novelraw Chapter 233 : Chapter 233
Chapter 233 : Chapter 233
Chapter 233: Invitation
Ho-cheol arrived at the lowest floor of the Society's headquarters.
He forced open a thick, unmarked iron door and stepped inside.
That was already 30 minutes ago.
Since entering this space, he had been standing there looking at one wall, without a single word.
The silence, so heavy even the air felt it, dragged on for a long while.
Ho-cheol bent his index finger and rubbed the wrinkle between his brows with his knuckle.
“Do you. Have any idea. How unpleasant I feel?”
“...I don’t.”
Wolf Fang, standing beside him, answered awkwardly to the low mutter that was almost a soliloquy.
He had often seen Ho-cheol speak in a serious tone, but this was definitely the first time he saw him suppressing his anger so intensely.
For Wolf Fang, the place was so suffocating that he thought he would rather just roll his eyes back and faint.
That's how uncomfortable he was with this situation.
The other executives who had acted with him had already dumped the situation on Wolf Fang and left as if fleeing.
And their choice was wise.
Ho-cheol, who had closed his mouth again, slowly turned his gaze.
Under the white light fixed to the ceiling, dozens of cylindrical capsules were lined up along the wall.
The capsules, large enough to comfortably fit one person with room to spare, were filled with a green liquid.
And inside them.
Was Ho-cheol.
No, 'something that resembled' Jeong Ho-cheol.
It wasn't just one or two.
The things inside each and every capsule were slightly different from Ho-cheol.
Whether it was intentional, even their height, face, and skin color were slightly different.
Minute differences existed, but their essence was clearly the same.
Dozens of people.
No, dozens of fake Ho-cheols were floating in the liquid with their eyes closed.
Ho-cheol stood in front of one capsule.
“Heh. Good grief.”
It was only natural for such an dumbfounded reaction to come out.
The fake that resembled him the most.
Honestly, while the others had a difference here or there, this one's eyes were only slightly different, so it looked like it would be considerably difficult to tell them apart.
Come to think of it, it wasn't that surprising.
They even had the technology to revive corpses; a clone of a living person.
They could probably stamp them out like cookies.
Looking at the clone beyond the capsule, Ho-cheol muttered.
“Just how many years ago did they start this crap?”
The fact that the existence called 'me' was piled up in heaps like this just didn't feel real.
A complex piece of machinery was attached to the side of each capsule, and a panel on it displayed the detailed status of the clone.
“Status stable, biological data 97% match, brain activity suppressed, mental synchronization pending.”
Mental synchronization.
That must be the only process remaining.
“What on earth were they planning to do with me...”
Ho-cheol reached out and placed his hand on the capsule.
The coolness of the glass traveled up his palm to his spine.
And on the far left, one uniquely large capsule was still empty inside.
Looking at the small nameplate attached to that capsule.
“It seems this was supposed to be my spot.”
Since it was labeled [Original].
However, Ho-cheol had seen things far more terrible and repulsive than this to remain steeped in emotion.
Pulling himself together again, he rubbed his chin with his index finger.
“If it’s this form... Maybe the resurrection these bastards were blabbering about is a completely different form than what I’ve been thinking.”
Seeing them always take the remains, he had naturally expected them to raise the skeletons and revive them that way.
Ho-cheol turned his body and looked at Wolf Fang.
“Dig into the exact system or process of this resurrection.”
“Understood.”
Just as Wolf Fang was about to grab his walkie-talkie, Ho-cheol added.
“Not the leader. He’s a real born psycho, so torture or threats won't work. Dig it out through the guys captured with him. If you put them in the Core Wolf's stomach on the island and pull them out a couple of times, they’ll probably sing obediently.”
This lab and system discovered today, especially the concept of mental synchronization.
Apart from the repulsion he had felt until now, Ho-cheol saw a faint hope.
If Smiley was also resurrected in that form, if she was the only successful unit among numerous clones.
Of course, she was still a fake, but at least a very small 'different path' could emerge.
***
New World Trait Liberation Society.
He had crushed the last remaining resurrection—transcendence faction, but that was only a matter of capturing the boss and hitting their headquarters.
Their importance was high, but in terms of scale, it wasn't that large.
The small branches scattered across the country were still intact, and one couldn't know what they would do to become the originators themselves.
That's why Ho-cheol was also engrossed in cleaning up after them, working his villains here and there.
Because he refused to be backstabbed by leaving ambiguous roots that sprouted again.
Of course, their combat power was relatively lacking, so it wasn't to the point where Ho-cheol had to go to the field himself.
Several months had already passed since he quit his professor gig and switched to being a villain.
Personally, he wanted to sort everything out and liquidate it before the year ended.
There was still Smiley's case, and Eclipse, who had been quiet lately.
All sorts of dangers still remained in this society.
Fortunately, obtaining information about that wasn't too difficult.
The Society headquarters' agents, who thought they were going to prison but were all dragged to the island.
They easily spat out the necessary information with light threats, like shoving their heads into a monster's maw or pushing them off a cliff.
Thanks to that, over the past month, he had cleaned up more than 80% of the Society's remnants left in this country.
While Ho-cheol was sitting on the sofa, reading a report for a long time and formulating his next plan.
Squeak― Trudge trudge―
The door opened, and someone came inside.
There weren't many people who could just open the door to his organization's headquarters at will.
No, to be precise, there were exactly three.
And only one person who would actually do it.
Da-yeon, who had arrived right next to Ho-cheol, spoke briefly.
“I finished today's training schedule.”
“Right. Good work. Go rest, why are you here?”
She didn't answer.
Instead, she suddenly plopped down onto Ho-cheol's lap.
When she leaned back, her back touched his chest.
It was a natural and swift action, as if it wasn't the first time.
In reality, Ho-cheol's reaction wasn't that strong either.
Instead, he protested briefly.
“It’s heavy if you just sit like that.”
At those words, Da-yeon pouted her lips and instead put strength into her body, pressing down on him even harder.
Not that it was actually heavy at all.
She reached out and grabbed Ho-cheol's knees with both hands.
Her face flushed bright red, and veins popped out on her neck.
Her back, resting comfortably, twitched up and down.
After several minutes passed like that.
“Haah.”
Da-yeon let out a hot sigh and hung her head low.
“As expected, it’s not working.”
Of course, this too wasn't just because they had gotten close, but a type of training.
Her Trait was ‘Plunder’.
To steal the power of a touched object and make it her own.
It wasn't just inanimate objects; she could steal the power of living beings too, just by touching.
She had trained considerably until now, but stealing Ho-cheol's power was still impossible.
Ho-cheol turned a page of the report and answered briefly.
“It’s not easy.”
During his lecture days, he had been considerate and let her take a certain amount to see her skill, but now that he was set on blocking it, it was impossible.
Because this was a test.
“I think it would be faster to just steal the Earth’s rotational energy.”
“No matter what, would that really be easier?”
Da-yeon continued to change her posture and try to steal Ho-cheol's power after that, but as expected, it was no use.
In the end, forgetting about Plunder, she, who had only lost more strength, went limp as if giving up.
“Please check on my sword skills during the afternoon training.”
“Why don't you ask someone else?”
“I don't want to learn from other villains. I like you, Professor.”
Ho-cheol flinched at the momentary ambiguous expression, but it wasn't the first or second time Da-yeon had been like that since being kidnapped.
He now brushed it off calmly.
“Fine. If I have time after checking my schedule.”
“Yay.”
It was a dry cheer completely lacking any high or low intonation, but having watched Da-yeon for the past few months, he knew that 'yay' was an expression that didn't come out unless she was quite excited.
Following her, Ye-jin entered his room.
She frowned upon seeing the two.
She had gone straight to the dorm after finishing training, but Da-yeon wasn't there, so she came looking, suspicious, and just as she thought!
“What. Just the two of you, sticking together again!”
“She’s in the middle of her Trait training.”
“I want to do it too!”
Ye-jin huffed and puffed as she approached Ho-cheol's side.
“You don’t really have anything to do that requires sticking to me.”
At his firm response, Ye-jin's expression instantly soured.
“Ah, well. That’s true, but.”
Bringing her two index fingers together, she rubbed them.
Her appearance, hesitating and glancing at him, looked just like a scolded puppy.
“Good grief.”
Ho-cheol let out a sigh and patted his still-empty thigh.
Whatever the purpose and process, how it looked—and feeling emotions seeing it—were separate matters.
Since he was human, he couldn't treat the two perfectly equally.
Still, he had to appear equal.
Once his permission was given, Ye-jin also smiled brightly and sat perched on his thigh.
Unlike Da-yeon, who leaned her back against Ho-cheol's chest, she sat facing him.
Ho-cheol hesitated for a moment, then asked.
“By the way. You two did wash up after training, right?”
“I did wash.”
“I don't smell, because of my Trait.”
Da-yeon pouted her lips and pinched Ho-cheol's knee hard.
How could he ask such a thing!
Ye-jin was relaxed.
No matter how fiercely she trained, she could freeze all her sweat and waste products, maintaining a constantly clean body.
If there was a smell, it was all Da-yeon's share.
Da-yeon knew that too, so she was quite sensitive to this kind of question.
Unlike Da-yeon, who at least had the excuse of training, Ye-jin's goal was truly, purely to sit on his thigh.
As if he were a comfortable chair, Ye-jin hummed a tune and took out her phone.
Looking at the screen reflected in her eyes, it was dense with text.
It didn't look like she was studying.
“What are you doing?”
“Uh, ah!”
Ye-jin was flustered by the question and hurriedly hid her phone behind her.
At her more intense reaction than usual, Ho-cheol narrowed his eyes.
“What, don't tell me you're selling my info to the Association?”
At the mischievous joke, Ye-jin waved her hands frantically.
“Definitely not!”
While she was waving her hands, Ho-cheol snatched the phone from her hand.
What was she looking at so intently.
“Ah!”
Ye-jin, flustered, tried to get the phone back, but before she could, Ho-cheol checked the screen she was looking at.
“...Were you looking at something dirty?”
“It's not something weird! It's the Hero Community!”
It was the biggest Awakened community in the country.
“I was just checking the public opinion!”
It wasn't actually a problematic site, so Ho-cheol gave the phone back.
“Public opinion, huh. It’s important, but. Do you really have any public opinion to check?”
“It's not me...”
She hung her head low and muttered in a crawling voice.
“It’s your public opinion, Professor...”
At those words, Ho-cheol took back the phone he had handed over and checked.
Information about Ho-cheol was still treated as top secret by the Association and Clington.
Naturally, it was all just tabloid rumors or ghost-story level rumors.
However, on every one of those news articles or posts not even worth looking at, an enthusiastic anonymous netizen was writing so-called shield comments.
“User H.yejin. Not doing the training you’re supposed to. You should stop posting comments like this.”
“I only do it during breaks!”
Ye-jin shouted back in rebuttal, but it didn't have much credibility.
The comments posted with this account alone far exceeded several hundred.
All of that in just a couple of months?
Moreover, the comments were all long posts, filling up the maximum allowed characters.
It was physically impossible without cutting into her sleeping time.
Ho-cheol let out a dry laugh.
“I'm grateful for the thought, but. You don't really need to...”
As he was swiping through the screen, his gaze stopped on one short news article.
“That’s.”
[Gold Tower Construction Resumes!]
A building with bad memories from the past.
If he had simply seen that news, he wouldn't have overreacted like this.
However, one photo attached to the article.
That caught Ho-cheol's eye.
At his reaction, Ye-jin and Da-yeon turned their heads as if puzzled and checked the news as well.
“Why?”
Ho-cheol didn't answer.
His gaze was glaring at the photo as if to pierce it.
A warning sign that could be found on any construction site.
A pictogram in the shape of a fallen person, Over it, as if someone had played a prank, a single stick was piercing its body.
As if rebar was embedded in the fallen person's abdomen.
And the number written below it.
That number 6 was clearly the day Ho-cheol first met Smiley.
He muttered quietly.
“It's an invitation.”
It was clearly an invitation that no one else but Ho-cheol alone could recognize.
The one who sent it was also clear.