Ch.118118. Cyber Joseon

The probability of randomly meeting a friend from a surviving traitor family on the street?

“This seems rarer than winning the lottery.”

Amon marveled at this miraculous encounter.

Just then, Levy refuted with a drowsy voice.

“No. The lottery is actually harder.”

“???”

“Joseon’s population is approximately 150 million, and the estimated number of survivors is just these two siblings, so the probability is…”

As Levy tried to calculate it, her brothers stopped her.

“Levy. You don’t need to calculate that.”

“Okay.”

She dangled like a cat, held by the scruff of her neck by her brothers.

Her brothers apologized to Amon and Kathy on her behalf.

“We’re sorry. Levy hasn’t been out of bed for very long…”

Having spent half her life in bed due to narcolepsy, she had limited time to interact with people.

Moreover, she spent most of her waking hours in cyberspace, which explained her behavior.

Knowing this, Amon and Kathy didn’t mind at all.

“It’s fine. That’s just her personality.”

Amon genuinely thought so.

Levy’s behavior could hardly be considered lacking in social skills.

When you have colleagues like a futanari hermaphrodite mage, statements that seemed extremely blunt weren’t really a sign of poor social skills.

For reference, Kathy didn’t mind either.

“That’s right. It’s part of Levy’s charm.”

Her prospective husband was quite an unusual person himself, so Levy’s quirks were relatively mild in comparison.

After Levy’s initiation, the group summarized their current situation.

First.

“The Hunt Legion will be here in three days. Sonia, Kathy, and I will participate in stopping it.”

During that time, the three hacker siblings would wait in a relatively safe place.

Second.

“I think I need to sort out the situation with our traitor siblings.”

Once a connection was formed, it needed to be seen through to the end.

Of course, it wasn’t just pure goodwill; he was also curious about why their souls weren’t connected by threads.

With three days remaining until the Hunt Legion arrived, Amon wanted to satisfy his curiosity.

“I’ll be back soon.”

Sonia parted ways with Amon to assist the priest, and Kathy to recover from travel fatigue.

Finding the siblings wasn’t difficult.

Sunwoo was working as an apprentice in the Sword Circle, while Sunhwa was recovering in a rehabilitation hospital.

Amon began to consider which sibling to visit first.

First, Sunwoo.

‘He probably won’t tell me the truth.’

From lying at their first meeting to unconditionally refusing help at their last encounter.

Sunwoo displayed typical teenage boy behavior.

‘He thinks he can handle everything alone.’

Amon couldn’t blame Sunwoo for that.

He had been through something similar himself.

That incident when he was determined to take down the Higgjen Group alone and things went terribly wrong.

Even though his mental age was definitely adult at the time, he still felt embarrassed thinking about the choices he made then.

‘The power of hormones.’

Amon smiled bitterly as he projected his past self onto Sunwoo.

He didn’t dislike him.

However, getting information from him didn’t seem like a wise choice.

Naturally, his options narrowed down to Sunhwa.

Amon headed to Sunhwa’s hospital room that he remembered.

While searching for her room, Amon couldn’t help but compare it to America.

‘In America, they would have been buried in debt long ago.’

Children without parents maintaining a hospital room with government subsidies and Sword Circle apprentice allowances was unimaginable in America.

Amon caught himself thinking this way and smiled bitterly.

‘I’ve really become American.’

Though his memories were Korean, his identity was already American.

Amon reminded himself of his unique situation as he entered Sunhwa’s hospital room.

However, when he opened the door, he was greeted by an empty bed.

‘Huh?’

Kidnapping?

That thought crossed his mind momentarily, but Amon quickly realized he was thinking too much like an American.

“The patient is currently in the day rehabilitation ward. Visiting hours are in the evening.”

“Ah, I see.”

In a dystopian world where human rights were disregarded, military dictatorship ironically guaranteed certain rights.

As long as you weren’t involved with the royal family or the new nobility, it was actually a better place to live than many other countries.

‘I never thought I’d admit that a military dictatorship could be a better place to live…’

But this time, he had to acknowledge it.

At least regarding healthcare in the punk world, dictatorship was better than liberal democracy.

Afterward, Amon scheduled a visit for 7 PM and left the ward.

When 7 PM arrived, Amon returned to the hospital.

“Yes. The patient is waiting for you.”

With the nurse’s permission, Amon headed to Sunhwa’s room.

Knock knock.

– “Come in.”

It was the first time he heard Sunhwa’s voice.

She had spoken when possessed by Yodo, but that was Yodo’s voice, so this was technically the first time hearing her real voice.

Amon carefully opened the door.

And was left speechless by the sight before him.

The girl was sitting on the windowsill, gazing at the moon.

With a massive sword resting on her right shoulder, smoking a long pipe while enjoying the mood created by the moon.

Amon momentarily lost himself, staring at her beautiful figure that resembled a painting.

Eventually remembering his purpose, he managed to call out to her.

“Ju… Sunhwa?”

Only then noticing Amon’s presence, she turned around.

Amon’s eyes met with the beauty who had her back to the moon.

Finally, she spoke.

“What did you just call me?”

“I called you Ju Sunhwa.”

Immediately, she moved to draw her sword.

But before she could, Amon, as he had done before, moved in front of her and pressed down on the handle.

“It’s too early to draw your sword.”

“What’s your purpose?”

“I want to hear your story, yours and your brother’s. The false accusation…”

“It’s not false.”

“What?”

“My family were indeed traitors. We plotted rebellion and were purged after being caught by the royal family.”

“…”

“And I was the one who reported it. Seeing that we were definitely going to die, I reported it in exchange for saving my brother and myself.”

“Ah.”

Amon sighed.

When she confirmed it herself, there was nothing more to say.

She glared at Amon, who was still holding her sword, and continued.

“So, I’ll ask again. What’s your purpose?”

“I thought it was a false accusation… but I guess not.”

“Was that really your only purpose?”

“Of course it was.”

He genuinely thought it was a false accusation.

He had a reasonable basis for that belief.

‘The threads keep bothering me.’

Unlike with other people, there were no threads connecting to her and her brother.

He thought those threads might be related to the treason.

The scenario he had imagined was that the Ju family refused to give up their lifespan and cut the threads, and the royal family labeled this as treason and exterminated three generations of the family.

But contrary to the epic tale Amon had predicted, reality was much darker and more tragic.

Her family were indeed traitors, and it had nothing to do with the threads.

“My family simply wanted more money and power. They rose up thinking they could do what the Lee royal family had done.”

They had prepared justifications.

The Lee dynasty had once sold Joseon as a Japanese colony, so there was sufficient justification for usurpation.

But the Ju family’s rebellion was doomed to fail.

This was because the Ministry of Justice was already monitoring the family.

“I was already in the Sword Circle then. And the Sword Circle had received an investigation request about our family.”

With that alone, she was certain.

The rebellion of the Ju family, who had business acumen and political sense but lacked espionage capabilities, could never succeed.

“My parents only saw me as a tool for power anyway.”

The only person she loved in her family was her brother, which made her actions easier.

She even cut down her family members.

Of course, she didn’t actively attack them; she was protecting herself and her brother from family members enraged by her actions.

Nevertheless, she had cut down her family.

Naturally, no organization would view this favorably.

“After that incident, the Sword Circle gave me Yodo and drove me out.”

Yodo was just a pretext.

The real purpose was to expel her.

No matter how much of a traitor her family was, they couldn’t keep someone who had reported her own family and even cut them down.

But that wasn’t the only reason.

While talent with the sword is important, the training environment is equally crucial.

Therefore, those who wield swords well typically come from well-established environments, which itself signifies wealth.

“The Sword Circle has many children from new nobility families. To them, who value family, I’m a woman they could never associate with.”

So the Sword Circle expelled her.

Fearing that her sword might one day turn against them.

“See? Now do you understand how insane the woman you tried to help is?”

She caressed her sword with a self-deprecating smile.

Looking at her, Amon tilted his head.

“What’s the problem?”

“Huh?”

Sunhwa made a dumbfounded sound.

Amon told her about his past.

“I don’t know about Joseon, but in the West, this is common.”

Even Amon had experienced numerous betrayals from within.

He had been backstabbed, like in Kathy’s company incident, and had done the backstabbing himself, as in Western Europe.

Even in the Vatican, holy knights were branded as heretics and whipped while foaming at the mouth.

To him, Ju Sunhwa’s whistleblowing was relatively minor.