# 76
076
Jerome, who had been stabbed through the back of his head with a large single eye, was silent.
Jerome, who died instantly, fell to the ground quietly without even screaming.
“Compared to the hardships you put me through, I guess you died cheaply.”
Daesung looked sideways at the dead man with a miserable expression and spoke coldly.
It reminded me of a nightmare I never wanted to remember again, so I wanted to grind the corpse.
But the situation was already over and I couldn’t waste time on unnecessary actions.
Soooo!
Daeseong pulled out the fireworks sword that was stuck like a tombstone on the dead Jerome’s torso.
At the same time, a burning flame burned in Daesung’s eyes.
[The inherent authority of the subjugated demon beast ‘Commander Dolph’ has been temporarily passed on to the Absolute.] [
‘Commander Dolph’s unique power: < Devil’s Eye > is activated.]
From now on, the original purpose is to ‘dig up information’. ‘Time to focus on.
Daesung looked into Jerome’s head, hoping to find more nutritious information than the memories Sagat had.
Meanwhile.
“Huh…! Huh…!”
Behind Daesung, who was leaning down to dig up information, Shin Choyoung was breathing excitedly.
Although she barely survived, sweat was pouring down her face and her complexion was pale.
“Mom… Dad…”
Because the aftereffects of what I saw in < Room of Erosion > have not yet completely subsided.
Even though it was a fantasy, it was a very powerful shock to be reunited with my dead parents, whom I missed so much.
And the fact that the moment they reunited is also a memory of the most painful moment.
Wow!
‘Come to your senses, Shin Cho-young.’
The moment a single tear was about to come out, Shin Cho-young slapped her cheek with both hands.
‘An illusion is just an illusion. And…’
The most painful memory was a painful situation.
But in the end, wasn’t the worst of the worst moments avoidable?
Just before Gargan’s giant feet hit his parents.
If it weren’t for that man….
“….”
I’d like to repay you in some way if possible, but I’m not sure if I’ll ever get the chance to do so.
Still, I have to say thank you, which I couldn’t say before.
After gathering her spirit, which was on the verge of collapse, Shin Cho-young approached Daesung and lowered her head.
“Hey, thank you.”
“….”
“Thanks to you, I survived. Also… even though it wasn’t real, you were the one who saved my parents earlier, right? “Thank you so much.”
“….”
“Over there?”
Seeing him not reacting at all, Shin Cho-young tilted her head in confusion.
His concentration was so intense that even a third party fell silent for a moment to suspect that he was ignoring his words.
‘I don’t know what it is, but it seems better not to disturb you.’
While Shin Cho-young noticeably takes a step back.
Gooooo –
The < ghost > that opened in Daesung’s eyes was steadily extracting Jerome’s memories and information.
‘I’ll skip this guy’s past history. ‘Quick, just get to the point.’
Jerome, like Sagat, also lived as a dishonest villain and became a ‘Dimension Taker’.
Daesung, who was not at all curious about the evil deeds the guy had committed, flicked through the scenes in his memory as if moving the playback bar on a video player.
-I am the one who indiscriminately kidnaps the ‘vessel’ under your orders… but it is so ironic.
-Every time I meet you, I feel like I’m being kidnapped and suddenly called into an unknown space… I can somehow understand the feelings of the ‘vessels’ I bring with me.
Just like Sagat, Jerome was also a recipient of orders from the ‘man in the dark’.
‘Vessel’ was a name referring to humans who would become ‘sacrifices’ or ‘soldiers’.
While Sagat was simply responsible for bringing the vessels to the altar, Jerome also took on the role of supervising the altar.
‘It seems like he has status even among the takers.’
And Jerome, the altar’s general manager, was slightly ‘higher’ than Sagat, if you were to be honest.
However, even Jerome did not know the identity of the ‘man in the dark’.
Also, where is that colorless place where he is and where does it connect?
Whenever ‘The Man in the Dark’ needed Jerome, he made sure to warp Jerome to his own space.
-Am I the one with the best performance at the Eastern Region Altar? That’s a good thing.
-But the southern region… hmm. Certainly, as you said, the results are poor in many ways.
The part about the altar was revealed.
There are a total of twenty altars, located in five locations in the north, south, east, and west.
The takers bring the ‘vessel’ to the altar and then give them a choice.
Should I give up being a ‘soldier’, that is, a human, and become a monster?
“….”
Those who choose to become ‘soldiers’ hide themselves in human society with various missions, hiding their appearances and identities.
Murder, terrorism, kidnapping, search, secret drug, etc. With so many different missions.
In return for carrying out the mission, the ‘soldiers’ get their wish come true.
Power for those who want power.
If you want money, money.
‘You guys are like cancer cells.’
Those who became ‘monsters’ in the true sense of the word permeated the world in that way, causing chaos big and small.
However, not everyone necessarily became a ‘soldier’.
-Ooh, don’t be funny! No matter how much of a life I struggle with, I have no intention of becoming a monster like you!
Those who choose to remain human while protecting their last pride and honor.
-That can’t be right! It can’t be! I want this so much…!
– Oh, how could it not be? If you ask me to become a dog, I can become a dog, so I must somehow gain the strength to take revenge on those who ignored me!
A ritual that turns humans into soldiers for the future.
The process of injecting the ‘processed core’ that Sagat had recently spread through Lee Seok-woo into a vessel to change the origin of the species and brainwash them with the law of this world and all things called ‘Honse’.
Those who did not have the mental strength to withstand the ritual and declared giving up midway did not become ‘soldiers’.
Whether it was those who preserved their honor or those whose spirit could not endure, the end was ultimately the same.
-Kwaaaaaak-!!
Deciding that it was useless, he died on the spot and was offered as a sacrifice to revive the Titan of Chaos.
in other words.
This means that there are now sacrifices piled up somewhere here that have met cruel deaths.
“….”
And that ‘tragedy’ was clearly visible in Daesung’s eyes as he looked into Jerome’s memories.
Tsk.
Daesung clicked the tip of his tongue.
‘These guys play really dirty.’
Frowning at the ‘scene’ that emerged through the landscape of memories, he quickly set about gathering information.
-Do not criticize the southern priests too much.
-Still, weren’t the priests of the south who made the greatest contribution to the mass production of ‘soldiers’?
-Oh, of course, exactly. They found a tree with the knowledge to mass-produce soldiers. Well, how about just that?
At that time, Daesung’s eyebrows twitched.
Because I saw a familiar object.
‘Fusion Ampoule.’
A stimulant that turns humans into monsters by reprocessing the core processed by the ‘Man in the Dark’.
It was also an item that Lee Seok-woo diligently distributed illegally throughout the world.
However, Lee Seok-woo only played a role in spreading the word.
It was natural that there was a separate ‘technician’ who manufactured the stimulant directly.
The wood they were talking about was the engineer who made the ampoule.
Sagat chose Seok-Woo Lee as someone with the influence to spread the processing core.
And the priests of the south found an ‘engineer’ with the knowledge and ability to turn the processed core into a stimulant form and arranged collaboration with Lee Seok-woo.
‘I wondered why it wasn’t mentioned in Sagat’s memory who personally manufactured the ampoule… I guess he thought that all he had to do was take care of Lee Seok-woo.’
Sagat was only focused on taking control of Lee Seok-woo, the ampoule distributor, and did not even know the identity of the ‘technician’. No, it would be more accurate to say that I wasn’t interested.
Anyway, to put this all in simple terms.
‘These same guys hit it off really well.’
Sagat Lee Seok-woo, the priest of the south, and even an engineer. It was truly a skit produced by the four of them working together.
-Lee Seok-woo is dead? Huh…
-Well then. Inevitably, he will have no choice but to handle distribution for the time being.
-Even though he is a monk who stays in his closet and only makes medicine, he probably knows how the world works.
-Isn’t that inevitable? First of all, we share a distribution channel with Seokwoo Lee.
In order for the ‘technician’ to fit into Seok-Woo Lee’s business, he had no choice but to share information on ‘where’ the ampoules were distributed and to ‘who’ and in what quantity.
Lee Chae appeared in Daesung’s eyes.
‘That technician knows who bought the ampoules and how far they have spread.’
And fortunately, Jerome, who had a close relationship with the southern priest, knew at least the name of the engineer.
‘Dr. Park Dong-hyeok.’
The human who manufactured the fusion ampoule.
If Lee Seok-woo was the one who spread the cancer cells, Park Dong-hyuk was the one who created the malignant tumor himself.
But now it is said that Park Dong-hyuk is spreading cancer cells on behalf of the deceased Lee Seok-woo.
If so….
‘I have to deal with it.’
We cannot punish all the evildoers in this world.
For example, things like the mafia or Yakuza.
If you go through all these things one by one, it’s easy to get caught up in dirty work, and the effects may even have a negative effect on your family.
Those types of vigilante acts are like the apostles of justice that appear in comics and movies.
And Daesung didn’t think of himself as a ‘hero’ or anything. Without even wishing for it.
But at least.
It is as if ‘non-human things’ are secretly working in the world where our precious families live.
It’s like a monster from another dimension sneaking in pretending to be a human and secretly doing dirty tricks.
‘I absolutely cannot leave it alone.’
It is impossible to understand the way of thinking and values held by things outside of human beings.
What guarantee is there that these bastards, who don’t know where they will fly, won’t cause harm to their families at some point?
Even for family.
Daesung thought it was his duty to eradicate the alien monsters hiding in this land.
‘Isn’t there any more information to dig up?’
Daesung released < Devil Eye > and slowly stood up.
The location of Dr. Park Dong-hyeok could not be determined.
As Lee Seok-woo, who collaborated with Park Dong-hyuk, would know, he is rotting in his coffin right now.
Anyone who knows Park Dong-hyuk well, except for Lee Seok-woo…
‘Priests of the Southern Altar.’ ‘They would know.’
They were the ones who first discovered Park Dong-hyuk and arranged it with Lee Seok-woo, so there was no way they would have known.
The moment when Daesung’s eyes flashed with quiet hostility.
‘No, wait a minute.’
A thought suddenly occurred to him, so he reached into his pocket, took out his cell phone, and checked the time.
PM 11:27.
It’s well past 11 p.m.…
“Shop window.”
The first time I made an ‘information purchase’ through the store window last night was close to 11pm, so 24 hours have passed since then.
This means that you can use the information purchase that can be used once a day right now.
“Buy information.”
After activating the system through Butterfly Girl and paying public points, a golden document appeared.
[An empty record is created.]
Daeseong opened the empty record without delay and checked the contents written there.
「Tomorrow at 9 a.m., Hwang Jun-young will depart from the Hanam City Detention Center with a transport team and move to ‘Square,’ an isolation camp exclusively for awakened people in Bukyang-ri, Hwaseong-si.」 「Hwang Jun-young, who was imprisoned in ‘Square,’ was raided by prisoners hostile to him on the day of his incarceration
. “
If the future recorded in this document occurs, direct or indirect damage will occur to the user.]
“…?”
I definitely expected there to be information about Park Dong-hyuk.
Suddenly, there was a story written about Hwang Jun-young, which was completely unfamiliar.
‘What does this have to do with Hwang Jun-young dying and me being harmed?’
I don’t even know Hwang Jun-young.
No, maybe.
‘…Is there some kind of relationship between Park Dong-hyuk and Hwang Jun-young?’
As Butterfly Girl said before, ‘purchasing information’ doesn’t tell you everything in a bad way.
Just like how they told us from the beginning, ‘Stop the Fracture of Seongnam City’, when they could have just told us about Sagat and Dimension Taker.
This is a half-baked service that is truly inconvenient.
But in any case, it is true that by following the instructions written in the void, something came of fruition.
‘I guess it has something to do with it.’
It may not be possible, but in any case, it was information purchased at best by paying expensive public points.
I have no choice but to use it somehow to make ends meet.
“hey.”
“yes yes?”
Daesung dropped his gaze from the void and called out Shin Choyoung.
Coincidentally, she was here, famous for having studied under Hwang Jun-yeong.
“Do you know a man named Park Dong-hyeok?”
“Park Dong-hyuk? Park Dong-hyuk Park Dong-hyuk…. Ah yes! “It’s a name I’ve heard of before.”
“How well do you know?”
“No matter how much you say… I don’t know. “I’ve only heard the story a few times through Director Hwang Jun-young.”
“I guess your leader and Park Dong-hyuk knew each other, right?”
also.
Heo Gong-rok didn’t mention Hwang Jun-young for no reason.
While Daesung was thinking like that, Shin Choyoung started spouting out unasked questions.
“He always complimented me so much that all the equipment used in < Soul > was created by a man named Park Dong-hyuk. “I think the two of you were very close.”
“What else do you know about Park Dong-hyuk?”
“Nothing else than that. I just heard an anecdote about this guy named Park Dong-hyuk. “I’ve never actually met him….”
The fact that Hwang Jun-young is close to Park Dong-hyuk means that he knows where he is.
The next goal has been decided.
From dealing with the Seongnam City gate to breaking into the altar today… I really didn’t like the fact that there was no time to rest.
‘If today passes, Hwang Jun-young will die.’
If I have to solve a problem within today, I have no choice but to endure a little more hassle.
But there is something to do before that.
first of all.
-Shock.
Daesung held in his hand the beam of light shining on the body of the deceased Jerome.
[The power possessed by the ‘Dimension Taker’, a being of power, permeates the body of the Absolute.]
[Power: < Room of Erosion > has been acquired.]
< Power Information >
Room of Erosion
[Creates a unique barrier in the form of a black sphere. It traps the specified target.]
[The target trapped in the unique barrier faces their most painful memories as illusions.] [
The power shows variable power depending on the strength or weakness of the target’s mental power.]
Although it was very annoying from my perspective, it was a very fun power. There was no harm in keeping it.
‘Now all that’s left is…’
Daeseong, who had acquired new powers, walked into a deep, dark rock cave.
Shin Cho-young hurriedly followed behind him as he leisurely headed somewhere.
“Now wait a minute…!”
Although she is not the type of person who likes to rely on others, relying on that man was the wisest choice for her right now.
Daesung also didn’t bother to throw away Shin Cho-young, who was following him.
Instead, I asked Kim who followed me.
“Has the man named Hwang Jun-young always incurred a lot of grudges from other people?”
“A grudge? No, not really…. Oh, but definitely. “You must have incurred a lot of resentment from the bad guys.”
“Hmm…”
“There are countless evil awakened people caught in the leader’s hands. “It’s quite famous among those in the know.”
So it was written in the blank log that he would be raided by the same inmate at the camp tomorrow.
It’s probably a good thing, but I’m just asking this question out of curiosity.
“Ha…”
Shin Cho-young’s face darkened as she remembered again the fact that such a just person committed murder for her sake.
Meanwhile, as the two reached the deepest part of the rock cave, a large dark blue stone door appeared in front of them.
Shin Cho-young swallowed his saliva as he saw a somewhat ominous energy creeping out.
“What is this?”
The moment when Shin Cho-young’s words were put into focus.
Qua- ang!
Daeseong vehemently swung his foot and broke down the stone gate.
Shin Cho-young unconsciously closed her eyes at the sudden roar and was at a loss for words.
I don’t know if I should be surprised that he broke the stone door that seemed harder than cast iron with his bare feet, or should I be surprised by this bold action itself….
Daesung
went inside the stone door, which had a hole the size of a human being.
‘…Go in? Roll it up?’
Shin Cho-young hesitated for a moment.
No, isn’t it strange that you’re hesitating after coming all the way here?
Shin Cho-young, who was embarrassed, was about to step through the hole.
“Don’t come in.”
Stop.
Daesung’s voice, heard from beyond the pitch-black hole, made her take a step and then stiffen in an awkward posture.
Daesung’s words continued, echoing a bit gloomily.
“You’d better not come in.”
“What does that mean?”
“It would be better not to look.”
Somehow, an unknown anger was subtly mixed among the tone that seemed at first glance calm and indifferent.
Shin Cho-young asked, unable to understand the meaning.
“What’s there?”
“uh.”
“Can I ask what you have?”
“Don’t ask. “I don’t even want to say it.”
“….”
“Do whatever you want other than coming in. It’s funny that I even force you to do that.”
I was just recommending not to come in as much as possible, not to say that you should not come in unconditionally.
Shin Cho-young, who thought that going in wouldn’t be a big inconvenience, began to walk carefully.
After going through the hole…
Shin Cho-young, who had completely entered the stone gate, frowned at the sudden darkness.
“I can’t see very well.”
Still, it was not a completely dark space from beginning to end, so my eyes quickly adapted to the darkness.
And it was visible.
“uh…?”
early.
Even the castle was disgusted after discovering it in Jerome’s memories.
The true nature of the ‘tragedy’.