173 – An Untimely Graduation Ceremony # 2

173 – An Untimely Graduation Ceremony # 2

A special mission to awaken Han Namjin, now the “Red King,” was assigned to the Youngsa High students.

The old City Hall of D City, now the Presidential Residence, had become a hellish place teeming with monstrous beings.

Bubbling, seething-.

Shadows, blackened and clinging to the asphalt, boiled like lava, terribly gruesome.

━Kyaaak-!

A monster charged.

“Ugh, disgusting!”

“Hold the line! The line!”

The Youngsa High students gripped weapons they’d become accustomed to using, effortlessly cutting down the monsters.

But their numbers were overwhelming, making it a struggle.

“I didn’t want to waste my energy in a place like this.”

Zhiiiiiiing-!

Yu Yeoreum unleashed heat rays from her eyes, sweeping away a whole horde of monsters.

The students watched in awe.

“She’s just on another level.”

“Glad she’s on our side.”

“Invincible High School Girl!”

The truth was, Yu Yeoreum wasn’t quite as ‘invincible’ as her nickname suggested.

The heat rays could only be used as much as they were charged.

Maybe nine more heat emissions from here on out.

The problem was the monsters’ army seemed endless.

As if they were desperately trying to protect Han Namjin.

Soon, Baek Yeoul cried out.

“Wang Jahyeon! You can imitate Yu Yeoreum’s laser with your copying, or whatever it is, ability, right?”

“Are you crazy? Using that will wreck what’s left of my one good eye!”

Wang Jahyeon had once copied and imitated the concept of “light” that Yu Yeoreum possessed. The result was a severe burn on his face, and the loss of an eye.

Besides, it wasn’t like Wang Jahyeon could copy just any ability.

Wang Jahyeon’s power stemmed from jealousy and envy.

The more Wang Jahyeon admired and envied someone, the more detailed he could make the copy of their ability.

‘If we can’t even get inside the residence like this, it’ll just be a war of attrition.’

Wang Jahyeon thought.

He had no choice but to step forward.

“I’ll carve a path, so keep up!”

Wang Jahyeon put all his strength into his legs.

And, like a spring, he shot forward, uncoiling from his crouched position with the speed of a fired bullet.

Wham-bam-!

Swinging the bat in his hand with incredible speed, he felled the monsters, instantly clearing a path. Baek Yeoul’s surprise at the sight was a bonus.

“That was Han Namjin’s ‘Leap’! You thief! Stealing Han Namjin’s technique!”

“Is this really the time for that?”

Wang Jahyeon felt a little ashamed.

The heir to a chaebol, who had everything, envying a homeless orphan like Han Namjin, and stealing his technique.

Of course, now that the world was mostly ruined, chaebols were meaningless.

So, what was left for Wang Jahyeon now?

“You guys know how to tell the difference between a chipmunk and a squirrel? Well, I’m that chipmunk! I’ll hold the entrance to the residence, so you guys hurry in and wake that b*stard Han Namjin!”

“What’s Wang Jahyeon going on about? What’s a chipmunk?”

Baek Yeoul couldn’t understand what Wang Jahyeon was babbling about, but thanks to the man’s struggle, she was able to enter the residence through the opened entrance.

The inside of the Presidential Residence was filled with damp darkness and shadows, like the belly of a giant beast, and the roaring sounds coming from everywhere were deafening.

“Ugh! So loud! What is this noise!?”

Baek Yeoul covered her ears.

The noise, piercing through my palms, threatened to drive me mad.

“Is it some kind of intruder siren?!”

To simply endure and press on felt impossible; the sound was so vicious, it stimulated my brain until a nosebleed erupted.

It was while I was suffering so that…

“Why am I so envious of the things you have…”

A trembling voice cut clearly through the cacophony of monstrous noise, originating from somewhere.

The singing was amateur, clearly, but its presence was so powerful it seemed to smother the other sounds.

“Could it be!”

*Whoosh-*

Baek Yeoul spun around to see someone self-consciously singing.

“Deok-soon-ah! My friend Oh Deok-soon!”

“…I’m Deok-hee. Oh Deok-hee…”

Deok-soon, the friend who’d followed Geum Tae-sung, appearing here of all places.

I was overjoyed, but Deok-soon wore a grim expression as she gestured around us.

“It seems there are numerous… vocal impediments… around here. They emit a sound so dangerous that it could burst the cerebral blood vessels of a normal person… Probably…demonic creatures.”

It was fortunate that Deok-soon was here, able to subdue the sounds.

Of course, Deok-soon’s ability wasn’t invincible.

There was a limit to how long she could block out sound.

“…If the source of the sound truly *is* a demonic creature, then I’ll try to lure it out!”

That’s when Chang-shik, who’d been trembling until now, stepped forward.

He pulled bottle caps from his pocket and exchanged them for chocolate shaped like gold coins, scattering them around.

“Demonic creatures are said to crave sweet scents. I learned this in our first group assignment together! A chocolate scent will drive them wild, I’m certain!”

It actually worked.

Four-eyed frogs emerged from the black sludge beneath our feet.

Their size, larger than an average chicken, was certainly unsettling.

*Flap flap flap-*

The manifested demon frogs lunged at “No Leftovers Day.”

“Eek! Why are they attacking me instead of the chocolate!”

Chang-shik screamed.

Someone threw a punch at the frog lunging for Chang-shik’s face.

*Thwack-*!

The frog crumpled to the floor, and the tall male student swept his hand back through his blond hair.

“Gotta snap out of it.”

“Geum Taeseong!”

Baek Yeoul was overjoyed to see a face she hadn’t seen in so long.

Deoksun had shown up, and she’d half-expected it, so it seemed Geum Taeseong had come too.

She was curious about where he’d been and what he’d been doing, but that wasn’t what mattered right now.

“Let’s go to Namjin!”

They felled frogs as they headed towards the presidential office where Ha Namjin was.

Finally arriving at the office, they saw Ha Namjin asleep in his chair.

“See! This is what happens when you sleep so uncomfortably in a chair!”

Baek Yeoul growled, softly.

Watching her, Deoksun thought, ‘I don’t think sitting in a chair is the problem here…’ but she didn’t voice it.

“Ha Namjjin-!”

“Jina!”

Baek Yeoul and Yu Yeoreum shouted at the same time.

In that instant, Ha Namjin’s eyebrows twitched dramatically.

There’s a reaction-.

Everyone rejoiced, but only for a moment.

Yu Yeoreum, with her keen senses, felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise.

“…Wait, there’s something wrong with Ha Namjin’s condition?”

# # #

In a field dotted with vibrantly colored flowers, there was something that felt exceptionally out of place. It was like a dark gas, hovering and drifting, and even a glance at it felt ominous.

“What in the world is that?”

I asked my ancestors about the identity of that bizarre gas. Those who had spent ages here would know what it was.

But my nameless ancestors only trembled violently as they looked at the gas.

I didn’t know what the gas was, but I knew they were terribly afraid of it.

‘This is strange.’

This place was an immortal world, free from death and hunger.

Which meant it was an immutable world, filled only with tedious boredom.

What reason would the souls of my ancestors, locked in a place like this, have to fear that gas?

The way to find out was simple.

Touch it myself.

So, as I approached the billowing gas, I was rather surprised.

I could discern that the black gas wasn’t merely floating in the air, but moving like some kind of creature.

It looked exactly like my emergency rations, Inggingie.

Black Inggingie.

Inggingie Alter.

Something you could call Corrupted Inggingie, perhaps.

Should I touch it…?

Just as I was extending my hand, someone grabbed my shoulder firmly.

“Stop.”

He was an old man. That’s the extent of the description, by the way.

The ancestors staying here were mostly old men who looked alike, so it was impossible to tell them apart.

Anyway, the old man, who looked like he was on death’s door, grabbed my shoulder and stopped me.

“That’s not something you can touch carelessly.”

“What is it?”

“We don’t know what it is. But if you touch it, an unbelievably horrific pain and terror will shake your soul. That’s why we decided to call it ‘Ruin’.”

Every single one of my ancestors feared Ruin.

Truth be told, so did I.

I even kidnapped Seo-Gaeul to prevent the world from ending, training him by swatting him with a fly swatter.

Maybe this fear of something collapsing was imprinted on us at a genetic level.

An unidentified, terrifying entity called ‘Ruin’?

It looked like a black Inggingie, so it wasn’t very scary.

So, I placed my hand on that ‘Ruin,’ and at that moment, a tingling sensation traveled up my fingertips and shook my mind.

“Guaaah!”

In that instant, a truly dreadful scene unfolded before my eyes.

All sorts of corpses were strewn beneath my feet, and most of them were faces familiar to me.

“Hanam-jjin… why did you…”

“Bbangdengi is dying?”

A wound, as if from a stab wound, gaped on Bbangdengi’s chest, and for some reason, a bloodied knife was clutched in my hand.

“No way, Bbangdengi, you didn’t leap at the knife yourself, did you?”

That Bbangdengi, he was always so careless.

To think he’d leap at me, holding a knife, and get himself stabbed!

Judging by the scattered corpses all around, it seemed they’d all met a similar end.

But Bbangdengi was furious.

“There’s no way I’d leap at a knife! Hanamj, you killed us all! You… why…? We trusted you, Hanamj….”

Indeed.

This is likely some sort of mental assault.

Showing me a scene I don’t want to see.

“Are you coming to?”

Someone slapped me hard across the cheek, and I snapped to, finding an old man watching over me.

“Don’t ever try to tamper with that annihilation again. It’s not something you can resist or reject. You can only avoid it.”

So, the old ones here, their spirits must have been broken by the despair that black gas exudes.

But I couldn’t give up.

I reached out my arm again, trying to embrace the black gas.

“Come here, you!”

“Are you insane?”

“Stop him!”

“Don’t provoke him anymore!”

“If you keep at it, that monstrous annihilation will rampage!”

Docile, but becomes violent if provoked, is that the structure?

However, with those brief touches just now, I glimpsed a path forward.

“Elders, let’s take down that thing. If we defeat it, we might be able to escape this place!”

“What?”

“It’s impossible.”

“No way.”

“How can we defeat it? It’s just mist, it doesn’t even have a form!”

Everyone seemed to have lost their will.

Perhaps the terror, accumulated over such a long time, had broken even the will to fight.

It was then.

—Hanamjjin-!

—Jina!

Someone’s voice reached me.

Rumble—

The beautiful flower field shook as if an earthquake had struck.

My body must have been undergoing something drastic.

What was astonishing, in that moment, was the crack that had appeared in the endless field of flowers.

Clang—!

Like glass shattering, truly.

Whoosh—

The wind that blew from there felt like it signified ‘freedom’.

If I could get out there, I could escape this eternal boredom─.

The thought barely had time to form.

Ssssssssss—

The jet-black, ominous mass of gas, the ‘Annihilation’, must have had the same thought, for it slowly wriggled through the cracked fissure in the flower field.

I didn’t know what it was, but it was clear that if that thing escaped beyond that crack, something terrible would happen.

And so, I had to make a decision.

“Get over here!”

That Annihilation gas cloud looked to me to have similar properties to Yingying.

Maybe it was a relative, or at least a cousin.

Which meant it probably shared Yingying’s attribute of ’emergency rations’.

For the record, Yingying’s fluffy body tasted like grape.

Anyway, what I felt when I came into contact with that black cloud of Annihilation was that its body could also be inhaled.

And so, I lunged toward the black gas cloud heading for the crack, opened my mouth wide, and inhaled with the intention of sucking up its entire body.

Shuuurp—!

“—You crazy b*stard! Why’d you eat that!”

“To think such a one would be born among our descendants!”

“W-what’s going to happen now?”

“I don’t know either!”