Chapter 28
“You pathetic water snake! Thinking you’re tough just because of your venom?”
I stomped hard on the already dead Nicker’s corpse.
Soon, the body scattered like dust, leaving only a magic stone and one large fang in its place.
[(Messenger) Item: Nicker’s Venomous Fang
+Item Grade: C-grade
+Type: Unprocessed raw material
+This is the Nicker’s venomous fang with hallucinogenic effects. It can be used as a weapon as is or to manufacture other items.]
Catching my breath, I quickly looked around and saw Baek Yi-heon in the distance, kneeling and staring blankly into space.
I remained cautious for a moment, scanning the surroundings, but there was no sign of other monsters rushing in.
“It seems only two woke up because it’s a hidden dungeon.”
Matching the number of humans to eat, that is.
In a way, it was a wise strategy.
If too many monsters woke up, they’d fight among themselves over the small number of prey.
I quickly put the items in my hip sack and ran towards Baek Yi-heon without further delay.
His eyes, which always sparkled clearly with definite purpose, were now unfocused and dazed.
“Baek Yi-heon!!!”
I shouted roughly towards him.
💎
There was one unforgettable date for Yi-heon.
November 16th.
Yi-heon, dressed in his school uniform, looked at the banner reading “College Scholastic Ability Test 6th Exam Site” hung at the school gate and let out a deep sigh.
White breath-like smoke rose in the suddenly cold weather.
“He-help! Someone please help me!”
It was then that the urgent cry was heard.
Turning his head, he saw an old man in shabby clothes frantically trying to deal with junk that had spilled from his handcart.
Any other time, he would have immediately rushed to help.
But that day was the day of the college entrance exam, and the bus had been delayed, making his admission time tight.
All the students around ignored the old man in distress and quickly rushed inside.
Only Yi-heon paused for a moment, hesitating.
“Hey, student! What are you doing?! I said help me!”
After hesitating for a moment, Yi-heon finally closed his eyes tight and turned away.
“…I’m sorry, sir.”
If he was late for admission, he’d miss the chance to take the exam.
He couldn’t throw away the opportunity he had worked for over the past three years like this.
The old man’s harsh curses flew at Yi-heon’s back as he walked away.
“Aish! You shouldn’t live like that! Don’t you know ‘what goes around comes around’?! Everything I do will eventually come back to me!”
Maybe because it was the first time in his life he had ignored someone in trouble.
The old man’s cry weighed heavily on Yi-heon’s mind even after he reached the classroom and sat at his desk.
“Well then, I’ll distribute the Korean language test papers. When you receive your test paper, please turn it face down…”
Focus.
Yi-heon shook his head vigorously from side to side, trying to shake off his guilt and concentrate.
Admiring his mother who was a prosecutor and his father who was a lawyer, his goal was to enter the law school of Korea University.
There was no room for mistakes.
Yi-heon soon forgot about what happened in the morning and started to focus intensely.
💎
Click.
“I’m home!”
Yi-heon’s cheerful voice echoed through the house.
His face was so bright, it was hard to believe he had just taken the college entrance exam.
“Mom, Dad! I think I can go to Korea University Law School…”
Yi-heon’s cheerful voice gradually faded.
He sensed something was wrong.
The house was too quiet.
“Mom? Dad…? Is anyone home?”
Today, both parents were supposed to finish work early and come home.
Moreover, it was well past the time his adorable little sister, more than ten years younger than him, should have returned from kindergarten.
She was the sister he had practically raised in place of his busy parents.
She always eagerly waited for his return time, running to hug him as soon as the door opened.
“…Yi-seo-ya?”
Yi-heon called out that name carefully.
There was no answer.
A suffocating silence.
Yi-heon entered the house slowly with a tense face.
Passing through the hallway, when he finally entered the living room.
He stopped, frozen like a stone.
His family was all at home.
Only they were no longer in a state to answer his calls.
In that hellish scene, only one man in black clothes stood tall.
A man wearing a black hood and a black mask.
Though his face wasn’t visible due to the mask, his black eyes with unusually large pupils were clear.
“Mo…m…?”
His sense of reality vanished.
His whole body became numb, as if paralyzed. Yi-heon’s mind was the same.
His brain momentarily shut down, faced with such a sudden, cruel scene.
“D…ad? Yi-seo-ya…? Did you come back from kindergarten?”
His young sister was tightly clutching a carrot doll in her small hand.
It was the doll he had given her this morning when she clung to him crying, not wanting him to go to school, promising to play with her when he returned.
Strangely, it was only after seeing that doll that tears began to flow.
Overwhelmed by the intense emotions pouring out like an avalanche, he collapsed, sobbing.
He didn’t even think about doing anything to the man in front of him.
The man was still holding a weapon, but it didn’t matter at all.
He wished the man would kill him too with that knife. So he could meet his family again.
The man looked down with a cold gaze at Yi-heon, who was wailing while grasping his little sister’s small hand.
“Are you sad?”
Yi-heon looked up at the man, gasping through tear-filled breaths.
Sad?
It felt as if his body was being torn in two from pain and despair.
“Don’t forget this feeling. …Until you meet me again someday.”
Just as Yi-heon was about to spring up in intense anger, the man tapped his forehead with an unbelievably quick movement.
With that, his vision went dark.
Yi-heon was found collapsed in a sea of blood two days later.
‘Legal professional couple and family murdered.’
For the sake of his parents, who mainly dealt with corrupt corporations, their family lived in a high-security luxury apartment.
However, there wasn’t a single video of the man captured on CCTV that day.
After persistent investigations by the police and prosecutors who suspected him as the perpetrator, the case was finally closed unsolved.
Thus, Yi-heon gained a date he could never forget.
November 16th.
The death anniversary of his mom, dad, and youngest sister.
Yi-heon’s morals and conscience prevented him from suicide.
His parents always emphasized that he should live helping those in need.
Above all, he was afraid of the saying that those who commit suicide go to hell.
It wasn’t hell he feared, but the thought of never meeting his family who would surely be in heaven.
He needed to see Yi-seo’s face once more, to play with the doll he couldn’t that day…
Yi-heon finally decided.
“Then, let’s die while saving people.”
That wouldn’t be suicide, right?
He changed his plan to become a legal professional like his parents.
He went to the Naval Academy and volunteered for the Special Warfare Command. He worked in the maritime counter-terrorism unit.
He roamed terrorist sites and was even dispatched to distant Middle Eastern battlefields.
Though he always risked his life recklessly, what came back was not the death he desired, but promotions and medals.
But then.
“You are here…”
Beyond the space where sky and sea were reversed, his long-missed family was approaching.
Yes. This must be heaven. They say heaven is in the sky, after all.
He quickly accepted this impossible situation.
That’s how desperate he was.
“Oppa! Where have you been!”
Yi-seo ran to him and quickly nestled into his arms.
It had been 10 years since he held this small, warm body.
This warmth, this moment, he had longed for it so desperately.
“You promised to play dolls with me!”
“Yes. That’s right…”
“Oppa? Are you crying? Are you crying?”
“Yi-heon-ah, why are you crying?”
A soft, warm hand touched his bowed shoulder.
It was his mother. No, mom. His mom. The one he missed so much.
“Oh, come on. What’s wrong with crying a bit? It’s okay, Yi-heon-ah. Cry all you want when you feel like it.”
His always kind father also approached and patted his crying shoulder.
Even the brown-rimmed glasses he wore in life were exactly the same.
Yi-heon, nestled in their embrace, weakly muttered with his head down.
“I had… a nightmare.”
Yes. It was a long nightmare.
One where he lost his entire family and lived alone, where even humanity perished.
“Oh dear, is that so? It’s okay now.”
“Yes. Stay here with us, Yi-heon-ah.”
“Let’s keep playing dolls! Forever from now on!”
At these kind voices, Yi-heon quietly closed his eyes.
Yes. Let’s stay here. With family.
Forever…
“Baek Yi-heon!!!”
Just then, he heard someone shouting at him from far away.
“Snap out of it! Have you already forgotten my voice? Hey! Baek Yi-heon-ssi!”
…Noah?
His heart, which had been slowing to a stop, began to beat loudly again.
Yi-heon painfully lifted his closed eyelids.
💎
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