“I saw it on TV and it was quite a commotion. Don’t worry about those bastards barking. I believe in you, young man.”
“Ah….”
At the grandmother’s words, Lee Kanghyun’s face heated up once again.
It seemed she wasn’t talking about the situation just now, but about the murder case plastered all over the news. Having imagined something strange on his own, he was so embarrassed he wanted to crawl into a mouse hole somewhere.
“Do… do you know who I am?”
At Lee Kanghyun’s question, the grandmother snorted.
“Why wouldn’t I know a face that appears as big as a door on the news?”
He had hated the stares that always glanced at him and whispered whenever he went somewhere. On the other hand, the grandmother seemed to not know him at all, so he could eat comfortably and had come here occasionally.
Had she known who he was from the very beginning when he first visited this restaurant?
“When someone comes to eat, just give them food. Why bother pretending to know them? They say even a dog isn’t bothered when it’s eating.”
The grandmother answered as if reading Lee Kanghyun’s thoughts and handed him his card.
“The eyes of someone who would kill a person are different from those who wouldn’t. I’ve been in the restaurant business for 40 years. I can tell just by looking.”
“……”
“Go wash your feet and get some good sleep. Even if you’re frustrated enough to die, you need to sleep to fight.”
The grandmother headed back to the kitchen without looking back. The clinking sound of dishes could be heard.
“See? What did I tell you? The whole world isn’t your enemy.”
When Lee Kanghyun remained frozen for a long time without moving, Kang Yujun patted his back and urged him on.
“Let’s go, young man. We should go wash our feet and sleep like the grandmother said.”
Lee Kanghyun nodded slightly and got in the car. While fastening his seatbelt, he unconsciously pressed down on the area near his heart.
His heart was beating a little faster than usual.
***
Lee Kanghyun, who had gotten in the car, rested his chin on the passenger seat window frame. The scenery outside was passing by quickly. He stared at it blankly without saying anything.
It was Kang Yujun who broke the silence.
“There’s not completely no way to clear your false accusation.”
Lee Kanghyun’s gaze slowly turned to Kang Yujun. A way to clear the false accusation. He had been pondering something intently throughout the meal and busily texting, so he’d thought maybe he had found some kind of solution. It seemed his guess was right.
“What is it?”
“There’s someone in our guild with a precognition skill. I just contacted them to try using it.”
Lee Kanghyun’s eyes frowned in puzzlement. What does clearing a false accusation have to do with precognition?
If it were a skill like psychometry that could obtain information from the past, it would make sense to contact them to use it. If they could retrace that person’s actions on the day he died, it would help in securing evidence.
Isn’t a precognition skill that looks into the future unnecessary in this situation?
“Have you heard of the Fragment of Truth?”
Lee Kanghyun shook his head.
“What’s that?”
“It’s an item that extracts the memories of the dead. Not only can you read a dead person’s memories, but you can also capture them in the item and display them as a video to watch.”
To think they could extract a dead person’s memories and even watch them. Then wouldn’t that person be unable to rest peacefully even in death?
Just thinking about someone using an item to rummage through his brain to peek at his memories after he died naturally made him feel bad.
He’d never even heard of such an item existing. How does Kang Yujun know about such things?
“Hey, Lee Kanghyun. Aren’t you focusing?”
As Lee Kanghyun was lost in his own random thoughts, Kang Yujun’s finger lightly flicked his forehead.
“I’m working my brain hard trying to save your life, and you’re having other thoughts.”
Lee Kanghyun rubbed his forehead. He really nagged too much.
Fine. He decided to shake off the random thoughts and unpleasant feelings. He had no choice right now. If using that item was the only solution, following along was the right thing to do.
He thought that after peeking at the memories, he should at least give the man a proper funeral. Even though he was an intruder who broke into his house, after seeing the horrific traces of assault remaining on the corpse, he couldn’t just hate him anymore.
“I heard you. You’re saying if we have this Fragment of Truth or whatever, it’ll work. But what does that have to do with the precognition skill?”
“There’s no stock released at auction right now. It’s such a rare item.”
Kang Yujun continued while turning the steering wheel.
“So I asked them to use the precognition skill to see when one would come out. Within a month, it’ll come out as a reward from a high-rank gate of B-rank or higher generated in South Korea. Kanghyun-ah, you’re really lucky. How did such a good result come out right away?”
Lucky? Lee Kanghyun’s face crumpled.
As expected, the precognition skill wasn’t omnipotent. Wasn’t the range too broad?
“Do you know how many B-rank or higher gates open in our country in a month? There are at least over thirty, and you call that lucky?”
“At least it’s not overseas. We can’t even enter gates in other countries.”
“That’s not the problem. Even if it appears as a reward from a gate in our country, how are we supposed to check all of them in the first place? It would be better to just wait for one to be released at auction and buy it.”
“That won’t work.”
Kang Yujun said firmly.
“With such rare items, there are cases where people won’t sell them even if you offer them a fortune. It would be troublesome if it fell into those people’s hands, right? Securing it directly is the most certain way.”
“Then what are you going to do? Go around to every gate for a month?”
After saying that, Lee Kanghyun let out a laugh at his own absurdity.
Clear all the high-rank gates appearing in South Korea alone in a month? This was physically impossible.
High-rank gates of B-rank or higher were often dozens of kilometers long, and some were over hundreds of kilometers. Even if you did nothing but walk, it would take hours, and you had to hunt monsters too. That’s why some gates took over 2 nights and 3 days to clear.
No matter how much Kang Yujun was the number one ranker in the country, it would be impossible unless he had ten bodies.
But an absurd statement came out of Kang Yujun’s mouth.
“Yeah. We just have to go around.”
Lee Kanghyun blinked. What the fuck is this guy saying right now? He thought he’d misheard. But Kang Yujun’s expression was nothing but calm.
“Why do you think we can’t do it? We just have to do it.”
“Hey, that’s…”
“Sleep? Food? Rest? We can postpone all of that. Anyway, S-ranks don’t collapse from pushing ourselves for about a month.”
Kang Yujun’s eyes as he said those words were somehow faintly glazed over. His pupils were clearly clear. But they were frighteningly insane to look at. Lee Kanghyun asked in horror.
“Are you crazy?”
“No. I’m always in my right mind.”
As far as Lee Kanghyun knew, among people who claimed with their own mouths that they were in their right mind, there was no one who actually was.
“And Kanghyun-ah, you’re mistaken about something.”
Taking advantage of the stopped signal, Kang Yujun turned his head and smiled while making eye contact with Lee Kanghyun.
“Who said I’d do it alone? You have to do it too. I’ll clear half, you clear half. We have to divide it and go around.”
“What?”
Lee Kanghyun almost jumped. If he weren’t in the car, he really would have.
Right now, he was dying from having to go to gates once a week because of alternative service, and now he’s supposed to go once every two days? B-rank or higher high-rank gates at that?
Isn’t he crazy? In that case, going to prison would be better. At least he could sleep there.
If he lived with that schedule, it was certain he wouldn’t be able to sleep properly or rest for the entire month.
“Me? You’re telling me to go around gates? Me?”
“Yeah, you.”
Kang Yujun snapped as if he’d made up his mind.
“What are you going to do if you don’t? Are you going to run around with the false accusation of being a murderer for the rest of your life? Or will you hide in my house for the rest of your life and live off the food I give you?”
“That doesn’t sound so bad to me. You give me food and a place to sleep. Perfect.”
Lee Kanghyun replied as shamelessly as usual, but seeing Kang Yujun’s eyes, he shut his mouth. This wasn’t a joke. Kang Yujun was serious.
“Kanghyun-ah. It’s too much for me alone. You know that. There’s travel time, and variables can occur inside the gates too.”
Kang Yujun’s words were right. If two S-ranks divided the work, clearing all the high-rank gates appearing in South Korea really wasn’t impossible.
Still… still, fifteen wasn’t too many? Moreover, thirty a month was the minimum number. Sometimes fifty would occur. Even if divided in half, it meant they’d have to go around attacking twenty-five gates in a month…. His head hurt automatically, so he decided not to think about this case.
“You have to help me.”
As if knowing he was pondering, Kang Yujun, who had been meeting his wavering eyes, said pleadingly.
The moment he heard those words, Lee Kanghyun’s heart dropped.
The reason Kang Yujun was willing to endure this absurd forced march was none other than because of him. He was saying he would do the insane act of not sleeping, not eating, and grinding down his body purely for the sake of one burden named Lee Kanghyun.
And yet, Kang Yujun didn’t make a show of sacrificing himself for him. Rather, he asked for help. As if this were Kang Yujun’s own matter rather than Lee Kanghyun’s.
Lee Kanghyun’s face heated up.
What have I been doing until now?
This was his own matter. It was a problem his own future, his life depended on.
And yet, he had been doing nothing, just watching it all like a fire across the river with his hands off. Rather, he had just been grumbling to Kang Yujun, who came to help, that it was annoying, that he didn’t want to do it.
As a result, he had made such an absurd request come out of Kang Yujun’s mouth.
This was, even by his own thinking, a bit… no, very trashy.
He couldn’t keep hiding behind Kang Yujun, leaving everything to him, using annoyance as an excuse forever. He couldn’t stand how pathetic he was.
Moreover, he also recalled what the grandmother at the home-style restaurant said earlier. There were people who believed in him. Kang Yujun, and that grandmother too.
He didn’t want to disappoint those people anymore.
Lee Kanghyun let out a deep sigh. It was a sigh as if the ground would cave in.
“Fine.”
He eventually said in a voice crawling in. He was already worried about the future, but he couldn’t act shamelessly anymore.
“I’ll do it. I said I’ll do it. Ha… I’m really going to die before my time because of you….”
