That Way Leads to Death!
After the heated meeting in his office came to an end, Kwon Suhyuk gathered his documents at once and headed out the door.
A place that could be controlled, that lay firmly within their sphere of influence, that was ideal for establishing quarantine protocols.
He moved briskly toward the Jineon Sect.
When the massive basement door opened, a familiar scene came into view.
Devotees in neat uniforms caring for people in distress, elderly and sick homeless people being saved by warm meals—this was a place where the powerless and the vulnerable gathered, and it was the last bastion Kwon Suhyuk had to protect.
One woman there carried out her duties in silence.
Kwon Suhyuk approached her.
“Hayeon, let me get straight to the point.”
“…”
Lee Hayeon was quietly feeding a meal to a homeless man whose arm had gone numb and awkward.
“The revelation has come to pass.”
The spoon in Lee Hayeon’s hand paused for a moment.
Then it moved again, dutifully completing its task.
“I see.”
Holding the bowl, Lee Hayeon turned to answer him.
“It may be only natural. It was the revelation He gave.”
“We need to move now. Is that possible?”
Lee Hayeon set the bowl down on the rolling tray.
“Of course. If it’s His word, I will stand with Him at any time.”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“This way, dayo!”
After finishing his early stream and spending some enjoyable time with his mother, Kim Juhwan once again began his fierce journey toward Eternals.
“I can see everything, dayo. Hahaha.”
With Kim Juhwan’s sudden skill combo, one enemy went down quickly, and with her team’s follow-up, another fell as well. If they could just put the last one down, victory was only one step away!
The moment everyone on the team turned bloodshot-eyed at the last enemy’s shrinking HP bar and chased after them—
“Come here and die, dayo! Once you die, everything gets easier, dayo!”
Ah, this perfect combo, this perfect setup. It’s a shame I couldn’t show it to my viewers.
Clicking her tongue, Kim Juhwan fired off her last skill.
“Die, dayo!”
The final skill hit the enemy, but the kill log did not count it properly.
Cold.
A chill crawled up the back of her neck and froze her train of thought in place.
Even if you brought in the top 98th percentile of mineral players, even if you brought in the 0.01 percent of Eternals players, they would all agree that the skill she’d just used had landed.
Then there was only one variable!
From the side brush beside the enemy she’d been chasing, a skill came flying in.
“Eek—no, I’m ruined, dayo! I didn’t see that, dayo!”
As expected, Kim Juhwan hadn’t seen everything. Hit by the enemy’s skill, she went down instantly.
Her teammates had already spent heavily in an earlier fight, so they couldn’t mount much of a counterattack and died soon after.
“We lost, dayo….”
Kim Juhwan was too afraid to press the leave button.
Her placement was eighth.
A disaster born of reckless kill greed.
-52.
“Waaah.”
All three earlier matches, where she’d barely held on and squeezed out +4, +27, and +15, were now pointless; they couldn’t make up for the points she’d just lost.
“This game is complete garbage, dayo…. It gives you a little when you win, then slashes you to pieces when you lose!”
Bang, bang, bang.
Kim Juhwan flopped onto her computer desk and pounded it wildly with one hand.
No matter how much her thin little hand hit it, with strength weaker than the average adult woman’s, the desk took no real damage at all.
Only her own hand hurt more.
“I’m never playing this damn game again, dayo.”
With that, she stood up, pulled the blanket over herself, and turned on her phone.
Then she searched her own nickname on the match history site.
It was like knowing the score of a game you’d already lost and still going in to check anyway....
Like not wanting to look at your ex-girlfriend’s Instagram, and yet your eyes keep drifting there.
Che…n Jong.
4389.
She was almost within reach of the master tier she had dreamed of.
The tier where she could mock the minerals and look down on the minerals was right there, just ahead....
“Sob….”
She’d barely managed to endure it, but even after three matches of suffering through it and clawing out +4, +27, and +15, it still hadn’t been enough to recover what she’d just dropped.
“This is totally trash-tier garbage, dayo.... You get a little when you win, and when you lose it just yanks everything away!”
Thunk thunk thunk.
Kim Juhwan lay across the computer desk, slapping at it with one hand in irritation.
But the desk remained utterly unscathed, because her dainty hand had nowhere near enough strength to do it any harm.
It only made her own hand hurt more.
“I’m never touching this stupid game again, dayo.”
And so she got up, pulled the blanket over her head, and turned on her phone.
Then she searched her own nickname on a stats-tracking site.
It was like going in to check even though you already knew the score that had gone with the points....
Like the way your eyes keep drifting to your ex’s Instagram even when you don’t want to look.
Chae…n Jong.
4389.
She was right at the doorstep of the master tier she’d once only dreamed about.
The tier where she could sneer at the minerals and laugh at the minerals was practically within arm’s reach....
“Waaah….”
She furiously closed the app after opening the standings page and went into YouTube instead.
One video she found while scrolling through Shorts caught her eye.
El Elade-si. Ella.
The character at the center of the short video screen.
The shark-toothed girl Kim Juhwan hated so much.
The enemies who had just killed her came back to mind.
Among them, there had definitely been a shark-toothed girl.
Normally it would have been just another annoying character she would have swiped past, but this video’s quality drew her in.
“Catch your breath....”
The character’s line came out low and steady.
Then she slipped through the inside of the three opponents’ formation, where they were all braced and ready.
What the hell is she doing? If she goes in like that, she’s absolutely going to get focused and die!
Cold sweat broke out in Kim Juhwan’s hand.
But on-screen, the character simply let the enemy’s key skill pass harmlessly through her in invulnerability.
No way, she dodged the ultimate with that? Just how sharp are her reflexes?
The shark-toothed girl’s teammates looked as though they were being dragged in by the teammate who’d gotten sucked in, forced to follow, but the setup had already been built into a perfect angle, so it was actually an advantage.
“She just destroys a team fight like that, dayo? That’s what a real character is, dayo?”
A hot feeling began to rise from somewhere deep in Kim Juhwan’s chest.
Could I do that too?
No, no, I’m pure-blooded. I can’t become some filthy melee dealer!
Then how do I beat that thing?
Kim Juhwan ran the simulation in her head.
First of all, I can’t use my skill on an invulnerability move....
She lowered the blanket she had pulled all the way up to her head and peered at the monitor again.
Just one more match?
Half under a spell, she started to sit down in her chair—then the smell stabbing into her nose snapped her back to her senses.
The rich scent of pork fat spread through the air, then mixed with something sour, creating a strangely enticing aroma.
Could that sour smell be kimchi?
Then came sound.
Tap, tap, tap.
A cheerful sizzling sound reached her ears, and a sweet, smoky fragrance drifted out with it.
Drawn by the smell and the sound, Kim Juhwan slowly walked toward her bedroom door.
Click.
When she opened it and looked into the kitchen, she saw her mother’s back as she prepared dinner, and even more scents washed over her.
“What’s this? Juhwan coming out so early?”
Her mother blew gently on a ladleful of kimchi stew before taking a sip.
“Since you’re here, at least taste it and tell me if it needs salt.”
The moment she put the broth from the cooled ladle into her mouth, the spicy but mellow flavor spread across her tongue, and the hot soup slid down her throat, warming her whole body.
“It’s delicious, dayo!”
“Is it? Then since you’re out early anyway, set the chopsticks out for me.”
A natural toss of household chores from her mother.
But Kim Juhwan was not such an easy opponent.
“Heh heh heh, I’ll do it if you give me a Vienna sausage too, dayo!”
Her mother glanced at Kim Juhwan, smiled, and lifted one with cooking chopsticks.
“You don’t even look at side dishes with vegetables in them, and now you want one? Here, open wide.”
“Ahhh.”
She bit into the slit Vienna sausage in one mouthful, and juices burst out.
The sausage’s sweet and salty aroma filled her mouth, and happiness began to rise inside her.
“Yay, this is it, dayo!”
She savored the bliss in her mouth for as long as she could while taking out the chopsticks one by one and lining them up neatly.
Ding-a-ling.
Clack.
After finishing the table setting, Kim Juhwan poked her head out and looked toward the front door.
“Oh, what’s this? I heard Dad come in, so I came out to see.”
Before even taking off his shoes, her father saw Kim Juhwan’s face peeking out and broke into a broad grin.
“Mm… smells like kimchi stew today, huh? And there’s Vienna sausage too, which Juhwan likes.”
He came over and patted her on the head.
“No wonder Juhwan came out here waiting.”
Her mother shot a glance at him while staying focused on the cooking.
“It’s almost ready. If you wash up and come out, the timing’ll be perfect.”
“Really? Then I’d better hurry and wash up.”
Her father tossed his briefcase onto the sofa, went into his room, and began peeling off his outer layers.
Kim Juhwan’s eyes fell on the bag sitting on the sofa.
Her mother was focused on cooking, too, so she quietly opened it.
What she saw inside was a pen, a diary, some red ginseng candy....
Hmm, nothing special.
Just as she was about to close the bag again, something pale green caught her eye in one corner.
She took it out; it was a lighter. But her father didn’t smoke, which made it strange.
On the side of the lighter, the words “Mega Karaoke” were written.
“Juhwan, what are you doing? If you’ve got nothing to do, could you help me serve the rice?”
“Got it, dayo!”
Without thinking much of it, Kim Juhwan put the lighter and the thing she’d taken out back inside, then shut the briefcase again.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The first and second floors of the building that housed the three-story commercial block in Mapo-gu.
The place Suhyuk had used as his election strategy office during campaign season had taken on a new role after the election ended.
A large table stood in the center, with eight chairs arranged in a circle around it.
“Nice, Truth Speaker-nim, please forgive me for the one who killed you.”
A man had a laptop open on the table and was playing the shark-toothed girl character.
Neatly dressed in uniform, he stared at the screen with an impish expression.
“Ahem. Sir, would that not count as blasphemy?”
An older man who was watching him play with clear disapproval coughed dryly and tried to stop him.
“Can’t be helped. If I kill all the other teams and only help Him, I don’t think even Truth Speaker-nim would mind.”
“Considering internet culture these days, I suppose the younger gentleman is right.”
Even the middle-aged man who had first voiced his dissatisfaction still looked displeased, but he fell silent.
Clack.
The door to the strategy room on the first floor opened, and Kwon Suhyuk and Lee Hayeon came in.
“Thank you all for gathering on such short notice.”
As Kwon Suhyuk thanked them while opening the door, a gray-haired elderly woman replied.
“Isn’t it the Truth Speaker’s revelation? It’s a signal that we should move first, no matter what else comes after.”
“Thank you to the representatives who came from each district. Then….”
Whirr.
With the sound of a beam projector coming to life, a screen descended from the ceiling.
“We will begin the first meeting on measures for the Truth Speaker’s revelation.”