Chapter 169 – Paradise [The Tower]

The U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, having received Nam Hanseok’s summons, leisurely finished his tasks before heading to the Prime Minister’s Office at the Blue House.

By the time his car passed through security and pulled up in front of the Prime Minister’s Office, Nam Hanseok was already there, anxiously shaking his leg and repeatedly gulping down coffee.

And by the time the U.S. Ambassador entered the small conference room and greeted him, Nam Hanseok’s leg-shaking had sped up and intensified to about three times per second.

“I tried to depart as quickly as possible, but I had too much backlogged work to manage it.”

At the ambassador’s words, Nam Hanseok forced a calm expression and nodded.

“Well, it wasn’t scheduled anyway, so I understand. Don’t worry too much about it.”

Listening to Nam Hanseok, the ambassador offered a light smile.

Dropping two sugar cubes into his coffee and stirring gently with a spoon, the ambassador spoke.

“What is the urgent matter, Prime Minister?”

“It’s nothing else—a problem has arisen in the process of trying to seize control of the JH Group.”

“The JH Group, you say?”

“Yes.”

“As far as I know, its ownership structure isn’t particularly complex compared to other major Korean conglomerates.”

“Russian capital has acquired shares.”

At the mention of Russia, the ambassador’s eyebrows twitched momentarily.

Nam Hanseok relayed almost everything about the private equity fund holding shares in JH Trading and Construction and the asset management company operating it.

For a while, the ambassador listened silently to Nam Hanseok’s explanation.

“Considering the special relationship between Lee Siguk and the Russian president, it’s hard to see this as simply Lee Siguk laundering money through a Russian company, isn’t it?”

As Nam Hanseok finished speaking, the ambassador nodded and took a sip of coffee.

Nam Hanseok also downed his lukewarm, cooled coffee in one go.

The ambassador slowly opened his mouth.

“It certainly raises suspicion. Russia and China have attempted market disruption in neighboring countries using private equity funds more than once or twice—there’s definitely a smell to this.”

“So you need America’s help.”

“If you’ve found clues about the source of the funds, wouldn’t the Korean government alone be sufficient?”

“……That’s not possible.”

The ambassador said no more.

Even if he or Nam Hanseok didn’t explicitly say it, it was an open secret that Korea’s intelligence capabilities, especially foreign intelligence gathering, were virtually nonexistent.

“Understood. I’ll discuss it with Washington.”

“Time is of the essence. If Russia starts conducting operations, given this country’s current situation, it would be difficult to handle properly.”

“Don’t worry, Prime Minister.”

The ambassador smiled reassuringly.

Watching him, Nam Hanseok also forced a smile.

‘Russia doesn’t have the capacity to conduct such operations immediately, and he doesn’t even realize that…….’

‘Don’t test me. I may be borrowing your power for now, but once I seize the JH Group and trace the source and flow of the funds Lee Siguk has spread throughout this country, I can hold this position perfectly well without your help. So don’t cling to me from now on…….’

Yet the two merely smiled outwardly, each harboring contempt and wariness toward the other.

“Huh……”

Looking at the dried-up Seokchon Lake with its exposed bottom and the ruined, grotesque amusement park, Siguk let out an unconscious sigh.

‘Is this the future?’

Siguk’s expression darkened.

Byeoli, standing slightly apart from him, gazed at what was once Seokchon Lake and the half-remaining Signiel Tower with a slightly uneasy expression, but she diligently rolled her eyes, looking around in all directions.

‘What on earth happened here?’

Siguk slowly turned and looked at Signiel Tower.

Observing the bitter decline of the once-landmark skyscraper, now with its residential section gone and only the commercial floors remaining, Siguk quietly activated his All-Seeing Eye.

‘No special mana is visible…….’

If this place was truly a gathering spot for Superhumans, as the subway people said, mana should be overflowing.

But not only was there no mana throughout the building—there wasn’t even a trace of human warmth.

‘Still, since I’ve come this far, I should at least go inside.’

The All-Seeing Eye Skill was, after all, a technique for detecting information about visible targets.

If someone with a Stealth-type Skill like Byeoli was hiding inside the building, they couldn’t be detected from the outside.

As Siguk led the way toward the entrance of Signiel Tower, Byeoli followed with quick, short steps.

The automatic doors, once guarded and greeted by security personnel, had long been broken and torn away.

Entering the building through that opening, Siguk immediately scanned from the first floor upward with his All-Seeing Eye.

Nothing but dust was visible—nothing out of the ordinary.

Without pause, Siguk stepped onto the stalled escalator and went up to the second floor.

Again, no one was there.

And so Siguk continued upward through Signiel Tower, but even upon reaching the 50th floor—the highest existing floor—he found no one.

“Hoo……”

After circling the 50th floor once and realizing there wasn’t even an ant in the building, Siguk let out a sigh.

Byeoli, who had been following him in fear, stopped a short distance away at the sound of his sigh.

Siguk’s gaze turned to Byeoli.

Byeoli flinched and trembled.

“See? There’s no one here—not even people like those primitives from the subway, let alone someone like you.”

Byeoli couldn’t do anything.

Siguk quietly placed his hands on his hips and looked around.

A few clouds drifted past through the gaping hole in the ceiling.

“This is driving me crazy.”

Siguk shook his head side to side and looked around again.

At that moment, his eyes caught both Byeoli—clad in rags barely covering her vital areas—and the surrounding clothing brand stores simultaneously.

“How long have you been wearing those rags?”

At Siguk’s question, Byeoli slightly raised her eyes, counted on her fingers, then shook her head side to side.

“I, I don’t really know.”

Siguk also shook his head side to side.

“Never mind. Follow me.”

Siguk took the lead, and Byeoli followed.

‘They’re all stores I’ve never seen before.’

Even considering they were high-end brand stores, all the brands in the 50th-floor clothing stores were ones Siguk had never seen before.

Siguk led Byeoli downward.

Only after descending quite a while did Siguk find a suitable mid-to-low-priced brand store.

‘Here too, YK……’

Looking at the store sign reading <YK Clothing>, Siguk’s expression darkened.

Byeoli stood slightly apart beside him, quietly alternating her gaze between him and the store.

Siguk soon moved on and entered a familiar Japanese clothing brand store.

The shutter was down, but it meant nothing.

Siguk tore off the rusted shutter, threw it down, then led Byeoli inside the store.

There, Siguk took out well-preserved clothes from boxes and handed them to Byeoli.

“Put these on and come out.”

Then he stepped outside the store.

Byeoli stared blankly, alternating her gaze between the clothes wrapped in plastic and Siguk, then followed him.

“What are you doing? I said change your clothes.”

“……How?”

For a moment, Siguk was at a loss for words.

How do you change clothes?

It was like asking how to breathe, so Siguk couldn’t give any answer.

For a while, he looked at Byeoli with confused eyes.

‘Human civilization has declined, sure, but this……’

Siguk let out a sigh.

He tore open the plastic, took out the clothes, and explained step by step.

“This is a top. Take off your rags and put this on over you. This big hole is for your head, and these small holes are for your arms. Understood?”

Byeoli nodded.

“These are pants. The style is a bit different from what I remember, but they’re basically hot pants. Put your legs through these two holes, pull them up to your waist, then zip up here and button this. Got it?”

This time too, Byeoli nodded.

“Go inside and put them on, then come out.”

After sending the girl in, Siguk crossed his arms and scanned the ruined mall.

‘Did I really come to the previous world? The world where I was executed as a B-Rank Villain?’

After the upheaval of 2020, he’d seen all sorts of mysteries, but this was truly unheard of.

‘He definitely said he’d show me the truth. And then I was sucked into the tiny Black Hole created by Ululu Tumbebe.’

Siguk frowned.

‘No trace of the Familiar Skill, the only human around doesn’t even know how to put on clothes, and civilization is in ruins……’

“U, um…… I, I’m done changing.”

At Byeoli’s words, Siguk snapped out of his thoughts.

“Then first, a place where people can live……”

Seeing Byeoli’s appearance, Siguk lost his words.

“These pants won’t go up to my waist.”

He could overlook wearing the top backward—that was understandable.

But seeing clear signs of struggle from trying to pull up the pants, which were worn upside down, Siguk could only press his hand to his forehead.

“Uh…… the top is backward, and the pants are upside down……”

Siguk tried to explain again, but Byeoli only looked utterly clueless.

Eventually, Siguk sighed.

“Fine. I’ll dress you myself.”

And so Siguk properly dressed Byeoli again.

“This is how you wear them. Understood?”

After dressing her properly, Siguk spoke while looking at Byeoli. Byeoli looked down at her clothes and nodded.

Seeing that, Siguk unconsciously broke into a smile.

And at that moment, he felt a profoundly strange sense of dissonance.

‘Why am I like this?’

His actions toward Byeoli.

If anyone else had seen it, they would have been quite surprised.

‘Was I ever this kind to strangers?’

Siguk knew better than anyone that he was not kind to people—not just strangers, but people in general.

Unless it was someone like Ivan Ivanov—stronger than him and reasonably trustworthy—or women like Polina, Yeo Jeongyeon, or Kurokawa Minori, who saw him as a man and fell in love with him, or someone like Zhou Peiling, who was mentally subdued and showed blind religious devotion.

Siguk was kind to no one.

He was merely less cold when necessary.

But now, he was showing what could be considered excessive kindness to a girl he’d just met.

Siguk quietly observed his own emotional state.

Yet nowhere did he find any ulterior motives or lust toward Byeoli.

To begin with, he had little interest in girls around Byeoli’s age—mid-teens.

‘But why?’

Siguk deliberately put on a serious expression and quietly observed Byeoli.

Byeoli, who had been staring at her clothes with curious eyes, suddenly noticed Siguk’s serious gaze and shrank back slightly.

‘Did dimension travel cause some aftereffects?’

Seeing how he’d beaten the primitives wielding stones and clubs and the gunman guarding the station office, that didn’t seem to be the case either.

Siguk shook his head side to side.

He activated his All-Seeing Eye and scanned Byeoli once more.

Not only her abilities as a Superhuman but also her biological information like blood type and genes—Siguk scanned everything.

‘Is her birthdate and name not visible because she herself doesn’t know them?’

“Hmm……”

After finishing a detailed scan of her, Siguk withdrew his All-Seeing Eye Skill.

‘Well, it’s not an important issue anyway.’

Thinking that, Siguk moved.

“Follow me.”

At Siguk’s words, Byeoli slowly followed him.

Entering a shoe store, he even discarded Byeoli’s dirty shoes—mere tattered leather scraps—and replaced them with new ones before finally leaving Signiel Tower.

“Now. Where should we go?”

Siguk placed his hands on his hips and quietly looked around.

Caw—!

At that moment, a large crow spinning in circles in the sky caught Siguk’s eye.

“……If I look down from the sky, I should at least find a place where people live faster, right?”