Chapter 43

14

Cough.

A dark space.

Seo-ho slowly lifted his eyelids, coughing, and rolled his eyes to assess the situation.

The pain from colliding with the Returners lingered, but he wasn’t dead.

‘They intended to kidnap me from the start.’

This level of pain was nothing compared to what he’d endured through countless Dimensional Gates.

Moreover, once this was over, Si-ho’s safety would be guaranteed.

If he could even slightly atone for failing to protect Si-ho and his mother, he’d endure this pain a hundred times over.

“You’re awake?”

At that moment, a woman’s voice reached Seo-ho’s ears.

Feeling something off, Seo-ho raised his head.

For some reason, the voice sounded eerily familiar.

“……Gwak Sa-yeon?”

“Ahaha, our Seo-ho, you recognized my voice? Oh my, you’re so cute.”

Click.

At that moment, the lights in the room turned on with a sound.

Seo-ho, who had tightly shut his eyes from the sudden brightness, opened them again to see a half-naked woman on the bed.

She wore black, semi-transparent lingerie, with her brown hair tied up, and a distinct mole above her lips.

She was none other than Gwak Sa-yeon.

How was she already here?

‘Wasn’t Giraseong planning to use me as a bargaining chip with Gwak Sa-yeon? Did they hand me over this easily?’

Confusion swirled in Seo-ho’s eyes.

He couldn’t comprehend how Giraseong and Gwak Sa-yeon had concluded their deal while he was briefly unconscious.

Seo-ho knew well that Gwak Sa-yeon had an excessive obsession with him.

She had always shown an unhealthy level of attachment, and Seo-ho had always been wary of that.

That’s why Giraseong had planned to use Seo-ho to kill two birds with one stone.

First, to make Si-ho, a Space Movement ability user, act according to their will.

Second, to have Gwak Sa-yeon, one of the heirs to JMC, the top Hunter company in Korea, promote the Artificial Dimensional Gate in the Hunter world.

Giraseong was confident they could even elevate Gwak Sa-yeon to the position of JMC President.

Yes, so the deal between Gwak Sa-yeon and Giraseong should have happened later.

‘I should be at Giraseong’s headquarters, not some abandoned building with just a bed.’

Something was wrong.

Unable to pinpoint where things had gone awry, Seo-ho tried to get up to escape.

Clang!

But his movement was halted by the iron collar chained to the wall.

“Ugh?”

Even as an S-class Hunter, he could easily break iron with his strength, but for some reason, the chain showed no signs of breaking.

Instead, he felt his strength draining with every movement.

“Our Seo-ho looks good even in that. It’s a custom-made item just for you. It severs a Hunter’s energy flow or something. Once you wear it, you’re just an ordinary person.”

Gwak Sa-yeon laughed gleefully as she watched Seo-ho struggle, her words making his eyes burn with fury.

“……When did you accept Giraseong’s offer?”

Seo-ho gritted his teeth as he asked, and Gwak Sa-yeon’s eyes widened.

Then, as if finding it hilarious, she burst into laughter.

After laughing for a while, she wiped her tears with her fingers and smiled faintly.

“Our Seo-ho, you seem to have misunderstood something.”

And then she answered Seo-ho’s question.

“I was the one who proposed the deal to Giraseong.”

Seo-ho’s eyes widened at her words.

A variable neither Seo-ho nor the World Returner Association had anticipated.

It was Gwak Sa-yeon’s excessive possessiveness and obsession.

“You were going to leave me and go to the Tower of Apocalypse? Didn’t I warn you? I can’t send you to such a dangerous place.”

The trigger for her sudden actions.

It was none other than the rumors about the Tower of Apocalypse spread to lure out Giraseong.

Originally, only Giraseong was supposed to take the bait, but one more person bit.

That person was Gwak Sa-yeon.

The Tower of Apocalypse is a place where even S-class Hunters and Returners can lose their lives.

To Gwak Sa-yeon, Seo-ho challenging the Tower of Apocalypse was nothing short of suicide.

And that meant she would lose him forever in this world.

From the moment Seo-ho mentioned the Tower of Apocalypse in front of her, Gwak Sa-yeon had been consumed by anxiety, and as soon as the rumors spread, she took drastic action.

“Thanks to your story that day, I learned about Giraseong’s existence. Maybe it was fate that I was meant to protect you?”

“Stop talking nonsense.”

Seo-ho’s killing intent was palpable.

But she, undeterred, continued while tracing Seo-ho’s shoulder with her finger.

“You’ve been warning other companies not to contact Giraseon, just like you said last time. Saying things like, ‘If we don’t protect this country, who will?’ So old-fashioned.”

Gwak Do-ryun, as he had told Seo-ho that day, was determined to protect the country to the end.

He encouraged surrounding Hunter companies and even offered various benefits to prevent them from falling for the malicious means of the Artificial Dimensional Gate.

“But thanks to that, I was able to stop Giraseong’s deal proposal and find out where they were.”

However, despite his efforts, the one who contacted Giraseong was none other than his half-sister, Gwak Sa-yeon.

Gwak Sa-yeon, the younger sister born from his father’s remarriage after his divorce.

Gwak Do-ryun, who believed his father had abandoned his mother for Gwak Sa-yeon and her mother, had hated and ignored them since childhood.

Outwardly, he acted like a good older brother and son, but he never gave them even a speck of his heart.

And that habit became a problem now.

He never paid any attention to Gwak Sa-yeon, so he had no idea what she was up to.

Not even how twisted her obsession and possessiveness had become.

“So I proposed. Since my brother was a stumbling block to their Artificial Dimensional Gate plan. I’d remove him, become the successor, and promote the Artificial Dimensional Gate in this country, in exchange for one thing—you, Seo-ho.”

“What do you want from me?”

“What do I want?”

At Seo-ho’s question, Gwak Sa-yeon’s face was filled with a smile drenched in madness.

“Everything, all of it, without leaving a single thing behind. Seo-ho, you must become mine.”

The intense emotion flowing from her eyes was so horrifying that Seo-ho shuddered.

“You’re insane.”

“Ooh, our Seo-ho can even say such things.”

Gwak Sa-yeon laughed as if even his cursing was a new side of him.

Her values were twisted.

And that twistedness began with her mother.

After her mother remarried, and her father started showing interest in his ex-wife, Gwak Do-ryun’s mother, Gwak Sa-yeon’s mother became increasingly strange.

She grew sensitive about everything and followed her father everywhere, taking Gwak Sa-yeon with her.

And she always told Gwak Sa-yeon:

「Sa-yeon, this world is yours. You must take everything you want, and you must have everything. You’re the daughter of the JMC President, after all. You can’t let anything be taken from you.」

Every time she heard that, Gwak Sa-yeon, even as a child, felt a chilling cold.

Her mother was slowly breaking, and she was instilling that brokenness into young Gwak Sa-yeon.

Whether her mother intended it or not, Gwak Sa-yeon, in that environment, gradually developed an obsession and possessiveness that made her feel anxious if she couldn’t have everything she desired.

Eventually, when her mother, who had been suffering from a mental illness, passed away.

Her father, JMC President Gwak Hae-joo, soon remarried Gwak Do-ryun’s mother.

At that moment, Gwak Sa-yeon realized.

Her mother had died because she couldn’t have her father, Gwak Hae-joo.

On the first anniversary of her mother’s death, holding her mother’s portrait alone, Gwak Sa-yeon thought:

If she couldn’t have what she wanted, she would meet the same fate as her mother.

Her twisted values were entirely formed by such experiences.

And the target of her twisted values this time was none other than Seolsan Iri, Ha Seo-ho.

Their first meeting was ordinary.

A promising 20-year-old boy joined JMC, and at first glance, he was just good-looking.

But one day, his face suddenly turned cold, and his emotional expressions diminished.

Somehow, that bothered her, and she began to think of him more often.

One day, while returning home, Gwak Sa-yeon was caught in a sudden Dimensional Gate.

When she was on the verge of death by a Dimensional Being, the one who saved her was none other than Ha Seo-ho.

When his usually cold face was filled with relief upon seeing her, she thought:

I want him.

It was the first time her twisted possessiveness had latched onto a person.

“I’ve been holding back too. I really, really liked you, Seo-ho. I kept holding back, waiting for the day you’d understand my feelings.”

Gwak Sa-yeon’s grip on Seo-ho’s shoulder tightened.

Her nails dug into Seo-ho’s shoulder, now reduced to that of an ordinary person.

“But you were going to the Tower of Apocalypse? To die? How could I let that happen! You’re mine! I can’t lose you!!”

Has she gone mad?

Seo-ho thought so.

He couldn’t even process the nonsense the lunatic in front of him was spouting.

Instead, he began to carefully piece together the situation in his head.

‘Unlike Giraseong, JMC was notified of my every move. Gwak Sa-yeon must have been spying on that and relayed it to Giraseong.’

That’s why the plan went awry.

Giraseong knew he was in contact with the World Returner Association and must have prepared accordingly.

They turned the trap we set into their own trap using Gwak Sa-yeon as a variable.

‘So they weren’t blind after all.’

It made sense how a mere criminal organization could survive this long, even with the World Returner Association around. They were like cockroaches.

‘Still, my location is being reported to the World Returner Association.’

He recalled the nano-machine implanted in his back.

It was a device created by a Returner from a modern fantasy world, constantly reporting his location and, in case of emergency, injecting a special awakening agent and recovery serum while deploying a barrier around his body.

Even attempting to remove the nano-machine would trigger the same response, making removal impossible.

“Ah, I know what you’re thinking right now, Seo-ho.”

At that moment, Gwak Sa-yeon, who had been watching Seo-ho’s face, spoke.

“You’re thinking about the nano-machine, right?”

Seo-ho’s eyes wavered as he looked at her smirking face.

“What was it again? I’ve been keeping your nails, hair, blood samples, and all sorts of things. I used them to create a homunculus. I couldn’t have made it without me.”

Seo-ho’s eyes widened.

Homunculi were notoriously difficult to create, requiring both time and rare materials, something even alchemist Returners avoided.

But a few factors aligned, making it possible.

First, she had contacted Giraseong first, shortening the time.

Second, Gwak Sa-yeon had all the materials needed for the homunculus.

These two factors allowed Giraseong to create a homunculus of Ha Seo-ho.

Unbelievably, the single variable of Gwak Sa-yeon contacting Giraseong first had led to this mess.

She traced the red mark on Seo-ho’s neck with her fingertips.

“When I implanted it in your neck, it grew and grew, and then there was another you. A hollow shell that didn’t move, but it was you. They transferred the machine to it.”

Fuck.

A curse slipped from Seo-ho’s lips.

He couldn’t comprehend this woman’s twisted actions with normal logic.

Goosebumps rose with every touch of her hand.

He wanted to tear her head off right now, but his body wouldn’t move.

Meanwhile, Gwak Sa-yeon buried her face in Seo-ho’s bare chest and rubbed against it.

“Don’t worry. It’ll all be over soon. After I kill my brother and my father, I’ll become the JMC successor and protect you forever.”

“Stop spouting nonsense! Gwak Sa-yeon, how far have you gone insane!?”

Slap!

As Seo-ho shouted in rage, Gwak Sa-yeon slapped his cheek.

Then, grabbing the cheek she had just slapped, she stared into Seo-ho’s eyes.

“I told you. Seo-ho. You’re mine. How can you talk back to me like that?”

“……You’re insane.”

“Do you really need to be punished? What about your sister, Si-ho? Would it be okay if something happened to her?”

At the mention of Si-ho, Seo-ho’s face stiffened momentarily.

Gwak Sa-yeon, delighted by his reaction, traced every part of his face with her hand.

“Yes, yes, you should listen well. Right, our Seo-ho?”

As she smiled happily at Seo-ho’s wide-eyed expression, a sudden voice rang out.

“What the hell is this!?”

A man’s voice echoed from behind.

There should have been no one here but her and Seo-ho, so whose voice was that?

As she turned her head belatedly, her face met the sole of a shoe.

And with a cheerful sound, she was flung from the bed and rolled on the floor, screaming.

“Aaaah! It hurts! It hurts!!”

Amidst the screams, she raised her head to see a man, a large woman, and a small woman standing together.

The man looked down at her, his eyes burning with anger.

“Does it hurt? Good. I’ve been hurting for five years, almost dying. You should suffer for five years too!”

As if he had known her for a long time.