Chapter 162 – Their Identity (Part Thirteen)

Kim Yoo-jin looked down with murderous intent, and Seok Pil-joon sensed that his end was near.

“Why… why did you have to come find me yourself?”

“I have to finish what I started with my own hands. Just like I did with Choi Ha-ra and Seo Je-hyeong.”

“What… what?”

Seok Pil-joon’s eyes filled with horror.

The names Kim Yoo-jin had just mentioned belonged to retired Awakened who had been found dead, not just missing. But what was most shocking was that they had been her former teammates.

“How could you… your own teammates from twenty years ago…”

“They wouldn’t accept it. I had no choice.”

She answered curtly, and there was no more conversation.

“It will be painless.”

Kim Yoo-jin raised her sword.

Seok Pil-joon quietly closed his eyes.

In his current, completely ruined state, there was nothing he could do.

But just as her sword was about to strike Seok Pil-joon’s neck, a loud roar echoed, and Kim Yoo-jin was sent flying.

The powerful impact caused Kim Yoo-jin’s coat to crackle, and the face of the man who had intervened was revealed in the darkness.

“Kang Il-hyeon…?”

Kim Yoo-jin and Seok Pil-joon turned in surprise at the same time.

Il-hyeon, who had unleashed the powerful slash, let out a sigh of relief, as if glad he had made it just in time.

An unexpected obstacle had nearly made him too late, almost forcing him to intervene after Seok Pil-joon was already dead.

“How are you here…?”

“Hmm… I heard you’d disappeared.”

*Thud!*

Il-hyeon tossed what he was holding, and something rolled to Kim Yoo-jin’s feet.

The ghastly, severed head of a man.

It was the head of the Eclipse member who had been standing guard outside while things were being wrapped up inside.

“Ha…”

Seeing him, Kim Yoo-jin gave an amused smile, and Il-hyeon spoke again.

“Park Seong-hyeok died by my hand.”

“Park Seong-hyeok is dead…?”

This time, unlike before, Kim Yoo-jin’s expression hardened at Il-hyeon’s words.

The identity of the man in the red mask he had encountered inside the Leviathan.

He was Park Seong-hyeok.

He was one of the legendary generation of Awakened, once hailed as a savior of humanity alongside Kim Yoo-jin, but in the end, he had been killed by Il-hyeon.

“He disappeared without a word… I had my suspicions, but…”

Kim Yoo-jin muttered quietly.

When contact with them was suddenly lost, she had wondered if something had happened, but he was so skilled that she never imagined he could be easily defeated. It was a difficult truth to accept.

Kim Yoo-jin, who had unintentionally backed away, quickly scanned her surroundings.

If he had anticipated her being here, it was highly likely his teammates would have come with him.

But there wasn’t a trace of anyone else around, not even a mouse.

Only the corpse of the decapitated member.

After what happened last time, she began to wonder if his decision to come alone, knowing who he was facing, stemmed from foolish arrogance or well-founded confidence.

“Why are you plotting all this? What’s your goal?”

“Then let me ask you first. Did you know I would come here?”

Instead of answering Il-hyeon’s question, Kim Yoo-jin countered with one of her own.

“…”

“If you answer, I’ll answer. I have many questions for you as well.”

Her cold, sharp gaze pierced through Il-hyeon.

After hearing that Il-hyeon had killed Park Seong-hyeok, the way Kim Yoo-jin looked at him had changed.

“Yes, I knew. I also knew that you are the savior, Kim Yoo-jin.”

“Haha, interesting.”

“Now it’s your turn to talk.”

“Well… I suppose it was something I’d have to tell you eventually, Kang Il-hyeon.”

Kim Yoo-jin shrugged and took a step toward them.

“You’re well aware of what happened after the first cycle ended, aren’t you?”

Il-hyeon nodded at her words.

After the first cycle, when monsters were a cataclysmic threat, came the first even-numbered cycle, where Gate generation plummeted.

There was no way Il-hyeon didn’t know about the events that occurred during that second cycle.

When the flood of monsters noticeably decreased, people thought they had endured the disaster and that peace was finally coming.

The forces that had defended against the first cycle were still in their prime, and new Awakened continued to appear, reinforcing their numbers. The few monsters that trickled out were no match for humanity.

This sudden state of semi-peace provided time to rebuild a battered society and restart technological development that had stagnated.

But not everything went in a positive direction.

Once the crisis passed, the Awakened began to look for money and fame rather than fighting for survival.

However, while the number of monsters had sharply declined, the number of Awakened continued to grow.

Competition for jobs among the Awakened became fierce, and disputes even arose over who would claim the Gates.

As a result, mediocre Awakened who couldn’t compete began to dabble in crime, and even criminal organizations formed by the Awakened emerged.

Even if they were considered rejects, they were still Awakened. Not only were they no match for criminal organizations made up of ordinary people, but they were also too powerful for the regular police to handle.

Unless another Awakened stepped in to subdue them, ordinary people couldn’t even fight back.

As crime committed by the Awakened became a major social issue, the previously overlooked mental side effects of awakening special powers also came to light, and people could no longer see the Awakened in the same way.

The Awakened, who had been treated as heroes just a few years prior, became objects of fear by the second cycle—ticking time bombs that could go off at any moment.

Then, as if on cue, negative media coverage increased, and anti-Awakened sentiment began to sprout up everywhere.

*’That’s where it all started…’*

The mounting conflict eventually led to governments around the world proposing strict regulations on the Awakened.

Since their powers couldn’t be controlled by conventional means, the plan was to place all Awakened under government supervision and control.

All Awakened would have to undergo various tests and registration procedures to be licensed, and they would even be required to wear location-tracking ankle bracelets.

Of course, there were countless other restrictions and control measures packed into the legislation.

While some argued that these were excessively harsh measures, the media, political circles, and public opinion worldwide were strangely in agreement, and the process moved forward swiftly.

The participation of the Awakened in politics had always been tacitly restricted, leaving them with no institutional means to fight back.

When the situation suddenly turned, the Awakened who had fought criminals or risked their lives to protect the world reacted with fierce opposition.

It was only natural.

But their words, coming from a group already established as the socially powerful, were not accepted by the public. The conflict between the government and the Awakened escalated to the point of violent disputes.

However, opinions among the Awakened were divided, with some arguing against violent methods. Furthermore, the existence of anti-Awakened weapons, secretly and steadily developed by various governments, was a major variable.

Faced with a completely unknown weapons system, the Awakened couldn’t even react and were helplessly defeated.

“That prison we came across last time… that’s where I was held. One moment they were hailing me as a savior, and the next, when I was no longer needed, they threw me away. I should have learned my lesson back then…”

“So everything you’re doing now is because of that grudge?”

Il-hyeon asked with a doubtful expression as she reminisced about the past.

Kim Yoo-jin nodded.

“Yes. It’s not too late to create a world led by the Awakened. A world for those who truly sacrifice, so that something like that never happens again. Well? Does it make a little more sense now?”

“…No, that’s not nearly enough.”

Il-hyeon shook his head firmly.

If this was going to blow up, it would have happened back then and been settled once and for all, not now.

But when the incident ended, they didn’t make that choice. There’s no way the Awakened from that time would act so extremely now for the same reasons.

Moreover, many from that past generation of Awakened, including Min Ji-hoon, had not participated in the violence.

Park Seong-hyeok, the man in the red mask who died fighting Il-hyeon, had also been against violent resistance at the time.

But to suddenly start killing people and trying to overturn the world because of that incident now?

It was absurd.

At that, Kim Yoo-jin smiled.

“Yes, we endured it. We thought it was a one-time mistake. We thought it was the decision of a few, that it had nothing to do with the majority of citizens—that it was the government’s fault. But we were wrong. A second time can’t be forgiven as a mere mistake.”

“A second time? What are you talking about…”

*Claaang!*

In an instant, Kim Yoo-jin’s sword closed in and stopped right in front of Il-hyeon’s face.

Il-hyeon’s Peacemaker, which had barely managed to react, trembled as it blocked her strike, and Il-hyeon gritted his teeth.

Kim Yoo-jin, now face to face with Il-hyeon, posed a question.

“Now, if you had the means to close the Gates forever, and humans, rotten to the core, still refused to come to their senses… what would you do?”

“What is that supposed to…!”

“Would you just stand by and watch as they try to strangle us once again, or would you overturn this unjust world…?”

*Creeeak!*

As their swords remained locked, the pressure she exerted grew stronger.

Even in this urgent situation, Il-hyeon’s mind was in turmoil, making it difficult to sort through his thoughts.

The means to permanently block the Gates.

With the fundamental principles of the Gates still unknown, it was something utterly impossible with current technology.

Most importantly, even if it were true, their methods had a massive, irreparable flaw.

“What kind of nonsense is that…?! Even if you staged terrorist attacks and overthrew all the governments, it would only lead to a backlash that diminishes the standing of the Awakened! Nothing would change! Do you really think you can change the world that way?”

Il-hyeon shouted, pressing his sword closer.

No matter how powerful they were, the Awakened were ultimately a tiny minority.

A method like subjugating all the non-Awakened who supported society through force to rule the world would never work in this day and age.

But Il-hyeon had momentarily forgotten that these people had yet to reveal themselves to the world.

“I’m sorry, but the government won’t fall to an attack by the Awakened. It will simply be an incompetent government that deceived the public with false media and collapsed because it couldn’t control a single terrorist organization consumed by madness.”

“Even so, that’s no reason for the Awakened to rise to the top…”

“No, there’s a new hero who will step forward to clean up the criminal trash and save the world from Gates and monsters. A powerful, SSS-rank Awakened that ordinary people can’t even hope to imitate.”

Kim Yoo-jin continued, her gaze fixed on Il-hyeon, and a look of horror slowly dawned on his face.

“You will be with us, Kang Il-hyeon.”