Chapter 2
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: Hwang Yong-min
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An alley consumed by darkness.
*Pssh- tak!*
A group of guys cracked open their beers and started chugging.
"Hell yeah! To think we can legally drink beer now."
"Hey, not yet. There's still thirty minutes until the new year."
"Fucking hell! Seriously. How much longer do we have to hide in alleys like rats to drink?"
"You're the rat. Why're you lumping us in with you?"
"'Cause I'm pissed off. Aren't you guys pissed off?"
After chugging the contents in one go, Hwang Yong-min irritably threw his beer can.
"Yo, got a light?"
"Right here, Yong-min."
*Flick, flick-* Only after lighting his cigarette and taking a deep drag did the wrinkles on Hwang Yong-min's forehead smooth out.
"I don't get why those old geezers won't let us enjoy something this good."
"'Cause they're geezers, what else?"
"Heheheh."
Hwang Yong-min and his friends cackled, enjoying themselves.
But whenever they saw someone passing through the alley, they’d stop laughing and cast a cold glare.
As if to say, "Mind your own business and keep walking."
And a hundred out of a hundred times, the person would pretend not to see and hurry away.
It happened again just now.
"Khkh, hey. You see that? Scared shitless by my glare and ran off."
"What glare? Your eyes glow in the dark or something? It's so dark, they probably only saw the cherry of your cigarette."
"Hey, but wasn't that girl who just passed by pretty? Kinda had a Seo Ah-rin vibe."
"Seo Ah-rin? For real?"
"Ah, I just wanna bury my face in Seo Ah-rin and take a big sniff."
"Khahahaha, you crazy bastard."
"Khahahahahah!"
When Hwang Yong-min made a ridiculous face, his friends burst out laughing.
"Khkh, hey. If you like her, go get her number."
"She's a minor. You think she'll give it to me?"
"What're you scared of? We'll be adults in a bit."
True to his word, the year would change at midnight.
Their time as high school students was almost over.
"Once winter break is over, we finally graduate from that boring school."
"What are you gonna do after graduation?"
"I'm gonna ask my dad to buy me a motorcycle and look into delivery work. Heard you can make good money doing deliveries these days."
"Really? What about you, Tae-sik?"
"I'm planning to get a factory job with a dorm until I enlist. I can't fucking breathe at home with all the nagging."
Watching his friend exhale cigarette smoke with a sigh, Hwang Yong-min snickered.
"What about you, Yong-min?"
"Me? Didn't I tell you before? I'm gonna be a gangster."
"Huh? You were serious about that?"
"Wasn't that a joke?"
Hwang Yong-min scowled at his friends' surprised reactions.
"I was being serious, and you thought I was joking?"
"Of course. Who the hell dreams of being a gangster these days?"
"A gangster... aren't you scared? One wrong move and you could get a knife in the gut and die."
Despite his friends' concerns, Hwang Yong-min just scoffed.
"Fuck, you only live once. Just gonna live how I want and then check out."
"This bastard's got no brakes, for real."
"Khkhkhkh."
His friends snickered, but inwardly, they were all thinking the same thing.
'Crazy bastard.'
They were known troublemakers at school themselves, but they were nothing compared to Hwang Yong-min.
To his friends, Hwang Yong-min was just a complete bonehead.
'Yeah, you do you...'
'I'm cutting ties with this guy after graduation.'
'Fucking psycho...'
That was Hwang Yong-min—a person who made even friends he'd known since middle school want to keep their distance.
"By the way, Yong-min, what's gonna happen to that shuttle you bully when you graduate?"
"Which shuttle?"
"You know, that loser in our class."
"Ah, that orphan bastard?"
One corner of Hwang Yong-min's mouth curled up pleasantly.
"I'm not letting him go, even after graduation."
"Khkhkh, you're gonna keep using him even after we graduate?"
"Of course. He's my personal shuttle."
"Wow... fucking pathetic. He probably thinks his shuttle days are over after graduation."
"Who said it's over? I'm gonna play with him as long as I can."
"You're a real devil. Even Satan would call you boss, khkhkh."
The delinquents finished their beers as they joked around.
Then, a glance at a phone showed it was almost midnight.
"Yo, it's almost the new year."
"Oh, you're right."
"Wanna go see the bell ringing? There's an event right over there."
"Okay, okay. Let's go."
Hwang Yong-min and the delinquents headed toward Bosingak Pavilion to hear the New Year's Eve bell.
"Whoa, so many fucking people."
"It's like a swarm of ants."
"Look around for pretty girls."
While looking around and people-watching.
"Huh? Yong-min. Look over there."
A friend nudged his arm, pointing.
"Isn't that him? Your personal shuttle."
Hwang Yong-min's gaze turned to Ryu Min.
"Oh, you're right. My shuttle."
Seeing him outside of school, he felt an odd sense of familiarity.
"Did that loser come to watch the bell ringing too?"
"Probably came to pray that you won't bully him in the new year."
"Khkhkh, that's an impossible wish."
"That's what I'm saying, khuhuhu."
Hwang Yong-min, who had been laughing, started to approach Ryu Min but then stopped.
'Hm? That bastard...'
Ryu Min was just standing there blankly, as if lost in thought.
Yet, there was something different about his aura.
He didn't look like the usual slumped-shouldered shuttle he knew.
'What's this? There's something strangely different about him...'
Just then, the host shouted.
"The time has finally come! Let's all count down together!"
The crowd roared, counting down.
Hwang Yong-min and the delinquents joined in, eager for the new year to arrive.
'Bastard, I'll let you off today.'
He didn't particularly want to bully him on the first day of the new year, so he didn't get any closer.
"...3, 2, 1! The new year, 2022, has finally begun!"
"Waaaaaaah!"
A crucible of excitement.
In the midst of it all, Hwang Yong-min and his friends exchanged words with each other.
"Happy New Year!"
"Happy New Year!"
"We're finally adults! I hope everyone achieves what they want this ye—"
[Kikikik.]
Hwang Yong-min, about to offer a blessing, was cut short.
It was because of an unidentified voice that came out of nowhere.
[Kyohohoho. Your bewildered faces look just like monkeys in a cage.]
The voice, heard a second time, wiped the smiles from everyone's faces.
Hwang Yong-min was no different.
"This is a prank, right? Huh?"
At first, he dismissed it as a mischievous prank by a broadcasting company, but his thoughts changed when he saw an angel appear in the sky with a flash of light.
'Th-this is real. It's definitely not a prank.'
It was hard to believe his own eyes, but there was no other way to explain the floating angel.
Moreover.
*Splat-!*
When he saw the head of the young man who had spoken informally to the angel explode.
"Kyaaaaaaah!"
"Gasp!"
Hwang Yong-min's expression froze, just like the other citizens'.
'Fucking hell...! What the fuck is this shit on the first day of the new year!'
He had never witnessed a person die before in his life.
Especially not a death as intense as a head exploding like a firework.
Because of that, Hwang Yong-min couldn't even breathe properly in front of the angel.
He turned to look at his friends; they were the same.
'But...'
Hwang Yong-min's gaze turned to Ryu Min.
'Why is there no change in that shuttle bastard's expression?'
The Ryu Min he knew should have been scared or frozen like a statue.
But the Ryu Min before him, far from being scared, had a relaxed expression.
Even more so.
'Huh?'
He suddenly turned his head and met his eyes perfectly.
'How did that bastard know I was here...'
Not only that, but he even curled one corner of his lip.
As if mocking him.
'That bastard...!'
Hwang Yong-min's gut twisted at the shuttle's confident expression, something he had never seen at school, but that was all.
'Just you wait, you shuttle bastard.'
Now was not the time to express his anger.
Because he had realized he was caught in a hellish survival game where he had to survive for 20 rounds.
[Well then, since the explanation is more or less over, shall we begin? Kyohohoho.]
Finally, with the devilish angel's laughter behind him, Hwang Yong-min's vision went black.
***
'As expected, Hwang Yong-min was watching.'
In high school, Ryu Min had been a quiet kid.
He was an ordinary student who didn't particularly stand out.
'I thought if I just stayed quiet and didn't bother anyone, there wouldn't be any problems.'
But things didn't go as planned.
Just for sitting near Hwang Yong-min, Ryu Min was targeted.
Even though he hadn't done anything to get on his nerves or acted out of line.
'After that... well, I suffered every kind of bullying imaginable.'
Getting teased during every break was a given, and whenever he was bored, I'd be dragged to the mountain behind the school and beaten.
I was forced to be a bread shuttle, of course, and also made to buy him alcohol and cigarettes.
When I got caught by the convenience store owner and the police called my parents, I had to say with a bitter expression.
"-I... don't have parents."
When asked why, I had to reluctantly answer.
"-They passed away in a car accident when I was in middle school..."
At that point, the police officer, feeling sorry for me, would just tell me not to do it again and send me home.
'And then the bullying would start all over again.'
A vicious cycle.
There was nothing Ryu Min could do in the face of a predator.
He was subjected to all sorts of humiliation, to the point where he was afraid to go to school.
'But not anymore.'
After countless regressions and deaths, Ryu Min had become a completely different person.
The timid and weak version of himself was gone.
99 regressions had turned the once ordinary him into an extraordinary being.
Was that why?
He could remain calm even after seeing Hwang Yong-min, his tormentor.
'To be honest, I don't feel anything when I look at him.'
The reason was simple.
He had already gotten his revenge so many times throughout his regressions that he was sick of it.
'Was it from the 7th regression that I started getting revenge on him?'
Once he had gained some confidence in his strategies and become stronger, Ryu Min took his revenge on Hwang Yong-min.
He paid him back for everything he did.
He begged me to spare him, but I had become a demon of vengeance and killed him.
Not just once.
He killed him again and again with each regression.
Until all his pent-up resentment was gone.
'But after repeating that more than twenty times, it started to feel meaningless.'
He'd had his fill of revenge, so now, in his 100th regression, he felt nothing looking at Hwang Yong-min.
'There's no point in getting revenge again now. There's nothing to gain from it. If I'm going to kill him, I have to use him first and then kill him.'
He already had a plan in his head for how to use the guy.
But he had no intention of taking him to the final round.
'First, what I need to do now is...'
Ryu Min lifted his gaze.
He found himself standing alone in a completely empty, pure white space.
A moment later.
[Kyohohoho, I'm sure you're all wondering where you are, yes?]
The same demonic voice from before could be heard.
[You are now in a private space, invisible to one another. Before your souls can be transferred, you must construct a physical body. In terms of the games you humans enjoy, this is like creating an avatar.]
'A kind of customization.'
Most people would be bewildered by the word "avatar," but Ryu Min remained calm.
He had created an avatar dozens of times.
Soon, an avatar that looked exactly like him appeared in the white space.
The avatar moved like a mirror, mimicking his every move.
[From now on, you can adjust your face and body as you wish. You can also choose a nickname to use in the other dimension. It's just like the character creation process in a game, so it shouldn't be difficult.]
Since the ones abducted were teenagers and young adults familiar with games, there would be no problem with the process.
[This is a one-time opportunity, so you must all decide carefully. Well then, shall we start with the nickname?]
A moment later, a mechanical sound, completely different from the angel's voice, was heard.
[Please state the nickname you wish to register with the system within 30 seconds.]
[If you do not choose within the time limit, your real name will be registered automatically.]
'My nickname is...'
Ryu Min's lips moved without a hint of hesitation.