## Chapter 229 – Retaliation
“…It doesn’t show much because it’s black.”
I sit squatting on the street in front of the market, holding black bags of food in both hands and patting my stomach.
My t-shirt was soaked with fatigue, but thankfully, it’s black, so it’s not noticeable unless you look closely.
I dust off the now-dried blood and eat the last remaining candy. Turning my head,
I can still sense the presence of police officers wandering around and entering the market.
I guess what happened at school was that serious. I can’t check the extent of it because I don’t have a phone…
I take out a fried squid from the food bag and chew on it, bathing myself in golden light.
I quickly fill my stomach to recover my strength with the food’s calories, and use that strength to heal my wounds.
Repeating this action continuously, my body’s wounds have healed to some extent, and my strength is slowly returning.
But it’s only ‘slowly’ returning. Compared to normal, the recovery speed is incredibly slow.
Recovering with food and golden light has its limits. Now, I really need to rest in a safe place.
“It’s about time she came.”
I look up at the clock on the bus stop’s electronic display, and it’s already been about 20 minutes.
Sitting in the same spot for 20 minutes without even taking the bus would look suspicious to anyone, right?
I was thinking about moving to the parking lot behind the market when…
“…..”
I start to sense three familiar presences in my deliberately widened senses.
Turning my head to the left, I see a black sedan waiting for the signal.
As soon as I confirm the car, I slowly get up from my seat and naturally walk towards the upper part of the street.
The car, which doesn’t step on the accelerator even as the signal changes, slowly changes lanes and approaches me.
Avoiding the gazes of the police officers who are glancing at the pedestrians even while walking, I press down my hat.
The car, slowing down, stops in front of me on the side of the road where it can park.
I hear the sound of the door unlocking, and with trembling hands, I quietly grab the door and open it.
I quickly get into the back seat of the car, close the door, and finally let out a big sigh of relief.
I roughly take off my sweat-soaked hat, sweep back my wet bangs, and pant.
From the driver’s seat, the passenger seat, and the seat next to me, loud high-pitched voices are heard simultaneously.
“Sunbae-nim, are you okay?! Are you hurt…!”
“No, why do we have to hide? We can just kill them all!!”
“M-Master, here’s some water…!”
“Ah, ack! There, it’s broken there!”
“Ah! S-Sorry!”
A strange combination of people is gathered in the car, each saying their own thing.
Min-jeong, who is driving without looking ahead and worrying about my condition, Yuri, who is grumbling,
And Sua, who pressed my broken rib while offering me cold bottled water and was startled.
…Why did Chae-yoon send them all together like this? Sending just Min-jeong would have been enough…
“…Ah, I don’t know… I’m dizzy…”
“Sunbae-nim, there’s something I wanted you to hear… Sunbae-nim?”
“……”
Min-jeong speaks in a serious voice amidst the noise, and Sua and Yuri suddenly become quiet.
It must be about the current situation, but maybe it’s because I’m relieved, but I’ve been feeling drained since earlier.
I don’t have the voice to answer Min-jeong’s call, and I can’t put strength into my neck, so my head shakes.
My body, which had been creaking since the hospital, lowers my eyelids as if saying it can’t take it anymore.
I can hear Min-jeong’s voice calling me, but it’s faint. My blurred vision,
My ears, which are muffled as if water has entered, and the drowsy sleepiness… I can’t overcome them and fall asleep.
………
………
………
——————————-
A dilapidated factory that seems like it will collapse at any moment, a dark place where even sunlight doesn’t reach…
It flickers before my eyes. That annoying golden light, that man’s light, keeps stabbing at my eyes.
“A loser who disappeared like dust in the long passage of time… You came all the way here to hold me back?!
Ugh! I was almost there, everything would be over if I just found that bitch Iria’s body, but that guy…!”
“Kin, calm down, the wound is deep! Moving will open the wound!”
Unable to control the anger that is constantly boiling from within, I dent the old wall.
That stupid Nigum, who has nothing to show off but strength, dares to grab my body and stop me.
I want to kill this guy right away, but he still has value for ‘this’.
He’s a guy who rushes ahead of his emotions and destroys everything like an angry bull without looking back,
But with Teresa and Piadels all defeated, this is the only card I have left.
If I coax him well, he’s a fool who will volunteer as a meat shield for me. There’s no need to scratch his nerves here.
“…Sorry… I couldn’t stay calm. That golden light flickered in my eyes, and I got excited without realizing it.”
“…It’s okay. I feel the same way as you. I never thought that dead Hir would leave such a trick…
Because of the power that guy left behind even after death, two of our comrades died to just one human…
I want to find that guy right away, tear him apart, and comfort the dead comrades.”
Leaving Nigum, who is talking as he pleases, I put my hand on my shoulder, which has been burned black and disappeared.
Originally, even if one arm was burned and turned to ashes, I could easily regenerate this much…
A human’s body is weak. Even though it contains me, it can’t even regenerate this much of a wound.
It’s shameful. Humiliation fills my head, and my vision spins.
I obtained the creator’s, Hir’s power, but he’s just one human.
That guy’s attack left a scar on this body that can’t be erased and a fear that I could die.
“…Im Chan-woo…”
As I say the name of the human who inflicted this humiliation on me, my fist clenches involuntarily.
He’s definitely a human. A human who was lucky enough to stand in the same place as us.
Breaking my prison that had trapped Iria’s soul was also purely luck,
Meeting Hir and inheriting that detestable power was also purely luck, or so I thought.
I realized something was wrong when I first faced Im Chan-woo, that human.
He, like me, was in a ‘human body’ and was containing the creator’s power without difficulty.
Even now, the human body that contains me can’t withstand my power and is breaking down,
Im Chan-woo was containing the power of Hir, Birzillago, and Lapus, a total of three people, in his human body.
Even so, he couldn’t fully draw out the power contained in his body. He’s still just a human…
That’s what I thought, but for some reason, I felt uneasy. A seed that would grow to threaten me someday,
He was definitely just a ‘human’, but I had no intention of letting a seed that would grow into a tree that would block my path live.
I was going to coax him, let him be careless, imprison him, and kill him as he was, but…
“…What’s wrong, Kin? Are you cold? You’re shaking so much…”
He, like Iria, was hiding tremendous potential. That red color, red light.
Unlike Hir’s beautiful golden light, it was the power of crimson color stained with human desire,
But simply in terms of the power it emitted, it was stronger than Hir. Im Chan-woo, who is just a human.
Iria and Im Chan-woo were humans, and with our mercy, they were able to surpass humans.
Instead of bowing their heads to me, they’re standing on my head and looking down on me. How can this be?
Why am I worrying about a human? Why am I thinking about surviving?
Just thinking these thoughts is shameful. It’s detestable. It’s annoying. But…
“…By the way, the wound is really not healing. At this point, it would be better to change to a new human body…”
“No, there’s no need for that.”
Now I have to admit it. Im Chan-woo, he’s a human, but he’s not just any human.
He’s not soft like those two morons, Iria and Hir. Unlike Hir, who only sealed me,
Im Chan-woo tried to finish me off when I couldn’t move right before Nigum intervened.
He has a strong power like Hir… No, a ruthless enemy who is stronger than Hir and doesn’t give a shred of mercy.
He’s not a human that I can control, but an enemy that I have to kill, a monster.
For that, I need to regain ‘my original power’.
“There’s no need? You don’t even have one arm on that body right now?
I think it would be better to take another human’s body, recover your strength, and go back.”
“Nigum, you come too. I thought there would be no enemies for us in this era, but I was wrong.”
“Where are you going? And ‘enemy’? Kin, are you scared of just that human? Haha…”
“…You can say whatever you want. You’ll realize it if you fight that ‘just human’ man.
We need power now. ‘Our original power’ that we had and ‘a vessel to contain that power’.”
“…I don’t understand what you’re talking about at all.”
Leaving Nigum, who is tilting his head, I take out a small black case from my pocket and open it.
This is the master device connected to the personal drives of the researchers belonging to the Research Society.
The reason I came to this country is because a researcher uploaded some concerning data recently.
The researcher’s name is Han Bit. She’s a researcher who came to this country with Teresa, who was disguised as the researcher’s assistant.
It seems she was tasked with investigating what happened at the research institute in this country.
This woman discovered something at the Seoul branch and uploaded a file about it.
One file that seems to be related to the words ‘original power’ that Teresa left behind…
And a file that is blurry and doesn’t show the shape properly, but looks like ‘a blueprint of the Research Society headquarters’ was uploaded.
She wouldn’t have put these files on her personal drive without meaning,
So, to get the original, I need to go to the research institute hidden in this city.
“…It’s bright.”
I put on the shirt I had taken off and come out of the factory. The brilliant sunlight stabs my eyes.
It flickers before my eyes. That annoying golden light, and even more annoying ‘red light’…
“…Im Chan-woo…”
