Chapter 109
My fingers trembled the entire time I grabbed the car keys and headed to the parking lot. Hyunjae’s sudden announcement had left me dizzy—I wanted to rush to him immediately, but at the same time, I didn’t want to repeat what happened to my parents two years ago. Even as I drove to Hansung Hospital, my legs wouldn’t stop shaking. Not once had I been given any warning or even a hint of a plan.
“You’re earlier than I expected.”
Han Jaemin was sitting in the research ward I always visited. He glanced at me, his legs propped up on the table, shoes still on. The room was empty except for him—not even an ant in sight.
“Dr. Jeon is really capable.”
“…”
“But being capable and being smart are two different things, don’t you think?”
“What are you talking about? Where is Dr. Jeon? Don’t tell me you’re up to something again.”
“Dr. Jeon says he can’t monitor the surgery.”
“…What?”
“After all the trouble of bringing in that insane Filipino gang for this surgery, now he’s backing out.”
“Why can’t he do it?”
“He says he’d rather be human first than a scholar.”
“…”
“That’s what he said. He won’t do it because your chance of survival is practically zero percent.”
“…Is that so?”
“What a conscience, huh?”
“That’s what normal people think. It’s only freaks like you who think differently.”
Han Jaemin’s eyebrows twitched. He seemed annoyed. Good. If Dr. Jeon had refused to monitor the surgery for any reason, finding another researcher in the country capable of handling it would be nearly impossible.
“So what are you going to do?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m asking what you’re going to do now that Dr. Jeon’s backing out.”
“Dr. Jeon called you, didn’t he?”
“What?”
“He told you to come. I already said it—Dr. Jeon’s the one who called you here.”
“What the hell are you talking about? You said Dr. Jeon refused to do the surgery. Then why did he call me here?”
“He said he couldn’t do it of his own free will. But he’s my employee, isn’t he? If his employer tells him to, he should do it. What’s he got to refuse?”
“You threatened him?”
“Don’t call it a threat. It was just a suggestion. Dr. Jeon seems to care more about his family than you, anyway.”
“You’re insane.”
“I want to cut ties with you as fast as possible, Chanhee.”
“…”
“If you’d just followed my plan, we could’ve both been better off by now. But no—you and your damn talk of love and destiny. Because of that nonsense, everything got delayed. If it weren’t for your brother, you’d have gone up in smoke with your parents.”
“What are you even trying to do with my brother’s power? How does taking it let you rule the world?”
“What?”
“Say you take my power and my brother’s. Then what? You gonna kill the president? Even if you do, does that make the world yours?”
“You sound like a kid.”
“Yeah, I’m a kid, so I don’t get it. Is this power really that amazing?”
“Just give it to me and lock yourself up at home. Watch how I climb to the top and erase every trace of that damn destiny you keep talking about.”
Han Jaemin’s words were heavy with implication. He was saying he’d shatter the so-called destiny written in that novel—where he was supposed to die at Dohyun’s hands. Not the system’s master, not even the protagonist of that “story,” just Han Jaemin, the villain.
“Do you know what my parents told me the day before they died?”
I had no idea. I stayed silent, waiting for him to continue.
“They said everything was happening just like Dohyun said it would. That we were going to die.”
“…”
“My mother and father—people who’d never known fear—were terrified. Despite their wealth, power, and reputation, they lived in nightmares every day because of one dead man’s words. Why do you think that was?”
“I don’t know. Why?”
“Why? You know damn well it’s because of that insane power your brother has. Don’t play dumb. If that power didn’t exist in this world, destiny wouldn’t mean a thing. But if I kill you, does that solve everything? What if that power just jumps to some other idiot? What if you ‘reset’ and come back to kill me someday?”
“You… calm down.”
Han Jaemin’s voice had been rising, but at my words, he sighed and ran a hand through his hair, ruining its usual neatness. His face was a mess—dark circles under his eyes, an overall exhausted look.
“…And is that what you call living?”
I’d always thought Han Jaemin was just a man seeking rebellion, grasping for power. But maybe he was just someone trying to survive. But did that justify killing people, crushing them without a second thought? For a moment, I thought of Dohyun in the scenario—indifferent as he let young Chanhee die, as he left Hyunjae bleeding out.
“You remind me a lot of my brother.”
Han Jaemin’s bloodshot eyes locked onto me.
“He wanted to live so badly, too.”
“…I’m sure he did. That’s probably why he said those things before he died.”
“But because of that damn power, he ended up dead anyway. Not just him—your parents, too.”
“…”
“Maybe it was just his fate to die.”
“There’s no such thing as fate.”
“Fine. Let me rephrase. He was just in a situation where he was going to die.”
“…”
“Everyone dies.”
“…”
“Just because you get my power doesn’t mean you won’t die.”
“At least I’d have some control over it.”
“Control?”
I let out a hollow laugh. Han Jaemin’s shoulders flinched at the sound.
“If I could control it, do you think I’d have died nine times?”
“Nine times?”
“Yeah, nine. Since you understand this power, I’ll put it plainly. Ever been stabbed to death? Crushed by a car? Beaten to death? Fallen from a rooftop? Or maybe just dropped dead for no reason?”
“Stop it.”
“Does stopping change the facts? I died like that and woke up in the same place every time. Do you think that’s happiness? Do you think going through the same death nine times is better than living? Even if you get my power, even if you come back to life after dying, you’ll never be happy. You’ll never feel safe.”
“That’s for me to decide.”
“Right. You always decide. That’s why you killed my parents, tried to kill Dr. Jeon and his family, and messed around with Gates.”
“I’ll judge after I have it.”
“Fine. Take it. It’s what I wanted anyway.”
Han Jaemin stared at me, confused. His fundamental fear wasn’t just dying—it was the anxiety of not controlling the system that dictated his fate.
“My brother hated me just because I was fated to live normally. So why did he pass this power to me? It’s like hot-potatoing a bomb. You’re the one trying to take it on yourself.”
“…”
“You heard him, didn’t you? What Dohyun said when he came out of the Gate. ‘I don’t want to be happy.’ How twisted is that? To think like that about a kid. That’s why he dumped this power on me—because he didn’t want me to be happy either.”
But even I, the owner of the system, was saying things he probably didn’t expect.
“You still want it?”
“…”
“This source of all your misery?”
Han Jaemin’s face paled.
