Chapter 100

‘The Alliance might intervene, right?’

Chahaya whispered to Seo-un’s ear while looking at the Alliance side. Seo-un shot a sharp glance at Kim Seo-kyung, who was watching them closely. He, too, had a conversation with Lee Gwan-woong, but it was inaudible from here.

“If we can’t take care of Abdullah, we’ll wage a full-scale war with the Alliance.”

Seo-un openly threatened the Tachun guild members.

Kang-san and Yoo-chan naturally agreed, and Chahaya even seemed to be hoping for a full-scale war. However, contrary to expectations, the Alliance did not interfere while they were taking care of Abdullah’s body.

Since they couldn’t leave Abdullah naked, Kang-san and Yoo-chan also took off their shirts and tied them together. With Chahaya’s shirt added, it wasn’t difficult to carry Abdullah on Kang-san’s back.

No one spoke as they rode the elevator to the floor where the Tachun guild members were staying. As they walked down the corridor, Han Don-hee was standing in front of Seo-un’s room. He had also witnessed the swarm of locusts outside and the leader that had flown up, but he couldn’t come out completely due to the child, so he had been pacing the corridor anxiously.

Han Don-hee looked at the body Kang-san was carrying with a puzzled expression. He thought it might be an injured guild member from fighting a mutant, but they were all unharmed, just covered in bodily fluids. Then who is this? As Han Don-hee approached, Seo-un stepped in front of him.

“Let’s go inside and talk.”

“What is it?”

Han Don-hee tilted his head and looked at the body on Kang-san’s back. The face, devoid of any warmth, was tilted to the side. The moment he recognized the body, Han Don-hee staggered. The arm in a place it shouldn’t be made it hard to believe, so he squeezed his eyes shut and then opened them again. Despite this, the sight remained the same, and he rushed over to confirm the body. Beside the somber Kang-san, Han Don-hee was speechless for a while.

Instead, he turned his head sharply to look only at Chahaya. He hoped Chahaya would say something about Abdullah, who had turned into a mutant like Yeong-il.

“Brother... Why did Abdullah... No, damn it! What the hell is going on!”

Han Don-hee raised his voice, unable to make sense of the situation.

“Don-hee, let’s... at least lay Brother down.”

Seo-un pulled on Han Don-hee’s arm, which was refusing to back down.

Meanwhile, Chahaya took Abdullah from Kang-san and headed to his room. He laid Abdullah on the bed and pulled the blanket over his entire body. Seo-un glanced at the connecting room and sighed deeply when he saw the child sleeping.

Han Don-hee, who followed, pulled back the blanket to confirm Abdullah again. He then looked at Seo-un as if demanding an explanation, but Seo-un’s mouth was tightly shut.

“Damn... Could the Alliance have done this to Brother?”

Han Don-hee’s eyes turned fiercely savage.

‘A human mutant has appeared. We’ve taken care of it, so come down and talk.’

What was now flashing through Han Don-hee’s mind was the human mutant that Lee Gwan-woong had mentioned. Lee Gwan-woong had clearly said they had taken care of the human mutant. But wasn’t the human mutant the child in the next room? If the Alliance had killed Abdullah, Han Don-hee was ready to massacre them immediately.

“We don’t know the full details yet. But we need to take care of Brother first.”

Seo-un, who was also confused, tried to calm Han Don-hee down.

It felt like all the Tachun guild members had gathered for the first time in a long while. However, the fact that one of them had returned as a corpse made it unbearably sorrowful.

“Hey, this... Wasn’t this the phenomenon that happens when you climb the black wall? But Brother took the gate, right?”

Seo-un had shared information with Han Don-hee while tracking Abdullah’s whereabouts, so he was also aware of this fact.

“The information about the gate came from the Ohseong guild.”

Chahaya added, implying that they should filter what Ohseong said.

“So, did Ohseong throw Brother into the black wall? Abdullah is an upper-class mutant. Does that make sense?”

“Maybe Brother went in on his own.”

“Damn it!”

Han Don-hee tried to grab Chahaya’s collar, but he was faster, grabbing and pushing him away.

“Don’t lose your temper. None of us know the full situation.”

Under normal circumstances, Han Don-hee would have attacked Chahaya, telling him to stop talking nonsense, but now he just panted heavily. Seo-un went to the bathroom and threw a few dry towels to the guild members. They silently wiped off the bodily fluids on their bodies.

It would be nice if the Messenger came out and gave a clear reason, but the wind was just the wind. The Messenger had shown no interest in Abdullah so far.

“At least one thing is certain... After Brother turned like this... he killed two hotel staff.”

Seo-un’s words made Han Don-hee sigh.

“The surveillance cameras? You didn’t see it yourself. Cha Seo-un, do you believe everything the Alliance says?”

“Sorry, but...”

Kang-san pulled the dry towel from his head.

“Abdullah... Brother... did it... It was recorded on a phone.”

Kang-san, speaking incoherently, extended his phone. The sender of the chat message appeared to be a control room staff member, likely his girlfriend.

[Video]

[Video]

When the two videos were played in sequence, they showed footage of Abdullah from different angles.

The recording started after one hotel staff member was attacked, and screams erupted from various places. The person recording with the phone was also fleeing, so the focus kept shaking.

However, the scene where Abdullah used the arm on his back to grab and tear off a staff member’s head was clearly captured. Yoo-chan and Kang-san couldn’t bear to watch, and Seo-un watched the video to the end with his lips tightly pressed together. The scene of a human neck being separated by force was vivid enough to be imagined even with closed eyes. When the spine was pulled out, Seo-un had to close his eyes tightly for a moment.

Kang-san struggled to suppress his nausea, and Yoo-chan, feeling unwell, patted his chest a few times. Han Don-hee and Chahaya showed no expression. Even after the video ended and the screen turned black, Tachun remained in silence.

“Let’s... go to our rooms and clean up.”

Seo-un finally managed to speak. They were all exhausted, having had no time to rest after fighting the mutant. The mental shock was greater than the physical fatigue.

“Clean up and gather here again.”

Yoo-chan and Kang-san nodded in response instead of answering. After they left, Chahaya approached. His gaze, as if asking if Seo-un was okay, made Seo-un only nod in response.

“I’ll clean up too.”

Seo-un turned to his room.

“Cha Seo-un.”

This time, Han Don-hee called, but Seo-un, saying he would talk later, didn’t turn back.

Seo-un looked down at the child, who was fast asleep with his eyes tightly closed as he passed the bed. Kim Seo-kyung seemed to be convinced that Abdullah was a human mutant. It wasn’t a wrong assumption, as he had indeed harmed people.

During the fight with the locust mutant, the urgency of the situation had left no time to dwell on Brother’s death, but now that the mutant was dealt with, he felt only sorrow.

Seo-un looked at his own face in the bathroom mirror and took a deep breath. There was no point in blaming Chahaya; he himself looked no different from a mutant killer. Even with the shower water set to the coldest, it felt lukewarm.

Seo-un stood in the shower stall, letting the water hit him blankly. The mutant’s bodily fluids kept flowing down the drain for a long time. Only when the water ran clear did he wash his hair more than five times and scrub his body with a rough sponge.

Why did Brother turn like this? Why did he act without saying anything to me? Was he just diving and an unreliable deputy guild leader? But the Tachun guild was always free-spirited. They didn’t usually report their movements or activities, so Brother’s actions weren’t unusual. The problem was that Brother had returned to them dead.

<Abdullah entered the black wall on his own.>

Squeak, the Messenger’s voice mixed with a ringing noise.

“Brother... went in on his own?”

Seo-un quickly turned off the shower and lifted his head.

<Abdullah threw himself into the black wall. That’s a fact. But I don’t know the reason. I just observed. The only one I can interfere with is ‘you’.>

The dilemma of whether to fully trust the Messenger’s words began again.

“Chahaya said... the black wall connecting to Sulawesi was the one in the south. Brother clearly said he took the gate at the intersection...”

If Brother threw himself into the black wall, why would Ohseong lie?

<‘Cha Seo-un’ is too emotional. Clear your emotions, and the truth will be clearer. ‘I’ am not your enemy. No one wishes for your survival as much as ‘I’ do. ‘I’ even let you use Cosmos, didn’t I?>

Seo-un placed his hand on the wet tiles.

It was true that the Messenger had given him a special move when he lost his strength. However, while treating Kim Han-sol, he realized that all his cells were being replaced by Cosmos. This was the knowledge he had gained when he first became a Manseongjong.

The purple Cosmos flowing between his fingers was energy he had drawn from within himself. His body was a universe, and drawing the energy from the countless stars (cells) within him was entirely his will.

<‘Manseongjong’ is just an expression created on Earth. Originally, they were called ‘stellar ability users’. Who was the first ‘stellar ability user’ on ‘Earth’? Were they even ‘Earthlings’?>

Stellar ability users...?

It was a term he had heard or seen somewhere before. However, no one around him had ever mentioned stellar ability users. Of course, Seo-un recognized his cells as stars.

Come to think of it, didn’t Chahaya say something similar?

‘When I awakened, my cells felt like different stars.’

‘Chahaya, did you recognize your cells as stars?’

‘Yeah, I did... What about you?’

‘I felt the same way.’

However, he had never used the term ‘stellar ability user’. So why did it feel familiar...?

[Terrible mutant monster appears... The Soso bird mutant that appeared in A-32 region... indiscriminately massacred citizens. The Soso bird, which expanded its territory to A-35 region, was eliminated by S-class stellar ability user, ...]

“!”

Seo-un’s lips trembled slightly. It was a newspaper from the Narakga he had seen in a dream. Could it be... that the people of Narakga were the original stellar ability users and Manseongjong?

<The universe is all connected, and the space of the universe contains infinite time.>

This time, the Messenger’s thoughts were clearly imprinted in his mind.

<In the infinite time, ‘I’ am left, the mind, the mind, destroyed, no, not destroyed, destroyed? No, ‘I’ endure with just ‘you’.>

He roughly rubbed his arm, where goosebumps had risen. It felt like peering into the mind of someone not in their right mind.

<...Oh, it’s time for ‘hunting’ again. This time, it might take quite a while? ‘Cha Seo-un the elephant shrew’ don’t cry, wait, and I’ll give you a gift.>

The Messenger’s voice had returned to normal, as if nothing had happened. Yet, unlike other times, it didn’t feel like he was being mocked.

<I miss you so much.>

It was because, like that day, he felt compassion for the Messenger.

Perhaps the Messenger was enduring some sacrifice to help him. But why?

He didn’t know the Messenger’s true identity, and the Messenger had no intention of revealing it. This made him feel that the Messenger shouldn’t reveal his identity.

Sunga. A predetermined fate.

He had thought he was forging his own path, but suddenly, the unpleasant feeling that everything he had done so far was a predetermined path overwhelmed him. However, he had not killed the human mutant as the Messenger suggested. The Messenger said it was wrong, but perhaps it was for the best.

Because, didn’t the Messenger say it himself?

<This is ‘Sunga’. ‘I’ am not a prophet. Just someone standing at the predetermined conclusion.>

He said he stood at the predetermined conclusion.

Perhaps defying the Messenger’s words could open a different path. Or, if he didn’t listen to the Messenger, would his life or the world be in danger? The more information he got from the Messenger, the more questions multiplied. But there was one thing he was certain of.

If the Messenger were human, he would never look happy. Even if the Messenger were a god, it might be the same. Every time he received the Messenger’s thoughts, the only emotion he felt was intense loneliness.

Bang! The sudden sound of the bathroom door opening made Seo-un quickly turn his head. The lukewarm water had left no steam, so he could clearly see Chahaya standing in front of him. Seo-un quickly turned his back.

“What, why! I’ll get out, so close the door.”

But Chahaya, walking in confidently, grabbed Seo-un’s shoulder and turned him around. Before Seo-un could say anything, he reached for the shelf, shook out a large towel, and wrapped it around Seo-un’s body. This brought Seo-un’s body close to Chahaya.

Chahaya had just finished showering, as water dripped from his hair. It wasn’t the time to complain about his lack of manners or whether he had seen anything. It was because of Abdullah and the Messenger, but also because Chahaya’s expression was unusually serious. The usual playful look on his face was nowhere to be seen. Seo-un had to stay tense as he waited for Chahaya to speak.

“Cha Seo-un.”

The expressionless Chahaya wiped the water from Seo-un’s cheek with the back of his hand.

“Don’t be surprised, just listen.”

“...Why? Saying not to be surprised makes me even more anxious.”

As Seo-un tried to pull away from his grip, his shoulder was held tightly again.

“All the Manseongjong on Earth have just been summoned to Narakga.”

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