Chapter 191
Yu-hyun asked Sung Yu-chan, who reacted to what he said.
“Yoo Chan, do you know something about it?”
“Of course, I do. What do you mean by Heavenly Demon? The most feared being in the martial world! He’s much stronger than any martial leader, the supreme martial artist of all people!”
“…You’ve read a lot of martial arts novels, haven’t you?”
Yu-hyun turned his head and saw Seo Sumin nodding proudly, as if she was satisfied with Sung Yu-chan’s evaluation.
“So, this girl. No, this person is that Heavenly Demon?”
Baek Seo Ryeon, who still couldn’t understand the situation, asked cautiously.
Yu-hyun nodded affirmatively.
There was no need to joke or lie in this situation.
Baek Seo Ryeon looked at Seo Sumin with a nervous expression.
She was a girl with snow-white hair and a youthful appearance that suited her age.
She looked more mature than her peers, but that seemed to be all.
“Um, you said your name was Su Min? How old are you?”
“I’m 16 in this life.”
Baek Seo Ryeon twitched his lips at her casual tone and speech.
“If you count my previous lives, I’m older than you. But don’t worry. I’m living as an ordinary high school girl, Seo Sumin, right now.”
“You’re not exactly an ordinary high school girl anymore.”
Yu-hyun muttered from the side.
“Is that so? Then I’ll be an ordinary high school girl Heavenly Demon.”
“You’re not ordinary when Heavenly Demon is involved.”
“No, you don’t know what you’re talking about, Mr. Kang Yu-hyun Teller.”
That’s when Sung Yu-chan stepped in and defended Seo Sumin.
“Do you know how diverse Heavenly Demons are these days? Not the real ones, but the ones in stories. They cook, play soccer, work part-time, stream online, forge weapons, go to work, own conglomerates, run bakeries. There’s no end to it.”
“…Oh, I see.”
“So what? This one is real. And she’s a middle school girl Heavenly Demon. This is very rare.”
“Oh. There’s someone who recognizes my value here.”
“I’m honored.”
Sung Yu-chan said with a happy expression, but the eyes of Yu-hyun, Kang Hye-rim, Kwon Jia, and Baek Seo Ryeon turned cold.
Ahem.
Yu-hyun cleared his throat and tried to focus their attention back on this side.
“First of all, Su Min has joined us in our activities. Of course, there are some hurdles to overcome for that, but there’s no need to worry because the future will be very promising. Let’s all do our best from now on.”
Seo Sumin had great power, but she was still a minor.
Even if she agreed, she needed her parents’ consent, and more importantly, she had to enter the academy.
It would take some time, but it was very light compared to taking a former transcendent with them.
“That’s it for the story. Does anyone have any questions?”
Sung Yu-chan raised his hand quickly. Yu-hyun ignored him.
“I’ll take that as a no.”
Sung Yu-chan sulked in an instant.
“Wait a minute!”
The one who stopped Yu-hyun from leaving his seat was Kang Hye-rim.
“Yu-hyun. Didn’t we have more to talk about?”
“Don’t try to gloss over it.”
Kang Hye-rim and Kwon Jia pressed him hard and Baek Seo Ryeon also sensed something and glanced at him.
“What did you do again?”
“Why do you ask like that? It sounds like I do this all the time.”
“So did you or didn’t you?”
“…It was nothing serious.”
“Nothing serious? Let’s hear how serious it was.”
“Just something like… dying and coming back to life?”
“That’s not nothing serious!”
Yu-hyun smiled awkwardly at their explosive reactions.
He didn’t want to worry them so he tried to skip it, but it seemed impossible.
Yu-hyun sighed and looked at Seo Sumin for help.
Bleh.
She smiled mischievously at Yu-hyun and stuck out her tongue.
She had no intention of helping him.
Yu-hyun felt despair at the lack of allies in this world when Sung Yu-chan, who lacked social skills, asked without noticing the mood.
“But I heard you got some new abilities. What are they?”
‘Nice assist. Yu-Chan!’
I was glad to hear Seong Yuchan’s clueless remark at this moment.
I immediately showed him the new ability I had acquired.
Tssss. A black mask appeared on my right hand.
It was a devilish mask with graceful curves and two horns.
“This is the new ability I got.”
At the same time, my hands were covered with black leather gloves.
Everyone’s eyes were drawn to the mask in my hand.
“What is that?”
“When I wear this mask, my physical abilities are enhanced and I get new skills. Hmm. It’s better to show you than to explain.”
I picked up a dice and showed it to them.
“Hye-rim.”
“Y-yes?”
“What is the probability of each face when you throw this six-sided dice?”
“That’s obviously one-sixth, right?”
“Right. The probability of each number is equal. But what if you throw this dice six times? Will each face come out once?”
“That’s…”
Kang Hye-rim knew that wasn’t the case.
Even if the probability of the dice was one-sixth, each trial was independent and unaffected by the previous or the next one.
If you threw it for the first time and got one, you could still get one the next time.
“Thinking that if you get one, you’ll get a different number next time. That’s a common gambler’s fallacy. But probability doesn’t work like that. What if I throw this dice three times in a row and get one three times in a row?”
“What are you trying to say? Why are you explaining this with a dice all of a sudden?”
Kwon Jia crossed her arms and asked, feeling like he was talking nonsense.
“I was about to explain that. Hmm. You’ll see it better if I show you.”
I threw the dice.
It rolled on the table and landed on three.
“It came out as three at first. The probability of three is one-sixth. The same goes for the other faces.”
Roll.
I rolled the dice again and got five.
“It’s five now. Then what about next?”
I threw the dice four more times in a row.
The faces that came out were two, four, six, and one.
I threw the dice six times in total and got each number exactly once.
“It could be a coincidence, right? But what if I do it again? Look, the faces are… one to six without missing any.”
Only then did the people who were watching realize what was happening.
I grabbed the dice on the table and rolled it between my fingers.
“My ability is to interfere with the independence of probability. I can make things that are possible but very unlikely happen intentionally.”
And this ability had infinite potential.
“It’s just a dice now, but if you look at it bigger, it means I can make things that have a very low chance of happening in the future actually happen in reality. Of course, that’s impossible for me right now.”
“Wow.”
Kwon Jia gasped.
The power I had was almost like meddling with the laws of the world.
Now I could only control the outcome of a dice, but what if my power became much stronger?
A disaster that would happen with 99% probability and a miracle that would happen with 1% probability.
If I could deliberately choose the 1% miracle among them.
‘This, this ability is…’
It was more than just amazing or cheating, it was an ability that shook the foundation of the world.
She had never seen anything like that in her many lives of repetition.
I smiled smugly and said,
“I call this Maxwell’s demon.”
Unlike Kwon Jia who was shocked, Kang Hye-rim, Baek Seoryeon, and Seo Sumin seemed to have no idea what this ability meant.
As I was wondering if I should explain more, Seong Yuchan exclaimed with excitement.
“Wow, that’s totally awesome!”
“Is it?”
“Yes. If you use that for phone game gacha, even if it’s 1% probability, you can get it for sure if you roll 100 times! It’s like creating your own ceiling that doesn’t exist in the game!”
“Uh… yes.”
I knew Seong Yuchan was right, but I felt a bit annoyed.
Did he have to use that as an example?
He was a hacker, so I thought he would know some classical physics or thermodynamics laws to back up his argument.
“If it’s 3% pickup rate but someone can’t get it even after rolling 300 times, while you can get it for sure just by rolling 33 times without thinking. This is literally what dreams are made of…”
“Yuchan.”
“Yes?”
“Please go outside for a moment.”
Seong Yuchan realized then that the people around him were looking at him with displeasure.
He had no social skills, so he felt sick in his stomach when he sensed their gazes.
He sulked and went outside, holding his belly.
“Okay. Let’s leave Yuchan alone and see if anyone else has any questions?”
***
No one raised their hand.
It was a dark night.
In the same old night view of Seoul, where the stars were hidden by the city’s smog, Yu-hyun stood on the rooftop of the Baekhwa Management building.
His eyes hurt from the bright lights of the cars, signs, and neon signs.
He saw people walking around the streets, pairing up with each other.
Yu-hyun compared the scenery he saw with his eyes and the one he remembered.
‘I changed another future today.’
According to the original history, Seo Su-min should have died.
Maybe in the previous history, without Kang Yura, she died alone and lonely. Or maybe another friend got involved instead of Kang Yura.
Yu-hyun leaned his arm on the railing. It was almost summer now, and even the night breeze was warm.
‘I didn’t just change this time. I’ll keep changing in the future.’
Yu-hyun clenched and unclenched his right hand.
He felt the pulsing power of the Fruit of Life flowing through his fingertips. His body had changed.
His body, which was already perfect as a human being, had transformed into the most ‘ideal’ form by the Fruit of Life.
It was not a change in appearance, but a change in the inside.
‘My muscles became denser and my bones became stronger. My physical abilities have increased dramatically, and so has my power of stories. If I had to use martial arts terms, did I undergo a metamorphosis? A metamorphosis that can only be done by breaking my heart. I can’t do it twice for sure.’
He still couldn’t forget the feeling of his heart being pierced.
The sensation of breaking that wound and stuffing the Fruit of Life into it was something else.
He didn’t show it, but his fingers trembled slightly just by recalling it.
He was lucky that he had experienced death once before, otherwise he would have had a lifelong trauma.
‘But still… considering what I have to do in the future, this is not enough.’
Yu-hyun always felt his lack.
He didn’t think he was strong.
He might be in the upper ranks in this world, even on Earth, but Yu-hyun’s eyes had seen a bigger world.
‘It might be fine on Earth. But in the whole mixed world, I’m still nothing.’
He felt it clearly when he fought with Chulapantaka.
He had an incomplete manifestation.
He used the characters of fantasy creatures to form his body, and he couldn’t bring all his power to avoid the eyes of the Genesis System.
Still, the existence of a second-generation spirit was so huge that Yu-hyun barely managed to hold on.
‘If Chulapantaka had manifested a little more perfectly, I would have been the one to die.’
But Yu-hyun didn’t feel disappointed or regretful.
He saw a way to become stronger.
Laplace’s Demon and Maxwell’s Demon.
These two powers were beyond imagination.
If he became a little stronger, if he could handle these powers better.
And if he got the other demon stories that he hadn’t gotten yet.
Then he wouldn’t be helpless like now. No, rather, he might make the spirits fear him.
Yu-hyun smiled bitterly.
‘Well, I’ll think about it after I do it.’
Clank.
The door to the rooftop opened.
He wondered who it was at this hour and turned around.
He saw a white hair that stood out even in the dark.
“Sumin?”
“Didn’t I tell you to call me comfortably?”
Seo Sumin came up next to Yu-hyun.
“Did you come looking for me?”
“Yes. I realized that there was something I didn’t tell you.”
Her white hair fluttered in the night wind.
Yu-hyun thought it looked like snow falling in early summer.
Seo Su-min tidied up her side hair with her fingertips.
With Seoul’s night view as her background, Seo Sumin smiled brightly.
“Thank you. For saving my life and Yura’s. Thanks to you, I found hope to live again. It’s all because of you.”
“I didn’t do much. I just pushed your back a little.”
“Aha ha. You’re saying the same thing as Hye-rim and Jia unnie.”
“Unnie?”
“Yes. Why not? Now I’m a student again. Aren’t they my seniors and unnies in the industry? Of course I have to call them that way. I heard from them what kind of help you gave me.”
Yu-hyun scratched his cheek awkwardly.
He really didn’t think he did anything.
All he did was buy some time for her, and it was Seo Su-min who actually defeated Chulapantaka.
“I just gave a little opportunity to someone who could change from the beginning.”
“How common is it to give that opportunity to someone? Most people don’t even do that little kindness you’re talking about. And sometimes, a small kindness to someone can be something precious that can’t be exchanged for anything else to someone else.”
“…”
Yu-hyun thought for a moment and then chuckled.
“I guess you’re right.”
“Yes. Excessive modesty is worse than arrogance. Sometimes you need to proudly show off your achievements.”
“I agree.”
The two looked at each other and smiled, then fell silent for a while.
Yu-hyun suddenly remembered that he had something to give her.
“Sumin, take this.”
“What is this…?”
Seo sumin looked at the sealed letter that was handed to her, then glanced at Yu-hyun with a questioning look.
“You’ll know when you read it.”
“Hmph. If it’s something ridiculous, you’ll pay for it.”
Seosumin quickly opened the letter.
She saw the handwriting on it and widened her eyes, then quietly and slowly read the letter.
“Can you excuse me for a moment?”
“Sure.”
Yu-hyun nodded and left the rooftop.
After Yu-hyun left, thick tears rolled down Seosumin’s cheeks.
[If you are reading this letter, maybe I’m already dead.]
She read the letter slowly.
She wiped her tears several times and read it to the end.
[O Heavenly Demon. Our humble leader. Please forgive my rudeness at this moment. I will treat you not as a leader, but as a human being.]
With that, the tone of the letter changed.
[My child.
If you are reading this, I’m sure I’m no longer in this world. Even if fate was kind to me, I couldn’t just leave it alone. So I want to say sorry to you. Maybe, if we had more time, we could have made a different choice.
But I don’t regret it. If I can give up this life, if I can cut off everything that binds you with it. I would have made the same choice over and over again.
I know how selfish it is of me to say this when I’m hurting you so much.
So, I’ll be selfish until the end and tell you what I want to say.
Even though I couldn’t fulfill my role as a father, I always thought of you as my daughter. So on my last journey, please grant me a request as an unworthy father.
Be happy.
And live the life you want.
The world is vast. And somewhere in this world, there are other people who will accept you and understand you.
There may be sights you don’t know, or even new countries. All those things will be your wings, after being trapped in the sect.
Go on adventures, make friends, fall in love. If you find something precious, don’t let it go and hold on to it. If you think it will always be by your side, you’ll lose it.
Don’t lose hope.
There will be terrible pain and sometimes you’ll want to die. But once you get past that moment, you’ll be able to overcome that pain and find new happiness.
Like I found you.
My beloved child. Be happy wherever and whenever you are. And if you’re reading this, don’t forget.
Even if the world abandons you, there is someone who cares for you until that moment.
If you don’t give up, there is hope.
Forever.]
It was a letter written by someone who gave up everything he had.
He gave up what he had and what he wanted
And headed towards the twilight with his last resolve.
How could she just ignore it?
“What a foolish man.”
Seosumin sat down on the spot.
Her slender shoulders shook weakly.
“Really… what a foolish man.”
Seo sumin cried.
Not as a Heavenly Demon, but as a child.