# Chapter 22
Me, Kang Taesung, and White Research Building D
After experiencing one round of chaos, everyday life felt not just peaceful but bland. Lee Hwan tried to focus on his work while suppressing a yawn.
After the C-17 gate incident, the entire Support Team’s schedule was temporarily halted. Teams 1 through 3 were all crowded in the office, making the cafeteria constantly packed during lunch hours.
The members of Team 3 who had been at the gate that day received a week of paid leave and counseling. Both Lee Hwan and the company seemed relieved that there were no serious injuries.
And Kang Dongha, who used to come poking around whenever he had the chance…
Though it was only the first week of May, Lee Hwan hadn’t seen him once this month.
Since he hadn’t obtained the skill stone, Lee Hwan was half worried, half hopeful that the future might flow completely differently, but in the end, Kang Dongha had transferred departments just as he had before the regression.
Tiresome as it was to keep reacting to everything, the reason for this was also Lee Hwan. He now felt as if he were cursed.
That day, Dongha had witnessed Lee Hwan’s combat skills while under mortal threat. Not like he was Spider-Man or something, but he had vividly seen Lee Hwan kicking off walls, flying through the air, and attacking.
Moreover, the glow in Lee Hwan’s eyes—which he found uncomfortable during surprise attacks or ambushes—seemed to have made quite an impression on Kang Dongha.
While his eyes weren’t completely enchanted like the vision Lee Hwan had seen in the fragment of causality, he still seemed to have developed more interest in abilities.
Recalling that he had always wanted abilities, one could say his feelings had evolved somewhere between admiration and longing.
‘Basically, Kang Taesung thought your combat power was useful…’
‘I didn’t fight in front of him.’
‘The entry leader that day practically worshipped you. Almost ready to start a religion.’
Click. Lee Hwan held down the Enter key for a long time as he sank into thought.
He hadn’t expected Taesung to get involved like this. He had always liked to fill his attack team with talented people, but that was strictly for work and survival reasons. And anyway, it was just company business—he hadn’t been desperate enough to take interest in some suspicious mask-wearer.
It wasn’t entirely Lee Hwan’s fault that anxiety kept arising before joy. Perhaps it would have been better to disappear as soon as he heard that story? Lee Hwan repeatedly hit the Backspace key as he pondered.
But he still believed that the more he stayed close to Kang Dongha, the better opportunities would come.
Whether through gates or that “causality” thing. It had gone beyond just a matter of money now.
The story he heard later was even more serious.
‘And because Kang Taesung showed interest, that person’s attention shifted.’
‘…Who?’
‘Kang Dongying.’
That irritating name again. Lee Hwan almost let out a cry of frustration, partly because Kang Dongha was right in front of him. Of all people, it had to be that man who appeared.
Let’s say, giving him the benefit of the doubt, that he had approached Kang Dongha because he thought he’d be an easy target. But Kang Dongying was thorough and clever, and particularly harsh toward Taesung. Lee Hwan already knew he had specs close to a boss monster.
So, setting aside past feelings, Lee Hwan had no means to handle that head. How could he possibly beat the future chairman who had comprehensive knowledge of domestic and international affairs, while Lee Hwan couldn’t even remember stock information from before his regression?
Moreover, the nation’s top elites were all attached to his side. It was fair to say that if Lee Hwan were to confront him, it would be like a wooden stick versus Excalibur.
‘I don’t ask for much. Just showing him that I caught you will keep him quiet for a while. He’ll try to use me when he needs to… but for now, it means he’ll be quiet.’
‘So what do you want?’
‘I got transferred to a new department.’
Lee Hwan almost exclaimed that the nepotism of Kang bloodline was indeed different when he heard that this guy with just a bachelor’s degree had gone to a research management position. Lee Hwan had worked hard to barely get hired into the Support Team.
‘I need you to walk around there with me a few times.’
Though he said “walk around,” he meant showing up when it mattered. This couldn’t be paid off with just a massage chair.
‘…I don’t like this.’
The more he thought about it, Lee Hwan’s contribution to Kang Dongha’s department transfer wasn’t just that. Thanks to the information Lee Hwan had been giving, Dongha had made connections with the section handling Naru’s secret research in the Awakened-related department.
Entirely thanks to Lee Hwan’s choices, it felt like the future was ultimately flowing down the same path.
‘Damn, is this deliberate?’
Lee Hwan felt a dull ache in his head as he thought of the System. Somehow it wouldn’t let him speak about the future of doom, and now it seemed to be trying to drag everything toward that doom in this way.
Feeling quite dismal, Lee Hwan was already two months into his regression. While thinking time was passing rather aimlessly, he also felt somewhat proud of the results he had achieved through his struggles.
Getting his arm twisted by Kang Taesung, nearly getting burned, having his head cracked, but at least preventing the gate accident.
Clearing out his previous one-room apartment and finding a decent-sized place that wasn’t bad for living alone.
And filling in the blanks of his skills that had been almost completely obscured, and piecing together the story of causality.
This was just the beginning. Lee Hwan felt a vague sense of relief that his life kept getting entangled in that direction even without his direct involvement, but at the same time, he had a gut feeling that the moment he let his guard down, everything would fall into chaos.
While Lee Hwan had been seeking out incidents, incidents had also been finding Lee Hwan. Or they might be swirling around Kang Dongha at the center.
It felt as if this current world was desperately trying to flow like the past. As if it had some kind of inertia.
Soaking in hot water, Lee Hwan questioned himself.
Was the C-17 gate incident really because he hadn’t properly managed Kang Dongha and something went wrong? Or was it something that would have happened no matter what?
The fragment of causality, which so far seemed of little use except for glimpsing the past, had opened up a different perspective for Lee Hwan.
‘If the monster wave corresponds to the end of causality.’
Just as the System prevented Taesung from knowing about the doom, if there was still fixed causality remaining that made events happen somehow.
The fragment might not just show past accidents but could also be a clue to predicting and finding signs of what’s about to happen.
If that was the case, now that the C-17 gate had been dealt with, what he needed to uncover next wasn’t far away.
It was the semi-awakening mentioned in his previous conversation with Kang Dongha.
Thinking about it now, Lee Hwan wondered if there was anything more suspicious related to Dongha than this. Dongha, who transferred departments because he wanted to awaken, and the garbage card that Naru subsequently pulled out.
He sensed a connection between the two. No, rather, it seemed deep.
‘Just take a stroll around the research building.’
‘You’re making demands so boldly.’
The reason Lee Hwan accepted Dongha’s proposal despite cursing was for this reason.
The place where Dongha got a management position was Research Building D. Officially, it was under Building B, which researched monster by-products, but considering the relationship between Dongha and doom, it wouldn’t be strange if something was hidden there.
Fortunately or unfortunately, Lee Hwan had gained something resembling trust from Dongha after the recent gate incident. Also, Dongha still recognized Lee Hwan’s usefulness, didn’t want to lose him, and even wanted him to continue as his bodyguard, to become his person.
In the end, Lee Hwan had to go to the meeting that was supposed to happen this Wednesday afternoon.
‘Well, I got a gate thanks to him.’
Gate A-08, under Naru’s management.
This gate was not only Class 2 but also had a short monster generation cycle, making it a closely monitored target. Not just anyone could enter, nor was it assigned at any time.
Since Attack Team 1 periodically cleaned this gate, it was impossible to sneak in and out. Unlike the gates managed by Team 3, entrance schedules couldn’t be easily diverted. And if Lee Hwan’s memory served him right, it was also the source of the “gravity” skill stone.
From what he’d heard, since Kang Dongying was watching Lee Hwan, Dongha had probably made some kind of deal involving Lee Hwan to obtain this place.
“You’re really using your personal days consistently.”
“Yes, well.”
The comment Lee Hwan heard while getting his vacation approved annoyed him.
What did they expect? Already irritated, Lee Hwan answered stiffly. The attitude of nagging about using the monthly and yearly leaves that were meant to be used didn’t seem any different this time either.
‘I did the fighting, but they’re the ones who came back after a week’s vacation.’
Lee Hwan spent Tuesday afternoon grumbling internally. Working his bones out, coming back to wash up, passing out, waking up to find it was a workday morning. Do they even know that kind of despair?
Still, he was glad that the people who would have died and disappeared in the past were alive and talking normally. Even though, unlike before, they were teammates who kept giving Lee Hwan strange looks and only talked and played among themselves…
‘Tch…’
To soothe his heart, which he couldn’t tell whether was gloomy or proud, Lee Hwan ordered a family-size cheese pizza, hot wings, and draft beer that night using Kang Dongha’s card. Eating the staple food of those from a large country seemed to make his mind more expansive too.
‘This bastard seems to check his card statements. Should I mess with him?’
Sucking in the stretching cheese, Lee Hwan decided to buy several unnecessary combat suits around the end of this month.
