## Chapter 232 – Bait (2)
The hulking man, whose pain had been etched deep into my mind two days ago, appeared on TV.
Everyone in the living room watched the man on the shaky camera footage in silence for a moment.
“I’ll go.”
“No, wait a minute!”
It was hard to grasp the situation from just the news footage. As I turned to head for the door,
Iria, who was sitting on the sofa, rushed over with a flustered voice and grabbed my wrist.
“You, you’re not even fully healed yet…?”
“…That’s right, Master. It’s only natural to be impatient when you’re not in good condition.
But something’s off. Even if it’s Nigeum, he wouldn’t do something this stupid.”
“And Kin wasn’t in the video earlier. He’s probably up to something again.
He might be using Nigeum as bait to lure you out and then kill you when you’re weakened after the fight.”
Theresa, Iria, and Irun-nuna were calmly pointing out the current situation.
They were probably right. No one knew the enemy better than these three right now.
“Still, I have to go. There’s no one else here who can fight those things, right?”
“I’m here! If Master is really going, I can go instead…”
She spoke with a lively voice that didn’t match the newly serious atmosphere.
As I said, there was no one here who could fight those monsters except me. Maybe Nabi or Theresa.
But Nabi, unlike her usual listless self, was watching TV with the same blank expression,
and Theresa was still seriously saying she would fight in my place for the day I got hurt.
“I appreciate you thinking of me. But Theresa, can you fight and win against those two?
If it’s a trap like you said, Kin will definitely be behind it. Can you come back alive?”
“…That’s…”
“Enough, it’s an order. Don’t say you’ll go instead, just sit quietly.”
“M-Master…!”
It was true that Theresa was strong. Stronger than that creator named Piadels we fought in Busan.
But from what I’ve fought, Kin is much stronger than Theresa. The difference between them is indescribable.
The skill gap was already wide, and now she was saying she would fight 2-on-1 with a numbers disadvantage.
She had no intention of coming back alive. When I pointed that out, she lowered her head.
“Before that, why are you so set on fighting Nigeum? You could just stay quiet.
You don’t even like people that much, so why? It’s not even your problem.”
“…”
Irun-nuna approached me and asked after I separated Theresa from me with an undeniable ‘order.’
Nuna just asked quietly. Not angry, not questioning, just purely curious.
It must have seemed strange to Nuna. I, who didn’t like people and even hated them,
I, who had been playing with people until now, was suddenly stepping up for them.
Nuna asked to correct that contradiction, but… she was also mistaken about one thing.
“…I never said I was going to save people, though?”
“Huh?”
The female student who died at the university two days ago, killed by Kin, was in the same design department as me, even if I didn’t know her name.
And she was the one who gossiped about me and Chaeyun the most when rumors spread that we were dating.
I had no one on my side at school. All they did was chatter behind my back and avoid me.
I wouldn’t say I had a great school life from the start, but I wouldn’t say I did anything wrong either.
I didn’t start by badmouthing or hitting anyone, but I was left alone.
I tried to reach out first, but a wall formed between me and the other students.
Around the time I became a non-existent person to the professor and a forgotten person to my classmates, I gave up on school life,
and I met Chaeyun and gained a new life on the day I was going back to my place, wondering if I should drop out.
“Like Nuna said, I don’t really like people. I’m not confident in my relationships…
Of course, I don’t like going out either, and I prefer to stay home and relax.”
I felt a lot of skepticism. Not everyone hates me,
but not everyone likes me either. Of course, I’m human, so it’s the same.
‘No, but… I don’t really like him. He’s always gloomy and alone without saying anything…’
After learning about the flower petals and gaining power, I heard the female student who died at Kin’s hands badmouthing me.
Half a year has already passed, but the woman’s voice doesn’t leave my head.
At that moment, I realized without realizing it. I’m not that magnanimous.
I’m not stupid enough to sacrifice myself for strangers,
and I’m not a great person who forgives everything just because they died, even though they badmouthed me.
I hate people who badmouth me when I’m not around, but then wipe their mouths clean and come to me when they’re in trouble.
“…This country also sold me out as soon as they were in danger. I was so disgusted…”
So I’ve decided now. I’ll only protect ‘my people.’ Myself, of course, my family,
and everyone who has become my partner, and Nabi, Minjung, and Iria, who gave birth to them.
That’s all I need to protect, so let the rest of you do whatever you want.
It’s none of my business, so why should I bother saving people? Because if you have power, you have to share it?
“But I can’t speak English or other languages, so it’s more comfortable to live in this country.
And I can’t be unemployed forever. I was going to open a store in Seoul,
but that guy is destroying the streets right now. I’m going because I think he’ll keep doing that if I don’t stop him.”
If I could only speak English, if my family didn’t live in this land, if she wasn’t there,
I would have abandoned this country and the people living in it a long time ago. This is so annoying.
“…What kind of store are you going to open?”
Irun-nuna smiled and went up the duplex stairs without saying anything, and Iria was trying to smile.
The hand that grabbed my wrist was trembling, and tears were falling between the trembling eye smiles.
“I don’t know, I’ll have to think about it after this is all over.”
“…Okay.”
Iria’s hand that was holding my wrist and her head dropped down.
I patted Iria’s shoulder, who was crying silently, turned around,
and approached Nabi, who was sitting on the sofa and watching TV without a care.
“…You seem to be the only one who’s okay here right now. Take care of your sisters.”
“I know, I don’t know why everyone is so worried. Go and come back. Oh, and bring me something sweet on the way.”
I don’t know what Seohee told her, but Nabi, who had completely regained her energy like before,
stroked the head of Nabi, who was the only one smiling here despite her young age, and walked away.
I passed Theresa and Iria, who were bowing their heads, took a wooden bowl from the kitchen,
went out to the hallway, tied my shoelaces tightly, opened the door, and stepped into the hallway.
“…Aish, seriously…”
I closed the door, burst into laughter, quietly cursed, and put blue power into the wooden bowl I had brought.
I changed its shape and made it into a suitable wooden mask, then put it on my face to measure its size.
“…I wonder if this will do any good since there’s even a wanted poster out for me, but it’s better than nothing.”
I muttered to myself, put on the mask, got into the arrived elevator, and went down.
………..
………..
………..
“Theresa! Where are you!! Theresa!”
“…Ah, I just want to go home.”
There were many people, and the noise of screams mixed with the sounds of buildings and cars on fire.
In the midst of that, Nigeum was yelling Theresa’s name and crushing cars like paper.
“Excuse me, I’m going through. Let me through.”
I passed through the crowd, who were taking pictures of this disaster with their phones, keeping a distance from the thick black smoke,
and when I arrived at the front of the spectators, the police were blocking them from getting any closer.
“Ugh, ugh!! S-Sir! Calm down…! We can help you!!”
How funny. Did they really still think they could stop that, that he was human?
They were trying to appease Nigeum with a megaphone, but there was no way that bastard would listen.
How could there be someone in the world who could crush a car with their bare hands? Bloodstains scattered on the street,
dirty and fragmented fabric stuck in the cracks of the asphalt, and a baby in its mother’s arms was crying.
Perhaps annoyed by the voices of the humans screaming at his threat, Nigeum shouted loudly.
“Shut up! Stop chattering and quickly bring me Theresa and… the kid with Hir’s power!”
Nigeum, who was lifting a tank lorry four times bigger than his body, was glaring at this side.
The faces of the police who saw that turned blue. They finally realized that it wasn’t their job,
and one of the police officers, screaming and running away from Nigeum, shouted at the spectators behind me.
“E-Everyone, run away!!”
A man who looked much younger than the other police officers, a rookie, shouted loudly,
and the spectators who had thought, ‘We’ll be safe if we get this far away,’ started to run away.
“Bring… Theresa!!”
But Nigeum threw the large vehicle he was holding in both hands towards this side,
flying over the heads of the spectators who were running away, over my head.
It was true for a moment, but the screams of the people stopped and only the baby’s crying was heard.
Humans are said to see a panorama of their lives right before they die, and everyone here seemed to be doing that.
But…
“…This is…!”
“Hi, we’ve met before, right?”
The truck never touched the ground. The tank lorry was floating in the air, blocked by a green magnetic field.
I bent the magnetic field to the side, threw the truck into the empty road, and looked at Nigeum.
His face was flushed red, and his eyes were unfocused, only looking at me.
I swallowed once at the intimidating look in his eyes that made me nervous,
passed the police officer who was sitting next to me, and jumped over the fence.
“I heard everything! You, you have Theresa!!
Where is she, where is Theresa now!! Tell me right now.”
“…Theresa? What did you hear from that skinny girl?”
“Answer the question!!”
“Oh my.”
I twisted my body to avoid Nigeum’s attack, who was tearing off a large sign and swinging it like an axe.
Then I stepped on the sign that was stuck in the ground so he couldn’t pull it out again and looked at Nigeum.
Suddenly Theresa? What the hell? I spread my senses wide around me, but I couldn’t feel Kin’s presence.
Kin wasn’t here. Only Nigeum was here. What was his plan? It wasn’t a trap.
…I don’t know what his plan is, but I can just beat up this lump and read his mind.
Last time, I was ambushed without knowing anything, but as Nuna and Theresa said,
he was really strong, stupidly strong, but his attacks were very simple because he was excited.
If Kin wasn’t there, I could just beat this guy up, make him tell me his location, find him, and beat him up.
Where should I start to get him more excited so it’s easier to fight? What should I say… um…
“Theresa! Kin said you took Theresa! Don’t even think about hiding…”
“Theresa, Theresa since a while ago. Shut up, do you like that woman?”
“W-What?! We’re not like that, at all!!”
“…What, is that true? I’m so sorry, I took that girl’s first time.”
“Aaaaaaaaaa!!!!!”
As soon as I finished speaking, Nigeum shouted loudly to the sky.
I used the hand that was reaching out to grab me as a foothold to lift my body into the air,
“Shut up, you’re going to die!”
I punched him in the crown of his head, and Nigeum’s head crashed into the asphalt floor, raising dust.
