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I Alone Level-Up
Only I Level Up • Solo Leveling • 나 혼자만 레벨업

10 years ago, after “the Gate” that connected the real world with
the monster world opened, some of the ordinary, everyday people
received the power to hunt monsters within the Gate. They are
known as “Hunters”. However, not all Hunters are powerful. My name
is Sung Jin-Woo, an E-rank Hunter. I’m someone who has to risk his
life in the lowliest of dungeons, the “World’s Weakest”. Having no
skills whatsoever to display, I barely earned the required money by
fighting in low-leveled dungeons… at least until I found a hidden
dungeon with the hardest difficulty within the D-rank dungeons! In
the end, as I was accepting death, I suddenly received a strange
power, a quest log that only I could see, a secret to leveling up that
only I know about! If I trained in accordance with my quests and
hunted monsters, my level would rise. Changing from the weakest
Hunter to the strongest S-rank Hunter!

Author(s): Chugong, 추공
Artist(s):
Year: 0
Country: Korea
Genres: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Shounen
Tags: Accelerated Growth, Adapted to Manhwa, Adventurers,
Appearance Changes, Betrayal, Character Growth, Determined
Protagonist, Dungeons, Game Elements, Gate to Another World,
Grinding, Hard-Working Protagonist, Hiding True Abilities, Kuudere,
Level System, Male Protagonist, Modern Day, Near-Death Experience,
Necromancer, Personality Changes, Weak to Strong
Source: WEBNOVEL

ASIANOVEL VERSION: 3.9

PDF VERSION: 1.4

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UUID: 7a2bb500-9732-11e9-b3cf-91f949f02f24
USER: Young.Aruu
DATE CREATED: 2019-06-25
LANGUAGE: English

More info and chapters:

https://www.asianovel.com/series/i-alone-level-up

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Chapter 8 Fin.
Source: WEBNOVEL

Jin-Woo was surprised by the weighty voice coming from the corner
of the hospital room, and hurriedly turned his head to look.

"I apologise if we took you by surprise."

"Unfortunately, we are unable to wait any longer."

Two men kitted out in black business suits approached Jin-Woo's

bed. The youth tilted his head and asked them.

"Who.... are you?"

He had never seen these two's faces before.

One of them with the close-cropped hair like a soldier and wearing
a pair of sunglasses presented him with a business card.

"This is who we are."

Jin-Woo received the business card and read what was written on
it.

'Woo Jin-Cheol, the section chief of the Monitoring Division,

the Korean Hunter's Association?'

The Monitoring Division was the only department in the Hunter's

Association with many strong Hunters in their payroll. Well, since this
department was tasked with managing the country's Hunters so,
quite obviously, they would employ many high-class Hunters to
facilitate that purpose.

"What does the Monitoring Division want from me?"

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Woo Jin-Cheol dragged a chair closer to the bed and sat down. The
other man, who must've been his subordinate, stood behind him.

The unspoken pressure emanating from the two buff guys staring
down in close vicinity was quite heavy. The story they conveyed was
rather surprising, though.

"I was unconscious for four days?!"

"By any chance, do you remember what happened before

you blacked out?"

"Yes, I do."

"Please tell us everything you can remember."

Jin-Woo told them everything truthfully, minus the strange

hallucinatory words he heard before he lost his consciousness.

"And that's when you lost your consciousness... Is that all?"

"Yes. I open my eyes next, and I'm in a hospital."

Woo Jin-Cheol and his lackey exchanged meaningful glances. For

some reason, they seemed to be troubled by Jin-Woo's lack of
knowledge.

Actually, Jin-Woo was the one who wanted to find out what
happened the most in this room.

"Just how did I get to this hospital? Did a large Guild

participate and kill those d*mn things?"

"Well, actually...."

Woo Jin-Cheol awkwardly opened his mouth.

"By the time the agents of the Monitoring Division and the
White Tiger Guild arrived at the scene after being briefed by

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the survivors...."

The White Tiger Guild was a super-massive Guild and also one of
the top five in the country. The Association had recognised the
danger, hence they requested the aid of such a huge Guild as the
White Tiger Guild in the first place.

Just what did happen back there?

Jin-Woo nervously swallowed a dry spit.

"By the time....?"

"....Everything was 'gone'. The only thing to be found

within that open space was you, Mister Seong Jin-Woo. There
was not one trace of the god statue nor the stone statues."

"Come again?!"

Jin-Woo displayed a shocked, disbelieving face.

"It's hard for us to believe it as well. If there had been any

inconsistencies in the testimonies of the survivors, or if we
had failed to find the remains of the victims in the chamber,
we might have suspected something fishy was going on."

Woo Jin-Cheol scratched his chin.

It'd been six years since he got ranked as an 'A' and started
working for the Monitoring Division. He could confidently say that he
had witnessed and experienced pretty much everything during his
tenure. However, this kind of situation was a first even for him.

He had asked other Guilds as well as the Associations in other

countries, but the end result was nothing worthy to speak about.

That was why...

"So, this is what we've been thinking...."

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Woo Jin-Cheol carefully opened his mouth.

"There were powerful creatures in that chamber, without a

doubt. But, they were taken care of by an unknown group, or
an unknown person. Because, no otherworldly beings
escaped from the Gate before it was closed, you see."

They had to consider all the possibilities. Even if the odds were
low, they had to confirm them all. The head honchos of the
Association deliberated, and then deliberated for some more, and
finally came up with a theory.

Woo Jin-Cheol carefully studied Jin-Woo's reactions as he continued

on.

"We… suspect that Hunter Seong Jin-Woo-nim might have

gone through another Awakening."

Another Awakening!

Jin-Woo's eyes shot open wide.

Although extremely rare, there had been instances of a human

who had awakened his or her abilities as a Hunter going through yet
another Awakening.

Often referred to as 'Re-Awakening', those who undergo this

process would normally become extremely powerful compared to
before.

Originally, once a Hunter's rank was assigned at the beginning, it

rarely changed. A Hunter's abilities were determined the moment
one went through an Awakening, that was why.

However, it was a different story for those going through the Re-
Awakening process.

Jumping past their own limitations to rise up from, say, rank C to A,

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or even from B to S, such things had happened before.

Woo Jin-Cheol nervously swallowed his saliva.

'Seong Jin-Woo.... If he went through a Re-Awakening and

became a rank S, no, maybe even exceeding that, then it's
possible for him to kill those monsters all by himself.'

The god statue was said to have melted rank C Hunters with
nothing but its eyes, according to the survivors.

If one were able to kill such a creature even while unconscious, just
how powerful one could possibly be?

To prepare for this unlikeliest possibility, Woo Jin-Cheol labelled

this incident as 'top secret' and made sure everyone involved would
keep their mouths shut.

This was also the reason why Seong Jin-Woo found himself in a
hospital room all alone, as well as being looked after by some of the
finest medical practitioners in the nation.

Woo Jin-Cheol's chest began beating real fast.

'Could Korea finally have a Hunter on the level of an

international powerhouse....?'

There were less than ten people in the entire world that could truly
be described as a global powerhouse. But, what if Korea were to
possess a powerhouse that were said to rival a nuclear warhead in
terms of pure firepower?

Of course, confirming the truth of the Re-Awakening wasn't difficult

at all. Didn't the wise elders once say to make hay while the sun still
shines?

Woo Jin-Cheol signalled to his lackey.

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"Bring it here."

Then, the lackey went to the corner of the room and began
rummaging through a briefcase placed there.

"That is...?"

Before Jin-Woo could finish his question, Woo Jin-Cheol explained

first.

"It's the device to measure your magic energy."

He added that, although this device had been miniaturised, its

efficiency or accuracy did not fall short of the actual full-size
measuring device located in the Hunter's Association.

"All you have to do is to place your hand on this magic

crystal over here."

On top of a circular plate, there was a fist-sized magic crystal

embedded in the middle. Its colour was pitch-black, as if it was a
black hole that wanted to suck him in!

It was one of the highest quality magic crystals that cost as much
as a billion won, not to mention that could only be found in monsters
ranked A or higher. (TL: Almost $900,000)

When Jin-Woo stared at the magic crystal without saying anything,

Woo Jin-Cheol formed a dignified, serious expression and spoke up.

"This is a necessary step during our investigation, so

please, cooperate with us."

Jin-Woo nodded his head.

If he indeed had undergone a Re-Awakening, then his life would do

a 180 in an instant. And they were going to test it out for him for
free, so who was he to refuse?

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Jin-Woo placed his hand on top of the black crystal and soon
enough, warm rays of light oozed out from it.

Cold sweat drops formed on the foreheads of Woo Jin-Cheol and his
lackey.

*SFX for a beam of light dissipating*

Not too long after then, the light surrounding the crystal
dissipated.

Woo Jin-Cheol hurriedly took off his sunglasses and confirmed the

numbers.

Right away, a small earthquake rocked Woo Jin-Cheol's eyes.

"How can this be?!"

He rechecked the numbers, but it remained the same.

'How can....'

How could a person holding a Hunter licence possess the magic

energy value of only 10?!

When considering the fact that the lowest average value for rank E
– the bottom rank – was around 70 to 100, Seong Jin-Woo was no
different from a regular person.

"Is it really a Re-Awakening? If it is, what could be my new

rank now?"

Jin-Woo's hands were soaked in the sweat of anticipation.

Seeing the suspicious reactions of the two Monitoring Division

agents, the result must've been somewhat beyond their
expectations.

Meanwhile, Woo Jin-Cheol was comparing the existing data on Jin-

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Woo with the new measurement.

'His first measurement returned the value of 12. Four years

later, it's 10. It has decreased by 2, but it is within the
margin of error.'

In other words, the magic energy measuring device was working

fine. Instead, it was Seong Jin-Woo's magic energy that happened to
be just illogically, nonsensically low.

It was a miracle that he had survived until now.

Woo Jin-Cheol rapidly realised that being here was a waste of time,
so he got up from his seat.

"Let's go."

"Yes, sir."

Woo Jin-Cheol and his lackey quickly packed up to leave.

"Uhm, excuse me. Can you tell me what is...."

Just as Jin-Woo was about to ask, Woo Jin-Cheol bowed his head
slightly.

"Thank you for your cooperation. If you remember anything

else, please give us a call anytime."

As if their rear ends were on fire, two men-in-black rapidly left the
room as soon as they put away the device.

The hospital room that felt rather small suddenly became quiet and
lonely.

"..."

Jin-Woo scratched the back of his neck.

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'I guess that was a no, then.'

Well, if he thought about it, besides him feeling refreshed, there

didn't seem to be any change to him at all. Even if he did go through
a Re-Awakening, it'd still be difficult for him to kill all those statue
b*stards, anyways.

'Maybe, you might have a chance against them if you were

either the ultimate weapon, Hunter Choi Jong-In, or the rank
SS Hunter Goh Gun-Hui.'

Of course, him speculating like this was meaningless, since he had

never seen them in action before. There was always a thick veil of
secrecy draped over the Hunters ranked S.

They were more like clouds in the sky to him, actually.

He thought up to here and inadvertently raised his head up. And

that's when he saw 'it'.

'Huh?!'

He looked up without thinking, and then, saw 'words' floating in the

air.

[You have several unread messages.]

***

".....?"

He closed his eyes and opened them again.

[You have several unread messages.]

The words remained floating up there without a single change. He

shook his head hard a few times and even rubbed his eyes, but they
were still there.

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Jin-Woo massaged his aching forehead and lowered his head.

'It hadn't been a long time since I started hearing weird

things, but now, I'm even seeing them, too....'

Could something in his head really be broken?

There was a condition called PTSD, after all. People who

experienced a huge accident or a traumatic event usually suffered
from this condition.

It was only a few days ago since he witnessed the deaths of many
of his comrades, not to mention he himself nearly died as well, so it
would not be so strange to hear or see weird things as a possible side
effect.

'However....'

However, there were a couple of things that prevented him from

dismissing this out of hand.

Jin-Woo's sight lowered to his leg – the leg that got cut in half by
the shield of the stone statue was now all fine and dandy.

The voice he heard out of the blue inside the underground temple
hidden within the depths of the dual dungeon; his completely-cured
(?) leg; and now, those words floating in front of his eyes.

Too many weird things were happening all at once.

'What if....?'

There was a chance that all these things were not isolated events
but linked to one another. When his thoughts arrived here, his aching
head felt just a bit clearer.

'Okay, fine.'

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Jin-Woo slowly raised his head.

Once the confusion in his heart died down and he felt calmer, he
became quite curious about the contents of those so-called unread
messages. There might be answers to his questions found within
those messages, after all.

In order to confirm the messages, he reached out towards the

words.

And his hand simply went past them.

'It's not touch-operated?'

It seemed that he got way too used to how a smartphone worked.

He couldn't think of any other way to access the messages other
than tapping on the 'icon', though.

While he was deliberating on the means to access the messages,

he recalled the memories from the moments before he blacked out.

"Right. That happened."

Back then, he could only get his intentions across to that unknown
voice by 'talking' to it.

'Just like back then, I should either form the words in my

head or speak it out loud.'

Thinking that this must be the case, Jin-Woo then began to mutter
the potential combination of words one by one.

"Confirm."

"Messages."

"Confirm messages."

"Check messages."

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"Reading."

"I want to read."

"I want to look."

"Hey, show me already, will ya?!"

It was then.

".....Just what is it that you wish to see that bad?"

He felt a cold, probing stare coming from the side, so he turned his
head to look. And, spotted his little sister in her school uniform
looking at him from the gap of the half-open door.

"Uhm....."

Jin-Woo became speechless.

Her oppa, busy glaring at the ceiling while demanding someone to

show something to him – he simply didn't know how to explain this
one to her.

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Chapter 251 Fin.

Source: WEBNOVEL

Side Story 8

Ding, dong. Ding, dong….

From the elementary school kids who'd find the embrace of their
mothers more comfortable than their respective classrooms, right up
to those teachers with greying hair and only a little bit left on their
clock until retirement...

….The sound of the end-of-school bell, capable of re-energising

pretty much everyone who heard it, rang around noisily throughout
the school.

Most of the kids in the classroom formed expressions of ecstasy as

if they were about to fly away. Meanwhile, Jin-Woo, sitting among
them, carried a carefree face as he greeted the end to his school day
in this place.

"Everyone, don't go home late because you want to hang

out with new friends you made today, okay! Understand?"

Yeees-!

After the token replies, half consisting of mischievous voices of the

male students and the other half high-pitched tones of the girls were
made, the classroom became empty in no time at all now that the
day's schedule had come to its end.

Jin-Woo deliberately took his time packing up his bag, before he

spotted Young-Gil hesitantly and slowly approaching him like a full-
bellied tortoise.

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'….?'

Jin-Woo stopped packing his bag when Young-Gil cautiously asked

him a question.

"Uhm... I'm heading off in the direction of the 'Gigamart',

but what about you?"

'Ah, I guess he wants to get close to me.'

An easy-to-read relaxed smile formed on Jin-Woo's face.

'A minor favour shown when young can also become the
start of a relationship later on like this, huh?'

Jin-Woo smiled for a little while, before shaking his head.

"Well, yeah, it's in the same direction, but there's

something I gotta do first."

"Oh...."

As Young-Gil stood there in disappointment, Jin-Woo lightly tapped

the boy on the shoulder and grinned brightly.

"Let's go."

Not too long afterwards, both of them exited from the school
building.

"What? Track and field club??"

Young-Gil asked with a surprised voice, while Jin-Woo nodded

calmly as his reply.

"Yup."

The reason why Jin-Woo chose this school, far from his home,
instead of those nearby was because it was only this particular one

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that happened to have a track and field athletics department.

Young-Gil could only tilt his head when Jin-Woo replied that he'd
join the track and field team from today.

'Was Jin-Woo good at track in the past?'

He remembered hanging around Jin-Woo for only about a month or

so. The memories of him playing that game really well were the only
thing that came to the boy's head, but he just couldn't recall Jin-Woo
doing anything particularly outstanding during physical training or
club activities.

No, Young-Gil simply remembered Jin-Woo doing pretty much

everything at his pace – which was leisurely.

'A high school track and field club should be operated by

only the talented students, though....?'

The boy suddenly felt worried about Jin-Woo and found himself
unconsciously chasing after his friend. Meanwhile, Jin-Woo crossed
the athletics field and approached the group of athletes loosening
themselves up in the corner of the field.

"Mm...?"

Their attention soon shifted towards the incoming duo of freshmen.

They initially expected the two to walk past them or change their
heading, but their expectation turned out to be off the mark. The
senior with the biggest physique took a step forward and 'greeted'
the duo.

"What do you two want now?"

Jin-Woo briefly scanned the atmosphere of the team members and

replied with a smile.

"I'd like to join the athletics club."

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The senior with big physique, the captain of the track and field
team Choi Tae-Woong, alternated his gaze between Jin-Woo and a
shorter kid with a rather unhealthy complexion.

"You wanna join the club?"

"Yes."

"Both of you?"

Jin-Woo looked behind, and Young-Gil hurriedly shook his head.

"...No, just me."

After seeing Jin-Woo's continuously-smiling mug, the seniors grew

interested and gathered around the freshmen.

"Ohh, what's this? We have an applicant wanting to join

us?"

"This is my first time seeing a freshman barging in here

and wanting to join the team, though."

"He's not playing around, is he?"

Choi Tae-Woong scratched the top of his head and scanned Jin-
Woo from top to bottom before asking another question.

"You a student-athlete?"

"No, I'm not."

"Okay, you have experience running track in middle

school?"

Although Jin-Woo was rather experienced in running all over the

gap between dimensions to kill Sovereigns, that wasn't something he
could refer to as his middle school days, or running track
competitively, so he could only shake his head with a wry smile.

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"No, I don't."

The seniors in the athletics club were ready to welcome this

enthusiastic newcomer right up until that answer. But now, their
complexions were hardening drastically.

A freshman who hadn't even run track competitively wanted to

enter the athletics club comprised only of student-athletes?

Wasn't this kid taking high school track & field way too lightly?

One of the seniors blessed with a short fuse suddenly jumped into
the conversation from the side.

"You haven't run track before, so why do you want to enter

the team?"

Jin-Woo's reply was rather simple.

"There's someone I'd like to meet during the athletic meet,

you see."

She was still in the middle school division, but without a doubt, she
possessed enough talent to participate in the regional competition.

Well, she used to be an excellent athlete before she had to give up

on that dream after becoming a high-ranked Hunter, didn't she?

If it was an athletic meet featuring participants from both middle

and high schools, then wouldn't he be able to naturally run into her
there?

Jin-Woo judged that, rather than forcibly get close to her and insert
himself into her life that way, this might be a far better approach for
both of them.

However, judging from the expressions of the seniors, it seemed

that they didn't share his thought process.

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"Athletic meet....??"

The expression of the senior with the short fuse, Jeong Gu-Shik,
hardened like stone. Even if one was to look down on running track,
there was a line one shouldn't cross.

Jeong Gu-Shik's anger shot up to the top of his head and he was
about to roar out some choice words to chase away the freshmen,
but then, captain Choi Tae-Woong formed a grin and gave his
permission.

"Fine."

Jeong Gu-Shik looked back at his captain with an expression of a

man failing to comprehend the situation.

"What?!"

"However, there is a condition."

Choi Tae-Woong used an expression that said 'Be quiet' to defeat

Jeong Gu-Shik, and pointed at a glasses-wearing student busy
stretching his muscles over yonder.

"You see that friend over there?"

Jin-Woo followed after the pointing finger and nodded his head.

"Yes."

"That friend is the worst runner in our team, a reserve from

the second year. Meaning, you gotta at least beat that friend
to earn the right to enter our team."

That was a bold-faced lie.

Even before he heard the explanation, Jin-Woo had already

analysed that particular second-year student's abilities, and as a
result, he began chuckling inwardly.

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'At first glance, that student's thighs and calves look lean
and thin, but they are actually hard and well trained. And
confidence simply oozes from the rest of his body....'

Spying from the student's steady, relaxed breathing or his upright

posture, Jin-Woo knew immediately that he was looking at no
ordinary athlete here.

Meaning, the third year seniors were trying to make fun of him.
How could Jin-Woo not laugh when their intentions were so easy to
read like this?

Jeong Gu-Shik also belatedly realised what Choi Tae-Woong was

trying to do and quickly changed his expression.

"Ahh, right! You said that you're aiming to enter the

athletic meet, right? Well, in that case, a simple little
admittance test like this is no problem for you, right?"

Jin-Woo didn't like the way this guy was grinning slyly like that, but
still, asked back in a calm manner nonetheless.

"That senior…. Is he really a reserve?"

"I guarantee it."

Choi Tae-Woong replied in a confident voice, and the rest of the

athletic team members had to try their best to hold back their
laughter.

'He's a reserve, alright. Well, the truth is, he did finish third
place in last year's regional meet, but he sprained his ankle
during winter training so he's been demoted to a reserve
spot, for the time being.'

If he were to get technical here, then Choi Tae-Woong wasn't

really, really lying by saying that the glasses-wearing guy was the
worst 'runner' here due to the lengthy unscheduled lay-off, and that

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he was in the reserve spot because of the injury.

Jin-Woo then replied in an easy-going manner to captain Choi Tae-

Woong and his insidious smile.

"Very well, I understand. Let me try."

This b*stard, he fell for it!!

Not just Jeong Gu-Shik, but everyone in the athletics club shouted
out "Hooray!" in their heads.

'A guy who can't even recognise the third-place finisher

from the regionals last year wants to join the track and field
team? Gimme a break.'

Choi Tae-Woong, standing in front of the group to deal with Jin-

Woo, did his utmost best to hide his laughter threatening to break
through his lips.

"Very good. However, just running the track like that

wouldn't be any fun, so…. How about this? If you win, you get
to join the team, but if you lose, you do the team's laundry
and cleaning for one month, free of charge."

"Sounds good."

"J-Jin-Woo...."

Young-Gil tried to stop him, but Jin-Woo simply formed a smile that
said: "It's fine."

'Let's see how long you can keep that relaxed face of
yours.'

Choi Tae-Woong looked towards the 'reserve' student and shouted

out loudly.

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"Hey, Sahng-In-ah! Looks like you'll have to take to the
track for this one."

The ace of the team, Woo Sahng-In finished his stretching exercise
and raised his body up.

"It's not a problem."

He took off his glasses and entrusted it to another member of the

club, suspiciously ominous aura shooting out from his eyes. Jin-Woo
held the senior's fierce gaze while handing over his school bag and
his jacket to Young-Gil next to him.

While the members of the track and field club were thinking that
here was a chance to let a freshman taste the bitterness of life, Jin-
Woo was deeply pondering inwardly just how seriously he should run
so that the sheer mental shock his seniors no doubt feel wouldn't be
as high.

"Hey, freshman, are you ready?"

"Yes, I am."

"Sahng-In, what about you?"

"I'm ready."

Jin-Woo and Woo Sahng-Min stood side by side on the starting line.

The former assumed a posture that best optimised one's ability to

rapidly change directions and enter a battle at any time, while the
latter assumed a posture solely designed for track competition.

This time, the team members didn't bother to hide their ridiculing
laughter at Jin-Woo's weird posture.

"What the hell is up with this idiot?"

"And he still wants to join the athletics club? But, isn't he a

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d*mn beginner who doesn't even know anything about
running track?"

Jin-Woo didn't pay any attention to their mocking words and

controlled his breathing.

"Ready?"

Soon, Choi Tae-Woong's baritone voice signalling the start could be

heard.

"Start!"

"Teacher-nim? How are you feeling now?"

"Ah.... yes, well...."

'Venomous Snake' Teacher Park Gi-Sool replied half-heartedly at

his colleague's question after they ran into each other on the
corridor, and with hurried steps, he quickly walked past the confused-
looking fellow teacher.

Park Gi-Sool's crumpled expression easily spoke of his current

mood.

'I ended up making a fool of myself in front of all the

gathered students today....'

He definitely must have made a mistake. Without a doubt, his

strange hallucination was the fault of not eating a proper breakfast
earlier today.

It felt as if every student was laughing at his expense. He quickly

evaded their gazes and slipped into the teacher's lounge, before
spitting out a sigh rushing out from the deepest part of his chest.

"Fuu-woo...."

'Should I smoke to take the edge off?'

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Since almost every teacher was a smoker, smoking in the lounge
was permitted, which meant that this place was like a safe haven for
the current Park Gi-Sool.

He stuffed a cigarette between his lips and stood next to the

windows while lighting it up. Just as he mindlessly shifted his gaze
down to the athletics field.....

….His eyes grew extra large and he hurriedly lowered himself

below the windows while spinning around.

'W-what the hell?! Why is that kid running around the track
with the rest of the athletics club members??'

It was then, the director of the track and field team entered the
lounge and discovered crouching Park Gi-Sool.

"Ah, Park Teacher-nim!"

Wondering if the dizzy spell from the morning had come back
again, the director hurriedly ran over to Park Gi-Sool and helped him
up.

"Are you alright? You sure you don't need to stop by at a

hospital?"

"I, I'm fine, thank you. Just feeling a bit dizzy, that's all...."

Park Gi-Sool made an evasive answer before asking back.

"B-by the way…. Why is the student named Seong Jin-Woo

running together with the kids from the athletics team?"

"Ahhh…. That? So, that student's name is Seong Jin-Woo?"

The director took a look outside the window over Park Gi-Sool's
shoulder and formed a wry chuckle as if he still couldn't believe it.

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"It seems that a freshman just showed up and said that he
wanted to join the team. Kids tested him out, and as it
turned out, he has a talent, so they just couldn't chase him
away. Apparently, what they are doing now is to test his
stamina."

"H-his stamina, you say??"

"Yes. That's his 20th lap already. Just watching him going
around is exhausting, so I quit first and came up here."

Sports, and sports clubs.

There was no better alternative to get rid of one's overflowing hot-

bloodedness of youth than sports.

Several thoughts crisscrossed within Teacher Park Gi-Sool's mind,

then. Student Seong Jin-Woo, the one he pre-judged to be a
troublemaker, seemed to be trying his best to discipline himself by
joining a sports club.

'It's possible that…. That I have been holding the wrong

idea about him....'

Now that he thought about it closely, there was simply no way that
a boy walking around with monsters would exist in reality.

Student Seong Jin-Woo was just another exceedingly normal

learner still searching for a place to call home within the fields of
academia and sports, after a lengthy spell of aimlessly wandering
around in his life.

But here was a teacher busy going on about seeing monsters and
phantoms and whatnot from a regular student like that…. The
reputation of the 'Venomous Snake' had been thoroughly stained
with this matter, indeed.

Park Gi-Sool chuckled meekly, stopped hiding, and stood back up.

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'That's right…. I should look at him without judging him
first. I'm sure that will help resolve all the misunderstanding.'

Seeing Park Gi-Sool form a serious expression before breaking into

a chuckle, the director looked at him with a concerned face.

"Park Teacher-nim....?"

"Ah, no. It's fine now. I don't feel dizzy anymore."

"Oh... In that case, that's a relief."

Park Gi-Sool successfully made the director withdraw and slowly

turned around to look behind him. He could now see a boy, covered
in sweat and running diligently around the track while being
showered by the bright, warm spring sunlight.

How could anyone point fingers at such a boy?

He focused his gaze on Jin-Woo, currently running steadily and

unflustered even after lapping the panting and breathless members
of the track and field team several times already.

'Indeed, this morning was....'

Too bad, even before he could celebrate himself...

….Without any warning whatsoever, Park Gi-Sool's entire field of

vision was dyed in black and the spectacular sight of the Shadow
Army stretching on endlessly entered his eyes.

He nearly toppled over from fright, but he forced his legs to steady
himself and gritted his teeth.

'This, this is a hallucination. This isn't real!!'

It was then.

A certain ant monster standing in the front-most row of the soldiers

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kitted out in black armour, gazed straight at him and opened its maw
wide.

[Khak!!]

"U-uwaahk?!"

In the end, Teacher Park Go-Sool did fall on his butt and lost
consciousness.

[….]

Within the subspace in Jin-Woo's shadow, Igrit watched Beru's

action and used his elbow to rib the former ant king in the side.

[I told you to stop that, didn't I?]

[Kiieehh…. That human can really see us, can't he?]

Beru lightly scratched the side of his head and before his liege
could order him to, planted his head firmly on the ground first.

Late at night.

Detective Woo Jin-Cheol and the youngest detective in the squad

stopped by a diner that served 'gopchang'.

Once enough alcohol entered their bloodstreams, stories they

found hard to talk about during the day came out – mostly from the
youngest's mouth, actually.

"Excuse me, Senior Woo....?"

"Mm?"

"You've been investigating that missing prisoner case until

now, yes?"

What was this guy trying to say here?

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Woo Jin-Cheol tipped his glass filled with booze, his head beginning
to develop an ache already.

Unfortunately, completely oblivious of his senior's wishes, the

youngest detective continued with his questioning time.

"That day... you really did see something, didn't you?"

"What day?"

Woo Jin-Cheol played dumb deliberately, but the youngest simply

grinned and replied.

"Eii, senior, you... You already know, don't you? I'm talking
about that day when the suspect went missing. Didn't you
really see something that day?"

This kid, he had this habit of catching people off-guard when they
least expected it.

'Well, that's a good talent to have as a detective.'

Woo Jin-Cheol recalled his own newbie days and formed a slight
chuckle as he replied.

"What if I did?"

"Really?"

The youngest looked to be adequately drunk until then, but his

eyes suddenly began sparkling and his ears even physically perked
up. That wasn't so surprising, considering that the youngest was
closer in age to being a student than a full-fledged member of
society, anyway.

That was probably why he applied to the Violent Crimes

Investigation Unit of the National Police Agency, reputed to be the
worst paid but with the highest amount of workload.

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Maybe the power of the booze circulating in him was to blame, or
maybe, he just wanted to use this opportunity to get some stuff off
his chest – Woo Jin-Cheol began speaking of things that he'd never
even think about uttering in normal times.

"An ant…. Ant monsters."

Gulp.

The noise of saliva sliding down the throat of the youngest

detective could be heard from where he was sitting.

"Even I can't tell for sure what I saw back then. In any case,
those things looked like ants."

"Ant monsters, is it? Are you saying that giant insects like
ants came out?"

"No, not that. Well, they were ants, but...."

It was right then.

Just as Woo Jin-Cheol spoke up to there, a certain man unsteadily

tottering about, as if he had one too many to drink, stopped walking
past the duo and addressed them.

"T-those ant monsters, are they monsters with the heads of

ants, but bodies that look like humans??"

The heads of the two detectives, Woo Jin-Cheol and his junior,
raised up towards the owner of the voice.

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Chapter 252 Fin.

Source: WEBNOVEL

Side Story 9

Didn't someone say that the ground would harden after the rain
had fallen?

Now normally, people would grow much closer when they made up
after a big fight. But then, the bond between young boys created
through sweat and drive to succeed was far hotter and stickier then
any old saying could intimate.

"One, two! One, two!"

As the early dawn's fog thickly covered the school's athletics field,
every member of the track team was energetically roaring out their
rallying cries.

"Hey, Jin-Woo! How about it? Isn't this doable?"

Before anyone had noticed it, Jin-Woo was now permitted to run
alongside the captain of the team, Choi Tae-Woong. The former
replied in a refreshing manner.

"Yes, it is doable!"

"Very goooood! One, two! One, two!"

Choi Tae-Woong raised his speed just a bit higher and shouted out.

"Our goal is to conquer the whole country!"

"Our goal is to.....??"

The members almost subconsciously chanted after their captain's

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words, but they quickly caught onto the fact that their warcry had
changed and began questioning their leader.

"Hey, captain! I thought our goal was the overall win in the
regionals?"

"Uh-huh!! You're aiming far too low in front of our new ace!
Again! Our goal is to conquer the whole country!"

"Conquer the whole country!!"

"The whole country!!!"

Glance.

The captain glanced at Woo Sahng-In, currently running behind

him.

"Hey, Sahng-In-ah, are you crying right now?"

"N-no, captain!"

"Don't give up yet, ace of the second year! Although the

ace of the team has changed, how can we conquer the nation
without your aid?!"

"I... I shall do my best, captain!!"

"Very goooood-!! Conquer the whole country!!"

"The whole country!! The country!"

"Conquer the country! The whole country!!"

While the members of the team lapped around the athletics field,
positively buzzing with a heightened fighting spirit, only Oh Young-
Gil's complexion was turning blue amongst all the runners present.
The poor kid ended up following after Jin-Woo and inadvertently
entered the team as well.

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"Pant, paaant, paaant...."

Jin-Woo, running out in front, heard Young-Gil's heavy, rough

breathing and tutted inwardly.

He wanted to improve the boy's rather feeble constitution, so he

said yes to the idea of one-plus-one admittance to the athletics club,
but this….

….It was only a matter of time before someone keeled over at the
rate things were going.

But then again, it'd not be an easy task to let Young-Gil escape in
this atmosphere when the fighting spirit of the seniors had reached a
brand new height that they had never seen before.

Left with no choice, Jin-Woo loaded just a little bit of Mana and sent
it behind him. Like dandelion seeds being carried in the wind, the
lump of Mana gently floated in the air and entered Young-Gil's nose
and mouth.

".....??"

The effects of Jin-Woo's Mana were an immediate stamina

recovery, as well as a temporary boost to one's muscular endurance,
reaction times, flexibility, and to one's rate of stamina recovery,
etc….

Basically, it was a comprehensive buff gift set, filled with his desire
to help out a friend.

Since it was a gift set straight from the Shadow Sovereign who
reigned over in another world as basically a god, the effects of the
buffs were rather incredible.

"Eh? Uh? Uhhh????"

Young-Gil's eyes opened wider and wider as soon as he inhaled the

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comprehensive buff set.

'Wha-what's going on?! My body, it... It's getting hotter?!'

Thick veins rose up on the boy's legs as they powerfully kicked the
ground away.

Paht, paht, paht!!

One by one, seniors running ahead of Young-Gil were left behind,

and then....

"Ohh, ohh!!"

Then, Young-Gil's solo sprint began in earnest.

'N-no, hang on a minute...?'

Choi Tae-Woong was instantly impressed by Young-Gil who

managed to shoot past ahead of everyone. The captain loudly
shouted out in excitement.

"Look at our newbie's fighting spirit burning up like that!

How can us folks calling ourselves his seniors remain
lukewarm when things are like this??"

"No, we can't!!"

"Definitely not!"

"We chase after the newbie with everything we've got!

Let's go!"

"Let's do it!"

"Let's go!!"

Jin-Woo was inwardly worried whether he had given Young-Gil too

much energy or not, but that only lasted for a brief moment.

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The bright flames of the athletics team swept across the track
today, as well.

While performing his duties of guiding incoming students from next

to the school's gate, 'Venomous Snake' Teacher Park Gi-Sool was
keeping tabs on the track and field team diligently going through
their morning training regime at a distance.

Contrary to his initial worries, it seemed that Student Seong Jin-

Woo was getting used to the life in the track team without any
problems whatsoever.

Heck, the headmaster even thanked Park Gi-Sool out of nowhere,

too.

The only thing Park Gi-Sool had done so far was to watch Student
Seong Jin-Woo until he fell or lost consciousness. He became so
embarrassed that he'd rather become a potted plant that the
headmaster was watering at that moment.

That happened earlier in the morning.

Park Gi-Sool tasted this bitterness deep within his core whenever
he thought about the headmaster's high expectation of him versus
his own pathetic situation where he couldn't even look Student Seong
Jin-Woo straight in the eye.

And that was why... Because of his circumstances, he ended up

getting p*ss drunk and unloaded all the useless stuff off his chest to
a couple of people he'd never even seen before in his entire life.

'Now why did I have to go and do something like that....?'

Just from recalling that night's events, Park Gi-Sool felt like tearing
out all of his hair.

A few days ago, in a certain diner he stopped by out of sheer

frustration….

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"T-those ant monsters, are they monsters with the heads of
ants, but bodies that look like humans??"

With their conversation being interrupted rather rudely like this,

the two men shifted their curious gazes at the same time towards
Park Gi-Sool, and that helped the school teacher to sober up real fast.

"Ah…. What on Earth am I saying... I'm very sorry. Looks

like I must be really drunk. Both of you, please don't mind me
and carry on."

Park Gi-Sool politely bowed his head and turned around to head
back to his own spot, but then, Woo Jin-Cheol actually called out and
stopped him in his tracks.

"Excuse me."

The school teacher turned his alcohol-reddened face behind him

and saw that Woo Jin-Cheol had gotten up from his seat to pull a
chair closer to his own table.

"That tale of the ant monster…. Can you tell me more about
it?"

Just where would anyone be able to safely tell the story of a

teacher seeing strange things when looking at a student?

After being admitted to a mental hospital? Now, which parents

would entrust their kids to a teacher who frequented the mental
health institution's hallways?

Park Gi-Sool had been silently suffering all by himself, unable to tell
a soul what he saw, but now that he was given a chance, he came
completely clean as teardrops formed at the corners of his eyes.

"You see, I am someone who teaches his students with his

charisma. Charisma, you know? So, where can I possibly go
and speak of these things?"

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Still, he felt a bit more refreshed, a load off his shoulders, now that
he got to say the things he wanted to say. With that, he was given
enough leeway to take a gander at his surroundings.

Even though what he said sounded like a lame joke, the two
detectives next to him were listening to his tale with serious
expressions on their faces. It was at this point that Park Gi-Sool grew
quite curious as to what these people's story might be.

"By the way…. Why were two police detectives like

yourselves discussing stuff like monsters in a place like this
diner?"

Woo Jin-Cheol exchanged glances with the junior detective before

explaining their circumstances – minus the bit about him actually
witnessing the real monsters, of course.

"....And so, the brass ordered us to look into this matter,

but well, it's really difficult to even find a single clue, you
see. Right now, I wouldn't mind grasping at straws if that will
help us."

Woo Jin-Cheol pulled out his business card and handed it over to
Park Gi-Sool as he continued on.

"That's why, I'd like to stop by at the school sometime later

on, but will that be fine with you?"

"Ahh, of course. Of course, we must help with the police's

investigation. You can come and visit us at any time."

And so, the booze-shared diner experience came to a rather

friendly end in that manner, but now...

Some time had passed since then, and after thinking about it for a
little while, Park Gi-Sool couldn't help but wonder if he had
unnecessarily made the situation even worse than what it was.

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'How can a student have anything to do with the case of
missing suspects...?'

Especially a boy who was wholeheartedly focusing on the club

activities since early dawn?

Fearful that he might see another weird thing again, Park Gi-Sool
couldn't stare for too long in Jin-Woo's direction, so he could only
afford to sneak quick glances at the boy, instead. Eventually, he
shook his head in resignation.

Then, he spoke to another teacher manning the school gate

alongside him.

"Teacher Yun, my apologies, but I had a bit too much to

drink last night and my innards are...."

"Ahaha, come on now, Park Teacher-nim. No need to

apologise for that. Please, go back inside and take a break.
I'll cover for you and keep an eye out here."

"Mm, thank you."

Before he went away, Park Gi-Sool took another quick glance at Jin-
Woo and slunk off into the school building.

Only then did Jin-Woo shift his gaze towards the departing teacher,
even though he hadn't shown any signs of noticing the glances right
up until then.

'…..'

Recently, a teacher was staring at him in a rather open manner. He

couldn't just gloss over what was happening here. From inside the
darkness of his shadow, Grand-Marshal Bellion's quiet voice entered
his ears.

[My liege…. Wouldn't it be better to erase that human's

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memories and take away his abilities?]

Back when he returned home from the gap between dimensions,

after ending the war – as Jin-Woo stepped onto the ground of his
home, feeling rightly emotional about his return, a proxy of the
Rulers showed up and left behind some advice of sorts.

He said that, even if it was only a tiny bit of the Sovereign's

powers, it'd end up causing a humongous change to this world. And
that was why Jin-Woo had been avoiding interfering directly unless it
was something utterly necessary.

'For now…. Let's just observe him for a little while longer.'

[I understand, my liege.]

Jin-Woo wordlessly stared at the entrance Teacher Park Gi-Sool had

disappeared to, before turning around to leave himself.

The members of the athletics club who were heading off to the club
room before him were waving their hands towards him.

Woo Jin-Cheol found himself hesitating several times in front of the

school gate.

It had been a week already since he was gifted an unthinkable

piece of a lead in a gopchang diner. Starting from then, right up until
now, all sorts of thoughts crisscrossed in his head.

He could have treated that testimony as a crazed teacher rambling

on about some incoherent nonsense. However, every now and then,
a link would suddenly be established between two seemingly
unrelated cases and that would lead to an untangling of a dark web
that seemed impossible to unravel initially.

'The suspects that encountered monsters, and the

monsters of a student that only one teacher can see....'

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Woo Jin-Cheol found a vague link between these two disparate
incidents. This was from the instincts of a detective, something that
couldn't be explained by logic.

However, there was a problem – there was a massive hurdle to

overcome here. If there was indeed a link, then what should he say
exactly to the student in question?

He couldn't just bet everything on that drunken teacher's words

and start questioning this student named Seong Jin-Woo about
monsters and stuff, now could he?

As for asking a question in a roundabout way, the nature of the

question itself was too broad for that, too.

No matter how hard he practised it in his head, he just couldn't

picture the interview going down well at all. Woo Jin-Cheol pored at
the memo pad containing detailed records of the investigation so far
and spat out a long, long sigh.

'It'd be a miracle not to be labelled as a madman while

asking around these sorts of questions....'

At the end of a long, long dilemma, Woo Jin-Cheol turned around to

leave. He might come back later after thinking up another pretext,
but for now, it didn't seem like the time was right.

And so, as Woo Jin-Cheol took steps to get out of there, he lowered
his gaze to the ground without thinking much about his actions.

Shuk.

If it wasn't him, famed even among the fellow detectives for

possessing a pretty keen pair of eyes, but someone else not as
sharp, they would have missed a faint movement on the ground.

Without a shred of doubt, he noticed a blob of shadow move from

the shade of a tree towards the school's wall.

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He definitely saw it.

Goosebumps broke out all over his body and he hurriedly spun his
head back towards the school.

'There is... there is definitely something here!!'

Woo Jin-Cheol's determination firmed up, then. He no longer cared

if people pointed at him, calling him insane.

As long as he could find out the reason for this sense of loss that
continued to plague him every now and then; as long as he could find
out the exact cause why he felt his mind relax for a little while after
encountering those ant monsters, then he'd not hesitate to pay any
price.

With a hardened expression, Woo Jin-Cheol began walking towards

the grounds of this high school.

At the same time.

Jin-Woo was spinning a pen with his fingers as he listened to the

droning sounds of the geography lesson while the heads of many
kids were dozing off all around him.

'Did he see the sentry I posted there?'

As expected of Woo Jin-Cheol, the former President of the Hunter's

Association. He should no longer have any memory of his previous
life, yet his sharp eyes must've remained intact.

Jin-Woo closed his eyes and recalled the very last image he had of
Woo Jin-Cheol.

The image of him tearing up when Jin-Woo revealed his plans of

waging war against the Sovereigns all by himself remained vividly
etched in his brain.

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Back when the late President Goh Gun-Hui died, the voice
requesting for revenge also remained, unforgotten, in Jin-Woo's mind,
as well.

Was that why?

Even though this 'visit' would prove to be rather troublesome in his

efforts to maintain his current lifestyle of pretending to be a normal
person, the smile etched on Jin-Woo's lips didn't want to leave him all
that easily.

Soon enough, the knocking on the classroom's door resounded out,

followed by the surprised voice of the geography teacher.

"A d-detective?"

"It's not a big issue, actually. It's just that, I have some
questions to ask a student named Seong Jin-Woo."

Ohhh-!!

At the announcement that a detective had shown up, kids let out
gasps of amazement and shifted their gazes to Jin-Woo.

The thing that was coming had come.

Jin-Woo's eyes remained closed throughout, but then, with that

grin getting deeper, they opened calmly again.

At that moment, Woo Jin-Cheol was entering the classroom's door

and his gaze met with a certain student's. Even though the
geography teacher didn't specifically point the boy out, the seasoned
detective knew that student was Seong Jin-Woo with just one look.

Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump….

Woo Jin-Cheol's heart began pounding away, as if it wanted to

explode.

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Chapter 253 Fin.

Source: WEBNOVEL

Side Story 10

Woo Jin-Cheol led Jin-Woo to the end of the school corridor. He only
stopped walking once they got to a distance far away from the
classroom where their conversation wouldn't be overheard by
someone else.

Jin-Woo, quietly following behind the detective, also came to a stop

as a result. He sneaked a glance towards the classroom.

For some reason, this sense of distance he felt by being a student

that was looking into the classroom from the outside seemed rather
large.

Perhaps Woo Jin-Cheol was conscious of that too, because the first
thing he did was to apologise to Jin-Woo who was still looking back at
the class.

"Sorry about dragging you out in the middle of class like

this."

"No, it's fine."

Jin-Woo held back the words of 'I wanted to escape from there
anyway because it was so boring', in consideration of the teacher
doing his best to teach the classroom full of kids.

Rather than say anything, Jin-Woo looked up at Woo Jin-Cheol,

instead.

The detective was young.

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Since Jin-Woo had changed his physique to match that of a high
school freshman, Woo Jin-Cheol was now actually a good head taller
than he was, with much broader shoulders, as well.

'A guy who looked like he'd give a gangster a run for his
money was actually working as a detective.'

A smile abruptly bloomed on his face after seeing a friend's face in

what felt like aeons.

It had been years – no, decades actually, if he added the time

spent wandering around the gap between dimensions – since he last
saw the Association President Woo Jin-Cheol.

Even though Jin-Woo didn't want to show anything outwardly, there

was not much he could do about his expression betraying him with a
hint of happiness.

'…...?'

However, Woo Jin-Cheol was immediately beset with confusion

after discovering the smile on the student's face.

There would be only a handful of people alive who'd remain

unflustered after suddenly being visited by a cop, and not only that, a
detective with such a threatening face like his.

More than that, was there a reason to say anything else when the
person in question was just a high school student?

However, this kid in front of his eyes was actually smiling.

'This boy…. Something's different about him.'

Woo Jin-Cheol felt it the moment he stepped into that classroom –

this kid was different.

Thanks to his job being what it was, he had run into his fair share

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of murderers who killed many people, or gangsters that lorded over
the backstreets with iron fists.

However, not even once had he meet anyone with a pair of eyes as
calm as this boy.

'How can a student possess eyes like that?'

Gulp.

Unbeknownst to him, Woo Jin-Cheol swallowed back dry saliva from

all this tension in the air. Starting from the moment he saw the boy,
his heart was still violently pounding away for reasons unknown to
him.

To dissolve the many questions swirling and circling inside his

head, Woo Jin-Cheol pulled out his memo pad and began looking into
it.

"By any chance, Shadow... no, wait. Ants...."

Woo Jin-Cheol was looking at the contents of his memo pad, but no
matter what he did, he just couldn't form any coherent sentences.
So, he pulled out a pen from his inner pocket, instead.

Jot, jot….

While Jin-Woo watched on with an interested gaze, Woo Jin-Cheol

quickly drew something on the page of the pad and presented the
resulting artwork.

"....."

Jin-Woo inwardly praised the detective's effort.

'This dude, he's actually a lot more talented in art than I

thought.'

What Woo Jin-Cheol sketched just now was the general appearance
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of Beru.

Although it couldn't be called exact description, still, he got right

the head of an ant, human-like hands and feet, the sharp claws, as
well as the ant's wings on the back, etc, etc.

Anyone who knew what Beru looked like, they would recognise him
from this drawing in an instant. Woo Jin-Cheol asked his question
then.

"By any chance, can you think of something when you look
at this image?"

Jin-Woo looked at the drawing for a bit before raising his head and
spotted Woo Jin-Cheol and his slightly-blushing face. Even he should
be aware of how ridiculous this whole thing must've looked.

But regardless of all that, he seemed to be desperate to recover

the memories of things that happened to him, but were later taken
away, even if that meant he'd have to resort to doing something like
this.

Containing all of his desperation….

"....Do you know what this is?"

….Woo Jin-Cheol asked one more time.

Before the hints of embarrassment, as evident in the detective's

voice, could grow larger, Jin-Woo quickly answered him.

"Yes."

Ba-dump.

Woo Jin-Cheol's heart powerfully rocked and pounded on his chest.

"Y-you know what this is??"

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The detective's voice grew louder. But, Jin-Woo's expression was
utterly calm in his demeanour, a complete contrast to Woo Jin-
Cheol's.

"Yes."

Woo Jin-Cheol's eyes trembled violently.

Finally.

He finally found it.

His breathing quickened considerably, and his voice picked up just

as the greatly urgent questions flew out of his mouth.

"What is this ant monster? And what is your real identity?"

Jin-Woo took a step back in order to avoid the agitated Woo Jin-
Cheol. The latter realised that he made a mistake and quickly calmed
himself down.

"Ah, I got too carried away there for a second. I've been
chasing after this case for a while, you see."

One by one – he would dig into what this student knew, step by
step. Didn't he have to go through so much hardship to find this clue
already? So, there was no need to be too hasty now.

Woo Jin-Cheol managed to tide over his pulsing heart with those
thoughts and spoke up with a much more calm voice.

"Alright. So, you know something about the creature in this

image?"

"Yes."

Jin-Woo replied briefly with a nod of his head, before an 'innocent'

expression formed on his face.

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"Isn't that a monster that pops out from one of those
special effects dramas that kids like to watch? Like, Kamen
Rider?"

"Ah..."

Woo Jin-Cheol was immediately overcome with this sense of

despondency, akin to watching a sand castle he built all day long get
washed away by a single incoming wave. A small but heartbroken
sigh leaked out of his mouth.

Since his expectation had been great, the ensuing disappointment

was just as great, too. His hand holding the memo pad naturally
dropped lower.

He looked so fatigued right now, so tired that he couldn't even hold

that little pad up anymore.

For a brief moment there, he grew angry at this boy for needlessly
stringing him along with his vague answers. But, well, what crime did
this student commit exactly, when he spoke only of the things he
knew about?

Woo Jin-Cheol forced a smile on his face.

"Thank you for your cooperation."

"Is that all?"

"Yes. I spoke to your teacher, so there shouldn't be any

issues when you go back."

Woo Jin-Cheol spoke up to here and was about to pocket the memo
pad, but then, Jin-Woo quickly addressed him.

"That image of a monster, can I have it as a souvenir?"

The detective looked at the student's bright expression, and a

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genuine smile floated up on his face. He opened his memo pad and
stared at the sketch for a little while, before tearing the page out
cleanly and handing it over to Jin-Woo.

"Here."

"Thank you."

As if he didn't want to get arrested by any lingering emotions, Woo

Jin-Cheol spun on his heels and jogged down the steps as soon as the
student bade him goodbye.

'…...'

Jin-Woo remained in his spot and listened to the detective's

footsteps echoing down the staircase. In the meantime, his shadow
sneakily expanded to the side like spilt water and Igrit quietly
emerged from there.

[My liege.]

"Mm?"

[Why... didn't you tell that person the truth?]

Igrit retained his memories from back when he was still a human,
and thanks to that, he knew better than anyone just how sad and
difficult it was for a person to be forgotten from the minds of those
he cared about.

And that was why he thought of the Detective Woo Jin-Cheol's

entrance as perhaps the most ideal opportunity that came knocking
so far. Even if it was just one individual, wouldn't it be a good thing
for the Sovereign to let someone know how he had saved this world?

There was this distinct hint of rueful longing in Igrit's voice.

Still, Jin-Woo shook his head.

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"Being able to forget is supposed to be a god's gift to
humans, you know."

Even if that was an artificially created result after using a Tool of

God; Jin-Woo thought that he didn't possess the qualifications to
choose which memories to erase and which ones to keep.

Only a god should do something like that. That was why he

decided to let the former Association President Woo Jin-Cheol go in
this manner.

[Are you sure about this, my liege?]

"Yeah."

It was then, Jin-Woo abruptly looked down on his left hand.

There it was, the evidence of the Dragon Emperor's powerful

attack.

The burn scar on this left hand, earned from blocking the 'Breath of
Destruction' head-on, couldn't be healed no matter what he tried. An
unpleasant memory that couldn't be forgotten was rather similar to
this scar – a wound that couldn't be healed.

Even if the person in question wanted it, was there really a need to
deliberately bring those painful memories back?

Right now, not a trace of pain and misery that was suffered at the
hands of the monsters and Sovereigns remained in the memories of
people living on this planet.

And that was why Jin-Woo didn't want to let the memories of the
past remain in the mind of the former Association President Woo Jin-
Cheol.

[I understand, my liege.]

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Igrit silently submerged back into the shadow, as if he accepted
the explanation.

Jin-Woo remained standing on the spot looking down at the bottom

of the stairs before turning around to enter the classroom.

Once the break came, the boiling interests of the kids finally
focused on Jin-Woo.

Seriously now, just when would these kids get to experience a TV

drama-like situation of a police detective suddenly barging into their
classroom? It was only obvious that their unbridled attention would
be focused on the protagonist of that tale.

Even the girls who were interested in Jin-Woo before but couldn't
say it outright hurriedly rushed towards him and soon, a rather
sizeable horde of people formed around his desk.

"What happened just now?"

"Hey, Jin-Woo? Why did a detective-nim come to school??"

Jin-Woo grinned softly at the burning curiosity of his classmates

and spoke of the fresh excuse he just cooked up on the spot.

"Well, he's someone that I know, and he just stopped by to

ask me about something, that's all."

"Wowsers, that's awesome."

"You're an acquaintance with an actual detective?"

"Jin-Woo, I'm so envious, you know?"

Jin-Woo found it hard to keep his laughter in check as the kids'

interest began heading down a slightly unexpected direction.

'Young-Gil-ah, why are your eyes sparkling like that now?'

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Still, thanks to the detective-nim's unannounced visit, it felt as if
the invisible wall these kids felt around Jin-Woo had crumbled just a
little. Girls took this opportunity to ask about those things they were
dying to know.

"I heard from other boys that you got a killer body?"

"Really? Are you an athlete or something?"

"Ahh! I saw Jin-Woo running on the track with the seniors

from the school's track team the day before yesterday."

"Wahh, look how broad his shoulders are."

Kyahk, kyahk....

As the girls surrounded him from all sides, Jin-Woo began

pondering how he should go about making them quietly return to
their seats, but then...

The quartet of the hooligans found one person hogging all the
attention quite displeasing and decided to interrupt the fun.

"Hey, you. Aren't you getting really popular now? Even a

cop came to see you and all."

Once this quartet entered the scene, the boys quickly retreated to
their seats, while the girls began to quietly back away.

A boy named Nam Joon-Shik, the one with the highest position
within the quartet, began slapping Jin-Woo's shoulder that played
host to the curious touches of high school girls not too long ago. The
corners of his eyes began curling up.

"Does me being mischievous like this count as school

bullying? Are you going to report me to the detective-nim
now?"

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'….It's your hand that's gonna hurt if you keep hitting me
like that, though.'

Jin-Woo stared at the dumb kid with apathetic eyes, and sure
enough, Nam Joon-Shik's complexion began reddening gradually
when he realised that his hand hurt like hell, but despite his efforts,
his target's reaction seemed way too lukewarm.

"Argh, just why the hell are this punk's eyes so sh*tty,
man?"

Nam Joon-Shik then swiped everything away on Jin-Woo's desk.

Textbooks, notebooks, and his pencil case, plus a couple of other
things tumbled to the floor.

Ten million-strong Shadow Army hiding in Jin-Woo's shadow all

roared out in anger after they witness this show of force from the
teenaged fool.

The teen hooligan didn't stop there and reached out to grab the
collars of Jin-Woo, whose complexion had hardened just then.

"What? You wanna have a go? You better loosen up while

I'm still being civil, got it?"

It was then.

A massive arm suddenly pounced from above and wrapped tightly

around Nam Joon-Shik's throat.

"Keok!!"

The hooligan grabbed at the thick arm as he began choking

pathetically, and in the meantime, a familiar face revealed itself
above the pale-faced kid.

"You have business with our beloved ace of the track and
field club, boy?"

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That face belonged to none other than the captain of the club, the
third year senior Choi Tae-Woong, and he was being accompanied by
another third year, the senior with a short fuse, Jeong Gu-Shik.

All four members of the quartet found themselves trapped in

armlocks and headlocks of their seniors, their complexions paling
gradually from the lack of oxygen.

Jin-Woo wordlessly got up from his seat and picked up the pencil
case. Jin-Ah bought this case as a gift to commemorate his successful
admittance to the high school, so these four hooligans wouldn't have
gotten away scot-free if anything had happened to it.

He dusted the case and placed it back on the desk before asking
his question.

"Seniors, what brings you all here?"

"We showed up to dissuade our ace from beating the living

crap out of four idiots."

"No, please. Be serious."

"Ahahahat-!"

Choi Tae-Woong's large framed quaked as he roared out in a peal

of loud laughter before he continued on.

"I forgot to tell you guys that we were planning to hold a

welcoming party for our new members later today, you see.
You and Young-Gil both have free time today, right?"

Jin-Woo glanced at Young-Gil and the latter nodded his head.

"Yes, we do."

"In that case, see you both after school."

Still smiling, the seniors began leaving one by one, but then, Jin-

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Woo called out to them to stop their march out of the classroom.

"Seniors? Where are you taking those four still stuck under
your arms?"

"Ahaha, these idiots?"

Choi Tae-Woong exchanged some knowing glances with Jeong Gu-

Shik.

"Well, what should we do with them?"

"How about we do an easy lap around the track, captain?"

"Sounds gooood!"

Soon afterwards, the loud shouts of "Conquer the whole

country!" slowly got further away from the classroom's interior.

Ding, dong. Ding, dong.

Several end-of-school bells rang around, and then, quite a few

more bells later.

Jin-Woo stepped out of the school's gate along with the rest of the
track and field club members.

Young-Gil had now grown to appreciate the joys of sweating after

getting used to the training regime of the club, although he did
receive a few timely boosts from Jin-Woo every now and then.

While Young-Gil was listening to the advice of the seniors as he

walked among them, Jin-Woo remained a step behind and
eavesdropped on the unfolding conversations.

It was, without a doubt, a peaceful sight of a normal day.

Jeong Gu-Shik walking up ahead and turned his head towards Jin-
Woo and asked.

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"Ah, right. Hey, Jin-Woo? What was up with those idiots
earlier in the day? Should we the seniors speak to them
'nicely' so they won't start anything stupid later on?"

Jin-Woo replied with an unconcerned expression.

"Nah, it's fine."

"I'm not doing this because I'm worried about you. No, I
just don't want to see problems suddenly crop up and
prevent you from participating in the regional meet because
of those idiots."

Jin-Woo grinned refreshingly.

"Don't worry. I won't let that happen."

It was then.

Someone suddenly popped out from behind the shadow of the

gate's wall and called out to Jin-Woo.

"Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim."

It was as if time itself had come to a standstill, just then. Jin-Woo

froze up on the spot, and slowly shifted his head in the direction of
that voice.

Detective Woo Jin-Cheol had been waiting for Jin-Woo until now.

The latter's voice trembled slightly.

"But, how...?"

Having finally gotten his confirmation from Jin-Woo's reply,

Detective Woo Jin-Cheol's eyes began tearing up.

"As I thought... you are him."

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Chapter 254 Fin.

Source: WEBNOVEL

Side Story 11

"That image of a monster, can I have it as a souvenir?"

A few hours ago.

As a souvenir for his reunion with Woo Jin-Cheol, Jin-Woo wanted

the sketch of Beru the detective had drawn up on the spot.

'Well, it does kind of resemble Beru, so I want it because of

that....'

Of course, a certain someone hiding in his shadow didn't think the

same as his liege, though.

[Oh, my kinggggg!! I beg thee not to fall for that shoddy

and crude doodling of a plebeian!!]

Beru desperately pleaded with his liege that he was nowhere near
that ugly in the sketch, but Jin-Woo simply let that whining enter one
ear and go out the other.

In the meantime, Woo Jin-Cheol stared at his own drawing for a bit
as if to let go of all his lingering attachments.

Soon, though...

Riiip...

….He cleanly tore the page off the memo pad. Woo Jin-Cheol
extended his hand holding the drawing to Jin-Woo.

"Here."

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"Thank you."

Jin-Woo gladly accepted the sketch.

And during that process, the detective's hand briefly touched the
tip of Jin-Woo's finger.

It was surely nothing important in the grand scheme of things.

However, massive events that left their mark in history books
sometimes began with seemingly insignificant little things.

Woo Jin-Cheol turned around and hurriedly descended the

staircase.

'I knew it, this whole thing was a dumb mistake.'

Regret was rapidly filling him up.

Because he got too hyped up from the prospect of finding a clue,

he ended up doing something that he'd be unable to explain even to
the youngest detective in the squad with a straight face.

The sense of embarrassment and regret rushed in like the

incoming tides, now that this was all he had to show for his efforts.

'Stairs always feel so d*mn long only on days like today,

don't they?'

Detective Woo Jin-Cheol bitterly muttered to himself as he climbed

down the staircase, but then, his steps had to come to an abrupt halt.

'Mm....?'

He suddenly heard a voice from somewhere, that was why.

'…..??'

Woo Jin-Cheol froze up when a chill-inducing feeling crept up on his

spine and he quickly scanned up and down where he was. He saw not

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one person coming down from the stairs or climbing up from below.

Classes were still ongoing, so the steps of the school were quite
literally, quiet and still.

Woo Jin-Cheol tilted his head this way and that, before he tried to
climb down the remaining few steps to the ground floor only to hear
another voice again.

This time, it was his own voice.

'W-what the heck is this?!'

A person with an easily-scared personality would squat down or

start screaming from fear by now. However, Woo Jin-Cheol wasn't
one. He simply remained calm while he scanned his surroundings
once more, before pulling out a memo pad and a pen as a sombre
expression formed on his face.

'I'm suddenly hearing auditory hallucinations. Could it be

that the sense of loss I feel or the ant monster I witnessed
were evidence of something wrong with my brain?'

The end of a brief observation was signed off with a question mark

scribbled on with his pen.

Woo Jin-Cheol felt rather weirded out now. He stuffed the memo
pad inside his inner pocket and hurriedly descended the rest of the
steps. And with a speed far quicker than that, he escaped from the
school building.

But then….

….Yet another auditory hallucination rocked the inside of his head.

"Euhk!!"

Woo Jin-Cheol gritted his teeth and covered both of his ears.

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The voice he had never heard before and his own words that he
never uttered before as well, began making a mess out of his mind.
An intense bout of confusion crashed into him like an unstoppable
tide.

"W-what the hell is this?!"

And then, out of all those voices swirling in his head, there was this
one phrase that kept ringing so clearly in his head.

A name that didn't want to leave his head alone. The name of
Hunter Seong Jin-Woo.

'If it's Seong Jin-Woo, then…. Isn't that the name of the
student I just met?'

He heard that patients suffering from mental disorders often came

up with crazy stories that featured people from their lives. Could such
a thing be happening inside his head now?

Woo Jin-Cheol walked forward as his body swayed unsteadily. He

kept frowning in pain as a migraine viciously pounded away at his
temples.

Even then, even if the inside of his head had become so

complicated and messy to the point that he didn't know how to
unravel all the tangled thoughts in there – every time he recalled the
name 'Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim', it felt like the big hole in his heart
was slowly filling back up for some weird reason.

Woo Jin-Cheol crashed down on a park bench and began

murmuring repeatedly the name that continued to swim inside his
mind.

'Hunter Seong Jin-Woo, Hunter Seong Jin-Woo, Hunter Seong Jin-

Woo...

That name holds the clue.

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I definitely know that name, Seong Jin-Woo.

I must remember it.

I must drag it out into the open.

I must find all the memories of him, and the reason why those
memories are erased from my mind.'

"Euh-euhk!!"

While still under an extreme case of a migraine, Woo Jin-Cheol

fought hard to recall his memories and eventually, a certain scene
popped up in his head.

"Association President. Do you trust me?"

"Yes, of course, I trust you."

"In that case, I hope you will believe everything I'm about
to show you."

"Excuse me?"

The tip of a finger belonging to someone approached his forehead.

The moment it touched his skin, darkness dyed his view for a short
while but during that time, a countless number of images flashed
past his eyes.

Those were the memories that connected the past, the present,
and the future. And they contained the stories of Gates, monsters,
Hunters, Rulers, and Sovereigns.

"This, this can't be…. Just how can such a thing be....?"

Woo Jin-Cheol couldn't finish what he wanted to say, and Jin-Woo,

now the Shadow Sovereign, replied with a lonesome expression.

"Well, a higher being's memories aren't affected by the

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flow of time, you see."

Indeed, a Sovereign's memories easily transcended the boundaries

of time itself.

"Pant, pant...."

Woo Jin-Cheol panted heavily and with great difficulty after

emerging from the flashback of the 'past'. For a short moment in
time that no longer existed, his consciousness was connected to Jin-
Woo, who was a higher existence.

And it happened then; memories sealed tightly away somewhere

within his soul had been unlocked through yet another contact with
Jin-Woo, and were brought back up to the territory of his
consciousness.

"Oh, my god...."

The sense of emptiness that felt as if there was a hole in the corner
of his heart slowly filled back up, and warm tears began trickling
down from Woo Jin-Cheol's eyes.

He then remembered the question he asked Jin-Woo after learning

of what the latter was planning to do.

The answer to that question, it was right in front of his eyes now.

A young man whose name was unknown, walking past the park
bench while listening to music through a pair of earphones; a pair of
lovers brushing past him while whispering their undying love to each
other….

An old man out to walk his dog, and people loosening their muscles
near the exercise equipment in the park….

In this world, in this place, there were no Gates. No monsters. No

battles.

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Woo Jin-Cheol now bore witness to the miracle that man had
created through his hands, this incredible peace, and thicker, hotter
tears began flooding out from his eyes.

"Seong Hunter-nim, you... did it."

Woo Jin-Cheol recalled the screams of so many people meeting

their ends at the monsters and continued to weep for a long, long
time.

'….No, hang on. I, I shouldn't be doing this.'

The veteran detective's rough, calloused hands busily moved

about to wipe away the tears.

Even if the entire world had forgotten about the truth, Woo Jin-
Cheol had to go and tell Seong Jin-Woo that at least there was one
person who knew the latter had battled for the sake of the world
itself.

Such a sense of duty began welling up in his heart, but at the same
time, a sense of uncertainty also entered him, wondering if what he
was about to do was for the sake of that man.

'He's spending his time as a regular student now, having

willfully forgotten about his past as a Hunter.'

If he wanted to remind Woo Jin-Cheol of the past, then there were

ample chances to do so. Jin-Woo could've answered his questions, or
just like before, transmit a whole section of memories through
nothing but a fingertip.

However, the youth didn't show any reactions when a detective

showed up in this place through a series of coincidences, before
quietly letting him be on his way.

Could it be that... he didn't want his peaceful everyday life to be

interrupted?

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If that was the case, then wouldn't them going back to their regular
lives, while pretending to be none the wiser, be for the better for
Hunter Seong Jin-Woo in the end?

Woo Jin-Cheol fell into a dilemma.

His dilemma grew heavier and harder to resolve and he remained

stuck with it right up until students began leaving the school for the
day. However, watching them cross the park one by one did help
Woo Jin-Cheol with coming to a rather tough conclusion.

'….Right.

Rather than me deciding this, let's leave it to Hunter Seong Jin-

Woo.

I'll call out to him, and if he pretends to not understand me, then I
shall respect his choice.

However.

Even if there is a small reaction, then I....'

Woo Jin-Cheol hurriedly returned to Jin-Woo's high school. And

then, he didn't leave the side of the school gate even when no more
students walked past him.

He was currently acting on this groundless assumption that Hunter

Seong Jin-Woo hadn't left the school yet.

And so, as he stood there for several dozen more minutes, while
anxiously sucking on one poor cigarette after another….

"....I just don't want to see problems suddenly crop up and

prevent you from participating in the regional meet because
of those idiots."

"Don't worry. I won't let that happen."

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….He finally got to discover Jin-Woo walking out of the school
gates. Feeling genuinely happy now, he took a large stride forward
and called out the youth's name.

"Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim."

Ba-dump.

Just how much courage did he require to mutter out those simple
words? Woo Jin-Cheol felt his heart madly pound away and waited for
Jin-Woo's reaction.

Sure enough, the youth turned around to look, his entire body now
completely frozen stiff. There was an expression of genuine surprise
etched on his face.

"But, how....?"

The light in Jin-Woo's eyes told everything there was to know.

Having finally gotten his confirmation from Jin-Woo's eyes,

Detective Woo Jin-Cheol began tearing up once more.

"As I thought.... you are him."

The two of them moved to the park in the vicinity of the school, the
very location where Woo Jin-Cheol recovered his memories.

Sunlight reflected on the gently undulating surface of a small pond

located in the middle of the park, creating ripples of ripe gold.

Woo Jin-Cheol stopped walking around there and opened his mouth
first.

"I hope I didn't cause a problem between you and your club
seniors."

Jin-Woo formed a thin smile and shook his head.

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"They are good seniors. Sure, their competitive streak can
be a bit much at times, but....."

Woo Jin-Cheol asked Jin-Woo if they could speak for a while, and
the latter had to ask his seniors for their understanding on this one.
Since there was a prior engagement, the older kids could've easily
gotten unhappy at this situation, but….

"Don't be too late!"

"Until you show up to the welcoming party, we're holding

Young-Gil as our hostage, okay?"

"S-senior?!"

The seniors from the track and field team didn't sweat it and left
for the party venue ahead. Jin-Woo recalled Young-Gil's tearful face
as he got dragged away by the seniors and smirked softly to himself.

"Still, the life of my friend is hanging in the balance here,

so I can't stay for too long."

Woo Jin-Cheol broke into a gentle chuckle after seeing the youth's
expression that showed how much he was enjoying his current life.

"In that case, I understand. Let me get to the main topic,

then."

The smile was gone in an instant from the detective's face after he
finished those words.

"How long... how long have you been fighting against those
creatures in the gap between dimensions?"

According to the records, Jin-Woo was missing for around two

years.

However, Woo Jin-Cheol had seen the overall combat force of the

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Sovereigns through the memories of the Shadow Sovereign, and he
knew that the two years were simply not enough to defeat them all.

Jin-Woo cautiously replied.

"27 years...."

The moment he heard that reply, Woo Jin-Cheol sucked in his

breath.

To think, he had to fight against over ten million enemies for nearly
30 years in the gap between the walls of different dimensions, where
not a single thing could exist….

Woo Jin-Cheol couldn't even begin to imagine how difficult and

arduous the battles must've been. For a long while there, he failed to
come up with something to say, but eventually, forced his lips to part
just a little.

".....You don't regret anything?"

Jin-Woo's reply this time was instantaneous.

"No, I don't."

He could say this with absolute confidence.

"If I were to be given the same opportunity over and over

again, I will make the same decision every single time."

Everything that happened – from when he and his father went to a

baseball game while holding hands during the latter's off day; the
doenjang stew mom cooked with so much care and love; his little
sister's smile, bright and unclouded by the fear of the monsters….

….All of these were precious things that couldn't be measured with

any financial value.

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If the price he had to pay for all of these things was to carry the
weighty burden by himself, then he'd not hesitate to carry it over and
over again.

"I don't regret anything."

Woo Jin-Cheol heard Jin-Woo's composed voice and in that instant,

felt his nose sting once more.

'Thank you, Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim.'

He barely managed to swallow back those words that almost came

out of his mouth. He knew that these simple words of gratitude could
never convey his true feelings to Hunter Seong Jin-Woo, that's why.

He took a quick look at his wristwatch while thinking about the 'life'
of the hostage and raised his head.

"It looks like you're living a wonderful life now."

Jin-Woo smirked softly.

"It is satisfactory, yes. Well, other than my body not ageing

anymore so I need to constantly modify my body shape, that
is."

'Eternal youth and immortality.'

Hunter Seong Jin-Woo had now possessed god-like powers after

becoming the Shadow Sovereign. However, even though he
possessed such powers, he chose to live the life of a simple, normal
person. If that was his decision, then….

"May I ask whether you thought about what you'd like to do

in the future?"

"I haven't thought that far ahead yet, unfortunately."

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"In that case…. How about, you know, joining this side?"

Woo Jin-Cheol displayed the police identification card inside his

wallet.

"You mean... the National Police?"

"Recently, many hardened criminals visiting our offices are

all whining about the exact same thing. They say that it's
hard to make a living with Shadow Monsters around."

Jin-Woo studied the identification card for a while and returned the
wallet with a grin on his face.

"But, if I become a police officer, other cops won't have

anything to do anymore, you know?"

"That's precisely why we're working very hard, you see – to

create a world like that."

He hadn't changed.

From when he was the Chief of the Association's Monitoring

Division, and when he was the President of the Hunter's Association
itself, the expressions Woo Jin-Cheol had shown back then remained
as he continued his life as a police detective now.

"I'll think about it."

Jin-Woo replied so and turned around to leave as he began to

worry slightly about his friend's safety. Woo Jin-Cheol quickly bade
him goodbye.

"I shall wait for your favourable reply."

"Please don't. I heard that there's a crap ton of work but

the pay is pretty bad."

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Jin-Woo waved his hand as he walked away, and Woo Jin-Cheol
smiled gently as his silent reply.

'Lots of work, but rubbish pay, is it?'

A wry chuckle leaked out automatically from his mouth after

hearing that wonderfully succinct assessment that left no room for a
rebuttal. At the same time, he recalled the face of the youngest
detective who actually volunteered to join such a squad out of his
own free will.

'Isn't he off today, that kid?'

Well, so what if it was the junior's off day?

While thinking that he'd just call out the youngest and treat the kid
to a hearty meal, Woo Jin-Cheol politely bowed his head towards Jin-
Woo's departing back, now a faint silhouette in the distance.

As the only man who knew of that youth's sacrifice, he stood for
everyone in this world and expressed his gratitude, perhaps for the
first and the last time.

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Chapter 255 Fin.

Source: WEBNOVEL

Side Story 12

'That' suddenly appeared without any warning.

On a certain day in April, only a stone's throw away from May's

doorstep, an American emergency call centre was blessed with a
strange phone call.

It was not uncommon to hear about tourists getting lost. Since that
was the case, the call centre operator figured that this call was from
yet another poor stranded soul searching for a way out from the
middle of the vast desert.

"Did you run into an accident, sir?"

"In that case, did something else happen to you, sir?"

The call centre agent got ready to connect the call to the
emergency dispatch service while replying in a calm voice to make
sure that the caller wouldn't start panicking over the phone.

"Is it something urgent? Should I dispatch the emergency

personnel to your location?"

The caller's voice indicated that he was feeling really hesitant over
something here, so just in case, the agent decided to confirm the
caller's identity first.

As it turned out, the caller was actually a college professor, and

judging from his family circumstances, or the past records of lodging
emergency calls, he didn't seem to be the sort to make prank calls
for fun.

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"Sir, you need to describe the situation so we can dispatch
the right kind of response personnel to the scene."

"Can you explain to me in detail what you see?"

It was at that point that the agent heard the caller take deep
breaths over the phone's speaker.

There was a building in a desert about to topple over? The agent

tilted his head this way and that before asking again.

"Where are these cracks exactly, sir?"

The voice of the caller hesitated for a long time again as if he still
couldn't believe what he saw, but eventually it did come out of the
phone.

April.

This was the time when pretty much all students would find
themselves with barely any free time, but for Jin-Woo facing mid-
term exams and the track competition literally around the corner, it
proved to be a great deal more hectic than usual.

As he was studying deep into the night, his little sister, Jin-Ah,
entered his room while carrying a tray of sliced Korean melon.

"Oppa, Mom says you should eat these while studying."

Jin-Woo was concentrating on the textbooks below the desk lamp's

light, and raised his head to greet her.

"What about Dad?"

"Dad is on night shift duty from this week again."

Jin-Woo received the plate with melon slices neatly arranged on

top and nodded his head. But then, he reached out to snatch his
sister's ponytail just as she was about to sneak out of his room.

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"Stop right there."

"Heok!"

Jin-Ah turned around to face him with wide-open eyes and he

sternly asked her.

"Why are all these slices missing the soft middle sections?"

"I, uh, I don't know...."

"You should say that while getting rid of those pips stuck
near your lips."

"Ahh-iinng..."

Jin-Ah formed an unhappy expression at the fact that she got

busted, but he found her way too adorable when she acted like this
and couldn't hold back his own laughter.

He used his thumb to remove the pips from the ends of his sister's
lips and out of pure mischievousness, formed another stern
expression.

"If you eat only the softer part of the melon again, I'm
gonna make you eat nothing but the hard part for a whole
day as punishment, okay?"

"Hiii-eeeng..... Okay."

Jin-Ah turned around to leave with a tearful expression and he

lightly patted her on the head.

Currently, she was in her sixth year in elementary school. Jin-Woo

had seen her grow up once before already, and pretty much anything
she did came across as adorable to him.

Crunch.

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He began chewing on the sliced melon piece and focused his
concentration back on the questionnaire on the desk. When he did,
though, Igrit began to offer his counsel once more, as he was still
worried about his liege's academic success.

[My liege, the 24th question should not be tackled in this

manner, but...]

'I'm going to check the answer sheet, then?'

[….Allow me to ponder this query for a little while longer,

my liege.]

'…....'

It was rather commendable that he was so concerned about his

master, but this….

'Oh, well. At least, I'm not bored during studying, so there's

that....'

Crunch.

As the number of questions remaining on the questionnaire

decreased, so did the number of sliced melon pieces on the plate.

Tick, tock….

And so, just how long had it been?

Abruptly, Jin-Woo sensed this chill and raised his head.

'What was that? Where?'

He shot up from his chair and shifted his head in the direction of
where he detected that strange phenomenon. He closed his eyes and
focused his perception.

….He definitely hadn't made a mistake just then. Right away, he

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imagined the worst possible scenario and his expression hardened as
a result.

'Where is that business card....?'

He quickly dug through the pockets of his school uniform and

pulled out a certain business card. It was none other than the one left
behind by the envoy of the Rulers.

Jin-Woo quickly dialled the number and tapped on the 'Call' icon on
his smartphone. The call itself got through really quickly.

The envoy tried to greet him with a warm, welcoming voice, but
Jin-Woo simply spoke up certain coordinates without any hints of
emotion. And then, he added one more thing at the end.

"Is this your people's doing?"

The envoy was stunned by his serious attitude and replied quickly.

"..."

The brief silence was soon shattered by the panicky voice from the
other side of the line.

As expected – it wasn't the absolute worst possibility, much to his

relief. Still, it didn't mean that the situation itself had become any
better, though.

'To Earth…. Someone, or something, is coming.'

Whether they held good or bad intentions, there was no way to tell
for the time being. So, he should start preparing for either case right
away.

Jin-Woo fell into deep thought as he stood there, still holding the
phone, before he spoke to the envoy.

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"Can you come and see me?"

He added that there was also something else he'd like to talk about
and that prompted the envoy to reply as if it had been waiting for
that all this time.

The meeting place was the cafe where Jin-Woo met Yu Jin-Ho for
the first time outside the dungeon. He got there just in time and
found the envoy already waiting for him by the corner of the cafe,
having arrived a while ago.

After entering, Jin-Woo wordlessly settled down on the opposite

side of the Ruler's proxy. The latter only discovered the former's
presence after he appeared right in front of its eyes. The envoy
performed a polite bow of the head.

With the situation being what it was, Jin-Woo went straight to the
meat of the discussion.

"The things trying to get here…. Do you have any clues on

who they are?"

"They are the 'Outsiders' that tried to step into my world

not too long ago. They were beaten back by the Army of the
Heavens and it seems that they have now set their sights on
this world, instead."

"Why are they trying to come here?"

"They are a race of giants that consumes the rocks found

on a planet that can support lifeforms. They are referred to
as a race of 'Titans' and are known for their evil nature even
back in their own world. Their reason for coming to Earth
should be rather obvious at this point."

Jin-Woo leaned against the chair's back and nodded his head.

"....So, they are not friends."

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"Yes, they are most certainly not."

Now that he knew what their purpose was, the nature of his
response had been decided, as well. However, there was something
he still felt curious about.

"This didn't happen before the Chalice of Rebirth was used,

so what gives?"

Jin-Woo could only remember the Gates and monsters, but nothing
about the attack of an alien race capable of 'eating' a planet. The
envoy hesitated slightly with his answer before willingly admitting to
it.

"Yes, you're indeed correct. Actually, when I told you about

them invading our world not too long ago, I was referring to
the timeline that has been overwritten."

"Meaning, the creatures that should have been aiming for

your world changed their heading towards Earth, instead?"

"Yes."

The envoy replied as thus, carefully observing any changes in Jin-

Woo's mood. Of course, he immediately figured out the reason for
this change.

"I'm the cause."

"Those creatures chased after the traces of Sovereign-nim,

who possesses incredible power…. At least, that's what the
exalted Rulers believe happened in this event."

Just like how one would rely on the light from the lighthouse
illuminating the lone pathway to navigate the treacherous nighttime
waters when you couldn't see an inch in front of your nose, the race
of 'Titans' had been led towards this small planet by the enormous
power being emitted by the Shadow Sovereign.

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The potential influence Jin-Woo's powers would have on this world,
the one that shouldn't exist and shouldn't remain – the part the
Rulers were worried about had finally become reality.

Still, the Rulers felt that they owed Jin-Woo big time and thus, they
weren't planning to sit back and watch another crisis unfold on Earth.
The agent made sure to drive this point home.

"The exalted Rulers have already deployed the Army of the

Heavens."

Jin-Woo slowly shook his head.

"No, it'll be too late."

Even if they started creating a tunnel connecting from that side to

here right now, at a bare minimum they would still need a good few
years to get here. By then, everything would be over.

In that case….

"I shall take care of it."

'….My soldiers and I will stop those b*stards.'

Jin-Woo was fully confident of defeating these new enemies if they

were on the level of being driven back by the Army of the Heavens.

The voice of the Shadow Sovereign seemed to heavily press down

on the envoy's shoulders and he nervously swallowed his dry saliva.
Regardless which forces they were, none of them would prefer to
have this man as their enemy. The Ruler's agent suddenly felt pity
for this race of 'Titans' now.

By the way, if this meeting wasn't to ask for reinforcements, then

why were they even here?

Jin-Woo replied as if he had seen through the agent's thoughts.

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"What you asked me back then…. I thought it's about time
that I tell you my answer."

"Ah, ah. I see. You were talking about that matter."

The Rulers made an offer to make available a location that the

enormous power of the Shadow Sovereign wouldn't cause an issue. It
seemed that he was able to come to a decision due to this crisis. The
envoy nodded his head after seeing Jin-Woo's determination-filled
expression.

"I understand what you're trying to say. As soon as this

crisis is resolved, we...."

"I'm remaining on Earth."

"....Pardon?"

The envoy's brows rose up after hearing that unexpected reply.

However, Jin-Woo's voice remained composed, with just a hint of a
grin etched on his lips.

"You know, I still want to live here."

He wanted to spend his time in this world populated by his family,

friends, as well as others that he'd like to meet and talk to. After he
ran into Association President Woo Jin-Cheol, no, Detective Woo now,
he had finally realised what he wanted to do.

'Well, it's a bit cumbersome that he keeps calling me up so

he can buy me food, but still.'

In any case, Woo Jin-Cheol was a good man. And that was precisely
why that young detective being dragged around by him could carry a
happy expression like that.

'I'd like to be with those people.'

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Jin-Woo thought that he'd like to be by their sides and be able to
laugh along with them. The envoy spied on Jin-Woo's smile and
replied with a sheepish smile of his own.

"Actually, I…. I was getting really bored with staying in this

world, you see. What a relief this is. Now I can finally return
to my world as well."

One year since that day. If one said it was short, then it was, but if
one said it was too long, then it could be, as well.

The envoy's mission of remaining in this world to wait for the

Shadow Sovereign's decision had finally come to an end. And seeing
his expression, it was rather clear that the odds of him changing his
mind were absolutely none.

"Well, then...."

While looking as if a load had been taken off his shoulders, the

envoy stood up from his seat. He then bowed his waist towards Jin-
Woo, no, the greatest hero who brought the war of two worlds to an
end.

"I entrust this world to your capable hands."

Jin-Woo stopped digging through his closet and scratched his head.

'This isn't good....'

He couldn't see a single piece of garment that could hide his face.
But then again, he bought a hoodie and a baseball cap to hide his
face riddled with scars he earned while working as a low ranked
Hunter, so it was only obvious that they wouldn't remain anymore in
the new timeline.

Left with no choice, Jin-Woo decided to create the clothing he

wanted.

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The black smoke quickly enveloped him and became thick like
actual liquid, before transforming into a hoodie that he used to wear
so much in the past. He pulled the hood up and stood before the
mirror in his room.

'How long has it been, me in this look.....?'

He experienced renewed reminiscence of the time erased, as the

reflection was like looking at his past self. His lips exposed below the
hoodie curled up into a grin.

"Nice."

With this, his preparation was over. And his figure slowly
submerged into the shadow beneath his feet.

Somewhere in the desert, west of the United States of America.

The American government sealed tight the surrounding area and

invited every expert they could get their hands on to this place, but
in the end, every single one of them failed to come up with a
meaningful hypothesis.

"I wonder. Well, this could be...."

"I've researched many strange weather phenomena across

the globe for over 30 years, but this is my first time seeing
something like that."

From the get-go, how could any expert, regardless of the numbers
gathered, be able to explain the phenomenon of cracks developing in
the atmosphere?

Crack, split...

Even as they dithered about, the empty sky was slowly but surely
breaking apart bit by bit. Understandably, the American defence
forces surrounding this area just in case something bad happened

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were very tense right now. If one were to exaggerate the scale a bit,
more than enough combat forces had been gathered here to literally
blow away a foreign nation.

The commander confidently spoke to the President of the U.S.A.

"Even if something pops out of there, Mister President, we

shall take care of them. Yes, yes, sir. The scale of the crack
has grown much larger since its initial discovery...."

While chatting on the comm device, the commander shifted his

gaze over to the ranks of the soldiers without thinking too much and
discovered a certain man walking closer to his position.

A man whose face was obscured by the pulled-up hoodie was

walking straight towards the commander's location.

"Who the hell is that guy? How the f*ck did he even enter
here?"

"No, sir. Let me call you back a bit later, sir."

The commander hurriedly ended the call and, along with his
adjutants, quickly ran towards this unknown man.

"Excuse me! Who are you?"

This was a restricted zone secured by a water-tight cordon of

soldiers, yet how could a normal-looking civilian waltz right in
completely unhindered? Signs of irritation floated up on the
commander's face as an annoying situation suddenly came to visit
him.

However, the man didn't show any signs of fear, even though he
was surrounded by heavily-armed soldiers. The uninvited guest
coming to speak to the commander was, of course, Jin-Woo. And he
certainly had something to say.

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"Please, withdraw your troops from here. This place is
dangerous."

His English didn't sound natural.

'Is he a foreigner?'

The commander formed a deep frown and in order to put the fear
of God in this uninvited guest, he shouted out at the top of his lungs.

"Do you have a death wish?! Do you seriously not know

who is in real danger here?"

'What do you mean by that, mister? It's you, obviously.'

Jin-Woo knew that convincing these people with words would be

impossible, so he released just a tiny bit of his power. When he did,
the commander, his adjutants, as well as all the soldiers watching Jin-
Woo floated up in the air at once.

"Uh, uhhh?!"

The commander became flustered and he quickly took a look

around him. There was only one person with both of his feet firmly
planted on the ground. Not only that, the vehicles, various machinery
and equipment, and even heavy tanks were floating over a metre in
the air.

Having witnessed something that couldn't scientifically happen,

the eyes of the commander began trembling hard.

"B-but, how?!"

Deciding that this much was enough, Jin-Woo brought them back
down to the ground.

However, the first thing the commander did upon landing was to
yank out his sidearm. His highly-agitated voice rang around loudly in

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the desert sky.

"What the hell are you?!"

Jin-Woo raised both of his hands up to his shoulders to clearly

indicate that he didn't want to fight and calmly continued on with his
explanation.

"Soon, enemies possessing similar powers as what you saw

will emerge from that spot in the sky. And...."

He used Mana to take away the commander's sidearm and had it

float over to near his head.

When the pistol suddenly began moving towards Jin-Woo

seemingly on its own, the nervous soldiers quickly cocked their rifles
and got ready to fire, but the commander was equally as quick to
raise his hand to stop them from doing anything.

"Hold your fire!"

While he was busy calming his subordinates down, Jin-Woo used

the 'invisible hand' to pull the trigger of the pistol now aimed at his
face.

Blam! Blam! Blam!!

Bullets that failed to even touch Jin-Woo's body fell powerlessly to

the ground. The gazes of the soldiers relying on their firearms until
then were rapidly filling up with sheer astonishments and panic.

Jin-Woo could sense their hearts freezing up, too. He swept his
gaze around and took in their eyes of shock and panic, before calmly
continuing on with his explanation.

"Your weapons will not work against the incoming

enemies."

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Soon after that, his gaze landed on the commander, still rooted
firmly in his spot.

"Are you willing to watch the meaningless deaths of your

subordinates?"

"What should…. What am I supposed to do, then?"

"Withdraw your troops from here as far as possible. I shall

be the only one to remain here."

"You alone...? Are you planning to fight against the

enemies by yourself?"

Him alone, was it….

Jin-Woo didn't particularly feel the need to explain himself any

further, so he just nodded his head.

"..."

The commander shut his mouth and began weighing his options,
but then suddenly, he yanked out his spare sidearm tucked neatly in
the back of his pants and fired several shots at Jin-Woo.

Blam! Blam!! Blam!!! Blam!!!!

Every single bullet fired from the commander all tumbled to the
ground powerlessly as soon as they reached Jin-Woo's vicinity.

This man was a 'monster'. No, at this point, wasn't he more like a
character from some mythical legend, rather than a simple monster?

The commander bore witness to the miracle that kept repeating

itself and eventually lowered his weapon. He then spun towards his
soldiers and shouted out loudly so that they could hear him.

"All personnel, pull-out!! We withdraw from here, as

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quickly and efficiently as possible!!"

The adjutants quickly relayed the commander's new order to the

rest of the defence force.

"Pull out, now!!"

"Pulling out!"

This well-trained army quickly distanced themselves away from the

potential combat zone. Jin-Woo observed their withdrawal process
before shifting his gaze over to the large fissure rapidly developing in
the sky.

He could sense it now.

He could sense the intense greed of the enemies wanting to

devour this land.

He could even sense their heavy breathing as if they were close

by.

For the first time in a while, his Black Heart began pounding hard
again to notify him of the entrance of new enemies. A grin formed on
Jin-Woo's face as he summoned his shortswords from subspace.

Soon, they would….

Craaak

Split, crack!!

The atmosphere rocked from an intense impact force and the

dimension finally split open. With that, giants seemingly made out of
rocks stepped onto this land.

They belatedly discovered a small lifeform below their feet while

emitting a thick amount of hostility towards them and began snorting
in derision.
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[What's this? Just you alone wish to stop us?]

This feeling – Jin-Woo closed his eyes to enjoy this stillness before
the battle and slowly opened them back again.

Ba-thump, ba-thump, ba-thump, ba-thump!

His heart was beating loudly.

He finally unleashed all of his powers and spoke up.

"Does it look like I'm alone to you?"

With that, his shadow extended in the blink of an eye to

encompass the vast land behind him, and the Shadow Army of ten
million rose up at once.

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Chapter 256 Fin.

Source: WEBNOVEL

Side Story 13

Gooood morning!!

….Was what I'd like to say, but there was no distinction between
day and night in the world of shadows. So, I simply stretched my
limbs without saying anything after waking up from my nap.

Yawn-!!

The sleep one could get inside this place, the 'territory of eternal
rest', was absolutely the best, no two ways about it. Honestly
speaking, the majority of the Shadow Army's soldiers would spend
most of their downtime sleeping until our liege summons us.

I should be seen on the side of those who enjoyed napping, but

today was a very important day and I just had to rouse myself up.
Soldiers stretching their muscles to get ready for the day discovered
me and began bowing their heads to greet me.

"Oh, hello, Fangs-nim."

"Sure, sure."

"Good day to you, Commander Fangs."

"Right, right."

I didn't want to show it, but heck, I couldn't help but feel good
when this happened.

I came under my liege's wings relatively early compared to some

other soldiers and after my various accomplishments were

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recognised, I now found myself in the position to command all the
magic-wielding soldiers in the army.

The hierarchy within the Shadow Army was determined by how

trusted one was by our liege, and that was why Ancient-grade
Dragons were paying their respects to a mere High Orc Shaman like
myself!

My Sovereign-nim, hooray!!

My exalted and great Shadow Sovereign-nim, hooray!!

'Tsk, tsk....'

I ended up shouting out three cheers towards my liege again today

due to the overwhelming gratitude I felt. While feeling happy and
content, I headed towards the portion of the army comprising of ant
soldiers.

Quite unlike other Shadow Soldiers, these ants didn't seem to

enjoy napping and were always doing something or rather to keep
themselves busy. After finding me visiting their territory, they began
bowing their heads in greetings.

"Huh-huhuh...."

I half-heartedly accepted their greetings and quickened my walking

pace. If I were to be honest, I felt a wee bit scared by these ant
soldiers, even though we were on the same side.

Because, well, not only were they the most vicious and cruel of all
the Shadow Soldiers, but they were also scarily diligent with their
given tasks, too.

Kkiieek!

Kkiiiahk!

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Whenever these ants screeched out those sounds containing
meanings that were lost on me, I couldn't help but flinch my
shoulders just a little.

'If it isn't Beru Marshal-nim, just who would be capable of

commanding this lot....?'

Thankfully, Beru Marshal-nim in question must've read my mind,

because I didn't have to walk far to meet him, who had graciously
come out to greet me as well.

When our gazes met, though, his shoulders began quivering

ominously.

"Kiieehehehehehet."

"Ehehehehe."

"Kii-hahahahahat!"

"Ehehehehehet!!"

We stood face to face while laughing to our hearts' content.

Judging from the expression on Beru-nim's face, a very satisfactory

item must've been created. So, it was only obvious that a big smile
would form on my own face too, as it was me who entrusted the
creation of that item to him in the first place.

Beru-nim quickly approached me and then, showed me the 'item'

hidden behind his back.

"So, what do you think?"

I was so moved by my emotions that I ended up exclaiming out

loudly.

"Hoh!!"

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The item that I requested Beru-nim who possessed excellent
crafting skills, with its creation even at the risk of inconveniencing
him! A robe with a hood attached that resembled what our liege wore
not too long ago had been completed and was waiting for me.

"Kii-hehehehet!"

"Ehehehehet!"

I threw off the robe on my body right away and put on the brand
new one Beru-nim handed over.

The best!!

Was there a need for any other description than these two words?

I couldn't control my overflowing, heightened emotions and

addressed Beru-nim with an abashed voice.

"I can't even imagine how should I go about repaying you

for this, Marshal-nim..."

"Keh-hehehet. How can I turn a blind eye to your wish to

become more like our liege? As long as you're happy, it's all
good."

"Yes, I am truly happy. So much so that I'm almost tempted

to make it a duty of every Magic Soldier to wear this robe,
Marshal-nim."

"Kii-hahahahahat!"

"Uwehehehehet!"

Beru-nim couldn't control his laughter for a long time, but then, he
fixed his gaze on me as if he had discovered something else.

"That thing…. Wouldn't it be better to turn that item into a

staff rather than walking around with it in your hand?"
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What Beru-nim was pointing at was the 'Bead of Avarice' I carried
in my right hand most of the time.

"Heuh.... Does that mean I can entrust you for this one as
well....?"

I was sheepish, but still, I presented the Bead, but Beru-nim raised
his hand to stop me.

"I can't help you with magical artefacts. Unless you bring
me a living kin of the bearded Dwarves, then the story might
change."

"Ah…. I see."

"Since we're talking about it, how about entrusting the job
with the bearded Dwarves? They might be pretty terrible at
warfare, but they are still talented artisans, aren't they?"

"....."

I rubbed my chin and pondered this dilemma, and eventually,

nodded my head.

"That is a good idea, Marshal-nim."

"Kii-hehehehet!"

I bowed my waist 90 degrees to express my gratitude towards

Beru-nim and his excellent work, before quickly making my way out
of the ant's area. This time, my steps took me to the area populated
by my friends, the Dragons.

We grew quite close after comparing our firepower, you see. I

explained to them my circumstances, and they willingly stepped
forward to lend me aid. I chose the smallest of my friends and
climbed up on his back.

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There was only one reason why I chose this guy. Well, I was cursed
with short legs so if I mounted a friend with a bigger body, I might
have to suffer through the terrible pain of my groin being torn in half,
that's why.

Soon, my Dragon friend flapped its wings and flew up in the air. I
pointed in the direction where the bearded Dwarves were residing.

We were currently inside the world of eternal rest. It was wide

enough to be called infinite, and on top of that, there were ten million
soldiers residing here, so some places could only be accessed after
borrowing the abilities of my friends like this.

Flap, flap....

As the Dragon friend flew rapidly to our destination, I sneaked a

glance below us and oh boy, there sure were lots of soldiers below
us.

'There is... Grand-Marshal-nim.'

Slap, slap!!

"Stand up straight, Titans!!"

Currently, Bellion Grand-Marshal-nim was using his long sword that

could be manipulated by one's mind like a whip to properly re-
educate the newest additions to the army.

The newbies must've been fairly renowned back in their own world
and that resulted in them still being influenced by their old habits,
which meant that Grand-Marshal-nim would have to strictly discipline
them for a little while longer.

"....Ah!"

Bellion-nim discovered me and my Dragon friend in the air and

waved his hand at us, necessitating me to hurriedly bow my head to

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him as well.

After we flew past the location of the newbie training area, I

spotted Igrit-nim. He was so immersed in studying that he failed to
notice a Dragon flying above his head. We couldn't disturb Igrit
Marshal-nim when he was being like this, so we did our best to get
out of there as quietly as possible.

Kii-ahhk!

Once we put the areas with Marshal-nims behind us, my Dragon

friend unfurled its wings even wider and increased his speed.

A truly wonderful scenery greeted us!

Countless Shadow Soldiers, now no bigger than ants in our eyes,

went past in a blur below us.

Soldiers that were asleep; soldiers that were in the middle of

training; soldiers noisily chatting away; soldiers playing cards to while
away time; and even those soldiers busy grabbing at each other's
collars, their voices getting louder still….

What a colourful bunch they were.

Indeed, soldiers of all varieties could be seen below my feet. It

wasn't originally like this, however.

We were psychically connected to our liege's mind, and as his

powers grew stronger and stronger, we began to grow closer in
personality to him, as well. Meaning, we who only knew and desired
wanton destruction were gradually learning more about our liege's
human side.

The process of many new and different emotions of a human filling

up our once-empty chests was quite a refreshing experience, that's
for sure.

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When our liege's heart begins to pound, even our hearts would go
on a riot alongside it.

I liked my liege very much.

I could only express my gratitude to my liege who had shown me a

new world that I never ever imagined experiencing before.

My Sovereign-nim, hooray!!

My exalted and great Shadow Sovereign-nim….

'Eh?'

While I was unconsciously exalting my liege after being moved by

my emotions once more, we had already arrived at the area
populated by the kins of the bearded Dwarves.

Perhaps fitting for our comrades that enjoyed crafting things, they
had managed to construct a proper village, what with houses and
smithies, as well as other buildings dotting the landscape.

Flap, flap.

After my Dragon friend landed on the ground, I cautiously stepped

down, my toes wiggling and searching for solid footing.

"F-Fangs Commander-nim!"

"Commander-nim?"

The bearded Dwarves discovered my sudden, unannounced visit

and quickly gathered around before politely bowing their heads. I
was pretty sure that they were flustered by my presence, since it
would be very rare for a Commander to come visit this far-flung
'frontier' area.

I politely explained what my situation was to these very courteous

folks. When I was finished, their Elder replied with a bright
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expression.

"Ah, I see…. Please, leave it to us. As a matter of fact, we

were troubled by the fact that we couldn't find a good place
to use the divine timber our liege had bestowed upon us."

"Hoh-oh!"

It seemed that the right material had been prepared already.

While I was being treated to a cup of warm tea at the residence of

the Elder, other artisans gathered together to craft my new weapon.

"What do you think, Commander-nim?"

The Elder confidently presented a cool-looking staff and I cried out

as another bout of emotions overwhelmed me.

"Hoh-ohhhhh!!"

I had no choice but to carry around the Bead of Avarice in my

hand, but that beautiful thing glowing in bright crimson hue was now
decorating the end of this great staff.

"Very good! It's wonderful!"

My mood lifted up so much that I almost flew away from there. And
as I took hold of the staff and assumed several different poses, the
corners of the Elder's lips curled up.

"The word wonderful would better suit the robe you're

wearing right now instead of the staff, Commander-nim!"

"Uwehehehehehet! I see that you too have a great sense of

fashion!"

I was able to leave the residential area of the kins of bearded

Dwarves in utter satisfaction. I watched them wave their hands to
bade me goodbye and raised my thumb up real high as my reply.
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If, in the distant future, my liege asked me about the coolness of
this staff, then I swore in my heart to mention their hard work in
crafting this item.

I went back the way I came and returned to the area of the Magic
Soldiers. The first thing I did was to summon all the Magic Soldiers
under my command and showed off my new robe and weapon
combo.

"It's really cool, Fangs-nim!"

"It's the best!"

"I can't stop my tears from gushing out, Fangs Commander-

nim!"

Rather obviously, praises kept pouring in from everywhere. It was

the romance of all Magic Soldiers to wear cool-looking robes and hold
cool-looking staffs, after all!

"Uwuhuhuhuhut!!"

I magnanimously shared my joy with the rest of the Magic Soldiers,

and then, gifted the highest-quality robe I used to wear until recently
to this one particular soldier busy clapping his hands who said a
moment or two ago that he couldn't stop crying.

"Thank you, thank you, Commander-nim!!"

"Uwuhuhuhuhut!!"

He was expressing his joy with his entire body and I lightly patted
his shoulders. But it was at this point that my eyes caught the sight
of a few big guys that I hadn't seen before.

"And who you guys might be?"

The giants made out of rocks scratched the backs of their heads,

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and one of them spoke to me in an awkward voice.

"Bellion-nim ordered us to come to this place."

'Ah, ah. I see.'

It seemed that there were a few Magic Soldiers among the ranks of
the new additions to the army. But then again, wouldn't such a big
guy shooting magic spells around be a waste of his hulking…. No,
hang on a minute, that wasn't something I could say with a straight
face, now was it?

In any case.

There was this one process that all newbie Magic Soldiers had to
go through if they were to be put under my command.

"There, there. Other Magic Soldiers, you're dismissed for

the time being. The newbies, settle down there for a second."

The rocky giants were so well disciplined that they politely knelt
down on the spot and quietly waited for me.

"From now on, I shall describe in detail what I've

accomplished during the first battle our liege fought against
the horrifying enemy called the Dragon Emperor, and then,
every achievement I earned during the ensuing battle within
the gap between dimensions. Listen well, and then....."

After I finished telling them the lengthy tale of my unforgettable

history, I had the newbies still stewing in admiration towards me
return to their respective posts. It was then that I realised my day
had come to an end.

I sensed the encroaching embrace of Lady Sleep, so I unfurled the

bedding, lied down on it, and let out an almighty yawn.

"Yawn-!!"

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I liked wonderful clothes, cool weapons, or telling stirring heroic
tales, but what I liked the most at the end of the day was to fall
asleep. Especially for sleep that closed out a day like today, which
was hectic, to say the least.

I pulled the duvet right up until my neck and slowly drifted into my
slumber while being embraced in this wonderful warmth. But then,
just as the sleepiness sneaked its way closer and carried me off to
the land of dreams, someone suddenly began shaking my shoulders!

How dare he?!

How dare anyone try to disrupt the sweet slumber of Commander

Fangs?! My eyes shot wide open as I got ready to rip the idiot apart.

"...?"

Igrit Marshal-nim was quietly looking at me from near my head.

"I love you, Marshal-nim."

"....I am also grateful for your sincere loyalty."

"By the way…. What brings you here, Marshal-nim?"

I pushed my upper torso up and Igrit Marshal-nim pointed to the

distant sky above.

"It's about to begin. Didn't we, the Commander-grade

soldiers that serve our liege from close by, agree to cheer
him on when the time came?"

"Heok!!"

I kicked the duvet off and hurriedly jumped up before raising my

head towards the sky. Like a gigantic movie theatre, the sky
morphed into a screen to share what our liege was viewing to the
rest of us.

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"Finally, is our liege about to meet Lady Hae-In?"

"That's correct."

"Uwohohohot!!"

So moved by the fact that I was allowed to share this historical

moment together with my liege, I ended up crying out loudly. The
rest of the Shadow Soldiers cheering on our liege then also raised
their arms high up and roared out as well.

Waaaahhhh-!!!

When our liege's heart pounded away, ours would pound away as
well. I too raised my arms up high and joined in the chorus of
soldiers' roars.

Waaaah-!!

My heart was beating really loud now.

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Chapter 257 Fin.

Source: WEBNOVEL

Side Story 14

Antares was my name.

I was the 'First Sovereign' born from the darkness, as well as the
'Strongest Sovereign'. I was the king that lorded over all Dragon-kind,
an existence that signified terror and destruction.

That's right.

All those who knew me referred to me as the 'Dragon Emperor' as

a sign of respect and awe.

However, something strange happened.

On a certain day, as I was getting ready to invade the planet called

'Earth' alongside the ten million-strong soldiers within our hideout
inside the gap between dimensions….

….I opened my eyes to discover that I was now occupying the body
of a human being.

'…....'

And rather inexplicably, I seemed to have retained all the

memories of this human, as well. I quickly found a mirror in the
corner of the room and took a look at myself, only to emit a shocked
gasp.

'What's this? Why does this human's face look so feeble?'

Hah-ah, how pitifully pathetic this man was.

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The name of this human was Seong Jin-Woo, a young man acting
as a rank E Hunter in a nation called the Republic of Korea. It seemed
that this human never gave up on being a Hunter, even though his
pathetic level of abilities drove him to the moments of near death
quite often.

'His reason is.... his mother's illness?'

Just as I began thinking to myself that such a measly little illness

would be healed in an instant with my magic, the human's mobile
phone suddenly began vibrating loudly.

Vrrr…. Vrrr….

I discovered the miniature electronic device angrily vibrating on

top of a desk and picked it up. When I did, I was greeted by an urgent
female voice coming from the other side of the phone line.

I tried to match this voice to the memories of my human body and

soon, came across a result of 'Hunter's Association Employee'.

'Hmph.'

I was thinking of ending this call which was answered purely out of
this body's habitual reaction, but then, what this female said towards
the end got on my nerves somewhat.

'…..!!!'

Being 'late'.

The action of failing to meet the promised deadline because one

lacked the ability to arrive on time. Meaning, this female just dared
to ask me, the mighty 'Dragon Emperor' and the personification of
omnipotent powers, that I'd do something which was the very symbol
of incompetence.

Since this was completely unacceptable, rage quickly filled up my

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eyes.

"You…. Where are you right now?"

I concentrated for a bit to find the exact location where this

insolent female was speaking from. My sensory perception spread
out to envelop the entire city and soon enough, I found her
coordinates.

"Found you."

Click.

The location was about 11 kilometres away in the human distance

measuring system, and since it wasn't too far, I ran with all my might
and arrived there in only a couple of seconds.

And then, I stopped right in front of that female Association

employee as she began lowering the phone away from her ear, now
that the call had been disconnected.

"Now, am I still late, woman?"

"H-Hunter-nim?!"

Perhaps she had sensed just a tiny fraction of my limitless power,

because she began backpedalling with a deeply frightened
expression etched on her face.

I reached out and grabbed her shoulders as to make sure she'd not
get away and asked her again.

"Tell me. Am I being tardy now?"

"N-no, not at all."

"Very good."

I released her as a look of satisfaction floated up on my face. I then

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swept my gaze around the surroundings to find a group of Hunters
raising a bit of fuss.

Rather than focusing on these unremarkable individuals and their

forgettable faces, I focused on the distinct aroma rising up from the
paper cups they were holding at the moment.

"Coffee…. I also want to drink coffee."

I turned around to look at the female employee with her rapidly-

paling complexion, and she bowed her waist with all of her heart.

"I-I'm truly sorry, Hunter-nim. We ran out of coffee just

now....."

"It's not an issue."

"Pardon?"

Even before she had the chance to raise her bowed heard, I walked
over to the closest human and snatched his paper cup away.

"W-what are you doing?!"

Gulp, gulp.

I swallowed the sweet liquid in one go and formed a crumpled

expression, causing the flustered man who lost his coffee to me to
jump up in fright and quickly flee from there.

"Hahah!!"

The one possessing great powers would take away what the weak
possessed, that was the way of the Sovereigns. It seemed that such
logic also applied to humans and that certainly made me feel rather
refreshed.

"Mister Seong…. Isn't he acting a little bit weird today?"

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"Yes, his eyes today are a bit...."

"Well, I've been getting this really creepy, eerie feeling

from him since he showed up here."

Other Hunters were murmuring amongst themselves behind my

back, but there was no reason to pay heed to the opinions of these
lowly humans anyway, so I outright ignored them.

"There, there. Since everyone is here, let's get started."

While the Hunters began stretching their muscles to get ready for
the raid, I shifted my gaze towards the 'Gate' that these people were
scheduled to enter.

'….'

That place, it... was quite suspicious.

The Gates that appeared on Earth were, without a doubt, the ploy
of the Rulers, yet…. Why was I picking up the aura of a Sovereign
from there?

There was a need to investigate this. I glared at the Gate with eyes
as sharp as a hawk and stood behind the Hunters getting ready to
enter.

"I'm coming along."

"O-of course, you do need to come with us, Hunter Seong."

Perhaps they too had detected the eerie, chilling atmosphere

oozing out from the interior of the Gate, because the Hunters were
forming flustered expressions as well. I accompanied them and
stepped past the portal.

Pow, bang, boom, thud!!

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As I began pummelling the fake monsters placed here to hide the
real purpose of this dungeon into oblivion, other Hunters began
showing me their respect.

"Isn't Mister Seong acting seriously weird today??"

"No, well…. Maybe the monsters of this dungeon are just

too weak...?"

"But, I can't see his movements. My eyes can't follow

Mister Seong at all...."

I took care of all the monsters in an instant and finally discovered a

suspicious entrance.

"We go through here."

"Hold on, we need to take a vote to decide on such

issues..."

This man didn't get to finish his sentence. Because he lost his
consciousness from a single hit from me.

Plop.

I looked down at the collapsed old man before scanning the rest of
the Hunters.

"Anyone else want to take a vote?"

"...."

The decision to enter the passage was unanimous. We walked the

seemingly-infinite corridor and finally arrived at the giant door at the
end.

"But, how can there be a door at the end of the cave?"

"Has there ever been a boss room with a doorway before?"

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"No, this is a first...."

"This... wouldn't this be too dangerous?"

Noisy, noisy….

The Hunters didn't bother to hide their high level of anxiety. I too
had detected the truly scary aura leaking out from the interior and
agreed with their opinion that things could get dangerous.

That was why as soon as I opened the door, I grabbed the collar of
a Hunter standing at the front of the pack and lightly tossed him
inside.

"U-uwahk?!"

The thrown idiot flailed about unsightly on the floor, but contrary to
initial worries, nothing happened. Only after confirming that it was
safe to enter, I strode right in. The vast open interior waiting for me
was decorated like an ancient temple.

"W-what is this place??"

Other Hunters belatedly entered behind me and began searching

around, but they were wasting their time doing that.

I closed my eyes for a brief moment and focused my senses; soon,

I discovered the b*stard that was basically the true puppeteer of this
place.

"It's that one over there."

Hunters quickly gathered in front of an angel statue holding a

stone tablet that I pointed at.

"Looks like something is written on the tablet?"

"Uh, uh? It's the Rune letters!"

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It seemed that a Hunter capable of reading the Rune letters were
not present among us, so I read it out loud for them, instead.

"The Laws of the Karutenon Temple."

When I did, though, someone suddenly pulled at my arm. I looked

behind me only to find a young girl with a completely pale
complexion standing there.

"T-the god statue over there, it...."

"Unhand me."

I shook off the girl's hands and continued to read down the stone
tablet.

"One, worship the god. Two, exalt the god. Three, prove
your piety. Those who do not keep to these laws shall not
leave this place alive."

It was at that exact moment two beams of crimson light shot out
from the eyes of the gigantic god statue sitting in a corner over
there.

Zzzziiinnng-!!

I didn't even bother to dodge or block those beams and simply

stood up proudly to clash face-to-face with the attack.

"You dare to belittle this Emperor with so little power?!"

I ridiculed the destructive power of the beams that didn't even

come anywhere remotely close to that of the Breath fired by an
Ancient-grade Dragon, before stepping forward to display what true
destruction looked like.

Kwahaaaaaaahhh-!!

The 'Breath of Destruction' fired out in a straight line from my

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mouth completely blew away the head of the god statue.

"Now that is true power."

That served as the starting signal. The statues lining up the walls
of the temple like some decorations began rushing towards me while
ignoring other Hunters.

"Keuh-hahahahaha!!"

What a bunch of arrogant dolls!

With nothing but my bare hands, I began smashing apart the

heads of the statues pouncing at me one by one.

Boom! Bang! Boom! Kwa-jeeck! Ka-boom!!

"Too slow!! So slow!"

Hunters quickly lowered themselves to the floor in order to dodge

the debris flying all over the place. Some of them even began crying
out, too.

"Why! Why does it feel like there was another way?!"

"What was up with those laws or whatever just now?!"

Even before their desperate cries could come to an end, most of

the statues were turned into nothing more than shattered rubble by
my hands. It was only obvious, but well, they didn't even serve their
role as a proper warm-up for me.

"Is that all you have??"

The angel statue with the stone tablet suddenly rose up from its
seat and loudly shouted out, perhaps incensed by the fact that all of
its careful preparation had been rendered useless by my power.

[Y-you b*stard, just what is your iden.....]

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"Silence!"

I yanked the spear loose from the grip of a broken statue and
threw it straight at the angel. In less than a blink, the spear
penetrated through the neck of the b*stard and it collapsed down to
the floor.

I didn't come here to converse with a fake. What I wanted to bring

out was the true figure hidden behind the scenes!

"Reveal yourself, you coward!"

I got rid of all the hindrances and roared out loudly, and that
prompted the headless god statue to quietly raise itself up off its
throne.

Indeed, that's better.

The corners of my lips curled up as the sensation of boiling blood

coursed throughout this body. The god statue strode closer and
stopped right before me to look down.

[The Sovereign of Destruction, our paths were fated to

cross like this. Here, in this place, I shall put an end to our ill-
fated relationship!]

"Ha-ha!! Now that is an excellent idea!"

The god statue was rapidly enveloped in a jet-black aura and

transformed into a gigantic shadow, and I unleashed all of my
strength in order to contend with that massive hunk of power.

An ecstatic jolt coursed from the tip of my toes right up to the ends
of my hair.

"Come!"

Our battle would not end that easily!

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"Heok?!"

Jin-Woo hurriedly raised his upper torso from the bed.

He spotted the familiar bed, familiar wallpapers, familiar ceiling,

and his old computer. He quickly took a look around and finally
realised that the place he woke up was in his own room.

'It was a dream?'

It was a truly rubbish dream where he had become the Dragon

Emperor. No, should he say that the Dragon Emperor became him,
instead?

'Hold up....'

He hurriedly confirmed the current time with his smartphone and

sighed in relief afterwards. There was still some time left before the
beginning of the exams.

'Now that I think about it... It's been four years already
since I got rid of the Dragon Emperor.'

Time flew by in the blink of an eye, and here he was, scheduled to

take the College Scholastic Ability Test later today. Him having a crap
dream like this was good evidence of how tense he felt right now.

Smirk.

Jin-Woo chuckled helplessly for a moment there before getting up

from the bed. Today, he'd get to confirm the fruit of his hard work
and determination of the past four years.

He had already decided on which university he wanted to go to.

Because this one person he just had to meet would attend that
institution later on.

'What a relief that you aren't so good with studying, Jin-

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Ho.'

Yu Jin-Ho.

Jin-Woo reminded himself of the name of the guy he dearly missed

and pulled open the curtains covering up the windows to the side.
The dusky aura of the dawn was gradually fading away outside.

'I shall go there first and wait for you.'

Jin-Woo breathed in the winds of the early morning entering

through the open gap of his window while thinking about the reunion
that'd take place in the near future. It was at that moment when the
door to his room was pushed open, accompanied by the loud, hurried
footsteps.

"S-son, you know that today is the CSAT day, right?"

"Son, as your father, I can take you there, you know?"

His parents couldn't catch a wink during the night, worried that
their son might end up missing out on this all-important exam
because he woke up a bit late today. Jin-Woo looked at their haggard
faces and gently smiled while nodding his head.

"I'm ready."

[Let's go, my liege.]

Jin-Woo soon stepped out of his home as Igrit, sounding tense for
some reason, spoke words of encouragement.

What a refreshing morning this was.

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Chapter 258 Fin.

Source: WEBNOVEL

Side Story 15

The United States of America, inside the official residence of the

nation's president – the White House.

Several bigshots gathered in this iconic white building created for

the President of the U.S. of A to live and work.

"...."

Every single one of these important government officials occupying

a spot inside the briefing room all carried tense expressions. Among
them, one person carried the gloomiest expression.

The American President continued to rub his face, wondering over

and over again if he had made the right call.

'Rifts formed on an empty sky, and unidentified objects

began appearing from there.'

It was an unprecedented historical event. But, was it the right thing

to handle this incredible event without saying a word to the public at
large?

No, before that, did they even possess the capability to deal with
'the objects that came out' from there?

All he could do was anxiously wait for the arrival of the commander
in charge of the operation. And, when the entrance to the conference
room opened up and General Chester Harrison entered, the President
quickly got up from his seat to welcome the military man.

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"Harrison, just what the hell happened back there?"

The final report sent in from the location of the event was...

….That report, sadly enough, lacked the most important 'how' of

that normalisation process.

That was why so many bigshots, including the POTUS himself, were
nervously waiting for the arrival of the military man inside this
conference room.

Chester mouthed a brief greeting to his boss and scanned the

room for a short while, and stood in front of the room.

"Rather than me trying to describe the situation to you, it'll

be far quicker to play the video contained in here."

What he was holding was a small USB stick. The President grew
curious about its contents in an instant and hurriedly nodded his
head.

Not just him, though, but everyone present within the room was
staring at the tense-faced general's hand. He slotted the USB stick in
the terminal and video footage began playing on the giant screen
installed on the wall of the conference room.

"This is the footage captured by the surveillance drones

and robots."

Chester Harrison spoke those short introductory words and stood

beside the screen while swallowing down his own nervous saliva.

He couldn't even begin to imagine how these folks would react to

the footage about to be played. Well, he'd seen it several times
before coming here, and he was still unsure how to take it, even now.

However, what was really important here was that it did happen.

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The evidence of that was contained within this USB drive, and as
the commander in charge of this operation, it was his duty to reveal
it to this gathering of higher-ups.

The beginning of the footage started off with the 'cracks' in the

sky.

"Keu-heum...."

"Huh-uh!"

Several gasps of shocks came from here and there as giants

seemingly made out of rocks emerged from the rift reminiscent of
dimension itself shattering away.

If it weren't for the heads-up they received in regards to the

existence of those bizarre creatures, the inside of the conference
room would've descended into pure chaos by now.

But the truly shocking scene happened after that. In front of

terrifying giants, ones so scary that you'd forget to even breathe
while looking at them, stood the lone figure of a person.

'Judging from his body size.... a boy?'

'An East Asian, maybe?'

The Secretary of Defense couldn't hold it back anymore and

pointed at the screen while asking his questions.

"That man!! Who is that man?? Where were our troops,

Harrison? And why was there a civilian standing in the middle
of those creatures?!"

It was as he said; this footage wasn't a record that everyone in this

room was expecting to see in which the mightiest army on Earth –
the American military – smashed apart and drove back the creatures
of another world.

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No, this video was all about a lone, nameless man whose face they
couldn't even see.

With excellent timing, the screen now showed pitch-black 'soldiers'

suddenly rising up from the ground behind that lone man. General
Chester Harrison, his gaze fixed to the screen until then, spoke as if
he was letting out a pained moan.

"....I'd like to know that myself as well."

"Does it look like I'm alone to you?"

When those words came to an end, nearly ten million Shadow

Soldiers simultaneously lined up right behind Jin-Woo.

The number of Titans that emerged from the rift in the sky was
around several hundred. So, it was ten million versus a few hundred.
In any other normal circumstances, the 'ten million' should've easily
overwhelmed the opposition with this number.

The problem today, however, was the fact that each Titan
possessed powers equal to that of higher existences.

Ba-thump, ba-thump!!

Facing a battle for the first time in a long while, Jin-Woo's heart
began pounding away quite loudly. He sent a mental communication
to Fangs, currently in charge of commanding all the Magic Soldiers.

[There is no problem on this side, my liege.]

Not just Fangs, but all of the Magic Soldiers were entrusted with
performing and maintaining magic spells to minimise the shock
waves that no doubt would be generated by this battle.

He had no choice but to do this, since this world had no Mana, and
it was simply far too fragile as it currently was.

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Also, the uninvited guests came here with the purpose of literally
devouring this planet, so they wouldn't go about flinging around
unnecessarily powerful magic spells, either. Inevitably, the battle
about to take place would be a confrontation involving physical
powers between allies and enemy forces.

A contest of pure raw strength, in other words.

Thankfully, he didn't dislike such a type of fighting, to begin with. A

smirk formed on Jin-Woo's lips.

One of the Titans completely misinterpreted the meaning behind

that smirk and in the blink of an eye, smashed its fist down in pure
rage.

BOOM-!!

Too bad, the target – Jin-Woo – had already risen up in the air. He
had lightly jumped up like a pole vaulter and settled down gently on
top of the Titan's fist like a falling feather.

'…...?'

This Titan's expression hardened and a sense of ominous

foreboding crept up along its backside after seeing that smile etched
on the human's face as he stood upright on top of its fist.

Sure enough, the human began dashing forward on top of the arm
next.

Pah-bababaht!

His legs were moving so fast that even the Titans, possessing as
much power as higher beings, couldn't react in time. And when they
did, Jin-Woo was already well past this particular Titan's shoulder,
heading straight to the back of its neck.

Soon, the shortsword held in his hand penetrated straight into the

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Titan's rocky neck.

[Kuwaaahk!!!]

It was almost like scratching the paint of a car with a coin. While
gripping tight the shortsword still buried in the neck of the gigantic
creature, Jin-Woo ran towards the other shoulder, leaving behind a
long, long line on the poor thing's skin.

Kwa-gahgahgahgahgahk!!

The black aura loaded on the blade cleanly separated the head of
the Titan from the rest of its body.

Riiip!

Jin-Woo stood tall on the shoulder as the huge head rolled off its
body, and he provocatively glared at the other Titans. He could sense
rage, fluster, and fear creeping up on their expressions.

One at a time….

Memories, as well as the feelings he had while hunting down the

Army of the Chaos World in the gap between dimensions, floated
back up in his head one by one.

He knew he had succeeded in breaking the fighting spirit of these

creatures.

His original goal was the complete annihilation of the race of

Titans. And so, he finally had his Shadow Army break out of its
standby mode and enter the fray.

'All personnel, advance!!'

The will to fight from the enormous army beginning to make its
move could be felt from below.

Waaaaaaahh-!!!
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'It's no good that their leader stops moving here, right?'

At least, that was not his style, the style of the current Shadow
Sovereign. Jin-Woo's sharp glare began searching for his next prey.

Flinch.

One of the Titans that met Jin-Woo's glare flinched its shoulders.

The enemy that lost itself to fear would be the first one to be
devoured. He pounced in that direction while swinging his
shortsword, packed full of black aura.

This blade might not have been the 'Kamish's Wrath', but Jin-Woo
had been roaming the battlefield for 27 years already, and the
control he could exert on the black aura was no longer dependent on
the weapons he wielded.

The black aura spreading out from the end of the shortsword
stretched out towards his front and completely sliced up the face of
the frozen Titan.

Kwa-gah-gahk!!

The giant that got terrified by the overwhelming power of this

small lifeform lost its life so easily like that. However, as it turned
out, not all Titans were cowards like this guy.

Jin-Woo's brows shot up in surprise. Right behind the falling body of

the dead Titan with its torn-off head, he could now see other Titans
throwing everything they had in order to kill him.

He used his ability to fly to dodge beneath the huge fist

approaching him from the front, while another one sharply digging in
from his back was avoided by him flying up.

The skill, 'Ruler's Authority', had now been fully ingrained within his
body and he could manipulate it without any restriction whatsoever.

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The thing was, though, the enemies and their abilities also surpassed
his expectations, as well.

The fist of a Titan slammed down like a hammer, and Jin-Woo

kicked it away, only to be greeted by the back of a hand flying in
from the side. He quickly gathered his arms and got ready for the
impact while crouching, to minimise the surface area of his body.

BOOM-!!

In order to ensure that he wasn't flung away, Jin-Woo yanked at the

back of the Titan's hand that smacked him with Mana. In an instant,
that huge hand was pulled towards him and his shortsword, swung
without mercy, sliced off the creature's wrist in one go.

Slice-!!

The Titan grabbed its now-severed wrist and roared loudly to the
sky.

[Kuwaaah-!!]

Jin-Woo rapidly approached its neck and stabbed his weapon deep
into where the creature's Adam's apple should be.

Kwa-jeeck!

One razor-sharp killing move later, and another massive physique

came crashing on its backside. Jin-Woo kicked the chest of the
toppling Titan and jumped up high, before slicing and dicing the
hands of the Titans relentlessly reaching out towards him.

To his side!

He dodged the edge of the Titan's hand, swung with all of the
creature's might, by flying up, which in turn helped him to find
enough leeway to take stock of the current situation.

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In that briefest of moments, Titans keeping close to his position
crashed into him with their shoulders from both sides.

BOOM-!!

"...!!"

Trapped between the two humongous shoulders, Jin-Woo extended

his hands to stop himself from being squashed and then, shoved both
of the Titans away with his raw physical strength. Like an
unbelievable lie, those two huge figures were pushed away from him.

[Keu-heum!]

[How could he, with such a small body of his?!]

While there were Titans freaking out over the fact that they lost
out in the contest of strength, there was also another Titan who was
smashing down with its arm as if it was waiting for this precise
moment.

While the palm swung downwards viciously as if to crush a bug to

death….

"UWAHHH-!!"

….Jin-Woo spat out Mana with a terrifying roar to deflect it away.

The Titan got flustered by the invisible hand suddenly shoving its
arm away, only to belatedly realise something.

'….??'

It realised that there was a massive black fist flying straight in its
face.

KWA-BOOM!!

The black aura concentrated on Jin-Woo's right hand morphed into

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the arm of a giant before cleanly blowing away the head of the Titan.
Soon, he transformed into a giant himself by enveloping his body
with the black aura and proceeded to mercilessly destroy the Titans
around him.

Like a group of starving wild beasts, the giant shadow and the
Titans made out of rocks went on a crazed melee of pure chaos and
confusion.

The end result came out pretty quickly.

Right in the midst of the Titans kneeling and collapsing to the

ground, the black shadow giant standing tall was busy crushing an
arm made out of rock with his pure physical strength after ripping it
off from one of its victims.

Wu-duduk!!

Maybe they finally had enough of Jin-Woo's fighting spirit, the

Titans surrounding him began backing away one step at a time.

'….?'

Jin-Woo scanned his enemies with puzzled eyes, but then, a Titan
even bigger and sturdier-looking than all the rest confidently strode
out from among them.

Strangely enough, though….

[Hoh-oh.]

The one to actually speak was a rather small lifeform standing on

the shoulder of this particular Titan, instead.

[I now see that even a small planet on the outskirts of the

universe can contain a pretty useful talent.]

It was a humanoid made out of rocks that looked like a

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miniaturised version of the Titans. It threw a rather insidious grin in
Jin-Woo's direction.

[However, the mere fact that you need to increase the size
of your body in order to enhance your power is a sure sign of
how primitive your species is. On the contrary, we, the
Titans, decrease in size when we need to fight with
everything we have.]

The talkative creature had both its hands reach out before pointing
back at itself as a wide grin formed on its face.

[Fu-hut. Of course, such a thing is only possible for the

greatest warriors of the Titan race.....]

It was then.

Jin-Woo was forming an expression of ridicule as he listened to the

fool talk, but then, his head quickly snapped to the side.

Flash!!

With excellent timing, a streak of crimson light flew in from behind

Jin-Woo and utterly erased the so-called greatest warrior of the Titans
from existence.

It was fired by an Ancient-grade Dragon, which was currently being

ridden on by Bellion. The Grand-Marshal asked his boss in a bit of
fluster.

[My liege, were you perchance conversing with that

creature?]

Jin-Woo shook his hand to show that it was all good and shifted his
gaze towards Bellion.

"You know, these guys seem to be way too arrogant for

their own good, so it looks like you'll have to pay them extra

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special attention later on."

[Please leave it to me, my liege.]

The trusty Grand-Marshal bowed his waist politely before flying

away to somewhere else, and Jin-Woo took a sweeping look at the
remaining Titans.

Most of the invading rock giants' higher-levelled combatants had

been destroyed by Jin-Woo, and as for the remaining ones, they were
being overwhelmed by the black tidal waves created by his Shadow
Soldiers.

[Kuwaaaahhk-!!]

[Kuwahk!!]

Loud screams spat out by the giants made out of rocks completely
filled up this nameless stretch of the desert.

"..."

"....."

Utter silence.

Could there be any other words that could better describe the
current atmosphere pervading within the conference room?

As if someone doused the entire room in icy cold water, it was

eerily quiet in there.

The POTUS had become completely speechless after watching the

footage. However, he did eventually regain his voice, albeit with
great difficulty.

"That man.... Have you uncovered his identity yet?"

The general shook his head in silence.

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The true monster capable of toying with those scary-looking
monsters ended up saving the United States of America without
anyone even realising it.

'No, maybe the entire world....'

Unfortunately... if you flip the notion of a power capable of saving

the world on its head, it also implied that the same power could
destroy this world, as well.

The President realised that uncovering the identity of that mystery

man, at the very least, should be their top priority and asked the
bigshots present within the conference room.

"Is there any way to uncover and confirm the identity of

that man from the footage? Anyone?"

They began offering up their opinions here and there, but they all
agreed that it was realistically impossible to do so. But then….

"Indeed, it may realistically be impossible. When we are

talking about 'realistic' means, that is, sir."

The director of America's Central Intelligence Agency, David

Brennan, raised his voice. The President quickly looked at him.

".....Is there something you'd like to tell us, Director?"

Director Brennan cautiously spoke up.

"If a realistic approach is impossible, how about we employ

'unrealistic' means, instead?"

The bigshots around him tilted their heads, but Director Brennan
simply formed a grin.

"We do have a way. A certain person who can inform us of

the truths that no one would have known, through fantastical

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means."

Could he be talking about...?!

Pretty much everyone living in the United States of America

would've heard of her name by now. It was an open secret within the
world of politics that she had been maintaining a special relationship
with the CIA.

The President recalled her name and his brows shot up.

"What you're saying is....?"

The Director replied confidently.

"That's right, sir. It's Madam Norma Selner. Just like before,
she will help us with the right answer this time as well."

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Chapter 259 Fin.

Source: WEBNOVEL

Side Story 16

Once more in the United States of America, somewhere in the

quiet suburbs on the outskirts of a city. A black saloon car gliding
smoothly on a certain road finally arrived at its destination – a small,
but cosy and inviting house, with a red roof.

Tap, tap, tap.

The ones climbing out of the vehicle was the Director of the CIA,
David Brennan, and his two bodyguards. The director studied the
red-roofed residence for a little while before issuing a new order to
his underlings.

"You two, wait for me here."

"But, sir..."

Since these two agents were charged with protecting him, that
order was a rather difficult one to accept, but the director's attitude
remained unchanging.

"It's fine, it's fine."

He waved his hand dismissively towards his underlings trying to

dissuade him.

"Madam doesn't enjoy noisy visits like this, anyway."

Leaving behind his entourage by the car, the director walked alone
towards the front door and began fixing his attire. Once he felt
satisfied by his grooming attempt, he cautiously knocked on the

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door.

"Madam? It's me, Dav...."

Even before he could finish introducing himself, the door opened

up and a young African-American child peeked his head out. The
director recognised Madam Selner's grandson and crouched lower to
match the boy's eye level before patting the kid on the head.

"Is your grandma home?"

"She's been waiting for you, bearded uncle, for a while

now."

David Brennan looked at the child pointing at him and couldn't help
but chuckle gently.

But, of course. Just who was the woman he came here to speak to?

The psychic, the prophet, the real 'Esper'.

Didn't matter which title was used, none of them would sound ill-
fitting to Madam Selner, the world's pre-eminent soothsayer. That's
who he came here to see today.

Of course, it wasn't as if he trusted her words in the beginning.

But then, she began solving serious problems that even the CIA, an
organisation at the peak of the cut-throat intelligence world, had
given up on with preternatural abilities, and the director had no
choice but to stop suspecting her gift there and then.

She was the real deal.

'A true superhuman...'

So, predicting his unannounced arrival for someone like her would
be easier than, say, changing the channel on TV with a remote.

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Guided by the grandchild, the director was led into the sitting room
where the Madam was waiting for him with a cup of warm tea on top
of a coffee table. He politely greeted her.

"It's been a while, Madam."

"Good to see you, Dave."

The director raised his head.

The last time he stepped in here was about a year ago; he took a
look around at the interior decoration of the sitting room that hadn't
changed since his last visit before carefully parking his butt on one of
the couches.

"Madam, you probably can't imagine how difficult our work

has become ever since you announced your retirement."

One could say that the information on the past was of no value
compared to the information on the future.

The CIA reaped a great deal of harvest by cooperating with Madam

Selner, so the sense of loss the agency felt after she retired was
indeed well above one's imagination.

The director might have spoken with a smile as if he was cracking

a joke, but his genuine belief, hidden beneath the surface, could be
heard if one paid closer attention.

Too bad, the Madam spoke composedly as if she was tiding a

young child throwing a tantrum for more cookies.

"Dave, I've already told you this, haven't I? I can no longer

see the future after that person arrived."

"Ah...."

Was she talking about that story of the 'God of Death' again?

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The director could only smack his lips wryly at the exact same
answer she gave every time he asked her.

It was the story about how her powers became useless after an
existence powerful enough to twist destiny as he saw fit had
descended to this world.

The director forgot what he wanted to say next after remembering

her reason for retiring, one that defied one's attempt to understand
through logic.

"...."

And so, silence weighed down between these two people.

David Brennan wondered how he should go about breaking this

awkward atmosphere before his nose picked up on the enticing
aroma of food.

"Madam, were you in the middle of a meal?"

She slowly shook her head.

"Actually, I have been entertaining another guest."

"Ah…. I see."

She didn't enjoy meeting with people, yet she was with another
visitor?

The director tilted his head slightly, but soon enough, made up his
mind to stop beating around the bush. The smile on his face vanished
next.

"In that case, I shall get right to the point and get out of
your hair as soon as possible."

When he said that, though, the Madam replied as if she was

waiting for him.
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"The answer to the first question is a 'yes', and for the
second one, a 'no'."

"H-hang on...."

The director could only form a flustered expression when his

questions were answered even before he had a chance to say them
out loud. She grinned refreshingly.

"You wish to ask me how I knew about your questions if I

can't see the future anymore, am I wrong?"

"....Well, no."

"Dave. The answers you seek from me are actually the

matters of the past. I simply took a glimpse at a portion of
the past and provided you with a suitable answer."

"Oh. Ohh..."

The director nodded his head, a soft moan leaving his lips. She
carefully continued on.

"Well, then. Shall I provide you with proper answers to your

questions?"

David Brennan pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed the sweat on

his forehead.

"Of course. Please go ahead, Madam."

She then began with her explanations.

"That's right, Dave. I know just who it is that you wish to

find out about."

Her answer to the first question was 'yes'. However, her answer to
the follow-up question was 'no'.

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"Unfortunately, I will not divulge any information on that
person to anyone."

"But, Madam!"

The director's voice suddenly grew louder. He wasn't trying to

threaten her or anything like that. It was just that his agitation got
the better of him and he ended up shouting out.

"If it's you, Madam, then you should already know what he
has done! We can't just let someone like that run around
without a respo....."

It was at that moment that the Madam herself shouted out as if

she couldn't hold it in anymore.

"I'm choosing not to say anything precisely because I

know!"

This must've been the very first time seeing her like this.

The director didn't know what kind of expression he should form

now after being confronted by the Madam's angry expression for the
first time ever. Too bad for him, though, her angry voice didn't stop
there.

"Director, are your eyes just for decorations??"

"Madam!"

"Didn't you see the footage contained in that USB drive,

then??"

"..."

Indeed, he did see it.

He saw the sight of a single human being not even taking a step
back while standing up to those frightening giant monsters. The

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power that man possessed was scary and incredible, but it did rescue
humanity back then.

"Would you believe me if I told you...that event wasn't the

first time?"

The Madam formed a serious, nay, a grave expression, and the

director's own expression froze up instantly.

"...."

There was another incident like that in the past??

The moment the director thought of humanity facing extinction-

level threats multiple times in the past without him knowing about
them, his entire body began shuddering uncontrollably.

But when he pondered it some more, he realised that such a case

wasn't so surprising anymore; even this event had been classified as
a top-top secret by the U.S. government and, besides an extremely
small number of people related to the matter, no one else knew just
what happened or who did what on that particular day.

If that was the case, could he really come out and say with full
confidence that no similar things happened in other countries as
well?

'Perhaps, just like what Madam has said, that man

really.....'

The director rested his chin on his hand and began pondering
something else before raising his head.

"No, I trust you, Madam."

He only knew her for around three years, but for some reason, he'd
sometimes get this feeling that he'd known her for a far longer time
than that. That was perhaps the reason why he felt this sense of trust

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in her. One based on absolutely nothing but his gut feeling, really.

The Madam nodded her head in reply. The director cautiously

asked her another question.

"That man from the footage…. Can you assure me that he's
not a dangerous individual?"

She answered him without a moment of hesitation.

"Yes, I can."

He nodded his head again, alone this time, and as if he finally

came to a conclusion, raised his head.

"In that case, I understand. I shall pretend that I never

heard you talking about that man."

The director rose up from his spot while forming a rueful but
relieved face.

"Well, then."

He bade her a short goodbye and turned around to leave, but her
warm voice stopped his feet from taking another step.

"Dave, I've baked some cookies. Would you like some?"

"Oh...."

He spotted a bag of cookies in her hand, but could only decline the
offer with a smile of his own.

"No, I'm fine. Thank you for your offer."

Now that his official visit was over, his expression reverted to that
of a regular, normal uncle. The Madam bade him goodbye with a
gentle smile and called for her grandson to guide him to the car.

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The child really liked this 'bearded uncle' for some reason, so he
quickly rushed to the bearded David Brennan and hung on to the
older man's hand.

"I shall come again sometime later, Madam."

"Be careful on your way, Dave."

The director, his hand still being held tightly by her grandchild,
finally left the residence, prompting the other guest hiding on the
other side of the sitting room to emerge into the open.

"Huh. I don't like that old man. Hey, grandma, should I go

teach him a lesson for you?"

He was a giant of a man with slicked-back blonde hair. He took a

handful of cookies out from the bag in Madam's hand and shoved
them inside his mouth.

"Thomas, I thought your competition licence will be

revoked if you caused another incident outside the ring?"

Thomas grinned sheepishly and chewed on the cookies that filled

up his mouth.

Crunch, crunch….

"Well, that is..."

This man was none other than Thomas Andre.

Not many people knew that the current Heavyweight champion of

the UFC was one of her very few friends that she chose to keep. If the
reporters learned of this fact, they would jump up and down in sheer
madness while clicking the shutters of their cameras non-stop.

He emptied out the bag of cookies in the blink but that didn't seem
to fill him up at all, so he took the bag itself and tossed the cookie

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crumbs down his gullet next. When he was finally done, he opened
his mouth to speak.

"Hey, grandma. Can I ask you a question?"

She grinned refreshingly and nodded her head. Thomas rolled the
empty bag into a ball as he spoke.

"I'm sure lots of people die through accidents, not just

someone like me."

Especially with car crashes, where innumerable people would die

almost every single day. However, almost none of them would
receive a phone call from the Madam before that happened.

On that much-awaited off day, Thomas was climbing inside his

treasured sports car so he could go for a crazy-fast drive through the
back roads. And then, he became one of the very lucky few that did
get that fateful phone call.

After answering her call, he hurriedly checked out the tyres of his
beloved ride only to find a small nail stuck in one. Thankfully, he
avoided getting into an accident, but if he started the car and drove
away, then he'd have lost his life, just as how Madam had warned
him.

Which meant that Madam Norma Selner was the saviour of his life.

Afterwards, Thomas grew close enough to her to share meals like

this, yet what happened on that day still remained a mystery to him.

"Why did you save me on that day?"

Well, she couldn't possibly have been a fan of the UFC and that
prompted her to quickly pick up the phone, so….

Thomas Andre always felt curious about why she went out of her
way to help him.

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"....."

Madam Selner looked at him without saying anything after hearing

his rather sudden question, before providing a belated answer to her
friend, one of the top sports stars in the country.

"Because... you did many good things in your past life."

".....I did?"

Thomas Andre, known as the 'Bad Boy' of the UFC, no, Devil of the
Octagon, did what now?

He briefly wondered if this grandma ate something she shouldn't

have, but then, he decided not to say what popped up in his head
after remembering that he owed her big time.

"Hohoh."

Madam chuckled softly and shifted her gaze outside the sitting
room window to stare at the black saloon driving away with the CIA's
director inside. Her grandson was waving his hand at the 'bearded
uncle' until the car couldn't be seen anymore.

The 'relationships'.

Seeing that relationships of the past were being formed anew

either consciously or subconsciously by the parties involved, perhaps
this 'fate' was a real thing after all.

That's how she felt right now.

After confirming that the director was gone for sure, Thomas
plopped down on the very spot on the couch where the leader of the
CIA once sat.

"Alright, then. Just what did the man in the video do that
an uncle like him came to see you?"

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Madam replied in a tone of voice belonging to someone busy
putting up still-wet clothes on the washing line.

"He saved the world."

"....."

Sometimes, it was hard to tell whether this old lady was joking or
was being dead serious.

'Well, that's why it's so fun being around her, anyway.'

Thomas put on the pair of sunglasses he liked to wear all the time,
and shifted his now-darkened gaze towards Madam Selner.

"In that case…. What would Mister Hero who saved the
world be doing right about now?"

Madam kept her gaze on her grandchild walking back inside the
house, a quiet smile forming on her lips.

"Hmm, I wonder…. Maybe he's enjoying his youth to the

fullest somewhere?"

Waaahhh-!!

In the location of the qualifying rounds of the track and field

competition filled with the heated cheerings of the spectators,
featuring schools from all over South Korea.

When the captains of the two rival high school track teams came
together on the field, perhaps unsurprisingly, proverbial flames
began erupting from the eyes of both men.

"Oiii, Choi Tae-Woong! Looks like you've lost your way,

doesn't it!! You even let a freshman enter every type of
competition, didn't you!"

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Jin-Woo's school track team was now facing off against the pointed
ridicule belonging to the captain of their long-time rival from
Hwaseong Tech High, Joh Gi-Seok.

"I heard that your former ace, Woo Sahng-In, got injured
and took a break for a few months. Did that result in your
prowess falling so much that you don't have a choice but to
make a freshman your new ace??"

Joh Gi-Seok continued on with his provocation, but Choi Tae-Woong

simply smirked brightly and grasped Jin-Woo's shoulder.

"Soon enough, you lot won't be able to close your mouths

at the talents of this first year."

"Heee~yah, rather than you guys breaking more records,

you got better at cracking jokes, instead!"

Figurative sparks flew in all directions after these two's war of

nerves grew to an intense level. Meanwhile, Jin-Woo was scratching
the side of his head with his index finger.

'With things like this, it's going to be difficult to stick to my

plan of holding back so that I won't get noticed....'

While Jin-Woo stood there showing just a tiny hint of how troubled
he was, Joh Gi-Seok scanned him from top to bottom and received a
great boost of confidence from his expression. The corners of the
Hwaseong Tech High Captain's lips curled upwards.

"Here's the thing, though. What a funny coincidence this is,

you know?"

Joh Gi-Seok turned around and gestured towards his team

members; when he did, a big dude standing behind them strode
forward with an expression filled pure, unbridled confidence.

"You see, we also got ourselves a freaky freshman, too."

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It was at that point that Jin-Woo ended up blurting out a surprised
cry after seeing the face of this so-called freaky freshman.

"Uh?"

"Looks like your own freshman can sense it already, no?"

Joh Gi-Seok increased the volume of his voice while placing his
hand on the shoulder of the newbie team member who possessed a
physique that far surpassed the level of a regular high schooler.

"This kid here, he's Hwaseong Tech High's secret weapon,

Kim Cheol from the first year."

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Chapter 260 Fin.

Source: WEBNOVEL

Side Story 17

The 'impulse'.

An overwhelming impulse, that's what Kim Cheol felt; this powerful

impulse, strong enough to nearly blow his reasoning away, almost
completely swallowed him up.

'But..... But how come I.....'

Why did he want to kneel down in front of a kid that he'd never
seen before, a student from the same year, but from another school?

In that brief moment, if he didn't force his ankles and calves to be

still with all his might, then he would've shown a pretty disgraceful
sight to everyone.

Way too close for comfort, indeed.

Kim Cheol couldn't describe this situation in any other way. Still, he
managed to overcome it somehow and wiped the cold sweat pooling
on his forehead with the back of his hand.

It was at that moment that a really plausible theory popped up in

his head.

'Could it be that…. I'm scared by a dude from the same year

as me?'

If it was not that, then how else could he explain away this current
situation where his breathing quickened up suddenly and he wanted
to avert his gaze while all strength drained out of his legs, as soon he

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met his opponent's eyes?

Too bad, Kim Cheol simply couldn't accept reality as it was.

'Don't make me laugh!!'

By relying on his superior physique surpassing that of high

schoolers, as well as physical strength that matched his size, Kim
Cheol enjoyed incredible prominence during his middle school days.
Yet here he was, getting scared by another kid in the same age
bracket?

Such a thing was not possible. No, more than that, such a thing
could not be allowed to happen.

"H-hey, Cheol-ah? What's wrong?"

"You feeling okay, my man?"

The seniors began showing concern for his well-being, and as his
reply, veins bulged in Kim Cheol's throat as he roared out.

"Nothing's wrong, seniors!!"

'That's right, there's nothing wrong with me!'

Kim Cheol convinced himself of this fact and powerfully nodded his
head.

'Right, I was suffering from a simple dizzy spell because I

didn't have a fulfilling breakfast. That must be it.'

In order to prove right the theory that he just cooked up on the

spot, Kim Cheol slowly raised his head and stared straight at the
freshman of the opposing school.

Although possessing a pretty well-trained physique, the first-year

high school kid standing there was like a stalk of straw compared to
himself. Finally regaining some sort of leeway now, a grin floated up

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on Kim Cheol's lips.

Smirk.

'….I knew it.'

Getting scared by a kid that might get knocked out in one punch
from him? What an absurd thing that was.

Kim Cheol straightened his slightly hunched figure as the unbridled

confidence from earlier on returned to his face.

The members of the Hwaseong Tech High's track team were

feeling worried from the sudden changes Kim Cheol was going
through, but they regained their smiles after confirming that their
ace had returned to how he was.

"Dayum, you surprised me there."

"I'm telling you, our ace freshman really knows how to

command attention."

The seniors patted his shoulder to encourage him, and Kim Cheol
replied with a confident smile before fixing his gaze back on Jin-Woo.

'What a disgrace, why did a dizzy spell have to happen at

the same time as looking into that guy's eyes...?'

Kim Cheol began thinking that he needed to return this ill-timed

disgrace he suffered back to his opponent tenfold somehow. The best
method to overturn an embarrassing situation was to suppress the
other's spirit.

'…....'

Only now did he notice that, even though he was glaring at the kid,
this fellow first-year was being insolent by standing upright and
shooting a glare right back.

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Not once did Kim Cheol let a moron like that walk away in one
piece until now.

"Hey, you."

He lowered his voice and pointed to the rear of the athletic field
with his chin.

"I've got something to say to you, so follow me to over

there for a sec."

Oh, ohh-!

While the members of the Hwaseong Tech High's track team

whistled in excitement at their junior's spirited display, Jin-Woo's
seniors were hurriedly blocking him from disinterestedly following
after Kim Cheol.

"Jin-Woo! Listen to me, you mustn't commit murder!"

"You ain't thinking of spilling someone's blood on the day

of the competition, right?? You gotta hold it in."

"That's right, let's just think of it as saving a poor soul

today and let that kid be."

Jin-Woo chuckled and gently shook off the hands of his seniors.

"Don't worry, seniors. I'm sure nothing will happen over

there."

The seniors tried to confirm the safety of his 'opponent' once more.

"Really? There really won't be anything bad happening to

that kid, right?"

"We're choosing to believe you."

"That friend over there, he's definitely walking back here

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on his own two feet, right?"

Jin-Woo smiled brightly in order to put the worries of his seniors to

rest and quickly walked over in the direction Kim Cheol had
disappeared to.

'…..'

The captain of Hwaseong's track team, Joh Gi-Seok, watched all of

this unfold from the side and formed a disbelieving expression before
walking up closer to his rivals.

"You guys…. You all being serious right now?"

Choi Tae-Woong sneaked a glimpse at Joh Gi-Seok's face before

shifting his gaze back in the direction where Jin-Woo had gone off to
and spoke up in a worried tone of voice.

"Don't talk to me, man. I'm feeling really conflicted right

now."

Choi Tae-Woong had been watching Jin-Woo's monster-like motor

reflexes from a close vantage point, so all he could do now was to
fervently pray for that fella named Kim Cheol to not try anything
funny for his sake.

While walking after Kim Cheol, Jin-Woo's anticipation grew just a

tiny bit. Could it be that this kid also regained the memories of the
past, too?

If that was the case, how would human 'Kim Cheol', and not the
Shadow Soldier 'Iron', react to the memories of those days?

Unfortunately, it didn't look like Kim Cheol had called him over
here to discuss their past, judging from the light in the kid's eyes as
he turned around.

"Hey, you."

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The high school kid's murderous eyes were now looking down on
Jin-Woo.

"What, just because I'm wearing a school uniform while

standing on the same field as you, you think I'm a pushover?"

Kim Cheol was getting riled up here, but well, the sight of him
being agitated like this reminded Jin-Woo of him losing his crap back
inside the Red Gate, which caused an unplanned smirk to break out
in response.

Sure, he did get annoyed back then, but now, weren't they all his
cherished memories? Too bad, though, Kim Cheol didn't remember a
single thing from those days, and Jin-Woo's smile didn't go down all
that well with him.

"You son of a b*tch!"

Kim Cheol's rough hands reached out and grabbed Jin-Woo's collars
in an instant. When that happened, there was a chorus of 'Waaaah-!!'
breaking out from his shadow, made by the Shadow Soldiers
cheering out loudly.

[Yes, Iron is returning to us!]

[Welcome back, Iron!]

[My liege, entrust this lost sheep to me. I, Bellion, swear to

re-educate him properly and ensure an event like this will
never happen again....]

'…...'

It seemed that there was a real need to teach his Shadow Soldiers
about the ways of the modern world. Jin-Woo inwardly tutted and
stared deeply into Kim Cheol's eyes.

Without a doubt, someone was challenging him right now, but

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maybe because the fond memories of the days when this kid was a
loyal Shadow Soldier, Jin-Woo just couldn't bring himself to despise
him.

No, rather than that, he grew real curious about whether Kim Cheol
would regain all the lost memories if they came in physical contact
here.

'…..'

The burly high school kid sensed something strange from Jin-Woo's
eyes and inadvertently swallowed dry saliva.

'What's going on....?'

If this was in the past, he'd not give a d*mn about being
disqualified from the track competition and have thrown a punch by
now, since the other guy was seemingly making fun of him.

But, rather than emotions of anger or even the desire to settle the
score, a different kind of feeling, thicker and purer than anything
else, began to wiggle violently from the deepest part of his chest.

And as Kim Cheol stood there conflicted on what to do next, Jin-

Woo slowly and cautiously grasped the boy's wrist right then.

The ends of his fingers touched Kim Cheol's skin.

When that happened….

"Uh....??"

Tears began flooding out from the boy's eyes.

He didn't know why he was crying all of a sudden, yet the tears
didn't want to stop falling down. Soon, all strength abandoned his
legs and he plopped down to the ground.

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"B-but, why....?"

Kim Cheol looked up at Jin-Woo.

He was searching for an answer, but all he got in return was a

rueful smile from the mysterious boy, instead.

'If the Sovereign's memories weren't shared in the past,

then the memories won't come back even if we make physical
contact, huh?'

Unless... he restored the memories forcibly, that was.

Jin-Woo recalled the faces of people he shared his memories with,

in the now-erased past.

'Association President Woo Jin-Cheol, and....'

….And, Madam Norma Selner.

He thought about the distinct possibility that she might have also
regained the memories from the erased timeline, and while
wondering about that, he turned around to leave.

He no longer had any business with 'Iron', no, 'Kim Cheol'.

Because... the kid was living as a 'human', and not as a Shadow
Soldier, now.

But then, the boy on his knees called out to Jin-Woo and stopped
him in his tracks.

"H-hang on..... Wait."

Kim Cheol wiped his eyes with his hands and hurriedly stood back
up. His tears might have stopped, but his nose was still beet-red, but
not caring about that, he squarely met Jin-Woo's gaze shifting back at
him so he could speak, his voice choked up with thick emotion.

"This, is this.... what they call love?"

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He was being swept up by the sudden torrent of powerful emotions
that he had never experienced before. Although he was deeply
mistaken about what his feelings were, he was dead serious right
now as he had ever been in his life.

"..."

Jin-Woo stared at the boy for a long while in an utter daze, feeling
like he's been struck hard in the back of his head. Eventually, a
lengthy groan escaped from his mouth.

"....This won't do."

Indeed, he couldn't let some poor kid live the rest of his life
confused about his sexual orientation like this, now could he? When
Jin-Woo walked closer, Kim Cheol's cheeks blushed beet red like a
maiden in love.

Unfortunately...

Snap!

All signs of cognition and emotion were wiped from the boy's face
along with the sound of fingers snapping. Kim Cheol's eyes lost focus
and became blurry. Jin-Woo stood in front of him and began inserting
new memories to replace the old one.

"Okay, so…. You tried to provoke me, but then found out,
coincidentally, that I was the son of your father's friend's
friend's friend and that's how we got to resolve our
differences."

Kim Cheol dazedly nodded his head.

"Oh, and also...."

For a brief moment there, Jin-Woo recalled back to when the kid
was still 'Iron' and was crying his eyes out as they were about to say

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goodbye, right before the Chalice of Rebirth was to be used. A thin
smile floated up on his lips and he continued on.

"From here onwards, you gotta stop behaving like a bad

person, alright? You were one of the guys who fought to
protect this world, so be proud of yourself, man."

".....Yes, sir."

After hearing a hushed, soft reply leaking out of Kim Cheol's lips,
Jin-Woo finally undid the hypnosis and let the boy be.

Snap.

"Uh…. Eh?"

Kim Cheol regained his consciousness and stayed rooted in his

spot for a little while, utterly confused, only to belatedly discover Jin-
Woo's distancing back over yonder.

As if he was separating again from a friend he met after a long

time, Jin-Woo waved his hand in a genial manner.

"Hey, see you again next time!"

"Uh…. O-okay."

Feeling bewildered by this situation, Kim Cheol waved his hand and
smiled along awkwardly as well.

'Nice.'

Jin-Woo turned away from the kid's direction, a happy grin forming
on his face now. The unexpected encounter with an old comrade had
come to a successful conclusion, but it was now time to search for
that girl in earnest.

With excellent timing, he heard the announcement reverberating

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throughout the athletics field.

Somewhere at the far back of the athletics field, which was quiet
and sparsely populated.

A young girl managed to get to the shade of a tree with some

difficulty and plopped down on her butt there. Her shaking hands
reached down to take off one of her shoes and her sock. Her swollen
ankle testified as to what her current situation was.

She lightly bit her lower lips and glared at her ankle, before
squeezing her eyes shut and leaning against the tree's sturdy trunk.

What a blunder it was.

Her shoulder was shoved away by another runner right next to her
and that caused her to stumble ungainly during the race. She
somehow managed to pass the first round of preliminaries even with
this fairly heavy injury, but now….

Now, it was clearly asking for too much to compete again with her
leg being like this.

'I'm furious....'

Indeed, she was.

This might be the last time she competed as a middle schooler,

and so, she didn't want to end the day with an injury.

That was why....

'That's why... I should just carry on.'

This was a line of thought that could only be cooked up by the

head of an immature middle schooler, who still hadn't shed the
mindset of a child yet.

And it was the role of the adults to stop such a child from going
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down the wrong path since the dawn of time itself.

"You want to hide your injury?"

The girl flinched grandly after hearing the voice of a male student,
walking out from behind the tree, that she failed to detect earlier.
This mysterious male student didn't look at her, but instead, stared
into the distance.

"Even though a certain someone competed in that

condition, hurt her ankle even more and had to spend over a
year to recuperate, but still ended up as a third-rate athlete
and could only regret the decision she made today?"

The male student shifted his gaze back to the girl with her wide-
open eyes and formed a refreshing grin.

"I was talking about a person that I know, actually."

Here was a strange guy telling her a strange tale. But the girl, Cha
Hae-In, didn't immediately run away from here and instead, chose to
observe the boy for a bit longer.

'Isn't he an athlete....? A high schooler, right?'

She could detect a hint of this nice scent coming from the male
student for some reason.

As for the identity of that scent, the 'smell' of the purest Mana
leaking out of Jin-Woo, as well as her possessing a unique
constitution that allowed her to sniff out Mana, she'd get to learn
about them much, much later on.

As Hae-In grew more flustered by the second, Jin-Woo crouched

near her and carefully placed his hand on her swollen ankle.

"Ah...."

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She flinched again for a moment there but didn't resist him all that
much, either. And when his hand left her skin, her ankle was
completely healed.

She raised up her shocked eyes and stared at Jin-Woo.

"Run without any regrets. You only have one shot, right?"

She shone so brightly as a rank S Hunter fighting against monster

threats, but today, her sweating figure under the bright sunlight
would shine just as wonderfully.

Jin-Woo smiled and tried to stand back up, only for his wrist to be
grasped in a hurry by Hae-In.

"W-wait a minute."

".....?"

Could it be that a change occurred with the contact they made just
now? Now facing off against Jin-Woo's curiosity-laden gaze, Hae-In's
face flushed just a little.

"Excuse me, we.... Have we met somewhere before?"

She had to work up so much of her courage just to ask that simple-
enough question that even her neck had turned beet-red by the time
she was done asking it.

"Let's run."

"Eh?"

Hae-In visibly grew confused, but Jin-Woo maintained his grin.

"If you run against me and ever win, then I'll tell you
everything."

".....I saw you compete, oppa. I saw you coming in at first

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place in every preliminary race you entered."

Jin-Woo smirked and stood back up.

"I'll take that answer as you giving up."

But then...

"I-if that's the case!"

Cha Hae-In worked up her courage once more and made a

suggestion.

"The record for the preliminaries about to take place in a

bit…. How about you telling me the truth when I break that?
Even if it's not right now?"

Jin-Woo's head lowered and did his best to suppress his chuckles.

'Whether she's younger or older, she's still so pure.'

While briefly entertaining the idea of breaking the world record for
the under-18 track event today, he nodded his head, a warm smile
filling up his face.

"Alright, deal."

Having successfully changed the condition of the bet, Hae-In

formed a sunny smile as well.

'Well, you ain't going to be smiling later, though.'

Jin-Woo turned around and left her side for the athletics field while
continuing to suppress his chuckles from breaking out.

On that day.

Under the bright spring sunlight, the world record for high school
male athletes was shattered in what was supposed to be yet another

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ordinary preliminary race meet.

And the track team Jin-Woo was a part of defeated their rival
Hwaseong Tech High on their way to achieving their goal of an
overall first place finish.

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Chapter 261 Fin.

Source: WEBNOVEL

Side Story 18

Since he didn't share his memories with them, Jin-Woo had not
thought of the possibility of it happening, but the truth was, there
were a few other people who were still connected to the higher
beings on Earth.

And, out of them all, one person was quite lucky enough to have
physical contact with Jin-Woo, who was a higher being himself.

A certain early morning.

"Son? What's the matter?"

His son emerging from the room having just woken up looked like
he was about to break down and cry, so Seong Il-Hwan reached out
and gently grasped the boy's shoulders, only to be greeted by the
spectacle of a different past playing right before his eyes.

It happened in the briefest of the brief moments that didn't even

last a blink, but that was more than enough to tell the tale spanning
several years that felt as long as eternity itself.

Tumble.

His final moments that caused his heart to tumble to the pit of his
stomach flashed past his eyes. Then, the time wound back and the
memories of how the present came to be played out in a panorama
being played backwards.

The one and only tool of God that could cause a phenomenon like
this, the 'Chalice of Rebirth'. Seong Il-Hwan knew of the artefact's

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existence through the memories of the Rulers, and after looking at
the boy's current facial expression, he instantly realised that his son
must've had reached some kind of a deal with the higher beings.

Indeed, Jin-Woo had decided to carry the weight, the cost, of the
deal all by himself, regardless of how heavy it was. Seong Il-Hwan
had to bite down on his lower lip in order to suppress his emotions
and prevent them from bursting forth right then.

His efforts must've not been in vain, because Jin-Woo wiped away
the tears threatening to break out and formed a smile.

"....I must've had a nightmare."

At that moment, Seong Il-Hwan saw the powerful determination

flicker for a blink of an eye on his son's face.

But even then, no, even when Jin-Woo left behind a single note and
disappeared from this world, he couldn't even guess just what kind of
'promise' his son had made with the Rulers.

"....I'd never imagined that promise was to defeat the

entirety of the Army of the Chaos World all by himself."

Seol Il-Hwan recalled that very day and let out a helpless chuckle.

What if he got to find out about his son's deal before the boy
jumped into the gap between dimensions and disappeared? Would he
have stopped Jin-Woo, or for the sake of the world, let the kid leave?

"Still, hasn't he beautifully taken care of it?"

The envoy of the Rulers sitting on the opposite side of him smiled
refreshingly.

Seong Il-Hwan had his lips firmly shut now, but he nodded his head
regardless. Thanks to Jin-Woo's sacrifice, this world was spared from
the horrifying war that was supposed to tear through this planet.

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But, when he thought about the terrible suffering his son must've
gone through during those years, Seong Il-Hwan just couldn't bring
himself to smile anymore.

It had been almost one year since Jin-Woo returned from the gap
between dimensions.

"My son...."

His hesitating voice was drowned out by the gently-flowing

background music of the cafe they were in. The Ruler's envoy sipped
the half-remaining coffee with his straw as he unhurriedly waited for
Seong Il-Hwan to continue on.

"What was my son's decision?"

"The Shadow Sovereign has...."

The envoy discovered the traces of nervousness flit past Seong Il-
Hwan's face and formed a thin smile.

"....Chosen to stay in this world. He said that every minute

and every second spent in this world is precious to him."

Seong Il-Hwan inwardly spat out a lengthy sigh of relief.

The envoy emptied out his cup and silently placed it back on the
table. He had to remain in this world until Jin-Woo made up his mind,
but that role came to an end yesterday.

Which meant that it was time to leave. Seong Il-Hwan would be the
very last guest he'd entertain before leaving this world for good.

Maybe that was the reason? Although he wasn't really the talkative
type, he wanted to converse for just a bit longer today.

"Are you planning to continue deceiving Shadow Sovereign-

nim.... no, your son?"

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"That's what he wants, no one remembering the past. So,
yes."

If what Jin-Woo wanted was the normal, regular family life, then as
his father, Seong Il-Hwan was fully committed to continuing the
charade until the end of time itself.

"I see. Like father, like son."

The envoy smirked and nodded his head before raising his gaze a
little higher.

"Once I leave, the Rulers will no longer interfere with this

world."

"I know."

"Which means, this really is the end. With this world...."

The envoy scanned the interior of the cafe and spoke with an
emotional voice.

"It has been fun. Truly. To be honest, right up until the

Shadow Sovereign-nim made his triumphant return, I had
been waiting with bated breath on what destiny had in store
for us."

The envoy held back slightly and didn't mention that even the
Rulers didn't expect to see Jin-Woo succeed in his quest. Well, there
was no reason to pour a bucket of cold water on this emotional
farewell, was there?

Just before he bade his farewell and stood up to leave, the envoy
addressed his guest once more.

"The Rulers express their unreserved gratitude towards not

just Shadow Sovereign, but to you as well, Seong Il-Hwan-
nim."

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It was unknown whether a result like this would've been achieved
without his help. He fought for the sake of the Rulers, and he even
suggested that the higher beings cooperate with the Shadow
Sovereign, too. Indeed, his role had been great.

The Rulers had decided as thus, and they prepared a small gift for
him in return.

"By any chance, is there something we can help you with?"

When considering that the Rulers possessed incredible powers as

well as various 'tools of God', this was akin to them saying, "We will
grant any wish you have."

However, Seong Il-Hwan shook his head almost immediately.

"I have none....."

But, that made sense. The envoy could understand where he was
coming from. There was an existence on the level of a god living as
family right next to him, so what was the point of voicing his wishes
here?

"Well, then."

The envoy bowed his head slightly and got ready to stand up, but
then, Seong Il-Hwan belatedly said something else.

"Hang on."

The envoy stopped and settled back down on the chair again.

"Is there something else....?"

Seong Il-Hwan pondered for a bit and spoke up with some

difficulty.

"My memories…. Is it possible for you to erase my

memories of the previous timeline?"
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"Yes, it's possible, but why would you choose to do so....?"

"Well, it's unimaginably hard to keep pretending in front of

a son with an amazing perception, you see."

Seong Il-Hwan smirked once he was done. Again, like father, like
son – his grinning face was almost a dead-ringer for Jin-Woo's.

"And, also...."

Seong Il-Hwan lowered his gaze and fell into thought for a bit
again, before continuing on with his words slowly.

"I also wish to become a regular dad who worries about his
son's welfare."

He wanted to return to being just a simple father who felt anxious

about his son possibly coming back home injured in some way, and a
father who sighed in disappointment at his son's exam results – a
man who worried about his 'regular' son, in other words.

"To me, Jin-Woo isn't the Shadow Sovereign, but a precious

son, you see."

That was Seong Il-Hwan's small wish.

"I understand."

If that was his reasoning, then it'd be no problem. The envoy

smiled gently and granted Seong Il-Hwan's wish.

"Once you exit from this cafe, all memories of the previous
timeline will completely be erased from your mind."

As the envoy began performing the magic spell on Seong Il-Hwan,

he whispered a goodbye so small that no one could hear it properly.

"You won't remember this, but still... I pray that you get to

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live a fulfilling life."

Time continued to tick by.

On a certain cold winter morning.

The alarm set for six in the morning went off without a hitch and
Seong Il-Hwan shot up from his 'sleep'. His wife woke up at the same
time, too, and stared straight at him.

"What about Jin-Woo?"

"Yes, what happened to him?"

The couple quickly checked the time and breathed a collective sigh
of relief after realising that it was still only six in the morning.

"Dear, what should we do? Should we go and wake Jin-Woo

up?"

"No, there's still some time left until the beginning of the
CSAT, so I think it should be fine to let him rest for a little
while longer."

"You're right. I can always drive him to the exam location

with my car, anyway."

"At seven…. Let's wake him up around seven, Dear."

Seong Il-Hwan nodded his head at his wife's suggestion.

The couple anxiously waited for the needles of the clock to hit
seven and when the fated time came, they rushed out of their
bedroom to slam the door to Jin-Woo's room wide open.

"S-son, you know that today is the CSAT day, right?"

"Son, as your father, I can take you there, you know?"

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Their son seemed to have woken up not too long ago. He replied
with a chuckle.

"I'll get ready to leave now."

After confirming that Jin-Woo left his room, Seong Il-Hwan hurriedly
threw on his clothes and reached out to grab the car keys, only for
his gaze to be stolen by the key ring – a gift from his son.

When he looked at this seemingly-handmade keyring shaped like a

white-coloured castle with a black flag on top, a wide grin formed on
his lips.

The weather was beautifully clear and crisp; it was a refreshing

morning as the early rays of the sun gently seeped into the world.

The evening of the 24th of December.

Jin-Woo was walking on a street filled with the festive atmosphere

of Christmas. He could easily spot the smiling faces of movie stars or
top athletes proudly on display on the electronic advertising boards
hung here and there.

'The streets have changed a lot.'

Whenever Jin-Woo recalled the time when the streets used to be

dominated by the faces of top-ranked Hunters, he still felt a bit
awkward and disjointed.

But then, he spotted an advertising poster for a certain sports drink

and broke out into a gentle chuckle. A rather familiar face was on it,
that was why.

Just how many people lost their hair to stress while trying to take
that one photo of her making a natural-looking expression?

'The idol of the athletic world, is it....?'

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Indeed, Cha Hae-In's smile on the poster was good enough to be
called on the level of an idol.

She drew attention with her stunning achievements on the track,

and eventually, the mass media caught onto her shining star as well.
In a bid to boost the popularity of the track sports, the athletics
organisation pleaded with her and this was the end result.

'She never stepped in front of a camera even when she was

a rank S Hunter, but now, she must perform the role of one of
the most popular sportswomen in the country....'

This future wouldn't have come about if he hadn't healed her ankle
back then; a satisfied grin formed on Jin-Woo's face. She might be
having a bit of a hard time trying to get used to the cameras, but it'd
only get better with time.

Still smiling, Jin-Woo resumed his walk towards the meeting area.

He took a look around himself without thinking too much about it

and discovered many young couples and their colourful clothing
filling up the streets.

'Yup, I definitely am an examinee who recently finished his

CSAT. Look how plainly dressed I am.'

Jin-Woo lightly tutted at his rather plain-looking clothes and sought

out the nearest clothing store. With the time being what it was, the
shops were all closed, but from the get-go, he wasn't planning to buy
something, anyway.

Jin-Woo stopped walking in front of a mannequin kitted out in the

coolest outfit inside the shop window.

Sha-ah-ahk....

The pitch-black smoke enveloped Jin-Woo's figure for a brief

moment and his outfit had changed to the exact same thing as that

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mannequin's. He examined his new look through the reflection on the
shop's window before asking his Shadow Soldiers.

"What do you think?"

Fangs, having developed an intense interest in all things fashion-

related from some time ago, hurriedly replied first, maybe fearing
that someone else might steal his limelight.

[You look amazing, my liege.]

"Alright."

Jin-Woo's steps became a touch cheerier than before and they

helped him arrive at the place of his appointment in the proverbial
blink of an eye.

Surrounding a massive Christmas tree installed in the middle of a

plaza were many people searching and waiting for their companions
to arrive.

Even though many of them were nervously glancing at their

watches, the looks of happiness still could be gleaned from their
expressions regardless, perhaps because today was Christmas Eve.

Unlike them, though, Jin-Woo was staring into the heavens above
since he had more than enough leeway compared to them.

There were all sorts of ambient noises made by people walking on

the streets, but Jin-Woo still could accurately distinguish the
footsteps that mattered to him.

'…..3, 2, 1.'

Just as that 'kid' arrived near his back, he turned around to greet
her.

"Hey. You came."

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Hae-In was planning to take Jin-Woo by surprise, but could only
sneakily lower her arms, looking a bit disappointed.

"Oppa, it's like you've got eyes behind your back, you
know?"

She seemed just a bit despondent, which was rather adorable as

well, so he broke out into a soft grin. Hae-In pulled up the hood on
her top to avoid the attention of the passersby, like how Jin-Woo used
to do.

"Should we take a walk for a while?"

Jin-Woo's suggestion was met by Hae-In's brightly smiling face. She

even nodded her head to emphasize her agreement, too.

As the two of them walked, they chose the less populated path
whenever they came across a crossroad. Meanwhile, Hae-In's eyes
were growing really large after listening to Jin-Woo's CSAT result.

"You got such a great score, yet you wanna go to that

university? But, why?"

"Well, the fees are completely paid for by the scholarship,

plus they are adding on the opportunity for me to study
abroad, as well. Besides, there is this person I just have to
meet in that place, you see."

It was at that point that her ears perked up.

"Wait, that person isn't a woman, is it?"

Her eyes narrowed to a slit, but Jin-Woo found her expression really
adorable so he decided to string her along for a bit.

"Mmm, who knows."

Her cheeks immediately puffed up.

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To Jin-Woo, seeing her express her emotions so freely like this –
something she didn't do back when both of them were adults –
proved to be a different but still wonderfully joyous occasion to
behold.

Around then….

Tap.

Something fell gently from the sky and landed on the tip of his
nose, followed soon after by wet coldness melting on his skin.

It was a snowflake.

He raised his head up to look and white specks began falling gently
from the blackened sky. A White Christmas was coming, it seemed.

He silently stared at the falling snow only to recall the sight of

settling grey ash after he defeated the Dragon Emperor. Ash as white
as snow – no, snowflakes as light as ash silently descended on the
land.

"Oppa? What are you thinking about?"

Jin-Woo smiled softly and tried to gloss over it.

"Nothing much."

Well, it wasn't as if he could tell her that, while he was looking at

the snow falling from the evening sky a day before Christmas, he was
busy recalling probably the most dangerous enemy he had to fight in
his entire life, now could he?

Hae-In formed a broad grin after listening to Jin-Woo's reply, then

she brought up something out of the blue.

"Oppa, do you remember our promise?"

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"What promise?"

"The one about you promising to answer everything when I

win in a race."

"Yeah, I do."

Hae-In promptly pointed towards one of the trees lining up along

the street.

"Well, why don't we make a bet, then? Let's see who will
arrive there first."

Jin-Woo couldn't help but chuckle after hearing her sudden

challenge and asked her a question.

"What is it that you'd like to ask me?"

"Everything."

"Everything??"

"What you're thinking about sometimes, whether it's a girl

or a guy you want to meet in that university, and also...."

"Also?"

"....Also, about the time we met before that athletic

preliminaries took place."

"....Alright."

Jin-Woo readily agreed to it and took his hands out from his
pockets. The end result wouldn't be affected just because he kept his
hands there, but still, he wanted to show her that he was taking this
challenge quite seriously.

But then….

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Hae-In had been staying a step away from his position until then,
but suddenly walked in very close to wrap her scarf around his neck
before asking him for a small favour in a whisper.

"Oppa, if you like me, don't move from this spot."

"Wha?"

While he was getting flustered by this development, Hae-In began

walking slowly towards the tree in question while looking straight at
him. As for Jin-Woo himself, he couldn't hold back his laughter after
realising that his defeat had been set in stone from the get-go.

"Hah...."

In the end, Hae-In succeeded in touching the tree first, and she
lightly jumped in the air to announce her victory.

Meanwhile, his Shadow Soldiers watching the two lovers'

competition with a great deal of anticipation and excitement began
jumping up and down themselves in happiness as well.

[Heee-ya~, our liege has lost!]

[Wow, there are times when our liege will lose a challenge
with so much at stake, too!]

[My liege, you did it wrong!]

[Kkiiieehhk-!! Oh, my kinggg! It's not too late, so please

get going now!!]

Jin-Woo was left stupefied and chuckled again while scratching the
side of his head. He took a glance around the street and approached
the tree as well.

Thankfully, he couldn't spot a single soul on this particular stretch

of road, all due to the fact that they sought out only those paths with

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little foot traffic.

"Well, I won, right?"

Hae-In was waiting for his reply with an excited expression clearly
etched on her face. Jin-Woo stopped before her smile and issued a
dignified order to his Shadow Soldiers.

'Shadows? Every one of you, close your eyes.'

[…...]

[…...]

While the soldiers were rightly feeling frustrated….

….Jin-Woo slowly brought his lips closer and gently locked them
with Hae-In's.

The white snowflakes continued to fall silently from the sky.

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Chapter 262 Fin.

Source: WEBNOVEL

Side Story 19

The last side story: Twelve years later (1)

Within the ranks of the Central Region Precinct's Violent Crimes

Unit, there was this one detective nicknamed the 'Phantom'.

The newbie detective joining the squad this year after passing the
promotion exam, Lee Seh-Hwan, often heard this rumour while he
was walking the beat as a patrolman.

The arrest rate of 200 percent!

The rumour went that, in front of this 'Phantom' capable of solving

not just the cases in his own docket, but even the cold cases of the
past, every single violent criminal or bloodthirsty thug would become
a very well-behaved sheep in an instant.

To the officers patrolling these streets, this detective remained an

object of pure respect, a real bonafide legendary figure.

Seriously now, the rumour even went on to say that, although he

was eligible for a promotion, he wished to devote himself fully to
fieldwork and refused to move up the career ladder. How hardcore
was that?

'Anyone with some sense in them would definitely never

refuse a promotion, obviously.'

In any case – even if only half of the rumours making the rounds
turned out to be true, then the mystery cop was sure to be one hell
of an investigator.

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His fellow patrol officers were deeply envious of Lee Seh-Hwan
joining the Violent Crimes Unit. Little did they know, he was currently
swallowing back his nervous saliva while scanning the squad's office,
wondering who this legendary detective from the rumours could be.

As befitting a group of detectives that clashed against seasoned

criminals every day, they all carried manly, no-nonsense
countenances. They began shooting sharp, probing glares in the
direction of an unknown visitor to their ranks.

It'd not be all that awkward to call any one of these fine officers
'Phantom', indeed.

'The light in their eyes are so....'

Lee Seh-Hwan gradually shrunk back from the powerful glares of

the veterans and began inwardly worrying about whether he'd
survive for long in this place or not.

"Ehh…. Are you that newbie joining us from today

onwards?"

A voice came from behind without any prior warning whatsoever

and Lee Seh-Hwan jumped up in fright. He hurriedly turned around
and performed an excellent salute.

"Loyalty!"

"Ah, ah... no need to be that tense. We're all one family

now, right?"

The voice belonged to a middle-aged man carrying two paper cups

filled with coffee standing right behind Lee Seh-Hwan. He kindly
offered one of the cups to the still-nervous rookie.

"Here, it's on me."

"T-thank you very much!!"

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Lee Seh-Hwan bowed deeply and received the coffee.

Instantly, he was greeted by the reassuring warmth that was kind

of like a phone call from his family he dearly wished to see again
after living alone for a long time.

Maybe that small first mouthful of the hot coffee helped him to
relax?

Lee Seh-Hwan continued to sip on the hot beverage while

cautiously studying the overall atmosphere of the surroundings,
before asking the Senior who gifted him the drink.

"Excuse me... I went to speak to the Squad Captain, and he

informed me that I'd be working together with Seong
Detective-nim from here on, I was wondering..."

"Ahh, that 'Phantom' is your partner?"

"FUU-HEUP!!!"

It took almost everything Lee Seh-Hwan had to stop the coffee

from spraying out of his mouth and nostrils.

"Well, we came up with that nickname for the guy because

he's supernaturally quick, you see? Dunno when it happened,
but that name got stuck somehow and even the folks in other
units began calling him that. I'm sure you've heard of him
too, right?"

"Y-yes, I have...."

Lee Seh-Hwan hurriedly nodded his head several times. A

meaningful smirk suddenly crept up on the senior's face.

"The thing is, that coffee I gave you? It's meant for him."

The senior detective turned around to escape to the corridor, but

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then he stopped and pointed to the far end with his chin, a grin now
firmly etched on his face.

"Speak of the devil. There he comes."

Unable to suppress his curiosity, Lee Seh-Hwan also quickly came

out to the corridor himself and shifted his gaze in the direction where
the senior was staring at.

That was when he discovered a certain man unhurriedly strolling

towards his direction from the end of the corridor.

'That man is the legendary....'

Without a doubt, that man didn't seem to be in a hurry, yet he was

already standing before Lee Seh-Hwan even before the rookie could
fully regain his wits.

What an overwhelmingly intense pressure he emitted.

Lee Seh-Hwan was about average in height for a Korean male, but
he had to physically look up at his new partner, the senior detective
nicknamed 'Phantom', who was at least a head taller than himself.
Almost instantly, the poor newbie felt stifled and it became hard to
breathe from this inexplicable pressure emitted by the man in front
of him.

'The Phantom of the Central Region....'

The reason why this detective was saddled with such a nickname
wasn't simply because of his preternatural swiftness, oh no. Lee Seh-
Hwan was sure of this fact after finally encountering the person in
question.

"Senior."

"Ohh, hey man. Going out on a call?"

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"Nah, it's nothing much, really. By the way, is he our new
recruit?"

"That's right, he is. His name is Lee Seh-Hwan."

Jin-Woo bowed his head slightly to greet the senior detective

standing next to Lee Seh-Hwan. He then spun the newbie around to
face the other direction and placed his hand on the completely-frozen
junior's shoulder.

"Then, I shall go ahead and train the rookie."

The senior detective with the face of a good-natured uncle

continued to grin as if he found something quite amusing. He nodded
his head to say yes.

"Sure, sure. Go ahead. Have a good day."

Almost as soon as the greeting with the senior was over, Jin-Woo
dragged the rookie cop he was now entrusted with to outside of the
building.

'H-he can't be p*ssed off about me having drunk his coffee,

right?'

When that line of thought popped up in his head, Lee Seh-Hwan

ended up hurriedly asking a question.

"S-senior-nim?! W-where are we going?"

Rather than an answer, though, he got a question as a reply,

instead.

"Why did you become a police officer?"

"Oh, that…. I...."

Lee Seh-Hwan hesitated for a bit before remembering his original

dream, the goal, that he had forgotten about while working as a beat
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cop wrestling with drunkards and other idiots for the past few years.

"I wanted to catch the bad guys...."

"That's right."

Even though they were exchanging questions and answers, Jin-

Woo didn't slow down his steps that continued to lead the rookie to
their unknown destination. And he finally let go of the flustered
newbie once they reached the end goal.

"We are going to a place where we can do exactly that."

Lee Seh-Hwan raised his head, and Jin-Woo formed his now-
trademark smile.

Grin.

It was a smile that eased the minds of all those who saw it. Jin-Woo
looked at the shorter rookie with such a smile on his face before
continuing on.

"That's why I became a cop too, you see."

Just those words alone, and Lee Seh-Hwan's heart began pounding
quite violently.

Ba-dump.

How could one's heart not throb in moments like this as long as
one was a police officer worth his or her salt?

"You coming?"

Lee Seh-Hwan heard the question with only one possible answer
and replied with an excited face.

"Of course, Senior-nim!!"

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Completely pooped out from chasing after criminals the whole day,
Lee Seh-Hwan collapsed on top of his new desk and fell asleep. Jin-
Woo was planning to dump the write-up of the testimonies of all the
suspects they apprehended today to the rookie, but now….

Tap, tap...

He stopped jotting down on the report paper and quietly studied

Lee Seh-Hwan, utterly lost to the distant lands of sweet slumber.

'He said he had the experience of catching an armed robber

bare-handed, didn't he? Yup, it is fun training a rookie like
this guy.'

A smile naturally crept up on his face now that a rather excellent

seedling had joined his Unit.

"Hehehe."

After seeing a smile blooming on Jin-Woo's face, the suspect sitting

on the opposite side of the desk mistakenly believed that the
atmosphere had become rather friendly and formed a sly smile of his
own.

That only elicited a hardened scowl from Jin-Woo, though.

"....And why the hell are you smiling?"

"I, I'm sorry."

"Okay, then. up is...."

Just as Jin-Woo's fingers touched the keyboard once more….

[My liege, may I suggest that such miscellaneous tasks be

left to us, your loyal soldiers....]

….He heard the voice of Igrit coming from his shadow.

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Indeed, it'd be convenient to utilise his soldiers.

Forget about training the rookies to arrest the suspects, he could

just unleash his near-ten million soldiers and have them catch the
bad guys. That would clean up the entirety of the Republic of Korea
in no time at all.

However, what was he supposed to do about the extreme unrest

and the fear from the public at large that would no doubt follow soon
afterwards?

A suitable balance needed to be kept, regardless of what the job

was.

That was why Jin-Woo did his best to control his powers, so as to
minimise the impact against the society at large. And so, as the
administrative work on these petty criminals was coming to an
end….

….Although, the rookie still hadn't been able to extricate himself

from the land of dreams yet.

Jin-Woo heard the voices coming from the corner of the office and
ended up paying attention to the contents of the conversation.

"Detective-nim, please listen to me. Jin-Yi isn't a girl who'd

willingly take her own life."

"Look, miss. I understand how you feel. But, I already

explained to you in detail, didn't I? All the evidence points
to...."

"Please, please take a look at these texts messages! Do

they look like something sent by a person planning to commit
suicide three hours later??"

"Hah-ah....."

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Maybe it was because of the fact that the deceased's name
sounded similar to his own sister's?

For a while now, Jin-Woo's mind kept wandering towards the

conversation between those two people that didn't seem to be going
anywhere fast.

The detective, now fed up by this 'heckling' ended up responding

in an ill-tempered manner.

"Look here, miss! From the get-go, most suicides aren't

planned out in advance but are done in the spur of the
momen...."

"Do you mind if I take a look at the case?"

The detective flinched nastily when Jin-Woo approached him

without any presence whatsoever.

Detectives were supposed to be able to suss out whether a person

was guilty of a crime or not just by locking gazes with a suspect in
the blink of an eye.

Such detectives couldn't detect his approach, so it was a small

wonder that Jin-Woo was saddled with the nickname of 'Phantom'.

"Uhm, Detective Seong....?"

The detective formed a troubled expression while looking at Jin-

Woo, before shifting his gaze forward, only to spot the expression on
the deceased's friend now gaining a ray of hope.

'Ah....'

The detective instantly realised that things might get a bit

complicated for himself, so he quietly asked Jin-Woo to step outside
the office for a moment.

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He handed over the related case files and pulled out a cigarette
after they got there.

"Detective Seong…. I hope you aren't going to put me

under the spot here."

"..."

Jin-Woo didn't pay any attention to the plea of his Senior and
scanned through the files, only for his expression to harden to a
scary degree.

The detective was about to light his cigarette up, but after sensing
the aura oozing out from Jin-Woo, ended up taking a step back in
surprise.

'He's like a different person when he's concentrating like

this.'

The senior detective deeply sucked in the smoke puffed out from
the lit cigarette as if to calm his trembling nerves.

The female victim was found inside her bathtub, having died of
massive blood loss from a large cut wound on her wrist. The knife
used to cut her wrist was recovered inside the bathroom, and
perhaps unsurprisingly, only her fingerprints were found on the
weapon, no one else's.

The file also said that, even though the deceased displayed a
bright personality outwardly, she actually suffered from depression.

Not many other investigators would come up with a different

hypothesis after looking at all the facts available in this case.

Jin-Woo returned the case file back to the detective assigned to the
case.

"I don't see anything amiss."

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"R-right. You think so, too?"

The detective received the files back with a somewhat happy-

looking expression.

"However."

"H-however....??"

With a hardened face, the senior asked back while thinking, 'Could
he be...?'

"I shall confirm it myself, just in case."

"Ah....."

The Phantom had sniffed a trail, it seemed.

While looking at Jin-Woo's back as he walked over to the friend of

the deceased waiting anxiously over there, the Senior detective
roughly scratched the back of his head and complained in his head.

'Doesn't that guy ever get tired or something?'

The friend of the deceased, her gaze currently fixed to the ground,
quickly raised her head after hearing Jin-Woo's voice.

"I'm Detective Seong Jin-Woo. Can we talk for a moment?"

The friend nodded her head, her current grim expression

seemingly a blend of new-found hope and sorrow.

"Yes!"

Inside a quiet, empty and owner-less home, a black shadow

suddenly rose up. It was Jin-Woo.

He found himself in an apartment which was slightly too large for a

woman to live alone. Her warmth from the time she was still alive

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could be felt from several corners of this apartment unit.

The current time was late at night.

The surroundings were pitch-black, but there was no need to turn

on the lights because this was the same as broad daylight to Jin-
Woo's eyes.

He entered the bathroom, the place where she met her final
moments. The thick smell of blood yet to be cleaned stung his nose.
Jin-Woo stood before the bathtub and silently studied the very spot
where the deceased prepared herself to die.

Seeing all the spilt blood, it was as if he could sense the pain of the
woman.

However, he could only imagine what that pain was like, not
actually feel the pain itself. What the deceased was feeling when she
chose death, how painful it was as she lay here dying….

Those left behind would never know them.

Generally speaking, that was.

Jin-Woo crouched slightly and studied the blood splatters before

recalling the last text message she sent to her friend. It was filled
with her anticipation about the upcoming meeting with her friend.

Just like what the friend had said, that message didn't seem to be
sent by someone getting ready to take her own life.

Most likely, the friend wanted to believe that she'd not choose to
die without saying a single goodbye to her closest friend.

For sure, the ones left behind would never know what the dead
wanted to say to them. Ordinarily, that would be true. Ordinarily.

However, Jin-Woo possessed a way to hear the voice of the dead.

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'I needed the actual remains in the past, but now....'

Jin-Woo issued his command, and the blackened, coagulated blood

reverted back to a crimson liquid and began trickling again. The
blood splatter that remained as nothing more than grisly reminders
gathered together to form a deep pit of boiling blood.

As if it was alive, the mass of blood continued to seethe and

tumble as it grew larger and larger.

The Shadow Sovereign, the King of the Dead, then issued the
absolute order that couldn't be refused at the remains of the
deceased.

"Rise up."

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Chapter 263 Fin.

Source: WEBNOVEL

Side Story 20

The last side story: Twelve years later (2)

A shadow of a woman, yet to shed the hints of her teen years,

vigorously rose up from the thickly-coagulated clump of blood on the
floor.

Chwa-ahck!!

Droplets of blood dripped from the ends of her hair as she took a
look around her, her expression one of sheer confusion regarding her
current situation. Eventually, though, she spat out pained moans.

[Ah.... Ah....!]

Indeed, it'd be quite painful for her since she retained the
memories of her dying moments. Jin-Woo used the authority of the
Shadow Sovereign and calmed the shadow for the time being.

"Don't be frightened.

The you of now has become an existence untethered from the

boundaries of life and pain."

The king's calming, warm voice helped the woman to compose

herself gradually. Jin-Woo then created a new set to clothing for her
sake and wrapped them around her figure since she appeared how
she died – nude.

[Ah....]

She cautiously pulled the clothing on her shoulders tighter.

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Her name used to be Seo Jin-Yi. He named the newly-revived
shadow woman the same as back when she was still alive, and began
asking his questions.

"Did you... willingly take your own life?"

The shadow woman, no, Seo Jin-Yi, nodded her head.

Jin-Woo placed one of his knees lower to the ground so he could

match her eye level. He studied her expression and quietly asked
her.

"Your reason?"

And when he did, her lips, frozen shut like a block of ice, cautiously
parted ways.

[I....]

Ding-dong.

The doorbell resounded out rather late at night; a middle-aged man

put a photo frame containing a picture of his daughter down on its
original spot and looked away.

'Who could it be at this late hour?'

He tilted his head this way and that while standing up from his
seat, and walked over to the intercom.

The monitor on the device showing the scene outside the front
door now displayed a man kitted out in a smart business suit
standing there. The middle-aged man didn't think too much about it
and pressed the 'Speak' button.

Beep.

The man outside the door pulled out his ID badge and showed it to
the camera.
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The photo in the ID badge matched the face on the monitor.

The middle-aged man forgot that it was far too late in the day for a
guest to show up like this when he heard the word 'Detective' and
hurriedly flung the door open.

"Did the investigation's result come out? How did my little

girl die?!"

Jin-Woo quietly studied the face of Seo Jin-Yi's father, Seo Gyu-
Nam, before shaking his head.

"Nothing is certain yet, sir. However, I do have several

follow-up questions I'd like to ask you regarding your
daughter."

The father of the deceased formed a somewhat disappointed

expression when he heard there was nothing to report yet. Jin-Woo
made a quiet demand towards the man.

"Can you come with me?"

Seo Gyu-Nam seemed to be in a dilemma, but soon enough,

formed a grimly determined expression.

"Of course. If I can help in any shape or form in uncovering

the truth of my daughter's death, then I shall cooperate
fully."

He came outside and locked the door before turning around to face
Jin-Woo.

"Let's get going, Detective."

Jin-Woo nodded his head once and turned towards a certain

direction.

"This way."

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Seo Guy-Nam initially thought that they would go to the police
station, but instead, they ended up in a cafe near his place. He asked
the detective why they had to come here and only got a vague
answer in the form of "We need a place to chat quietly" instead.

And so, Jin-Woo and Seo Gyu-Nam sat on the opposite side of the
table. The former then began his questioning as the latter formed a
heavy expression.

"What kind of a student was Miss Seo Jin-Yi usually?"

"Excuse me?"

"By any chance, was there anyone who might have been
resentful towards...."

Seo Gyu-Nam belatedly realised the implication behind the

question and hurriedly shook his hand around.

"No, no. Never. She was definitely not a child who'd go

around doing things to make others hate her. She was really
kind and pure and..."

Seo Gyu-Nam replied up to there before his head faltered and

sounds of sobbing escaped from him.

How long did it go by like this?

The sobbing man's shoulder's stopped trembling eventually and he

raised his head slowly.

"I, I'm sorry, Detective. I still can't believe that my little girl
left me in that manner....."

"You must've cherished your daughter a lot."

"Of course. I'm sure you know this already, but Jin-Yi wasn't
my biological child. That was why I cherished and loved her

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as much as I would've with my real child, no, maybe even
more than that."

His gaze lowered as he struggled to swallow back his sadness. He

continued on.

"If only she told me when she was hurting, when it was
getting too much for her...."

Although Seo Gyu-Nam was displaying an intense emotional state,

Jin-Woo was quite different in his attitude and kept an icy-cold gleam
in his eyes from the beginning right until the end. He then pulled out
his own smartphone from his inner pocket.

"While we were sifting through your daughter's personal

effects, we uncovered a certain sound file."

"....Pardon?"

"Well, let's listen to it first."

Jin-Woo tapped on the play icon and let the voice of the shadow
play out.

It was the testimony straight from her mouth about the tale of the
horrifying abuse she suffered at the hands of her adoptive father,
ever since she was a young child.

And as the testimony continued on...

Seo Gyu-Nam finally stopped acting like a sorrowful father who lost
his daughter, his eyes constantly shaking from shock.

The girl deliberately chose to go to a university far away from

home, believing that she was finally freed from the torment of her
adoptive father, but then, when the b*stard got in contact with her
again some time ago, starting with the text message saying 'I want
to see you again', she chose to end her life, instead.

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She might have taken her own life, but the culprit that drove her to
that decision was someone else.

Tap.

Once the sound file ended its playback, Seo Gyu-Nam raised his
head, his expression frozen-stiff now.

"Why... why did you play that in front of me?"

This middle-aged man could legitimately claim that he possessed

quicker wits than most other people.

If the real goal of this meeting was to arrest him, then this
detective would've shown up with a couple of other officers, slap the
cuffs on him and be done with the whole thing just like that.

However, this cop didn't take him to the police station, but to a
local cafe, saying that they needed to have a quiet chat.

That was why Seo Gyu-Nam had a hunch that the detective in front
of his eyes had a somewhat different purpose in coming to see him.
As if to reply positively to that hunch, the expressionless detective
finally revealed a toothy grin.

"You now have two options available to you."

Options were available!

Seo Gyu-Nam clenched his fists tightly after hearing those words
that sounded like the heavens extending a lifeline, just as a
precariously dangerous situation was about to befall on him.

'Yes!!'

Meanwhile, the detective carried on.

"First…. You admit to your wrongdoing, go to the station

with me, and confess everything."
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"And... the other option is?"

"Rather than admit to your crime, you pay an appropriate

price, instead."

Seo Gyu-Nam had to grit his teeth in order to suppress this

powerful wave of jovial laughter gushing out from somewhere deep
inside his chest.

'Oh my goodness me.'

And the wise old 'they' said that, even if the heavens collapsed,
there would always be a way out, didn't they? Who would've thought
that the detective who uncovered his ugly sins just so happened to
be such an individual?

Seo Gyu-Nam had lived a pretty great life as a medical doctor. So,
regardless of how much this pathetic policeman wanted, he knew he
had the financial wherewithal to satisfy that demand.

Seo Gyu-Nam did his utmost best to stop the ends of his lips from
curling up and asked back.

"How much are you asking for?"

"That is already enough."

Jin-Woo formed a hollow chuckle and securely pocketed the phone.

He knew better than anyone just how many people regretted with
their whole being the choice they've made just now. This middle-
aged man trying his best to hide his laughter came across as utterly
disgusting and ridiculous.

In an instance, Jin-Woo's expression changed.

"Now, listen well."

With the smile gone from his face, an aura so ominous and bleak

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oozed out from him, instead.

"In reality, this place you're in isn't the world you were
living in. No, it's a different world I simply mocked up to
resemble the outside scenery."

The land of the dead that no living soul could enter without the
express permission of its master – the territory of the eternal rest.
Jin-Woo calmly added that that was the name of the prison about to
seal Seo Gyu-Nam away.

Of course, the middle-aged man became flustered at the suddenly-

changed Jin-Woo's attitude as well as at this strange, hard-to-
understand explanation.

"E-excuse me, Detective-nim. I, I don't underst...."

"Think about it carefully."

Seo Gyu-Nam felt his breathing choke up from Jin-Woo's murderous

glare.

"Can you remember how you got here?"

Now that he thought about it….

As the chill ran down on his spine, Seo Gyu-Nam finally realised the
oddness of his situation.

'B-but, how....?'

Within this brightly-lit cafe, how was it possible that there was not
a single soul around other than himself and this mysterious
detective?

Even if you forget about other patrons, no, maybe even the actual
owner of the place, shouldn't there at least be one waiter or a clerk
somewhere??

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However, whether it was inside the building or outside of the glass
wall, there was not a single trace of other people at all.

"Ah...."

Just as he finally recognised that something unexplainable had

happened to him, everything vanished, just like that, leaving only the
darkness.

The only items left within this inky-black darkness were the table,
plus the two chairs. And of course, himself and the detective sitting
on those chairs.

"U-uwaaaaahhk?!"

Seo Gyu-Nam shot up from the chair and hurriedly stepped back as
his complexion paled instantly.

"W-who the hell are you?! Is this a dream? It's a nightmare,

isn't it??"

The middle-aged man pointed at Jin-Woo in a confused mixture of

anger and desperation. Unfortunately for him, his retreating steps
couldn't go too far.

Thud.

Because he ran into something as hard as a wall, that was why. An

inexplicable chill swept him up and his head slowly shifted towards
his back.

That's when the 'wall' began moving.

No, it wasn't an actual wall, just a giant 'ant' standing stiffly like
one, and it was moving now.

This ant creature shoved its head closer to Seo Gyu-Nam's face
and quietly placed its unfurled index finger against its 'lips'.

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[Shh....]

In that moment...

"Euph! Eu-euph...!!!"

Dozens upon dozens of ant arms reached out from the darkness
and grabbed onto him, before dragging him deeper into the
unknown.

He would now be subjected to horrifying torture from here onwards

where he'd eventually beg for death, but too bad, he'd not be able to
die that easily.

See, the thing was, the Shadow now tasked with his punishment
was one of the greatest soldiers in the ranks, and at the same time,
the greatest 'Healer' there ever was, too.

[Kkiiehk!]

Beru bowed his waist to perform a smart greeting towards his

liege, before melting back into the darkness.

'…...'

Jin-Woo wordlessly stared in the direction where Seo Gyu-Nam had

disappeared to, and slowly stood up from his chair. This time, not
from his front but from behind, another figure watching the
proceedings unfold while hiding stepped out of the darkness.

It was Jin-Yi.

Jin-Woo was well aware that, no matter how badly the guilty
suffered, the victim's pain would never fully disappear. However, if
such a thing could console the heart of the deceased just a tiny bit….

He walked over to her and placed his fingertip on her forehead to

erase all memories of her adoptive father.

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[Thank you. Thank you so much, Sovereign-nim.]

The Shadow bowed her head many times to Jin-Woo afterwards.

Now that she was reborn as a Shadow, she instinctively understood

what kind of a special existence he was, but well, Jin-Woo never
planned to convert her into his Shadow Soldier, to begin with.

So, it was now time to return her to the void.

Just before their goodbyes, Jin-Woo asked her in a gentle voice.

"Is there anything else you'd like to say?"

The Shadow lightly shook her head, before going, "Ah!"

[By any chance…. If it's not too much trouble, can I ask you
for a small favour?]

day.

Jin-Yi's friend came to the station in the early morning to find out
about any new development in the case. Jin-Woo found her first and
took her to the corridor outside the office.

"By all appearances, the chances of the case being treated

as murder is extremely low at this point. The investigation
itself will close soon, as well."

The friend looked at Jin-Woo with a disbelieving expression, before

speaking up with the voice of a person clutching at a straw.

"T-truly…. There isn't even one percent of any other

possibilities??"

Rather than a verbal reply, Jin-Woo quietly nodded his head up and
down. The friend's head dropped towards the ground next.

She seemed to have a million things to say in her mind, but

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couldn't say any one of them out aloud – her expression sorrowful
but unwilling, she hesitantly spoke.

"That means, Jin-Yi, she...."

Jin-Woo studied her for a moment or two, before presenting her

with a small gift box covered in a cute wrapper.

"This is?"

"The name written on the gift card is yours, isn't it?"

".....It is."

It was none other than a gift the deceased carefully handpicked

and prepared for the friend's birthday. The gift that would've never
entered its intended owner's hands finally found its way to its rightful
home.

"Jin-Yi prepared this....?"

"That's correct. I thought that Miss Jin-Yi would've wanted

this gift to find its intended owner."

"Ah…. Thank you...."

The friend thanked Jin-Woo wholeheartedly, her eyes tearing up

uncontrollably.

If only the adoptive father's insidious text message didn't arrive at

the victim's phone one hour before she cut her own wrist, wouldn't
these two friends get to enjoy the birthday party as planned?

Jin-Woo felt complicated in his heart as several thoughts

intersected within his mind and his gaze drifted away to the distance,
only for him to feel the familiar vibration coming from within his
pocket.

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"Excuse me for a moment."

He asked for an understanding from the sobbing friend of the

victim, turned around, and answered his phone.

A voice he felt relieved to hear came out of the phone's speaker.

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Chapter 264: Chapter 264

Source: WEBNOVEL

Side Story 21

The last side story: Twelve years later (Fin)

Later that evening.

Jin-Woo headed to the local diner that he frequented with Yu Jin-Ho

when they were much younger. Still did, as a matter of fact.

He felt the hints of determination, different from the kid's usual

self, emanating from Yu Jin-Ho's voice on the phone. When Jin-Woo
stepped into the diner, Yu Jin-Ho sitting anxiously by the table, easily
visible from the entrance, quickly raised his hand up high.

"Hyung-nim!!"

After graduating from the university, Yu Jin-Ho continued to train in

the art of running a business empire under Chairman Yu Myung-
Hwan, which transformed his body and spirit into a proper man now.

However, he still came across as a little kid brother to Jin-Woo,

even now.

"Hey, man."

He greeted back with a chuckle and settled on the other side of Yu

Jin-Ho. His gaze then scanned the soju shot glass in Yu Jin-Ho's hand,
as well as the half-empty soju bottle for a brief moment.

'This guy, he knows he can't handle alcohol, so why....'

It was unknown just what he was psyching himself up for like this,
but without a doubt, Yu Jin-Ho needed a massive boost to his courage

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to do it, it seemed.

So, Jin-Woo asked.

"What's going on with you? You didn't even tell me

anything yet."

Yu Jin-Ho greatly hesitated with his reply, before pulling out a small
box from his inner pocket and opened it up. A rather expensive-
looking ring was stored in there.

"Hyung-niiim!!"

"What now?"

"This time, I'm gonna propose to Miss Jin-Ah for sure!"

Aaah.

'That's what this was all about.'

Jin-Woo was guessing that the kid got scolded by his little sister or
some such and wanted to complain to someone trustworthy, but now
that he knew the score, a smile automatically floated up on his face.

Yu Jin-Ho completely misinterpreted that smile, though, and a

fierce glare of determination lit up within his eyes.

"Hyung-nim! I'm really serious this time! I'll confess to her

tonight! B-but, the thing is…. You think she's going to like
this ring?"

When Jin-Woo thought about how Jin-Ah always complained at

home, wondering aloud just when the blockhead that was her
boyfriend would come around to confess his feelings for her, he could
picture her jumping up and down in happiness already, but well….

Jin-Woo deliberately left his words vague so the after-confession

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swelling of emotions could be even tastier for the couple.

"I wonder... I'm not very good with this sort of things,
so...."

"Keuh-heuk."

As if he felt tormented, Yu Jin-Ho dropped his head lower in agony

before raising it back up again.

"I-it's still fine, hyung-nim. Actually, I don't know what

she'd like to have anyway, so I prepared lots of presents in
advance."

And then, he began pulling out a large paper envelope out of the
blue. What that contained was a blueprint of a building.

"Actually, there's this new building about to be constructed

in our company's premises, so as soon as Miss Jin-Ah is done
with her medical degree, we could build a hospit...."

"Hold up."

Jin-Woo felt as if he had seen this blueprint lots of times from

somewhere and quickly cut Yu Jin-Ho's word off.

"By any chance, this building…. The estimated pricing is

around 30 billion Won, isn't it?" (TL: Around $25 million USD)

Yu Jin-Ho was taken by surprise and his eyes opened up wider.

"What the…. Hyung-nim, how can you know that....?"

Well, it was obvious how – because it was the exact same thing.

...The same as the blueprint of the building offered as the

compensation for making Yu Jin-Ho the new Guild Master back in the
erased timeline, that was.

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Jin-Woo worked hard to keep his laughter in check. Yu Jin-Ho saw
that expression and his complexion reddened considerably as he
tried to come up with a suitable excuse.

"Hyung-nim, this is the best I can do for Miss Jin-Ah at the

moment because I'm still learning about this trade from my
father, but I...."

"No, that's not it."

To stop Yu Jin-Ho's misunderstanding from getting any deeper, Jin-

Woo wiped the grin off his face and spoke in a far more earnest tone
of voice.

"Listen to me, Jin-Ho."

"Yes, hyung-nim."

"There's no need for you to give her lots of presents to

prove yourself so hard like this. Because... you are a good
man. All you have to do is be you. Just you."

"....."

Jin-Woo's opinion rendered Yu Jin-Ho completely speechless, but he

began tearing up greatly.

"Hyung-nim...."

It was at this point that Jin-Woo belatedly remembered how this kid
behaved when drunk and felt this ominous foreboding creep up on
him.

And like clockwork, Yu Jin-Ho spoke in a tearful voice.

"Can I hug you just this one time, hyung-nim?"

"Nope."

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"Hyung-niiim!!"

Yu Jin-Ho failed to rein his emotions in the end, and pounced on Jin-
Woo to embrace him, but the latter extended his hand and rather
deftly stopped the former from getting too close.

Yu Jin-Ho struggled for a long time before finally regaining control

over his emotions and settled back down on his spot.

"Sob, sob, sobbbb..."

He continued to sob away, though, and Jin-Woo could only smirk at

this sight. Sure, this kid did have a bit of a moronic streak in him, but
Jin-Woo knew the truth very well from what the kid had shown him
during the moments of great life-or-death peril.

Back when they entered the rank C dungeon along with a bunch of
con-men and were forced into making a decision, or when he was
being tortured for information by a rank S Hunter blinded by thoughts
of revenge, Yu Jin-Ho always chose loyalty over his safety.

He was a good kid, indeed. That was Jin-Woo's honest impression

of Yu Jin-Ho after observing him from a close vantage point after all
this time.

Jin-Woo poured soju into his own empty shot glass.

"Why don't we pray for your success with this toast?"

"Eh?"

Yu Jin-Ho raised his head to find Jin-Woo pushing forward his shot
glass.

"If your proposal is successful, then we will really become

family, you know. So, how about we share a toast while
praying for your success?"

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"A real family with hyung-nim....."

Yu Jin-Ho's expression was soon overcome with a great swell of

emotions once more and he lifted his own cup up, only for his gaze to
stop by at Jin-Woo's left hand.

He knew very well what was hidden behind that black glove, of
course.

"Excuse me…. Hyung-nim?"

"Yeah?"

"If I'm not overstepping here, can I ask you about

something?"

"Sure, go ahead."

Yu Jin-Ho sneaked a couple of glances at Jin-Woo's left hand before

working up his courage once more.

"The scars on that hand…. What actually did happen to you,

to get such serious scars?"

Those scars were so horrendous that just a casual glance would

make people recall heart-wrenching pain in an instant. It must've
been a rather serious accident for such a clear burn scar to be left
behind like that.

Although Yu Jin-Ho found it pretty hard to ask this question up until

now, he borrowed the powers of the booze to ask this rather difficult
question.

"Oh, you mean this?"

Jin-Woo glanced at his left hand for a little while, before a smirk
floated up on his lips.

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"I got it while saving the world."

Jin-Woo's gaze had reverted back to Yu Jin-Ho by then. His reply

was spoken as if it was nothing much to worry about, so the latter
chuckled back lightly, too.

"Hyung-nim, you and your sense of humour...."

Jin-Woo also chuckled along as well.

Yu Jin-Ho belatedly realised that the shot glass had been stuck
waiting for a while inside his hyung-nim's hand and quickly raised his
own higher.

"For the successful proposal!"

Jin-Woo brought his cup closer and prayed for the kid's fortune as
well.

"Yeah, for your successful proposal."

Clink.

They clinked their shot glasses and emptied them in one go.

Yu Jin-Ho's face went into a scowl at the bitter taste of soju, but
unlike him, Jin-Woo could only form a wry grin as he put the empty
glass down.

'I'd love to get just a little bit drunk on a day like today,
though...'

It was then.

"Ah, I almost forgot."

Yu Jin-Ho must've recalled Jin-Woo's family life after hearing the

word 'family' since he suddenly began discussing precisely that.

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"Is sister-in-law doing well?"

"Yeah, she's well."

"What about Soo-Hoh, though? I should really stop by soon

to see how the boy's doing nowadays. Has he started walking
yet?"

Jin-Woo chuckled and shook his head.

"No, not yet. He's only six months old, so crawling is all he
can do for now."

"That's weird. I thought that a kid sharing your and your

wife's genes would start running around the moment he was
born, you know?"

"What the hell. Is that how you think of me and her?"

"Ahaha."

Yu Jin-Ho scratched the back of his head in a playful manner and

Jin-Woo also chuckled as well.

But then, Yu Jin-Ho went "Oops!" and hurriedly spoke in a worried

voice as he heard that the post-natal care was rather arduous for the
newborn's parents.

"Well, in that case, shouldn't you go home as soon as

possible?"

"Mm... Maybe I should?"

With good timing, Jin-Woo was also beginning to miss Hae-In and
his son Soo-Hoh waiting for him back home after the word 'family'
had been mentioned earlier.

A certain residence located in the outskirts of the city.

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Arriving back home safe and sound, Jin-Woo parked his car in the
vicinity.

Screech.

Although the house was unimaginably huge for a detective to

afford with his government salary, no one suspected a thing since
the person sharing the residence alongside him just so happened to
be the idol of the sporting world that pretty much every South Korean
had heard of before in the past.

However, only he and Hae-In knew the secret of this house not
being built by the hands of humans.

When Jin-Woo stepped into the house, the first thing that greeted
him was the sight of his two Marshals in the middle of a war of
nerves.

Bellion and Igrit were glaring at each other without backing down
an inch, apparently not ready to give up on their ground. Soon, Hae-
In came out to the living room while carrying their son, Soo-Hoh.

"Dear...."

With a smile, Jin-Woo took over Soo-Hoh from Hae-In, and gently
held him up. When he did...

"Ppa-!!"

Soo-Hoh broke out into boisterous laughter and extended his small
hands towards him. The boy wanted to be hugged by his father, so
Jin-Woo helped with that by embracing the baby against his chest,
and then, pointed to his two Marshals with his chin.

"What's up with those two?"

"Well, the thing is...."

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Hae-In was fighting back to keep her own laughter from breaking
out while hesitating with her answer, but Jin-Woo didn't need long to
figure out what was up with this situation.

Bellion shot back at Igrit with a harsh glare.

[What do you mean by we mustn't teach our Lord Soo-Hoh

the ways of the sword? Do you really think your suggestion
makes any sense whatsoever, Igrit?!]

However, Igrit's own fighting spirit didn't lose out an inch, other.

[High academic success is the barometer of one's capability

in this world, Bellion.]

No one knew when or who ordered them online, but well, Igrit was
holding home-schooling material for toddlers as he argued his case.

Jin-Woo watched the tightly-contested war of nerves between

these two proud Soldiers and became utterly speechless. He stared
at them with a dumbfounded face for a while, before he took a step
closer to address them.

"You guys...."

The Marshals finally realised that their liege was right in front of
their noses, hurriedly turned around to face him, and knelt down on
the floor.

[My liege!]

[My liege!]

Jin-Woo tutted audibly at the two Marshals far too obsessed in the
matters of the post-natal care and spoke to them.

"It's fine whether you want to teach my son swords or

maths, but let's worry about that only after the boy learns to

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walk first, shall we?"

Bellion and Igrit stared at each other for a little while before
bowing their heads down to Jin-Woo.

[That is a reasonable approach, my liege.]

[You are correct, my liege.]

"Alright."

Jin-Woo grinned brightly while holding his son in his arms, and just
like that, Soo-Hoh also grinned brightly in return, as well.

"Kkyah."

Nobody would doubt that they were a father and son; Hae-In
watched the two's smiles that seemed like a carbon copy of one
another and chuckled softly herself.

Around the time Lee Seh-Hwan, joining the Unit as someone's

potential successor, had gotten more or less used to the life as a
detective, Jin-Woo was summoned by the Station Commander for a
private chat.

The senior detective leaving the commander's office before him

carried a rather suspicious glint in his eyes, so it was unlikely that
this chat would be about a pleasant topic, thought Jin-Woo. He
entered the commander's office after the senior detective left and
walked over to his superior's desk.

"Did you call for me, sir?"

The commander was looking out of his office window at the time;
he didn't turn around and addressed Jin-Woo in a quiet voice.

"I heard that you're still interfering in other detectives'

investigations...."

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As expected – the senior of earlier carried that look of 'I told you
so' as he was leaving, didn't he? Jin-Woo inwardly swallowed his fake
cough.

The commander turned around towards Jin-Woo and formed a

refreshing grin.

"Please, I beg you to not go overboard and make other

detectives resent you, Seong Hunter-nim."

The commander's face was someone quite familiar to him. It

belonged to none other than Woo Jin-Cheol, the youngest Station
Commander in Korean history.

Of course, that feat was built upon the hidden fact that Jin-Woo
played a key role in solving many of Woo Jin-Cheol's cases.

Jin-Woo smiled and corrected his current boss's words.

"I'm not a Hunter anymore, Commander."

"Even still, it's a lot more convenient for me to refer to you

as a Hunter-nim."

While saying those things, Woo Jin-Cheol scanned the documents

on top of his desk.

"Did you know that the legal guardian of the suicide victim,
her father, suddenly went missing a few days ago?"

"Really?"

"Rather coincidentally, every CCTV camera around the

missing man's residence stopped working at the same time."

"Oh my goodness. How can such a thing even happen?"

Jin-Woo's feigned innocence brought about a helpless chuckle from

Woo Jin-Cheol. He then threw the documents into the nearby trash
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can.

"Whatever you decide to do, I shall continue to believe in

you, Seong Hunter-nim."

Jin-Woo heard Woo Jin-Cheol's declaration of unreserved faith in

him and as a gesture of thanks, bowed his head just a little.

Afterwards….

"Actually, I didn't ask you to come and stop by because of

that...."

Woo Jin-Cheol pushed forward a piece of memo paper that had

been hidden in the corner of the desk until then. A name of a
hospital, as well as a patient's room number, was written on it.

"....I thought that you'd like to know."

"What's this?"

Jin-Woo asked back and Woo Jin-Cheol replied as if he was waiting

for that.

"The Association President, no, Chairman Goh Gun-Hui is

apparently in critical condition."

This would be Jin-Woo's second time coming to visit Goh Gun-Hui's

hospital room.

About ten years ago, he saved the older man's life by using the
'Divine Water of Life' that he also used to save his mother's life in the
erased timeline.

And now, he was facing the gaunt Goh Gun-Hui once more as the
latter found himself at the death's doorstep. Since this was his
second visit, the dying man didn't get surprised by Jin-Woo's
unexpected appearance.

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No, he simply nodded his head in the direction of the unfamiliar
young man with a hood pulled up. He then tapped on the oxygen
mask blocking his mouth.

Jin-Woo reached out and cautiously removed the apparatus,

allowing Goh Gun-Hui to speak even though he wheezed heavily and
laboriously in between each word.

"Young... man, you came back again…. Actually, I…. I've

been searching for you... all this time."

Jin-Woo looked on at this sight with sorrowful eyes before raising

his voice.

"If Chairman wants this illness to be cured, then...."

Even before he could finish saying that he could cure the illness
one more time, Goh Gun-Hui shook his head first.

"I've... lived for a long time now. I did what I had to do

during the ten years you gave me. That is enough for me."

Back in the erased timeline, Goh Gun-Hui sold off his company and
became the first President of the Korean Hunter's Association. But in
this timeline, he had been acting as the role model to all the other
corporate leaders by taking the lead in various charity work. And he
no longer wished for his life to be extended anymore.

What he really wanted, though, was not what everyone would've

expected.

"Actually…. I have a favour to ask you."

Jin-Woo nodded his head. And that's when he was met with Goh
Gun-Hui's pleading eyes.

"You told me that there was a world where we fought side

by side, didn't you?"

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Jin-Woo nodded his head again without saying anything.

"Can you tell me more about that world? I'd like to know
more. What I looked like, what you looked like back then...."

"Those might not be the memories you'd like to recall, sir."

"It'll be alright. I only wish to regain the memories now

lost, that is all."

Jin-Woo confirmed the earnest desperation on Chairman Goh Gun-

Hui's expression and gently grasped the dying man's hand.

When he did….

….The memories of the time now erased rushed into Goh Gun-
Hui's mind like a tidal wave.

"Ah, ah...."

Tears began flooding out from the older man's eyes.

Meanwhile, Jin-Woo slowly pulled the hood back and revealed his
face to the Association President Goh Gun-Hui. He tightly grasped the
younger man's hands and confirmed the face now looking back as
even thicker tears fell from his eyes.

"Hunter-nim, you have…. Again...."

Jin-Woo gently held the Association President's hand as the latter's

breathing became harsher and noticeably more laborious.

Goh Gun-Hui's gaze shifted back towards the ceiling.

"I... I really... Along with young heroes like you...."

His voice now contained traces of his satisfaction.

Goh Gun-Hui was overcome with the genuine happiness gushing

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out from the deepest part of his heart, and as his tears continued to
flow, he quietly breathed his last.

Jin-Woo also stood there with tears in his eyes, before reaching
down to gently close the older man's eyes. Soon after, the life-
support machines informed everyone involved of the passing of their
patient.

Beeeep-!!

By the time shocked doctors rushed into the room, the suspicious,
uninvited guest had already left without a trace.

As Jin-Woo wordlessly walked the streets, electronic advertising

boards installed here and there continued to display the breaking
news of Chairman Goh Gun-Hui's passing.

Emotions of sadness could be spied on the expressions of many

watching the breaking news.

Back then, or even now….

Chairman Goh Gun-Hui was loved by many, and even more paid
their respects after his death.

'Be well…. You were also a hero who sacrificed so much of

yourself for the sake of the others.'

Jin-Woo stepped away from the populated streets and made his
way towards those avenues with little to no foot traffic.

Every time the wind blew, leaves that lost their colours from the
influence of the encroaching autumn fell in droves from the trees
lining up the streets.

Soon, winter would arrive.

'And then, spring will come again, too.'

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Jin-Woo fell into a deep train of thoughts while looking at the
scattering leaves, before belatedly realising that his phone was
ringing off the hook inside his pocket.

The call was from Hae-In.

"Dear?"

As soon as he answered the phone, he was greeted by her

incredibly urgent voice.

Could something have happened in their home, even though two

Marshals were guarding it?? Jin-Woo's own voice rose up higher at
what seemed to be an unbelievable situation currently unfolding
there.

"What's the matter with Soo-Hoh?!"

When he did, Hae-In cried out as if she too couldn't believe that it
was happening, either.

"Eh?"

It was right at that moment that Jin-Woo recalled what Yu Jin-Ho

said a few days ago.

He became completely speechless after recalling those words and

stood dead still on the spot.

For some reason, laughter tried to break out of his mouth after
hearing his wife's panicky voice over the phone. For the time being,
he decided that calming his wife down would be his first priority.

"It'll be fine. Don't worry too much about it."

"I'll teach Soo-Hoh how to fly step by step, soon."

'….Oops.'

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Didn't I tell her that before?

When he was dating Hae-In back in the now-erased timeline, he

wasn't all that adept at flying around so they used his Sky Dragon
'Kaisel' to travel, instead.

Jin-Woo finally couldn't hold back and guffawed out.

The autumn leaves shook around in the wind and fell to Earth once
more.

After autumn, winter would come, and afterwards, spring would

greet the world. Everything had a beginning and an end, and a new
beginning would follow after the end.

However...

Clank, smash!!

….It seemed that the winter of his household was still a long way
away.

[Only I Level Up, Side Stories Fin.]

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Chapter 265 Fin.

Source: WEBNOVEL

Only I Level Up Recollections/After Stories

Part 1: Beru's memories

Inside a certain egg….

Before he was ready to hatch, Beru heard the voice of the Queen
through the thick shell of his egg.

[For the sake of the kingdom.]

'For the sake... of the kingdom.'

[Make all the enemies blocking our path shiver in terror.]

'Make all the enemies blocking our path shiver in terror....'

He needed to become strong.

He simply had to be strong.

That was the very first duty bestowed upon Beru, still sleeping in
an embryonic state. And then, the obsession of the Ant Queen
wishing to build a prosperous kingdom resulted in the birth of a
horrifying monster.

[Kkkieeeehhk!!]

The young soldier ant shattered the eggshell, emerged from the
confines, and screeched out loudly. The ominous and terrifying
murderous intent oozing out from its two eyes didn't permit any
comparison to other ant monsters in existence.

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The Queen shuddered. It felt a powerful surge of emotions by this
creature born from its efforts.

'If it's this child, then certainly, those humans wielding

strange powers will be....'

The Queen's eyes sparkled in anticipation, but even before it could

issue a new order to the greatest ant soldier that triumphantly
emerged from the egg, Beru felt hungry, so he did what he wanted to
do.

Grab.

The wrist of one of the worker ants aiding with the hatching
process got grabbed by Beru.

'…..?'

Even before the worker ant could understand what was going on,
Beru simply began swallowing and chewing on the hapless monster
from its head.

Crunch, crunch….

[….!!]

The Queen was greatly taken by surprise at Beru's unexpected

behaviour, but it was suppressed by the powerful aura of the future
king of the ants and couldn't even dare to stop him.

Beru managed to erase all traces of its kin from this world in the
blink of an eye and stood proudly before his queen. The bodily fluid
dripping from his mouth looked rather grotesque.

'The terror of our enemies....'

The thing was, the subject of powerful fear would also have the
same effect on his own allies, as well. The Queen belatedly realised

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this fact and took a look around itself. The brave soldiers of the ant
kingdom were shivering in fear.

The emotions they felt were transmitted in full to their Queen, the
only one capable of exercising absolute control over them.

The newborn soldier definitely passed the test. As expected of the

greatest soldier the Queen had produced – he was truly a
masterpiece.

[Become even stronger.]

The Queen issued the next order to Beru, with an eye towards a
full-scale invasion of the human's lands.

[Stronger, until none can stand in your way.]

Beru proceeded to devour everything on the island. When there

was a shortage of food, he didn't even hesitate to devour his own kin.
From tiny lifeforms on the ground like worms and larvae, all the way
to large fish and aquatic mammals of the nearby ocean….

As Beru voraciously devoured every single life in front of his eyes,

a new realisation dawned on him. Whether it be lifeforms possessing
fatal poison or creatures with huge bodies, they all quaked in fear
upon running into him.

'Survival' was the most basic, as well as the ultimate, goal of all
living creatures. But, in front of an absolute being that could easily
rip apart that goal into millions of pieces, the looks carried in the
eyes of other lifeforms were all roughly the same.

'…...'

Beru got to confirm over and over again that he was indeed at the
top of the food chain, and soon, arrived at a certain conclusion.

'I am....'

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I am created to be the greatest predator from the very beginning.

In that case….

Beru, submerged deep within the seawater, pushed his head out of
the surface. He could see the land at the far end of the undulating
ocean waves. A world different from the sea was waiting for him
there.

'Just how powerful will those humans be, those that mother
is greatly wary of?'

He grew quite curious – curious about if there really were powerful

beings that necessitated even a top predator like him to keep a low
profile, curious about if his powers would work against them.

He shifted his gaze towards the mainland several times, but...

[It is still too early.]

The Queen was capable of monitoring Beru's thoughts and its

resolute voice would always stop him from acting out on his curiosity
without fail.

Left with no choice, he vacantly stared at the distant land before

slipping beneath the surface of the ocean again.

Indeed, he'd get to know when the time was right.

'…...'

Beru heeded the Queen's orders and waited for the right time to
come with bated breath. And eventually, 'they' stepped onto his land.

For the first time ever, Beru was given a chance to test out his true
capabilities.

And it….

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"What, what the hell are you?!"

"Uwaaaahk!!"

….Wasn't even a fight.

No, it was nothing more than one-sided hunting.

What a familiar sight it was to him.

Beru discovered 'fear' in the eyes of the dying Hunters and couldn't
hide his utter disappointment.

'To fight against these weaklings, I...'

I had to wait for such a long time?

There was this smell of fear oozing out from the entire bodies of
the prey. Beru got to reconfirm through these human Hunters that he
still occupied the top rung in the food chain.

It was a letdown.

And so, as the lifeform standing at the apex of the ecosystem was
about to define what he thought of the human race as a whole in his
head...

For the first time ever, a human that didn't fear him even when
standing face-to-face appeared out of the blue. Beru's heart began
viciously pounding away after encountering a situation he had never
experienced before.

'This human…. He's not scared of me?'

He felt it'd be somewhat of a loss to kill this human right away, so

Beru tried to start a conversation.

"Are you the king of humans?"

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When he did, the human replied back.

".....Huh, an insect that knows how to speak. Well, I'll be."

Maybe this would be the first time since then that a living creature
looked at Beru with eyes that were filled with something other than
fear.

Sparkle, sparkle….

'…..'

Beru began shedding cold sweat drops as the young Lord Soo-Hoh,
the son of his Sovereign, stared at him with rather hotly-burning
eyes. So, he tried to escape from this uncomfortable atmosphere, but
then….

"Anty, antyyy!"

He couldn't endure it and flew up in the air, but then….

"Anty, antyyy!!"

The young lord would already be right behind him when Beru took
a look behind to make sure.

'…....'

Of course, as long as Beru wanted to, escaping from a toddler

would not be an issue, but…. Well, the problem here was that the
toddler in question was his king's child.

What if he tried too hard to escape and that ended up harming the
young lord somehow? How could Beru even take care of the
aftermath, then?

"Antyyy!"

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In the end, the responsibilities of looking after young Soo-Hoh
alongside the child's mother, Hae-In, fell on Beru's shoulders, not the
other Marshals.

"...."

After making sure that Soo-Hoh was asleep, Beru quietly returned
to the 'territory of eternal rest'.

He slid silently into the shadow, and the world of infinite darkness
spread out right before his eyes. Some people might call this place
scary, but for Beru, this world under his liege's authority was a rather
comfortable place to be.

While he made his way over to where the ant army resided, Beru
fell into a deep pool of thoughts.

'Why does our young lord continuously seek me out?'

….He just couldn't figure this one out.

He had always been the object of fear, and he felt that that fact
hadn't changed even now. This question suddenly invading his head
proved quite difficult to resolve, so Beru changed his destination.
What could be more helpful in understanding the mindset of a human
than a human's opinion on the matter?

His liege didn't like using humans as Shadow Soldiers, so there

were almost no soldiers who started off as humans, but...

But, rather fortunately, there was one soldier Beru knew that
started his life as a human. It was none other than Marshal Igrit.

"There is no way that our young lord will hate you."

[…..??]

Igrit nodded his head and rapidly added further explanations.

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"Here is an ant walking around that's much bigger than a
person. It can fly and it can even talk, too. Just which child
wouldn't like that?"

[…....]

Well, that was a fresh take on the matter, which he didn't consider
before.

Beru headed back to the area occupied by the ant army while
carefully digesting what Igrit had told him.

'The young lord likes me because I'm bigger than a person,

I can fly, and I can even speak.'

If a person could like something with such simplistic reasons, then

wouldn't that person also easily fall out of love with something with
equally simplistic reasons, too?

Well, he certainly hadn't heard of humans liking bugs after

entering their adulthood. When his thoughts reached that far, his
mood seemed to sink just a little bit.

He was familiar with others looking at him with gazes of revulsion,

but when thinking about how the young lord would also one day
carry such a gaze, Beru grew just a little bit sad.

'…..'

Beru flying silently changed his heading once more. His new
destination this time was the location of a certain construction
project.

The bearded Dwarves and ant soldiers were ordered by Beru to

construct a gigantic stone statue of their liege within this place, the
'territory of eternal rest'. When they saw the former ant king land
near their vicinity, they all bowed their heads in unison.

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The Dwarven Elder in charge of directing the project hurriedly ran
over to welcome Beru.

"Marshal-nim, welcome back."

Nod, nod.

Beru observed the progress on the construction for a bit before

asking the Elder.

[I wish to change the plan just a little bit.]

"Ehhht?!"

Maybe he felt all the hard work his men had put in would go to
waste, the Elder hurriedly tried to dissuade Beru despite feeling
rather scared of the former ant king.

"B-but, Marshal-nim, you planned to commemorate

Sovereign-nim's upcoming 32nd birthday with this 'Divine
Liege' statue, so from a few months ago....."

[No, no, no. I'm not saying I want to cancel the plan itself. I
just want to change this part like so....]

The Elder quietly listened to Beru's explanation before nodding his

head right away.

"Of course that is feasible. I think we will get a far grander

result with this new plan, Marshal-nim."

[Khe-khek, very good.]

The atmosphere that seemed to be frozen for a bit had warmed up

considerably now.

"Well, in that case, I should...."

Just as the excited Elder tried to continue on, Beru raised his index

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finger and placed it against his lips.

[I shall return after taking care of business first.]

"Hyung-nim, are we really doing this?"

"You fool…. What is it? You scared now that we came this
far?"

"N-no, that's not it, hyung-nim."

A thug glared angrily at his underling sitting on the front passenger

seat of the car, and shifted his gaze back to a certain residence over
yonder.

It was a two-story private home standing all by itself in a rather

deserted suburb, as if the owners wanted to avoid crowded areas.

That place belonged to Detective Seong Jin-Woo.

The thug had it confirmed it multiple times before coming here, so

he was sure of it.

"Because of that son of a btch Seong Jin-Woo, our

organisation got obliterated into thin air. We got hurt real
bad by the bstard, so isn't it only fair that we leave an
everlasting mark on him to balance the books??"

"You're right, hyung-nim."

The three underlings replied in a unanimous voice.

Very good.

"Listen well. We are a quartet of common house robbers

now. As for the wife and the son of that detective, they got
killed by the robbers breaking into their home in the middle
of the day. Do you get my drift?"

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"Yes, hyung-nim."

A sinister grin formed on the lips of the man they all referred to as
'hyung-nim'.

To think, such a massive house didn't have a single security

system – wasn't that exactly like declaring to the world 'Come and
swallow us up' while washing their necks?

Indeed, it was a miracle that the house hadn't been burgled yet.

"Stop shaking in your boots and don't make any mistakes."

The thug scanned his underlings and they nodded their heads.

"Let's go."

Tap, tap, tap, tap.

The four males exited the car and cautiously closed the doors.
They scanned their vicinity and approached the residence before
hurriedly clambering over the walls.

They had rehearsed what they had to several times before, so such
a wall didn't pose any problems for these folks.

But then...

...Step!

Only four legs landed back on the ground.

'….Where are the other two?!'

The thug hurriedly looked at the only remaining underling next to

him. The latter shook his head.

Four jumped over the wall, yet only two landed back on the
ground? What a bizarrely weird thing this was!

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The thug quickly studied all around his surroundings, but when he
looked to his side again, the remaining underling was gone without a
trace, too.

'These sons of b*tches, seriously now...!!'

The enraged thug briefly forgot where he was right now, and was
about to roar out at the top of his lungs. But right before that, a hand
approached him without being noticed and covered his mouth, hard.

[Shh....]

Right now was the young lord's nap time. It must not be disrupted
by a bunch of uninvited guests, no matter what!

Thankfully, Beru's hearing could pick up on the calm, rhythmic

breathing of the young lord in the nursery. With a pair of satisfied
eyes, he looked diagonally down to his side. The thug caught in his
arms was trembling like a lone leaf in the wind.

"Euph.... euph, euphhhh!!"

There it was, that familiar light in the eyes.

The familiar emotion.

Beru certainly enjoyed the unreserved faith his liege had in him, or
the young lord's favourable feelings towards him, but this... This, as
expected, felt just as good to him. The expressions of the weak prey
caught before the glare of a predator would always be like this.

[Kiiik, kiiik.]

Beru didn't hold back and revelled in the intense fear displayed in
the thug's eyes, before dragging the hapless victim away and
disappearing from view. The screaming vanished very soon after
from this world.

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"What do you think?"

The Elder proudly presented the 'Divine Liege' statue.

This stone statue with their liege's countenance boasted such a

humongous scale that, in order to look at its top, one's neck might
develop a sprain if one carelessly tilted their head back.

Just to complete this masterpiece before the deadline, not only had
every single bearded Dwarf pitched in, but all the ant soldiers also
lent their aid.

[Kiikiik.]

Beru studied the statue of his liege with a very satisfied expression
before confirming the last-minute change that had been added to it.

"Just as you commanded, Marshal-nim. There it is, on the

left shoulder...."

Just like the Elder's explanation, the left shoulder of the liege's
statue now played home to the figure of their young lord, sitting
there with a bright expression.

The father and his son.

There was no doubt in Beru's heart that his liege would be greatly
pleased after seeing this grand and beautiful statue. And also, this
statue would prove to be a deeply-meaningful present to the young
lord if he ever gets to enter this world in the distant future.

Such certainty prompted Beru to roar out in laughter.

[Kkiiihehehehehet~!!]

Following after the rejoicing Beru, the bearded Dwarves and ant
soldiers also burst out into loud peals of laughter.

Wah-hahahahaha!!

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"Kkyah-hah!"

He suddenly heard a cheerful cry of a toddler mixed among the

raucous laughter.

[….?!]

Beru got stunned out of his shell and hurriedly looked back, only to
discover a certain baby sticking close to his back.

"Annty!!"

Ah, ah.....

Should he say, like father, like son?

Seeing the baby Soo-Hoh who could now freely enter the 'territory
of eternal rest' before anyone had the chance to notice it, the
Marshal in charge of childcare, Beru, could only hold his head in
agony.

[Khi-hahk!]

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Chapter 266 Fin.

Source: WEBNOVEL

Only I Level Up Recollections/After Stories

Part 2: Until we meet again

"Thank you for coming in, Miss Cha."

"Ah, yes. Hello."

Hae-In stepped across the doorway of the kindergarten

headmistress's office with a tense expression on her face.

Soo-Hoh hadn't had any contact with kids of his own age until he
turned five years old. And today was exactly a week after the worried
parents decided to send their son to the nearest kindergarten.

The preschool educational institution suddenly called her up,

asking her to come for a meeting today. Hae-In was really worried
that maybe something happened to Soo-Hoh, or her son did
something wrong.

The headmistress guided her to the couch on the opposite side and
Hae-In settled down on the cushion as her complexion became even
gloomier than before.

The middle-aged headmistress could fully understand what Hae-In

was going through right now. That was why she worked hard to find
the gentlest voice she could come up with in order to not worsen the
other party's anxiety.

"It's not something to be that anxious over, Miss Cha. It's

just that…. We have a few questions we'd like to ask you."

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"Ah, yes. Please."

Hae-In nodded her head repeatedly with a hardened expression.

The headmistress cautiously pushed forward a sketchbook.

"Here…. Would you take a look at this, please?"

Hae-In picked the book up as the headmistress continued on.

"It contains drawings by your son, Soo-Hoh."

The white paper within said book featured a rather-cute looking

'ant' as drawn by a little child's hands.

But, why was she being shown this? Hae-In couldn't immediately
understand where this conversation was going and asked back with a
puzzled expression.

"What's the matter with this drawing....?"

The headmistress hesitated slightly before letting a soft sigh

escape from her lips. She then began explaining herself.

"The class teacher-nim asked the children to draw their

close 'friends', you see."

"....Ah."

Now that she looked at the drawing again, the 'ant' was standing
on two feet. Only then did Hae-In realise that this was not a drawing
of an ordinary ant, but Marshal Beru, instead.

"There are others after that page. When the class teacher-
nim asked Soo-Hoh if he had any other friends, he drew those
next."

Hae-In flipped one more page.

There was a drawing of a humanoid figure with a strip of red

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plumage attached to his head while holding what was clearly a
sword, no matter who saw it.

'Igrit....'

Hae-In instantly recognised the protagonist of the drawing and

slowly held her forehead with one hand. He might look like a
trustworthy knight to those who knew him, but how would this
situation look like in the eyes of strangers?

Her head began aching just from thinking about that.

After that page came the drawings of Bellion and his extending
magic sword, as well as Fangs, busily putting on a magic show.
Inevitably, Hae-In's head began developing a stronger migraine.

'…..'

The headmistress interpreted Hae-In's speechless expression the

wrong way and spoke in a worried voice.

"The next drawing is what Soo-Hoh drew as his family

portrait."

Flip.

The page of the sketchbook flipped again. What greeted her next
was a drawing of herself, a man that seemed to be her husband, Jin-
Woo, and innumerable black figures standing behind them.

Soo-Hoh grew up from his toddler days surrounded by the Shadow

Soldiers and he must've thought of them as his extended family now.

'This is how we look like in Soo-Hoh's eyes.'

Hae-In thought that this drawing contained her son's innocent but
warm gaze, and her nose stung with emotions.

The class teachers couldn't understand the meaning behind these

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drawings and fell into a rather considerable amount of panic and
came to the conclusion that there must've been some sort of a
problem with Soo-Hoh.

And of course, that included the headmistress herself, the person

responsible for asking Hae-In to stop by at the kindergarten today.

The middle-aged lady formed a pretty grave expression as she

spoke.

"The final page contains Soo-Hoh's drawing of his 'home'.

And the reason why I requested you for today's meeting, as
well."

What kind of a drawing would it be this time? With a pair of

nervous eyes, Cha Hae-In flipped to the last page.

There was a cosy little house.

A normal-looking house was standing erect in the middle of some

land.

The problem with this depiction was that the ground below was
completely painted black.

Over 70 percent of the sketchbook's real estate was dominated by

the black colour.

"We've been caring for many children over the years, but
never have we encountered such depictions of friends and
family by a child until now."

The headmistress pointed to the black portion of the drawing and

spoke in a calm voice.

"The homeroom teacher-nim asked Soo-Hoh why he drew

the lower half of the house like this, and the boy replied that
that's where his friends, his family, as well as his giant

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father, are staying."

'…..Giant father?'

That explanation was puzzling enough to make Hae-In tilt her head
this way and that, but still, she could more or less guess how this
drawing came about.

However….

"By any chance, do you know why Soo-Hoh is drawing these

sorts of images?"

….It was really unfortunate that Hae-In couldn't reveal what she
knew to other people. She could only shake her head.

"....As I feared."

The headmistress nodded her head as if she understood the

situation.

Initially, the kindergarten was fearful that Soo-Hoh was being

mistreated at home, but they couldn't find any evidence of abuse
from the boy's jovial, good-natured behaviour he displayed every
day.

Although rare, things like this did happen occasionally – young kids
drawing the world as they see it through their eyes.

"Maybe... It's possible that Soo-Hoh possesses a great

talent for art."

The headmistress convinced herself with this and smiled gently.

Hae-In stopped forming a gloomy expression, now that she knew

the source of today's 'trouble', and smiled awkwardly, as well.

"Ah, yes. Yes."

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What a relief that it was not a huge matter. She could finally relax
a bit.

However, these drawings weren't the end of the headmistress's

business today. She again deliberated on whether she should speak
of this or not, before coming to a difficult decision and raised her
head.

The look in her eyes was far graver than when she presented those
drawings.

"Miss Cha, actually…. There is something else I'd like to

speak to you about."

In the Central Region's Violent Crimes Unit.

After the results of the promotion examination had been

announced, excited voices began resounding out and filled up the
Unit's office.

"Senior-nim, congratulations on your promotion!"

"Congratulations!"

"You should buy us all a round, don't you agree, Senior-

nim? No, hang on, Seong Superintendent-nim?"

Jin-Woo had to spend quite some time being surrounded by the

rest of the Unit's detectives, and was only able to extricate himself
after his partner, Lee Seh-Hwan, finally showed up.

"Hyung-nim, shall we get going?"

"Yeah."

Leaving behind the congratulatory words coming from here and

there, Jin-Woo and his beaming smile escaped from the office.

Enough time had passed and Lee Seh-Hwan himself was a veteran
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detective now. He quickly congratulated his much-respected senior.

"Hyung-nim, congrats."

Jin-Woo used a wordless smile to sub for his reply.

He and Lee Seh-Hwan shared jovial banter as they walked side by

side, but then, the younger detective cautiously scanned his
surroundings before sticking real close to his senior.

"By the way, hyung-nim…. Why did you accept the

promotion this time? I mean, whenever the brass pleaded
with you to move up the career ladder, you always refused
them, so why now?"

Jin-Woo looked at Seh-Hwan from the corners of his eyes with a

look that said, "What's so important about that?" before breaking
out into a smirk as he replied.

"I ran out of excuses for my refusal, you see."

Seh-Hwan laughed out loud at that rather remarkable answer.

"You're truly amazing, hyung-nim. I'm telling you."

Although what he said sounded like a joke, Jin-Woo wasn't joking

here. Of course, Seh-Hwan knew that, too.

As it was the case with pretty much every profession out there, a
detective would grow further and further away from field work the
higher his rank became.

Jin-Woo wished to remain close to where the action was, and the
higher-ups, especially Commander Woo Jin-Cheol, respected that.
Unfortunately, that couldn't go on forever.

Now that all excuses that could stop a detective with a stunning
arrest record from advancing in his career had been exhausted, even

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Jin-Woo was left with no choice but to accept the examination result.

"Hyung-nim, don't you have any goals or wants? I mean,

like, better position or making lots of money, that sort of
things."

Money, was it?

If Jin-Woo said that once upon a time, he made more than enough
moolah to b*tch-slap a huge law firm and their deep pockets in the
face all by himself at a younger age than his junior partner, would the
kid even believe him?

Too bad, Jin-Woo could only recall the days when he operated the
Ah-Jin Guild alongside Yu Jin-Ho and swallow back the words dancing
on the tip of his tongue.

'Well, they've really become distant memories now, haven't

they...'

He could swim in the reminiscence of the past for only a short

while, though. As he was about to climb into the car with Seh-Hwan,
his phone began ringing loudly, so he pulled it out to take a look.

'Mm?'

The call was from Hae-in.

After talking on the phone, Jin-Woo returned home earlier than

usual, and after checking out Soo-Hoh's drawings, could only chuckle
softly.

"I had no idea that our son had such a wonderful talent in
art."

Amongst them, the drawing of Beru especially caught his eyes.

There should be no other five-year-old child that can draw an ant this
wonderfully in the world.

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Jin-Woo looked at the drawing in happiness, only to be pricked
harshly by Hae-In's sharp glare and quickly withdrew his smile.

"Hm, hmm."

After seeing her husband changing his attitude really quickly like
that, Hae-In just couldn't hold back her smirk from breaking out
anymore. She then spoke to Jin-Woo as if she was trying to convince
herself.

"It's not a laughing matter, you know? Take a look at the

very last page."

"The last page?"

The last page in question contained Soo-Hoh's final piece, named

'My home'.

"Soo-Hoh said that the black ground is where his giant

father is, so can you think of…. Why are you smiling?"

"N-no, well, it's just that I remembered something funny.

That's all."

Jin-Woo recalled the 'Divine Liege' statue standing in the middle of

the 'territory of eternal rest' and couldn't hold back his laughter
anymore. Tears even began sneaking out of his eyes, so he quickly
wiped them off and closed the sketchbook.

Wouldn't it be fine to let this slide with a simple chuckle?

Expressions containing such thoughts flitted in and out of Jin-Woo's
face. Hae-In let a soft sigh out and relayed what the headmistress
had told her earlier in the day.

"Other kids are apparently scared of Soo-Hoh."

"....??"

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A little bit of the smile on Jin-Woo's face went away, then.

"Other kids?"

Hae-In nodded her head with a worried expression before

continuing on with her explanation.

"Their complexions change badly whenever Soo-Hoh tries

to get close to them. Even when he has never bullied or
shouted at them, but still."

"...."

Now that was not something he could gloss over. Jin-Woo's

expression hardened. The previous smile was long gone now. The
thing he was worried about had really happened.

'Children are....'

Young children were incomparably purer than adults. And he

wasn't simply talking about their immature way of looking at things.

No, it was about the 'purity' of their senses.

Unlike with adults who, through logical reasoning and studying, got
to overcome the primal instincts they were born with, children could
feel the fear of death far more vividly.

The reason why other kids avoided Soo-Hoh was because they
must've felt the shadow of death hovering above him.

'The power of the Shadow Sovereign....'

It became Jin-Woo's, and that fact prevented it from becoming a

full-blown calamity, but that was about it.

In reality, this power was a horrifying weapon that the 'God of

another realm' hid inside its most loyal soldier in order to destroy
everything it had created.

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If the powers of the Shadow Sovereign he didn't mean to give to
his son continued to grow within Soo-Hoh, then….

'….It'll be impossible to carry on with a normal life.'

At the very least, there was a need to seal that power away until
Soo-Hoh reached an age where he could exert perfect control over it.

Jin-Woo's gaze shifted over to all the photos hanging on the living
room's wall. The biggest one was the marriage of Jin-Woo and Hae-In;
surrounding it were many images of their son.

And most of those photos were shot alongside Shadow Soldiers.

Soo-Hoh and his bright smile, as he rode on Beru's shoulders and

energetically yanking on the ant king's two antennae.

Soo-Hoh busy escaping from Igrit who volunteered to become the

boy's home-school tutor, and then, Soo-Hoh busy performing a mock
duel with Bellion using his toy sword.

There were so many others.

Jin-Woo quietly began storing them away in the subspace, one by

one.

"Dear....?"

"Until Soo-Hoh can live among other people without any

issues, I... I'm planning to temporarily seal away Soo-Hoh's
powers and his memories of the Shadow Soldiers."

Soo-Hoh had to learn it.

He needed to learn how to coexist among regular people like a

normal person, rather than with Shadow Soldiers.

Until then….

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Just as the final remaining photo entered the storage within the
subspace, Beru emerged from the ground after learning of Jin-Woo's
decision.

[Oh, my king....]

The heart of the Shadow Soldier, the one who looked after and
loved Soo-Hoh like his own child, was transmitted in full to Jin-Woo.

However, the Sovereign's decision was resolute. Realising that

there was no way to change his liege's mind, Beru's head drooped to
the ground.

As the former ant king's gaze fell, a drawing suddenly entered his
view. It was Soo-Hoh's sketchbook pushed forward by Jin-Woo.

[This is...?]

'It's you, drawn by Soo-Hoh.'

Easily the best depiction of Beru he'd ever seen was drawn upon
this white page. Thick teardrops formed on Beru's large eyes almost
right away.

[My liege…. May I be permitted to say goodbye to the

young Lord?]

Nod.

After receiving Jin-Woo's permission, Beru cautiously entered Soo-

Hoh's room.

Creak….

The soft, rhythmic breathing of the deeply-asleep Soo-Hoh was like

the sweetest and most soothing music to the former ant king's ears.
He knelt down cautiously next to the bed, so as to not rouse the
sleeping child from his nap.

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[My Lord…. On behalf of all the Shadow Soldiers, I shall bid
you farewell.]

His voice gently reverberated as if it was spoken within the

dreams. In his sleep, Soo-Hoh shifted his body towards the location of
the voice and mumbled softly.

"Boss ant.... boss ant...."

With an expression showing how proud he was of Soo-Hoh now

being able to pronounce 'ant' more concisely compared to when the
child was still chasing after him a couple of years ago, Beru bade his
goodbye.

[It has been my honour to serve you, my Lord. Until we

meet again next time, I pray for your good health....]

Beru lightly kissed the back of Soo-Hoh's hand perched at the end
of the bed and stood back up. All the soldiers hidden within the
former ant king's shadow also said their goodbyes.

[My Lord, even without me, I pray that you strictly adhere
to your study schedules...]

[Please be healthy, my Lord.]

[Sobbbb, sniff, waaaail, waaah....]

With the goodbyes now over, Beru looked behind him. Jin-Woo was
there, nodding his head.

He wordlessly walked over to his son and carefully pulled the

blanket up to the boy's chest, tucking him in. Then, he placed his
palm on the sleeping child's forehead. Powerful magical energy very
briefly hovered near his fingertips before leaving him behind.

When Soo-Hoh opens his eyes again, all of his extraordinary power
and memories would be gone.

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'Have a good dream, son...'

Jin-Woo lightly kissed his son slumbering away like a baby angel
and left the room, quietly closing the door behind him.

That night, Soo-Hoh dreamed of ants and knights and Orcs dancing
happily together with him.

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Chapter 267 Fin.

Source: WEBNOVEL

Only I Level Up Recollections/After Stories

Part 3: Approach

Spin, spin….

The radar of a boy named Lee Eun-Cheol, a recent addition to the

ranks of high school students, began spinning around.

A brand new school, a new classroom, and new classmates.

The eyes of Lee Eun-Cheol, sitting right at the back of the class, as
he scanned the atmosphere of the place remained harsh, predatory.
With just one glance, he quickly judged who was beneath him, and
who was qualified to be his friend.

The laws of the jungle reigned supreme in this world called the
classroom.

Even back in his middle school days, Lee Eun-Cheol ruled the roost
with his fists. To his eyes, the majority of his classmates looked like a
bunch of easy prey. Almost without exception, those that met his
glare all quickly averted their gazes.

'….How lame.'

However, there was a dude that walked closer to him with a grin on
his face, instead.

'That's Jo Seong-Ho.'

He was one of those 'friends' who did his thing in the neighbouring
district. Also, they ran into each other every now and then while

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sharing casual booze with his other friends, too.

"You were also here?"

"Yeah."

They greeted each other and shared news on their particular circle
of acquaintances while measuring each other up, but that only lasted
for a short while.

Jo Seong-Ho had heard the infamy of Lee Eun-Cheol plenty of times

before, so he lowered his head first and got under the latter's wings.

"Take care of me from now on, alright?"

Lee Eun-Cheol smirked deeply and grasped Jo Seong-Ho's

extended hand. They might be in the process of establishing their
hierarchical positioning at the moment, but a guy like this would be
classified as a 'friend'.

And so, as he was about halfway done with establishing the

hierarchical relationship with the rest of the class, there was this one
guy who kept getting on Lee Eun-Cheol's nerves for some reason.

He wasn't some model student who sat right in front of the class,
nor was he a punk trying to show off while sitting at the back, either.

It was a strange kid who sat in the middle and didn't even bother
to avert his gaze away when their gazes collided.

There would always be one like this guy in every class – a dimwit
who didn't know his place and needed an 'incident' to figure who was
on top and who was at the bottom.

That punk was looking behind him, right at Lee Eun-Cheol, before
sighing out, as if he found this whole thing ridiculous, and reverted
his gaze back to his front. Obviously, the high school thug couldn't
take that lying down anymore and stood up from his seat.

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Dururuk...

The noise of the chair dragging against the ground loudly rang
around the classroom. Of course, the gazes of the whole class were
instantly focused on Lee Eun-Cheol.

The boy enjoyed all the attention and, while feeling pretty good
about himself, strode right over to the dimwit who didn't know his
place.

"Oii."

Just as Lee Eun-Cheol reached out to grab the punk's shoulder and
turn him around, a tackle came in from a rather unexpected quarter.

"Hold up."

After confirming that it was Jo Seong-Ho that grabbed hold of his

wrist, Lee Eun-Cheol opened his mouth.

"What now?"

There were distinct signs of displeasure thickly melted into the

voice, and that caused Jo Seong-Ho to nervously swallow his dry
saliva.

"We went to the same middle school. If you can help it, you
shouldn't bother him."

".....Same school?"

Just because they went to the same school, he was trying to

protect the punk?

There could be two potential reasons for that. One, a reason that
couldn't be brought up but still forbade anyone from touching this
punk.

Or, they were looking down on Lee Eun-Cheol.

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The high school thug's expression hardened instantly and he
began lightly kicking the chair of the 'punk' that didn't even bother to
turn around in the middle of this commotion.

"Hey, hey? Who the hell are you? Why don't you say
something? Don't you have a mouth?"

Jo Seong-Ho's complexion paled really quickly and tried to jump in

front to stop this. Lee Eun-Cheol's patience ran out then and he
slapped the latter's hand away while shooting a fierce glare.

"You, come with me."

As Lee Eun-Cheol left the classroom, two of his underlings that

graduated from the same middle school followed after him, too. He
stopped right at the doorway and looked back. His eyes caught Jo
Seong-Ho sweating buckets, while the 'punk' didn't seem to care one
jot either way.

Grit.

A chilling murderous aura filled up Lee Eun-Cheol's eyes.

"Keo-heok!"

Jo Seong-Ho and his messed-up face were tottering unsteadily on

his feet. Maybe that didn't satisfy him yet, Lee Eun-Cheol's glare
remained frigid and murderous.

He shoved Jo Seong-Ho against the wall before asking his question.

"Who the hell is that punk? Just who is he that you're trying
to protect him?!"

The wounded boy breathed heavily and painfully before spitting

out saliva mixed with traces of blood to the ground. He then raised
his head, his expression one of fatigue.

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"He was the strongest in our middle school."

"...??"

Lee Eun-Cheol's head tilted to the side.

This kid, did he lose his mind after getting smacked around for a
bit?

It was a well-known story that Jo Seong-Ho and his gang had

completely conquered his middle school. However, he shook his head
and emphasized his point.

"We couldn't even lay a hand on that guy. I stepped

forward today, cuz I was scared that something might go
wrong here, too."

Initially, Lee Eun-Cheol wondered what kind of horse crap this was,
but Jo Seong-Ho's eyes were far too serious for something like that.

'This son of a b*tch... He's being serious?'

But, that couldn't be.

If there was a scary b*stard like that, then there was just no way
that a rumour wouldn't have gotten around.

The name of the punk in question was Seong Soo-Hoh.

Lee Eun-Cheol lived in this neck of the woods since his elementary
school days, but he had never heard of that name before. Besides,
what could a nerd like that do to him, anyway?

Lee Eun-Cheol's rage shot up right to the top of his head after
realising that Jo Seong-Ho dared to make him look bad in front of
others just because of a punk like that.

Smaaaack!

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Lee Eun-Cheol's full-blooded swing caused Jo Seong-Ho's head to
spin to the side. The smacked cheek swelled up in red colour.

The high school thug had apparently learned boxing since from a
young age, and perhaps because of that, his arm strength couldn't
be treated as a joke.

However, what Jo Seong-Ho truly feared was something else.

It was around the time when he was silently enduring against the
barrage of violent attacks from Lee Eun-Cheol. He discovered 'that'.

'…..!!!'

The thug stopped throwing punches only after spotting that Jo

Seong-Ho's eyes had grown super-large from surprise. He turned
around to look behind him.

From the distance, that nerd was leisurely strolling towards here.

Jo Seong-Ho dropped his head lower as if he didn't want to meet

the gaze of the one walking closer and spoke in a quiet murmur.

"Just... apologise to him. That's my serious advice to you."

"This stupid son of a b*tch...!"

Lee Eun-Cheol grabbed the back of Jo Seong-Ho's hair to shake the

boy's head around, but the latter simply kept his mouth shut. Just as
the former was about to spit out another round of abusive words...

The source of the problem itself, Soo-Hoh, finally stood before

them.

Maybe it was because of Jo Seong-Ho's prior warning? Even Lee

Eun-Cheol, who would attack first and ask questions later quickly
took a couple of steps back and warily glared at Soo-Hoh.

Although not short, when compared to either himself or Jo Seong-

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Hoh, this nerd wasn't all that tall. His physique also seemed
exceedingly ordinary.

His neck and wrists revealed outside of the school uniform looked a
bit firm, but it didn't seem like the boy had trained professionally or
something.

The more he looked, the less Lee Eun-Cheol believed Jo Seong-Ho's

words.

Utterly ignoring the bullies, Soo-Hoh stepped closer to Jo Seong-Ho

and studied the latter's messed-up face.

"Tsk, tsk."

The sounds of tutting automatically leaked out from his mouth as if

he felt rather rueful about this matter. Soo-Hoh then addressed the
boy.

"Hey, Seong-Ho."

".....Yeah."

"Let's pretend that you also did this. I mean, this much is
already enough for self-defence, right?"

Jo Seong-Ho unhesitatingly nodded his head.

"Okay, let's do that."

What were they trying to pretend here?

Lee Eun-Cheol listened to this exchange with a puzzled expression

etched on his face, but that soon morphed into an angry scowl.

"Oii."

As he reached out to grab Soo-Hoh's shoulder to turn the nerd

around, a sudden flash of light blinked right in front of Lee Eun-

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Cheol's eyes.

Thud!

The unconscious Lee Eun-Cheol fell hard to the ground. Almost at

the same time, the two underlings guarding the leader's back also
blacked out, as well.

Thud, thud!!

'What a scary b*stard....'

Jo Seong-Ho could only watch on in utter disbelief. If it weren't for

his excellent dynamic vision honed through exercises and training,
then he'd not have seen those stunning movements.

One hit in the face of Lee Eun-Cheol, and one hit each in the vitals
of the two underlings – those attacks were machine-like in their
accuracy, yet savage in their nature, like a wild predator.

Back when he 'mistakenly' tried to get Seong Soo-Hoh riled up, he

ended up wondering whether such power could actually belong to a
human being or not.

But after that, his middle school life became quite stress-free,
contrary to his initial expectations.

While looking at the collapsed and unmoving Lee Eun-Cheol and

his gang, Jo Seong-Ho scratched the back of his head.

'…...'

The high school thug's nose was broken, while the two underlings
had their bones broken.

The rumours should spread around quickly; the rumours of the one
and only XX middle school's Lee Eun-Cheol getting beaten up by YY
middle school's Jo Seong-Ho, that was.

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Even the thug himself would keep his mouth shut over this matter,
since that rumour would be far more preferable than to let the world
know that he got taken out by some no-name regular student.

'Well, then....'

Once more, another notch had been added to his records of

victories.

Since this was a win someone handed over to him, Jo Seong-Ho felt
rather embarrassed about this whole thing. As he remained
swimming in several complicated thoughts, Soo-Hoh walked up
closer and extended his hand out.

"Now that things have come to this…. Well, I'll be in your

care in this place too, alright?"

Jo Seong-Ho sheepishly scratched his cheek before wordlessly

shaking the offered hand.

Well... It wasn't such a bad trade, this.

"Wow, Jo Seong-Ho took on those three?"

"I thought his aura was really something else when I first
saw him, so it's no surprise."

"I heard that he learned judo since young and was pretty
famous in his neighbourhood."

Thanks to the news of Lee Eun-Cheol and his goons getting

shipped off to a hospital, the atmosphere of the entire classroom had
become rather heated real fast.

More than that, Jo Seong-Ho was now being treated as a hero even,
after it emerged that he was trying to protect another kid who
graduated from the same middle school as him.

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Although it was the start of a new school year and the kids all felt a
bit awkward and unsure of each other, this topic worked wonders and
broke the ice nicely. Even then, Soo-Hoh was dazedly staring out at
the sky outside all by himself.

The end of the school day wasn't that far away, and the blue
heavens above were gradually dyeing in the hues of rich amber.

For some reason, yawns kept threatening to break out so he was

having a hard time suppressing them.

'….I'm bored.'

Indeed, he felt bored, restless.

Recently, he often yawned for no discernible reason and felt bored

more frequently than ever before.

And there was this vague, distant feeling that he used to know
'things' that made his heart race and surprised him at every turn.
Whenever he was beset with such feelings, it became harder to
endure against this sense of boredom.

Dururuk...

The door to the classroom slid open. The gazes of the kids all
shifted over to the rear door. Jo Seong-Ho didn't display much of a
reaction and returned to his assigned seat.

Ohhh-!

Kids were looking at his wound-filled face with gazes of envy and
respect. Without a doubt, the top dog of this classroom had changed
from Lee Eun-Cheol to Jo Seong-Ho.

"Hey, hey."

Soo-Hoh remained disinterested as he continued to stare outside

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the window, only for his attention to be brought back to reality by
someone poking him on his back. He looked behind him to find a
female student with a neat appearance there trying to talk to him.

"The friend saving you came back looking like that, so

aren't you going to go and say hello, at the least?"

".....I already did."

"Oh. Okay."

The girl heard his curt reply and as if she got embarrassed by this
exchange, hurriedly opened her textbook to hide her face.
Meanwhile, he reverted his gaze back to the skies outside.

'So bored....'

The sun was creeping closer to the horizon.

The school day was finally over.

While everyone was hurriedly trying to escape from this institution

of learning, only Soo-Hoh remained standing by the window to look at
the athletics field outside.

Other students were filing out of the school's front gate. He didn't
like the melee of confusion like that. His mom always laughed and
said that he was exactly like his father in that regard.

He read the book he borrowed from the library before raising his
head back up, thinking that maybe he should start heading back
home now. There was no one else besides him in the classroom.

Soo-Hoh leisurely packed his bag and slung it over his shoulder.

It was fine to be relaxed and laid back, but if he were to waste any
more time than this, he'd definitely arrive home late for dinner, and
that would mean he'd have to face the wrath of his mother.

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It'd be a relief if the story ended there. If the news of his mom
getting angry reached his father's ears.....

'Euk, d*mn it. I imagined what would happen to me.'

Soo-Hoh was overcome with a nasty case of goosebumps and

hurriedly shook his head. Just how old would his father have to be
before he wasn't so scary anymore?

Seriously now, he got this sneaking suspicion that, even if his

father ended up becoming an old man, Soo-Ho would still never win
against him.

He shuddered once more and quickly headed to the rear door of

the classroom. But, when he tried to open it….

'The door.... doesn't want to open?'

If it was locked, then there was no way this thing wouldn't budge
like this, since it was none other than himself tugging at it. The door
showed no signs of moving, as if it was a wall, to begin with.

'What's going on?'

Soo-Hoh's eyes grew rounder and this time, he ran to the front
door and grabbed its handle. But it was the same story here, too.

Now thoroughly shocked, he quickly ran to the window and took a

look outside. That was when a truly unbelievable spectacle
manifested itself before his eyes.

Every single student leaving through the school gates; students

exercising on the field, cars passing on the road, pedestrians walking
on the pavement, and even the kicked ball flying in the air.....

….Everything had come to a dead stop.

'But, how can something like this be....?!'

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Soo-Hoh clenched both of his fists real tight and slammed at the
window with all of his might.

Boom!

Too bad, the window not only didn't shatter from the impact, but
his fists also bounced away from it as if he was hitting a rubber wall.

'….!!!'

It happened then.

Soo-Hoh retreated from the windows and while taking hurried

steps backwards, he tried very hard to figure out what was going on
in his head.

And that's when 'it' appeared.

Soo-Hoh's head snapped towards the black circular 'hole' that

appeared out of nowhere at the back of the classroom. It was no
bigger than the size of a volleyball, but it rapidly grew larger and
larger until it was big enough for a single person to walk through.

It was basically a doorway of darkness, so dark that it felt like he

was being sucked in.

Regular kids might have been scared out of their wits by this
development, but... Rather than crying out or screaming, Soo-Hoh
placed his hand on his chest, instead.

Ba-thump, ba-thump, ba-thump.

His agitated heart was pounding away in exhilaration.

Maybe.

Just maybe, it was possible that he was waiting for something like
this for a long, long time.

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'Mom said that I resemble my dad all the time, doesn't
she?'

If it was his father, then... What would he have done?

The answer was pretty obvious, though.

Ba-thump, ba-thump, ba-thump....

Because his pounding heart was already making his legs move.

Soo-Hoh stood before the 'Gate' and touched its surface.

Bzzz.... Bzz...

Although there were some sparks of electricity, he didn't feel any

pain. No, he felt so much better instead, as if he was returning to his
hometown that he had to leave behind a long time ago.

There was this strange, vague sense of deja vu as if he had already

entered a place like this one before.

Soo-Hoh slowly but carefully regulated his breathing. His wildly-

beating heart finally regained some calmness and the inside of his
head seemed to clear up.

'Good.'

A brief flash of a grin formed on his face.

And then, he jumped inside the 'Gate' without a moment's

hesitation.

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Chapter 268 Fin.

Source: WEBNOVEL

Only I Level Up Recollections/After Stories

Part 4: Forward! Forward!

Soo-Hoh walked through the tunnel-like darkness and after

emerging from it, took a look around himself. He was now in a
passageway of an ancient-looking structure.

The only source of light illuminating this place was a lit torch on
one of the walls.

'What is this place....?'

Because of the low lighting conditions, his eyes narrowed to a slit

so that he could get a better look at his vicinity.

The way back... was blocked off.

Soo-Hoh felt around the solid wall blocking his rear and shook his
head eventually. He couldn't sense any sort of empty spaces behind
this wall.

'So, there is no other way besides forward, huh?'

The flames of the torch wavered around. He took it off the wall and
illuminated his front.

When he did….

"Wow."

He was greeted by the sight of weapons arranged neatly on display

on either side of the passageway.

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A longsword, shortswords, a bow, a spear, a mace, etc….

A truly vast array of weapons were endlessly stacked against the

walls in this still darkness, as if to wait for their rightful owner to
come and pick them up.

Soo-Hoh dazedly looked at them before swallowing back his saliva.

What could possibly be the reason for these weapons to be here?

Well, it was rather obvious, wasn't it?

'I need to choose....'

His gaze became far more circumspect than ever before.

He didn't know why he was transferred to this place, but if his

guess was right and the exit was at the end of this passage, then the
weapon he chose right now would serve as a trustworthy companion
on his journey.

But, something felt weird.

Why did it feel like his senses were being enhanced?

His heart that didn't beat too fast while hanging out with his friends
or checking out a game they suggested he should play, was now
pounding away like crazy.

As he observed each weapon on display, Soo-Hoh's eyes shone

from the light of excitement.

'Alright....'

He took a close look at all the weapons lined up right till the end,
and then, returned to the beginning to study them for a bit more. A
few interesting hopefuls caught his eye, but in the end, there was
nothing better than 'it', or so he decided.

After putting the torch back up on the wall behind him, he

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cautiously put 'them' on both of his hands.

Clank, clank.

They were a pair of steel gauntlets that fit him snugly as if they

had been crafted with him in mind. Unlike other weapons that
required some amount of familiarity in order to effectively use them,
his two fists were without a doubt, the most familiar and most
powerful weapon he possessed.

'This is it.'

As if he found the gauntlets greatly to his liking, he began folding

his outstretched fingers one by one again and again.

When he was done fooling around...

Rumble-!!

Torches lining up the walls in front of him and all around him lit up
all at once. A long, long passageway now greeted him.

A corridor resembling a secret pathway of an ancient castle

seemed to stretch on forever and ever towards the other end.

Something was about to begin here. Soo-Hoh did his best to calm
his wildly-pounding heart, before his eyes spotted a pair of
shortswords resting next to where he found his gauntlets.

But, his gaze lingered on only for a brief moment.

'….Who'd use weapons that look so weak?'

For some reason, that pair of shortswords looked saddened

somehow as Soo-Hoh's cautious steps left them behind in the
darkness.

***

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Soo-Hoh carefully tread through the corridor.

"Is anyone here?"

He raised his voice and called out, but there was no reply
whatsoever. No, he couldn't even sense any presence of living people
at all.

And so, just how long did he walk like this?

It wouldn't be too surprising to get worn out by being continuously

vigilant like this, but Soo-Hoh still kept his senses ultra-sharp and
didn't let up his wary observation of the surroundings.

He could see the lit torches and sparks of flames dancing on top of
them hanging on the walls. He could also see the old-fashioned
architecture of this place, as well as metallic suits of armour lining up
on the side of the wall with nary a gap between them.

'Am I in some kind of a basement of a medieval castle or

something?'

His curiosity on where he was and why he was summoned here

grew greater and greater the longer he advanced forward.

But then….

'Hold up.'

Soo-Hoh felt this ominous chill creep down his spine and he quickly
went back the way he came to stand before a certain suit of armour.
For some reason, the positioning of this armour seemed a wee bit
different from when he walked past it a few seconds ago.

'This…. Wait, did it really have its sword raised up in the air
like this before?'

He was pretty sure that its weapon was pointing down to the

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ground the last time. Soo-Hoh tilted his head and took a step
forward, only for the sword of the armour to slice down in a straight
line.

Clang!

If he hadn't raised the gauntlet and urgently block the blade in the
nick of time, his head might have been split in half just now.

"What the hell??"

The suit of armour didn't even give Soo-Hoh any chance to feel
stunned by this development; it dropped its sword and pounced
forward to strangle him with its bare hands.

Boom!! Bang! Kwang!!

His gauntlets soon issued several urgent, thunderous booms, and

not too long afterwards, the suit of armour with its helmet destroyed
stopped moving altogether.

"Pant, pant, pant....."

While pushing away the collapsed suit of armour with his foot, Soo-
Hoh breathed roughly and quickly. Thankfully, he didn't suffer any
damage from this encounter, but his heart was pounding away so
hard that it felt as if it'd explode at any time.

'Hold up!'

What if this wasn't the only suit of armour that could move? And
what if every single one of them wanted to harm him? All those
inanimate armours he walked past earlier without thinking too much
brushed past his mind.

That wasn't the end of his troubles, though. There were already so
many of them in front of him, and there were even lining up along
the length of this corridor, too.

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And sure enough...

Clank, clink!

Accompanied by the chorus of metallic joints creaking and

groaning, the suits of armour began descending from the platforms
one by one. The various weapons held in their hands seemed to glow
in chilling grey under the light.

"Ah..."

….Maybe I should've selected that mace?

Soo-Hoh swallowed back the small waves of regret rushing in and

clenched his fists tightly. It was around that time that the suits of
armour rushed his position.

***

BOOM!

When he brought down the very last suit of armour, he got to hear
that announcement again.

[Level up!]

[Current level: 19.]

"Fuu...."

Soo-Hoh bent down and exhaled a large gulping of air before

raising his body up again. Every time he heard that message, all of
his fatigue seemed to get washed away in full. That wasn't the only
change, though.

After regaining control over his breathing, he threw a straight jab

in the empty air.

Shuuuck-!!

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His fist flew out like a bullet. Not only that, his entire body was
overflowing with this unexplainable power.

"I get it now."

It was simpler than he thought.

If he defeated these living suits of armour, then his level would go

up, and the higher his level got, the stronger he'd get, too. And quite
obviously, he'd be able to bring these monsters down much more
easily as a result.

Simple, yet a powerful perpetual cycle, indeed.

Soo-Hoh looked behind at the corridor he'd been waking until now.
Large piles of armours broken beyond repair or recognition were
strewn about here and there. He licked his lips a bit.

'This sucks....'

It'd been so much nicer if he could raise his level just a bit higher
here. He wanted to get stronger just a bit more.

Unfortunately, every road had an end.

Soo-Hoh looked at the giant doorway now blocking his path. His
senses had matured greatly as his level rose up and they helped him
to detect the presence of a powerful figure behind the door.

That was why he felt rueful about levelling up even more.

He closed eyes and took a deep breath just like how his father had
taught him and reached out towards the door to push it open with
both hands.

Creak….

The heavy-looking door opened up.

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The sight of a huge room resembling a castle's audience chamber
greeted him next.

As he followed along the rows of pillars set at a close interval on

either side of him, he soon arrived at the deepest part of this
chamber where a tall throne stood proudly above a raised plinth.

Soo-Hoh was frozen stiff with nervousness in an instant.

Because there was another monster suit of armour sitting on the

throne. But he felt a strength on another dimension altogether from
this b*stard compared to other monsters he encountered so far.

'That's it....'

The existence that emitted a goosebumps-inducing aura he felt

outside the door, it was precisely this guy. The 'monster' slowly got
up and took one step at a time to descend the stairs below the
throne.

It was a black knight.

The knight boasting a strand of red plumage attached to its helm

finally made its way down to the ground. Just the faint aura emitted
from that creature made his skin tingle and shiver from nervousness.

However, Soo-Hoh began smiling for some reason. An electrifying

sensation thrilling enough to make all the hair on his body stand up
wrapped around his entire being.

Shurung....

The knight began unsheathing his sword.

'I'll attack first before that sword is fully drawn out.'

But, just as he got ready to dash forward, the black knight was
already standing right before his nose. A brilliant flash of light shone

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from the sword swung by the creature just then.

"....Uh??"

That bright, blinding light filled up his view.

***

"Heok!!"

Soo-Hoh hurriedly raised his body up.

Still incredibly tense, he scanned his surroundings but he failed to

see the black knight anywhere. No, he wasn't even in the same
chamber where that monster was.

Somehow, he was teleported back to the starting point.

'What the heck was that?!'

He lost all strength on his legs and plopped down on the ground.

'I thought I was really going to die.'

He felt deeply spooked when recalling the moments of the black

knight unsheathing its sword. He really, really thought that was the
end for him.

"Besides all that, do I need to cross this corridor again?"

Feeling quite unhappy now, Soo-Hoh got up from his spot only to
realise that something had changed from his first attempt. And that
would be the lit torches on the starting point.

Rumble-!

Out of those, there were three with blue flames burning on them,
but now he realised that one of them had gone out.

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Could that be a coincidence?

No, it wasn't.

Weapons by the starting point, his level that rose up after killing
monsters, his body that grew stronger as his level rose up.

Not one of them could be called a coincidence.

Soo-Hoh had a moment of epiphany just then.

'It's not that I was going to die, but...'

There was no such concept as either pain or death inside this

strange place, but those blue flames substituted for his remaining
opportunities.

If all three flames went out, then…. For now, it was hard for him to
imagine what kind of a result waited for him.

'In that case....'

….I gotta be more meticulous.

The glare in Soo-Hoh's eyes grew even more vigilant compared to

the first attempt.

One more time. But he'd not mess up his chance this time around.

Boom!

He made up his mind as he blew away the monster suit of armour

busy pouncing on him.

***

"Uwaaaah-!! Uwaah!!"

Finding himself forcibly returned to the starting point once more,

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Soo-Hoh rolled around on the ground while clutching his head. Of
course, he wasn't doing that because of an injury or crippling
physical pain.

He was just p*ssed off by the fact that he ended up throwing away

yet another chance. He pounded on the ground as tears formed on
his eyes. That's how deeply he felt hurt right now.

After he somehow calmed the raging firestorm in his heart, he

raised his head a bit to look, and to no one's surprise, the number of
lit blue torches had decreased by one. Now, there was only one
remaining.

'That black knight, he's just too powerful!!'

There simply was far too great a gap between him and that
creature, and it was more than enough to call it a cheat, that the
'balance' of this trial was definitely broken. With things like this, he'd
never be able to defeat that b*stard.

"Uwaaaah!!"

Soo-Hoh rolled around on the ground once more.

He did that for a while. Eventually, he grew tired of doing that, so

he stopped and leaned his back against the wall before shifting his
gaze over to the corridor.

It was unknown just from where those suits were being summoned,
but well, they had returned again and were manning their stations
once more.

"Aren't you guys sick and tired of this already?"

Soo-Hoh even felt happy to see those monster armours after

seeing them for the third time like this.

"Hah-ah...."

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He spat out a lengthy groan one after other, but then...

"....Uh?"

….A lightbulb went on in his head.

He raised his head and looked at the armours once more.

'When did those things reappear again?'

Initially, he figured that the monsters reappeared simply because

he was sent back to the starting point. However, what if that was
wrong and they regenerated after a certain period of time?

Ba-thump.

Ba-thump, ba-thump, ba-thump....

A new ray of hope seemed to be within his reach.

'Okay, let's try it out.'

Soo-Hoh beat up the monster armours near the entrance and

destroyed them before returning to the starting point. He sat down
with his back leaning against the wall and observed for any potential
changes to the monsters.

After some time had passed by...

Plop, plop.

The 'dead' monster armours suddenly turned into sand one by one
and got absorbed into the ground. And then, Soo-Hoh's eyes grew
wide after he saw what happened next.

'…..!'

The sand suddenly gathered above the platforms the monsters

used to stand and transformed back into the suits of armour.

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"Yeees!"

Soo-Hoh clenched his fists real tightly.

Finally, he found the right answer.

The only existences that could aid him with his levelling up
thankfully respawned after a fixed period of time.

Didn't that mean he should crazily level up by smashing these

monsters apart until he could actually follow the movements of that
horrifying black knight?

A grin floated up on Soo-Hoh's face as he stood back up.

Funnily enough, the monster armours flinched ever so slightly after

they saw the figurative sparks of flame burning within his eyes.

***

Level 70.

No matter how many times he hunted these monsters down, his

level didn't want to rise beyond that. However, this should be more
than enough.

Blackish aura was slowly rising up Soo-Hoh's shoulders. He didn't

know what these strands of black smoke might be, but he could tell
one thing for sure.

And that would be the fact that his body was currently overflowing
with this incredible energy he found hard to fully control yet.

He unhesitatingly pushed open the door to the chamber where the

black knight was waiting for. Unlike the first two fights, the monster
kindly came to greet him by the door's vicinity.

Soo-Hoh grinned deeply.

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"Were you waiting for long?"

Rather than a verbal answer, the black knight unsheathed his

sword, instead. For some reason, it felt as if this knight was smiling.

Feeling confident after managing to push his level all the way up to
70 somehow, Soo-Hoh unleashed all of the magical energy gathered
within his body without holding back.

The ground trembled and pieces of rubble began floating in the air.

"Now, it's my turn."

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Chapter 269 Fin.

Source: WEBNOVEL

Only I Level Up Recollections/After Stories

Part 5: Conclusion

(TL: One more chapter to go!)

There were around 30 metres between him and the b*stard.

'….Let's do this.'

Soo-Hoh concentrated and in an instant, the flow of time around

him seemed to slow down to a crawl, allowing him to see and
discover all those little things he hadn't noticed before.

For instance, the sword swung by the black knight. And then, that
blue-coloured arc of lightning from the tip of that sword flying
towards him in a straight line with a 'flash'.

'So, that's what it was!!'

Finally, he got to see what the powerful attack that ended the fight
was, even before he could do anything the last two times. His agility
and perception, raised up much higher than before through levelling
up, were pushed to their absolute limits.

He dodged the streak of light flying right into his face and took a
step forward.

Taht!

Just one leap, and in that one moment, the distance between him
and his target decreased in half by roughly around 15 metres.

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Flash!!

The second lightning brushed past the top of his head by a hair's
width.

The black knight had quickly changed his posture after sending out
the first attack to follow up with his second. Soo-Hoh felt amazed at
his opponent's quick reaction as he took another step forward.

Taht!

The distance between them disappeared in the next instance.

Kwa-du-duk!

Soo-Hoh clenched his gauntlet-covered fist tightly.

'Now you are in my range.'

Flinch.

It looked as if the black knight tensed up greatly just then, and his
emotions travelled through the chilly air to cling to Soo-Hoh's two
cheeks.

While inwardly thanking the level up system that pushed his

abilities to such an incredible height, Soo-Hoh punched forward, hard.

Shhhwiiiii-eeek!

His fist had broken past the level of a bullet and was more like a
cannon shell now, as it crashed into the face of the black knight.

Kwa-boom!!

The knight urgently raised his sword to block the incoming gauntlet
but in the end, he was powerfully shoved away with both of his feet
briefly leaving the ground.

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Kwa-jijijijik!!

The ends of the black knight's boots broke the stone tiles on the
floor and left behind two lengthy gouges as he got shoved back. By
the time he finally managed to stop his seemingly-endless travel
rearwards...

'….!!'

He realised belatedly that there was a stone pillar behind him.

'D*mn it!'

The black knight became flustered and quickly shifted his gaze
back to his front. But then, Soo-Hoh was already there, blocking the
view.

'Could he have.... that attack was meant to force me into

this very area?'

The black knight was left greatly stunned by his opponent's smart
thinking, but still, reflexively moved his sword in the meantime. The
aura oozing off the blade as reflected in Soo-Hoh's eyes emitted a
chilling blue light.

The boy held his breath for a moment there and smacked the
knight's blade slicing down diagonally with the back of his hand,
currently safely protected by the metal gauntlet.

He then took a powerful step forward.

Soo-Hoh managed to reduce the distance between him and his

opponent to zero before swinging his fist one more time. This attack
landed squarely on the black knight's chest.

Kwa-boom!!!

Now normally, the knight should've been flung away by the force,

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but he crashed into the pillar behind him instead, and the structure's
surface cracked up grandly.

What a shocking destructive power that was.

However, what was even more shocking was the fact that an
attack carrying such destructive power didn't end with just one hit.
Soon after, Soo-Hoh's barrage of fists rained down on his target.

Dududududududu-!!

The black knight, no, Igrit continued to sigh in admiration inwardly

as he blocked and deflected Soo-Hoh's non-stop barrage of attacks,
which kind of reminded him of his liege's skill.

'So, this is the power of the young lord, even if he's not
100% yet?'

His father, becoming one with a godly being, while his mother, a
rank S Hunter once upon a time in a now-forgotten timeline. Born
from these two people, the sleeping potential within Soo-Hoh easily
exceeded Igrit's imagination.

Kwa-jeeck!

The sturdy armour began breaking and falling off bit by bit under
the barrage of merciless attacks. Igrit pushed his speed to the limit,
but it was still not enough to defend against every single attack
raining down on him.

And eventually...

Clang!!

The sword barely withstanding against Soo-Hoh's blunt attacks

finally broke while issuing a loud noise.

That was the end.

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Igrit watched the shattered remnants of steel fly away and
instinctively sensed that this battle was now over.

But then, this defeat also quickened his pulse to a great deal
compared to before, just like back when he fought against Jin-Woo all
those years ago in a place similar to this one.

Meanwhile, Soo-Hoh loaded his fist with his magical energy for that
final shot.

Wuuoong-!!

The surrounding Mana in the air rippled like waves on the lake's
surface and spread out visibly. And then….

KA-BOOM!!

The fist fired forward like a cannon shell left behind a large, empty
hole where the black knight's abdomen was. The knight collided with
the pillar again and slowly slid down. And then, he stopped moving
altogether.

'…..'

Soo-Hoh cautiously poked the slumped black knight before finally

releasing his tightly-held breath.

"Hah-ah!!"

He won.

He fought and won against a powerful enemy that he thought he

could never win against in the beginning. Joy began welling up from
the deepest part of his chest like a tidal wave.

However, rather different from his expectations, there wasn't all

that much of a change.

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'Maybe... this isn't the end?'

He slowly looked around his surroundings and belatedly discovered

that, in the distance, a brand new Gate had been generated by the
foot of the stairs leading up to the tall throne.

His eyes grew super-large.

It was the exit!

He didn't know why he ended up in this place, but still, he couldn't

help but smile brightly after realising that this bizarre adventure was
about to come to its conclusion.

Soo-Hoh hurriedly ran towards the black hole in happiness and

threw himself inside. Just like back when he was entering this place,
he passed through a long tunnel of darkness, and after opening his
eyes.....

"Kkkiiieeehk!"

"Khhiigegegek!"

"....."

….He found human-sized ant humanoid monsters busy screeching

out here and there.

"Pant, pant, what kind of ants are this crazy?!"

Soo-Hoh looked down in utter disbelief at the unmoving corpses of

ant monsters he managed to defeat just now.

For some reason, he liked ants from a young age so he always

cautiously avoided lines of worker ants if he happened to come
across one so that he wouldn't step on them by mistake. But now, he
felt rather remorseful of his past actions.

That was how powerful and obstinate these ant monsters were.
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Those armour monsters couldn't even be compared to these guys at
all.

'Still, if I were to look for the silver lining in all of this,

then....'

His level that seemed to have gotten stuck began climbing up

quickly again after he hunted these ant monsters down.

Sha-shak, sha-shak...

He could hear the shuffling footsteps of the ant monsters coming

from somewhere. Soo-Hoh was successful in regaining control over
his heavy breathing by then. He tightly clenched his fists and got
ready.

Kwa-du-duk!

"Khiieck!"

"Kahk!"

Remembering the lessons learned during his battle against the

black knight, Soo-Hoh made sure to focus on raising his level higher
by clearing out every single nook and cranny of this cavern.

And so, screams of ant monsters continued to resound out from all
corners of this complicated cavern system with a maze-like layout.

How long did he roam around this cavern in this fashion?

'Alright....'

When he reached the point where his level didn't want to rise up
even after defeating the ant monsters, Soo-Hoh headed towards the
last chamber in this cavern and entered it.

As it turned out, it was a giant, open chamber. An empty space, in

other words.

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There was not one strand of light inside the boss chamber, but
Soo-Hoh's senses had already far exceeded that of a regular human
and he had no problem maintaining his vision.

'Just how big is the master of this place that it has to be

this large?'

Just as he began to get worried ever so slightly….

He finally discovered a humanoid ant monster with its back turned

towards him. Unlike the others he fought so far, though, this
particular guy sported insect-like wings.

'Is that guy the only thing in this chamber?'

The overall atmosphere of this open space was rather similar to

the one found in the chamber with the black knight. However, Soo-
Hoh couldn't sense any sorts of power from that ant creature, which
was quite different from the knight boss of before.

Was it powerful, or a weakling?

Soo-Hoh tilted his head this way and that and while being as
sneaky as possible, he cautiously approached the creature.

When he got close enough to think that he was in range now, the
ant monster suddenly turned around to face Soo-Hoh without any
prior warning.

'Heok!'

Soo-Hoh flinched and quickly took a step back.

It wasn't because he got scared, though. No, he just got surprised

by the unfolding situation, that was all. But, it couldn't be helped,
really. The thing was, the ant monster turning around was crying
non-stop.

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It was sobbing so sorrowfully that, even though he knew the
creature was a monster that he couldn't converse with, Soo-Hoh just
couldn't bring himself to attack first.

But, why did this happen?

It'd only be normal to feel rather weirded out when looking at an

insectoid creature the size of a grown man standing on two feet while
thick teardrops fell from its eyes.

But, Soo-Hoh wanted to console this ant monster instead, for some
inexplicable reason. That's what he felt then.

Too bad, such a compassionate thought could only last for a brief
moment. Soo-Hoh sensed an incredible aura from the creature
bursting forth and hurriedly leapt a good distance away.

'….??'

As if it was trying to get a hold of its emotions, the ant monster

wiped the tears away with the backs of its hands.

'Oh my god....'

Meanwhile, Soo-Hoh was stunned by the incredible power oozing

out from his new opponent and inadvertently sneaked a look down at
the hair on his arms standing up.

This ant, it was on another scale altogether compared to other ants

or that black knight he fought so far. His entire body began
shuddering.

'Uh....?'

Suddenly, a huge shadow drew upon him and he raised his head
up to look, only to find that the ant monster had closed the distance
and was standing right in front of his nose.

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Its body had ballooned up to over double that of its previous size
and then, it screeched out a horrifying cry next.

[Kiiiiiieeeeehhhk!]

What a relief it was.

Indeed, there was no other way to say it than what a relief.

While lying on the ground completely exhausted, Soo-Hoh

continued to think that way.

The winged ant monster was a truly frightening opponent, for sure.
But, for some reason, the ant couldn't attack him whenever they
were locked in critical moments, apparently feeling conflicted about
something.

But, thanks to that, he was able to bring down the ant somehow,
even though the task proved to be really arduous in the end.

"Euh, euh…."

While goading and twisting his aching body, Soo-Hoh pushed

himself up. As his reward for bringing down a powerful enemy, a new
Gate had been generated over yonder.

Before leaving, he confirmed his current level.

[Level: 99]

His level stopped climbing at 99. Now, normally, most games

would treat '99' as the max level attainable.

'I'm sure I can go home for real now.'

Soo-Hoh's heart pounded away noisily as his expectations grew. He

then gladly jumped into the awaiting Gate. And when he opened his
eyes….

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"Mm? Mmmm??"

"Growl....."

….He got to discover giants and dragons filling up his view, as far
as his eyes could see.

"Hah..."

It was the case of 'one mountain after another'.

While making figurative mountains out of the corpses of giants and

dragons, Soo-Hoh continued down the path laid out on this
seemingly-endless plains.

His level remained stuck in 99.

Although his stats didn't rise higher, he was now able to control his
powers far more smoothly and expertly after going through countless
battles. His incredible strength, and technique to control them, gave
Soo-Hoh a rather healthy boost to his confidence.

A short while later, he discovered yet another black knight

guarding the end of the path.

'…..'

Unlike the previous black knight with a red plumage attached to its
helm, this new guy boasted a much bigger physique, and there were
traces of broken wings on its back, as well.

It was incredibly powerful. So much so that, it must've been far

stronger than the winged ant monster he fought earlier. However….

'….That guy isn't my real opponent.'

Soo-Hoh was sure of this.

Why? Because, a certain existence that made him think that it was

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the real deal was flying silently in the air above his head, that was
why.

Soo-Hoh picked up on that figure's enormous presence and raised

his head high. When he did...

[Kkiiaahk-!!]

The Sky Dragon flying in the air roared out loudly. The scene of a
lone figure jumping off from its back happened right afterwards.

The figure of a person fell for what felt like an eternity before
lightly landing on the ground, causing the earth below to cave into a
big crater while kicking up an almighty dust storm in the process.

BOOM!!

Soo-Hoh swallowed nervously.

'That guy's the real deal....'

The unknown figure, his face hidden behind the hoodie pulled
down low, emitted this intense pressure that even made breathing
difficult.

When he made his descent, the black knight stopped unsheathing

his sword and took several steps back as if to say that he'd not
participate in the upcoming fight anymore.

'I knew it, the real enemy is this guy.'

Soo-Hoh tried to stop his legs from shaking anymore from this
choking pressure. This was the first time an actual person and not a
monster had appeared in here so he simply had to say something.

"Excuse me!"

He tried to engage the mysterious figure in conversation, but the

lips visible below the hoodie only maintained a simple grin, choosing

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not to return any verbal replies.

"Argh, seriously man...."

Soo-Hoh gave up on talking to the figure, but then, his eyes went
extra-round after discovering something else besides.

'Isn't that....?'

For the first time during this journey, the Gate had been generated
even before he defeated his enemy. Its location was behind the man
wearing the hoodie.

'Which means....'

This could very well be the final hurdle.

As long as he could defeat that man, he'd be able to go home.

When that conclusion popped up in his head, Soo-Hoh's body

moved instinctively.

It moved under the influence of his overall stats that had reached
their absolute limit, as well as the combat abilities that had evolved
to allow him full control over those stats.

Ba-thump, ba-thump!!

While feeling the explosive beatings of his heart...

Taht! Taht! Taht!!

Soo-Hoh broke past the speed of sound and rushed to the front of
the man in the blink of an eye. His enemy was literally right in front
of his nose.

Within this distance that none could possibly dodge an attack, a

fist that couldn't be withstood even if blocked flew straight into the
mystery man's face.

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Too bad, the man only had to lean his head back slightly and easily
let the attack slide by him.

It happened then.

Inside this world of slowed-down time, Soo-Hoh got to see the

uncovered face of the man, revealed for a brief moment under the
hood.

"....Dad?!"

The mystery man smirked gently.

"Still too early."

Soo-Hoh's eyes grew wider as they caught the sight of the man's
palm closing in on his face faster than the speed of light.

The boy squeezed his eyes shut.

And soon, the light completely blinded him.

"Heok!!"

Soo-Hoh shot up from his chair and hurriedly took a look around
him.

He was back inside his classroom. The empty, still air of the after-
school hours had permeated into this now-familiar place.

He wiped the cold sweat pooled on his forehead.

'What a weird-a*s dream that was.'

Did I play way too many games or something?

After wandering around lost inside a strange dungeon, he ended

up running into his own father as its final boss….

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What an embarrassing crappy dream that he wouldn't dare to tell
anyone for, like, ever. He was greatly relieved that it was nothing but
just a dream.

He spat out a sigh of relief and turned around, only to find a female
student frozen stiff like a block of ice behind him. She got surprised
out of her skull after the sleeping Soo-Hoh suddenly shot up from his
spot, actually.

He wanted to break this awkward atmosphere somehow, so he

started talking to her first.

"Uhm, weren't you supposed to go home?"

Now that he took another look, it was the same girl sitting behind
his spot that poked him in the back earlier in the day.

"I'm supposed to do the classroom duty this week, so... I

gotta lock the doors first before leaving...."

The female student stuttered and took pauses between her words,
but Soo-Hoh replied as if it was nothing to sweat over.

"Want me to help?"

"Eh?"

The girl got flustered for a moment there at the unexpected offer,
but eventually, shyly nodded her head.

"....Thanks."

Around the same time.

Jin-Woo stood on the rooftop of the same school building alongside

Beru and Igrit.

Igrit was the first to speak.

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[My liege…. Isn't it fine to restore the young lord's powers
now?]

They had performed the same test a few times before, but today
was the first time the young lord reached as far as the Sovereign's
footsteps. Igrit wished to give Soo-Hoh full passing marks after the
boy displayed wonderful progress during the examination.

Jin-Woo replied with a grin on his lips.

"What would've happened if I tried to fight the Dragon

Emperor from the get-go while believing in the powers that I
possessed at that time?"

Igrit shook his head.

What Jin-Woo wanted to teach Soo-Hoh was precisely this. No

matter how powerful one was, one should consider escaping when
facing a situation where the victory wasn't a certainty.

It was not a sign of bravery to jump in head-long against a

powerful enemy without a plan.

'Indeed, it's just a reckless, foolish bravado.'

Even when knowing that he couldn't win, Soo-Hoh still challenged

Jin-Woo, regardless. His courage might be laudable, but from the
perspective of his father, that was a rather worrisome result.

'Too early.

Right, it's still too early for him.

However, Soo-Hoh is a smart kid, so he'll soon figure it out.

He'll learn that he needs to adjust his powers according to the

situation at hand.'

[Young Lord....]
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Beru looked at a sheet of an old paper with him drawn on it, the
edges of his eyes reddening up with tears once more.

Drop, drop….

Jin-Woo lightly patted the shoulders of despondent Beru before

walking closer to the guardrail to take a look at the school grounds
below. He could see the back of his son leaving the school gate along
with a female student from his class.

Jin-Woo rested his chin on his hands and watched Soo-Hoh walk
further away, before a grin floated up on his face.

"It's been a while, so should I take my family out for dinner

later today?"

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Chapter 270: Chapter 270

Source: WEBNOVEL

Only I Level Up Recollections/After Stories

Part 6: Goodbye

(TL: Here it is, the very last chapter.)

[The sibling conmen duo of Hwang Dong-Seok and his

younger brother Hwang Dong-Su that caused an uproar in the
country have been arrested earlier today....]

Beep.

The TV located inside the Violent Crimes Unit that spat out the
news was turned off. Jin-Woo put the remote down and picked up his
coat while standing up, prompting Seh-Hwan next to him to stop the
administrative work and ask a question.

"Uh? Hyung-nim, you're leaving already?"

"Yeah, I've got a prior arrangement to attend to, so I'll be

going home early today."

"Yessir."

Jin-Woo replied with a smile towards his partner performing a

playful salute and escaped from the office. Seh-Hwan watched his
boss's back disappear from view and chuckled slightly while crossing
his arms.

"It's so strange. Hyung-nim always goes home early on this

day every single year...."

….Hang on a minute.

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He shifted his gaze over to the calendar stuck on one of the walls
and a certain thought popped up in his head.

"Ahh, so that's what it was. Today is...."

Baek Yun-Ho spat out a low sigh, his face a mess of black soot and
dirt.

"Fuu...."

Not too long ago, he and his crew managed to put out a massive
wildfire raging near a residential area. This victory came about after
over 50 fire engines and firefighting helicopters, as well as 800 or so
brave firefighters had been mobilised.

Baek Yun-Ho took a look around him. He could see his fatigued
colleagues lying or squatting on the ground here and there. However,
not one of them carried gloomy expressions. Some of them grinned
brightly or raised their thumbs up real high when their gazes met.

Whenever that happened, Baek Yun-Ho also raised his thumb up as

his reply.

No one died or got injured while they successfully reined in the fire.
That should be seen as a real miracle in the scene of such a large-
scale blaze.

Even though they were deeply fatigued and left with no energy
whatsoever after battling the flames for the whole night, they used
their expressions to cheer each other up and celebrate their success.

Baek Yun-Ho also felt deeply pleased about this outcome.

It was then.

"Ouch, that's cold."

He got startled by the sudden coldness touching his neck skin and

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took a look to his side to find Captain Seong Il-Hwan holding a bottle
of ice-cold water.

"Thank you, sir."

Baek Yun-Ho bowed his head slightly and took over the water
bottle. Seong Il-Hwan settled down next to him and wetted his throat
with a different bottle.

The veteran of a hundred battles.

Or, the greatest captain in history.

Didn't matter what you called him, it didn't sound ill-fitting with
Captain Seong. And as his nickname had alluded to, he had displayed
unparalleled brilliance in today's event, too.

Baek Yun-Ho was proud to be in the same crew as Seong Il-Hwan.

Heck, all these bits of soot stuck on his face felt like medals of
honour to him, even.

'One day, I....'

He sneaked a glance at his respected senior from the corners of his

eyes, before pouring down the remaining cold water over his head.

"Pu-haah."

Now he felt like a living person again. The stuffy heat clinging onto
him felt as if it got washed away, starting from the top of his head.

But then….

"...Ah."

….A scene from the past suddenly entered Baek Yun-Ho's brain.

The side profile of a face he saw back then!

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"Captain!"

Seong Il-Hwan's eyes opened wider as he turned to look at his

junior.

"Yeah?"

Baek Yun-Ho hurriedly carried on.

"You know, that the large-scale blaze in Daesung Building

three years ago…. You still remember that, Captain? Our
team got trapped in there and almost died, didn't we?"

"Yeah, I remember."

Back then, Seong Il-Hwan and his crew were steadily losing their
consciousness after being trapped within the blaze, but a mysterious
stranger appeared out of nowhere, like some kind of a fantasy, and
helped them to survive the ordeal.

This mystery man rescued the isolated firefighters before

disappearing without a trace, leading some to question whether the
folks that day saw a mass hallucination at the same time or not.

"Actually, I saw the side profile of that man for a brief

moment before I passed out, you see."

"Oh, is that so?"

"Yes. But that guy looked so much like....."

Unfortunately, Baek Yun-Ho didn't get to finish what he wanted to

say.

Because Seong Il-Hwan had ripped open a packet of bread he

brought along with the water bottle and pushed the resulting chow in
Baek Yun-Ho's mouth, that's why.

"Euph, euph??"
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Baek Yun-Ho chewed through the bread and tilted his head.

"Captain?"

Seong Il-Hwan didn't try to answer with verbal replies and grinned
as he bit into his own bread.

And, as if to cool down the heads of the firefighters fatigued by all

that heat, a gentle breeze blew in from somewhere and brushed past
their hair, ever so softly.

Inside a conference chamber located on the top floor of a certain

high-rise building.

"Chairman?"

"...."

"Sir, are you alright?"

Yu Jin-Ho barely managed to suppress the corners of his lips trying

to rise up to the heavens above.

"Yes, I'm fine. Well, then. Let's continue...."

Yu Jin-Ho fished through the documents placed in front of him

before raising his head up to see the faces of his employees filling up
the conference chamber. He formed an embarrassed grin and asked
them a question.

"Uhm, what were we talking about just now?"

"..."

The expressions of these employees hardened for a short while

after they all realised that their boss hadn't heard a thing they were
talking about for the past 30 minutes of the meeting.

However, they calmed themselves and got the meeting going

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again.

"Sir, we were informing you that we need to come up with a

new title for the virtual reality video game our company is
about to publish."

"Ah, that's right. Right."

Yu Jin-Ho nodded his head, but then, couldn't hold it back anymore
and shot up from his seat to loudly cry out towards his employees.

"Everyone, my wife is pregnant!! It's already the sixth

week, apparently!!"

His face was filled with an uncontrollable amount of joy right now.
The inside of the conference chamber was filled with a sudden
silence. But that lasted only for a brief while.

Soon, documents were flying in the air and at the same time,
employees were crying out in cheer as well.

"Congratulations, sir!"

"Congrats, sir!!"

"Finally, our Chairman has become a father!"

Yu Jin-Ho did a lap around the conference chamber and high-fived

all of his employees jumping up and down in joy as if this news
concerned themselves.

His absolutely lovely wife, his soon-to-be-born baby, and his game
development company that was making a killing year after year….

How could the world be this beautiful to his eyes right now?

'Heot!!'

During the middle of his lap of celebration, Yu Jin-Ho had a moment

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of sudden, powerful inspiration. He climbed up on the conference
table and confidently made a declaration to his employees.

"The Beautiful World!!!"

Quite obviously, the gazes of all the employees gathered on him.

"Excuse me?"

As they began doubting their ears, Yu Jin-Ho oh-so courteously

proved that their hearing wasn't faulty.

"That will be the title of our new game! Let's go with the
"Beautiful World'!!"

The joy-filled conference chamber was enveloped in a sudden bout

of silence.

"....Are you serious, sir?"

Yu Jin-Ho replied without a moment's hesitation.

"Of course. The name 'Beautiful World' fits our game that
will virtually recreate reality as close as it can, so…. Ahh?
What are you all doing?? H-hang on a second, everyone!! I, I
might fall, you know??"

The employees began to tussle with Yu Jin-Ho desperately in order

to pull him off the top of the conference table. In the midst of his
struggle, his gaze inadvertently shifted outside the window.

'H-hey. Feels like something flew past just now, didn't it?'

Too bad, the feelings of having seen something got erased from his
head in no time at all after he found himself under the crossfire of his
employees' holy crusade to stop him.

"Sir, you should rethink this...."

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"The fate of our company hangs in the balance with this
game, siiiir!"

"I mean, it's not really a 'Beautiful World', is it, sir??"

"You're being too much, you know?!"

Even though his naming sense was being mercilessly shot down
and trampled on by his employees, Yu Jin-Ho still felt really happy
regardless.

'Hahaha.

Fine, what if I'm no good with naming stuff?

The world is still really beautiful and all, isn't it?'

Yu Jin-Ho stared outside the window as the sunlight poured in

through the glass, and muttered to himself.

'In that case, should I ask Jin-Woo hyung-nim for the baby's
name, instead?'

[The chairman of Ah-Jin Soft, Yu Jin-Ho – the miraculous tale

of the young and successful entrepreneur who rejected the
inheritance of a Chaebol!]

Slice, slice….

The chairman's office of the Yujin Construction was filled with the
sounds of a pair of scissors cutting through a newspaper. Chairman
Yu Myung-Han only raised his head after he was finished with
decorating his scrapbook's pages.

"Were there any other articles?"

Secretary Kim, one of his hands full of newspapers, shook his head
side to side.

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"....I see."

Chairman Yu Myung-Han closed the scrapbook, his current

expression filled with dissatisfaction.

"He rejected the position I created for him, and he instead

starts a game company, of all things…. Tsk, tsk."

Secretary Kim wordlessly glanced at the corner of the chairman's

desk.

That was where he could see the thick pile of newspapers with all
the articles related to Yu Jin-Ho cut out. More than that, they were
worked on personally by none other than the Chairman himself, too.

'…..'

Secretary Kim had to dry cough in order to hold back the laughter
rushing out from the deepest part of his chest. It was then – the
Chairman's head shifted towards the window.

"....?"

Secretary Kim walked over to the windows himself and looked

outside while asking his boss.

"What's the matter, sir?"

"No…. It's nothing."

They were currently on the top floor of a tall skyscraper. It was not
possible for 'something' to go past here, anyway. No, even if
something did, it must've been a small bird or another creature
similar to that.

Yu Myung-Han shook his head and handed the scrapbook over to

Secretary Kim. The latter politely took the book and placed it back on
the office's bookshelf.

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There were four such books on the shelf already.

Chairman Yu Myung-Han's precious secret collection that no one

knew about beside himself and his Secretary was steadily growing
larger every day.

On a peaceful stretch of a road after school.

Soo-Hoh had grown close to the girl from the same class before
long, and now, he found himself in the midst of an important
challenge to decide who'd get to carry the school bags home with
her.

"Rock, paper...."

The girl's look of concentration only added to the weightiness of

this confrontation. And the hour of judgement soon arrived.

"....Scissors!"

The girl went with 'rock', so Soo-Hoh had to change his original
choice of 'paper' to 'scissors' at the last second. This was the
combined effort of his extraordinary dynamic vision and motor
reflexes.

"Heck yeah!"

The female student celebrated her victory and while forming a

pleased expression, pushed forward her school bag. Soo-Hoh smirked
softly and slung the bag over his other shoulder.

"You know, you really suck at rock, paper, scissors."

"Tell me about it."

"What will we do with a guy who sucks at it so bad??"

"I'll just learn it from you, that's all."

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Soo-Hoh smiled and strode forward while carrying bags on both of
his shoulders.

"H-hey, wait for me!"

The two of them chatted about this and that as they walked side
by side on a quiet back street. But, out of the blue, Soo-Hoh stopped
walking and raised his head up towards the sky.

'….?'

The girl followed suit and also looked up, but she couldn't see
anything else, other than the floating clouds silently drifting away as
if they were spectating on the two teenagers.

"What's wrong? Is there something up there?"

Soo-Hoh stared at the sky for a while before looking back at the girl
with a light chuckle.

"Nah, it's nothing."

[Kiiiaahk-!]

A Sky Dragon flew freely and unrestricted in the air while

screeching out joyously. Hae-In riding on the creature's back asked in
a worried voice.

"Dear, will this really be alright?"

"Yup, it's fine."

Jin-Woo went on to explain that he used magic to erase all

presence of their ride, Kaisel, so no one should be able to hear or see
them flying.

"Hold on tight, okay?"

Hae-In heard her husband's smile-filled advice and her arms tightly

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wrapped around his waist gained renewed strength. Taking that as
the go-ahead, Jin-Woo immediately raised their travelling speed.

[Kiiahk!]

Kaisel's wing speed increased noticeably and they rose higher and
higher until they broke past the layer of heavenly clouds above. The
sight of an endlessly-stretching blue world spread out below their
feet.

'Just a little bit further!'

Kah-ahhak!

Kaisel flapped his wings even more vigorously.

Higher, even higher!

The two passengers were being protected by magic, which meant

they could fly up to the part of the sky that was much closer to outer
space rather than that of the planet's atmosphere.

They were soon greeted by the spectacular sight of a giant sun

rising past the outline of Earth.

Hae-In leaned her head against her husband's shoulder and

watched this mesmerising spectacle unfold in this quiet, still sky, a
warm smile floating up on her lips.

Jin-Woo had been waiting for this chance, so he quickly seized it

and pulled out the present he had readied earlier. Her eyes grew
large after seeing it.

"Dear..."

It was a special necklace he asked the bearded Dwarves to craft,

as those guys happened to be rather handy with things like this.

Jin-Woo gently placed the beautiful necklace shimmering under the

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sun's rays around the neck of his wife.

The Shadow Soldiers watching and cheering on from his shadow all
roared out in exhilaration at this wonderful conclusion of their liege's
perfect wedding anniversary event.

Waaahhh-!!

Unfortunately, just before Jin-Woo's and Hae-In's lips, gradually

closing in, could bridge the last couple of inches….

….He had to break the mood first and speak to her instead.

"Dear, looks like you'll have to go back first and wait for
me. I'll be home as soon as possible."

This was already their 16th wedding anniversary, so Hae-In knew

oh-so-well what was going on when Jin-Woo said those things.

"Come home soon, okay?"

Jin-Woo nodded his head and issued a new order to Kaisel. The Sky
Dragon changed his heading towards Earth and quickly distanced
itself.

He wordlessly watched the back of his wife getting further away

before turning around. Sure enough, a part of the space in the
distance began distorting and tearing up before icy-blue 'fog' began
oozing out from there.

It emerged after disintegrating the wall between dimensions and

revealed itself, before coagulating in one point to form a large figure.

Jin-Woo recalled what the envoy of the Rulers had told him all
those years ago.

'He said that an existence possessing great power can act

like a magnet and attract horrifying beings from other

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worlds, didn't he?'

There was no need to question just who that blue-fog monster

came to visit today.

The tear in space grew, so did the number of blue fog clusters at
an alarming rate. Hundreds? A few thousands? It could even be a few
tens of thousands.

"Fuu...."

Just as he would do, Jin-Woo closed his eyes and took a deep
breath.

Would his son take over this role in the future?

Who knows.

But, when Jin-Woo pictured that scene in his head, he realised that
it wouldn't be so bad at all.

'A father and son duo facing off against enemies

together....'

As a grin formed on his lips, he opened his eyes.

The countless blue fog clusters had completely emerged from the
gap in dimensions and, upon discovering Jin-Woo's presence, began
emitting intense, horrifying malice towards him.

The electrifying tension felt just before the battle travelled from
the tip of his toes to the rest of his body.

'Nice.'

His own preparation was now complete.

And eventually….

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Kuwaaaahhhh-!!!

Those 'things' that acted under one will chose to eliminate the
detected threat. As they moved towards Jin-Woo's location...

….He spoke with a smile on his face.

"Rise up."

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