Chapter 126
Lee Hoin moved in silence.
The reason he kept moving was simple.
If he moved, his mind emptied.
The more exhausted and worn out his body became, the simpler his thoughts grew.
After working for a long while, he stepped aside, catching his breath and wiping off sweat.
Someone came over nearby, laughed loudly, and lightly slapped his back.
“You’re really good with strength. You look the part, sure… but I didn’t think you’d be this good.”
Praise.
Anything done with the body was always simple.
He had always been confident in that.
Whenever he used his body, positive words always came back.
So this was familiar. Natural.
Swinging without thinking.
Moving.
Using his body.
Nam Muyeong was the same.
Nam Muyeong always made the right choices.
Lee Hoin still didn’t know what “right” was, but whenever he followed Nam Muyeong’s choices, he always arrived at the “correct” answer.
Was that unsettling?
‘Honestly… sometimes, yeah.’
Very unsettling.
Was it because he was smart?
No.
It was because of a strange sense of dissonance.
Ever since gaining that intuition, it had felt even stronger.
But did that mean Nam Muyeong intended to harm him?
That wasn’t it either.
He always made the “right” choices.
He wasn’t the kind of person who enjoyed seeing others get hurt.
If anything, he’d be the one getting hurt himself rather than hurting someone else.
Was that reassuring?
‘A little.’
At least, it felt like Nam Muyeong wouldn’t just try to kill him for no reason.
And if you asked whether that was a healthy way of thinking…
Well.
Nam Muyeong could kill me.
That thought had become the foundation.
Lee Hoin vaguely understood that.
His world was very simple, so reaching even this conclusion was already the furthest extent of reasoning he had ever done in his life.
And yet, that line of thought led him into even deeper confusion.
Even while moving his body, that sentence wouldn’t leave his head.
Then, driven by something like an animalistic survival instinct, Lee Hoin arrived at his next thought:
If Nam Muyeong had “a reason,” he might kill me.
That was the conclusion he reached.
He stopped in place.
He knew Nam Muyeong wasn’t a bad person.
And at the same time, he knew he was efficient and intelligent.
He was always thinking several steps ahead.
Lee Hoin tried, for a moment, to evaluate himself objectively… just as the Window had told him to.
To look at himself “objectively,” and to see the world the way Nam Muyeong did.
He only had talent when it came to using his body.
No matter how far ahead Nam Muyeong’s decisions reached, Lee Hoin couldn’t understand why they were valuable choices.
So he followed without asking.
Because he knew that if he tried to understand, he would have to go through everything step by step from the beginning.
And there wasn’t enough time for that.
And Nam Muyeong…
‘Would he even answer properly?’
Lee Hoin quietly caught his breath and wiped his sweat.
Was all of this turning into distrust toward Nam Muyeong?
‘He’s treated me well.’
Nam Muyeong had treated him well.
Even objectively.
He filled in the parts where Lee Hoin lacked finesse.
He became his guide.
His manual.
He told him things Lee Hoin couldn’t see.
Even the dangers of this place.
‘I didn’t know.’
That this place… could have such a meaning.
He had just thought it was a lively, good place.
A place where everyone had assigned work, and everyone followed it.
Lee Hoin blanked out for a moment.
Was he incompetent?
Was he incompetent because even after experiencing all this, he couldn’t think like Nam Muyeong?
Was that why he wasn’t trusted?
Was he seen as too slow to understand everything, too dull to be told everything?
Lee Hoin was trying, in his own way, to understand.
Because if he didn’t… it felt like his head would burst.
Nam Muyeong was definitely a good person.
A good person.
He definitely was.
But… then why did he feel like Nam Muyeong might kill him?
He didn’t even know where that anxiety came from.
Or where things had started to go wrong.
‘Nam Muyeong is a good guy.’
So he wouldn’t kill him directly.
Instead, one day, when Lee Hoin became useless… he would probably just hand him enough information to survive and leave.
For some reason, Lee Hoin felt like that day might not be far off.
If the trust between them was so low that he couldn’t even clearly explain their destination… how far would he really take him?
***
Night fell.
Most people were just about to go to sleep, though many were still awake.
Neither Lee Hoin nor I said anything, but the atmosphere was quiet.
We lay down silently, as if trying to sleep.
Then… it got noisy outside.
I raised my head, wondering what it was, and looked out.
It seemed like a reconnaissance team had returned.
Among the group that looked like a reconnaissance unit… There was someone.
Yugil was loudly welcoming someone.
Frowning as I looked through the crowd, I slowly got a clear view of the person Yugil was greeting.
‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’
Why the hell is that bastard here?
I frowned deeply and pulled myself back.
“Why?”
Sensing something was off with me, Lee Hoin asked as he tried to look outside.
I grabbed his arm and said:
“The mart. That doctor.”
At my words, Lee Hoin’s expression turned strange.
Mine was probably the same.
‘Why is Do Yoseol here?’
It didn’t make sense.
At the very least, Do Yoseol should still be at the mart.
Even if I had heard that their group was starting to fall apart…
‘No. If anything, that makes it even stranger.’
Do Yoseol was someone who excelled at securing his position in unstable situations.
He used that kind of anxiety to solidify his standing.
Did it completely collapse?
Because Lee Hyun wasn’t there?
Did everything really fall apart just because of that one person leaving?
‘How?’
If it had collapsed naturally, then there would be no reason to be wary of Do Yoseol at all.
Because the trigger for Do Yoseol’s awakening as a “saint” happened after a series of events at the mart.
A lot of things overlapped.
To begin with, the “shelter” Do Yoseol ran wasn’t very efficient.
Except for a few core members, it practically ran people into the ground.
Do Yoseol himself probably never intended to sustain it for long.
His actions were more like a filtering process.
Using Lee Hyun, who blindly followed him, he kept only the “capable ones” close to him… and bound them using his position as a doctor and his outward image.
‘Like a personal guard.’
Then the problem came… before Do Yoseol could finish everything, someone made a mistake, and the mutants from the mart began flooding into the shelter.
There wasn’t just one or two of those mutants.
Naturally, the inside of the shelter became complete chaos in an instant.
The fact that it happened at night made it worse.
Those who couldn’t escape screamed as they died… and that noise attracted even more mutants.
The remaining people were trapped, forced to keep fighting the incoming waves.
And then…
Do Yoseol awakened.
A massive area-of-effect skill.
Everyone was dying, so he used it to keep them from dying.
More precisely… It was closer to a desperate manifestation by Do Yoseol, who had no confidence in surviving on his own without others.
He grabbed a Bible lying nearby, almost unconsciously… and unleashed a massive area-of-effect ability on the spot.
It was a sight that could be called the descent of a god.
Holding the Bible, Do Yoseol was enveloped in white light as if splitting into multiple forms, radiating brilliance.
Everyone near him received a temporary buff, and their health recovered to a certain level.
Then, as Do Yoseol immediately collapsed from exhaustion, Lee Hyun, along with others, quickly opened a path and escaped.
That was the beginning of the “Muryang Cult.”
The fact that he picked up the Bible… whether it was truly unconscious, or just his absurdly talented sense for image branding…
I didn’t know.
But that was how it started.
And if Do Yoseol went through all that and ended up here… ‘then this place is likely to turn into a mess too.’
This place has everything Do Yoseol would like.
Capable people.
Organized space.
Clear, structured rules.
‘There’s no way Do Yoseol made it here alone.’
Whether he was rescued or something else… this place was far too far from Gangdong.
It was highly likely he didn’t come alone.
I slowly looked outside again.
Do Yoseol still appeared to be alone.
As I kept watching him, raising an eyebrow… suddenly, Do Yoseol lifted his head.
And then… with that unusually faint, blurry face, he smiled faintly… and looked straight at me.
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