Ch.161161. Joonhoo’s Truth

I received the call that Junhu had disappeared while I was at the dormitory.

Suddenly, Yuhwa called me and spoke urgently.

“Has Junhu contacted you? He left home and hasn’t been seen since!”

“Did you report it to the police?”

I instinctively felt something ominous. Junhu suddenly disappearing?

Given his personality, he’s not the type of kid who would run away. He was always worried about his sister.

It’s definitely not a runaway.

The moment this judgment formed in my mind, I moved from the dormitory.

Frantically trying to contact Seol Yuhwa as I went.

This isn’t just a simple case of running away.

I moved solely on this conviction. But the problem is, even if I go now, I don’t know where the issue lies.

Still, I need to move.

It’s not aimless. All I can rely on is what that voice tells me.

If the voice informs me of the situation, I can go. Please… if something happened, just tell me.

I was anxiously fidgeting with my phone while waiting in front of the subway station.

I wish someone would just tell me something.

What would happen to Yuhwa if she lost her family? I hated even imagining it.

While anxiously staring at my phone, I heard someone approaching.

“…?”

It might just be a passerby, but with heightened senses, I turned my head.

And in front of me was a face that seemed familiar, though I was sure I’d never seen it before.

He reached out to me, silently staring at me.

“Wait, where have I seen that face before?”

Before I could figure out what that face meant, light enveloped me.

*

This was a dream. Usually, the dreams I recognize are related to awakening cards, but this one was different.

“This scene looks very familiar.”

Enlarged monsters and blood-soaked earth. Monsters marching proudly.

“What I saw when I died…”

Humanity’s final battle. The moment when humanity, struggling until the end, collapsed.

The scene I’m seeing now was the rear unit I belonged to.

We were the frontline cannon fodder, and the rear units were the groups that assessed the enemy and attacked based on our sacrifices.

There, numerous Jaegers were charging in reinforced suits.

Not particularly effective, but from the latter half, Jaegers wore reinforced suits.

The reason is simple. They were plagued by anxiety if they didn’t have something covering their bodies.

The battle is about to begin.

A giant rhinoceros monster with six legs charges in front of me, breaking the formation.

Was that a Tyrant? A flagship monster that appeared in the latter period.

The formation collapses instantly, and energy waves spread from its outer skin, wreaking havoc.

Yes, right before extinction, humanity was simply being cleaned up.

One-sided slaughter.

The Jaegers, who should have led steadfastly, fought among themselves and died, and without leaders, humanity fell into chaos and couldn’t be properly trained.

Talented individuals died like that, and before the younger ones could grow, the monster side became much stronger, much faster.

Well, just like in the current world, I couldn’t reduce the damage.

Anyway, two people stood out in this fight. One was a woman, the other a man, but I can only distinguish them by voice, not by face.

“Everyone, hang in there!”

The woman encourages, but the outcome is predetermined.

But isn’t this the moment when I’m currently falling to my death?

I’m a bit curious about what happens next, even though it’s pointless. Since humanity lost the final battle, I assumed they naturally went extinct.

At this moment, a male Jaeger is fiercely fighting a giant cyclops over 20 meters tall that’s rampaging.

He’s good! Must be SS-class.

I don’t know who he is, but in the end, he was miserably crushed to death by the monsters.

That’s all there was to it.

But then I see a faint light. A light that even other monsters don’t pay attention to.

The light moves forward.

Strangely, the light is heading to where I fell.

There, for the first time in my life, I could see my own corpse.

With one arm severed and my entire body shattered, it’s not a pleasant sight.

So that’s how I went.

But something was happening on my end too.

A space like a galaxy was spread out at my head, and something was leaving my body into it.

Should I call that a soul? A strangely powerless, limp energy.

The light moves hastily, following it.

“It followed me.”

Someone had followed me during my regression. The scene in front of me changes again. The face of that unidentified man in front of me clearly came to mind.

“No wonder it was vague. Junhu, it was your grown-up future self.”

At my words, a phantom-like figure appeared.

Junhu, yes, not the young elementary school Junhu, but Junhu ten years later.

“You’re about twenty years old now?”

“Nineteen.”

The grown-up Junhu was smiling.

“Now it makes sense. The reason why a voice helping Junhu wasn’t checked by the summoning spirit.”

I don’t know how someone who isn’t a summoning spirit came here. Adult Junhu changed his appearance in front of me.

Winged shoes, and even a hat used in ancient Greece… Wait, is this?

“Hermes? Your summoning spirit was Hermes?”

“Hermes has been with me since I was young. I’m close to him. In the past, summoning spirits would come to us. It’s the same thing. Using Hermes’ abilities, he sent my soul along with you.”

I still can’t believe it. Is he a ghost? That kid who died fighting was Junhu?

“You have a monster summoning spirit attached to you, right? Hermes taught me. I was using Hermes’ characteristics to gather information about the monsters. What they were planning. Even their past.”

Adult Junhu’s finger points at me.

“The summoning spirit attached to you is a monster. Generally, that’s absolutely impossible. But while gathering information with Hermes, I learned some of their secrets.”

“That monsters fought each other too?”

“Yes. They call them the Primitive Ancient Species. The current species are ‘devolved’ forms, modified to avoid extinction. They refer to their pre-devolution form as the Ancient Species. Their race was destined for extinction, and they needed energy to avoid it. They invaded other worlds to find it, and that’s where disagreements arose.”

“So one side won and killed the other?”

“Rather than killed, they were sealed. Especially since the two opposing leaders were close to gods in that world. Now, do you understand who your summoning creature is?”

Junhu says with a grin.

“Don’t tell me, that leader monster I saw in my dream?”

“Also, it was Hermes who made that sealed monster find you. In the end, we parted when I died…”

He was reminiscing with a lonely face.

“Why me? What did I do?”

“If you think there’s a special reason, you’ll be disappointed. It was the monster summoning spirit’s choice, and they thought the already dying you wouldn’t be noticed by enemies. To be honest, it was just luck.”

“You worked hard in the future. Thank you.”

So that’s it. Was it Junhu who created this opportunity for me to regress and change the future?

When humanity was being pushed back, they investigated the monsters and found a way. The monsters that were sealed after fighting with them.

“Actually, besides Hermes, many people helped… But you’re not disappointed? Usually, people expect something special.”

“Either way, an opportunity came, so it doesn’t matter.”

“I see. That’s a good mindset. Anyway, young me has been kidnapped. The kidnappers seem to be executives, and I’ll tell you the location.”

Good. This was definitely a boon for me. To think I’d gain such an ally in this lonely battle. Just help me quickly.

“But if you could do this, why didn’t you help earlier…”

“I didn’t know. Honestly, you were just a low-ranking soldier, so I knew your face but not your name. So I desperately tried to ‘detect’ you with the power Hermes gave me. Remember? When you were hunting, our family was sometimes nearby?”

I remember. I recalled when Seol Yuhwa and I met while half-transformed into Sura. Didn’t Junhu suddenly come up to me?

“Well, I should stop talking about recent events. I can’t stay away from my younger self for long. Even now, I’m pushing it. And now I’m kidnapped again because I came to help. The enemies think young me is a precognitive.”

“Haha, a precognitive… That’s not wrong. Tell me the location. I’ll go right away.”

I grabbed Junhu’s hand.

“You’ve been through a lot. I’ll repay your kindness by dealing with the monsters.”

“Please do. It’s getting hard for me to stay now.”

The world was disappearing again. Like a song, the enemy’s location was coming into my ears.

*

Yoon Dongha began his work in a shabby warehouse in the forest, with defective products imprinted with commands as guards behind him.

“Definitely attractive. This is a failure?”

The executives were greatly satisfied with the results of the previous battle.

Especially Astro, who had schemes to utilize the byproducts in various ways.

[You’re saying a wolf that could fight against that Dokgo Junha formed a fusion? This can be applied to us or used to create new monsters.]

The byproducts they received were failures from the “finished product” process.

But their power is different from ordinary monsters.

[They were making something incredible. It seems quite old. With this, we’ll have enough power to purify this filthy world.]

The executives wanted to use this power, and above all, they wanted to possess it themselves.

But even combining existing monsters with humans to create monsters took time.

These specimens needed more research.

Yoon Dongha was using this specimen as his personal guard.

Because with his ability, he could increase firepower by giving commands.

‘The stage is set. The kidnapped boy will be killed. In front of everyone.’

Now society will brand that heretic as evil. Then they’ll ostentatiously give freedom to the monsters.

That means Dokgo Jun will have no choice but to step forward.

“Is everything ready?”

He looked at the staff handling the broadcasting equipment in the basement.

Kill the child and frame the monster (Do Jonghyun). Just imitate it adequately in the darkness. The monster (Do Jonghyun) has almost lost people’s trust now. This is just delivering the final blow.

‘Now I’ll film the scene of killing that boy and then kill all the staff.’

All that remains is the camera that captured the scene. “Someone” will pick it up and report it to the broadcasting station.

The monsters’ only line is to shout that they’re protecting the child, and that’s the end of their dialogue.

What else remains for a monster that has lost trust?

This is the climax of the scenario, with Dokgo Jun making the finale.

“Kid, it’s good to awaken early, but you shouldn’t have run into bad people like us.”

A dark screen appears on the camera, and the actors enter.

‘It took some time, but it doesn’t matter. It’s my scenario. If it succeeds, my presence in the Goegyeopdan will…!’

Suddenly, the wall in front of him collapsed. As if cut by something sharp, it split instantly.

It’s neither a wolf, nor a new human, nor a dinosaur. Now, an insect transformed into blade mode has appeared, sharply cutting through the wall.

“…How?”

He didn’t understand momentarily, but what needed to be done was clear.

That the scenario was in danger of being derailed.

“You bastard!”

He tried to buy time by putting forward the byproduct of the ancient species, but that was all.

Before his eyes, a blade appeared silently and calmly.

An attack where all energy seemed concentrated, with not even ambient noise being heard.

The blade form transformation charge was piercing through the ancient species and approaching him.

“Son of a…”

Yoon Dongha’s body was pierced in an instant.