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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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Chapter 24
Baekya changed his expression completely.
"That sounds perfect."
Ryu Haneul's eyes curved into crescents.
"I knew you'd like it. When do you want to go? Tomorrow? The day after?"
"I'll match your schedule. I'm unemployed anyway."
"I don't have any plans either. All the Tower raids have been canceled."
"What about Gate raids? You'll get sued if you don't go."
"You're my priority, Senior."
"But I clearly taught you to prioritize the Gates, didn't I? I said you need a solid foundation to reach great heights. This country, this guild, they're our foundation."
"We still have a 5-minute standby team. My turn is a long way off."
"That's good."
Haneul raised an eyebrow and asked—
"Ah, you were curious about the Regressors, weren't you?"
"Didn't you say you didn't know anything?"
"I realized that you don't know anything right now, Senior. Let me give you a quick rundown."
"There are nine of them in total."
Baekya had two thoughts simultaneously.
'That's fewer than I expected. But I can't fully trust this guy's words either. Let's consider it a baseline for now.'
Ryu Haneul continued fluently.
"There are four hardliners, three moderates, and two in the gray zone."
"Siyeol must be a hardliner. And Jeongwon is a moderate. The hardliners want to kill me immediately, and the moderates want to give me a chance?"
"He's definitely a hardliner, but Jeongwon hyung is a bit ambiguous. He was the most moderate among the moderates."
Baekya guessed that the other moderates either wanted to keep him barely alive or argued that there was no need to kill him right away.
'Huh?'
Thinking that way, he couldn't figure out which faction Ryu Haneul belonged to.
"Aren't you a moderate? You... don't seem to want to kill me."
Ryu Haneul was taken aback, as if Baekya should have already known.
"I'm in the gray zone! Some are somewhere between the moderates and the hardliners, and then there are people like me."
"What do you mean by 'people like you'?"
"Well, I was against killing you in the first place."
Baekya once again reminded himself that he couldn't trust the moderates either.
'The only difference was whether to kill me outright or wait for me to betray humanity.'
Ryu Haneul continued in a resolute tone, as if stating an eternal truth.
"I just regretted not being able to follow you, Senior. If you wanted to destroy the world, that would be fine too. If you wanted to climb the Tower, that would be fine too. If you wanted to live as a Dark Knight in the shadows, never revealing your identity, that would be fine too. I only want one thing."
"What do you want?"
At Baekya's question, he answered as if he had been waiting for it.
Thump.
His fist, placed over his heart, was resolute and graceful.
"Whether you're happy or sad, victorious or defeated, a hero or a demon, I wish to be your shadow, your junior, following you closely, never leaving your side."
Baekya thought that his future self must have definitely taken in the wrong disciple.
The glint in Ryu Haneul's amethyst-like eyes was chilling.
But Baekya enjoyed the thrill.
He declared just as resolutely as Ryu Haneul—
"I appreciate your kindness, but I'd like to discuss a few points further."
"Excuse me?"
"There's no way I could have lost."
Even though he had lost tactically, he had won strategically.
Cheong Siyeol ultimately couldn't kill him.
"It's a promise. Whatever happened before, things will be different now. I'm not interested in being a Dark Knight, a hypocrite, or a villain. I'm Baekya. Once I'm strong enough, I'll proudly announce my return. And I'll climb the Tower again and incinerate that damn clock with Law of Light."
And right after his declaration, Baekya wondered what would happen to Ryu Haneul if the clock disappeared.
If the previous timeline vanished, it would mean he had never taken him as a disciple in the first place.
He added an appropriate remark.
"If your memories disappear as a result, I'll come find you again. I'll ask my Constellation or find an artifact that can restore memories."
Just as Ryu Haneul had helped him, it was now his turn to help Ryu Haneul.
Ryu Haneul nodded without hesitation.
"Yes, it's okay. That's just how I am."
Relationships could be rebuilt.
It wouldn't be easy, but it was nothing compared to resurrection.
"Don't you feel wronged? Your memories might become jumbled because of me."
"On the contrary, that would make it the same as the previous timeline. I would have awakened at 20, and you would have climbed the Tower with me then. This twisted timeline will simply disappear."
Baekya and Ryu Haneul both looked out the window at the same time.
The tower, soaring high in the sky, was visible even from here.
The goal was the 99th floor.
It was the path he was going to take anyway.
He had already gained a comrade who was supposed to join later.
"Alright. Then tell me about the hardliners. Anything you know is fine. You, who have lived in the future, must have some important insights."
"First, there's Cheong Siyeol, Joo Suhyeok, and Lee Baejeong."
"Lee Baejeong? That name sounds familiar."
Baekya narrowed his eyes.
He was definitely an Awakened, but he couldn't tell which guild he belonged to.
"He's a high-ranking official at the Awakened Support Agency. I think he's the most dangerous one. Siyeol hyung and Suhyeok hyung are Rankers, but Lee Baejeong can utilize the national system."
* * *
"Please follow me."
"Where are we going?"
"It's lunchtime, let's have a meal together."
Wolha inwardly prepared for death when the high-ranking Awakened from the Sun-Moon Divine Sect invited him to lunch.
He had hidden a self-defense spray and a knife in his bag, but his opponent was at least an A-Rank.
A powerful individual who could reduce a mere F-Rank Hunter like Wolha to a bloodstain with a flick of his finger.
So even when he was taken to a high-end steakhouse and served fresh beef, Wolha thought it was his last meal.
'Hyung must be dead by now. Will I end up in the mountains? Or inside a dungeon?'
He was so preoccupied that he could hardly swallow.
But Wolha didn't blame Ilha.
Both he and Ilha had lived their lives at the mercy of fate.
Losing their parents, Awakening, becoming F-Rank porters, his illness — none of it was their choice.
But everything that had happened since his brother changed recently was their choice.
Deciding to become civil servants, deciding to leave the mining company that day.
The consequence of that choice might be death at the hands of a high-ranking Hunter from the Sun-Moon Divine Sect.
But he didn't regret it, even if it was unfair.
Even if he could go back to that day, Wolha would still tell them they were quitting and demand the contract.
It wasn't like they had started the trouble with the high-ranking Hunter's brother.
So there was no need to blame himself for not backing down.
Even if the opponent was too powerful to reach, that didn't justify their actions.
Wolha thought to himself—
'He's probably just a B-Rank or something. If he were Ranker-level, he would have set up a mining company for his brother instead of just getting him a job at one.'
Even the Hunter who was currently oppressing him and his brother was nothing but an insect in front of true powerhouses.
Thinking that way made him feel a little less resentful.
Ding.
The restaurant door opened, and two people entered.
"Already eating?"
Wolha couldn't believe his eyes.
"Hyung?"
Ilha was alive.
Behind him, a top-tier Hunter with a purple halo shaped like a circle and a square overlapping entered.
Charisma unique to high-ranking Awakened overflowed from his entire being.
The entire restaurant seemed to be filled with the light emanating from his halo.
The high-ranking Hunter asked Ilha—
"Hyung?"
Ilha introduced him.
"This is 'my' younger brother, Hong Wolha. Wolha, say hello. This is the Deputy Sect Leader of the Sun-Moon Divine Sect. His surname is Ryu, and his name is Haneul. We had a good talk."
Ryu Haneul looked back and forth between him and his brother, then grinned.
"Nice to meet you. I had a good talk with your brother."
He placed both hands on Ilha's shoulders.
Wolha couldn't understand why such a formidable Hunter was acting that way towards someone like Ilha, but he seemed to be flaunting his closeness with him.
"It's not exactly joining the guild, but it seems we'll be spending some time together. We might see each other often, so remember me."
Just then, another employee rushed in and handed Ryu Haneul a necklace-type ID card.
Ryu Haneul took it and stood on his tiptoes behind Ilha.
He wrapped his arms around Ilha's neck as if hugging him and put the ID card necklace on him.
Ryu Haneul looked at Wolha with a triumphant expression.
'Senior, I'll be more useful to you. Quickly ditch that F-Rank brother of yours and come to the Sun-Moon Divine Sect.'
Wolha couldn't understand why he was making such an expression.
'Why is he acting like that?'
What was even more puzzling was that, for some reason, he felt annoyed.
'....'
Yes, it was truly strange.
* * *
That evening, Wolha and Ilha returned home and slumped across from each other at the dining table.
There was a lot to talk about, but they were too tired to open their mouths.
It had been a day filled with too many events.
They hurriedly ate dinner, and only after devouring a mountain of fruit for dessert did they find the energy to start a conversation.
Wolha was curious about what had happened that day, and Baekya was contemplating how to explain that he would be going to the Tower from tomorrow.
"Hyung."
"Wolha."
"You go first."
"No, you go first."
The heartwarming scene of brothers deferring to each other lasted only a moment.
Wolha returned to his usual role of managing the household finances.
"How much compensation did you get?"
Baekya glanced at the apple box in the corner of the room and handed over the paper bag.
"2 billion won in total, combining the reward and compensation. 1.5 billion in cash, 500 million deposited into the account."
"Stop talking nonsense."
Wolha didn't believe him.
He got up from his seat, opened the apple box, and...
"Oh my god."
He collapsed right there on the spot.
The box was filled with bundles of 50,000 won bills.
"No way. Why would they give us so much money when we didn't even deserve that much compensation?"
It wasn't something someone who had a knife held to their throat should be saying.
But Wolha was a young adult who had experienced the harsh realities of life firsthand.
He couldn't believe that proper, or rather, generous compensation could exist in South Korea.
Baekya carefully articulated his words.
It was the eloquence of the Rank 1, who could speak for dozens of minutes in front of hundreds of reporters with just a few lines of script.
"It wasn't just for that."
He spoke slowly, as if hesitant.
Making Wolha want to ask more.
"Then?"
"It's because of, well, 'this,' you know."
He emphasized the word 'this' and subtly gestured above his head.
Wolha's breath hitched as he saw the finger pointing towards the halo.
'A Black Hole contract!?'
His voice trembled involuntarily.
"...Oh."
From that tremble, Baekya was certain that the person who had been asking questions about Black Hole contracts on 'Star Chatter' recently was Wolha.
'Our IPs were the same. So that's what he was worried about. Well, I'm grateful he's making his own assumptions.'
"Apparently, quite a few Awakened in the Sun-Moon Divine Sect have contracts with those kinds of Constellations. Even their name is like that of an evil sect from martial arts novels."
"That's true."
"So they said they'd teach me how to control this."
"Then... it's like a contract fee?"
"Essentially, yes. And also a threat."
Wolha let out a deep sigh.
"So you got caught."
"They recognized it right away. I think they had a hunch since the Gate incident. The reward was also a lure."
"...I've been looking into things too."
He had been researching a lot about Black Hole contracts ever since he started suspecting that his brother might have made one.
"Since it's a contract with inherently evil transcendent beings, it's basically a serious crime, right?"
"That's right."
"But it seems like things don't always go according to the rules."
Every country desired Awakened power, so the rules weren't always followed.
If they went berserk, they would be killed, but as long as they controlled themselves, they were often overlooked.
"I think this could be a good opportunity. I'll study hard, so you definitely have to become a Hunter, hyung."
In the case of Joo Suhyeok, one of the top 10 High Rankers in South Korea, his epithet was openly 'Fist Demon,' and it was publicly known that his contracted Constellation was 'Asura.'
"When are you leaving?"
"Tomorrow."
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Hestia
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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