Jeongwoo glared at Kang Mingyu.
He’d had doubts about Kang Mingyu for a long time. That’s why he’d deliberately joined the same group as Kang Mingyu even though Jaehee disliked him. But he’d never thought that Kang Mingyu would be a prophet.
A prophet. Damn it!
Prophets were the least known about even among the Whisperers.
There were many who came forward claiming to be prophets. Especially among well-known religious leaders, there were really many who claimed to be prophets. Most were either plausible-sounding frauds or people spouting nonsense, though some truly believed their words were real divine revelations and claimed to be prophets.
The few real prophets concealed their identities and acted covertly, so they weren’t beings you could meet just because you wanted to. Most prophets were also connected to Constellations, making them even harder to find.
But to find a prophet in this way….
Moreover, for Kang Mingyu to be a prophet really felt like getting hit hard on the back of the head.
The system’s talent classifications had always been difficult to accept, but for that Kang Mingyu to actually be a real prophet. If it’s like this, isn’t it natural that prophets can’t be found?…
“Jaehee was right.”
He shouldn’t have gotten involved with the likes of Kang Mingyu. He should have just ignored the likes of Kang Mingyu from the start…. It felt like Jaehee had gotten swept up in this because of him.
“I should have just left the likes of you alone without even caring. I put Jaehee in danger with unnecessary interference. You, if you’re really a prophet, tell me right now. What did you see in the water, and where is Jaehee now?”
Kang Mingyu met Jeongwoo’s eyes even while trembling. When Kang Mingyu sniffled, Jeongwoo took out a blanket from his inventory and threw it. It would be troublesome if he caught a cold now and collapsed with an excuse that he was sick.
At the rough handling, Kang Mingyu cautiously read the mood and wrapped himself in the blanket. Woo Jeongwoo’s aura had been fierce before too, but now he was truly scary. If he didn’t know Woo Jeongwoo originally, he could believe Woo Jeongwoo was a dungeon boss monster.
“What I saw inside was n-nothing much…. You already kn-know everything anyway, right?”
“Know what?”
“That this world is destined to be destroyed anyway…. We’re all going to die. Going to die.”
Kang Mingyu muttered with his head down, unable to even meet Jeongwoo’s eyes. In his soaking wet state like that, he really looked like someone who’d lost their mind. Jeongwoo clicked his tongue watching such a Kang Mingyu. Far from feeling sorry, irritation surged up.
Whether that bastard is a prophet or not, should I have just snapped his neck? Looking at what he’s done so far, it doesn’t seem like he’ll be of much help in the future either.
As Jeongwoo had various thoughts and looked at the calm pond, he let out a sigh. He needed to think rationally. To quickly get Jaehee back, it would be better to leave Kang Mingyu alone for now.
“Hey. Get your head straight and talk. Don’t mutter like a madman. And who’s dying! Once a King appears, everything will be over.”
“No. Everyone’s going to die. Everyone will die.”
“Hey!”
Jeongwoo let out an irritated shout. Kang Mingyu trembled his large body and looked at Jeongwoo with reddened eyes. In Kang Mingyu’s eyes were mixed various things—fear and anger, resentment, sadness.
“No matter what you say, this can’t be helped. We’re going to be ruined. Everyone will die. It can’t be helped. It’s already been decided.”
“Fuck. How unlucky.”
Jeongwoo spat on the ground.
Right. Now he remembered why he hated prophet bastards.
Prophet bastards were always like that. Either frauds or insane.
And prophets all said the same thing—that the future was already decided.
A future where Earth is destroyed.
“Do you think I want to say things like this? Do, do you know how many times I’ve seen the future? Hoping maybe a different future would appear, I looked dozens, hundreds of times a day. But not once did a different future ever appear. Al-always… Earth was completely destroyed.”
“Not even once…?”
“Right! Not even once! There’s only a difference in slow and fast….”
A dejected expression appeared on Jeongwoo’s face. It was an expression so deep and complex that it was hard to believe it belonged to a young man who’d just turned twenty.
Kang Mingyu stared blankly at such a Jeongwoo, then trembled.
It’s no use looking at him with that kind of face.
How many futures had he himself seen and seen again in despair?
He’d tried deceiving himself that there was hope, and thought about just continuing to try different things until a different future appeared. But no matter what he did, Earth’s future never changed even once. In thousands, tens of thousands of futures, Earth was destroyed without fail every single time.
Only a difference in early or late timing.
The conclusion was always the same.
Torn apart and plundered by alien Constellations drooling to devour Earth.
After stealing glimpses of countless futures too numerous to even remember, Kang Mingyu had despaired like that.
“That’s why I, I tried to become King! But…. But that’s not what a King was. The system talks as if having a King is enough, but humanity’s destruction is already fixed, so it can’t be changed.”
“…Shut up.”
“Do you think you’ll be any different? I’ve watched thousands, tens of thousands of destructions, and not once was there ever any hope….”
Kang Mingyu hadn’t had the prophecy skill from the beginning. After finishing the tutorial, after using an item called the Gem of the Blindfolded One, the prophecy skill appeared. He’d been forcibly class-changed and became a prophet.
They said it was an item that could only be used once, but after using the item, a skill called prophecy appeared—wasn’t this killing two birds with one stone?
But the skill didn’t show the future he wanted to see. The futures he could see couldn’t be chosen, and most had to be forcibly watched.
Who knew that prophecy would be this terrible?
The first time he saw Earth’s destruction was when he used the Gem of the Blindfolded One. But at that time, though he was somewhat surprised, he wasn’t as shocked as expected. He understood it as something that could happen. That it was a warning of the future shown because he was special.
So Kang Mingyu decided to become King himself. If he, who could see the future, became King, he could avoid destruction. Right, the item called the Gem of the Blindfolded One, the forced class change—these must have happened meaning he should become King and change the future.
Kang Mingyu believed that.
But no matter what he did, he couldn’t change the future. Sometimes he had to forcibly watch the time of destruction several times even in one day. He had to hear the sounds of countless people wailing.
Still, the future remained fixed, and Earth was steadily heading toward destruction.
Kang Mingyu was living in a despair so deep and dark that the word “despair” couldn’t fully explain it.
“Hey, prophet. So you saw that time of the end, and what did you do to prevent it?”
“I…I…! I did everything I could!”
“Don’t make me laugh. I’m not saying you didn’t do anything. But it was all ‘moderately’ to the extent you could, so it wasn’t enough to change the future.”
Jeongwoo lightly cracked his neck left and right watching Kang Mingyu shout indignantly. A threatening cracking sound rang out. Like a turtle pulling its head into its shell, Kang Mingyu pulled his head in and watched Jeongwoo’s mood.
“Hey, Kang Mingyu. Listen carefully. The future isn’t fixed. It’s set to change whenever a variable appears. It’s just that your actions weren’t strong enough to become variables, so the same result came out. But don’t think others will be the same just because you couldn’t do it.”
Jeongwoo’s words were chilling. Unlike his excited attitude from before, it was a much calmer tone. Because of that, Jeongwoo’s words reached Kang Mingyu more heavily and sharply.
Kang Mingyu gulped while looking at Jeongwoo.
Could it really be so? Was the future truly variable as Jeongwoo said?
Was it just that he hadn’t provided enough of a variable, and could he believe there was hope for Earth’s future? Could he really dream of a different future and hope besides destruction?
He felt like crying.
What Jeongwoo said was actually what Kang Mingyu had desperately wanted someone to tell him all this time.
“Is, is that so? Really…?”
Jeongwoo didn’t answer and turned his head away.
But Kang Mingyu kept thinking inside.
A future without destruction.
An Earth with a rightful King, protected by that King.
Just thinking about it was ecstatic.
“Prophet. So tell me. What was in that water? Where is Jaehee now?”
