Chapter 23
“I can tell just by looking. You resemble him a lot.”
Why did those words feel like an insult?
After biting my lip, I hesitated for a moment before asking.
“…Do you know that man?”
“Of course I do. We shared a room for quite a while. Both he and I are serving life sentences. Haha!”
It must be funny to him.
I looked down at him with cold eyes.
Unfazed by my gaze, the old man grinned at me.
“You came because you’re curious, right? Well, he is your father after all.”
“……”
I hesitated for a moment at the old man’s question.
Curious? What was I curious about that made me come here?
Those inmates, having been confined in the basement all this time, didn’t know what had happened in the yard.
But I couldn’t just blurt out all the circumstances either.
“…No, it’s fine.”
Just as I was about to turn away, the old man’s voice pierced my back.
“He was strange, that man,”
“……”
After hesitating for a moment, I finally turned around.
“What do you mean?”
“On April 1st, the day before this hellish situation started, he told me to escape.”
“……!”
“But this is a prison, isn’t it? I laughed and told him to try escaping himself if he could… And would you believe it? The next day, he was really gone.”
I listened to the old man’s words without saying anything.
“An inmate, a serial killer at that, disappearing caused quite an uproar in the prison, but right after that, monsters suddenly appeared. …Well, you’ve seen what happened after that, miss.”
The old man grinned, stroking his exposed ribs.
“He disappeared, you say. …Do you have any idea where he might have gone?”
“Well… Ah!”
The old man said, fiddling with his shaggy beard.
“When he was first imprisoned here, I think he told me that he would go to Mount Baekdu someday.”
“Mount Baekdu…”
I repeated the word to myself for a moment, then quickly bowed to the old man and turned around again.
“Do you hate him?”
This time, I didn’t turn back.
The old man’s words fell on my back as I stood still.
“He was a unique man. I’ve spent my life rotting in back alleys and seen all kinds of criminals, but that man was different.”
“……”
“He wasn’t just some lowlife. And he wasn’t a madman or devil worshipper like the media claimed. …So don’t hate him too much.”
I turned my head slightly and asked with an expressionless face.
“In the past 14 years, did that man ever mention having a daughter?”
At those words, the old man’s composed expression became troubled for the first time.
This time, I turned away without any lingering feelings and walked away steadily.
💎
The stew was quickly finished.
The savory smell of meat broth spread across the prison yard, now reduced to ruins with only black ashes remaining.
People flocked to the pot, receiving their small portions of food and eating hurriedly.
I sat a little away from them, on a piece of broken wall.
Then, as if whispering softly, I said,
“Access ‘Yoo Hyun-min’ personal information.”
[(Messenger) You do not have permission to access information on this individual.]
“As I thought…”
I quietly closed my eyes.
A legendary psychopath. Devil worshipper. Grotesque serial killer.
If that man had survived, it wouldn’t be surprising if he became an avatar of an evil god.
But the ‘TOAA’ on the bookshelf.
The fact that he knew about and tried to destroy the survivor camp in advance.
The incredibly powerful abilities gained in just two weeks after the Gate Outbreak.
How could all of that be explained?
“Mount Baekdu, Mount Baekdu…”
After the Gate Outbreak, the North Korean region, having lost its leadership, was devastated in just one day.
And on Mount Baekdu, the highest and most sacred mountain on the Korean peninsula, an evil dragon took residence in its crater lake.
I remembered an episode from the middle of the novel where the protagonist becomes a dragon slayer by seeking out the dragon’s lair to obtain an item.
Now, two paths lie before me.
“Noah.”
At the low, gentle voice calling my name, I opened my eyes.
A man with a height of 190 centimeters. A hard and strong body without a trace of fat. Pale skin that seemed a bit mismatched with his build, and cool eyes. He was suddenly standing in front of me.
“Noah. The stew is ready.”
“……”
I looked at him without saying anything.
After hesitating for a moment while facing me, he slowly opened his mouth.
“Are you alright?”
That stiff manner of speaking.
I couldn’t help but smile at those words of comfort that this giant man must have uttered after much deliberation.
“Was he your father?”
It’s in the past tense.
I answered in the past tense too.
“Yes. He was my father.”
After a moment of silence, he spoke again.
“That man seemed to know something about this situation.”
I nodded in agreement.
Having witnessed all the events and conversations by my side, it’s natural he would have noticed.
“Noah. Do you perhaps know something too?”
Baek Yi-heon, the protagonist of the novel I had read, asked me.
Just then, a wind blew from somewhere, tousling my black hair.
It was fortunate.
Thanks to that, my expression would be better hidden.
“No.”
I answered.
Tucking my scattered hair behind my ear, I spoke once more.
“Dad was caught and imprisoned when I was seven. I don’t remember anything.”
“…I see.”
Two paths lie before me.
The path to Mount Baekdu to uncover my father’s identity and the secret of ‘TOAA’ on his bookshelf.
And another path to the shelter, ignoring all this and trying to survive on my own.
The decision was surprisingly easy.
Abandoned by both father and mother.
I don’t want to save this world where I don’t even know why I was born.
There are people like this too.
Not everyone can live like that man, like the protagonist.
The world has cowardly extras like me who only think about themselves.
…And for my survival as an extra who chose this path, I still needed the protagonist.
Because divine powers can’t be borrowed unless it’s for the salvation of humanity.
“In the end, the camp is gone too. Are you going back to Gangnam, Baek Yi-heon-ssi?”
After pondering my question for a moment, Baek Yi-heon replied.
“That man and woman. They were suspicious. And strong.”
His cool face was as composed as ever, but he was clenching his fist so tightly that his veins were bulging.
“I realized that even if I go to the tower now, I won’t be of much help with my current strength. For now, I’m going to follow their trail.”
There wasn’t a hint of hesitation or worry in his tone.
Determined eyes. A belief always directed towards the weak and the good.
And that will risk even death for his beliefs.
The protagonist’s image was so dazzling that I swallowed a bitter smile.
It was such a brilliant contrast to me, a cowardly extra.
But that was only for a moment.
Quickly returning to my usual calm expression, I said to Baek Yi-heon.
“I just met an inmate who knew that man… no, my father. He said he had an idea where he might be.”
“Is that so? Where is it?”
Looking at him, I answered without batting an eye.
“Busan.”
A false information.
There’s an old saying,
If you don’t have teeth, use your gums.
The survivor camp had fallen, and waiting for someone to invent a monster extermination device was too late.
‘And there’s another old saying.’
The thirsty dig wells.
If there’s no honey-like item, we can make one!
It was around the middle of the novel, wasn’t it?
The companion the protagonist meets after getting severely injured while traveling without a healer is in Busan.
It’s an awakened one with the power of healing and item creation!
💎
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