novelraw Chapter 213 : Chapter 213
Chapter 213 : Chapter 213
Chapter 213: Unwelcome Guest
The Sage joining us.
To be honest, I hadn't even expected it.
He wasn't the type to belong to any faction in the first place.
The best situation I could think of was for him to die, but since I had received his help in the past, I couldn't do that.
The next best thing I chose was to send him overseas.
Of course, the worst-case scenario was him getting caught by the enemy and having his Trait stolen.
Even if he only helped us as he pleased, the efficiency and effect were, frankly, so overwhelming that it couldn't even be compared to having several S-rank villains.
When it came to information warfare, we were now at a point where we wouldn't be pushed back by the Society bastards at all.
For me, who was only thinking of taking over the black market, it was a harvest beyond my thoughts.
Leaving two former executives and Wolf Fang as agents to handle the cleanup, on the way back.
An unwelcome guest who shouldn't have been there was standing in front of the entrance to their hideout.
Perched on the railing, holding a coffee from a famous franchise in one hand, was Smiley.
Jeong Yu-hwa raised her sunglasses and brightened up.
“Hey Jeong Ho-cheol!”
Seeing her waving her free hand and greeting them, the other former executives and Slasher, excluding Ho-cheol, instinctively went into a combat stance.
Yu-hwa remained composed despite the intense aura and killing intent emanating from them.
“0.02 seconds to prepare for battle.”
She slurped—on the straw attached to the coffee cup and chuckled.
“You know that's enough time for me to kill you all and still have a sip of coffee, right?”
Indeed, if she had intended to kill them, she would have already done so and more.
She had both the capability and the malice for it.
Sensing this instinctively, the former executives and Slasher could only swallow nervously with tense expressions.
However, there was one person who was completely free from that pressure.
Ho-cheol clenched and unclenched his fist as he asked.
“What is it?”
“Hey, what do you mean, 'what is it?' Our relationship isn't one where I need a reason to come see you.”
“That was between Smiley and me. Not you.”
“I think it is?”
With a subtle smile, she got down from the railing.
She walked briskly and stood right in front of Ho-cheol, grabbing one of his arms.
“Should we talk, just the two of us?”
A faint look of disgust crossed Ho-cheol's face, but he quickly regained his usual composure.
It probably wouldn't be that difficult to find their hideout if one really tried.
However, knowing about it and coming here in person were two different things.
If she was beyond control, perhaps there was room for conversation.
A tiny spark of hope flickered.
A room in the hideout.
Since they didn't expect any guests, they hadn't prepared a separate reception room.
He had no choice but to guide her to his room.
Sitting on the sofa, Yu-hwa's green eyes sparkled with curiosity.
“Is this our Hocheol-ie's room? You're living so neatly. I was wondering if I should clean up for you.”
She lightly swept her fingertips across the table and between the sofa cushions and sighed in relief.
He's all grown up.
Clatter— Clatter—
Ho-cheol brewed some coffee and placed it in front of her.
Seeing the dark coffee with steam rising from it, Yu-hwa was once again impressed, and moved.
Her eyes, with her hands clasped as if in prayer, were genuinely filled with happiness.
“Wow. It was my dream to get a cup of tea from you. I guess I'm fulfilling it like this.”
In her past life's memories, Smiley had visited Ho-cheol dozens of times.
But this was the first time she had received such a grand reception.
In the first place, it was the first time she had even been invited to sit on a sofa.
Ho-cheol replied bluntly to her reaction.
“That dream isn't yours.”
“No. You're being too mean.”
Since it wasn't a reception room, there weren't enough sofas.
Ho-cheol dragged a chair over and sat across from her.
“Why did you come here?”
“Geez. I just came because I wanted to see your face, do I need a special reason? We used to do this often.”
She carefully lifted the cup with both hands.
The way she looked at Ho-cheol was clearly that of the past Smiley.
She continued speaking with a smile in her eyes.
“Should I call it withdrawal symptoms? If I don't see you, it's beyond just missing you; I get really shaken up mentally. It's bad for my mental health, and my personality gets worse. It even feels like I might die.”
And all the negative emotions that had built up instantly melted away just by facing the object of her affection—Ho-cheol.
“It seems that while I was being revived, the control and restraint in my brain got completely messed up. That's probably why the object of my affection from my past life has turned into an obsession.”
“……The Smiley I know would have that affection for the safety and justice of the citizens.”
She shook her head as if the idea was ridiculous.
“No matter how much I go over my memories, I have no idea why my past self was like that. Why did I struggle so hard to protect such disgusting things?”
“To not know that.”
Ho-cheol shook his head.
“You really are a fake.”
Yu-hwa, who had been blowing hoo-hoo— on the steam rising from the coffee, pouted.
“Can't people change? Especially with a huge catalyst like death. Is it so strange that my heart has completely changed?”
“You don't know at all. Why he lived like that. Why he could only live like that. And how he changed me.”
Ho-cheol declared with a look of conviction.
“It's not a conviction that would change just from dying and coming back to life.”
And in that moment.
His eyes widened.
In their conversation just now, a single possibility flashed in his head like a lightbulb.
“You……”
He put down the cup he had picked up.
“Your memories aren't intact. The most important part is missing.”
Yu-hwa, who had been smiling just a moment ago, her expression hardened again.
It was the same expression she had at the academy when Ho-cheol declared she was a fake, the look of someone who had been hit where it hurts and didn't want it to be revealed.
After glaring at Ho-cheol for a moment, she relaxed her body as if she had lost all energy.
“Yeah, that's right. The few hours before I died. And my memories are cut off in chunks of years. It's only a day or two out of nearly 30 years of memories, but they're the core memories.”
As if she had no intention of hiding it anymore, she confessed her current situation.
It was a truth she had to reveal to Ho-cheol eventually anyway.
“And I feel this sensation that those faint memories become a little clearer whenever I'm next to you. It was like that when we met at the academy, and it's definitely like that now.”
Although it was merely like gently scraping off the pitch-black painted-over memories with a needle, there was a definite difference.
“I am definitely Smiley, and Jeong Yu-hwa. No one can deny that.”
“But I don't care if I'm denied by everyone else, because I want to be acknowledged by you. That's why I'm going to get my memories back.”
She finished her cup completely and stood up from her seat.
“Should I get going? Still, it was nice to see your face.”
The Smiley of the past was also like this.
She would barge in unannounced, ramble on about her own stories, and then leave satisfied whenever she pleased.
“I came to see your face today, and also to declare war while I'm at it.”
“A declaration of war.”
Ho-cheol furrowed his brow.
So she finally revealed her true colors.
“Hey, don't make such a venomous face. You'll get wrinkles. Relax your expression.”
Yu-hwa reached out and rubbed the wrinkle that had formed between Ho-cheol's brows.
No, she tried to rub it.
Ho-cheol pulled his head back before she could.
She clicked her tongue as if disappointed.
“My original plan was to torment the people around you to provoke you.”
Yu-hwa waved one hand gently.
“I don't want to be hated, so I won't do that. Instead, prepare yourself to the best of your ability so you don't have any regrets.”
Smiley and Jeong Ho-cheol.
The two knew each other better than anyone.
They knew how to get back up after defeat.
They would brush off a single failure as nothing and relentlessly bite at their opponent's weakness again.
That's why they had to be completely subjugated in a single fight.
And for them, 'subjugation' was extremely simple.
The only way was to defeat an opponent who was perfectly prepared, to the point where one would think nothing more was possible.
“If you win, I'll die obediently. But if I win, I'll keep you by my side as my attachment doll for the rest of your life. From the moment you open your eyes until you close them. 24 hours a day.”
Ho-cheol did not answer.
But his eyes, burning more quietly than ever, were a sufficient response.
“Well then. It would be nice if I could prove that I'm the real me the next time we meet. Right?”
With those last words, Yu-hwa left.
Even long after she closed the door and left the hideout, Ho-cheol just stared silently at the door.
* * *
Ho-cheol returned to the meeting room on the floor below.
The sunken atmosphere was quite heavy.
It was only natural.
They had directly experienced the overwhelming difference with their enemy.
Ho-cheol turned his head and asked the Sage.
“You saw it too, old man?”
Only a few people in this country knew Smiley's real face.
In the first place, all of them had been discovered regardless of her intentions.
And one of those few people was the Sage.
Therefore, he.
“Hah, this is absurd.”
He couldn't help but be genuinely flustered by this situation.
When he first encountered her at the entrance of the hideout, he thought she was just a similar-looking person, or some kind of mistake.
But after perceiving the conversation with Ho-cheol just now, he realized there was no mistake.
“So this is why they were escalating things so ridiculously.”
Regarding this Society matter, the Sage didn't know much.
His Trait, 'Clairvoyance,' could see everything happening in this country in detail, but it couldn't see into Gates or other spaces like the Society's headquarters.
Therefore, he didn't know the exact level, scale, or danger of the enemy.
From the Sage's perspective, he wondered what was so scary about a man like Ho-cheol that they were making such a fuss.
To be honest, they were stockpiling power with more fuss than it would take to collapse this country, so he was starting to think they were dreaming of world domination.
But if the opponent was the resurrected Smiley, then the current preparations were not at all excessive.
“You too. What a strange life.”
He said to Ho-cheol, as if genuinely feeling sorry for him.
A dopamine addict.
Even for the Sage, who enjoyed watching the struggles, pain, ruin, and despair of others, this was just a miserable melodrama.
Even he, watching from afar, considered it a tragedy, so what must the one experiencing it up close, no, directly, be feeling.
The path Ho-cheol had taken, as observed by the Sage, was always accompanied by patience.
No matter how vicious and disgusting the enemy, he somehow never took their lives.
But now, he had to kill the person who was most precious to him to end it.
Could there be a more cruel farce?
If this were made into a movie, critics would shout that it's a garbage scenario and unhesitatingly split their one star in half to smash their own heads with it, and if it were a book, wouldn't it be destined for the fire pit, let alone as a ramen stand?
Ho-cheol sighed and sat down in a chair.
“Still, it's good that I don't have to bother explaining the current situation.”
It was a silver lining he had forced himself to find amidst the misfortune.
“Now you understand why we're expanding our forces, right?”
The reason for expanding their territory and increasing their subordinates was extremely simple.
The Society, whose headquarters was difficult to even guess, let alone pinpoint.
It was to be able to respond immediately no matter where, how, or how many of them appeared.
For that, they needed overwhelming numbers, the ability to get information and respond immediately no matter where or how they appeared.
The plan was to spread a spiderweb across the entire country.
To do so, they had to exert influence and control not only over villains but also in other fields.
“Do you know what their goal is?”
“They say it's transcendence. But I'm not sure what exactly that is. It seems different from the
state one reaches by simply getting stronger.”
There must be a reason why they don't cling to Eclipse or the Sword Demon, who are at a similar level, asking them to transcend together.
They were half-crazy people in the first place.
There was no way to find out their exact goal.
“But one thing is certain.”
Ho-cheol propped his two legs up on the round table and muttered menacingly.
“Those bastards. I won't let them die peacefully.”
Sincerely.
* * *
Due to Se-ah's kidnapping, the already unsettled academy was in an absolute uproar.
If even Se-ah, whose personal combat power was among the top professors, could be kidnapped, there was no guarantee that the students would be safe.
The academy eventually entered an unprecedentedly long period of leave, separate from the reconstruction work.
But they couldn't just give up on the students' education, so they took drastic measures.
“Hah.”
Ho-cheol, who was reading the newspaper, let out a short breath.
“Is this right?”
“Why.”
Se-ah, who was lying on the bed, answered bluntly.
“Isn't this the perfect real-world practice you wanted?”
“Still, with the times being so turbulent.”
Ho-cheol clicked his tongue, tsk tsk, and turned a page of the newspaper.
Anyway, the first-years, who were only theory-based, would take non-face-to-face online lectures from home for now.
And the third-years' main activity was already internship activities outside the academy, so it didn't matter much.
The problem was the second-years.
Students who were sufficient in theory but lacking in practical application.
Since they couldn't just waste a semester, they brought forward the third-year curriculum that was originally scheduled for next year.
Se-ah was also well aware of the details, as it had already been decided in meetings to some extent.
“It's not an internship, though. If I had to say, it's more like a job experience.”
Third-years are already treated as full-fledged heroes, so if they don't perform properly, they get cut from the internship immediately.
However, the second-years were free from such strict criteria.
Was it the difference between an employee and a customer?
It was a teaching method that Ho-cheol would normally welcome with open arms, but the current situation was just……. There would be many dangerous situations in the field.
Above all.
“Our kids still have a lot to learn.”
He was also worried about whether other heroes would provide proper practical education.
At that, Se-ah snorted as if she was dumbfounded.
“Listen to you talk. So the other kids have nothing to learn? Still, they've all been assigned to top-tier heroes, so it probably won't be too dangerous.”
Picking up a new newspaper, he spotted the photo on the front page.
“Indeed.”
He muttered with a complicated expression.
There was absolutely no reason for it, but what on earth was this feeling of disappointment?
“It seems so.”
A picture of the Sword Demon and Da-yeon standing side by side and being dispatched to a scene adorned the front page of the newspaper.