Saving My Favorite in a Doomed World Chapter 72

Come to think of it, Kim Daecheol’s—his own life was nothing special.

 

He was born in the Illusion City and met ordinary parents. They weren’t very rich, nor were they very poor. Sometimes they were strapped for cash when they had to buy batteries, but that was it.

 

He strayed from the path in the middle as well.

 

It was out of anger toward what he couldn’t have, out of envy, out of jealousy. It was also an expression of his opposition to injustice. But in the end, it was just immature behavior. Society didn’t change. All that resulted from it was a life starting as an ex-convict with various charges.

 

Surprisingly, the world kept turning anyway. Even if he wasn’t angry at society, even if he wasn’t sad.

 

Just as if I were one of the people who made up the cogs of this world… or as if I weren’t.

 

He tried to clear his past and adapt to this place once again, but he failed. There were no second chances for a maladjusted person. Either society changes, or one adapts to a life without opportunities.

 

One of the two.

 

Kim Daecheol, I, simply failed to adapt.

 

That was all. This was just a mediocre story.

 

That was how Kim Daecheol ended up alone.

 

….But well, doesn’t everyone live like this?

 

Everyone lives hugging a certain amount of sorrow to themselves in solitude. 

 

But occasionally, when a thought like mine strikes—that I no longer want to walk this path alone. When I decide to leave this world…. 

 

“Hey, mister. Where are you going?”

 

“Hey, Yoo Hwashin. Isn’t it a bit much if you ask like that?”

 

When he makes a decision…..

 

“It feels friendly and nice. Mister, if it’s okay with you, would you like to grab a bite to eat with me? My battery is full, so I can even treat you.”

 

….A decision…

 

“Yoo Hwashin, seriously.”

 

“Noooo, the nagging is starting!”

 

“Hyung, Jaeha hyung is going to get really mad at this rate.”

 

…..

 

Hah.

 

Is today not the day?

 

Kim Daecheol stopped his train of thought. He pressed down on the corners of his eyes, which were sagging with dark circles, and rubbed them in a circular motion with his finger. Looking ahead, there were people he had never seen before in his life. Were they in their early to mid-20s at most?

 

He’d heard that battery thugs were on the rise lately. To think they’d come even to a worthless guy like me. 

 

“Kids, my battery is also running low, so I have nothing to give you.”

 

“Huh? That doesn’t matter. I said I’d pay for you, didn’t I?”

 

Kim Daecheol pondered. What were these guys?

 

Even at this moment, they were bickering among themselves. The silver-haired one who spoke to him introduced himself as Yoo Hwashin. His innocent face gave off the feeling that he had never experienced hardship in his life. He looked that bright, cheerful, and happy. The exact opposite of Kim Daecheol.

 

But what he was saying…

 

“We’re so sad today that we need someone to talk to.”

 

“….Sad?”

 

What could guys who were still young and had a bright future ahead of them be sad about? What could guys who seemed like they had only lived happily and protected even in this dog-like Illusion City be sad about?

 

They must be different from me, who has walked through time that cannot be taken back. Kim Daecheol blinked his eyes. 

 

Hwashin narrowed his eyes. Perhaps thanks to the Prophet trait, Kim Daecheol’s karma was much more visible than before. His fate was.

 

“That’s why we absolutely need an adult. An adult with more experience and more sadness than us.”

 

On the verge of snapping.

 

***

 

Karma. The thread of fate.

 

That thread is as strong as steel, yet sometimes more fragile than dew. There are fates that vanish instantly at dawn, but there are threads that endure even through fierce winds and vicious climates. 

 

Each takes the form of a different thread, and that is why people cannot completely understand each other.

 

The threads of people who have decided to die, or who hover near death, gradually thin out and eventually snap.

 

Kim Daecheol’s thread had already lost its light and was on the verge of snapping. Hwashin had seen such threads several times in his life. He himself was on one of those threads, too.

 

A bar rumored to have quite expensive side dishes. Seeing the group of guests enter, the owner asked.

 

“If you order this amount of food with this many people…. will your batteries be okay? It’ll come out to 10% per person. It’ll probably be difficult to pay with light or cash, too.”

 

“It’s fine. Ah, and Kim Daecheol-ssi, don’t worry. I’ll pay for everything.”

 

“Ah, yes. Well. Understood.”

 

Why did he follow them in the first place?

 

Actually, he still doesn’t really know. The silver-haired guy grabbed and pulled his arm, the bobbed-hair girl pushed him from behind, and two boys guarded his sides. And one handsome man glaring at him wordlessly.

 

‘…How did it end up like this?’

 

He pressed down hard on his throbbing temples.

 

Then he stopped thinking.

 

What did it matter anyway? He wouldn’t be in this world soon, so he could at least get a meal out of some young kids before that. Someone might call him shameless, but Kim Daecheol had abandoned such shame a long time ago.

 

“Anyway, why were you heading that way?”

 

“Excuse me?”

 

“That area isn’t a residential area either. Ever since the Illusion City and Enet were separated, I know it’s only full of junkyards and abandoned buildings.”

 

Kim Daecheol had an expression of being hit right on the mark. He said,

 

“…I guess I was out of it after getting off work. By the way, did I tell you my name?”

 

“Y-you did!! A-a little while ago!”

 

The kind-looking boy sitting next to him answered.

 

“Ah….is that so? I guess I really am out of my mind today.”

 

“At times like that, you’re supposed to talk about fun things. Don’t you have anything you’re curious about regarding us?”

 

“…..A-About you guys? W-Well….If I had to ask, I’m curious about why you suddenly grabbed me and offered to buy me a meal in the first place.”

 

“Because you looked like you were going to die.”

 

“…..Yes?”

 

Opposite Kim Dae-cheol. Cha Jae-ha, with his arms crossed, spoke heavily. The interior of the store, a mix of a bar and a restaurant, was noisy, but somehow only that voice rang in Kim Daecheol’s ears.

 

“When you see someone like that on the street, wouldn’t you naturally want to talk to them?”

 

Cha Jaeha downed a glass of orange liquor on the table. In the brief pause that followed, Yoo Hwashin abruptly cut into the conversation.

 

“That’s one reason, too. But we’ve been having a hard time lately. We wanted to share our struggles with someone, but we’re all young and there are no adults around, so we sought you out.”

 

“….Aren’t you all in your 20s..? …Well, you’re still young, though.”

 

“They say life doesn’t always go the way you want it to.”

 

Actually, I’m 2nn years old. But whatever. Even if you live a long time, there are times when you want to receive help from younger people.

 

“However, I don’t think I’ll be of much help either.”

 

Kim Daecheol said, rubbing the back of his neck.

 

Jeong Mueum asked.

 

“Why?”

 

“Because how could a guy who can’t even manage his own life advise kids? Just look at me. I’m on my way back from getting fired from my job today. I don’t really know what else I should do…. Ah, you probably don’t want to hear this kind of talk, do you?”

 

“No, please continue.”

 

Depressing.

 

Kim Daecheol’s story was depressing.

 

The more Jeong Mueum listened, the more he felt that it would be impossible to clear this dungeon. Giving this person hope like Lee Suho seemed impossible… and unlike Prince Arvion, he didn’t seem to have a lover worth protecting either. In other words, there was absolutely no angle to give him a ‘tomorrow’.

 

He glanced sideways at Hwashin Hyung. Hwashin was just sitting there with a beaming smile on his face.

 

‘Doesn’t that Kim Daecheol guy find that face unpleasant?’

 

Just as he was sneaking a peek at Hwashin’s face, his eyes met Mueum’s. Jeong Mueum asked wordlessly.

 

‘Hyung, are you sure this is really okay?’

 

Hwashin placed a finger over his lips.

 

‘Just wait.’

 

He mouthed ‘Prophet’ softly.

 

Hwashin intended to make very good use of this newly acquired trait. How many times did they think he had read the book? Naturally, there were parts he had forgotten, but perhaps because of that, the flow of karma was visible even more clearly.

 

Joining the Illusion City rebel army was actually possible without meeting Kim Daecheol.

 

The method used in the original work was to find the American heroes who had already joined the rebel army. It was a plan that started on the premise that they would be there in the first place.

 

Using the remembered plotline to find the heroes they were already acquainted with and joining the rebel army.

 

But that would become annoying later.

 

They had entered the story as rebels from the start, but their ultimate goal was to make ‘Kim Daecheol’ think that he was the protagonist of his life.

 

“It is hard to make a living in the Illusion City.”

 

“…That’s right. Because we even have to charge the batteries necessary for survival with light or buy them with money. Don’t they demand things from us that are free in Enet in the first place? And this ‘light’ that can be charged for free, it’s not like everyone is born with it, either.”

 

In the Illusion City, light was magic power.

 

Children born with abundant light are usually assigned to the City of Enet, and children with insufficient or no light at all are assigned to the Illusion City. Regardless of their parents.

 

Those with light cultivated an environment where people couldn’t live and turned it into a city,

 

and they implanted chips in their bodies to live in the city.

 

‘Battery’ was the term for the energy of that chip.

 

“Aren’t you also living in the Illusion City because you don’t have much light?”

 

“What about you, Dae-cheol-ssi?”

 

Kim Daecheol laughed awkwardly.

 

“Me, well. I’m already done for. But you guys are still young, so-.”

 

“What does age matter? Isn’t what you do from now on what’s important?”

 

To Yoo Hwashin, who had watched the loss and birth of countless lives several times, there weren’t many special lives. At most, the dragon before it died.

 

And….there was one more, but that guy died decades ago anyway.

 

In any case, a life being special also meant that it wasn’t common.

 

Recently, those uncommon lives had gradually begun to increase. Did they say that the more things you want to protect, the faster you age? Or that your worries increase?

 

Hwashin, who had briefly reminisced about the past, spoke.

 

“If you don’t have anything precious, you can make something, and if you had a sad experience, you can find something good.”

 

“That’s—”

 

“Even so, when you haven’t found anything in life, just stay as you are, without finding anything. Because then you might meet people like us.”

 

Kim Daecheol was a person who had many precious things.

 

The one left behind after losing something precious must solely bear the responsibility for that pain.

 

“At least one person might be with you. Perhaps, even now, without you knowing, many people who remember you might be waiting for you.”

 

“….I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

 

Kim Daecheol was someone who was left behind, but at the same time, he was someone who had abandoned others.

 

Hwashin slowly lowered his head. Kim Daecheol’s gaze headed toward Hwashin’s mouth. His raised corners of the mouth whispered softly.

 

“Kim Dae-cheol-ssi, we are aspiring rebels.”

 

“……”

 

“Don’t you already know, Daecheol-ssi? Where the place that accepts formal applications for enlistment is?” 

 

The first group to raise a rebellion against the massive city of Enet.

 

The (former) Vice Commander of the Illusion City Rebel Army. Kim Daecheol.

 

The 「Battery War」 they had entered was a story containing the biography of that Kim Daecheol.