Chapter 36
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 36
Chapter Title: Two Choices
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When the Hunters opened their eyes, they found themselves transported to the front of the waterfall valley.
Before them lay a heaping pile of yellow ore, moved there by the Parrot Poison Birds.
“Perfect timing. The ore has just been transported. From now on, you’ll be polishing and cutting that ore.”
“C-Cutting it?”
“That’s right. Cut it into this shape.”
Cheon Doun tossed a massive piece of ore into the air.
With each flick of his finger, the ore bounced in mid-air and began to be cut.
When the work was done, three long, rectangular stones, each about sixty centimeters long, fell with a thud.
“Wipe the ore clean. Cut it to this size and stack it up. All of the ore over there.”
Faced with the sudden task of cutting ore, the Hunters looked at each other.
They didn't know why he was making them do this, but it was just cutting stone. For A-rank Hunters like them, it was a piece of cake.
‘I was wondering what kind of difficult task he’d give us. This is nothing.’
‘We can finish this in no time.’
‘Let’s report this to the guild as soon as we get back. We’ll form a large-scale team and come back.’
The Hunters communicated with their eyes and nodded.
“Ah, right. I forgot this. Nam Giseok. Did you do what I asked?”
“Yes, boss! It’s all ready!”
At Cheon Doun’s call, Nam Giseok came running from a distance. In the bowl he held out were small, pill-like clumps of white powder.
“I’ll give you one of these every time you finish cutting an ore. Each of you, eat one.”
“What is that?”
“The Powder of Oblivion.”
For a moment, they couldn’t believe their ears.
The Powder of Oblivion, which could erase memories with a single inhalation. The pollen of a plant that grew in the cliff region.
They recoiled in horror as he offered it to them.
“E-Eat it? Just inhaling that stuff makes you lose your memory.”
“That’s right.”
“The minimum memory loss is three hours, isn’t it? And you want us to eat all of that…”
Was this what he meant by letting them go alive? They stared at the pills in the bowl.
“How much memory is lost if we eat one?”
“Well. It’s most effective when inhaled. Ingesting it isn’t as potent. One of those pills will probably erase about a month’s worth of memories.”
A month. A cheap price to pay for their lives.
The problem was the mountain of ore they had to cut.
For every piece they finished, they had to eat one Oblivion Pill.
Would they have any memories left to take back by the time they finished cutting all that ore? As the Hunters turned pale, Cheon Doun smiled.
“I’m not forcing you. I told you, I’d give you a choice.”
“Th-Then is there another option?”
“Yep. Either lose all your memories and go back, or hold out without eating and die when your time is up. As A-rank Hunters, you should be able to last at least ten days in the Demon World. Pick whichever you like.”
“What kind of choice is this?!”
“Don’t like it?”
“Of course not! Who would accept something like this?!”
“If you don’t like it, I’ll just kill you.”
The leisurely spoken words made the Hunters freeze. Cheon Doun looked around at them and said.
“Think carefully. This is your last chance to get back alive.”
“Why… Why are you doing this? What did we do that was so wrong?”
“For now, you haven’t done anything worth dying for. But you will when you get back.”
“What…?”
“You’re going to request backup and come back, aren’t you?”
The words hit their mark, but the Hunters shook their heads.
“N-No, we’re not.”
“Don’t lie. You’re planning to form a team and come back, right? Just stealing the Mandragoras from the garden would set you up for life. And while you’re at it, you could kill me to get revenge for your bruised egos. Am I wrong?”
“Absolutely not! We would never…!”
“Enough. Just choose. I’ll say it again, this is your last chance.”
His voice was relaxed. It was sincere. If they argued again, the choice itself would disappear.
Sensing this, the Hunters grew wan. They realized that no matter what they said, it was useless against someone who could see right through them.
“Looks like you have your answer. I’ll be watching from above. Nam Giseok, you supervise them here.”
“Yes, boss!”
With those words, Cheon Doun leaped up to the top of the waterfall.
With only Nam Giseok left, the Hunters’ eyes gleamed once more.
“Hey. You’re a Hunter too, right? Let’s make a deal.”
“A deal?”
“We’ll just pretend to eat, so turn a blind eye. When we get back, we’ll pay you whatever you ask. The three of us are A-rank Hunters. We have plenty of money saved up.”
“As a token of our promise, we’ll leave our Hunter IDs with you. How about it?”
The three took out their cards from their pockets. Seeing this, Nam Giseok also took out a card.
Why are you taking out your Hunter ID too? The Hunters, who had been thinking just that, widened their eyes.
“Th-That’s…!”
A black card that shimmered like an opal depending on the angle. A status symbol of the upper class they had only heard about. Nam Giseok held up his black card.
“Talking to me about payment. You got more money than me?”
Who knew that bringing his wallet along when he crossed the Gate would come in so handy? Nam Giseok grinned as he looked at the Hunters.
Any sense of pity for a fellow Hunter. Any sympathy that might have made him look the other way.
There wasn’t a shred of it.
“To think I’d get my revenge for what happened a year ago like this.”
“What? What are you talking about…”
“Don’t you remember? I remember your faces perfectly. You laughed at me at the promotion test site.”
The Hunters were bewildered. Having become A-rank Hunters at an incredible speed, looking down on others had become a natural part of their lives.
Laughing at someone at the promotion test site. There were too many possible instances for them to know what he was talking about.
“You don’t remember, huh? You called me a loser who doesn’t know when to quit. Said my pride fell out along with my hair, was it? You poured the coffee you were drinking on me in front of everyone, and now you’re clinging to me for help?”
“What are you… D-Don’t tell me, Nam Giseok? The one who took the test for six years…”
“Glad you finally recognized me. Everyone in this business knows what terrible personalities you have. This is perfect. There’s plenty of the Powder of Oblivion here. Eat up and let’s go for a personality reset.”
Nam Giseok tapped the pile of ore beside him and laughed.
Was this what they meant by meeting your enemy on a narrow bridge?
He never imagined he would meet these three here. Nor did he imagine he would get to vent his frustrations in such a way.
“I knew good things would happen if I stuck with you, boss.”
Today was truly a delightful day. Nam Giseok laughed heartily.
Their last thread of hope severed, the Hunters collapsed with devastated faces.
* * *
Cheon Doun arrived at the cliff by the waterfall where the siblings were sitting. The siblings, who had been watching the situation unfold, burst out laughing as soon as he arrived.
“So this is what you meant by giving them a choice? It’s hell no matter what they choose.”
To live, they had to cut the ore. And with every piece they cut, they had to erase a piece of their own memory.
In that dilemma, they would surely suffer through muddy regret and anguish.
“You said this was the method you used on an instructor at the institute, right? What happened back then?”
The siblings asked, their faces full of curiosity. It wasn’t a secret, so Cheon Doun began to recount the events of that time.
“You know I had a pollen allergy when I was young, right?”
“Of course. It was really bad.”
“After you two escaped, I was implanted with the cells of a certain plant. It wasn’t for Chimera ability development. It was an experiment conducted at the request of another company.”
A backroom deal with a pharmaceutical company.
At the time, it wasn't uncommon for legitimate companies to commission human experiments from illegal research institutes.
It had only been twenty years since the Gates opened.
It was a chaotic period when a world that had once collapsed was just beginning to get back on its feet.
Back then, when the line between legal and illegal was blurry, such things were common.
[About the latest request. The drug to improve allergic constitutions, right? Wouldn’t Number 17 be perfect for this experiment? He has a severe pollen allergy.]
The cells he was administered were from the white flower of the cliff region, the Flower of Oblivion.
[As planned, the cells for implantation have been modified. The memory-erasing ability has been removed.]
[So injecting these cells will only get rid of the allergy.]
[Yes. Let’s proceed.]
The researchers were confident, but the experiment ended in failure.
Cheon Doun’s constitution improved and his allergy disappeared, but it had no effect on the other test subjects.
And so, the research fizzled out and was covered up.
“Initially, I didn’t have the memory-erasing ability either. The cells they implanted had that ability removed. I could secrete a white powder from my body, but that was it.”
Powder poured from his skin if he willed it. The problem was that the powder had no abilities whatsoever.
It was no different from producing dandruff from his body.
“I was just planning to live while controlling the powder so it wouldn’t come out. But right around that time, there was an instructor who kept picking fights with me.”
Cheon Doun was a person of interest within the institute for various reasons. At some point, even the researchers and instructors began to cautiously avoid him.
There was one instructor who didn’t like that atmosphere.
[He’s just a brat. Just a test subject. They even carved an explosive spell on his body. We’re the ones holding the leash, so why is everyone tiptoeing around him?]
[Well, there were instructions from the institute director…]
[Whatever. Don’t give me advice on my training methods. I was scouted under that condition.]
A former C-rank Hunter, he had a strong sense of pride.
He was a man who would always say he would have been B-rank if not for his leg injury.
To him, this research institute, with its instructors who were D-rank Awakeners or lower, seemed ridiculous.
[Just watch. I’ll completely break that kid’s spirit within a month.]
[What are you planning to do?]
[I’m going to run him into the ground in the name of training. A few days of being worked to the bone, and he’ll be begging and crying. I’ll make him crawl like a dog.]
[Well, the previous instructor who tried that method…]
The researchers stopped talking. It wasn’t the first or second time an employee who acted like that had disappeared without a trace.
‘There goes another one.’
They could only click their tongues. From that day on, the instructor began to work Cheon Doun to the bone under the guise of training.
[This is a training method I’ve researched. It’s up to you to verify its effectiveness.]
[Is this training? Starving me and keeping me awake for over ten days?]
[It is training. They say a Chimera’s abilities can activate when placed in an extreme situation. We’re experimenting with that.]
[Experiment? You’re an instructor, not a researcher.]
[True. But there’s no law that says only researchers can experiment. Right?]
The instructor grinned. Hearing that, Cheon Doun grinned back.
Why are you smiling? A strange sense of foreboding sent a chill down the instructor’s spine. Cheon Doun repeated the instructor’s words and nodded.
[You’re right. There’s no law that says only researchers can experiment. I needed to do some experimenting myself.]
Cheon Doun smiled again, looking at the instructor. A good test subject was right in front of him.
Why are you smiling? Why are you the one smiling? The instructor resisted the urge to ask.
From that day, Cheon Doun’s experiment began.
He tried rubbing the Powder of Oblivion on the instructor’s clothes. He sprinkled it on his hair. He put it in his coffee cup.
He even picked the lock while he was sleeping and sprinkled it on his bed.
“It was a very beneficial time.”
At first, there was no change. Nevertheless, Cheon Doun didn’t stop his experiment.
One year. Two years. Three years. As the experiment continued, a slight anomaly began to occur.
“I guess you could call it a Monster’s regenerative power. The ability that was removed at the cellular level regenerated.”
The first unit of memory he erased was ten seconds. The lost memory returned quickly.
It was on the level of forgetfulness, but having confirmed that he could affect memory, Cheon Doun pushed his experiment even further.
Thirty seconds, one minute, one hour… The amount of time he could erase gradually increased, and it took ten years for the ability to fully activate.
“Ten years?”
“Yeah. It was an ability removed at the cell implantation stage. All things considered, the fact that it regenerated is a miracle.”
“So… that instructor ate and inhaled the Powder of Oblivion for ten years.”
Whether it was Cheon Doun, who tirelessly developed his ability for ten years, or the instructor, who endured being a test subject for ten years without even knowing it.
Both were incredible. The siblings looked confused, unsure of what to be more surprised about.
“So did that instructor lose all his memories?”
“Not completely. Back then, my power of oblivion was weak. He apparently thought he was suffering from a brain disease for ten years.”
[What did I do that was so wrong? Why did you torment me for ten years! You psycho, are you even human! Give me back my memories!]
The memory of the instructor screaming those words flashed through his mind.
The day he learned the truth, the instructor packed his bags and quit as if he were fleeing. Cheon Doun didn’t know what happened to him after that.
“You really… lived a dynamic life even after we left the institute.”
The siblings expressed a sort of admiration, then looked over Cheon Doun’s shoulder.
“Wait. Aren’t those the roots you’re raising?”
With his exceptional eyesight, Yu Beom spotted the small roots.
On the path that had naturally formed from Cheon Doun walking between his house and the waterfall, the Mandragoras were walking in a single file line.
-Hoo-oong.
-Hoong!
-Hoo-oong.
-Hoong!
Make way. We are coming. The Mandragoras, hooting rhythmically as if to shout just that, walked while looking left and right.
With their heads held high, they looked quite majestic.
“It’s time for them to be sleeping in the garden. What are they doing all the way out here?”
Mandragoras rarely strayed far from their habitat unless something was wrong.
Did something happen? Cheon Doun jumped down towards the Mandragoras.