The reward I obtained at the risk of my life, the contents of Special Side Story 2, was nothing special.
No, should I say it was nothing special, or should I say I was missing another instance of reading between the lines?
In Special Side Story 2, a 5-year-old Choi Woojin appeared.
A 5-year-old Choi Woojin.
The special side story begins with a description of the young boy’s legs not reaching the floor, his small calves swinging in the air.
From that point on, the thought that I didn’t want to see this already dominated my mind.
Because I know how this story ends.
‘Mom, Mom. The name of the airplane we’re taking is Boeing. Boeing.’
‘I know. You’ve said it so many times.’
The boy’s mother chuckled.
The 5-year-old boy was riding an airplane for the very first time.
Like many boys his age, whenever he went to a parking lot, he was engrossed in a game of guessing the car model by looking at the hood of parked cars, and he was very interested not only in cars but also in airplanes, trains, and the like.
Of course, there were points about the boy that were not ordinary.
‘I wonder why Father invited us all to the resort out of the blue.’
‘…Honey.’
‘I don’t mean I’m complaining, it’s just that. Father….’
The boy’s father glanced back at the boy sitting in the backseat and lowered his voice.
He spoke with a sigh mixed in his voice.
‘…He doesn’t really like me.’
The fact that the boy was Choi Woojin.
Yes. That alone was already not ordinary.
The boy’s grandfather was Choi Jungu, and Choi Jungu had acquired a very special artifact during the prime of the 1st generation Hunters.
That special artifact brought the power of awakening to the descendants of the one who acquired it.
‘A perfect artifact for creating an Awakened family conglomerate.’
…I remember feeling that sentiment while reading the main story.
Whatever the case.
The problem was Choi Woojin’s father, Choi Gyeonghoe.
Choi Woojin’s father didn’t inherit Choi Jungu’s power, and for that reason, he had consistently been a thorn in his father’s side.
It wasn’t simply because he hadn’t awakened.
Since awakening was hereditary, he was suspected of not truly being his biological son.
Even though they had completed a DNA test, that suspicion had continued.
Choi Gyeonghoe, who grew up as an ugly duckling like that, began to go entirely astray.
Working as a journalist, he investigated the corruption of Hunters, and there was no sanctuary in his reporting.
This meant that the Daeyoung Group and the Hunter Association were also targets of his investigation.
In the process, the relationship between father and son, which had already been poor, was completely severed.
‘Take this opportunity to try and get along better. You never know if you make an effort.’
‘I can get along with Father anytime. The problem is Father.’
As Choi Gyeonghoe was saying this, he soon shut his mouth looking at the five-year-old Choi Woojin, who was wide-eyed, studying his parents’ expressions.
‘…Alright.’
So that day wasn’t a particularly grand day either.
The discord between people who didn’t get along remained the same, the hearts of parents cherishing their five-year-old son remained the same, and the car was smoothly driving down the straight road leading to the Incheon Bridge.
When a police car was parked on the shoulder, perhaps because someone had been speeding or ran a red light, Choi Woojin looked at it with curious eyes, and Choi Gyeonghoe teased such a Choi Woojin.
‘The police officers must have come to catch Woojin because he did something wrong. Hide!’
At that, Choi Woojin giggled and ducked down.
So even something like that was ordinary.
An ordinary day.
An unordinary event happening on such a day.
I couldn’t escape a sense of déjà vu throughout the entire time I was reading Special Side Story 2.
Because my parents also passed away on a day like that.
An ordinary day.
A day so ordinary that it felt like one would end up unable to forget that ordinariness.
Screeeech—
The car Choi Woojin was riding in suddenly came to a halt.
‘What’s that….’
What is that? He couldn’t even finish those words.
A void began to form on the road.
Since there were no cars coming from the front or back, Choi Gyeonghoe started backing the car up.
But the void grew faster than the car’s reversing speed.
A sudden Dungeon Break.
After the Great Catastrophe, people had grown quite accustomed to disasters and thought they could control them.
The Hunter Administration Bureau preemptively controlled and managed places where dungeon breaks were likely to occur.
However, certain disasters are designed to be unavoidable.
In an instant, the car was swallowed.
Among the three, not a single person screamed.
From there, the special side story moved to the next scene.
‘Police Officer?’
The one who responded to Choi Woojin’s faint voice was a figure in uniform.
‘Yes.’
Choi Woojin soon realized the answering voice belonged to a woman.
The police officer spoke to Choi Woojin with the characteristic calmness of her profession.
‘Are you hurt anywhere?’
‘What about Mom? What about Dad?’
However, Choi Woojin answered a question with a question.
The police officer hesitated for a moment before answering.
‘…They’re not breathing.’
At those words, Choi Woojin looked at the front seat through his overturned vision.
Actually, it was an angle he could have seen from earlier, but he had been trying hard not to look.
However, when the flashlight the police officer was holding pointed toward the passenger and driver seats, he could see it clearly.
The front windshield pierced by a structure protruding from the dungeon’s outer wall.
Bloodstains.
And four pale blue, dangling arms.
‘Police Officer. Police Officer.’
Young Woojin asked. Even though he knew she wasn’t a male officer.
‘What did I do wrong? Is that why I’m being punished?’
No answer returned.
‘Can you… save me?’
An answer to that did return.
‘Mhm.’
* * *
The investigator’s official vehicle was completely filled with Choi Woojin’s smell of alcohol.
Kwon Ikseong sat in the driver’s seat, and I stuck close to Choi Woojin, keeping him tightly marked.
Ham Ina was transporting the two criminals in another car.
The reason it turned out like this was—
‘Because I locked the handcuffs onto my own wrist.’
I looked at my wrist and Choi Woojin’s wrist, bound together by the handcuff item.
And the reason I did this was all because of the quest.
Catch the Gamer.
Wasn’t it worth trying out once?
The Gamer is Choi Woojin, and Choi Woojin is the Gamer!
But the quest completion notification didn’t pop up.
Meaning, catching him in this manner was useless.
‘Wow… You’re telling me to actually reveal Choi Woojin’s identity.’
It was truly a horrifying quest.
‘Should I just live out my remaining 2 months of lifespan wildly? Huh?’
I even tried holding his hand for no reason after handcuffing him, but it was all useless.
It meant even holding a part of his body wouldn’t do.
It just made me feel terrible.
The hot and rough skin touching my palm, my fingers.
The skin of a living person.
To have this kind of contact while having just learned the past history of a guy who was merely the protagonist of a novel to me, and a rather obnoxious one at that.
It was incredibly unpleasant.
Why on earth did a thing like that pop up as a reward of all things?
Special Side Story 1 was something that had a direct connection to the quest.
It could even be seen as quite helpful to the quest in a way, since it showed a changed future.
But this time, it had nothing to do with the quest and showed the past instead of the future.
‘Why on earth…?’
Isn’t the fact that Choi Woojin lost his parents in an accident when he was 5 already mentioned in the main story anyway?
What kind of sick joke is it to deliberately show it in such detail?
I recalled the last part of Special Side Story 2.
And soon, the police officer approached the boy closely.
The face of the police officer, previously hidden by the flashlight she was holding, was gradually revealed.
At the same time, the name on the nametag attached near her chest also became visible. That name was XXX……
The final part that was blurred out.
Is there something to that?
What if that police officer turns out to be some incredibly major villain?
Since that accident itself was actually something ‘designed’ by Choi Jungu.
‘If I could obtain the file for that accident, I might be able to find out—’
Since it was a dungeon break with civilian casualties, the file itself should remain at the Hunter Administration Bureau.
It was while I was planning to ask Ji Wongil for the data.
Suddenly, Choi Woojin grabbed my hand.
No, he didn’t grab it, but he touched it.
Choi Woojin had moved towards me as far as the seatbelt allowed.
From a distance where a strong smell of alcohol emanated, he smiled.
“Why did you want to become a police officer, Investigator Lee Yuji?”
Then why on earth did you plant the dark history of ‘The Lee Yuji (reason) of my life’ in me, you brat!
Let’s just expose the Gamer’s identity right here and die together.
It was the moment I was gritting my teeth while thinking that.
From the front, the passenger seat quickly lowered and struck Choi Woojin’s head.
“…!”
At the same time, Kwon Ikseong’s fierce gaze was reflected in the rearview mirror.
“It would be best for you to lean your body against the backrest.”
So that’s… half-formal language.
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