Chapter 30 : Yang Chanseok
by fnovelpia
Inside a nearly-collapsed concrete building.
The musty smell and spiderwebs filled the air, and amidst that, the sound of a girl’s laughter echoed.
“…Pfft…!!”
“…What’s so funny?”
A man frowned as he looked at the girl laughing noisily with her eyes closed as if she was watching something.
The girl opened one eye, wiped away the tears from laughing, and continued speaking.
“I’m going to take out both the Gumiho and the hunter at once.”
“…What?”
Startled, the man perked up at her words.
The girl, seeing his reaction, asked with a satisfied smile,”Want to hear it?”
The man gave a small nod.
The girl grinned and began to speak.
“Seems like the Gumiho isn’t on our side.”
“…So I’m going to kill her before she becomes a nuisance.”
Her chilling smile made the man question her.
“…Do you have a way?”
“I do~!”
“…What is it?”
The girl got up from the sofa, walked over to the man, and pulled out the candy from her mouth.
“A plan with the magician—boom!”
“Magician?”
“Yeah, the one who gave me a hard time when I first woke up here.”
“…You mean the Collapse Incident?”
“Pfft! You talk like a human.”
As the girl laughed heartily, the man scratched his head, seemingly embarrassed.
“…Sorry, it’s a habit.”
“Well, it happens. Anyway, yeah… It was during the first liberation.”
The girl’s cheeks started to flush.
“…It was so much fun…”
“…Calm down.”
“Anyway, back then, I gave them a present while we were playing.”
“…A present?”
“And now it’s time to use it.”
With an eerily blank expression, the girl stared silently out the window at the Gumiho Tower.
“…I can’t wait…♡”
“…You’re insane.”
“Hehe, just realizing that now?”
“…Is your trait speaking like that while wearing that expression?”
“…That’s rude, you know.”
The girl pouted at the man’s harsh words.
The man shook his head as he looked at her.
“…Anyway, are you sure about this? That it can kill them?”
“Yup! It’s a self-destruction skill that even blew away that Dragon God, remember?”
“…You gave them that?!”
“So what? I don’t wanna die, and they’re hypnotized anyway, so they’ll act exactly how I want.”
Staring at her seriously, the man said nothing.
The girl gave a soft smile in response.
“Do you know what’s funny about humans?”
“…What is it?”
“They act without even knowing they’ve been brainwashed.”
“…”
“They’re manipulated without realizing it, thinking it’s what they really want. Isn’t that hilarious?”
She laid back down on the sofa and closed her eyes.
“Anyway! I’ll report the results later!”
“…Looking forward to it.”
***
“Ugh…!?!”
“…Oh…?”
Pinned under the foot of the gumiho, Yang Chanseok thought to himself.
‘…Why… am I here…?’
Everything was confusing.
But that thought was quickly consumed by hatred toward the monster.
As if someone was deliberately interfering with his thoughts.
Whenever he saw a monster, an uncontrollable rage would rise.
Before he knew it, the fear of death Chanseok had felt was replaced by a massive anger directed at the monster.
His father, mother, and younger sister.
They were all dead.
“…You monster bastard…”
“You can still talk?”
There was still one method left to kill this gumiho.
[Skill: Do you wish to activate Self-Destruct?]
[Skills granted by someone else require permission to use.]
A status window flickered before his eyes.
Self-Destruct—a skill that causes a powerful magic explosion by using the caster’s own mana, soul, and body as fuel.
The status window had appeared after the Collapse Incident that took his family, congratulating him on his awakening.
It had granted him a skill, stating it had been transferred to him.
He couldn’t remember who the giver was, or what kind of person they were.
No—he had clearly seen it.
His family, brutally slaughtered right before his eyes.
He had definitely seen it—etched it into his memory.
And yet, it was all blurry, as if shrouded in fog.
‘…Whatever. As long as I can kill this monster with this…!!’
Nothing else mattered to Chanseok anymore.
Not even his own life.
Not the life of Hanyul, who had come with him.
He was simply consumed by a vengeance that had long lost any real purpose.
Chanseok looked once more at the flickering status window before his eyes.
[Skill: Do you wish to activate Self-Destruct?]
Just as he was about to agree to the window’s prompt.
“…You.”
“…?”
The gumiho looked at Chanseok with a slightly surprised expression.
“You’re hollow inside.”
“…!!”
Her expression and tone were utterly devoid of emotion—so chilling it gave him goosebumps.
Chanseok had seen this before.
And at last.
‘…Oppa…’
‘Chanseok!! Go!! Run away with Mom!!!’
‘Ch-Chanseok… Go ahead! M-Mom’s fine!’
Forgotten memories began to return, one by one.
‘Hello?’
As the voice of a certain girl echoed in his mind.
“…Gah?!”
“…You?”
Chanseok lost consciousness.
***
“What’s your name?”
“Ah… Family? You mean this?”
The moment the smiling girl walked toward him holding his family members’ severed heads in her hands.
How could he ever forget it?
The sight of his decapitated family cursing him even after death.
“G-Get away from me!!”
“Pfft! How cute. You think you’re going to survive?”
He remembered himself crawling on the ground, tears streaming, desperately trying to escape from that monster.
The monster laughed hysterically at him as he struggled.
In his desperation to get away, he threw rocks at her.
None of them hit properly, lacking strength.
But then, one stone struck the girl on the head.
Blood trickled down the girl’s head as she had been laughing maniacally.
“…?”
“Huuugh…”
Even after being hit, the monster laughed—until she saw the blood on her own forehead.
Then, as if she’d never been laughing, she stared coldly at Chanseok.
“You.”
“…You’re hollow inside, huh?”
The monster leaned in frighteningly close and said that before breaking out into wild laughter again.
“Interesting! This is fun?!”
“Haa… haa…♡”
“Pfft!”
As the monster laughed like a maniac, Chanseok saw an opportunity and tried to get up to run.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Gah!?!”
But the monster grabbed him by the head.
He thought—he was going to be just like his family, his head ripped off.
Chanseok struggled to wipe away the endless tears streaming down his face.
But no matter how much he wiped, the tears blurred his vision.
“Stop crying! Brave little boys shouldn’t cry~”
“Huuuugh…”
The monster, gripping Chanseok’s head, whispered softly.
“Wanna make a deal?”
“…What…?”
“I’ll let you live, so try enduring this.”
What the hell was she saying?
A monster making a deal?
He knew—he absolutely shouldn’t accept it.
A deal with a monster could never be fair.
But even so, Chanseok said—“…I want to live…”
“Pfft! You’re really funny, kid.”
He wanted to live.
No matter what anyone said, young Chanseok just wanted to live.
“Alright, big sis is gonna play a little game now.”
“…Huh?”
“It’s gonna hurt! Really, really bad! But if you can endure it, I’ll let you live!”
“W-What does that even…”
The terms of the deal were absurd.
She said she’d smash magical energy directly into his head, and if he could endure the pain for one minute, she’d let him live.
“It’s fine. You’re hollow inside, after all.”
The monster giggled as she summoned pink-hued magic.
“GAAAAAAHHHHK!!!!!!”
“It’s okay… It’s okay… Fufufu…♡”
Waves of pain crashed over him.
It felt like all the nerves in his body were on fire.
Yet, even within that pain, his mind stayed clear.
No—clearer than usual.
“If you can’t hold out, you’ll die. But if you endure to the end, you live!”
“I really hope you make it. I’ve even got a gift for you.”
Roughly five minutes of torture.
“…K-Kuhk…”
“You actually endured it?”
The girl stroked Chanseok’s head with a surprised reaction.
“Good job, cutie~♡”
“Please… spare me…”
“Of course, I’ll let you live.”
The girl smiled sweetly and pushed back Chanseok’s bangs.
“Okay~ time for a little signature!”
“…?”
“Pussssh~!”
“Aaaaargh!!!”
A searing pain flared up on his forehead.
The monster was engraving something.
Just like that, Chanseok lost consciousness.
And when he woke up again, he was classified as an Awakened One.
That’s when it started.
A hollow space in his chest, and a burning vengeance so strong it masked the void.
‘…So that was brainwashing…?’
And it wasn’t until Chanseok faced himself in a dream that he realized.
That he had been brainwashed.
***
The Gumiho looked down at the Hunter who had been pinned beneath her feet.
“Hey~ you alright down there?”
“…Well, that’s awkward. You had some nasty thing stuck in your head, so I thought I’d help and tease you a little while I was at it.”
It seemed she had teased too hard.
He’d fainted.
“Ahem… I guess I got too carried away.”
The Gumiho laid the unconscious Chanseok in a comfortable position and sat neatly beside him, waving a hand over his face.
“I’m not gonna eat you, so wake up already.”
She even tapped his cheeks playfully—”Hey, hey!”—but Chanseok showed no signs of waking.
Scratching her head, the Gumiho muttered,”…Don’t tell me, that was the real body?”
For a moment, she wondered if she had really killed him.
But she quickly dismissed the thought.
“Nah, couldn’t be.”
Just as she continued to stare at the unmoving Chanseok.
[An outsider has entered the Tower!]
“…Wait, what now?”
Choi Hanseong had entered the Tower.
“I get it, no need to yell about it.”
[She’s grumbling that she gave you the info and you called her an old hag.]
“…Still young at heart.”
Saying that, the Gumiho began walking toward Hanseong.
“Suitor Candidate #1 is here?”
“…Huh?”
“Such a mood killer…”
With a pipe she produced from who knows where now in her mouth, the Gumiho pointed at Chanseok.
“Take that kid with you, would you? I fixed the mental illness at least.”
As Hanseong looked at her in utter confusion, the Gumiho realized.
She had borrowed Yubin’s body.
“Ah.”
“…What are you talking about?”
“…….”
The air between them suddenly turned awkward.
***
The girl who tormented Yang Chanseok.
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