Chapter 76
Chapter 76
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 76
Chapter Title: Two Eun Haons
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Meeting those deeply shaken dark eyes, Haon’s heart swelled with emotion.
‘Ah. Juyeol is seeing *me*.’
She smiled faintly, her eyes welling up with tears. A different kind of tear, unlike the sorrowful ones she’d shed before, trickled down.
She could tell just by the look in his eyes. He was seeing her, Eun Haon. Not the ‘Eun Haon’ he knew.
It finally felt like she wasn’t a stranger living as ‘Eun Haon,’ but existed wholly as herself, Eun Haon.
She wasn’t the ‘fake’ Halo had called her.
“So you’re saying you…”
He reached out, as if to say something, and gently wiped her wet cheek.
“Stop crying. Let me think.”
“……?”
She had no idea what his thinking had to do with her. As Haon looked up with a bewildered expression, Juyeol let out a faint smile.
“Another dimension? What an absurd story… How could you know about my father, something I’ve never told anyone…?”
Even as he muttered those words, his expression softened considerably, and the edge in his voice disappeared.
Juyeol tried to deny Haon’s words out of habit, but he could no longer shake his head. It was already irreversible.
Once he saw Haon as a completely different person from ‘Eun Haon,’ the box in his heart—the one he’d only pretended to lock to somehow contain his feelings—clicked open.
He felt a deep sense of relief at the fact that there were two Eun Haons in his world, and that they were not the same person.
The Haon before him wasn’t the mad scientist who had deceived him, hiding the fact that Halo was the arsonist who had burned down his home. There was another soul inside that body.
The thought that one of the problems that had tormented him relentlessly was completely gone made him feel like he could finally breathe.
Thinking back, none of her words or actions made sense for the ‘Eun Haon’ he knew.
‘You idiot. If I had just trusted her from the beginning, Haon and I…’
He cursed his own mistrust but soon stopped blaming himself. As long as Haon had ‘Eun Haon’s’ face, he never would have been able to believe her.
‘That’s why I thought she’d lost her memory and gone crazy.’
Then, a question suddenly occurred to Juyeol.
“Are there other dimensions besides the one you came from? Could there be more of you?”
“Of course. No one knows how many dimensions exist, so there’s no telling how many of me there are. New versions of you and me could be being created right now.”
Juyeol tilted his head and narrowed his eyes, as if he couldn’t imagine it.
“How does that make any sense?”
“Why not? Even the patterns of a thirteen-character password might seem infinite, but they aren’t. Because the characters themselves are finite. The arrangement of particles that make up the world is also finite, so the patterns of particles filling the universe are bound to repeat. Similar but different Earths are constantly being replicated. In other words, since the total energy in a finite space is finite—”
“I’m going to lose my mind.”
As Juyeol sighed, pressing a hand to his forehead, Haon quickly stopped talking.
“…Sorry. But I haven’t even really started. If you listen, you might find it interesting—”
“So, what you’re saying is.”
He quickly cut her off before her rambling could start again.
“‘Dr. Eun Haon’ is definitely dead, and you’re a completely different Eun Haon from her. Is that it?”
“Ye-yes. ‘Dr. Eun Haon’ was killed by Sniper’s bullet, and I came to this dimension because of an unforeseen accident.”
“What kind of accident makes you cross dimensions?”
He muttered in a daze, then suddenly remembered someone.
“What about that guy next to Halo who was using technology similar to yours?”
“I don’t know when or how he crossed over, but he’s an extremely dangerous terrorist. His Mana Engineering skills are probably not bad either.”
Juyeol was unsettled by the fact that a guy with such technology was sticking with Halo, but at the same time, he finally understood why they’d had so much trouble finding him.
They had been repeatedly outmaneuvered by technology that no one in this dimension, except for Haon, knew about.
“Can he make everything you can make?”
“Not really. I can make a lot more things, and much faster. This dimension is overly rich in mana, which creates a lot of variables, but I’m not worried.”
Her simple, matter-of-fact answer was even reassuring.
Juyeol recalled the pistol that had been modified in an instant. It was a sight easier to accept if he thought of it as magic.
“Is that why that guy was afraid of you?”
“That terrorist? Afraid of me? No way. He completely ignored me.”
Thinking about it again, Haon pouted, her pride wounded.
During the war, there were more people fighting against the terrorists than there were terrorists themselves.
She had told the terrorist that he wasn’t scary on his own, but he must have found it laughable and easy to face Haon by herself.
That must be why he attacked Juyeol, even though he clearly saw her standing guard.
“…Ignored?”
But Juyeol thought differently. Reading movements in the shadows was an incredibly easy task for him.
The man’s shoulders, which had flinched every time Haon extended a hand or a foot forward.
The tips of his toes, poised to flee at any moment, even as he stood firm by Halo’s side.
The faint glint in his eyes, never staying in one place.
That man was clearly afraid of this pint-sized girl, whose soft and listless demeanor was likely her true nature.
“How did this softy survive a war for several years…?”
Amazed, Juyeol, who had been excited about Haon’s true identity, remembered his other reason for being there. There was one more problem he wanted to solve as soon as possible.
“Actually, there’s one other reason I came here.”
“You came because of Halo, right?”
As if she had guessed, Haon led Juyeol down to the lab.
He looked around with fresh eyes at the lab, which had been remodeled to Haon’s tastes. It wasn’t that ‘Eun Haon’s’ tastes had changed; the person herself had changed.
Haon took him from where he was looking at the cluttered workbench and stood before the holographic map.
“Blue. Show me the map for tracking Halo.”
[Understood!]
Following her slender fingertips, the blue hologram swelled like a wave, displaying Gwonyoung City in 3D.
Juyeol gasped quietly at the amazing sight, then pointed to the areas colored red.
“What are these?”
“Those are places where Halo definitely isn’t. With Nova’s help, I’ve been eliminating the ‘not here’ spots.”
At the mention of Nova’s name, he openly showed his displeasure.
“So you were gladly helping Nova just because he said he’d catch Halo?”
“Well, our goals are similar. I’m looking for Halo, too.”
As Haon spun the city map in another direction, Juyeol expressed his confusion.
“I get Nova, but why are you looking for Halo…? Is it because of that terrorist?”
“That’s part of it, but there’s also something I need to find.”
Would the terrorist have simply gotten rid of ‘Eun Haon’s’ phone? Haon thought it was unlikely.
She herself had been intrigued by ‘Eun Haon’s’ research records on the Awakening Sphere.
The human experiments were horrifying, but it was truly surprising that someone with no knowledge of mana was conducting such accurate research on the Awakening Sphere.
“If ‘Eun Haon’s’ phone contains her research records, it might also have information about the human experiments. It’s the kind of research that would greatly interest the terrorist, so he must have backed it up.”
Since ‘Eun Haon’ knew nothing about mana, she had actually conducted some research from angles Haon herself hadn’t considered.
Perhaps the data on that phone could provide a major hint for creating a dimension gate, something she had never completed. She might also find other crimes ‘Eun Haon’ had been planning.
“Human experiments…”
Juyeol muttered coldly and pointed to a few spots on the map.
“Here and here. And this place, too, is definitely clear. Headquarters confirmed them.”
“Blue. Mark the places Juyeol just pointed to in red.”
[Applying changes to the map.]
“And I’m telling you this because I thought you might be able to find Halo’s whereabouts faster if you knew.”
“Yeah.”
Her eyes, clear and shining, were fixed on him, a stark contrast to how she’d been shortly after waking up.
*I’ll help you.* The words were conveyed through her gaze alone.
He shook off his hesitation and brought up the story of his younger brother.
From what had happened to his brother as a baby to the possibility that he might not have died ten years ago. Some of it was classified information from Headquarters, but this was not the time to be concerned about that.
Haon, who had been listening silently to Juyeol, nodded seriously.
“‘Eun Haon’ also conducted human experiments, so she might know something. If you tell me your brother’s subject number, I’ll look into it, too.”
“……”
Juyeol’s heart stirred at her readily affirmative words.
Headquarters was tracking Halo, but they weren’t investigating the human experiments his brother had endured. Right now, Haon was the only one he could trust.
Haon, not ‘Eun Haon.’ The Haon who had given him so much comfort and warmth, who had waited for him even when he turned his back.
Juyeol slowly reached out his arms and wrapped them around Haon’s back.
“Ju-Juyeol?”
“Just a moment.”
In his firm embrace, which held her tightly, Haon felt strangely shy.
It hadn’t felt like this when she had been the one to cling to his waist.
‘It’s a little hot in here. Is there a problem with the ventilation system?’