Joo Seowon frowned the instant he heard my question. Before he could even snap back asking what the hell I ant, I felt his hand shove at my chest.
I took a step back, looked straight at him, and shrugged.
“Are you fucking with ?”
“Just think of it as being considerate.”
“Considerate...!”
Joo Seowon’s eyes went wide like he’d just heard so total bullshit. He opened his mouth, then shut it again. He raked his fingers through his hair irritably and let out a sigh, then clenched and unclenched his fist as he stared into empty space.
“Considerate, my ass. Do you even know what that word ans? Of course you don’t.”
Cursing on an exhale, Joo Seowon shoved my chest hard again. Normally, getting shoved with that kind of force would’ve actually hit, but the fact I was fine made it sink in again—my body’s toughness really had gone up.
I caught his wrist, dropped his arm back down into the air, and said,
“Nice welco for soone you haven’t seen in a few days. Weren’t we kind of awkward before I went into the Dungeon?”
“.......”
“Of course, I’m the sa as always.”
At that, Joo Seowon twitched slightly. I watched him, and naturally my mind drifted to the ‘god’ I’d t inside the Dungeon.
Which one of my desires had that bastard wanted to poke at, that it changed its face like that?
While I fell into thought for a mont, Joo Seowon slowly dragged a hand down his face and shook his head.
“...I’m the sa too.”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t answer like that.”
Then what do you want to do? After seeing him for the first ti in a while, I acted cute for a second and then he was already losing his shit again. I patted Joo Seowon’s shoulder roughly and sat back down on his bed.
“...Your body.”
“What about it?”
When I asked back at the random question, Joo Seowon scrubbed his face hard.
“You said you’re a fiend-rged Hunter. When you rge, a rejection reaction.... Fuck, I don’t know either. Is this ti really real? You lie so much I can’t trust anything.”
“When have I lied that much.”
Joo Seowon would start talking calmly, then slam the gas and blow up—then he’d calm down again and just stare at .
‘My condition?’
I couldn’t even clearly tell whether my body was in a good state or a bad one. In terms of energy, I had more than enough, but this wasn’t exactly a normal state.
I pulled the wrist guard I’d been using as a suppression tool out of my pocket and strapped it back onto my wrist.
Compared to when it just sat obediently in my palm, I was definitely more unstable. Still, the fact it worked at all was a relief.
‘I’ll have to modify it again.’
Joo Seowon watched what I was doing, then spoke in a lowered voice.
“If... your condition gets worse, what are you supposed to do?”
“I’m fine.”
“Do you know other cases? Did you expect this? That prophecy Skill... yeah, did that Skill tell you sothing so you did it?”
“I didn’t expect it, but I’m fine.”
“And it’s not just anything—it’s fiend rging.”
His tone was calm, but it sounded like if he got the chance, he’d jump in and tear into imdiately.
“My current condition is fine. Whether I get fucked later or not, I don’t know.”
“.......”
“Anyway, I think the priority right now is sothing else.”
“What’s your ‘priority,’ then?”
Only then did I et his eyes.
“If you’re a fiend-rged Hunter, reporting it is mandatory. If I’m going to get caught soday anyway, it’s better to just report it in advance.”
“No. Don’t.”
The answer ca out firm. When my eyebrow twitched at the absolute certainty—no hesitation at all—Joo Seowon rubbed his forehead and continued.
“Just don’t. The odds of getting found out are low anyway. There aren’t many fiend-rged Hunter cases. If you just avoid Hunters who have Insight-type Skills, you won’t get caught most of the ti.”
“And if information leaks?”
“If there’s no evidence, it’s just a tabloid rumor. And it’s not like you’re going to be exposed to the dia that much.”
“Hm.”
That part wasn’t really sothing I could control anymore.
‘If I get tangled up with Kwon Taehan, I’ll end up in the dia no matter what.’
When I just stared at him without answering, Joo Seowon seed to think I’d already made up my mind and was only asking for opinions, because he started trying to persuade .
“...There are way too few past cases. It’s obvious they’ll grab that as a handle and latch on the second anything happens. Look at Im Haekyung. Forget what kind of person they are—”
“A person? Are you close with Im Haekyung?”
“...I’m not close. How would I be close. What I an is, even Im Haekyung gets dragged for everything just because they’re a ntal-type Hunter. If you get mislabeled as a fiend-rged Hunter, you’re just straight-up fucked.”
“Yeah?”
“Im Haekyung at least acts all gentle on the outside. You, fuck, if you did even one interview you’d be—!”
What is he even saying?
At this point he was being plenty smooth—there was no losing-his-shit like this. When I looked at him with a baffled expression, Joo Seowon squeezed his eyes shut like he was even more about to explode.
“You seriously don’t know what the problem is again.”
“What?”
“Anyway, don’t report it. Just... find a suppression orb in the background, or whatever. Yeah. Do that instead. You’ve got money.”
“Thanks for worrying?”
When I said it calmly, Joo Seowon asked again, looking uneasy.
“You’re not going to report it, right?”
“Fine.”
“.......”
“Why {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} are you reacting like that?”
Whether he looked suspicious or not, I ant it.
If I reported it in advance, there’d be no chance of getting exposed later—but I’d get a tag stuck on . That was why even Sung Uijae had tried to use it as leverage.
‘Maybe finding a suppression orb really is better, like Joo Seowon says.’
I decided to put it on hold for now, and brought up sothing else.
“Ah, this is....”
“What.”
“It’s nothing major, but you know Ryu Taeyoung, right?”
“I know him.”
“He contacted .”
When I said it flatly, Joo Seowon nodded. It wasn’t a huge issue, but there was sothing in what Ryu Taeyoung said yesterday that felt slightly off.
“It was about Cheonmyeonggyo.”
“Ryu Taejun?”
“Yeah. But I think he thinks I’m the one who brought Ryu Taejun into Cheonmyeonggyo. Like he lost his mind looking for his brother.”
“Wait. What happened to Ryu Taejun?”
“I don’t know. I left him on Jinsando. If Cheonmyeonggyo suits him, he’ll beco a religious guy.”
“.......”
I waved my hand as I gave Joo Seowon a rough answer to his pointless question.
“Ryu Taejun—whatever. That’s not even important now.”
“...What do you an he’s suspecting you?”
“Exactly what it sounds like. Ryu Taeyoung is convinced I’m connected to Cheonmyeonggyo, and it seems like he saw so kind of evidence. I think he saw a photo of with Ryu Taejun.”
“Where? You’ve never t.”
“It got caught when we went into Jinsando.”
“.......”
But the important part wasn’t the photo.
‘The problem is, I don’t know if there’s soone inside Cheonmyeonggyo going around impersonating , or if he’s just insisting so guy with a similar build is .’
The fact that Jin Haedo knows was sothing I already knew.
So did Jin Haedo order this?
‘Why?’
Would there be a reason to deliberately plant that kind of misunderstanding in Ryu Taeyoung?
As I sorted through the questions in my head, I gave up cleanly and said it out loud.
“Seems like there’s a Cheonmyeonggyo believer running around claiming they’re . Or a believer claiming I’m a Cheonmyeonggyo believer. Do you get what the difference is?”
“I... get what you’re saying. But why?”
“Fuck if I know. Seowon.”
“.......”
After closing his mouth for a mont, Joo Seowon paced in front of a short distance, thinking.
“Want to look into it?”
“That’d be great. But don’t get too absorbed. Priorities.”
“Priorities, priorities.... Fine. Then what’s the priority right now? Just tell the single most important thing in the end.”
Yeah. Right now, the most important thing wasn’t Cheonmyeonggyo.
By now it was late February. What was left was Song Hwayoung dying, and Kwon Taehan awakening. In the original, I wouldn’t face Kwon Taehan imdiately, but....
‘It’s fine to pull the timing forward a little, isn’t it?’
There was the drawback that I still lacked control, but my current stats weren’t bad.
Before answering Joo Seowon, for the first ti in a long while, I pulled up my Status Window.
Na: Seo Jehyun
Age: 25
Rank: B(-)
Titles: Transcender of Space-Ti
Seed of the Great Apocalypse
One Who ■■s ■■
Cave Giant’s Avatar
Main Skills: ■■ ■■(EX), ntal Strength (S), Mimic (S), Agitation (A), Cave Giant’s Ability (B)
Growth Limit: EX
‘It’s fucking long.’
After the unnecessarily long Status Window, there was an even weirder line tacked on.
Unapproved possibility search complete.
Current ‘ability use’ is unstable.
That had to be the sa kind of ssage as what I’d seen in the Dungeon.
I tapped my knee with my hand and said lightly,
“I think I need to asure my Rank again.”
“Awakening Rank?”
“Yeah.”
“It went up?”
“Yeah.”
When I said it calmly, Joo Seowon went quiet for a mont, then lowered his voice.
“You’re not deciding to stop playing the F-rank ga, are you?”
“Wow....”
In a different sense, he was seriously impressive. After living together for months and seeing all that evidence I wasn’t so weak nobody, he still didn’t have even a shred of doubt that I wasn’t F-rank.
And the fact my Rank had actually gone up, just like he said, made the situation even more absurd.
“What is it?”
Joo Seowon asked back with a furrowed brow, and I answered with a faint smile.
“No, I just suddenly thought you were impressive.”
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