How to Live as an Immortal Chapter 94

Chapter 94

In Hell, You See

***

Thud!

A punch that shot forward like a bolt struck my shoulder.

I had intended to let myself slide with the impact without resisting it, but faced with an unexpected situation, I involuntarily let out a groan. The spot that had been hit twisted like a braided rope.

How could it still carry this kind of power even after being irradiated?

Several question marks rose in my mind, but rather than seeking answers, I focused on throwing my fist.

Boom!

In an instant, muzzle flas burst out from my forearm.

Anyone would have been startled by armor-piercing rounds fired at point-blank range, yet Ga-on did not even blink as he evaded them. However, escaping the first shot did not an everything was over.

While I stalled for ti, the fixers who had ford a periter began pulling their triggers.

A rain of bullets poured in from all directions, but instead of widening the distance, Ga-on chose to close in.

After all, wasn’t there a perfectly good bullet shield right in front of him?

Reading the intent that bordered on recklessness rather than re boldness, I imdiately drove a knee into Ga-on’s side. Artificial muscles that boasted a fiber density incomparable to biological tissue.

The force generated from them was nothing short of explosive.

Especially considering it rose from a blind spot.

Crunch.

Not satisfied with the sensation of sothing breaking, I drew the hidden dagger.

It was a blade embedded between my leg bones.

In a fleeting instant, the long spike that shot out from my knee was more than enough to tear through the inside of my opponent.

‘Got him.’

A cleanly connected combination.

Certain of my victory, I did not even have ti to praise myself before my vision flipped upside down. My entire body spun as if it had beco a propeller.

“What.”

“This looks sturdy. Your upper body’s all steel, isn’t it?”

After tearing off my leg with nothing but pure grip strength, Ga-on seized my neck and lowered his stance as if he were about to sweep the ground. Then he dashed forward, using as a shield.

It was only natural that the suppressive fire noticeably decreased.

In contrast, from Qiongqi’s barrel—its preheating complete—ca its distinctive gunshot.

Boom!

Along the path of the flash, a pungent sll of burning flesh rose. As a gap opened in the formation, it collapsed in an instant.

“I’m done for, so fire!”

Shouting toward his subordinates who were being dismantled with chanical indifference, I raised my arm with all my strength and aid the submachine gun at Ga-on’s glabella.

Just before the bullet was fired, Ga-on abandoned Qiongqi and forcibly grabbed my forearm, twisting it in the opposite direction.

Drrrrr!

In the split second of my realization, the armor-piercing rounds swept across only Team 2 instead. The unexpected friendly fire was no different from a sudden ambush.

Though I quickly lowered the muzzle, my subordinates had already fallen.

In the end, I could do nothing but stare blankly at my mistake, having even forgotten how to counterattack.

A situation utterly unreasonable.

“Did I misjudge him.”

Gustak, sprawled across the street where the gunfire had ceased, stared blankly up at the sky. And belatedly, he realized it. No, he had no choice but to realize it.

It was not Im Sol who had annihilated Team 1.

Quite the opposite.

It had been a rookie fixer with no proper information on record.

“…How, exactly?”

“Is it sothing so remarkable that you need to ask for a reason?”

Even after such a fierce battle, not a single scratch was visible on Ga-on. Looking at him, Gustak even felt a sense of awe.

“So, it was all deception.”

In this line of work, a single misjudgnt divided life and death. Not knowing was no excuse.

He had to accept it humbly. After all, he had reached this position by making others accept things just as humbly.

One might call it reaping what one sowed.

However—

“You won’t make it out alive either.”

It was not a vague hope, but a predetermined sentence. Even if Team 2 had failed, there was no future for Ga-on and Im Sol.

It was the last gift and curse Gustak could offer them, but to Ga-on it was nothing more than a worn-out exit line he had heard to the point of nausea.

“The only one who can kill is myself.”

“I used to think that way when I was young.”

As Ga-on aid the muzzle at him, Gustak quietly closed his eyes.

“See you in hell.”

“Even if it exists, I wouldn’t be allowed in.”

Boom!

***

Upon arriving at the rendezvous point, Ga-on climbed into the van and was imdiately t with a remark.

“Where did you pawn off Clear Mount? I assu you didn’t stop by a Pawnshop in the anti.”

“Ah, that.”

Brushing a hand across his lips, Ga-on let out a low exclamation.

No wonder he had been coughing so much. He had grown accustod to walking across irradiated land and had forgotten. Though even knowing that would not have changed anything.

“I ran into Team 2 during the investigation.”

Im Sol had already witnessed Ga-on’s skills once before. Rather than worrying blindly, she made a calm assessnt.

“Then I assu they t a similar end to Team 1. I’m relieved to see you don’t appear injured.”

“As you can see, I was exposed to radiation in the process. Still, don’t worry. ‘I’ am fine.”

“You an I am not fine.”

After taking out Clear Mount and putting it on, Im Sol glanced sideways at Ga-on.

“When we return to the Colony, do not forget to receive treatnt.”

It was unnecessary concern, but making awkward excuses would have been just as ridiculous, so Ga-on simply nodded in response.

Naturally starting the van, Im Sol spoke again.

“What happened to the matter you went for? Since you encountered Team 2, I assu you were on the right track.”

“I wish that were the case. Unfortunately, there were no clues left. It looked like it had been caught in a nuclear explosion.”

Screech.

At the shocking news, Im Sol reflexively stepped on the brake.

“What do you an…? Wasn’t Hyphen Colony destroyed because of a shuttle crash?”

“You more or less expected it too, didn’t you? It’s this contaminated. Ordinary ans wouldn’t have been enough.”

That so sort of incident had taken place was obvious to anyone.

Im Sol’s expression stiffened.

“There is a high probability it wasn’t a coincidence. Could it also be related to the fact that there are no birth records for Madam? If she did not truly miscarry but only pretended to, then the tragedy that befell her could be explained as well.”

“The point is where this so-called half-sibling is now….”

At that mont, a certain possibility surfaced in my mind.

“What if she gave birth alone sowhere secluded and then abandoned the child at an orphanage?”

There was a strong chance it had never been entered into the database.

Realizing at once what I was thinking, Im Sol continued.

“She must have been forced to let the child go unintentionally, so she would have watched from nearby.”

“Even if adoption has practically beco obsolete in this era, soone unrelated could still have taken the child.”

“And her inability to stay in one place, wandering around near the orphanage, must have been because she vaguely realized there were people pursuing her.”

Back and forth.

Putting our heads together and assembling the circumstances, a single narrative took shape.

Pulling up the map on my device, I examined the location where the tactical nuclear weapon had detonated.

The very center.

That was where the answer would be.

“Miss One-Day. Did the server also contain information about this area?”

“Yes, just in case, I copied everything necessary. Shall I search for information about orphanages?”

“Do it.”

After a brief mont, Im Sol, having gathered the data, counted off.

“There are three relevant ones.”

“Which one did not change location even once while Yeosanghwa moved from place to place?”

“One.”

[Hangajok Orphanage]

“Ha.”

After confirming the information transmitted via short-range communication with my own eyes, I had no choice but to rub my dry face repeatedly. It was a familiar yet unfamiliar na. How could it not be? It was information engraved on my citizen ID.

Only now did all the puzzle pieces fit together.

‘Baek Ga-on?’

Suddenly, Baek Seol’s startled face flashed through my mind.

‘He is currently recorded as being 22 years old.’

And Xenon’s indifferent voice as he handed over the device.

The disaster that had occurred sixteen years ago—the Black Shower. A child who had been six years old at the ti would now be twenty-two. The sa age as the new identity I had obtained.

There might have been many people with the surna Baek in Hyphen Colony. But at Hangajok Orphanage—the very orphanage where a tactical nuclear weapon had deliberately been dropped—there had been only one Baek. That fact pointed to a single conclusion.

Baek Seok-do, the owner of gacorp Baekdu.

The child he had fathered in his later years—

‘?’

In that instant, the device installed at the back of my neck felt unusually heavy.

More than surprise, what I felt first was a sense of irony. Even while thinking no, no, I had already anticipated it to so extent. There had been too many lingering pieces to simply ignore and move on.

However, speculation and confirmation were concepts that existed in entirely different domains.

‘What on earth did you hand over, Thomas.’

A mber of the royal family. There could hardly be a more troubleso shackle.

There was also the option of riding the tide and enjoying a new life. The problem was that this was no ordinary household.

A gacorp.

A specter of capitalism and the embodint of concentrated power.

They were a breed obsessed with securing their own interests. There was no way they would conduct the verification of their own bloodline carelessly.

A genetic test would be the bare minimum, and I had no confidence whatsoever that I could pass. The discrepancy with the genetic information stored in my citizen ID would be exposed right at the entrance.

A casual joke like, haha, why is this happening—would never work.

In the worst-case scenario, I could even be frad for killing the real Baek Ga-on to steal his device.

Regrettably, what awaited at the end of that path was certain ruin.

“What about the personal records of the children raised at Hangajok Orphanage?”

“Unfortunately, those appear to have been lost. However, circumstantially, it seems certain that the young master was here.”

Fortunately, the decisive evidence seed to have been erased. Likely the aftermath of RYS Company’s involvent, or of so similar group sweeping through.

“You’ve gone quiet. Do you also view it pessimistically, Ga-on?”

Im Sol’s question was reasonable.

At the ti the tactical nuclear weapon fell, the real Baek Ga-on had been six years old. There was no way a child that young could have survived on his own.

“For now, let’s check the nearby shelters. We might find a clue sowhere unexpected.”

That it was unlikely—I knew better than anyone.

***

The van left Dong-gu and sped along the ruined road.

The sensor that had once been flashing wildly had long since fallen silent.

Holding the steering wheel, Im Sol let out repeated sighs. We had inspected every place that could be called a shelter, yet gained nothing. Perhaps because she had not expected much to begin with, her disappointnt on the return was minimal.

“It may be for the best. If another young master were to appear at this ti, it would only intensify internal strife. Though in that case, I am not certain how the shares would be distributed.”

“Shares?”

“Co to think of it, I did not ntion it. This investigation was personally ordered by the Chairman. With shares of Baekdu Robotics at stake.”

“They’re staking life-and-death shares just to find a lost child?”

For the head of a gacorp, the reward was exceedingly altruistic and deeply personal. Unless he had gone senile, there had to be so ulterior motive.

“What exactly does that—”

I shut my mouth before finishing the question. A chilling presence brushed against my back. Sure enough, at that very mont a massive shadow appeared in the distance, accompanied by a thunderous roar.

Boom!

“This is—”

We’re flipping over!