# Chapter 29
“…I suppose Kang Dongha told you to call me that?”
Taesung’s voice settled coldly. Though the surroundings were still warm from the burning ground, it felt like chills were running up his spine.
Moreover.
‘Should I run?’
Looking at those eyes that had become calm and cold again, Lee Hwan instinctively almost covered his head. It was because the memory of sharp blows to his head was deeply engraved in his mind.
‘But, shit…’
Lee Hwan felt inexplicably wronged. Why suddenly ask about that? He couldn’t just make up a name on the spot, and it would be awkward to call him “hey,” “you,” or “that person.”
After all, he was dealing with someone wearing a mask. He should have assumed he wouldn’t need to use his real name. Besides, why was he getting so serious if that was his real name?
“…You have a problem with my name, I see?”
Lee Hwan had always been bold. Although he knew how to be humble in front of superiors, he had never lived being dragged around and mistreated like a fool. So this time too, he gritted his teeth and shot back. Forgetting how he’d been feeling nostalgic while looking at Taesung’s back just moments ago, his voice came out slightly irritated.
“Is your real name really…”
“Kim. Jeong. Shik.”
Since he was already screwed, Lee Hwan just started going all out.
“Is there a problem with the name my parents, now in heaven, got for me at a naming office on a snowy day?”
That never happened.
“They named me with ‘jeong’ meaning correct and ‘shik’ meaning knowledge, so I would live righteously and knowledgeably. It’s a good meaning.”
No one had ever attached such meaning to his name. Besides, Lee Hwan’s birthday was in autumn, so snow would have been a weather anomaly.
Since his face was already hidden behind a mask anyway, Lee Hwan decided to be brazen. He didn’t want the atmosphere to turn brutal while they were hesitating here inside a gate where no one would know if someone died for a while. In combat situations, more dangerous than monsters was the rampage of someone with great strength.
Silence flowed for a long time. Only the crackling sound of burning wood echoed in the stillness.
Only after a drop of sweat rolled down Lee Hwan’s temple…
“…That’s a nice name.”
Unexpectedly, Taesung calmed down. As if he’d been waiting for this, Jade walked up from behind and pulled Taesung to a corner, while Lee Hwan caught his breath with his pounding heart.
‘Shit… Mom, I’m sorry.’
Lee Hwan, who had suddenly taken on a completely different surname, quietly apologized in his heart.
And so Lee Hwan became Mr. Kim Jeongshik. It was quite amusing to see one of them flinch every time Taesung or Jade called him. Lee Hwan thought they were making a big deal out of nothing—it wasn’t even their name, just an overlapping alias.
By the way, it was quite unexpected that Kang Dongha knew Taesung’s name for package deliveries. If that was the case, he was exactly the type of person who would make such a request just to annoy Taesung, that troller.
What on earth made him become like that? It was understandable why Taesung had suddenly become agitated.
After catching another group of squirrels, Mr. Kim Jeongshik, Taesung, and Jade sat around in an open area to take a short rest.
An awkward silence had fallen among the three since Lee Hwan became Mr. Kim Jeongshik. There hadn’t been much personal conversation to begin with, but now even Jade’s briefings had become suffocatingly awkward.
“Ahem… We’ll rest for 20 minutes and then move forward to the right. For the weasels, we won’t use flame above a certain level for the byproducts.”
Nevertheless, Lee Hwan felt quite pleased. It felt like the transparent wall that had been standing firmly between him and them since earlier had partially collapsed.
While listening to Jade’s guidance, Lee Hwan chewed on the beef jerky he had brought. The salty jerky tore between his teeth. The taste of field rations, which he had once been sick of and wanted to spit out, now felt quite welcome.
‘…Not bad.’
The tension he had felt before coming here had disappeared as if it had been an illusion.
The moment Taesung asked for his name—it had felt so familiar. From the times when he remained friends with him. Lee Hwan felt an unexpected warmth squeezing his heart.
If he let this fluttering feeling remain, it seemed like he could float about 1 centimeter above the ground, as if wings had sprouted between his armpits.
‘Regression veteran Joo Toori…’
To calm his overly excited heart, Lee Hwan had some useless thoughts for a moment, hoping it would settle his wavering insides a bit.
He still remembered the day he first joined the attack team. The moment that changed his entire life, and when his heart started beating in a life that had mostly been about struggling to get by.
By then, Kang Taesung was already the ace of the attack team who had secured the advance party. S-class ability, innate control skills, and leadership. He had been open with Lee Hwan first, though it was hard to believe they were the same age.
It was already a time when his heart was swelling with expectations for his newly awakened ability. From then on, Lee Hwan’s life, which had been empty and faded in places, began to be filled with color.
‘What should I call you?’
Thinking about it again, even that question seemed like the Kang Taesung he knew. That’s why it felt like there was a pounding sound even in his head. Lee Hwan bit his lip slightly.
How could he forget that image? Not anyone else, but himself.
* * *
The battle resumed. Taesung drove the weasels with flames while Jade and Lee Hwan easily caught the groups using tools.
Rather, compared to the occasional misalignment between Jade and Taesung, he fit perfectly with Lee Hwan, making the back of Taesung’s black head seem somewhat excited.
No matter how much know-how and skills had increased to reduce injuries, combat in a gate was fundamentally a life-risking act. Even if it was an ability from an unknown person, it couldn’t feel bad to have a supporter who neatly adhered to his attacks.
Kid. Acting cute. Lee Hwan quietly let out a laugh.
However, the problem occurred next. There was something unexpected when burning monsters with fire.
Splash.
Lee Hwan, who had stepped forward past Taesung, ducked his head in surprise. The blood from the mass-slaughtered weasels had flowed to touch the sole of his shoe.
Animal realm monsters almost always shed red blood. Moreover, if one wanted to catch them without damaging their fur or other materials, they had to kill them one by one, making them bleed, without using fire or ice.
It was such an everyday matter that he hadn’t even thought about it specifically.
As he stepped again, splash, bright red bloody water splattered up to his calf. Lee Hwan unconsciously stepped back. And then he was bewildered.
Lee Hwan before the regression hadn’t been afraid of seas of blood. He had remained composed despite seeing countless deaths until the very last moment. But was his mind becoming lax? Since returning, strange things happened occasionally.
Sweat formed moistly on his forehead. Lee Hwan quickly tried to wipe it off but ended up striking his mask with a thud, then swallowed hard and stepped back.
‘Damn it…’
He had experienced battles to the point of nausea, yet his body was stiffening at the sight of liquid that flowed within his own body as well, which was quite displeasing. However, betraying his thoughts, Lee Hwan’s body took another step back.
And, thunk.
His back was blocked by something solid.
Taesung was standing there. He was looking down slightly at Lee Hwan. When their eyes met, it felt bewitching.
Like a phantom wafting through the smell of blood, his body scent.
Was it because of his flame ability? Even though there were clothes between them, the place where they touched inexplicably felt hot.
He sent a gaze toward Lee Hwan for a moment, then spoke without preamble.
“With this level of skill, this can’t be your first combat.”
He seemed to know that Lee Hwan had stepped back at the sight of blood.
“Seeing how you attack according to the monsters’ habits, you’re even proficient, so why are you scared?”
Lee Hwan knew Taesung well. Although he had never been this intimidating to him before, what was contained in those eyes was basically interest. There was no need to avoid him since they weren’t filled with contempt or anger.
Nevertheless, when Taesung reached out to rest his hand on his shoulder and brought his face right up close, Lee Hwan instinctively grabbed his mask tightly and held his breath.
“…Are you from a military corporation?”
A body frozen at the sight of abundant blood, dilated pupils. He didn’t react to ammunition and flames, but it was unmistakably war trauma.
To say it was an issue with the gate didn’t fit because Lee Hwan had been fine when entering, and he had already dealt with plant realm monsters once. Then clearly, this abundant blood must be the issue.
It was still 2022, a time when humans hadn’t been trampled by monsters yet. If so, the only opportunity to see abundant red blood outside of gates would be in war. Taesung had perceptively realized this.
First-world countries had already made agreements among themselves to refrain from deploying Awakened individuals during wars. However, civil wars and terrorism in nations that collapsed after the emergence of gates were somewhat different.
In those places, unregistered Awakened individuals seeking a big score jumped into death like moths to a flame, looking only at money. People burst like bags of blood.
Lee Hwan soon realized what misunderstanding Taesung had made.
‘Damn.’
The stiffness in the back of his neck melted away from the breath felt at close range and the intent gaze. Lee Hwan finally came to his senses and sharply pulled his body back. Then he deliberately splashed through the blood. As if there was no problem.
“…From here is a section where weasels and long-feathered hawks appear simultaneously.”
Jade, who had been watching silently, broke the awkwardness and filled the empty atmosphere. Nod. Lee Hwan expressed his intention with just a gesture without speaking, then firmly grasped the flong he had momentarily let hang.
A military corporation alumnus? It seemed like he really thought of him as a born-to-be mercenary. It was somewhat absurd, but Lee Hwan thought that for the time being, such a misunderstanding wasn’t bad if the alternative was having his identity exposed and becoming distant from them.
He no longer minded much that Taesung couldn’t recognize him. After all, now he wasn’t his friend Joo Lee Hwan, but an Awakened individual sent by Kang Dongha. And the Taesung before him was not his friend Taesung.
