# Chapter 43
Like a series of rapidly passing photographs—Taesung’s appearance. A more mature face. Lips that smiled whenever he saw him. A body that occasionally pulled him close from behind playfully.
Black hair that hung down over his flat forehead. The smile that spread like paint whenever he looked at him. The way his eyes gently folded at those times.
The memories gradually returned to the past, from the time when they weren’t a duo but worked gates with other team members, all the way back to when he had just awakened and was transferring teams. Their first meeting—kind black eyes that watched him carefully, as if Taesung already knew Lee Hwan.
‘I’ll come find you, Joo Lee Hwan.’
‘Nice to meet you, Hunter Joo Lee Hwan.’
‘I’ll come find you, I’ll…’
‘Looking forward to working with…’
Why hadn’t he known in the past that this person could make such expressions? How had he completely failed to realize that he was someone who could be so cruel to him?
His face burned as if it would burst. The sounds faded, and now even his thoughts were gradually blurring. As the memories from before the regression burned out one by one…
Lee Hwan barely held onto the thread of his life. He forcibly continued his train of thought. Having gone through the effort of regression to avoid the Memory Stone ending, he couldn’t end so pathetically at this guy’s hands.
“Kugh, Tae, Kang Tae…sung…”
As he struggled and stammered Taesung’s name, the grip suddenly loosened a bit. For reasons unknown, his breath miraculously hung on.
“…kugh, kugh…!”
Blink. For a moment, everything went black before returning.
From when the force on his neck decreased, Lee Hwan could feel blood flowing to his head ever so slightly.
At the same time, despite his wavering consciousness, he realized he had been maintaining his ability all this time. Lee Hwan, forgetting the situation, marveled at his own tenacity.
Still… this was his limit. If he hadn’t been caught by surprise, he might have had a little more strength left.
‘After all that suffering, am I going to die at the hands of this ungrateful bastard?’
With that thought, as Lee Hwan finally went limp…
When his ability that he had been maintaining finally broke, unexpectedly, Taesung released the neck he had been gripping. With all his strength gone, Lee Hwan couldn’t even catch his breath as he rolled his eyes up to look at him.
‘Why…’
If he had just squeezed his neck a little longer, Lee Hwan would have completely lost consciousness. For someone intending to finish him off, it would have been an easy opportunity to send him off. But for unknown reasons, he survived for now. Lee Hwan felt like every hair on his body was standing on end.
Of course, his mind was still dark. But slowly, gradually, blood flowed to his head. With a grumbling sound, his breath began to leak out minutely, and the flickering vision before Lee Hwan’s eyes gradually brightened.
And then…
Thud!
“Heok, keck! Kulluk, kugh…”
Taesung struck his chest hard, and only then did Lee Hwan frantically cough and inhale. He had never before met someone who would open his airway with a punch to the solar plexus.
First stopping it himself, then pounding it open again. Lee Hwan wondered what the hell he was doing, and then suddenly realized.
‘Breath… Did this bastard seriously…?’
Lee Hwan looked at Taesung with reddened eyes, still coughing. Could it be that this bastard had choked his own neck as well when he used his ability to block Lee Hwan’s breath? And kept it up until they were almost at death’s door—until Lee Hwan finally stopped using his ability.
If that were true, he was truly insane. Lee Hwan felt chills run up his back as he hurriedly inhaled air.
Turning his constantly drooping head to face Taesung, he saw that Taesung’s face was also flushed, his breathing irregular. Come to think of it, Taesung had also been unable to breathe for quite some time. The sound of his forcefully suppressed, panting breath was quite rough. Lee Hwan’s dust-covered hair moved slightly with his breath.
As their movements ceased, insects chirped in the shaded mountain path, even though it was daytime. Amidst his dazed state, Lee Hwan’s chest churned with a strange feeling—whether from terror or bewilderment, he couldn’t tell.
Maybe it was because he had nearly died. His body had been trembling intermittently since earlier, having just escaped death. When Lee Hwan looked up at Taesung with wet eyes, after a long silence, Taesung finally spoke.
“Now we can talk a bit more comfortably. With the rat.”
Perhaps judging that Lee Hwan could no longer move, Taesung, having caught his breath, released the arm he was holding and reached out to grab the mask.
‘…!’
No. In that instant, Lee Hwan’s mind snapped to attention, and he struck away that hand with all his might. His neck was completely stiff, and his recently relocated shoulder and battered body screamed in protest, but this was no time to worry about that.
Come to think of it, Taesung had released his arm. This was his last chance to escape. With that single thought, Lee Hwan sprang up, pushed Taesung away, and taking advantage of his stagger, used his ability with all the strength he could muster.
Thud, swish!
Three or four green leaves fell from above Taesung as he backed away, leaning against a tree. While his eyes moved toward the falling leaves, Lee Hwan ran straight for the gate without looking back.
His legs trembled, making it extremely difficult to navigate the uneven ground. He just ran blindly, not even sparing time to look back. At one point, when he staggered badly, he was even overcome with fear of being caught.
There was no sound of anyone following from behind. Yet, strangely, he felt like he was being chased to the ends of the earth, his heart continuing to pound heavily.
The sleeve he had used to wipe his face was completely covered in blood. There were red hand marks on the arm that had been grabbed. Soon, an unbearable burning pain of scalding overwhelmed him.
Come to think of it, that guy really did seem like he had something to say.
‘Talk comfortably? What the hell did he want to talk about?’
Physical conversation with my knife. The mere thought of hearing such things made his flesh crawl. Lee Hwan quickened his pace, gasping for breath.
* * *
The inside of the gate was unusually dark, making the entrance gloomy from the start. But only after throwing himself into that place did Lee Hwan feel the tension ease somewhat, his body relaxing.
To think that this rabbit-hole-like place would feel more comfortable than the sunny, fresh-scented outside. Lee Hwan sank down inside the gate, rubbing his mask with its missing chin, his strength depleted.
“What the hell is going on here…”
His voice came out on its own due to the absurdity of it all. It sounded quite broken, indicating his vocal cords were somewhat damaged. Lee Hwan groaned as he thoroughly scrubbed his face.
The places where he’d been hit now throbbed unbearably. Somehow, whenever he met Taesung, he ended up battered like this with high probability. The handprints left on his arm looked like traces of being dragged away by a ghost.
And of all things, another burn. Even for an Awakened person… this would definitely leave a scar after healing. The thought made him sigh involuntarily.
Still, it was surprising that he had only attacked the parts he had grabbed. If he had already been holding on, he could have easily burned an entire arm. The same went for not breaking bones. When his neck was grabbed, he really thought he was going to die, but in reality, Taesung had cleanly released him when Lee Hwan withdrew his ability. In other words, he had been holding back the whole time.
Having run gates together, Taesung surely knew that Lee Hwan was not someone to be taken lightly. Despite this, had he willingly suffered injury by engaging without abilities? For someone who had come in a rage, his attitude was quite rational and composed. As if from the beginning, sending him to the afterlife wasn’t his goal.
Of course, those occasionally deranged eyes had been frightening… But if he was convinced that Lee Hwan had done something, that’s why he had come all this way. In any case, it was an unexpected reaction.
‘By the way, why was he so sure that I wrote that report?’
Even if he thought Lee Hwan was involved in that experiment, there must have been a reason he believed Lee Hwan had written and submitted it directly. That’s what made it so baffling. It’s not like there was content that could specifically identify Lee Hwan.
“…”
…Or was there? Information about Jade that only Lee Hwan and Taesung knew. Stories that Kang Dongha shouldn’t know. If that were the case, it wouldn’t be strange for Taesung to immediately point to Lee Hwan.
‘If it was when he met me—that is, Kim Jeongshik—accompanied by Jade…’
Applying the conditions one by one, the first gate he had run with Jade distinctly flashed in Lee Hwan’s mind.
Wait a minute. If part of the conversation they had then had been leaked, that would make sense. But how was that possible?
Once any number of people enter a gate, the entrance closes. Unless both Taesung and he were blind and deaf, no one could have followed them in from behind. Lee Hwan quietly rolled his eyes, hearing his heartbeat in his ears.
If there was a condition that hadn’t changed between the two gate clearances. First, it wasn’t the suit. Since he was in a spending phase, he had worn different suits both times. The things he always carried when going to gates were the Dolpeung and the white mask he had just taken off and cleaned.
‘No way.’
Muttering inwardly in disbelief, Lee Hwan first pulled out the weapons and other equipment he carried daily. The Dolpeung was one he had received after exploding one last time, so could someone have tampered with it so soon?
But no matter how carefully he examined the surface, nothing caught his eye, and if it had been hidden any deeper, there would have been problems when the bullet was fired.
This time, Lee Hwan picked up the mask. The solid and light mask made from monster byproducts. He shook it vigorously, but didn’t feel anything unusual.
‘Still suspicious though.’
When he tapped it here and there, there did seem to be a minuscule part of the interior that was hollow. But the mask was already thin, so it would hardly be noticeable…
Finally, after contemplating, Lee Hwan struck the corner of the mask with his knife.
Crack! Thud.
Among the broken mask pieces, a small, incongruous component rolled out.
For a moment, Lee Hwan stared at it stupidly before picking up the component and placing it on his hand. A small circuit-like thing had been flattened inside.
“Ha… fuck.”
His head buzzed. To have been deceived by something so ridiculous. Now everything fit perfectly.
Kang Dongha, that cute bastard. I want to press him to death. Lee Hwan felt like his temples were heating up.
No wonder he had seemed docile lately. Despite being someone who would absolutely never be normal in a good way. He had even overlooked his annoying glances, only to be backstabbed like this.
Crackle. The device was crushed pathetically between his fingers. Lee Hwan gritted his teeth. He vowed that once he got out of the gate, he would smash all that guy’s teeth and turn him into someone who could only say “ang-ong-ah.”
‘Life… life really…’
If he had his way, he would have wanted to scream at the top of his lungs and cause a scene right there. But Lee Hwan realized that even though he was near the entrance, he was still inside the gate.
Also, the moment he went out, Taesung might pounce on him, or Kang Dongha might have prepared something else. The first priority was to consume the gravity skill stone. After that, the best course of action would be to quietly escape the mountain.
Lee Hwan groaned, clutching his buzzing head, then slowly rose to his feet.
