Ch.103There’s No Normal People Here – 4

Once, I loved a certain man so desperately.

He was so wonderful and warm, someone who was everyone’s role model.

A man who could embrace even someone as fiery as me.

I liked him so much that I even put on airs, something I thought I’d never do in my life.

“Ugh. Unni. Are you about to die or something?”

Even Jiyoon Han, who rarely called me “unni” normally.

She would look at me like I was crazy when she saw me like that.

Yes, I was crazy. I must have been truly insane back then.

For that man, for what seemed like my first and last love.

I dreamed that only happiness, happiness, and more happiness awaited me.

Looking back now, I had such ridiculous dreams.

“Cough, cough! COUGH!”

“What’s wrong? Honey, are you sick? Hm?”

“No, no. Just… my body feels a bit strange. It’s nothing.”

At first, I thought it was just from an exhausting mission.

Like a fool, I shouldn’t have taken it so lightly.

Even now, I want to strangle my past self when I think about it.

“HACK!”

“What, what’s wrong! Pull yourself together!”

When that man I loved so much, whom I wouldn’t have minded giving my everything to,

collapsed in front of me, coughing up dark red blood.

I understood what the world called “hell.”

I used everything at my disposal. Because I was S-class.

As the nation’s prized strategic asset, I could make any request.

To heal this person. To please return my love to my arms.

“Why is this happening? Why is this happening to him?!”

“We’re sorry, Sujin Hyun. Our medical team is doing their best, but…”

But there was no meaningful progress. And moment by moment, he was dying.

Every day, painfully. So painful that bloody tears flowed from my eyes watching him.

I wanted to suffer in his place. If possible, I would have died for him.

Hearing those words, he held onto me even in that painful situation.

Saying I shouldn’t do that. That I was people’s hope, so I absolutely shouldn’t do that.

‘No, no. That’s wrong.’

I never wanted to be anyone’s hope.

And even if I were someone else’s hope,

without you, my hope, I am nothing.

So please wake up. Wake up and hold me tight.

Tell me you love me, that everything will be fine now, that everything is okay.

“We’re sorry.”

But my desperate prayers ultimately didn’t reach.

“His body is deteriorating rapidly. Multiple organ failures are occurring. To put it in perspective… his body itself is collapsing. We can’t even begin to understand why this is happening or what the problem is.”

Even the best medical teams ultimately couldn’t do anything.

My love, who was called a promising Superpower user not long ago,

now lay on a bed, breathing faintly, with an unknown time left to live.

I couldn’t bear to watch it sober. I didn’t have the strength.

Perhaps due to his weakened state, he kept talking nonsense.

Saying he was sorry for living alone. Asking for forgiveness.

Sometimes he would even cry while calling out strange numbers.

“Thirty-two… Sixty-eight… And, and… One hundred forty. One hundred forty… I’m sorry, one hundred forty…”

That was probably when I noticed something strange.

I immediately began frantically digging into my man’s past.

That he lost his family at a young age, that his superpower bloomed brilliantly at some point.

Things I had previously just accepted, I now investigated one by one like a madwoman.

I had never used my position as an S-class before. I never flaunted it.

But this time, I decided to use it. That’s how desperate I was back then.

I ignored all voices of concern from above.

Not only that, I even secretly contacted villains to obtain information.

A perfect act of treason. I would have had nothing to say if arrested and investigated immediately.

Nevertheless, I couldn’t give up. I had to find out. Why he had become like that.

“Ms. Sujin Hyun. There is great concern from the higher-ups about what you’ve been doing lately.”

There was something. Yes, there had to be something.

Otherwise, high-ranking officials wouldn’t suddenly be putting pressure on me.

“Please accept our deepest condolences regarding your fiancé’s condition. However, that is separate from what you are currently doing, Ms. Hyun.”

“If you continue like this, we will terminate the treatment that is continuing at your request.”

They even threatened me by mentioning his life.

They knew my weakness. They understood why I was doing this.

“I think you misunderstand. There are other S-class users like you. And more will appear. You’re even contacting villains? What you’re doing now is clearly an act of treason and betrayal of your colleagues.”

Although S-class users are rare, there are others, and they are watching my actions carefully.

Amidst all the threats and interference, I continued forward, focusing only on that one truth.

And finally. I was able to grasp the very thin end of that truth.

It was something very old, from well over 20 years ago.

[Savior Project]

[…conducted in 17 laboratories… based on the genes of past superpower users… artificial insemination and growth… superpower users as perfect national strategic assets… perfect advantage upon success….]

The truth was truly horrific. And truly disgusting.

To protect these things. So many died, so many were injured, so many suffered.

They praised us as heroes in public while planning to reproduce us as weapons behind our backs.

Genes secured without any permission or prior notice, used at their discretion.

All kinds of experiments that directly violated bioethics.

Children born without parents or family. Souls raised solely as weapons.

‘That alone was an unforgivable act. But…’

What came next was beyond words like “horrific” or “disgusting.”

[Experimental results show that most subjects experience collapse… even the few survivors the same… briefly flare up then extinguish… contrary to expectations, no value as strategic assets….]

Perhaps it was inevitable. Beings artificially created with only combat ability in mind.

Awakening superpowers is not something just anyone can do.

And that awakening process has never been revealed by any research.

Those people, knowing nothing, obsessed only with results, brought about tragedy.

[All research and experimental records erased… remaining personnel released… natural extinction within a few years… survival probability even after growing to adulthood is 0.00071%….]

The man I loved, loved so much, more precious than my own life.

It seems he ultimately couldn’t overcome that cursed probability.

Yes. He wasn’t like me, born normally and luckily awakening superpowers.

He was the cursed legacy of those who crossed the line, created by the greed of damnable people.

I laughed. Like a madwoman, I just laughed. So I fought for this kind of world.

Even as I lost family, friends, colleagues, I gritted my teeth and fought.

And all along, those creatures had been deceiving us.

Filled with rage and hatred, I ran to him. And told him.

That nightmare that tormented him, that disease eating away at his body.

It was all caused by those who sat back and only looked for results.

And we, not knowing this, got hurt, suffered, and finally lost.

We were fighting to sustain this damned world.

“…Sujin.”

He raised his emaciated body and took my hand.

“There’s nothing we can do, Sujin. This is, this is why I’m here. Why we’re here.”

“…”

“We have to fight. To give back. The original world, to the original people.”

That was the last. That was our last conversation.

“…”

I looked at him smiling brightly in the memorial photo.

The cause of death would probably just be recorded as “complications from battle injuries.”

Those bastards had already erased the evidence with cruel thoroughness.

They even eliminated everyone involved. What I found was just a few fragments left at the end.

And now even that is gone. As soon as I touched those fragments, they removed them too.

There is no way left in this world to prove that fact to others.

No related materials, no research or experimental results, no related people, and no victims.

Only I know about that disgusting and horrific incident.

“There’s nothing we can do, Sujin. This is, this is why I’m here. Why we’re here.”

“We have to fight. To give back. The original world, to the original people.”

I’m sorry. I’m sorry, honey. But I, I just can’t do that.

Because I loved you to death. Loved you more than my own life.

I can’t bear to look at this world, at those who deceived you and let you die so horribly.

You can curse me if you want. You can scream that I’m crazy if you want.

But what can I do? I feel like I’ll go insane if I don’t do this.

They say revenge is for the dead, but well.

Maybe I turned away because I couldn’t bear it.

If I don’t do at least this, it feels like my body and soul are being torn apart.

“Sujin Hyun! So, so it was true after all?! Did you really betray us?!”

It seems those bastards had already prepared for this.

To brand me a traitor when I uncovered the truth.

I laughed at the sight. Yes, I’ll do it. I’ll be that traitor.

I’ll become a villain, become The Elder, and kill all of you.

You can look forward to it. The shadow that followed you.

Will now hunt you from behind, trying to devour you.

That’s how I became a traitor. Became a villain, became The Elder.

I had no regrets. No hesitation. I felt lighter thinking of myself as the villain.

I unleashed my anger without restraint. There were innocent people, but I didn’t care.

Because you’re all the same, trying to live by stepping on our sacrifices.

Yes. Until I met one man.

“Honestly, I thought living like this wasn’t quite right.”

A man so similar to ‘him’ who left my side.

Unknown origin, an orphan with no family or relatives, late awakening and blooming of superpowers.

And decisively, that impossibly brilliant skill that suddenly blossomed.

“But you know. I still don’t think that’s right.”

I could tell. Who this man was now.

The one my person had been looking for, the one he apologized to over and over again.

The one he wanted to meet again, the one he said he could only see in dreams.

One hundred forty. Experiment number one hundred forty. The last survivor.