# Chapter 137
Ping! Ping!
The sound of bullets twisting in their trajectory and grazing the surroundings was quite chilling. Lee Hwan desperately operated his ability to clear away all the incoming bullets while running toward the bag.
As expected, several Awakened people burst out from the opposite side. Lee Hwan captured a space wide enough to catch even the fastest ones, pressed it down heavily, then raised a shield above and suddenly released the gravity.
The Awakened people, unable to control their own momentum, shot upward and had their necks snapped with a cracking sound as they hit the invisible barrier. The light faded from several of their eyes.
Those who had their backs facing the shield rather than their heads were still among the better-off ones. Some were writhing on the ground or coughing up blood, but otherwise they were surprisingly fine.
As if intending to kill him, a strange weapon like a huge cake knife flew toward Lee Hwan’s vicinity.
“Ugh…!”
He managed to avoid the attack by rolling, but this put him further away from the bag. In contrast, the man who had thrown the weapon at him was close enough to reach the bag with just an outstretched hand.
Just as his hand was about to pick up the bag…
Whoosh!
“Arghh!”
Intense flames rose and burned the man’s legs. There was no need to turn and look. Only Taesung could handle fire like this.
Unable to withstand the pain, the man screamed and collapsed, and a solid rock flew down upon him like a hammer.
Crack!
This time there wasn’t even a scream. Blood began to flow around the man, whose head appeared to have been cracked open. Lee Hwan felt a chill at the telekinesis that seemed somehow familiar.
Lee Hwan’s hand quickly grabbed the bag. At the same time, his body shook with a loud impact and his shoulder burned as if scorched by fire.
“Kuk, urgh!”
He had been so focused on the bag that he’d forgotten about the guns. Gritting his teeth against the surging pain, he once again used his ability with all his might. Two or three bullets that had been flying toward him narrowly grazed his ears and veered off in different directions.
Checking his shoulder, it seemed that thanks to his shield, his bone wasn’t shattered, but the bullet appeared to be lodged inside.
Lee Hwan left his right arm, which wasn’t moving properly, as it was and grabbed the bag with his left hand to sling it over his shoulder. Then he shouted angrily at Taesung, who was walking out of the fire pit.
“Duck!”
Simultaneously, he used his ability again, and a bullet grazed over Taesung’s head. Lee Hwan exhaled a sigh of relief and once again painfully gritted his teeth.
“Haah, haah…”
He felt hot liquid trickling down from the inside of his nose. A metallic taste filled his mouth as if blood was rising up through his throat.
Above all, his shoulder where he had just been shot hurt so much it was suffocating.
“Item secured!”
When he raised his voice as if shouting, Taesung and Jade both turned their heads at once. They seemed to understand his call to flee and quickly turned their bodies away from their struggling opponents.
Taesung’s face, as he approached Lee Hwan, was frightfully rigid. His gaze swept over Lee Hwan’s bleeding face and then reached his shoulder, soaked deep red, where his eyes noticeably wavered.
“There’s too little cover. Let’s head to the mountain!”
At Jade’s words, everyone turned in that direction. Jade was effectively blocking incoming attacks by moving nearby objects with telekinesis.
He seemed to have seized and suspended several weapons, but there was too little time to use them. As they ran toward the mountain, Taesung suddenly pulled Lee Hwan toward him.
“Ugh…!”
Countless blades aimed for lethal damage flew and embedded where Lee Hwan had been standing. If not for Taesung, he would surely have become a pincushion.
Had there been gunfire, he would have responded earlier, but weapons like these made no sound, making them hard to dodge when coming from behind.
Still, it was fortunate that he was safe, but…
Was the problem that Taesung’s attention was diverted while trying to protect Lee Hwan, causing him to extinguish his flames? Two or three Awakened people who had been kept at bay by the flames rushed in like the wind and caught up.
All sorts of unheard-of weapons targeted them from every direction. Lee Hwan did his best to deflect all attacks aimed at Taesung, while Taesung incinerated everything directed at Lee Hwan, turning them to ashes.
Then, when a small bomb exploded nearby, Lee Hwan was knocked down by the force. In that life-threatening moment, Taesung unexpectedly threw himself over Lee Hwan, shielding him.
‘No!’
It all happened in an instant, not even enough time to shout.
Peet—!
With a strange sound of air splitting, all the weapons flying wildly stopped in front of Taesung.
At the same time, flames erupted at every location where the pursuers were presumed to be. Amid echoing screams from all directions, Jade walked through the weapons floating in the air.
“This guy is crazy. Who the hell blocks attacks with their back? You’re not some rookie who’s only been a Hunter for a day or two.”
Jade smacked the back of Taesung’s head hard with an angry expression. Taesung glanced at Lee Hwan, who was still frozen with his mouth agape, then got up with an annoyed look on his face.
“I was planning to set off an explosion behind my back.”
“You’d still have taken a couple bullets.”
“Wouldn’t die.”
Looking at Taesung talking such nonsense, Lee Hwan could fully understand Jade’s feelings.
Lee Hwan himself would have deployed a shield behind Taesung, so he wouldn’t have died or been seriously injured. But what if for some reason he hadn’t been able to use his shield in time? What if Taesung’s explosion had been slightly weaker or misfired? What if their weapons had unimaginable power that could easily overcome such defenses?
Without Jade, Taesung would have died or been severely injured. Just like right before the regression.
And Taesung, despite his stubborn insistence that he would have been fine, probably knew that too. Lee Hwan didn’t understand why someone with no memories would try so hard to protect him, but the thought that he could have lost Taesung sent a bone-chilling feeling down his arm.
“First we need to get out of here… oh.”
As Lee Hwan hurriedly got up following Taesung, he suddenly felt a dizzying sensation as if his vision was fading, and he slumped back to the ground.
A cold feeling, like ice-cold water being poured from the top of his head down his back, enveloped his entire body. That familiar sensation had returned.
This time it wasn’t vaguely passing by in circles, but targeting him directly, with certainty.
‘No way…’
Not here. It was far too dangerous right now. Lee Hwan desperately tried to get up again but staggered and fell forward. Taesung quickly caught him and wrapped him in his arms, but neither the warm temperature nor the familiar scent could keep his consciousness anchored.
[You have discovered a piece of causality.]
And so, in an unexpected place, in an unprepared state, Lee Hwan once again fell into hallucination.
* * *
There was no time for this. He needed to quickly grab the bag, escape, and find an alternative plan.
Why had a piece of causality appeared in a place like this? What condition had been satisfied?
He knew from past experience that time flowed slowly while seeing hallucinations. But right now, every minute and second was precious.
Praying that he wouldn’t be a major hindrance, Lee Hwan’s consciousness slowly sank into a deep pit.
What appeared before his eyes was a ruined city. A place Lee Hwan knew well.
No, an unforgettable place. He had seen it again as if engraving it in his mind in the last piece of causality.
“Grrrr, kahak!”
A mutated giant monster lunges at a brown-haired man. Though showing signs of fatigue, he skillfully avoids the claws and slashes the monster’s foreleg with his sword.
This was the final battle before the regression. The piece of causality was showing Lee Hwan’s battle scene again.
The peculiar thing was that this battle hadn’t appeared in the memory shown by the previous piece of causality.
Was this showing the battle scene that had been cut off last time? Lee Hwan couldn’t guess the intention of causality in deliberately breaking this apart and placing it separately.
“Kahaaaaak! Kheung!”
The enraged monster, dripping blood, charges again. Lee Hwan in the memory avoids all the attacks with nimble movements, fast enough to create a sound of wind.
Beside him, Taesung is continuously damaging the monster, appropriately using his abilities and skills.
Though his skin is torn in various places where he’s been grazed, and blood trickles from Lee Hwan’s mouth as he uses his ability, it seems like they could barely defeat the monster without major injuries if things continued like this.
‘But that’s not what happened.’
The past memory is still so clear and vivid that Lee Hwan wishes he could close his eyes if only he could.
By the end of that day’s battle, they had to fight for their lives. Especially in the second round, it was nothing short of a nightmare.
Because the monster underwent another transformation.
“Kaaaah!”
Crack!
The scene before his eyes changes drastically.
Suddenly, the monster’s speed becomes insanely fast. Its foreleg scratches across Lee Hwan’s chest.
“Kugh!”
Fortunately, it’s not deep. But his clothes are torn, leaving a long wound, and he loses his balance.
Bang!
Thanks to Taesung’s attack, the monster retreats a couple of steps. But immediately, its long, huge foreleg stretches toward Taesung.
They say if you raise the temperature of flames high enough, you can reduce most objects to ashes before they touch your skin, but this case is an exception.
Unlike ice, flames can’t physically block attacks. Taesung urgently steps back and signals to Lee Hwan with his eyes, and upon receiving the signal, Lee Hwan’s eyes light up as he designates a space near the foreleg.
Lee Hwan still remembers the restriction he set then.
‘Objects exceeding 100 kilometers per hour will now have their speed infinitely slowed within that space.’
It’s a choice that might only buy a few seconds, but in a battle where every moment counts, that’s enough to secure victory.
While the monster is unable to retract its foreleg, Taesung will completely incinerate it.
Even if it doesn’t catch fire easily, it’s not a problem. A few seconds of intense heat will cause severe injury, if not death.
Unfortunately, however, that tactic didn’t work well at that time. The moment Lee Hwan restrained the monster’s foreleg, strange signs began to appear as the area around the monster’s neck started bulging irregularly.
‘I didn’t know then that the mutated monster was unstable.’
Witnessing the forcibly unfolding memory, Lee Hwan feels as if his head is about to split.
