Chapter 29 : New Friend (3)
by fnovelpia
This is awkward.
“I’m not going to kill you.”
“Yeah, right.”
Yang Chanseok, lying on the floor with a look like he just bit into something rotten, stares at me.
He knows it too—he knows I’m not going to kill Hanyul or him.
“Sure, maybe not right now. Your reputation means everything to you, right?”
“…….”
“But what about after you’ve perfectly deceived us?”
He only half-believes me.
He’s clearly convinced I’ll eventually harm them.
“…Do you really think I’m doing all this just to kill you once I gain your trust?”
“Of course.”
Chanseok laughs coldly with an arrogant expression.
Unbelievable.
‘…There’s always someone like this.’
Even when I used to do wrecking videos (recka), there were always people like him.
People who kept insisting their favorite hunter could never be that kind of person—relentlessly leaving hate comments.
People who would smear the videos I risked my life to shoot.
Of course, they were just wrecking videos, and the footage itself was pretty gritty, so a little smear didn’t really change the message.
Still, when I first started, it did get to me.
Back then, I guess I had a bit more innocence in me.
‘…Before I got tainted midway through.’
But now?
After reincarnating, my mind’s completely clear.
Anyway, back to this.
Yang Chanseok is the same type as those hate commenters.
Not that I don’t understand.
It’s hard to accept the fact that the hunter you trusted and supported with your heart and money was actually trash.
Chanseok is the same—he’s lived a life believing monsters are Evil and slaughtering them without hesitation.
In doing so, he’s saved countless lives and lost many comrades.
Whenever a top-100 ranker from the Shinhwa Guild dies, there’s always a clip of Chanseok crying sorrowfully in the news.
That’s how compassionate he is.
‘…Even the trash I exposed once asked Chanseok for help.’
‘Naturally, he rejected them all without hesitation and let them fall into ruin.’
Someone like that?
Of course I don’t want to hurt him.
“…I’m not going to fall for you like Master did.”
To be honest, I still don’t know why Hunter Hanseong trusted me enough to become my friend.
Maybe he just felt instinctively, ‘Ah, this one’s not a threat.’
If I think about it like that, maybe the reason the chairman gave me a friendly evaluation was because Hunter Hanseong spoke up for me?
“…Is that so?”
“You monsters are all the same.”
“…….”
“You deceive humans, trick them, desperate to kill them somehow, aren’t you?”
Honestly, I was once human too, so I’d be lying if I said I couldn’t relate to what he’s saying.
But now that I am a monster, I can’t fully agree either.
“…Th-That’s because it’s humans who invaded the towers…!!”
“Hah. But you guys built those towers without permission on our Earth. How is that right?”
“…!!”
“Do you know how many innocent civilians were harmed just because they were nearby when the towers appeared?”
Chanseok’s face twisted with rage as he continued.
“Do you even realize how many people are living in fear, grieving over their destroyed homes?”
“So what, you got one ‘friendly’ label slapped on you—are the dead going to come back because of that?”
“If you’re deemed ‘friendly,’ you’re finished.”
Towers appear in densely populated areas without any warning.
Which means—people get buried under them without even having time to evacuate.
‘…Right… Why didn’t I realize that?’
I’d been so overwhelmed that I hadn’t been able to acknowledge it.
That I was already living atop the corpses of countless people.
“…I don’t care if you kill me.”
“Maybe then the world will realize—there’s no truth to the monsters’ talk of ‘friendliness.’”
“Do you really think Korea will try to deal with a Korean tower alone?”
Absolutely not.
If it’s an SSS-rank, it’s the most dangerous tower in existence.
A tower that could break the peace of the entire world—there’s no way the world would just sit back and watch.
“…There are countries that cleared S-rank towers before Korea.”
“Monsters live in those countries.”
“Maybe one, sure—but can you really handle all of them?”
That was exactly what I was afraid of.
The reason I stayed hidden.
The world doesn’t end at Korea.
Above the top is another top.
Choi Hanseong isn’t the strongest—Because out there are monsters far worse than even him.
But right now, that wasn’t what mattered to me.
“…Did I… kill someone…?”
“…?”
“…Me…?”
I had killed people.
People who had done nothing wrong.
Just by being born—so many were crushed to death beneath where I now lived.
But the scarier part was that it didn’t end there.
People who lost their homes.
People who lost their families.
People who, driven to utter despair, might take their own lives.
Those who lose everything in a disaster often become that kind.
Which meant—I might have caused secondary victims too.
As that realization hit, my breath started to quicken.
“…Haah… haah…”
My hands trembled.
My whole body shook.
‘…Yubin-ah…’
A voice—hallucination—echoed in my head.
‘…I’m glad…’
The voice of the person who inspired me to become a hunter.
My teacher—declared a suicide victim after getting caught in countless power struggles.
‘…Please… grow up right… live rightly… okay?’
The last moment I shared with her played back in my mind.
At the same time.
“…Uuegh!!”
Tears burst out along with vomit.
Thankfully, I had collapsed just far enough away that it didn’t spill onto Chanseok’s head.
Chanseok looked extremely startled.
His trembling pupils showed just how flustered he was.
“…Help… me… please…”
The moment I said that.
[Shall I help you?]
The status window, which had only given mechanical responses since I first opened my eyes here, suddenly spoke to me.
I weakly nodded.
[The thousand-year-old queen smiles wickedly!]
And then I lost consciousness.
***
Currently, with his body taken over by the pendant, Chanseok lay helplessly on the ground.
He wanted to move right away.
The reason?
“…Crazy…”
“…Ugh.”
It was because the Gumiho had completely broken down after being made to realize just how many people she had killed—how much of a burden she had become.
Even as she collapsed, she had avoided Chanseok and fell onto the cold stone floor, retching violently.
Her eyes welled up with tears.
After vomiting settled a bit, the Gumiho looked at Chanseok with a pale face.
Her eyes trembled uncontrollably, as if she were in a state of panic.
‘…A monster…?’
Monsters are all Evil.
Therefore, they deserve neither forgiveness nor compromise.
That had been Chanseok’s lifelong belief.
But just now, that belief had wavered.
Chanseok’s pupils began to shake uncontrollably.
“…Help… me…”
“…!!”
Just before collapsing, the Gumiho looked at him with a pale face and whispered.
It made him wonder.
‘…How is she any different from beastfolk…?’
Extreme confusion flooded Chanseok’s mind.
Up until now, it was the grief of losing his family that had kept him barely holding on, his desire for revenge giving him strength.
And for the first time, he doubted both that revenge and his beliefs.
“Haa…”
The Gumiho took a deep breath and slowly stood up.
Unlike before, her gaze turned cold as she brushed the vomit off her white hanbok.
“…How could you torment a child like that…”
Her tone had somehow shifted—older, wiser.
After cleaning up the mess with a look of disgust, she crouched in front of Chanseok.
Chanseok just stared blankly, not understanding what was happening.
“Does it feel good?”
“…What?”
“Do you feel at peace, tormenting a child like that?”
The Gumiho frowned, as if disgusted just to be looking at him.
It was the same look Chanseok had just given her earlier.
“…If you hate it so much, then leave.”
“Why barge in just to hurt the child?”
She clicked her tongue and tapped Chanseok’s cheek a couple of times.
“…Still wet behind the ears…”
“…?”
The atmosphere had completely flipped from just moments ago.
“Tastes like vomit.”
“…Utterly disgusting.”
With that, the Gumiho stood up and pressed her foot down firmly on Chanseok’s head.
“…Kgh?!”
“Shhhh… Don’t talk. You’ll break your jaw.”
She giggled playfully.
“…The child just wants peace.”
“Humans are so stupid. They don’t even realize a savior has come.”
“…Shall I give you a personal lesson?”
Chanseok felt the pressure of the foot on his head grow stronger.
His head was being slowly pushed down, his chin pressing against the ground so he couldn’t even open his mouth.
“If you need discipline, just say the word. I’ll personally teach you what courtesy is.”
The chuckle that followed was chilling.
Her red eyes, seen from below, held a faint killing intent.
“Now, if I count to three, you’ll open your mouth and respond.”
“…If you don’t… then there’s no helping it.”
Chanseok waited silently for the next words.
“…It’s a shame to waste the child’s effort, but I suppose we can afford to lose one.”
After a chilling laugh, the pressure on Chanseok’s head intensified.
It was already too late to call out to Hanyul, who was far away with the Spirits.
His body had been overtaken by the pendant, leaving him unable to move anything above his neck.
He tried to summon his mana.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Snap!
With a flick of the Gumiho’s finger, the mana that had begun to stir dispersed like smoke.
“This is the price for touching my child.”
“Do try not to get cocky in the afterlife.”
Her voice whispered mockingly in his ear.
For the first time since watching his family be murdered before his eyes, Chanseok felt the true fear of death.
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