Ch.205205 – The Culmination of Summer

# 205 – The Completion of Summer

Clang-! Clang-! Clang-!

I spent points in my Status Window to enhance the “Broken Clock” trait.

The sound of hammering was loud and sparks flew brilliantly.

“Enhancement failed.”

“Argh!”

“Would you like to spend 100 points to enhance the unique trait ‘Broken Clock’?”

“Success rate: 10%”

“Upon success, trait will change to ‘???'”

It cost 100 points for a 10% chance. But I’d already failed ten times. Shouldn’t a 10% chance mean success at least once out of ten tries?

I remembered Jeongseok once telling me that the probability of succeeding at least once when attempting a 10% chance ten times was actually about 65%. He mentioned some Bernoulli formula or whatever.

I only half-listened back then, but now I wish I’d paid more attention.

“It’s okay. I have plenty of time.”

I decided to spend more endless time in this place.

It was such a boring cave. In this cave that I couldn’t leave or enter, all I could do was recall things from the past.

Elementary school days.

Clang-!

The memory of receiving crayons as a Christmas present.

Clang-!

Playing at the amusement park with Mom and Dad.

Clang-!

After passing through a relatively uninteresting middle school period, I suddenly became a high school student, met various friends, and fought various ghosts. Exploring corridors, sealing demons…

To me, who had been trapped in this cave for so long, all those things felt like a dream.

I wondered what my friends were doing outside now. Maybe they were waiting for my return.

I was also curious about how much time had passed outside.

Clang-! Clang-!

After countless hammer strikes, I began to feel the boundary blurring between whether I was the hammer striking or the metal being struck. I had no idea how many enhancement attempts I’d made.

Just when the probability and point consumption no longer mattered as my sense of self became vague, my mind suddenly cleared as if receiving a reward.

“Whoa!”

“Trait enhancement successful.”

“Unique trait ‘Eternal Clock’ acquired.”

“‘Eternal Clock’: The perfect eternal clock has manifested here again. You are the ultimate high-precision mechanical device completed in human form.”

“Oh, shit!”

So this is what it was! I recalled the moments of struggling to reach the fourth floor to find the ‘Eternal Clock’ that was said to grant wishes. But ironically, the clock had been inside me from the beginning.

“Is this for real? I should have just spent all my points on self-enhancement.”

So I didn’t need to go through all that trouble from the beginning—I just needed to collect points and enhance myself. Of course, everything that happened wasn’t completely meaningless.

I had gained many experiences, and just as experiences change people, they had changed who I am now.

As proof, my body felt lighter than ever before.

My mind felt peaceful, as if it had transcended physical pain and emotion. I felt truly complete. Filled with a sense of fulfillment that I couldn’t quite place, I absentmindedly looked at my palm and was greatly surprised.

“Aack, what is this!”

My fingers had become twelve in number! While I was panicking and flustered, Japanese soldiers approached me and shouted.

“Child of Eternity, Aion!”

“Infinite cycle!”

The elderly Japanese soldiers knelt and prostrated themselves before my radiant form. They offered me treasures they had been keeping—water containers, cloth, oil, and such—though honestly, they were just odds and ends.

“Please let us leave this place!”

“…We can’t even remember our names anymore.”

But those odds and ends were the most precious things they had, and I felt the desire to grant their wishes. If not for the meditation technique they had taught me, I would have gone mad in this place.

“Thieves crucified on the cross. In the new time, there will be a place for you as well.”

“Ohhh!”

“Finally…”

As the repentant thief criminals shed tears like waterfalls, I looked at Cheon Aesu, who was now writhing on the ground.

His eyes still seemed to see nothing.

“Where is everyone… I’m alone here. In this eternal darkness forever… But don’t take me lightly. There are plenty of others who will stop you besides me. Besides me…”

It seemed that while some things change, others never do.

This man and I were like endless parallel lines. I spread my twelve fingers with determination.

The usage method for the newly completed trait “Eternal Clock” was instinctively engraved in my soul, so I didn’t need anyone to explain it to me.

“With who I am now, I can reweave the web of time as I wish.”

“Eternal Clock” was originally just a conceptual object that granted others’ wishes.

But through various experiences, it gained its own sense of self and became human.

An imperfect human. He now began to dream his own dreams.

And the world that high school student Ha Yeongwon dreamed of—.

# # #

“It’s hot, so hot. Isn’t it fall now that it’s the second semester? Why is it still so hot?”

“I know, right? There were even earthquakes during the break. Is the world ending or what?”

First day of the second semester.

Students began attending school with renewed spirits. Although there had been earthquakes during the break that cracked buildings and damaged roads, time flowed unchanged into autumn.

September. The season when many fruits are harvested and students’ uniforms start getting longer. Among the students chatting about what happened during the break, one female student came to her senses.

“…Huh?”

It was Yang Juhui.

Yang Juhui realized she was standing in the middle of the road where the heat had not yet subsided, and she was slightly dazed.

Honk honk-. Cars honked their horns at her.

Traffic congestion was occurring during the morning commute because of the female student standing blankly at the crosswalk despite the red light.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

Just then, someone grabbed Yang Juhui’s hand.

It was an adult woman a few years older than Yang Juhui, dressed in a black suit.

“You stayed up all night on the phone until dawn, and now you’re dozing off in the middle of the road! Hey! Wake up!”

Squeeeeeze-.

The woman pinched Yang Juhui’s cheek.

“Owww!”

Only then did Yang Juhui come to her senses and look at the woman’s face.

“Sis? Is that you?”

“What’s wrong? Did you really doze off while walking?”

Whoosh-!

Yang Juhui threw herself into her sister Yang Dohui’s arms. Yang Dohui, who was walking with her younger sister on her way to a high school teaching practicum, felt awkward about her sister’s sudden affection.

“Sis!”

Yang Juhui felt her sister’s vivid body heat and smelled her scent. She felt so alive.

But at the same time, she began to feel frightened.

The fact that her sister was alive meant… the timeline had changed. Last time when time was reversed, a boy had disappeared from people’s memories.

“Sis, do you know about Ha Yeongwon?”

“That name…”

Yang Dohui’s expression turned serious.

She hurried her steps as if she had heard something she shouldn’t have.

“I’m going to be late for my teaching practicum. I’ll go ahead!”

Whoosh-!

Yang Dohui quickened her pace.

Yang Juhui felt something very strange about that attitude as she headed to school. The name “Gaeryong City Yeongji High School” was clearly written on the school.

‘It doesn’t seem to have changed much…’

Vroom-.

Just then, a black car stopped in front of the school.

Soon, a girl with shiny black hair elegantly adjusted her skirt as she got out of the car.

“Dahui, should I pick you up after school?”

“No, it’s fine! You and Dad enjoy your time together!”

“Sis! Let’s play raccoon games together after school!”

The student who got out of the luxury sedan was Yu Dahui.

Yang Juhui was greatly surprised to see Yu Dahui with her mother, father, and younger sister. Soon, Yu Dahui was also surprised to see Yang Juhui.

“You…”

“……”

Though they didn’t speak, they shared a thought.

They both realized the world had changed.

It was exactly the world they had wished for.

“No way…”

Yang Juhui, worried that a male student might have disappeared again, hurriedly headed to the classroom. Many students were already in the classroom because Yang Juhui was late.

Yang Juhui busily shifted her gaze among the students, looking for the boy’s face. And she felt a great emptiness.

“Hey! Where is Ha Yeongwon! Where’s Ha Yeongwon!”

“W-what are you talking about?”

“Juhui, Ha Yeongwon…?”

Gong Yerin and Lim Huiyeon were bewildered.

Soon, Kim Geonho also trembled as if frightened.

“That name…”

The students’ attitudes were very strange. They seemed either not to know the name or to fear it. Yang Juhui couldn’t understand the current situation.

Soon, Yang Juhui made eye contact with Jeongseok, who was sitting at his desk.

Jeongseok just shrugged.

“Even I don’t know what’s going on anymore.”

As Yang Juhui was confused by the current situation that even Jeongseok couldn’t understand, Hong Yeri, one of the twin female teachers, entered the classroom.

“Hey, everyone sit down. Ugh, what’s that smell? Open the windows and ventilate! Skipping on the first day of the semester. Everyone sit down!”

Hong Miri’s twin sister, Hong Yeri, was alive.

Yang Juhui glared at Hong Yeri, trying to gauge how and from where time had changed. After Hong Yeri finished calling attendance, she activated the screen to turn on the school broadcast.

“Since today is the first day of school, we’ll start with a speech from the chairman. Everyone listen without dozing off or doing other things. The chairman’s speech will be on the midterm exam.”

“Aww-.”

“No!”

The students complained about the chairman’s speech being on the exam. Of course, Hong Yeri turned up the volume as if she didn’t care about their complaints.

A table with the Yeongji Foundation’s emblem appeared on the screen in each classroom, and soon the chairman appeared.

“Now, let’s applaud!”

At Teacher Hong Yeri’s words, everyone in the classroom started clapping. Soon, the boring chairman’s speech began, and in this strange scene, Yang Juhui couldn’t come to her senses.

“When my grandfather handed over the chairman position to me, he emphasized one thing. That our country’s problem is the low birth rate. To overcome the low birth rate, we need to amend the constitutional law of monogamy…!”

The reason was that the person called the chairman was not an old or middle-aged man, but a male student somewhere between youth and boyhood.

“Ha Yeongwon!?”

“You! Yang Juhui! Who told you to call the chairman’s name so casually! You bad girl! Go stand in the back with your hands up!”

“No! That guy isn’t the chairman! He’s Ha Yeongwon!”

Yang Juhui suddenly felt dizzy.

A chairman in a school uniform? Just as she was wondering what was going on, the chairman Ha Yeongwon on the broadcast spoke.

“Teacher Hong Yeri, please bring me some water.”

“Yes!”

Patter patter-.

Hong Yeri ran out of the classroom with a cup of water, heading to the broadcasting room.

Seeing that, Yang Juhui really felt dizzy. And she started laughing.

“What a stupid dream. What a stupid dream!”

Hahaha-!

Yang Juhui burst into laughter and ran out of the classroom, and Jeongseok followed her.

“I’ll bring Yang Juhui back.”

Patter patter patter-. Jeongseok and Yang Juhui ran down the corridor.

Soon, as if by appointment, the door of Class A opened and Yu Dahui slipped out of the classroom.

“Let’s go!”

“Yes, let’s go!”

“Run!”

Everyone laughed loudly as they ran down the corridor.

The summer that seemed eternal had ended, and a new second semester and a new autumn had begun.

It was the season when the fingertips of boys and girls were slightly tinged with mature colors like autumn leaves.

Someday, just as autumn leaves fade, boys and girls will become adults.

But for now, as if that was just a distant story, everyone returned to being a child, running with all their might and shouting loudly.

– The End –