
“...”
She rewound and replayed.
Once more after it ended.
“...”
Again and again.
No matter how many times, she had zero memory of herself or the man.
Like her memory had been erased.
It felt like someone else's life, or a movie.
“Ah...”
But she didn't give up.
She didn't know why.
Her heart urged her to remember something vital.
On the tenth loop, the gaping emptiness in her chest began to fill.
[This isn't decades ago. Factory-born Heroes are a dime a dozen now. Those bitches dissing you for outdated reasons are the real dinosaurs.]
Impossible under normal circumstances.
[See? Works fine. Way better to earn real respect from real people than fake validation from trolls, right?]
But the first to accept her.
[Good job. I can't forgive the past since you haven't reflected, but you deserve praise for this.]
Guided her to the right path.
The warmth she'd never known.
Hope that came to her.
“...I don't want to forget.”
Her desire to reclaim them forged unyielding mental strength.
“I don't want to forget.”
She dragged out the hypnotically erased memories.
“I want to remember.”
The man and herself on screen felt familiar now.
What had seemed like someone else's story moments ago.
Became cherished memories filling the void in her heart.
Memories she never wanted to lose.
“Haha... I remember it all. I remember everything.”
Tears streamed down her cheeks.
Relief at reclaiming something precious.
Regret toward Yoo Jun-hyuk for erasing her memories.
“Why did you erase them...”
She didn't dwell on how he'd done it.
If he could make her hear voices and compel actions, this was probably child's play.
But why was obvious.
“No intention of telling anyone.”
A skill like that.
Especially a man having it—he wouldn't want it exposed.
Put the two together: perfect guinea pig, right?
But you know what?
Why would I ever do that?
Not after you treated me so preciously.
To me, you're irreplaceable.
“But... I can't just go find you, can I?”
If she showed up with memories erased, he might wipe them again.
After some thought, she found her answer.
“Wait, what if I go back to my original self?”
To erase her past pain, she'd bought a new identity.
Tanned to get stronger, dyed her hair, even inked her irises.
This look was all fake.
Ditch it, reclaim her true self.
'He might not recognize me.'
Not the false 'Yoon Seo-ah'.
Back to the real 'Lee Seo-yeon'.
Original identity, tanned skin, dyed hair, altered irises.
With enough money, easy to reverse.
“I'll reclaim my original self.”
So then.
“I'll start our meeting over.”
This time, properly.
“So I can get you back.”