Kang Mingyu.
Actually, all this time, after seeing Yang Jeongil go to the Doomsday Cult, all Jaehee had done was think about what Kang Mingyu was doing.
For him, Kang Mingyu was someone not worth spending time thinking about. Honestly, wasn’t accepting Kang Mingyu as a subject something he’d chosen unavoidably? He hadn’t thought of looking for strong points in Kang Mingyu at all.
But will to live—that’s Kang Mingyu’s strong point?
Both Kang Mingyu and will to live were things he’d never thought about.
However, he definitely thought that will to live might be the most important thing in the current situation facing destruction.
He wasn’t someone with a great attachment to life.
Then what about Jeongwoo? Does Jeongwoo have as much desire to live as Kang Mingyu?
Looking at Jeongwoo left a bitter taste.
He couldn’t pinpoint it exactly, but Jaehee felt that Jeongwoo’s desire for life wasn’t very strong. No, in some sense, Jeongwoo felt like a person without will to live.
“Hoo. Right. Definitely…, it’s a rare strong point.”
“Hm?”
“I mean Kang Mingyu. A will to live strong enough not to give up even after seeing destruction countless times…. This definitely seems like a rare strong point.”
“Ah… right.”
It was when Jaehee and Jeongwoo returned to the pond while talking about this and that.
They saw something floating and swaying on the pond.
When Jaehee looked at Jeongwoo, Jeongwoo let out a short sigh.
“I’ll go get him.”
“Huh…? Oh, you’re taking off your clothes?”
“Yeah. It’s already the third time. Going into the pond. I don’t want to throw away more clothes.”
Unlike Jaehee who was flustered, Jeongwoo casually stripped off his clothes and tossed them aside.
Jaehee stared blankly at Jeongwoo’s body. Even clothed, it was a body where you could guess how firm it was, but once he threw off his clothes, it was beyond imagination.
His well-developed back muscles moved beautifully every time Jeongwoo moved. Feeling somehow thirsty, Jaehee swallowed.
“Wow…. Your body’s really good.”
“Huh?”
Jaehee belatedly realized he’d spoken aloud and was startled. Jeongwoo, who’d been walking toward the pond, turned around to look at Jaehee and smirked.
“Let’s work out together later.”
“Huh…? I’m not really….”
Before Jaehee’s words finished, Jeongwoo jumped into the pond with nimble movements. Jaehee knocked his own forehead while watching Jeongwoo already swimming in the pond.
Damn it. What if Jeongwoo thinks I’m a pervert?
Drooling over Jeongwoo’s naked body seemed perverted even to himself. But wasn’t it natural to have his gaze stolen by that sculpted body?
He knew that Jeongwoo carved out time to exercise even while busy. But working out together was absolutely out of the question. Comparing himself to Jeongwoo was a problem, but he wasn’t confident he wouldn’t act like a pervert watching Jeongwoo focused on exercising.
“Jeongwoo!”
Jaehee, lost in useless thoughts, saw Jeongwoo coming out of the pond and rushed over in a fluster.
Since this was the third time pulling someone out of the water, he’d instantly dragged Kang Mingyu out of the pond. Jeongwoo threw Kang Mingyu onto the grass and wiped his wet body with a towel he took out from his inventory.
“Jeongwoo, are you okay? Mingyu-ssi! Are you okay?”
“Hu, ah, n-no…”
Jaehee approached Kang Mingyu while watching Jeongwoo change clothes.
Kang Mingyu, who Jaehee thought would have lost consciousness, was unexpectedly not unconscious. However, he didn’t look in his right mind—Kang Mingyu trembled and muttered something while looking at empty air.
Jaehee took out a blanket from his inventory and wrapped it around Kang Mingyu.
“Mingyu-ssi! Hey! Snap out of it! J-Jeongwoo! Mingyu-ssi is acting strange. He doesn’t seem to be in his right mind.”
Jaehee lightly tapped Kang Mingyu’s cheek, but Kang Mingyu still couldn’t come to his senses.
With wide-open eyes staring at empty air, he flailed his limbs. At Jaehee’s cry, Jeongwoo, who’d been putting on his pants, rushed over.
“Hey, Kang Mingyu! Snap out of it!”
Jeongwoo grabbed Kang Mingyu and slapped his cheek a bit harder. But even so, Kang Mingyu was still in a strange state. Foam came from his open mouth and his eyes rolled back.
“J-Jeongwoo! What do we do!”
Kang Mingyu flailing his limbs looked like someone having an epileptic seizure or possessed. Jeongwoo spat out a short curse, then took out a potion from his inventory and poured it into Kang Mingyu’s mouth. Half flowed out, but he didn’t care. He rolled up a towel and supported the back of his neck so his airway wouldn’t be blocked.
“…Young ones. The solemn judgment of destruction has come before you.”
“Wh-what….”
From Kang Mingyu’s mouth, which had been muttering incomprehensible words, came the first understandable words.
The moment he heard those words, goosebumps rose. It was Kang Mingyu, but it couldn’t be called Kang Mingyu.
Kang Mingyu still lay on the grass trembling his limbs in an unconscious state, but the words coming from Kang Mingyu’s mouth were very precise. That was even more chilling.
“Probably, this is prophecy.”
Jeongwoo also had never directly seen a prophet prophesy. Prophets were that rare an existence.
“Destruction does its best to fulfill its destiny, yet you young ones only tremble and wail. Do not let destruction seize you by the scruff of the neck. Destruction watches you like a roaring lion, only waiting for the day to cut your breath.”
The more words he spat out, the more violently Kang Mingyu shook his body. Jaehee, frightened, unknowingly stepped back several steps.
To call that kind of thing prophecy, Kang Mingyu’s appearance was too frightening.
And at some moment, Kang Mingyu’s body went limp. Jaehee cautiously approached while reading the mood. He was startled with fear that Kang Mingyu might be dead, but fortunately Kang Mingyu’s chest rose and fell.
“M-Mingyu-ssi…? Mingyu-ssi…. Snap out of it.”
Since what Kang Mingyu had just shown was so terrible, Jaehee couldn’t even think to grab him and just stood at a distance calling him.
Then Kang Mingyu took a huge breath and exhaled with a puff, his eyes snapping open.
“Hueooooo!”
“Uh? Mingyu-ssi! Are you conscious?”
“Cr-crazy…. Th-this, this is, really…. Crazy…. It’s crazy!”
“Kang Mingyu. Get it together.”
Jeongwoo approached Kang Mingyu and held his hand. Kang Mingyu jumped in surprise, then realized it was Jeongwoo who’d grabbed him and let out a breath of relief.
“Cr-crazy…. It’s crazy. This is really… unbelievable. Woo Jeongwoo! This…. You, you too, did you know too?”
“Haa, know what exactly? You’re the prophet, not me. I understand you saw something, but don’t just say things only you know—speak slowly. At least drink some water.”
Kang Mingyu emptied the water Jeongwoo offered in one go with still-trembling hands. Only then, as if coming to his senses somewhat, he looked at Jeongwoo and Jaehee.
“You didn’t know either…? Then we’ve all, all been deceived.”
“About what?”
“We’ve been deceived by the system.”
“Wait. Don’t talk, wait a moment.”
Jeongwoo took out something from his inventory and thrust it down into the ground with a thud. Instantly, with a whirring sound, something enveloped them.
“What’s this?”
“This makes it so conversations can’t be eavesdropped from outside. This can only be used for at most around 1 minute. So speak quickly, Kang Mingyu. What exactly did you see?”
Tears suddenly streamed down from Kang Mingyu’s eyes. Kang Mingyu roughly rubbed his eyes with his arm.
“We’ve all been deceived, essentially. Having a King doesn’t mean destruction won’t come. Selecting a King is just a formality.”
“A formality?”
“Until now, following the information the system gives, we thought if a King appeared we could avoid destruction. But destruction isn’t like that. It’s not something that can be avoided like that. I wondered why the future wouldn’t change no matter how hard I tried, why Earth was always destroyed—it was inevitable. Destruction doesn’t come suddenly one day. Destruction has already come to Earth’s destiny.”
“What the hell does that mean? Speak so we can understand.”
“Woo Jeongwoo. You know about Constellations and Demon Kings, right?”
The moment sharp eyes stared piercingly, Jeongwoo’s expression hardened. Kang Mingyu nodded as if he’d expected that.
“Right. You know. Among Constellations, those with dark attributes are called Demon Kings to distinguish them from other Constellations. But being a Demon King doesn’t mean they’re not Constellations.”
“That’s not very important. You know that among Constellations, those with large factions have their own domains, right? Constellations’ domains don’t necessarily mean a planet or region. Some Constellations protect certain concepts, and some Constellations have specific occupational groups as their domain. Of course, the higher-concept things like certain concepts or ideologies naturally belong to stronger Constellations.”
Kang Mingyu took a deep breath and looked around at Jeongwoo and Jaehee. At some inexplicable pressure and tension, Jaehee bit his lip.
“And there’s also a Constellation that governs destruction. That Constellation has already come to Earth, and because of that, Earth has entered an unstoppable fate of destruction.”
After Kang Mingyu finished speaking, with good timing, the thin membrane surrounding them burst with a pop.
