Chapter 170
[Hey, hey! Why is she like that? Shouldn’t you follow her?]
Baekryeon, who was secretly watching the situation, shouted.
She was currently not in the form of a sword, but a small brooch that transformed and was in Yu-hyun’s pocket.
She said that to Yu-hyun while looking at Seo Sumin who ran away without warning, but Yu-hyun shook his head.
‘No. It’s useless to follow her now.’
[What do you mean?]
‘She’s not running away because she hates me. She was fine until a moment ago. But as soon as I reached out my hand and made an offer, her eyes suddenly changed.’
Yu-hyun judged that she had overlapped something from her past with his attitude.
He didn’t intend it, but he had pulled some kind of trigger.
That triggered one of the emotions that she had been carrying since her previous life.
Yu-hyun had seen the same thing a few times, so he knew.
‘I don’t know what she saw, but she must have had a serious mental trauma that made her hallucinate. That’s what exploded now. That’s why it’s useless to follow her now. People who fall into that state don’t calm down easily.’
[So you’re just going to leave her alone?]
‘More than anything, I’m the one who made her remember her trauma. Even if I follow her, she’ll probably unconsciously recall what happened before as soon as she sees me. Sigh. It’s my mistake. I should have approached her more calmly.’
Yu-hyun clicked his tongue.
He was a bit impatient because he had to deal with the Great Sage Army, and he also had some flaws in not knowing Seo Sumin’s past.
Why did she react like that?
She was a transcender who had lived a long time, so how did she end up like that?
‘Unless I know her past, the situation won’t be easily resolved. But I can’t ask her either. She’ll keep her mouth shut.’
[…Wow. There’s really nothing easy about this situation. What are you going to do now?]
‘First of all, I have to go back to Management and tell Jia and Hye-rim about this situation. I know that Paradise Land is moving, but I don’t know when they’ll act. I need to prepare.’
Yu-hyun looked at the place where Seo Sumin had been standing with a regretful gaze.
‘Maybe they’re already moving.’
***
The pier of Incheon Port.
A ship quietly entered a place where people’s eyes couldn’t reach.
The ship docked, and several people got off it.
A man in a black suit who was waiting for them greeted them.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Jeon Minhyuk, the first branch manager of the Twilight Veil Clan.”
“…”
Even though Jeon Minhyuk bowed his head and showed courtesy, the response was cold.
He clenched his teeth as he bowed his head.
‘These damn Chinese. Why do I have to bow to them?’
The people who came through the pier were not Koreans.
They were collectors belonging to the Chinese mafia called Baiyehui.
Jeon Minhyuk had heard of Baiyehui too.
Anyone with ears would know that they were a very dangerous organization.
But this was Korea.
And he was the first branch manager of the Twilight Veil Clan, one of the largest clans in Korea.
‘Even if our clan is not doing well right now, we’re not so weak that we can be pushed around.’
But the clan leader told him to send them off politely when he sent him here.
Jeon Minhyuk couldn’t accept it even though he had to follow it.
‘Agael Teller said so, what can I do?’
Even if he was a successful collector, he couldn’t ignore Agael.
He had no choice but to follow what was ordered from above, and Jeon Minhyuk decided to accept this unreasonable situation.
“Where should I take you? Do you want to have a meal first? I reserved a good place.”
“No.”
The one who answered was a man with a shaved head and strange tattoos on his face.
As soon as he met his eyes, Jeon Minhyuk felt like bugs were crawling up his body.
‘Wha, what?’
“We came here to do business. We can’t waste time.”
“Tha, that’s right? Then where should I guide you?”
“No need. We don’t need your help. We’ll move on our own.”
“Wha? Bu, but.”
“Do you have any complaints?”
The man, Lao Chen, glared at him and Jeon Minhyuk shook his head.
He was a branch manager who had some authority, but the Chinese in front of him was someone who was hard to deal with.
“Then get lost. Don’t bother us.”
“…Okay.”
Jeon Minhyuk gritted his teeth and said that. He left with his subordinates and the car they brought.
The only ones left on the pier were Lao Chen and four other collectors from Baiyehui.
As soon as Jeon Minhyuk’s group disappeared, a subordinate who was big and fierce-looking asked in Chinese.
(Boss. Should we just let them go? Isn’t it dangerous if they blabber somewhere?)
(Right. It would have been better to get rid of them here.)
A thin man in a ragged robe took the order.
Lao Chen shook his head.
(No. Shamath-sama gave me an order. Not to antagonize them.)
(If it’s Shamath-sama’s words, then I have no choice.)
A woman with eerie eyes nodded at Lao Chen’s words.
The remaining one, a small old man, stood silently with his hand on his waist.
The man in the robe asked.
(I’m curious though. Why did they call us five to another country? How important is this?)
(They said there is a target to eliminate.)
At Lao Chen’s words, the eyes of the other four changed in an instant.
Lao Chen liked that and nodded inwardly.
The four who followed him were like that. They were assassins who were obsessed with killing and specialized in this job.
‘Shamath-sama. What should we do now?’
-Wait a moment.
Shamath, the head of the Pentagram department, answered Lao Chen’s question like that.
Shamath licked his tongue in the manager’s room.
First, he succeeded in smuggling his assassins who were wanted by Interpol with the help of the Twilight Veil Clan led by Agael.
The next goal was obviously two things.
‘One is to kill that arrogant Teller who picked a fight with our Pentagram. But…’
The problem was the second one, which he was asked by someone higher up.
‘Kill a girl? A non-collector?’
Shamath didn’t understand that.
The second one was not something he planned.
‘It’s strange.’
Shamath recalled what happened a while ago.
A letter that came through his personal message.
As soon as he read it, Shamath had no choice but to be surprised.
It was because Great Sage made him a personal offer.
‘Kill a girl. She may look like an ordinary girl who is not a collector, but she is a very dangerous existence. That’s what they said. And they sent me two things while saying that.’
Shamath took out one of the two things.
It was a very small seed.
An object that barely fit between his fingers.
‘I didn’t expect them to give me this.’
Shamath knew that the seed in his hand was not an ordinary thing.
When you become a manager, you can hear more facts that you don’t want to know compared to your previous position.
One of the things Shamath learned after becoming a manager was the existence of this seed.
‘The seed of stories. It’s an object that the spirits use to provide their stories to Hage. And it’s not low-grade, but mid-grade.’
And with this, it was possible to implement a ‘world’ if he wanted to.
That’s what the seed was.
He couldn’t even guess how much story was contained in this tiny object.
And what would happen when it came into contact with someone.
‘But why a seed?’
Shamath wondered that.
They didn’t tell him why, and Great Sage who supported him only told him to use this seed on the girl they told him about.
And that too, a mid-grade seed that could implement a legendary story.
‘Hmm. It doesn’t suit my temperament to just follow what others tell me, but I have to do it without any mistakes since Great Sage sent me this personally.’
Shamath was not arrogant.
He judged that there must be a reason for Great Sage to do this much.
It wasn’t very pleasant for him, who had risen to the position of manager, to do what others told him, but Shamath decided to think rationally.
‘And if I use the seed, they said to use the second thing inside.’
What surprised Shamath more than anything was this second thing.
‘I can’t believe they gave me this.’
The seed of stories was really an amazing thing too.
But it was nothing compared to ‘this’.
‘Even if the opponent is a high-grade collector with national power, this would be very easy.’
Shamath put away the thing and ordered Lao Chen and his men to wait for a while at the scene before connecting to the Genesis Network.
First, he needed to get information about Yu-hyun.
‘It’s not hard to find.’
Yu-hyun was such a famous person that it didn’t take long to find out about him.
Besides, there were many eyes watching Yu-hyun in Hage, so it was easy to pinpoint his location quickly.
‘I can’t spy on him exactly because he doesn’t open his library right now.’
But it was possible to secretly watch him using [Genesis’ Protection].
Shamath immediately used his protection and moved across space. He found Yu-hyun far away from where he was floating in the sky.
Shamath came down from the high sky of the mountain and hid himself among the trees.
‘There he is.’
Yu-hyun was with a woman.
Judging by her uniform, she was a student.
The moment Shamath saw the student’s face, he had to desperately hold back the laughter that was about to burst out.
‘No way, the two targets knew each other! The heavens are helping me.’
The girl who was with Yu-hyun was the same target that Great Sage had ordered him to kill.
It was rather a good thing for Shamath, who could take care of two things at once.
He could save time.
‘I was supposed to use it only to kill that girl, but now it’s different. And judging by their looks, their relationship is not so good either.’
He could kill two birds with one stone.
A four-character idiom that existed in this world came to his mind.
‘Ilseok-eejo. Nothing could be more fitting.’
His eyes, which resembled a snake’s head, curved cunningly.
***
Seo Sumin ran away.
She kept running.
She tried desperately to get away without looking back.
The black shadow that chased her from behind did not let go of her.
No matter where she ran and how hard she ran, the shadow always followed her closely.
‘I have to run, I have to run.’
But where?
The shadow that had been chasing her from behind was now blocking her front.
She was blocked by the black shadows on both sides and behind.
Everything she saw turned black, and the world seemed to strangle her.
Seo Sumin stopped running. Her frail body craved oxygen.
Seo Sumin crouched down on the spot.
Her reason returned late, and she realized what she was trying to do.
‘I was just trying to run away again.’
Too late, she realized the reality and felt like dying from the guilt.
It was not the first time she had hallucinations. She had had similar attacks several times before.
‘I thought I was better now.’
She couldn’t make friends properly because of this when she was in elementary school. She thought she didn’t need to.
That changed when she went to middle school.
She met a kid.
The only one who smiled and approached her, who everyone shunned. The first and only friend she could have in her life.
‘Yura…’
Seo Sumin felt that her hallucinations decreased after meeting her.
She suddenly thought so.
Couldn’t she be happy like this? Could she forget everything now?
Just live normally in this life.
Very normally, could she live?
She knew it was greedy. She knew it was a rest that was not allowed for a sinner.
But still, she wanted to try this greed for the first time.
‘I…’
It was a moment of hope. She felt it instinctively.
Someone was watching her from above.
For a long time.
Her senses from when she was a transcendent screamed.
They were enemies and they were targeting her again.
Seo Sumin knew that, but she didn’t want to lose the happiness in front of her eyes and denied the truth.
If she pretended not to know until the end, everything would work out fine. She denied reality.
Foolishly.
Thud thud.
Seo Sumin got up from her seat and walked aimlessly.
In fact, she knew too.
The truth does not disappear even if you ignore it. It was just that she didn’t want to see it, but the truth was always there quietly.
The being above the sky wanted her to die, and he was actually ready for it.
Seo Sumin knew that but didn’t even try to resist.
‘Just like this… dying…’
She couldn’t think of anything because it was too painful.
She just thought it would be easier if she died again.
She had enough of carrying things around.
Darkness began to creep around her again.
“Sumin!”
The disgusting darkness that swelled up suddenly washed away.
A bright light stretched out and tore everything apart.
Seo Sumin lifted her head. In front of her was the friend she had been looking for desperately.
“Yu…ra?”
“Sumin. What are you doing here?”
“No. Rather than that, Yura you…”
“Me? I’m just preparing for the academy entrance procedure, and I came out for a while because of my mom’s errand. But what are you doing in such a deserted place? You’re not secretly smoking, are you?”
Seo Sumin’s eyes, which had been dimmed, came back as she looked at Yura who was worried about her.
She shook her head.
“No, it’s not that.”
Seo Sumin tried to say that she was just tired for a moment.
It was then that something small and black fell from the sky above them.
Thump.
The thing that looked like a seed landed exactly between Seo Sumin and Kang Yura.
Before they could figure out what it was, the seed reacted first.
Whoosh!
The seed inflated like a balloon filled with air.
The shell of the seed burst and white letters popped out.
The letters, arranged like long codes, stretched out like countless tentacles and slowly eroded the surroundings.
“Uh, uh?”
“Yura!”
Seo Sumin grabbed Kang Yura’s hand as she felt a sense of crisis.
At the same time, the white letters moved like spinning and swallowed the two bodies.
Seo Sumin and Kang Yura disappeared into the letters.
And where the two had been just before, only a new world view entrance was left.