The Crossroads of Fate
Park Jeong-seok thinks.
‘What the hell did I do wrong.’
What kind of colossal mistake could I possibly have made?
‘……Why is this kind of misfortune finding me?’
Park Jeong-seok looked at his teammates—former teammates—writhing on the floor and replayed the events of the past few hours.
A few hours earlier.
That day, too, the Haemu Guild members finished their training and emerged from the gate.
“Good work, everyone.”
“Today was solid. All of you.”
“Keep this up and we’ll go for four straight wins~!”
At the time, the atmosphere had been fine.
Of course it had. Haemu Guild had won every single match since the second half of the season began.
Second in overall traffic rankings. The experts’ pick for the star of the second half.
They still hadn’t beaten Mir Guild, but that was because of Lee Shin—practically a force of nature. Excluding them, Haemu was effectively number one.
And at the center of all those victories stood this man.
“Jeong-seok, nice work again today. Your form keeps improving.”
“……Thank you.”
Second in second-half activity. Second in second-half assists.
Park Jeong-seok, the support-class super ace who had finally taken flight, was the protagonist of it all.
Once he became the face of the winning streak, the world around him changed.
The media’s blatant push was one thing.
Park Jeong-seok’s popularity among fans skyrocketed.
And that wasn’t all.
“How about a drink after work, Jeong-seok?”
“Senior, let’s grab a meal.”
“You had dinner plans with Aki tonight, right?”
The starting members finally acknowledged him as part of the team. They approached him first, and his relationship with Aki had even developed into something quite pleasant.
Beyond that, he now had a dedicated manager who could cook and give massages, and his residence had been upgraded from a mere “fifty-pyeong city-view villa” to a “hundred-pyeong ocean-view penthouse.”
Yet what unexpectedly pleased Park Jeong-seok more than any of these material changes was something else entirely.
“Here.”
“Yes.”
“Hand over the analysis report and clean up.”
“Y-yes, sir!”
When Park Jeong-seok tossed his armor onto the ground, the waiting staff member immediately stored it in a subspace pouch.
Looking closely, the face was familiar. It was the same analyst who had once glared at him and shouted “Again!”
Yes. It was petty.
It was nothing short of revenge, and Park Jeong-seok knew full well that what he was doing was despicable beyond words.
Still.
‘This industry is cold.’
Just as Han Jin-chol had said.
The moment Park Jeong-seok became an irreplaceable asset, his voice within the guild rose to heights he had never imagined.
Enough that even a mere front-desk employee no longer dared to speak to him casually.
In short, if it improved Park Jeong-seok’s mood, the guild was willing to pay a salary to a human emotional trash can.
Han Jin-chol had assigned this particular staff member to him precisely so he could feel the reality of his new status. It was both a trophy of his changed position and a question from Han Jin-chol.
— ‘A little guilt and the soul-scraping pain that comes with it. Swallowing a fistful of pills every day?’
— ‘So you hate it? Or do you like it? Feels good, doesn’t it? Makes you feel superior? Like you own the world? You can’t give that up, can you?’
Just as drug addicts with broken dopamine circuits become miserable without their fix, Park Jeong-seok had already become addicted to this sense of superiority.
Up to this point, Park Jeong-seok’s day had been quite good.
If he showered, had dinner with Aki at the reserved Japanese restaurant, and spent a pleasant night, it could have been the perfect day.
If only those words hadn’t been spoken……
“I’ve been feeling like something’s missing since earlier. The Guild Master isn’t here, is he?”
“Oh, you’re right.”
“He always managed to show up no matter how busy he was. What’s going on today?”
Ever since the results came out, Han Jin-chol had been visiting the training grounds every day with a beaming smile.
He always arrived with both hands full of snacks—so much so that the new recruits who joined during the breaking season had started calling him the “Snack Officer.” Yet today, he was nowhere to be seen.
“Hmm, maybe something happened…… Should we stop by the guild?”
“I’m in.”
“I was planning to swing by anyway. Let’s go.”
Normally, after training, the Haemu raid party would scatter to their own homes. But that day, as if possessed, they headed smoothly toward the guild.
And the moment the main building’s automatic doors opened—
They knew something was terribly wrong.
“……!!”
“W-what the—!”
Blood. Blood everywhere. Nothing but blood.
It wasn’t hard to find the owners of that blood. The hall floor was completely covered, bodies strewn so thickly that the ground itself was invisible.
“M-monster.”
“Help me…… it hurts.”
“Shit……”
The sight was so shocking that it paralyzed their sense of reality. Even the raid party stood speechless for a long time.
But the reason Park Jeong-seok was shocked was different.
‘That’s—?!’
Black mana writhing like insects across the bodies of the fallen. The same repulsive, parasitic form of mana that now lived inside Park Jeong-seok’s own body.
In that instant, Park Jeong-seok realized that today’s incident was connected to him in some way.
And instinctively, he searched for the culprit.
“You’re the Haemu raid party, correct?”
At the top of the central staircase sat an old man wiping blood from his scythe with a gentle smile—Yu Cheol-ong.
“I see you’ve finished training. Good work.”
“Who the hell are you? Why are you doing this in our guild?”
“Hmm. For your own sakes, it would be better if I didn’t tell you.”
“……Are you joking?”
“No. I’m being quite sincere.”
Yu Cheol-ong spoke.
He lived in the shadows, behind the world. Hearing his name brought no good, and meeting him usually meant being entangled in something unpleasant.
Just like today.
“……This incident is the same. You young people with bright futures, playing under the sun of the league—getting involved would bring you nothing but harm.”
“If you don’t understand what’s happening and feel confused, simply turn around and leave. Also……”
Even if you’ve noticed something and suspect you’re involved, it’s still better to walk away.
Yu Cheol-ong’s gaze slowly turned toward Park Jeong-seok.
The moment their eyes met, Park Jeong-seok flinched as if his innermost thoughts had been exposed.
He squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head.
At that exact moment—
Clang——!!
A collision?!
He whipped his head around to see Aki leaping from the shadows and clashing with Yu Cheol-ong.
“Oh dear…… So the young lady is on this side?”
“I’m not just going to stand by and watch!”
Aki’s urgent cry.
At the sound, the others exchanged glances, then several of them shot forward like arrows. Among them were the raid captain and several members of Team 1.
Park Jeong-seok stood frozen, unsure what to do.
Then Aki’s voice reached him.
“Park Jeong-seok! Why aren’t you moving?!”
It was a simple question, but it felt like a warning: if this gets exposed, you won’t be safe either.
In that moment, Park Jeong-seok saw the line of fate laid before him.
If he stopped before crossing it, his car, his house, the drug-like sense of superiority—everything would surely collapse like a sandcastle.
But if he crossed that line and joined them, he might preserve his glory—at the cost of no longer being human.
What is your choice?
At the crossroads of fate, Park Jeong-seok chose—
‘I can’t.’
He stepped backward.
It wasn’t some grand reason like conscience. He simply couldn’t bring himself to bet his entire life on a single choice.
And then, from the other side, a voice.
“Good choice.”
“!!”
Life is truly ironic.
Who could have known that that single retreating step would turn out to be the best choice in Park Jeong-seok’s twisted life?
Papapapapak!!
People surged from every direction. Projectiles flew.
The charging hunters collapsed one after another.
Embedded in each of their bodies was the same thing—a small, bullet-shaped syringe.
Beastmen with raised hackles descended and bound the hunters. Then a man descended the second-floor stairs.
Even in the middle of that filthy, reeking battlefield, he alone shone with noble brilliance.
“Well done, everyone. Time to clean up.”
Lee Shin.
He declared the situation over.
Click!
“……!!”
The sound of sealing cuffs being fastened onto the hands of the crawling people snapped Park Jeong-seok back to reality.
The raid captain, Aki, and every member of the raid party who had charged forward had their mana sealed. Now it was his turn.
A sealing cuff lay before him. Park Jeong-seok looked up at the person offering it.
“Put it on yourself.”
Lee Shin sighed as he watched Park Jeong-seok stare at the cuff, then sat down beside him and lit a cigarette.
Without a word, Park Jeong-seok accepted the cigarette and crouched down next to him, lighting it.
“……”
“……”
No conversation passed between them.
Lee Shin didn’t blame him. Park Jeong-seok offered no excuses.
They simply…… smoked.
The cigarette smoke drifting into the air—perhaps it was Park Jeong-seok’s regret, or perhaps a fate whose destination no one could predict.
It scattered, utterly meaningless.
“I’m going.”
“……”
Park Jeong-seok, who had been silent, forced his mouth open.
“……Thank you.”
Lee Shin paused for a moment.
“Cooperate honestly with the investigation. And don’t get involved with them again.”
With that final piece of advice, Lee Shin returned to the scene.
‘This wasn’t how I wanted it to go.’
Just as one cannot grasp scattered smoke, regret always comes too late.
Park Jeong-seok only learned that lesson after paying for it with his career.
* * *
Lee Shin stepped outside and finally let out the words he had been holding back.
“……What a damn idiot.”
He could have lived comfortably without envy if he had only been moderately greedy. Instead, he threw away his entire career chasing something beyond his means.
Lee Shin, the embodiment of self-objectivity, had never understood that kind of emotion in his life. So he brushed it off immediately.
He was already busy enough looking after his own people. Worrying about someone he couldn’t understand wasn’t his style.
When he returned to the scene—
Yu Cheol-ong was embracing an elderly police officer.
Truthfully, the current situation was extremely delicate.
Even though it was a little outside downtown Busan, the area still had a fair number of people. A large-scale disturbance had broken out here—something that resembled war. While there were no deaths, the number of injured was enough to fill an entire emergency ward.
Yet no police had appeared at such an incident.
Why? Incompetence? Or because, like some wuxia novel’s “no interference in Awakener affairs,” it was considered an internal matter of Awakeners?
Not at all.
It was all because of this one man.
“Oh my, if it isn’t my big brother. How long has it been? You never stray far from the Chairman!”
“Haha, we saw each other at your grandson’s wedding.”
“You just dropped off the congratulatory money and left. What’s with the car key in the envelope? Trying to make me feel guilty?”
“You little punk.”
The police cap bore three Taegeuk and Mugunghwa emblems—the rank of the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency Commissioner, who stood above every other officer in the city.
The reason Lee Do Group was feared was not only its unfathomable wealth, but also the people it had planted throughout every corner of society.
Especially Busan—Yu Cheol-ong’s hometown, the right-hand man of Lee Do Group.
They hadn’t stationed the troublemaker Lee Shin in Busan for nothing. There was nowhere in Busan where Yu Cheol-ong’s word didn’t carry weight.
“Brother, you’ve got to tell me now. I’d love to just let this slide, but you know this isn’t something we can just ignore, right?”
“Sigh. Sorry. It got too big.”
“Apologies won’t cut it. Give me something to work with. I only stood by because you asked, but I need something to tell the guys waiting over there.”
“Fair enough. You’ve got your own face to save.”
“Exactly.”
As the Commissioner said, it had grown too large.
There were too many witnesses. Dozens of reports had already come in.
Other things might be overlooked due to lack of concrete evidence, but if the hostages spoke up, the situation would spiral out of control.
So now was the time. This was when Lee Shin had to step in!
“Nice to meet you. I’m Lee Shin, representative of Mir Guild.”
“Oh? My, what an important guest.”
“You’ve arrived, Young Master.”
“You can speak with me. I asked the Chairman to lend a hand.”
This incident had to be handled with extreme caution.
Normally, matters of the underworld were handled by the police. Villain incidents also fell under their jurisdiction.
The police had their own Awakeners—powerful forces on par with hunters. Arresting low-level villains wasn’t difficult for them.
But the problem with this incident was that the villain was part of a global organization, and that organization was deeply connected to a guild.
“If we’re not careful, the Korean League itself could be shaken. As the representative of a guild, I couldn’t ignore the possibility of that worst-case scenario.”
This was why Lee Shin had struggled alone, twisting and turning every possible angle, and why he had refused to drag the guild into it.
If handled sloppily, they wouldn’t resolve the situation—they would only get dragged into something unpredictable.
“So the person who will clean this up should be arriving soon.”
“Someone to clean it up?”
“Just a moment. The call said they’d be here soon…… Ah, there they are.”
Lee Shin pointed at the sky.
Three or four helicopters were rapidly approaching from the distance.
The helicopters crossed the sky above the scene at high speed before disappearing again.
A moment later, a group of people using fly magic descended, robes fluttering, and landed at the scene.
Then—
A figure pushed through the crowd and flipped back their robe.
“Greetings. Guild War Korea Bureau. First Department Chief of the League. Kim Mi-young.”
Department Chief Kim Mi-young.
She had arrived. His sponsor.