Ch.6767. Kang Ye-rin Despairs in the Prison of Time

“Ah, uh, ugh. Mmm.”

Kang Yerin mumbled like a baby babbling.

Of course, there was no one anywhere to listen to her.

No one to answer her.

How much time had passed?

No, not even a single second had passed.

In the frozen time, she stroked Jung Ui-seok’s face over and over as he remained suspended with a gentle smile.

There was no warmth.

No sensation.

Because there was no time for sensations to be transmitted.

Thud.

Kang Yerin finally collapsed in front of him, frustrated and defeated.

Even when she looked up at Jung Ui-seok, he only stared into space, never looking down at her.

If only she could have heard his last words.

If only she could have heard one final sentence.

Kang Yerin realized.

That Jung Ui-seok had never once told her that he loved her.

“Hng, hng, hnnngh.”

She squeezed dust from tear ducts that had dried up long ago.

Kang Yerin slowly raised her arms.

Yes. Although there was no future in this time.

Even though it was just a short period of about five months.

She just had to repeat it infinitely.

Even without a future, without a future…

The yellow dragon responded immediately.

***

“Please, please!! Why? Why won’t you tell me you love me, Ui-seok? Is that one phrase so difficult? After all I’ve sacrificed for you! After all I’ve done for you!! Why can’t you say that one thing?!”

On the hundred and thirty-eighth repetition, Kang Yerin, unable to hold back anymore, grabbed Jung Ui-seok by the collar and screamed. Jung Ui-seok only looked at her with even more pitiful eyes.

“Yerin. I don’t understand how you’ve become so broken. You’re in no condition to fight. Please stop…”

“Don’t look at me like that! You never looked at Somi that way!!”

Jung Ui-seok replied with displeasure.

“You’re not Somi.”

That statement overwhelmed Kang Yerin with feelings of inferiority.

She desperately grabbed Jung Ui-seok as he tried to turn away, clinging to him.

“I-I’m sorry, Ui-seok. D-don’t be like that. I’ll do better. Okay? Um, do you want to do something dirty? I’ll use my mouth. I’ll suck hard. Don’t leave me, please…”

Jung Ui-seok looked at her with a sad face and shook his head.

“Yerin, get some rest.”

***

There is no future.

The time given is too short.

Her relationship with him must be rebuilt from zero each time.

With each repetition, her mind wears down and anxiety consumes her thoughts.

A vicious cycle.

The results only got worse.

She uses her ability.

Uses it, uses it, uses it.

The same scene plays out over and over.

“Why, why, WHY!! Why can’t I go further than this point! I could just go back to the very beginning, when I first met Ui-seok! If I could go back to before he started dating Somi…”

After struggling desperately, Kang Yerin gave up.

She would never hear Jung Ui-seok say he loved her.

So she decided to repeat what she could do.

Kang Yerin abandoned her rationality and repeatedly had sex with Jung Ui-seok.

Like an animal that knew nothing else, she surrendered herself to lust.

When she was about to die at the hands of the Galaxy Empire, she would turn back time and repeat it all again.

Even the experience of having her hymen torn countless times became numbing.

During this, she realized something.

“…Oh. I’m pregnant.”

Kang Yerin held a test stick with two lines on it.

Was it good luck or bad?

In that iteration, she had become pregnant with Jung Ui-seok’s child from her first experience.

Tears flowed down her face.

Because this child would never be born.

Unable to even make an expression, not telling Jung Ui-seok about it.

Sitting alone on the bed, crying for hours, she gently caressed her belly before going back to the past again.

***

A curse.

This is a curse.

This place is a prison.

Trapped in time.

“I won. It’s over now. Can you help me up? I’m drained. Haha…”

Kang Yerin mechanically killed Ji Se-hwa, Shin Yukyong, and Choi Minseo. She escaped the ship with Jung Ui-seok.

“…Sob, hic.”

“Yerin?”

She no longer knew what meaning these actions had.

Her mind was a complete mess.

Swish.

Jung Ui-seok wiped Kang Yerin’s face, which was a mess of tears.

He was such a consistent person.

Kang Yerin looked at him with haggard eyes and asked.

“…Ui-seok, would you rather live in the most terrible real world or in a fake reality that’s somewhat happy?”

“The real world, of course.”

Jung Ui-seok answered without a moment’s hesitation.

“Even if the fake reality is still reality? Just not the original reality you lived in.”

“That means it’s not the original world I was trying to protect. If I run away, who will bring peace to the world?”

“What if everything is already ruined and peace can’t be achieved?”

“I’d still have to keep trying.”

He was truly a person whose eyes never wavered.

***

Kang Yerin decided to dig deeper into Jung Ui-seok.

She increased the time spent talking with him.

“Let’s say, hypothetically, that I betrayed you on the ship and you nearly died but survived. What do you think you would have done?”

“Why are you suddenly saying something like that? There are no ‘ifs’ in history.”

“Just humor me.”

“Hmm… It’s hard to imagine. I would have hated you to death, I guess.”

“Would you have been able to forgive me?”

“Depending on the circumstances. If I actually died, it might be difficult. But if you apologized right away, well… I really don’t know.”

“Do you think you might have become a villain?”

“Me, a villain? Come on, that’s ridiculous. I’ve lived as a hero my whole life.”

“Please consider it seriously. If you were betrayed and nearly killed, wouldn’t you think there was no future in being a hero?”

“Well… that’s true. Since I have the right to add goals, it’s not impossible. But still, me abandoning justice? A villain, huh… Then I’d have to recruit E.lena first. Haha.”

So Gerogius’s actions were indeed Jung Ui-seok’s own decision when pushed to the extreme. And the Dragon King Sentai must have been the decisive trigger.

She had practically created Gerogius herself.

Kang Yerin bit her lip.

“If you became a villain, what would your goal be?”

“The same, I guess? World peace.”

“And the specific means?”

“Since I’d be a villain, I’d have to control everything through complete domination. Control through corporations rather than governments. Well, the immediate task would still be defeating the Galaxy Empire.”

“How would you defeat Recter?”

“Yerin, how have I been fighting the Dark Kingdom executives all this time?”

“Um… you beat them all with your fists.”

“Right. I’d beat him the same way.”

Jung Ui-seok said with a smile, joking, but Kang Yerin knew he was serious.

“Since they’re such big guys, I’d need a lot of means to get there. I’d need a lot of talk to clear the path, and Pestam weapons would be essential, and if Dorado gets involved, we’re screwed, so I’d have to separate him somehow. Argh!”

Jung Ui-seok pulled his chair back with a screech and jumped to his feet.

“Thinking too much is giving me a headache. Hey Yerin, let’s go get some soup!”

Kang Yerin stared at him blankly.

“You really like soup, don’t you?”

“Oh yeah. Nothing beats a hearty blood sausage soup when you’re hungry or thirsty. Lots of lungs, no cartilage.”

Jung Ui-seok left enthusiastically to eat.

Kang Yerin decided it was time to meet Gerogius.

***

This time, Kang Yerin ran away immediately.

The three were a bit surprised, but she ignored them and killed Jung Ui-seok as planned.

Kang Yerin returned right away in her mecha and went into hiding.

And she waited for Jung Ui-seok’s return.

Finally, she witnessed a red light falling to Earth.

If Gerogius and Jung Ui-seok were the same person, then her guess that the story about Celtic Bio was a lie had been correct.

She approached Jung Ui-seok as soon as he arrived on Earth.

“…Kang Yerin?”

His face was filled with anger. Kang Yerin immediately knelt before him.

“Ui-seok, I’m sorry. I was wrong… I’ll sincerely beg for forgiveness. I know I can’t be forgiven. You can hit me until you feel better. Please. Just talk with me for a little while.”

Jung Ui-seok strode forward and grabbed Kang Yerin by the collar, lifting her up.

Seeing the terrifying face of the once kind and playful man, Kang Yerin’s heart began to ache.

“Go ahead.”

“I was betrayed too. I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you beforehand. The three of them were conspiring with the Association President to kill you and me…”

“Ha.”

Jung Ui-seok gritted his teeth in disbelief. He threw Kang Yerin to the ground.

“Ui-seok. If you’re thinking about revenge, I want to join you.”

“Someone as weak as you? You’d throw away everything you’ve gained so far?”

Kang Yerin took out her Noztorm switch and squeezed it in her hand.

Crack!

In an instant, the switch shattered into powder.

“I’m done with being a hero.”

Jung Ui-seok’s expression softened a bit at that sight.

Had she succeeded in persuading him?

Kang Yerin waited anxiously for his answer, her heart pounding.

Jung Ui-seok’s gaze seemed to pierce right through her.

Soon he smiled, baring his teeth.

“Ability level 17. I see. Yerin.”

“What?”

“You’ve regressed, haven’t you?”

“…What? Regressed? What does that—”

Thwack!

Kang Yerin couldn’t finish her sentence. Jung Ui-seok had rushed at her, kicking her in the stomach.

“Aagh, kuhk—”

“I must have become quite the big shot in the future, huh? Seeing you, with your high pride, acting so pathetically. Did all the heroes get wiped out or something?”

Jung Ui-seok continued to beat her. Kang Yerin screamed.

“No! Not the stomach! Not the stomach! My baby, my baby!!”

“Baby? When did you get pregnant and by whom? You’re fighting with a pregnant belly? Have you no awareness as a hero?”

Jung Ui-seok looked at her with contempt.

“You slut.”

That word stabbed Kang Yerin’s heart like a dagger.

“No, no…! I’ve only known one man! I only know you! Ui-seok!!”

“What nonsense are you spouting, you crazy bitch.”

“Then what am I supposed to do? What should I do? Huh? You hate me so much, you’re a villain and I’m a hero, no matter what I do you won’t love me, I can’t have a child here, there’s no future together, if I go back I’ll just die by your hand, what am I supposed to do? Ui-seok…”

Kang Yerin collapsed and wailed.

“I, I’m in so much pain. I feel like I’m really going to die. Please, Ui-seok. Just say you love me once. Save me…”

Kang Yerin cried loudly like a child.

Jung Ui-seok looked at her with cold eyes.

But perhaps he remembered something from the past.

“Are you a child? Crying like that.”

Kang Yerin couldn’t see him clearly through her tears.

“You’re a hero. Save yourself and live.”

Jung Ui-seok left Kang Yerin behind.