Chapter 233 – To Protect

Kim In-ho swallowed dryly.

Not only was there a cult leader here, but also Im Jae-joon, the CEO of Hanul Group.

“Mr. Im….”

“You’ve worked hard, Hunter Kim In-ho. And the two of you behind him as well.”

At the greeting from Hanul Group’s CEO, Im Jae-joon, Lee Hyun-ah replied with a bright smile.

“Oh my, there’s a chaebol here too. I’ve seen you a lot on TV. The one who won the war of the illegitimate sons. Ah, is it rude to say that? But you were rude first, so it’s fine, right?”

“My apologies. I’ve kept my guests standing. Please, have a seat.”

“Yes, I will.”

Lee Hyun-ah confidently sat on the sofa. Then, she chirped cheerfully, reveling in the sofa’s plushness.

“Maybe it’s because a chaebol is here, but you use really nice chairs. Is this that sofa that costs as much as an office worker’s annual salary?”

“No. It’s just something I bought at a regular store.”

“Come on, you have so much money, you should invest a little.”

It was as if they had known each other for a long time. But everyone here knew. Her cheerful tone was laced with thorns.

An inexplicably suspicious combination, and on top of that, a woman with a covered face who harbored an immeasurably powerful magic.

It was only natural for her to be wary.

Yet, the reason she took a seat was for one thing only.

She believed that the clue to dimensional travel, which she had been waiting for so long, was here. With a combination this suspicious, she figured they must know something that others didn’t.

“Next time, I’ll make sure you have a better sofa to sit on.”

“Come on, we don’t even know if there will be a next time.”

“There will be. If you two have truly been striving to save your comrade until now.”

At Im Jae-joon’s words, which sounded like he knew something, Lee Hyun-ah smiled coldly.

“You’re quite confident. My friend Gang-cheol next to me might look like a pushover, but he’s incredibly violent, you know? If you start spouting nonsense trying to use us, I might tolerate it, but Gang-cheol won’t. He’ll tear this cheap sofa to shreds.”

“Gang-cheol, the strongest hunter of the first generation. I know him well.”

Im Jae-joon said, smiling meaningfully.

“Pardon me for interrupting.”

Kim In-ho interjected for a moment.

There was someone here who shouldn’t be.

The woman in the red suit.

A powerful villain whose face was hidden by the system was here.

“Why is that villain here?”

He couldn’t understand why she would be in a place like this.

Just then, the woman in the red suit raised her hand. Seeing this, Lee Hyun-ah reflexively tried to activate her shield skill.

“It’s okay.”

It was Gang-cheol who grabbed her hand.

In that moment, Lee Hyun-ah saw a faint light emanating from the hand of the woman in the red suit.

“This is….”

Lee Hyun-ah watched as a gate opened in front of the woman in the red suit.

Kim In-ho had already seen this when he was attacked.

He never imagined that she would be the one to open the dimensional gate.

She was clearly an enemy, after all.

Regardless of Kim In-ho’s feelings, Lee Hyun-ah reached out a trembling hand toward the gate. As her fingertips touched it, she saw ripples form.

It felt like dipping her hand in cold water.

She knew this feeling well.

It was a dimensional gate.

Lee Hyun-ah withdrew her hand. Then, she composed her expression.

She had confirmed the card she wanted. Now it was time to make a deal.

“She is the most important person in this room, so I believe it’s only natural for her to be here.”

Im Jae-joon smiled leisurely and sat with his legs crossed.

Lee Hyun-ah muttered softly to him.

“Still, shouldn’t you at least offer some tea or coffee?”

“Unfortunately, the friend who used to make good tea found another job.”

“You’re the CEO of a major group, you should have given him a raise.”

“Sometimes, there are things money can’t solve.”

Im Jae-joon said this with a gentle smile.

Lee Hyun-ah tried hard to read Im Jae-joon’s expression.

A young chairman running a conglomerate, who seemed to lack for nothing.

And yet here he was, in such a suspicious place, even displaying such power.

She was dying to know his identity. But she feigned indifference and asked nothing.

All that mattered was the trust in their transaction. It didn’t matter what the other party’s identity was.

“Have this instead. It’s a ‘tea’ that’s good for your body.”

The Prophet Elf poured a steaming substance into large cups and gave one to each of them.

“…What is this?”

Lee Hyun-ah frowned at the unpleasantly colored liquid and asked.

The moment Kim In-ho saw it, he had a good idea of what it was.

‘Protein?’

The muscular, gym-rat elf, whose healthy physique was enhanced by a sheen of protein, flashed a toothy grin.

‘Do I really have to drink a suspicious protein shake here of all places….’

He hesitated, thinking of the protein he drank every single day without fail.

“…!”

But before he knew it, Kim In-ho had already drunk the protein out of habit.

It was a result of his muscles having already taken control of his mind.

Lee Hyun-ah was staring at Gang-cheol, who had also chugged it down in one go, as if he were some kind of beast.

“By the way, where is Seo-yeon?”

The person who had originally asked for help with this plan was Lee Seo-yeon.

To Kim In-ho, she was like a savior.

If it weren’t for Seo-yeon, his son would never have been able to run around the playground.

Although he was doing it for Hyunbin, it was Seo-yeon’s request that had moved him to this extent. Yet Seo-yeon, with whom he had even spoken on the phone, was nowhere to be seen.

“That child is not needed.”

A cold and venomous voice.

Kim In-ho’s face hardened as he looked at the villain who spoke so hostilely about his benefactor, Lee Seo-yeon.

But something felt off.

‘That voice just now.’

It was a familiar voice.

Usually, a person’s real voice sounds different from their voice over the phone.

It was due to the difference between digital and analog signals.

“I am all that is needed.”

As she said this, the woman in the red suit brought a hand to her face.

As she slowly swept her hand across it, as if erasing something with an eraser, her face began to be revealed.

“…!”

Kim In-ho dropped the cup he was holding.

A completely unexpected face was there.

“Lee Seo-yeon…?”

Lee Seo-yeon was wearing the red suit.

No, this was not the young-faced girl Kim In-ho knew.

Her once-clear eyes were lifeless, and the corners of her mouth, once full of laughter, were now dry.

Seeing an adult version of Lee Seo-yeon standing there, expressionless as a doll, Kim In-ho couldn’t help but feel bewildered.

“We don’t care what your identity is.”

Lee Hyun-ah opened her mouth.

“State the terms of the deal.”

At Lee Hyun-ah’s words, the regressor smiled faintly.

It was a reaction so subtle that someone who didn’t know her well would have missed it.

“I’ll be direct.”

With her own power, she couldn’t protect Ajeossi.

It might seem like a desperate move, but she was throwing everything she had into this.

Because this was her last chance.

“For a certain period of time.”

She had seen him die countless times.

She had failed again and again.

That’s why, this time for sure.

“Become the Hero.”

She would twist fate.

***

To save Ajeossi, she had regressed again and again.

And to gain the power of regression, she had committed acts she could never speak of.

And still, she failed.

Katrinne realized that the goddess’s power she had absorbed had only its final dregs of energy remaining.

There were no more chances.

That was why she had chosen a path of hostility toward Ajeossi.

By doing so, she had hoped to stop him, to prevent him from becoming the target of the Demon King Alliance.

But this time, things went awry again.

He was stronger than in the other timelines.

That much, she could understand.

Ajeossi, the Hero, was a special being.

As the goddess’s only blood relative and successor, he couldn’t possibly be weak.

The problem wasn’t his growing strength.

His behavior patterns were vastly different in this timeline.

Furthermore, he had even unlocked an unknown power.

From his actions, it seemed he could faintly see the future.

If not, he had shown incomprehensible behavior on several occasions.

Not only that, but he also seemed to possess the power to cross dimensions.

She didn’t know how Ajeossi had gained different powers in this timeline.

However, it seemed to Katrinne that the damned Order System was hell-bent on killing Ajeossi.

‘I will definitely save him this time.’

Katrinne had shackled herself with this thought countless times.

She had endured and endured with the sole conviction of protecting him.

For that, she had even tasted the agony of her body being torn to shreds multiple times.

Every time a new timeline began, every time she saw him alive, there were moments she wanted to give up everything.

For her, who had only repeated arduous battles, seeing the living, breathing Hyunbin was, in fact, her one and only happiness.

So she wanted to reveal everything and stay by his side.

Instead of that childish little wench who, without a thought in her head, clung happily to Hyunbin’s side.

She had endured unspeakable suffering to protect him, yet that piece of trash was simply intoxicated by the kindness Ajeossi showed her, forgetting everything.

Later, she even develops a grand delusion.

That because she is a goddess candidate, she will become a goddess to protect the Hero, Ajeossi.

Disgusting.

The very act of harboring such a desire was nothing but a filthy, selfish emotion.

She hated it all the more because that was once her.

She might as well call it self-loathing.

Now, in the final timeline, watching the happy Karin only made her hatred grow deeper.

She showed her younger self what she had become.

Naturally, the young Karin was flustered.

No matter how much she might have suspected, another version of herself was standing right before her eyes.

“I want to kill you right this instant.”

She wanted to kill her. But she couldn’t.

Because Ajeossi would be sad.

“Because of you, Ajeossi will die again.”

No, it was because of ‘us’.

“Just disappear.”

Because of her own terrible trauma, she would free him, who tried to protect everyone.

“Wake up. The future born of your pathetic selfishness will never come.”

This was also something she was telling herself.

Whether this plan succeeded or failed, her own fate was already sealed.

“What you, no, what we can do is only one thing.”

She didn’t want to admit it, but that girl was her.

Therefore, she would understand what it meant.

Because she possessed the same foresight as her.

“If anyone’s going to protect him, it’ll be me.”

Of course, she would say that.

Katrinne sneered at her younger self.

She grabbed the young Karin.

In this era, she was not yet physically strong, so the young Karin couldn’t break free.

Katrinne began to synchronize with the young Karin.

Katrinne showed her, in vivid detail, the tragedies she had experienced.

Forcibly injected with that vast amount of data, the young Karin’s pupils dilated, and she collapsed limply.

The young Karin’s face turned pale.

“Take the domain and leave. If you’re here, Ajeossi will only push himself harder.”

If he fights to protect everyone, then she won’t give him a reason to.

And so, Katrinne cleared away all of her obstacles.

***

Compared to the young Karin, Demon King Dantalian was much easier to talk to.

“You, of all people, should know. This is a fight we can’t win.”

The situation was different from the other world.

Right now, the Hero had not yet taken control of the modern world.

There was only one reason for that.

Unlike the other world, this modern era was relatively peaceful.

Fighting monsters that came out of gates was nothing compared to the other world, which had been at war for over a decade.

“As it stands now, the damage would be immense. It would be at the level of annihilation.”

Dantalian began, then continued with a scornful smile.

“To close that gap, that guy will take reckless measures.”

Katrinne had finally found someone she could talk to.

If they were to fight a war with the Great Demon Kings of the East right now, the outcome was all too obvious.

Humanity, not properly united, was no match for the Demon King Alliance.

“Only when the entire world experiences a real war can it finally become one.”

“You will become the king of the remnants and rule this world.”

“A king of remnants in my past life, and a king of remnants in this one too, it seems.”

The Demon King chuckled softly and drank his whiskey.

“Sounds fine to me.”

“This time, neither the enemy alliance nor Baal will descend.”

The regressor replied.

Her eyes were filled with conviction.

The Hero fights the Demon Kings to save the Earth. And because of his overwhelming power, the East and West join hands.

For a common goal. To hunt the ‘Hero’.

And in that battle, a Great Demon King descends for the sake of the demon race.

Baal.

A name that existed as the antithesis of the Hero System.

“What a tragedy.”

Im Jae-joon said mockingly. He then raised the whiskey glass and wet his lips.

She had joined hands with Demon King Dantalian.

She had seen it in her many repeated timelines.

Demon King Dantalian was different from the other demon kings.

He had the qualities of a leader rather than a boss.

Above all, in another timeline, he had helped the Hero create an allied force and had fought alongside him until the very end, where he died.

She had even roped in Kim In-ho, finding someone who could fulfill the role of the Hero.

They were variables.

Though they were no match for Ajeossi in other timelines, the way they fought like madmen was enough to be called a Hero.

No, in fact, the demon army had once mistaken Gang-cheol for the Hero.

Because he was the one and only human to have single-handedly killed one of the Eastern Demon Kings.

The new plan is being executed step by step. It pains her, but she has even tarnished Ajeossi’s reputation.

All to protect him.

However, something unexpected happened again.