# Chapter 116
“Is that the life Young-ssi wants?”
Crunch. Young gritted her molars. Everyone has a past. No one should carelessly judge another’s circumstances. How dare he, when he’s never even experienced being abandoned because of his abilities.
“What do you know?”
Simultaneously, Young extended her staff forward. Like an extension of the long staff, icicles stretched out from its tip. The sharp ice rushed precisely toward Iyeon.
“This world only respects the strong. What’s wrong with wanting to become stronger by any means necessary?”
She sneered. Staring straight at the ice mass bearing down on him, Iyeon smirked. White sand instantly clumped together. What formed was a large guillotine.
“I don’t know.”
Click! The guillotine activated. The icicles easily shattered against the sharp blade.
“But that’s not the way.”
“Cut the sanctimonious crap!”
Young shouted sharply as she shook her staff. The icicle fragments fell, making a clattering sound. She ran as if sliding on ice. Several small icicles formed around her.
“Young-ssi, what have you done with your enhanced powers?”
Instead of answering, sparkling ice awls showered down on Iyeon. A shield as large as Iyeon’s body rose from the ground. Most of the icicles were blocked and shattered by the shield, while some became embedded, but none penetrated through.
Young created a gentle ice slope between the shield and the floor. Her body, gaining momentum, easily soared over the shield. Iyeon quietly looked up at the woman falling toward him from high above. Her body, pulled far back, was tensed as if about to strike Iyeon’s head.
“Ruining others’ missions? Randomly killing any low-level mutant you come across?”
At that moment, Iyeon’s vision was blocked. Shields that sprang up from the floor on both sides curved into an arch shape, covering Iyeon’s head. Bang! With a sharp impact sound, Young hit only the shield and bounced off, spinning half a turn in midair before landing. As the shield turned to sand and disappeared, the shadow cast over Iyeon’s face cleared.
“Didn’t you have something you wanted to do when you became a hunter?”
Young didn’t answer Iyeon’s question, but something was bubbling in her eyes. The floor remained frozen solid. The glistening ice was so transparent that it perfectly reflected her figure.
The moment Young felt her strength increase after the transplant, she ran to her father. Despite the pain in her arm that felt like her muscles were tearing—a side effect—she was too excited to care. She wanted to show off quickly. To tell him that her ability had grown this strong, that she had finally become the superpower user her father wanted.
Please look at me.
But her father was horrified as soon as he heard Young’s story. After staring at her surgical scar for a long time, he muttered with trembling eyes.
‘No, I didn’t… I didn’t want this. For you to do this… I just wanted to see you become a hunter and succeed…’
Tears flowed from his wrinkled eyes. Young stupidly watched her father crying endlessly while caressing the stitched area.
This isn’t what he wanted?
…After all this time, he’s saying this isn’t what he wanted?
“Can you do that now?”
Young’s newly acquired superpower not only far exceeded her original gi-ryeok capacity but also had subtle differences in its range. The Superpower Management Office would raise suspicions and try to conduct a thorough examination. She would need to explain herself to receive a tier promotion evaluation.
There was no way she could proudly admit to receiving an illegal superpower transplant. She would never be able to advance to a higher tier.
“Bull…shit…”
After that day, Young left home. Resentment, anger, regret, irritation. When she saw her father’s face, these emotions gripped her heart. Every time her father looked at her with guilt-ridden eyes… Young couldn’t possibly express what that feeling was.
So she ran away.
She headed back to the factory where she had the surgery. When she said she wanted to work there, they readily employed her. Screening tier 1 superpower users likely to agree to surgery, recommending transplants to them, guarding the surgery site…
That was Seo Young’s current life.
“You said you wanted to become a hunter.”
Young had stopped moving by now.
“You’re not weak, Young-ssi.”
“……”
“You can do it without this. You’d probably do well.”
Iyeon said quietly.
“So give this up and go do what you want.”
His soft voice fell in the now-quiet warehouse. Jeongheon and the girl had also stopped fighting at some point and were looking at Young. There were too many lights mixed in Young’s eyes, making her emotions unreadable.
“What business is it of yours?”
Young had always been a fragment of a star, wandering alone. She believed that someday she would shine in the night sky, but she always had to look up. The sky only grew more distant as time passed. She knew she should give up, but she couldn’t lower her head.
She too wanted to shine.
She wanted to be a whole star, not just a fragment.
“We only met once anyway, you could just move on.”
Until now, no one had said such things to Young. No one had pushed her, but no one had stopped her either. Even her father had only watched what she was doing.
No one was beside Young when she hesitated. No one told her not to go where she was heading as she kept walking toward an unknown destination. Despite countless worries and anxieties, decisions had to be made. There was no luxury of finding signposts. As if being chased by something, she made choices and never looked back to see if there were other paths. She pretended they didn’t exist.
She didn’t know she would end up dwelling on those moments over and over again.
“Of course, it’s not really my business.”
Iyeon shrugged lightly. From his lived experiences to his approach to life, he was completely different from Young. He hadn’t heard the depths of her circumstances. He couldn’t understand her desperate feelings. He couldn’t empathize.
“But I can still try to convince you not to die.”
He had fun working with Young at the Superpower Office. He thought it would be nice if she became a good hunter. He wanted to go see her protecting her hometown with her father.
It was just these small, humble, vague feelings combined that made him hope she wouldn’t give up.
A tense atmosphere flowed as if they were having a staring contest. Hah. A sound like a deep exhalation escaped between Young’s lips.
“Just for that…”
Young wasn’t a fool. At some point, she realized that things were not going as she had thought. Power that didn’t feel like her own. An arm that hurt as if it would break every time she used it. People who hid these facts and lured others in. People who complained of pain. There were countless moments when she hesitated. Is this not right? But what other way… While constantly denying the doubts that kept rising, she actually knew they were valid.
She just didn’t have the courage to stop herself.
She couldn’t admit that she was wrong. It felt like the world would collapse if she acknowledged her mistake. It seemed like a failed life. Because walking the path was so difficult, she became afraid to turn back. That anxiety constantly created rationalizations for her choices. I wanted to become stronger, and I did. So I succeeded.
I achieved something.
As if this could possibly be success.
Young raised her gaze. Looking back at her was the obtuse, carefree face of the person who had clung to her and finally made her stop.
“You’re truly the most stupid hunter I’ve ever seen.”
Iyeon smiled brightly.
“Thanks for the compliment.”
The frozen floor was gradually melting.
“What happened to your ability?”
Young slung her staff back over her shoulder and folded her arms. Throughout Iyeon’s attacks, she hadn’t seen anything like paper. Moreover, his reaction speed and response methods… none were the kind that could be pre-drawn.
“…Don’t tell me you’ve already received a transplant too?”
“The opposite.”
Young looked at him with an uncomprehending face, but instead of giving a kind answer, Iyeon looked at Jeongheon. More precisely, at the girl who had been fighting Jeongheon.
“Should we subdue her?”
Young looked at the girl. Despite the clearly changed situation, the girl was staring at her with an expressionless face. When Young attacked, she attacked together; when Young stopped attacking, she also stopped. The girl was like a puppet controlled by Young.
“…No.”
However, at the quietly emerged answer, the girl’s face brightened just a tiny bit.
“She’s coming with me.”
Iyeon threw out a teasing joke.
“See? Having a companion is better than being alone, right?”
At those words, Young looked alternately at the girl and Iyeon with a slightly surprised expression, then raised the corner of her mouth.
“…I suppose so.”
