Ch.135Season 2 – Is This the Future?

“Thanks to my previous experience, I was able to successfully complete the individual combat training that had been made more difficult by the battalion commander.

In fact, three of my fellow trainees who performed well in that training were later assigned to different units.

“I got accepted for long-term service!”

“Me too!”

“I got in as well!”

Fortunately, from what I heard later, they all seemed to have achieved their goals.

And our battalion commander who put the recruits through that difficult individual combat training…

Later when he went outside, I saw him riding a Retona with his soul completely drained, which made me tilt my head in confusion, but I later found out.

That he had encountered a terrifying grim reaper who had completely drained his soul.

…But why am I recalling these old memories now?

“Hey! …Hey!”

“Ugh…”

“Shinwoo!”

“Katarina…?”

When I opened my eyes, I saw the Villain’s Troupe leader Katarina shaking me awake.

Only then did I realize I had been dreaming about the past and finally managed to sit up.

“Did I… fall asleep?”

“Yes. Not just you—everyone on board fell asleep as soon as the time machine started moving.”

“It’s a temporary overload on the brain while time traveling. A kind of ‘time trouble,’ you could say.”

We were currently sitting inside a fully occupied time machine.

I remembered pressing the button to travel 20 years into the future and immediately passing out.

The only ones unaffected were Jaewon and Katarina.

“Why are you two okay?”

“I’ve experienced this before, so I’ve somewhat adapted to it.”

“I switched places with my unconscious parallel self. So I didn’t experience it in the first place~”

The other passengers in the time machine…

The Kitsune family head Kurumi, Cheran, Sister Kang Mirae, Lia, and my children who had lived in the Empire were all still groaning in their sleep.

“Are they all seeing the past like I did?”

“Probably. When I first experienced time trouble, I saw old memories too.”

Jaewon spoke somewhat bitterly, recalling unpleasant memories.

Meanwhile, Katarina, just before we departed in the time machine…

“Can we come along too?”

“Huh?”

She had asked to join us, and now she was looking down at the four sleeping children with a somewhat suspicious expression, despite having fought with them earlier.

“Haven’t these kids been to the past before, like you, Jaewon? Then why are they experiencing time trouble?”

“That’s probably because they used different technology. They could travel instantly thanks to the Ring of the Future, but this time machine takes quite a while to move.”

After listening to Jaewon’s explanation, Katarina turned to me.

“Was bringing these kids… really the right decision?”

Like before, Katarina still seemed displeased.

“Because they took up seats, other Villain’s Troupe members or key fighters like Lee Jin-ah couldn’t board.”

“That’s… true.”

“And once we arrive in the future, they might immediately betray us. Shinwoo, do you really trust these kids who tried to take Sophia from you, even if they are your children?”

Trust them…

It’s true that Sophia was taken to the future because of these children.

But how could I, as their father, hate children who were just following orders to be loved by their family?

“I trust them.”

“…!”

“Because they’re my children. Leon, Shina, Yujin, Yurian—they’re all my children that I created, so I want to trust them.”

“Haa… really…”

“They’re my own children, not strangers. Even if the trusted axe strikes me, I’ll keep trusting until that axe returns to my embrace.”

“You’re going to get killed by that axe in your arms, seriously…”

Katarina, being single, couldn’t understand my perspective at all.

Of course, I still had some doubts since they were children created by my future self.

But I wanted to give these children the unlimited trust that I never received from my father in my previous life.

“Katarina, please trust me. I’m not asking you to trust my children. Instead, trust me who trusts them.”

“Geez… when you put it that way, what does that make me?”

I tried my best to persuade Katarina.

Just then—

Boom—!

“?!”

“That vibration…”

“Looks like we’ve arrived.”

The entire time machine shook once loudly, and the floating sensation we had been experiencing completely disappeared.

I looked out the window, which until just moments ago had shown nothing but darkness.

Out there was…

“…What is this?”

Was I seeing things wrong?

We had only traveled 20 years into the future.

Our arrival location should still be the same spot in Gangnam where we departed.

But instead of the glamorous cityscape, why was there only a desolate wasteland with no evidence of civilization?

“This is… Gangnam?”

“More precisely, Gangnam 20 years in the future.”

As the time machine door opened, I rushed outside first.

It was snowing from the sky.

Despite it being early summer in August.

“And what’s with this weather?”

“Well, in the process of burning most of the Earth, your future self caused many nuclear explosions and various accidents. This weather is actually quite good considering.”

Sometimes diamond rain falls.

Humans hit by that rain quickly have their bodies pierced and torn to pieces. Other times, thunderous sandstorms change the very landscape.

There’s also rain made of sulfuric acid, or hurricanes of flame.

A world where such weather anomalies have become commonplace.

Jaewon explained that this was the current future.

“The Empire created by your future self is intact thanks to the protection of the ‘Wall,’ but the world outside it… as you can see… has become a place where people can’t survive unless they go ‘underground.'”

Seriously.

What the hell.

What kind of insane thing did he do?

Can this even still be called our blue planet, “Earth”?

“Ugh… have we arrived?”

“Oppa, I think I had a nightmare about becoming a test subject because you didn’t save me…”

“Lia! And Lady Kurumi.”

By then, had the time trouble symptoms disappeared upon arriving in the future?

Lady Kurumi and Lia, awakening from their nightmares of the past, rubbed their eyes and followed me outside.

After yawning briefly—

“Wh-what?!”

“What is this place?!”

Everyone showed similar reactions to mine upon seeing the completely deserted ruins of Gangnam.

“Where… is this? Surely not Korea, right?”

“It’s cold! Oppa, did we travel to winter?”

“No, we traveled exactly 20 years from the day we left.”

“So it’s August now… has August in the future become winter?”

“This is all because humans caused global warming! This is terrible! It’s so cold!”

The two were now hugging each other tightly and shivering.

Indeed, just looking at the thermometer showing below zero temperatures made it immediately clear that this world was not normal.

“But why am I fine?”

“Well, Father, you’ve become somewhat accustomed to kaijufication from fighting your future self. Look, I’m not affected by the cold either.”

“Ah, that’s true.”

Perhaps it was thanks to my upgraded kaijufication abilities.

I hadn’t even realized the temperature was below zero.

It just felt a bit cool to me, but I couldn’t leave Lia and Lady Kurumi outside forever.

“You two should go back inside the time machine, change into warmer clothes, and then come back out.”

“Oh, yes. I understand.”

“Oppa, after we rescue unnie, let’s make a snowman before we leave!”

“Sure, let’s do that.”

I promised Lia we would do that—if the snow didn’t disappear in a flame vortex or sand lightning first.

After sending the two back inside—

“Yahoo!!”

When had she changed?

Sister Kang Mirae, wearing a thick jacket over her nun’s habit, jumped out of the time machine with sparkling eyes.

“Snow! Snow!”

“Father, that person…”

“…Let’s just ignore her.”

“Snow in a place where everyone’s dead! Whee-hoo! I’m going to make a snowman~ La la la~”

Wouldn’t most people be at least somewhat shocked by such ruins where not even corpses remain, no matter how much they dislike people?

Making my thoughts seem ridiculous, the psycho nun rolled up a large snowball and happily made a snowman.

I was truly speechless watching her.

“You… seem really excited?”

“Of course! One of my bucket list items was to make a snowman in a city with no people!”

“So are you satisfied now?”

“No! I can’t be satisfied with just a snowman! Since it’ll take some time for the others to come out, I’m going to make a Neo Cyclone Jet Armstrong Cannon!”

“She’s lost it…”

“It’s actually quite well-made for what it is.”

Katarina had said she would stay inside the time machine to establish communication with the past we came from.

Lia was changing into winter clothes with Lady Kurumi.

While watching Kang Mirae making some kind of cannon out of snow, I waved to Cheran, who was the last of our group to come outside.

“Cheran, are you okay?”

“Ugh… the ride was even more terrible than seasickness. This time machine…”

“Haha…”

“By the way, those kids whose company Father allowed seem to be waking up late?”

“Yeah, I understand Yujin being slow since he’s all wrapped in bandages, but the others are taking their time.”

“Oh, those kids were actually awake a while ago. But they seemed to be discussing something among themselves inside.”

“…Is that so?”

Cheran walked toward us on the winter-like Gangnam ground of August, seemingly unfazed by the cold like a proper Hunter.

Meanwhile, I felt somewhat anxious about what my children might be doing.

‘…Surely they wouldn’t do something like destroying the time machine?’

They’re all good kids…

At least that’s how they appeared to me.

But the problem was that they might only appear that way to me, and as I was earnestly praying that those children wouldn’t cause trouble—

Vroom!

Vroom!

“Huh?”

“That sound… a motorcycle?”

“What the hell? I thought all humans were dead?! What’s with the motorcycle sound?”

The engine sound of motorcycles gradually approaching from the deserted ruins of Gangnam.

We all reacted to it.

“…! They’re bandits, Father.”

“B-bandits?!”

Wait, the world has ended but there are still bandits?

…No, perhaps because the world has ended, there can be bandits in the middle of Gangnam?

Anyway, a group of people soon appeared riding what looked like hover bikes through the snow—

“Loot! Loot everything!”

“Kill the men and take all the women!”

“…What era are those lines from?”

“They really are bandits…”

We decided to capture them first to hear what they had to say.