<Episode 123>
“…Don’t tell me this was your doing from the very beginning?”
“Looks like the surprise party worked pretty well? I thought you’d at least be a little suspicious.”
Park Jaemin chuckled as if he had just told a funny joke. I bit my lip tightly and called for the system window in my mind.
‘……’
But nothing appeared before my eyes.
No matter how many times I called for it, the result was the same.
‘Don’t tell me it’s because of the mana restraints?’
Without making it obvious, I twisted my wrists. But the restraints tightly wrapped around them showed no signs of coming loose.
‘Calm down. Panicking won’t help anything.’
Bracing myself against the wall with my dislocated, throbbing shoulder, I barely managed to sit upright. The truck was still rattling.
Which meant we were still moving.
‘Do they have a destination? Or are they moving around to avoid being tracked?’
It was too early to conclude anything.
Keeping my voice as steady as possible, I spoke.
“…Park Jaemin. How are you walking around outside? What happened to the surveillance team?”
“I got some help from those poor fellows who got kicked out. They’re crazy about my ‘magic medicine.’”
He pulled out a small container from his pocket.
Shaking the plain, unmarked bottle, he dropped an oval-shaped black pill onto his tongue.
Then, like a snake swallowing its prey, he slowly rolled his tongue and swallowed it.
“Haaaah…”
His eyes clouded over.
Twisting his shoulders and neck like a newborn beast, he finally smiled lazily.
“One pill and all the pain disappears. You could say it’s our newest masterpiece.”
“Don’t tell me it’s Nutrafill? But production stopped already.”
“Nutrafill? Oh, come on!”
Park Jaemin burst into exaggerated laughter, bending over as though he’d heard something hilarious.
Then, narrowing his eyes, he looked at me.
“To compare it to that toy is insulting. No… this is far purer.”
The remodeled Nutrafill containing the L-294 variant was supposedly deadly even if you only took one.
And he was calling that a toy?
“You got Dasom addicted with that? And then had her kidnap me?”
“Ah… that woman?”
Park Jaemin slowly closed and opened his eyes.
“She wanted this from the very first time we met. She must’ve gotten her hands on some cheap Nutrafill somewhere.”
Only then did I remember how Dasom would frequently swallow pills, saying they were allergy medicine.
Shrugging, he leaned back comfortably.
“Is that all you’re curious about? You can ask more.”
Come to think of it, his attitude was far too friendly for someone who had just kidnapped me.
I narrowed my eyes.
‘What exactly is he after?’
Thinking about it, there wasn’t really anything he could demand from me.
Park Seongcheol was destined to rot in prison for the rest of his life, and Park Jaemin himself was doomed to spend his days under surveillance, closing Gates.
‘I heard Park Seongcheol even attempted suicide in prison after getting hit with divorce papers.’
If Park Jaemin really wanted to change his situation, he would’ve kidnapped someone other than me.
Someone with enough power to overturn everything.
But since he’d kidnapped me…
‘Revenge, after all?’
Even that didn’t quite fit.
He could’ve killed me immediately after throwing me into the truck.
Or at least staged it as a traffic accident.
There had to be a reason why he was keeping me alive even after exposing his face.
‘I need to keep talking to him…’
At that moment, Park Jaemin came over and grabbed my chin.
Roughly turning my face side to side as though inspecting my expression, he muttered,
“What goes on inside that tiny little head of yours?”
“How cute.”
His eyes gleamed with bizarre madness.
Without looking away, I met his gaze directly.
“I’m wondering when you’ll get caught.”
“…What?”
“Everyone at the restaurant knows I stayed behind with Dasom. Naturally, they’ll start tracing what happened afterward. And Hanyang is waiting for me at the dormitory. If I’m late, he’ll definitely ask others for help.”
On top of that, I was an SS-rank Awakened.
If I suddenly disappeared, they’d mobilize every resource to find me.
“If you let me go now, we can pretend none of this ever happened.”
Trying not to make it obvious, I offered him a way out.
I hoped his mind, clouded by the drugs, would give in to fear.
“Ha, haha… that’s a merciful offer. Should I thank you?”
As expected, it didn’t work.
Leaning closer, Park Jaemin toyed with my hair with his fingertips and whispered like he was sharing a secret.
“You know, I spent a lot of time wondering why my life became such garbage. I traced everything back step by step and eventually found the answer. It all started when that bastard Lee Hyunwoo awakened as an S-rank.”
He took a shallow breath, trying to suppress his emotions.
“Do you know what it’s like growing up being compared to a brother you’ve never even met? No matter how hard I worked, no matter what achievements I made, Father always looked disappointed!”
His eyes gradually lost focus.
Suddenly startled, he curled into himself and began muttering.
“Father, I’m sorry for only awakening as an A-rank. I-I’ll do better. No, no. It’s not my fault. It’s because of that bastard Lee Hyunwoo…”
He alternated between sobbing and raging.
Then, as though brainwashing himself, he kept repeating:
“It wasn’t my fault.”
Given Park Seongcheol’s obsession with controlling everything, he probably couldn’t tolerate the son he’d abandoned awakening as an S-rank Hunter.
And all that twisted resentment had been directed at Park Jaemin.
But that still didn’t justify his crimes.
He was nothing but trash who vented his suffering on the weak.
‘Please break. Please…’
While he was lost in madness, I focused on the restraints around my wrists.
Fortunately, I felt something metallic protruding behind me.
I pulled the restraints taut and rubbed them against the sharp edge.
‘If I can just get these off, I can get out somehow.’
I could teleport directly to one of my stores.
Or pull Silvale out of my inventory and threaten him.
Anything would be better than being tied up like this.
‘Please!’
But the restraints, specially made to restrain A-rank Hunters, refused to break.
By then, Park Jaemin had come back to his senses and grabbed me by the collar.
“But I found someone even worse than Lee Hyunwoo. Someone who dug up the past and ruined my life… and eventually ruined my father’s life too. You.”
“Kh…!”
“At first, I thought I’d just kill you. But that’s too easy. You have to suffer as I did…”
Looking at my choking face, Park Jaemin smiled sinisterly.
“What if I made you like me? Seeing Lee Hyunwoo watch you wasting away… that’d be thrilling.”
He lifted me and threw me against the wall.
A terrible pain exploded through my back.
For a moment, I couldn’t breathe.
Then I desperately crawled forward.
But there was nowhere to escape.
Park Jaemin climbed on top of me and shook the bottle.
I desperately shook my head.
“Stay… away!”
“Shhh… you’ll feel good soon.”
Grabbing my jaw, he forced my mouth open.
The contents of the bottle poured into my mouth.
The disgusting bitterness hit my tongue, and tears welled up from the choking sensation.
“……!”
I squeezed my eyes shut and desperately tried not to swallow.
Grinding his teeth, Park Jaemin shoved his fingers into my mouth.
“Swallow! Just swallow it already!!!”
‘Get away from me!’
I bit down on his fingers with all my strength.
Crunch.
I could almost hear flesh and bone breaking inside my mouth.
“AAAAARGH!”
Screaming in unexpected pain, Park Jaemin jerked his hand away.
As the pressure on me disappeared, I turned my head and violently coughed out the pills.
“Cough! Cough!”
“How dare you…!”
Grabbing my hair roughly, Park Jaemin raised his fist high.
I shut my eyes tightly, bracing for the pain.
And then…
BOOOOOOM!!
A deafening explosion shook the entire cargo compartment like a bomb had gone off.
The truck’s tires screamed as it slammed on the brakes.
Park Jaemin lost his balance and staggered violently to one side.
“W-what?! What’s happening?!”
Startled, he stopped his raised fist and turned toward the rear door.
My trembling eyelids slowly opened as I stared in the same direction.
A massive blade pierced through the thick steel of the truck.
Then the metal door crumpled like paper and was torn away into the air.
“W-what the…!”
The roof of the truck vanished in an instant, revealing the bluish sky above.
And beneath that chilling air, a familiar, towering silhouette appeared.
“Found you.”
Standing precariously atop the severed truck was none other than…
Lee Hyunwoo.
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