Chapter 98

“No.”

The answer was very firm. Choi Hyeon’s high expectations deflated with a hiss. Choi Hyeon grumbled and kicked the floor.

“Someday, I’ll devour you first.”

“Now you’re completely equating yourself with the Entity.”

“What are you going to do then? We’re one body. But I don’t like devouring people either. But I’ll devour you, damn it.”

“That’s not a welcome sound.”

Taehyeok Sa said jokingly. Choi Hyeon approached Taehyeok Sa step by step. And when she was right in front of him, she opened her mouth.

“Honestly, what you did to me is something you deserve to be devoured for, isn’t it?”

“That’s right. I apologize for that.”

“An apology won’t fix it. It’s not needed.”

“I know. I was just pretending to be sorry.”

“You’re really not sorry at all, are you?”

“If I had known you were a monster capable of threatening the world, I wouldn’t have done that.”

“Why?”

“Because there’s nothing good to come from provoking you.”

“But you already did it, didn’t you?”

“That’s right. So I have to deal with it. But if you’re going to devour me, the very end would be best.”

“Why? Do you want to be the last human left?”

“No, because I have to be the one to deal with you until the very end.”

“You’ve been bothering me for a while. Why do you keep talking as if you’re the one who has to deal with me?”

Then Taehyeok Sa smiled as if it were obvious. It was a radiant smile she had never seen before.

“You appeared before my eyes. Looking like that.”

“What in the world are you talking about?”

At first glance, the dialogue might have sounded romantic. But now the two were talking about a monster, whether it was asleep or awake in Choi Hyeon’s belly, and Taehyeok Sa spoke as if the very appearance of the Entity before his eyes was the problem.

“You appearing before my eyes like that is like fate.”

“Hey, are you in your right mind right now? Did you do drugs before you came?”

“Unfortunately, I’m perfectly sane.”

Taehyeok Sa, as he had thought early on, believed that he was the only one who could handle Choi Hyeon. Choi Hyeon, a figure who had become a threat to the boring world he alone had to endure, Taehyeok Sa might have been obsessed with her existence. He thought that she might be the reason he was alive, the reason he existed. Perhaps the reason he awakened as an SS-Rank. Snap-! Just then, Choi Hyeon snapped her fingers right in front of Taehyeok Sa’s eyes.

“Don’t get lost in your own memories, tell me too. I’m being very kind right now.”

“I know.”

“Then why don’t you take it gladly?”

“Because I have no reason to be forgiven by you.”

“This bastard talks like shit.”

“Isn’t that right? You also have no reason to forgive me.”

“Don’t worry, hearing that doesn’t mean I’m going to forgive you.”

“…Hmm, it’ll be a boring story.”

“But it’ll satisfy my curiosity, right?”

“Why should I do that for you?”

“As I said before, it’s because you did that to me.”

“That makes sense. You’ll be the judge, so first, satisfy my curiosity?”

“Yes.”

“Then this isn’t a good place.”

“Are we on a blind date now? What does it matter where we are?”

“Because I’m more fragile than I look.”

“You’re full of shit, seriously.”

“If there’s nothing else to see, I think it’s time to leave here.”

“

Perhaps Choi Hyeon agreed, as he soon turned and began to follow Sa Taehyeok, who was retracing his steps. Then Shim Nara, who was already at the entrance, joined them. Choi Hyeon gave Shim Nara a sidelong glance, narrowing his eyes.

“Did you really see it properly?”

“Of course I did!”

While Shim Nara and Choi Hyeon bickered, Sa Taehyeok, who had exited the hidden dungeon, easily dealt with the Deer Knuckle. Choi Hyeon quickly left for outside the dungeon upon seeing this, and Shim Nara briefly bowed in thanks before heading outside the dungeon. Only Sa Taehyeok remained, looking around the dungeon once before heading for the exit.

“You worked hard.”

As Sa Taehyeok emerged from outside the dungeon, a teammate from the dungeon management team spoke. Sa Taehyeok shook his head and used Telekinesis to lift Choi Hyeon, who was eating a snack prepared by the dungeon management team.

“Oh, what!”

“Let’s go to Paehyeok first.”

“I can go home now, right?”

Shim Nara asked, looking at the floating Choi Hyeon, and Sa Taehyeok nodded. Shim Nara’s face brightened, and she said,

“Please keep him for as long as possible.”

“Hey! Hey!”

As Shim Nara quickly got into the car prepared by Paehyeok and slammed the door shut, Choi Hyeon began to point at her. Sa Taehyeok also floated into the air and grabbed Choi Hyeon’s waist, who was floating diagonally in the air.

“I’m going to fly high, so hold on tight.”

“Hey, but you said you didn’t need to hold on like this.”

“…Let’s go.”

“Uwahahaha!”

Choi Hyeon’s laughter soared high into the sky. The dungeon management team watched the Hunters disappear in an instant, then began to clean up. Most of the things that happened between Hunters were things they didn’t need to know anyway. Nevertheless, similar thoughts floated in everyone’s minds.

‘They say Hunter Choi Hyeon was rejected, so has there been any progress?’

If Sa Taehyeok and Choi Hyeon had heard that, they would have each been furious, but in their minds, only the fact that Sa Taehyeok had been rejected by Choi Hyeon remained.

***

Thud- The two landed on the rooftop of Paehyeok. Choi Hyeon quickly dropped, and Sa Taehyeok readily let go of her waist. Choi Hyeon walked jauntily and gestured.

“Come on, hurry!”

“What’s the rush?”

“Guys like you will quickly change your mind and your words.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever changed my words in front of you.”

“Still, I don’t trust you.”

“Now that you say that, I really want to change my words.”

“Go ahead, if you want to see the Paehyeok building get destroyed.”

“How will you afford it?”

“I have a man who will take care of me, so I’ll leave it to him.”

Choi Hyeon grinned, and Sa Taehyeok let out a hollow laugh, looking as if he’d been hit. Choi Hyeon giggled, looking at his face. It seemed she liked having gotten one over on him with words. Sa Taehyeok watched Choi Hyeon skip down below again, then began to follow her down. Sa Taehyeok slowly descended the stairs, thinking about how much he would tell Choi Hyeon. Of course, his 고민 didn’t last long. If she had decided to listen to his story, she would probably want to hear every last detail. He unconsciously chuckled to himself.

“I never thought I’d be telling this story myself.”

Choi Hyeon asked from far below. There’s no way she didn’t hear, but her asking again is malicious. Sa Taehyeok followed her down and soon arrived at his top-floor office.

“Coffee, bring me coffee.”

Cho-i Hyeon sat on the sofa and tapped the table. Taehyeok Sa pressed the intercom connected to the secretary’s office, requesting coffee and asking that no one be sent up to the top floor for a while.

-Understood. Until what time should I do that? “It won’t take long. About an hour.” -Understood.

Taehyeok Sa sat cross-legged on the sofa opposite Cho-i Hyeon. He slowly began to retrace his past. Cho-i Hyeon was patiently sipping the coffee brought from the secretary’s office. Perhaps he wanted to find fault in Taehyeok Sa’s past.

“My past is ordinary.”

“In what way?”

“Firstly, in that I was born into an ordinary family?”

“What’s the definition of an ordinary family?”

“Hmm, if we dig into that, the story will get long.”

“Okay, okay, I get it for now. You mean you were born into a middle-class family with both parents?”

“Hmm. We had quite a lot of money.”

“You really were someone I had nothing in common with from birth.”

“If you think that, there’s nothing I can do.”

“Anyway, you said you were born into a wealthy, ordinary family, so why are you such a mess?”

“Being SS-Rank from birth wasn’t very ordinary.”

“From birth?”

“It literally means I awakened the moment I was born.”

“What? How did you cut the umbilical cord?”

“Naturally, the umbilical cord wasn’t part of my body, but part of the mother, so there was no problem cutting it.”

“…Do people usually call their mother a ‘mother’s body’?”

“Don’t they?”

“I wouldn’t know, you son of a bitch, I never had a mother.”

Anyway, Cho-i was someone who never backed down when it came to talking about parents. What could you say to someone who never had parents, no matter what kind of parents they had? Taehyeok Sa’s awakening certainly had a unique aspect. While S-Rank at birth certainly existed, there likely hadn’t been a case like Taehyeok Sa, who awakened as SS-Rank from the moment of birth.

“Didn’t it make the news or anything?”

“No.”

“What a shame. You would have been quite famous from a young age then.”

“Unfortunately, I didn’t know about the awakening at first.”

“True, how would a young baby know they’d awakened?”

“They just seemed to think things breaking around me were coincidences.”

“Isn’t that being neglectful of the child?”

“Usually, aren’t ordinary wealthy families neglectful of their children?”

“Damn it. Hey, go find a kid with parents. I don’t know either, man.”

“Hahahaha.”

Taehyeok Sa let out a short laugh, as if Cho-i Hyeon was amusing. Cho-i Hyeon wasn’t amused at all. With one person who had dysfunctional parents and another who never had parents, the conversation wasn’t going anywhere.

“So, they were quite neglectful of you. What happened?”

“They all died.”

“What? Damn it, don’t skip so much.”