I held Kim Haewon back. Kim Haewon looked at me then lowered his gaze back to the ring.
“How did you know? That there was really a ring here? That Wang Feng’s ring was a gate?”
“I felt a gate reaction from the ring. That’s why I threw it. If this wasn’t the Alliance Leader’s ring, I thought the real one would be inside the horn Guide Park Garam mentioned. Finding the ring was luck.”
Kim Haewon gave me the ring. I looked at the ring then looked up at him.
“Why are you giving this to me?”
“Hold onto it.”
“No, what if I get it stolen?”
“For some reason, I feel like Guide Park Garam should be the one holding it. Among the four of us.”
“What does that mean? Obviously it’d be better for one of the three SS-class espers to have it than me.”
I said while looking at Emily and Gabriel. Then those two also shook their heads and continued the conversation.
{We fully agree with Haewon’s opinion too.}
{You can tell the gate’s atmosphere is serious even without going in. We might not come back alive, so it’s right for the person staying here to have it.}
{Even if there’s a risk of loss.}
I looked at Kim Haewon in shock. I looked at him hoping this translation was wrong, but he just nodded quietly.
“It’s that dangerous? That’s ridiculous! Where does this sudden thing come from!”
“We’re people who always have to face such situations.”
“Where are such people? Request additional support! You obviously have to live!”
I spoke as if spewing passionate words. Kim Haewon placed the ring on my hand and continued.
“We’re making this judgment thinking of the worst-case scenario. Don’t worry too much. There are three SS-class espers. We’re strong, and we’ll definitely come back alive. We’ll do our best to do so.”
“Can you be certain?”
“I’m certain.”
“Then I’m really only holding this for a moment. You have to come back and take it. Since this puts me in danger, Esper Kim Haewon has to come and take it back.”
I said while shaking my fist holding the ring. With eyes that said I’d kill him if he came back seriously injured. As I shook it repeatedly, Kim Haewon held my fist.
“Don’t worry.”
{Haewon and Haewon’s partner get along well.}
Emily said teasingly. I pushed away Kim Haewon’s hand and also said to the two espers:
“The two esper guides at the barracks are definitely worried too. They’ll feel the same as me, so come back without getting hurt.”
{So bright-eyed and kind too.}
Gabriel smiled prettily and pulled out gloves from his back pocket and put one on. Even without measuring, the energy coming from the gate seemed so intense that all three espers were tense. They couldn’t know what kind of monster was there or what type it was. The three people stood around the gate as if it didn’t matter.
“This is Kim Haewon. Situation report. A gate was generated from the ring confiscated from Pamundong’s Wang Feng. The three SS-class espers on site will confirm and handle it.”
Kim Haewon didn’t mention the ring found inside the horn. When the report ended, Kim Haewon turned to look at me. I nodded once. Kim Haewon stood at the front and entered the gate. It wasn’t even a particularly resolute expression, yet I didn’t know why such a chill ran through me. I opened the hand that had been holding the ring.
The ring’s diameter wasn’t very large. About the size to fit my middle or ring finger. I looked at the ring quietly then put it on my ring finger. It seemed better to wear it than hold it.
The moment I put on the ring, I collapsed from pain as if someone had struck my head hard. For a moment it felt like my brain was shaking.
“Argh!”
It was an intense, short headache. Even after the headache disappeared, I gasped and caught my breath for a while. There was no change to the hand wearing the ring. I stayed still for a while with my hand on the ground then barely got up. My legs trembled. Just as I thought maybe I shouldn’t have put on the ring, my phone rang.
[Notification] <I’ve Been Possessed by a Real-Time Serial Novel> Chapter 22 has been uploaded.
It was a novel update notification. I pressed the notification with trembling hands. I couldn’t stand how curious I was about what the Alliance Leader’s ring was and how this gate was operating. I sat leaning my back against a pillar and slowly scrolled down.
The novel briefly covered the process of Kim Haewon and me coming to Pamundong, the first gate, and the story about Wang Feng. Then the scene changed like a climax at the moment Kim Haewon broke the horn. To VENT’s headquarters where Will Taylor was.
“Will Taylor let out an empty laugh at the wiretap that burst the moment Wang Feng was caught. He couldn’t let his guard down anywhere Kim Haewon was deployed. He somehow found traces of infiltration and cut them out. Without making any report to the Association.
‘Anyway, did the ring pass into Kim Haewon’s hands?’
VENT Chairman Kim Seonhyeop’s will to obtain the Alliance Leader’s ring was strong. It seemed Kuhne would move this time too. However, before that, Alexa Lu died.
VENT and Kuhne withdrew all the personnel they were going to deploy. Alexa Lu was MK’s action leader. There were various opinions on why she died, but there was no particular reason. She was simply sacrificed as an example.
To remind them once again who held their leashes.
‘Still, she was too valuable a person to kill like that.’
Only the Alliance Leader had no such regret. They killed her without hesitation. As if there were plenty of replacements.
It was truly absolute power. Next could be Will Taylor himself, or it could be Chairman Kim Seonhyeop.
Only the heads of each organization knew exactly what power the Alliance Leader’s ring held.
MK’s K, VENT’s Kim Seonhyeop, Pamundong’s Suo Weiqian, Kuhne’s Anastasia.
Will Taylor believed he could know too. Since he had shown this level of loyalty, Kim Seonhyeop would reveal it to him alone. But he didn’t.
‘Kim Haewon will know before me again.’
Again, again, again, again. Will Taylor slammed the desk with a bang. It felt like an opponent he could never surpass was blocking his path.
‘I want to kill him quickly. With my own hands. Definitely, with my own hands.’
His inferiority complex blazed up explosively.”
Will Taylor’s hostility toward Kim Haewon was fully prominent in this chapter. It showed his true self, who had been restraining his emotions as much as possible until now and only moved according to Chairman Kim’s words. A man blinded by jealousy was foolish and ugly. Enough to shatter his previously neat appearance in an instant.
“The girl turned her head seeing the moonlight drastically diminish. Toward an empty leather chair. A cigarette placed on an old desk was burning down, gradually shrinking.
“They found it.”
“Fortunate. What about the others?”
The girl shook her head. She prostrated herself on the cold floor and continued.
“Boring.”
“It’ll become interesting.”
“How?”
The girl asked while rolling her eyes. She brought her finger to a place where a very small amount of moonlight shone. Smoke rose like a cigarette fire, like a heat haze.
“I’ll bring them back. That child.”
The girl’s face brightened as she bolted upright.
“Park Garam?””
I stopped scrolling. It was my name. The girl knows about me. Since there’s no boundary between dream and reality, I knew she would know me. But specifically wanting me had a different meaning.
‘Why does she want me instead of Kim Haewon? And what does bringing me back mean? As if I’ve been there before? Does it mean when I visited in the dream?’
My head was full of question marks. The Alliance Leader in the novel nodded. As if saying they would bring me to where they were. At his reaction, the girl clapped and rejoiced. It was also the first time she showed a childlike, cute appearance.
Just seeing it in text, it seemed like I could picture the child smiling, and it was agonizing. It was a pitiful situation. The appearance of a girl living without knowing the things she commits are evil deeds. Fortunately, the Alliance Leader’s space ended there. The location switched to inside the gate.
“Haewon, who stepped foot inside the gate, realized Emily and Gabriel weren’t visible. And that his feet were gradually sinking into a black swamp. Agonizing screams pierced his ears.
{Damn, what is this? It’s too cold!}
It was Emily’s voice.
{Cold? I feel like I’m dying from the heat! The air is stuffy too. I feel something like volcanic ash!}
Even as Gabriel spoke, Haewon’s feet were sinking below the swamp. Haewon was neither cold nor hot. ‘Wetland’, ‘swamp’. He recalled those words Garam had told him. Haewon found a hint in those words. This gate was creating the espers’ inner selves as illusions.
{Emily, Gabriel. Get your heads straight. We’re each seeing different illusions.}
{Illusions? What does that mean?}
There was one esper he remembered using this ability. Suo Weiqian when wielding S-class level. His mental destruction had this characteristic. It was a monstrous ability that dug into the most secret inner self of an esper that only their pair could enter and destroyed their mind.
{The only esper with this gate’s ability is Pamundong’s Suo Weiqian.}
{That’s impossible. He’s dead!}
That’s right. Suo Weiqian was dead. Before his own eyes. How could a dead person’s ability be summoned as a gate? It couldn’t be explained logically. The moment his conviction wavered, Haewon’s feet felt like they sank another span below the wetland.”
This is nonsense. How could the dead Suo Weiqian become a gate? No, more than that, what happened to Kim Haewon? I pressed the radio.
“Kim Haewon-ssi, Esper Kim Haewon! Can you hear me?”
Only crackling noise could be heard, no voice returned.
